Wind in a Bottle

 

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Chapter One

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Chapter Two

Jezra caught himself staring at her again as he applied pressure to his upper left arm. He looked away and sighed. He just couldn't figure her out. What is a young girl like her doing out here alone? She was small. He guessed her age at about eight years old. Three years younger than himself! He was so close to being a man he could taste it, and he knew that as one so grown as he that he had to care for this girl until her family could be found. 

But the part he couldn't figure out was how she didn't look like she had been cared for in a while. Her  hair wasn't short, but what was there was matted together in tangles all over her head, and he was pretty sure he could see a piece of a leaf sticking out of one lock like it had long ago taken up residence. Her clothes also looked like they had seen better days, and without better light he couldn't really tell much more than that. But there was no way this tiny thing could have been surviving on her own, so he decided she must be traveling with her dad and not her mom, who would be the one to care more than this for this girl's appearance.

He winced as he pulled his shirt off the gash in his arm to inspect for bleeding. Good, the trickle has stopped. He shook out his oversized shirt, admired the dye job his battle wound had given it, and pulled it back over his head. He then ripped the hem of his shirt off as neatly as he could and wrapped it around his arm several times until the mark was mostly covered. It should keep most of the dirt out. That'll work.

He heard a rustling and looked over to see the girl stirring a bit. He watched as she opened her eyes and suddenly jumped up. Her head whipped around as she took him and her surroundings in, her eyes darting back and forth in alarm. "Where is it? Where am I??" She demanded, then looked back at him and stared. "Are you DYING??"

Jezra arched one eyebrow. "Where is what? We're in a cave. No, why would I be dying?" Then it dawned on him and he looked down at his shirt. "Oh! Sorry, my shirt looks this bloody because I used it to get my arm to stop bleeding. See?" He explained as he lifted his sleeve.

She looked a little less panicked as she took that in, then asked again sharply, as if remembering again, "Where is it??"

"Where is what?"

"The CAT! The LION! Where did it go??" She said with more than a hint of exasperation.

"Oh! Well, he really hasn't gone anywhere yet, I don't think. I haven't heard him in a while, but my guess is the scraggly-maned thing is waiting."

Her lips pursed as she clearly didn't like this answer. She made a move towards the mouth of the cave, then seemed to think better of it and stayed where she was. Jezra took advantage of the momentary silence. "Who are you?" He questioned. "And where is your dad?"

Her brows furrowed in confusion. "My name is Kinah, and why do you want to know?" Wait, that wasn't confusion; it looked like suspicion.

Jezra crossed his arms and stood a little taller, feeling important and responsible as he said, "Well, I'm going to help you find him, since you're lost. It's the right thing for me to do for a little girl in need of help."

Kinah bristled. "Excuse me? Lost little girl I am NOT. And I don't need your help! I am ten years old! What are you, nine?" She smirked a bit when it looked like she struck a nerve. He started to open his mouth, so she quickly blurted, "I saved your life, that cat would have killed you! The least you can do is thank me, not insult me and tell me what to do!"

Jezra gritted his teeth. "Thank you? THANK YOU? Okay, fine. Thank you SO MUCH for leading a big mountain lion to MY CAMP! You were about to pass out! Good thing for you I was here, and had passed this little cave yesterday so I knew about it! I almost spent the night IN it, but chose not to because I wanted a fire except this cave doesn't have a place for the smoke to vent out! What would have happened to you THEN! Also, I am eleven since you wanted to know! Almost grown!"

Kinah narrowed her eyes, but kept her mouth shut because she knew it was true. Old Kinah would have been crying by now, but now all she could do was glare and sulk where she was. She glanced down and noticed a jacket that didn't belong to her next to her feet. He must have draped his coat over me while I was sleeping. She felt another pang of guilt, but didn't say or do anything to give it away. Instead she pridefully scooped up the coat and threw it at him. "Put this back on. Your shirt looks awful." But she couldn't help herself and softened a bit. "Did she scratch you?"

He caught the jacket and decided he didn't want to fight. "Yeah, it took a little longer than I thought it would to squeeze through that crack to get in here, and she reached in at the last second to leave me this mark."

"Can I see?" He shrugged and pulled his sleeve up. Slowly Kinah stepped closer and reached for the poor excuse for a bandage. Her small, nimble fingers quickly but carefully unwrapped his arm. It was dark in the cave, so she leaned in but still couldn't see very well. "Can you turn this arm towards the light?" He shifted and she lifted his arm up a little higher, but stopped when she notice him wince slightly. Leaning in again, she saw the gash was short, but deep. She couldn't see bone, so it wasn't the worst she had ever seen, but it was pretty bad. "How long did it bleed?"

He shrugged his other shoulder and answered, "It stopped right before you woke up."

