He hugged her back. "Looking for you.. What happened?" *** She watched him for a moment, frowning slightly.
She blew the hair out of her face dramatically. "I got in some trouble. They were up all night worrying about me." * * * He didn't look back. His back was hunched as he stared into the fire, his green eyes clear but tired. His body, although still young, seemed sharp and dangerous, His hands were folded and the flames cast shadows onto his face.
His frown deepened. "I was worried this would happen." *** She squinted, but turned away, shutting her eyes.
"Don't worry," she said lightheartedly. "They don't know about you, so they just think that I fell asleep somewhere."
-18- Dahlia was asleep on a ledge one sunny day, stretched out in the light coming in through the window. She was down in the kitchen, the humans gone for the day. *** Victor flayed a strip off the dagger he was carving, squinting as the dust swirled in the sun.
Osiris was quiet. He was watching over Dahlia's tribe with a heavy frown. His shoulders sagged as he started towards it, adjusting his bag. *** Nascha was outdoors, her eyes sharp. She traversed through the grass, approaching a thorny blackberry bush.
The tribe was in the nooks and crannies of the walls. The place he was looking to infiltrate was a cellar in the floor; it contained many of their reserves for the winter months. Getting in was not difficult; Hyndesse house clearly was not expecting any intrusions. The cellar was quiet and musty, but there were shelves of cured food and jars of jams and bottled drinks. *** The movement on the floor of the forest caught his eye and Victor leaned forward, watching curiously.
Osiris felt terrible about this. He decided to take only a minimal amount of a few jars, starting to creep out. *** She peered at the thorns, squinting at the blackberries just out of reach. She reached into her bag, pulling out a hook attached to a rope. She swung it in her hands, before it swung sharply at a branch, cutting from the stem. The berry fell, and she went to retrieve it.
The jars clinked in his bag as he turned to leave. A woman was standing there, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Who are you?” *** He laughed under his breath, tugging one of the berries off the stem. After weighing it in his hand, he tossed it in her direction, expecting a satisfying splat.
His eyes widened and he took a small step back, clearly unsure what to say. "I.." *** Nascha looked up quickly, her eyes sharp. She dodged, a glare sneaking up to where it came from.
Her eyes glinted and she stepped forward. “Unlucky, thief,” she commented slowly, walking towards him, careful to keep the exit blocked. “Surrender.” *** Bright green eyes looked down at her, his gaze still as alert as ever. Stubble faded across his jaw and he gave her a small smirk. “Nice dodge.”
He frowned, looking down before setting his bag on the ground, feeling his heartbeat quicken. "Okay.." *** Her eyes narrowed. "You." She clenched the blade in her hand. "What do you want?"
She didn’t even look at the bag, pulling a thing of twine from her belt. “Put your hands behind your back,” she said, her dark eyes sharp and angry. “Put your hands behind your back and turn around.” *** He looked surprised at her hostility, tilting his head. “A conversation, mostly, Nascha, but you don’t seem interested in providing it.”
