I Am Who? - Book 2

Chapter 4 - Running & Wind

The silence and stillness of the air was going to drive me mad. How long had it been? It felt like hours since Skart and David had disappeared, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes. I chewed one of my nails down to the quick in an attempt to distract myself from the stifling atmosphere. It couldn't all just be in my imagination, right? I struggled to breathe, desperately longing to get up for a moment, but I remembered Skart's words and remained still.

The tiniest hint of a breeze danced around me and then left as if it had never been. Another long moment passed, and then a fast burst of air spilled over the rocks, surrounding me and blowing fiercely. Startled, I wrapped my arms around myself and searched what I could see of the area as if the wind had somehow brought someone with it.

"Hurry, little one." Skart's face popped up over the top of the rock, and I nearly screamed aloud. "We need to get outta here."

Rising quickly, I rounded the boulder to find David keeping anxious watch of the surrounding area. He was fidgeting with the leather strap of his pack and refused to look me in the eyes. There was no ease to the tension in the air, so whatever they had discovered couldn't be good.

"What did you find?" I asked, looking between the two men.

"Nothing of consequence." Skart smiled easily. "My old ears must have mistaken the sound: 'twas nothin' but a Mountain Dove. We need to hurry and get along our way, though."

My eyes darted from one to the other of them again, but David still refused to look at me, and Skart was all smiles. There was no doubt in my mind that whatever they had come across wasn't good, but why were they choosing to keep it from me? What could be so bad that I, a member of our group, shouldn't know about it?

"Hurry!" Skart said. "We need to keep on schedule. We can eat breakfast on the way."

He shot me another warm smile that spoke of nothing but safety. before beginning to climb out of the jagged rock outcropping we'd entered. If I hadn't been watching them so intensely, I would have missed the meaningful look he and David exchanged, and perhaps, I would have assumed my suspicions were wrong if not for the grimness of their expressions.

We climbed in complete silence, and the quiet was not comforting. There were no exchanged pleasantries or chokes, and the air was stagnant with promissory tension. As the day went on, Skart's features became set in firm, worried lines, and the last of my doubts was cleared. Evidently, I had been completely right in my assumption that something was amiss.

If that hadn't been enough, David insisted on walking behind me, and though he must have been sore from yesterday's ordeals, he kept up with me. In fact, the two men seemed to match my pace at all times. No matter how I slowed or sped up, they remained within a few feet of me at all times.

I couldn't help thinking they had positioned themselves like walls around me as if they might ward off whatever evil they had witnessed with only the ferocity of their glares. Between them, I felt like a useless piece of extra luggage weighing them down. Not for the first time, I found myself wishing I were more capable of looking after myself.

If I had been more of a fighter from the start, Madame—my aunt—and my cousins, who I had grown up calling sisters, would not have had so much power over me. Through my compliance with their requirements from an early age, they had learned that I was someone to be controlled and abused as they saw fit. In fact, almost everyone I had come in contact with had sought to use me for their own gain as if I were nothing more than a steppingstone toward greater gain.

It wasn't as though I could say anything against such treatment, either. What defense was valid for someone like me? I was no one, a person without an identity, and with no idea where I had come from. Without a family name to back me, in this cruel world, that meant I had no right to defend myself.