She fought the urge to roll her eyes at the vague answer. "Okay, how long was I asleep?" She was curious to know that anyway.

Jezra leaned towards the mouth of the cave and glanced outside. "Um, less than an hour. Maybe half?"

Okay, it could be worse. "I need to gather some medicine for this. When can we leave this cave?"

He gave her a confused look. Where is she going to get medicine? He didn't know of any towns nearby. "Uh, I guess whenever it's safe, and who knows when that will be."

"When did you last hear it?"

"Maybe halfway through your little nap."

She pondered that a second. "Alright, it's still early in the day. I bet it hunted all night and is tired. Why don't we sit here maybe an hour and try to leave then. Sound good?"

"Sure, but let me go out first."

She tried again to resist rolling her eyes. "Fine." She sat down where she had been sleeping just a few minutes earlier. "I don't know your name."

He sat down too and leaned back against the wall of the cave. "Jezra. Not Jez. Not Ra. And definitely not Jezzy. Jezra."

Well that's specific, she thought. "Oooookay, JEZRA." She hesitated before sheepishly adding, "Thanks. I owe you one." She could almost see him puff up like a proud little bird as she watched him start to smile, then wipe it off and put on a serious face.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of you."

This time she did roll her eyes. Good grief. I'll be glad when we can go our separate ways.

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Chapter Three

Time crawled by with no sign of Kinah's golden stalker. "Has it been an hour yet?" Kinah huffed impatiently.

Jezra struggled to hold in his anger as he spat out, "Almost! That's the hundredth time you asked!"

Kinah smirked and muttered, "Like you could count that high."

"What?"

"I said she's given up by now. Why don't I just poke my head out and look around?"

Jezra's eyes narrowed at her suspiciously, but he decided to ignore what he thought sounded like a whispered insult. "Look, you can stick your neck out there, but I doubt it could handle that thing's claws as well as my arm did. I say we wait."

She stood up and made her way to the exit. "Well I'm not waiting anymore." Just as she was putting her foot in the light beaming through-

"Grrrrrr!!"

Kinah stopped and turned to face Jezra, clearly unimpressed. "Grr? That's the best you can do? I didn't even flinch. Bet you feel stupid now."

His face turned a little red, but not from embarrassment. "Look child, if you really insist on us not waiting any longer then let me go first!" He pushed past her roughly in his anger and stopped just shy of the light. He pulled his shirt off again and bent low to the ground, grasping one sleeve, and flicked half of his shirt out into the light. He sat still and listened, then gave the shirt a little jerk.

Nothing happened. "What. Are. You. Doing?"

"Shhh! I'm checking to see if it's still there. Hush so I can hear."

Kinah sighed noisily and plopped back down on the ground as loudly as she could. "Why on earth would it care about your shirt??"

"It's a cat! Haven't you ever played with a little cat before? Maybe a big one is not that much different."

Kinah leaned her head back against the rock and rolled her head around to look at his back. He looked tense and nervous. He was up on his toes ready to move at any second. The temptation to reach over and shove him over was almost too hard to resist, but she remembered his hurt arm and decided she wasn't going to be THAT mean. Boy logic. I can't believe he thinks the big kitty cat is going to claw at a bloody shirt for fun.

A few flicks of fabric later, Jezra finally pulled his shirt back on and began the slow process of sticking his head out. Inch, by inch, by VERY SLOW inch. "Would you hurry up??" Kinah whispered.

"Would you SHUT up? You weren't the one nearly gutted by this thing."

"Unless you were born with your appendix in your armpit, I really don't think you were in danger of being 'gutted' in any way."

"My what?"

"Never-mind."

"Just give me a minute." He finally had his head through enough to really get a good look around. As he stuck his good arm out to hold the rock wall for balance, Kinah was able to really pay attention to his clothes in the light. Obviously his shirt had seen better days, but where there wasn't dried blood she could see the faint yellow that told of many days in the hot sun. There were a few poorly patched holes under his arms, and the hem of his shirt was, well, missing, as it now served a higher purpose as the worst patch job of an injury she had ever seen. She could have done a much better job if he had just let her wrap it, but it appeared he had a stubborn streak stronger than her own.

He shifted his weight as he squeezed out a little further, and the movement brought her train of thought back to his appearance. His pants were dyed a light brown, or maybe had just stayed so dirty for so long the color became permanent. The cuffs were badly frayed, and more hastily done patch jobs. His feet were bare, but she had noticed that earlier. This boy has been out in the wild for a good while now, but how long has he been alone? Either not very long, or he's a hunter; he doesn't look as skinny as I feel I am. He's young, but he has a little bit of muscle, so he must have the diet to nourish that. Most people I know don't. She looked back up to search his face while she pondered. His dark hair was long for a boy, and kept falling into his face despite how often she noticed him trying to tuck it behind his ears. She also noticed, when he turned his head to the right and the light feel on the back of his neck,  a faint pinkish-white line that came from behind his left ear reaching almost to his spine, where it tapered off on his dark skin. How did he get that scar?

