Chapter 8
Early the next morning, Sofia all but shoved me out the door in her excitement to check the snares. I swiveled my head around to check around us and I noticed Sofia getting her excitement under wraps and starting to pay attention as well. I could tell she really wanted to run off to go check the snares but she did well remembering that we weren't the only things out here. When we arrived, low and behold, her beginners luck had been prosperous; we had ourselves a rabbit. It was already dead, but still pretty warm, so it must have choked itself on the snare or had a heart attack. I showed her how to tie it to her belt so she could still have her hands free, and collected our snares to reuse. Now would be the difficult part, she had laughed when I said I threw up three times preparing my first one but we would just have to see how strong her stomach was. I asked her if she would like to try to prepare it herself and she'd agreed.
She did surprisingly well; she really had paid attention that first day when I got the rabbit. I gave her some pointers here and there but mostly she did it herself. She only gagged once when she gutted it so I teased her a little, "You're making me look bad Sofia, over there like an old pro after I told you about me throwing up all those times on my first go around." I was smiling and very proud of her. "You're a really fast learner, you'll be providing for your group no problem. " I said, patting her on the back. After the rabbit was prepared and the rest buried far from us, we decided to cook it like the first day. "Are you going to teach me how to kill a walker?" she suddenly asked me, well if that wasn't the million dollar question.
Putting my own personal issues aside, I responded with "It is necessary, so yes, of course I will. But you have to listen to everything I tell you because you know what a mistake could cost you. I'm not trying to scare you out of it; in fact I'm doing the opposite. It's a good thing to have a healthy dose of respect for your opponent, knowing what they are capable of. After breakfast I'll show you a few things to help you deal with both the dead and the living" I told her firmly. So, that's what we did; I showed her first how to take down dead. That was the simpler part of the discussion; just telling her how to get them down on her level to be able to stab the brain, and avoid their hands and teeth. The part of dealing with the living would be more complicated for her; but after hearing those guys said yesterday, she was more than willing to listen. I taught her some evasive maneuvers and some simple self-defense techniques so she could run away if ever needed. I even taught her how to keep from leaving a trail on the run.
Then came the hard part, I had to teach her that there might be a time that running from the living isn't possible and what to do if that time came. I hoped that would never happen but in today's world… those men yesterday were a perfect example of what some of the living had become. We worked hard well into the afternoon, sparing with each other, and me giving her pointers. She has speed working for her, which is great because with her small stature she would need to be able to get the drop on someone. We went back in and ate the rest of the stew. After we got our packs, we then set off to the creek for a much needed bath I had promised.
Along the way, I pointed things out to Sofia to help her in case she ever got lost. I explained how to tell one direction from another, and how to find her way through the woods, so she didn't end up going in circles. We had fallen into a comfortable silence when I started to hum. She seemed a little curious as to what I was doing, when I broke out in song singing Come and Get Your Love by Redbone. Doing my best Peter Quill impression, I dance around and used one of my arrows as my mic. After all the things we did this morning I felt the need to lighten the mood up a little and let her have some fun, after all she is still a kid. I hadn't seen any of the dead around, and even while I was being silly, I kept the noise level down and kept my eyes open. She started laughing at me and started copying me. We came up to the creek and I cautioned her to stay on the rocks away from the mud. We chose a spot where the water was clearest and would come to my up to my waist. This part was still really rocky so I wasn't too concerned about any unexpected visitors grabbing us from the bottom.
I showed Sofia where to put her knife so she could still reach it if she needed to. I hung my bow on an overhanging branch and put my knife on a rock close to where I would be. Then was the big surprise I had for her, I had found some coconut shampoo and conditioner, along with her very own bar of soap yesterday. She was so excited to have something so simple she about knocked me over with a big hug. We set out our new clothes and I started to undress. She seemed a little hesitant, but I reminded her we were both just girls and I wouldn't look except just to keep an eye out to keep us safe. When we were done, we put on our under clothes and sat out in a few rays of the sun that peeked through the trees to dry the rest of the way. I rebraided my hair and she asked if I could do hers. It was a little short to do just like mine, so I did a double braid, one on each side. She loved it.
When I had turned to put my brush back in my bag, I felt her touching my wings. "There just like Mr. Daryl's" she said softly. "O yea?" I asked as she nodded. "And who is this Mr. Daryl?" I asked curiously. Why would my tattoo look just like some guys,.. Alice what are you up too? "Mr. Daryl always hunts for us, he can be a little scary but he always brings us something back. He doesn't sit and talk with us, just likes to be by himself or with his brother" She stated. "Scary how?" I asked wondering if I had another Shane on my hands. Alice had said I would have to figure him out on my own, so I had no insight but to go with my gut feelings and use my "observation skills". I had, after all, figured out the Cullen's were vampires; but then again, the wolf thing flew right over my head (haha I crack myself up, remembering Jacob phasing "on the fly" as the others had called it right over my head) until Paul had fuzzed out in front of me. Jacob had laid out all the ground work for me and I just ignored that half of the story. I should have put it together after the whole Laurant debacle, but then again, I was too caught up in worrying about becoming Vicky's chew toy; I mean, no one wants to become a vamp's Capri sun. Focus Bella… "..it's not that he's mean to us or anything, but he was rude to my daddy and he got into a fight with Mr. Shane. He always seems kind of mad; but he was probably just upset that day when he got into it with Mr. Shane because his brother was missing" Said Sofia. Ah, well then maybe he wasn't so bad. Sofia's dad sounded like he had been a class A asshole and Shane well, the same goes for him. So for this Daryl person to clash with those two was understandable; as for being mad all the time, maybe he was just fed up the rest of the group for acting like idiots. I don't know if I'd feel safe camped out with them; lighting big ass fires, being loud as fuck, letting the kids just roam about, no alarms set up for the dead….. I mean the list just goes on and on.
We had gotten dressed and washed our dirty clothes on a rock with some laundry soap I had in my bag. We set those out to dry and while we waited, we practiced her getting out of holds. I would grab her different ways and she would try to escape. I had just grabbed around the neck in a headlock from behind, when I heard something off in the distance. I was looking around when I spotted a horse with a rider. It reared up and right as I was letting go of Sofia, an arrow with orange a yellow vanes hit the tree not even a foot from my face. O, this mother fucker… I grabbed my bow and shoved Sofia down behind a large rock. I knelt down next to her as I watched the man tumble down a hill further up the creek into the mud. His horse just abandoned his ass and made a run for it, back to wherever the hell it came from. We couldn't see the man very well from where we were but he didn't appear to be moving. I grabbed his bolt, not an arrow like I first thought, out of the tree and decided to go apprehend him while he was unconscious.
We shoved our stuff in our bags and cautiously made our way in that direction; it could be a trick after all. When we got closer, Sofia ran off saying "It's Daryl!". I ran to catch up with her trying to make sure nothing happened to her. When I got closer, I could tell he was injured. He'd speared himself on his own bolt through his left flank. He was breathing ok, so I don't think he got his lung or anything else important. I was moving a little closer to see how injured he was, when he bolted off the ground and came right at me.
Daryl saw her "Choking" Sofia... How mad do you think he is?... By the way, he only missed because Nelly reared up and threw him. Thanks for the reviews!