Melanie's Adventures

"Whoa, that was intense", Melanie thought to herself as she walked away.

Not far from the quarters, Melanie encountered a familiar face. A mean and rude face and for the record she wasn't the only one who manages to forfeit their daily schedules.

"What are you doing here?", Afia .A. asked forgetting that she herself was also supposed to be somewhere else.

"Looking for someone. You?", Melanie answered carefully making sure not to activate the volcano.

"Really, we have a war and all you care about is looking for your boyfriend. God knows if this war can be won."

"I didn't say boyfriend, I said someone."

"Melanie. Look me in the eye and tell me that I'm lying"

"Alright", since Afia .A. knew, she might as well shoot her shot, "Well, do you by chance no any one with the name, Pete."

"There's no one with that name.", .A. replied quite sure of herself.

"How do you know that?", Melanie asked after sending the severity of the situation.

"I was part of the processing committee. I may not remember all the names but I would recognize a name as eccentric as 'Pete', alright?"

"No way, you don't know that"

"Gosh why am I even speaking to you.", Afia .A. murmured under her breath, "Listen, you asked me a question and I answered. You can believe all you want for all I care."

Afia .A. resumed the direction she was heading to and Melanie decided to tag along as returning back would attract penalty. She decided to brace herself, for the one she was walking with was a walking verbal bombshell.

"So where are you going?", Melanie inquired.

"I'm going to the place called NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. See, if you're going to tag along then ask questions worth answering or shut up."

Melanie was at a loss for words so she followed.A. around like a newly hatched duckling. They walked through the forest that surrounded the barracks and Melanie realized that .A. was only rude because almost everything sounded frustratingly stupid to her, in order words, she was too smart for her own good. Anything illogical annoyed her to the core.

Afia .A. knew a lot. No doubt about it. She knew the edible leaves, fruits, roots, bark and flower. She knew various poisonous parts of almost every catalogued plant and how to extract them. Simply put, she was a forest expert.

As they walked further towards the barracks' borders where Afia .A. stopped in her tracks. Melanie stopped too and drew closer to her companion. What if it was a snake or something?

"Those branches aren't supposed to be here", .A. pointed to some branches leaning over the fence.

"Whew", Melanie sighed, "I almost thought it was a snake."

"It's worse. Take a close look at them"

After a long hard stare, Melanie revealed she wasn't getting the point. Afia .A. took a deep breath and started,

"From the look of the leaves they are from most of the trees here but we haven't had a rainstorm in a while so why are these huge branches on the floor and even more, why are they grouped together at one place?".

"I still don't get it. They're just branches."

At this point .A. had had enough. She emoted how frustrated she was getting, walked over and pulled away all the branches on the fence. Just immediately she turned and faced Melanie like a child that has figured how to open a can of sweet milk.

"What?", Melanie still wasn't seeing anything .

"Shut up and come over", Afia .A. yelled back.

Melanie was left speechless. Even she understood the implications of a cut barbed fence. It was cut large enough for a grown man to fit through.

"What are we going to do?", Melanie asked in desperation.