Lonely One

Chapter 8 - The Cabin

××Stormy××

Since I wasn't comfortable allowing Niton to ride Fallow, we agreed on walking to our destination. He explained it was in the woods and I atamentally explained how unsafe that was. I had been attacked multiple times since entering this forest and I didn't even know why.

I knew this place was full of monsters and beasts. Mom and Dad had been sure to teach me not to wander off alone but I never imagined it would be this bad. Niton insisted he would protect me, which was disgusting. But he had no need to. During our two day walk, we saw no monsters, only animals and plants.

In that time, we both learned that neither of us were great conversationalists and neither of us were extremely excited about sharing our pasts. My little breakdown was bad enough.

"Keep up, we're almost there," Niton called from a few feet ahead of me. Fallow was trotting beside him. Clearly acting as a traitor.

"We haven't rested since morning and its almost dark. I need sleep and food unlike you," I huffed, leaning against a tree.

"I sleep," He argued, "Besides, it's just behind these trees." Niton stepped back to me and grabbed my arm. I struggled but didn't have the energy to stop him. He dragged me through the grouping of trees and then we were suddenly standing in a small clearing. Most of it was shaded by large, leaning trees. I wondered if I would have even noticed it if I had flown by.

As we moved further into the clearing, a drab cabin came into view. It was overgrown with vines and grass. Even closer, it was easy to tell the windows had never been cleaned once. I could barely see through to the inside of the house due to the dust.

"Welcome to my cabin," Niton said, pulling open the extremely creaky front door. It looked ready to fall off its hinges.

"Your cabin?" I accused, "It doesn't look much like you live here. It doesn't really look like anyone lives here."

"You're right, I haven't been here in awhile," Niton spoke quickly, before turning a hard look at me, "But I'm not sure you should be questioning me on anything. You weren't exactly sharing and caring on the way here."

I rolled my eyes and looked away but he was right. I had no place questioning him. I had sealed my lips tight about anything personal, refusing to share even the smallest detail about my life. I wished I hadn't spoken a word about feeling inferior to my family, even if it led me to being trained.

Niton disappeared inside the dark cabin and I slowly made my way in behind him. It looked a little bigger from the inside but was nothing spectacular. I had been spoiled living inside a giant tree my entire childhood. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I found Niton leaning against a dusty kitchen table. He looked completely out of his element.

"What do you think?" He asked. It wasn't spoken very confidently. My lips quirked up slightly.

"It needs some work," I mumbled, causing Niton to frown, "But what's anything worth without a little bit of work."

I almost didn't catch his smile.

I whirled around to look at what else the cabin had in store. A small sitting room area sat across from the kitchen. It had a graying couch and a few stacked chairs that clearly belonged next to the kitchen table. The kitchen itself was missing more than a few cabinet doors and the floor underneath Niton's feet looked to be rotting.

Three closed doors met my eyes as I circled around. I approached the first. Niton was hot on my heels to look inside as I pushed the door in. I refrained from mentioning that this was supposed to be his cabin and that he shouldn't be so interested in a room he supposedly owned.

Inside was another dusty table, a dresser, and a bed with a broken leg. The floor looked a little uneasy in more than a few places. A couple of musty books sat next to the bed on the floor. They piqued my interest but I chose to move on to the next room before taking a detailed look. I bumped into Niton as I backed up and he quickly got the hint.

We both moved on to the closed door in the middle. I pushed the door open to find an extremely grimy bathroom. A footed tub was rooted to the middle; it would have been pretty if it wasn't covered in a layer of dark dirt. I was thankful that the cabin had an indoor bathroom at all.

"This is gross," Niton mumbled from behind me. I laughed sharply, not expecting his words at all.

"I completely agree." I yanked the door closed harshly, casting a layer of dust over us as the ceiling shook. I wrinkled my nose and reached to open the third door.

Another bedroom greeted us, this one much worse than the first. There was no bed frame so the mattress was simply laying on the ground. Old muddy footsteps could be seen leading from the doorway to the window; a story I hoped I'd never learn. This room had no furniture.

"You can have this one," I decided, nodding my head to myself.

"Actually, my room is the other room," He spoke up. I glanced up at him and glared.

"You mean the bathroom?"

"Ha."

"That is what you meant right?" I questioned again. He may have not been intimidated by my glare but I wasn't going to back down.

"Fine. I'll take the bad room," Niton sighed, running a hand through his hair causing it to spike up awkwardly.

"You mean the worst room. I wouldn't consider mine the good room," I corrected.

"It needs some work," He said, playing it way down.

"Well the work is going to have to wait. I am going to sleep outside," I announced, hiking my bag up onto my shoulder more securely as I made for the door.

"You're sleeping outside?" Niton questioned, following me a few steps before stopping at the doorway.

"You're sleeping in here?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, yeah. You've got the right idea."

With that we marched outside to find a nice tree to sleep under, both knowing tomorrow would bring much work.

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A little bit of filler that hopefully will give the characters a bit more rapport