KEZZ 1: Thank you for sticking it out. I think I'm going to do one more non-canon chapter before I go into season 4.

RaphaeltheCowboy: Good to see you've caught up and are still enjoying the story! I just hope I can keep doing it justice. Also, great minds think alike. You were not the only person to suggest a Merle and Sophia team up and I actually like the idea so much that I am building on it to build Sophia's character up as well.

So, I have to go back to work starting Monday, so it might take me a little longer to post chapters. I will, for sure, get at least one chapter up a week, but I can't promise more than that due to my job. Thanks for understanding...^_^

Daryl took Ania out to the woods early in the morning the next day. They'd awoken in a tangle of limbs, Ania smiling up to him lazily as he dragged his hand down her side. Rolling on top of her, he kissed her deeply before taking his wife once more. The sun had just begun to rise over the horizon when he finally released her and helped her clean up. Having already taken the initiative to bring their bags with them so they could leave from the tower, they dressed in relative silence before heading out. He lead her into the woods in high spirits, the feeling of the ring on his finger foreign but gratifying.

They'd been in the woods for nearly three hours before they heard the sound of laughter coming from ahead. Daryl pulled Ania to a stop and crouched down in front of her. She had a hand on his back, fisting his shirt while she kept her head on a swivel. It was obviously male, more than one voice and laugh carrying through the trees, seeming slowly coming towards them. What they were talking about had both hunters' faces paling as they looked at each other. Ania had a look in her eye that told Daryl those men would not be leaving the woods that day. Especially not with how they were talking about what they did to girls they said were younger than Sophia.

Being careful not to make any noise, she and Daryl began to creep up on the group. Maybe fifteen men had just sat down in a clearing not too far ahead of where they'd originally heard the voices. Ani had managed to get a decent cache of blades by now, opting to use the crossbow more for hunting rather than walkers. At all times, she carried a total of eighteen blades; ten throwing knives tucked safely in her boots, another three hunting knives along each hip, plus her daggers at her back. She no longer carried the machete, saying that she had more than enough blades and would never allow herself to get into a group where the machete would be missed. The only other weapon she carried regularly was a replacement Glock on her right thigh.

Stowing Jewel on her shoulder, bolt loaded and ready, she removed two of her throwing knives and motioned to Daryl. He nodded to her and began making his way around the clearing carefully, making sure to hide behind trees. She was doing the same, but in the opposite direction, each counting in their head. As Ani counted to sixty, she watched as one of the men fell with a bolt sticking out of his head. Ani moved to get a clear shot as the men worked into a panic, firing randomly into the trees. Taking careful aim, she fell two more of the men before running quickly and quietly further into her circle. Another man fell before a group of walkers came into the mix, having been drawn by the men's gunfire. Several of the men fell at the hands of the walkers, and that distraction allowed Ani to throw herself into the mix, killing five more men from behind with her daggers while they dealt with the walkers in front of them. When the last two men realized she was behind them,one tried to run while she caught the other in the neck with a throw of her dagger. Bringing Jewel back around, she took aim and shot the man in the leg. The walkers swarmed him as the walker closest to Ani fell with a bolt in it's head while she retrieved her dagger.

"Ania, let's go!"

Grabbing the bolt, as well as the two throwing knives from her first kills, she ran like hell towards Daryl's voice. There were too many walkers for the two of them to fight alone, though the bodies of the men made good distraction for the hunters to make a quick escape. Daryl led her through the woods and to the old hunting cabin they'd found with Michonne. Slamming the door shut as soon as they were through, they both slid down it side by side. Taking a moment to catch their breath, Ani grabbed Daryl's hand and just held it tight. Nine more men had been added to her count, fourteen if she took into account that the only reason the walkers came was because of her and Daryl's action. But they'd been laughing at what they had done, bragging about it as if molesting two young girls until they died was just another day in the park. She couldn't let them live, and Daryl knew it. That's why he'd helped her in the first place, or at least part of it. If he was being honest, he would have killed them himself after what he heard.

