Valka
Past
The branches snap behind me and I jolt, disoriented, my hands raised high in a defensive stance.
"Did I startle you?" the man says, but his blue eyes do not seem the least apologetic as they rove across my face, his cheeks reddening. "I apologize. I'm lost, I think. I never knew people lived in these parts. I've been walking around in circles for the last hour. Do you think you could help me?"
"If you thought for a single second," I warn, fingers tightening into a fist. "that I would fall for that shit, you are in for a reckoning. I will gut you faster than you can blink if you so much as move."
He follows my pointed stare to the shears sitting by the plants I'd been tending, and after a moment, he raises his hands to make himself appear harmless. "I have no intent on attacking you. Or whatever it is you think I am here to do. I promise. I really am lost."
