Chapter 6

Dusk was falling slowly, bright orange light still beaming over the tops of the hills around the castle. Creedy was the only one left working on the watchtower, his shirt hanging over a ledge and held down by a spare chunk of wood. The breeze tickled over his damp skin, and he paused to wipe a trickle of sweat from his forehead. Chaz stood a few feet away, leaning back against the railing just watching. He managed a small smile before pounding another nail into the wood.

"It's getting dark," she said quietly.

"I see that." Her small smile fell, and she looked away. "I'm almost done," he added between thwaps of the hammer. She nodded, turning around to lean her forearms on the banister, staring out over the land surrounding the castle. A few moments later, he set his hammer down and pulled his shirt back over his head.

"Alex and Quinn are in there doing Snow White," Chaz offered quietly. Creedy snickered, leaning against the railing next to her. "She thought I should talk to you," she added after a long pause.

"What about?" She sighed, dropping her head. When she looked up at him, he was still staring back expectantly, and she turned back toward the horizon to avoid his eyes.

"I don't know what do about this," she finally said.

"You don't know what to do about what?"

"Look, I'm attracted to you," she started, stopping to bite her lip and glance at him nervously.

"But…"

"I've told you, I'm not good at relationships." He chuckled, shaking his head before staring up at the work they'd done on the watchtower. "Actually, I really suck at relationships. And I don't think it's fair for you to get involved with me."

"Now, shouldn't I be the one that decides what's fair for me and what isn't?" he asked, his eyes shifting back to her face. As he expected, she wasn't looking at him. "I don't expect you to be perfect, if that's what you're afraid of."

"No, it's not…"

"And I hope you don't expect me to be perfect, because I'm not either," he continued, cutting her off. She turned to him quickly. "None of us are. I don't know why you're so terrified of letting someone in, but you're going to have to learn to get over that if you don't want to spend the rest of your life wishing you had something you feel like you're missing."

"Creedy—"

"You're missing out on so much because you're so preoccupied with protecting yourself. But you have to take chances to gain something, and until you do that, there's nothing I can do about this, either. I'm not going to pretend I don't feel something for you when I do just so you don't have to think about what you need to do to feel something for me."

"Creedy, I—"

"I can't make you care about me, and I don't want to try to. But I'm not going to help you stay sheltered from everything just so you don't get hurt. You're going to, and if this happens, it'll probably be because of me. But what matters is how you decide you're going to handle getting hurt."

"Will you shut up and let me talk?" she finally edged in, smiling slightly. He sighed, pursing his lips. "I know I'm going to get hurt eventually. And I know I have to take a chance to let this happen."

"So what's the problem?" She looked away, crossing her arms over her chest. "And don't tell me you have too many other things to concentrate on. We both know that's bullshit." She didn't respond, turning away from him slightly. He took a step toward her, watching her tense. "Close your eyes," he instructed quietly. She turned toward him, eyebrow arched, finally giving in and letting them close. "Keep them that way." Her brows furled as he reached out, tucking her hair behind her ears, his thumbs lingering to trace the lines of her face lightly. His hands slid down the sides of her neck to her shoulders, and he turned her back toward him, brushing her hair over one shoulder before gently massaging the knots away. She slowly relaxed, leaning back against him. He looped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into him as he just held her for a moment. Her breath caught in her throat as he lightly pressed his lips to the side of her neck, just under her jaw. He lifted an arm to tilt her head to the side a little to give him better access, his other arm dropping to wind a hand around her waist and turn her around. She opened her eyes slowly, finding his face just inches from hers, his eyes searching for permission, but she couldn't grant it. She looked away, letting her forehead rest against his chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. He sighed, wrapping his arms around her.

"It's going to start getting cold," he said. She nodded against him, taking a while to pull away and head inside. He followed her into the kitchen, and they split the last bit of coffee left, sitting at the table in silence. "You've known me longer than a week, by the way," he finally said, breaking the silence. She glanced up at him, a small smile playing on her lips. "More like a month, really."

"Still not very long," she replied quietly.

"So do you have a set period of time where not very long turns into long enough?"

