Masquerade

Chapter Nineteen

"Leave them alone, and I will let you go. I don't want to resort to violence, but I will if needed," he calls out, eyes fixed on Mara with great concentration.

She tries to move, but the unseen force continues to keep her in a bundle at the bottom of the tree. It's as if something is pushing against her at all sides, keeping her in an imaginary box that she cannot escape. She grunts with frustration, eyeing the boy with even more hatred than she showed towards us.

"You have got to stop using that childish disguise, Abner," she sneers. "We know it's you every time. And one day, your magic won't be enough to keep you safe. Our tribe trains for hours a day, and we will soon be able to overpower you."

"Well. I very much look forward to that day, Mara. But until then, I'm afraid you'll have to undergo quite a bit of embarrassment," the boy, who I suppose is named Abner, replies with a calm intensity.

I widen my eyes at his advanced, mature words. The skittish boy we met earlier seems to have disappeared, replaced with a civilized man.

But after all, she did mention a disguise. Is Abner really a young boy at all?

Suddenly, Abner's hold on Mara seems to dissipate, for she jumps up and bolts off. She quickly disappears into the bushes, right after shooting us all a seething look.

Abner casually walks over to our group, as if what just happened is an everyday occurrence. "Are you all alright?"

It takes us some time to respond. I think we're all a little shaken from what just happened, and struggling to come to terms with what just took place before our eyes.

Finally Jac speaks up. "My ear stings pretty bad, but other than that I'm just fine." He shoots Abner a pointed look.

"Ah, yes. I apologize for that. As you could probably tell from my conversation with Mara, I'm having to constantly protect myself. I shot the arrow as a precaution, but then realized none of you were threats. You all just got mixed up with the wrong people, unfortunately."

I suddenly have the urge to laugh. The constant cycle of getting shot by people and then apologized to right after is starting to become ridiculous.

"Yes, please explain why Barrow's lot are 'the wrong people'. If it's not already obvious, we're all very confused," Jac sighs, rubbing his earlobe absentmindedly.

"Yes, honestly, I don't know who to trust anymore," I groan. I try my best to push down the guilt I feel over leading our group in the wrong direction. If I had just listened to Jac and put my past with him aside, maybe we wouldn't gotten into this mess with Mara in the first place.

"Well, you can trust me. I just saved your life, after all," Abner smirks.

Jac shrugs. "Fair."

"Let me give you some background first. My name is Abner, and I am the last living member of the lake nomad tribe. Not a lot of people know I exist, but Barlow's tribe does. They hunt me daily, so I have to constantly change my appearance. Unfortunately, though, I've started running out of ideas...I've had to use this child form multiple times."

"So...you're not a little boy?" Wren asks, eyes wide as she takes in his small height.

He laughs heartily, a sound that sounds incredibly foreign in such a little body. "No, not in the slightest. I'm quite old, actually."

"Can you turn into a woman?" Jac asks slyly.

Wren and I both shoot him dirty looks, but he chooses to ignore them.

For what it counts, Abner seems to find this amusing rather than offensive. "Oh, yes. I was just a woman yesterday; kind of looked like this one here." He jabs a finger towards me, and I laugh awkwardly in response.