Maliha

Maliha woke to thin sheets wrapped around her legs and a dark shadow lingering in the corner.

Pale sunlight glistening through her windows and bringing light to all that was hidden. The shadow shuffled in the corner, mossy green eyes glaring back at her. Ruddy hair peeking through the darkness as the small figure finally stepped out from its hiding place.

Pensive eyes narrowed as he murmured something in an intangible language, face scrunching as he spoke in a fervour.

He jostled back when Maliha climbed from the bed, his back thumping on the wall before his tongue stuck out and he was sprinting from her room.

Maliha’s shock kept her rooted for all of five minutes before she was sprinting after him. Her arms pumping hard as she tried to catch up to the rascal who had spat curse words at her.

She sprinted around a corner and ground to a halt, her bare feet skidding along the floor at the sight before her. Ujarak had the little boys top in his grip, halting the wiggling child from moving any further. The child was hellish. His hair scruffy as he jostled about and tried to dislodge Ujarak, but the man seemed unaffected.

His heated gaze travelled up and took in Maliha’s thin gown, lust entering his eyes before it turned into annoyance.

“T’la,” he growled at the young boy who had managed to get in a cheap kick whilst Ujarak had been looking elsewhere.

At Ujarak’s foreign reprimand the boy stopped struggling, his shoulders dropping as he lowered his head in shame.

“What have I told you about entering into people tents and rooms Enzo?” Ujarak’s tone was hard but patient, no anger flowing but there was definitely frustration.

“Not to do it?” He murmured softly.

“So, if you know I have told you not to do it, why do you repeatedly ignore me?”

The small boys head shrunk lower at Ujarak’s sour tone, his lip wobbling and when mossy eyes were lifted up and locked with Maliha’s, she couldn’t stand by and watch any longer.

“It’s okay Ujarak, he did no harm,” she interjected, stepping further into the corridor and into both of their line of sight. Ujarak’s face turned molten red as smoke practically steamed from his ears.

“It is not okay because Enzo needs to learn to obey rules,” he snarled, face hard with anger but it was for show.

He looked like a lion, posturing with jaws slung wide and ferocious teeth gnarling. His mane was wild and unruly, but the male lion was a slumberous type. They could hunt but they often didn’t, leaving Maliha to think that Enzo was not a prey. No, Enzo was more like a mischievous cub and the male of the pride was showing him who was the head.

“What is the punishment for those who repeatedly disobey rules?” He hummed down at the boy.

His face still a mask of anger and frustration.

Enzo’s shoulders shrunk deeper as he reluctantly replied. “Exile or banishment,” he whispered, hands clenching in reproach.

“So, if you know these are the punishments why do you push me Enzo?” Enzo’s head shook as tears lined his lids.

“Do you think because you are Ormas and my charge that you can get away with murder?”

Maliha’s heart quickened at those words, the organ thudding as static filled her ears and a deep understanding flowed through her being. The organ pulsing as the poor boy looked to her for support. For help, he needed a reprieve from the harsh storm that Ujarak was in this moment and he looked to Maliha for it.

She couldn’t help but see herself in him.

“Then why do you ignore my words?” Harsh words shocking her out of her observation of Enzo.

His eyes were soulful, a blue ring around the dark green orbs. His skin was a dirty brown as if he hadn’t been washed in days and from the state of his hair and clothes she guessed he hadn’t. Sticks clung to the nest of matted hair on his head. His mud smeared hair and skin made him look uncared for, unloved and she couldn’t help but think of her younger self. The Maliha who had grown up with everyone disciplining her but no one loving her.

“Answer me,” spat Ujarak, his hand clenching tighter as he shook the boy lightly.

Maliha had seen enough.

“It’s fine Ujarak, he meant no harm”

“How do you know that,” his rebuttal fast on his tongue.

Maliha stepped further into the corridor, siding up to Ujarak and releasing his hold on the boy. His hands melted away at her light prompting. His rough edges smoothing out as he followed her lead as if he were in a trance of some sort. He put up no fight or desire to resist Maliha. He let the boy go as if it had always been his attention.

Enzo staggered away, relief in his eyes as he took a few backward steps down the hall but then he halted. His head tilting as he regarded Ujarak and Maliha. A deep sigh left the mountain of muscle before her, “Fine, you can go”

“But make sure you wash yourself,” Ujarak shouted after the whooping boy and his scattering feet.

Not a minute had paced when Ujarak’s gaze swung around to face her, his large hands covering her still lingering fingers.

“Why did you interfere?” there was surprisingly no anger in his words. Merely curiosity and perhaps a tinge of annoyance but not too much that would have her feeling fear.

She supposed it was natural. She had interfered in tribe matters that had little to do with her, but she couldn’t idly stand by and watch the small boy crumble apart over something so small. Not when Enzo seemed so sad and alone.

“Who takes care of him?”

Ujarak’s brows knitted at the way she averted his question, but he answered anyway. “We all do.”

“No,” she huffed, ” I mean where does he live? who provides him with what he needs and more?” her tone was surly and riddled with frustration even as she tried to calm the rage she could feel building within her.

“He lives here with me. I provide him with food clothes and all the necessities,” he replied eyeing her quizzically.

His brows shot higher as her feet began to batter down on the marble floor, her body pacing up and down the corridor erratically. Her hand flung to the bridge of her nose as she pinched it and her body came to a halt.

“And do you love him? Does he have someone who loves him?”

