Page 7 of The Wish

Confusion drew his brows together, but his expression cleared quickly with understanding.

“No, not as you think,” he replied, and immediately lifted the furry mammals strapped to his belt. It just so happened that he had caught it just as he had set out to find her. “Just what animals we may catch. The gods would send a terrible blight if we even considered eating another person.”

Gehj angled his head to meet her eyes and nodded, affirming his words. Her gaze flitted toward the small furbearer and the tension bled from her as she gave a nervous laugh.

“Oh… you bagged a hare.”

“Six actually,” Agrel preened. “I have already taken the others inside.”

Her lips parted, and she craned her head to look around Gehj to the small dwelling just behind him that Agrel gestured to. “You are staying in Mrs. Murguns place? She hasn’t lived there for over a year. I doubt she left many of her belongings behind for you to cook with.”

“She certainly left a hard floor,” Agrel agreed with a faint wince.

“It is better than sleeping outdoors,” Gehj countered, but he followed the direction of her gaze back to the dwelling and shrugged his wings. “We spit and roast what we will eat and smoke the rest. We can make do for the few days that we are here.”

“Mrs. Murgun’s garden should have some herbs growing wild there that you can use,” she said. “They don’t come close enough to the village for me to trap anymore, but that is what I would do.”

Agrel brightened at the opportunity suddenly presented to him. “Then you should definitely have one. As it happens, I have one I just recently caught with me.” Pulling it from his belt, he offered it to her.

She stared at it for a long moment, uncertainly.

“I see. Well, if you are certain then I would be happy to take it, with my thanks, of course,” she acknowledged, her arms coming up to take the hare as he handed it to her. She smiled at it. “It’s very generous. Thank you.”

He returned her smile, his heart softening further. They should be spending their time hunting and smoking provisions while scouring the village for anything useful they could find for their journey. This was not a place to linger when they needed to move on as quickly as possible to find new rookery grounds for their people, but at that moment, he could not think of a singleplace he would rather be. He knew Gehj thought him ridiculous for following after and tending to a stray, unrelated female, yet he caught his ahaku gathering fruits, berries, and nuts for her as well. He clearly felt the same undeniable urge.

“You are welcome…” he hesitated, waiting for her to decide whether or not to grant them her name.

“Delilah,” she quietly replied, hugging the hare to her.

He inclined his head in acknowledgement. “I am Agrel, and this is my ahaku Gehj. If it assists you, we will be happy to continue with this arrangement for the time that we are here,” he murmured, drawing a startled look from Gehj, though the male recovered quickly enough to nod in agreement. “Would you like me to bring another to you?”

A guarded look crossed her face, and Agrel wondered if she would refuse.

“I wouldn’t mind a second hare, but I can wait here,” she said.

Agrel took it gracefully and inclined his head in agreement. “Of course. I will return,” he replied.

Turning away, the male opened his wings and flew back to the dwelling where they were butchering and preserving their cache of meat. He circled once, noting that Gehj waited by her side. His ahaku’s gaze drifted occasionally in the female’s direction while taking care not to look at her directly for too long so as to not make her uncomfortable.

Slowly, then. He smiled to himself as he winged his way toward the dwelling. She was not taking the opportunity to flee, and her fear responses were visibly lessening. Just perhaps they had a chance.

Chapter

Six

Delilah didn’t know what to think of the aliens. She’d felt them watching her daily since their arrival and yet, while they had left her plenty of fruits and vegetables, they hadn’t made any further attempts to come nearer to her until the day the male called Agrel had sought to rescue her from the fierce Nimh. Even so, they kept their distance, though they lingered more, their eyes following her. They had watched her before, she’d always been aware of it, but it had been from a distance. She was more acutely aware of it now that she was sharing the village with her without any of them feeling the need to avoid each other now.

She was certain that they were very much aware of where she was in the village at any time of the day. No matter where she went, she caught sight of one or the other, or sometimes both of them, whether in passing or while the males happened to be lounging as they rested and enjoyed the sun. Even from her window, she would often look to see one of the males passing overhead, their color disguised by the brightness of the sun behind them, making it difficult to extinguish one from the other. They were a constant presence and rather than alarmingher, she found that she was comforted by it. Nothing dangerous was liable to get into the village while the males were on guard.

Not only that, but the males were considerate of their welfare. On numerous occasions, she had seen the male called Gehj leaving baskets of wild fruits, nuts and other bits of food that had obviously procured from deep within the woods. A plentitude of food that the meager gardens within the village and the dying fields just outside the walls couldn’t even match. And it wasn’t just that. Since learning that they ate meat, the other male, Agrel, had also begun to leave meat out for her as well. She was reluctant to accept it at first, since they were still very much unknown to her, but she had Lily to think of. Lily, who watched them from the windows with far too much interest. And it was getting harder for her to justify keeping her daughter confined within the home—even to herself—when everything they did demonstrated that they could possibly be trusted.

She was just frightened to trust to that extent, not when everyone else in her life had already abandoned her. And she was equally afraid of how much she’d recently come to rely upon them. The thought of losing that—of Lily slowly starving to death—terrified her.

“I still don’t know why I cannot go out and play,” Lily complained. “It’s so boring in here.”

“I explained it before. We aren’t alone out here, so you can’t have free rein of the village like before. I would just feel better knowing that you are here where it’s safe… with Nimh. You are both very small and can be easily hurt. It’s better to be safe now rather than sorry later over a lapse in judgement,” Delilah replied, her attention focused on wiping down the kitchen, and really any surface of the house.

Perhaps she was also beginning to feel the pressure of always being indoors as well. She was feeling as restless as her daughter looked.

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