lost_boy | (no subject)

I had no idea what she was doing.

She probably knew I was there, I had been following her for a little while now, watching as she seemed to test trees for some reason, and I hadn't made any real attempt to hide that I was there. I hadn't meant to follow her without saying a word, just watching as she worked, but once she started up with the trees, I found myself distracted trying to work out what she was doing.

I would have tested trees to see whether or not they would make good snares. I didn't think that was what she was doing. In a place like Darrow, snares weren't necessary, not for hunting, not for security either. There were better ways to do both those things and although I couldn't say for certain she would know that, I had to assume she would.

Someone who knew how to make snares would be smart enough to figure that out.

Eventually she was going to get annoyed with me, so I finally stepped closer, my hands in my pockets, and asked, "What are you doing?"

Hopefully she would answer me. But probably not before thinking I was Elio first, just like everyone else, even though we sounded nothing alike.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Seems so cruel," I said. "For them to just attack like that. Without provocation."

Like we did all the time. Because it was fun for Peter to see us raid the pirate's camp. For him to burn it all to the ground. We had become monsters under his guidance and looking back now, I often couldn't believe what we had done. Why had I thought it was so much fun at the time? Was it because I wanted so badly to see Peter smile?

I hated myself for that. I had to be better than that now. I had to try harder and not simply follow someone because I wanted them to be happy with me. I had to think for myself.

It is cruel, but a sort of two-legger cruelty she's so well acquainted with that all she can do is shrug. "Some folk find it easier to take things than work for them. It happens here, too, I expect; it's just that folk are more careful about it, and they don't run in gangs so much." Or if they do, they seem more concerned with holding their own territory than sweeping through someone else's.

Really, the nearest Darrow has ever gotten to the sort of lawlessness she'd see back home was the Purge. And there's been no sign that they're doing that again.

Peter had never worked for anything. He always just took. I supposed I was guilty of that, too, of taking things from the pirates instead of working for them, but I'm not sure where we would have worked on the Island. I supposed Peter had taken that possibility from us, too.

I had worked for our food at least. I had grown vegetables and hunted rabbits and gone fishing when I could. I was still terribly conflicted about the idea of becoming a pirate, but Peter had been no better.

"At least here it's possible to work," I said. "Where I came from, there wasn't anything like there is here."