“I think you don’t want to risk finding out,” she replied. Then she smiled. “Let’s just try to be very careful for a few days more, all right?”
Both boys nodded, feeling slightly foolish for not doing what their mother had expected of them. But the whole business didn’t feel real somehow; it didn’t feel as though it had anything to do with them. Fixit thought that if they had actually seen the monster, it might have helped convince them. On the other hand, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to see it.
“What does Hawk say about leaving this place?” Chalk asked. He made a face. “I’m tired of sitting around doing nothing.”
“It’s what you do most of the time anyway,” a new voice declared, and Sparrow walked over to join them. She knelt next to him, blue eyes quizzical. “But I wouldn’t argue with what you’re suggesting. I’d like to get out of here, too. I don’t like how being here makes me feel.”
She was carrying the Parkhan Spray. She carried it constantly now, ever since their encounter with the monster. She seemed edgy all the time, too, Fixit thought. Not like the old Sparrow.
“Hawk says he hopes we can leave tomorrow,” Owl offered. She squinted against the sun. “He’s waiting for Logan Tom.”
“Been waiting on him too long already,” Panther declared, coming up to join the rest of them, Bear with him. He was armed, as well. “What’s he doing, anyway? Does anyone know? He just left us and went off on his own. Not very responsible, frickin’ Knight of Nothing.”
“He doesn’t answer to us,” Sparrow snapped. “It’s his business what he does.”
“Okay, it’s his business. But I don’t see why we’re waiting on him.”
“Because if Hawk says to wait on him, that’s good enough for me, Panther Puss!”
“If Bird-Man told you to jump off a cliff, that would be good enough for you!” Panther snapped. “But I ain’t like you, Sparrow. I don’t stand around waiting for someone to tell me what to do.”
“No, you just go do whatever you feel like, don’t you?” Sparrow sneered. “Mister Who-Cares-About-Anyone-But-Me.”
“Stop it!” Owl ordered sharply, silencing them both. “You sound like little children. You’re not. You’re big enough to know. We don’t need this arguing. We need to be patient with each other and to look out for each other until we get to where we’re going!”
“To get to where we’re going, first we got to start walking,” Panther grumbled. “Not sit around.”
“We’ll go,” she insisted. “It won’t be long now. Hawk will take us.”
Panther rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything further. After a few minutes, he muttered something about needing to find Cat and wandered off. Bear left with Sparrow shortly after that.
Owl and River sat with Fixit and Chalk for a while longer, not saying much, just keeping one another company. Fixit found himself thinking again of the old days in Pioneer Square, where their lives had been less complicated. He wished again that they could go back. He wished they could have their evenings together with stories after dinner from Owl. He felt rootless and disconnected from everything, and it bothered him more than he could say.
When the sun sank west toward the mountains, Owl told River they should go find Hawk and see if anything had changed. “Remember what I said,” she admonished Fixit and Chalk before leaving. “Stay inside the camp and close to other people. Don’t go off alone.”
Both boys nodded. But after she was out of earshot, Chalk said, “She worries too much.”
“That’s her job,” Fixit replied.
“Well, I think she’s working overtime at it. She looks awfully tired. Did you see her face?”
Fixit nodded. “I saw.”
He didn’t like the way Owl looked, either. She hadn’t looked good for some time now, ever since losing Squirrel, and none of them knew what to do about it. It wasn’t the sort of thing you could address directly. You could suggest she get some more sleep and not try to do so much, but you couldn’t just come out and tell her she wasn’t looking well. At least, he couldn’t. Maybe River could.
He would say something to River, he decided. Owl might listen to River.
They sat quietly for a time as the sun continued its slow journey toward the mountains behind them, the heat of the day pooling and settling like soup in a cauldron. The sounds of the camp changed as work was put aside in favor of dinner preparations. There wasn’t much to eat these days, and everything was strictly rationed. The foraging groups were finding less and less from which to make a meal, which was another reason they needed to move somewhere else. This spot was used up, and the camp was in danger of becoming a breeding ground for bad things.
Fixit thought again of the monster, picturing it in his mind one more time before brushing it aside. It didn’t help to think on it.
“Let’s do what Owl says and stay inside the camp,” he said finally. “You know, stick together.”
“We’re always together,” Chalk pointed out.