not alone

Pipper used every shadow and moved only when the wind moved too. He had learned to move his feet very close to the ground and slowly forward, “feeling” his way, not breaking twigs. When he came closer to the fire he gently lay down and did the same with his hands. Removing anything that could make a sound before inching foreward. He immediately recognized the men sitting at the fire when he was close enough to make them out. It wasn’t hard. He knew them intimately. They had been his brothers. They had trained with him every day for three years. And now they had come to end him. Of this he was sure. He silently began to make his way back to Julia.