Feral Pt.4
Daryl Dixon x OC
Summary: Daryl is on a run with Rick when, in a warehouse, they find a woman who attacks them, and who reminds Daryl to a lioness…or a feral cat, and who doesn’t seem to trust anyone, including them, but Daryl finds himself going back to the warehouse, trying to get that feral to go with him to the prison, and to earn her trust.
Chapter 3/10 Words: 3485
You can find my other fics in my masterlist.
Last chapter…Dana was introduced to the council and around the prison, though she still seems only on ease around Daryl, and it was decided that she’d be hunting and patrolling with him
Daryl was walking through the woods, followed by Dana, who walked silently ,“like a cat”, Daryl had awkwardly joked. It was good that she was able to walk in silence and that it came naturally to her, that way she wouldn’t scare the game. Daryl already had a squirrel hanging from his belt, and was now tracking what he was sure was a rabbit. “Went that way…” He muttered.
“How?” Dana said.
“What?”
“How you know it.”
Daryl looked at her, back at the track and then at Dana again. If he stopped to point at her what was he following and how, the rabbit might go away…but he decided to do it anyway. What was going to be a quick thing, just pointing at Dana what he was seeing, ended up being a longer explanation about the basics of tracking game and hunting…not that Daryl minded it, and it didn’t seem like Dana minded it either, she listened to him with a level of attention that Daryl had barely had anytime before.
Daryl ended up getting a rabbit anyway, and although he was the one doing the tracking, Dana watched and paid attention to everything that he told her and pointed at, seeming in total focus, and Daryl would be lying if he said that he didn’t enjoy it.
“You gotta learn and hunt yourself, uh?” He told her once the rabbit was hanging from his belt. “A cat that can’t hunt makes no sense,” he joked awkwardly and Dana scoffed, but she smirked, and she nudged him with her shoulder. It took Daryl by surprise, and a smile tugged at his lips at seeing her seeming comfortable with him like that, even if it made him feel weird too.
As they patrolled the woods near the prison, Dana spotted a group of edible mushrooms on the ground, tugging at Daryl’s shirt. “Good job, cat,” he said while they picked them up. “We can stew them with the rabbit and the squirrel.” Dana gave him that small smile that always made him smile back and always made his belly do funny things at the idea of her not being that scared and mistrustful anymore. “Let’s go back, alright?” They hadn’t found any threat in the woods, they had gotten a squirrel and a rabbit, and mushrooms, and Dana seemed more at ease…all in all, it had been a good morning.
Some of Dana’s apprehension seemed to be back as they walked into the prison and were around waving people again, but at least she didn’t look like she was about to run away or stab someone if she got scared.
“I’ll show you how to clean and get ready the squirrel and the rabbit, yeah?” Daryl asked and Dana nodded, following him to the kitchen area. Like when he’d been telling her about tracking, Dana watched attentively while he got the pieces ready, and Daryl couldn’t help how it made him nervous, though he tried to control it and to give her some instruction here and there. They had almost finished when Carol walked in.
“You learned to hunt already?” She asked to Dana and Daryl didn’t know if she was joking, but he scoffed.
“She ain’t gonna learn in a day, but she will.” He was sure of it. “But she hunted some mushrooms.”
“Good.” Carol scoffed, but she nodded looking at everything that they had lied out on the kitchen. “We can make a good stew out of this.” She looked at Dana, who seemed guarded again. “I know it’s comfortable if Daryl brings you dinner again, but why don’t you come down to get your own this night? We actually won’t bite you…” She said as she glanced at the bite mark on Daryl’s arm, who rolled his eyes.
“Let’s finish this…” He muttered, back to cleaning the rabbit.
That evening, the dinner was getting served and Daryl was about to go get two bowls, one for himself and another for Dana, when he saw her walking down the stairs to the cafeteria area, looking around and seeming like she might run away and retreat, but she nodded at the people who waved at her, and made her way to the queue for the food. Daryl smiled at her, nodding encouragingly, and she gave him that brief, tiny smile, even if she seemed anxious.
Once she had her food, Dana looked at the table where Michonne, Rick, Glenn and Maggie were sat down, but finally she rushed away and up the stairs towards the cells. It was progress, though. Daryl noticed Rick looking at him and nodding with a small smile, he’d seen Dana too. Taking his bowl, Daryl went to sit down with them, Michonne was probably leaving in the morning and he wanted to talk to her before, but he rushed through his stew to go see Dana once he was finished.
