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“What else did you find in that bin? I haven’t looked inside for a while.”

“Not much else. Some cable ties and twine.”

“Ah, I wondered where that had disappeared to,” Fennec said, turning to look at me.

“What did you need those things for?” I asked, tilting my head to the side while playing with Papa’s fingers.

“Fixing things,” he replied with a shrug.

I gave him a quick nod and looked up at Papa. “Are you up to something tomorrow?”

“Not sure yet. I wanted to build a cabin a few months ago, but Fennec doesn’t like the idea of it.”

“A cabin? Like the one Jason has?”

“Not as big, but similar, yeah.”

“Why? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of living out here?” I asked, my brows furrowing.

“That’s what I told him,” Fennec spat, keeping his eyes on the fish.

“It’s safer. And I’m getting older. I need a real bed.”

“Then go live in the damn city if you can’t handle it.”

My eyes widened at Fennec’s rude response to Papa.

“Watch it, kid,” Papa warned, his body tensing.

“What’s going on between you two? I was excited to finally come here, but all you’re doing is argue!” I whined, pushing myself away from Papa and standing up to let my gaze move from him to Fennec.

“What happened?”

“Nothing happened, Vespyr. We’re men. We disagree sometimes,” Papa replied.

“Seems like you two disagree about every little thing you say. You’ve never been like this before,” I pointed out, hoping they would just tell me the truth.

“It’s been a rough year, Vespyr. Give us some time.”

I kept looking at Papa and tried to figure out if I should put this aside and let them calm down by themselves or continue to nudge and try to find a way out of this for both of them.

I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed, looking over at Fennec who was now taking the fish away from the fire and placing them onto plates.

Papa’s hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me back to him, placing his other hand on the side of my thigh.

“We’re fine. Don’t worry about it, sweetheart.”

I needed a few seconds before I relaxed and nodded, but although I was gonna let go of this now, that didn’t mean I would stop worrying.

“Let’s eat,” Fennec said, obviously annoyed by all this.

We sat around the fire, and without saying much, we started to eat.

“I was going to cut down a few trees to get enough wood for the cabin. If you want, you can help me find the right trees tomorrow,” Papa suggested.

“Isn’t building a cabin hard?” I asked.

“Not if I get your help. It’s not going to be a big one, you know? Just one I can sleep in and hide our food. I know it’s never happened before, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. Bears are unpredictable.”

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