“I’m glad I’m not alone.” Jinny was still a little worried, though. If most people had a reaction to killing, and they weren’t most people, didn’t that mean they were both weird? Was she going to be lonely forever? She didn’t like the thought.

Then again, maybe being lonely meant that people couldn’t be taken away from her. Because there would be no people to take away. Thinking about that made her feel even worse.

To his question of whether to keep hunting, she shook her head. “I want to go back. I don’t want to hunt right now.” While she was trying to keep it under wraps, it would be obvious to an adult that something was amiss. She was still learning how to lie properly. 

Still, she turned around and started walking, carefully stepping and picking her way through brush and leaves. Occasionally she would ask questions about what she was seeing. Such as if the berries on a particular bush were good to eat, or if a particular set of tracks was a certain animal, or if he’d ever had to take a job that involved being in a forest.

Other than that, she was unusually quiet.

Once they made it back to camp, she sat down, eyes emptily probing the ground. Then she started to nibble at her nails, something she only ever did when she was bothered.