In Between Seasons

Chapter Five

By the time we stopped my legs were a complete and useless mess, and I plopped to the ground with such a lack of grace that I ended up skinning my elbows. I was so exhausted I didn't make a nasty statement when I saw him sneer at me in amusement. He didn't look anywhere as tired as I was, but there were bags under his eyes and his muscles were still tight from stress.

"Tomorrow I might just have to throw you over my shoulder to keep you from killing yourself on a log," he teased as he stacked wood and pulled a flint out of his pocket.

I shot up and put my hands in front of the wood before he could strike it.

"What are you doing?" I asked with wide eyes.

I watched as a smirk appeared at the edge of his thin lips.

"Keeping us warm," he replied as he struck the flint, his eyes widening to match mine as his smirk grew into a grin, and he tipped from his crouching position onto his ass.

I glanced over my shoulder before looking back at him.

"Won't it attract people?" I asked.

He chuckled to himself as he ran his hand through his hair. "Smell the air, how much smoke do you smell?"

I blinked at him. "There's smoke in front of me, of course I smell a lot of it."

"Walk a few yards out, then see if you can determine where it's coming from," he replied with a nod over my shoulders.

I looked down at my shaking hands, and I felt the trembling in my legs.

"I believe you."

The man rubbed his neck. "Sore?"

I nodded.

"Listen," he heaved a sigh; "these woods are thick, and the leaves are still on all the trees, plus there's a shit ton of people out here—it'd be impossible to tell what direction one of the fires burning right now is coming from, even if you wanted to know."

I cast my eyes down and stared at the fire.

"Why did you feel the need to explain?"

"I saw the doubt in your eyes."

I scoffed a bit. "Why would you care if I doubt you? I'm not even sure if I'm going to wake up in the morning."

I swallowed as our eyes met through the flames as they burst up in between us. I found my heart hammering in my ribcage because he seemed so human as he stared back at me. He didn't seem like a killer, but at the same time I knew he was.

"If I was going to kill you, you'd be dead already," he said as he licked his parched lips and looked at his sneakers.

"Why haven't you? They won't pay a ransom," I pushed, going back to my questioning ways.

I needed to know why he decided to spare me.

He stood, and his hands went into his back pockets where his thumbs stuck out and accentuated his ass. I shook my head as I watched his head tilt back to the leaf blocked sky.

"If I was any other General you'd be dead already."

"Why? Why would another General want me dead?" I asked as my breathing quickened.

The man turned, and his chest rose as he shook his head, biting his lip before he answered, "To prove to your father that he needs to stay away from us."

I wanted to know more—to know what a General was, and what it had to do with the societies we lived within, and more importantly, what Father had done. Fear prevented me from pushing for more answers, though, and I watched as the man's eyes darkened with worry as they rested on me and then darted to the surrounding forest.