~Brooklyn
The weeks had gone by quickly. Calamari, German, Benign, and I had been traveling near the woods but close enough to where the hunters wouldn’t get to us. In the time that had passed, we had only met one halfer that was only half sane and he told us only little information and it was mainly about the woods. That they were dangerous. Too obvious. That they were filled with insane halfers. That’s an obvious duh. That insane halfers ate other insane or sane halfers. That made me creep out a bit, which was weird compared to what I was.
God, I’m tired. Try to find food all day and I was only able to scrape by with a few rabbits and a wild boar, which was difficult to kill. It had scratched me up quite a bit so I really just wanted to go to bed but a voice spoke up and I looked at over where the voice was. It was Benign.
"No! I--uh--I mean...Don' go to bed yet, Brooke...I mean, it's--uh, it--looks like it's too early, and, I...um...Dad and Pop just fell asleep...and...um..." I looked at her, expecting her to talk. I could understand why she was nervous. I couldn’t help but look at her with endearment and some amusement. I guess I couldn’t help that last part. "I...uh, just like talking to you is all..." Okay. I could sometimes tell that but I couldn’t honestly think of what to say.
I chuckled a little, the smallest form of a smile that I haven’t had in while. That made Benign reply.
"So, yeah," She finished lamely with a grin that came from German.
"Alright, then, Benign. What do you want to talk about?" I couldn’t help but grin a little bit more when I asked this.
"Anything," She blurted and then tried to calm down a bit. "I-um-mean...hah, well, no: anything. The moon, you, he trip, why we left...Haha, um, ah, well, I, uh, really do mean...uh, anything,” She stammered out the last bit of it and I couldn’t help but smile. In ways, she could be funny but I could tell she was serious about this. So I replied simply as best as I could really since I knew she wanted an answer.
"Oh? Well...where to start? Hm, the moon is full, as you may have noticed, it's quite bright out here--and myself...well, what is there to talk about?" I chuckled dryly. There was nothing really interesting about me. Maybe to her, but not to me.
I continued, "I think this is the... hm, fifth week we've been on the road, so to speak? About a month, and we've run into only one halfer. I know you don' really get it yet, but a few years ago...when you were about four, probably--you couldn't walk two feet without running into one pack of halflings or another. It's...weird. Really odd." I couldn’t help but think for a minute about those times and I realized I had to continue so I did, "And you...we left because...ah, you could call it controversy, perhaps. Racism? Maybe. German is insecure." I got a little uncomfortable as I continued to speak and my voice became a little stiff. "And Calamari was willing to make sacrifices for him. For you, and for the little family you all have made out of this,” I finished, feeling tired explaining and thinking about all of this.
I used to have nightmares about the past, which was really the only thing bothering me. I live that nightmare now, I guess. I didn’t understand why really Calamari let me stay with them. I didn’t know why I stayed either but I guess because they were something. They had their own family. I was just a side passenger.
"Our family." I jumped at her words and I didn’t believe it at all. I didn’t think of me ever being a part of their little family. I hadn’t been with a family in years. "I mean...you're just as much a part as everyone a the...'farm' was... Idunnoprollymore." Her face was beet red in the moon shining down at her. I was… a part of their family?
"Okay. Well. Um. Bed. Night," She stuttered out awkwardly as she went into her mouse form and scurried away into a small patch of grass.
"...Night, Benign.” I did have a small smile on my face as I said good night to her but thing was, after that, I wasn’t tired. It was odd, but I wanted to go and hunt, so I got up and once I got a ways away from the small family, I transformed into my disgusting form of a halfer and went off into the woods.
It wasn’t until daylight that I got back to the group and German was the only one awake out of the three. He had started up a fire and I dropped the rabbits near the fire when I transformed back into my human form quickly. I just looked at him and he barely could look me back in the eye. He always had that problem. Never looking in the eye. But just the wonderment of him with Calamari always made me wonder about him.
I sat down and skinned the rabbits easily with a mere claw of mine and German just watched out of the corner of his eye. I didn’t bother to look at him as I put them over the fire and waited for Calamari and Benign to wake up. Eventually, the smell of the rabbits did.
I thought something was odd as we all ate the cooked rabbit after I sliced it up and gutted the few animals quickly. It was oddly quiet. Even the wind was. And I knew we needed to move now.
“We need to move. Now,” I looked at Calamari as we finished the rabbit and he quickly nodded. I wasn’t the only one feeling off about this place.
So we left our small spot quickly, along with nothing happening along the way. Odd.
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Featured in post: Brooklyn, Benign, Kai, and Ennis
~Anime-chan
