15 KiB
Chapter 37
Fishing with Naomi was not the same as ‘shooting fish in a barrel.’ Naomi’s method was something she called the ‘Raining Food’ approach. By swimming rapidly against the current, when a small school of fish would swim past, she stop suddenly and kick up the water fiercely by thrashing and kicking, slowing the fish down or forcing them away from her. Any caught within her reach were snagged in her grip and her teeth. She’d then toss them into the air and onto the land where Abraham would be waiting to catch them and gather them. The process was long, but fruitful, as every 15 to 30 minutes, Naomi would fire out another 5 or 6 fish with ease. After a few hours of this, Abraham had gathered at least 30 flopping and wet fish. More than enough to last the group for a few days. Naomi quickly came crawling out of the water. Abraham looked away, blushing from her naked body. She noticed and smirked. “Wow, you really are innocent huh?” She laughed. “Well you can look now, I’m clothed.” Abraham turned and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw she was now dressed. She looked at her catch and crossed her arms over her chest, leaning down at them. “Not a bad haul…not my best though. Best start skinning and gutting.” “Um…” “Don’t tell me you don’t know how to skin and gut a fish…” Naomi growled. Abraham shook his head and she groaned in frustration. “You really are useless, aren’t you? Here, let me show you.” She grabbed a bucket and pulled out one of two long odd shaped knives. She grabbed a fish firmly and held it up to him to see. “First you grip it firmly like this, and then you slice along the belly.” She took the knife and with efficiency and proficiency that made Abraham gulp, she sliced from the neck of the fish straight down the center of the belly and watched it bleed out. “Then you take it and run it down the sides like this, slicing off the scales like so…” Her moves were fluid and precise. She was so fast with her slices that Abraham became rather unnerved. If she wanted, she could gut him as easily as this fish…and the look in her eye was so savage that he knew she had every means to do so. “Um…I need to uh…go to the bathroom.” Abraham grumbled. “Sure, pick a tree.” Naomi answered, finishing up the first fish and moving on to the next one. Abraham cringed at the idea of peeing in front of a woman, even one as shameless as Naomi. “I’m gonna go somewhere a bit more private.” He announced, running away and into the deeper woods. He didn’t glance back at Naomi, just wanting to put some distance between her and that knife…and those cold eyes.
After a good distance was met, Abraham leaned against a tree and began to unzip his pants to relieve himself. Just as he did this though he froze, hearing the sound of the leaves above him shifting. He looked up but only saw birds flying away lazily. He must have frightened them…and yet he couldn’t shake the goosebumps running down his spine. “Man…I just seem to be getting more and more jumpy as the days go by.” He muttered. “If Michelle or Katie saw me they’d laugh…” As he relieved himself he looked by an oak tree not far and saw a glimmering line on it that shone like a reflective mirror. He zipped his pants and knelt down to touch it. It was a long line…made of silk. It was probably one of Sarah’s thread tripwires. If something stepped on it, the line would send vibrations back to the center point of the web where Sarah could detect what had stepped on it, how big it was, or how many were coming. She’d done the same thing back at the cottage, and now she and Annie were setting up a new system. How far along had she come? The thought of the others made Abraham smile a little. Despite Naomi’s coldness and Mato’s utter aggression, he still found faith and compassion from the others. If he had them…he felt confident. Just as he was about to stand, he saw something else glint in the sunlight. It was tucked nicely in the grass but he could just barely make it out. Still on his hands and knees, he crawled to it and plucked it up from the ground. It was smooth and small, only slightly smaller than his pinkie diget, but the shape was unnerving, as he’d seen it before…but only a few times. He felt his fingers tremble as he held the small hard object up. It was a bullet…but the texture and the color made it even more frightening. “Silver.” He gasped. A silver bullet. Only hunters carried these…and that meant there had to be hunters nearby, or at least nearby recently! Who? Was it Morgan again? The Dawn Bringers? Something worse? Had they tracked the gang here? Had they unintentionally endangered Naomi, Mato, and Tori? “I gotta tell Michelle…or Naomi! No if I tell Naomi, she’ll think I had it with me all along…Michelle or Asher. They’ll listen to me.” He glanced up to start his way back but quickly realized he didn’t know which way to go to get back…Naomi was the only one who knew. “Damn it all…”
