Jodie should have known that her secret forest trips wouldn't go unnoticed forever, especially by Daryl. Daryl, who was a hunter himself and used to roam the woods.

It was a coincidence that he had found Jodie because he was actually tracking a rabbit. But then he saw her standing between two trees, pointing her crossbow at something.

"No fucking way," he mumbled in disbelief.

How did she get out here? And what was she thinking? For a girl her age, it was far too dangerous to walk around alone. Actually, he wanted to confront her right away, but then he decided to watch her first. Her breath was calm and she seemed focused. Her finger was already on the trigger, and he could see clearly how her muscles were working to hold the weight of the crossbow. Then she pulled the trigger, the arrow rushed away from the tendon and flew into the forest. From his observation post, Daryl couldn't see what she was aiming at and exactly where the arrow had flown, but based on the girl's disappointed facial expression, he could see that this arrow had missed his mark.

She lowered the crossbow, and Daryl came out of his hiding place.

"Are you crazy? Are you trying to kill yourself? "He snapped at her when he came up to her.

Jodie looked at him as surprised, but also calmly as he trodded to her.

"What the hell are you doing here? "He was yelling at her, Jodie was holding up her crossbow, and it was clear that she was trying to tell him that she was practicing here.

"You're just putting yourself in danger. What if a walker attacks you or more than one? Nobody's gonna help you because nobody knows you're even here, don't you get it? "

Jodie bit her lip, then she suddenly looked past Daryl and her eyes went wide.

"How did you even get here? "

Jodie stopped paying attention to his question, she slightly bumped against him, pointed behind him, and Daryl turned around. Only about 15 meters away from the two stood a deer that grazed peacefully and seemed completely oblivious to the two people. Daryl also looked at the deer in surprise, and he couldn't pass up the prey; they needed every bit of meat for the others.

He raised his crossbow and aimed at the deer, which still did not seem to notice him. From the corner of the eye, Daryl sensed a movement and noticed that Jodie had stepped silently next to him and also had the crossbow in her hands ready to shoot. Yet she let him go ahead and watched both him and the deer. Daryl walked forward a few steps and put his finger on the trigger.

Just a few more steps...

Daryl pulled the trigger, the arrow hit his target, and the struck animal howled when the arrow pierced into his neck. The animal went off and Daryl followed him, Jodie always stayed close. Daryl knew that deer wouldn't get far with that injury. And in fact, after about 40 meters, they had caught up with the injured animal, and the deer laid on a glade was only weakly breathing. Daryl lowered the crossbow, no need for another shot. He saw Jodie take a few steps forward and watch the dying deer, watching her facial expression. Pity, regret and fascination were in her eyes, as if she were sorry for the deer. For a moment, Daryl looked at the deer as well, and he was sorry. He was sorry to have to kill a living thing that was so innocent just so his people had something to eat, it wasn't fair to kill for it. Daryl was surprised at the emotion Jodie produced, but at the same time, he was grateful. They made him more human and more understanding for others.

But suddenly, the almost peaceful moment was interrupted. A walker suddenly stumbled on the clearing and headed straight for the deer to enjoy his latest lunch. It only took Daryl a second to realize what that would mean, and the walker would destroy their prey.

"NO! "", he screamed and raised his crossbow to shoot down the walker who had already kneeled down and put his hands on the deer. He aimed at his head, and...

An arrow hit the walker just above the ear in the skull and it sank to the ground instantly lifeless.

Daryl looked at the walker with his finger on the trigger, but the arrow was still in the sinew. He saw Jodie just drop her crossbow and hesitantly came at the walker and rolled it away from the deer. She responded just in time, a second later, and the walker would have rendered the prey unusable. If he bit into the meat, it would have been contaminated immediately, and then they wouldn't have had any use for the deer. Jodie started searching the walker's pockets like she'd never done anything else until she pulled out a pack of cigarettes, waving and threw it at the still-tainted Daryl who caught it.

Daryl didn't know what to say. Again, he totally misjudged Jodie. A shot like this might have been a lucky shot, but she definitely hadn't shot the crossbow for the first time if she could respond so quickly.

