the_lawless (the_lawless) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-10-12 22:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 21, abigail theien, leo parker, nathan theien |
Week 21: Tuesday
Characters: Leo, Abby, Walker, and Nate
Location: Camp Wilderness
Summary: While waiting for Greg to return from scouting the farmhouse, Leo gets anxious and strikes up a conversation with Abby and Nate.
Rating: G for Getting to Know You
In an effort to show his gratitude to Greg and the others, Leo kept himself busy at the camp while their apparent leader was away. He chopped wood for the fire despite his hands being numb and blistered. He cleaned the bowls he and Walker had eaten from in a nearby creek and tidied up anything that seemed out of place. But the site was small and there was little to do that wasn’t already done, so it was only a matter of time before Leo found himself sitting in the same place he’d spoken with Greg the night before, anxiously staring out into the woods.
There was still doubt leftover in his mind that it was wise to tell these strangers the whereabouts of his former friends and that, combined with his previous worries, left him feeling a nervous wreck. Walker easily kept himself busy messing with the horses things, toying with their tack and tracing the outlines of their hoof prints in the snow.
“He ain’t yours, is he...” The smaller of the two Texan siblings spoke quietly as she settled a comfortable distance from Leo, catty-corner to him and across the fire. The statement was quizzical, and gentle, though the woman’s eyes were still guarded. Like always.
The man shook his head and glanced in Walker’s direction. The boy was far enough away to be out of earshot, but Leo kept his voice low anyhow. “Found’m on his own a good while back,” he said. “He didn’t used to talk. But when we were out on our own and there was nobody around to push him, he started saying things here and there.” Leo smiled softly to himself, remembering the strange, random things Walker would comment on after so many months of silence. Then his expression grew thoughtful and he lifted his eyes to the woman across from him. “He had horses there, the place where I found him. I think he might be pretty familiar with them.”
Abby nodded thoughtfully, watching Walker more than anything else. Her lips rolled silently, something that always took the place of words that might’ve been there before the great Panic... or other events in her life that were more recent. She could relate to the boy.
“They’re hard not t’love.” Horses, or children who loved horses... it went unsaid.
Leo studied her a moment longer before looking over his shoulder in the direction Greg had headed earlier in the day. Another silence fell among them, and for a long time all they could hear was the crackling of the fire and the occasional shuffling of Walker’s feet in the snow. Finally, the man leaned forward and posed a question of his own.
“How long have you been here? With Gregory, I mean.”
Silence wasn’t something that bothered Abby. Her eyes had fallen from the vague shape of the young boy to the flames between them. Curiosity had mixed with her forcible attempts to get over the crushing apprehension she had of strangers now, which was the reason why she sat next to Leo in the first place. She could only assume his motives were similar.
She could hear it in his voice.
“Three weeks? Maybe a month... I ain’t sure.”
“Yeah,” Leo smirked. “Time’s easy to lose track of anymore.” Sometimes that was a good thing, but sometimes it could be maddening.
Walker came running, deftly stepping over logs and branches without even looking, and stopped between Leo and Abby to jut out his hand. Cupped inside were a half-dozen acorns, half rotted from the snow.
“Can we eat these?” the boy asked hopefully.
Leo grinned some, but shook his head. “I don’t think so, buddy. That’s squirrel food.” Still, his eyes lifted toward Abby again. He wasn’t entirely sure and hoped maybe she could clarify. She had been living, afterall, with a Canadian knight for nearly a month. Greg seemed to know a lot about surviving in places like these.
The freckles on Abigail’s nose wrinkled slightly over the small smile she gave to Walker. “Wouldn’t taste good, and would make your tummy hurt.” One gloved hand tended to an itch on her temple, then ducked back into the pocket of her coat--pulling it around her shoulders. Her brows pushed up. “You hungry? I got some trail mix... They got M&Ms.”
Walker shoved the acorns in his pocket, just because, and nodded eagerly at the offer. Snowflakes clung to the mess of shaggy dark hair on the boy’s head and Leo reached over to flick them away. “He’s always hungry.”
Abigail smiled and pulled from her pocket the plastic sleeve of trailmix she’d been munching on for the last few days. It was two-thirds full still, handed over to the boy with the sweet warning of ‘don’t just eat the chocolate’.
“Ah, but Abby, chocolate is the best part.” Nate called out harmlessly as he climbed out from his tent, pushing himself up onto his feet and moved towards the fire. Unable to sleep the night before, Nate had finished his goals for that morning and had pressed into the tent for a quick nap. He grinned sleepily at the others, still a little unsure about how he felt about the company. He didn’t dislike them, but the stranger made him worry and his child made him miss his son. Still, he was going to deal with it and the best way to do that was to join the conversation.
All eyes turned to Nate as the man came crawling out into the open. Walker grinned in silent agreement with him and shook a handful of the trail mix into his dirty hand. “Thank you,” he said softly to Abby. With a bit of a stumble backwards, he tossed back the treat and headed over to sit next to Leo, offering him some of the snack.
Leo shook his head again and smirked, ruffling the kid’s hair. “That’s for you.”
“So,” he said, his eyes on Nate and then Abby. “What’re your plans if these guys don’t want us in their group?” Leo didn’t really like to think about it, but only a fool would have passed over such considerations. “You gonna keep heading South?”
Nate just rolled his shoulders at the question, sighing at the thought. “Just keep pushing South and hope the snow doesn’t freeze us first. I mean, it would be ideal to get into the group for the winter at the least, but I wouldn’t mind leaving this state behind as quickly as possible either.”
Just by the look of her, it was clear Abigail agreed with her brother. She missed home so bad, and the smell of pine trees would forever remind her of bad, bad things. Natural as anything, her arm slipped under Nate’s as she stayed near him for warmth and comfort... though her eyes stayed on Leo.
“What about you?” And more importantly, Walker.
“I don’t know yet,” Leo answered quietly, poking a stick at the frozen ground. Walker ate the trail mix one nut at a time, having learned at such an early age to savor every bit. “I guess the only sensible thing would be to head back down to California. At least ‘til the cold lets up.” He couldn’t haunt his old friends forever, if they didn’t want him around.
“What about Greg?” he inquired. The way the man talked, he never planned on staying anywhere; he was only trying to find a safe haven for Nate and Abby.
Nate chuckled a little bit, “Greg? Who knows? I imagine he’ll keep toting Abby and I along with him until he finds a place for us that he’s satisfied with it. After that, well, he’ll probably go back to his days of playing Robin Hood and seeking out the Holy Grail.” There was a slight pause, and the smirk set on his face wavered just a bit. Abigail’s gaze had gone a little glassy, aimed into the fire again.
“You’re more than welcome to stick around with us, if they don’t want you guys either.” Nate said, he didn’t pretend to know the intricacies of the relationship between Leo and the other people, but with the condition the two had arrived in, Nate was pretty sure it wasn’t a great idea for the two of them to wander by themselves some more.
Despite Nate’s nonchalance at the prospect of them being denied joining the colonists, Leo could appreciate the man’s good-nature. All of his smiling was, at the very least, as comforting as it was contagious. Leo smiled some and nodded, his eyes lingering on Abby. He couldn’t help but wonder if Greg’s role was solely one of protection with her. It had been obvious from the beginning that he’d lay his life on the line for this woman. Smirking softly, he poked the stick into the fire and let it go.
“Thanks,” he said, finally. It was good to know he had another option, and the eager invitation was warming. Still... Leo preferred not to think about the what-ifs any more than he had to.