Ander - Part 2: Subchapter 8
8
"Damn that Ander..." Hezzi growled under his breath, taking only the briefest of moments to regard each piece of his brother's junk before tossing it over his shoulder in disgust. To think, he used to be fascinated by this stuff. How stupid. He didn't even know what half these things were supposed to be, much less what supposedly 'useful' purpose they were meant to serve. Here was a rounded piece of metal with square teeth poking out of the sides in equal measurements. Junk! Here was a hollowed out piece of wood with strips of rawhide tied to the top for some reason. Junk! Here was a big piece of bark with patterns burned into it with coals. Worse than junk!
Hezzi swept everything off Ander's table in one angry motion. They clattered to the ground in a myriad of wooden thuds and metallic clinks that only served to fuel his anger. If Ander hadn't been so busy being so damned different from everyone else, none of this would have happened!
He seized a broken piece of metal from the ground and hurled it at Ander's cot as hard as he could. It merely bounced off the skins and landed back on the ground in a most unsatisfying way.
Hezzi stood there in Ander's tent, seething, his shoulders rising and falling with every breath, fighting the urge to lose it completely.
"Hezzi? Are you in there?" someone asked from outside. It sounded like Renna.
"What is it!?"
"Oh, um... I thought you'd like to know, the first scouting party came back a few minutes ago. They -"
Hezzi tore open the tent's flap and nearly bowled Renna clean over. "Did they find anything!?"
Renna recoiled at the sight of him. Hezzi didn't care. He knew there were rumours going around that the sight of his brother's death had driven him crazy, and who knows? Maybe they were right. The whole damn thing was inconsequential anyway. "I ask you, did they find anything?" Hezzi said again, this time in a calmer voice. Not to spare her feelings, but because he hoped he would get an answer out of her faster.
"I'm sorry, Hezzi," she said. "They couldn't find him."
Hezzi was still holding the tent's flap in one hand. He squeezed it so hard his nails punched right through the hide with a soft popping sound. "And what about the second team?"
"They haven't come back yet."
"Fine." Hezzi turned to go back inside Ander's tent - he didn't even really know what he was looking for in there - but she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Hezzi?"
"What?"
"Um... I'm really sorry. About what happened to your brother? I - I don't know what I would've - I'm just... really sorry..."
"Why are you sorry?" Hezzi said without turning around.
"W-What?"
"Ander's_the one who should be sorry! _He's the one that killed Banno! He's the one who betrayed his family and tribe for some Fox! Now leave me alone!" Hezzi shrugged her hand off and stepped back inside, but he could still feel the sun shining on his back, could see his shadow slanted against the canvass.
"H-Hezzi? I just thought -"
"I said leave me alone!"
Renna let the flap fall shut as if it had burned her, but even so, it was a long time before Hezzi heard her footsteps signal her departure, granting his wish.
He stood there, all alone in the dark, save for the four shafts of light shining through the holes his nails had torn in his brother's tent, throwing four tiny spotlights on the ground, shifting with the breeze. He watched them slowly travel across the sand, grain by grain and pebble by pebble, until all sense of time was lost.
"There were four of us that night," he said, not realizing he had spoken aloud. He reached out and covered one of the holes with his hand, and the corresponding spot of light on the ground vanished. "Now there are three..."
He slowly lowered his hand, feeling the rough texture of the animal hides slide over his palm, watching as two more lights disappeared until there was only one left, all alone.
Just like him.
He covered the last light, and then there was nothing.
Nothing at all.
Sorry for the late upload, everybody. I seriously overslept this morning. (Nocturnal bat is nocturnal. :P)
And why do I only notice that I can change font colour now!? o.O
I'll go back and edit the previous installments once I get some free time to kill. :)
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