When they left (7)

It takes them forever to finish! I think The general added extra exercises too because I hear the men talking about it. The men are all panting and sweating and It feels like it's been an hour or two. The general seems calmer at the end, while I'm as pissed as ever.

"C'mon," the general signals us to follow him as he walks into his tent. The soldiers' tent smells horrible, it smells like body odor, blood, and puke. My dad sits in the corner of the tent watching us as we make our way through the tent. There's a room separated with curtains with a large box.

"I need four meals."

"Four? We need five." I say. "Why?" he challenges. "Logan is staying in our tent."

"Logen?" he thinks about it. "The youngster?" He asks. "Yeah."

"If he wishes to eat he can come to his own tent."

"He's staying with us. He shouldn't be with you and your men." I say. "He Is part of my men."

"five meals." Graham says walking closer. Jaxon also steps forward and Jordan glares at him. I can see the general getting nervous but he doesn't show it, I just notice a few small things like how he puts his hands behind his back to fidget with them. And how his eyes dart around to the exit and to his man. "Fine, but I want him back with us soon."

I ignore him and walk out into the fresh air which smells wonderful. I didn't realize the shallow breaths I'd been taking. If I have a say in it, that boy will near go back to him. I don't need the general making the boy into bait for Cora.

I hear Jaxon run up behind me. "I wanna go fishing tonight."

"But we have food." I say, confused. "I can't stand it here, I just wanna be alone for a while, besides, we can get supplies from the cave."

I consider my options. I would love to have alone time with Jaxon like before. I also love the lake, we could get extra food and water for our tent too. "Okay, I'll get ready and tell Graham we'll be gone for the day." I say. He nods and walks into the tent. I walk in a different direction where Graham is standing.

"Hey," he says. "Hi," I reply. We sit there for a second. I'm struggling to think of a way to tell him we're leaving him without sounding like an asshole. "We um, Jaxon and I were gonna leave for a while."

"Great, I'll get my stuff!" Graham says. I grab his arm. "Actually, just Jaxon and I are going." I say. "Oh. well then- have fun. When will you be back?" he says, disappointed. I hold my breath. "It'll probably be dark." I say. He looks at me. "Did you already forget about last night? When we all almost died and a fourth of the men did die?"

"No, I- I remember. I just, um- I just, think we should go." I say. Talking to Graham is making me see that this might not be the best decision but I'd also like to get away for a while. "Let me go. I can help!" He says. I back away. "I'm sorry. It's just us. I have to get my things together."

I go into my tent to get my bag together. So much for trying to be nice about it, I think. I put willow in the bag and he let out a long meow. Jaxon has the bow and arrows this time and I put the knife in it's leather pouch under my belt.

Jaxon and I walk out of the tent together and into the woods. As much as I hate to admit it, the woods have always been home, or at least since I ditched them. Now, the woods are more of my home than ever because I can't go back to the village.

"So, how are you doing?" Jaxon asks, as we walk through the woods as quietly as possible. "Fine. Why?"

"Well you know, typically when someone's home is destroyed they're not 'fine' and nearly everyone died too." He says. "Honestly, I wish everyone died. I might just hate my dad more than anyone right now, although, Aron's up there too."

Jaxon forces a smile. "What happened with your dad anyways?"

"He- well, he left me. Before that he abused my mother. Maybe if he visited it's be better, or even tried to apologize, but he didn't. My father left me and didn't look back. There's nothing he can do to really fix that."

"Oh. maybe things will eventually turn around with you two."

"We're close already! We'll grab some fish, water, and then head to our old home."

We walk a while more before entering a large clearing with the huge beautiful lake. I forgot how beautiful it was. You can see the reflection of the night sky on the lake. This is where Jaxon and I shared our first kiss.

Jaxon stares at the lake in awe too. "They didn't have this at the village." Jaxon says. "No, they certainly didn't."

