Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
PENNY
Idecide that it would be stupid to refuse any food Apollo offers me, as I have no idea what’s edible here yet.
So instead, I take his offering of berries and nuts for breakfast silently and I take note of their color and consistency.
I even stealthily watched where he picked them from.
I might not be able to hunt for meat, but I could survive fine on berries and nuts once I figured out how to forage properly.
After eating, I take the borrowed tunic off and replace it where I got it from, not wanting him to have anything over me.
I am determined to be self-sufficient while out here.
I take a moment to study the rope he’s made in the cave.
It looks like he weaved together lots of plant fibers.
I just have to find the strongest ones and peel them to create these small threads.
In just my night dress and shoes, which I thankfully had slept in the night I was separated from my mates, I head out into the oasis to see what I can find.
I move as far as I can from where Apollo was seated by the fire, not wanting him to watch me.
When I reach the northern edge, I take a moment to look for any sign of my mates.
When I see nothing on the horizon, I try to not let the disappointment get to me.
The longer they took, the more chance I had to figure out what I was doing here.
So when they finally found me, they would see how capable I was of taking care of myself and they’d be impressed.
Maybe if I had enough time, I could make hammocks for all of us, or one giant one?
Well, Silver would want his own. I could figure that out later, it’s not like we were going to stay here for long once they arrived.
I carefully try several different plants until I find a few that look like the fibers Apollo had used, and I set to work peeling them into long strips.
Unfortunately, it’s hard on my hands, the roughness of the fibers digging into my skin.
I can only pull with my right as my left still hurts, so I figure out a way to hold it with my foot and peel it with my right hand.
The issue is they get stuck at the end and I need some sort of knife to cut it with.
Refusing to ask to borrow one, I search for a rock to use.
When I come up empty-handed, I head to the pond, knowing there were lots around the water's edge.
I glance up at movement, and see a shirtless Apollo doing…
chin ups? What the heck? Is he working out?
No wonder he’s so buff. When I see him glance at me, I quickly turn away in search of my rock.
I don’t want him to know I was ogling his sexy muscles.
I do my very best to ignore him, even when he moves to pushups, and eventually I find a rock with a sharp edge.
Without a second glance, I head back to my project and find the rock is nowhere near as efficient as a knife, but eventually, it gets the job done.
After I have about a dozen fibers, I start to braid them together to make my first rope.
Looking down, I wonder why they are turning red, but one look at my hands and I realize it’s blood.
“Oh,” I say, feeling dumb. I must have cut my right hand open on the rock or fibers.
My left hand is also leaking blood through the bandage.
I really need to be careful not to hurt that one any further.
I don’t want to get an infection. I don’t have Silver’s magical healing cream, and it didn’t seem like Apollo did either.
Or else he did, but didn’t want to use it on me.
I had a feeling he would if he had it, though.
I stare at my hands, not sure what to do.
I need water, but really don’t want to risk him seeing me like this.
I decide just to finish making the rope, it’s covered in blood anyway, and by the time I’m done, I feel proud of my accomplishment.
It’s long enough to be the full length of my hammock and figure I may as well keep going, my hand will just get re-injured, anyway.
I keep going, determined to get something together to sleep in tonight.
When I start to get hungry around midday, I luck out finding some berries and eat a few handfuls before going back to work.
And as the sun gets low in the sky, I realize that I’m not going to have this done today.
But I am still determined not to sleep in his bed tonight.
If he dumps me on it again, I’ll just keep getting out.
I head to the furthest part of the pond from the cave, so he won’t see me, and I kneel down, washing my hands, arms, and dipping my face in as well, making sure to scrub with my fingertips.
Man, I’d kill for a dip in this pond right now.
I was feeling pretty sweaty, but I didn’t want to get my only piece of clothing wet, and I wasn’t about to skinny dip in front of Apollo.
Hmm… maybe that would help loosen him up?
I decide to save that for the morning, as I know sleeping on the ground will make me feel even grimier.
I slowly head over to where he’s cooking meat again, and he silently passes me some without saying a word.
“Thank you.” I can’t stop my manners from coming out.
I sit down across from him, the fire blocking our view of one enough.
I feel strange being here with him, it feels nice not being alone like I have been all day, but I also feel anxious and nervous in his presence, afraid of him lashing out with his words again. So I stay quiet, as does he.
When I finish eating, I debate going to get his tunic again.
I really don’t want to use anything of his, but I know I’ll be shivering all night without anything else.
Eventually my stubbornness wins over practicality and I move off the rock I’m sitting on, to the ground in front of it, as I pull my arms inside my dress to hold across my body, conserving heat as I curl up into a ball and watch the fire.
The sun has completely gone and the sounds around us have changed from the singing of birds to the chirping of insects.
The sounds soothe me and I close my eyes, growing sleepy.
“What are you doing?” His words startle me awake.
“What?” I ask, looking up at him standing over me.
“I asked what you are doing. I thought we settled this yesterday? You sleep in the bed.”
“No, thank you,” I say politely, resting my head back down.
I can see him start to bend down and I shoot out an arm out of my sleeve, stopping him mid motion as if he was about to scoop me up.
“Do not touch me, Apollo, I mean it,” I warn him.
He frowns at me and I can see his jaw clenching, as do his fists, before he stands up and drops his arms.
“Fine, have it your way,” he grits out before storming into the cave.
I hear his loud footsteps get closer again before something soft falls on my head.
I reach up and pull it off me, realizing it’s the tunic I slept in yesterday, I glance up but he’s already storming back into the cave.
I can’t help the small smile of appreciation for him giving me this as I sit up and slip it on before getting back into my sleeping position on the ground.
It takes a long time to get to sleep. He tosses and turns all night, making me wonder what he’s thinking. But when my thoughts turn to my mates, I grow sad, hoping that they are all okay, wherever they are.
The next two days are exactly the same. I leave before breakfast to work on my new bed, we don’t say a single word to each other, other than me thanking him for my dinner each night.
He doesn’t try to make me sleep in his bed again, but I can see him giving me an angry look each night as I lay down by the fire.
I actually have no idea what he does all day.
Other than seeing him work out when I need water, I don’t see him during the day.
I feel good about accomplishing something but I also feel lonely and worried about my mates.
What was taking them so long to find me?
I knew the desert was a big place, but I had really hoped they’d only be a day behind me.
It was getting harder and harder to stay here in the presence of this silent, brooding man.
But as I thought about that, I realized that as much as he was annoying me, we needed Apollo to come with us. It had been Indy and my mission to find him after Ria, to convince him that he is our family, so how could I just leave him here?
I let out a deep sigh. Maybe I was going about this the wrong way.
Instead of trying to show how independent I could be, I need to show him how nice it was to have a family.
People who cared about you and accepted you the way you are.
I’m not sure why he hates me, but maybe I could convince him I could be an awesome… friend.
So, as lunch rolls around on that fourth day, I gather a leaf full of berries and go looking for him. I find him doing pushups on the west side of the pond, and I approach slowly, afraid to scare him off, which I realize is stupid. He stops his set and lies there with his head tilted up at me.
“I thought you might be hungry,” I say, standing there holding the leaf full of berries like an idiot.
When he doesn’t say anything, just lays there, frowning at me, I move to set them down by his shirt. “Right, well, they’re there when you’re done,” I say, before licking my lips nervously. When he continues to just stare, I turn on my heel and head right back to my hammock project.
I almost have enough rope now, and I’ve started to create the net of the hammock from them. I work for a few more hours but stop early as I want to try and get the fire started before Apollo starts working on it.