"Where are you going to live?"
Zelda asked spontaneously.
Usher stopped.
"What?"
He asked, not hearing her clearly due to their distance apart.
"I said, where are you going to stay, you don't have a home"
Zelda replied.
Usher stood still for a while being mute.
Zelda kept patiently waiting for him to respond.
When he didn't after a time, she spoke.
"I could at least offer you a place to sleep".
Usher looked up towards the sky.
The weather wasn't encouraging and he had nowhere to stay.
He had slept in the bushes the night before and hadn't eaten anything aside from fruits picked from forest trees since he fled from the hospital.
After all considerations, he figured that this was the offer of a lifetime for him.
But he didn't want to outrightly accept it so he kept silent still.
Zelda sensed the reason for his delay and didn't wait for him to give a response.
She walked to where he was and gently rested her right palm on his back.
Her feminine nature overtook her.
"I know you must have a hard history.
It's okay if you don't want to talk about it.
I understand".
She said in a soft voice.
"Let me look after you, I promise I won't get killed.
You must be hungry, come along, there's plenty of food inside".
Usher maintained his expressionless face.
She ignored his lack of display of emotion and held him by his wrist, pulling him softly to walk with her.
Usher was getting soothing sensations from the gentle grip of her small, soft palms wrapping his wrist.
It was sensational.
He followed obediently as she walked slowly holding his hand as though that of a baby while she went in the direction of the front door of the house.
He began to soften unconsciously as the compassionate treatment given to him by this angel in human form sent its irresistible aura all around his atmosphere, electric signals spontaneously erupting from her soft grip on his hands and spreading throughout his whole body.
As Zelda led him on, she began to worry a bit about what her dad might think about her decision of bringing Usher in.
He was not an unkind man, yes, but this was a situation that would put them all in great danger.
He was most likely not to consent to it.
She kept on thinking.
She considered hiding him in her custody without the knowledge of her father.
She waved off the thought immediately, realizing the consequence that would follow If her dad eventually found out about it.
A great dilemma engulfed her mind as she opened the front door to the house and led Usher in.
When they were inside, she let go of his hand.
"Sit now.
I'll serve you.
My dad won't be back till evening so we still have some time to discuss how we'll go about keeping you around. I'll be back in a jiffy".
She said and brushed aside the curtain covering the passageway, walking further into the house.
Usher observed the interior of the house.
It was quite well furnished with quality furniture and a most comfortable couch.
Two large mirrors hung on the wall east of the parlor, each mirror positioned towards the two ends of the wall.
A beautiful chandelier hung from the white-coated ceiling gracefully illuminated the room.
There was a beautiful painting of a lady hanging on the wall at the other end of the room.
The room blossomed in its exquisite fragrance that smelt like lavender flavor.
In all, it was quite a proper place.
After about two minutes, Zelda walked in with a tray of steaming pancakes and hot tea.
The aroma of the dish mercilessly filled the room's atmosphere as it steamed away while she walked towards Usher with the tray in her hand.
"I took the liberty of putting 3 cubes of sugar in your tea because that's how we do it here, I don't know if that's okay with you?"
She rhetorically said.
She then dropped the tray on a table close by and lifted the table, taking it and placing it gently in front of Usher.
"Come on now, enjoy your meal.
I'll go attend to other things". Zelda said as started walking back towards the curtain to go inside.
As she was leaving they made eye contact for some seconds.
"You're welcome".
Zelda said as she interpreted the eye contact as a thank you and walked behind the curtains to go inside.
Usher then turned to the meal.
It was looking bogus and tempting and the aroma was inviting.
He dug in immediately.
As he ate he began to reminisce on all the events that led to his coming here as he had never been to the outer world doing anything other than a mission.
He thought about the day his squad was attacked outside the walls when they were returning from their mission.
He thought about his stay in the prison and was for a second grateful for where he now was.
The memory of the ugly prison food made the meal before him taste like manna that had fallen from heaven.
He thought about his journey to the abyss, how he managed to barely escape death even though at the moment, the death he escaped was now looking for him.
Ten minutes passed and he was thinking about how to proceed from this point when he finally finished the food.
"You can come out now, I know you've been standing behind the curtain watching me eat the whole time".
Usher said.
"Rats!
I've been caught!
How did he know?!"
Zelda thought as she stepped backward swiftly closing the small opening space she had created by shifting the curtain to watch Usher from behind it.
She never actually went to attend other things but wittily stood behind the curtain admiring Usher as he ate in what she thought was a cute way'.
When she saw that she was caught she quickly went back inside and was making some random noises with dishes and cutleries to insinuate that she was inside even though she knew he had caught her already.
She wasn't going to accept defeat that easily.
She eventually went back into the parlor.
"Oh, you're done"
she said.
"How was it?
Nice right?
I know I'm one heck of a good cook".
She said looking at him with flirting eyes.
He ignored her proceedings.
Just then a sound was heard outside.
'VROOOOOMM'.
The sound of her father's engine approaching from a distance...