Post by kyome月的女& on Jun 1, 2010 14:48:41 GMT -8
It was late at night, the moon illuminated off my skin as well as the rest of the forest as I wait for him. My guardian. My best friend. My love.
The forest looks ghostly in the moonlight, rather than the timeless beauty in the sunlight. Perfect. It fits. It’s like the forest knows that we are meeting and set this perfect look to it just for us. I sighed as I sat down on the same fallen over tree that I had two years back on the day that I met him. I had missed the deathly beauty of the Snohmian forest almost as much as I had missed him.
: Six months before:
"Dad! I'm leaving. That’s it. And I won’t come back. Like I said before, I’m sick of living your stupid life!"
My dad stood in front of me, shock and anger in his eyes.
“Fine.”He said. “Just don’t think you will be able to come back. Once you leave, that’s it.” I knew exactly what he was doing. He had been playing the same game since mom had died. But his little guilt game wasn’t going to work this time though.
"Oh yeah?" I murmured to myself. "’Cause I don’t plan to come back anyway." I whirled around and slammed the little door of my dad’s house that is in the middle of the forest. I have had enough. I walked into the trees, not even looking back and relaxed. I had finally done it. I had been planning to leave that stupid house forever now.
I started walking towards my pine tree after wandering and thinking of what I had done, not that I resented it. It‘s one of the tallest trees in the forest, but it had strong branches that go all the way to the ground. I had found it a couple of years back. For me, it was easy to find, because I go there almost every day (I think there might be a little trail from me too). I was still in wonderment of what I had done when I got there. I started climbing. For someone who has been climbing her whole life, it was quite easy.
I had tied my strongest knapsack on one of the topmost branches a couple of days before. When I got up to it, I brought it down, set it on my lap, and made sure no animals had gotten into it. It was bulging, since I had packed it with blankets, food, a flashlight, and some other stuff I would need to survive. I pulled out one of the blankets and got a little more comfortable. I planned to sleep in the tree tonight. The sun had already started to go down when some clouds started coming in. I ignored them and closed my eyes.
I was in that state of being half asleep, and half awake when it started getting really cold. The wind started blowing too. That’s when I saw the huge streak of lightning light up the sky. The deafening sound of the thunder came only a couple seconds later. With it, rain came down in palm-sized droplets.
Really tall tree+ thunder= not good. Crap. Well, there goes plan “A”. And I'm sure as hell not going back to that house again. So I slung my bag onto my back and climbed down the tree.
I know of a little clearing covered with ferns a little farther into this forest. I headed there. Another quite large roll of thunder sounded. Then the lightning came .In a minute, I was soaked. I kept walking though, but started thinking of the theory of instant Karma.
When I got to the clearing, I found a dry spot under a tree and dropped my bag. I started to pull a couple of ferns to make a little more cushion to lay on. It was getting really dark now, so I started to hurry up a little more. I was about to pull up my bag to use as a pillow when I saw a rustle in the bushes. A faint growl came from behind me. I froze. Another growl came, and another, until, they were louder than the rain. A ragged shadow came out from between the trees beside me and walked right up. More shadows followed it, but were smaller. They formed a ring around me, keeping a little distance from me- just enough so that I couldn’t reach out and touch them. The largest was in front. A flash of lightning lit the sky and the shadows transformed into ragged wolves. I gasped. The wolves looked at me with hunger in their dull eyes. I looked around. Some of the wolves were pacing, others were drooling.
I looked back at the one in front of me and stood up. He barked at me, but I kept rising. I looked around, this time looking for a gap in the formation. My search proved to be in vain until- yes! Right there, in between the tree and a wolf was a gap just big enough to fit me. I took a deep breath and flew through the gap with only a scratch from the tree on my arm and a snap from the dog on my leg. I got out though without tripping… barely. I didn't look back, but I heard a dog bark and twenty pairs of paws run after me. I sped up. Trees flew past me. Everything to the sides of me were a blur. The rain hit my face in what felt like needle points. I ran into another clearing and looked back. BIG mistake. The dogs saw my face and sped up. I whirled back around and kept on running.
At the end of the clearing, a voice yelled at me. "Climb a tree!" it screeched at me. I did what I was told and ran to the first tree on the edge clearing that was covering an old, but sturdy fallen tree. Two blurs ran past me while I was climbing. I flinched when I heard a dog yelp and a thud. A human voice cried out in pain. Another voice yelled out "hold on!" there was a crack and a yelp. I heard paws pad up to me. A huge, ragged wolfs head appeared instantly afterwards under me and snap at my feet. I screamed.
The wolf got a hold at my left foot. He pulled, only to get my shoe. Frustrated, it jumped at me again but missed. I started climbing higher. The rain stopped.
