Fan Fiction ❯ Lord of the Wild ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Kini was starting to feel a bit paranoid. It wasn't so bad most of the time, Willow's company distracted him from the distrusting stares of the others. But anytime Willow left, he heard voices, a murmuring that got louder until Willow came back and distracted him again.

When they stopped for their break around noon, everyone fell to tasks, and Kini moved towards the horses, remembering he had been told they were his job last night.

He heard a shout and looked up, blinking in surprise as one of the dwarves, he couldn't tell them apart, dropped the firewood he was gathering and ran to head him off. "Don't worry about it." He said rudely, glaring up at the startled youth. "Someone else will do it. You just go sit yourself where you aren't so in the way."

Kini blinked down at the angry face, taking a nervous step back. As soon as that frightened gesture was completed, the voices swelled around him, and he felt all the blood leave his face. He turned and stumbled towards Kweli, scooping the dragonet into his arms and fleeing from the clearing. He wasn't aware of how long he ran or really where he was going, all he was aware of was that the voices were getting louder and louder, an angry babble that just spurred him to run even faster, until he wasn't aware of anything except the tears pricking his eyes, Kweli crying in his arms, and the sound of his breath and heart in his ears.

When he finally collapsed on a rock out of breath, the voices were gone.

He sat there, out of breath and reveling in the blessed silence that surrounded him. Slowly the normal noises of the forest started to come back, birds restarting their song, the rustle of leaves as animals moved about, and the snap of twigs as something moved nearer.

Kini looked up in surprise, releasing his death grip on Kweli to wipe at his eyes. He was hopelessly lost in the woods, but nonetheless, Marmalade appeared, picking her way daintily through the underbrush. With a frustrated huff, she settled herself behind him, and lovingly whuffed at his hair.

Kini sighed, some of the tension draining out of him as he leaned back against the welcome warmth of his horse. Kweli crooned a bit, and Kini looked down in surprise at the unexpected noise from the previously silent dragon. His arms had taken most of the beating of the heedless run through the plants, but the young stable boy winced as he noticed a couple scratches on Kweli's too soft scales. "I'm sorry." He murmured, brushing helplessly at the cuts. There was no blood or anything, they weren't deep enough, but small bits of bark and leaf we lodged in the shallow scrapes. "I guess I wasn't thinking very well, was I?"

Marmalade lipped his ear, distracting him from his futile quest to brush away the bark. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed that Marmalade still had her gear and saddlebags on. Brightening, Kini scratched her ears in thanks, and twisted around fully to dig in his pack. He pulled out one of his old shirts, worn through from much wear, and easily tore a strip off. He then poured a bit of the water from his flask on the cloth, making a mental note to refill it at the next stream he found as it was getting low.

Tentively, he dabbed at one of the cuts, worried about causing further harm, and was surprised again when Kweli stretched out to his full length, a pleased purr started deep in his throat. Kini laughed. He hadn't even known that Kweli could purr.

Kini immersed himself in cleaning the dragonet, rewetting the cloth even after all the bark was gone and kept rubbing the damp cloth over glistening purple-green scales while Kweli wiggled and purred his pleasure.

Kini was startled out of his preoccupation by the sound of a twig snapping, and peered up through his bangs with wide eyes. Willow stood a couple feet away, his expression worried. Kini winced faintly as the voices rose suddenly, he hadn't even been aware they had returned, but thinking back on it he realized they had been there they whole time he was washing Kweli, just a soothing background noise. They receded again almost immediately, and Kini got the strange feeling that they had studied Willow and deemed him not a threat.

"Hey, you alright?" Willow asked, replacing the worried expression with a smile as he came over to crouch down in front of the innkeeper's son.

"Yeah, I guess." Kini mumbled, looking back down into Kweli's guileless eyes.

"Why did you run off like that? I had a hard time finding you." He teased.

Kini found himself snorting as an unwilling smile formed on his lips. The young elf could probably have found him even if he had been trying to hide his trail. But then his brows creased in worry. He couldn't tell them about the voices, he just couldn't. He was already determined that he was going crazy, but he didn't want the others to know. They didn't like him enough already; he didn't want them to have more reasons to leave him behind. "I don't really know." He admitted after a moment's hesitation. He wanted to tell Willow, he really did, but no matter how nice the elf youth was to him, Kini knew Willow's priorities were still to the people he had known longer, and the news of whatever Kini said would get back to those that didn't want him. "I think I'm just homesick or something." He finished, the lie tasting bitter on his tongue.

Willow studied him, but finally nodded slowly. "Well I brought some lunch for you, you were pretty smart running in the direction you did you know, it's the way we were going anyway! After you eat we can just continue on to the road, the others will meet us there later."

Green eyes sparkled at him merrily as Kini slowly reached out and took the `lunch' from his friend's hand. Whatever it was looked vaguely like misshapen dried meat, and Kini's stomach rumbled warningly at the thought of eating it. Maybe Kweli liked this stuff?