Within the Flame: After the Fall Book 1 by Jordan Crestwood

Author:Jordan Crestwood [Crestwood, Jordan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Gifts

Laura hung the garland of flowers on a small stick that protruded from her and Darren’s shelter. “Really?” the man asked.

“What?” she asked. “You don’t like it?”

“It’s not very manly,” he said with a grin.

“You’re manly enough to balance it out, honey,” Laura told him, then stood to peck him on the cheek. He smiled and gave her that look; her favorite look. The one that meant he would never have had to say the words I love you ever again, because she knew it by the way his eyes watched her every move. He did say I love you, as often as any man, but she already knew.

“What is he doing?” Laura asked, gesturing toward James, where he carved a long wooden pole with his knife.

“Who knows,” Darren said, shrugging. “I guess he has time to whittle now that we are stationary. Leave the defense to Rob and me and the food gathering to those two.” Darren nodded to where the little girl—Melissa—was showing Tyler how to build some kind of trap with a large, flat rock and some sticks that she had cut notches into and stuck together. The girl was proficient, having gathered more food for the group her first day than the group had gathered, as a whole, the entire time. And, other than the snake that Rob had killed, little Melissa had been the only one to provide them with meat.

Laura could tell that it irked Darren. He had lost four arrows since they had entered these woods, all shot in hopes of taking some animal or other. Mostly “spastic little squirrels” to hear him tell it.

“Good morning, Laura, Darren,” Charlotte said, walking up from behind their hut, having finished talking to some of the others over by the muddy riverbank.

“Hello, Charlotte,” Laura said with a smile. Since their conversation two days prior, the girl had made it a point to come by and speak to Laura more regularly than many of the other members of the group, though she certainly still ran herself ragged trying to be sure everyone got enough attention. Laura had seen it before in politics—men and women would speak to a crowd in one county, then drive to the next to give the same speech. It was a clever tactic for garnering support, though, she had to admit that with Charlotte it seemed quite genuine.

“How is that hut coming along?” Charlotte asked, nodding toward the large structure Darren was building for them.

“It’s going well,” Darren answered, piling another few green limbs atop the skeletal frame of the shelter. The man had warmed toward Charlotte quite a bit since Laura had been spending time with her, but he was still clearly bothered by his perceived location in the pecking order. Laura had tried to tell him that nobody was trying to be the leader of their group, and all of them were considered equals, but he had eyes that functioned as well as hers. He could see James making defensive

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.