The Chronicles of Meriden

Meret Silverstream

"That obvious, huh?" Meret asked, her shoulders falling slightly as her lack of experience shone through. She looked at the massacred critter in her hands and then back at the mysterious young man before her. "Is it too much to hope that we can still salvage something?" She held up the poor dead creature for his closer inspection.

"That obvious, huh?"
I was about to smirk when she said that, but i decided against it. When she held up the rabbit, asking if there was anything left for her, I easily could see that the skin was too torn to be of any use. There was still some meat left however. Not much, only enough for one person, but she must obviously be hungry. I nodded, answering her question.
"There is still some meat left, but only enough for one person. The skin is too torn to use, though. Would you like for me to cook it for you?" I asked, trying to sound as sincere as I was. This would be my first time actually doing something with a human, and I didn't want to miss the chance.

Meret Silverstream

Meret watched the man as he spoke, eyes taking in his his dark hair fit build. When he offered to cook for her there didn't seem to be any deception behind his brilliant blue eyes. Meret looked at the wreck in her hand and gave him a somewhat sheepish smile.

"If you wouldn't mind, that would be wonderful." Meret said. Truth be told, she'd never cooked anything before she was forced to run from the Bears. Everything she had attempted to cook had turned out charcoaled instead. It seemed as though he was familiar with the forest, and Meret could only assume that he was used to living and looking after himself.

I noticed as the woman looked me over, and then at her rabbit before excepting my offer. I nodded, and took the rabbit from her hands and took out my own dagger. It was one of the few items that I had when I first ended up in this forest, so many years ago. Kay had helped me survive, but I had kept all the things I had, even though some of them were utterly useless.
In no time I hade skinned the rabbit, and I decided a nice stew would be just perfect for this meal. I turned to the woman, who was sitting a bit away from me.
"Do you have any pots? I would like to make a nice rabbit stew, but I did it bring any pots with me. If you don't, I could just simply roast the rabbit if you would like." I felt odd not addressing her by her name, but I didn't want to appear rude by asking her name if she did not want me to know it. Better I wait for her to tell me I thought.

Meret Silverstream

"I suppose it will need to be roasted." Meret said with a frown. "I didn't bring any pots with me, I didn't really have time to grab anything like that." Meret stepped closer to the man and prepared herself to watch eagerly. The idea of having hot meat again was already making her mouth water.

I nodded, and prepared for a spit. I noticed she had stepped closer me, but I dismissed it. Se was probably just hungry and the idea of roast meat was attractive. Once I had created my spit, I set to work making the fire with my flint and steel. It took a while, but I eventually got it going. I then put the meat onto the spit, and began roasting it. After a while, it began sizzling, the fat dripping off and burning in the fire. I grabbed some pine cones and threw them into the fire to enhance the flavor. Once it was done, I threw. One more pine cones in and handed her the roasted rabbit.
"Enjoy it." I told her.

Meret Silverstream

As Meret accepted the rabbit her stomach growled with painful ferocity. It almost distracted her from what the man had said.

"Wait!" She cried, almost too enthusiastically. "Aren't you going to stay and eat?" She asked. She had spent so many weeks alone and without human contact that, as strange as he was, she wasn't yet ready to lose his company.

When I had handed her the rabbit, I began preparing to leave, not wanting to be rude by staying, and when I turned to wave, I heard her voice.
"Wait! Aren't you going to stay and eat? she asked me. I could tell that she wanted to be around humans, not on her own, so I decided to stay.
"Sure, I will stay, but that rabbit can only feed one of us. If you want, you could come to my home, and we could eat all we wanted there." I offered her. I was still drawn to her, still for reasons I couldn't explain, just as she wanted to be in a humans presence, I guess I also did.

Meret Silverstream

That was the second time that the man had invited Meret back to his home. The first time she had rejected the idea and spent a week scouring the edge of the Forest for a place to exit. When she had returned to this spot it had been specifically to find him. She wanted to see him, a living human, again. Now that he was here she didn't want to let this chance go, but her stomach roiled nervously at the prospect of going somewhere new and alien to her with him.

"It's kind of you to offer." Meret said slowly, "But I would hate to be a burden on you..."

She took a moment to answer, and I was patient. But when she. Began to kindly refuse, I knew I couldn't let that happen. I wanted, no, I needed to be around her. It was all so confusing, but I knew that for sure.
"Oh, it won't be a problem at all!" I reassured her, trying to not appear so eager. "Besides, it would be better for us to share food than to compete over it. And anyways, it would always be good to have some extra hands to help around in case something happens." I tried to be as convincing as possible, hoping she wouldn't refuse like she did last time.

Meret Silverstream

He made some good points. Even if he hadn't Meret probably would have agreed to go with him anyway. After nearly two months of trying to escape bears, visiting familiar towns to find them completely destroyed, and with no other company besides Lightning, this strange man was oddly appealing.

"Thank you." Was the first thing that came to Meret's mind. She was just about to talk about how much she missed having company but she bit her tongue. The last thing she needed was to start talking incessantly and to have him decide against inviting her back to his place. "I'll just pack my bags, shall I?"

