The old man spat the mouthful of grass into my face, which blinded me for a moment and I heard a crunch followed by a odd wrenching feeling in my hand. For a moment I thought he had broken my arm or something, but when the grass fell off my face I saw that the blade of my dagger was missing and chunks of black glass were falling out of the old mans mouth.

He had bitten it? Why? I knew there had to be plenty of Body Cards that would allow someone to eat non organic material, that didn’t mean that they should.

The man started to speak again, but I had no idea what he was saying. There was a chance it was because his mouth was full of obsidian combined with a thick accent, but I wasn’t sure.

Another voice spoke up and I remembered the young man below me. He was looking up with an exasperated look. His mouth wasn’t full so I was more reasonably sure that they were speaking an entirely different language.

I felt something prod my eye patch and I yelped, falling down off the tree. Instantly two Far Away Hands caught me and stopped me from breaking my neck on the ground. The older boy was only a few feet away, hands outstretched as though he was trying to catch me.

When he saw the look on my face he backed up, saying unknown words with his hands raised. I crouched on the ground, smoke rising from my hands as though I was about to throw a wave of fire out. The boy backed up further.

My Smokey Hands were about as powerful as a slight breeze, but they didn’t know that.

The old man landed next to the young man and tilted his head while still chewing on my knife. Then he shrugged, turned away and leap onto a tree and hugged it with both his arms and legs while rubbing his cheek on it.

The twentyish year old on the other hand sat down, his hands still in the air. He said some more words, but then stopped as he seemed to notice that I didn’t understand a single word. So he slowly lowered his hands then began to make complex motions with them. I actually recognized a few of them. It was Toke, a silent language using hand signs to communicate.

When our tribe would trade or communicate with other tribes we would sometimes use it because our words were not all the same so using Toke we could talk to one another more easily. It was also very helpful when merchant caravans from far away Safe Zones would travel by.

I knew a decent amount, but didn’t have much practical experience actually using it. There was also every chance that there were differences between the Toke I knew and what this older boy did. I let the smoke disappear from my hands and slowly brought them in front of me as I tried to sus out what the boy was saying while still keeping an eye on both of them. Wait maybe there were more and this boy was just keeping me distracted.

I looked around suddenly and placed my back to a tree. It was only when I didn’t see any movement in the woods that I looked back to the older boy, who looked at me with a awkward grin. He signed a few more thing’s but was moving a bit too fast so I did a slow sign back.

Are you ok? He signed.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

I looked down at myself, seeing my shredded clothing with my singular remaining eye. I was wearing nothing but furs of small animals because I was unable to kill anything larger. My shirt had been torn after I had to jump off a cliff face to escape a green jungle cat and there was a hole in my left makeshift shoe. Little scrapes and bruises covered my body along with a few scars I had gained mainly from my initial days chasing the Prince six months ago.

I’m doing great.

He tilted his head disbelieving at that and mumbled a few words.

Do you devour some food?

I was guessing he meant need or want.

I didn’t respond for several moments and his mouth thinned.

Trust is not free, I know. My calling is —

His next few words were unknown to me, and he noticed so instead he spoke them.

“Gero Fing,” he said while pointing to his face then following with the sign for two and words.

Then he pointed to the old man who was now sniffing the grass nearby.

“Jaharv Elan.”

Their names then, or perhaps titles. I was going to assume names.

“Luxury,” I replied pointing to my face.

My voice sounded odd, it was the loudest I had spoken in months.

I signed back to help explain with the signs for trade, gemstones and spices. Like luxury goods.

He scratched his chin then pulled out a small metal container and opened it to reveal some powdered spice and held it out as if to offer it. I shrugged and replied with what he had used for calling which I guess meant name to him.

“Luxury, or Lux.”

The older boy, Gero, seemed to get it and nodded.

Good, we were finally getting somewhere.

—

It took a while but eventually Gero was able to help the young girl properly. He gave her some food and spare clothing of his, it was way too big for the child but it was better than the rags she had been wearing before, a thing that surprised him was that despite that bad state her clothing and body were in she was completely clean.

She had looked like she wanted to give things in return, so she had some experience trading, but it was obvious that she had little of value. He was happy that she didn’t do something stupid like try to give him one of her Cards.

When asked if she would like to come with them back to the Safe Zone she had hesitated. She had told him that she was from the other side of the world and had no one else with her. So she must have had a mixture of wanting stable safety and not trusting all the strangers with no familiar adults around.

In the end Gero had agreed that him and his master would circle back through this area of the Labyrinth when they returned to the city and if she wished to come then she would be welcome to. A part of him wanted to just ask his master to forcefully bring her along. No twelve year old girl should be alone in the Labyrinth to defend for themselves, but his master had let him take complete control of the situation and just studied the plants nearby.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t just head back now and bring her along?” Gero asked his master.

“It has been six months since The Shuffling boyo, if she was incapable of taking care of herself in the Labyrinth then she would have long ago died. She will be more comfortable with coming to the city if it is of her own volition. If we forcefully take her then it is likely she will just run off and despite the city being called a Safe Zone there are plenty of dangers within. The best way to build trust is to let her make her own decisions, besides I don’t really want to take care of another brat so hopefully she will decline.”

He said that last part with a wide smile.

“That’s terrible.”

“Meh.”