Freak

2.

2.

One was almost completely brown except for a thin strip of brilliant blue that sliced through it, the other was so blue that it seemed to glow in the moonlight only to be broken with a few brown spots. Never, through all of his years on this earth, had Arthur seen anything like them.

She only let him hold her gaze for a second before she stared into the ground. Arthur found himself stunned for a while, not able to get her eyes out of his mind. It was only a quiet sniffle from the girl that brought him back to reality.

Clearing his throat he tried to catch her eyes again but she seemed determined to not let him "So kid what do you say? Are you gonna give me your name? Let us get you home?" she seemed to be thinking hard, her brow set in a frown.

"B-Blue" it wasn't much more than a whisper

"Your name is Blue? Like the color Blue?" the little girl nodded at his question, it was an odd name but he guessed it fit her well enough.

"Well then Blue let's go down to my friends and we'll make sure you get home in one piece" standing up he offered her his hand and felt her very carefully slipping her tiny one into his. She walked slowly, limping slightly as she tried to keep up with him. He felt bad and slowed down but the pain was still obvious in her face.

"If I pick you up and carry you down to the others will you start fighting me?" immediately the girl tensed up "I can see that your feet and your knees hurt kid, it's just so that it doesn't get any worse, okay?" Blue didn't give him an OK but she didn't say no either so he gently picked her up placing her on his hip. It almost startled him how little she weighed but what surprised him the most was the fact that she actually wrapped her thin arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck, letting him comfortably carry her out of the woods and down the slope to his awaiting friends.

***

Dutch smiled as Arthur came to stand beside him "so who is this lovely little lady then?" he asked. When no answer came from the girl Arthur answered in her place "This is Blue, I promised we're gonna get her home."

"Why of course we are! But firs introductions, my name is Dutch and the funny man with the red hair is Sean and the grumpy guy is Bill" he motioned to the men around him but Blue didn't even lift her head from Arthurs shoulder to look at them.

"I understand that your very scared right now love but you're going to have to talk to us so we can figure out how to get you home" she gave a muffled okay, it wasn't much but Dutch took it as a good sign.

"Do you have any idea where you are right now" she shook her head "Do you live in the woods?" she shook her head "Do you live in or close to any town?" she nodded "Strawberry?" she shook her head "Valentine?" she nodded. "Valentine is a long way off girly, how on earth did you end up all the way out here?"

"I ju-just walked" She said, straightening up a little bit in Arthurs arms, wiping away some tears and thus giving the rest of the men a good look at her blood covered face for the first time.

"Jesus Christ kid what happened to you?!" Sean burst out, scaring the child back into Arthur. Dutch sent him a stern glare "Sean your idiot you're scaring the girl!" the red head offered a weak 'sorry' as he diverted his eyes form his leader.

"You'll have to forgive Sean he's a little lout sometimes, now let's try this again. You live near Valentine?" the girl glanced at him for a second giving him a glimpse of her eyes, "I-I live a little bit outside, o-on the other side of the river" her voice trembled and Dutch thought she would burst out crying at any moment.

"It would take us maybe two hours to get there, I know we said we would take you but do you think maybe we could take you to our camp? It's only 30 minutes away, you get some food an somewhere warm to sleep and we'll take you home first thing in the morning." She seemed hesitant but judging by how tired and wounded she looked Dutch honestly didn't know if she could handle riding through the night.