Once in front of her cell, though, he didn’t know what to say. “You did well” he finally murmured awkwardly and Dana just shrugged, seeming awkward too. “Give me your bowl, I’ll wash it.”
“Don’t have to,” Dana muttered.
“I know, but I’m going to.” Daryl shrugged.
“Thanks…” Dana said, handing him the bowl.
“Ain’t nothing…I’ll see you in the morning, alright? Maybe we’ll find a deer tomorrow,” he said content when Dana gave him that small smile. “So, get some rest.”
*
The next couple of days, Daryl kept taking Dana hunting and patrolling with him, pointing trails to her, showing her how to track and hunt, and she kept listening attentively to all he had to show her, and so Daryl was confident that she’d be able to eventually track by herself. It’d be good to have another tracker and hunter, in case something happened to him, Michonne was not bad at tracking, but with her coming and going all the time, it’d be good that someone else learned to track too. Daryl had told Rick a couple of times, but even if he wanted to, he’d always been too busy first leading then with the gardens and whatnot.
Dana, though, seemed to give him her undivided attention now while they tracked and hunted, and also once they were back inside the prison and he showed her how to clean and cut his kills, letting her do it too.
Dana seemed a bit more at ease at the prison, and although sometimes she seemed anxious, she didn’t seem to think that someone would attack her there anymore or that she was unsafe, but she still spent most of the time around Daryl…for how much he’d thought he wanted his time alone, he still found that he didn’t mind to have her around, most of the time he didn’t even notice her, just a silent presence near him, and if it helped her to feel better, he wasn’t going to complain.
When she wasn’t with him, she was usually locked in her cell, reading a book that Beth had given her. She still didn’t really talk to anyone else, but she seemed less startled and on edge around people, even waving or nodding awkwardly back when they greeted her. She was adapting to the prison and Daryl was glad of it. He hoped that she’d open up to more people too, the more people she bonded with the better, so she wouldn’t rely only on him, in case anything happened and he couldn’t be around her.
Daryl was now looking for Dana, after talking with Rick. Since Michonne had told him about that old bike she’d found, he’d been itching to go get it, even if Michonne thought that there was no need to rush. She had marked the place on a map for him before leaving the day before, and it wasn’t too far, he was surprised that they hadn’t stumbled onto it before, so he wanted to go. He’d told Rick, who said that it was okay, and now he wanted to tell Dana, they wouldn’t be going hunting tomorrow. He wondered what she might get up to in the prison without him there, and he hoped that she’d be okay.
She wasn’t in her cell and so Daryl went to the stables, finding her there, stroking the horses. “You know, you could help with the horses,” he told her, he’d realized that she liked them. “Feeding them and all that, you just have to tell Hershel.”
“No hunting?” She said.
“Yeah, we’d still hunt, but you can help once we’re back at the afternoons, if you wanna.” Daryl shrugged, he usually had stuff to do and Dana had been trailing alongside him, but maybe she’d enjoy more to help with the horses.
“Maybe.” She shrugged and went back to stroking the horse’s snout.
“I gotta talk to you, cat,” Daryl told her and she frowned at him, seeming worried. “I wanna go out tomorrow to find a bike in a cabin that Michonne told me about, so we won’t go hunting, okay?”
“I go with you?” She asked him.
“Uh…do you want to?” Daryl asked, wondering why he hadn’t thought about it, and Dana nodded. “Are you sure? You’ll be okay in here without me, really, nobody will hurt you.” He thought she knew, but he assured it to her again, he didn’t want her to feel like she had to be around him all the time.
“I want to go,” she said.
“Alright…” Daryl wouldn’t mind to take her with him, maybe they could even track something. “I don’t want us staying the night outside, so we leave before the sunrise, okay?” If it were him alone, he wouldn’t mind that much, but he didn’t want to risk it if he was taking Dana too, when there was no need to camp outside, the place was close enough for them to be able to come back and spend the night behind fences. Dana nodded, giving him that tiny smile.
*
Early the next morning, when the sky was just starting to clear, Daryl drove away from the prison. He was taking their pick up, he’d rather ride, but he might need to carry bike parts or the whole thing. Dana was sat down next to him, looking through the window, and Daryl peeked at her while he drove.
