Travellers

Hunters

It took a lot longer than Amber had expected to repair and rebuild everything that had been damaged and burnt, and she was sure that by the end of all the hard work her hands were going to be covered in newly-formed callouses.  And she was forming a new respect for just how hard the lives of the villagers was.

"I knew that life in this time would be hard," she admitted to Alex, Peter and Miriam that night over their evening meal, "but I never realized that it would be this hard.  I don't know you do it."

Peter gave a chuckle.  "It's our way of life," he said.  "We don't know any different, this is the way it has always been."

"And will continue to be for a very long time," Alex added.

"I really think I've got it easy living in the future.  Pretty much everything gets done for you."

Peter gave a wistful sigh at her words.  "Now doesn't that sound wonderful?  To be able to put up my feet and relax while everything is done for me, my ultimate dream come true."

"Yes," his wife smiled a little dryly.  "And in no time at all, you begin to forget how to work hard, and all your hard muscles would fade away and become soft, as your hard stomach would begin to grow outward in size."  She gave a mischievous grin as she spoke, and the wistful expression on her husband's face disappeared like magic.

"Are you trying to say that I would become fat?" he demanded with fake anger.

Miriam gave a sly smile.  "Of course not, my dear husband.  You came to that conclusion all on your own."

Peter stood up so suddenly in their newly built hut that his chair fell backwards and hit the floor with a thud.  Ignoring the fallen chair, he grabbed hold of his wife's arm and pulled her into his arms, wasting no time in tossing her over his shoulder as if she weighed no more than a small child.

"Peter Faris!  You put me down this instant!"  Miriam's command lost its intended air of authority as the giggles she had been trying to hold back escaped from between her lips.

"I'll show you just how strong and fit I am!" he declared loudly.  Turning to nod goodnight to his brother, who was watching with a look of amusement on his face, and then to Amber who was beginning to turn red at what she knew they were going to be getting up to, he turned and left the room, continuing to rant about how fit he was going to stay.  As soon as they were gone from view, Amber did a repeat of Peter's actions and stood up quickly, causing her chair to fall backwards.  But instead of hearing the thud as it crashed to the ground, Alex's quick reflexes had caught it before it could fall.  Standing the chair back up, he looked up at Amber with a raised eyebrow.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

Amber's head shot up as the sound of Peter's playful roar followed by Miriam's giggles sounded through the hut, despite the slight muffling caused by their closed bedroom door.  Turning red, she turned for the front door without delay.

"Anywhere but here," she muttered, nearly falling over her own feet in her haste to get outside.

Grinning at her reaction, Alex's hand reached out for the front door as Amber continued to clumsily fumble to open it, and pushed it open with one quick shove.  Not waiting to thank him, Amber shot outside, only to grateful to be away from the sounds still lingering in the air of the hut.

"Feel better now?"

Amber shot him a sidelong glance before turning stiffly to look ahead.  "Much."

Alex chuckled as he swung something over his shoulder, and Amber realized that he had grabbed his sword before leaving the hut.

"You didn't need to bring that," she said, pointing at it.  "We're not in danger here."