The wolf jumped back up for a third time. A shadow came from behind it and stopped it in mid-air. It threw the dog against the tree, making the whole thing shake. The wolf yelped in pain as it fell onto the ground. The shadow bent down over it swiftly and got a hold of the neck and turned. There was a sickening crunch over the hair-raising screech from the dog, and it was dead.
The shadow threw the corpse of the wolf into the bushes behind me. Everything was quiet, even the wind stopped. A howl/yelp came from one of the dogs, but I noticed that there was no big wolf anymore. Less than half of the pack was standing, and they all ran away when the wolf howled. There were lumps of ragged bodies all around the clearing.
A hand shot up to me. I screamed in shock. The shadows that took on all of those wolfs were human! They were human? I thought about taking the hand. Well, they did just save my life. So, I took the hand. It pulled on me until I fell down. Again, I screamed. Someone caught me around the waist though, and set me on the ground.
"You okay?" the person who had caught me said.
"Y-yeah" I stuttered. "Who are you?"
"Apparently, the people who just saved your skin from dog chow" a very much more different voice came from behind the guy who had caught me (and still had his hands around his waist).
"Cole, be nice" said the guy. He dropped his hands from my waist and went up to the person who I assume is Cole. He slapped him and turned back to me while Cole cursed. The moonlight came out from behind the clouds and I saw for the first time all of the two guys who had just saved me. The one who had caught me was a blond haired, light blue eyed guy that still had a little bit of a baby face, who looked about 18, two years older than me. The guy named Cole had black hair, but had light sea-blue eyes that popped. He looked my age. Both guys were pretty tall, lean, but very muscled. They only wore sturdy kacky shorts.
"I really hope that we got scratched up for the right girl" The guy named Cole said, glaring at me.
"Be NICE Cole, before crack that thick skull of yours" the blond guy scoffed. He looked at me.
"I'm sorry to ask, but could I be graced by knowing your full name?" he asked me.
"A- Arya Knowles? I don't have a middle"
Blondie smiled. "Told you" he muttered. Cole growled.
"Oh, let me introduce ourselves. My name is Justin Emitts, and the little baby behind me is Cole Jaspers. We need you to come with us"
I looked at Justin, and then at Cole, then back to Justin again.
"Wait, um... huh? I'm sorry, I don't understand at all. Why me?" I backed away from Justin, until I was against the tree. These guys save me from a pack of wolves just to kidnap me? It just made no sense!
Cole rolled his eyes at me, and murmured, just so I could hear "no you idiot! We’re saving you! Not kidnapping you. And it makes perfect sense to us. We need you!"
“I'm sorry; did I say that out loud? I don't remember...” I trailed.
"Your mother was Katrina Night, right?"
I frowned, trying to think of my mother and her name. I gasped. Cole was right, my mothers’ last name really was Night! How did he know my mother?!? "Yes?" I said slowly
"Then you need to come with us" Cole ordered
"I'm sorry to rush, but we are in danger here, we need to go. So, will you come with us-"
"or do we really need to kidnap you?" Cole interrupted sarcastically. Justin shot him a dirty look. Well... I was running away, so...
"Fine. I'll come willingly. Where is it safe?" I asked Justin, trying to ignore Cole.
"Up the mountain" Justin and Cole said at together. They looked at each other, frowning.
"Okay. There’s just one thing." I said
"What?" Justin asked patiently and politely. I was beginning to like him.
I sighed. "My bag is, well... somewhere. It has all of my stuff in it. I really need it. "I murmured, blushing. Such a girly thing to say! Cole and Justin just looked at each other. Cole suddenly busted out, laughing. He grabbed his stomach and fell to the ground. Justin looked at me apologetically. I scowled down at Cole, even if I couldn’t blame him for laughing at me. It really was a dumb thing to say.
"Sorry, sorry!" Cole gasped, and then rolled back over; laughing some more
Justin bowed his head slightly and covered his face with his hands. I could tell that he was trying to not laugh too.
“Is it really that funny?” I asked sheepishly, looking down at my bare feet.
"We’re really sorry, Arya. We’re just not used to habits like that." Justin looked up at me, looking sorry and a little embarrassed
"Really, It’s no problem. It was dumb of me to say it that way."
"Yeah, okay. I'm sorry to say that we can't go back for it. We don’t have very much time" Justin apologized. "We'll figure something out when we get to the cave." Cole rolled over again and sat up, glaring at Justin.
"Wai-" Cole got out before Justin shushed him.
Well, we had enough time to look for my shoes, but when we found them, I saw that the stupid wolves had shredded them beyond repair. I sighed and took them off. Bare feet were better than soggy socks. Justin assured me that my feet would callous over in no time. I was about to ask him how he knew that when I noticed his and Coles bare (and pretty dirty) feet. We started walking. When we got to the edge of the clearing I picked up my soggy coat and slung it over my shoulder. I had the notion I would need it later. We started making our way up the mountain. The only light to guide us was the moon, shining brilliantly above us in the now clear sky.
