Black and White Chapt 4

Chapt 4
Crystel woke with a start in the darkness for the fourth time that night, fear rippling through her. Her fist clenched the pillow case her head laid on, waiting for the overwhelming feeling to pass. But the seconds ticked by so slowly, and the sense of danger seemed to only increase. 1

Her eyes widened in horror as she felt a hand touch her back roughly, and shook her. She quickly rolled off the other side of the bed, panic filling her. She landed with a hard thud, and looked up to see a familiar figure looking at her with tired, dull yellow eyes in the dark. 2

He frowned, “are you okay?” he asked.
Crystel looked at him with bewilderment, still slightly trembling, “yeah,” she said quickly standing up, and forcing a smile on.3

“K’” He said, “well it’s about time to get going.”4

Crystel looked out the window, and saw that the heavy clouds in the sky were just barely light enough light to see with, and sighed. “A bit early, don’t you think?” she asked with a small laugh, quickly recovering from her scare.5

“We should get started early,” he said tiredly, “besides, girls usually take a long time to get ready, and I figured you might need to get a head start.”6

Crystel frowned at the comment, and stood up, “ No worries,” she said “ I’ll be ready in a jiff.” 7

“K’ well, wake me up when your done,” He said, and left the room yawning.8

When he closed the door behind him, Crystel went to the corner of the room where she had put her back pack the night before, and began to dig through it. Inside, she found a white, blue and black blouses, three skirts, and two dresses. Crystel had always just barely tolerated dresses, and dug through the back pack to see if she could find any pants. After pulling out food, a water canteen, money, under clothes, a couple ribbons and a blanket, the back pack was empty. She sighed, irritated at Isaac, and slipped into the blue blouse and black skirt, and pulled her hair back with one of the ribbons, then left the room.9

It took her two tries before she found Isaac’s room; where she could pretty much only see a giant lump on a mattress. She walked over and touched his shoulder, “Isaac, wake Up, I’m ready to go.” she whispered. He was completely unfazed by her, so, she shook him, when that too, didn’t work, Crystel tried three more times, each time a little harder, until the fourth time where she actually had to jump on top of him, and scream, “ISAAC! WAKE UP!” And to this, he just rolled over mumbling something that sounded sort like “not now, go away,”10

Crystel grabbed his wrist and yanked him out of bed as hard as she could, “You said you thought I would be slow!” She said irritably.11

“Fine,” He muttered, tearing his wrist away from her, and unwillingly sitting up, “Just shut up, It’s to early for you to be yelling like that, it gives me a head ache.”12

It didn’t take long for Isaac to get ready, and they set off, when the sky was just barely light enough to see in.13

That morning, Crystel would always remember as dull. Literally the whole time, nothing was said. Crystel spent most of this time studying the strange mountains, and giant trees around her, and the occasional passing creature. But eventually, as the middle of the day drew closer, she found that they were getting far enough into the woods, that the tree branches grew thickly over head, and shaded them like one giant canopy leaving nothing new left to be seen. Crystel’s feet had started to hurt, and she just wanted to rest a little. But Isaac never broke his pace except to take out a map and study it for a few moments.14

Finally, at what Crystel could guess was about mid day, Isaac stopped her. “Are you hungry?” He asked.15

Truthfully, she wasn’t really, but she was willing to take any chance she got to sit, so she eagerly nodded, and Isaac went to sit on a rock, and pulled out a small loaf of bread, cheese and a knife. He cut two slices of bread off of the loaf, then looked at Crystel, “how many do you want?” He asked.16

“Two please,” Crystel said. So He cut some bread for her, the gave her a hunk of cheese.17

He ate in silence. Crystel sighed, as she put the cheese into her mouth and chewed it slowly. Eventually, the boringness of the journey thus far got the best of her, and she looked at him and broke he silence, “your very quiet, aren’t you?”18

He looked up at her, “how can you say that?” He asked, “not like your saying anything either.” 19

“Well then, I suppose I’ll have to fix that.” She said, “I’d like to ask you some questions.”20

“Why?” He asked.21

“Because, you were right, I don’t really know you, and if we’re going to take a journey together for God knows how long, We might as well get some conversation going in the meantime.”22

“What kind of questions do you want to ask?” He asked. 23

“What’s your favorite color?” She asked with certainty. 24

“That’s a stupid question.” He grumbled.25

“I don’t care, you still have to answer.”26

“Never thought about it,” He sighed.27

“Well, think about it.” She said.28

There was a moment of silence, “Black I guess.” He said. 29

“I think black is too over-used.” She said cheerfully, “Besides, I 30

think It’s kind of depressing looking.”31

“Well, what’s your favorite color then?” He asked looking annoyed.32


“Opaque.” She answered.33

“Nothings special about the color Opaque,” Isaac grumbled, “I’ve never even heard of it.”34

“Your loss,” Crystel said. “So… What’s your favorite animal?”35

“I hate animals.” He scowled.36

“Pick one anyway.” She said. 37

“I’ll lie, and just say the first one that comes to my mind.” He said.38

“I don’t care.” She said.39

“A Duck.”40

“A duck?” Crystel Laughed, “That’s interesting. I like jaguars.”41

“Oh,” He mumbled.
Crystel continued to quiz thru the day, but never once did she get him to laugh or even smile. She didn’t even think any of his answers were completely truthful, and worked more like his favorite animal, although he did answer every one, whether the answer was Short and accompanied with a scowl or not.
The truth was, Isaacs thoughts were far away from the questions she was asking him. If she said the word food, he could assume she was asking for his favorite, so eventually, he would just say, Chicken, or if she said the word tree he would say Oak, and she would be satisfied.42

But finally, when it was just about time Isaac thought they should stop, Crystel asked a question he knew he couldn’t just put off with a won-worded sentence.43

“What about your family?” She asked, “You lived alone in your inn, but you must have one out there somewhere.”44

That question took all Isaac had to keep from laughing. “Yes, I have a family.” He said, struggling to keep his stone face, determined not to give her any satisfaction.45

“How big is it?” Crystel asked.
Isaac’s heart swelled with pride, “Last I knew,” He said, “I have a mother, a step-mother, thirty-six brothers and sisters, a father, six grandparents, seventy-seven aunts, sixty eight uncles, seven hundred and two cousins, and fifty nieces and nephews.”46

Crystel’s Eyes widened, “is that even possible?”47

Isaac glared at her, “Duh,” He grumbled, “but who knows any more, they could all be dead by now.”48

“What do you mean?” Crystel asked.49

“It’s not really that possible,” He said, “I just haven’t seen anyone in a long time. I don’t want to either.”50

“That’s sad, why not.” Crystel asked.51

“I just don’t,” Isaac snapped, it was the truth, there wasn’t any reason at all, “It’s annoying, all these questions you ask.” He said, “You’re so nosey.”52

“You’re the one who said that I don’t even know you.” She said as if she knew everything, “And that It made no sense for me to want you to come. Now I know a lot about you.” She smiled, “That’s why I like questions.”53

“Well I hate them.” He said, then stopped, “We’re stopping here for tonight, I’m tired, so don’t talk to me.” And he flopped himself onto the ground, tearing his blanket out of his back pack, and then laying it under his head as a pillow. He closed his eyes, and was out almost as soon as he did.