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i meant to have this chapter done over the weekend but neil armstrong's death completely killed my will to write for like two days. ;______; so now that i'm done with it i'd like to take a moment to say this again: may you rest in peace, mr. armstrong. you were my hero and will forever be remembered. *minute of silence*
now, let's get to business.
i am still on a high because my beloved real madrid won the spanish supercup just a few hours ago yaaaaaay! \o/ so you'll have to forgive me if i'm a little bit evil with possible spoilers in this snippet.
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It was around noon [...] when it happened. Normally it was hard to distinguish one particular voice when there were so many people in the same place, but this one was loud enough to cut through the natural murmur of the crowd: a female scream. A shrill, terrified scream.
He immediately dropped everything and ran toward the trees, Bristel and a couple other men right at his heels. The scream came again once, twice; he tried to follow the sound until it died down, and he could only go straight in the direction he thought it came from. He ran until some 100 yards in, he came across Madge, as pale as a sheet of paper, backing up so urgently against the trunk of a tree that she might as well be plastered to it. A few steps in front of her was Rory, bludgeoning the carcass of a wild dog so huge it could be confused with a wolf with a thick, hardwood branch.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened: the dog had attacked Madge, and Rory had saved her. But even if the imminent danger was past, the scene was still out of control: Rory had swung the branch to the side, where it smacked hard against another tree, and had switched to viciously kicking the dead animal, like he was unloading all his frustrations on it.
Gale moved quickly. "Hey! Stop that! Rory, that's enough." He grabbed his younger brother around the shoulders and forcibly pulled him away from the animal. "Don't, we can use that for food." They boy still struggled for a few more seconds, but after a heartbeat Gale's words got through to him and he stopped moving. They did need all the food they could get. He was still as tense as a loaded spring, however.
Gale turned to look at the other men, signaling for them to take the dog back so they could cook it. Bristel and another guy picked it up, and the group marched back to the lake. Gale was distracted watching them leave, and Rory took that chance to push himself out of his brother's hold. Before Gale could say anything, he stormed off, passing the other men easily with his angry strides.
With a sigh, Gale ran a hand through his head and then turned toward Madge. "You alright?" he asked her, and she nodded, still reeling. She was wide-eyed, and just beginning to catch her breath. "You need to be careful," he pointed out. The warning came a little bit late, but he thought it was implicit.
She cleared her throat in that demure way of hers-- she was probably a little sore from repeatedly screaming at the top of her lungs-- and swallowed hard. "I know, I just... I heard something, and I thought someone might be around," she explained feebly.
Something about the way she said that was amusing to him. It was an unexpected feeling, given all they'd been through in the past few days; not very many things were amusing given their circumstances. "It's a forest. There are lots of things around," he said, his tone slightly teasing.
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awww! see? i keep telling you people gale does have a soft side, but y'all don't believe me! x3
chapter 22 will be uploaded to ff.net tomorrow. probably around noon. i have a few RL stuffs to deal with before i can actually sit down to edit it, so don't quote me on the time-- but tomorrow for sure.