Spirit Animals: Saving The Evertree

In Your Care

The first thing Rollan noticed when he woke was a wet sticky tongue licking his face. It was uncomfortably warm. He tried to push it away but the thing grunted. The second thing he noticed was it was dark. Only a fire light the night sky.

"Rollan?" A voice asked putting a hand on his shoulder. Meilin was sitting next to him while petting Jhi who was cuddled up on the other side of him licking his lower leg. He winced. It hurt.

"Rollan, your up." Said another voice from beyond Jhi. Tasha's long white-blonde hair was in a braid and swept to one side. She looked worried.

"Yeah." He mumbled sitting up. His leg stung with pain.

"Careful." Meilin said readjusting a bloody cloth on his leg. "Don't move too much."

"What happened?" He asked looking from Meilin to Tasha to Conner, who was on the other side of the fire with Briggan snuggled next to him.

"You were shot." He replied. His expression hidden by the fire.

"What?" He was shot? That's why his leg hurts.

"Someone shot you then fled." Meilin said pouring water on the bloody cloth wrapped around his leg  soaking blood. It felt cool and stopped the pain for s while. "Here." She said handing him a pack to use as a pillow. He took it and leaned against it still upright.

"Who was it?" He asked wondering who would shot him. He could think of his many enemies right now.

"We don't know. He fled before we could find out. We only have this arrow as evidence." She said holding up a bloody stone tipped arrow with a wooden shaft and dull brown feathers.

"Where are the others?"

"They left." Meilin said simply pointing to the hole leading to the cavern and throwing the arrow in front of the fire.

Rollan turned to Tasha. "I thought you were going with them."

"I was. But then you got hurt so I stayed." She replied.
Rollan tried his best not to look disappointed. He was looking forward to just being with Meilin and Conner not having to worry about anyone else. He wanted to talk to the people he knew he could trust. No suck luck.

"Oh." He said picking at the edge of the cloth. Meilin slapped his hand away.

"Don't pick at it." She snapped. "You don't know how long it took to get it on."She glared at him and for some reason he grinned. How he missed it.

"What?" Meilin demanded.

"Nothing." He said saucily.

Meilin's eyes narrowed. She looked like she was going to slap him but she didn't. She just closed the canteen of water and set it aside. She took another sack and pulled a strip of what looked like dried meat out. She bit a chunk of and chewed.

"Thank goodness Shane had food." She said savoring the meat.
She was probably talking about the supplies from Shane's ship. Rollan watched her with curiosity. She had cleaned herself up. Not as much dirt clung to her shirt and hair. Her face was clean, and her hair tied back. She looked...beautiful.

Not until Tasha cleared her throat did he realize he was  staring. Meilin turned at the sound just in time to see him blush. She didn't seem to notice though and handed him a piece of dried jerky.

"Thanks." He said suddenly.

"Oh, no problem. The food was for all of us." She said confused and turned back to ripping pieces of jerky apart.

"No, thanks for taking care of me."

She blushed turning to him. "We're the four fallen." She said smiling. "We take care of each other."

"Your always been taking care of me." He said remembering when he had sunset death.

"You needed it." She said, cheeks still warm.

"Just wanted to thank you." He said with a grin.

She slapped him lightly across the cheek. "You haven't changed a bit." She said and grinned back continuing to working with the food.

Rollan closed his eyes and smiled as he drifted to sleep.