Searching for Security 4.2

She grabbed her arm and stiffened, her head dropping and her shoulders going up. "I know I'm naïve but we should do this together. Don't abandon me just because I did something foolish. I realize that it was foolish and I want your company!"

Jackson shook his head and ran up the hill away from her. He began towards the north, looping up the hill.

Natsumi's shoulders fell quickly. She ruffled her invisible feathers by shaking herself, and chased after the fox. She could do this! She could keep pace and get what she wanted; to be by his side, not some baggage toed behind.

As the sun glared down at them from above, the trees sighed at the gentle warmth. Soft wind pruned the leaves throwing them onto the undergrowth. Jackson stopped when the sun began to color the horizon. Perched upon a berm, he scowled back at the imp, then scurried into the brush, disappearing behind the thick cover of trees. Panting and sweating from head to foot, Natsumi edged into his camp, a heavily bushed area. There wasn't much room to stretch or breathe as the trees enclosed them. Just shimmers of light broke through the thick canopy overhead, glinting off his dark, lanky figure.

Natsumi collapsed across a thick fluffy bush. Somehow, it caught her and held her like a draped rug. She sighed in relief as the branches of the needled branches snapped and pushed into her reddish-brown skin. She felt them scratch and pull at the cloth, but it didn't give. She lay her head down on the greenery enjoying the feeling of being off her feet.

Jackson circled a few times, examining outside of the bushes, around the trees. There was nothing but hills surrounding them, steep slopes that ran perpendicular to one another, for the most part. Some of them rose towards the skies, but rolled none-the-less, like tilled farm earth, but magnified.

He pushed a bush out of his way breaking half of the bush's support with a stomp, making a spot for himself. He settled into his new carved out home and leaned against a young tree. It shook a little as it supported the new weight, but it didn't give.

With his arms crossed over his chest, and his clothes snagging on the bush, he glowered at the resting imp. "Go away."

Natsumi cracked an oblong eye at him and picked up her head-barely. She tried to slide down to the ground. The imp let out a yelp and grabbed her arm tugging to look at the scratch that had a string of blood clotting on the surface. She stared, fascinated, and gently touched the red that pooled out of her skin.

The little dollops of blood broke and smeared across her bare arms. She giggled and drew on her skin with the blood before touching her finger to her tongue and cleaning it off. She frowned at the taste and examined her arm again.

"I said go!" Jackson yelled angrily. He pointed back down the hills. He got up to loom over her like a giant.

Natsumi smiled up at him and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm not leaving until you do." Natsumi offered sweetly, her voice airy and high.

Jackson sighed and sat carefully back down in his small spot.

"Where are we?"

Jackson ignored her, staring off towards the south rather than bothering to look at her, his back facing north.

"Are we going north now? It didn't take us that long to circle around Khet. It's only been a few days."

Again, Jackson ignored her.

Natsumi sighed and went back to playing with the blood on her arm again, breaking another clot and drawing a reverse swirl on her arm.

Jackson's eyes followed her finger.

The little imp ignored him now. She was smiling, her small teeth barely showing behind her lips as the feeling of her legs and arms warming up soothed her. She flexed her toes and worked her fingers of the arm she played with. Her back was tight, but the broken sticks from the bush felt like they were tiny fingers trying to disintegrate the tension. She leaned against them only to find the opposite happening. A sharp pain began to gather where one of the sticks was just too long. She frowned and leaned up pushing the bush out of the way.

The bush tried to push her out of the way in revenge.

Natsumi moved over enough to get out of the bush's way. She came face to face with a wall of vines which crawled up towards the trees snaking around one another and building a net in the clearing. She leaned against that-more comfortable, but not quite content.

She could barely feel the pulse of energy. It barely tickled her arm hairs, even though she knew it was thrumming strong. She shut her eyes and tried to vision the flow of energy from her into the plants, and from the plants into her, but a wall of water washed through the connection. Rapids tumbled boulders and crashed like a tidal wave along the shores of her mind. She pushed he energy through the water, trying to sooth it and reach the other shore.

Her feet rushed out from under her. Her knee smashed against the ground and her heels caught on rough pokey rocks. She winced visibly and pulled her legs up to her chest wrapping her arms around them. She didn't want to be back in those rapids. They were not her waters and she did not want to fall victim to them again.

She came back to her shore feeling the leaves that gently fluttered over the top of the water to her side. She couldn't reach the other bank, but the trees could reach her. Mentally, she picked up the energy, accepting it happily.

More energy trickled into her like a slow vain of food.

Her stomach growled loudly as though to announce that it did actually exist. The grow shook her skin and guts making her tuck her legs in closer as she felt a gnawing hunger eat at her stomach.

A chuckle echoed from the other side of the clearing.

Natsumi looked, catching the bright blue eyes that pieced through her dark hair. They glowed from the darkness of his shadows. She shyly dropped her gaze to his legs. Thick powerful muscles wrapped around his bones thinning only at his knees and growing like upside down ancient trunks. They were covered by a thin fabric that barely bothered to try. It was clasped around his ankles and puffed out into straight cloth that went towards his waist and joined between his legs to wrap completely around his waist: pants. Still, the cloth was pulled taunt as his knees pinched it up. It, naturally, was too small for his flexed thighs. He had his legs up too, but his arm rested loosely across them. A shiny bangle glittered in the brief light.

She smiled as he rolled it in his fingers, flicking it back and forth as he examined it. The smooth motion lulled her head to the side, watching the bangle from the angle. The white light soothed her like a feast. She let out a silent sigh of relief as the tension drained from her back and shoulders. Her arms limply locked around her legs as her red eyes thinned into slits, heavy and dead.

They shut before she realized she was still exhausted.

Chapter 4, Part 3

Author's Note:

A quick recap for those who are reviewing this because it's in the Green Room.

Natsumi is a forest imp, or a creature created by magical powers contained in her section of forest, blocked off by waterways. She's left her homeland, and thus left her power source, to follow Kromski [real name Jackson], a fox thief who was chased through her woods. 

Khet is a lake they are trying to get around in order to head north, where Kromski's home is. He's heading back because it's coming up on winter and he's plundered all the human villages he's wanted to.

Kromski is mad at her because she's bluntly ignored his sound advice even though she is out adventuring with him to learn his knowledge about the world.