The Suit War

Five

"You're what?"

"I'm sor-sorry. There, I said it," he said as if it was a relief that he was able to even form the word. He let go of me to wipe the sweat off his brow.

"Well I'm glad you feel better," I said sarcastically as I started walking again.

He grabbed my arm again. "Sometimes I just don't have a filter." I stared at him. "I'm being serious!" I crossed my arms. "Oh c'mon, Celia. Do you know how hard it is for me to apologize to anyone? I can't even remember the last time I said 'I'm sorry' to someone ..."

Just as I was about to tell Winder that I accepted his apology, there was a sudden rustle in the nearby by bushes. "Did you hear that?" I asked him.

"Hear what?" Winder asked. The rustling sounded again. Within an instant, Winder had his two arms wrapped around my right one. "What was that?" he gasped.

"I-I don't know," I whispered to him. "Probably some sort of w-wild animal."

"Oh my-I just remembered ..."

"What?" I asked him quietly as the rustling started again.

"... I forgot my bug repellant at home." I snapped my head to look at him. "What? I puff up when I get bitten by those nasty, blood-sucking things!"

"Really? We're about to be attacked by some wild animal, and that's what you think of? Mosquitoes?"

Just as Winder shrugged his shoulders, a man jumped out of the bushes. Though he was an older looking man, his sandy blonde hair sticking out from under his hat wasn't anywhere near as gray as Lark's hair. He was dressed in dark green camouflage from head to toe ... even the hat he was wearing was camouflage. The scruff on his face suggested that he hadn't had a good, clean shave in who knows how long. The black marks under his eyes and the hunting rifle in his hands made the large, bulky man (with a bit of a pot belly) look that much more intimidating and flat-out scary.

We both screamed, but Winders' seemed to be much louder and higher pitched than mine. "Who goes there?" the man barked at us in his deep male voice as he pointed the gun towards us.

"Celia, do something," Winder whispered as he continued to hold onto me for dear life.

"Well?" the man snapped.

I put my hands up in the air. "We're just looking for the Clubs-Diamonds border, sir."

"Y'all already passed it. Way back yonder," the man said as he slowly lowered his gun.

"We did?" I say confused as I lowered my hands and looked back behind us.

"Whoop-dee-doo," Winder mocked quietly as he let go of me.

I looked around us. "I thought there'd be a wall to climb or something ..."

"There ain't ever been a wall, though there should be for trespassers like you." He pointed the gun back towards us and took a couple steps closer. Both my and Winder's hands went flying up to where they were near our ears. "Now what are y'all doing here in my forest?"

"Your forest? I don't see your name-" Winder stopped midsentence when the man pointed the gun directly at him.

"Don't make him anymore mad, Winder," I muttered to him. "Do you not see his gun?"

"This here's my forest!" the man barked, clearly annoyed now. "Everybody who's anybody knows that Kanon Syeke, Ace of Clubs, lives here." Wow, what were the odds?

"You're the Ace of Clubs?" Winder blurted out. "Damn, Clubs treats their ace worse than I thought they would."

"Winder ..."