"How long 'fore ya think we can go back?" Ani asked him.

"Don't know. Maybe tomorrow."

"Ya good?"

"I'm fine," he said, looking over to her. "I'd a done it too. We're good."

She leaned her head over on his shoulder and just stared around the room, "Wonda if there's any more a that moonshine 'round 'ere."

"There is," he told her, moving to stand up and holding a hand out to her. He double checked the outside to make sure there were no walkers before leading her to the back of the shed. "My dad, he used to have a place like this. Complete with the distillery, shitty chair for sittin' and pot for spittin'. Here we go," he told her before handing her a jar of moonshine. "Can't drink too much. Don't know if that group's going to show up or not."

"D, I wasn' plannin' on drinkin' it," she laughed. "Gonna be flu season soon. Find some honey, maybe some lemon grass and eldaberries, maybe some catnip or yarrow or white willow bark, and we got ourselves a damn strong medicine ta fight against it. Though, the willow bark'll be the hardest ta find. Catnip and yarrow we can find in abundant supply anywhere right now, as well as dandelions and mullein. I ain' takin' risks with this shite. Last year was mild; we got lucky with it. Jus' a gut feelin', but this year's gonna be bad. So I'm tryin' ta get a stash at the prison ta fight it. 'Course, don' mean we can' drink some a it. Looks like there's plenty a it. Think there's any left in the still?"

"There's plenty. You can really make medicine using this?"

"Eva heard a the hot toddy? Normally made with whiskey, but if the moonshine is quality 'nough, it can work jus' as well. And this is some damn fine moonshine," Ani commented. "Jus' need the herbs. If only we had some lemons. Could make a propa concoction. Though, gonna need ta find some beehives for the honey."

"Gonna get stung," Daryl told her. "You ain't allergic are you?"

"Nah, only thing I'm allergic ta is penicillin."

"Ain't that antibiotics?"

"Mmhmm, though specific ones. Not all antibiotics are bad for me, jus' the ones made from penicillin. Though, it ain' bad bad. Jus' a bad upset stomach and a bad case a the shites, so it ain' like it'll kill me if I take any. Ratha take shite that makes me shite me brains out than die a somethin' it can treat, ya know?" she told him as he smirked and huffed a chuckle.

They decided to stay at the cabin for the night, though they left it when the sun had peaked past midday. The walkers they had been being cautious and hiding out from were no where in sight, so they agreed to continue their hunt. Heading back into the woods, they picked up a rather fresh trail an hour in. Smiling to each other, they pushed forward, managing to bag a couple fat squirrels and a decent sized pheasant along the way. Coming to another clearing, Ani showed Daryl the large group of turkeys that were spread out there.

"Think we might be able ta snag a few a 'em and take 'em back ta the prison? I mean, I don' know much 'bout poultry, but ya think we'd be able ta get eggs outta 'em?"

"Naw, better to kill 'em and take 'em back than try to catch 'em for eggs. Only lay a couple a week and we ain't got the feed. Might be able to find some pigs out here, maybe another horse like Hershel's been asking us to keep an eye out for. But these? Let's bag 'em up before they fly off," Daryl told her.

"Turkeys can fly?!" Ani asked, looking as if her mind had been blown.

"They sleep in trees, Ania," Daryl replied while giving her a mildly concerned look.

"Holy shite! Learn somethin' new every day!" she whispered, taking aim at one of the large males leading the flock.

They didn't manage to get all the birds, but they managed to bring six back to the cabin with them. Leaving the birds hanging inside, they walked back out into the woods and picked up the trail they'd originally been on. It was definitely a hoofed creature, and they were hoping it would be a deer. That hope ended up being short lived as a short and stocky pig came into view. Daryl was going to shoot it until Ania pushed his bow up.

"That ain' a boar or a hog. That's a pig. A farm pig!" she said, rummaging through her bag and grabbing out a rope. "We should try ta take it back ta the prison."

