The Hunt

[16] Kenric's Help And Sweet Betrayal

The world never seemed so cruel until probably a couple of hours ago. It very easily took away the one person who truly cared for me, who never left my side.

I had too much rage built up inside of me and I was taking it out on the poor trees. My sword was hitting every tree here and there and it was like I don't have mercy on them.

A flash of his face appeared before my face and my hands involuntarily let go of the sword. My feet betrayed me, the air was knocked out of me and I could hear the beat of my heart going crazy in my ears.

"I'm sorry," Jett cried, falling to his knees.

"I forgive you." Nick smiled weakly at him, only making Jett cry even more.

A tear rolled down my already tearsome cheek and I promptly stood up, grabbing my sword. I shook my hands and gripped my sword tighter, getting ready to fight the trees.

A rustling behind me caused me to spin around into an attack position but my hands dropped, my sword fell again and I sighed in relief with my right hand resting on my chest.

Kenric stepped out into view and gave me a sad look when he noticed the quick, ragged breaths I took in.

He took hold of my forearms and stared into my tearful eyes, "Felicity, breathe in, breathe out."

I couldn't. My chest felt tighter than usual and every nerve I had in my body was unstable.

I shook my head, letting the unshed tears fall down my face before wrapping my arms around his neck. His strong arms didn't waste any time to pull me close by my waist.

I sobbed even more remembering Sarah's pleading face. Maybe they could meet somewhere better than here.

"Come with me," he muttered, pulling away and intertwining our fingers.

We walked through the trees, him leading us to the river. It was hard for us to see, for the moon was our only source of light.

Soon enough, the calming sound of the water running got to my ears and my body felt lighter than it was before.

Kenric sat down on a boulder when we reached the river edge, still holding my hand. He looked up at me, "Will you sit down?"

"Yeah." I slumped down and sat Indian-style on the ground. I caught his eyes staring down at me before he released my hand and searched the mud for a stick.

He pulled one out and began washing it, rubbing it with his hands in the river. He got a small pocket knife out of his hunting pants and proceeded to scrape off all the sharp edges.

"Where did you find that knife?" I asked, trying to start a conversation.

"I stepped on it when I was keeping watch at night," he replied, rinsing the stick in the river again. His hand reached out to my hair and I pulled away as a reflexe.

He scowled at me, "Felicity your hair really needs the help." Wow, straightforward much?

I lifted my hand up to my head only to feel knots, leaves and of course, mud. I cringed and put my hand down then turned around so my back faced him, allowing him to do whatever he wants.

His fingers tickled my head as he felt for knots and pulled them out, making me grimace. It took a lot of time but soon he was wetting my hair and washing the mud from it.

"Damn, didn't know you were a pro," I stated as he ran his fingers through my now clean hair.

He chuckled, "Not a pro but I always played with my sister's hair and brushed it for her when mom wasn't present which was ninety-nine percent of the time."

I frowned even though he couldn't see my face. Eminents do NOT work. Only low ranks like my mom and dad worked almost all day, building new houses for the ones who graduate every year. So imagine you start working when you turn twenty five and you and your friends start building almost twenty houses while other low ranks worked on another twenty.

It was an endless cycle.

Where do we get all that space you might ask. Well, during the battles that occur every week, a lot of people die so low ranks destroy their houses and build new ones instead. It's completely unfair and I hate it.

Every year, teens graduate and quit high school__but that doesn't mean they won't have to train anymore, no, we still wake up early to go to the training academy__their newly built houses would be waiting for them to decorate and shit so yes, we move out of our parents' house when we turn eighteen and live on our own.

When we reach twenty five years old, we start working on building new houses for the teens while the eminents enjoyed their happy free life. I hate them!

Why am I thinking like that?

"Can you face me?" Kenric let go of my hair after he put it up in a bun and secured it with the stick he cleaned. I nodded and turned around to face him, still sitting.

He wet his right hand and reached out to my face, this time, I didn't pull away, I let him do what he wanted. He wiped my face as slow as ever then looked at me, "You have a nose ring!"

I smiled, "Yeah, my dad did it for me when I was nineteen."

"He did it for you? Wait, you didn't go to Robert?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Robert doesn't do it for free."

"No he does."

"That's because you're an eminent," I blurted, a hint of jealousy in my voice.

"Eminent?" He frowned. "You call us eminents?"

"Not just me Kenric. Everyone lower than you calls you that, it's not new." I shrugged but in my mind, I was yelling at myself for slipping up like that.

Kenric stared at me with a look I couldn't really figure out so I stood up.

"Thank you, Kenric. I'll go to sleep now, it's so dark."

"Sure," he muttered, glaring at a tree. I pursed my lips and went over to where the others were all asleep.

"Actually Felicity," Kenric said, running up to me, "you're keeping watch, I'll go to sleep." He passed me and I froze in place.

Great!