A walk in the woods

Jim had been following Ping for a while, neither of them had said anything. "So what are these things you are going to the forest to get?" he asked after a while.

"J-just my a-arch a-and the arrows... and the l-lance..." She replied to him: she had been in silence, not even knowing what she was supposed to say. She was walking fastly, feeling akward and unsure of what to do or what to say, and the idea that the boy knew about her made her feel even worse

"Ah I see. Why are they out here?" Jim asked, not knowing what else to talk about.

"I-I've been here for a while" she replied fatsly back without looking at him, not even knowing if what she had said was clear enough, but probably he had however noticed that she hadn't been around the tree for a long while

So that was why he hadn't seen her around for a long time. That made sense. "Why?" Jim asked, unsure if it was too much. If she had wanted to tell him then maybe she would already had told him, and this just meant that she wanted to keep it to herself. He wasn't sure, but he had already asked.

At Jim's question all her reasons, each one of them started to fill her mind: Shan Yu's rape, Rose's threaten, Meg leaving him, her love for Tulio... everything appeared in her mind at the same time. Blushing hardly she started to walk faster "I-If you want you c-can come back... I-I can c-carry my stuff o-on my own..." she didn't want to talk, she was so ashamed of herself, of what she had done, of what she had gone trough... and even if earlier she had denied to be in troubles, she wasn't ok, she wasn't ok at all

It was clear that she didn't want to talk about it. But Jim couldn't just leave her like that. Without saying anything he continued to follow her.

He kept following her in silence, and she didn't say anything as well. SHe was feeling uncomfortable, but she culd do nothing, she just kept walking. When they reached the tree where she had hidden her weapons she stopped and started, still in silence, to recover them.

Jim walked over next to her and started helping her collecting her weapons. "That was a lot of weapons for a girl," he thought out loud, suddenly realising what he had said. "N-not that there is anything wrong with that or anything," he stuttered.

She was still recovering the arrows when she listened him talking: his first phrase hitted her hardly, like he had punched her right in the stomach... a girl... "I-It's complicated..." she stuttered back to him, without looking at him.

Jim nodded, not knowing what to say. He just continued collecting her things in silence. He really needed to think before he said things out loud.

Staying as well in silence she kept collecting her stuffs, helped by him: actually now his help was starting to annoy her, and she didn't even get why. Probably because he was most likely thinking that she couldn't even use those weapons, or carry them on her own... but still, she didn't say anything...

For a long time neither of them said anything. They had collected all her weapons and were ready to head back. "It's getting dark;" Jim said, mostly just to say something.

When Jim talked she had just thought the same thing: it was dark. Too dark. Great... "We can't go back to the tree now..." she said with a spark of her self-confidence: she had lost a lot of it lately, and she had never had too much, but when it came to stuffs like those... well, that was simply her stuffs. "Follow me..." she continued, slightly annoyed, walking toward a little cave that she had already used as a refuge for the nights there.

"Uhm okay," Jim said and followed her to the little cave. So she wanted them to stay there untilthe next day? Jim gently put the weapons he had carried down, careful not to break anything. She had seemed to know exactly where this cave was. Jim figured that she had been there before.

She put as well the weapons down before to reach an already set fireplace and fastly turning on the fire. She kept saying nothing, even when the fire was already set and she simply sat down, staring at it.

Jim sat down close to the fire. He was silent for a long time.
"It's quite an amazing place you have managed to make out here in the forest," he said eventually, truly impressed by what she had done.

"I-It's just a p-place to sleep..." she stuttered shyly without looking at him.

"But still.." Jim said before he went silent again. He warmed himself against the fire. "How did you learn all this?"

"With the army..." she replied quietly, still staring at the fire. The army... it seemed a lifetime before! It was a hard life, it was dangerous... but at least she knew what she had to do... now, instead...

"You were in the army?" Jim asked surprised.

"Yes... I was a captain..." she replied flatly, not even bothering hersef to notice the surprise in his voice

"That's impressive," Jim said when he heard it. He wondered what it was like being in the army, but also what a girl was doing there. He had never thought there would be girls in the army.

"Not that impessive..." she replied again flatly: her experience in the army had been done mostly in fear, pain and blood. But, once again, it had been easier than... this.

Jim didn't know what else to say so he just sat in silence for now.