Faithful Pebble
Part One Hundred and Five
The wanderer looked at the child. Even in the pre-dawn light, he could see the pickpocket's saddened disappointment and quickly moved to dispel it. He smirked, the wanderer. His smile smeared his lips with amusement and skepticism. "You've followed me all day through a dark haunted forest spying and eavesdropping the entire time. Now, you tell me that you don't know what's happening next?" He ruffled the boy's hair disapprovingly. He was surprised, the wanderer, curious really. "How much did you hear last night?" The man didn't know.
The boy roughly pushed his hand away. If the early morning light wasn't so dim, the wanderer would have seen the blush. This time the boy was lucky. "I fell asleep at the window," he admitted sheepishly. "I heard you say something about the dead miners and then… nothing. I don't remember anything after that. I woke up a little while ago and snuck back here just in case one of you came out."
The wanderer sighed thinking back to the night prior. He got to his feet. The boy did as well. "We agreed she'd stay here while I visited my friend for supplies." The wanderer shouldered his bag. "Would you watch her for me? I should be back around this time tomorrow morning."
The child, the kitten, the smallest pickpocket of that monstrous gang squinted distrustfully. Heroes didn't abandon their charges, he thought. Heroes didn't do that.
"I will return," the wanderer reassured. "I promise." He paused then stretched out his hand meaning as if to shake the child's tiny fingers. "This time I mean it," he vowed, "man to man."
Again the boy hesitated.
The wanderer drooped his shoulders. He dropped his bag and knelt before the boy taking out the diamond soaked necklace. The dragon pendant slithered shyly from his pocket ignoring its silver partner tick-tick-ticking next to it, tock-tock-tocking quietly beside his hip. The wanderer ignored it, hid it, pretended it didn't exist and yet didn't. He couldn't forget it, the watch. He didn't have the time to. The wanderer licked his lips, his smile warmed. "I will be back very quickly; I said this to Iris too. See, she gave this to me. It will allow me safe passage through the forest until I return. I'll get our supplies and then we'll be out of here, I promise. I'll come get her and she'll come with me."
"So, it's true then." Indifferent, the child sighed. He looked back at the house. It looked more tattered in the darkness than it did in the light, the flowers more lonely. The child grimaced. "She isn't staying?"
- Calla