They both travelled in silence for almost two hours, obviously still processing the day's events, not speaking since their little regroup after the prison attack. Daryl came to a stop, looking up at a large pine tree, he obviously seemed to have a plan in his head, he turned to her and broke their long silence, Beth welcoming his soothing voice while it distracted her from the horrible replays happening in her head, "Alright, blondie, I'm gonna help you up this tree here, get yourself comfy cause I needs to go and gets us some dinner for tonight, you will be safe up here, walkers don't climb trees, make sure to climb a little higher, there is a nice fat branch up there that does not look too uncomfortable. Not sure how long I will be, maybe an hour or so, stay up there till I get back, try not to draw attention to yourself" Beth looked up at the large tree the first branch was somewhat high, but she positioned herself under the lowest branch and gave a little leap, her fingers and palms curling around the branch, She was wondering how she was going to pull herself up, maybe she should have thought this through more, instead of just leaping, she did not have the same upper body strength as Daryl, I mean, did you see those arms of his, she remembered how they had felt wrapping around her, the thought sent a prickle down her spine, those arms were really toned and oh so sexy, she flushed, her stomach giving a flutter, when did she start to look at Daryl in such a pervy way? Before she could answer her question, Daryl's warm large palms were planted on her rear end, making her gasp. He gave her a good sturdy push up, her stomach now curling around the branch, it would be easier to get up now. Beth swung one of her legs around the branch, managing to straddle herself there, she looked down at him and saw the darkened look in his stormy eyes, almost predatory, was she imagining that, but the look was not there anymore, she must have imagined it.
When Daryl had seen her dangling there from the branch, his hands seemed find their own way to Beth's perfectly shaped little ass, his hands were getting a nice satisfying feel of her rounded backside as he gave her the much needed shove up the tree, she would not have made it otherwise he told himself in justification. Daryl had watched her swing her legs around, his eyes fixed onto her ass while she did, clearing his throat as her eyes collided with his, his voice was uneven when he spoke, "Think you can grab that hunting knife out the pack?" Beth did as he asked, letting it drop onto the ground next to him, he leaned over to pick it up, Beth smiled sweetly while staring at his ass, he turned, slipping the blade into another of the loose loops attached to his belt and said, "I'll be back soon, stay safe and quiet" Beth gave him a re-assuring smile playfully adding, "Likewise Mr Dixon, hurry back to me." With that, he took off in a quick jog, Beth watched him leave, enjoying the way he moved through the forest, like a wild cat, so quiet, effortless and even graceful, no wonder he was such a good hunter, as he disappeared from sight she found herself softly humming the chorus from an old music group called 'salt and pepper', words singing in her head, 'what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man… yes he is..' Beth Green behave yourself, that is Daryl Dixon your gawking at, that's what her sister Maggie would have said to Beth if she seen her looking at him like that, Daryl was after all a bit older than her. So what, who the hell cares Beth thought, I'm a grown woman, this is the post-apocalyptic world, no? I'm entitle to have something nice to look at, in fact I'm overdue in deserving it!
Daryl was crouched in a tree for a while now waiting quietly while scolding himself for groping Beth's ass like that, what was he thinking, that girl was 'Jailbait', that what his dead brother Merle would have called her, following up with 'playing with fire baby brother', he knew it was wrong, but hell- a rabbit jumped from a shrub into view, cutting off his train of thought, as the little creature started to sniff and forage, Daryl was silently taking aim with his crossbow, slowly exhaling he pulled the 'tickler', the bolt launched forward sinking swiftly into dinner, the little animal did not suffer, the sheer force of the bolt would have dispatched it almost instantly. Daryl climbed down the tree and collected his prey, pulling out the bolt, wiping the blood off onto a path moss and shrubbery. He started to make his was back in the direction of Beth, they had to get going the day was wasting and they still needed to make their way to somewhere safe, at least dinner was taken care of.
A lone male walker with an afro was softly moaning around the trunk of tree, it must have caught her scent, it had no clue Beth was safely nestled up the tree, she very quietly removed the hunting knife from her hip, slicing little bits of pine leaves and letting them drop into the walkers afro from above, it did not seem to notice or even be bothered by it, she wondered if the walker even felt it? Beth studied the walker below it was clear the dead thing had no thought process, they seemed able to smell living people, but it did not seem to agitate the thing into a feeding frenzy state, it was more a case of being drawn to a direction, like the smell of fresh baked cookies seemed to lure most people, the walkers sense of smell could not be that good, only when close enough she guessed.
