Gong Xu was speechless upon hearing Senja"s reason. So, why she kept two horses with her if she didn"t even know how to ride it?"You are really an unexpected little girl." Gong Xu smiled helplessly as he walked forward, scooped her in his arms and put her on the horse while he took the rein. "Grab here." He showed Senja where she could hold on so she wouldn"t fall.
"Thank you." Senja said while trying to not lose her balance.
"What for?" Gong Xu asked as he jumped on his own horse, but kept the rein of Senja"s horse with him, so he would be able to guide both horses.
"For coming back and saved me." Senja then added. "Again."
"I hope there will be no other time." Gong Xu said offhandedly.
No one knew, their accident encounter would be last for long time.
***
Senja was shuddering when she saw Gong Xu skinned the snake from earlier and roasted it on bonfire that he had made, while she was holding a half- roasted bird for her dinner.
Gong Xu didn"t really heartless to let her starving as he caught a bird for Senja, because she extremely refused to share the snake, though it would be too much for Gong Xu to eat it all by himself.
"Where you will go?" Senja asked, she looked at Gong Xu expectantly, but there was no respond from his as he kept his eyes on his roasted snake.
Only then, Senja realized what was the problem. She then nudged him on his arm and mouthed her question. "Where you will go?"
However, Gong Xu only frowned and swatted her hand away and kept his focus on the bonfire again.
Senja pouted as she grabbed a dry branch near her and started to write something on the ground before she nudged his arm and pointed the question that she had written.
"You don"t need to know, little girl, just think about how you will survive. This world is dangerous place." Gong Xu said without looking at the question, he just wanted to arrive at the village immediately and be free from her, he didn"t really care about the rest.
Senja wrote something again, however before she finished Gong Xu had wiped it with his feet. "Stop asking question and start eating, we will leave immediately in the morning." He said sternly and started to blow his food and bit it down.
Yuck!
Senja averted her eyes from the well- roasted- snake and focused on her little bird. She bit it little by little as she couldn"t eat something very hot.
Beside her, Gong Xu glanced and quickly realized that the girl didn"t have a problem eating something raw like that with less flavor.
"Little girl, did they really treat you that bad?" Gong Xu asked after he gulped down a lump of meat.
Black Sword Clan was one of the famous and prosperous clan in this Country, so it was impossible for a daughter of the head leader of that clan, was used to eat something so poor like this. Thus, the only reason was because she had been treating unfairly.
"Hmm." Senja mumbled and nodded while blowing the bird meat that was still steaming hot.
Gong Xu then remembered how His sister and he also had been treated unfairly, brutally by their father. He could relate and knew how it felt.
"Why didn"t you let your grandfather know about that?" Gong Xu recalled this piece of information that Commander Dam loved his granddaughter.
Senja stopped blowing the meat and looked at the distance, she rested her chin on her knees as she contemplated. "What the use of that?" She mumbled.
Of course, Gong Xu couldn"t hear that. "What did you say?" He frowned.
"There is no use to tell my grandfather about it." Senja raised her head, grabbed the dry branch and wrote it instead.
"And the reason is?" Gong Xu frowned. She had someone to rely on, but why didn"t she use it to save herself?
The dry branch on Senja"s hand made messy circle, depicted her own thought as she looked reluctant to answer that.
"If you don"t want to tell then don"t." Gong Xu took the last bit of his roasted snake and felt very full.
But, then Senja started to write something.
"If I tell you one thing, you have to answer one of my questions." Senja stared at Gong Xu expectantly.
"Forget it." Gong Xu replied immediately as he threw away the stick that he had used to roast the snack. "Sleep now, we will leave early in the morning."
Senja frowned, why this person very annoying? Actually, she didn"t mind to tell him about what she had been through, there was nothing she needed to hide and maybe, just a little possibility, Gong Xu would take a pity on Senja and let her to follow him.
That would be a better option rather than tried to figure out how she would survive after the money that she has ran out.
However, it was quite obvious that Gong Xu didn"t take interest on her pitiful story.
Senja sighed deeply as she kept blowing the meat on her hand, she licked it a bit and after she was sure the meat had cold down, only then she took a bite and munched it happily.
On the other side, Gong Xu looked at her with incomprehensible gaze.
He felt like he was seeing himself in Senja when he was young and… when his sister was still with him, to protect him every time their father lashed out.
Now Gong Xu questioned himself about the decision that he made. Would he be so heartless to leave her alone to fend for herself?
She was only a little girl, how old was she? Nine? Ten?
"How old are you?" Gong Xu asked while leaning his body against a tree behind him, Senja"s height was shorter than his shoulder, she was really small.
"Eleven." Senja answered while swallowing down the meat. "How old are you?"