Freak

9.

The ride back to camp was loads of fun since Arthur once again let Blue take the reins, he even let her go a little faster than before.

To Blue's disappointment, however, she didn't see the white bunny on the way back but Arthur reassured her that it probably went back to its hole to take care of its babies or something, and Blue decided to believe him, if only because the other options scared her a little.

Dropping off of Arthur's horse on her own she quickly made her way towards where Hosea was sat, feet propped up on a table, balancing dangerously on the back legs of his chair, book in hand.

"Hosea! Hosea!" she was slipping and sliding over the still muddy ground as she ran "Look what Arthur got me!" the old man directed his attention towards her at the sound of her voice, and let the front legs of the chair fall back to the ground just in time for her to reach him. Blue proudly presented him with the bookmark, telling him how she'd gotten it.

Hosea agreed that it really was a nice bookmark and told Blue to go get her book to see how they looked together. She did as he asked, with much excitement, and soon returned to find Dutch and Micha had joined the older man around the table, talking to each other. Now, she had no problem with Dutch being there but the fact that Micha was there dampened her excitement somewhat.

She slowed her steps when approaching them, avoiding eye contact with the blond male, and handed her Robin Hood book over to Hosea, who gently placed the piece of paper between the pages and handed it back to her.

"Now don't that look fancy?" came Micha's voice from the other side of the table "let me see!" he demanded, holding his hand out. Blue didn't want to give it to him, thinking he would ruin it. Holding the book closer to her chest she tried to come up with an excuse to not give it to him.

"Come on kid I just wanna have a look:" he had that fake;ish sweet tone that he always adapted when talking to her while Dutch was within earshot. Casting an eye towards said leader she could see that he was expecting her to do what was asked of her.

Ever so reluctantly she handed Micha her beloved book and bookmark. He turned it over in his hand, opening it to look at the black puppy on the paper "fancy indeed..." he muttered before handing it back to her. Blue was surprised he hadn't done anything to it but soon realized it was probably because Dutch was there. Once again she held the book close to her chest, turning to leave the men to their conversation, only to be stopped by Arthur who approached them.

Arthur put his big hands on her shoulder, like he always did, and guided her back to the other men.

"You show Hosea what you got?" he asked, settling down on an old box, making sure there was room for her as well.

"She sure did, might nice of you to get it for her" Hosea said with a wink.

"Ah she deserved it," Arthur said "you tell him what you did?" he continued. Blue's wasn't entirely sure if he was referring to steering the horse, finding the white bunny or helping Arthur getting supplies, so she just looked at him with a questioning face.

He chuckled at her and made a small gesture with his hands, like he was holding the reins to a horse. She smiled brightly, the previous excitement trickling back at the thought of telling Dutch and Hosea that she'd been steering on her own.

"Arthur let me ride almost all the way to Valentine and then aaaallll the way back! I got to hold the reins myself AND we went really fast once!" she bounced where she sat, loving the smiles that spread over Hosea's and especially Dutch's face.

"Well I'll be damned!" Dutch exclaimed, in his excitement he stood up and slapped Micha's shoulder, "You hear that?!" his voice was loud as he directed his attention to the rest of the cam, making people look up from whatever they were doing. There was a few 'what?s' and 'huh?'s as a response but Dutch didn't bother to give an explanation, only declaring that they would have a little celebration that night.