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FREYA HAD ONCE suggested that Daryl should be chained to a tree and left at that the Atlanta camp, and now she was walking so close to him that she constantly kept clipping his heels. She knew it had to be annoying him but he was holding his frustration back. They'd been out since before sunrise, Daryl insisting that he catch Freya something to eat so she got a decent sized portion instead of splitting it with those six... animals? It wasn't hard to determine what type of men they were but without actual solid proof of it, she was essentially judging them by their appearance.
Daryl gestured to some tiny paw prints among the dirt-covered ground of the forest. "Look at that, switchin' it up from squirrel today."
Freya peered down at the prims curiously. "To what?"
"You tell me." Daryl nudged her shoulder lightly. "Need to work on your tracking."
Freya crouched down, making sure she got a proper look. "Well, they're small and kind of spaced out a little bit so at first, it looks like something two-legged but actually it's a rabbit hopping?"
Daryl gave her a firm nod. "Fast learner. Maybe you did listen."
They continued their hunt in silence, an incredibly notable silence. In any other circumstance, Freya would have made a joke and then probably another until she prompted an expression of humour from Daryl, even in the wake of her baby sister but now... she had no spirit left. All that remained had been taken with Beth. Freya's girlfriend truly had been her light, and now she'd been plunged into total darkness, an endless tunnel with no light at the end. Daryl wasn't a light but he was a comfort, one of the few people who could make the darkness bearable.
"Do you think it's just us now?" Freya questioned, fidgeting with the hem of the yellow golf shirt she wore.
"Seems that way," Daryl stated, a deep frown pulling at his brows as he spoke. "'M sorry."
"No." Freya shook her head adamantly. "If it couldn't be my Dad or Carl or Beth, then I would've wanted it to be you."
Or Hershel, but Freya didn't want to speak the man's name. When she thought about him, she thought about the promise she'd made him; to always keep going, never give up no matter how hard it got. It was getting harder and harder to honour as time passed but she was trying, she would always try. He'd saved her brother's life, and her father's too- just in a different way. He was one of the two reasons Beth actually came to exist and he'd yelled at Shane once which was pretty fucking awesome to witness. He was the least deserving of the Governor's wrath and yet he'd felt it the worst.
Daryl stopped Freya with a calloused hand on her arm, he gestured to the rabbit that had stopped for a nibble of grass in the distance then he immediately assumed the arching stance, lowering a knee to the ground for more precision. He pulled the string back, and then sent a bolt soaring at the poor creature.
