Rot || ONC2024

──●Three●──

    "Oh Mara." 

    As I pulled my fleece blanket over my head, I groaned. "Go away Yarrow."

   "But Mara," he whined, "no one else is up yet, and I'm bored."

   "Well, take it as your sign to go back to sleep" 

   At this gods forsaken time, the moon was hardly awake. The sun was only slightly dipped behind the horizon, the sky starting to fade into a dusty rose. All the creatures of the day were preparing to sleep.

   "But Mara-"

   I smack Yarrow with my pillow, causing him to release a muffled oof.  "Stop with the 'but Mara' shit, it ain't helping."

   "But babies, Mara."

   I turned to face him. "Babies?"

   Yarrow nodded, a childish grin spreading across his face. "Yes, babies. You promised we could leave early for the hunt so we could get a baby. Remember?"

   "By early I didn't mean this early."

   "How does that human acronym thingy work again," Yarrow mumbled. "Aha! The early bird gets the worm, Mara. In our case, the early Walker gets the baby!"

   "Night Walker Yarrow, not Day Walker. We don't need to be this fucking early."

    Yarrow huffed.

   "Plus," I added, "I don't feel like getting a sunburn today, thank you very much."

   "Wuss," he muttered under his breath. Yarrow slowly shuffled out of my bedroom.

    "I am not a wuss!" I huffed out a breath of utter defeat. "I'll come with you to get the damn baby."

   Yarrow's head quickly darted out from behind the door frame. "Really!"

   I groaned as I pushed myself up. "Don't make me regret it, Yarrow."

   "Oh, I won't! I'll be in the dining hall waiting for you!"

   "Yeah yeah." As I pulled on an ebony shirt, I muttered under my breath. "Stupid man child, he's lucky I love him."

   "I heard that," Yarrow shouted down the hall.

   "The dining hall isn't up here Yarrow!"

   "Shut up, we're tryna sleep here," someone shouted from the opposite end of the hall, followed by a loud slam of a door.

   Quickly pulling on some trousers, I raced downstairs to join Yarrow. All while being somewhat silent.

   "Shush!" I harshly whispered to the stairs as they creaked under my weight.

   "Are you shushing the stairs?" Yarrow giggled as I slid in beside him at the table. He slid a cracked, yellowed plate full of graying meat slices in my direction.

   "Yes, they're hella noisy when I'm trying to be quiet. The floorboards too." As I swallowed a piece of the meat, I looked to Yarrow. "In the case that we actually manage to find a baby, do not tell Al. This is our one chance to actually get some decent shit into our bodies."

   Yarrow rolled his eyes. "I may be stupid, at times, but I'm not that stupid. I want some good meat too, y'know."

   "Good." Pinching my nose, I shoved the rest of my meal into my mouth and forcefully swallowed. Meanwhile, Yarrow had hardly touched his food. "You're not eating?"

   Yarrow smiled. "I'm saving my hunger for the hunt."

   I chuckled. "You're betting on this too much, I tell ya."

   "That's why we better find something tasty!"