Our trek in the daylighthas been nauseating. Not because of Niklaus’s sickening presence, but because we haven’t come across any food at all. No berries. No animals to hunt.Nothing.
How did my parents survive out here when they were on the run? How did my father always provide food for them? Over the years, we heard stories of the time they escaped the asylum. How my mother took a leap of faith to break him out of confinement. Krimson and I always laughed at the fact that he could have left anytime he wanted. Our father was simply waiting on her.
My feet are blistering. Fire smolders in my joints, creeping into my lower back until there’s a constant ache. And god, I’m so hungry.
What is it now? Late afternoon? Is the sun setting? How long are we going to go without eating?
“Dellilian hungry.” The Morphing Onyx Short-Haired Windila trails behind us, still mildly pouting at Niklaus’s cruel mood toward her.
Niklaus’s back tenses at her small voice entering our minds like a puff of smoke. He rolls his shoulders and keeps walking. I silently applaud him for not saying anything else callous to her. I’m in no mood for it. With this empty stomach, I feel mean, resentful, and harboring a dark cloud of hate toward him.
After another hour, the ill-mannered man I’m traveling with slows his pace suddenly, staring off at something ahead with unbreakable focus.
Speeding my aching pace to take his place in the lead, I bump his arm with my shoulder. Hungry. Pissed. Pained. Exhausted.
But a hand snatches my hair from the back of my head, knotting it in a tight fist, and yanking me backward.
“What the fuck!” I shriek.
His mouth is pressed against my ear with bristly facial hair scratching against my soft skin. “Would you rather I let you fall into that hunter’s trap?”
I shiver against his smooth, ice-cold tone.
His spare hand points to the ground a few feet in front of us, outlining a space covered in giant leaves, twigs, branches, and moss. A distinct patch of earth that is meant to fool an animal.
“I already saw that,” I lie.
“Mmm-hmm.” Niklaus releases his grip on my hair, investigating the area.
“Dellilian very hungry.”
Niklaus turns his neck slowly, glaring in her direction with a wild storm of cruel ideas churning in his icy eyes.
“Easy,” I warn him, standing in front of the innocent dog-wolf to prevent her from interpreting his expression any further.
A nasally growl is muffled from inside the hole. A sleepy, gruff noise that brings our rising argument to a halting stop. Niklaus squats in front of the covered hunter’s hole, listening closely to analyze what is most likely an injured animal.
The growling turns into a weighted breath, much like snoring.
Niklaus gives me a sidelong glance. “That sounds like a large meal to me.”
I nod timidly.
It soundsmassive.
“Aurick is very lucky that he kept his genitalia that night.” A deep, booming voice punctures our quiet bubble of discovery.
Wait. Did I just hear the name…
Niklaus pops his head up, looking south into the woods.
That name…
“Did you just hear Aurick’s name?” I whisper to Niklaus kneeling before the hunter’s trap.
He doesn’t spare me a look of acknowledgment.
“You’re so slow, we could have been there by now if we didn’t have to move like snails!”
