The Sanctuary Side-Story (4/17)

I had to make a decision as quickly as possible.

If that food had been tampered with, then the speaker would eat it, fall ill, and ruin our chances of a bond.

I looked all around as he rose the food to his mouth. There had to be something I could do...

I watched the man as he continued to laugh, and made up my mind!

I pushed him to the ground while drawing my knife, cutting the strap to his backpack, and stole it from him. He rose his voice but quickly stood silent as the people around us kept him quiet and covered his mouth. After that, I ran over to the group of people Nova was standing by.

"There you are! Hey, Miss, I think you took my pack by accident! I was trying to set up traps for some animals, and it seems that you picked it up!" I shouted out to Nova.

I had to stay unknown to these people, if they knew Nova and I were together, then the bond of trust they were forming would be broken.

"Hey there! My name is Kire. I'm a nomad on this little Isle we have here, and I hunt for my family and me. Some animals take the spoiled food I keep in there and I'm able to track them by following the scent. I'm so sorry our packs got messed up. I believe the food you'd want to try is right here." I told the speaker, handing him a package of cooked meat wrapped in twine.

"Oh... so it's some sort of mix-up. Good thing you caught us. Then, this is okay?" The speaker asked me.

"That's right. As I said, I'm sorry for the mix-up... now that I have my pack, I'll be on my way now." I said. I took the pack of tampered food and walked back into the forest, acting like I was running off from the main group.

"What was that, Kire? Why did you take that food?" One of the other people asked me. I pointed to the weird man and rose the food up to their noses.

"It's been tampered with. Maybe even poisoned. I'm not sure how you got your hands on that poison, but you'll have a lot to explain when we get back to base." I told the weird man.

"No unfiltered group should ever put their hands on Nova. I will not let them join our group!" He said. He rose his voice at the end of his sentence and tried to run out of the forest.

Luckily, one of the other people I was with caught onto his tactic and grabbed onto him, pinning him to the ground and covering his mouth.

"Don't worry, it just feels like you can't breathe right now. You will not ruin our chances at a future just because you're obsessed with a teenage girl." He said. He put his arm around the weird guy's neck, and slowly choked him out until he passed out.

I refocused on the speaker and he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the food. The only problem was that I only had enough for him to taste, considering the bulk of the poisoned food meant for these people had been tampered with.

Moving forward, the weird guy couldn't be trusted... but there's also the issue of where he got the poison. I'll have to ask him where he got something like that.

The conversation was going well, and it eventually ended. Nova shook the speaker's hand and held onto a rock in her left hand as she walked back into the forest, just as I did when she was leaving the premises.

"You did the right thing. Carry him home, I'm going to punish him in front of everybody for daring to do something like that." Nova said.

Her lasting smile faded away as soon as she laid her eyes on the weird guy, and with that, we slowly dragged him back home.

"What's that rock for?" I asked Nova.

"Well, he told me that it would be like a key to being able to talk to him. He introduced me to a new word... Insurance, he called it. It's insurance that we would be allies since he didn't have any tools or important items he could give me instead. I accepted it, knowing it would be our only chance at becoming friends." Nova explained.

"Interesting. He said that the food was poisoned. I'm not sure where he got that, but I just needed to tell you." I told Nova.

She nodded as the gate opened and our walk came to an end. There were people waiting all around us, but Nova grabbed the weird guy by the color, pushed her way through the audience, and threw his unconscious body onto the ground.

"Tie him up. I want his arms and legs double-knotted. Get medical supplies ready." She told me. I nodded, gathering everything I could from Nova's room, including rope, gauze, and some soap that we made from leaves.

Nova picked up a water bucket from one of the wells she helped us make, and dumped the water on his head while crouching down by him. She gripped her staff tightly as the weird man slowly came to his head and noticed what was going on.

"Your name... Dustin, wasn't it?" Nova asked the weird man, who finally had a name.

"Dustin, that's right." He said. Dustin tried to rub his eyes, but he quickly noticed that he was bound by rope on both his arms and legs.

"Do you want to explain to me how you got poisoned food?" Nova asked Dustin.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Dustin said. I clicked my tongue, and Nova shook her head, standing up, and flicking the tip of her staff into the top of his jaw.

Dustin was launched in midair with broken teeth before landing on his back onto the ground.

"You know, I worked really hard to provide for you a home that you've so clearly disrespected. I work my ass off, every day, just so you can obsess over my body, over me, and you embarrass yourself in front of everybody standing around you now that they know the truth of who you really are." Nova said.