Nadine

31. Camping

"There's the big shade tree we use to eat at. There's red berries that Clay loves down that way." I can't help it. The tears fall out. "I know it's wrong, but I miss him. I mean he was my brother. If he was here, we would probably be flying in our dragons right now." I take off through the water. "Why did he ruin everything?" I trip on something and fall in. I stand up and keep going. "Why couldn't he just be my brother?" I fall again and start to cry harder. I get back up. "Why why why? I guess none of it matters now. All I do is cry about it." I fall again and hit the water a few times with my hand. "I don't remember it being this complicated. Sorry Dipak, it's been awhile since I've been through here." I get out of the river finally. Then cut through a little path Clay used to take all the time. "I wonder if he even cares what he did to me. Did he ever care at all about me?" I pick up a stick and throw it. "I thought he did. But I've thought a lot of people care about me. How am I supposed to know which ones I'm wrong about?" I see a little tree and I punch it. "I hate this." I lead him right to the cave entrance. "Here you go." We go in together. "The t-shirt was back here. By this boulder." I trip on a chain. At least it sounds like a chain.

"Wait princess, let me get a fire going. Then we can come in with light."

"Can I continue my emotional breakdown or did you want some silence?"

He smirks. "You can continue. I think it may be helping you work through some stuff."

"I forget where I was in it."

"You were punching the tree, hun."

"I'm hungry."

"Let me get the fire going, then I'll put some meat on it."

"I can make fire if you can find food."

"Really?"

"Yea, I was never good at hunting. But I'm good at fire."

"You surprise me, princess. I thought you were more girly than that."

I shake my head and start picking up stuff for the fire. "Find food. Seriously, I'm hungry and can't get food at all. I would starve if I had to find it myself."

He laughs. "Yea you seem to be having a hard time finding it in the kitchen now."

I throw a stick at him. He runs off laughing. "Ok ok, I'll get food."

I get a fire going and sit by it, enjoying the warmth. I dry off my gloves and try to get some of the dress layers dry. The temperature is falling and I'm afraid I'll get cold.

"Wow, you are good at fire building."

"Yea I always build the fire while Clay hunts or fishes..." I hear myself say it and it hurt. I put my hands out to warm them and let the tears fall silently.

He cleans and cuts up whatever he killed. Then he puts it over the fire for us. He never says a word.

"Talking about it today brought it all back up. It seems like it just happened. I'm sorry I'm dropping all this on you. You're probably bored of hearing about it by now. I know you all even questioned people about it. I guess I tried to pretend it didn't happen. I tried to stay busy and not think about it. I had to think about it today. I had to remember things I didn't want to."

He sits down beside me and puts his arm around me.

I lay my head on his shoulder. "Thank you for the food. I'll go get some of those berries for us."

I come back with the berries laughing.

"What's funny princess?"

"Did you expect hunting and foraging when he said you have to make sure I eat?"

He laughs. "Not at all." He checks the meat and gives me some.

"Thank you. Oh, you were all supposed to agree on a schedule to watch me. Sorry if tonight wasn't your night to babysit." I eat in silence until I'm full. "At least you can tell them I ate." Then I lay beside the fire.

Dipak lays down behind me and puts his arm around me. "Believe it or not, I like this a lot. And I'm sorry the questioning brought the attack back up. That wasn't the intention of it, sweetheart."

I am so warm and cozy between him and the fire. "What was the intention?"

"To see if we could gather any new information. Everyone agreed to wait 3 weeks to question you. We thought that would give you time to process everything. No one knew you suppressed it as much as you did or how much it was eating you up inside."

"Did you get any new information?"

"Yes. I'm not going to go through it again right now. You seem to be calming down." He tightens his arm around me. "Are you getting cold?"

"No, you're really warm."

He rolls onto his back. "Come here."

I put my head on his chest and half lay on him. I fall asleep almost on the spot.

I open my eyes and hear the birds chirping. I can tell it's still early. The sun is coming up. It's still chilly. I can hear the breeze in the leaves. I snuggle into Dipak. He's so warm. What? I sit straight up.

"Dipak, we are in so much trouble."

"Yea this isn't good. We'll come up with something to say princess. Don't worry."

"Like what?"

"I don't know yet." He throws a couple sticks on the fire and gets it going again. "I'm not leaving without checking that cave though. You need anything?"

"To pee."

He chuckles. "Well, I can't help that princess. You pee behind a tree somewhere."

I find a tree I like and go hide behind it. "Don't look and plug your ears."

He turns around and plugs his ears laughing. I go pee. Then I sneak up behind him and poke him in the side. He jumps and yells. I start laughing. "I'm hungry."

"I am too princess. Go get some more berries. I'll see what I can find quickly."

I run to the berry bush again. By the time I come back and he's cleaning a boar. I put an eyebrow up.

He smirks, "What I like boar?"

"Me too. But that's going to take a long time to cook."

"I'll cut it into smaller pieces."

We sit by the fire cooking and eating. "This is really good like this. I think you're going to fatten me back up in 1 camping trip."

"That's the goal." He stands up. "I'm going to go in first princess. You wait here."

"No what if you get hurt or stuck? I want to stay with you."

He laughs. "Actually if I get hurt or stuck that would be perfect. We could say we had to stay and you couldn't go back alone last night."

"I'm not pushing you out of a tree."

"You really do like to make planning our excuses difficult."

I bust out laughing. "But seriously, what if you get lost in there?"

"Princess look at me. Listen. You waited until morning and went running back for help. You couldn't remember the way out last night. It was to dark and cold. You were wet from falling in the water. You made a fire and stayed right by the cave so you didn't get lost."

I wrap my arms around him and hug him tight.

He chuckles again. "Nothing will happen. I'm going to look right inside." He grabs a thick branch on fire and walks into the cave.

I stare the cave opening without blinking. The longer he's gone the closer I get to it. "Dipak are you lost?"

"No princess. Do not come in here."

I go in. "Why what's in here?"

I scream immediately. There is a dead body on the floor. It was chained to the wall. It has cuffs on its wrists.

He runs to me and pushes me. I scream again and run from him. What if he's trying to hurt me? What was he doing? I take off as fast as I can go. I'm speeding somewhere but I have no idea which direction I'm even going in.

He tackles me out of no where after about 15 minutes. I'm still screaming and crying. "NO NO NO NO NO"

He puts his hand on my mouth. "Princess, we are surrounded by werewolves."