The climb was hard and slippery, but I knew it would be. What I didn't know was that it was going to be a really long night of walking and tripping. The guys bickered all the way up, but I got used to it after a while. They didn't totally ignore me though, Justin would ask me if I needed help when we started going over difficult patches of rocks, and Cole kept glancing back at me. When I would look back at him, smiling a little, he would quickly look away and murmur to Justin. I slipped a lot.
After a couple hours of walking/trudging/climbing/falling/freezing/listening with and to two strange, and (okay, I just got to say it) quite hot guys, Justin looked back at me.
"Hey, Arya, were almost there." He told me, grabbing my elbow and pulling me a little farther. I sighed in relief. Thank god!!! I mean, I loved the outdoors, but we were walking at a pretty fast pace and I was starting to get really tired. When I had left my dad, I hadn’t expected this. At all.
Justin led me to a little platform of flat rock and stopped. He dropped his hand from my arm and went to the rock wall. I looked up, wondering how far we were up. Cole appeared aside me and murmured to me “Come on, it’s gonna start raining again pretty soon.” Sure enough, when I looked up, I saw the dark clouds come back, already shrouding the moon half of the way.
Just went to a thin crack in the otherwise smooth surface of the rock wall. He set his hands carefully along it and pushed slightly. There was a groan, and part of the rock swung inward, like it was on a hinge. Justin disappeared into the hole the sliding rock had left. Cole pushed on my shoulder lightly, and then followed Justin inside.
I hesitated. Was it really a good idea to follow two mysterious guys into a dark cave? As if they had heard me and were trying to reassure me, a bright, warm light came from the hole. I heard and smelled a fire from inside, and heard Justin bicker to Cole about something. I washed away me fears and ducked into the hole. It was a entrance to a cave.
The cave was, well, not really a cave. Yeah, it was a hole in the mountain, but, it looked nothing like it. It was quite big, once you got through the one-person-at-a-time-hole for the entrance. The whole cave was lit by huge flood lights hanging from the ceiling. It looked like the cavern was in the shape of a lopsided star. There were five corners, but some looked like they leaded away from the main cavern. Justin came back up to me.
“Welcome to our place” He smiled at me. I looked at him and smiled back. He really was nice.
Justin led me to the farthest corner from the entrance. There was a hole on the right side of the wall. The hole had silver cloth draped over it. He led me through, pulling up the cloth that was thicker than I realized for me. On the other side was a little bedroom with a bed and a little dresser. The room color was a earthy, but relaxing dark tan color.
"Sorry about it being so small" Justin apologized as I sat on the bed. It was really comfortable.
"No problem!" I assured him. "It's perfect." I realized something then. “You want me to live here with you two?”
Justin nodded. “We really need your help. Things have gone wrong, and if you are anything like your mom, I know you can help us.”
I looked at him oddly. My help? “But don’t worry about it now.” I nodded a okay. Justing smiled. “Well, I’ll go get you some cloth-”
Just then, Cole barged in, glaring at Justin. "She can't use them!!" Cole growled, looking to me.
Justin sighed."She's going to use them!! I don't care if-" Justin growled. This was the first time I had actually seen him mad.
"Don't go there. Not with her in the room." They both looked at me. What the heck was up with him? I swear, Coles eyes had gone darker and flinty.
"I swear, if she wears my clothes, I'll-"
I stood up "Fine! I won't wear them! I really didn't know why I am here, but it isn't to cause trouble! All I need right now is some shorts." I get really nervous when people fight around me, so, I wanted them to stop. The boys looked at me, then at each other.
"Fine" Justin said, regaining his composure. He turned and walked out of the room, leaving me with Cole
((...And thats what i have right now!))
((okay, heres moree!!!!))
I caught Cole glaring at me… again. I sighed, annoyed and fed up of his constant glancing and staring, so I decided to glare back
"What’s your problem with me Cole? You’ve been doing that since you saw my face!" I practically growled in annoyance. By widening his eyes and dropping his ever crossed hands, Coles face went from mad to surprise. He openly looked at me, dumbfounded
"You caught me? I was that obvious?" he barely whispered
"Of course I did! Its very hard to not notice your every move when you have such bright eyes and-“ I stopped myself before I blurted anything else. I paused and mumbled a small sorry before looking up. Cole did something I never thought he would, or even could do, in the three hours I had been with him and Justin. Instead of yelling back at me, his ears and cheeks flushed red- he was blushing!
Cole put his head down, letting his long, still wet bangs fall over his face so I couldn't see him clearly.
