The Legend Farm

Suspicions

"She just wants to find that missing boy, that's all." I assured Jack. He glared at Sawyer for a moment before looking over to me, his eyes softening.
"She told you about her younger brother, Dakota, didn't she?" Jack asked me as a frown appeared across his face.
I nodded, "She sure did."
Sawyer then places his big hand on my shoulder, "Wait, Dakota? I think I know him. He's missing?" Jack takes a few steps closer to Sawyer, attempting to be intimidating despite Sawyer's towering height. Jack glared at him through his round rimmed glasses.
"Dakota has been missing for two whole years after visiting your farm." Jack spoke accusingly, causing Sawyer to flinch at his tone before tightening his jaw. Oh, I knew that look by now. It was the same movements Sawyer took before his father and him began arguing that first day in the kitchen of the Legend home.
"Dakota went missing in this forest, in this park. Not my home." Sawyer defended himself. As I put my hands upon Sawyer's chest gently, he looked down at me knowingly before he backed down from Jack, relaxing his once tense jaw.
"Yeah, well I'm just saying, it's real suspicious." Jack crossed his arms before heading back inside of the shack to depart from Sawyer. Sawyer then turns around to face me, taking his hat off before running his hand through his hair, tugging every now and again before he put his hat back on.
"Why is everyone so suspicious of me?" He groaned with agitation.
I patted his shoulder, "In an area like this, I reckon everyone is suspicious of each other." I failed my attempt at assuring him as he gave me a narrowed glare.
"You're suspicious of me too, are you?" He questioned me with a sigh. I slid down against the outside of the shack before Sawyer did the same next to me, lightly swaying his hand across the slowly dying grass.
"No, of course not." I replied weakly. Truth be told, I didn't know if I should be suspicious of Sawyer or not. He's saved me before, but has kept secrets. Is that another part to keep me safe or something to be concerned about? I looked to him to see him squinting his eyes at something in the distance.
"Is that, Amelia and Olivia?" He questioned before the two of them came hollering and one limping. As they appeared closer, it was Amelia who was limping, holding her arm around Olivia's shoulder.

We stood, quickly following them towards the shack.
"Olivia, what happened!?" I asked as I tried getting a clear view of Amelia who seemed to be barely able to stand upright. Olivia gently placed her down onto the bed next to Jack who helped to keep her sat upright. As Olivia went to retrieve the med kit from the desk, she spoke quickly before bandaging up a long and bloodied wound on Amelia's back.
"We-we were just walking through the woods trying to find the-the boy when something came out of the trees behind us and scratched Amelia before it sprinted off through the woods!" She stumbled over her words with panic.
"That looks seriously bad, maybe you should take her to the hospital." Sawyer suggested before Amelia quickly shot him a weak glare.
"No! I don't need a hospital, it's not that deep." Amelia said, attempting to stand before slowly falling back onto the bed as Jack had caught her with his arms.
Olivia quickly gets up from the bed, "I'm gonna go get William." She announces before running out of the shack. As I squat down beside Amelia who held onto Jack, she slowly looked over to me with teary eyes.
"Amelia, what scratched you this badly?" I inquired her. Her eyes darted to Sawyer who stood behind me, then looking to me.
"It was some wild animal, I think. Olivia, she said when she turned around to see what it was, it was already sprinting off b-but it was leaping." Amelia confesses with trembling lips.
"Leaping?" I asked aloud before standing up again, the door to the shack opening as Olivia and William came in, surrounding Amelia on the bed.
William grunted as he sat down next to her and Jack, "So, something clawed you too?" He inquired Amelia who nodded silently.
"Amelia, did you drive to work today or walk?" William questioned her.
"I took the bus today." Amelia answered him softly.
"Hey, I could drive Amelia home." Jack offered the idea. William and Olivia were both quick to agree to the suggestion and soon enough, we were all saying our goodbyes to Jack and Amelia for the night.

Once Olivia had left for the night, I cleaned up the shack as Sawyer paced around bored.
"First you and now Amelia." Sawyer begin to speak.
I stopped scrubbing the droplets of blood that fell onto the floor from earlier, "So what? Sawyer, we work in a national park surrounded by wild animals everyday."
"Yeah but doesn't it seem all a little weird?" He questioned as I continued to scrub again.
"Well, all of this seems weird." I replied before standing up and gathering my things to leave for the night as Sawyer stood against the wall with his leg rested on it.
"Like what?"
"The fact that Amelia's younger brother disappeared here and they still haven't found him, how another little boy went missing here, how I got clawed and now Amelia, and then you follow me here. Why?" I rambled on before finally getting to my final question that I'd been holding in since he's arrived. Appearing stunned at my rant, he nodded.
"Like I said, to keep you safe." Sawyer replied with the same answer from the first day he had arrived.
I stopped in front of him, "Right, well, I'm ready to leave now." However, his eyes traced down to my chest. Looking down, I saw a spot of blood on my chest.
"You got some on you." Sawyer spoke before taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiping it off. Before he stuffed it back into his pocket, I grabbed his hand and looked at it. It was the one I had made for him, with Polly before I'd left. Cowboys with a lasso.
"You kept it?" I asked, flattered before looking up at him as he chuckled.
"Course I did, let's get going." He said before leading the way out of the park.