Page 23 of Hansel and Gerhardt
The anger in Gerhardt’s eyescutHansel likea razorblade.Hanselwas starving, too. But they were so close tosalvation, and he wasn’t about to let Gerhardt sate himself on raw meat just to watch him die a slow death of food poisoning a few days later.
Gerhardt pressed his forehead into the rough bark, his frustrationtightening the rest of his body. “We’ve been searching for dry sticks for hours. There aren’t any. It’s autumn, and unless youhave an axe handy to crack some old branches open…”
Hansel walked to him, taking a tentative hand to his shoulder. YetGerhardtdidn’t move. He stayed right where he was, breathing heavily from the effort of dragging the carcassgod knew how many miles.
“Please stay strong,” said Hansel. “Don’t give in.”
“I’m so hungry.” Gerhardt’s voice was a pained cry.He was too tired to find the energy for tears. But he didn’t fight Hansel. He didn’t shove him aside and dig his teeth into the dead flesh. He might have had Hansel not been there. For what would the pointofsurvival even have been in that case?
After several hours of walking and deep into the afternoon, he had begun to think maybe they would not make it out after all. They’d not seen one other animal, not even heard a bird sing. They’d kept to the stream, as close as they could, and maybe that was why…Who knew?But he’dfoundno sign of life,andno sign of hope.
Hansel, who’d been scanning the trees looming overhead as he tried to comfort Gerhardt, asked, “Do you remember what the hare said? That it had seen someone it called ‘the red one’?”
Gerhardt swivelled around, smacking his back against the tree in dejection. “So what?”
“So there’s someone else in the forest, somewhere. The red one. As well as whoever killed this boar.”
“Unless they’re the same person. And that wolf ate them already.” But even as he said it, he was standing a little taller, paying attention.
“This boar was warm this morning,” Hansel countered. “Either it’s two different people, or the wolf hadn’t caught the red one by then.”
Gerhardt’s brow wrinkled in consideration. “And… Did you hear what it said? About your thighs?”
“I… Um…” Hansel turned beet red. “I don’t know why it liked my thighs.”
Gerhardt couldn’t help but take another look. Hansel’s breeches were still wet, and Gerhardt had teased him relentlessly for letting them fall into the river by accident. He didn’t mind, of course. The material clinging the way it did showed off all the muscular roundness of those big thighs, and more still.
Gerhardt hadn’t ever seen Hansel’s dick erect, but judging by that bulge, it would be something to hold—
Behold!
Something tobehold!
Then he realised he was staring at his stepbrother’s dick.And that his own dick was stirring at the thought of it, so to throw him off,toprevent any chance of Hansel thinking he was coveting his dick in some way,which he absolutely wasn’t, Gerhardt said, “Your thighs are wonderful!”
“They’re… um…” The wide eyes gaped at him. “You think they’re wonderful?”
“They’re… uh…” Panic, blinding himto everything but Hansel’s dick and thighs so that he slapped two hands over his eyes, “To a wolf! A wolf! A wolf might think those thighs… Well, I’d sink my teeth into them.”
“You’d…” The gorgeous mouth dropped wide open.
Fuck. That mouth wasreallygorgeous. And round and hot and…Fuck! “If I was a wolf… If-ifI was a wolf, and a hungry wolf. Um.” He strode over to the boar, his back to Hansel and his voiceunusually high-pitched. “I’m just saying that ifIwas a wolf, and if I was hungry, I would definitely eat your thighs. And there’s nothing weird about that!”
“I didn’t say there was.”
“There’s not. That’s normal. We’re all meat out here,after all.”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“But that wasn’t my point, anyway.”He scraped a palm over his face, giving himself the opportunity to take a deep breath and try to reset.“It was what the wolf said. He said someoneelsesaid yourthighs were nice.”
Hansel clicked his fingers. “He did too!”
“Yes!” Gerhardt threw a finger out at him in great relief they were off his thighs. “Yes, there was someone else he mentioned.Someonewho might still be out there somewhere.”
“This is my very point,” said Hansel,comingcloser. “This place might be crawling with people, only we don’t know it because they’re trying every bit as hard as we are to avoid being found. But those people, they need to eat, and they need to keep warm, so it’s my suggestion that we climb high up into one of these trees and see if we can’t find a wisp of smoke somewhere out there that willlet us cook this boar.”
“You’re so smart, Hansel!” Vigorously energised, Gerhardtmissed Hansel’s blush as hemade for the closest tree that leaned down comparatively low branches. “Give me a boost.”
