The Hunting

Chapter 23

I yawned as I stood up to take another short walk. I am exhausted. We have only been on the watch for a very short amount of time. We occupied ourselves by putting out the campfire. That didn't last very long though. Jaiver, who has been doing little to cure my boredom was watching me as I walked around. I want to sleep. After a few minutes of walking around, I plopped back down on the ground near Jaiver. I looked at him menacingly, "I swear if you do not engage me in some sort of conversation I will scream."

He chuckled lightly looking at me, "Alright then, what do you want to talk about?"

I shrugged, "Anything really. I just cannot sit in silence any longer. Do you have any ideas?"

He sat for a second and tried to think of something, then it came to him, "I know, how about we get to know each other better."

I raised my eyebrows at him, "Okay, how are we going to do that?"

"Well, we could ask each other questions. Something that you're good at doing."

I glared at him, "Well that's rude."

"Am I lying?"

I sighed, "No."

He let out a quick snort. "Alright, so I guess I'll start. How old are you?"

"18. You?"

"22."

"Wow, you're old."

"And you are young. Let's keep going."

After a while of back and forth questions, I have learned a lot of things about Jaiver and the other hunters, I wanted to know more. So far, I know that his favorite meat is rabbit, his weapon of choice is a dagger, he loves the forest, his closest friend is Calum. Also, I heard the rest of the hunters' most embarrassing stories, with the exception of the person telling it. I learned that Remmington is older than the rest of the hunters and Jaiver looked up to him. I tried to question him more about this Remmington guy, but he closed up as I tried to get more information. He learned a lot of things about me as well. He learned I love to eat elk, obviously, my favorite weapon is a bow and arrows, I love the forest as well. He also learned Nate's most embarrassing moment. It was Javier's turn to ask a question. He paused thoughtfully, "What is the significance of your necklace?"

I looked down at my necklace to see it hanging around my neck. How do I respond to this? I stayed quiet for a second thinking of a response, "It's from a person very close to me that's no longer around. It was their necklace and now it's mine."

He nodded solemnly, "Yeah, I think we all have something like that." He took off his boot and shimmied out what looked like a ring. It was gold, something that is rarely seen nowadays. You only see precious metals like this through things that have been passed on throughout generations. He held it out to me so I could take it in my hand. I looked at it, it was a fairly big ring. It looked like it would fit a man's hand. After a minute of looking at it, I handed it back to him with a smile. He took it back gingerly and continued, "I put it in my shoe because it is the safest place I know."

"What else do you have in there?" I questioningly joked.

He chuckled, "You don't want to know. What do you have in your shoes?"

The smile went off my face as I realized that in my boot I had the knife that my friends gave me, that Nate gave me. The knife that none of the hunters found when the took all my weapons back at the beginning. I had to respond, "Nothing, I don't have anything of value, not in my boots, not in my pockets."

He shook his head in disagreement, "I don't think that's true."

I looked at him with my eyebrows raised, "Really how so?"

Jaiver looked at me with an unreadable expression. He spoke, "You have your wits, you have your strength, and most importantly you have us. You are valuable. That's why none of us want to let you go. Why I don't want to let you go."

I stared at him, eyes wide. It took me a little bit to formulate a response, "What is with that response?"

He shrugged. Typical! Typical Jaiver. He says something like that and then closes up. What is up with him? I shook my head. It's about time we wake Calum and Pietra up. I stood up, brushing off the dirt from my legs. I looked down at him, "We should go wake them up."

Jaiver nodded in response and stood up. We walked over to where Calum and Pietra were sleeping. As I expected, they were sleeping together. I whispered, "I'm afraid that if I try to wake up Pietra she will stab me, so I will leave that job to you."

He chuckled quietly, "Pietra acts tough, but she is a big softie."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

We didn't share another word as we went to wake them up. I tapped Calum on the shoulder. "Calum, it's time for you to watch."

He groaned as he opened his eyes. He stood up with a stretch. I heard Pietra mumble something behind me. I turned around as she stood up. Without a word, Calum nodded towards Jaiver and me and walked off with Pietra by his side. I plopped down onto Pietra's bedroll. I quickly got comfortable as I heard Jaiver shuffle behind me, I rolled around to see Jaiver pull his bedroll away from mine. I think he heard me shuffle around. He laid down as his bedroll as he whispered, "I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

I muttered a quick thank you as I snuggled deeper into the bedroll. I am so tired. I am ready to sleep. My eyelids felt heavy as they closed shut. Luckily, I didn't have to hope for sleep much longer.