A Second Chance

Sunrise

Rae woke with a startled jolt, swiveling her head back and forth to pinpoint the source of the angered snarl. Tomak had been in more than a foul mood lately. And she knew what the source of it was.

Ever since she had lost her cool with him that early morning, their friendship, if she could even call it that, just wasn't the same. There were no more silly jumpscares, no more eating together. Even Chase noticed a change in his attitude when he playfully batted his calf to get attention. Instead of receiving a gentle nudge with either his hand or leg, Tomak snarled at the poor cat, scaring the daylights out of him.

Rae had tried fixing it. In fact, once she composed herself and went over what she would say a dozen times, she eventually went outside to apologize to him.

It didn't work out the way she hoped.

Looking down the sandy shoreline, she was initially stunned by the sight of him. Tomak, who was clearly peeved, was training rather vigorously.

His movements were as graceful as a leopard and as quick and deadly as a taipan. If she wasn't there to apologize, she would have been content just watching him. It was an impressive show of skill and strength. Even if it was simply his version of a daily workout routine, she would have thought he was putting on a show. It was obvious that this was something he did often to recondition his body in accordance with his spear, because they were moving as one, as if his weapon were an extension of himself. The visual had left her with quite the impression, and faintly she wondered how she even managed against such a warrior.

When he had finally decided to take a break from fluidly and almost unceasingly spinning his spear-like staff, she had carefully made her way down to speak with him, hoping with every ounce of her being that he would be receptive to listen.

His back was turned to her, but she knew he was aware of her presence.

That first moment she was nervous about how to approach it, her initial rehearsed apology dissipating as she miserably tried to recall it to mind. In the end she just went for it. "Tomak?"

The sweat glistened muscles lining his powerful shoulders flexed, catching her eye and making her swallow. He was really angry.

"Tomak, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to raise my voice and yell at you. I just- I was angry and I was scared, and... I said some things that I didn't mean. I'm sorry." She hung her head, her eyes aimed in the general direction of his bare feet.

If he had turned his head to look over his shoulder to stare at her, she would have never known. Instead of getting a grunt or some sort of confirmation that he accepted her apology, he growled, snatched the weapon that was speared into the ground and stalked away.

In her initial surprise, she managed to look up in time to watch him leave.

That was pretty much how it ended. And after that he kept his distance from her, the few times he ever did speak was clipped and to the point, her name once again returning to either 'female' or 'human.' It was at that point that she realized just how bad she screwed up.

It was like he was back to being the big jerk he was before. They really had gone one step forward, two steps back.

Despite it being a week of this, Rae didn't give up, if anything it made her more determined than ever to patch up the hole she made between them. She just didn't know how yet.

In the present, it was the sound of a loud clang that brought her attention to the front window. Stretching over the couch and carefully pulling down the blinds, she peeked out in search of him. She didn't have to look very hard as he was sitting on the deck, something that was becoming more routine these early mornings, trying to repair his arm piece.