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Fuck it. It’s time. I need to be close to her, to claim her.
Unable to hold myself back any longer, I quietly jump down from the tree. She’s still standing there, enjoying the sun on her face, the breeze ruffling her cascading hair again. I need that hair in my fists.
I take one step towards her, creeping up from behind. She obviously doesn’t sense me as I take another step, and then another. I’m beginning to smell her sweet scent, and it’s so delicious that it almost takes me out, but I force myself to focus.
I’m so close, and I think about how I want to introduce myself. Maybe I grab the back of the necklace and choke her with it, holding her against my chest while she claws at me. Or maybe I spin her around so that I can look into her eyes before I devour her. Maybe I grab that long hair and yank her back towards me.
Just as I’m about to reach out to touch that hair, something stops me. Something makes me quietly retreat until I’m back in my tree, watching her again.
For some reason, I feel that today is not the day. She isn’t ready. Not only that, butI’mnot ready. I need to toy with her a bit longer before giving her what I know she so badly wants. What she needs.
Finally, Brielle opens her eyes and lowers her head. Before walking back in the direction her karasu flew, she turns around, her eyes swinging towards my tree. She pauses on it, eyes traveling up the bark.
Does she somehow know I’m here? How is that possible? I become angry thinking that she might possibly see me before I choose to reveal myself. Our meeting should be onmyterms. But about halfway up the trunk, she stops and turns around, sighing as she walks away. Maybe she was just looking to see if another gift was pinned to it.
I sigh in relief that she didn’t spot me, and the anger subsides.
Soon. I will expose myself to her soon, and then the fun will really begin.
9
BRIELLE
Every time I walk through the forest, I try to persuade myself that I’m not here for another gift. There might be something. There might not be. I’m just going out into the forest like I always do. I would be doing this even if no one had ever left me anything.
Skye perches happily on my shoulder, and every once and a while, she sings her little song out into the woods. Occasionally, there’s an answer to it, but she never seems particularly interested in them. I often wonder what it is that they’re saying anyway.
“Is anyone home today?” I wonder out loud as I creep to a halt and hide behind one of the trees. In front of me is the iypin den that I noticed for the first time a few days ago. Every time I go past it, I make sure to pause, just in case one of the little iypinnits or their mother decides to poke their head out.
Some people think that iypins are a sign of magic, but I just think they’re beautiful. I’ve heard that no two of them have the same coat, and I believe it.
Nothing today. It’s possible that they’re not using this den right now. Iypins do sometimes build multiple dens and rotate between them. It’s part of what makes them so famously difficult to hunt. Not that I would ever hunt one, but I would love it if one came out. They’re skittish creatures, and it’s quite a gift to get to see one.
I wonder if the man leaving me gifts sees me the same way I see the iypinnits. Maybe he feels the same kind of hope for me when he leaves a gift that I feel standing here, waiting for one of them to poke their little nose out. Maybe he loves me the same way I love the animals of the forest. I’m the beautiful but strange thing that he wants to understand completely.
Suddenly, in the hole, I see two ice-blue eyes. I can’t make out the fur at all, but I know this is a baby. It looks around for a few seconds, notices me, and then steps back into the den.
A short, incomplete sighting, but I’m happy with it. I got to see its eyes, and it saw me. I became a part of its world.
That’s a difference between me and the man in the woods. I don’t want anything from the iypinnits except to see them. He does want something from me. I don’t know what it is yet, but there’s a reason that he leaves me things rather than just watching me. There’s something that he is hoping I will give him.
And I have no idea what it is. Obviously, I’ve been told about love and the sort of things that men want. But what does this man want? Why does he think I might be the one to give it to him? I have no answers to those questions, but I find them intoxicating to think about.
Riya would never understand that. Or then again, maybe she would. Maybe that’s why she’s so worried about me. She understands the whole thing perfectly.
There’s a loud sound in the forest, a sort of high-pitched whine that clearly comes from something big. Skye is cut short in the middle of her song by it.
“What was that?” I ask her. She just stares as if saying she could ask me the same question. Truthfully, I have no answer. I’m not sure what it is. Maybe a batlaz, or even a lost worg. Fortunately, it sounds far enough away that I don’t think I have to worry about it.
Still, it’s a good reminder that there are dangerous things in the forest. There are predators and hunters among the trees as well as the smaller, more gentle creatures. I decide to hurry things up a bit. I don’t want to be in the forest when night falls.
It isn’t just animals that can be the predators, a voice in my head reminds me.
And that’s true. It’s another thing to think about. Except, strangely, that kind of thought doesn’t frighten me the way it frightens Riya. Instead, it gives me a thrill. The kind of thrill people get from playing cards or rolling the bones.
He might be a predator,I think.Or again, he might not be.
I start walking straight to the clearing where the previous gifts have appeared.
