The Hunter Part 4 After about an hour of basic horse Care training we tacked back up and loaded up the supplies. I help Tom up onto lightning and handed him the reighns I patted lightning comfortingly on the kneck. I pulled a long peice of strong thin rope out of my pack and tied one end to lightnings bridle and the other to trinitys bridle then i put my foot in the styrup and swung my other leg around into the saddle. It's a good thing I carried a spare lightweight saddle around with me! I thought. I set of at a steady canter with lightning and Tom bouncing round behind me. "we'll carry on for about 8 miles then we'll set up camp" I shouted over my shoulder when there was no reply I looked over my Shoulder to see Tom sitting in the saddle looking down at his hands which had found a holding point on the saddle, he had silent tears streaming down his face. I slowed to a walk so we were walking side by Side. I reached across and took hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze, Tom looked up at me with his tear stained face and smiled slightly, I nodded back but with a softer expression on my face rather than my usual indifferent hard glare. "when they came to get me" tom sniffed " we were just about to sit down for dinner, they burst through the doors and took my little sisters wrists in shackles, my father was shouting it's coming the moneys coming please don't take her!! I stopped the men and persuaded them to take me instead. I should of told them to take my father because now your going to kill me because of what my father did, they took me away immediately. I never even got to say goodbye to my mother". I looked down this was not my department I was always rubbish at comforting people i always had been. i decide to say something short and simple that would not somehow end up hurting him more as my remarks so often did "im sorry". I nudged trinity on so I was walking a little faster and started to look around for a suitable camp place. I found the right spot after about another two miles, it was a small glade surrounded my dense shrubs I was already off trinity and unpacked and was about to start foraging for berries on the nearby bushes when Tom spoke up "err, shud I be getting off?" I looked up and realised he was still sitting upon a grazing, lightning "obviously, you didnt expect me to force you to stay there all night do you? Think of lightning! His poor back" I snapped for some reason the fact he was still on lightning irritated me. "right so how would I go about getting off this thing then?" he asked stupidly "hes not a thing he's a horse and here I'll show you" I went over and helped him down, noticed he was walking with his legs slightly apart " saddle sore, huh?" I asked with a grin " er you could say that" he replied. I walked over to my pack and rummaged around until I found a large tube of cream, I tossed it to him and he caught and started reading the label "it's anti-inflammatory rub, put it onto your sore myscles before you go to bed and they won't be sore in the morning keep useing it until your muscles become accustomed to the strain" I told him. " oh, er, thanks" he said a little shyly. I told him to make himself useful and light a fire and get some water from the stream we passed about half a mile back boiling while I looked for berries and leaves and other stuff wecould eat. On my way back to the camp, with a rabit flung over my shoulder which I had had the good fortune to shoot while I was out foraging, I saw Tom galloping back, I was quite surprised actually that he would return although even if he did runaway it wouldn't take me long to catch him again plus he probably knew I would make his #life horrible while he's with me so over all he had pretty good common sence. I reaches the camp just as he was taking lightnings saddle, off he was concentrating on undoing the girth so I walk slowly up behind him, silent with my hunters tred, laid my hands suddenly in his shoulders and quietly whispered "boo" he screamed a low shreick which caused lightning and trinity to jerk their heads up in fright. I was laughing so hard until I realised he was lying unconcious on the floor. "really?, you actually fainted no wonder you came back,I'll what a wuss!" I said to his #lifeless body. I pushed h along the forest floor twards his sleeping bag, which is my old one, using my foot then I skinned and cleaned the rabbit And cut it up into smallish chunks, stuck them on a stick and started to smoke them sloshing my make shift spit. By the time I had done all this Tom was wakeing up he stumbled over to where I sat cross-legged on the leafy floor, turning the spit slowly over the fire, " what happened?" he asked groggily, i looked up and saw he had a confused, faraway look on his face as if he was trying to remember some distant memory "I came up behind you and made you jump" I said with a smirk "that still doesn't explain why I woke up on the sleeping bag covered in grass stains" " well after I made you jump you shrieked like a little girl and fainted!" I said "oh, err, well, theidea was to scare way any close enemies..." he said hastily "my hero" I muttered. The rabit was done by then so I pulled two peices of the end of the stick and handed one to Tom. Before I could take my hand away he caught hold of it and gently stroked the top of it "it's strange I've only known you a couple of days and yet I feel as if I've known you all my #life!" he said slowly looking gently into my furious eyes. So quickly that if you'd blinked twice you would of missed it, I was up on my feet with aloaded bow pointing at his temple, if my finger slipped a milimeter he would of been dead before he could draw breath "don't ever try anything like that again you know I'll kill you without even thinking about it so you'd better be on your best behaviour or you could wake up and find your no longer in Mantarir, cos your dead you understand" I said in a dangerously slow and quiet voice. Toms previously soft and gentle gaze has now turned to a terrified stare he nodded slowly. And I lowered my bow, making sure the arrow top brished his hair over his temple as I did so I walked over to my saddle bag and removed a long silver chain thay was pleas than a milimeter thick, even though it was so thin no Man apart from the owner could break it, it was made from such a strong metal plus when you put to ends together it attaches and tightens so you dont need to try and tie it a wrap round any Exess. I walked back over to Tom, with my chain, and grabbed him by the arm I led him to the nearest tree and wrapped the chain round his legs arms and torso, tieing him to the tree then mouted trinity and galloped of through the trees I could hear Tom calling me from The clearing. I had no idea where I was going. When I finally drew to a halt I was in an unfamiliar part if the forest I jumped down and sat on the damp ground and for the frost time since I was 7 I cried. I cried for atleast 3 hours. When the tears had finally run their corse I felt better than I had in ages. I thought about why I had cried, first was so unused to poeple being so close so it was strange to have company after all this time, also I was not used to poeple being honest with me, I wasnt used to Poeple loving me to be honest I didnt expect anyone to love me ever im hardly perfect girlfriend material, am I? But deep down I knew that the real resoni was so upset was that iHad feelings for him to and I was so scared to admit it I had never loved someone before So I was not sure if what I felt for this boy was love. I decided to store my feelings away in the ever-growing corner of my mind to where I banish the thoughts I did not wish to face. I walked back towards trinity and went hunting to clear my churning mind. By the time I was heading back to the makeshift I had deicided two things one, I couldn't possibly love Tom and two, it was time to go home...