"I'm…I'm sorry. I didn't…" Instant remorse coursed through Griffin. "Dierra, I didn't mean to-" Griffin was so close to tears as he couldn't comprehend that he had just killed this boy. The other time, he was in a rage, but now..? He had a choice. A faint thought rung through him: I could have gotten his foot. It made him only more guilty.
"Now I made you feel bad," The leader got out with a somewhat forced laugh, clearly trying to stay alive as long as possible, his eyes showed how scared he was to die, "I know there's no chance of me surviving thanks to your friend there..and I know I'm not one of your teammates..but if you survive, could one of you two find my mom and sister and tell them I'm sorry for dying? Tell them that Charlie said he's sorry."
Dierra was close to tears and she gave a small nod, her mind overwhelmed from being right next to someone dying. She didn't hear Griffin's words, just sat and watched in shock as the boy slowly was surrounded by a growing pool of blood and the light left his eyes.
Griffin's agape mouth closed, just as he closed his eyes briefly before standing up. He would fulfill the leader, no, Charlie's desire. He sheathed his dagger, his emotions hiding behind a cold demeanor.
"What condition is our team in? Did you escape them?" By them he meant the ambushing team, or rather, the team that has yet to ambush them. Grif didn't know what had happened, and he regretted leaving them.
"I'm not sure," Dierra answered, swallowing the lump in her throat and closing the leader's eyes before standing up, "Ari and Adrian seemed fine when I saw them, Cassian was holding his own as well. I just made sure Cossette was safe, Felix.." She stopped when she remembered what had happened to their teammate, trying to just hold it together, "..I don't know what the other team was doing or if they were still attacking, but ours is fine I think." For a moment she let her eyes close as she composed herself, hoping this round would finish quickly without any more of her teammates being lost in the fight. She wrapped her arms around her aching chest again and released a breath she was holding, "Let's just go find them and regroup. Before I think too much and end up a complete mess."
Grif takes one look back, nodding solemnly to Charlie.
"Okay. Where are we headed? I didn't pay attention to the surroundings when 'looking' for Adrian."
She looked around and pointed to where she had left Cossett, "Let's get Cossette first, then we can search for wherever the others went." With a shaky breath, she looked over at Charlie and headed away, repeating over and over in her head to keep it together and seem strong.
"M'kay," Grif started sprinting in the right direction, shaking away his thoughts with the thrill of just running, his arms and legs pumping before they got sore-he didn't care, he just needed to do something other than dwell. There wouldn't be time to spare if their team was still being attacked.
"She should be next to one of those trees over there," She called out to him as he sprinted, unsure of if she would hurt herself by running so she just decided to settle for a slow jog. Dierra tried to push everything that happened out of her head, going over her teammates names in her head. All she had to do was make sure they were all alive.
"Okay." Griffin nodded once, slowing down slightly so that Dierra could catch up.
(Do you have any ideas? Or timeskip?)
(I'm going to just say a timeskip to maybe when they have all regrouped and Griffin has the choice to spill what happened or to keep quiet, that work?)
(Yeah…who should start?)
(I can)
A few more long and tedious hours later, their group was reassembled. They had found a spot nestled between three trees with intertwining branches. "So, how is everyone doing?" Cassian asked, protecting a bruise from where he had tripped on a stone and smacked his shin against a large stick while trying to get away. He even managed to smile a little, "Just think, we survived their attack, now we just have to defeat them."
Ari and Adrian had settled away from the others against one of the tree trunks, talking in hushed whispers and clearly arguing. Cossette answered quietly, sitting a few feet away from him and just looking at her injured arm from before, "Pretty good…I'm hungry..and cold..but doing good."
Dierra's attention was away from the group as she thought, very tense and relaxed as she listened for any sound of the other team. Her chest and stomach still ached from the leader- correction- Charlie's kicks. She had essentially assigned herself to guard duty so she could think and watch from up in between the branches of one of the trees. Even her legs were tucked up to her chest and though she sat on a fairly low branch, she was invisible if you weren't looking for her.
"We ran into some…trouble, to say the least. Anyway, D and I made it out alive." Griffin said, not knowing what or what not to tell them.
