Secrets and Stones

(12) Treetop/Move/Wind

July, 16

Me and Lucas decided to drag the rotting corpse to the end of the river, setting it on the other side. I hated it, hated it with my life. I hated the smell, the way its body moved whenever its legs hit a stump, the way the skin felt dead on its wrists. 

Everything disgusted me, the wind was chilly and the summer would be over in a month. I was currently on top of a tree, staring at the grey sky. "What's up there?" I heard the sound of something scraping the tree, looking down, I realized it was Lucas. I stayed silent, but he quickly sat next to me, my legs had a few scratches but I ignored them.

"I would die for you." I turned my head towards him, but he was looking up. I thought he was talking to Silver so I just looked up with him. "You're pretty cool, y'know?" He looked at me, my voice was raspy so I had to clear it, but he just shrugged. "I think I know someone cooler." I was taken aback. "Someone that's not me?" He smiled, he had small dimples but it was something I found cute about him. "Yeah. You could say that." 

I put my hood up and laid my head on his shoulder. Feeling a shudder down my spine, I looked around, and then back up at the sky. I could hear faint whispers but thought it was the village. It seemed similar to something I had heard before, I couldn't shake it from my head. 

"Ready men... aim..." I felt and heard a loud thud, I ducked my head, grabbing Lucas and sliding down the tree. "What was that for?" He was clearly mad but I covered his mouth. "Where did those boys go?" I kept my breathing steady, it was my 'Fiance'. "Sir it looked like they were together, another violation of kingdom policy." 

Were they talking about us? Did they think I was a man? They were behind us, after all. I kept both of our mouths closed, the footsteps were getting closer, they were on the other side of the tree. "You boys are not very stealthy." I heard him come around the tree, I looked at him through my hood, my hair wasn't hiding my face. I felt someone grab me, my sweater being pulled.

"Amelia?"

I coughed, the blood tripling down my mouth. The thud against the ground made me cough up more blood. "No. Never mind. Men, shoot these rats." I heard a loud bang, they missed me, by an inch at max. I rolled over, making it seem like I was shot. Lucas had ran away. I waited for the men to walk away or go find something else to do so I could find him. 

I felt somebody shaking my body, I opened my eyes, Lucas, his ice blue eyes were over mine, I thought he had been shot for a second. "Lucas what the hell?" I sat up, staring at him. "Oh my god Amelia don't fucking scare me like that." He hugged me and helped me up. "Did they shoot you?" I shook my head. 

"Good, we need to get moving, now."

July, 17

Another war was happening between this kingdom and another, we were grabbing our things as fast as we could. I could only hope we would be able to leave in time. We crossed the river and made our way to another forest, there were multiple other kingdoms that we would need to cross to get to the mountains. I get it, seeing 2 random people crossing into your territory is a reason to shoot but damn we don't do anything! 

All we do is kick rocks to pass the time and then we are out of the forest and in the village, which they allow us their but not anywhere else in the kingdom which always gets me even more paranoid. It feels weird not having anything to do all day, but at the same time all I want to do is stare at Lucas.

But, that's when I realized how selfish I was. He probably doesn't even like me, he's probably still attached Silver and i'm just an idiot. I could feel how tense he was from his hands clenching over and over again. We were in the middle of walking, I was tired and so was he so we stopped by a tree. I love trees, their growing strength over the years and the wood smell that came out of the trunks felt like nicotine to my nose.