"What are we going to feed it?" he asked her, watching as she made a lasso out of the rope.

"Honestly? Look at what it's eatin' now. Pigs, they'll eat anything," she responded as she took note of the fact that the pig was eating a decomposing body.

"So we feed it the dead?" Daryl looked at her, slightly disgusted.

"Nah, we feed it the guts and skins from the kills we take back ta the prison. The food that's gone bad. The vegetation that can' be used. There's plenty ta feed a pig. They don' need ta eat every day, eitha, not a shite ton, anyways. Come on, D, we can do this! Please?" she asked, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, but you owe me."

He took the lasso from her and they both proceeded slowly and cautiously. They didn't want to startle the thing, though it did take notice of them before they were ready. It seemed docile enough, only oinking in surprise and jerking its head when they came into its peripherals. It looked at Ani, who had both hands up and out in front of her and was cooing at it as if it were a baby. That strategy seemed to work as Daryl inched closer and closer to the thing. He managed to get close enough to carefully and gently slip the rope around its neck and tighten it.

"Had ta have come from somewhere," Ani said as she moved closer and pet the pig's head. "Way too docile and seems like 'e's not afraid a people."

"Can't stay at the cabin with a pig. Ain't havin' the damn thing shittin' everywhere," Daryl said.

"Agreed. Let's go back and grab the turkeys, pheasant, and a couple a the larga bottles a shine, and we can go back."

"How we gonna carry all that?" he asked her; the six turkeys alone were close to eighty pounds.

"'S'only 'bout a hundred pounds. We can carry that back. We carried a three hundred pound bear five miles or so, we can carry an extra fifty pounds a piece the same. Ain' that hard."

"Nothin's ever that hard for you, is it?"

"I can think a one thing that is," she shot at him with a shit eating grin and a raised eyebrow.

"Stop," he told her, the tips of his ears turning pink.

It took a bit of pulling from both of them to get the pig moving, but once it was, it followed them easily enough. Getting back to the cabin, Ani pulled the two largest jars of moonshine out and handed one to Daryl. Carefully packing it away in her pack, she took two of the smaller turkeys and stuffed them on either side of the jar. Daryl did the same after watching her, realizing that it not only prevented the jar from tilting, but it also provided cushion if something happened. Grabbing the two larger males they'd gotten, they left the cabin and headed back to the prison. They took a different route so they wouldn't have to potentially deal with the walkers, the pig making the trek much longer than necessary. The sun had gone down by the time they made it back to the fence.

"Didn't get much, huh?" Maggie asked as they came through.

"Come back with a fuckin' pig and she says, 'didn' get much,'" Ani quipped. "Even got a bunch a turkeys and some medicine and she says, 'didn' get much.'"

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. Didn't notice the pig and only see two turkeys," came Maggie's response.

"Got four more in our bags and a couple bottles of moonshine she wants to make into some sort of cold medicine," Daryl informed her.

"You can do that?"

"If I got 'nough a the right herbs. Got 'nough right now ta make a few small bottles, but no where near 'nough ta make a strong medicine outta the amount a shine we brought with us. Gonna take the kids out lookin' a little lata this week for more. Give Phia that one on one time she's been wantin' with me and Carl. See if she's still as good at foragin' as she used ta be. Start tryin' ta do that every so often so's she's not so inclined ta act out no more."

"What herbs do you need? Maybe I can help?" Maggie offered.

"Well, if ya wanna help, if ya see any dandelions, the yellow ones?" she asked, watching Maggie nod her head. "I need all a 'em. The whole plant. We can use the entire plant ta make tea, though I wanna leave the roots for otha purposes. Also kinda leave most of the leaves for cookin' ova the winta. Great source a vitamins and minerals ta help keep us healthy. The leaves and flowas can be dried, but ya gotta roast the roots. Do ya know how ta do that?"

"I can manage it," Maggie told her.