"Crap" he muttered, shaking his head, and spraying water around the room. I smiled, and fought the urge to say ‘aww!!’. I mean, it was hard not to do so at the cute blushing boy. Only a small giggle escaped me, and I tried fruitlessly to cover it with a cough.
"What are you laughing at?" Cole snapped, his bright eyes darting and locking my gaze into place.
"You!" I said truthfully and bluntly, really not thinking. “What else is there to look at?” Coles face lit up more, as if my words were a switch,
"Sorry" I apologized, my smile dropping a little. I felt my cheeks start to flair in the awkward moment. I was blushing now too? Oh just my luck. Perfect.
Just then, Justin walked in again. Cole looked at me, giving me ‘the look’ that told me not to say a soul to Justin. Before my eyes, his blushing face turned into a cold, hard and ignoring face, but his eyes change in a different way, as they looked at me, I saw that they looked scared.
"Here you go." Justin said, handing me a pair of tan kakis that had seen better days. A lot of better days.
I said thanks and the two wordlessly left me alone in my room to change. I hung my still wet jacket on one of the bedposts and pulled off my jeans that were sticking to my legs. The kakis were a little baggy, but they didn't fall down, so I’m not complaining. I pulled off my over- shirt and hung it over my coat. My noodle strap under- shirt was damp, but good enough for me to keep wearing it..
When I was finished dressing and using my fingers as a hair brush, I walked into the main cavern. No one was tending the fire in there, so I went "exploring" around the vast place. By the entrance that led outside, there was a hole that had a cotton blanket draped over it, like mine, only mine was reddish, and this one was silvery. I walked over to it |||
"Hello?" I called. No one answered. I waited another couple of seconds for courtesy reasons before walking in. Behind this curtain was what looked like a pantry. Someone had gouged out shelves in the rock walls, and there were simple clay pots and glass canning jars of all sizes on a couple of the natural shelves. On the other side if the little room were rock cupboards that had a large skin covering it. I rolled back the, what looked to me like an elk skin to find a portable generator powering a small fridge that held raw meat and some berries in Ziplock bags. Beside the refrigerator were more cupboards filled with dried edible plants and spices. On the top shelve were some really worn down metal pots and pans to cook food in. Some seasonings were by them, and I was surprised when I found some tin-foil. When I was rolling back down the deer skin I heard a voice behind me.
"Yeah, me and Cole can live off the land, but it got annoying after a while, so we just went down to the town and got those run down supplies to help." Justins voice said behind me.
I was starting to get used to the guys showing out of nowhere, but, even still, I had jumped out of my skin, almost screamed my head off, and had almost slipped on the smooth caverns floor because of him, so I was kind of pissed at Justin.
"Jesus!!!" I practically screamed at him
"What!?!" he practically screamed back in surprise.
"You can't just sneak up on me like that and think I'll not freak out Justin!" he just looked at me and chuckled
"Well, you better get used to it quick princess" he practically laughed at me. I just kept glaring at him in exasperation. He just laughed more.
"Okay!!!" he said in a teasing tone. "I'm sorry for giving you a almost heart attack. Better?"
I turned my frown into a smile. "Yup." I said, smothering the word with sarcasm. I then stalked out the door.
* * *
As I tromped out, I saw Cole in the main cavern, glaring at the fire he had just started quietly. He heard my footsteps and looked up.
"Ummm... do you need any help?" I asked politely, my annoyance at the boy evaporating.
Cole shook his head, not looking up at me. "No, but can you get Justin to hurry it up getting those steaks? The fire is almost ready for them"
I nodded and went to get Justin and the steaks. He was just heading out of the makeshift kitchen when I caught up to him. He had three huge, juicy steaks in his hands. Just looking at them still raw made me realize how hungry I really was. He was holding them on a collapsible grill so that they could cook them over the camp fire and not worry about them being charred, or the juices escaping too much. He saw me and smiled, as if I had never snapped at him.
Seeing him made me twinge in embarrassment. I looked down from his deep eyes and mumbled a small, but heartfelt sorry. He nodded and shrugged, as if to say it was all right, the whole time, his smile got wider.
"Well, I hope you like elk." he said.
"Truthfully, I've never had it before" I replied.
Justin just goggled at me. "You’re kidding." he gasped, surprised
"No, I’m not.”
"Wow, that’s just sad." Justin said, shaking his head, but laughing in amusement. “well, you are in for a real treat then.” He said, smiling.
"Hey guys! I don't know about you," Cole yelled at us from his spot by the fire, "but I'm starving!!!"
Remembering, my stomach rumbled in agreement to ole. I held it and laughed. So did Justin.
"Okay, were coming Colie!!!" Justin said smartly.
