Freak

6.

6.

With her tummy full and her naked feet warming by the fire Blue felt happy, the people around her talked and laughed with each other as they drank the smelly stuff from the brown bottles. Sean had offered her some but Arthur quickly scolded him for it causing the others to laugh, Blue too had giggled which seemed to please them all.

Tilly was standing behind her, making long braids in her hair and tying colorful ribbons around the ends. It felt so nice when she ran her fingers through her hair and the fact that it now kept out of her face was a big plus.

Wiggling her toes she could see the dirt on them and so could miss Grimshaw... Blue had been in camp for a few weeks now but they just hadn't gotten the chance to go to Valentine and get her some shoes. Arthur said they were going tomorrow though and some of the women wanted to go too to help pick out some dresses, Blue had protested that dresses were stupid but found herself miserably outnumbered. She had to admit that shoes sounded nice though...

Feeling someone poking her shoulder she turned towards the person and found Hosea smiling at her,

"Off in your own little world?" he asked, she didn't know what to answer so she just looked at him

"Dutch was talking to you" he chuckled "but you were quite obviously in deep thought" Blue blushed and uttered a quiet 'sorry' before directing her attention towards a smiling Dutch.

"I said Charles told me you recognized bear tracks all on your own, that's impressive for a little girl like yourself" the leader said

"I'm not little..." she mumbled, once again feeling her cheeks warm up. Laughs erupted around her

"You're tiny!" Arthur said reaching over to ruffle your hair, causing Tilly to complain loudly that he 'destroyed her masterpiece.'

"Okay okay you're not a little girl" Dutch held his hands up as if surrendering "but still I'm impressed"

"It's my favorite animal..." Blue didn't see how it was impressive that she could recognize them, there weren't that many animals with big paws around...

"Jesus kid! Couldn't you have chosen a less dangerous one?" Sean burst out and the others added their own, generally agreeing, opinions. Feeling the familiar weight of sadness settle in her chest she stared at her hands barely managing to mumble

"no... they remined me of mama..." everyone quieted down, even Sean.

"Ah I'm sorry girly... I didn't know..." he said.

Fumbling with the hem of her shirt she could feel them all staring at her and for once she actually felt the need to talk, to tell them about her mama and the bears.

"W-when me and mama lived back home, before we went to live with papa, we used to sit up on the rocks by the waterfall and watch them catch fish... I liked that, c-cause they looked so happy and my mama said I was her cub..." tears stung her eyes and she fought hard not to let them out.

"Well then I think bear is a perfect favorite!" it was Hosea who spoke and it was his arm that pulled her into sideways hug, letting her head rest on the side of his ribs.

"You weren't born in Valentine then?" Dutch asked, receiving a slight shake of the head from Blue.

"Far away" she said, she honestly didn't know how to explain where she came form so 'far away' was good enough for her, but apparently not for Dutch who stood up just to show up again with a map.

"Can you show me? Look this is where we are now" he pointed to a small red circle on the paper. Blue had seen maps before but this one didn't picture where she was from so she simply pointed outside the map.