Meret made quick work of getting all of her items back into her saddle bags. In the last few weeks her ability to pack quickly had been the only reason she still had so many of her posessions. There was no telling how much notice she would get before being attacked, and she had gotten very good and knowing just what she needed and being able to get it and put it away quickly.

When I heard her accept my offer, I almost gave a sigh of relief, but I bit it back, still not wanting to appear to be too eager. I saw that she. Aged to say something else, but she refrained from it, and simply began packing her bags. I waited patiently for her to finish, which she did s quie quickly, and when she was done I began leading her back to my home.
I was happy that she had accepted my offer, but what now came to thought was that Kay would definitely not be too happy about this. Whenever I mentioned her while I was waiting for her to show again, Kay quickly changed the subject, as if she didn't want to talk about it at all, as if she wanted to avoid her. She always denied it when I confronted her about it, and simply told me I was imagining things, over exaggerating. But now, I knew for sure I wasn't, and for some reason Kay did not like this girl.
Soon, we reached my tree house, and I paused for a moment, letting my follower to catch up/ rest.
"Kay! Send down the ladder! We have company!" I shouted up. For a moment, nothing happened, but then the ladder was flung down. I grabbed it, and began to climb, and when I was halfway up, I looked back down to see how my guest was faring. She was behind me, so I continued on, and when I pulled myself up onto the floor, I helped her get up as well. I looked around, and saw that Kay was in her sphinx form, even though I told her to be in her human form if we ever had guests.
Worried, I ran to try and cover her before my guest could see her, not wanting to frighten her since most sphinxes ate human flesh, but Kay made sure that she would be seen by moving past me and walking towards her.

Meret Silverstream

Following the man through the forest was hard, but he seemed to sense when Meret was lagging and slowed down enough for her to keep pace. Much to Meret's amazement, when he called up for a ladder one was quickly released, falling into place in front of them. As Meret looked up the rope ladder ascended high into the canopy of the trees. A tree house? What a wonderful place for a hideout.

The first thing that Meret noticed as she climbed into the treehouse was how well-lived in it looked. The second was the strange creature that the man was trying (in vain) to hide. He jumped in front of it for a moment, dancing around and trying to block it from Meret's view, but the creature stepped out from behind him and Meret let out a yelp of surprise. A sphinx!

Meret's instincts took over and she took a step back towards the hole that she had entered the house from. However, she had a feeling that if this creature wanted to catch her there would be nothing she could do to stop it- especially now that she was high up in the trees.

I sawKay advance upon her, and the girl moved back, but then stopped, apparently realizing that where was little she could do to protect herself. Kay kept on moving, however, closer and closer. Worried that she might actually kill her, I gave Kay a warning.
"Kay! If you kill her, I will leave you and never speak to you again! If you kill her, you lose me as well!" I warn her in our secret tongue that Kay taught me. This seems to have some effect on Kay, and she halts, and turns her head around. I continue speaking.
"You said that if she returned, you would allow me to bring her here." I told her, my voice filling with anger, still in our own secret language.
"I didn't know she would survive! I thought she would. Be dead, so making such a promise would do nothing!" she replied. We were both glaring daggers at one another, and Kay finally gave up. She returned to her human form and back off. She left the room and walked towards hers, where none of us could see her. Glad she hadn't harmed my guest, I walked over to her.
"So sorry about that. Kay doesn't really like having company over." I explained to her, hoping she would still stay.

Meret was at a loss for words when the sphinx changed to human form and sulked off into a different room. The discussion between the two seemed angry, and it made the ambience of the room quite tense. When the fellow turned to her and apologised she was dumbfounded for a few moments.

"Shall I leave then?" Meret asked warily. She didn't know who Kay was to this man, but she did know that she didn't want to be in the same residence as an angry sphinx, especially if she was the reason it was angry.

No! No! Please do stay! Don't worry, Kay won't harm you. Let me go talk to her, and you can make yourself at home," I answered here urgently. I left the room immediately after that, not giving her a chance to say no, and entered the room Kay was in. I was still upset, and apparently so was she.

"What was that about?" I asked her angrily. She didn't speak until I asked her again.

"I don't want her here. Simple as that," she answered. I could tell she was trying to keep her voice down, but I wasn't going to leave until I was satisfied.

"Why, though? Why don't you want her here? She as done nothing wrong to either of us." Kay hesitated before speaking, but went on with what she was going to say.

"Listen, I am jealous. You are my only family left, after my entire family was killed. I have no one besides you. And I am afraid that meeting this human, you might want to leave with her. And leave me. And I wouldn't be able to handle that. You are like my little brother, and I couldn't bear losing another one," she answered, tears rising in her eyes.

I walked over to her, giving her a hug to comfort her. She only began sobbing, and I began speaking to make her fell better, if possible.

"Kay, don't worry. I would never leave you. I owe you my life." Her sobs continued, so I continued speaking as well.

"Listen, if I would leave the Wild, I wouldn't unless you would go with me, okay? Wherever you go, I go, and if I go, it wouldn't be unless you did to. Trust me." Her sobs began to lessen, and she straightened her back, wiping the tears from her face.

