The Prospect's Deal

17

The other men were now waiting for Ezra's answer, they were still whispering amongst one another as they were waiting. Ezra was still walking with me right now, but his pace slowed down a bit as he listened to their whispers.

The other men were still whispering as they were trying to figure out why Ezra was walking with me. One of the men finally spoke up again to ask the burning question. "Why are you so close with her Ezra? Is she going to join us now on all of our hunts from now on?"

Ezra turned around to look at the other man for just a moment before he turned back to me, he was still holding my arm, and his eyes were still locked with mine. Ezra spoke in a soft voice. "If it's okay with everyone, I'd like to have her accompany me on our hunts from now on."

The other men were still whispering as they were discussing Ezra's request. The hunting group was pretty tight-knit, there was still some confusion about my sudden appearance amongst the group and now Ezra's behaviour towards me. One of the men spoke up again to object to Ezra's request. "Why would you want to bring her with you anyway? She's going to slow us down."

Ezra's head snapped over to look at the man who had objected, Ezra's demeanour was slowly starting to change as he heard the objection to letting me join his hunting group. "Why not? It's my decision whether I want to have her beside me during the hunts. I think she'll be fine."

The man shook his head as he spoke again in disagreement. "But you never had anyone else join you before, why are you suddenly letting her join us on all the hunts now? Don't you think she's going to get in the way? She won't be able to handle the forests and the creatures here."

The other men began to chime in as they started to object to Ezra's request as well, the other men started to protest and they were all expressing their disagreement. Ezra kept his eyes locked with mine, as the other men kept talking he began to gradually get more frustrated. He was starting to feel even more protective of me as his friends objected to my involvement in these hunts.

The others kept talking and they started to raise their voice a bit, the other men were becoming quite passionate and aggressive with their opposition to me. Ezra started to get very frustrated and angry as none of the others seemed to understand why he wanted to have me join them. None of them trusted or liked my presence at all, which is why they were talking this much, to begin with.

I felt pretty upset. "I will go back..."

Ezra froze when he heard me say that, he saw the pain and sadness in my face and it immediately broke his heart. Ezra suddenly stepped in front of me, his eyes were now glaring at the other men. "You're not going anywhere."

Everyone suddenly fell silent as they saw Ezra's sudden change of demeanour, his gentle demeanour was now gone and he was now glaring at the other hunting group members. Everyone knew Ezra had a calm, patient and gentle demeanour, so seeing Ezra suddenly go from calm to furious was pretty unusual for them.

The other hunting group members were looking at Ezra with stunned faces as they suddenly stopped mid-way with their protests. Ezra's sudden anger caught everyone off guard as they were shocked to see Ezra showing this side of him after him seemingly always being gentle and patient. Ezra spoke up again as he kept his gaze locked with his hunting group friends. "She's not going anywhere."

The other hunting group members slowly moved back as they realized just how seriously Ezra was taking this. Ezra kept his gaze locked on everyone else as he refused to let me go. Ezra wasn't going to let anyone mess with me or make me leave, not even his long-time hunting friends. Ezra stayed in front of me as he kept his gaze locked with the others, he was staring down everyone right now.

His hunting group friends had not expected Ezra to react this way to their protest. Some of the other hunting members were confused as to why Ezra was getting so worked up over this. Ezra's eyes were like daggers as he kept staring them down, they were all starting to get scared at this sudden change in attitude. Ezra kept standing in front of me as he spoke with a voice that was slowly becoming more aggressive. "Does everyone understand me? She is NOT leaving."

The others were now quiet, there was complete silence all around as everyone understood what Ezra had said and no one seemed to want to argue with him in this state. One of the hunting members looked down at the ground slightly while a few others also glanced away, they were quite intimidated by Ezra's sudden temper right now. Ezra slowly turned his gaze back to me and he kept his back turned on the others as they stayed quiet.

The hunting group had fallen silent now, all of the members looked a bit shocked to see Ezra take such a sudden change in attitude. Ezra was now only focused on me, his gaze shifted from the others back to me, for the first time he really seemed to recognize just how intimidating he was being right now. Ezra was still holding my arm, he wanted to make sure he was keeping me safe and that I didn't leave. His facial expression started to soften a bit and he kept his voice softer, he also started to keep his voice calm now.

Ezra's voice had become gentler again, he had his gaze once more locked with mine. Ezra's attitude had shifted quite abruptly, but now things were starting to become more calm and relaxed. Ezra seemed to realize that he was being quite intense right now, but he still wanted to make sure everyone understood that they were not to mess with me or make me leave. Ezra kept his voice soft as he spoke again. "Does anyone have anything else to say about this?"