Cole growled. "How many times do I have to tell you to not call me Colie!" He yelled at Justin. Justin just laughed, while a small smile played at Coles lips.
The forest looks ghostly in the moonlight, rather than the timeless beauty in the sunlight. Perfect. It fits. It’s like the forest knows that we are meeting and set this perfect look to it just for us. I sighed as I sat down on the same fallen over tree that I had two years back on the day that I met him. I had missed the deathly beauty of the Snohmian forest almost as much as I had missed him.
: Six months before:
"Dad! I'm leaving. That’s it. And I won’t come back. Like I said before, I’m sick of living your stupid life!"
My dad stood in front of me, shock and anger in his eyes.
“Fine.”He said. “Just don’t think you will be able to come back. Once you leave, that’s it.” I knew exactly what he was doing. He had been playing the same game since mom had died. But his little guilt game wasn’t going to work this time though.
"Oh yeah?" I murmured to myself. "’Cause I don’t plan to come back anyway." I whirled around and slammed the little door of my dad’s house that is in the middle of the forest. I have had enough. I walked into the trees, not even looking back and relaxed. I had finally done it. I had been planning to leave that stupid house forever now.
I started walking towards my pine tree after wandering and thinking of what I had done, not that I resented it. It‘s one of the tallest trees in the forest, but it had strong branches that go all the way to the ground. I had found it a couple of years back. For me, it was easy to find, because I go there almost every day (I think there might be a little trail from me too). I was still in wonderment of what I had done when I got there. I started climbing. For someone who has been climbing her whole life, it was quite easy.
I had tied my strongest knapsack on one of the topmost branches a couple of days before. When I got up to it, I brought it down, set it on my lap, and made sure no animals had gotten into it. It was bulging, since I had packed it with blankets, food, a flashlight, and some other stuff I would need to survive. I pulled out one of the blankets and got a little more comfortable. I planned to sleep in the tree tonight. The sun had already started to go down when some clouds started coming in. I ignored them and closed my eyes.
I was in that state of being half asleep, and half awake when it started getting really cold. The wind started blowing too. That’s when I saw the huge streak of lightning light up the sky. The deafening sound of the thunder came only a couple seconds later. With it, rain came down in palm-sized droplets.
Really tall tree+ thunder= not good. Crap. Well, there goes plan “A”. And I'm sure as hell not going back to that house again. So I slung my bag onto my back and climbed down the tree.
I know of a little clearing covered with ferns a little farther into this forest. I headed there. Another quite large roll of thunder sounded. Then the lightning came .In a minute, I was soaked. I kept walking though, but started thinking of the theory of instant Karma.
When I got to the clearing, I found a dry spot under a tree and dropped my bag. I started to pull a couple of ferns to make a little more cushion to lay on. It was getting really dark now, so I started to hurry up a little more. I was about to pull up my bag to use as a pillow when I saw a rustle in the bushes. A faint growl came from behind me. I froze. Another growl came, and another, until, they were louder than the rain. A ragged shadow came out from between the trees beside me and walked right up. More shadows followed it, but were smaller. They formed a ring around me, keeping a little distance from me- just enough so that I couldn’t reach out and touch them. The largest was in front. A flash of lightning lit the sky and the shadows transformed into ragged wolves. I gasped. The wolves looked at me with hunger in their dull eyes. I looked around. Some of the wolves were pacing, others were drooling.
I looked back at the one in front of me and stood up. He barked at me, but I kept rising. I looked around, this time looking for a gap in the formation. My search proved to be in vain until- yes! Right there, in between the tree and a wolf was a gap just big enough to fit me. I took a deep breath and flew through the gap with only a scratch from the tree on my arm and a snap from the dog on my leg. I got out though without tripping… barely. I didn't look back, but I heard a dog bark and twenty pairs of paws run after me. I sped up. Trees flew past me. Everything to the sides of me were a blur. The rain hit my face in what felt like needle points. I ran into another clearing and looked back. BIG mistake. The dogs saw my face and sped up. I whirled back around and kept on running.
At the end of the clearing, a voice yelled at me. "Climb a tree!" it screeched at me. I did what I was told and ran to the first tree on the edge clearing that was covering an old, but sturdy fallen tree. Two blurs ran past me while I was climbing. I flinched when I heard a dog yelp and a thud. A human voice cried out in pain. Another voice yelled out "hold on!" there was a crack and a yelp. I heard paws pad up to me. A huge, ragged wolfs head appeared instantly afterwards under me and snap at my feet. I screamed.
The wolf got a hold at my left foot. He pulled, only to get my shoe. Frustrated, it jumped at me again but missed. I started climbing higher. The rain stopped.
