Cursed

Melancholy Hill

Its only when the sun dips low in the sky Eir and I begin walking back up the slope towards camp.

"I can't believe you spend every day just walking about." she sighs, bemused

"why not?"

"it's just weird."

"hey" I laugh nocking into her side and earning a rare chuckle

"hhmmm, well I don't know how I feel about it"

"why not?"

Eir suddenly stops raising a finger to her lips, silencing me.

above us to the right there's movement.

Eir touches my arm for me to stay still then pulling her cross bow from it sheath begins to creep upward. she pauses, perfectly still and I feel a chill run down my spine. What if they've found us.

then whatever it is moves again and I see two twitching brown ears, it's a rabbit, Eir doesn't know, she'll kill it.

"Eir" I whisper "it's a rabbit" she glances at me and I can tell that she already knew. she brings her finger to her lips again scowling at me to shut up. carefully she loads the bow. she Knows it's a rabbit and she's going to kill it anyway.

she begins to draw back her tongue jammed between her teeth. I feel my pulse rise,

"Don't!"

the rabbit's black eyes flick to me and it leaps into the undergrowth, Eir's arrow twanging metallically against a rock precisely where the rabbit was moment before.

As soon a I shout I know it was a mistake. within seconds Eir has grabbed onto the fabric of my t-shirt.

"What the hell!" she cries little bits of her spit hitting my face, "What the Hell Nova! why'd you do that?!"

For a second I think she's about to hit me,

"that could have been our dinner" she steps away from me pulling the elastic from her hair and combing it through with her fingers.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I just-" she turns to me looking disgusted at the tears that have burst from my eyes.

"you just what?" she fumes

"I didn't want it to die-"

"everything dies!" she yells and I feel more tears sting my cheeks.

Eir looks at me a combination of Anger and fear? then she raises one hand and slaps me across the face making little spots of light appear in my vision and reminding me that for all her soft edges she was a soldier and below her ill-fitting muscles hard as steel and a short temper.

When my vision returns to normal I can see Eir clearly again and to my surprise she's crying.

"are you-" I start, but before I can finish she's turned and disappeared over the hills summit.

Eir has always been stern but never, never has she laid a finger on me nor have I ever seen her cry.

without even trying to prevent myself from crying I sink down into the grass and begin to feel my face become hot, just like it always does when I cry.

I'm not a pretty crier and within minutes my face is smeared with tears and mucus and my jaw hurts.

by the time I've stopped crying there's only a slim beam of pink light on the horizon and the air is filled with bugs. using the last mouthful of water, I wash my face as best I can and begin to jog uphill.

when I reach the hills peak I can see smoke rising from the cave and Eir is silhouetted against the dark but before I can keep walking my legs give way, part out of exhaustion but mostly out of worry.

all around me little bugs are chirping and a cool wind is picking up. I bunch my hands into fists and tuck my head into my body feeling my breath, warm on my chest. maybe I could just stay here. If I stay long enough I might turn to stone like the giants in old fairy tales, wouldn't that be perfect.

A/N don't worry I saved the bunny!

this is possibly my shortest chapter yet oops, I might update again tonight though if I briefly spell check the next part.