The Bloodshed of Winter

I take it back, he's kind of cute

I went for my gun. Over the past few days, it was my first instinct.

"Was that-" Ace started.

"Lazari." I finished.

We ran towards the noise, surely enough, there was Lazari, she was trying to fight someone, a boy, he had brown hair and grey eyes. I shot the boy, he dropped to Lazari's feet. She took a deep breath and turned around with a spear in her hands.

When she saw us, she dropped it.

"Adelaide?" She asked.

"Lazari." I said.

"Hello to you too," Ace said.

She ignored him "How'd you find me?"

"I heard you scream, so I found you." I said,

She looked at Ace and said, "You're soaking wet."

"Yeah, I went swimming." Ace's jacket was still dripping, so was his hair, he shivered against the wind.

Then I heard the sound of footsteps, followed by a voice that said "Oh, I found you Lazari, I heard you scream." It was Grecia, if I could recognize any Australian accent, that was definitely hers.

"Grecia." I said.

"Adelaide?" She asked.

I turned around, Grecia looked different, her hair was longer, the tips of her hair were a dark pinkish-purple, her skin was deeper tan, not as tan as Ace, but tanner than last time I saw her, she looked shaken up, but not hurt.

I hugged her "I thought I would never see you again!" I cried.

"Me too! What happened to you?" She investigated the spot my arm once was.

"Well, I mean it's the Bloodshed, it's kind of gruesome." I said.

"And your leg?" She asked.

"I kind of fell." I said.

"Do you have the rings?"

"Yeah, I grabbed my other one, you have the earrings?"

She pointed to her ears where two diamond studs were.

I backed up to face everyone else. "Do you guys have a shelter?" I asked Grecia and Lazari.

"No, we just change spots every night." Lazari said.

I nodded.

"Come to ours." Ace said.

They nodded as we walked back to Ace's shelter, Lazari and Grecia trailed behind us.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Ace said. "Here we discuss the proper way to do things."

"Like?" Lazari asked.

"How to put cereal and milk into a bowl." He said.

"Cereal and then milk."

"No, milk, cereal, bowl." Ace corrected.

"Ah, thank you, Ace." Lazari said.

Grecia pulled me aside. "Where'd you find him?" She looked impressed.

"Well, the Bloodshed," I said "He called me-" I started.

"Hey, skittle?"

"That." I said.

"Where'd you put the rope?" He asked.

"It's in the lake, I used it to get you out." I said.

"Oh yeah."

"Why do you need it?" I asked.

"To climb a tree, I threw my sword up there."He said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I felt like it, don't ask questions." He said.

"No, we don't have any more rope, ask Lazari or Grecia to climb up there and get it, or just throw some sticks at it." I said.

"Why can't you-" He started, then he remembered that I only had one arm attached to my body.

"I'll do it." Grecia said, and as if she'd done it a thousand times, which she probably did.

She grabbed the sword and said "Incoming!" and threw it down to Ace, who backed away from the sword.

He picked it up and put it on a log. "What year is it?" He asked.

That was one of the dumbest questions I've ever heard, but it was Ace, that might've been the smartest he gets.

"What year were you born?" I asked.

"Seventeen years ago."

"So, 1999, what's 1999 plus seventeen?" I asked.

"I don't know, like 2016." He said.

"Good job muffin, would you like a trophy?" I asked.

He nodded "That was some hard math."

"Clearly."

Lazari was looking around at Ace's shelter, clearly impressed "Where'd you learn to make this?" She asked.

"Well, I put a bunch of sticks, mud, and rocks in a pile and it appeared overnight." He said. "No, I actually am not a complete idiot, I learned how to build these on T.V"

Lazari being from the richer part of Region two, actually had a cellphone, which for some reason she brought with her, did she want to vlog her last few days? I didn't know.

She pulled out her phone and took a picture of it, maybe it was to show her siblings, maybe she wanted someone to find it and put it in a book, again, either one would make sense. I still was having trouble understanding the point of different regions, why did we have to separate because of someone else's wishes? I didn't know.

"Does that thing have music?" Ace asked, pointing to Lazari's phone.

"Yeah?" She said it sounded more like a question than an answer. "Why, do you want to listen to the top songs before you die?" Her voice had a hint of sarcasm, but Ace nodded as if he thought she was serious.

"I mean, yeah." He said.

"Ace, if she plays music, someone's going to hear it, most likely someones going to hear it." I said.

He shrugged "So? You can kill them."

Lazari sighed and turned on some kind of playlist, it was mixed with some older music that Ace must've enjoyed because he would've complained about it, and some popular music from this year.

"How about me and Grecia go find some food?" I asked.

"Good idea, I'll try and keep this one happy." Lazari said.

Ace frowned "What if I want to go?"

"No Ace, go draw a picture." I said.

Ace's face lit up and he grabbed the pad of paper and started doodling.

"We'll be back." I said to Lazari.

She nodded as we turned around and ran into the trees.