August and Eli seemed to communicate silently for a moment before Eli sighed, standing up with his soup bowl. "I'll let you tell it how you want to. But she deserves to know." He left the two of them, going to clean up the soup. August watched him leave before rubbing the back of his neck. "Okay. Okay. Okay. So... Aspen. There are groups in our world, okay? There's us - although I don't know if you could call us a group - and the Pillagers. Those are the ones you know, right?"
"Right. And there's other tribes. Ones we've been in contact with. And..." He hesitated before sighing. "I'm not telling this right. Okay. Eli had a family. He had a mom and a dad and a sister, and they taught him how to survive. Okay?"
"At the beginning of all this, that was pretty standard practice. We didn't have neighborhoods or anything. You just were careful and raised your own. I... I didn't have that."
He looked down at his hands, frowning slightly. "I... I was raised to attack, Aspen. I don't know if you know what dogs are, but that's essentially... what I was. My birth was initiated so that my... tribe, I guess you would call it, would have an attack dog. I was trained to fight as soon as I could walk and I was kept in minimal conditions so that I was savage and would attack anyone that got close. I didn't know how to communicate except to receive short commands. I was starved and hit to keep me aggressive and I was ruthless."
He folded his hands tightly and nodded, not looking at her. "I know. I know. But I didn't know what I was doing. It was all I knew, you have to understand that."
She frowned slightly, reaching forward and touching his arm gently. "You're.. You're so good, August. I could never think anything bad of you, despite what your past may be." She looked thoughtful, her eyes scanning his face. "What matters is now."
He looked up at her in surprise, his brow furrowing. There was a pause for a moment before he pulled away slightly. "Aspen, you don't understand. I killed people."
She pulled her hand back calmly, unsure what to say for a moment. "I know," she said quietly. "I know that it happened, but.. that doesn't change my opinion of you."
He looked down for a moment, his brow furrowed, but she would get the impression that her words would make him feel a little better. "Anyway. When Eli was about 12, he heard about this... feral-teenager. Eli, being the guy that he was, ignored his parents warnings and came to find me. The first day he found me, I tried to kill him, but he left me some bread." He paused as if remembering the bread. "It was the first thing I had eaten that week."
"He came back every day, sneaking some food from his house and feeding me. He was kind to me. He..." August laughed slightly, glancing over at Eli's back, where he was cleaning the dishes. "He was the first person I had met who hadn't hit me. Pathetic, isn't it?"
She looked over at Eli as well. "It's not pathetic," she said quietly. "I'm glad you found each other."
He shrugged uncertainly. "He began to teach me how to talk," he continued. "He gave me a name, after the month that we met. He celebrated a day that he now calls my birthday. And one day, he told me about a plan he had. A plan to get me away from my people. He said I could come live with him and I wouldn't have to be so scared anymore."
He hesitated. "It, uh... Sort of. He took my chains off and we walked away together. He took me to his home." He swallowed, obviously uncomfortable. "But his parents started screaming at me, screaming at Eli. They told him that I would bring my people, that they would follow me to the house and kill them all. Eli fought for me and told them that..." He cleared his throat. "That I needed them." There was a small silence before he continued. "And his parents left us. They took his sister and left Eli behind."