"Alright, that's gonna be ya and Beth's job ova the next week when ya got the time. Get a few a the othas doin' it too. I need the whole plant, so they've gotta be dug up and then washed in the stream. Not gonna waste the wata we got in here ta clean the roots off. So's ya gonna have ta go out ta clean 'em. Ya still good with that?"

"Ani, let me help. If you get this concoction of yours ready, it means my dad and Dr. S won't have so much to worry about," Maggie told her.

"Alright, well, ya got how ya can. Thanks."

While they'd been talking, they had walked out into the field. Ani didn't want the pig running around in the field because it would muck up the garden. She left it in the courtyard tied to the bleachers before entering the commons and taking off her pack. Daryl had already started on his turkeys, plucking the feathers with Merle and Carl at one of the tables. Setting her pack down on the table, she pulled out the two turkeys in it and set them down next to the others before grabbing both bottles of moonshine. Several people started to cheer about having more liquor when she shot them down, letting them know that this was for medicine, not drinking.

She left the commons and walked to the infirmary, which was now up and running as a proper treatment room. Her herbs were now stored here, along with all the medical equipment and medicine that they had found. She had everything cataloged and added the moonshine to the registry. Dr. S sauntered over and asked what it was for, making her explain for a third time what her intent was with this. Gathering some of the moonshine from one of the jars, she moved over to her herbs and began to pull down some yarrow, catnip, and mullein. Lemon balm was pulled down next before she separated the moonshine into two separate jars. Adding yarrow to one and the catnip to the other, she added the proper amounts of lemon balm and mullein to the jars as well, filling them a third of the way with the right amount of herbs. She then put a piece of tape on each of the small jars and wrote 'adult' and 'kid' on the yarrow and catnip bottles.

"If any kid comes down with a feva use the one that says kid; catnip is easia on kids than yarrow. These'll help with cough, too, and sore throat. Only a sip, though, 'cause it is alcohol, and only once every few hours, jus' like normal meds. If we can get some eldaberries, we can make tea outta 'em and add this ta it ta boost the effectiveness," she told Dr. S as he watched what she was doing.

"You know, I might be a doctor, but you sure know your medicinal herbs," he said. "How'd you learn all this?"

"Me papa was a propa apothecary. I ain' no where near on 'is level and neva got me license, but I rememba all 'is tonics and tinctures. Can' make 'em all 'cause I don' got the herbs, but these ones are so common, we can find 'em anywhere. Well, maybe not the lemon balm, but I know where a good patch a the stuff is, so I can easily grab more if we need it. But the yarrow, catnip, and mullein? Every damn ditch has the stuff in it," she responded.

"Well, thank you. This puts my mind at ease. Can you write down the recipe?" he asked tentatively.

"Uh, doc? Ya rememba that notebook I gave ya? It's got all this in it," she deadpanned.

"Oh."

~x~

"So, what are we trackin'?" Ani asked Sophia as they walked through the woods the next day.

It was just the two of them, Rick having told her he needed Carl to help build the pig pen. While he'd wanted to go with them and there was plenty of help at the prison, Rick had insisted that Carl stay. Ani didn't mind, as she watched the girl crouch close to the forest floor and look at the trail.

"It's a walker!" Sophia said excitedly.

"Good girl! Now, which way's it goin'?"

"It's headed away from the prison," the girl asked, sure of herself.

"Ya got it. Now, what else ya see?"

"I dunno."

"Yes, ya do. Ya jus' gotta look a little closa at all ya surroundin's. Ya'll see it," Ani told her, smiling to herself as she watched the young girl look around her.

There was a rabbit trail at a right angle from the walker trail, and Ani wanted Sophia to find it herself. While it was still fresh, it was a bit hard to see as the walker's tracks had come in and mucked it up a bit. If the girl could catch sight of that trail, then she'd prove herself in Ani's eyes and would be allowed her own detail outside of the prison gates, so long as she took one of the other, more capable, adults with her. Hunting and foraging were things that were grossly needed, so if they could get a good shot out in the woods with Sophia leading them, well, they'd have a second hunting team aside from Daryl and her. Hell, maybe she'd sucker Merle into taking the girl out and teaching her how to shoot a bow so she could hunt herself.

