Drop [On hold]

Stupid, stupid, stupid

Seemingly to match her mood, the usual blue skies turned dreary and grey.

Under the cover of the trees, she held her hood down to shield her face from the chilling wind. The ground was wet from the heavy rainfall of the previous night, and Annavi had to watch her step to avoid the puddles. Frogs that had decided to come out of hiding hopped out of her way. Normally she would wait for anything in her path, but now wasn’t a normal stroll down the path she had gone down so cheerily these past weeks on her way to help Jacque with whatever needed to be done. She ran through a crowd of robins pecking at the soil for worms, and nearly trampled a garter snake as she passed the fence post that marked the halfway point to her destination.

She was red faced by then. Her breath came in short bursts, and she found her legs getting sore. Normally, she wouldn’t run. But again, this wasn’t a normal occasion. Anger swelled in her chest, and propelled her forward. Although she barely knew him, she still felt betrayed. By someone who she had called her friend. Was he her friend, though?

Annavi found her footsteps faltering. Her sprinting turned to running, then jogging, then walking. Her sore legs almost gave way, and she held herself against a tree to avoid completely toppling over. Stooping under a low branch, she took deep breaths, trying to regain her breathing. Is he your friend? Is he really?

Jacque hadn’t once mentioned where he got his supplies from. At a time, she had believed that maybe he chopped the wood himself, and did the finish on his own time. Looking back now, she realized it was an assumption without proof. There wasn’t an axe in sight in his workspace. Nor were there any cans of lacquer or oil. It was stolen wood. It was likely that he stole the tools, too, and the pipes and the fabric and the cords and the wires. Even after she saved him during that confrontation in the woods with the two men, he hadn’t thought to mention that they were after him for a reason other than just to beat him up. He left it, and let her believe that he was being harassed needlessly when he needed to be getting somewhere to work.

Annavi felt slightly sick, and held herself upright. It was drizzling now, and raindrops from the leaves above soaked through her hood. She shivered, and started running again. Her joints still burned, and she wanted to stop desperately, but she couldn’t. If a storm started up, she needed to get there as soon as possible to confront Jacque. Staying out in the woods during a storm was the last thing she wanted to do. Not to mention the fact that he was likely to leave if it started to get hectic.

Annavi burst through the water soaked vines and foliage and skidded to a halt in the clearing. The drop revealed the stormy clouds. They shifted angrily, seeming to get darker by the second. The rain was much heavier now that she was out of the woods. She could see lightning flashing down below. The flares were sudden, and illuminated the dark skies.

Annavi glanced around, but didn’t see Jacque anywhere. The wind had picked up, and the boat was rocking relentlessly. Unsettling creaking was laced with the loud thunder and the rustling of the forest. A doe pranced through the area and bounded over a fallen log, before disappearing into the shadowed forest. There was no sign of Jacque that she could see.

Movement by the ship caught her eye. A rope was thrown over it from behind. The rock tied to it weighed it down through the wind, and it hit the ground. Something must have been keeping it down from the other side, because the rope remained tight and kept the ship from rocking so wildly. She waited, and sure enough, Jacque came around the back of the boat. His scarf was tied around his head tightly like a turban, and his clothing looked to have been done up tighter than usual. Annavi shrugged it off, assuming it was just so he wouldn’t have to be constantly pulling it up and fixing it.

The wind was getting even fiercer by the second, and Annavi could feel hard rain flying into her face. She squinted against the storm and watched Jacque crouch down to tie the long rope tightly around a bigger rock that was protruding from the muddy ground. She came up behind him, and stepped on his shoulder to get his attention.