All Thanks to Theodore

Silence: the absence of sound.It's supposed the be peaceful, tranquil, calming. It's supposed to ease the mind and body into a secure relaxation, free of worries and strife.But I am a firm believer in context.And as I stared out across the fields of brown, I longed only for any sound of life. The chirp of a cricket, the buzz of a bumblebee or the whisper of swaying grass in a gentle breeze.But there was only silence. And it certainly did not bring me any peace.I tilted my head back, taking a deep breath and giving myself just a second to close my eyes and escape. But my lungs soon filled with the dust and fragments of dried up debris that hung in a thick haze in the air, flaked up off the ground by even the slightest of winds.

The next morning, Tobias wrote back to Alpha Rivers, enquiring further into his offer. It was only a day before we received his response, ordering us to meet him at the waterfall, where the river flowed that separated our territory from his."Why does he want to meet us?" Rose asked as she stood at the stove, pouring the hot water from the kettle into the teapot, which held a dismal number of leaves for three people, "Can he not send us the grain and be done with it?""Apparently not..." Tobias replied from the kitchen table, "He wants to meet us, me specifically, to decide if he will help us."I rolled my eyes, "What a power freak," I muttered. "He wants to look down on us, desperate and hungry, knowing that the power to control our fate is in his hands. What a bloody-""Esme," Tobias inte

Later that evening, I sat stretched out on the sofa with my legs up on the armrest staring at the ceiling. Tobias was on the opposite side of the room in his armchair reading a book whilst Rose sat with a head rested on his shoulder as she tried to pick the dried flour from under her nails.We'd spent all afternoon and evening delivering rations of grain to villages and families only to come home and make the first fresh bread we'd had in weeks which, whilst in actual fact was probably just fairly ordinary bread, tasted like heaven. The smell still lingered in the air in all its yeasty glory which made a welcome change from the stale smell of wilting cabbages and bread baked months ago that we had become accustomed to.But as I enjoyed the feeling of a full stomach at last, my mind couldn’t help but dwell on the new doom we could now face.

Six weeks after the arrival of the first grain and the Nightingale pack had been restored to what it once was. With food in their bellies and a steady supply more, the people were happy again and although we had the knowledge of Alpha Rivers' mysterious enemy looming over us, there was no sign of them yet and we let ourselves relax in the moment of peace.Every week Alpha Rivers came with more grain. I usually did my best to avoid him by staying in my room and watching him out the window or tactically going to hunt at times I thought he was most likely to appear. But he gave no indication of when he was going to come and followed no identifiable pattern so there were still occasions where I got caught out and I fell victim of his invasive stares and snide comments.On one afternoon when Rose and Tobias had gone for a run, I heard the distinct sound of his cart rolling towards the house.After putting my book down and getting up from my bed, I sidled up to my win

"Your form is wrong," a voice said.I was in the forest, as I was nearly every afternoon, training. I was halfway through my fifty push-ups and as soon as I recognised the voice I just rolled my eyes."It's not," I replied bluntly.Alpha Rivers seemed to spend more time on our territory these days than he spent on his own. He was constantly delivering grain and vegetables - one day he came with a single sack of turnips and spent three hours in our kitchen talking to Tobias and getting in my way as I was trying to cook.He also had this irritating habit of following me into the woods. I was a woman who valued my time alone and I used to find the forest a peaceful escape. But now it was just another place I had to keep an eye out for him and put up with his condescending, sexist, annoying comments."You're making it harder for yourself without any benefit," he sung, an amused smile on his lips."I'm not," I repeated."Straighten your ba