Free The Order of Events: The Red Wolf by C.J. Haines Page A

fruit from a passing tree, and tossed it up and down in his hand, gesturing with his other hand, pointing from the apple to Samana, atop the wall.
              Henk smiled, and grabbed her friend’s arm. “Good idea, Amen, she must be starving. I’m not sure if she’s bothered to eat either.”
              The two ran up the wooden stretches of steps and bridges, running from wall to wall, until reaching their destination at the outermost one.
              Standing at the top of the wooden wall stairs, Henk and Amen approached the watchful girl, slowly and quietly, as not to startle her. Henk approached the saddened girl, watching as her green eyes were filled with sadness at the prospect of not seeing her sister again.
              Henk reached her hand back for the apple, keeping her eyes fixed on Samana, and spoke in a very calm and soothing manner. “Samana, me and Amen…we got you this. You should eat it. It’s an apple. I know you’re sitting here waiting for them to come back, but they’re not going to be here any sooner by you standing there, wearing yourself out. I know Hoosun sure wouldn’t want that, and I bet your sister wouldn’t either. Come on now, eat up.” Henk reached out with the apple with an offering hand, but it was not accepted.
              Samana paid no attention to the apple, and blinked tears out from her eyes. Her voice was sad and distraught. “I keep hoping I’m going to see them on the horizon…but I still haven’t…the last night I talked to Daimana I told her this is what father wanted us to do, that this was what he wanted for us…it seemed as though she believed me, and then we went back to sleep. I felt something was wrong when I woke up without her next to me…I thought maybe she just went to explore the grounds, but then I saw Hoosun flying outside the window. It seemed as though he too was searching for her. I ran down the tower, and Hoosun came to me, and said she was gone, that she had taken the horse and left…maybe I should’ve gone with her…at least we’d be together…”
              Henk felt the pain that breathed from the girl’s heart. She too had lost someone, long ago. Henk put a caring hand on Samana’s shoulder, giving out some tears of her own as she began speaking, timidly. “I know what you mean…I’ve lost loved ones, too. My mother and father died in a storm, five years ago. I was only four years old. We lived out on an open plain, when the storm tore through our house, shredding it like a ravenous beast would flesh. My aunt, Cinda, had gone foraging for food only a few hours earlier, and upon coming back to the house, found me in the wreckage. She was a mute. She brought me here, and we lived here happily, but she wasn’t very healthy, and got sick, and died after we had only been here for two years. Since then, I’ve lived here without her. I’ve been made an outcast among the people here, because I guess you could say I have a rare skill. At times I can pick thoughts from peoples’ minds by touch. It happens only randomly though.  People think I’m a freak because of it. The Mother says that it is not a freakish attribute, but a gift from Fate. I know the pain that you’re going through, Samana, losing loved ones is always hard. I’ve had to try desperately to cope, and I had only but Hoosun and the Mother to help me through it. I just want you to know that no matter how hard it is for you, you’ll have more than them. You’ll have me, and Amen, too. We’ll stand by you, Samana.” The brown-haired girl smiled, and wiped tears from her cheek.
              Samana drooped her head, and pulled her hood back, letting loose the first smile she had shown for days, as she grasped Henk’s hand. “Thank you, Henk…it is so hard to lose those close to you…I hope I have not lost her. But if I have…if she is gone, then perhaps