Savored Poison

Finished

It had been days since Shanik and I had talked one on one. Ever since the day shopping we were quieter, instead we would talk to Jeremy or Makala to fill the silence. Then when we went back onto traveling I would get back onto his back and try not to get him unfocused. I kept my thoughts away from him.. or us and instead pondered on the life in the forest.

Since this was my new home I realized that I needed to get to know my surroundings. I also needed to find sources of food; berries as soon as spring started, any deer or elk, of course water too. It was the only thing that I could do for the others, they were busy running to the safest place in order to hide so they probably didn't have time to think of food sources.

Besides, our rations were down anyways. Give it a few more days and then we would have to go into another city for supplies or we'd have to hunt... well, they'd do the hunting. Instead I might just be able to set a few snares, that was one of my specialties. But with most of the animals going into hiding and struggling to find resources themselves I doubt we'd catch one. 

It was about an hour later that we stopped again, everyone was panting before they shifted into their human forms. Sweat gleamed off of Shanik's face and yet it was -40 degrees outside. I must be really heavy, I thought to myself as I started to walk around, getting used to stretching out my muscles.

"This is it" Shanik said, "Thank fucking god" falling to his knees he pulled the hair to his face and looked up at the sky. Makala and Jeremy raised their eyebrows, then laughed.

"She did it?" Makala asked, joining Shanik on the ground.

"Yeah" He breathed, "she did it"

Very confused I decided to cut in, "What did who do?" They looked at me, smiling among each other.

"We have an inside connection to Maliki's forces... well some of them" Makala answered, "her name is Katherine, she's a very special friend of ours. A few days ago we managed to get a hold of her, she's... she's what humans would call a warlock, kind of. But anyways, we asked her if she could do us a favor. For one of her spells she can create a secret hideaway that's right in the open. So nobody can come near us, nobody can enter this bubble except for us and Katherine herself; being because she made the spell in the first place"

I furrowed my eyebrows, "How big is it?" They shrugged.

"It's about a mile long, that's what we asked of her. After all; we need to be able to hunt and move around or else our TRUE FORM will become anxious" Shanik said, staring at the floor.

Turning away I didn't bother saying anything else, I didn't need to. Shanik was getting on my nerves. He acted like he loved me one minute and then hates me the next. Did he want me here or not?

I took a breath, maybe I should just leave, it's not like I was much use anyways, I was nothing compared to them...

Suddenly I was grabbed from behind, all I saw was the blur of a figure before I was dragged to a different part of the forest. Blends of color flew past me until I gained my footing again, we had stopped.

 Looking up I saw Shanik standing in front of me, he had bags under his eyes and looked like he was going to faint.

"Shit" I murmured, trying to help steady him.

"Stop" Shanik said as I tried to make him sit down, "stop!" He said again.

I froze, why did he make me come here? He was on the brink of collapsing and decided to come here of all places. He was just wasting energy.

"Look at me" he whispered, suddenly making me feel like the smallest thing on the planet. "Please look at me" his voice quivered, making me flinch.