About Crystals and Stars (On hold)

8-2

A/N: Please, don't forget to vote and/or leave a comment at the end. 

Next to her she heard Shimon groan, as he heaved the boar the last few feet to the fireplace. He had refused to let her help him when she offered to lend him a hand. When he hadn't given into her arguing, she had let him drag the huge animal on his own, declaring his stubbornness as male pride.

"It was heavier than I thought," he commented breathlessly.

Mayura looked at him worried. He appeared to be exhausted. A layer of sweat covered his forehead and his body shook with strong breaths. It was no wonder though. After his fight against the boar and him dragging the animal over the uneven ground of the forest and the sand, he was allowed to feel tired.

At least the boar would feed them for a few days. Looking at it Mayura became aware of a problem though. Tilting her head to the side, she said, "How are we going to grill it?"

Shimon blinked and then turned around and looked over to the raft, which they kept close to their firewood storage. "I have an idea."

It took Mayura a few moments to catch up but when she got what he was implying she exclaimed, "What about getting off the island?"

"We have more important priorities, remember?" Shimon looked at her with a stealthy gaze.

It was true. Surviving was their major priority. Yet, they could have continued to do it like they had by collecting mushrooms or catching fish. There would be no need to destroy the raft they had worked on so far. There wouldn't be any need, if he wouldn't be planning to train her.

Conflicted, she nodded. She wasn't sure, if this was a good idea. What difference would it make, if she knew how to swing a sword?

"Could you start a fire while I built something to put the beast on?" His voice startled her out of inner argument.

"Of course," she replied. Even if their routine would change from today, she wanted to be as useful as she could and so she quickly walked to their firewood storage.

It was a long time later, with her building a fire, him building a stand to hold the boar above the fireplace, which wouldn't crash under its weight and them washing off the sand of the animal's skin, when they finally sat down to eat, cutting of pieces of meat beneath the thick skin with the dagger. It was the best thing she had tasted since ending up here.

Mayura, sitting on her heels in the warmed up sand, leaned back with a sigh and looked up into the darkening sky. It had been another long day. One she might not have seen to its end, if it hadn't been for Shimon coming to her rescue.

She wished she could repay him for his kindness and for risking his life.

She skipped her eyes over to him. Legs crossed he sat next to her in reach to the boar slowly roasting above the fire. He wore rings beneath his eyes, obviously in need of sleep. It would help, if he would sleep in a bit tomorrow but it was unlikely of him to that; this was not the Shimon she had gotten to know a bit.

Yet, she had learned something new about him today: He cared. He cared about the life of others and jumped to their rescue. And the idea that he cared about her filled her stomach with warmth. She smiled softly while it rose up to her chest.

She knew she could trust him. Thinking about it, she already had. She wondered how easily and fast she had grown to trust him. It was the first time since their second day on this island that she thought about it and she was surprised to find out that she had trusted him for a while now.

Perhaps it was time to raise a topic they had circled around since they've met. Perhaps it was time to tell him the reason why she was here and ask him to help her to get to Tsuchimikado. Though it felt bitter now. While she had thought it to be a fair request because they could be useful to each other – after she had regained the ability to pay him – she felt like she used him. After all what he'd done for her, all the times he had jumped in to help her, when something was going wrong, after him looking out for her, after him risking his own life, it felt unfair to ask something like this from him.