"Yeah, what happened out there? I saw Ari and Adrian run by, but then you didn't follow them. Next think I know Dierra and you come back with Cossette." Cassian tipped his head to the side somewhat questioningly, "And after you guys got back, D didn't barely say anything, she still isn't saying anything." He pointed up to where she was in the tree, "Something major must have happened for her to not even be talking to you, so spill everything."
Griffin hesitated before explaining. "It was a trick. They ambushed me, and their leader was going to kill me, but Dierra showed up. I made a mistake-it added one to my kill count." Griffin's face was blank, his voice monotonous.
He nodded silently, looking up at Dierra again and then back at Griffin, "What happened before that? How did you get both Ari and Adrian to saftey?"
"He distracted the leader, that was it," Ari cut in with her smooth lie, having listened in to the conversation, "They had captured Adrian and me and griffin created a distraction for us to run. He was amazing."
Griffin glared at Ari, but then nodded.
"Sorry to have taken so long-I hadn't meant for that to happen. I should have been more cautious."
Ari looked visibly relieved that he had went with the tale and turned her attention back to Adrian, talking quietly again. It was starting to get late and the sun was already going down. "Now we just have a few decisions to make," Cassian started again, nodding as he believed what Griffin and Ari said, "Should we risk making a fire for more warmth? And what are we going to do for food? I know there are small animals around, but we would have to catch enough to try to feed all of us."
"If our body heat doesn't suffice, then let's build a small fire. As for food, pick berries that we know for certain are edible and not poisonous. Anyways, I can survive without food, so if we have a shortage of it, you guys can have more." Griffin was being selfless, he knew, but he didn't want anyone else he knew to die. He could go a day without food if he really wanted.
"If there's a shortage of food, then we'll split it evenly between everyone, no exceptions," Cassian replied, looking at Griffin, "Ok? Do you and one other person want to go gather berries and food? I'll make a fire here." He looked up towards Dierra and then back at Griffin, "Maybe you could talk to her too..she probably needs some food and to get any injuries looked at."
"Sure," Griffin nodded. He called out, "Dierra, we should gather resources," saying it more like a demand before passing by her tree, not stopping unless gathering.
Dierra turned her head and looked over at him, eventually nodding and climbing out of the tree. She stayed silent though, catching up to walk alongside him as she thought.
Griffin sighed. "You Okay? I know that was… rough, to put it." He'd stopped walking once he was out of the group's line of sight.
"I'm fine," She answered softly, slowing down but not completely stopping as she looked around for anything edible to bring back to the group. It was clear she wasn't too fond of thinking about what had happened, about how a kid had died right next to her and she could do absolutely nothing to stop it.
"Hey." Griffin put a hand on her shoulder.
"If I can do anything, to help… I'd do it without hesitation. You know that, right?” Griffin could finally show his hurt-why now, Griffin had no clue. He would be more hurt if Dierra was sad than if he had killed ten Charlies.
Delia swallowed down a lump of emotion and nodded, "Yeah, I know. I know why you killed him, we're teammates, it's our job to watch each others backs, but I have to ask you something and tell you something..one, what happened, truthfully, before I got there? and second..thank you."
"Thank me? Why thank me? I-" Griffin shook his head. "Anyway. Ari wasn't truthful. The other team held Adrian captive and told Ari to bring someone for him. That person was me. I was suspicious at first, but I let my guard down, eventually." He admitted this solemly, reluctantly. He was embarrassed that he fell for a simple strategy-and he only survived because Dierra was there. "I should be thanking you, anyways."
She nodded, cursing quietly, "I had a hunch that she wasn't being truthful, you're supposed to help your teammates, not sacrifice one for a different one you like more." Dierra shook her head, instinctively running a hand over her stomach where one of the bruises were from the kick, "No, you deserve the thanks, you kept him from killing me when I was down from the kicks. Plus you…kept him from stabbing me in the back."
"I killed him doing so, Dierra. There's no avoiding that fact." Griffin was solemn as he idly picked berries that seemed edible. He was looking at nothing, though, just operating out of despiration for the group.