The Bird and The Fish

TBTF, Part 18: Cancelled Plans and Broken Trust

(Tangaroa pov. About a half an hour time skip. Tangaroa is still very much flustered from Part 17)

The other three got here about ten minutes ago to talk about how we're going to tell everyone that she isn't dead. Arvid suggested that we just walk into the camp and let word spread to the higher ups. Zahra said that's not a good idea because... I forgot. I wasn't paying much attention.

Well, I wasn't paying attention mostly because Arvid got me some bigger clothes to change into. I went behind a nearby tree to change into them, so I didn't catch a lot of their conversation.

The clothes Arvid got me are similar to the ones I had on before, just a bit bigger so they actually fit. I walk back over to them once I change, sitting back down on my bedroll next to Zahra.

"What'd I miss?" I ask, wanting to know of they came up with anything. "Nothing much," Zahra says, over my new outfit before looking away. "We did come up with a plan, though."

"Basically, Casper, Alouette, and I will go over to Kriace, telling him that we found you and her in the woods," Arvid explains. "We'll just tell him that you helped her while she was missing, so we wanted to bring you along to get an award, blah blah blah. Once we explain everything, we bring you and her to see him. We'll just make it up as we go after that."

"Making it up as we go is a surefire way to get your ass into something you can't get out of," Zahra sighs, clearly annoyed by his vague explanation for what we're going to do. "Kriace knows when someone's bullshitting their way out of something, so there's a good chance we'll get caught in our lie."

"You have a point," Casper agrees, "but it's really the only way we can actually do this without seeming suspicious. And if we do get caught, you two most likely wouldn't get in trouble since it'll seem like we haven't talked about this with you."

"Fine," she relents, clearly not in the mood to argue with him. "Just make sure neither of us get dragged into whatever trouble you weasel your way into."

"Alright, now that we have that out of the way, are we just going to ignore the very obvious tension between you two?" Arvid speaks up, glancing between Casper and Zahra. "Both of you still seem pretty salty about what happened at the cave."

The both of them stay silent, seemingly uncomfortable with the questioning.

"I'm not upset about you coming to find me," Zahra says finally. "I'm glad you cared about me enough to make an effort of getting me back. I'm salty because you jumped to conclusions and nearly killed Tangaroa," she adds, glancing pointedly at Arvid.

"I apologize for jumping to conclusions so quickly," Casper mumbles, avoiding her hard gaze. "Now kiss and make up," Arvid teases, earning him collective glares from the rest of us. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry."

"Anyway," Alouette interjects, "when are we going to go through with the plan?"

"Whenever, really," Casper shrugs, looking around at the group. "There isn't really an established time, so we can go now, if you guys want to." The group nod their agreements, and Casper, Arvid, and Alouette set off to do the first part of the plan that we discussed.

Zahra suddenly stops them from leaving, pressing a finger to her lips to signal for them to be quiet. In a few moments, the sound of footsteps is heard approaching our hiding spot, along with the sound of voices.

"... tried everything we could, but we couldn't get her on the right course," a voice comes. "You should've tried harder," another, more gruff voice says, sounding irritated about something. "I've had to break my ass for your damn mistake."

"It's not our fault," the first voice protests. "Our scouts couldn't have seen the sudden wind coming no matter how much we prepared. And the arrows you made us fire just made it more difficult to capture her."

"All I've asked of you in the last nineteen years is to find and kill the girl," the second voice growls. "And you failed every time I've given you the opportunity."

"You're not listening, Kriace," the first voice snaps back. "We sent out a troop to see if we can find her in the section of the woods she landed in. We didn't find a single trace of her."

"Then your job here is done, Westburrow," the second voice, now known as Kriace, replies with a sigh. "Yes sir."

The voices and footsteps fade away once they're done talking, leaving us in a stunned silence. To be honest, I don't know much about what they said, but I do know it had something to do with Zahra.

I glance over at her, noticing the same far-off look in her eye from when she caught the deer a few days ago. "Zahra?" I speak up hesitantly, placing a careful hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

She flinches away from my touch, staring at me like a cornered fish about to be captured. "Are you alright?" I ask gently, concern evident in my tone. She shakes her head in response, her bottom lip trembling from unreleased tears.

"Hug?" Without any hesitation, she practically tackles me to the ground, her body trembling from the emotions she's trying desperately to hide.

"Maybe we should go," Alouette speaks up after being quiet for the majority of her time here. "Agreed," Arvid says, gesturing for Casper to go along with them.

Casper reluctantly follows behind the two, giving one last worried glance over his shoulder before taking off after the others.