The Maiden and The Four Waters
Chapter Thirty- One

Walla laid in bed; she couldn’t tell her body yearned for food as her body continued to ache.

Tears continued to fall from her eyes.

She tried to let herself on focus on the sounds from outside the hospital walls, but it felt impossible.

Walla brought her knees up to her chest; she wrapped her arms around her legs as she rested her head on her knees being careful with her left side of her face.

She ignored the lavender strands scattered from her bed to the floor.

Walla didn’t react as the hospital door opened, she didn’t dare look to see who had entered the room, she felt alone.

“CROWE!” Called out his voice. “CROWE!” His tone sounded of excitement and wonder. “CROWE!”

“Hush, child! This is a hospital.” Crowe rushed up to Walla’s room, her eyes bulged with wonder.

Together Exel and Crowe rushed to Walla’s side, they both wrapped their arms around her body neither knowing of the pain she was in.

Their arms around her didn’t make Walla feel whole.

“To see you awake fills our heart with immense…” Exel couldn’t replace the final word he needed, the one word he thought wouldn’t be seen as an insult nor bare minimum of wonder.

Walla breathed out her dry breath as Crowe and Exel slowly let go of her.

“Today’s day six.” Crowe brought the bad news.

Walla’s tears fall again.

“We found you twisted in the weeds in the river on day three.” Crowe sat down on Walla’s bed “We had no idea what happened, we stayed but the water stayed quiet after you dived in.”

Exel watched the two woman.

“We thought we lost you forever, we woke the whole village. Everyone grabbed their lights and rushed to the river. We all tried our hardest to replace you, we promised not to give up until we found what we could to prove our thoughts wrong.” Crowe lifted Walla’s hands away from her knees and held Walla’s hands in her own.

“Ma..” Walla’s throat burned as she tried to speak “Ri.” She swallowed painfully “Ana.” Her throat felt like it was on fire as she tried to speak one simple word. She adjusted her gaze between Crowe and Exel.

Neither Crowe or Exel knew what to say to Walla, after the vicious splashes and violent shrieks had stopped, their focus was solely on trying to replace Walla.

“Ma…” The burning in her throat didn’t stop Walla from trying again “Ri.” She took in her dry breath before exhaling dry air “Ana.”

“Exel, can you please get Walla some water.” Crowe slowly shifted her gaze to Exel.

Exel let his face fill with annoyance and confusion.

“Exel. Water.”

Exel pursed his lips together before reluctantly leaving the room.

Crowe shifted her gaze back to Walla.

“We don’t know, love. Melana called out for Mariana to help us replace you, even went down at least once during the days to call out for Mariana but she didn’t rise from the water. Nothing unusual appeared either.” Crowe wiped away Walla’s tears “Just like you asked, no one has been out onto the water. We all stayed on the river’s edge to replace you.”

“How” Walla’s dry throat croaked.

“To replace you?”

Walla nodded.

“We don’t know, we had searched up and down, we could’ve sworn till the end of our days that we couldn’t replace you.” Crowe allowed herself a second to breath out her sadness “We promised to never give up, when Raul had found you by the river’s edge amongst the weeds further from the fangs, it was like a miracle. The whole village could’ve sworn we looked and looked but we didn’t see you. It was as if you just appeared out of thin air.”

Exel stepped back into the room holding a jug of water and a small glass, he stopped by Walla’s bed as he poured the water into the glass before handing it to Walla.

She ignored the glass and reached for the jug, she pressed it’s edge to her dry lips and inhaled the water.

Walla didn’t care that the water was dribbling down her chin or wetting the clothes she was wearing or even damping the bedding. She just needed water, water as if it was gold.

Crowe and Exel didn’t say a word as Walla reached the now empty water jug to Exel.

“We couldn’t hold off mourning.” Exel broke yet another bad news.

Walla carefully stretched her legs out before placing them over the edge of the bed, Crowe and Exel silently took the hint as they helped Walla to her feet.

They assisted Walla to the window.

Walla stared out at the town, she noticed the colour of flowers thrown across the dirt road from the door of the hospital to as far as the eye could see, she noticed muted colours of fabric tied to bushes and awkwardly scattered yet tied to trees leaving some trees with the fabric on the bottom branches and leaving the unreachable branches without fabric.

She noticed windows and doors closed, she noticed men trying to shoo children away while women tried to keep children within arm’s length as the women sat close to their doors.

Her eyes glanced over up at the brothel; she wasn’t surprised to see they were taking part in the mourning but something about it didn’t seem like it belonged.

Unlike the other trees and bushes scattered around the town, the ones in front of the brothel didn’t have fabric decorated nor was there flowers thrown from the door to the dirt road.

“We haven’t seen Clarinne since you dived in that night.”

Walla turned her glance to Crowe.

“All the girls seemed to have just disappeared to.”

Walla turned her attention to Exel.