Sheep to be Slaughtered

~Chapter Twenty-Four~

          The food that I found was little... the house had been scarce of it already. I hoped Damien had better luck. I pulled the satchel Damien had given me over my head and headed back to the window. Would I have enough time to try for another house? I needed to try... I exited the window much like how I had entered; tumbling to the ground and managing to land on my side. A sharp pain in my hip made me grasp at it, as though holding it would do something to relieve the sudden pain.

          "There you are, is that as far as you got?" Damien's voice startled me, my first thought thinking I had been caught.

          "Oh, it's you," I sighed in relief. "And yes, I only got this far... I haven't exactly done this before." Well... I hadn't exactly snuck into someone's house to steal food... but I suppose I had done this before when I snuck into Founder Marco's house... at least he had a back door...

           "It'll do for today," Damien returned as he looked around the corner of the house. "They'll be finishing up any moment. We need to get out of here."

          I got to my feet and glanced at Damien's bulging satchel. His arms were buried in blankets and what looked to be some clothes as well. How had he gathered so much so quickly?

          "I have time to get more," I said determinedly as I looked out at the crowd of villagers too.

          "No, Eleyah, let's go," Damien pushed as he began to walk towards the forest.

          "I can get more!" I insisted. "I'll stay just long enough to see what's done with Daily Offering and I'll be right behind you."

          Damien was growing more stressed by the second. "This is not the time. I promise I'll put some more thought into it and maybe we can go after it eventually... but right now, we need to go!"

          "Let me do this!" I hissed. "Just go already!"

          "You'll get yourself caught," Damien said, his eyes darting from me to the villagers. "I can't let that happen."

          "Because you don't trust me not to tell Founder Marco about you?" I asked, my voice now fierce. "Right... that makes sense. Because first and foremost you have to save yourself. I get it. Then just go. My sister's life depends on me now and I might not have time to keep coming back day after day... we have all this food right under our noses! Come on, Damien, this might be the last trip we need to run for supplies!"

           Damien's jaw was clenched so tightly, I could see a muscle twitching. Time seemed to pause as I waited for his response. I was ready to just make a break for one of the houses near the village center when Damien threw a cloak at me.

          "Put that on," he ordered. "Put your hood up and follow me. You do one thing out of line... one thing that could give us away and I will drag you back into that forest." He moved past me, heading quickly towards the gathered villagers and pulling his hood over his head.

          I grinned. He was coming with me. I followed his orders and quickly slipped into the cloak; the warmth was wonderful... the only bare skin now was my face. I wanted to melt into how warm the cloak felt but I needed to move. I darted after Damien as he weaved through the houses, ever nearing everyone gathered for Daily Offering. We were so close... although we stayed alongside the shadows of the houses, any one of those villagers just needed to turn around and surely, we would be noticed... my heart raced but I stuck close behind Damien. I could hear Founder Marco speaking now... thanking each villager as they approached the table and left their offering...

          Damien darted around the back of a house and came up along its side. From this viewpoint, we had a great view of the villagers and could hear everything that was said, yet, we had plenty of cover given the position of the house. We both crouched to listen and watch. Founder Marco was speaking again...