The wolf jumped back up for a third time. A shadow came from behind it and stopped it in mid-air. It threw the dog against the tree, making the whole thing shake. The wolf yelped in pain as it fell onto the ground. The shadow bent down over it swiftly and got a hold of the neck and turned. There was a sickening crunch over the hair-raising screech from the dog, and it was dead.
The shadow threw the corpse of the wolf into the bushes behind me. Everything was quiet, even the wind stopped. A howl/yelp came from one of the dogs, but I noticed that there was no big wolf anymore. Less than half of the pack was standing, and they all ran away when the wolf howled. There were lumps of ragged bodies all around the clearing.
A hand shot up to me. I screamed in shock. The shadows that took on all of those wolfs were human! They were human? I thought about taking the hand. Well, they did just save my life. So, I took the hand. It pulled on me until I fell down. Again, I screamed. Someone caught me around the waist though, and set me on the ground.
"You okay?" the person who had caught me said.
"Y-yeah" I stuttered. "Who are you?"
"Apparently, the people who just saved your skin from dog chow" a very much more different voice came from behind the guy who had caught me (and still had his hands around his waist).
"Cole, be nice" said the guy. He dropped his hands from my waist and went up to the person who I assume is Cole. He slapped him and turned back to me while Cole cursed. The moonlight came out from behind the clouds and I saw for the first time all of the two guys who had just saved me. The one who had caught me was a blond haired, light blue eyed guy that still had a little bit of a baby face, who looked about 18, two years older than me. The guy named Cole had black hair, but had light sea-blue eyes that popped. He looked my age. Both guys were pretty tall, lean, but very muscled. They only wore sturdy kacky shorts.
"I really hope that we got scratched up for the right girl" The guy named Cole said, glaring at me.
"Be NICE Cole, before crack that thick skull of yours" the blond guy scoffed. He looked at me.
"I'm sorry to ask, but could I be graced by knowing your full name?" he asked me.
"A- Arya Knowles? I don't have a middle"
Blondie smiled. "Told you" he muttered. Cole growled.
"Oh, let me introduce ourselves. My name is Justin Emitts, and the little baby behind me is Cole Jaspers. We need you to come with us"
I looked at Justin, and then at Cole, then back to Justin again.
"Wait, um... huh? I'm sorry, I don't understand at all. Why me?" I backed away from Justin, until I was against the tree. These guys save me from a pack of wolves just to kidnap me? It just made no sense!
Cole rolled his eyes at me, and murmured, just so I could hear "no you idiot! We’re saving you! Not kidnapping you. And it makes perfect sense to us. We need you!"
“I'm sorry; did I say that out loud? I don't remember...” I trailed.
"Your mother was Katrina Night, right?"
I frowned, trying to think of my mother and her name. I gasped. Cole was right, my mothers’ last name really was Night! How did he know my mother?!? "Yes?" I said slowly
"Then you need to come with us" Cole ordered
"I'm sorry to rush, but we are in danger here, we need to go. So, will you come with us-"
"or do we really need to kidnap you?" Cole interrupted sarcastically. Justin shot him a dirty look. Well... I was running away, so...
"Fine. I'll come willingly. Where is it safe?" I asked Justin, trying to ignore Cole.
"Up the mountain" Justin and Cole said at together. They looked at each other, frowning.
"Okay. There’s just one thing." I said
"What?" Justin asked patiently and politely. I was beginning to like him.
I sighed. "My bag is, well... somewhere. It has all of my stuff in it. I really need it. "I murmured, blushing. Such a girly thing to say! Cole and Justin just looked at each other. Cole suddenly busted out, laughing. He grabbed his stomach and fell to the ground. Justin looked at me apologetically. I scowled down at Cole, even if I couldn’t blame him for laughing at me. It really was a dumb thing to say.
"Sorry, sorry!" Cole gasped, and then rolled back over; laughing some more
Justin bowed his head slightly and covered his face with his hands. I could tell that he was trying to not laugh too.
“Is it really that funny?” I asked sheepishly, looking down at my bare feet.
"We’re really sorry, Arya. We’re just not used to habits like that." Justin looked up at me, looking sorry and a little embarrassed
"Really, It’s no problem. It was dumb of me to say it that way."
"Yeah, okay. I'm sorry to say that we can't go back for it. We don’t have very much time" Justin apologized. "We'll figure something out when we get to the cave." Cole rolled over again and sat up, glaring at Justin.
"Wai-" Cole got out before Justin shushed him.
Well, we had enough time to look for my shoes, but when we found them, I saw that the stupid wolves had shredded them beyond repair. I sighed and took them off. Bare feet were better than soggy socks. Justin assured me that my feet would callous over in no time. I was about to ask him how he knew that when I noticed his and Coles bare (and pretty dirty) feet. We started walking. When we got to the edge of the clearing I picked up my soggy coat and slung it over my shoulder. I had the notion I would need it later. We started making our way up the mountain. The only light to guide us was the moon, shining brilliantly above us in the now clear sky.
