Shifted

18. Kalaya

It had been weeks since I last saw Josalena at her house. The first week was routine as normal. Only different in the fact that I had a new shadow.
"Go away little one," I all but hissed as the stone marble eyed girl peeped at me from behind my hut as I walked by.
She skipped behind me, no longer trying to hide the fact that she was stalking me around.
"What do what you want, you creep," I all but growled out but it was hard to ignore the twang of guilt from ignoring the little one. She had been sleeping outside my door for days and it was starting to make me feel bad.
"Don't you have a home? A family? Take me there, I want to see where you sleep," I finally told her at the end of the week.
She looked glum for the first time since I met her, she never even looked down when I told her to go away as if she choose to ignore my rudeness. "My da died a while ago. Mom died when she had me," she explained and I cursed myself for even asking.
See this is how is always goes. Everyone had a sob story here, a real gut twister or heart jerker.
"Did they leave behind a hut for you to live in?"
"It rotted, and then after the last storm, it all but fell apart. Nothin left of it."
I sighed as I continued walking and she continued following. It wasn't until that night that I asked her, "how old are you?"
"Something like ten."
"How do you not know?"
"I stopped counting once I ran out of fingers," she shrugged.
"And how long ago was that?"
She thought about it, placing her finger to her chin and squinting.
"You know what, I could be twelve." I laughed at that.
"I guess it doesn't matter anyway. I can bring you to a hut they keep parentless children there along with this old couple who run the school-"
"No," she stomped her foot. "It's too crowded there. Can't I stay with you?" She begged as we neared my home. I groaned.
"You're twelve right? That's old enough to raise yourself, I'll help you build a new place at the spot your home used to be. I'm sure I could round up some spare-"
She stomped her foot and hissed at me. I blinked at her stormy expression.
"No, I want to be like you, I want to stay close and learn your ways."
I cocked my head, "my ways?"
"On being brave, I watched you, you marched right into town and gave them a piece of your mind, and I want to be fearless like that. I want to beat those humans up and make them pay," she balled up her fist and it was cute that she was so angry but looked so adorable.
"Fine, you can stay with me for now, but I like my own space so be warned, I will be building a house as soon," she started to protest. "And then my neighbors can move into it and you can stay next door ok?" I'm sure the neighbors would prefer a newer place than theirs anyway. The more I built the better I got at it and I was confident I could even remodel my own home if I could get more wood and tools. Maybe I could get some from a sympathizer guard. There was always a few.

She beamed at me and dove in for a hug. I froze until she pulled away.
"I'm Snakegirl," she announced and I smiled down at her.
"Nice to meet you Snakegirl, you better not try to cuddle with me or anything weird, let's get one thing straight. I am not and will not replace your parents- hey wait," I followed her as she ignored me and rushed into my home. Rolling my eyes as she looked at me as she dragged one of my mats to the other end of the hut. "I'm not a child, I'm twelve, maybe ten, but whatever, I don't need to be coddled like a baby," she has attitude in her voice and it made me grin.
"Good," I walked over to my box and handed her what was left inside; even though I knew everyone here was supposed to fend for themselves and their own kids when it came go food. But I knew I did the right thing when she started wolfing it down as if she hasn't eaten in a while.
My stomach threatened to growl so I stood up.
"Now that you are settled; I'm going to grab a drink at the bar," I tossed her the extra blanket. I knew I shouldn't but I bent down to ruffle her hair. "Night kid, don't wait up."

"I'll guard your home with my life," she announced as I slide my door to the side.
"Don't bother; it's not even worth it," I joked before slipping out.

Another week rolled by, and then a warning came in. Their was going to be a raid. And the general was leading it, which meant there would be a big pile of items to burn. The guards didn't care about taking away petty items they saw as trash, at least not until the general would come around and then they had to make sure to do their job and have something to show for it to avoid trouble.
The bar would be a big bust that could cause trouble, so I started there and helped Matters hide alcohol, rolled cigars among other things underneath it's floor board.
"You going to keep an eye out tomorrow? Or should I?" He asked because if certain things were found we needed a head start in knowing if anyone needed to hide out. So we always made sure someone stayed on lookout, watched what the guards found and if worse comes to worse, even risking intercepting a guard from finding anything too bad. It would be worse to be caught not working, so they'd latch onto me and give up looking quickly which was the plan if it came to that.