Through The Storm

f i v e

I awoke to the sound of birds chirping and the little stream outside gushing gaily. A hesitant breeze floated in through the hollowed windows in the hut walls, caressing my flushed cheeks. 

I'd had a nightmare.

The Royal Guard was here for Blake, in the dream. And he had suffered the same fate as Rose- except this time, I was helpless. I couldn't move, I couldn't scream, I couldn't reach out to him, I couldn't speak... I couldn't help him.

I just had to watch: invisible, lurking, crumbling as my innocent little brother paid for the crimes that I had chosen to commit. 

But it was dawn now, and the demons of the night had faded away... if only temporarily. Blake slept soundly in his corner of the hut, little puffs of breath escaping his lips from time to time. There was a furrow in between his brows that made me wonder what he was dreaming of.

I tossed off my covers and padded over to him. Gently kneeling down beside him, I started running my fingers through his hair slowly. Today was the single day he got off from Education, and I was glad for it. I had to speak to him about a lot of things. 

A shadow seemed to cast itself over my mind as I remembered Kaya. I did not know where she was now. I could only hope that she had the good sense to hide and stay hidden until the men left. But I had no way of being sure. I hoped she was safe. 

A few minutes later, I got up to arrange a substantial breakfast for the both of us. Kaya had interrupted my hunting, of course, so we were dangerously low on supplies. Our diet was almost completely meat-based, and Blake would not even consider switching it up. Sighing heavily at this hindering turn of events, I headed out of the hut to where I hung up the game after I hunted it. A flimsy, unimpressive structure of wood stood in the shadows of our hut. Inside, there was just a deer left- and a skinny one at that. Its meat wouldn't even pull us through the day. 

Yanking the deer along, I dragged it back to my hut. As I began to skin it and roast it over an open flame, Blake stirred. 

"Good morning, Blakey," I said, smiling at him. 

He grinned at me sleepily, sitting up on his elbows. "What did you hunt yesterday? I'm so hungry, I could do with some hare meat."

My smile faded. "I'm so very sorry Blake, but I couldn't hunt..." I trailed off. I had hoped not to bring Kaya up until we found a truly private enclosure for both of us to talk about last night's happenings. "You know why that is," I added in a whisper.

Blake's eyes widened. "Oh yes I do," he said. My smart boy knew he wasn't supposed to talk about it if I didn't.

The deer turned out to be quite filling, if not as scrumptious as I had intended for it to be. As impatient as Blake was, I could not cook it to the maximum without him jostling my arms every few seconds as I roasted it over the flame. 

At the end of his meal, Blake wiped the grease off his hands on the dung-baked floor and looked up at me, focused. "You have that look in your eyes," he muttered, rolling his eyes. 

I looked at him, startled. "What look?" I asked defensively. 

"The one where you're about to say something really boring, and you want me to be paying attention."

I scowled at him. "I'm assuming you mean 'serious', instead of 'boring', yes?" 

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know, it's all the same to me."

"Blake-" I started, getting annoyed.

"Hey, calm down," he said, laughing a little and holding his hands up in the air. "I was only joking. I know what you're going to talk about, and I know it's serious."