Land of the Phoenix Part 5

The Apology

Tired, hungry and scared, Anne was right on the verge of crying when her captor grunted and awoke. She suddenly forgot about everything except fear. Picturing a monster who must be obeyed…or else, Anne tried as hard as she could not to turn around and look at him.

The lion-man stood up, brushed himself off and shouldered his pack. He sighed then said “You get up, let’s go.” He growled through a large yawn.

Now, understand that that Anne was in an extremely grumpy mood due to her damp awakening. She mumbled under her breath, “I have a name you know.”
Her captor, because of his lion ears, had extremely good hearing and surprised her when he grunted cheekily. She waited for a minute but he did not say anything. Anne couldn’t stand it,

“It’s Anne.” Still no answer. “Well, can I ask yours?” She said as politely as she could.

“No, you cannot.” Knowing that he was annoying her excessively, he smiled at his horrible cleverness and waited for her reply.

“Well, it is only fitting for you to tell me your name after I’ve told you mine!” She frowned.

“No, its definitely not the only thing I can do. I can tell you nothing if I want.” He laughed.

“I meant that its only fitting for you to do, not the only thing you can do!” She frowned even harder when he laughed shortly.

“Around here, angel, we don’t ever do the fitting thing. Now, you just follow me and shut your mouth like a good little witch.”

“Oh!” The tiny bit of fire that lived in her grew for the first time ever. Kindled by grumpiness and frustration the fire grew to hatred. She hated the lion-man as she had never hated anyone before. And, she told him so.

“I hate you! I’m not a witch…” She went on and on, yelling and snapping. Never had she spoken to anyone like that; never had she wanted to. Some strange force inside of her was pushing her; taking all the negative energy that she had ever felt and letting it all out on the beast.

“Now, the man walking in front of her had been yelled at before, and always it had been much worse. His own kind yelled and fought constantly but they have never harmed each other emotionally because they all cared nothing for feelings. They felt nothing when someone called them, or even their mother, horrible nasty names that I could never write down.

But, the last couple of days had not been good for the beast. Strange new feelings kept bugging him, feelings he had always thought he could live without. And, when Anne let her anger out on him another new feeling came. For once in his life, he was hurt. His pride stung beneath his skin, his heart welled up eight sizes and a burning seeped up behind his eyes.

He was surprised and afraid of this new feeling and tried to brush it off. But her words bit into him and clamped on tight like a crab so nothing could shake it off.

In the distance a faint laughter echoed through the trees. A maniacal, triumphant witchy laughter, it was so far away and quiet that it was hardly there.

Anne could not believe that any of those words had escaped her mouth. What had she done? Shame filled all parts of her being and tears silently poured down her cheeks. She was angry that she was a hostage being taken who knows where but she still felt she had no reason to attack her captor’s feelings like that.
“I…I’m sorry.” She said quietly.

The whole world suddenly seemed to shift. But as instantly as it had come, it became completely silent.

The lion-man stopped so abruptly that Anne ran into him. Hardly knowing what had happened they both stood dazed for a moment. Then the lion-man turned his head a little and looked at the little witch; who, he saw, was looking down at her feet and biting her fingernails.

“What? What did you say?” He asked slowly.

“I said I’m sorry, I really am. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” Anne replied choking back tears.

“No one, not one creature has said those words for almost one hundred years.” He paused, thinking hard.

“Why?” Anne asked.

“Because of the Sorceress. She trapped the Phoenix who ruled the land then took over. She took away all feelings and now you’ve come to bring them back, haven’t you? But, you see, the world is better with no feelings. No one gets hurt that way. The Sorceress will not want you spreading feelings and letting creatures get put under their spells. That’s why I’m taking you to her.”

Anne still did not understand. As they continued to slowly make their way down the path she thought hard. Maybe some feelings are bad but…but she had said sorry didn’t she? Shouldn’t that make everything better? In fact, it did. The lion-mans pride was back to normal, which he didn’t understand.

Finally Anne told herself this: Some things you just can’t understand, but if your common sense is telling you that feelings are good then you should believe it. Feelings are good but sometimes outside things make us want to hate. But, maybe if you try to love it instead, things can change for the better.

So, Anne decided to love the lion-man and maybe he would change his mind. At her decision, she felt a surge of happiness. She felt like skipping and whistling. But, she soon learned that loving something that makes you want to hate it is not as easy as it seems.

The two walked on but she never saw his face and he hardly ever spoke. The more she tried to talk to him, the more he pushed her away. He kept on believing that feelings were evil and that Anne was trying to force them on him with magic.

And, the more he angered and frustrated her, the more he became angry and frustrated. So, by the end of the day they were both two angry and frustrated people.