Fighting Through Edited October 3rd 2012
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Romance
Summary: Daryl is looking for Sophia with Andrea when they run across a woman named 'Grendel's Mom' who can be of help to the group, and be a bit more than Daryl bargained for.
Author's Note: This is just a short (VERY short) introductory chapter to the story 'Fighting Through', most updates will never be this short. But, I had a meeting today and so it really cut into my Daryl writing time. Hope you all enjoy and please review! Thank you so much!
Daryl was beyond what he deemed safe enough to travel from the others, he didn't mind it at all. He knew his way back and could handle himself. Andrea dragging behind him, on the other hand, was what made him insecure about the distance.
The silence didn't surprise him any, what had was the sudden scream of a small girl. He instantly went on alert and took off in the direction it came from, "Sophia!" he shouted as Andera pushed forward from behind him, chanting Sophia's name with him. After what took too long, a clearing came into view and he saw a small child running with another and gazed in awe. It hadn't been a scream in terror like he and Andrea had thought it had been, the boy had pushed down the girl and taken her toy and she screamed as a result. He mulled over the fact there were two young, unarmed children playing in the wilderness. It was... impossible.
"You there!" someone growled, causing him and Andrea to flinch. Daryl turned on his heels, taking aim before checking to see who had called to him and Andrea. There was a double barrel pointed in his face and he adjusted his crossbow, Andrea was standing dumbfounded and confused as she always did around him. "State your business." the voice demanded, obviously feminine though her face was hidden from him by the gun and his own crossbow.
"Uh..." he started, not about to lower his crossbow. Andrea burst in, "We are looking for someone. A girl. Six, seven years old. Her name is Sophia. A walker came after her the other day and she got separated from the group." the woman lowered her double barrel and sighed at them, he noticed instantly she had a vibrant blue eye and a decorative eyepatch covering her other.
"Well, can't say we've had many lil' girls comin' in like that 'ere." she said, "You are welcome to come and see if she's that youngin' who forgot her name. She's been 'ere a few days though." she nodded her head toward the North and began to walk away from the two. He took a moment, looking from Andrea, the woman and then followed. "Jill, Max." she called behind her, "Best be gettin' your hides back into the base before you get hurt, ya' hear? Don't want them dead followin' you into town!" she shouted, two child-like 'Okay's called in unison as they ran past her and into a heavily wooded forest. "Be careful, you kids!" she watched them closely, leading the newcomers into the very same woods the kids had ran into.
"Leave your weapons here. All of 'em." she commanded, dropping her gun and pulling out three different concealed guns and placed them into a bin he'd not notice earlier, she followed up by a few other various weapons. "You're allowed a knife, both of ya'." he didn't follow her orders, "Now." she growled to them, unaware Andrea was basically useless and only carried a bowie knife. Daryl on the other hand had his crossbow,
"Why, pirate?" Andrea asked her, seeming a bit stand-offish.
"It's a safe zone, hunny. No weapons. No exceptions." she narrowed her eyes at her. "Ya'll free to go out and wander around the night and gettin' ya'll selves eaten, though." she flashed a smile that showed off a set of bleach white teeth that had been well taken care of through the woman's years.
"Only a knife?" he asked, she nodded and he did as told, not wanting to cause more tension between the women. He'd learned his lesson as a boy, you don't really mess with women unless you have a death wish or be between two angry women. "Don't worry about Ands, she's just got a dull knife in her pack."
"Roll it up." she called and the bin went up in the air before she finished. "Thanks, Bob." she said to an unseen man high up in a hidden watchtower.
"No problem, mama." he called and she walked forward, deeper into the woods. He had his guard up, he'd just gave up his weapons at the slim chance that this woman may have Sophia. She could have possibly have just been lying and this was a trap. He hoped for the best though.
He heard a click of her equestrian riding boots on tile that seemed to have come from nowhere. It was then that he looked over the woman for the first time. She was about 5' 4" and had her dark wavy red hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was in a white cotton shirt that had at one point been probably an expensive piece of material to have and wore black equestrian pants. She made it obvious that she was a rider and she knew what she was doing just by the way she held herself.
"Before we go further, just know that everyone here is just a traveler, nobody stays for long and they are all scared. If the girl is her, than ya'll must wait for her to recover before you can leave with her." she whispered and continued forward. "Don't want people stealin' people." she grumbled.
"So, why do you wear a patch? Old friends?" Andrea asked with a snide smile, hoping she'd irritated 'mama'.
"No, it's mine. I try to not wear the prosthetic." she flipped up the patch to show she was indeed missing an eye. She'd a beautiful face, even with the missing eye. Daryl silently wondered what happened to have her eye no longer be a part of her, then again, maybe he didn't want to know.
"Oh." Andrea mouthed, not expecting that the woman to actually be missing an eye.
"I'm Grendel's Mom. Call me by such. Yourselves?" she said with a smile.
"Grendel's mom?" Andrea huffed, laughing at the woman. "I'm Andrea. This is Da-" the woman held up a hand.
"Hold up, hunny. We don't use our names that we had before this shitstorm, they are just connections to the past that most these people would rather forget 'ere. But, yes. Grendel's mom. A play off of Beowulf's monster. Got a pup named Grendel. Since this all happened, I've been 'Grendel's mom'." Daryl laughed and pretended to know what she meant, though he'd no clue what it was.
The reinforced door opened up and they were ushered in by Grendel's Mom.
"Come on Andrea, Dixie." she called. Daryl raised a brow at the new moniker he'd been given.
"Dixie, ain't that a girls name?" he said to himself, following the women into the base.
There was a moment of silence between them all when they entered in. It looked like a small town, cars were parked, but none in use. Buildings stood erect and in decent condition, people were acting like they had before all Hell broke loose on the world. Kids were playing, a small group of women taking a stroll together and a few men tinkering on a car that had no chance of running again.
"It's taken a lot of hard work, but my pa got this place up 'n' runnin'. He didn't wanna see mama's grave get run over by undead." she smiled, hints of sadness twined into her tone. A large Catahoula Leopard hound pranced toward them, he had a brown eye and a glass blue eye, his coat reminded Daryl of a jackal and the hound seemed over-joyed to see Grendel's Mom.
"Hey, baby!" she cooed, her arms stretched out and letting the beast jump up onto her, knocking her back. "Grendel!" she laughed, amused and happy to have her 'baby' with her.
"This is Grendel. Need to find anything, just tell him." she said as she attempted to stand up again. "Now, let's go see this mystery girl, shall we?" she gave them both a smile, Grendel trotting off in front of them toward where 'Dixie' assumed the girl was recovering.
Thank you for reading!
Catahoula, for those that don't know are common for their eccentric coating as well as the glass and brown eye.
You'll commonly find me writing about this breed, sorry if you don't like them.