The climb was hard and slippery, but I knew it would be. What I didn't know was that it was going to be a really long night of walking and tripping. The guys bickered all the way up, but I got used to it after a while. They didn't totally ignore me though, Justin would ask me if I needed help when we started going over difficult patches of rocks, and Cole kept glancing back at me. When I would look back at him, smiling a little, he would quickly look away and murmur to Justin. I slipped a lot.
After a couple hours of walking/trudging/climbing/falling/freezing/listening with and to two strange, and (okay, I just got to say it) quite hot guys, Justin looked back at me.
"Hey, Arya, were almost there." He told me, grabbing my elbow and pulling me a little farther. I sighed in relief. Thank god!!! I mean, I loved the outdoors, but we were walking at a pretty fast pace and I was starting to get really tired. When I had left my dad, I hadn’t expected this. At all.
Justin led me to a little platform of flat rock and stopped. He dropped his hand from my arm and went to the rock wall. I looked up, wondering how far we were up. Cole appeared aside me and murmured to me “Come on, it’s gonna start raining again pretty soon.” Sure enough, when I looked up, I saw the dark clouds come back, already shrouding the moon half of the way.
Just went to a thin crack in the otherwise smooth surface of the rock wall. He set his hands carefully along it and pushed slightly. There was a groan, and part of the rock swung inward, like it was on a hinge. Justin disappeared into the hole the sliding rock had left. Cole pushed on my shoulder lightly, and then followed Justin inside.
I hesitated. Was it really a good idea to follow two mysterious guys into a dark cave? As if they had heard me and were trying to reassure me, a bright, warm light came from the hole. I heard and smelled a fire from inside, and heard Justin bicker to Cole about something. I washed away me fears and ducked into the hole. It was a entrance to a cave.
The cave was, well, not really a cave. Yeah, it was a hole in the mountain, but, it looked nothing like it. It was quite big, once you got through the one-person-at-a-time-hole for the entrance. The whole cave was lit by huge flood lights hanging from the ceiling. It looked like the cavern was in the shape of a lopsided star. There were five corners, but some looked like they leaded away from the main cavern. Justin came back up to me.
“Welcome to our place” He smiled at me. I looked at him and smiled back. He really was nice.
Justin led me to the farthest corner from the entrance. There was a hole on the right side of the wall. The hole had silver cloth draped over it. He led me through, pulling up the cloth that was thicker than I realized for me. On the other side was a little bedroom with a bed and a little dresser. The room color was a earthy, but relaxing dark tan color.
"Sorry about it being so small" Justin apologized as I sat on the bed. It was really comfortable.
"No problem!" I assured him. "It's perfect." I realized something then. “You want me to live here with you two?”
Justin nodded. “We really need your help. Things have gone wrong, and if you are anything like your mom, I know you can help us.”
I looked at him oddly. My help? “But don’t worry about it now.” I nodded a okay. Justing smiled. “Well, I’ll go get you some cloth-”
Just then, Cole barged in, glaring at Justin. "She can't use them!!" Cole growled, looking to me.
Justin sighed."She's going to use them!! I don't care if-" Justin growled. This was the first time I had actually seen him mad.
"Don't go there. Not with her in the room." They both looked at me. What the heck was up with him? I swear, Coles eyes had gone darker and flinty.
"I swear, if she wears my clothes, I'll-"
I stood up "Fine! I won't wear them! I really didn't know why I am here, but it isn't to cause trouble! All I need right now is some shorts." I get really nervous when people fight around me, so, I wanted them to stop. The boys looked at me, then at each other.
"Fine" Justin said, regaining his composure. He turned and walked out of the room, leaving me with Cole
((...And thats what i have right now!))
((okay, heres moree!!!!))
I caught Cole glaring at me… again. I sighed, annoyed and fed up of his constant glancing and staring, so I decided to glare back
"What’s your problem with me Cole? You’ve been doing that since you saw my face!" I practically growled in annoyance. By widening his eyes and dropping his ever crossed hands, Coles face went from mad to surprise. He openly looked at me, dumbfounded
"You caught me? I was that obvious?" he barely whispered
"Of course I did! Its very hard to not notice your every move when you have such bright eyes and-“ I stopped myself before I blurted anything else. I paused and mumbled a small sorry before looking up. Cole did something I never thought he would, or even could do, in the three hours I had been with him and Justin. Instead of yelling back at me, his ears and cheeks flushed red- he was blushing!
Cole put his head down, letting his long, still wet bangs fall over his face so I couldn't see him clearly.