Ujarak look affronted, his face thunderous as the tendons in his arms strained at his clenching hands. She couldn’t fell firm body languish that he was angered by her words, but his face was smooth as if her questions barely bothered him.

A sigh flew past his lips, taking his tensed posture with him as his anger melted away. “I do what I can. I am no monster Maliha, I care for the boy.”

Maliha’s body naturally moved in sync with Ujarak’s. Her posture softening at his relaxed one.

“But do you love him?” Her arms folded across her chest as she glared up at him.

“Why is this important?” He flustered.

Ujarak didn’t know. He had been Enzo’s carer since the boy was just a baby. The child had moved into his home and though he had been nursed by the tribe’s women and later the tribe’s animals, Ujarak had always made sure he could provide Enzo with all that he needed. Enzo was as much as his son as he had ever had. The boy was his and he cared for him but the thought that he had been lacking in some way- had neglected to give Enzo something in some way - angered him.

“Why is it important?” She repeated, face aghast.

She was flabbergasted.

Shocked that he could even ask her that.

“Because your tribe seems to forget that the young need more than just food in their stomachs and shelter. They need someone to love. They need to feel wanted and that they belong,”

She tried to suppress her anger, but every word was coated in fury as she thought back in her years. On her neglect.

“So, I’ll ask again do you love him, and does he know,” green eyes full of such deep hurt that Ujarak couldn’t help but respond. His voice deep and throaty as he perhaps saw Maliha properly for the first time.

“Yes, I love him but I - I suppose I don’t tell him often.”

Shame

She could see the shame that lined every single crease across his skin.

The guilt

His emotions so potent she could almost taste them on her tongue. The bitter sizzle of his self-depreciation. She could smell it, the sour stench that burned the fine hairs of her nostrils and sent his stomach into a tumultuous spin.

The image of himself that faced him back in the mirror was not so pristine as he had once thought it to be.

No

It was marred because he had neglected a child, they all had.

They had given their children love and affection in abundance whilst failing to realise that Enzo’s poor soul was turning bitter the longer he was showed no love.

Yes, he had clothes. He had food, but did he have love? And if he didn’t have love what did he really have?

Nothing because the boy didn’t even have a family to call his own. The fact that Ujarak referred to him as his charge and an Ormas was perfect example of how the boy would always be flirting on that line of acceptance.

Just like Maliha had.

All a child needed was unequivocal love and acceptance. Where was Enzo’s and where had hers been?

Perhaps she was projecting but she couldn’t help but look at that young boy and see herself.

“Every child needs to know they are wanted Ujarak, especially an Ormas child. We need to feel that someone cares because we will never hear those words from our parents. We need to know we are valued”

“Enzo needs to hear it,” she husked, face turning as she tried hide the emotions that were splayed across her face and dripping down her cheeks. She knew Enzo’s experience was so different from her own, but it was so hard to separate her years of neglect from this boy’s.

As the years had progressed, her mind had often wandered back to that tribe. To the man she had loved and left in the Melikit tribe. Her mind had floated back to her parents and the life she could of hand.

Her neglect had made her a bleeding heart over the years.

A calm understanding settled over Ujarak as he crowded Maliha towards the wall. His large hand gripping her chin and forcing her to look at him. A rough thumb swiping along her damp cheeks and smoothing over her quivering lips.

“And did your tribe show you this care that you speak of?” whispered sound that gentled against her ears but crashed into her heart.

Her expressive green eyes slid shut as a gasping breath of air was sucked into her lungs because her answer was no.

No, they did not love her and care for her. No, they did not cherish her differences and try to raise her to be a better and stronger person.

No

Her answer would be no a million times over because the Melikit tribe had never loved her. No one had but her young heart had always loved them. Even as they had forced her to the fringes of their lives. Even as they had ridiculed her dark skin and tall posture.

Even when they had mocked her she had always loved them. She had cut herself alive with the need to be one of them until she hadn’t. Petr’s betrayal had been the moment she had finally accepted that she would never be loved by them. That her differences would always mark her an outcast.

“My tribe threw me to the outskirts for being different. The Melikit tribe have never been affectionate and even less to children who are not their own” she replied nonchalantly.

Her green eyes sliding back open and bringing her back to the present even if her mind was elsewhere.

“This is why you left?”

She tried to shrug him off, swiping at the big hand that gripped her chin in a light hold but Ujarak refused to retreat. His chest pushed her further into the wall, demanding she face what he brought forward and not hide from him.

“Yes, among other reasons.” She gritted, glaring up at him. Green eyes damp with previous tears now spat kindled fire at him.

“Then I will tell Enzo- show him he is loved because he is. Very much Maliha, just as you should have been”

He wouldn’t give Enzo more reason to doubt his place here. He was cared for and cherished, it was time the boy knew it.

“Thank you” she sighed in relief, her body moulding into the wall behind her as a soft smile glided along her lips.

He stared at her with a deep interest, invading her private space as he tried to unravel Maliha.

“Thank you Maliha,” he murmured, lips ghosting her cheek as he kissed her lightly. Her world tilted at the salty scent of man, the feel of his rough lips against her cheek. The feel of his hard chest against her supple breasts.

The hairs along her arms prickled at the feel of Ujarak. Breath quickening and pulse racing as his lips lingered.

Then the feel of him was gone, amber hued eyes gliding over her skin as he tried to decipher who she was, but he never would.

Not because she didn’t want to reveal herself to this man or this tribe - which was partially true - but because she didn’t even know who she was.

She never had but she hoped someday she would know.