Shadow Girl: Book One (OLD)

Chapter Four

I slowly opened my eyes as I woke up. I yawned and rubbed eyes. I stretched, got up, and noticed Lukas wasn't laying beside me or next to me. Panic shot through me. Where was he? I looked behind the boulder and there he was. Breathing faster than normal.

I walked where Lukas was.

"Are you okay?"

Lukas nodded and finally relaxed. "Just a nightmare I had," he said. He let another breath. I placed my hand on him which was on his chest. "It's alright, I'm pretty sure that was a while ago. It'll be alright."

I smiled.

He smiled back.

Lukas got up and he was feeling better.

"We should look for food," Lukas mentioned.

"Good idea," I said, my stomach growling.

As we were walking near the river we saw nothing but trees.

"Your back seems better," I said.

"Yeah, apparently it isn't broken," Lukas said rubbing his back. "But it's a little sore."

"That's better than broken, right?" I nudged him.

Lukas let out a short laugh.

We continued our walk to the river and when we got there, we saw animals drinking water in the shimmering river.

I prepared my bow and arrow, aimed, and fired at a tuxedo rabbit. I hit it straight in the head. I loaded my bow with another arrow and aimed at another rabbit. It struck the rabbit and I went to collect them.

"Let's eat," I said, holding up the rabbits' feet.

Lukas blinked at me. "Alright."

We headed back to our camp and we were going to start a fire. Lukas went out to get wood if there was any, and I was going to skin the rabbits. I got my knife out of my pocket from my jacket and started cutting the first rabbit's fur.

I dragged the knife from the neck down and started tearing off the skin. The blood dripping on my hands. When the skin was off, I was got to the next rabbit and did the same thing.

When I was done skinning the rabbits I started to clean out the inside. I took out the hearts, livers, and all of the guts in there. As I cleaned Lukas came back and I looked up. He blinked seeing the blood and guts in the grass.

"I didn't know you had survival skills."

I raised a brow unamused. I pointed my knife to him. "I do, and do not underestimate me."

Lukas laughed teasingly.

I continued with preparing the rabbits to eat, while Lukas was setting up the fire with dry bark and grass.

When I finished, and Lukas had the fire going, I started cooking the rabbits with pointed sticks through them so we can turn them.

The fire was warm for the cold forest. As I turned the rabbit meat, I all of a sudden remembered last night. The thought made me so flustered I almost dropped the food. My heart was racing I felt hot.

"W-what was the thing last night?" I asked, heart skipping.

Lukas scratched his neck. "I felt like I had someone who cared for me, before."

I tilted my head in confusion. "I'm pretty sure you have a mom and dad who care for you."

He tilted his head down.

"I'm sorry," I said, setting the rabbits down on the rocks to cook.

"It's fine," Lukas replied. "They don't care about me. I was an outcast from my family. They told me to do things that I didn't want to do. I didn't do them and they would say that's how to be successful, and tell me I was a failure."