With this exclamation, the other two, a girl of eleven and a boy of ten, turned to face me. The older girl quickly joined her sister behind the wall, brushing aside her long, brown bangs with her hand and shielded her eyes against the sun. “Aye! I sees it! Prepare the crossbow, Silas!” The boy, however, did not jump down from his perch on the wall, and instead looked across the field at me with a modest smile.
“Hey! Quit dawdling and get behind the fort! Before it notices us!” commanded the older girl. Her younger sister imitated the motions of spinning a crank.
“Nevermind him; I’ll handle the bow! Quick, load in the spear!”
Silas turned back to the girls and spoke calmly. “You hooligans, you’re on the wrong side of the wall. Furthermore, Miss Allen is an ally, not an enemy!”
I chuckled as I approached the children. “If you two yell like that, you’d scare off any beast before you could get a shot at it.”
“Drats!” said the eldest. “It reached the gate.”
“Aw, Silas!” cried the little girl. “Can’t we play a game? Nothing ever comes out from the forest.”
“I exit the forest in the morning,” I pointed out.
“We have school in the morning, however,” the older girl griped.
“Indeed, and you mustn’t skip it either—just to see me emerge from the forest.”
“Can we go with you?” the little girl exclaimed.
“I do not think your parents would be pleased if you do,” I explained with a smile. “Perhaps when you are older.”
“Ahhh, but that’ll be forever!” she whined.
The boy swung his legs around to our side of the wall, his dark hair sweeping across his eyes. “Say, Adeline was curious why you live in the forest.”
I looked at the elder girl as a blush bloomed across her slender face. “I—I was just curious! That’s all!” she stammered, avoiding my glance and hounding Silas instead. “You didn’t have to say it in such a nosy manner!”
“Adeline’s blushing!” taunted her younger sister.
“You too, Hazel!” the eldest scolded. “It’s not proper to agitate your sister!”
“If I may,” said Silas. “I am curious as well.”
With a chuckle, I indulged them. “My father’s cottage is in the woods. He built it as a peaceful place to raise his family.”
“You have a sister too?” Hazel inquired.
“No.” I shook my head. “I am a single child.”
“How come?”
“That’s not something you should ask,” Silas quickly nagged.
“Why not?” she protested. “You’re not my brother. You can’t tell me what to do!”
“That doesn’t change the manner of the question!”
“I don’t care! Don’t tell me what to do!”
“Now, now,” Adeline broke in. “Be nice, Hazel!”
“What?! That’s not fair!” her sister briskly resisted. “You’re always defending him.” Nevertheless, she did not continue and pouted instead.
I laughed. “Perhaps another day. It is getting dark, so you three should head home now.”
This prospect was enough to satisfy the young girl. “I look forward to it!”
Silas glanced at Adeline. “Well, as she says then.” And he hopped off the wall.
Adeline nimbly got down and helped her sister climb back to their side of the wall, lifting her by her armpits.
The children coalesced and began to walk back home. Silas turned around for one last wave. “‘Til morrow, Miss Allen.”
I waved back and bid them goodnight before turning to cross the threshold.