The Girl in the Glass

two

Two

Cait and Gideon walked until the sun was high in the sky. Even though Cait had woken up not long before, her body (or was it technically Nova's?) was physically exhausted.

Gideon was tireless though. He seemed to have no end to his supply of energy. When they finally did stop to rest, Cait collapsed onto the ground and dozed in the warm sunlight. Gideon's shadow ruined her happiness.

"There is a town not too far from here. I'm going to get clothes and food. You're going to stay here and be quiet, okay?"

Cait nodded, her eyes staying closed the whole time. "How would you know where the towns are? You're not from around here."

Gideon answered first with silence, then continued on as if she hadn't spoken at all, "If I come back and you're not here, I'm continuing on without you."

Cait nodded again. Then she listened as Gideon walked away. She sat up and opened her eyes as soon as she couldn't hear his footsteps anymore. As much as she wanted to wander around, she was going to take Gideon seriously and wait for him. She waited and waited and when an hour passed she started to get worried.

It was a few minutes later that Gideon came barreling into the clearing, an angry man right behind him.

Cait wasted not a second, and tripped the man as he went past her. On his way down, the man grabbed her ankle and pulled her to the ground with him.

She tried to stand immediately, but the man had a vise like grip on her ankle, no matter how hard she pulled or kicked. It was then that she realized her lack of a plan.

"Nice try, but it's going to take more than a few street thugs to take Ol'Jeb down." He growled.

Jeb's eyed slid from Cait to Gideon, who stood far enough away that the man couldn't reach him. It was in this split second that his eyes weren't on her, that she drew the gun from the prison out of her dress's pocket and aimed it at the man.

It took him a second to realize what she held, but when his eyes focused and his face went slack, he seemed to watch his life flash before his eyes.

"Let me get up." Cait said, her voice trembling only the slightest

Jeb leaned back and let her get to her ankle. She kept her eyes on him the whole time.

A stick snapped somewhere in the forest, and Cait's head snapped that way. A second later something smacked her hands and the gun was gone. Footsteps thudded behind her and when she finally realized that Jeb had used the distraction to steal the gun from her, she also noticed the lack of Gideon behind her.

"Put yer hands up."

When she did, her sleeve slid down and she caught sight of a tattoo that sat just below her wrist bone. It almost looked like black lace but there was an odd web of lightning bolt scars that started at the tips of her fingers and spidered up her wrist and disappeared under her sleeve. She didn't know what it was, but she was certain that it wasn't part of the tattoo. The sight of ink tattooed onto her skin was nearly enough to make her forget that there was a revolver aimed at her head. Nearly.

"A Breeze. No wonder you're fraternizing with a thief." The man spat with distain. "You know what they say about birds of a feather. Scum, more like, in this case."

He pulled the trigger. The gun made a popping sound and Cait brought her hands up to cover her face, although it wouldn't've done much.

The bullet never came.

Cait opened her eyes and dropped her hands.

Jeb stared at the revolver in disbelief. He growled in frustration, threw the gun onto the ground and started to storm closer to Cait.