Using the sharp blade to slice off a pinecone from the branch, pulling would be too noisy, she threw it onto the to the ground away from her, the thud sparked the walker into action, more groaning and gurgling, arms even flailing about towards the noise, sound she noted was by far their strongest sense, she knew they were able to see, but how good she wondered? was movement the trigger or was the walker be able to 'recognise' the living as their goal for a food source. She watched the walker curiously for a little while longer, it seemed to settle again, swaying in the spot for a moment before moving back to the trunk of Beth's tree, the noisy pinecone eventually had lost its 'interest', but we know that the dead did not have thoughts, they were purely running on sensory instinct, least this was Beth's opinion. Beth sat there in the tree for a little while, bored, she should have been scared, but in the tree she felt safe.
When Daryl had made his way back to Beth's tree, he had seen her dropping bits of what he assumed was clumps of pine needles, his heart beat faster when he saw what she was aiming for, he calmed noting her relaxed posture, she felt she was in no immediate danger. Daryl was watching Beth from behind a tree, his crossbow aimed and ready to fire, his arms were aching from keeping this position for a while, his curiosity keeping him motionless, he watched her little pinecone experiment, not realising it was an experiment, he was studying her, she looked so innocent nestled on the tree branch, comfortably at ease with her surrounding, this was when Daryl realised how adaptable Beth was. At the prison, Beth had stepped in and assumed the role of Judith's mother, without being asked, never complaining. The way she would tie Judy to her back with a thin cotton blanket, almost like the African tribal women he had seen on national geographic channel, before the world ended, man he really missed that sort of TV. At the prison Beth would step in and help do household chores, prepping food, washing laundry, even trying to teach the other kids to read and count, she even had a knack for first aid, clearly taking after Hershal, she was intelligent, intuitive and a very quick study. Come to think of it, every time Daryl had seen Beth she was always working hard, why had he not noticed this before?, she was always doing things in the background so quiet nobody actually noticed she was there. It started to bother Daryl now that Hershal and Maggie had always managed keep her away from fence duties, runs, anything that might have involved her in dangerous situation, this last thought irritating Daryl further, her family was wrong to keep her this sheltered, this was the fucking end of the world, instead of coddling her they should have been teaching her to take care of herself. Frustrated Daryl exhaled and pulled the tickler of his crossbow, the bolt sinking into the walkers head, dropping it to the ground with a soft thud.
Beth gave a start as the bolt sliced into the walkers head, looking at the direction the arrow's end was pointing, her eyes settling on those stormy grey ones, she had gotten used to recognising them, she grinned at him, her face turning into a smirk. "show-off." A smile reached his eyes as he made his way toward her, stopping next to the walker and pulling the bolt from the its head, noticing the pine needles stuck in its afro, he looked up at Beth face with a frown, "never figured you the type to taunt a walker?" She shook her head as she spoke, "and you are right, I was hardly taunting it, it was an experiment" Daryl looked at her a little confused, so she continued, "This walker was moving towards that direction, he would have continued past if he didn't catch my smell, at least that's what I think got him moving in my direction, he was about five metres away, before he changed course and ended up under this tree. Daryl, they got poor scent, probably better at smelling us if we are bleeding though" Daryl watched her continue to speak animatedly, listening to what she was saying carefully, "Oh and also, I was throwing those needles cause I figured out there sense of touch is poor too, the walker never realised the needle in its hair, I threw the pinecone and it got all riled up from the noise. Then it got me thinking further what about sight?, I figure they go on movement, walkers all have no though process, right?" Daryl stood there staring at her, not saying a word, it was Beth that broke the quiet silence again, "hello earth to Daryl, you hear what I said?", on hearing his name, he nodded and spoke, "yeah I heard yah, we can talk about this more later, we are wasting light and we should start moving again. You gonna slide down this pine and I'll give ya a hand?" Beth did not give an answer instead she made her way to the branch she had used to climb up earlier, straddling the branch, leaning over and swinging her legs around till her stomach was curled over the branch like see-saw, her arms quickly replacing till her body gently started its decent. Daryl's facing her, his hands spanned her hips guiding her down, her hands rested on his shoulders, till her feet rested on the floor, they stood there still linked as both reluctantly let go. She flushed and was the first to awkwardly speak, "um, thanks." His more like grunt, "your welcome". Daryl grabbed the bow from the ground and swung it onto his back securely, grabbing the rabbit from the ground, he smiled up at her, "I got dinner, come on", Daryl started walking away and Beth again following behind him.