The pistol dropped out of Ishtar's hand down on the floor.
Like a no-good alcoholic who needed help for her problem, Ishtar could barely stand on her two legs steadily at the moment. She had lost too much blood from the injury she got from a brutal assault lately, which was intended to take away her life.
Quickly, the grey bearded grownup man got her in his hands before she fell off her feet to the floor in a dizzy state of consciousness.
"Got you!" Softly, he lifted and supported her, one hand in her waistline and the other hand holding her hand firmly around his neck to balance steadily on her feet. He walked her softly upto a one person bed which was just a few metres away, the same bed on which she was laid before she stubbornly ran outside.
Ishtar needed to lay her body down for some good time in a serious nap for her bod cells to build a healthy conscious mind and muscles to regain energy.
In the midst of laying her down on the bed he cautioned, "cut the stubbornness and allow me to nurse you through this hard time. You wanna lift your head up tomorrow and look at the beauty of the sun in the sky?"
Gently, he laid her down on the bed.
However, in order to watch this strange man's next move, Ishtar kept an open eye on him, and watched him hurrying out of her sight for a few seconds and back, holding a medium metallic tool box.
The only option Ishtar had in this trying time was to calm her fears and anxiety down and comply with whatever the stranger man was about to subject her to.
First, he pulled out a small sharp blade from the tool box, and as soon as Ishtar saw the glittering sharp edge, memories of his voice whispered threats in her mind, recalled his cannibal words; "I was to make delicious soup out of your cheeks for my supper...", she passed out instantly.
"Thanks to the heavens," mentally, he gladly said, happy that she wasn't gonna give him a hard time in what he was about to start doing.
It wasn't to take her life as she anxiously was thinking before fainting, rather, this was in line with saving it.
Setting up cotton, nurisng spirit and a pair of scissors on the bed side, he observed her wound clearly and began to dress it carefully, hence he gave Ishtar the required medical attention, skillfully.
And as time went by, two hours later, Ishtar woke up on a heavily bandaged head when she lifted a hand and touched.
Just nearby, on an arm chair, all along the grey bearded man relaxed with eyes on her. He had been looking at her face through out her entire nap, just like a catchy cinema on a wide screen.
"You're wake now?"
His voice startled her. Ishtar pulled her body up to sit up, getting off her back.
"What's your name?" On a frowned face due to her heavily injured head, Ishtar needed to get to know about the stranger's identity.
"Call me Mr. Beard!" He replied, completely confidential.
.... seconds of silence.
"So, Mr. Beard, now that you spared my life, my cheeks didn't make a delicious creamy soup like I thought, have you got something I can chew? My stomach is too empty," Ishtar requested.
"Right behind you," he had already set up a muffins in a tin, on the head side of the bed.
Starving, Ishtar grabbed the tin and filled her mouth greedily, chewing one after the other.
"Are we friends now?" Amidst healing her huge appetite, she started plotting on how to thanking him for his hospitality.
"No!" In a serious voice, he replied.
"Why not yet you've taken good care of me? Are you sparing me for the next winter meal?" "I don't see any animal skins around here like bushmen do _ you may be a bad hunter," In a joking way, she asked teasingly.
Mr. Beard maintained silence, looking at her keenly though.
His silence got her stepping off the bed, "um, I don't remember anything about myself, and I'm scared!" On her feet, she came and stood infront of him, with her tin of muffins.
She turned away from his face and began to loiter around like a tourist in the zoo, touching the tempting gold collections and weapons including crystals in diamonds, with admiring eyes.
"Did you steel these?" She turned her face at him.
Mr. Beard stood up from the arm chair, "How did you end up in the rough river? He dodged her question with a question.
"I don't know," in a free and careless manner, she replied.
"Get out!" He growled angrily.
"What?" Ishtar asked for a pardon, seeming to have not heard him clearly.
"I said get out!" With a rude attitude, he raised his voice at her.
"It's not safe out there!" She timidly stated.
Mr. Beard pulled out a gun, put a bullet in the chamber and placed it on Ishtar's head, "do not force me to blow your brains out!" Angry on the face, on a serious note he pushed her to move.
Outside was still dark and cold when the door was pulled open. He threw her out and got back inside, leaving the door open. In just a couple of seconds he returned with her black dress and threw it at her, "go!"
Memories of the voices of the wild creatures whispered threats which haunted her mind. And now, with each step she took hesitantly, a sob broke free from her lips in the silence of the dark night, too afraid that even the softest whimper would betray her presence.
Mr. Beard had already locked himself back in his home.
Furious winds lashed against the leaves and branches of the thick woods.
Ishtar couldn't stand becoming a meal of one hungry wild creature. In panic, fearfully she turned eyes at the hill house and hurried back to it.
Confoundedly, not knowing what to do next, luckily as her eyes moved around, she saw a dark spot which was right under, where she went and huddled.
Her breath was coming in quick with shallow grasps as her heart pounded. At this moment her face was pale and streaked with tears.
Trembling, Ishtar clutched her knees to her chest, with instincts that danger was nearby.
She pressed her face into her knees, trying to silence herself, too afraid.
Foot steps on the ground heading her way, "Please no!" She whispered to herself.
Tears streamed down her cheek, leaving wet trails on her skin. In that moment, Ishtar felt utterly alone, waiting to face the deadly jaws of a lurking predator as she had it in mind. The tears flowed freely now, a fierce release of terror that stomped her way, as footsteps paused right nearby, and she held her breath, praying the beast doesn't find her.
"How did you end up in a river?" The lurking movements where of Mr. Beard, he asked her once again, "I give you this last chance to tell me!"
"I swear I can't remember anything," Ishtar's cry grew our louder, releasing all the fear she was drowned into, after confirming that it was Mr. Beard, not a predator.
.... "not even my name!" She sighed, whining as though she was facing a fresh heartbreak.