Waiting For Sunrise - The Books Of Beginning AU

8. Meeting Rafe

"Ah!" Michael let out a yelp as two brooms collided in the air. "Emma!"

His younger sister grinned wickedly at him, twirling her broom. The two were supposed to be sweeping the halls of the church, like Abigail had told them to do while she went out to help bring in the day's haul. Michael had been perfectly alright with that task; he didn't mind cleaning and organizing, and indeed found it calming. But being stuck with Emma, and not just any Emma, but a bored and mischievous Emma, was wearing his patience thin. Especially when she decided to try and fence with the brooms instead of getting to work.

"You aren't even trying," she taunted.

"Of course not! I'm in the middle of sweeping, like you should be as well," he replied.

Emma rolled her eyes, but stopped attempting to swing the broom at him. This was the third time they had this exact argument in the past two hours. Michael was already planning to complain about his sister's unhelpful attitude to someone. (Though he feared he would be ignored; Emma and Abigail, their guide, had basically become instantaneous best friends.)

"Why couldn't Kate have joined us? You listen to her!" Michael continued to protest.

"You heard Abigail," Emma answered, "she's helping organize the clothing supplies, since they only needed two people to sweep."

"And yet only one is doing their job."

"You're just mad because there's no one to save you from my sword!" Emma swung the broom at him again, making him cry out. The broom smacked him lightly on the head and she began laughing as he fumed. Of course, at that exact moment, someone just had to come running down the hall and witness the whole thing.

"She got you good," the thief that had come up to them, Sam, chortled.

"She's supposed to be helping sweep." Michael glowered at his younger sister. 

"Naw," Sam said, "I'm here to take over that. You two got a meeting to go to."

"A meeting? What meeting?" Emma questioned, though she was already eagerly passing off her broom to Sam.

"One with Rafe, 'course. He's back and wants to meet you," Sam informed them.

Emma's eyes gleamed. She was still curious about the mysterious leader of the savages that Abigail had told her about. Abigail clearly respected him a lot, and that didn't strike Emma as common for her new friend, so she wanted to see if Rafe really was dangerous and interesting and worth listening to.

Michael, on the other hand, swallowed his fear. This was a boy who had killed someone as a child, and who ran a gang of thieves. And he was a magician, as well, one who probably knew a lot more than Michael and his sisters. For the cautious bookworm, he already cut an intimidating figure.

"He's in the money room. You know, where Abigail does the records. She showed you where that is, right?"

"Yeah," Emma replied cheerfully, "we're on our way."

"Wait!" Michael adjusted his glasses. Nervous beads of sweat trickled down his face. "Do- do we have to?"

"You'd rather stay here and sweep?" Emma said, incredulously.

"Well, no, but-"

"Rafe wants to meet you," Sam injected firmly, "he's our leader, and he's a busy man. So if you wanna be Savages, you probably shouldn't keep him waiting."

Michael gave in quickly, and followed his sister (who was all too excited about abandon her chores) down the hall. He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to calm his breathing. Rafe was just a boy, after all, albeit a boy who held the power here. He was only a handful of years older than Michael. Everything would be fine.