Paintings On The Wall

Amaya ripped all the buttons from the expensive shirt of the man. She carefully placed them on the wooden shelf beside the bed. She struggled to remove the shirt of the man and when she succeeded, she saw that his front and back upper bodies and arms were full of cuts and bruises.

Amaya wiped his body clean. She took some more leaves of the medicinal plants from the backyard and pounded them into pulp. She applied the green pulp to the body of the man. After she was done, his body has a greenish tinge and his chest and abdomen looked like the forest floor with patches of green moss.

Marx was unconscious for the rest of the day and the entire night.

Early the following morning, Amaya set out to catch some fish.

"Kong, watch over him. Khalil and Strata went hunting for their food. I'll go check if the trap has caught some fish. I'll cook fish for lunch today."

With that Amaya left the house taking with her two woven baskets with one opening. Those were traps for fish. She also took bamboo nodes for her to put the salt.

The fish trap that she set up was towards the tip of the shoreline. It took her an hour to reach it. She checked the two traps and both has two big fish in them. The trap was designed to capture the big fish. The smaller ones should be able to swim out of the trap easily.

She gathered salt and pour back seawater on the rock bed that her father previously prepared.

Back to the cabin, Marx felt a tingling sensation on his face. It felt like something was touching his face. He sensed something furry was holding his hand. His eyebrows furrowed. The hand that held him was soft but why was it hairy?

He slowly opened his eyes. He swallowed the dryness in his throat and his eyes widened with shock. He was looking into a pair of yellow eyes and a black face with big nostrils and a pointed pouting mouth. It was just a few centimeters away from his face.

"Aaahhhh!" Marx screamed.

Kong scurried away and jumped out of the door.

Marx heaved a sigh of relief. His face however turned into an ice mask when he remembered his scream earlier.

"Was that an ape?" he asked himself.

His head was still pounding but it wasn't as painful as yesterday. He touched his forehead and discovered that the bandage was gone. The swelling has considerably lessened and so was the bump at the back of his head. He checked his body and discovered that he was half naked and there were a lot of green patches on his body but the bruises and the cuts seemed to have healed and the pain lessened.

His throat was parched. He hasn't had any drink since he passed out. It seemed to be early morning. How long was he unconscious?

'Wait! I remembered a tiger was about to devour me and then I heard a woman's voice. Was that woman real?' He thought as he looked around but found the room empty. His gaze landed on his backpack that was placed in the corner of the bed near the headboard. He sat down and then extended his hand to grab the backpack. It was untouched.

He opened the zipper and took out a bottle of water. It was half empty. He consumed half of it when he was walking aimlessly trying to find his companion. He was so thirsty that he finished the remaining content in just two gulps.

Marx felt the urge to pee. He stood up and walked slowly towards an opening in the wall. The room has a door frame but without a door. It was elevated from the ground by about 61 centimeters. There were no stairs.

There were two rooms similar to the one he has and they were placed on both sides of his room. The other two have doors and they were shut. He was standing on the dirt ground and he still has his shoes on. He wondered why his shoes were not removed.

The place looked like a dining area and a kitchen. There was a wooden table with two wooden chairs made from tree stumps. At one corner he saw what looked like a place for cooking. It looked like a table with four legs placed against a wall. The top was covered with sand and ash. Firewood was stacked neatly underneath and two clay stoves were placed on top of it.

Marx saw a door and opened it. It looked like a utility room. He found another door beside it. When it opened, it led him to the backyard. Marx did not find any toilet so he just relieved himself on the nearest bush.

He felt dizzy and decided to get back into the house. He was still very thirsty and when he looked around he found a covered jar sitting on top of a bamboo counter. Beside it was a wooden dipper and at the other end of the bamboo counter were wooden bowls, plates, cups and two mugs. There were also cooking pots made from clay.

He took the mug and then with the dipper drew water from the jar and poured it on the wooden mug. He went back to the doorless room took a bottle of iodine from the backpack and poured a drop into the mug.

While waiting for the iodine to do the disinfecting, he surveyed the room and noted that the walls were filled with paintings of a beautiful woman, a girl and a family of three.

Marx was excited. 'So there are people on this island.'

He approached the family painting and he was baffled. The painting was that of a royal family based on the clothes they were wearing and the crowns on their heads. The girl was around thirteen or fourteen years old.

He studied the man in the painting. He looked familiar. There was an inscription at the bottom and Marx squinted his eyes to read them.

Prince Ibrahim, Princess Danaya with daughter Princess Amaya of Lireya.

"What are these paintings doing here in a house like this? Why is there no one in the house?" He muttered to himself before drinking the water in the mug he was holding.

He studied the other paintings and noted that they were of a little girl of different ages. He learned from the inscription at the bottom that girl was called Amaya and the artist, whoever he was started painting her at the age of eight and ended at thirteen.

Marx had another bout of headaches. He decided to go back to bed and rest. He did not notice it earlier but now that he looked at it, all the solo paintings of the woman called Danaya were specially arranged in such a way that she was looking or smiling at the man lying down on the bed.

'Was the man obsessed with the woman?'