Heart part 1

Chapter 25 - Taste the Wind part 3: Revelations From The Wind

Leaning forward, they could see her stick her head just out of the shadows. " Jees, that took a long time. I was starting to think I had killed you back there for a second."

As she spoke, they could see that she was chewing on something.

" Huh? What seems to be the matter?"

She pulled up whatever she had in her hand and took a hearty bite of it. It looked to be some sort of jerky.

" Tired? Hot? Hungry? Well, don't worry. You're not gonna have to deal with it for much longer." She told them. " I have some questions you're going to answer."

" Oh? What's wrong now? Don't tell me you're about to pass out already! You just finally woke up!"

Leaning up off the ground the best they can, with the suns glaring into their eyes, a bounty of sweat dripped down their face.

" What are you going on about?" Heart asked, barely mustering the strength to say the words.

" I'm talking about your face! Your cheeks are so red, you look like you're about to pass out!" She answered. Despite the concern on her face, she continued to just sit there and munch on her piece of jerky. " I advise you to do your best to stay awake. If you fall asleep now, you might not get back up."

Tilting their head to the ground and facing away, in an unusually reserved tone, they responded, " Don't worry about it...it's nothing... I just remember saying something embarrassing..."

Shooting them a confused look, Ayesha shrugged it off a second later and continued on with what she was saying before.

" Like I said, I have some questions you're going to answer. When you do, then I'll pull you inside this tent and let you escape from the suns for a moment. I'll even give you something to eat and drink if you like. If, by some miracle, you don't, well..."

Heart could see her eyes locked onto something past them. Glancing over their shoulder, they could see some animal's bones partially sticking up out of the sand.

" So, do you understand?" She asked. " Don't think just because you're young and have no hands that I'll go easy on you."

Despite them not nodding or saying anything back, Ayesha seemingly took their silence as a yes.

" First off, I want you to tell me, how do you know who I am?"

Ayesha waited a minute for a response, but never got one back.

" Hey, are you listening?!" She shouted, slamming the ground.

Tilting their head up, they stared an uncanny pair of inhuman eyes at her. " Do you really wanna know?" Heart asked in a chilling tone that even Ayesha could feel despite the heat.

" Fine then, I'll tell you. But first, I just wanted to say..."

Pausing for a moment, they began to slump up off the ground. At first, she was confused by what they were doing, but as they inched up further, she could see the ropes she had tied them with slowly start to unravel. They slipped right off their sweat-drenched skin and silently hit the sand.

"...you should learn to tie ropes better." They said, standing up off the ground.

Shooting up to her feet, they stopped her halfway with a quick gesture.

" There's no need to worry, I'm not going to run away." They told her. Although skeptical, Ayesha began to lower back down to the ground.

" I'm a god." Heart told her, plainly and simply.

For a moment, she waited as if expecting them to tell her it was all a joke, but those words never came. Regardless, they could tell she didn't believe them.