Scunasian Campfire Stories (Rain world short stories)

How I Met You

     I walked towards my burrow as I always did. Having sold the animals I hunted down today. I finally felt like I could rest from having to interact with other people. Well.. interacting would be saying a lot, I haven't spoken to someone in over a year at this point. Most of the tribe must think I'm a mute...

    But perhaps it's better this way. I bring only trouble and pain into people's lives, and who would want anything to do with an orphan who doesn't talk? I eventually sit down on a log as I look at my pay from the hunt and my gear. It's nice to hunt with a bow, but I need something stronger if I want to get better at my craft.. This money should buy me more materials to work on my project, but then food would be a problem.. Or should I just hunt for it again?

I just sigh as my mind goes over every single thing to worry about. I became so consumed by it, that I didn't see him approaching.

"H-hey? You are Silver, right?" I hear a soft and shy voice resonate behind me. When I go to turn around I see that the voice came from a greenish slugcat standing behind me.

He looked slightly younger than me with his posture looking even more shy than his voice. I quickly nodded to signal that I'm listening as I placed all my things in my bag.

"I-.. I h-hope I'm not.. bothering you." He said as I looked towards him. I didn't look him in the eyes since I wouldn't be able to maintain eye contact.

And it definitely didn't help that he was kind of cute...

...

Wait did I call him-

"I've heard you aren't much of a talker. You really don't talk to anyone do you?" He asks hesitantly.

I quickly nod to his question as a way to confirm these rumors. He slowly gets closer to me while still leaving some room between us. He struggles to start another sentence as I look at the ground, trying to cope with this uninvited guest I am dealing with. Eventually he finally gets his composure and allows a regular sentence to leave his mouth.

"People say many things about you, not all of them are nice..." He suddenly stops as I let out a deep sigh.

I know people wouldn't like a mute running around the tribe, poking his nose in their problems, but it somehow still hurt to hear that they didn't think much of me.

"B-but you don't seem that bad." He responded, most likely seeing my spirit down after what he said. It didn't really help, but it was better than nothing..

My curiosity quickly overwhelmed me, making me tap on the log to signal that I wanted him to come closer.

"O-oh? Yes, s-sure." He quickly responded, sitting down almost instantly. We sat like this in complete silence before I decided to show him my bow to have some sort of topic to talk about.

"Is this your bow? It looks amazing!" He compliments me as I pass him the bow. He looks at it and admires the way I made it before suddenly looking back at me. Out of nowhere his expression turns into a sad one as he looks at the floor.

"Some.. people say that I'm annoying.. you don't have to be here with me if you don't want to.." He says, surprising me entirely. How could he be able to talk and still be annoying to people? He seems really nice, and unlike some people he isn't afraid to talk with me. I couldn't understand why they would find him annoying. He didn't even do anything to be labeled as annoying, and yet he feels the need to call himself annoying?

I suddenly felt a deep burning feeling inside me. I wanted to tell him that he was not annoying and that whoever told him that is an idiot, but every time I opened my mouth I found myself unable to speak, as always.