Blue Blood

Judgment

"C . . . Can I hold your hand?"

"No."

I can't believe this kid, he has no shame. Are all kids like this? This is the first kid I've met since I first met Rody. He was pretty much a saint so I guess this kid is just the devil reincarnated.

Rody frowns and furrows his brows disappointed. I cross my arms and tear my eyes away. God Roman, you're such a softy all the time, be angry for once!

The sky turns orange and red and the sun is almost gone for the day. Rody suggests that we stop for the night but I ignore him and keep walking. I can feel his glare burning a hole through my skull.

"Boy, how much longer."

"I-I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" I bark getting irritated.

"It-it looks different at night, I don't-" his breathing hitches and he starts to breath faster as his eyes get wet.

I ignore him for a few seconds but my worry and shame becomes to much so I kneel down to his height and sigh. I can't believe I'm doing this.

"Look kid, I just want to get you home as fast I can, alright? We have a very important mission going on and you're distracting us." I say pinching the bridge of my nose.

He looks up at me with wet eyes and wipes his tears. His lip quivers making a 'm-m-m-m' sound.

"I . . ." I swallow my pride. "I'm sorry, okay? It's just . . . I'm a little on edge and I don't know how to deal with kids, okay?"

He wipes the rest of his tears and nods taking deep breaths. I stand up and look to Rody. He gives me a smile of approval and I run my fingers through my hair. Sweat, gross but not the worst thing that's been in my hair.

I look to the small boy below me and then glance around the forest area.

"Well, I guess here is as good a place as ever to set up camp."

"We should sleep out under the stars tonight so we can pack up and leave quick in the morning." Rody chimes up.

"I can help look for fire wood." Lukas sniffles.

I guess maybe . . . The kid isn't that bad but I'm still not over the whole 'bandit' thing. I've got my eye on you kid.

"Roman, you stay here and start setting up and Lukas and I will go get some fire wood."

"Uhhhhhhh I mean I'll try. Are you sure you want to go with Lukas?" He questions raising a brow.

"You'll be fine." I reassure walking away with Lukas.

"That doesn't answer my question!" He yells behind me.

I chuckle and keep walking. I point out the sticks we need first and put Lukas in charge of it because he's small weak little peasant boy and can carry small stuff. Because he's small.

He quickly darts around picking up sticks and asking if each individual one is okay.

"Just go with your best judgment." I sigh defeated. Too many questions.

He goes behind a fallen tree leaning down hill and gasps dropping his sticks.

"Hey, you okay?"

No response. I walk over to where he went and nearly gasp myself. A few yards past us a blue dear stares. It's fur is so shiny it's almost glowing. Wait, scratch that, it is glowing.

After a few seconds of staring it starts to walk toward us. I slowly put Lukas behind me just incase and he latches onto my leg. The creature for whatever reason doesn't seem to be afraid and walks right in front of us and stops. It's blue eyes seem to see through my soul. It's antlers are huge and bright white. A blue tongue slips from its mouth and grazes my nose. Slimy and warm. I just look back confused. I have never seen an animal like this.

After licking my nose it walks off and disappears behind the foliage as if it was never there to begin with. Lukas's death grip on my leg ceases and he turns to me.

"What kind of animal is that?"

I stand there still shocked. "I . . . I don't know." I have never been more confused in my life.

Lukas tugs on my sleeve and I look down. "We need more sticks."

I agree and we walk away to look for more wood still shocked by what happened. What was that and why did it lick my nose? Why was it not afraid? Why did I see myself in its eyes?

These thoughts fly around my head as I grab a large branch and snap it in two.

"Woah! You're so strong!"

"Hmm?"

"You just split that giant log in two, that's nuts! Are you some kind of god?"

"Oh what, this? This is nothing, you should see what I can do with a boulder."

His mouth hangs open and his eyes sparkle with amazement. I giggle slightly and pick up the logs and tuck them under my arm all the while Lukas chants "so cool, so cool, so cool." Just then something catches my eye. It would probably be useless for our fire but I feel like showing off a bit.

"Want to see something cool?" I ask with a smirk.

He nods his head ferociously. I walk over to the fallen tree and bend down. It seems sturdy enough and most of its branches have fallen off. It's perfect. I take a deep breath and heave it onto my shoulder. Lukas nearly screams with excitement.

"THATS SO AWESOME!!!"

I flash him a smile and do my best hero pose and he laughs happily. We walk back and Lukas is nearly jumping for joy.

When we get back, camp is set up messily but set up none the less. When Rody sees me carrying the dead tree his eyes kind of gloss over and he stares. Heat creeps up my neck and I set down the tree. He's broken out of his staring when Lukas starts jumping up and down yelling about what happened. Rody smiles and nods and asks a few questions like the wonderful person he is.

"Wow." He says pulling up next to me.

"What?"

"I can't believe your first kiss was with a filthy animal."

My face flushes with heat, "Ah-th-that doesn't count! I didn't kiss it, it just licked my nose!"

"Mhm sure it was." He mocks laughing.

"And it wasn't dirty, it was actually quite clean!"

He laughs more and I try to hide my, most likely, red face. He can be such an ass sometimes!

"Haha I'm just kidding, you know that right?"

I nod still refusing to make eye contact. Lukas yawns loudly and asks, "so, when's the wedding?"

"What." Me and Rody say at the same time.

"Ya know, when you two are getting married, I didn't see a ring yet so I was wondering when the wedding was."

Rody is frozen in place, beat red, and I'm about to explode.

"GO TO BED!"

Lukas bursts into laughter and snuggles into his sleep sack. Rody and I don't say another word for the rest of the night but I can feel him glancing at me every once in awhile during the night. Once the moon rises high into the sky we both head into our sacks and fall asleep. That night, I dream of the dear . . . And one other thing.