Michael sighed deeply. He sat in front of the small fire he had made with a bowel of stew. He fished in the bowel for a scoop that contained both meat and vegetables. Once he had caught a few pieces, he lifted the spoon too his mouth. He blew a few breaths on it and watched the steam drift up into the night before emptying it into his mouth.
“Ugh…” he sighed once he felt the hot food fall into his stomach.
His gaze shifted from the fire to the two figures that lay on the other side of it. Two small bundles of flesh were curled up under a woollen blanket, hugging each other instinctively.
“What am I going to do with you?”
His eyes returned to the fire once more. They gazed aimlessly at the dancing flames as he mulled over the day’s events. The night was particularly quiet. All the animals and insects of the night were quiet, as if they didn’t wish to disturb the slumber of the two small figures. Only the fire dared break the silence. The wood crackled and the flames licked at the bottom of the small, black, iron pot. Occasionally a branch would collapse into a hole burnt from the material beneath it and send sparks dashing into the night sky to join the stars. The shadows danced on the forest around Michael again.
This time, however, their dance seemed pained. The flames cast their light laboriously onto the forest, and the forest bounced them back painfully. The stars, too, were slowly being dragged across the night sky unwillingly. They even twinkled with sweat as they fought to stay where they were.
Amidst all the toil and burden, the two figures slept blissfully. The world seemed inconsequential to them, like it could wink out of existence without their notice or worry. The elder of the two, the female, seemed to be the most blissful. The younger male occasionally shifted, but she remained as still as a rock, unmoved by the eons and the passage of time and weather.
Michael couldn’t but sigh again as he looked at the two.
“You’re really giving me a headache, don’t you know?”
As he watched the two sleep, he felt his own eyes grow heavy. He removed the pot from the fire and placed it on a small flattened rock nearby. He finished his bowel, and turned in for the night against a nearby tree.
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Sonja’s eyes shot open. She tried to sit upright before she had truly woken up, and found her head shoved against some fabric. Once she shook off the confusion of sleep, she found that she was in a small tent - a sleeper, to be precise. Her eyes searched anxiously for a moment, until they found Direm laying right next to her. He rubbed his eyes and moaned discontently.
“What’s up? Why are you making so much noise?” he asked.
A few moments later, once he too shook off the confusion of sleep, his eyes darted around.
“Where are we? Did that thing catch us?” he spat out the words rapidly.
“Shhh!”
With her hand over Direm’s mouth, Sonja pointed her eyes to the entrance of the tent. Through the small triangle she could see a smouldering fire. A thing trail of smoke rose from the coals. Next to the fire pit was a small black pot, and beyond it – some distance away – was the edge of the forest.
She perked her ears and listened carefully for any sounds. She heard nothing but the chirps of morning birds, and the slight hum of various insects going about their daily lives. After about a minute of listening intently, she lowered her gaze to Direm and slowly removed her hand.
“I don’t know, but no one’s around right now. We should take a look around, carefully.”
She said no more and slowly crawled out of the small sleeper. She made every effort to be as quiet as possible as she moved. Her head poked out of the tent first and she scanned the surroundings quickly before she crawled out entirely. They were in the middle of a small clearing. Behind them was a large tree. Next to it, spanning the gap between it and another tree, was a rope laden with the carcasses of small animals in various stages of drying.
She stood up awkwardly and moved over to the line-up.
“Hoppers, Fire-Calis, Farren...” she couldn’t resist naming the carcasses as she looked them over.
It’d become a habit of hers thanks to her father. He always did exactly that, and mimicking his every move was something she had done almost from birth.
“So that’s what you call them,” a vaguely familiar voice came from behind the two.
The two jumped. Sonja reeled around, pulling Direm behind her in the same motion. Her hair stood on end, her ears stiffened, and her lips curled up into an anxious snarl reflexively. In front of her, about two metres from her, stood a youth probably only a few seasons her senior. A human male. The man was as familiar as his voice.
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After a few seconds of staring at him blankly, the memories of the previous night emerged from the depths of her tense mind.
“You, you’re-“
“The guy from last night, yes,” he said in a tone that sounded slightly off.
Sonja’s instincts told her he was insinuating something other than what his words seemed to mean. The man had a devilish, teasing smile on his face. It vanished after a second or two, however.
“Ah, forget it,” he said, sighing.
Sonja found herself driven to relaxing involuntarily. Her body kept wanting to lower its guard without her permission and she had to put in a conscious effort to remain alert. It was a peculiar feeling. The previous night her guard lowered without her permission due to exhaustion, but she felt well rested now, and yet it still kept fighting her.
‘What’s going on?’ she couldn’t help but ask herself.
“So, young lady. Would you mind telling what two children like you are doing along and exhausted in the middle of the forest?”
