Walk A Different Path 🤍 Jaa/First

Chapter 13 ~ just another minute ~

The boys didn't talk much as they rode down the mountain, what could they say and the only sounds they heard were the soft steps that the horses made in the snow and the occasional snort and whinney.

It was as if even the horses knew that something big was happening or maybe they were picking up on Maskwa and Sam's emotions.

After about an hour and a half of riding, Maskwa took up Cara's reigns and led her to the left making a wide arc.

"what's going on?" Sam asked him.

"this place is Eagle Point, you see that old tree over there, the one with a branch that looks like an eagle in flight? the ground over there is where there is ice beneath the new snowfall, we have to walk around it so that the horses don't slip and hurt themselves" Maskwa explained.

"be careful on your way back up won't you, I'll be worrying about you" Sam said as Maskwa got them back on track again.

"I'll be ok baby' I don't want you to be worrying about me and not taking care of yourself" Maskwa said.

It was weird, they only had a few more hours left with each other but they couldn't think of anything to say apart from the obvious and it was better to leave those things unsaid, if they didn't say them out loud then they could pretend that it wasn't really happening.

When Maskwa could no longer handle the silence he rode close to Sam's side and slipped his caribou hide glove off before holding his hand out for Sam to take then Sam did the same and they rode quietly beside each other, just holding hands until the ground became uneven and they needed to let go of each other for the sake of safety.

Sam recognised the area, they were quite close to the farm now, in fact it was just over the next hill, was it really only a few weeks ago that he had been here and was dreading going up the mountain and now he was dreading leaving it.

There was so much he wanted to say but he couldn't, promises he wanted to make but didn't have all the solutions yet? 

Why hadn't they stayed in bed a little longer this morning, he wished they had, he wished they'd made love one more time last night even though they had both been exhausted. 

He wished he had spent more time with Maskwa in the barn or down in the basement instead of worrying so much about keeping the house tidy.

How was he going to manage without having Maskwa beside him every night, without being able to thread his fingers through Maskwa's beautiful long hair, without being able to kiss him or make love with him.

Sam kept telling himself he would be ok, he had been ok before and he'd be ok again and it's not as if they would never see each other again.

He went on shoots all the time, sometimes for months on end and left friends behind, but then Maskwa couldn't be classed as just a friend.

He could see the roof of the farm now, drawing closer with every step that Cara took. How was he going to manage without seeing his sweet Caramel Latte, would she forget him?

Maskwa watched as the emotions flitted across Sam's face and he knew what he was thinking without asking because he felt exactly the same. Everything felt surreal, another couple of hours and he would be riding back up this trail alone as if it had all been a beautiful dream. 

Would he wake up to discover that he had a hangover from drinking too much in the bar, would his last memory of Pipon turn out to have been a dream within a dream and would Sam just be a face he had seen on a magazine cover or an advert on TV?

He knew he was being fanciful when he saw his friends from the Halfway Farm come out front to greet them both, no doubt there would be a hot drink and a steaming bowl of stew ready and a nice break for the horses.