“Something wrong, human?” Abraham spun around face when he heard the growl. Behind him, leaning against a tree with an axe in his hand was the tall and pissed Mato who was glaring at him with the same eyes he had from earlier. “Yeah…I found this thing on the ground and I thought it might be a threat to you or the others. I wanted to show Michelle a-” “A relic from a battle not too long ago.” He snapped. “We’ve had humans here in the past intent on killing us and we dealt with them. That bullet likely belonged to one of them.” “But it’s silver! Only professional hunters would carry-” “ALL HUMANS,” Mato snapped, “are hunters.” He stood up straight and walked towards Abraham, snatching the bullet from his hand and glaring at it. He sneered and crushed it in his hand. Even outside of his bear form, his strength was incredible…he was like Michelle after all. “Look, I’m not like these hunters, I told you that.” Abraham explained. “Yes you told me…and I don’t believe you. You might not have the weapons or the know how…but you are a human and cannot be trusted. I trusted a human once before…and he betrayed me.” Mato snarled. “I will not make the same mistake again…not after what happened to Val.” Abraham blinked a moment and looked at Mato in confusion. “Who’s Val?” Mato snarled at the mention of the name and turned away, clenching his fists. “Never mind…just know I killed that treacherous human.” “Is that what you’re going to do? Kill me too?” Abraham asked, feeling his body shiver. “No…as much as I might like to…if I kill you out here, that vampire would slaughter me.” Abraham whispered a private thank you to Asher, despite him not being there. “But I am here to tell you to leave while you can.” “Why?” Abraham asked. “What good are you to them?” Mato asked. “Even if I did trust you, how could you possibly be benefitial. I was watching you while you fished with Naomi…you can’t catch fish…you can’t even gut them without turning pale. You can’t hunt. You can’t fight. You can barely hide. You’re pathetic and worthless.” “My family doesn’t think so.” “In a pack,” Mato pushed baring his teeth, “you either contribute to the hunt, or you’re left out of the spoils. The one too weak and feeble to do anything is often the one that gets devoured by the others. Are you prepared to be devoured by your so called ‘family?’” Abraham glared back at Mato and rolled the words over in his head. If Mato had asked him that back on the beach…back before their cottage blew up thanks to Morgan, he would have probably listened…and even ran away like Mato said. But something deep in Abraham’s heart told him that Mato was wrong, and he wouldn’t hear it. “No.” Abraham retorted. “No I don’t believe it. They’re my family…and I’m a part of it. Whether you want to see that is your issue. Now if you’ll excuse me…” Abraham turned to walk away when he heard a furious roar. He turned around just in time to see Mato grab him by the shirt collar and yank him off his feet, snarling and spitting like a wild animal.
“WHY WOULD YOU GET IT THROUGH THAT THICK SKULL!? YOU DON’T BELONG WITH THEM!?” “Let me go!” Abraham shouted. “WE ARE AS DIFFERENT AS NIGHT AND DAY! WE EXIST TO KILL EACH OTHER!” “Why!?” Abraham cried. “Why do we have to?” “Are you really so stupid!? Don’t be ignorant like I was boy and you might just live longer!” Mato cried. “It’s nature…it’s how we are! Monsters and Humans can’t coexist without bloodshed. We kill or be killed! It’s as simple as that. If I’d understood that a few years ago, then maybe…maybe she’d…maybe she’d still be…” As terrified as Abraham felt, he couldn’t bring himself to hate Mato…there was a pain in his eyes. He truly loathed humans, but it seemed that it was not an unjustified hatred. He’d lost something or someone…and he had a feeling it was done by human hands. Snarling in pain and in rage, Mato threw Abraham to the ground again, his hair bristling. “OW!” “Why can’t you understand!? Aren’t you afraid of me? Doesn’t my existence disgust you?” “Mato, I am afraid of you…but you don’t disgust me! I’m afraid because you’re threatening to kill me, not because you’re a shapeshifting bear man.” “SKINWALKER!” He roared. “And don’t play dumb with me. That spider girl you have in your group…men would cower before such a being. The snake girl? The little witch? The vampire? They are all unnatural to your eyes. It is in your nature to be afraid and disgusted by us!” “Sorry, but I’m not.” Abraham retorted. His words only seemed to piss Mato off further, as he stormed towards him, slowly growing taller and harrier. “You’re lying…just like HE lied…and I won’t let anyone die again…NOT AGAIN!” He raised his bear paw as he finally completed his change into a huge grizzly. Abraham covered his face as he prepared for the lethal blow.
