Her story is the story of thousands of women.
"I've seen them taken too. They always leave the kids behind."
She puts a finger to her lips, "Shh you hear that?"
I listen. All I hear is my own heartbeat and it dawns on me that as she natters on, she listens to the forest song the way I do. I don’t hear them. No birds, no squirrels. I stop walking. I pull an arrow instantly and hold the bow ready.
A branch breaks to the side of us. I swing the bow with the arrow trembling in my hands. A huge black bear groans and walks past us on the ridge below us. Leo growls and crouches. He looks at me but I shake my head.
We don’t turn our back on it. We walk up the hill backwards until the bear is far enough away. Leo's dark hackles stay up until he starts sniffing the ground again. He wanders in a circle for a moment.
"So then I was saying to Momma…hey look I think he has a smell. Not totally useless is he?"
I glare at her.
She puts her hands up, "What? He's no hound but I think he's got the scent."
I follow him through the thick woods until suddenly he stops walking. We've hiked for hours and this is the most animated I've seen him. He growls in his low tone and crawls along the forest floor on his belly. We follow him low to the ground. I am scanning the forest but I see nothing.
"There." Meg points to a man wearing camouflage high up in a tree. He holds a sniper rifle. There is no way we will get around him. I pull my bow out but Meg stops my hand and points to a man in another tree just behind him.
"We wait for dark." She whispers.
I look at her and frown, "Where is your home?"
Her brown eyes look haunted, "It's back closer to the town by the big river. Momma was taken when they were looking for some girl. They searched all the houses and found my aunty Lisa and Momma hiding. They didn’t find me. I snuck out the back and over the pointy log wall. The others snatched me outside the gates. The hunters were long gone though, so they were gonna wait for them to come back."
"It was me." The words slip from my mouth.
She crouches in some larger bush and sits and waits for nightfall.
I speak after a while. I feel awkward in her silence. She's never silent.
"I can help you find your mom."
"She never got taken."
"Where would she go?"
"Knowing Momma she went to hell. She was a mean and spiteful woman. Full of piss and vinegar is what Aunty Lisa always said."
It hits me like a club to the face, "She died?"
Meg glances at me, "I told what she always said. You do whatever it takes to not go there. They woulda put her in the fields anyway. Her insides were injured having me. She couldn’t have more babies."
I want to cry. She had a mother. She had someone. It feels like it's my fault somehow.
"I'm really sorry Meg. Do you have anywhere you can go? Do you have other people?"
She shakes her head, "Nope it was me and Momma and aunty Lisa."
I won't ever leave her. No matter what I won't ever leave her.
The day fades to night slowly. Spring is further along and the days are longer. The cool air is still fresh and crisp but the sun is getting warmer.
Leo sleeps against me and Meg whittles a small piece of wood. She passes me the finished product. I don’t know what it is.
"It's a rook."
I raise an eyebrow.
"For chess." She says it like I'm an idiot.
"The game?"
She nods and smiles, "I'm making the pieces for a board. I guess I have to start over. Mine were in our village."
I look confused, "You have a village?"
She shakes her head, "Nope. Had. The others came last month and burned it to the ground."
"Life is hard Meg. I'm convinced the god that everyone talked about before, hates us."
Her brown eyes harden and she pulls her dark brown hair back from her filthy little face, "Don't ever say that Em. No matter what we have to believe that he's going to help us. The evil is us."
Leo jumps up but it's too late. As I hear the branch snap behind me I see the black hood go over Meg's little face. I jump up but the guns are on me.
"What have we got here?"
The man standing before me is grinning. He holds a rifle at my face.
Leo is ready to attack but I put my hand out, "No Leo. No." He looks at my face confused. I can see it in his eyes. I shake my head.
I look at the man, "We'll walk with you but you can't put that over my head. If he can't see my eyes he's going to lose it and kill at least one of you."
He nods, "You walk with the wolf. I will kill him if I have to." He removes the black hood from Meg, who looks like Leo. I give her a sharp look too, "No Meg."
I know the desperation on her face is trying to over take, I feel the same way. But we can't win the fight. We can die like her mom.
One of the other guys with a gun smirks at me. He's young and bold looking. He speaks to me and I can hear the smile on his face, "I'd ask if you were spies for the others but you're girls. What girls would help them out? So that leaves me with only one assumption," He grins and nudges me, "You're looking for a date."