"No," she answered with a snicker. He smiled, taking a sip of his coffee. Her smile fell the longer her eyes lingered on him, and she finally looked away with a heavy sigh. "I just don't want this to play out with no privacy, you know what I mean?"

"Oh, you mean like everyone sleeping in the same room, eating in the same room, working in the same area."

"Exactly."

"Well I'm sure once the roof is finished the inside of the house will start getting put back together," he said with a small shrug. "But in the mean time, we could always just take a walk or something. There are places to go to be alone."

"Yeah, but I'm sure Quinn and Alex have already claimed them." Chad nearly spit out his coffee, instead swallowing quickly and letting out a roar of laughter. She only smiled sweetly over the rim of her cup. His laughter gradually wound down, ending with an amused sigh, and he shook his head, raising his coffee cup in a salute before draining what little was left. "We're going out to the field tomorrow," she said after a while, tracing the rim of her mug with a finger. "Why don't you come with us?"

"Well, if I'm going to do that, we should probably go to sleep," he said after a moment's thought. A tiny smile touched her lips, and she stood, taking his empty cup from him and setting it in the sink. Neither said a word as they ascended the steps and tiptoed into the bunkroom, crawling under the sheets next to each other. She settled her head on his shoulder, her hand flattened against his chest, and he lifted an arm to run his fingers through the chunks of hair falling from her ponytail. Her eyes closed, that small smile still playing on her lips. As her breathing slowed into an even rhythm, he slowly drifted off as well.

-

Chaz stared out the window as Creedy drove the truck out to the field, two children squeezed between them and several more in the back of the vehicle, probably bouncing all over the place as he took the bumps in the road without slowing down. Her backpack was clenched tightly between her feet to keep it from bouncing around and disturbing the few explosive arrowheads she'd brought with her. They reached the field in under twenty minutes and everyone piled out, all carrying gardening equipment and bags.

Creedy walked through the rows of crops with about a third of the kids, including Jared, supervising them and giving them instructions on how to pick only the ripe fruits and vegetables so they could harvest the seeds and replant them. From the carrots and other flowering plants, they inspected the few flowers blooming, picking out the seeds that were ready and dropping them into a small cheesecloth pouch. They worked quickly, the smell of the rotting dragon corpse far away enough that they weren't as protected as the sun slowly rose above the hills.

Chaz took the remaining kids through the barest areas of the field, helping them quickly turn the soil, leaving the decaying plant material in the dirt as fertilizer. They sprinkled seeds in rough trenches, several children following behind and covering them up. Just as the top curve of the sun started to peek over the top of the tallest peaks, they all scrambled back to the truck and climbed in, welcoming the stench of the slimy reptile as they neared the castle. As soon as Creedy cut the engine, the children bound out of the truck to play on the front lawn, careful to avoid the maturing makeshift field, which now had the beginnings of leaves starting to poke out from the soil. Without a word to Creedy, she climbed out of the cab of the truck and smiled as the two children inside hopped out, running to join in with the others. She moseyed toward the young plants, hearing the crunch of gravel under Creedy's boots behind her.

He watched her for a while, crouching down to inspect each tiny little plant, running her fingers over the leaves gently, searching for insects or other pests. As she continued on without looking up at him, he crossed his arms over his chest, just watching her. She worked her way down one short row and up the next, stopping at each and every green sprout, spending an equal amount of time with each one. Finally, he met her at the middle of a row, dropping to his knees next to her.

"What are we looking for?" he asked, reaching out to mimic the movements of her fingers.

"Anything bad," she answered cryptically, turning to smile at him. His eyebrow rose.

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning anything that crawls or makes it look unhealthy." He shrugged, making a face telling her it didn't seem to hard, and they played leapfrog through the small field, alternating plants in their inspections.

"So what do you plan on doing if you find something considered bad?" he asked, moving past her to the next plant.

"Depends. If it's a bug, kill it and look for more. I don't think we have anything to treat them with. If there's a leaf that's growing mold or powdery mildew or something, pull it and chuck it somewhere far away from the rest of the plants. And if it's too far gone, pull it."

"Pull it," he said, sounding disbelieving.

