Running from our future

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3rd POV

Fire could be heard cracking under the cauldron, it was the only sound in the dark night, aside from the light chatter of people around the fire. 

"It's so quiet tonight, what happened to all the noises we were hearing the other day?"

Mae spoke, drawing everyone's attention away from their meals.

"It's migration season and also therefore hibernation season, everyone is either getting the heck outta here or deep in a hole sleeping"

Chris said simply chomping on a piece of meat from his stew. 

"You'll have to hear what it's like in the Crystal season, when there's no wind, you can hear a stick break from miles away"

A hum resonated through the group as they all acknowledged the suggestion. 

The distant clomp of hooves faded into the crater around the crackle of fire and the chatter of voices. 

"Amelia's back"

Scott said, turning around and leaning up on his knees to peek over the edge of the fire pit.

Off in the distance you could hear the clop of giant hooves as Amelia rode Dantae, followed closely by Laurence, through the tunnel near the nerix stables. 

It was pretty convenient as it cut through the side of the crater where the base was and took you to the outskirts of the village nearby. 

Shortly after the hoofsteps abruptly cut off as she left the tunnel, the long passage no longer able to act as a megaphone. 

As the Nerix sauntered closer it became evident Amelia hadn't returned alone.

Laurence carried two boys in their late teens, maybe early twenties, one had fluffy brown hair, and the other's hair was long and surprisingly platinum blonde. It's a mystery as to how he got his hair that color, but the rescues were more surprised at the fact that Amelia had just casually brought people into the crater. 

Granted she had told them about the village hours earlier as they sat by the lake weaving nets; but nobody really processed what she had said. Even when she announced she was off to the village the rescues only half listened.

"Hey guys"

The brunette called as he jumped off Laurence. The blonde not far behind him. The two were clad in sweatpants and sweatshirts, just like everyone else the rescues had seen. Though if you looked closely you could see they each had a knife holstered somewhere on their body and the blond clearly had some other things, maybe some type of armor under his sweatshirt. That was more obvious due to the bow and arrows that were strapped across his shoulder which pulled the sweatshirt tight. 

"Alrighty, before we get the remaining stew packed up I'm going to introduce everyone"

Amelia hopped off Dantae and clapped her hands grabbing anyone's attention that she didn't have before and first gestured to the brunette. 

"This is Jeonginhe is a precious baby and if you hurt him I break your face"

"I second that"

Chris called from the opposite side of the circle.

Leaning over to Tiah and cupping her hand next to her head Ava whispered. 

"They act like his parents"

"Moving on, This-"

Amelia pulled Felixabruptly by the hand causing the arrows in his holster to rattle as he stumbled, trying not to trample the much smaller girl who was seemingly determined to knock him over. 

"This is Felix, I would make the same threat but honestly good luck. These two will be joining us hunting next week and will be around from time to time as we prepare for that"

The rescues had zero clue what hunting she was talking about but nodded along anyway, still silently eating their stew.

"Now you two, from right to left. The human tower is Sebastian, the tall lanky one is Taylor, Tiah and Mae stick to each other like glue, and Kailey is the overextended one who has a fear of heights"

"Scared of heights?"

Felix mumbled quietly, eyebrows pinched in concern speaking low as he looked in Kailey's direction. 

"Yeah we're working on it but she's a natural with throwing knives so she's making up for it"

Ava called from the far side of the fireplace. 

Felix nodded in approval, seeming less concerned now. 

 "Can I ask a question?"

Taylor piped up, raising her hand a bit.

"Go right ahead"

Finally having spoken out loud to the group for the first time the rescues were momentarily taken aback by the deep voice the sweet face produced. 

"Uh-you're not much older than us and none of us are older than 24, does that mean you were born outside of the districts? Oh also you and Chan have the same accent what's up with that"

"Yeah we have no idea how we both ended up all the way over here and have this accent that one's a bit of a mystery"

Felix chuckled, then Jeonginbutted in.

"To answer the first half of the question, yes we were born outside of the districts. Our great - i'm honestly not sure how many greats - grandparents escaped. Both of us actually have never had anyone in our family be in a district for any amount of time. Although some people have history of people in the districts."

Amelia and the rest of the crater dwellers nodded along agreeing with jeongins explanation. 

"We are the only recent escapes - other than yourselves - the last ones before us were probably, I'm not sure, maybe two hundred years ago."

Chris leaned forward propping his elbows on his knees and sitting his head on his propped hands. 

"That assumption also isn't taking into account that we are only in canada. We don't know if there are any more villages. Maybe further into the forest or even out in the desert somewhere."

Ava pointed at Chris wringing her bottom lip through her teeth. 

"Fair point, fair point."

"Not the point, these guys are around here quite a bit so don't be surprised if you see them. They've been helping the village prepare for the hunt, they normally help us but because it's been colder than normal this year they had to help them because everyone is scrambling around this year."

Amelia continued to ramble on as she made her way down the steps into the fire pit. Dragging Felix- closely followed by Jeongin- behind her. As if by they could read her mind the two boys plunked down, Jeongin in betwee Kellen and tiah and Felix next to chris. 

"Now they are going to hut with us as normal, but this year we have you all this year who need to learn how to hunt"

As she spoke she filled three bowls with stew giving one to Jeonginand walking over to sit next to Felix she passed him one and kept the third for herself.

"We are going to split into two groups of three and two groups of two, those will be determined by the progress you show over the next week. Those of you who need guidance on tracking will go with jeongin, aim with scott, just throwing period myself and felix."

She punctuated that with a very pointed look at Sebastian who sagged a bit in his seat.

"And then Kellen and ava will take whoever we think can be thrown to the wolves and survive"

The rescues notably stiffened at that glancing around the fire pit at each other. With A roll of her eyes Amelia reassured them that in fact no that was not literal. 

Who could blame them though, Amelia did seem like the person to throw them to the wolves and not in a metaphorical sense.