Change || The Promised Neverland

➴ Chapter Forty-Three: Home➴

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Breathe in, breathe out.

[Name]'s eye narrowed as she zeroed in on the herd of rabbits, grazing innocently in the field. She didn't think that she'd find another one so soon. Preferably, it would've been a stag - the antlers made for decent weapons - but these were plump enough, so she supposed that it was alright.

Her fingers pulled back on the bowstring, stretching it to her ear. The already nocked arrow, made with the bones of a stag, slid to the wooden bow. The wind rustled in the leaves above her, her black trenchcoat blending in with the shadows. [Name] took a breath, aiming the bow from her perch upon the trees.

Then, she let go.

As soon as the first rabbit fell, she nocked another arrow and took down its siblings just as quickly. Four rabbits lay, impaled into the grass that was formerly their food. [Name] slung the bow over her back and jumped down.

While she had put up her bow in the base, [Name] had quickly made new ones out of the branches in the trees, along with arrows - their tips being sharpened bones left over from her hunts. Yes, they had food from when they had looted the factory farm, but [Name] speculated that she would still need to hunt - if she and the group brought these children back to the base, they'd have a total of roughly a hundred kids to feed. She doubted that the food that they had looted would be enough for all of them.

She glanced over her shoulder, raising her hood a bit to peer up into the trees. "Did you see how I did that?"

Hayato and his friend (named Jin) nodded excitedly from above. Both of them were watching, along with plenty of the other farm children.

Norman and [Name] had quickly found out that they were more than capable of combat, having had to fight each other in arenas daily. Something protective had flared up in [Name], making her reconsider putting them in an army, but they had reassured her that they were fine with fighting alongside them. Still, something didn't feel right about giving two-year-olds who probably didn't know how to read a gun.

Jin was reluctant to follow the rest of his group when they clambered around the (h/c), their eyes practically sparkling as they awed at their leader. He self-consciously touched his mouth, knowing that the rugged teeth that stretched it would surely scare or discomfort the girl that saved him. Unlike the other experiments, he wasn't given the strength or the speed of a demon. Instead, he had the mouth of one.

He couldn't even close his lips, having to bear his horrific jaws to the rest of the world. Jin hated these, but he could still speak and eat well enough. But he hated them. Even if they were powerful, they were a curse more than anything.

[Name] hurriedly hushed the children, putting a finger to her lips. They were still in the wilderness, and her paranoia didn't go down with how loud they were being.

"Remember, keep quiet," she reminded gently, jumping off in the direction of where they had set camp. "The demons are particularly keen on hearing."

Since the children probably couldn't handle keeping up with the horses, Norman had opted to head back on foot ("I predicted this," he had said, "so that's why I told the children back at the base to wait for two to three days." [Name] had subtly kicked him in the shin. She wasn't a fan of his pompous talk).

It didn't take them far until the familiar moss-covered cave came into view. Pushing aside the vines, she allowed the children to spill into their temporary home before jumping in herself. Norman and the group were off in the corner, discussing their next moves. [Name] walked next to them, pushing back her hood and shaking out her hair.