MEETING A STRANGE STRANGER

A full moon in the sky at midnight, within the wilderness in the woods strong winds sighed in the branches of tall trees.

The blazing logs in the fireplace casted a very warm glow around, inside the grey bearded grownup man's shelter, lone in the middle of the woods.

Quietness was the order of the day inside.

On bed, Ishtar's eyes opened up sluggishly. A glucose drip medication had caused her to enter an altered state of consciousness. Suddenly, when her sight fully cleared, guns of different forms and types, swords, daggers and combat outfits, and more of unidentified military equipment well organized hanging on the walls all over the place gave a shocking welcome.

It was a bizarre place that she couldn't figure out. Horrified, Ishtar sat up real quick.

Heart racing fearfully, she turned her eyes on a drip which was supplying glucose in her veins through the left arm and plucked it out instantly. Without caring about the pain due to her absorption in the strange environment in which she found herself, Ishtar jumped off the small one person bed on which she was accommodated.

Looking around anxiously, the entrance was five stairs above, a few metres away on the left _ but closed. She hurried to the stairs and climbed them in a rush to get to the door. She didn't know what was on the other side when she got to the door.

Her curiosity arosed, she grabbed the door handle.

Before she unlocked to push it open, Ishtar drew plenty of air into her lungs and drew it out to relax. Ishtar courageously pushed the door open.

.....

"Goddammit!" To her disappointment, she blurted.

Ishtar couldn't believe her eyes. A dark night with a full moon in the sky outside which was filled with diffrent sounds of wild creatures, wind that sighed in branches of tall trees and the coldness welcomed her.

She found herself in the middle of thick woods and her face twisted nervously.

Worried that something terrible could happen to her, she looked back over her shoulder to see the house from which she was coming from. Ishtar noticed that she was indeed lost.

Behind, instead of a house was an average hill when she turned. She got very horrified, thinking the house had disappeared.

"Ghost house!"

As Ishtar Panics, scooting all over the place in fear, the door which was disguised in green vegetation around the hill opens and here comes out the grownup grey bearded man.

She distanced herself to run, not in position to allow a stranger get any closer to her.

"Who the hell are you?" Horror-struck, Ishtar stood and yelled at him, asking.

Immediately, she looked around and grabbed a wooden rod which was on the ground nearby to defend herself from the stranger.

"Can you reserve your little energy and get back inside?" With a carefree attitude, he asked as he walked towards her.

"Don't dare come near me!" She pointed it in panic, as a weapon of defense.

He stopped moving.

"I was to make a delicious soup out of your soft cheeks for my dinner but I spared you... Now that you're acting so stubborn, you leave me with no choice _ better off I change my mind," the grey bearded grownup man growled, opening his eyes wide at her.

Ishtar's mouth, legs and hands trembled like a building from the blast.

She began to looked at the man as a mythical being in a human form.

"Because am not sure if we shall manage to live peaceful in the same environment," he scared the hell out of her.

"P Please, d don't hurt me!" Ishtar's voice trembled too as she spoke from the side of fear, begging for the safety of her life.

Judging from her facial expression which changed from a nervous twist to extreme fear, the man laughed out loud at her.

As he was still laughing, from the wilderness a loud cry of wolves filled the air. Matters worse, up in the sky was full moon.

"Now choose, you wanna be eaten by those or me?" He left the ball in her coat _ it was her to decide her own path.

Speechless like a mute and trembling like a naked coming from snow, in extreme fear Ishtar dropped the rod. Hesitantly, one step after the other, she walked forward and cross paths him upto through the door, back inside the hill house.

After she had entered, he couldn't resist the smile.

While in the house when he entered, on a gun point he turned immediatedly after locking the door. "you're not going to eat me," Ishtar had a nine millimetre pistol in hands, waiting to pull the trigger to blow off his head.

"Oh, come on _ you need to put that down!" the grey bearded grownup man was seemed so bothered by Ishtar's actions.

"No, you need to answer my questions now!" Ishtar was angry and rude.

"According to how you're holding that gun, I don't think you know how to use it."

"Pow!" Next thing heard was the bullet blast.

Ishtar pulled the trigger.

"I'm may still be weak in the hands with no gun experience, however, I can still point and pull the trigger to shoot. I may have missed on my first round, but I don't know about next round," so serious and confident, Ishtar kept him on a gun point.

"I was kidding out there _ I don't eat people," he told her the truth.

As the saying goes; a thief hates to be stolen, a lier hates being lied to, and now the grey bearded grownup man couldn't take chances infront of a gun. He surrendered his powers to Ishtar.

However, even when he cleared the air, Ishtar was still in doubt.

"How did I end up in this place? I'm sure your life is more precious than all the minerals you have here _ so, don't play games on a gun point!"

"Last thing I knew, your body was on the river when heavens made me your saviour early in the morning. It's you to tell me how you got in those deadly waters," he said.

"River! And you think am going to trust that crap?"

"You don't believe me? Alright. Since when did you start dressing up in men's outfits _ that army shirt on your body belongs here. And that black dress hanging wet over there," Ishtar turned her head and saw it, "yes, that's what belongs to you."

Frowning her face in disbelief, suddenly her poor head pained again from the wound at the back where she was hit with a metal rod to die by a selfish family with poor intentions of retaining her baby.

"If I where you, I would have put my head to rest," he gave her a word of advise.

Ishtar stretch her hand behind and touched the back of her head and when she opened her palm in her face, it carried blood stains.

"What the hell is happening to me? Why am I feeling weak and dizzy now?"