Patchworld 4

Notes- This is not a chapter. I repeat, this is not a chapter. I do not plan my stories as I write them and so do not have any defined chapters to begin and end with. These are parts, meaning that I publish installments of this story randomly when I need a little inspiration and feedback. NOT CHAPTERS.

To reviewers- No nitpicks please. Only comment on things that will help improve the quality of the story and my storytelling. That means no spelling, capitalization, etc. I will only appreciate the grammar corrections if it's actually significant and stopped you in your tracks wile reading this with the WRONGNESS that it makes you feel as you look at it. 

Thank you! Enjoy Patchworld 4!

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The days ended with Naz, and begun with him. There wasn’t any natural light in the den, so hours, hours after everyone else had gone to sleep, he’d keep watch. Padding through the door. Pushing the lever down. Crawling through the passageways- right, left- and pushing through the grate, tasting the free-moving air and waiting for the sun to rise. It always came so slowly.

For him, life was mostly a circle. To others, days were disconnected lines, separate from each other. But for Naz, nothing ever stopped going. There was no intermission between the dark and the light. No cut ends. 

Everything flowed into itself.

That is, until he eventually dropped. Which did happen occasionally.

But not usually.

So Naz would crawl back through the vents-left, right- and wake up the others.

He tapped up them one at a time, usually, or whispered. He wasn’t one for noise.

He knew each of their reactions when he did, by heart.. He knew that Marie would be stirred immediately if Henry was awake. He knew that Min should be tapped last because he was the loudest and would wake everyone else up quick if he didn’t. He knew that Kira left the den without fail without him witnessing her go, between the night and the morning, even though he was present for all of it.

He knew that Ben should not be woken under any circumstances that day, because Ben didn’t like the mornings after returning. Usually, he slept right through them, and it was all for the best, because a a tired Ben was an irritated one, and an irritated one was seldom not tired.

Alden was roused much earlier than Naz remembered, which was a new habit he must have picked up during the time Naz was gone. He was much more his usual self after a bit of rest.

“Sorry. I’m not usually that stupid… I was just really tired by the end of the whole thing. Two weeks, you know... I’m glad you’re back.” He said comfortably .

Alden was an easy kid to talk to. His whole appearance was small, solid, and unassuming, with deep-set, warm brown eyes and a thatch of black hair. He didn’t hold grudges, and was very seldom irritable. Responsible too, which was why he was put in charge of the entire den, even though he was only twelve years old. The problem was that he was too obliging. He wanted to be there for everyone, and really, he did it quite effectively until he exhausted himself, which took quite a bit faster than it did Naz.

“Yeah, I am too,” Naz said. “I missed you guys.”

Alden folded the holed grey blanket he had been sleeping under neatly into a square, smoothing the surface and patting it as if it were a stray dog.

“I missed knowing what time of day it was,” he said. “We hardly ever went out while you were gone, except for Kira and Min. Too much of a risk. And there wasn’t Ben to keep everything in order. I’m no good at it.” He gestured around him at untidy room. “It’s been more and more of a big, cluttered nest in here than a den, Naz. I can’t keep track of everyone.”

“I understand. You did a pretty good job, anyway, I’ve heard. At least, that’s what Kira thinks.” Naz told him reassuringly.

Alden’s eyebrows raised a little. “Really? Kira? That’s a relief. She’s so hard to pin down, and it feels like she’s ignoring me most of the time. In her own world. I’m glad she thinks... well of me.” He laughed haltingly. Naz smiled too.

“Actually, she does have high standards. You’re lucky too, that she likes you. If she didn’t, you’d have a very hard time with her.”

Alden bent down to gather some wood from the pile. “ She isn’t even here, usually. She’s in other parts of the complex most of the day until night comes. And then she just appears. One minute she’s absent, and the other she’s by the fire like she’d never left it! It’s unnerving.” He kneels, the wood cradled in his arms, and begins to build a pyramid of sticks. “She’s like an owl, sometimes. Min’s pretty secretive too... sneaky... but… you know, owls have these feathers on their wings that make them completely silent. A lot of sneaky people can fly like birds, it seems, without leaving footsteps, but I don’t think most of them can just disappear like Kira does.”

Naz frowned then. “It’s very unnerving. I definitely agree. Just like what you described, with the owls. Terrifying, really. Don’t notice them until they’re right over your head, attacking you.” He bent down to scoop some pine needles from the dirt floor, and added them to the pyramid. His hair fell over his face, and he pulled it back behind his shoulder with his free hand . “I don’t...trust her. We’re lucky she likes to stick around here, she’s so useful, but...Owls live alone, Alden, don’t they?... I just have a bad feeling about her.”

Alden nodded. “Yes. Me too..” He brought his voice from a soft talk to a whisper. “Hey, shh...She might be here right now, and then we’ll have already made an enemy for ourselves. ” He looked around the room suspiciously, for dramatic effect, and then went back to the fireplace. “ Pass me the matches, will you?”