Her list of friends is short, it dwindles. Cash was her friend in the beginning, when she was a rough little patch of granite but she doubts he’d even want to see her again. She couldn’t blame him, the last time they met she’d told him it was over between them and gone off with Quinn. Even though he’d given her his blessing, she knew it was because he didn’t want to feel bad about the choice she made. Not that she would have regardless. Aside from him, she supposes Samuel was her friend, he’d managed to make her feel okay when she wasn’t sure she wanted to live anymore. His ghost eyes, those she remembers most of all, and that he’d told her stories after she sucked the poison from his throat. Sometimes she missed him, when she thought about it, but only because they had no real attachment to one another.

Then of course there was Quinn. Who had been her friend when she was at her lowest point, a piece of filth washed up from the ocean. Reckless, hateful, and terrible. He found her when she wasn’t sure of herself anymore and he’d stuck by her even when she did terrible things. His understanding made her draw closer, how he could look at her with admiration when she was covered in blood and guts and laughing like a lunatic. He understood parts of her no one else ever had and it would be nice to go back there, to that point. Where they could just be together without having to think too hard about it, talk about things, understand the pieces no one else could. It was a comfort to her, one she kept tucked deep inside her.

She holds out her pinky to him and accepts it, links his around hers. He’s looking at her like she’s done something right and she can’t help grinning right back. He echoes her statement, which draws another chuckle from her, hearing it repeated back to her like that. Maybe this could really work between them, she’s hopefully for the first time in a long time. It was nice to see him smile and laugh again, that being near her didn’t make him think or feel things he didn’t want. Echidna tugs his pinky towards her and with a feline like wiggle, pounces to bite at their fingers – there’s a tiny growl that goes along with it. She’s more like a kitten than a vicious cat.

Sorry. Got excited, she says with a chuckle and lets his pinky go. She sits back with a smile on her face, her cheeks flushed and her hair disheveled. Echidna looks around her at the forest and the growing darkness, the sound of night animals softly coming from deep within the trees. Close by she can sense the mare picking grass, the soft jingle of her bridle.

Echidna looks back at him, tucks her hair behind her ears. It’s getting late, she says and looks around for her clothes. Her tattered trousers are close enough she can grab them into her hands but her tunic is somewhere she can’t see it. Her boots, too. Maybe we could go hunting again soon if you want? I like hunting with you, Echidna nods because this is the truth and it’s the first step in this new complete honesty thing she’s going to try out.