“There,” Wren said, quieter than a breath.
They were spread in a circle moving slowly inward as one, using their hand signals to communicate. I tossed the final rock right into the middle, and Wren shook with silent laughter as the small forest frugho they were trying to catch, with its giant furry ears and medium-sized body, scampered off in fear of the troll.
“Fuck.” Kai stomped his foot.
The troll turned toward him and waved, scaring off all the birds in the trees above.
“Yes, hi. I see you, ya big oaf,” he grumbled.
Fen motioned for him to be quiet, but Kai just gave him a crude gesture and crossed his arms.
“Is that our fearless tracker throwing a tantrum?” Greeve asked from the canopy of trees above.
“We can’t let two girls beat us,” he said.
“They were probably too scared to go back into the forest alone. I’m sure the squirrel we caught is still more than what they got. How much time do we have left?” Fen asked.
I elbowed Wren and leaned in, “We’re taking that fucking squirrel just for that comment.”
We carefully began to move, avoiding Fen’s peripheral.
“Five minutes left,” Lichen said, holding out the squirrel. “Should we use this as bait?”
“No. Keep it,” Fen answered.
We were nearly to Lichen, who was tying their only catch to a lead so he could hang it from his hip when Greeve snapped his fingers.
I looked up to see what he was pointing at.
“BIRDY!” the troll yelled, clapping.
It took every single ounce of self-control I had not to completely lose my shit. Wren was shaking so bad I knew we had seconds until she gave us away. I reached forward, snagged the squirrel off Lichen’s rope with a knife, and yanked Wren away. We were not quiet, but we ran back to the clearing as fast as we could. The minute we were out of the forest, Wren burst into laughter until four sourpuss faces walked out.
“How’d it go?” I asked, trying to keep a straight face.
“Lichen lost our fucking squirrel,” Kai whined shoving past poor Lichen.
“This looks awfully familiar,” Fen said, lifting my hand so everyone could see the squirrel still half tied to Lichen’s rope.
“Birdy!” Wren yelled, and everyone but Kai laughed.
“You cheated,” he pouted.
“I don’t know what you mean. We were too scared to go back into the forest alone.” I looked Fen right in the face as I mocked him.
He shook his head, pushing away the smile that threatened to show.
Kai stepped forward. “Next time I’m on the girls’ team.”
“How did you get the troll to the circle?” Lichen asked, looking at Wren.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she answered.
“When you’re ready, children,” Greeve interrupted. “We have a long way to go.”
We cleaned the meat and started off.
I had a better sense of who everyone was now, so leaving today with them felt a lot more like I fit. Somehow. We left the forest behind and walked for several days as the flatlands outside the forest gradually changed into steeper hills, mimicking the looming mountains in the distance.