“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”
The sound of a furious hiss caused Abraham to look up in time. From the tree tops Katie cam shooting down like a missile, slamming her body into Mato and coiling around him rapidly like a serpent. She constricted him, holding his arms back and stiffening her body to the point that he couldn’t even move his arms. With a furious roar of frustration, Mato heaved and shook trying to dislodge her from his body, but Katie held firm. Her eyes flashed with a fire that Abraham had only seen once before…the same fire in her eyes the day that he’d startled her in her bed…she was in a rage. “LET GO OF ME! LET ME GO!” Mato roared. “I should snap your spine like a TWIG!” Katie hissed. “Abraham, are you alright!?” Abraham turned to see Annie running towards him and hugging his arm tightly. “Annie? What’re you and Katie doing here?” “I called them.” Abraham looked up to see Naomi and Sarah walking towards him from behind. Sarah scurried past Abraham and turned around, launching her webbing from her abdomen in bursts of silky thread. The threat piled ontop of each other and using her front legs to control the direction, soon Mato was coated in sticky threads. Katie managed to slither away from him before the thread got too sticky but she never lost that fire in her eyes. Mato struggled and swipped but the more he attempted to break the thread, the more thread Sarah piled on, her 6 red eyes burning like Katies. “Forgive me, Abraham…I hope we weren’t too late. Are you injured?” She asked. “No…no I’m okay.” Abraham muttered. Naomi leaned down and took Abraham’s arm to inspect it. There was a slight gash there from where Mato had thrown Abraham to the ground but otherwise he was unharmed. “This could have been worse…I fear this is my fault.” Naomi replied. “I knew Mato was in the area…I shouldn’t have let you wander off.” “You called Sarah and Katie?” Abraham asked. “When I heard Mato roaring, I knew you and he must have crossed paths. I called out to Katie who was nearby spying on us-” “HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT!?” Katie snapped. “I fully expected you to follow. None of you trust us yet, so I had a feeling one of you would tail us…but that’s beside the point. Once I told Katie, she hurried off to go help you.” “But what about you two?” Abraham asked Annie. “The threads.” Annie responded, pointing to the ground where one of the threads was broken. “Sarah felt that one of the threads had been disturbed and when she heard the roar, she told me to run ahead and check on you.” “If only I’d been quicker.” Sarah sneered. Sarah, who was always so happy and smiling most of the time, now looked positively furious with herself for having allowed Mato to hurt me. “I’m so sorry, Abraham.” “It’s not your fault…or yours Naomi. But…Naomi I don’t mean to be rude but…I thought you’d have been okay with him killing me.” Abraham pointed out. Naomi shook her head and sighed. “Humans are a weak and pathetic race…but I have no interest in seeing you all dead. You’ve done nothing to harm us or my kind yet…so I have no reason or desire to see you dead. Mato on the other hand…sees things differently.” Naomi explained. Mato was still breathing heavily, now unable to even struggle under all the threads. Sarah stopped tying him up and turned to Abraham, tears in her 6 large eyes.
“Abraham, are you hurt bad!?” She scurried to his side and lifted his arm as it bled a little. “Oh does it hurt!?” “I’m fine, I’m fine Sarah!” Abraham assured her. “Let me bandage that up right away.” She quickly began spinning more silk as Katie slithered beside him as well, hugging his side. “Let’s bandage him up when we get back…” Katie hissed, glaring at Mato furiously. Annie climbed on Sarah’s back sitting on her abdomen and Sarah gave a nod. “Right…of course.” “Um…how am I supposed to untie Mato?” Naomi asked. “I’ll untie him after we tend to Abraham.” Sarah snapped back angrily. Abraham had never heard Sarah so angry before…were they really so worried about him? Naomi shrugged and walked to Mato, sitting beside him as if to keep him company. Abraham tried to listen to what she said over Sarah and Katie fussing over him, and he could make out only one solitary sentence before they were out of earshot. “Mato, I get how you feel…but don’t blame him for what happened to Val…it wasn’t him who did it.” Abraham tried to hear the rest, but soon all sound was muffled by Sarah hugging his head tightly and crying a little, the worry and concern finally getting to her. “I’m okay! I’m okay, calm down.” Abraham laughed, trying to rub it off. Deep in his heart though, he knew things weren’t okay…not yet.