Beware The Girls You Meet In The Forest (On Hold + Editing)

Chapter 9

            My eyes snap open to the sound of loud whistling. I look below me and Fire is staring up at me with his pinkies in his mouth. He smiles and shouts, "Morning!"

            It is early, the sun just starting to come up. "You comin' or what?" Fire asks. I look back at him and sigh. I hop from the tree and land in front of him with bent knees.

            "Where to?" I say as I stand. He looks at me and says, "Your pick."

            I sigh again and pull out the paper with the princes' names. I skim over it to the second name on the list. "Purlo," I say and look up to Fire. He nods in thought and says casually, "That's about two and a half weeks away." He shrugs his bag higher onto his shoulders and says, "Well, let's get going."

            I look at him confused as he starts to walk east. When he doesn't hear me moving, he turns around and raises his eyebrows. I stare back and say, "So what? Are we like, partners now or something?"

            He shrugs and says, "I guess. I have nothing to do, and you seem like a decent enough partner, so why not go kill people? You have a job anyways, so I suppose I could help you with it."

            I am offended. "Help me?" I say, and scoff. "Ugh!" I walk past him furiously and cross my arms over my chest. I will never need help. Not from anyone, and especially not from him.

            "Okay. I'll meet you there!" he shouts to me as I continue walking. I sneer and walk faster. "Don't bother!" I shout angrily over my shoulder. I can hear him chuckle.

            I walk faster and slow my pace a little after several minutes of walking. How dare he think that I need help. I am probably a better assassin than him, anyhow! I mean, I pinned him and held his own knife to him last night! I could have killed him if I wanted to.

            I ball my hands up into fists and concentrate on the ground as I continue walking. I walk for several hours, drinking more of my happy drink to relax. Hours after the sun sets, I find a tree and make a fire. I eat berries that I picked along the way as I examine my knife.

            I’m still fuming over Fire thinking that I would need help. He’s the one who needs help! I could have killed him last night if I wanted to! But then I realize something. Why didn’t I kill him? I can’t seem to find an answer to that question, which is even more confusing.

            He is of no significance to me. If anything, he’s a pain in the ass and a distraction! I mean, look! He is still taking up all of my thoughts of him thinking that I need help. I need to be more focused on just getting to Purlo, getting the job down, and moving on with the next job. I’m not ever seeing Fire ever again, so why keep thinking about him?

            But it seems that no matter how hard I try, he won’t leave my mind. Pissed at myself, I kick dirt on the fire and climb into a tree. I fall asleep quickly on a high up branch.

~

            The chirping of the early birds brings me from my sleep. The sun, just about to rise and force me to start another day of travel. I groggily open my eyes and yawn. I relax against the sturdy trunk of the tree and wait for the sun to fully rise.

            I’m not surprised when I find that Fire is still lurking in my mind. I force myself to stop thinking about him, but there’s a tiny annoying bit that always tries to bring him back up. Kind of like a buzzing gnat that won’t go away.

            I sigh and eventually stand. I gather my things and start walking, heading closer and closer to my next destination with each step.

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I know, I know. It has been a L O N G time. Sorry about that. My computer charger broke so I couldn't type and then I had writer's block but it's all good now.

P.S.

Sorry it's short. A new one should be up soon(: