It has been five days since Faye and Nathan sought shelter with the tribe and she was beginning to feel uncomfortable doing nothing. Sure, she had learned how to make the medicines to treat him but he was already well and with that went away the only thing she could do apart from ignoring Nathan. Which is pretty much doing nothing.

And doing nothing had always been her worst nightmare. For it to actually be happening felt like the most torturous thing in the world. Her mind felt like it was constantly on the brink of breaking point without actually getting there. It was even worse than actually turning insane. At least insanity would not let her mind become numb to the strange pain of boredom.

If that wasn't worse, everything had reversed since he recovered.

This time, Nathan was the one skittering around her. He never got within arm's reach of her and every time they did, he jumped far away from her as if she had leprosy. He never spoke a word to her not even when she was in the way. He only waited for her to move on her own before he passed.

She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but she didn't want to come off as chasing after him. At the same time, she wanted to know if she had done something awful, because in truth, the only one who had been awful was him. Nevertheless, the fact that he avoided her rankled her as much as being bored did.

She knew she had to do something before she completely lost her mind. Finally, she decided on talking to Chinook about it.

He smiled. "That is what is wrong with you city people. You do not know how to relax. You can learn to meditate."

She shook her head. "You don't understand. Relaxing for me means doing something. Doing nothing is stress for me. It's just the way I am."

He nodded. "I don't understand but I will give you work if you like."

"Oh, good," She said. "What's the work?"

"Kill and remove the insides of the hogs so the village can eat them. I will teach you," he said casually.

She opened her mouth to protest but shut it. Gutting a hog would be the most disgusting thing she would ever do. During her childhood, the worst thing she did was run over a stray cat in the middle of the night. She had never intentionally killed any living thing before.

"I see you are not comfortable with it. I will ask Nathan to help you. He does not look right either. Do you know why?"

"No," she admitted.

"Ah. Maybe he does need to work like you, yes?"

"I'm not sure, but I don't think we'd be able to work together."

He shook his head. "Oh, that is not good. The spirits will not be happy and you will stay here longer. You have to work together. Be at peace."

"You talk to him, then," she agreed reluctantly. She knew she couldn't handle killing and gutting a hog alone even if Chinook was going to teach her.

She shuddered at the thought of her task. She had no idea what it was like. In her head, blood ran in torrents and guts spilled out with one slash. The image sent her skin crawling. She had to admit that her source was not exactly credible. Hollywood movies were not known for their accuracy, but even so the images they churn out stuck to her mind. But then again, it was raining. She though that perhaps the rain and the semi-dimness of the overhead clouds would mask the blood spilling out.

But even as she stood beside him by the fenced area, holding the hog with the blade to its neck, she could still see the blood stand out in the darkness. She shuddered, and it was not just because the rain made their environment cold to work in. Real blood made her squeamish, she realized, and struggling animals made her heart go out to them. But though squeamish and in the middle of pitying the animal, she was not going to give up eating meat.

Across her, Nathan watched without giving away what he was feeling about the whole process. She was sure he had never killed an animal before - well, there was that time in biology when they dissected a frog, but the frog had already died from suffocation in the plastic even before they began cutting it up - so, she had no idea what he was feeling about the whole thing.

One thing was sure though, he didn't seem to be paying attention one hundred percent. There were times when he would just stare at the hog being gutted then he would suddenly furrow his brows, shake his head and resume on staring at the process with eyes intent on learning. Whatever occupied his mind, it was not about the hog.

"You got all of that?" Chinook asked after he demonstrated the whole process.

"One question," she said. "How many are we supposed to...prepare?"

"Four more hogs," Chinook answered. "That will be enough to feel the whole village. There are also many vegetables and fish so we do not need many hogs."

"When are they needed?" Nathan asked.

"Before the sun sets. You will see the sky get dark very much, but not as dark as night. That is the time they need to be cooked." He looked from her to to Nathan then smiled. "I have to go. I am needed by Chief."

She watched him go and felt the tense air settle around her and Nathan. Almost mechanically, he took the large knife and started walking off.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

"To catch and gut a hog. What else?" he answered without turning to her.

"So you're leaving me here? Just like that?"

"You do two and I do two." His shoulders shrugged as if it were the most obvious thing to do. "Easy, yes?"

"Easy? Easy!" she sputtered. "About the only thing I can do is catch these things and I'm not even sure if I won't die trying. Did you see those teeth protruding from their mouths? I'll be lucky if I got away with just scratches." She growled inwardly as he laughed. "What's so funny?"

Finally, he turned to her, trying to hold back the laughter bubbling up inside him. "So there is something supergirl can't do."

She rolled her eyes. "Ask her to speak in Finnish. I don't think she'd be able to." She shook her head. "That's not the point. How the heck are we going to do what Chinook just did?"

"You can just watch then."

She glared at him. "Watch? I was the one who wanted to do something and you're going to tell me to 'just watch'? What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing," he answered, laughter finally subsiding. "Can you do it though?"

"I can try," she muttered, seeing some of the children in the village gather around them as if they were seeing a circus performance for the first time.

He tied the blade to his side and sighed. "Alright. Let's do it."

She struggled to keep up with him and soon found herself slick with mud all over. Catching the hog in the first place took so much speed and strength that by the time they were able to pin down one to kill it, they were both panting.

He did exactly as Chinook showed them and she could only close her eyes, not wanting to relive the morbidity of it all. She could feel the animal struggling and hear it squealing pitifully, and part of her wanted to let it go, but she remained steady until it no longer moved.

"You're right. This is more difficult than it looks."

She opened her eyes to see him splattered with blood. Compared to Chinook, he was a messy killer. Either that or she wasn't holding down the animal right.

"You...killed it."

He peered at her. "Is there anything else that I should be doing?"

"N-no..." She looked down at the hog and opted to look back up at him instead. "I mean, you don't seem bothered at all that you killed it."

"I'm used to it." He shrugged and stood up. "You can put this with the other hog and I'll start with the other one."

She blinked at her. "Used to it?"

Nathan paused looking at her in the eye. "I'm now into hunting game. It's a fulfilling sport in its own way."

She said nothing and let him go do his part as she dragged the hog to its place, all the while thinking about what he said. He wasn't into hunting. She was sure of that. He had always been a good liar, but this time, he had outdone himself. She knew that his lie could have easily deceived others but her instinct had raised alarm bells inside her head like they always did when they were children.

What bothered her was that she felt that he lied about killing. The most sensible answer was that he worked in meat shops or anything that had to do with butchering, but her insides told her that that was not it. Her lips pursed as she thought about the worst case scenario: what if he had murderous tendencies? What if he was one of the many killers the government has yet to find? It wasn't exactly a farfetched idea especially when he was acting as strange as he recently was.

The point of the matter was, despite the sameness of the way they had treated each other before he avoided her, he was no longer the small-town Nathan she knew.

Oh sweet baby Jesus! What if he was only restraining himself from killing her?

Okay, so it's been a long since I updated and I haven't been able to reply to your comments due to my hectic schedule and I'm really sorry for that. I am not able to take out time in between my studies as the pressure has increased drastically.

But I was able to update this book. I hope you liked this chapter. Please let me know your thoughts about it. I would love to hear them.

I am so glad to announce that this book is being featured by the ChickLit community. Thank you so much! ❤

Don't forget to vote and comment for this chapter if you liked it. xx