“I missed sleeping up here and waking up to the birds singing,” she said, stretching out her other hand and yawning.
“Are you hungry? I picked berries, and I think we still have some eggs left from a few days ago.”
“What kind of eggs?”
“Duck eggs. Found them upward the river. Not sure how they’re getting that far up, but I’m not complaining.”
“Sounds amazing. I’m starving,” she said with a bright smile.
Her hand slid out of mine as she pushed herself up, letting the blanket uncover her body.
We often slept in the clothes we wore the day before, and since most of our clothes were made out of cotton, it was never uncomfortable.
I only owned one pair of jeans, which I rarely wore.
We washed our clothes multiple times a week anyway, so there was no need for us to have fifteen shirts and pants.
Not necessary.
Two pairs of boots were enough as well.
I watched Vespyr climb down the ladder before I followed her, then I watched her walk toward Papa and hug him, showing him how grateful she was for him.
“Sleep well, sweetheart?” he asked.
“Yes, you? Have you been up for long?” Vespyr asked back, and to not stand there like an idiot, I walked over to the bin to wash my face.
“Not really. I’ve tidied around the camp a little. Still have a few things to do, but we’ll get to have some time together later tonight, deal?”
“What about breakfast?” Ves asked.
“I had some of the salmon jerky earlier. I’ll pack you some for when you and Fennec go down to the river, sound good?”
If she had asked him to go fishing, and if I had other things to do like hunt, he would’ve gone with her.
No doubt.
But it was me he was avoiding, and at times, I was doing the same.
It was messy before she came.
Real fucking messy.
“That’s perfect. Thank you, Papa.”
I finally turned back around after splashing water into my face and letting the air dry my skin again.
“I’ll leave you two to it. Have fun, and don’t forget the worms.”
Papa brushed along Vespyr’s hair before walking past her and heading over to his tent to continue fixing the holes in the fabric.
He’s been fixing them for days now, and it seemed whenever he closed one, a new one right next to it appeared.
“Breakfast?” Vespyr asked.
I gave her a quick nod and pointed to the portable cooler close to the firepit.
It didn’t keep our food as cold as in the winter when we had snow, but it helped keep it safe from animals who tried to get into it and steal our food.
We’ve only ever had one bear try and take the box but instead of getting food for himself, we had gained dinner and lunch for the next week or two.
That’s how it worked in the wilderness.
No empathy.
*
“Oh, my! Look at all these fish!” Vespyr called out as we arrived by the river where I was always successful in catching fish for lunch and dinner.
“Told you I found a great spot. We can’t catch too many though. They’ll go bad unless you wanna eat fish jerky for the rest of the month,” I joked.
“I wouldn’t mind,” she said with a grin.
After we both took off our boots and rolled up our pants, we headed into the water and got our net ready.
As much as I liked catching them with my spear, this was the easier method.
“How’s Mama been?”
“Fine, really. She had a few fun outings with her friends while I stayed home and studied for the stupid finals. I barely made it, you know?”
I shrugged. “At least you made it. And I’m proud of you. I know how much you struggled with school in general, not just with all those bullies around us.”
“Around me,” she muttered.
I sighed. “They have nothing better to do. They’re insecure about themselves, and pick on the ones who seem weak. You’re not weak, Ves. In fact, the way you handled them on a daily basis was impressive.”
A small smile appeared on her lips, and with a shrug, this conversation was over quickly.
“Let’s fish,” she said, stepping closer to the other side of the river to attach the net with a tent herring.
Fish were already getting caught in it, and thanks to the current and small pool that had naturally formed in this particular part of the river, our catch couldn’t get away as easily as they swam into our trap.
The worms weren’t needed either.
“Remember the different kinds of fish? What kind has already swum into our net?” I asked, wanting to test her knowledge and make her think about other things than her past.
“I can see a sheefish, but it’s young,” she pointed out.
“It is, but we won’t catch any full-grown ones in the river. We’d have to go to the nearest lake for that, but that’s miles away,” I explained.
She nodded, and as she tried to climb up to the small rock to sit on it and wait until our net filled up with fish, she slipped and muttered as she looked down at her hand.
“Did you hurt yourself?” I asked, watching her closely as she tried to hide the pain on her face.
There it was again.
My need to hold her because she was hurting.
“It’s nothing,” she said.
“Let me see,” I told her, making sure the net on my side was secure before stepping closer to her in the water.
I reached for her hand and pulled it to me, brushing along the palm of it with my thumb and then lifting it up to inspect the small droplets of blood on her ripped skin.
It wasn’t a big deal, but I was sure it burned.
“I’ll make it better, sweet girl. I promise.”
Pulling her hand closer to my mouth, I wrapped my lips around her wound and licked my tongue over the blood to clean it up.
This was something I’d done before.
When we had no other way of making sure the blood wouldn’t end up on our clothes, we cleaned it up with our own mouths.
Vespyr’s eyes were on me the whole time, and I continued to gently suck on her skin until I couldn’t feel any more blood come out.
This was a good way of cleaning wounds, as the water could infect them.
We were all healthy, so there was no danger in me doing this.
“Thank you. I think it’s better now,” she whispered, keeping her hand in mine as I moved back to look at it.
“It’s just a small abrasion,” I assured with a smile, and she nodded with her lips pressed into a tight line.
I wasn’t sure what she was thinking in that very moment, although I never had any issues finding out what was going on in that head of hers.
There were so many questions in her eyes than ever before.
7
Strange how certain memories only reappeared when you relived them.
Fennec’s tongue against my skin brought up so many memories, and my heart started to pound in my chest.
Not sure if it was in a good or bad way.
It felt…familiar, yet unsettling.
“Papa didn’t tell us he would be gone when we came back,” I said as we arrived back to our camp.
“Uh, no, he didn’t. He probably went on a little hike. He stopped telling me things after our…”