Chapter Text
In a corner of the hideout, she was nursing her leg and preparing food. The second she did quite openly, wanting to prove how good and useful she was. The first discreetly so she wouldn't have to wait for the next blood moon. It was the others' fault that her leg was hurt, they had pushed her down the hill during a hunt, because she'd been in the wrong spot. It was their fault but it was hers above all, and if they noticed she was weak...
Outside, a horn sounded.
Their ears all perked up, and everyone grabbed the nearest weapon before rushing outside. Everyone except her. She didn't have a weapon nearby. She couldn't rush. And if she let the fish burn, she was done for.
Fighting sounds reached her. It was a hard one and she heard the heart wrenching cries of her sisters falling one after the other. Nervously she looked around if there really wasn't anything she could fight with. It had been very long since her band had had to fight anyone really dangerous. Enemies just preferred to run these days.
She too would have preferred to run, but the attacker was already standing at the entrance of the hideout. He had a sword in hand, one she recognised as belonging to the band leader. He was stained with black blood, without a sign of the red one that would have been his. His eyes were clear but empty and when they landed on her, she knew he would kill her. Not because she posed any danger, but because she was there.
Instinct kicked in. She grabbed one of the fish, the one that seemed best cooked and slowly she stretched her arms toward the intruder to offer him the food.
It worked sometimes with the leader. It was a way to show again she knew her place in the band's pecking order. Sometimes it had saved her life. Sometimes it hadn't.
The intruder stared for a long moment. Sword still in hand he took the fish before jumping back, the blade pointed at her. He wasn't wounded but he was tired, she could smell it on him. How wouldn't he be? After fighting a band of five, and their leader a blue!
Perhaps that was why after one last threatening wave of the blade, the intruder left without harming her. She hadn't thought he actually would, hadn't expected she might survive this. She never survived anything. She didn't know what to do.
The smell of the fish hit her, and she carefully removed them all from the fire. They were all for her, to eat until her hunger was appeased. That too was new. So maybe she would eat a full, entire fish all by herself. Then... Then she'd get to really look at her wounded leg and properly nurse it.
And once that was done, she'd start waiting for the next blood moon to bring back her band. They would kill her for not dying with them, for helping the intruder, but what else can she do? Leave? They lived in bands. Alone she couldn't make it. Even in a band she couldn't make it.
She thought again of the intruder. He had spared her. No one has spared her before. And he had smelled tired, so tired. So lonely. There were no smell of band members on him, the way she knew there was on her even when the band didn't much like her. The intruder had been alone.
Back in the days, before the Master rose, you could sometimes change bands, she remembered. If yours was too full, or if you couldn't get along and found another one that liked you better, or if yours had died and you were alone. Death was no longer a permanent thing these days, but she was alone for now, and the intruder had accepted a gift. If she gave him more things, perhaps they could form a new band.
Perhaps neither of them had to be alone.