Page 90 of Heart of the Hunted
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Taredd
Taredd was very grateful that Dain had managed to scrape together everything they could have possibly needed for the long trip ahead, except for some cushions for Natalia to sit on that is. He even picked up items for Natalia that Taredd would never have even considered getting for her.
Clearing the back of the cart, Taredd made space so that he could roll out the mattress for Natalia to sleep on. While he was doing that, Dain made a start on putting the cover over the top half. Natalia asked if she could help, but both Taredd and Dain told her to rest.
Natalia didn't listen to either of them though. Instead, she helped by gathering some firewood and piling it up against a tree.
"Right," Dain said when he was finished. "I'll get a fire going so we can cook some dinner."
"Did you bring something to cook? Or do you want me to set a trap and catch something?" Taredd asked him.
"Nah, save your traps for another night," Dain said, pointing to the bags. "There's plenty of food in one of them."
"Which one?" Taredd asked.
"I don't fucking know, have a look, it's in one of them," Dain told him.
Rummaging through the bags, Taredd grumbled: "It would be a lot easier if you knew which one it was packed in."
"Next time I'll make sure to label all the bags, okay? Now stop bitching and find it already," Dain said as he picked up all of the firewood Natalia had collected, and dumped it in a pile in the middle of the small clearing they had stopped next to.
"Oh, yes please," Taredd said sarcastically. "That would be absolutely fantastic, thank you."
"Do you two always bitch at each other like this?" Natalia asked them.
"No," they said in unison.
"Normally it's Dain and Arun bitching at each other, but I think Dain's missing Arun so he's starting with me," Taredd told her.
"That's bullshit," Dain said. "Me and Arun don't bitch all the time. Taredd just thinks we do."
"That's because you do," Taredd told him.
"No, we just like to irritate the fuck out of you, that's all," Dain said, smiling.
"Don't I know it," Taredd said, shaking his head.
"Why do you like irritating Taredd?" Natalia asked Dain.
"Because it's fun, why else?" Dain said, with a big cheesy grin on his face.
Taredd could see Natalia out of the corner of his eye smiling back at Dain, but she still told him: "That's mean."
"Nah, it's not," Dain said. "You'll see, it's fun I promise."
It wasn't news to Taredd. He already knew that they did it on purpose the majority of the time, which was why it pissed him off so much. They couldn't spend one single day together without bitching about something or other.
In fact, this had been the longest he'd gone without listening to them, and that was only because Arun wasn't here.
Finally finding the bag with the food in it, Taredd pulled out what they needed for tonight and left the rest in the bag. It didn't take long for Dain to get the fire going.
Natalia sat on the floor with her legs crossed in front of her. She was as close to the fire as she could get without being burned, or risking her clothing catching on fire. Taredd would have preferred her to be a little further away, but with how cold it was out tonight, he knew she was just trying to stay warm.
After passing Dain all the food, Taredd went back to rummaging in the bags. Pulling out a blanket from one of them, he walked over and wrapped it around Natalia.
"Thank you,” she said, smiling up at him as she pulled it tighter around her.
