The next morning, I was the first to awaken. I quietly stoked the fire, so as to avoid disturbing Dylas and Avani as they slept. They had changed position in their sleep but remained curled up together, Dylas on his back with one arm wrapped around Avani, who slept with her head on his chest and her arm flung across his stomach. They looked so harmonious in their sleep, I admit I felt a pang of envy.
Shaking off potentially dangerous lines of thought, I decided to go catch some fish for breakfast. I dressed silently in the dim light, then headed to the lake, chopping down a slender sapling along the way and shaping it with my knife to use for spear fishing—an activity I had greatly enjoyed in the days before I was bound as a Guardian. I was out of practice, but fish were plentiful in the spring, so it wasn't long before I had a decent quantity of fish to take back to camp.
As I fished, I thought to myself about the people I'd grown up with—my family, my friends... and Maria. I wondered for the thousandth time since reviving how they'd lived out the remainder of their lives... if they'd been happy, and if they had remembered me long after I was gone. Displaced as I was in time, I occasionally felt a peculiar loneliness—the loneliness of one who is in a place and time but not of that place and time. I wondered if that was part of what drew us former Guardians together—that unique experience of not truly belonging anywhere. And despite being an Earthmate herself, Avani had befriended us all.
************
When I returned, Dylas and Avani were both awake and just finishing dressing. I greeted them and started to clean the fish, joined a minute later by Dylas, who seemed keenly interested in learning about spear fishing. I explained the theory to him as we worked, and I promised to teach him how some time. Meanwhile, Avani embarked on her morning exercise routine, having first released Baldur from his guard duty. I watched in fascination as she moved through a number of lunges, kicks, stretches, gymnastics, and contortions, ending in the same black flip landing in a crouch as the day before.
I noticed that Dylas likewise had stopped working and was watching her, completely engrossed. When she had finished and strolled over to splash her face with water, he said in a low aside to me, "I could watch her all day and never get tired of the sight. I don't know how she does it. Me, I can barely touch my toes."
"I wonder just how flexible she is? Have you ever asked her to show you?" I asked curiously.
"Uh... no. No, I haven't," he replied, blushing furiously.
"Hey, Avani?" I called to her as she dried her face. She looked up at me questioningly, and I continued. "Just wondering—exactly how flexible are you, anyway? I mean, that's some pretty amazing movement you have going on there, but I wondered if that was reaching your limit, or if you can flex even more than that?"
"Oh, sure," she said with a grin. "Want me to show you?"
"Sure, why not? I'm curious, at least, and I assume Dylas wouldn't object," I replied, grinning back at her.
She went back to the rock she'd adopted as her workout floor, and lay on her belly. She then raised her torso, bending her head backwards over her spine. At the same time, she lifted her legs up, bending them at the knee. She continued curling herself up tighter and tighter until finally her heels rested on her shoulders. Next she unfolded herself and stood up, then bent backwards farther and farther until she was doubled over backwards and grasping her ankles, the back of her head behind her knees. Then she went into a handstand, and holding her torso parallel to the ground, she slowly swung her legs back over her head until their entire length was bent back over her head, her backside almost resting on the back of her head. Next she slowly lifted first one leg, then the other, straightening them out so that they pointed towards the sky in a traditional handstand, then lowered them back down in opposite directions into side splits, continuing until her legs were parallel to the ground and then even farther. Then she again raised her legs and lowered them into front and back splits. Finally she lowered her legs until both feet were flat on the ground, her back arched, and she slowly straightened up until she was standing. Her face was flushed and she was breathing heavily, but she grinned and said, "Ahh, that felt great! I don't often stretch that deeply—it was good to push it a little bit."
We just stared for a minute, slack-jawed, then I slowly responded, "That... was incredible. No wonder you can execute such amazing maneuvers in battle."
She smiled and thanked me, then looked curiously at Dylas, who was still staring with his mouth hanging open. "Dylas?" she asked, questioningly.
I waved a hand in front of his face but got no response. "Ahh," I said, turning back to her with a smirk, "it looks like you've broken his head. I suspect there's only one surefire way to snap him out of it. I believe I will take Baldur on a very long walk, and I leave his cure in your... hands? We'll be sure to make plenty of noise when we come back, just to be on the safe side."
