Next morning, or whenever I woke up, there was food in the cage. Or at least I think it was supposed to be food. There was crumbly bread with green and gray mold covering it, and a jug of some thin substance. It looked as if it was really runny mud.
Absalom was sitting next to the food, staring at me. When I sat up, the first thing I realized was that my back was sore from sleeping on the ground again. I massaged my backside to get the blood flowing once again.
“You hungry?” asked Absalom.
“For that stuff? I thought you said that they feed us!” I exclaimed.
“Maybe I lied,” he said darkly, his eyes falling into shadow because of the measly fire that now burned low. I shivered from the way his voice crept through my ears.
“Maybe I don’t like it when I’m lied to,” I said in the same, low gravely voice. I wondered if I’d be able to steer this conversation to something a little less retarded.
“What are you thinking?” asked Absalom. His eyes were in light once again as the fire shifted, and they seemed curious. I grasped for a lie that he would believe, but I couldn’t think of one.
“Nothing,” I said. He looked at me a while longer, then broke the bread in half, and ate one of the divisions. I sighed, and ate the other disgusting half, restraining a gag. I couldn’t wait until we got out of here. There was another girl Sting guarding us.
“Why are there so many lady Stings and only one guy?” I whispered to Absalom.
“I’ve never thought of Stings as a ladies before, but sure. The men Stings don’t like there being any other men Stings because they like having a lot of women to themselves, so only one guy is in a Sting group. The guy is always the leader, and they try to prevent the amount of male Stings going up. It is a sort of good news for us, because it limits the Sting population.”
“Oh.” The Prince could probably teach me a lot. “So the men don’t recruit men. Weird.”
“Stings seem to attract weird,” he replied. I giggled. The Sting looked over with a scowl on her face. I froze, seeing her squint her eyes, but then she just sniffed and turned back around.
“But why are they treating us like this? Why’d they kidnap us? What are they planning?” I hissed.
“I know a bit about Stings, but I don’t know everything about them, especially not enough to read their minds,” he said patiently.
“And why not? Looks like one prince has been rejecting his studies!”
“Stop calling me ‘Prince’ and call me Absalom,” he said.
“Okay, Your Highness,” I said, doing a mock curtsy as best as I could while sitting down. Absalom sighed.
“Well at least take my advice about this: don’t mess with the Stings like that; they thoroughly punish you, unlike me. I could seriously have you hanged for speaking to me with such sarcasm--”
“How do they punish you?” I asked.
“Like this,” he said, pulling up a pant leg to his knee. A million bruises and cuts assaulted my eyes. Man and I thought my ankles and wrists were bad …
“Oh, Prince, I’m so sorr--”
“My name is Absalom!” I looked at him, his intense eyes burning through me. He didn’t know that calling him Prince kept me from befriending him. I needed to keep a distance from him; I hadn’t had a real friend since … I couldn’t even remember when, but I couldn’t tell him that … I wouldn’t let my feelings show too much …
“Yes, Absalom,” I said, shooting arrows at my feet with my eyes.
He calmed himself then. “Don’t say it like that, in that dejected way. You must understand; it’s just that…I don’t want to feel above you. I don’t want you to act like I’m above you. I’m your equal, and don’t act any different than that. I wish everyone could understand that.
“Okay, so as ‘equals’, what can we talk about?”
“Let me think about that a second,” he replied. That reminded me of something.
“Oh! Prince, I mean, Absalom, is it possible for a girl to become an archer?”
He studied my face. “It would be extremely difficult, but I guess so. What, do you wish to become an archer?”
“Yes,” I said facing him.
“I won’t say it’s impossible, but it’s probably a very far-fetched thing to expect.”
“Oh,” I grumbled. Absalom’s eyes smiled sympathetically at me, soft and kind.
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