He laughed. "Easiest thing in the world, I promise."
So that was how she ended up down on the docks, with Eren's sure, callused hands on hers, showing her what he called reef knots, granny knots, sheep-shank knots, bowlines ...
Her mind soon began gliding over the exact details of each individual knot, but what she remembered for a long time after was the deft sureness of Eren's hands guiding her own, and the warmth of his body as he leaned over her to shape her fingers on the rough sailor's rope.
* * *
Lucy loved it here, but at the same time, she still felt like she was a little bit of an outsider.
She couldn't entirely put her finger on it, a maddening feeling. Sometimes it felt as if everyone here was in on a secret that she didn't share. It felt like they were hiding something from her. As if the conversation kept approaching topics that would then be abruptly talked around.
Lucy recognized it because she'd been doing it too. But what could they be hiding fromher?
Maybe they knew a lot more than she thought they did. Maybe they had already contacted her uncle and were just waiting for people to show up and take her away.
That's ridiculous,she tried to reassure herself. She looked down at her nails, which she had painted red with pink hearts to match Inga's. Eren and Inga wouldn't do that to her. They weren't that kind of people.
But could she count on everyone in town being equally trustworthy?
I have to tell Eren the truth,she thought, following him with her eyes. In the sunshine, he was like a bronzed statue of a Greek god. Even if it blew everything up, she still had to. It was going to fall apart sooner or later, she just knew it. At least she could make sure that things didn't break because of what shehadn'tdone, instead of what she did.
EREN
Eren neededto figure out a way to tell Lucy about his bear.
He had tried asking Tor how he had revealed his bear to Bernie, but that conversation was no help at all.
"Yeah, I accidentally shifted in front of her. Don't recommend it, bro."
Eren was starting to worry that Lucy would think he was lying to her about something major.
You ARE lying to her about something major.
But not something major and bad!he retorted to himself, exactly as if his bear had spoken, although in fact it was only his own guilty conscience.
His bear didn't care all that much. It was looking forward to being able to properly show off their magnificent bear-ness and having Lucy's hands stroke their thick fur, but in all honesty time wasn't a concept that mattered much to a bear. Now or a year from now was all the same.
But it mattered a lot to Eren.
It especially mattered a lot when he was able to tell that Lucy was under pressure of her own. Eren didn't know the exact details, but something was making her jumpy, probably whatever had kicked her out of her previous life and sent her careening on a collision course into his.
He had gone out and shifted and did some prowling around in the hills, sniffing for strangers. He didn't find anything suspicious, but that meant little. At one point he was surprised to cross the trail of another bear. Natural, or shifter? It was impossible to tell; shifters were indistinguishable from regular animals in their shift forms.
Normally, however, bears avoided this part of the coast because they could smell the other shifter predators here. Having a bear hanging around wasn't completely unheard of, but it was unusual enough to stand out.
When Tor's mate Bernie was being stalked by someone who wanted to steal her property, Tor had speculated that she might have a shifter after her because of the stalker's ability to get in and out of places unseen. This had turned out not to be the case; in reality, there was a secret tunnel between the lighthouse and the caretaker's house. But Eren wondered now if there might be some unknown shifters hanging around. He wondered it even more when he caught strange big-cat scent up on the highlands. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but he didn't think it was bobcat or lynx, the island's only native cats.
Was it possible that shifters were after Lucy?
She would have no way of knowing that what she might take for mysterious, slinking cats or dogs were actually shifters. Eren could feel himself growling, bristling with the urge to defend her.
He followed the strange scent until he lost it at a road.
* * *
"Does the boat really need to be worked on this much?" Lucy asked. She was sitting above him, swinging her legs, handing him tools.
"Yeah, kinda, but now that Dad and I have done a rebuild on the engine, it's more like tinkering for tinkering's sake," Eren admitted. "Because it's fun."