She blushed at what she assumed was my teasing. However, with complete seriousness, I called Baldur to me and we set out. I grabbed an empty sack to bring with me and kept an eye out for greens as we walked slowly through the springtime fields.
************
Sure enough, when we returned some while later, I found them preparing breakfast—or rather, she was trying to prepare breakfast while Dylas persistently held her in a tight embrace while nuzzling and kissing her neck. They both had a satisfied look to them that suggested she had successfully implemented my implied cure for Dylas's bedazzlement.
I dropped the bag of greens on the ground at Avani's feet, saying, "Glad to see you're back among the living, Dylas. Hey, I found some ramps growing nearby! And I picked some mushrooms, too."
Avani looked skeptically at the mushrooms in the bag, and asked, "Are you sure these are edible? I can't tell the good ones from the bad ones."
"Oh, there's no such thing as bad mushrooms," I said with a mischievous grin. "Only exciting ones!"
"Ugh," she replied closing the bag quickly. "I can do without that kind of excitement, thanks."
"True, true. You and Dylas do seem to get plenty of excitement. But for a single man like me...," I said with a mock sigh.
"Stuff it," said Dylas good-naturedly.
"Stuffed mushrooms..." I mused, "that sounds pretty good to me."
"Yeah, and I'll show you exactly where you can stuff 'em," Dylas replied, pulling the ramps and greens out of the bag and ignoring the mushrooms.
Soon breakfast was ready—grilled fish and a very good scramble of eggs, sautéed ramps and spring greens. Dylas and I had coffee while Avani sipped her hot chocolate. The morning's events caused us to get off to a late start, but no one seemed to mind too badly.
************
We headed southwards from our base camp, following an established path. After a little ways, the path forked, the branches continuing south or heading west. We opted to continue south, and soon found ourselves at the mouth of large cave. A stairway led down to lower levels, and so we drew our weapons and took the stairs down.
We found ourselves in an empty cavern, with an opening to an adjacent cavern to the south. We carefully entered the second chamber and found two large holes in the ground with a sign between them. I stepped up and examined the sign. "It asks if we are male or female, and says if female, to jump into the hole to the west."
"Well, I'm the only female here... so I guess I should be the one to go?" Avani said uncertainly.
"Like hell you will," Dylas said with a scowl. "We're sticking together, whether we go down one of the holes or just get out of here."
"I agree," I added. "Since we do have a lady in the party, I say we jump down the western hole—all three of us. I find this rather intriguing, myself." Avani nodded, and we stood at the edge of the hole and leaped down together, landing in another cavern similar to the one we just left. I took a look at the new sign, saying, "This sign says that if we're good cooks, take the western hole."
"Okay, western hole it is then," Dylas said, striding up to the opening. Again we jumped and landed in a similar cavern.
"Let's see," I said, "this time if we're beautiful or pretty or cute to take the western hole."
"West hole again," Dylas said.
"Thanks, I do rather pride myself on my appearance," I said, affecting a blush.
"Shut the hell up, you idiot. I wasn't talking about you," he said, rolling his eyes. Once again we jumped together.
This time we landed in an empty cavern, with only an opening to the north. We entered the adjacent cavern, and there we found a large, raccoon-striped creature. "At last you have come, my bride!" he exclaimed, gazing rapturously at Avani.
"Huh? Say what?" she replied, looking baffled.
"I've been waiting for twenty long years for you to arrive, and finally you're here. Quickly now, let us be married right away!"
"You can't be serious." she replied, looking aggravated.
"Like hell is she marrying you!" Dylas snapped, stepping forward to Avani's right.
"I agree. The lady has no wish to marry you, so I'm afraid it's out of the question," I added, stepping forward to her left.
"Oh, how quaint. You've brought your pets. A pony and a puppy," the creature exclaimed. "Well, if you won't marry me willingly, I'll just have to make you marry me!" With that, he incanted a shielding spell, trapping the three of us in the cavern.