Just wanted to let you all know that I have rewritten some of the previous chapters so that they flow better and the story makes more sense. This changes a few things later on, so you might want to go back a re-read them.
Thanks so much for reading!!!
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When we had both finished eating the rabbit, which I have to say was pretty good without any seasonings, we started getting ready to go to sleep. Reid found some more wood, which was amazing since he didn't even have an axe to cut any of the wood he found. He put half of the wood into the slowly dying fire and put the rest in a stack for the morning.
Then Reid took a small bedroll out of his pack. It consisted of two blankets. Normally you would lay on top of one and cover yourself with the other, but since there were two of us and one bedroll we would be sleeping on the bare ground.
"Here," Reid said as he handed me one of the blankets. "This is the thicker one that normally I would lay on. You'll probably need its extra warmth since you're so skinny."
"I'm not that skinny," I retorted. "But thank you anyways."
"You're welcome my dear."
I had just started spreading my blanket out on the ground, but I paused. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Calling you what?"
"You keep calling me 'my dear.' How come?"
"Gosh, I thought girls liked being called that," he murmured to himself. "Well, you're my dear... my darling, and I just like calling you that anyways. It's more fun."
"Okay. Maybe try calling me by my real name more often though. I don't want you to get it into your head that you can just call me whatever you want."
"And if I don't what will you do about it?"
"I don't know... something," I said trying to sound intimidating.
"Well then, 'my dear' it is."
"Ugh... fine. I guess you can call me my dear," I said in an exasperated tone. "Just not all the time."
"Yes... my dear."
I ignored his last comment and laid down on the grassy ground, covering myself with the thick blanket. Reid was right, it was very warm and I was glad for it. The full day's activities finally caught up with me and I quickly fell asleep in the warmth of the blanket.
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I woke up to the sound of birds calling to each other. The sun was just peeking over the horizon and the light coming from it filtered through the canopy of leaves above my head. I tried to stretch, but felt someone's arm wrapped tightly around my torso. It took me a second to remember figure out what had happened last night and how I ended up in Reid's arms. He must have rolled over closer to me and draped his arm over me in the middle of the night. It was sweet how he was holding me against him; I wasn't uncomfortable at all, I just felt like he would protect me no matter what. Maybe he had really meant what he had said last night.
I settled back into his arms and looked around at the scenery while I waited for him to wake up. It had been mostly dark when we had come to the clearing the night before, so I hadn't been able to see the true beauty of the place surrounding us. The trees around us were tall and slender with light bark. Their branches reached far out from their trunks and their leaves created a majestic canopy over the entire stream and bank.
The sunlight filtering through the canopy created a magical aura over the whole area. I felt like if I looked closely enough I would see faeries flitting around in the sparkling air. The stream bubbled quietly and as I lay on the ground I swore I could hear voices in the noise of running water. I was content to lay here all day soaking in the peaceful effect this place had on me, but I knew that we had to get going as soon as we could.
I took Reid's arm off me and got out from under the blankets. It was bitter cold, but not cold enough to keep me from working. I stood up and stretched out my arms and back. They were sore from sleeping on the hard ground, but that would soon wear off. I started walking towards where the extra wood was for this morning, but I hadn't taken more than a step before my knees buckled and I fell to the ground. I grunted in pain as my knee hit a rock.
My legs were so sore! I didn't think I was that out of shape; we had only walked for half a day, but my body was quite obviously not up to that. I tried to go a little slower this time, stretching my legs out on the ground until they didn't feel like someone had pounded the heck out of them for an hour straight.
I tried standing up again and this time it was easier to walk, but my legs still hurt quite a bit. It didn't help that my knee was bruising where it had landed on a rock, but I was determined not to let it bother me. If I couldn't walk for a day, then how was I ever going to get to the palace city on time.
The fire was completely out, so I set to work building a roaring fire in the little pit I had set up the night before. There were bigger twigs scattered all over the ground and it was easy to start a fire with them. I added wood to the fire and then warmed myself. I looked over at Reid, but he was still asleep. I decided to look around for something to eat for our breakfast; we were camped by a stream so it should be pretty easy to find some berries or something.
I walked along the bank was surprised to find raspberries growing close the bank of the stream, so I picked a bunch. I kept going along the edge of the stream, hoping to find some other tasty berries, but I had to go a short ways into the trees before I found anything good. I ended up with a handful of huckleberries, some mint, and a couple wild strawberries. I had heard that blueberries and huckleberries tasted very good with mint, but I had never had the chance to try it.
I hadn't gone very far from our camp, but when I got back I saw that Reid was whipping his head quickly back and forth, obviously looking for me. He had probably just woken up, but I didn't understand why he looked so frantic. "Over here you worry-wart," I called out to him. His head whipped around and looked at me. His eyes still had a trace of worry in them, but it soon melted away.
"Where were you?" he asked in a concerned voice.
"You'd think I was gone for hours."
"What was I supposed to think. I wake up and you and your blanket are gone. Speaking of, where is your blanket?"
"It's with yours."
"Oh... and you still haven't answered my question. Where were you?"
"I was getting breakfast for us."
"Ooh, nice. Wait, why is your blanket over here?"
"I don't know. I just woke up and you had your arm wrapped around me."
"Oh, sorry about that. I hope that wasn't weird when you woke up. By the way, what did you get for breakfast?"
"Don't worry about it. I got some delicious berries." I said, accentuating the word 'delicious'.
"Lay out a blanket," I asked Reid. He picked his blanket up and laid it on a smoother section of the ground. I took the berries from my apron and separated them into two different piles. They were pretty equal, but I let Reid have the extras. He probably needed more energy than me. I gave him a few mint leaves to try with the berries as well. "Eat up," I said, and we dug in. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
"Let's both try the mint and berries at the same time. I've heard that they taste really good together," I suggested.
"Okay. On the count of three put them both in your mouth." We both picked up a raspberry and a mint leaf. "One...two...three." I threw the berry and mint into my mouth and chewed, but quickly spit it back out. It was horrible! I looked up to see if Reid had had better luck than me, but he was scraping his tongue with his hands. "I don't think that was normal mint," I said.
"Me either. Let's go rinse our mouths out."
"Agreed." We hurried to the edge of the stream and scooped handfuls of the fresh water into our mouths. I swished mine around in my mouth, spit the water back out, and repeated several times. When the bitter taste was mostly gone I drank some water and sat back up. "Wow that was horrible," I said as Reid finished and came back up.
"Ya, how about we not do that again."
"That sounds like a good idea." We both stood up and sat down on the blanket. We ate the rest of the berries but avoided the mint. It was more filling than I had expected, but I had picked a lot of berries.
Once we had finished eating we decided it was time to get going. We shook off our blankets and rolled them up so that they would fit into his pack. Then Reid handed me a water sac and I filled it up in the river. When we were all ready to go Reid stomped out the remaining coals from the fire and we hiked back through the trees to the dirt road again. "Here goes another long day of walking," I thought to myself as we moved quickly down the road.
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AN:
I actually updated this on time this week! 😝
I'm so excited for Christmas this week! We are getting so much snow at our house. It's wonderful 😄
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you've enjoyed the story.
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