Remi's Great Escape (Forestfolk Prequel)

Chapter 2

She stared at the apple in my hands. "Remi, where did you get that?"

I proudly held it out to her. "I got it for you. Fruit is suppose to help sick people, right?"

On cue, she curled into a spasmodic cough. When she resumed breathing again, she didn't take the apple. Why wasn't she happy about what I did?

"Remi," she wheezed. "You cannot endanger yourself like this. You're all I have."

"And you're all I have! I'm going to make you better, I promise!" I pushed the apple into her hand. "This will make you feel better."

I had no idea if it would make her feel better or not, but it had to help with something. Why else would the chieftain hoard them?

Her expression softened as she turned the apple over in her hands. "I've only ever seen these from afar."

Pride swelled in my chest. I made this possible for her.

She took a bite. Closed her eyes. Chewed slowly. And smiled.

Pride swelled even larger. I would steal a hundred apples if they could make her smile like this every day.

"Is the Aberration boy in his hut?" I heard a voice outside ask.

"I think so," another man answered.

"Go fetch him. We have another mission for him."

My heart sank. Not again so soon?

I hurried to tuck her hands—which still gripped the half-eaten apple—under the blankets.

A burly warrior named Jabu stepped inside the hut and wrinkled his nose. "Ugh. I'll never get used to the stench of Aberrations."

"My mother is not an Aberration. She's sick!" I straightened to my full height, which barely reached his chest.

"I'll pretend you didn't just raise your voice at me. Get out here. Time for you to earn your keep."

I clenched my fists, wishing they were big and meaty like his so I could clobber him. "I have to stay here and take care of Ma."

Jabu looked over my shoulder at her and hesitated. He winced at her wheezing cough. Just when my hope began rising, he shook his head. "She'll be here when you get back."

I stuck out my lower lip and planted my feet. "I'm not going anywhere."

His eyes hardened. "You little worm. You don't get to dictate terms!" He clamped a hand over my shoulder and yanked me toward the doorway.

"No!" I shuffled my feet to keep from pitching forward, but no matter how I twisted or beat my fists against his, he did not let go.

"Outside, worm!" He tossed me out the doorway like a bundle of kindling.

I managed to stay on my feet, but only because I slammed face-first into another stout warrior. I recognized him as Pode. I called him Pode the Toad in my head, because he was short and his eyes bulged.

Pode peeled me off him and dusted his deerskin trousers, as if I was covered in filth. "Watch where you're going!"

"I'm not going anywhere!" My voice cracked, and I wished I had one of those deep, booming voices that commanded attention. "Ma needs me!"

Pode raised an eyebrow. "If you want what's best for your Ma, you'd better do what we say."

The menacing calm in his voice chilled me to my young bones, and I stopped fighting. I would kill him for threatening Ma. One day, I told myself, I would get back at these people. Maybe then they would learn to respect Aberrations.

"Boy, don't you look at me like that."

My glare did not waver. "My name is Remi."

Jabu gripped my arm and spun me to face him. "You'll answer to Worm, you little worm. Now stop being a baby!"

"You'll go to the Zurbo compound," Pode ordered. "Remain unseen, and find out if they've been stockpiling weapons. The Chieftain has heard rumors."

"Bunch of gossipers," I mumbled.

"Just for that, you'll go now, before the meal." Pode yanked me away from Jabu and began striding to the edge of the compound.

I moved my feet to keep from being dragged like a sack of grain.

"But the sun is setting." My teeth wanted to chatter at the mere thought of spending a late autumn night on the plain without a blanket. Without anything, really.

"You lot may be unnatural vermin, but vermin have a way of surviving. You'll figure it out." He tossed me through the perimeter's opening. "Get the information, and you can eat when you come back."

I sprawled into the dirt, tasting dust on my tongue.

Around me, other members of the tribe glanced up from splitting wood and digging garden rows. A boy I used to play with dropped his stick to trot over to me, only to be pulled back by his mother.

"I told you not to go near him anymore," she said. "We don't know what Aberrations can do to us. We can't trust them, understand?"

My insides twisted as I fought off the urge to cry. I was better than them, I reminded myself. I could do things they couldn't.

And yet the bite of her words still stung.

I pushed myself to my feet. I wanted to say goodbye to my mother, but Pode stood there with arms crossed, steely eyes determined to watch me leave.

The sooner I got this over with, the better.

I spat grit from my mouth and headed out into the open plains.

This boy may be scrawny, but he's got spirit. Let's vote for it!