Twilight.

xi. alone

   They crept as quietly as they could—though the leaves still crumbled under their feet. Eventually, once Vee got closer he could finally see what it was. It was a tiny animal. A squirrel.

   His face turned into a blank stare. Oh.

   Eleven unstiffened. Her breathing got back to normal—giving Vee a glance. Just little animal. He told her mentally, and as he was about to say something else. The squirrel flew from its position on a tree root and into a tree—making a high pitch squeal as it fell to the ground. Blood contained the snow on the forest floor and he widened his eyes at what just happened.

   He looked over at El—her nose was bloody. Food. She reasoned in her mind since Vee had still been inside of it. Her focused gaze retracted and she looked at her brother.

   Vee was greatly surprised she had killed something—as she never really liked killing animals. He often did it. So, it was a bit of a shocker. But that shock went away after a while as he realized how hungry he was.

   Vee shrugged. Food.

   El grabbed his hand, making her way to the dead animal. She picked it up, a grimace across her features. Then she suddenly felt the remorse for hurting the poor being. Vee's face just hardened at the animal—he didn't feel no remorse at the moment. Like he usually would. All he wanted was to eat.

   I'll cook. Vee sent her his sister's mind as she lokked at the animal sadly.

   This is what these two have to endure.

𓄇

   El had been tendering the meat—over a fire. Vee had helped create, with his gifts, and it did help warm them a bit. It'd gotten extremely cold, snow started to fall even more. All the snow found covered Vee's small puff on his head, along with El's curls, so was his face. He kind of liked the snow, but at the same time he didn't. It was pretty but it was freezing. Very pretty.

The squirrel smelled horrible. Like really bad, since El decided to cook it this time. Which Vee protested against but she still had done it. Chills made their way done Vee's spine but he brushed it off as the cold, since chills usually were normal out here, even though this was felt different. Maybe his senses were getting tired of from the walking they'd been doing or just how cold it'd been all day.

   No matter which one it was: Vee was wrong.

   Whoever it was, had been watching the two carefully. The person didn't show themselves until they noticed that they were both children. Shivering children at that.

A twig snapped.

It was surprisingly how fast Vee reacted towards the snap—standing up way quicker than El did. Well, the girl didn't stand up. She just snapped her head towards a standing up Vee and saw a man looking at the two with a large gun. Rifle. Vee made note of what it was, he remembered what Papa told him. He'd known all kinds of guns because of the test Papa had given him about them. It was odd why he did—but it'd been the easiest test of his life.

   "Hey, I'm going to hurt either of you," the man trailed forward. No fear in his voice. "What's your names?"

Lots of people said that to Vee, but did they hurt him? Yes, they always had.