Eudaimonia: Maya's Journey

Of Stone

Maya came back to her senses with a huge headache and she headed back towards the entrance of the cave. The storm was gone; she was still a bit confused but was firmly determined to get back to the house. She had had enough for a day. She walked through the woods until she was out, in the open.

Grass almost her height was all around. It was not something she had recollection of but she had to carry on, she would have to encounter a road or someone at some point. After what seemed to be an eternity of walking, her feet started hurting and her bruises suddenly felt heavy and painful. She stopped, tears in her eyes, and sat down on a rock, with her knees up. She held her head. She was helplessly overwhelmed.

Suddenly, she heard a noise, a sort of grunt. She had a horrible feeling and felt instantly threatened. The high grass was moving on her left, so she stood up and walked backwards keeping an eye on the moving herbs. It was getting closer, so without further ado she started running as fast as she could. A loud grunt and heavy steps followed her. She turned her head and was terrified by what she saw; it was a bear that was chasing her and it was catching up with her. Maya was quick but it was almost on her heels, in a second she would feel its claws in her back, she screamed and fell onto the floor.

She didn't look and heard the beast roar, but she couldn't feel anything, she didn't feel any pain or anything clutching at her. She turned to see the beast had stopped a few feet away from her and was standing on two feet, roaring with rage. Suddenly, she saw a big rock fly past her and hit the bear's mouth, and then another one. The bear seemed stunned and stayed immobile. She heard heavy racing steps, a horse appeared from nowhere and something grabbed her from under her arm and lifted her up from the ground, throwing her belly down on the back of the galloping animal.

After a while, the horse slowed down and a young but assured voice resonated, "You're lucky it was only a baby bear!"

She lifted up her head and could see long, dirty light brown hair, and a young man dressed in greyish rags that had probably been green at some point. He turned his face. He had a long pointy jaw with an equally pointy nose and massive green sparkly eyes. As he looked at her, a smirk appeared. His baby face was fierce and proud.

"You have weird clothes," he told her.

He had some nerve she thought as his sense of fashion was not exactly inspired. She was wearing her favourite Dolce & Gabbana jeans and a classic Urban Outfitter sweater, a combination she had received compliments about, on many occasions by her friends.

"Are you a girl?"

That was just enough to get her out of her mutism. "Are you a halfwit?" she retorted smugly.

The tone amused him and he laughed heartily. "What's your name... venom tongue?"

Venom tongue... what kind of insult was that? She brushed it aside for the time being. "Maya, and yours?"

"North," he answered.

"That's not a name that's a direction."

"Precisely."

Her mood darkened suddenly as she remembered she was lost.

"What's the matter?" North asked.

"I'm lost."

"Where are you from? Where are you going?"

Maya told him the whole story, the holiday, the trip to the forest with her brothers, the cave and now she was here. It didn't make sense. Her parents must be mortified.

"Croydon? I have never heard of it before. But we'll get you to the city and we'll find a way to get you home!" he said enthusiastically.

"The city, yes the city, which city is that?"