A Ray of Truth

Under a tree. In the woods.

~Tahni and Ayla~

"There's something I've been meaning to discuss with you, Ayla."

Tahni called at the constantly pacing Ayla before her. Tahni was seated at the base of a large. The large tree in which they live. While Ayla was pacing the gaunt path before the tree.

Ayla stopped at her call and turned to Tahni, not leaving the position she held,

"Something you've been meaning to talk about, or something you've been talking about yet haven't gotten a response to... but you want to, at all cost."

Tahni stood up suddenly.

"Whatever you call it."

Ayla smiled and walked off the way.

"I'm all ears."

Tahni snapped,

"You act too wierdly these days. At first, I thought it was some Nymph thing. Like it was bound to happen and then would go away. But then, it just kept coming and coming, so obvious that if I'm indifferent, then I'm nothing but a fool!"

She took a deep breath. Ayla kept the straight face void of any sort of betraying emotions. That porous stare holding a million and one meanings to it.

"In the morning through evening, you're the hot lady that wants to kiss and suck my nipples. You want to crave me and make me crave you."

"And not even only that. Every morning, you make sure we come out of the tree and stay outside in the cold and heat till night. Giving me no special reason for that. Something not typical of you since the day I know you. I don't know why these past few days have been strange."

She paused and looked away from where she was. It seemed as though she saw a figure again. The same figure she'd seen few days ago. The same figure she'd mistaken for a human.

She reassumed her stance and kept reeling,

"And at night, you become the old you I used to know. The Ayla who doesn't want me. Whose heart has been given to someone else, my father."

"And then we return into the tree at night after you've wandered away for few moments, always returning with a change of clothes."

She paused again, heaving a heavy sigh, Ayla paying an unfiltered attention,

"At first I thought I was thinking too much but then I realized that the quiet I am, the crazy things would become. And it seems as though I'm going insane. But I wouldn't be turned mad by any circumstance or any person. A Nymph or nobody!"

Her tempo was beginning to rise,

"I sincerely don't know what you take me for, Ayla. Probably some jobless freak who hangs around with a Nymph because she doesn't have anything to do with her life."

She scoffed,

"I'll tell you something, I'm doing this mainly because I'm kinda empathizing with you. It would be inhumane of me to let you wander around the world alone doing whatever picks your Nymphomaniac interest... without a friend! I wanted to be your friend and be there for you."

She threw her gaze away again, hesitant to continue but knocked off the odds,

"Even I, hate to think that I have something for you. If I was told from the on set that I would be attracted to a lady like me, I would had beaten the person into a pulp. But there's something I began to realize about you which I regret to say, I fell in love with... before this new attitude of yours."

She took two steps forward to match up Ayla's height, close in contact enough,

"What annoys me the most in the world is getting played on or trampled upon. It's pretty reasonable if you don't like. I was beginning to get use to it. But why in the fuck would you keep fiddling with my emotions... being all mushy in the morning and at night, a creepy stranger. It pisses the hell out of me. And this is the end of it."

She took the usual pause and shifted her tone,

"If you do not give me a sane reply today, I'll leave you for good. I can't keep being someone's puppet, whether some normal human or hyped Nymph."

That seemed to be the end of her wit. There was a gentle ogle creeping on her gaze, but she did well to cloud it with a stern stare.

Ayla picked up both her hands and squeezed them gently,

"I do not have an answer to all you questions yet, Tahni. I wouldn't tell you a lie. But all I could do at this moment is --"

She leaned forward to kiss Tahni but Tahni pushed her in the chest, unintentionally cupping a side of her breasts.

"You must be crazy."

She walked away from her and began to head down the path, towards the direction of I CHÓRA TOU VULCAN.

"Tahni... Tahni!!!"

Tahni heard a masculine voice coming from behind her. Twas a familiar voice. She had no choice but to look. There was Miargos running towards her.

"Miargos?"

She muttered and walked back. Miargos caught up, panting heavily...

"Have you seen Prium?"

He asked. Tahni shook her head, a cloud of curiosity looming over her face.

"Don't tell me that you've called me back to recite the new love poem you've written for her?"

He shook his head roughly, sweat pacing his temple,

"Not that. She's now my woman. She's even carrying my child at the moment. But she left earlier today saying she's going to I CHÓRA TOU VULCAN that she heard that Athena had been defeated and a surrogate Athena has bewitched the king and the people. But ever since then, she hasn't returned. I was successful, stopping her from going all these days, but today, she left before I could wake up."

Tahni's gaze tuned. Ayla drew closer to them.

"Rewind back a bit. You said my sister is now your woman and she's pregnant for you? Like with your child, Miargos?"

"That's not the matter at hand now. Please help me find my love. She's carrying a twin. I can neither risk her nor my boy and girl."

He hurried away running down the path towards the village.

"Wait --"

Tahni lost the words as Ayla followed suit. She joined them too as they kept running.

Suddenly, they heard Mairgos scream,

"Prium? Oh, by the gods! She's here. She's wounded."

"Wounded?"

Tahni muttered, increasing her pace as she got there. Miargos was knelt by Prium who was lying in the path, unconscious.

"Wake up, please. Prium. Please. I'm here."

Miargos called, bursting into fresh tears. He held Prium's hand.

"Do something, Ayla. Do something."

Tahni called, devastated. But Ayla dilly-dallied. She couldn't do a thing. Instead, she stood up and said,

"I have something to say."

Suddenly, Prium squeezed Miargos' hand and called,

"My love. I don't know who she is. But she's powerful. She's no mortal."

Tahni looked away from Ayla to Prium as Miargos urged,

"Never mind, my love. Do not concern yourself with it. You'll be fine."

Prium pleaded,

"I'm sorry for disobeying you. I shouldn't had --"

He kissed her, and hugged her warmly, cutting short the words. Tahni's eyes strayed from Prium face, half-buried in Miargos shoulder, to her stomach. It was protruding. She was really pregnant.

"I know who she is."

Ayla said all of a sudden. The three looked up at her.

"It's Ayla."

Ayla added. Tahni stood up all of a sudden barking,

"Is this some sort of joke to you?"

Ayla shook her head,

"I'm speaking the truth. Ayla is the surrogate Athena."

"Then who are you?"

Prium's pressured words came,

"I am Joyo."