Caught (Open)

THIS COULD BE THE DAY WE’VE WAITED FOR

Sunlight trickled through the trees, casting dappled patterns of light and shadows across the forest floor. A cool breeze wound its way through the trunks and branches, rustling the multi-coloured dying leaves. The driest of the foliage dislodged in the wind, sent scattering through the air and slowly drifting to the ground. The affect was beautiful; various shades of red, brown, and yellow tumbling about, almost dancing on their journey to the earth. Yet Vesper looked around at the awe inspiring autumn mosaic with a frown. Not only did the crisp fallen leaves crackle when stepped upon, making it hard for Vesper to travel the forest in silence, but it meant that winter would soon be upon the land. The sun kissed days of summer were over, and with them went the easy access of meat and crops. To Vesper, winter meant only two things: hunger and cold, both of with gnawed away at a person’s soul when inflicted on long enough.

Of course, the threat of both had lessoned now that she had joined Camp Mortalis. She wouldn’t have to worry about creating her camp each night and tearing it down each morning. Illness would also be less of a fear now, what with the camp’s medics. Even food didn’t seem like such a daunting prospect, as the camp did have storages. However, as much as she could rationalize her concerns aside, it felt… wrong to do so. It was not in her nature to depend on others and the idea of doing so in the harshest time weighed heavily on her. Perhaps she shouldn’t have joined the other humans. Perhaps she would have been better off on her own. What if she had… No, Vesper told herself, tossing the trail of thought aside like a sour apple. There is no point in ‘what if’s. They accomplished nothing.

Trust issues aside, Vesper still couldn’t ignore her seasonal urge to hunt and forage, gathering up her stores – the camp’s stores. And so she found herself out this day, amongst the falling leaves and chilly wind, setting snares. She hadn’t been scheduled for any duties, so she didn’t bother letting anyone know where she was going. She didn’t see any reason why she should. She hadn’t taken any of their supplies with her, bringing only her own bowie knife, which was firmly attached to her belt. And if she didn’t come back… well, it wasn’t as though she was going to give up their location. She may not always feel comfortable in Moratlis, but she would never betray the people who had helped her.

It didn’t take long for Vesper to start work on the snares. She located a cedar tree and with several quick slashes of her knife she cut and stripped away several lengths of pliable inner bark. She twisted and wore at the strips until they felt more like rope, then molded them into careful nooses. Once she had enough of these, Vesper slung the loops over her shoulder and set off on her self-imposed mission in search of the perfect “engines”—sapling that were springy enough to fly back up once triggered.

She found a few good sapling along her travel, affixing the snares carefully with quickly carved hooks and bases, the latter keeping the snare on the ground and the former fitting into it to connect the noose to the engine, as well as acting as a trigger once the snare became sprung. When she couldn’t find any more qualifying saplings within her range, she set several stake snares. She liked the saplings better, as it was harder for predators to steal from them, but they were at least less effort to place. Vesper even set a couple within trees. She told herself they were for good measure, but really she placed them on a whim. Her snares had never seemed to work well on birds. It’s why she depended on her bow when hunting fowl. But she figured there was no harm in trying.

It took her several hours and it was tedious work, but by the time she finished the last of her branch snares, set by Mirror Lake, Vesper felt a deep sense of satisfaction. With something close to a smile on her face, she set off again, circling around to the first of her traps to see if her efforts were fruitful. Most yielded nothing and she left them active with the intent to check them again either later or the next day. But a few had snagged success. One of the stakes had been raided by some predator, which she had anticipated, but another held an untouched hare, as did one of the sapling.

Pleased by her bounty, Vesper continued down her unmarked path with something akin to a spring in her step. She liked when her hard worked paid off. She was near to her last snare, the one by the lake, when she froze. Something was thrashing in the tree, alright, but it wasn’t any game. No bird was that big, not in that area at least. Vesper had bitten her lip and was contemplating what to do next when she heard it, a clear and loud “Fuck!”. Vesper’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. She inched closer, carefully placing each foot as to not make a sound, and peered at the form dangling from the branch.

To Vesper’s further surprise, she recognized the woman. Even swimming upside-down, one would never mistake Lilah Sabera, the Captain of the Mortalis warriors, for anyone else. Vesper hadn’t made a point to learn many of the camp member’s names, but Lilah’s was one of the few she did. She respected the warrior Captain greatly and, more specifically, respected the number of vamps she had killed. And, she realized as the other shoe finally dropped, her first interaction with the Captain was going to be while cutting her out of one of her snares. Vesper wondered at how she was supposed to feel about this. Horrified, she mused, or maybe embarrassed, but if truth be told, she only felt an odd sense of pride. This was perhaps one of the most dangerous people she had met, and here she was, caught in one of her traps. Was it wrong that she felt a little serge of pride? Deciding to stop musing on useless feelings and do something constructive, Vesper finally stepped into the open.

Not sure how she was supposed to address Lilah, especially in a situation such as this, Vesper cut to the chase. “Do you need assistance?” she asked, though she already knew the answer. She had noticed that the Captain’s knives were not on her person and out of her reach.