We walk over to the lake. "We don't have spears." I say, laughing at myself for being so underprepared. We don't even have any here. Jaxon pulls out a sharpened stick. "Unfortunately, it had to be short enough to fit in my bag, but it's better than nothing."

I smile. "Yeah."

Jaxon spends a while trying to get fish and he gets a couple but not much. I admire the fishes' pretty scales, which I'm still not used to. I love looking at the fish. The first time I saw the fish they seemed amazing, even though I'm used to them now, they're still amazing.

I let Willow crawl out of my bag and he goes to the shallow part to catch the small fish. We all know this place and it's almost like the first time.

"The sun's setting, we should head to the cave, we might have to stay there." he says. I nod. I'm a little disappointed to leave but I know I must.

After walking for a while, we finally approach the cave. Everything is so familiar, the path, the lake, the cave. The cave has a large leaf in front of the entrance but it now has holes with half of it missing and looks like someone set it on fire.

I hear a noise from in the cave. I look at Jaxon. He looks back. We both know what to do. Jaxon slowly moves the leaf aside but jumps in quickly so he can't get surprised. I quickly run in after him. There's a boy who looks maybe twelve holding one of our old spears.

"Stay back!" he screams. The boy has short dark brown hair and green eyes. Jaxon keeps his bow handy but lowers it. "Woah, we aren't gonna hurt you." Jaxon says. "Shut up! Don't say a word! I know your tricks, monster!"

"Monster?" Jaxon asks and looks at me and we both immediately understand. "Oh, I see, she's already gotten to you huh?"

"You can drop the act, I already know you work for her, it doesn't matter how livly or real you look this time you aren't fooling me again!"

Jaxon nears. "S-stay away! Don't come closer, I-I won't hesitate!"

"Listen, there are more of us nearby, we have an entire camp full of people, we can take you there but you need to calm down and drop the weapon." I say. "No! I'm not so stupid! I'll stab you. I will!"

Jaxon's right in front of him now. The boy stabs at Jaxon but Jaxon grabs the spear and pulls it from the boy's shaky hands. The boy tries to run through the door but doesn't make it before I pin him. I'm on my knees over him holding his arms down as tries to kick.

"We're not here to hurt you! We just wanna help, calm down!" I yell. He continues to kick. "I won't fall for your tricks again, I won't!"

"Listen! We are from the Amastry Village, we might be the only survivors you need to trust us!"

He finally stops squirming. "The Amastry village?" He asks, and starts laughing. "Oh, god! She doesn't even know the village's name, if that's not sad I don't know what is! The village is Toivo Village, idiot! Now get it over with. kill me!"

"Dude, you've gotta get it through your thick skull that we're on your side." Jaxon steps in. "And if you go out there without us, you'll die."

I get off the boy finally. "We are from the Amastry Village, and there might be one other one. If you wanna leave and die, be my guest." I stand and signal to the exit. The boy looks at me, then the exit, then me again. Finally, the boy stands slowly. He stares at the exit still.

"Has she reached your village yet?" he asks, hesitantly. "Unfortunately. But many of us survived, you can join us and the other survivors in the morning if you'd like. "Morning?! You mean I'm gonna have to stay another night out here? I can't do that. They keep coming to the cave, standing outside it staring at me. Waiting. I'm not going to stay."

Jaxon and I look at each other. "Okay, but know, it's gonna be dangerous. And we'll have to get our things from here."

"These are… yours?" the boy asks. "Yeah, from last time."

"Last time?! Wow! How'd you make it out?" He asks, excited. Jaxon laughs. "I'm sure we can tell you later."

We grab a set of weapons for myself, Graham, and Jaxon. We also get three daggers for Graham, this boy, and Logan. "Here." I hand the boy a dagger. "What's your name by the way?" Graham asks.

"Oh! Well, technically it's Everette but mostly people call me Reece!"

"Okay Reece, let's get some stuff and head home."