Page 42 of To Free a Soul
Sitting next to a small campfire, a lone pair of eyes lifted up to Lindiwe. Orpheus was nowhere to be seen, to her dismay.
It takes longer for him to hunt now that they’re deeper in the Veil.At least he’d mostly learned how to hunt his prey without scaring it off or eating it.
It proved that he was a good boy who just needed time to learn. Time to adjust.
Lindiwe curled her talons tighter, unsure about whether to land or not. Orpheus may be unsettled that she’d been in his territory, and within his protection magic, without him. He may not like her near his precious human.
It’s better he’s not here.Katerina couldn’t use him as a shield, and he’d likely get in the way of them having a cohesive argument.
Deciding this was a blessing, Lindiwe glided within Orpheus’ blue protection ward, encasing herself in the dome for safety. She landed a few metres away from Katerina.
She pulled her white-feathered hood back and shook out her curls until they sat comfortably. Then she turned to the womanseated on the ground with a rather nasty scowl upon her remarkably beautiful and pale face. Not even her angered, tight features could steal the attractive shape of her thin nose, plush lips, and angular cheeks.
“Y-you,”Katerina sneered with a shivering stammer. She pulled her hands back from where she’d hovered them near the fire for warmth. “W-what do you want?”
Lindiwe’s bare toes skimmed the muddy ground, occasionally brushing against a blade of grass that had survived Orpheus’ upturning of the soil. He’d removed dozens of trees in just a few short months, including their stumps, and had debarked the trunks to use them for the house. There were still hundreds left, most thick enough in diameter to be used as foundations.
What wasn’t suitable would be used as frames for furniture or for her firewood.
“Rain is coming, which is when my magic is best suited for growth,” Lindiwe answered, checking behind Katerina at Orpheus’ handiwork. “Where is the garden? I want to make sure everything is planted correctly before I grow it.”
“What g-garden?” Katerina asked, her pink lips thinning.
Lindiwe’s brows drew together. “A fruit and vegetable patch? I gave you both seeds in order to grow some.”
“D-do I look like a farmhand to you?” Katerina bit, gesturing to her dirtied dress, cloak, and blanket. “I-I’m not designed for labour. Orpheus hasn’t gotten to it yet. I n-need shelter because, as you stated, the rain comes soon and its f-f-f-ucking winter. But he’s taking so damn long.”
Stemming the urge to cringe in disgust at the woman, Lindiwe shook her head. “Shouldn’t food and water be your first priority?”
She shrugged. “He g-gets me food.”
“And that’s why your home is taking so long,” Lindiwe answered curtly. She waved to the barely constructed building.“If you would help him by building your own garden and tending to it, then he wouldn’t need to leave every few days to hunt for you.”
“I don’t know how!” Katerina exclaimed, curling her hands together in search of warmth.
“You know how to read,” Lindiwe argued. “You’ve been reading the journal to help Orpheus build your home, and if you’ve read it in full, there’s an explanation on how to grow your own garden at the back of it. How to turn the earth, plant the seeds, and how much space you need in between.”
“I-I’ve never been good with plants. I k-kill all that I touch.”
Lindiwe rolled her eyes, simply because the woman was just being infuriating on purpose. Her incompetence stemmed from a complete lack of trying, which made little sense when she needed food to survive!
It’s like Katerina wanted to sit there and be miserable, rather than aid her situation.
And for someone who had grown up using her bare hands to help her father tend to the family farm, Lindiwe just couldn’t understand this mindset. When the going got tough, everyone pitched in to help make sure there was food and water on the table, otherwise death would be knocking on their doorstep.
Lindiwe’s nostrils flared as she took in a deep, calming breath through her nose, only to release it, and all her annoyance, out of her mouth before she said something callous.
“Use the crates the nails were in to build a fence. It doesn’t take much effort to use a hammer and a few nails. If you make the garden and plant everythingproperly, I can keep it healthy when rain falls.”
Katerina averted her gaze, with one side of her lip twitching upwards like she wanted to sneer. “T-then you do it.”
Something cold and cruel lanced her heart, and Lindiwe rolled her shoulders back defiantly. “I’m not your mother. Do it yourself.”
Katerina’s bottom lip fell, and her eyes grew wide, like she couldn’t believe how Lindiwe had just spoken to her. “How dare you speak to me like that!” Katerina folded her arms across her chest. “Y-you’re younger than me. You s-should do as you’re told when someone asks for help.”
“Younger than you?” Lindiwe laughed. “Katerina, I’m almost two hundred years old.”
That made the woman’s features pale. “Fucking witch,” she muttered, loud enough for Lindiwe to hear it. She hunched her shoulders as she drew her cloak tighter over her body. “M-m-must be nice being young and beautiful forever, e-even at the cost of your soul.”
