STRONGER-BOOK 2- (GUARDIANS OF LA REINA)

CHAPTER FIVE

Once Mel regained her balance, she looked around frantically to see where the voice came from. She was scared that the voice owner could give her position away and feared for their life.

No child should ever be near Milak or any of his people. Even Hank, who helped her ultimately, would not be suitable to be around a child.

Thinking about Hank causes Mel to forget about the voice for a second. If Milak executes Jack for grabbing her instead of her sister, she can only guess what will happen to Hank when they discover she escaped this morning.

Mel never thought the day would come when she wished for someone to be dead, but at that moment, she hoped that Hank was correct and that he passed away before the sun came up that morning.

“You know, my momma says it is insulting not to answer someone if they speak to you,” the voice brings her back to the present.

This time, the voice sounds much closer, and again, Mel looks around to see who the voice comes from.

No matter how hard she looks, all she sees is a little ape-like creature on the branch just above her. While Mel is still looking at the little creature, it swings down to the branch Mel is sitting on by its tail.

It settles on the same branch not far from her and tilts its little head to the side.

“Is there something wrong with you? Or maybe you speak Afrikaans like so many other people here.” the voice says again.

“More, my naam is Pippie, wat is jou naam, huh?” the voice asks again in a language Mel does not understand.

Her eyes widen, and she stares at the little creature in front of her with shock. She knows she cannot understand animals, so it is impossible that this one is speaking to her.

She always admired Carmen for being able to communicate with the animals around them. The little creature suddenly looks sad and starts to turn away from Mel.

“Wait!” Mel calls out in a hard whisper, taking a deep breath. She watches as it turns back towards her.

“Wuh… where you just speaking to me?” Mel asks hesitantly.

She is either losing her mind or something extraordinary is happening, but if it truly spoke to her, at least she has someone who knows this area.

The little creature looks her up and down before he answers, “You sound strange.”

Mel laughs softly. She has heard that the American accent sounds strange to people from other countries.

“I guess that is because I am not from here,” she answers, “Is Pippie your name?” she asks with a smile.

“That is what my friends call me. My momma has other names for me when she is angry with me,” Pippie answers.

“Nice to meet you, Pippie. My name is Melissa, but my friends call me Mel,” Mel introduced herself.

“Why are you hiding from the bad people?” Pippie asks

“They took me away from my people and my country, but someone helped me to get away from them,” Mel answers.

Pippie scrunches up its little nose, “Yeah, you stink like them,”

As the words fly from its mouth, it slams its little hand over its mouth and mumbles, “Sorry.”

This time, Mel cannot stop laughing out loud. She cannot help but think of how she must smell after almost a week of hard work and not having water to clean herself on-site.