There was a lot of meat on that one, so we’d dry the rest we wouldn’t be cooking tonight to make jerky out of it.
“Where did you put the antlers?”
“Cleaned them and put them up to dry over by the treehouse. I was thinking of making Jason take it with him the next time he goes to town to sell them and give the money to your Mama.”
“Sounds like a great idea. I need to see the treehouse,” she announced happily, giving Papa one last hug before taking off toward the big trees Papa had put to good use when we were little.
I watched her reach the trunk where wooden planks had been nailed into it to make it easier for us to climb.
The treehouse was big enough for Vespyr and me, even now that we were grown.
When I looked back at Papa, his stare was lingering on me as if I had done something wrong.
But those looks weren’t rare in the past weeks.
He shot me one whenever he felt like it was needed, even without me ever saying a word to him.
I raised a brow. “What?”
Whatever was going on between Papa and me, there was no way in hell I would let Vespyr feel the same anger I was feeling toward Papa.
She deserved to be happy and live her best life here with us.
It was her choice.
*
“When will we go fish?” Vespyr asked as she sat down next to me on the tree trunk in front of the fire I started while she unpacked her clothes in the treehouse and Papa continued to cut apart the caribou.
“I was thinking of going tomorrow. I found a new spot where there are more fish than where we usually go. It’s further away.”
She smiled. “I like exploring new places. It’s like every time I come here, the forest shifts, and nothing is the same other than the path leading back to Wiseman.”
She was right about that, but the longer you lived here, the more places you found.
The forest is a dangerous place, but when you know your way around, it wasn’t too bad.
“As long as I don’t get chased by you like when we were little, I don’t think I’ll get lost.”
I chuckled, thinking back to the days we used to play tag.
Papa always had an eye on us, watching us run around the camp. But the older we got, the further away we ran.
“Getting lost was completely your fault. I told you not to run so far, but you wouldn’t listen.”
Remembering that day and how Papa and I had to go look for Vespyr deep in the forest, hoping she was okay and didn’t stumble across animals that could’ve hurt her made me feel some type of nostalgia.
As much as I loved Vespyr, I remembered having this strange and heavy feeling deep down in my chest, telling me that chasing my sister around and her getting lost was not okay, but on the other hand…I liked knowing that she was probably afraid and crying, unsure of where to go.
I chased her just so I could hold her and tell her that everything’s okay.
Show her how protective I was of her, and how bad I felt that I made her go through such a horrible experience at only eight years old.
You’re sick, a voice in my head hissed.
Those voices came and went ever since starting high school.
They were nasty.
Ugly.
But as often as they occurred, I never did what they said.
Liar.
Maybe I should’ve listened to Mama. Going to a therapist wasn’t a bad idea after all.
“Well, I’m excited to catch some fish tomorrow. I missed it.”
I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to me, kissing the top of her head and then looking back at the fire in front of us.
“I know how you feel. When I finally came back last year, I was overwhelmed. The smell of the trees, the wood, the fire…this is our happiness, Ves.”
She leaned against me with her head on my shoulder, and sure enough, another thought I didn’t think was appropriate popped up.
You can finally chase her through the forest again.
I shook that thought aside, hugging her tighter to me.
There were many reasons why I was happy to have her back, but the biggest reason was one I had to keep to myself.
5
Something didn’t feel right at dinner.
The way Fennec avoided Papa’s looks, and the sudden tension between them told me that something was wrong.
I looked over at Papa who was sitting on the other side of the fire, while I sat next to Fennec, our knees touching and arms rubbing against each other as we ate dinner.
It was delicious, and I missed the taste of real, fresh wildlife meat.
“Fennec is taking me fishing tomorrow. Will you come too, Papa?” I asked, hoping to loosen up the mood a little bit.
“That’s great. I’ll stay here to fix a few things, but you two go have fun.”
Yeah, something was definitely wrong.
I pressed my lips into a tight line and looked up at Fennec who was biting the last bit of meat off the bone, then he placed it back on the plate with a low sigh.
“It’s her first day back. You could put those things aside and come with us. You have time to fix them,” Fennec told him, making me look back at Papa to see his reaction.
“I want to fix them tomorrow.”
“What’s going on?” I asked, not able to watch them talk to each other like this anymore.
“Nothing. We had a few stressful days before you arrived, sweetheart. Don’t worry. We’ve been with each other for far too long to not argue or get on each other’s nerves for once,” Papa explained.
That made sense, but how stressful could living in the forest be?
Whenever I came here on summer or sometimes even winter breaks, all we ever had was fun and a relaxing time throughout.
I frowned at Papa. “Well, you don’t have to talk to him, but I’d love to go fishing with both of you tomorrow. Like we did when we were little,” I told him with a smile.
He studied me for a moment with his stern eyes, then he shook his head. “I have things to do, Vespyr. Another day.”
“Okay.”
Fennec got up and placed the plate in the bucket filled with fresh water next to him, throwing the bone out into the forest.
“Let’s go brush our teeth,” he told me, and I quickly got up to follow him to our bathroom, which was just a bin filled with clean water that we filled up daily so we’d have water to clean our hands, brush our teeth, and wash our faces.
We didn’t have a toilet. Because, well…we had enough space to go do our business wherever we wanted out in the forest.
I took the cup I brought from home to fill it up with the water from the bin, then I grabbed my toothbrush and wet it before dipping it into the jar filled with charcoal powder.
That was our way of cleaning our teeth, and once we were done, we would use peppermint leaves and their juices to get rid of the black stains on our teeth.
It was a simple method.
“Are you okay?” I asked Fen.
“Yeah, I should’ve warned you about this. He’s been like this for weeks now,” he muttered.
I looked back at Papa who was staring at the fire in front of him.
Neither of them looked happy, but I had no clue how to fix their moods.
I’ve never seen them like this.
“What happened?”
He was brushing his teeth already, so talking wasn’t an option.