Meal

11. Meal

I wake up to some yelling sounds and open my eyes. In front of me there is the elf and she is holding the bat person that is trying to struggle free from her hold.

My black sword is on the ground next to them and the fox girl is walking toward it. The other children are around us watching and they look terrified.

“What happened?”

I ask them since I am confused, and my mind is still slow from sleeping.

“He took the sword from the fox girl after knocking her down on the ground and the ran toward you with it. After I stopped him, he started yelling about how you will kill us all if we don’t kill you before you wake up.”

“You vampire bastards slaughtered our whole village!”

He yells with tears running down his cheeks. He looks at me with hatred and keeps struggling to get free. Fox girl takes the sword from the ground quietly and walks away.

“Yes, the vampire bastards probably slaughtered your village and many other villages too, but I wasn’t one of them because the vampire bastards tried to kill me too for being weak. I hate them as much as you do since they killed the person I cared about the most.”

He stops struggling but he still looks mad.

“Lies, everything you say is lies, how could we trust in what a vampire says?”

“Why would I lie to you? I never made anyone come here except the ones that weren’t awake. I am not keeping you here against your will.”

“You are keeping me here against my will.”

Sarah says from the side.

“You would go die for nothing and possibly lead the lizard people here in which case people who don’t want to die might die. I also care about you, so I don’t want to see you die.”

“He is deceiving you all! If we don’t kill him now, he will eat us all!”

The kid starts struggling again to get free with even more determination.

“Who would want to eat you?”

This is starting to get annoying. I get up and go to the meat pieces that have been already cooked and start eating one of them as I sit down on the ground. The tender meat is easy to bite into and the juices from into my mouth filling it with taste.

How did the kid cook the meat so well in a campfire?

“You can let the bat kid go, he can’t hurt anyone here now that I am awake.”

The elf releases the bat kid who looks more confused than angry now.

“If you are hungry you can eat meat with us as long as you act normally. You can also leave if you want to as long as you don’t go toward the city of lizard men.”

He doesn’t say anything as he just stands there in a daze. I keep eating the piece of meat which tastes marvelous. The kids around start calming down as well and cautiously get meat pieces of their own.

The black skinned kid returns near the campfire with raw pieces of meat and sticks his hands in the flames that are holding the meat.

Interesting how the fire doesn’t burn the kid, it really makes me wonder what kind of race the kid is from.

I can sense someone coming toward me slowly from my back but I don’t react to it since I am curious on what they will do.

I chew the meat as I wait and as the person is behind me, I feel something warm and soft hit my back and see small furry hands in front of me squeezing me tightly.

I turn my head back and see Anna hugging my back with her head turned to the other way.

I don’t want to disturb her, so I sit there eating the meat and wait till she is done.

“You will stay with us, right?”

She asks quietly with a shaky voice.

“Yes, I am not going anywhere.”

“You will protect us, right?”

“Yes, nothing is going to hurt you as long as I am here.”

“Promise?”

“Yes, I promise.”

She lets go slowly and looks at me with red eyes, she smiles at me weakly and says cheerily.

“Thank you, Leo.”

I smile back at her and pet her head gently. Her ears feel warmer than her fur on the head.

“Where is Emma? How is she?”

As I say that she looks troubled and looks behind her. I follow her gaze and see Emma sitting next to a tree in the dark.

“I tried talking to her, but she didn’t respond, all she did was walk away from everyone and sit down there. She looks like those kinds from before that had no life in them.”

“She might just be shocked from everything that happened, let me go talk to her and see if I can do something.”

Anna nods and I get up and walk to Emma. She doesn’t even look at me as I walk to her.

“Hey, how are you doing?”

She doesn’t react.

“Do you want to eat some delicious meat?”

No reaction.

“It is safe now, I will protect everyone here.”

Nothing.

“If you get hungry don’t hesitate to come over and eat something alright?”

I can’t think of anything else I could say. I turn and start walking away.

“Is there any point to living when it is only suffering? Being cold and hungry all the time while constantly afraid of something hurting us?”

 I turn back and see that she that she hasn’t moved at all, she isn’t even looking at me while talking.

“It will be warm in the future and you will get plenty to eat. I am strong around here so I can protect you from most dangers. I can also help you get strong so you can protect yourself. There are also many joys in life that you haven’t experienced yet. We can work together with everyone to make life worth living so wont you join us?”

She slowly turns her head toward me and nods slightly. I extend my hand toward her to help her get up. She takes it and I slowly pull her up. Her fingers are cold but soft and I hold it tighter.  

We walk slowly to everyone while I hold her hand. Everyone is still eating except the elf and the bat person who isn’t here anymore.

Chapter ten. Chapter twelve.