Tomorrow's Way

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

“Nice shot.”

Seraphine smirked when her arrow struck the rabbit in the head. She had missed its eye by a few inches, but it was close enough to kill it swiftly. Oliver went to fetch the rabbit and attach it to his belt, leaving Seraphine standing awkwardly next to Adam.

He hadn’t wanted her to come when Oliver proposed the idea that morning. Samuel thought it was a brilliant idea and shoved a bow into Seraphine’s hand before Adam could argue any further. He wasn’t very pleasant to be around after that.

Adam didn’t look at her much throughout the trip. Seraphine wasn’t sure what she had done to make him dislike her so much, but she didn’t try and convince him otherwise. If he wanted to hate her, then she wasn’t going to tell him otherwise.

“We can probably head back now. We’ve got enough for a few days if it doesn’t spoil.” Oliver, on the other hand, seemed to like Seraphine, as far as she could tell. He was nice enough to her, only occasionally slipping in teasing remarks about her run in with the wolves. Barely a day spent (conscious, at least) with him and he was already teasing her.

“Did I pass?” Seraphine asked after Adam was ahead of Oliver and her. He chuckled, shrugging his shoulders.

“I’d say that you do. I don’t think Grumpy up there would agree.” Oliver joked, nodding his head towards Adam. Seraphine nodded, sliding her hands into the pockets of her trousers. Luckily they hadn’t thrown her clothes out. She felt much more comfortable in her own clothes than in Juliette’s old dresses.

The trio walked the rest of the way back to camp in silence. Adam was in front, leading the way through the rough terrain of the forest. Oliver and Seraphine followed behind him, standing next to each other but not talking. They didn’t have anything to talk about, so they walked in silence.

“There they are!” Came the bellowing voice of Samuel once they finally reached the camp with their game for that morning. The rest of the group was busy preparing their meal or gathering wood to notice.

Oliver had explained to her the rest of the daily schedule for the group while they were hunting. It seemed odd to Seraphine to have such a precise routine, but she thought it would be good for her to get out of her box a little.

Their day consisted of mainly eating and ‘training’, as Oliver called it. He still didn’t explain to her what exactly that was, but told her she would see after breakfast when they had their first training session.

After breakfast and a training session, they ate lunch around whatever makeshift campfire they had built at that campsite. The girls made the food and the boys collected water from a nearby stream or river for them to drink.

After lunch, their training resumed again. Then came dinner, and finally the day was over. The younger kids chased after each other and played games until they grew tired, and the older ones talked amongst themselves or retreated to solidarity until the sun set. It seemed awfully repetitive and pointless to Seraphine, but she told herself not to judge until she had actually gone through an entire day.

Shortly after they returned from hunting, the entire group sat down to eat breakfast together. It was just like supper the night before, all of them sitting around the campfire. Seraphine was in the same spot, in between Theo and Oliver. Alice, however, had decided to move from her spot next to Samuel and take up a spot on Oliver’s lap. He had his arms around her as he ate.

“I like your hair.” Alice told Seraphine, a grin lighting up her face. She giggled when Seraphine looked at her.

“Thanks.” Seraphine told her, returning a less enthusiastic smile. She fingered her dark hair, thankful that she had been able to return it to its normal braid. It was lucky that they had given her clothes back. Samuel had argued, claiming that he was very old fashioned and that ladies should wear dresses, not trousers. Seraphine said that she didn’t care; trousers were more practical.