gold rush [the wilds, toni shalifoe]

chapter 21

"No way! I thought the same thing," Toni admitted, Hunter muttering under her breath playfully as the two both smacked her lightly on her forearms, the girl sniggering as they continued walking through the greenery.

There was a lot of character development in just that action alone. If either of them had even considered lightly touching her back when the plane had stranded them on the island, Hunter would have freaked out. Yet here she was, with two of the people she had grown to respect more than she ever thought was possible - even if Shelby's beliefs had caused a lot of drama for them in the middle.

Hunter knew that just being around Toni and Hunter was helping the blonde girl to embrace that side of her that she had always been shunned by her family for, and she was just thankful that Shelby was seemingly no longer trying to act like she hadn't kissed Toni that day in the trees.

"Are you just saying that to make me feel better?"

"Why would I ever do that?"

"I dunno, it seems like a good old situation of the blind leading the blind," Hunter said, causing the other two to pause their slight playful banter and turn to look at her in confusion. "What? You're both just as clueless as each other on Macklemore lyrics it seems."

"Yeah, well I didn't know until I got sent to the principals office for singing a song about armed robbery," Toni admitted as she smirked at Hunter for a moment, glad that despite their huge hunger cravings they were able to find something to be happy about.

The laughter was short lived however, as bushes in front of the three girls started to rumble. Hunter jumped backwards in fright, Toni wrapping her arms around her to steady her girlfriend while Shelby raised the hunting stick she had made from a large branch defensively in front of them.

"Did you hear that?"

"OBVIOUSLY!" Hunter exclaimed, motioning to how she had jumped about twenty feet into the air in fright. Toni shushed her as they moved forward slowly and carefully, worried about what they were going to find.

Toni reached out, pulling a branch forward so that Hunter and Shelby could move by without getting scraped in the face with it. There was a moment as the three all looked at each other in a deeper level of understanding, knowing that this really did signify a big change from their early days together. Shelby getting launched down a hill no longer seemed like a possibility here, and Hunter was sure that they all had changed a lot since that event.

"GO! PLEASE!"

Hunter furrowed her eyebrows as she heard Martha's panicked tone, sharing a concerned look with Toni and Shelby as the three of them picked up the pace slightly.

"Martha, you found it!" Shelby exclaimed as she rounded the corner, Hunter finally seeing what it was that Martha had managed to find. A big white and black goat was standing eating a leaf beside Martha, the girl in question now standing to her feet and trying to shoo it away from them.

As the goat took off into the trees, Hunter couldn't help but feel a sudden overwhelming frustration with the girl in front of her. She knew that Martha felt strongly about not hurting animals, but at this point it was either them or the goat.

"What the hell Marty?" Toni asked, her look harsh and disapproving as she watched the goat disappear. Hunter and Shelby rushed past Martha, hell bent on chasing that goat down since it might be the last meal they'd ever get at this rate.

"I'll go track it down," Shelby told them, moving ahead without a second thought.

Hunter paused for a second before Toni nodded at her, showing that she would be fine with Martha if the blonde wanted to go and help Shelby. She looked between the two best friends and even she knew when it was best to leave them to it, so she turned on her heel with a small glance at them both as she shot off after Shelby.