Finally Jezra seemed satisfied that the lion was gone because he wiggled his torso all the way out, stepping through to be back outside. Relieved, Kinah quickly followed behind him and allowed herself a small shudder, hoping he wouldn't notice. It wasn't very roomy or bright in that cave, two things that both happened to make her uneasy. Now that she was out of there, and no longer being hunted, she felt much better and a little more herself.

Jezra noticed she seemed a little more relieved that she should, but decided against pointing it out; he had something more important to discuss. Now that they were free, it was time to stand up, man up and take charge. "Well, do you remember where you last saw your family? Any ideas at all which direction we should go first?"

Kinah shot him a quick warning glance. "I thought I made it clear that THAT is not an option." She pulled her pack up a little higher on her back. "Well, thanks again for your help." Realizing she still sounded a little rough, she stopped and turned her body to face him, forcing herself to look at his confused face. "Look, I really do mean it. Thank you for saving my life. And it's nice of you to want to help me even further." But I really want to go alone. "Which way are you going? Maybe we can walk together for a bit." What? Idiot, why did you say that? Are you that desperate for companionship??

Jezra fought back the harshness he felt creeping into his tone as he said, "Oh, well, I really think it's important for you to get back with your dad or whoever you were with, but you can walk with me for now until you change your mind and realize you need to go back."

Kinah bit her lip. Hard. Why do I want to travel with HIM? Having someone to talk to is nice, but only if  the someone can actually make pleasant conversation. Well, you haven't been too pleasant yourself.

He turned and pointed West, and Kinah could see the ground sloped downward. "I'm heading down to a valley south and west of here by following the downhill slope. I think there's a swamp first, then the valley I want to reach is on the other side. Do you really want to go that far with me and wade through a swamp?" He glanced back at her and frowned as he watched her scratching her scalp and pulling at her mess of hair in the process. Now that they were out in the light, it looked even worse. "Did you sleep too long one day while a bird made a nest in there?"

Kinah stopped scratching and fought to ignore the itch as much as she fought to ignore that last statement. They really were off to a rough start conversationally, and she didn't feel like trying to fix it just yet, but she could ignore the issue. "I can handle going through a swamp, and actually that's perfect. I can make you a healing ointment from the plants we'll probably see in there."

Jezra stared at her for a minute, puzzling to figure her out. She kept making references to medicine and healing and something about guts in his armpit. It made her sound educated, but surely not considering how unkempt she looked; what stood out the most was the stark contrast between her skin tone and the dirt she hadn't bothered to wash off. He could tell that she was shifting uncomfortably under his gaze, but now that they were outside again he wanted another look at her. She had not been kind to her clothing on her recent travels, that was for sure, but they were still nicely tailored to fit her well. The shirt was dyed a light blue, which was a hard color to obtain, and the pants stayed up without a belt. Impressive considering how tiny the kid was, which gave him an idea. "Let's go hunting first." Mind made up already, he started pulling his recurve bow out of his pants leg so he could string it.

Glad that his attention was off of her and feeling very conscious of her hair all of a sudden, she happily agreed. "That sounds great!" Her empty stomach might have had something to do with her eager answer. Berries and roots she found while traveling through the deer paths in the forest hardly did anything for her, and besides, she hadn't eaten breakfast.

Standing up for stringing his bow, he reached in his other pants leg and produced a narrow quiver of  homemade arrows that looked like they had been used and retrieved several times. He took great pride in the bow his father had made him and took really good care of it, but there was only so much care you could give an arrow before it fell apart. He needed to make more soon.

Kinah looked at him a little surprised. "I had no idea you were hiding all that in those baggy pants!"

Jezra laughed for the first time since the had met, and it made her smile. "I also have this." He reached behind his back and produced his hunting knife. "Do you know how to hunt with one of these?" Her eyes widened as she shook her head no. "Do you have anything to hunt with?" More head shaking. "Have you ever hunted? At all?"

Kinah sighed. "Not exactly. I used to pretend when I was a little girl after I heard stories the men would tell."

"You're a little girl NOW," Jezra said under his breath. "Okay, well I'm pretty hungry, so instead of letting you hunt with me this time and slowing us down, just follow me and watch what I do so you'll know for next time, okay?" His eyes twinkled a little bit at the idea of getting to be the teacher.

Kinah nodded excitedly. She had always wanted to do this.

 

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Chapter Four

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Chapter Five

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Chapter Six

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Chapter Seven

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Chapter Eight

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Chapter Nine

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Chapter Ten

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Chapter Eleven

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Chapter Twelve

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Chapter Thirteen

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