Enar's Vacation - Open Beta

Chapter 44

3896 Words

This is a beta version of Enar's Vacation. Changes can - and probably will - be made as a result of reader feedback. I hope you'll enjoy it and I hope you'll take the time to give me some feedback. It will help me make this story the best it can be.

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"Wait! Enar. The pie."

"What?" He turned around and looked at her.

Amanda pointed at the basket, next to the chest. "We never ate the pie that grandma packed for us."

"Oh..." He couldn't be carrying that with him back to the burrow.

"I can't eat it all myself." Her cheeks flushed and she smiled . "Would you mind staying a little longer and have some pie with me?" She tugged at the hem of her sweater again, pulling it down as far as she could.

Enar shivered. "I don't know. I'd really..." He wanted his bed and dry clothes and sleep.

Then again, she probably did too. Amanda wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. He wasn't the one who'd have to sleep in a loft - which probably didn't have very much hay in it anyway. It was his fault she was here. Poor little thing.

He sneezed.

Amanda's eyes grew wide, and she hurried over and placed her palm against his chest. Warm. Her hand was so warm.

"Oh, Enar. You're freezing." She grabbed his arms and stared into his eyes. "You can't leave like that. You'll catch your death out there."

"Yeah, well..." Enar turned his head away and sniffled. "What can you do?" He had to leave eventually, and then he'd get soaked again. The rain wouldn't stop anytime soon.

Amanda tightened her grips on his arms, "We have to get you out of those wet clothes." She shook him back and forth, forcing him to look at her again. "We'll hang them to dry and then we can have pie and wait for the rain to ease up."

"But I've got nothing else to put on?" He grimaced and released a short breath. "I won't get any warmer sitting around here in my undies, right?"

"Shush you. Nonsense. We'll wrap you in a blanket and that'll warm you up." Amanda beamed at him and went to get one of the blankets. "Don't you worry, Mama Manda will look after you and feed you pie." Giggling, she pulled one of the blankets down from the wall. "A bit of food will do you good."

Enar sighed, but a smile, unbidden, crept on to his face, and he started unbuttoning his shirt. "Okay then. Okay." No way his clothes would dry in the time it'd take to eat a piece of pie, but if it made her happy, he could live with that.

Amanda held the blanket up in front of her; arms above her head. Enar stripped out of his shirt, almost dropped it on the ground, but caught it and hung it over his shoulders, and unbuckled his jeans.

"Bah! Gosh darn it!" The blanket shook a little, accompanied by the sound of Amanda giggling. "This blanket doesn't have any holes to peek through."

Enar grinned to himself. He could wait a little bit longer if it made her happy. He liked it when she was happy.

Eventually, and without falling over, he managed to get out of his wet jeans. "Okay, I'm done. Give me the blanket." He hung his clothes over one arm and reached out his free arm to grab the blanket.

"Hah!" The blanket lunged forward, throwing itself over him with a roar. "Rawr! I'm the blanketmonster!"

Enar tottered on one leg, blinded by the blanket and fighting to keep his balance, when short, strong, arms wrapped themselves around him and held him still. "Hey, stop!" Laughing, he shrugged, trying to shake free. "Help! The blanketmonster is trying to eat me."