Floating Stars

Chapter 12: Family Ties

The air within Strelle Forest was still. Surrounded by nature's warm colours and the gentle humming of birdsong. True and Astrid strolled through the trees. With a blissful sigh, Astrid gently swayed the basket that she took from the kitchen table that morning back and forth in her hands.

Naomi had sent them out to forage for berries, to keep them busy. She never failed to find jobs for them to do, even after all the time they had been living with her. She would send them out amongst the trees to chop firewood, collect honey, fish in the lake and forage for berries and sometimes mushrooms. As long as they stayed within the boundaries of her protected land, she would trust them with such tasks.

"And what must you remember?" she would ask them.

"Do not stray past your marking posts," they would chant back in stereo.

"Or?" she'll then press.

"...Or the Emeralds may see us and take us."

"And we don't want that, do we?" This question, Naomi asked, would be the last line of that little rehearsed routine. She went through it with them for her own piece of mind, rather than for their benefit. They would then follow it by giving her a smile and a wave before exiting the door with enthusiasm, ready to get started.

Weeks turned to months, and in a blink of an eye, those months turned into three years. Astrid was now a teenager and True had recently reached his sixteenth birthday. The two of them were eager to help Naomi. They wanted to show their gratitude towards her for accepting them so quickly into her loving home. Foraging was also their favourite job to do - it gave them an excuse to explore the forest together. They enjoyed each other's company so much and appreciated that time where it was just them two.

"True?" Astrid asked her companion as she reached towards a blackberry bush.

"Yes, my Astrid?"

"I know we renamed each other, and I would never want to see you as anything but "True", but I just wanted to ask you..." Astrid's words fizzled out as a shyness crept into her mind. Chewing on her lower lip, she picked a few berries off their small branches and dropped them into her basket.

"Ask me what?" True pressed her whilst joining her at the same bush and adding ripe blackberries to the stash that Astrid had started to build up.

"I erm, I never usually think to ask people this because I never..." Astrid couldn't bring herself to look at True, the irrational embarrassment that she felt made her wish the ground would swallow her up.

"What is it?"

The timid dark-haired lass searched the forest floor for the right words to say but she couldn't think straight anymore. She just carried on picking the berries, her hands moving faster and clumsier.

"Astrid?"

"No, it doesn't matter, don't, ouch!" A thorn nipped at the end of her finger and a drop of blood fell onto the leaves directly below it. She hissed through her teeth as it stung and she popped her wounded finger into her mouth.

"Come here, stop for a second." True put his arm around her slumped shoulders and guided her to a large, moss-covered boulder that lay a few yards from where they were harvesting fruit. They sat down together. True took the basket from his friend's grasp and placed it beside him- out of the way.

"Now, what is it? You can ask me anything, Astrid." He smiled down at her, sending silent encouragement her way through his affectionate gaze. Astrid took her sore finger out of her mouth and analysed it, made sure that the shallow cut stopped bleeding, then started speaking, "I never had a family, so no family trade, I've only ever been an Emerald." An uncomfortable heat prickled at the tops of Astrid's ears.