ToaR: Ch 17
Each of the engines stepped out to see Shale sitting by the fire pit. She had the cooler opened and some of the supplies and splinters were scattered around her feet, a piece of a branch held between them, a spool of twine with a paper clip being tied together and her knife held in her mouth.
Edward stepped up beside her and knelt down. He heard her mumble and leaned closer to hear.
"Grbb te spll for a hec." Shale pointed with her knife to the twine, then nodded towards Edward.
"Pardon?"
"I aid, grb te - oh fergt it." Shale started to measure out a length of twine, cut it, and lay the pieces onto the side of the log. Then she drew out more twine, but left it connected to the spool. Laying to all back onto the ground, she started to tie the twine at certain points, but left the portion with the paper clip loose.
Shale stepped back up and Edward saw her slide the spool over another stick that she had tied on. She gave it a few swings, then nodded to herself.
"Alright, this was the best I could make. Sure you didn't find anything else in there?"
"No, is there anything else we could do?" Skarloey asked.
"It's fine, I can work with this." Shale gathered everything back into the cooler. She pulled out a piece of stale bread from her bag and stuck it to the paper clip.
She stepped closer to the water and cast out the twine. But it didn't go out very far, so she had to draw it back and pull out more string.
Edward started to fidget with his hands. "Shale? Do you want us to collect more branches again?"
"No, wait, I'll do that now." Shale propped the rod beside the log and ran back to the tree line, crouching and analyzing the bushes.
"Shale don't worry, I still have the leaf you wanted to get. Skarloey and I can show the others which ones were poison."
"Edward, please I can take care of this." She really could, the hunger pains had started to fade after a bit. She wanted to contribute where she could, which granted, wasn't much in her eyes, but it was something.
"Shale-"
She already started breaking more branches off, Edward looked back to the others for support. Skarloey stepped forward. "Shale? You don't need to work so hard, it's not selfish to want a break. Please, let us help."
"Scar." Shale pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, I get that you all want me to be - I don't know - happy? But I'm fine, I just want to make myself us-"
She cut herself off. " -make myself worth being around." The she went back to cutting branches, carrying so many it overshadowed her head.
"But, we never said you had to prove yourself?" He asked.
"Obvious you wouldn't say that out loud." She tried to step inside the wooden shack, but tripped over the doorframe.
"Shit!" She dropped the branches and tried to catch herself. But she only managed to pull up one arm to protect her face, the rest of her body took the full impact. Skarloey, Edward, and Renneas were imminently by her side.
The brothers started to pull away the branches while Edward carried Shale back inside. He sat down on one of the benches near the back, Shales head in his lap. She was still awake, but she had to take a moment to clear her head from the sudden blur of pain.
"Shale?" Edward gently shook her shoulder. "Please Shale, you can Take a Break. I know you want to help, but you won't be able to help anyone if your to damaged to even stand."
She groaned, her hand combing through her hair. When her fingers reached her bandana, she scratched at it before ripping it of. Letting it fall to the floor and giving Edward a closer look at the scar running across her forehead.
Parts of the scar were blocked by her rust-red hair, but he could still see how is winded across her face like a snake. It was a fairly clean cut, though some parts were more jagged than the rest. Edward brushed back her hair and noticed more scars.
A array of small crescent-shaped scars around on of her eyes, pale scratches that blended with her freckles and a few longer cuts that ran down her cheek and bruised neck. Edward stared, shocked, then angry. Who would do this to a child? Why would they do this? Who would let something like this happen to her?
Then she started to cough, frame curling further into herself. She shuddered, groaning quietly. Then her eyes snapped open and she was already moving to push herself up again. Though Edward pushed her head back down.
"Eddie, c'mon. I gotta get back -."
"No. Shale, I'm sorry but you can't leave." He stated.
"What? No, I just fell. I'm fine." She tried to sit up again, but felt another wave of hunger rush through.
"Shale you are not fine. Your running low on fuel and your still very damaged. I'm sorry, but .I just don't want you to get hurt more."
"But what ab- gh" Shale winced and grabbed her stomach. She couldn't sit up, but she managed to roll over so she was facing him. "W-what about you? I-I have to do this, You n-need th-."
Edward covered her mouth with his hand. He gave her a patient smile. "Shale, please, listen to me. We can't learn if you don't give us a chance. I understand that your scared, I'm know everyone else is. But we're safe now, you can rest. Let us return you gifts. Please, just rest."
That's when Edward moved his hand off. Leaving Shale to stare at him with a wide eyes. At first he was concerned and expected Shale to try to stand up again. But thankfully, she didn't.
Instead, she smiled back. Eyes shining with restrained tears.
Edward was scared, he didn't want to make her cry. She seemed to notice this, pulling up the collar if her jacket and turning away.
"Oh Shale, it's alright if you want to cry. It's okay, it's okay to be scared." He went to brush his hand over her gaur again when he heard her laugh.
"You idiot, stupid, stupid emotional garbage. Get up, you have to do this, you need to do this. Life isn't free, nothing is. So get up and make something of yourself. Give them a reason to keep you."
Edward was shocked. He saw her eyes widened. Was she thinking out loud? He didn't expect Shale to be so dismissive about herself. "No, please. Shale, you don't need to prove anything. I want you here."
"Skarloey? What has happened? Is Shale still awake?" asked Renneas
"Oh, I hope she is. She's so small." Peter cooed. "Can we come see her?"
He looked up to the entrance of the shack and noticed some if the Narrow Gauge engines peeking through. He motioned with his head to come in.
"Edward? Shale? Are you both alright?" Skarloey stepped in first, followed - surprisingly - by Duncan.
"Look, the rest if ya donkeys can stay out there. We'll tell ya if she's alright." Duncan blocked the entrance from the other engines.
He turned back to Skarloey, who was already kneeling beside her. "Well, is she?"
"Um, I'm not sure? She doesn't seem like she wants to talk?" He looked up to Edward.
"Shale? Do you want to talk?" He asked.
All he got was a shake.
"Oy! What's wrong with her?" Duncan stepped up.
"I - I'm fine. Really, I am."
"Do you really expect any if us to believe that? We're not all as stupid as you humans might think."
"Duncan!"
"Heh, he does have a point." Shale turned over. "I'm - well. I'm just, just confused. I guess that's the best way I can put it."
"Alright, that ain't really tellin' us much."
"Duncan, please." Skarloey chided "She'll tell us when she wants to."
"She also told us to speak our minds. So, I am." He shrugged.
They then heard her sigh. "Well, I-I just want you to think I'll be worth being around. And I haven't done anything really... well, notable. I guess."
"Alright, now that's some horse crap. You've done plenty of stuff around here. Bringin Edward to us, showin' us how survive and hell, your still doin' work and your more damaged that Peter Sam after those slate cars fell on his face. So don't give us crap about you bein' useless."
Edward pinched the bridge of his nose and Duncan cringed at the wording.
"Anyways, I'm not very sure I can speak for the others, but I like you. Even though your human, you've been working as hard as an engine."
"But, you still need me to-"
Skarloey spoke up again. "We already gathered more branches and we might be able to start a fire to cook any fish that we can catch."
Shale frowned. "Wait, do you know how to start fires?"
"Duh, we saw it done all the time. Can't be that hard."
"True, you'd probably have more experience then me. Though it's not a high margin to beat."
"Don't worry, I'll make sure that the others don't burn the forest down." Skarloey joked. "So please, just rest. You've earned it."
She smiled briefly before closing her eyes. "So have you."
My exams are this week guys, pray that I don't self implode. ?
