Guilt Demands We Find Her

I didn’t leave the hut for days, the scenes of what those men did to that woman kept replaying in my head. Were they raiders? I didn’t recognise the woman, was she from another village? Was she still alive? I couldn’t let Callum touch me for a long time after, his advances brought the memory of those men’s laughing faces to the forefront. Months later, we agreed to go back into the woods to try to find the remains of the woman, we had left her to those savages and our guilt demanded we try to make it right. By now she would likely be only bones and the raiders long gone.

We trudged through the woods back to the felled tree. We argued for a while about which direction to take. Callum had brought a mace with him and jumped at every sound he heard, he wasn’t best pleased when I ran over to the tree stump we had hidden behind, he scolded me for making so much noise. There was nothing in the clearing except for some torn pieces of fabric, at least we didn’t find a body, I hoped she’s survived. Maybe they had left her there after and she’d gone home? Or had the animals carried her corpse off to eat elsewhere? Had the raiders taken her back to their camp as a prize? I put these thoughts from my mind and began the walk back to the village.

We got as far as the felled tree, I’d been looking down, watching where I was walking. Callum’s arm came across my chest and he held me in place. Frozen. By the tree was a hand, someone was crouched down behind it. Moments passed that felt like an hour, another hand came up holding a basket and a woman stood by the tree stuffing in twigs, grass and leaves. We breathed a sigh of relief, a twig snapped and she looked up at us. There was no doubt, this was the woman we had seen. We stared at each other, her eyes were dark and empty her skin pale and long hair jet black. I had not realised how different she looked from our people, her tribe must have travelled from parts unknown. Callum spoke to her but she just stared at him, I walked around the tree to her my hands up and open showing I meant no harm. I could see her more clearly then, she was slender and wore animal hides with prints I did not recognise. She stuffed some more grass into the basket before turning to leave, her eyes still watching us. I gasped and held my hands to my mouth when seeing her from the side, the large pregnant belly was more apparent, the hides from the front hid it well. She stared at me, I walked over to her arms raised, she took a step back but didn’t move any further. I went in for a hug but she didn’t move, only stood there staring ahead. I touched her belly, she couldn’t be with child from the men who had **** her because not enough time had passed, perhaps she had already been pregnant, and if that was the case where was the father? Had he been killed by raiders? I asked questions of her but she only tilted her head and looked at Callum then back to me. Perhaps she did not understand.

She looked over Callum’s shoulder, gripped her basket tightly and turned walking quickly.