IVORY | Carl Grimes

ten - bestrew ;

saskia's feet remained posed delicately upon the weeds towering over the dirt of the ground. her daft fingers toyed with the fraying edge of her bow string and with each pull, her eyes scanned the surrounding area. deep into the woods, the light from above was masked by the enormous trees with limbs hanging over the young hunter eerily, but she barely even noticed their effect.

daryl fiddled with the great mechanism, the cross brow, secured in his hands. his quiet stance, mastered over many years, moved forward carefully with timid steps making a noise less noticeable than the pale leaves free falling to the ground from high above.

the dixon had been reluctant to let the new girl come with him on a hunt. he had no desire to act as a babysitter for her or even begin to teach her in any way. however, much to his pleasant surprise, her skill was certainly something of a marvel. her focus was unbreakable, and the girl's aim impressed even him.

she had not begged to come along, either. saskia has simply requested it and sat by with her quiet patience and waited for his answer. daryl surprised even himself by agreeing to allow her to come along with him, but he decided that he needed to get to know the girl better to fully accept her being a part of the group. he knew that her supposed innocence, or lack thereof, could simply be a facade. his group deserved to be safe, and this is one way daryl could ensure that, by spending time with the girl to see if she would flip. he doubted it, sure, but it was not enough.

ergo, the hunting trip had been successful in that way, however, they had not managed to catch anything. the hunger pains riddling the group would persist. what saskia had decided was worse, though, was that her tongue felt as though sand paper had been forced upon it. her throat was parched, and she was not alone in saying she was desperate for even the smallest droplet of liquid, preferably water.

saskia scuffed her shoe against the hard grain of the gravel road beneath. a stray pebble had found itself in her path, and the girl kicked it ahead, forming a game of soccer of some sort. after turning backwards upon hearing the noise, carl soon joined in on the fun. the pebble was a decent size and the sun caught it's color in the light as it flew the air in front of the teenager's eyes.

"did you play soccer?" carl inquired with a smirk on his face as she nailed a kick back to him, "before all of this?"

"nah," saskia blew the question off with a wave of her hand and she repositioned herself to catch the rock on the edge of her foot as carl sent it back to her, "you?"

"yeah," carl admitted. after a moment, he laughed a little bit, "wasn't very good though."

saskia hummed in response and found herself smiling at the friendly boy. not a wide smile that could brighten the universe, no. it was a small one, barely noticeable as it graced saskia's face, but it didn't needed to brighten the whole universe, as it was only meant for carl. the small part of her universe that felt so much greater in that moment.