Savage World •••Daryl Dixon•••

Broken Woods

Daryl and Asher lay side by side a few feet from the group, just inside the ring of firelight. She was curled up on her uninjured side facing Daryl, thin fingers running small crosses in his forearm gently. He didn't mind, it surprised him that the simple movements actually calmed him.

"Hey, Asher, I've been thinking. I think a recurve bow would be best for you. Little weight to draw back, just hold it right and take good aim. I think it would be perfect for ya." Asher looked up from her patterns on his skin and softly smiled.

"Maybe. But I don't know how to shoot."

"I know, I'll teach ya. I'll make ya the best little archer this whole damn world's ever seen." Asher lightly laughed and turned back to her patterns, this time making small hearts. Daryl simply laughed and let her continue tracing. After a while her traces slowed and she drifted to sleep beside him. Daryl stayed awake until the sun brightened the horizon and chased away the stars. Asher slept through the night again, maybe she had finally fought them away. Maybe she was getting to be okay.

"Hey, wake up sweetheart." Her eyes fluttered open and she sleepily focused on the man.

"Is everything okay?" She pushed to a sitting position and stretched.

"Yeah, but now is the best time to go hunting. I want you to come with me, I'm not leaving you with these people." He pushed to his feet and held out his hand to help her up. They both stretch up and pop joints in unison before they headed off into the woods for their breakfast.

"Okay, you're on point sweetheart. Tell me, where should we go?"

"Okay, so the sun is behind us. That means we're facing west. If we go to the right we'll hit the quarry, where there's water and water means animals. If we go along the top of the quarry we're bound to run into a few creatures." Daryl smirked and nodded, happily impressed with her observations.

"Damn smart, lead the way." She turned to the right and pushed a few low branches out of the way, careful not to let them swing back and smack her guardian behind her. They moved through the trees as quietly as possible, eyes and ears open for walkers and prey alike. She hopped up on a fallen log and almost jumped down but quickly caught her balance and stopped herself.

"Why'd ya stop?" She crouched down and inspected the ground intently, Daryl leaning over and looking at what caught her attention.

"Looks like coyote tracks to me, what do you think?"

"They look kinda small. And there's more than just those. Look." She pointed to smaller much more rounded tracks. Daryl nodded and quickly looked them over.

"Looks like rabbit tracks. And you said you couldn't do this." She hopped off the log onto a small pile of needles and leaves.

"I said I couldn't shoot, I didn't say I didn't know how to look at the ground for tracks. Plus I've seen you and Merle do this all the time." He nodded and leapt the log too, landing on the other side of the tracks to see which way they led.

"Which meat is better, coyote or rabbit?" The man shrugged and motioned for her to follow him. She stepped over the tracks and trailed him through the trunks.

"Not sure they're both food and taste ain't much to cross your mind when you're hungry." Asher nodded and they walked along the tracks until they started to get further and further apart.

"Where are they going?" Daryl took a swift turn to try and find the prints again. He spotted a walker kneeling on the grass, blood staining the grass and dirt.

"They ain't going nowhere now. Guess this'll be good practice too. C'mere." She quietly shuffled to his side and hefted the crossbow he handed to her. "This rests against your shoulder, use this up here to aim. Never waste your arrows, always take them back. Understand?" Asher nodded and readied to aim for the head like she's seen Merle and Daryl do.

Daryl nodded and slipped his knife from his sheath, ready to finish the job if she couldn't. He picked up a rock and chucked at the walker's back to catch its attention. It turned its head and snarled before pushing up to its feet and shambling forward into the dappled sunlight. The face that she was met with stopped her heart cold and froze her blood in her veins. It was him, those steel-toed boots clunking through the grass. Joshua Whitman. Her father.

"No. Not you. It can't be. No!" Her bones shook and tears welled in her eyes as she watched the zombie shuffle closer. Daryl went to take it out himself, stopped when Asher held out her hand for him not to.

"No, this is something I'm supposed to do. I have to." He nodded and stepped back to give her room to shoot. She took a deep breath and took aim again. Instead of firing, she slid the arrow free and handed the crossbow back to Daryl, who immediately readied another and got ready to fire.

"Asher, what're you doin?" She ignored his words and sped at the slow walker. First she pushed him back, the tears rolling down her cheeks like streams.

"What did I do wrong?" She pushed the walker back another time, the dead man stumbling back on its ass. Asher leapt up on its chest, bringing the arrow down into the rotted flesh of its skull with each word she spoke.

"What. Did. I. Do. Wrong?!" She crouched over the dead man as she sobbed into the air above his rotted body. "What did I do wrong?" Hands around her waist lifted Asher from the corpse, her hands still held tight around the arrow as it dripped with blood. Daryl turned her to face him, the man holding her close to his chest as he made soothing sounds and gently rocked back and forth.

"You're okay, I gotcha. Breathe for me, baby girl." She forced in a shuttering breath and sobbed into his shirt, her body wracking with the force of her cries. "That's it, let it all out sweetheart." Asher bawled for almost thirty minutes, bloody hands not once letting go of the arrow.

"Dixie?" He softly hummed in response to her voice. "Is there something wrong with me? Did I do something wrong?" He leaned back and brushed back her hair to catch her eyes. They were red and puffy from crying, and a few tears streamed down her cheeks.

"There ain't a damn thing wrong with you, baby girl. Not one goddamn thing."