Fear

Chapter 4

              Today was oddly cold and the air felt thick, heavy almost. It weighed me down, making every trip outside of the cabin much more unpleasant. With the days creeping towards December, I started to worry more. How would it affect our ability to get food? Making frequent trips to Stumptown wouldn't be a possibility anymore. It would just be a matter of time before the Medaeno came...a matter of time before he came and took me away...took me away again.

I was scared, to put it simply. I was scared the whole time, but I stopped wanting to show it much anymore. Maybe because that way, it made it not real.

Except it was real. Too real.

The sun was just starting to rise, and the crisp air had a surreal warmth to it. Dressed in thick wool head to toe, Mitch decided to go outside to draw by a tree. As he dragged me along, he said that cold mornings were his favorite time in the forest. How strange.

I set down a blanket by the tree, shivering as I sat. Hearing a snicker from Mitch, I rolled my eyes. He didn't seem cold, more like at ease, pleasant. Meanwhile, I was just sitting there, thoughtless, and bored, occasionally tilting my head ever so slightly to look at his work.

Dark pencil lines formed the outline of a tree, and I could see he was starting to shade parts of the trunk. I thought it looked nice, but I decided not to say anything just yet. The silence was comforting in a way, and I didn't want to interrupt it.

I could tell every time he started to really focus. His eyes would start to slightly flicker, and his head would tilt. The filtered sunlight accentuated the golden flecks in his eyes, which I never seemed to notice before today. The soft wind occasionally blew the curly strands that framed his face from side to side, half covering his eyes sometimes. He seemed unaware, or indifferent, as I studied his face. Still, I silently told myself to stop. I didn't know why I had started doing it in the first place, it was weird. Was I really that bored?

After that, the silence didn't feel good anymore, and he was mostly done with his drawing anyways, so I thought it was fine to speak.

"Why'd you make me come out here?" The question came out harsher than I wanted it to. He set his materials down, leaning his head against the tree to look at me.

"I like having someone else with me whenever I'm drawing," he said nonchalantly.

"If you aren't even talking to them, what's the point?" He tilted his head downwards, laughing. I was amusing him somehow. "What? Why are you laughing?"

"Don't take your emotions out on me," he said with a smile. He met my eyes, which I quickly looked away from. I didn't want to accept that he was right. I was taking my emotions out on him. I hated that he was right. I hated that he could see right through me. I felt vulnerable around him in moments like this. I didn't know why he made me feel like that, but it was odd.

"I'm sorry, Mitch." I faced him again, feeling myself turn red with embarrassment. My eyes followed his hand as he rest it on my forearm, not saying anything for a bit.

"It's ok. You haven't exactly had a...good time with things lately."

"Yeah, well, that's expected when you're hiding from a king that wants you captured or dead." I laughed at my comment, getting one from Mitch too. He took his hand away, smiling at me again.

"You wanna go somewhere today?"

"I don't know...I'm a little freaked."

"Yeah...but the mountains are safe. The Medaeno could never think we'd be up there." Mitch's reassuring voice started to convince me more, and my own thoughts were too. "I promise it's safe."