Why Should I Tell You Anything? COMPLETED

The Third Story

I sit at the kitchen island watching Shiloh struggle to wrap a box with parchment paper. His eyes narrow with concentration as he folds the paper to get it to stay. "Every year I have problems with this..." Shiloh mumbles before managing to make the paper stick. "You would think I've learned by now but I haven't." He laughs briefly before glancing up at me with shining eyes.

"Do you know how to wrap gifts?" he asks curiously.

I shrug, "I never really tried it. I always used a bag to play it safe."

Shiloh nods before returning to the box. "This is Adrien's gift. He wanted a new medicine book from the market. We were on one of our outings and this book caught his eye." Shiloh begins to smile warmly, "I haven't seen his eyes light up since Tressa died... He really wanted the book but the Guard started chasing us and we got distracted. We tried to come back for it but the shop had moved and we couldn't find it again."

"How did you get it?" I ask curiously, tilting my head at him.
"Pulled a few strings," Shiloh answers nonchalantly, "I tracked down the shopkeeper and managed to grab one of his copies."

Brief doubt shadows my view on his sweet act. He stole it? "Oh, uh interesting," I answer lightly, not wanting to sour the mood with accusations. I haven't felt so relaxed since that fateful night.

"Gideon's gift is a knife sharpener and a fluffy animal," Shiloh continues without missing a beat. Shiloh sticks the paper down before picking up a mess of red ribbons and untangling a single strand to tie around the box. "He lost his old one and has been using our's so it's just something he needs."

"A fluffy animal?"

"It's what it translates to," Shiloh answers brightly. "It's a Borf. It looks like a kitten but with round ears and a longer tail. A fluffy animal is made of fur and cloth with glass spheres for the eyes. They are rare and usually kept for noble children but Gideon has always had a love for them."

"So like a stuffed animal?" I ask curiously, feeling my heart swell with fuzziness. Gideon loves stuffed animals? How did I not notice...?

"Exactly!"

"So... does he have other ones...?"
"Oh yeah, a whole bunch of them," Shiloh answers easily. "He's just hiding them in the fort. He didn't want you to see them." Shiloh slowly looks up with an apologetic look. "He said I wasn't supposed to tell you."

I smile back at him before shaking my head. "It's fine, I won't tell."

Shiloh nods before tying off the strand and trying to shove the bunch of ribbons under the single strand. "They are actually more sensitive than they think. They see it as weakness, and here, weakness equals death. However, they're more fun when they're relaxed. I hope you get to see more of that."

"Me too..." I admit quietly. "At least... I was terrified of them. I thought they were going to slit my throat at any given moment... one wrong step and it'd be over. The way everything seemed...It was so confusing."

"I'm sorry for making them do that," Shiloh apologizes sadly. "Though most of it was their own feelings, the extreme parts were because of me. We just..."

"I understand, don't worry about it," I answer easily. "You were just worried I was dangerous. It's fine."

"I did see something," Shiloh sighs as he finally meets my gaze. "I saw something before we met you... something weird."

"What was it?"

Shiloh's eyes soften, "It's nothing you need to know."

I begin to frown, "Is it anything bad?"