3
Toby
Now standing in front of his house he still has that confidence that he had when crossing the bridge. He opens the door and I follow him inside but I am immediately introduced to a horrible smell. “R-Roy? What is that smell?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s terrible…Stay here. I’m going to check it out.”
“Are you sure? I can come with you.”
“Yea, I’m sure. Just wait right there. I’ll hollar for you if I need you.”
“Ok, be careful.” I have a bad feeling.
He nods at me in response and walks away and into the direction of his living room. I hear his footsteps suddenly come to a stop and then heavy breaths. “T-TOBY!”
ROY!? I run down the small hall and stop to see Roy shaking. “R-Roy? What’s wrong? Are you ok?”
“L-Look.” He slowly raises his hand and points. My eyes follow along and I look around him to see his parents sitting on the couch. Bloodied and their mouths sewed tightly into a smile and their hands stitched together. What is this? I look back over at Roy. His face pale and tears streaming down his cheeks. I bend and swoop him over my shoulder, carrying his frozen self away from the scene.
I feel my upper back start to get wet from his tears as he sobs into my shirt. I walk quickly out of the house and close the door behind me, then take him in the direction of the woods.
“T-Toby?”
“Yea?”
“Why….why would Elder Rose do that?”
“I’m not sure, I wish I knew….Maybe..maybe she never got asked something like that. I mean something that concerns other people and to her that was the solution to the problem.”
He sniffles and doesn’t say anything in response. I passed the woodline and waited until dark to stop walking deeper into the woods and besides I wanted Roy to be able to sleep soundly. I lift him up carefully and prop him against a tree. I grab some twigs and rocks and make a small fire.
I walk around a little bit and gather larger twigs and gather vines and build a little hut for us to sleep in. When I finish I pick up Roy and lay him down carefully in the hut and go around looking for more things that may be useful. By the time I laid down in the hut with Roy he had a pillow made out of my shirt and stuffed with the softest things I could find, I weaved a basket and filled it with fruits and berries, and made a makeshift door to our hut, made of twigs tied together by vines and long pieces of grass.
I didn’t sleep all that long, maybe at least four hours. When I woke up Roy was still asleep so I started to make little harpoons to catch some fish. Well walking around looking for supplies last night for our hut I heard water and noticed a little spring filled with fish. Although I do plan on sneaking to town and try to figure out what Elder Rose is really up to these days, and why she killed Roy’s parents. I might grab some clothes for us too well I’m out.
I hear rustling and slide the door open and look inside the hut and see Roy sitting up rubbing his eyes.
“Morning.”
“Oh, morning Toby. Uh, when did this get here?”
“I built it all last night.”
“Oh, well you did an amazing job.”
“Nah, it’s nothing.”
He comes out of the hut and sits beside me.
“What are those for?”
“Fishing. Wanna come with me?”
“Sure. I don’t wanna be by myself anyway.”
“Okie then, how about we both get five?”
“Fine by me.”
I hand him five out of ten of the small harpoons I made and grab some of the food I got last night for us to eat while we fish. “Alrighty, this way.”
He surprisingly grabs my hand and walks beside me, smiling. I look up at him. His eyes a sparkling sage with a shimmering smile. I feel a smile form on my face and then something wet runs down my cheek. I look away quickly realizing that I’m crying. Not because I’m sad but because seeing him happy makes me happy and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We reach the lake and I hand Toby my harpoons.
“Here.”
“These are yours. Why are you giving them to me?”
“I’m honestly a bit tired so I figured both of us can fish together tomorrow.”
“I still don’t wanna waste them all.”
“If anything I can make more, or retrieve those ones. Either way it doesn’t really matter to me.”
“Oh, well okie.”
I walk over and ruffle his hair, “Don’t worry about it.”
He nods at me with a cute facial expression. I feel my face get hot and turn away so he wouldn’t see that I’m clearly blushing. He throws one harpoon and nearly hits a fish and would’ve if it didn’t move so quickly.
“Toby, I don’t think I’m good at this,” he frowns.
“Don’t put yourself down Roy. You're actually pretty good at it. You almost hit that one on your first try. That’s good in my book.”
He smiles, “I suppose you are right.” He then continues to throw another harpoon.
I think the confidence boost really helped Roy because he only missed one and that was with his very first try. After that he hit another fish with every throw.
“Great job Roy! You are really good at that.”
“Aw, well, thanks Toby.”
“No problem, man.”
Comments (1)
See all