Beast Tamer

XXVII

Brody wipes the sweat off his forehead and popped open the lid to his bottle, swiping through the straw, promptly giving a sigh.

Damn, Fauna and Nico just come along and dump a little girl on me.

He chuckled. "Well, she has everyone wrapped around her finger, doesn't she."

He passed the arena and saw Rachel slice the dummy in half, like, a perfect half and she wasn't even sweating.

Brody grabbed his torso as he watched her slice the two halves into little pieces.

He laughed again rested his finger tips on his forehead. "But she's one hell of a fast learner, and deadly as a God.

"She easily lures people into a false sense of security."

An older girl stepped up and challenged her. Brody sighed, walking over and was preparing to take the older girl to the infirmary.

"And then, she strikes."

✵ ✵ ✵

Rachel yawned and Brody promptly took the bookmark from her hand, before placing it on the page.

"Go to sleep, Rachel, you trained really hard today."

She shook her head. "I have to get strong." She clutched her sword. "I have to be stronger."

Brody stared in silence. He had never asked why she was here, why she was so desperate to know, to train, to be stronger.

Should he? What had she been through?

Why? Why? Why?

"I couldn't protect them." Her voice wavered, she turned her head. "I couldn't protect my parents. I couldn't protect my world."

Brody watched on as tears tracked down her face and dripped, dripped, dripped onto the blanket. 

She started to sob, her shoulders shook, her hands trembled. She covered her mouth and her hair fell to protect her face, as if she couldn't bare anyone looking at her in this state.

He began to panic slightly actually.

How do you comfort a girl crying, let alone a young girl crying.

What do I say? What do I do? Do I have to give her some chocolate? A toy teddy bear? Should I buy her a new book? A new sword?

He knew sometimes it's hard for some people to cry and they like to bottle up their feeling, but still.

Brody could here her breathing start to even out and almost sighed in relief, but stayed in his seat beside her bed for a few moments, making sure she was asleep.

After, he stood up and carefully walked across the room, slipping the book onto the shelf.

He slipped on his shoes and jacket, closing the door with a quiet 'click' behind him.

Jack stood up from her lying position and circled around his legs.

He bent down and picked her up. "Love you too," he cooed, before his feet began to pounded down the stairs.

In his rush, he didn't see the red hair that watched him from the window, smiling.

Brody jumped from the third stair and landed on the ground. "And he sticks the landing!"

Jack mewled happily, gracefully leaping out of Brody's arms and leading the way to Mat's house.

"Hey!" Brody shouted and charged after his Companion that was already 1/3 of the way there.

By the time they were at the top, Brody and Jack looked ready to collapse.

Brody raised his arms above his head. "I won."

Jack gave a little whimper as an answer. Brody panted, but stood up and knocked on the wooden door.

No answer.

'That's weird.' Brody thought.

He pushed open the door, nobody was there. No running water, no snoring.

He checked the bathroom and bedroom, just in case, and the kitchen.

Empty.

Where could he actually be?

His eyes widened as he saw a Rift.