Jack stared in awe at Blacks scyth, watching her carve away at a tree. The scyths curved blade was not ment for this kind of work so it too a while, but eventually the tree fell, causing the ground to give a light tremor. Jack watched in silence as she propped the tree up on a stump, and began making thick disks of the trunk, with a single downward slice of her blade. Jacks head rann with more and more questions, but he didnt want to ask any, for fear of upsetting Black again. Once she had a sufficent amount of disks, Black began spliting them in half, making many semi-circle hunks of lumber. They were odd compared to the normal rectangular logs most people used, but he guess having the scyth insted of a saw created issues with that. He helped now and again with lifting, and moving the wood when she needed him to, but without a blade of his own he mostly sat and watched. When she was finished, she had enough for each of them to have both arms full, and have to make a second trip.
As they trudged back, Jack, out of breath from the heavy lifting, tried to lighten the mood and dispell the ever present akward tension between them. " Do you always carry bach this much on your own?" Black was silent for a moment, then answered with a simple, " Yes. " He was silent for a while, unsure if Black wanted to speak at all. As they re-entered Bodie, and he once again watched fleeting shadows amoung the dead and dying buildings of the old forgotten town, he finnaly asked, in much desperation to break the akward atmosphere " so, how long have you had that scyth? I dont remember seeing it in your past-" He mentally kicked himself for bringing up the fact he snooped around in her past again.
He was afraid she would get angry and shut off again, but to his suprise, she answered calmly. " Iv always had it. Scince the day I first held it." " Oh." He said. The weight of the wood straining his arms brought up another question. " How long did it take you to do this on your own?" He saw her shrug. " About a full day I guess. Time really doesnt mean much to me." He understood her. when your alone, nothing really matters to you. Not even time. Exept, maybe, the years of solitude weighing down in your heart, but you try your best to ignor that when you cant change it.
Once they stacked the first load of wood by the rusted stove, they trudged back into the woods to fetch the rest. Once again, walking through the streets of Bodie Jack couldnt help but keep as clost to Black as possible, which she must have noticed. " You know, thye wont hurt you unless you take something from their land." She said. He chuckled embarrased. " I dont know how you managed to get over them and LIVE here like this." He said, hoping to start a conversation. " They arent so bad. Actually, sometimes I feel like they are watching over me. I live here same as them." Jack remembered the story she told him. They protect their home. Jack began to think that Black thought of these shadows as her neighbors, he family even, all living together away from the world, no one and nothing but each other. Jack watched a fw shadows retreat behind an old crate, and suddenly he didnt feel so uneasy about them. Maybe black found solace in their presence, even though they cant really communicate like he himself found a bit of fun in watching children pay in his snow, when they could not see him.
They arrived back inside the woods, an loaded up with the rst of the lumber. Already exausted from the first load, Jack huffed and heaved with the new weight. as they began walking back, jack asked " So how did you find this place anyway? " " Found it just wandering about. I learned about its past in a book." Jack remembered Blacks enormous library in her upstairs. " Yeha, thats a big collection you have, where did you even get those?" He asked, still trying to keep a conversation going. "...Found them after people threw them out. Took a very long time to get all of those though." " Have you read all of them?" He saw her nod. " Many times over." Jack huffed again, and shifted the lumber around. With all the books he saw, he could hardly believe someone could have read all of them once, let alone multiple times. Then again its not like Black was doing anything else.
