Page 16 of Raw

Ugly.

But as often as they occurred, I never did what they said.

Liar.

Maybe I should’ve listened to Mama. Going to a therapist wasn’t a bad idea after all.

“Well, I’m excited to catch some fish tomorrow. I missed it.”

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to me, kissing the top of her head and then looking back at the fire in front of us.

“I know how you feel. When I finally came back last year, I was overwhelmed. The smell of the trees, the wood, the fire…this is our happiness, Ves.”

She leaned against me with her head on my shoulder, and sure enough, another thought I didn’t think was appropriate popped up.

You can finally chase her through the forest again.

I shook that thought aside, hugging her tighter to me.

There were many reasons why I was happy to have her back, but the biggest reason was one I had to keep to myself.

5

Something didn’t feel right at dinner.

The way Fennec avoided Papa’s looks, and the sudden tension between them told me that something was wrong.

I looked over at Papa who was sitting on the other side of the fire, while I sat next to Fennec, our knees touching and arms rubbing against each other as we ate dinner.

It was delicious, and I missed the taste of real, fresh wildlife meat.

“Fennec is taking me fishing tomorrow. Will you come too, Papa?” I asked, hoping to loosen up the mood a little bit.

“That’s great. I’ll stay here to fix a few things, but you two go have fun.”

Yeah, something was definitely wrong.

I pressed my lips into a tight line and looked up at Fennec who was biting the last bit of meat off the bone, then he placed it back on the plate with a low sigh.

“It’s her first day back. You could put those things aside and come with us. You have time to fix them,” Fennec told him, making me look back at Papa to see his reaction.

“I want to fix them tomorrow.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, not able to watch them talk to each other like this anymore.

“Nothing. We had a few stressful days before you arrived, sweetheart. Don’t worry. We’ve been with each other for far too long to not argue or get on each other’s nerves for once,” Papa explained.

That made sense, but how stressful could living in the forest be?

Whenever I came here on summer or sometimes even winter breaks, all we ever had was fun and a relaxing time throughout.

I frowned at Papa. “Well, you don’t have to talk to him, but I’d love to go fishing with both of you tomorrow. Like we did when we were little,” I told him with a smile.

He studied me for a moment with his stern eyes, then he shook his head. “I have things to do, Vespyr. Another day.”

“Okay.”

Fennec got up and placed the plate in the bucket filled with fresh water next to him, throwing the bone out into the forest.

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