"There!" Sophia jumped up excitedly before crouching down and pointing along the trail. "Is it a rabbit?"

"Yuppers! And ya officially passed me test," Ani told her.

"This was a test?"

"Wasn' when we came out 'ere, but ya doin' so good, might as well give ya somethin' hard ta look for and see if ya can find it. Gotta find ya a bow, now."

"Why do I need a bow?"

"So's ya can learn how ta fire it and get out 'ere in these woods huntin' and foragin' where ya belong. Though, ya ain' comin' out by yaself, nor 'til ya learn the bow."

"You're going to let me come hunting?!" Sophia said excitedly.

"Well, ya can track with the best a 'em now, so why not? Ya were already comin' out on ya own anyway. Might as well give ya a purpose and a reason ta. Jus' know, it's a privilege I'm offerin' ya, not a promise or a duty. Jus' a privilege. Ya come out without an adult with ya, I'm takin' it away. Ya come out without ya bow once we've got ya one, I'm takin' it away. Ya go against me or ma's ordas, we're takin' it away. Ya got it? No more a this runnin' off on ya own. I give ya this, ya got a responsibility. Ta me, ya momma, yaself. I give ya this, ya take it seriously," she told Sophia as they followed the trail, crouching low as they came to an area near an obvious burrow. "Come on, they ain' comin' out any time soon. We can set some snares up lata or on the morrow ta get 'em."

They moved on, as the primary reason they were out here was for more herbs. Ani had Sophia looking for more yarrow, catnip, and mullein as well as several other kinds of edible plants. They were not only foraging for food and medicine today; Ani was planning on transforming a part of the field that had yet to be used for crops or training into a wild herb garden. That way they wouldn't have to keep going out just for medicinal purposes, but could focus on gathering food instead. A controlled grow inside the prison fences would allow them to continuously have a supply of what herbs they needed for any ailment they could treat. She had several small bags to transfer the plants into until they got back to the prison. The only hard part about creating a garden like she wanted was that she would have to control the spread of the plants outside of their designated areas. Whimsically, she wished she knew how to keep bees; if she could do that, they'd always have a bountiful harvest and raw honey to help with illness and abrasions.

She took Sophia to the wild lemon balm patch she'd found and carefully showed the girl how to dig out the plant, roots and all. Ani dug up the entire root system, cautiously separating her chosen plant from the rest of the patch and placing it in one of the sacks. Together, they worked their way to the road, gathering a total of six plants to take back with them. They weren't out for more than three hours due to having the plants with them, but they at least had a decent stash of herbs for her cold medicine and a couple backs of elderberries. As they walked back into the prison gates, Daryl, Carol, and Merle were waiting for them.

"Get anything good?" Carol asked.

"Got some plants ta put in the ground, some eldaberries ta go ta the doc, and topped up on some a the herbs I need for the meds I'm makin'," Ani told them. "And also, little sis has a knack for trackin'. I wanna get 'er a bow and get 'er huntin'. When I do, Merle, ya taught Daryl what 'e knows, right?"

"Part of it," Merle said, momentarily taking a step back from his pride. "A lot of it he learned from experience."

"Alright, but ya taught 'im the bow, yeah?"

"That's right."

"Would ya be willin' ta teach Phia? And go with 'er when she hunts?"

"Are you serious?" Carol asked. "That's a lot when she was just in trouble for going out there."

"Alone, ma. Goin' out alone. She won' be goin' alone and she'll have a purpose. Rick's got Carl at the farm all the time and let's face it, we need anotha hunta, and Phia has the talent. Was able ta pick up a rabbit trail that'd been stomped on by walkas afta only lookin' for a few minutes. I wanna build on that talent while it's raw, while she's raw. Strike while the iron's hot and ya get the best result," Ani reasoned.

