While walking towards their ‘chief parent’s hut, I seized the time to thank them. According to them, they saw Jack and me being chased by armed men since yesterday. They lost track of us for a while and when they decided to find us, they found out that the armed men were already near our trail. They quickly noticed we needed help so they followed us until we reached the road."Nana understands city language. But you have to speak slowly so she can understand you," said Bon, the only one who could speak my language among the young men who saved Jack and me. He looked to be the age of probably 18 years old, something similar to Jonah’s son, Gio. He briefly gave me short information about them. According to him, they were a tribe who got stranded in the mountainous part of the town and started living here a couple of years ago. Almost all of them were relatives of one another and because they had been residing in forests for the past centuries, most of them didn’t know my language–spo

I nodded and stared at her while she busy taking care of me. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Since childhood, she has taken care of me too much and spoiled me rotten that I became obsessed with seeing her all the time, of needing the same treatment like this. Now that I became more mature and older, she was still doing the same thing. She was still the one who would and could take care of me tirelessly, in a heartbeat, without any unwillingness written on her face. Unable to control myself, I reached for mom’s hand. Her hands had been busy holding a damp cloth and were cleaning my body for a while. She stopped at my touch, her head tilting up to look at me. “Hmm? What is it? Do you need anything? Are you hungry, Aki?”"Yeah," I replied and tightened my grip on her hand even more.She looked at me and smiled. "All right, I'll get you something to eat. Stay here.”"I want you," I said mischievously.I stared at mom and smiled at her reaction. There was an obvious blush on her

"No…No… The tribe!" Mom exclaimed with a loud gasp as she moved and was about to run back to the village when I caught her hand in time. “Mom!” I held her. “Aki, t-they’re in danger…!” She exclaimed, her eyes round and full of worry. “They need our help, Aki!”I tightened my grip on her and pulled her to my side. Then I turned to Bon and Norman, waiting for them to speak. Even they were too shocked and seemingly unable to think what to do next. I looked up again, thinking… Then I stopped, finally realizing what it could be. Sh*t… Crista… Her men were the cause of this, weren’t they?!I gritted my teeth, the anger spreading throughout my chest. I turned to Bon and told him, “Head back to the tribe.”Bon seemed to snap back from his shock. He looked at me, clenching his hands into fists as he suppressed his emotions. “No… We can’t. Nana’s order was for us to take you two to the nearest town.” "Aki! We need to go back!" mom almost cried when she said that.I tried to think of the situ

In a slow and weak voice and with a smile, he uttered, “... Mom… am I dreaming?"I shook my head and wiped the tears from my cheeks. "No. You're okay, Aki. You're not dreaming. You’re safe now, and alive… You’re alive, baby.."I grabbed his hand and squeezed it before I promptly turned around and said, "I'll just call the nurse."Before I could entirely break down and cry myself in front of Jack, I hurriedly went out and called the doctor and nurse.They both came quickly and did a check-up on Jack. It went faster than I thought, or perhaps I was too focused on Jack, seeing him well, and finally opened his eyes that I could barely put my attention on anyone else. After a few minutes, the doctor gave me a few instructions before they finally told Jack to stay and get well, and finally left. After discovering what happened to Jack and me, the local high officials gave us a private room. It wasn’t exactly as grand as most of the private hospitals had but it was neat and decent enough fo

The next day, Jack was finally discharged and we headed home to the condo where Jonah, Gio, and of course, my very cute daughter Amy were waiting. As soon as I saw her, I quickly picked her up and hugged her tightly. I missed my daughter so much and I also felt that she missed me as the entire afternoon that day, she slept on my shoulder and cried whenever I would try to place her back in her crib. "Mars, how about you put Amy down first?” Jonah suggested while drinking coffee.Jack had excused himself earlier, telling all of us that he needed to do something quickly in the office. I told him he needed to take things slow first as he had only been discharged from the hospital but he just wouldn’t budge, saying it had something to do with his boss and his position too. Worried he might lose his job, I let him go but only with the condition that he would be home immediately. Because of that, I was left here with Amy, Jonah, and Gio. "Shh," I replied to Jonah.She took a sip from her