He finally decided to congratulate her.

"That... that was good, kid," he finally said to her, and she looked at him, and there was a smile on her face, and she was happy with the praise.

"How long have you been shooting that thing? "he asked.

She thought and finally held up four fingers.

"Four months? ", he guessed and she nodded.

"That's good," he just said, another smile shook over her face.

"We should take him with us. Give me a hand with this" said Daryl and turned to the deer. Jodie grabbed the hind legs and Daryl the antlers, and so they slowly carried the deer back to prison.

When they finally reached the gate and arrived with their prey, Cole and Rick came to meet them.

"Jodie, where have you been? And where did you get that deer? "

Sheepishly Jodie looked from Cole to Rick and then to Daryl.

"I took her with me, showed her how to hunt, she's doing very good out there," Daryl said.

Jodie looked at Daryl, who didn't look at her, but had his eyes firmly on Rick and Cole.

Rick knitted his eyebrows, then looked at Jodie and nodded slowly.

"Did you both kill the deer? " he then asked.

"No, she did it all alone," said Daryl, and Rick looked at Jodie, just like Cole.

"Is that true? " he asked surprised. Jodie just shrugged her shoulders.

" Well, then... gut it out and we throw it in the soup for today and tomorrow," Rick finally said.

Daryl nodded in agreement and carried the deer with Jodie to the backyard, where there was a big table with some blood on it.

This was where Daryl used to take out his animals, and as soon as he'd put the animal on the table, he'd pick up his hunting knife and stab it. He cut the animal's abdominal cavity clean open and led the animal bleed out. He noticed Jodie's Glance. Sie observed what he was doing, memorized how he gutted the animal. Yet she seemed rather pale when she saw the deer's blood and guts swell out. She squeezed her hand in front of her mouth.

"If you gotta puke, go ahead, but not on the deer, if you mind," said Daryl, who noticed the pale look on the girl's face.

Jodie, however, just shook her head, reached up to her drinking bag and took a sip.

"Cole said you survived two months in the wild, if you were hunting, how did you gut an animal? "he asked.

Jodie seemed to avoid looking at him like she wanted to say "Don't ask."

"I see," nodded Daryl, a little amused.

Sheepishly Jodie looked at her feet. It seemed embarrassing to her.

When the deer had lost enough blood, Daryl began to skin him. In exercised movements, he separated the fur from the meat and also cut the antlers.

Jodie watched his every move, seemed to memorize everything. On the one hand, Daryl didn't like being watched like that, but somewhere, it also made him proud that Jodie wanted to learn from him. Even though she looked like she was gonna throw up any minute.

***********************

Jodie was relieved that she was spared from choking her lunch up again, even though there were moments when she wanted to. She tried to memorize exactly how it went with the gutting and the skinning.

When Daryl finally finished cleaning his bloody hands with a cloth, he looked at Jodie.

"How many times have you been out there? "he asked her.

She held up four fingers.

"Have you killed walkers out there? "

She nodded.

„And did you hunt anything? "

She shook her head no.

Daryl seemed to think for a moment before he finally looked at her with his eyebrows knitted and finally hummed: Fine."

Jodie looked at him confused.

"For all I care, you can come with me and I'll show you one or two things," he explained, and Jodie's eyes opened up in surprise.

"But... if I do this, you'll always stay with me, you'll listen to what I say, and... you won't fuck up, you understand? ", he asked seriously and his tone clearly didn't take no for an answer.

She nodded seriously, and he nodded, too, accepting her consent.

"Okay, that's it for today. Get lost," he growled halfway friendly and Jodie had to pull herself together, because otherwise she would wrap her arms around him and thanking him. Instead, all she did was beaming at him and then run.

After two weeks of absence, I'm finally getting back to you. Since I have to commute 1 1/2 hours a day to get to my internship I often don't get to write in the evening, but I hope that there is still interest in my Story and that I can give you a bit of comfort at this difficult time.
So leave a comment and stay healthy.
lots of love liz;)