Waifs and Strays [Larry Stylinson]

Chapter Nineteen

Finally an update!! I've missed writing so much!! :)

This chapter might be very important for a lot of people to understand the world the story is set in and why Louis acts and thinks a certain way. You should really read closely and try to understand how Niall and Harry are acting and what they are saying, try and figure out why they are saying it to understand their world a little better. Won't spoil more about this chapter though.

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Harry's POV

"If we don't get another kill within the next half hour, we'll go home," Niall mutters, little hope remaining in his voice.

He took me on a hunting trip this morning because nobody wanted to join him. I see this as an opportunity to get to know the forest a little better, so maybe someday I can try to escape. I feel like I got a little sidetracked from my mission to escape lately. When Niall woke me up this morning (Louis didn't even stir in his sleep), I agreed to go with him immediately.

I want to memorize as much of the forest as I can, but what is there to memorize really if you pass one tree after the other. It all looks the same to me.

"Do you want to shoot this time?" Niall pulls me away from my thoughts.

We are hiding in a bush on the edge of a clearing with flowers and weeds. It's quite a pretty place that I will definitly be able to memorize.

I shake my head. "I'm good," I say politely.

Niall chuckles. "You're scared of killing things?" he teases.

"Not scared in particular," I say, keeping my eyes on the clearing infront of us, "I just don't like the idea of it."

"Well, we need to hunt, though. The less offences we commit, the better," Niall explains, "We always try to stay low key, unlike a lot of other gangs. We just don't want to attract too much attention by raiding and stealing. It's safer that way."

I look at him and nod my head slowly. "Yeah, I get that," I say, "But still, I'd rather not kill anything myself."

We already got some wild turkey on our way here and a fox after we sat right here for almost an hour. Niall shot both of them, he is really good with a bow and arrow. He killed the turkey with one shot and only needed two arrows to paralyze the fox enough so it couldn't run away anymore. I didn't watch when he killed it with a knife.

Niall said the fox isn't the best animal to have for dinner. It has an acquired taste and it is dry and kind of tough because a fox has so little fat. That is probably the reason why you can't buy fox meat in a store. The only way the Sparrows eat fox is in a stew with potatos and carrots because after cooking the meat for several hours it looses its toughness a bit and you can pretent that it is beef.

"Actually," Niall chuckles again, "I've never met a guy that doesn't like to hunt, well except for Evan."

"You haven't?"

"Yeah, it's weird. Isn't that what we were born to do?" Niall jokes.

"If you want to go back to Stone Age, yeah probably," I scoff, pushing his shoulder lightly.

"Hey, watch your tone, young man," Niall laughs.

"What? You're already living in a cave, right?" I push further, laughing too.

It's so weird how casually I am talking to the members of this gang, well, once I get to know them at least. I was so intimidated by the idea of being kidnapped by a gang until I realized just how normal they actually are.