"A plant that's infected with something isn't going to produce much, if anything," she said with a tiny shrug. "Definitely won't give us anything we can get seeds from. So there's no sense letting it waste the few nutrients in the soil that could be used by a healthy plant."

"Right," he said, sending her a quizzical glance. She looked up at him, her face blank.

"One of my best friends was a horticulturist. She handled most of the crop raising wherever we ended up." He nodded, his lips forming a silent 'oh'. They worked silently for a few more rows, Creedy stealing numerous glances at her though she never seemed to notice. The sun was high in the sky as they finished up, and she stood, shielding her eyes to look out over the horizon.

"What are you looking for?"

"You think it's gonna rain today?" she asked hopefully, glancing up at him. He shrugged, taking a few deep breaths through is nose.

"Maybe." Another quick sniff. "Not any time soon, though." Her eyebrow rose, and he blinked at her. "You never stopped to see if you could smell the rain coming?"

"I usually feel it in my knees," she said with a quiet snicker. "But there it's so rainy all the time my knees ache constantly." He laughed, shaking his head and starting toward the castle, brushing the dirt from his hands. As they started up the steps, Quinn popped his head over the ledge above and shouted Creedy's name.

"Bring up some firewood with you," he called, motioning over his shoulder. "We're getting low in the kitchen." Creedy waved and turned to start back down the stairs, Chaz in tow. He looked up at her, still in a crouch, as she stopped, holding her arms out.

"Load me up," she said, wiggling her fingers. His eyebrow rose, but he complied, piling a stack of wood into her arms, the stack nearly reaching her chin.

"Got it?" he asked, a wicked smirk touching his lips. She nodded, shuffling her feet to turn around. He watched, suppressing a cackle as she twisted around, moving the wood out of her way so she could see the steps before her and keep from tripping. Once he was sure she could make it, he stacked a pile for himself and followed her up. It was slow going back down the stairs to the kitchen, Chaz's legs trembling as she carefully made her way to the bottom, dropping the wood next to the fireplace. She picked the slivers of wood out of her forearms as Creedy stacked all of it neatly.

"What's for dinner?" she asked, watching Quinn mill around with his back to her.

"All we have is potatoes," he said with a small shrug.

"Again?" Creedy sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets. "What about all the stuff we brought in this morning?"

"It's not been seeded yet," Quinn answered, nodding to the stack of brown cheesecloth sacks piled in a corner.

"We can do that," Chaz offered, glancing at Creedy, who nodded. "Anything specific?"

"Whatever you want with potatoes," Quinn said, managing a small smile to Chaz and a nod to Creedy. Chaz started on slicing three carrots as Creedy sliced a couple of tomatoes and picked out the seeds, dropping them into a mug. She rinsed the carrots quickly, slicing them into thin rounds. Quinn continued peeling and chopping potatoes, all of them dumping their cuttings into a pot of water as they went.

"You know what I think?" she finally asked, fed up with the silence only broken by their cutting.

"What do you think?" Quinn asked, receiving a small smile.

"I think someone should venture out and see if there's anything growing in a safe distance. See if we can find anything else that can beef up our collection."

"There's nothing growing for miles, Chaz," Creedy said quietly, not looking up from his small tomatoes. "They burned pretty much everything to the ground."

"Do you know how good ash is for plants?" she returned, glancing at him as she dropped another handful of sliced carrot into the pot. "Sweetie, you're doing that the hard way," she said, shaking her head as she watched Creedy pick out the seeds one by one." He looked up, eyebrow arched into a question, and she sighed, setting her knife on the counter. Both Quinn and Creedy watched in fascination as she picked up a whole tomato, rolling it gently on the counter under her hand, just enough to break it down a little. She sliced it open, pouring mush and seeds into his mug. "You can rinse off the goo later," she said. "There's not as much meat, but it gets all the seeds out a lot faster without having to chase them around the counter," she said, handing him another tomato. Quinn nodded in satisfaction, picking out the eyes of another potato before starting on cutting and peeling it. "Anyway, did you ever think about why they did controlled burns in national forests and stuff? Or did they not do that here?" Creedy and Quinn glanced at each other, then looked to Chaz, who only continued carefully slicing the last carrot.

