Chapter 148 - GONE

"I'll call a cook to prepare you dinner, your favorites, you grew thin! Wait here… Baba will fatten you again." Datu Pita said in a hurry and stood up to run out from the room. 

As soon as he left Lapil sat in front of her. "I've been thinking for some time Yanarym… what happened to you that night?" He asked in a grim tone. 

"You know Maki, right?" She said and Lapil nodded, "He was about to deliver my drunken state to death. But I stalled him, and as a result, something happened to us." She added, Lapil did not comment but his brows furrowed. 

"He works for Tala, so, when I woke up I ran away from him assuming that he would still kill me. Then, I met Achis in the woods. He gave me shelter, food, and clothes. In return, I paid him using my body because I have nothing else to give him."

"You… paid him with your body?" Lapil muttered in a blank tone and Yanarym sighed as a response. "Why did you not just leave him? You were his slave in bed?" He hissed and couldn't accept the fact.

"Where would I go? Lapil, I have nowhere to run. I just left him now because I heard about his conspiracy with Tala to kill my Baba! I can not let that happen!" She yelled at him as tears swelled in her eyes, "Do you think I want that?! No!... but I am weak… I can't fight Tala… " She sobs and cries in her palm. 

Lapil softens his expression hearing her being in pain. He bends towards her and embraces her body and bestows kisses on her head. "I'll protect you from now on." Just as he thought, she is his weakness. Her tears of sorrow, like knives, pierce his heart he thought that was a stone. "Don't you worry about a from now on." 

"Datu Achis---!"

"Have you found her?"

"We have not Datu… " Achis slammed the table at his front which had broken itself into two. 

Two days had passed since Yanarym had left him. He was still staying at the Rajah's puod wishing that she was just around here. But they found no trace of her. Boats from the shore had left one by one and he had no idea where she went or where she ran off to. 

He was losing his sanity as days went by, he knew it, she would leave him, just like that. And she left. 

He washed his face with his palm as he tried to stay reasonable to make decisions. But his judgment was clouded by madness. If he did not ravage her if he was good to her, would she run away? He doesn't find any reason for her to run away except the fact he forced her on the bed. 

He was looking for clues, who she ran off with. He thought it was one of Tala's people but everyone was still on the island. When he thought that it was Lapil, the son of Rajah, the news came in that he left to begin his next venture on raiding banwas, he thought about the other Datus' who took interest in her but his investigation has put another dead end as she was not there too. He tried looking for that man who sneaked into her room and had a coupling with her but he couldn't find any clues. 

Where could she go? It's not like she could live on her own! She's like a child, she could not be left out alone. 

"Get the boats ready, we are getting back to our banwa." He ordered, there's a possibility that she was back to her father's land, but he doubts. She wouldn't go back there, she told him herself she would not go back until she had learned the swordsmanship he was teaching her. But if she did… 

She might get back home with that man she was with that night. He remembered that she had ensured that man that she would return home. And her home is nowhere than Datu Pita's balay.

Maki was at the corner of the room glaring in Lapil's direction. When he heard the news that Datu Achis' bride was missing. He immediately looked for a reason to get back to the banwa. As he thought, he found the Bai on Datu Pita's balay hiding from Datu Achis. 

He was delighted that she chose to come home but was also furious seeing Lapil hiding with her. And this son of Rajah was so intimate with the Bai, not even minding the presence of Datu Pita. 

"I'm glad that you were the one who found Yanar, Lapil." Datu Pita said happily, these days he had regained his healthy and fierce composure but he was livelier than usual. 

"Me, too. Datu," Lapil answered, hugging Yanarym's waist with one hand. "And I was hoping to marry Yanar as soon as possible." Datu Pita laughed loudly as he saw his young self who was deeply in love with Ara. He also made the same statement to Ara's guardian with the same resolve in his eyes. 

"My daughter just came home and you will take her away? That's not fair, you should wait for another year." He taunted and laughed loudly again. 

Yanarym was silently listening, not even processing what they were talking about, enjoying her treats that were served on the table. She couldn't believe that halo-halo had already existed in this era. In this hot weather, she's enjoying every scoop of ice. 

"Another year… is too long," Lapil replied to Datu Pita, which made Datu pause for a moment. 

"It's just a year." 

"No, a year is too long." He insisted, Datu Pita was bewildered and laughed again. Yanarym finished her final scoop and diverted her eyes to the cups of her father and Lapil that were unmoved and were starting to melt. 

She didn't even bother to bat an eye to Maki since she knew that he wouldn't give her his share.