She looked so much better than just a few days ago, less terrified and wild, less on edge. A couple of days ago, she had chopped off a good chunk of her wild, dark curls with her knife before Daryl realized it and could offer to get her some scissors, she was probably frustrated at the knots and tangles. The shorter hair suited her, Daryl found himself thinking.
She still hadn’t wanted to go to the showers, but Daryl knew that now that Dana knew that they had a stable source of water from the creek, she washed herself with her bottle and a rag, locked in her cell. Daryl had seen her once, by accident, he hadn’t meant too, and he had quickly looked away and retreated, but he had noticed the marks and old wounds in her dark skin again, and the way in which she washed herself without closing the curtain, looking outside for any incoming threat, even if the cell was locked, one hand holding the wet rag while the other held a knife. Daryl couldn’t help but wonder what had she gone through, feeling angry at it, but he never asked, not wanting to prey and upset her.
They drove through the same road for a while, until eventually Daryl had to leave the road and drive through a path to the woods until even that ended, but he kept driving until the trees blocked the way. “Alright, we’ll walk from here,” he told to Dana. “It can’t be far.”
Dana nodded and got out of the car, following him in silence through the woods as he followed Michonne’s indications. At some point, though, she tugged at his shirt and when Daryl looked at her, she pointed at a squirrel up in a tree branch.
“Good catch,” Daryl whispered to her before shooting, he’d been too busy trying to find the way to see it, but as always, Dana was looking attentively at everything around her, and she always seemed to notice the tiniest details…no wonder she was a survivor, and she was picking up on how to track fast.
Daryl had been thinking about getting a hunting rifle with a silencer for her for when they went out, though for what he could gather from the few words that Dana said when he told her, she seemed to prefer her knife and wasn’t too used to shooting even if she could do it, but she couldn’t hunt just with a knife, and she’d be safer with a rifle too, maybe he should have gotten her a rifle anyway for today instead of letting her go just with her knife, but there didn’t seem to be walkers around and he was with her.
Eventually, they found the cabin, a tiny, tattered place hidden among the trees, overgrown with plants, and Daryl wondered how Michonne had stumbled into it. As they got closer, he spotted the bike lying on the ground, half-covered by plants too. Daryl knelt down next to it, carefully trying to lift it, afraid that it’d break down or even turn into dust just by touching it.
It was an old bike, vintage they’d say, and as Michonne had said, it was in very poor condition, it seemed to have been abandoned even before walkers were a thing. “You could have gotten good money for a bike like this before the world ended…” Daryl murmured, though if the bike had been his, he’d have kept it on point and wouldn’t have sold it to any collector no matter he needed the money.
“World didn’t end,” Dana said and Daryl looked at her. “Just changed.” She shrugged and Daryl guessed that she was right. The idea that the world ended had been a sentence he’d picked up from someone else, but yeah…Dana was right, it hadn’t ended, the world was still there, they were still there, it had just changed. And sometimes, sometimes, Daryl found himself wondering if actually his life wasn’t better now…he knew it was crazy, but maybe he could tell Dana someday, see what she thought…
Daryl focused his attention back to the bike. He’d check if there were pieces that he could use for something else, or if maybe he could actually save the whole bike, or enough stuff to take it whole to the prison…he thought that getting it going would probably be impossible, but he wanted to try anyway.
“Cabin?” Dana asked.
“Michonne was here already and checked it,” Daryl told her but Dana walked towards it, looking at everything around. “Don’t go far alright? Come back if there are walkers around.” Daryl went back to tinker with the bike. It looked worse at first glance than once he began to check it, and he was getting confident on being able to save more pieces than he thought at first.
Suddenly, though, he heard a noise and he looked up from the bike. “Cat?” He called for Dana when he didn’t see her around, and before he could worry that for some reason she’d actually decided to run away and leave him and the prison, Daryl was sure that he heard the growl a walker not too far. “Dana?!”
Daryl ran towards where he thought the noises were coming from and he found Dana fighting a group of walkers with her knife. There were two already dead on the ground, and she was viciously sinking the knife into the head of another, before grabbing the closer one to do the same. Daryl didn’t lose time to shoot a bolt to another before it got closer to Dana, and she turned towards him when she noticed the walker falling down, seeing him there before she grabbed the remaining walker and put it down too.