I frown at him. I don’t speak.
Meg snorts, "You wish. No we're looking for our friends. The others had us but we got away."
I shoot her a dirty look. She scowls, "Don't give me that look Em. Momma says we need to remember some ways of the world before and manners is one of the things we all seems to forget about."
The man with the gun smiles, "Her momma sounds like the kind of girl we are always looking for. Warm my bed, bake my bread and say please and thank you like a lady should."
Meg shoves him, "My momma never warmed no man's bed. She weren’t no lady. She was a survivor. She was a fighter."
He shoves Meg back. I catch her.
"Easy kid."
The leader gets in my face with his gun. I look up into his dark blue eyes angrily, "Her mom just died creating a diversion for her to escape the hunters."
He makes a face that surprises me, remorseful, "I'm sorry Meg, is it? Never speak ill of the dead, unless they're one of the monsters who started all of this." He holds his hands out.
She sniffs and wipes her nose on her arm, "It aint no thing. She died the way she wanted."
I know the pain Meg feels and the strength she hides behind.
His eyes tell me he does too.
Leo nudges against me. He is nervous. He whines. I look as we enter a huge camp. The fires are lit making the woods smoky and smell of food. My mouth waters as my stomach grumbles. I don’t remember the last time we really ate.
"New recruits?" A man asks looking me up and down and nodding his head. Leo lunges at him. I seriously think the wolf can read minds and that man's mind is not pure.
He jumps back, "Holy shit is that a timber wolf?"
I laugh. I can't help myself. Leo is hovering over him snarling.
The men who've escorted us laugh at the fallen man. I call him, "Leo."
He snarls once more and runs to my side. He stands tall and proud with his chest out. He snarls at everyone.
"You have my friends here don't you?"
The man with the smile frowns, "Who?"
"A girl and a guy. They're brother and sister."
His eyes narrow, "No one has come recently. Except you."
"Don’t lie to me. He's tall with dark hair and blue eyes. He has an injury on his leg. She is younger and about my size. She has dark hair and blue eyes too. They look alike."
He shakes his head, "Look we don’t have anyone here. We don’t take prisoners."
I look at the guns surrounding us and raise my eyebrows.
He laughs, "You were spying on us and have a huge timber wolf as a pet."
I don’t laugh. I want Jake and Anna.
Meg gives me a look, "Why would he bring us here if they're not here?"
I shrug, "The smell of food."
The guy with the gun in my face points to Leo, "Keep him under control and we can drop the weapons."
I pat Leo on the head and scratch his ears. He shakes his head once. He still is agitated.
The camp is like nothing I've ever seen. It reminds me of the band of merry men Robin Hood joins in the forest.
I hear a noise I've never heard before. I turn my head when I see where it comes from. A small boy with white blond hair runs past me. He has his arms stretched out. He latches on to Leo, making me jump to his rescue but Leo looks at me and lowers his body for the child.
"Andy no. Not the wolf. Oh my god I'm so sorry." A dark haired woman walks up to me. She looks older, maybe thirty. She's dressed in a long gathered skirt and a blouse. She's pretty in a simple way. She looks at Meg and smiles motherly, "We need to get you cleaned up and get some food in that belly. You look like you must be starved." She looks at the man next to me, "Watch him for me while I get her taken care of?"
The man nods and kneels next to the boy who is shrieking and hugging my huge wolf. Leo pants contented.
"His name is Leo. Be careful okay Andy." The man puts a hand out for Leo to sniff.
Meg gives me a pleading look as she is dragged off. I want to reach for her but I don't. The woman with the brown hair has dark doe eyes that instantly make me comfortable.
I look around and notice that there are fires everywhere. Small tents line the forest and lean-tos are staggered amongst them. I've never seen anything like it. Clothes hang from lines in the trees. The canopy provides the perfect shelter. I feel like I've entered a sacred site. Everyone is bustling about, as if on a mission.
"This is like the Shire."
"You've read The Hobbit?"
My neck almost snaps as I look back at him, "Yes. Have you?"
He nods and pats Leo once more.
"Wolfie wolfie wolfie." The white haired angel cries into Leo's dark fur. Leo looks done with the hug. He struggles to escape.