Riddle Me This

TWELVE - ALEX

I woke up to a warm breeze blowing against my face, which was strange, because, last I remember, I was inside a heavily insulated dirt mound.

Without opening my eyes, I stretched my arms out to my sides, yawning. I winced as I felt a soreness from my neck down my back. I suppose that is what happens after sleeping on the hard ground, with nothing but leaves as a cushion.

Much to my surprise, I heard voices. Quiet ones, but voices nonetheless.

"I think he's awake Griff," said one. It sounded female, but I wouldn't know for sure, my eyes were still closed.

"Yeah?" said the other, who I understood was Griff.

I opened my eyes slowly, my heart pounding at a million miles per second as I remembered all of the things my siblings had warned me about last night. I braced myself for anything. There were at least two other people here, that was what I knew.

What I was not prepared for, however, was to open my eyes and see a face closely examining me. And by close, I mean close.

It wasn't a breeze, I realized, it was her breath.

It was unsettling to find out that someone had been watching me sleep. My brain took a short moment to process what it was seeing. Then, I screamed.

At that, the girl in front of me flinched, then moved away. I looked around to see if I had woken my siblings like I had intended, so that they could help me. Astonishingly, they were both still sound asleep.

I looked at the girl. She looked my age, and, fortunately for me, more interested then angry.

I scooted backward a little, away from her. I could get a better look at her now.

I must say, she was good looking. Her dark brown hair flowed down to her shoulders, where it ended in an uneven cut. It looked like it had been cut at home by someone who lacked both experience and a mirror. But it worked, she wore it well.

"Who... who are you?" I stammered, aware of how pathetic I looked. I was sitting in a heap of dirt and dust, probably looking filthy, as if I hadn't showered in months.

"I'm Ashley," she said happily, leaning forward in brushing some cotton off of my shirt, "you can call me Ash."

"And I'm Griffen," said the male voice from behind her, leaning down just far enough for me to see his face.

"Who are you?" Ashley said, picking out leaves from my hair.

"Alex," I said as steadily as I could manage. She was up close to me again. Both of them were. I assume they were trying to be nice, but clearly they did not have much experience with people, and what was considered appropriate for, you know, complete strangers.

She was running her fingers through my hair, smoothing the frizz and cleaning out the leaves, and he was picking at the stubborn cotton clinging to my clothes.

I looked between them.

Yeah. Good looking alright. Dark brown hair, her blue eyes. Bright blue. Electric.

I blushed as she continued to pull out the knots and style my hair so that it was less obvious I had slept using a pile of dirt as a pillow.

God, what is happening to me? I thought. I'd never felt this way about someone.

Then again, I'd never come across someone as beautiful.

Griffen looked like what I wanted to. He looked similar to Ash, which led me to believe that they were siblings. He had messy brown hair and electric blue eyes. He was tall. Easily taller then me, by a couple inches. He was strong too. Very. His muscular frame was sort of intimidating, and his face said the same. It said; I'm powerful, don't get on my bad side.

I made a mental note not to get on his bad side.

"Would you like some tea Alex?" Ashley said, standing up and walking over to the kitchen counter in the side of the mound. I was sure that it had not been there before.

"Um, yeah, yes please," I said, struggling to form sentences as I watched her pour water into the kettle, and him stand up to throw wood into the fireplace, which also had seemingly "appeared" overnight.

"Great," Griffen said, not facing me, "then we have to show him around, and be careful about it too. You know how the people are with newcomers."

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Author's Note

Hi everybody! Not very much to say today. Mostly just, thank you all so much for 200 reads, happy Friday, and I hope that you all have an amazing weekend!