The Smiling Skull

Swiftly around 1400 hrs, he dumbfoundingly woke up and discovered her sitting lifelessly on bed while seemingly sifting some thoughts in her mind.

" Go back to sleep now, it's still very early to ruminate high-end things, the whatnots and sizzling arguments thereon, inside." He urged her enough to turn her head on him.

" George, are we married? What are my brothers doing to me." A query full of disbelief.

" Why you asked that. Hmm, it seems it is the framework of this since your brothers already blessed us nonetheless we really needed a church wedding, why it bothers you this early? Stop worrying about being scared of me too, promise, I will forever be faithful to our agreement, I'll wait for the right time. For now, go and sleep." He yawned like freezing, covered himself with a blanket and returned to his mat below her bed.

" I can't understand my feelings, it seems I don't like you to go to the battlefield." She worryingly said.

He immediately sat down, bowed down his head and sighed.

" Don't leave me alone, I want to go with you." She insisted.

" Hmm...but it's dangerous out there. Calm down, just wait for me to come back safe. In my return we'll go play fencing and escrima beside the river, we'll make it a priority." He looked at her, smiling.

She lay down on bed with her head peeping below towards him with her droopy eyes filled with tears, reflected the prism of the candle light twirling in the thin air between them.

" My goodness I'm not going to die yet grrrr, everything will be alright, don't fret and lament too much so go back to sleep now. I'm chilling to death here so just cover yourself and add some more blankets that I put beside you early on." He was grumbling on his mat and even added more stuffs on his feet.

" She seriously thinks I'm her bestfriend who would go for a vacation, hmm. She's scared of me but she doesn't like me to fight in the battlefield." He chillingly smiled and thought till he got back to sleep after adding more blankets as the foggy night swallowed his complicated random thoughts.

Sunrise warmed the place a little so he stood up and noticeably, she was not anymore on bed. He rushed outside and looked for her and just in time when he was about to go down, from the balcony's sight, he saw her swimming in the river.

" There you are. She knows how to swim better than I expected. Good girl!" He smirked and applauded in his thoughts.

Still adamant to move yet he remembered to prepare himself for the startup fight in the afternoon; he disemboweled his gun on the table with limited ammo in his pockets. Subsequently, he pulled his towel and decided to join with her in the river.

" Hey, George, do you see that?" Magee pointed to the cul-de-sac signage.

He did not remove his camiso tsino shirt and long pants as he mmediately swim.

" Which one?" He spoke while removing some fizzy water out of 'gogo' extracts he put on his face.

" If you meticulously look at the map upstairs, you'll see that blind watery alley has a skull sign. I feel that there's no actual danger on that part, the skull is something different. Haven't you noticed that it's a 'smiling skull.' She moved to the stony part where she can go up to the waterside and hurriedly pulled her towel and malong.

" Really?" haven't seen anything like that on the map.

" If you're done, you may go up and I'll wait you there. Let's analyze together the map showing that skull sign." Although he's carefully listening to her talking but his heart glowed like a popcorn while looking at her moving back to the house. However, he goes back to the controversial smiling skull.

" Hmm...a smiling skull. Let me see it." Then he directly squeezed and sprinkled his army cut hair then rushed to go up to the waterside.

They've met in an empty room upstairs where the map was located.

" Hmm...Western part, next to its edge is a walled rocky mountain where it's bottom passed through the waters from that river, coming from the mainspring...hmm...your hair, its...its slapping on my face right now." George smiled.

" Ow, sorry, but this signage, see this, come, look closer." She reasoned out.

" Yeah. Why on earth a skull sign would smile when there is danger. But it could be possible that the artist made a mistake while doing this."

" That couldn't be. The two danger signs at the main entrance (where wild dogs and leeches with planted land mines) and the main spring ( land mines) have two skull signs with serious aura. Only at the bottom of the river chasing the seawater bed have a smiling danger sign."

" Interesting! When I come back I'll check it. Warning, I know how super curious you are, but listen, you should not go there. Understand!"

She just smiled and funnily looked at him.

" Your comrades are maybe waiting for you now, there are almost a hundred of them in station one, so let's have our lunch, it's almost midday."

" Your look are suspicious. Magee, please, don't go to that area. I know your feet are itching now to discover if what's in it. Magee, what if it's a land mine again."

" What if there's a door, a cave that contains ammunitions or guns what if there are some exits out there that would help us one day."

" Please. don't do it alone. Its gamble, otherwise. I will return here right away for that, don't worry."

He was filled with worries while calming her mind to obey.

" Okay. As you wish, just come back immediately after your mission there at their barracks."

" Good. You're helping me to relax so that I can have focus in our attack."

They both shared the lunch and told her to hide in a cave adjacent to the house, a few meters away from the mainspring.