Evy was the one to notice that the boy had begun to cry. She sighed, and began to pat his shoulder, "Why are you crying now? I already ate the meat didn't I? Hush now."
The tiger boy sniffed and wiped his tears with the back of his palm. Then, without a word, he had licked Evy's cheek.
Evy's eyes widened and she pushed herself away from the boy. She chuckled nervously.
Almathea watched their interaction silently, feeling like it was a little off, and she had begun to feel awkward. She cleared her throat, "So, where is your family."
Hearing her question, Evy turned to face her, "Maybe he doesn't have one." she looked at the tiger boy. "Do you have a family?"
He cocked his head, as if considering her question. After thinking for quite some time, he shook his head.
"Can't he speak?"
Evy shrugged.
"Can you speak?"
The tiger boy, once more, considered her question, before opening his mouth. "Zi -" he managed to croak out.
The two girls turned to each other, confused, "Zi?"
He cleared his throat twice, "Zingel."
Evy was confused. "Zingel?"
The tiger boy bobbed his head up and down excitedly. "Zingel. Zingel."
"What does Zingel mean?" Almathea spoke up.
The boy did not even turn to look at her. He was gazing intently at Evy. Evy coughed, smacking his head, "Thea is asking you a question. What does Zingel mean?"
He paused his actions and stood still, continuing to contemplate on the question. Evy had to repeat the question twice before he jumped up, pointing to himself. "Zingel."
"Ah. Your name is Zingel?"
Zingel nodded, repeating the name over and over, still pointing at himself. "Zingel. Zingel."
Almathea rubbed her forehead, "We get it, your name is Zingel."
She was ignored. As he continued to point at himself saying his name. Almathea stood, "I am going to finish getting everything ready. The sun has already risen so much. Remember we want to reach a village or town by the end of the day Evy."
Evy nodded, "I know." She patted his head, "Calm down now."
The boy was obedient and immediately settled down on his hind legs. He looked up at Evy who had stood to clean up their camp place.
"Thea, do you think that we can take him with us?"
Almathea looked up from the work she was doing, "Do you want to?"
Evy bobbed her head up and down. "I know that we are already short of a lot of things, but can we help him out at least?"
Almathea looked at the tiger boy who was still saying Zingel over and over again. She could feel her head begin to throb. "I am not good with doing a lot of things. As long as he can help us with them, there is no problem if he comes. He must not get into his tiger form though. That would be dangerous for all of us."
A large smile fell on Evy's face. "Really?"
Almathea waved her hand, "If you ask me again, I'll tell you to throw him into the river."
Evy jumped onto Almathea, giving her a hug.
Almathea pried Evy off of her. "Let's go now. Don't dally."
Evy nodded and dragged Zingel onto the cart.
Afternoon arrived fast, and Almathea turned to Evy, "We have been travelling for so long. Do you think we should ask one of the travelers for directions?"
Evy shrugged. She was playing with Zingel who kept on jumping on her. "We did decide to take a left turn on each fork. There have been three forks so far. We might have taken one wrong turn."
Almathea nodded, "That might be it."
The number of people they had come across since morning came down to a perfect zero. It was almost as if they were the only ones in the area.
"You think we might be lost?" Evy shuddered slightly. She had been lost once and the memory was not too colorful.
Almathea seemed unfazed, if we are, we just go back the way we came. "Should we stop here for today?"
Evy nodded, pushing the tiger boy away from her face. "That might be for the best. If we continue on, we may get lost further."
She turned to the tiger boy. "Do you agree with us?"
He considered her words for a second, sitting on his hunches. He cocked his head to the right before leaping and licking Evy's cheek.
Evy could not help but laugh. "I will take that as an okay. Thea, let's stop a little past those bushes."
Almathea pulled the donkey into the bushes that were next to her, and they walked a little further from the path.
"I'll go and look for something for us to eat. You can start a fire can't you?" She handed Almathea the rocks that she used to start fires.
Almathea gazed at the rocks, a complicated look in her eyes. She was not going to lie, they were really hard to use. Although Evy made it look easy to start a fire, she had to struggle over and over.
Nevertheless, she picked the rocks out of Evy's hands.
"Come on Zingel! Let's look for food."
Zingel jumped out of the cart. "Food. Food." He chanted as he followed Evy out of the clearing. He was walking on his four limbs, very much like an animal would. However, he did not seem in pain, and it looked completely normal for him.
With a sigh, Almathea began to collect a few pieces of wood and assemble them together for a fire as Evy had taught her.
A few minutes later, she was looking at the wood and stones in her hands, a frown on her face. No matter how hard she hit the rocks together, they just wouldn't work to light the fire up.
Almathea grunted, continuing to smash the rocks together like a crazy person. After a few minutes of constant hitting, the rocks smashed into pieces. Almathea gasped, as the rocks fell out of her hands, "Oh no." she grabbed the rock pieces which had fallen onto the soil into her hands. Evy was going to kill her, without a doubt.
Every time she needed to light a fire, she would use the rocks to light the fire. Without the rocks, how was she going to light a fire for them?
Almathea looked to the direction in which the duo had gone into before beginning to clean up her mess. She threw the rocks into a pit she had dug, and covered it up.
.
S/T:
Zingel: Zingel Zingel Zingel
Almathea: (Rubs middle of forehead) Can you shut up already!