"Crap" he muttered, shaking his head, and spraying water around the room. I smiled, and fought the urge to say ‘aww!!’. I mean, it was hard not to do so at the cute blushing boy. Only a small giggle escaped me, and I tried fruitlessly to cover it with a cough.
"What are you laughing at?" Cole snapped, his bright eyes darting and locking my gaze into place.
"You!" I said truthfully and bluntly, really not thinking. “What else is there to look at?” Coles face lit up more, as if my words were a switch,
"Sorry" I apologized, my smile dropping a little. I felt my cheeks start to flair in the awkward moment. I was blushing now too? Oh just my luck. Perfect.
Just then, Justin walked in again. Cole looked at me, giving me ‘the look’ that told me not to say a soul to Justin. Before my eyes, his blushing face turned into a cold, hard and ignoring face, but his eyes change in a different way, as they looked at me, I saw that they looked scared.
"Here you go." Justin said, handing me a pair of tan kakis that had seen better days. A lot of better days.
I said thanks and the two wordlessly left me alone in my room to change. I hung my still wet jacket on one of the bedposts and pulled off my jeans that were sticking to my legs. The kakis were a little baggy, but they didn't fall down, so I’m not complaining. I pulled off my over- shirt and hung it over my coat. My noodle strap under- shirt was damp, but good enough for me to keep wearing it..
When I was finished dressing and using my fingers as a hair brush, I walked into the main cavern. No one was tending the fire in there, so I went "exploring" around the vast place. By the entrance that led outside, there was a hole that had a cotton blanket draped over it, like mine, only mine was reddish, and this one was silvery. I walked over to it |||
"Hello?" I called. No one answered. I waited another couple of seconds for courtesy reasons before walking in. Behind this curtain was what looked like a pantry. Someone had gouged out shelves in the rock walls, and there were simple clay pots and glass canning jars of all sizes on a couple of the natural shelves. On the other side if the little room were rock cupboards that had a large skin covering it. I rolled back the, what looked to me like an elk skin to find a portable generator powering a small fridge that held raw meat and some berries in Ziplock bags. Beside the refrigerator were more cupboards filled with dried edible plants and spices. On the top shelve were some really worn down metal pots and pans to cook food in. Some seasonings were by them, and I was surprised when I found some tin-foil. When I was rolling back down the deer skin I heard a voice behind me.
"Yeah, me and Cole can live off the land, but it got annoying after a while, so we just went down to the town and got those run down supplies to help." Justins voice said behind me.
I was starting to get used to the guys showing out of nowhere, but, even still, I had jumped out of my skin, almost screamed my head off, and had almost slipped on the smooth caverns floor because of him, so I was kind of pissed at Justin.
"Jesus!!!" I practically screamed at him
"What!?!" he practically screamed back in surprise.
"You can't just sneak up on me like that and think I'll not freak out Justin!" he just looked at me and chuckled
"Well, you better get used to it quick princess" he practically laughed at me. I just kept glaring at him in exasperation. He just laughed more.
"Okay!!!" he said in a teasing tone. "I'm sorry for giving you a almost heart attack. Better?"
I turned my frown into a smile. "Yup." I said, smothering the word with sarcasm. I then stalked out the door.
* * *
As I tromped out, I saw Cole in the main cavern, glaring at the fire he had just started quietly. He heard my footsteps and looked up.
"Ummm... do you need any help?" I asked politely, my annoyance at the boy evaporating.
Cole shook his head, not looking up at me. "No, but can you get Justin to hurry it up getting those steaks? The fire is almost ready for them"
I nodded and went to get Justin and the steaks. He was just heading out of the makeshift kitchen when I caught up to him. He had three huge, juicy steaks in his hands. Just looking at them still raw made me realize how hungry I really was. He was holding them on a collapsible grill so that they could cook them over the camp fire and not worry about them being charred, or the juices escaping too much. He saw me and smiled, as if I had never snapped at him.
Seeing him made me twinge in embarrassment. I looked down from his deep eyes and mumbled a small, but heartfelt sorry. He nodded and shrugged, as if to say it was all right, the whole time, his smile got wider.
"Well, I hope you like elk." he said.
"Truthfully, I've never had it before" I replied.
Justin just goggled at me. "You’re kidding." he gasped, surprised
"No, I’m not.”
"Wow, that’s just sad." Justin said, shaking his head, but laughing in amusement. “well, you are in for a real treat then.” He said, smiling.
"Hey guys! I don't know about you," Cole yelled at us from his spot by the fire, "but I'm starving!!!"
Remembering, my stomach rumbled in agreement to ole. I held it and laughed. So did Justin.
"Okay, were coming Colie!!!" Justin said smartly.
Cole growled. "How many times do I have to tell you to not call me Colie!" He yelled at Justin. Justin just laughed, while a small smile played at Coles lips.
