Life on the Neverside

Chapter Six

Disclaimer: Hey! Guess what? I got the rights to WvA! Oh wait... false alarm. Not me.

Tom was walking very loudly, Lexi thought. Every step he made seemed to crack a few twigs under his feet and he didn't seem to hear it or try to walk quietly. She didn't want to jeopardize their already tenuous relationship by challenging him, despite the fact they were sworn enemies. Now she was technically biologically human, Tom could harm her with magic. Not that she thought he would, but spending the next few weeks with someone who hated you wouldn't be fun. Let alone - gulp - years.

Tom had made good on his promise to help her search for Varg. And, not that Lexi would ever admit it, searching with Tom was a lot better than searching alone by herself. She wasn't a superstitious person - Nekross didn't have fears - but there was just something about the forest that gave her the creeps.

Tom gave a loud cough, frightening away several birds in the trees above. Lexi rolled her eyes in exasperation. If they were hunting right now, they would be going hungry that night. Lexi was carrying her bow and arrows tied to her back, but that was just a precaution. It felt right somehow, holding a bow again. Nekross technology like ray guns and teleports were all well and good, but Lexi sometimes missed hunting like the old days. Just her and her brother, hunting with bow tensed and arrows ready, stalking through the forest. It was sport of a kind.

"Any sign of Varg yet?" Tom asked loudly in her direction.

"No," answered Lexi monotonously. She wasn't in the mood to talk at the moment.

"Do you think -"

"I am not one to make uneducated assumptions," cut in Lexi tersely.

Tom fell silent, following her through the trees. Lexi looked around quickly, hearing something, a rustle in the undergrowth, that wasn't natural. There was just bushes in her view.

"Varg?" she asked quietly to the bush. The bush, being a bush, didn't give much indication of anyone's presence.

"I don't think it's -" said Tom.

"I know! I know, all right?" Lexi cut in again, loudly. Louder than she had intended, actually. "I know it's not Varg. I know he's probably been here a hundred years already and his bones are lying in a ditch somewhere. I know I'm stupid to think we'll find him and we'll just go home, just like that."

"Lexi -" started Tom for the third time, but Lexi was in no mood to let him finish. She heard the rustle again in the bush and pulled back an arrow, shooting quickly into the bush without looking. An odd type of bird fell out of the undergrowth. It appeared to have three legs and a large beak with goggly eyes. Tom was staring at it, his eyes wide. But Lexi wasn't really concentrating on her kill, despite the fact it was the first hunt she had done for six years.

"Whoa," Tom said in apparent shock.

"Look, not Varg," said Lexi bitterly. "You were right. Clever wizard, you got it right."

"Lexi, please -" begun Tom for the fourth time.

But Lexi was already walking away.