Bale was looking at me like he had never seen me before. I didn't like it.I hated the way his clan treated the women ,like we couldn't hunt. In the forest I could make bale look like he was ten summers old while hunting but on the seal island he glided quick and noiselessly on his skin boat while I was far behind and paddling clumsily scaring all the prey away.
He walked over his long blonde hair was wet and slicked back making it shine and he carried his skin boat on his shoulder , he looked quite handsome. He put the skin boat down and grinned at me.
"What's wrong? Your looking at me like I have two heads" he raised his eyebrows.
"O um.. sorry I was just thinking " I said caught off guard.
"Where's Torak " he asked.
"He went hunting with wolf" I mumbled sitting on the sand .
He sat next to me " O him and that wolf " he laughed.
I edged away from him. I hated when he made fun of Torak for being friends with a wolf. He paused and then put his hand on mine.I felt the blood rushing to my face making me blush.I took my hand away and scratched my neck awkwardly.
From far I saw Torak paddling to us on the skin boat him and bale made last summer. I saw something behind him but I couldn't make it out. It was wolf ! He had got him to come on the skin always refused to go into the skinboat except one summer when Torak was captured by the seal clan leader but even then it took a lot of persuading.
They got closer and wolf jumped out of the boat splashing Torak and ran over to me and licked my nose making me feel proud.
"What took you so long " mocked bale.
Torak threw him a heavy pouch full of meat to him.
"Caught a boar, he took me ages to cut properly" he said proudly.
He took off his head band revealing what used to be his outcast tattoo.I flinched remembering. He saw me and covered his tattoo self-consciously making me feel bad.
"Well done, we will be eating well tonight " I smilled.
He gave me one of his rare wolf grin.
We all sat around the fire. The clan Mage telling us stories.I saw Torak at the other side of the fire trying to catch my attention. He gestured me to follow walked away from the noise and into the dark trees, the moon giving way a slight light on the forest.
He took my hand and looked at me.
"Last night I had a dream, your mother was in it... " he started.
"The viper Mage " I cut in coldly.. She was no mother to me .
"...she told me you were keeping something from me , something about bale."he said embarrassed.
My face burned,I looked down at my foot awkwardly moving it.
"Um well torak I wanted to tell you really but I wasn't sure about how you would react..."I said unsure.
He braced himself. " Bale asked me to stay with him" I looked at him.
He took his hand away from mine and stayed quiet for a while.
"What did you say" he muttered.
" I told him I would think about it but I know I won't stay with him" i told him.
"um.. Why do you say that" he said nervously.
"You know why" I said simply.
We didn't say anything. He took my hand and we lay back looking at the moon.