Ralph and the Pixie

‘She’s doing the best she can! Can’t you see that? I know you’re worried, but you’re just making things worse by bullying her!’

Theuli was silent for a long moment, her head bowed, and in the indistinct, silhouetted darkness, the two younger women wondered fearfully if she was angry or frustrated with them. But at last, she approached the two and put her arms around them, and they saw to their surprise that her cheeks were wet.

Putting a shaky hand to her face, she said, ‘I am sorry . . . I am sorry . . . but my sister, her husband, and their children, lie dead back there . . . I can think of nothing else.’

The two girls stared at her in shock.

‘Oh my God!’ Deborah put her hands to her face reflexively. ‘Oh, Theuli! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know-’

Any hint of indecisiveness in Malina’s mien vanished. Neither of the other two could see the hard set of her jaw and her small shoulders as she digested this news. Without hesitation, drawing the others with a will, she said curtly, ‘This way! Quietly! We will wade the ditch and run the distance along the outside of the mound, where the ground is firm and flat.’