Zeravia's Five

twenty-one

When Simon woke up again, Tate wasn't in his arms anymore. After he had told the truth and came clean to everyone, Simon had tried talking to him, but the only thing Tate replied to any of his questions was, "I'm sorry," as he cried. All that Simon could do was hold him and tell him it was okay, that he believed him and they must've eventually fell asleep. The blond boy's head felt heavy as he sat up, looking over at the two kids who were still asleep. He smiled at them and exited the tent.

The light of the sun burned his eyes and he quickly moved a hand up to protect himself from it. A fire was lit up, crippling quietly and Angel was sitting next to it, looking over a bunch of fishes that were being cooked. Simon slowly stepped towards her yawning.

"Are you the only one up?" He whispered just in case the others were asleep.

"Well, when I woke up Tate was coming from back there," Angel replied gesturing towards the left lazily, "He was carrying all theses fishes and he told me that if I cooked them I could eat more than the others," she added with a smile.

Simon let out a small laugh and shook his head, "He bribed you with food... and you let him?" He raised a brow as he looked down at her.

"We'll see who laughs later when I eat two of these and you only get one," she replied smiling arrogantly which only made the boy laugh more.

"Angel... there's two kids in his tent, you're not getting two fishes, count them again, he fooled you..." Simon explained, articulating every word as though he was talking to a toddler.

The girl glanced at the tent just now remembering Tate had adopted two strays before looking back at Simon squinting her eyes.

"Fuck them kids," she said her eyes growing a bit as she fought a smile off of her face.

Simon coughed out at what she had just said and glared at her. He was about to scold her, but she lost the fight against her laughter and exploded. His face dropped and he sighed.

"Where did Tate go after that?" He asked her crossing his arms over his chest.

She stopped laughing all together and smiled, wiggling her brows at him only for her to stop when he furrowed his brows.

"In the same direction he arrived from with the fish... there's a stream of water or something, he might be trying to wash up. I heard Cassie spat in his face," she informed Simon, whispered the last part while she pointed at Cassie's tent. He rolled his eyes and walked away, ignoring how shady she was being.

Simon had been walking around the woods for almost half an hour and had still not found who he was looking for. He wondered how easily Tate had found this stream and then he remembered about his blessing. Now that he was thinking about it a little more, talking to animals wasn't as useless as he initially believed. The man looked at the ground, kicking random sticks out of his way, looking for excuses he would use when coming back to Angel who would judge him for not being able to find Tate. He heard cawing and his head lifted up with a hopeful expression on his face. By now he knew the sound of crows and ravens by heart. They were all over Zeravia and with Tate around he had come to understand why they were even more prominent. He moved quickly, dodging the trees as if he was on a battlefield until he reached the source of the noise. His blue eyes fell on the boy, shoulder deep in a small river, laughing as crows flew around him, diving down dangerously close to him to catch the fish he had thrown up in the air.

He grinned and began to strip, tossing his clothes onto the ground as his feet entered the water and he submerged himself into the river. The other must've not heard him due to the loud cawing and his own laughter. It was the first time in a very long time Simon had been able to sneak up on him. Standing this close he could see the many long scars on Tate's back. From the look of them, they seemed to have been caused by a whip. Simon gulped, the current moving around his waist. The closer he got the more the water raised against his skin and even when he was standing a few feet away, he stood higher than the other was. When he thought he had successfully made his way to the dark haired boy without alerting him, Tate turned around, a knife raised towards him. He jumped when he saw the weapon drawn at his, chest raising his hands up.