Lost Time

JP with Lorem and Omni

As Gonyaul happily arrived, Voah could hear his jolly song and was compelled to sit up. Judging by the way her body was shivering even in the heat, she was sure that she had a fever or something though she was otherwise feeling less tired and in pain.

Hugging her knees for warmth, Voah winced at the sudden influx of light as Gonyaul entered the tent, the scent of meat followed with him. Her stomach now eating itself alive. She greedily accepted the water and each bite of the stuff that he dug into and fed to her. She could do it herself, but she was enjoying the fact that he was being a conscientious caretaker. The croc was somewhat bland, a little rubbery from being overcooked, and it tasted somewhere between a fish and chicken. She didn't know what it was and she didn't care, but she was starving, so it was amazing.

She let out a sigh as she chewed and made sure to save some for Gonyaul, unaware of how much there was to go around. She smiled at him and tried to enjoy these moments before she would have to tell him about what happened. Did she have to tell him?

Gonyaul let her take her fill of the meal, there was more where that small bowl fill came from. He took a seat behind her, his legs on either side of her body and his arms around her gently. She could rest back into him if she wished.

When she finishing up the meat in the bowl, he finally spoke. “I missed you these past several days.”

Voah stopped mid-chew and turned her head almost violently to try and look at him but could not see him from her angle. She set down the bowl and wracked her brain trying to recall the event that transpired and any other instances she had woken up to. She could find none.

"You let me sleep for days!?" she croaked with food still in her mouth.

She was unaware that she and Gonyaul did not share the same instance of time that had passed. What seemed like maybe an hour to her plus another few hours of sleep was, in fact, the actual passing of days for him.

Gonyaul leaned to the left so it would be a little easier to see one another.

“No. You be sleep for most of the day. Today.” He felt it necessary to be redundant.

“You be gone four days. I went sleep for you first watch and when I woke you gone. I searched east, west and south trying to find. New direction each day, but never find you. Last night I had packed up camp thinking lost you forever.”

His voice grew quiet as he summarized what happened. It brought back the feelings of sadness and grief, even though they were unfounded at the present with her being back.

Her eyes shifted around, searching for memories of the last few days, “Four days? No… we… trekked three days… finally reached the river… took a lovely bath and… I took first watch…”

She moved the food out of the way and painfully turned herself around all the way to face him directly.

“We’ve only just arrived.” she implored.

Gonyaul shifted to make it easier for her to turn around. He opened his arms and his legs went between a pike and the splits. When she had fully turned and settled, he let his hands and legs touch up against her sides once more, to reassure himself she was tangible. A new level of appreciation was apparent in his gaze and touch, feeling as if he had lost her entirely and undeservingly given a third chance to truly appreciate this remarkable woman brought back to the course of his life.

He shook his head no and wiped a tear trailing down his cheek. “You prints vanish at river edge four days back and you were no more.” Voah would be able to validate this whenever she did leave the tent, they were not in the same place they had originally camped.

Gonyaul reached up with his left hand to touch her kupen-kissed hair. His fingertips and palm rejoicing at its softness. Everything that had happened did indeed lead him to believe something truly illogical had taken place when measured to the natural show of reason. Instead of inquiring further; however, he could no longer be patient.

Gonyaul leaned forward, closed the distance between them and placed a long-lost lover’s kiss upon her lips. The taste of her sweetness and the smell of her skin saturated every pleasure center in his mind and body. He broke the kiss briefly and exhaled a sigh of relief. “I thought lost you.” He returned back to another kiss, then another; each subsequent kiss getting slower and sweeter. It was like being kissed after a long absence and Gonyaul was reinvesting the inputs of her kiss, writing new archives in his being on what it was like to drink deeply of her love in case tomorrow never came.

She could tell by the urgency and longing in his kisses, indeed in his whole demeanor that he was being truthful. While she appreciated the tenderness and the affection, but the feeling was not wholly the same for her as she had only just left him for a brief moment.

A part of her was questioning her sanity like before when she was hearing voices. They had seemed real too but this was a fundamentally different experience. Voah knew it in her soul that something special had happened here. The proof grew in golden locks straight from her head. Such a miracle shouldn’t have left her with feelings of foreboding and l thoughts of impending doom. Vastad would come for them both one day.

She put her hands on either side of his face and sighed, pressing her forehead to his.

“I’m not going anywhere.” she said as she wrapped her arms around him so tightly that it hurt. It was clear though, that there was something more she wasn't saying.