"I guess you are right. She can stay, as long as you hold up your side of our
agreement. You won't leave unless I come with you. Deal?"

"Deal," I replied without a moments hesitation. She smiled, and. We both stood up to go see our guest. She was standing where I left her, so I told Kay to go apologize for what she had done. She wasn't happy about it, but she agreed.

Reluctantly, she walked up to her. She hesitated and looked back at me, and I urged her on. She sighed, and spoke.

"Listen, I am sorry for trying to scare you off. I am fine if you stay with us," Kay told her.

Meret Silverstream

Meret's mouth popped open in shock as the young man abandoned her and followed the sphinx into another room. She frowned as she rocked back and forwards on the balls of her feet, not quite sure what to make of the situation. One thing she did know was that this was well beyond any of her expectations.

Eventually a mixture of boredom and curiosity got the better of her and her eyes, politely gazing out a window, and turned to peer around the room. Just as she thought that she'd taken it all in the two came in and the sphinx approached her. Meret was about to back away but she saw the look on the male's face and had a feeling that it would be okay. When the sphinx apologised, Meret accepted it with a suspicious thanks.

"So..." said Meret, looking around her new temporary accommodation. "Have you two lived here long?"

I was about to answer her question, but Kay beat me to it.
"We have been living here for exactly 10 years, 5 months, and 11 days, or we have together. I was in the Wild for two weeks longer before we found each other," she answered. There was an awkward silence, both of us amazed that she knew exactly that long. She blushed a bit, and broke the silence with her own question.
"So, what is your name?" Kay asked her. I, interested to know her name, paid close attention, but not making it obvious. I had only ever known one beings name, and that was Kay's, so I was interested in knowing what other names there were.

Meret Silverstream

The Sphinx certainly was precise. Meret wondered if it was a racial trait, or whether it was particular to Kay. Even the male looked surprised that the Sphinx had narrowed the time they'd spent together so precisely.

"Meret Silverstream of The Last Bastion." Meret said with a small habitual curtsy. She gave the sphinx a polity but wary inclination of her head. "I know your name is Kay, but what is yours?" Meret turned to the young man, head tilted slightly as she waited for the answer.

I gave a small sigh of relief at finally knowing her name. At last, she wouldn't just be the "girl" or the "guest" anymore, he could actually call her something. I didn't hear her question, nor did I notice she had asked a question, until Kay nudged me with her elbow. She whispered her question to me, and I quickly thought of what I should say. I didn't know any names, besides Meret and Kay, so I decided to tell her the truth.
"Well, Meret, the truth is that I don't have a name. Kay and I didn't need for me to have a name, and Kay only knows sphinx names, not human names," I told her, feeling a bit ashamed at my lack of a name.

"No name?" Meret blurted out, her eyes widening. She'd never heard of such a thing. "Then what can I call you if you have no name?" Her mind raced as she thought of a few options, but they would all be far too impolite for someone who had offered her the use of their hearth and home.

I saw her surprise at my lack of a name, and I turned to Kay for help. She nodded, and answered Meret's question.
"Well, what I usually call him if I need to use a name, which I rarely do, is Hunter, because that is what he is, a hunter. It isn't the most captive, but I use it. It doesn't feel right for me to call him a name if that isn't his birth name," she explained. I nodded to Meret as well.
"Yeah, I guess you can call me Hunter if you want, or any other name you want." I felt slightly uncomfortable about talking about this, but I dismissed my uncomfortableness. I knew I would need a name sooner or later, so better now than never. I wanted to change the topic, so I decided to talk about the sleeping arrangements.
"Well Meret, what we can do is you can sleep in Kay's bed and Kay and I will share," I told her, not looking at Kay in case she gave me an upset look.

Meret Silverstream

"Hunter works as a name." Meret said slowly, thinking of the large number of peasants around her parents age who were named for their trade. It was a fashion that had ebbed significantly before she was born, but if they discovered another human they wouldn't find it too unusual. "And thank you for your kind offer but I'd hate to put you out of a bed. I have a bed roll, I am happy to sleep on the floor." Meret offered. It was one thing to accept someone's hospitality, but another entirely to make them sacrifice their own comfort for hers.

I liked the sound of Hunter. It described me well, and it fit well for some reason. When Meret declined my offer, I continued to insist, but when she said she had a bed roll, I let her win. If she wanted us to sleep in our own beds, we would. It was getting dark, so I decided that we would best have a meal before going to bed.
"Well, what do you want to eat before we sleep? I could roast some rabbit again? Or I could make a nice stew. Which do you want? The only meat I have right now is a bit, nothing else," I told her. I had only made a stew once, using a whole rabbit, but Kay said that sphinxes can't be near boiling water, so I was only able to make a little. But mabe Meret would be able to help me so I could make enough for us all. It was delicious last time I made it.

Meret Silverstream

Meret's stomach rumbled loudly at the mention of food, even though it hadn't been that long since she'd eaten. She had spent the past month in a state of near-constant hunger, and it was only when she thought about food that she noticed it any more.

"A stew sounds nice... and it would make the meat go further." She said thoughtfully, dreaming of the delicious lamb stew that the cook at The Last Bastion used to make on cold winter nights.