Chapter 4 Part 1 - In Which Zane-Ashburn Attempts To Comfort His Brother
Zane-Ashburn looked up as Milieta came out from the bushes, looking frazzled and embarrassed. He stood up and walked over to her.
"You alright, Milly?" he asked, his voice soft.
"Yeah," She replied, simply and one noted.
"Is he still in there?" He asked. She nodded and he walked into the bushes where he found his brother, fingers to his temples and red-faced.
"Oh? where art thou coolness, oh small brother?" Zane-Ashburn teased, trying to lighten the mood, realizing quickly that this was not the time. Gill looked up at Zane-Ashburn and glared daggers into his soul.
"What happened?" Zane-Ashburn asked. Even though he spent all his time in the library and Gill, outdoors, they never kept secrets from each other, except the games. They were tightly knit. Their age gap, though not very big, meant nothing. One could never survive in the world without the other as Gill had street smarts, people skills, and knew practically every inch of the forest, and Zane-Ashburn had his book smarts, endless facts, wisdom beyond his years, and an instinct for self-preservation. Gill would never save his own skin. His friends and family came first.
"She thought I wanted to do...that thing that adults do...with her... but I explained that I just wanted to talk about her penalty for making Anabelle and Connie bleed..." Gill said, his face getting redder, if that was even possible. It sounded like he wanted to say something more, but he trailed off. Zane-Ashburn dismissed this and held out his hand to Gills.
"C'mon. Stand up. It doesn't matter now. You'll both get over it and everything will be normal eventually." Although he had terrible social skills, Zane-Ashburn usually knew what to say to make his siblings feel better. Gill smiled softly at him and grabbed his hand, pulling his brother into a hug.
"Thank you," he said.
"You're welcome," Zane-Ashburn replied, ruffling his little brother's hair.
Suddenly, they heard a twig snap, and both turned their heads towards the forest. They froze and saw a flash of dirty blond hair and heard footsteps running off deeper into the forest.
"What was that?" Zane-Ashburn almost screamed, clearly on edge
"It looked like someone's hair, but they ran away. We should be safe as this is an open clearing. No one can sneak up on us to attack."
"Unnnless they had a long-range weapon like, oh I don't know, a gun or a bow?" Zane-Ashburn deadpanned, not convinced of their safety. Gill rolled his eyes.
"You underestimate the all-powerful game master," He said, clearly talking about himself. Zane-Ashburn rolled his eyes as well and pulled Gill out of the bush office by the ear against Gill's protest
"Who's up for another game?" Zane-Ashburn asked.