Isha made her way happily home. Dancing a little on the way. She just couldn’t wait to tell her older sister Hagar, that she had gotten an A in math. She would be so proud of her.
She opened the door to the house and stepped in,
«Hagar?» looking slowly around, «Hagar, you there?»
Her younger brother Abid on five, quickly made his way down the stairs from the playroom, to give her a hug.
«Abid loves Isha.» he said. Looking up at her with his cute smile.
Isha gently stroke him over the head,
«You seen Hagar, Abid?» she asked, but he shaked his head,
«No…» before he began looking around, «Hagar? Hagar where are you?» he turned to Isha with a grin, «Maybe she is hiding?»
Isha nodded,
«But I didn’t see her on school today…»
Abid opened a closet,
«Hagar?» stuck his head inside and felt with his hands through the clothes before he stepped back and closed it again, «Not there.»
He looked behind a curtain and shaked his head,
«Not there either.» he turned around and around, shouting, «Hagar, come out with a boo!»
But it was all silent. No answer. Nothing at all.
«Hagar…» Abid said unpatient, «This isn’t funny.. come on out, please… come out now…»
Isha scratched her chinn,
«I’m not sure she’s even here, brother…»
«But… where can she be, then?»
«Maybe outside?»
«You will not find her.» it came from father, Sofar, who stepped out of the kitchen where he had been reading the newspaper untill now,
«Hagar is gone. She is not coming back.»
Isha looked back at him in confusion,
«What do you mean she is gone? She has to be here somewhere.»
«No…» he turned around and walked back in the kitchen. Isha followed him,
«Please tell me father. What is going on?»
«Pirates…»
Abid grabbed her arm, looking questingly up at her,
«Isha?»
«Not now, Abid.»
But he burried his face in her clothes, clinging to her as she walked inside the kitchen, where their father sat down at the table. She placed her arm around him, as she stared forward at father Sofar.
«What had Hagar to do with the pirates, dad?» she carefully asked, unsure of the answer she would get. And when he sighed slowly, she began to worry.
What had happened to Hagar?
When her father didn’t give any answer quickly, she decided to ask him straight out,
«Father. Tell me everything what has happened to Hagar. Is she okay?»
Sofar reach his hand to a little pile of credits who lay there on the table,
«At least we have money for one more month.» slowly raising up.
Isha’s eyes turned wide,
«Father… what have…»
He walked slowly to her side, laying her hand on her shoulder,
«Listen to me Isha. These are poor times, that’s why I need your help.»
Tears where beginning to fill the young teenagers eyes, and it was as if all her sucess in school, just faded away. Her A in math, just didn’t seem to matter now. And nobody had asked her of the grades anyway.
«Go, Isha.» Sofar said, looking her deep into the eyes, «Bring your sister back.» he reached down and picked up Abid, «Go now, before it becomes dark.»
Isha took a few steps back, a tear leaving her eye,
«You realy exept me to…»
«I believe in you, Isha. You can do this. Now go.»
Isha looked at the money at the table, looked at little Abid in her fathers arm, and then she turned around and ran. Ran out of the house. Leaving the door wide-open.
She ran over the cornfields, seeing a beatiful sunset, as the sun was on it’s way down.
She knew the way to the pirate-camp, as she and Hagar used to go and spy on them, from time to time. Finding out what they where doing. But she had never been inside the building. Never.
As she reached the gateway, she stopped running, and put her hood up over her head. Walking slowly up to the pirate-guards who were standing there with their weapons.
As they saw her, they pointed their guns at her,
«Who’s there?»
Isha reached out through the force, wawing her hand at them,
«You will let me inside.» she said. Remaining calm and focused.
The guards silently looked at each other before turning their gaze at her again,
«We… we will let you inside.» they said, in a hypnotised tone, before opening the gateway.
Isha hurriedly walked through. Her heart beating in her chest. She couldn’t quite believe that she just had managed to pull a mind-trick on them.
Maybe it was just luck, or that she was so worried for her sister, that it just happened.
Or maybe… No… she didn’t want to think about it. Her only goal, and task at hand now, was to find her sister, and get her out of here alive. And she should not give up before they both were safe at home. Cost what it may.
She reached the building and the doors opened for her. But as she stepped inside, they immediately closed, with a thud. And she found herself standing in the middle of a drinking-team.
She only managed to take a few steps forward, before the pirate-leader, Hondo Ohnaka, turned to face her,
Isha Ravkinski. Did you realy think you could pull a mind-trick on the guards?» he laughed mockingly before raising up, «I heard everything about it.»
Isha looked panickly around her, realising that she had been walking straight into a trap.