“Do you believe her?” Jen whispered to Ted, eyeing the young woman with the gaze of a skeptic. She’d been a ranger for fifteen years, and during this time she’d heard her share of tall tales, although, she had to admit, not one that could hold a candle to this gals’.
Really? That was the best lie the woman could come up with? That she got lost in the desert and spent an untold number of years living with a mysterious philosopher colony?
Even as feral as she looked, with matted hair and dressed in dubious rags, there was no way their rescue had spent more than a week in any place lacking the trappings of civilization: she didn’t look malnourished, had no signs of physical trauma and, honestly, she didn’t look old enough to have spent many years anywhere, not to mention the wilderness.
Jen was so irritated by these entitled attention seeking brats who tried to make themselves look interesting by putting their lives, and through her professional obligations, hers, in harm’s way.
She was of half a mind to show this airhead what real hardship looked like, since goodness knows, she’d had her share.
First Story