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She awoke to find herself lying on her back on a cold hard leaf covered ground with a thin animal skin for a blanket over her. The blanket was kind of itchy as muggy sweat, and parts of the blanket stuck to the bare parts of her skin. It was dark in whatever room she was placed in, and she did not know where she was, or if there were windows, or doors that would allow her to exit the room.
All that she was aware of was her self, she was still in her tattered clothing, and any movement of either leg caused her pain. Tears welled up, and one lone tear rolled down her face out of her left eye. She stifled the whimper that wanted to exit her dry parched lips. Every movement pulled at her stitches and being sun burnt aggravated her wounds.
Alexandra wanted to get up, but it would have caused her too much pain. Even so, she gritted her teeth in anticipation of pain every time before she even began to move. Her only choice was to go back to sleep, and possibly it was because she was drowsy from whatever kind of drug they gave her to sleep. Alexandra was woken up by voices outside of the room. She opened her eyes and closed them again because of the bright morning sun shining through the animal skin walls.
Slowly squinting her eyes open she looked around to see her surroundings in the light of day. The walls, and ceiling were of a rain proof canvas that looked to be made from animal skins patched together. This meant that she had to be in some sort of a tent. Forcing herself to her feet she walked slowly to the door flap. Lifting the flap she could see many different types of trees that she had never seen before. It frightened her that she could not see much beyond the canopy of trees. A strange thing these people that they lived on the ground in a forested area, it was even stranger that they ate people.
“You are finally up,” The man that saved her from the shark said as he walked in after opening a tent flap still not wearing anything but the leather loin cloth, “It is good to see that your legs are strong enough to stand with the two crutches I left for you.
“For the last eight months it has been rough with those legs of yours. We thought that you would lose your legs anytime, which meant that we were prepared to cut them off and eat them before they were too much worse for wear.
“You were only awake long enough for us to feed you broth,” He stopped looking at Alexandra’s legs long enough to say more.
“Before you begin eating, and living among the rest of the tribe there are many things that you will have to understand in order for you to be able to be a part of our society. The first of those things is our native language that is preferred over the dialect that I am addressing you in right now. Let me check your wounds to see if they have healed sufficiently to begin your training.” He said other things, but she could not quite make out everything that he mentioned due to not understanding his language fully.
She caught words like ‘flesh eater’ or ‘rules’, but all of those were out of context, and she was not sure if it meant that they were cannibals, or not. Or were talking about themselves being vegetarians, and that she was to eat what they ate. Eight months was not a long time to rest for a Dochani. She had only seen this man out of the whole cannibal tribe.
He checked her wounds like a father would have believing her to be younger than she really was. Alexandra wondered if Kevlin, Siren, and Kalima were still alive in the Shizamid kingdom. The man from the tribe gave her an okay for her condition, meaning she was healed enough to start training. Whatever training he was talking about she did not know. Alexandra made a vow to go to the Shizamid kingdom, wherever it was, to see if her friends had made it in hopes of being reunited with them.