When she had turned towards him, Daryl had noticed blood on her shirt, her arms, and her face, and he couldn’t help but straight up panic. “Are you hurt?! Are you bitten?!” He asked as he rushed towards her, grabbing her arm to try and check her but Dana flinched her arm away.
She didn’t seem bitten or hurt and Daryl noticed that one of the walkers on the ground was all bloodied up and with its insides hanging out, and he realized that Dana must have gotten covered in its blood when she held it to stab it and maybe then touched her face with her bloodied hands. Somehow, it didn’t help to calm him down.
“The hell were you thinking?! Going for them alone?! They could have bitten you! Could have killed you!” Daryl hadn’t meant to yell, but he couldn’t stop himself, agitated and scared, even if he knew he was all the time doing the same, putting down small groups of walkers himself even if Rick told him not to…maybe he’d start understanding Rick now… “Told you not to! What if they killed you?!”
“I can do it!” Dana snapped back, sounding angry too, but all Daryl’s scared anger left him when he noticed tears in her eyes. “I’ve killed before! I’m not useless! I’m no kitten!”
Daryl didn’t know what to say or what to do, but he regretted that he had yelled at her, the idea of maybe having scared her felt like a kick…he had upset her for sure, but he was scared at the idea of her having gotten hurt, even bitten or killed, he couldn’t help it. He just looked at her while Dana glared at him, before he reached out tentatively to try and check her again, but Dana seemed mad, almost like the feral woman that he first met at the warehouse, and she pushed him away before rushing towards the cabin.
Daryl followed her, looking at her getting inside the cabin and closing the door behind her. “Dana?” He called for her but there was no answer, and Daryl felt like shit. He had yelled at her…but she had to see that he was worried, that she had scared him, right? What if now she wouldn’t want to go back to the prison with him? What if she’d want to stay away in that cabin like she’d been in the warehouse?
Daryl decided to stop thinking it and he went back to the bike, but he couldn’t focus on it, couldn’t stop his regret and fears, and he didn’t know what to do. After a little while, though, he noticed Dana walking out of the cabin. He still didn’t know what to do and so he focused his gaze on the bike, tinkering with it even if his mind was on Dana, afraid that maybe just looking at her might upset her or scare her after he’d yelled at her. He noticed her kneeling down next to him, and suddenly he felt her touching him, and when he looked at her, he realized that she’d headbutted him softly, gently nudging his arm with her forehead once.
“Are you okay?” Daryl asked her softly and Dana nodded. “I…I’m sorry I yelled…” Dana nodded again. “I just…I…I got scared, I saw the blood and thought you were hurt,” he made himself explain it even if he was embarrassed and shy. “Got scared thinking a walker would hurt you.”
“I’m sorry,” Dana murmured, apologizing too. “I’m sorry I pushed you.”
“It’s okay.”
“No.”
“Just…just don’t do it again, alright? You know it’s dangerous.” Daryl asked her softly, he didn’t want to feel like that again. “If there’s a group of walkers we put them down together…it ain’t that I think you can’t do it alone, I know you’re a fighter, just…” Daryl shrugged, not knowing how to explain it. “You don’t have to. Me…I…me and everyone in the prison, we got your back now, alright? Just let us help.” Dana nodded again and Daryl looked at her, the blood that had spattered over her face and hair, down her neck, smearing on her shirt and arms… “You’re a mess.”
“Always,” Dana joked and Daryl snorted.
He reached into his bag, taking the bottle of water and a rag, and pouring the water on it, he began washing the blood smeared on Dana’s face, cleaning her a bit so people in the prison wouldn’t freak out at the sight. “I’m just gonna take the whole bike, drag it to the pickup and work on it back at the prison,” he said and Dana nodded, eyes closed as he brushed her face with the wet rag until there wasn’t any blood, though her skin was stained. “Let’s go back home, okay?”
“Okay."
*
I still think they’re cute...that feral kitten might need some cleaning up anf grooming now.
Thanks to the people who decided to give this story a chance, your support keeps me posting. If you enjoyed this and have a moment, please let me know your thoughts.
As always, excuse my English, is not my first language.
I’m going to reblog the taglist in another post to see if that way this shows up in the Daryl tags.