"Hell, I don't mind takin' her out," Merle offered, surprised that Ani wanted him to help the girl learn.

"And you promise you won't run off on your own? You'll take this seriously?" Carol asked Sophia.

"I promise, momma," Sophia said. "I can help. Ani told me, this isn't a promise, it's a privilege. If I don't follow the rules, I'm stuck in the prison. I have to learn the bow before I can go out, and I can never go on my own. I promise, I'll keep the rules this time. I won't break them and I won't leave without letting you know."

Carol took a deep breath and considered Sophia's words, "Fine. We can give it a go. But it's not just Ani you have to listen to. You have to listen to Merle and me, too."

"I understand."

"Alright, let's get these plants in the ground. Ya wanna help, ma?" she asked Carol.

"Sure."

They spent the next hour transplanting the new herbs into the field and laying the elderberries out to dry in the sun on blankets before heading inside and going to the infirmary. There, she showed the two how to hang the herbs for drying and shook the jars of the concoction she'd already made. They were starting to change color, being tinted by the herbs she already put in them. She opened the bottles up and added a few pieces of dandelion root and a couple flowers in each as well as dropping a small handful of partially squashed elderberries before closing them and shaking them up some more. While she wasn't sure how effective this particular concoction would be, at the very least she hoped it would work against a minor cold. Dr. S once again thanked her for her help in concocting medicine for him, but she just wrote him off.

Instead, she left the doctor to go to the room they kept their weapons in, knowing that Michonne had once upon a time grabbed an extra crossbow. It was big for the girl, and she'd need to build her arm strength up, but it would be a good start for her, especially since she wasn't sure if they would be able to find any smaller bows and she sure as hell wasn't going to hand over Jewel. But at least they had something they could start training the girl with. When she found out one of the other men had already asked for it, she just shrugged her shoulders. It really would have been too big for the girl, and maybe a crossbow wouldn't be the best idea. There were a few compound bows they'd scavenged, one that was adjustable so that Sophia could work up to and grow with the bow. It was perfect, though Ani didn't know if there was much difference between a compound and crossbow in teaching.

Walking into the commons, she first walked over to Merle, "Can ya teach 'er this?"

"Sure, I started on a compound bow. Hand it over, I'll adjust it for the girly," he said, holding his hand out for it.

She handed it over as Sophia walked up. "Is that gonna be mine?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Yup."

"Wait, why is Sophia getting a bow?" Carl asked.

"'Cause she proved 'erself out there taday and is gonna learn how ta hunt. We need more huntas, but huntin' should be done with bows, not guns," Ani told him.

"I don't think I want to hunt," Carl told her. "I'd rather protect the prison."

"I get it. No worries, little dude. Nothin' wrong with stickin' close ta the people ya love and want ta protect. Some day, ya will find ya role in the group. Right now, jus' go with the flow."

The boy looked away as Daryl walked up and grabbed Ani. They'd barely had any time for them to spend together since they'd returned with the pig, mostly because the damn thing had ended up being a female on the verge of giving birth! Now, they had a five piglets and a momma hog at the prison, not just one pig. Michonne had Cutie, the horse, with her on her run, so at least they didn't have to worry about feeding him too. Merle had set up a couple live traps in order to hopefully catch some rabbits to bring back to start raising them for meat as per Ani's wishes. It would be the most logical and efficient way to maintain a protein resource if they couldn't find chickens for eggs.

Daryl pulled her up to their cell after Ani told two of the guard people they needed to burn the pits again. They were barely managing to keep the walkers from piling up along the fence using the pits and spikes, but if they didn't maintain the pits and clear the spikes every so often, they would be overrun. She also put another two on duty to help keep an eye out for those who would be venturing out of the gate to do the clearing. Stifling a yawn, she allowed Daryl to pull her to the bed and sit her down, untying her boots and taking them off before doing the same with his. They laid down together, even though it was only mid-afternoon. Soon enough, Ani was sleeping against Daryl's chest as he read his book and held her in his arms.