Summer Solstice

Guardians

{If that was where he was headed, so was I.}

I grabbed a small silver bucket sitting on the floor of the shack and filled it with snow, dousing what was left of the fire. I didn't want to accidentally burn the shack down.

Closing the door behind me, I started off, following Konai's footprints in the snow. Part of my mind was still stuck on the dreams I'd had that night. I was sure I'd talked to someone, but they weren't real, couldn't have been. She'd been made of flames and had been, I believe, friendly. With as scared as I was of fire, that was a strange dream to have. I'd rather have dreamt making friends with the polar bear.

The snow slushed under my shoes, melting fast. From where the sun was, low in the sky, I guessed it was early morning. Very early morning. I knew I should have headed home instead. Homer was no doubt worrying about me, wondering where I was. But I needed to check on Konai, needed to know that he was okay. He could have collapsed somewhere on the way to Maggie's, or be unconscious in the snow.

I walked faster.

The only other memory I had from the night before made no sense. A dark figure had loomed over me. I couldn't tell if Konai was still with me or not at the time, but the figure had been daunting. It didn't move or speak as it watched me in the dark. I couldn't tell how long it had stayed there, but then it had nodded, as if understanding something, and had walked out. The breeze from the open door had me blinking, and the room was empty again, the whole thing dreamed.

I'd woken up unharmed and there were no signs that anyone, other than Konai and I, had been in the shelter. The two... things, whatever they had been, were obviously just stress induced hallucinations. But why had I woken up alone?

Stupid.

He'd left. Without waking me. Without telling me he was okay.

Idiotic.

I knew I was getting unreasonably mad, but he'd gone without me, without any way to make sure he'd get to Maggie's safely. He'd gone alone, instead of taking me with him. I was his girlfriend. Did he think it was okay to just leave me out there in the snow, alone?

Moron.

If he didn't understand what a mistake that was, he would. I didn't think of myself as frail, but I was a girl, alone in the middle of nowhere, in the snow. What if a polar bear, or wolf, or any other wild animal had found it's way to the shack? Being breakfast for a wild animal was not something I endeavored to be. But he'd done it, left me there, alone. Asleep and vulnerable.

Now I was stomping through the snow, intent on letting him know exactly what I though of what he'd done. A few minutes later I found the short street that led to Maggie's, and sighed in relief. All the lights in her house were on, which meant she was awake, and hopefully had Konai at the hospital.

As I rounded the edge of her house, her car still parked in the drive, I noticed that Konai's tracks didn't lead to her front door. At the edge of her gate, the footprints smudged into, well, I wasn't sure what. It looked a bit like.....

"Oh... no."

He'd fallen in the snow, and there was a smudge of red pressed into the ground where he'd lain. He had collapsed, was still bleeding badly. The rest of the footprints, where he'd limped the rest of the way, led past her house and her car, around to her back gate. Forgetting my anger, I ran through the open gate, but paused as I saw Konai's discarded jacket and shirt in the snow. Drops of blood trailed up her back steps and I took a cautious step around them and up to her back door.

At the sound of voices, I paused, just inside the doorway. Her back porch was enclosed, and the door to her house was covered in a gauzy white curtain. I walked forward slowly, listening to the voices inside.