"What do you mean?"

"There are some plants," she continued, "whose seeds only germinate after they've been burned. And most fires never reach the roots, no matter how hot they burn, so there's always something left beneath the surface." She paused to drop a handful of choppings into the pot before turning back to the second half of the carrot. "The part of the plant above ground – the part that gets burned – doesn't lose any of the nutrients. It's all converted into a different form. The ash covers the ground, it rains, and the nutrients soak back into the dirt. Roots soak it up and grow into another plant." She punctuated the statement with the last handful of carrot plopping into the pot and looked up at them, a satisfied smirk turning her lips. "You didn't know that?" They both shrugged, turning back to their tasks. "I think a small group should go out. Someone who knows where they're going," she added

"I'll go," Creedy said quietly, receiving a quick glance from Quinn.

"Take Alex with you," Quinn requested equally as quietly. "And Chaz, take your crossbow. Alex will have one as well." Her brow furrowed a bit."

"Alex will have one what?" All three looked up to see Alex leaning against the doorway, an amused smile on her face. "What's cooking?"

"Potatoes with carrots and tomatoes," Chaz said. "We're going out gathering tomorrow. Quinn wants you to come with us and take his crossbow." She nodded, plopping at the table.

"Do you happen to know what grows wild around here?" Chaz asked, sliding into a chair next to Alex, wiping the soot she smeared on her hand as she sat onto her pants.

"No telling now," Quinn said, hoisting the pot and carrying it over to slide it into the fire. Chaz nodded thoughtfully, tucking a rogue strand of hair behind her ear.

"Hope we can find some grain. Make some more bread."

"No yeast," Alex said. Chaz cocked her head to the side.

"Bread is bread. Still works if it's flat." Alex snickered, shaking her head.

"Ever the optimist, huh?"

"Not really," Chaz answered with a smile. "But I try to be."

"I hope we find strawberries," Alex said, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Currants," Quinn chimed in. Chaz wrinkled her nose, and he cracked a grin. "What? I like currants."

"Find barley," Creedy said, dropping into the chair next to Chaz. "We could make beer. Or whiskey if you find some corn."

"We'll find what we find," Chaz said through a laugh. "But you do know that if we find barley and/or corn, eating is first priority and alcohol is reserved for the leftovers, if there is any." He shrugged, flashing a toothy grin. She shook her head, turning back to Alex.

"I'm hoping we find some kind of meat." Alex's eyebrow rose. "Catch a couple, a male and a female, and set up a place for them to breed. Have rabbit or something once in a while."

"Does anyone know how to clean a rabbit?" Alex asked. They all shrugged.

"How hard can it be?" Creedy asked. "Peel it and chop it."

"More complicated than that, but whatever," Chaz said with a snicker. "I don't know. We'll find what we find. No promises on that, even."

"When do you want to go?"

"Tomorrow morning," Alex suggested. "To start with. Not go too far. We can take several trips and see what we find. Start a map or something, in case we need to go back later." Chaz nodded. "Do like we do with going to the field. Stick to dawn and dusk.

"Creedy, will you go get the kids?" Quinn asked, butting into the conversation. "I think the potatoes are almost cooked." Creedy nodded, standing and leaving the kitchen. Fortunately, all the flatware and silverware had been metal, and hadn't been destroyed in the fire, and Quinn stacked it up on the edge of the counter, Alex and Chaz joining him to help serve up the kids' stew as they lined up and got their bowls, working their way down the line before finding a place to plop down and eat. The adults served themselves, finding the few open spots to lean or sit and eat. Chaz opted to slide onto the counter, watching the kids as she ate. As the kids finished, they stacked their bowls in the sink, and Jared was given dishwashing duty. As Chaz trudged up the stairs to watch the sun go down, she hoped they'd soon have enough for more than one meal a day. Her tiny boxes of cereal had run out a couple days after she'd gotten there, and no matter how well she stuck to rationing her little fish crackers, they'd not lasted long either. Now that her snacks were gone, she didn't have anything to hold her or anyone else over until dinner finally came.