The Children of the Forgotten

Chapter 8

Tessa walked down the path over to his brother's hospital to pick up her horse Pirate. She took him by the cut reins that she would have to later mend. 

"Perhaps I should have let him bleed out..." She said jokingly, "It will cost me my arm and my leg to pay Jordan for this. 

Tessa jumped on Pirate and started off again. Her saddlebag was squirming, it was filled with ferrets who were anxious to go hunting. Samuel was weighing it down and making the others quite uncomfortable in the small bag. The squeaks of the ferrets trying to shove him out got louder. 

Tessa sighed before pulling Samuel from the bag, his fat rolls smooshed in her hand. 

"What am I going to do with you?" She questioned before putting him atop Pirates head. 

Finally, they had reached the fields, Tessa opened her saddlebag and six ferrets all came hopping out and scurried out into the grass, some started jumping down rabbit holes. 

Tessa sat down under a tree and sighed as she looked at them all, she hated having them hunt so late, there were hawks and owls and other things that could potentially grab them. 

Samuel waddled around in the area of the tree before laying down in the middle of the field, "I should have named you Ferdinand..." Tessa sighed. 

Soon, the rest of the ferrets returned with six rabbits. 

"Good work everyone!" Tessa said before giving them one rabbit to share. 

She never told the townspeople that she gave them one of the bunch because she figured they would be furious had they found out. Samuel looked up at Tessa with sad eyes, since he never participated in the hunt, the other ferrets didn't like to share with him. 

"Okay..." Tessa said, "but I better see you hunt tomorrow!" She said before pulling a ball of cheese from her lunch bag. 

Samuel happily jumped up once, it was truly the only exercise he got. He bit the ball of cheese and rolled on his back. Tessa knew he wasn't gonna hunt tomorrow, he did this every day. 

Later that night Tessa got onto Pirate with the now skinned rabbits, she was late for the feast, every night they would have big community dinners that the whole village would participate in. If you didn't bring something to contribute, you were basically shunned from the dinner. Noah always had an excuse for why he could not attend, mostly the excuses were patients and medical needs, but Tessa knew that he truly just hated all the social interaction. 

When she arrived, Tessa looked up at the huge building for which they were in every night. She grabbed the rabbits and walked inside. 

"Carter..." She growled to herself as she walked in, as she saw the short man.

The dining hall was large with a huge fireplace and a giant "Contribution basket" that everyone swore could never be empty, though somehow Carter persuaded everyone into bringing far more than expected of them. 

"Well, well, well, If it isn't the rebel," Carter said as he turned to Tessa. 

"I could have sworn I banished you from this place..." He sighed to himself.

"Not from dinner..." Tessa said as she looked down at the ignorant man, "Besides, I brought your rabbits, do you want them or not..." She queried before throwing them into the basket and walking on, making Carter grumble as he walked back to the door.

"You made me lose my goat." Tessa overheard Lonnie grumbling

"Hmm, I somehow don't feel any sympathy," Wade remarked as he dug into his food. 

"Carter went and took not just my goat, but my oven, and my chicken's eggs, not the chicken, the eggs!" Lonnie said before slamming his hand onto the table. 

"You got what was coming to you!" Wade screamed before slamming his hand onto a bowl of mashed potatoes, accidentally launching it at Lonnie's face.

 Lonnie growled before throwing his hot soup at wade, causing Wade to scream in pain. Both lunged at each other as the dining hall erupted into chaos.

"FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!" Jordan started, others began to join in. 

"I am starting to see why my brother elects not to attend these insufferable things anymore....."