Sonja was slightly surprised when she heard the man’s words. ‘A young lady’ he had called her. ‘A young lady!’ Humans never called anyone from her people ‘young ladies’! She had heard the stories from her mother, the tall tales meant to warn her of humans. They treated her kind like slaves, like cattle good for nothing but harvesting for labour, release, and fighters. She had personally seen her father’s parties return short a man or two, and heard tales from the travelling merchants of woman and children kidnapped but mercenaries to be sold at their towns as slaves. She’d even heard, on several occasions, the elder woman in the town whisper anxiously as they worked about some incursion by the humans that was getting uncomfortably close to the village.
And yet, here was this human, calling her a ‘young lady’! What was with that? ‘Young Lady’ was supposedly a way to address someone one respected, someone of the rank of village chief or whatever the human equivalent was. Why was this human youth referring to her like this? Her eyes scanned him from his feet upwards. She took note of the short sword that dangled from his waist, and the small dagger that suck out of his boots. Her eyes stopped when they reached his eyes, however. She was unable to tear hers away from his.
They were dark blue, almost navy. They sparkled like the night sky and shone like azure crystals in the sunlight. Her eyes went blank as she stared at the two jewels embedded in his face.
“Well, are you going to answer my question?” the man asked again.
His voice sounded warm like a summer’s breeze. It had a fragrance like Star Jasmine blooming in spring, and bellowed like a knock on an ancient tree’s trunk. It echoed in her ears, flowed into her mind and tapped her soul, rousing her from her trance.
“Uhm… We were being chased by some… wild animals and got lost,” she answered, carefully.
Direm next to her couldn’t keep up the fight against his body like she could, and had already relaxed. He walked up to the man and poked his stomach.
“Are you a human?” he asked, wide-eyed.
Sonja jumped. How had she not noticed that left her side?
She was about to lunge forward to pull him away when the man gentle lowered himself to his haunches.
“Yes, I am, young man. And what are you?” he asked.
His eyes smiled at Direm, and nearly sent Sonja back into her trance. Her footsteps halted and she was left standing in an awkward position between steps with her hand half outstretched.
“Don’t you know?” Direm asked, half playfully.
“I’m afraid not, young man,” the man answered.
“I’m a Felis, you dumb-dumb!” Direm giggled.
He trotted around, showing off his tail as it danced around behind him. Sonja stood slack-jawed at the scene in front of her. Sure, her brother was a playful boy, and quick to get along with people, but he had grown up with the same stories she had, and should have a trained caution for humans. And yet, there he was, dancing around playfully like a child who’d just made a new friend.
The man smiled as his gaze followed Direm. He watched the kid hop around him once before his case came to rest on Sonja once more. She shivered again under his gaze. It was only when she shivered that she noticed the awkward stance she was in. She blushed from shame and quickly corrected herself.
She couldn’t understand, however, how she had let herself get into such an awkward stance in the first place. Her mother had trained her in the grace and poise a Felis should have, which had heightened her already high natural poise, and her father had also trained her in basic combat, so she should never had let herself get into such an awkward, untenable stance.
The man’s gaze rested on her intensely. She had the feeling of a small kitten being scrutinised by a hawk. She had last felt like that when she was brought in front of the council of elders as a little cub, barely six seasons old. It was exceedingly uncomfortable. The gaze only lasted for a few moments, however, before it softened and his eyes smiled at her. It sent a different shiver down her spine this time.
“So you’re lost, are you?”
“Yes,” she nodded.
“Well, I’m afraid I won’t be of much help to you with regards to finding your way home, since I don’t know the forest at all.”
The man scratched his head with a wry smile on his face.
“But let’s worry about that when we come to it. You guys probably haven’t eaten for some time, so let’s have breakfast first, shall we?”
He walked over to the fire. He tossed several small twigs on it and blew. Once the twigs lit up he added a few larger branches from a pile nearby. All the while Direm was circling around him with large eyes.
Sonja resigned herself to her situation and walked over to join them.
“So, what’s your name?” the man asked when she joined him.
“Sonja,” she answered.
“My name’s Direm!” her brother yelled from the other side of the small fire pit.
“Nice to meet you, Sonja, Direm. You can call me Michael,” he replied.
He added couple of larger stumps to the fire and watched it crackle. When he was certain it had taken he brought over the small pot and placed it over the fire. Soon a delightful odour wafted up from beneath the lid. It drew saliva from the pair, who couldn’t take their eyes off it.
“It’s not much. It’s just a small stew I made last night, but it should fill your stomach and stave off your hunger.”
Direm nodded his head like a bird pecking grains.
Michael handed a bowl with the stew over to the two.
“Sorry, but I only packed one bowl since I wasn’t expecting any guests.”
The pair looked at the food, and Sonja had to swallow frequently to keep herself from showing an unflattering side.
“Well, don’t just stand there, dig in!” Michael laughed and pushed the bowl into her hands before standing up and heading over to the line to inspect the carcasses.
Direm didn’t wait and did exactly that. Sonja could do naught but hold on to the bowl for all she was worth to prevent the contents from flying all over the area.