Chapter 5 - Kaida

 

 

    

My name is no longer Kita. After much thought and consultation (with myself) I have decided that I am no longer the happy girl from the Aeacus Province. My name is the last thing linking me to the past. Kita is the name of a child. A cowardly one, at that.

I am now Kaida, after my mother. Kita's duty was to train. All the time. Every day.

Kaida's duty is to begin traveling again.

Kaida. It’s not that much of a stretch, really. Kita and Kaida both have the 'K' as their first letter. People always say I look like my mother anyways.

Well, they used to.

I had found my way out of the "forest" in minutes. That is what I call it now. Forest. With quotation marks around it. I now faced a vast and deserted field of tall wildflowers and grasses. The flowers bent to the cool breeze. Autumn was coming. You could feel it in the air.

My stomach rumbled. I forgot how long it had been since I'd eaten anything.

I bent over and plucked a yellow flower. Edible?

Probably not.

Maybe I should have timed my escape better. Possibly at a time when I had just been served food and water. Then I could have started stronger, and run faster.

I had heard sticks snapping and leaves rustling all of last night. I am deeply disturbed by the thought that Pitch Black is still running around, trying to find my whereabouts. They might already know my whereabouts, or at least my general location. I regret sleeping last night. I should have kept traveling. Pitch Black is likely hot on my trail. The distance I covered while escaping was wide, flat and open. I could be seen easily running into the distance, so they know what direction I was going in.

Suddenly I am very aware of how exposed I am here. I crouched down low so just my head could be seen above the thick field.

I scanned the horizon for anything that resembled human life. In the distance, I could see a glassy lake, dotted by cottages of some sort.

Definitely worth a shot.

I began crawling through the field. The burning sting of all of my glass cuts had lessened to a dull throb. Maybe they were healing. Moving was easier, and actually felt good after one hundred days of being in a cage.

It was hard to believe how much my life had changed in the last few months. Just a little while ago, I had a family and a home.

And my name was Kita.