That evening during dinner everyone appeared exhausted from the all-day walkabout. Several more samples of excrement on the trail and tufts wolf hair found on low branches of trees had been taken. Many tracks were photographed but no one claimed seeing any other traces of the animal they had all come there to study. Crissa felt this might be the last chance she had to share her brief encounter with one, but still refrained from doing so, keeping the exhilarating but disturbing incident to herself.
"Tomorrow, we shall go out to the area Svend showed us," Dr. Dekker announced as the food was brought out by Jannick and Lara. "The place near the wolf dens. And from there we will build a blind."
"A what?" Crissa asked David softly. She had finally gotten the nerve to sit next to him.
"It's a small shelter, he told her under his breath. "For camouflage. To hide in and wait."
"To wait for what? The wolves to come and eat us like cows?"
David began to laugh, almost choking on the first bites of his dinner.
Everyone looked at the two of them.
"You OK Dave?" Brad asked, across from them.
"Yeah fine. I'm OK."
"It was all Crissa could do to keep from smiling at the situation."
"So, who will man this blind, Professor?" Brad continued.
"I'm putting you and Crissa into that responsibility," the professor said. "Since you both have cameras with decent telephoto lenses."
No one said anything.
"I want Josh and Mary to hang back here at the hotel tomorrow. To see what they can learn through analysis of the samples we took today. If my hypotheses are correct . . . we just may have a real breakthrough on our hands."
Again, no one had the courage to ask the professor what his educated hunch was. After the bizarre revelation by the villager that morning, all were quietly concerned with how unreal the whole scenario was turning out, regarding the wolves and humans sharing the remote environment. For it seemed the group as individuals, all feared the current situation in relation to certain legends and tales of wolves they had heard as children. Before their excursion into the mountains of eastern Germany, any on the team would have simply dismissed those stories as folklore. Except perhaps the professor, who it was now certain kept this very agenda—from the time of organizing and posting the trip abroad.
"So that leaves Julie and David who will accompany me up to find a wolf den. If we're lucky."
Julie immediately looked over at Crissa. She raised her eyebrows as a subtle message that spoke volumes. Crissa tried to show no reaction to this directive, of course rather being with David in any case. She also realized, as perhaps David did too, that protesting their assignments for the following day would only cause suspicion among the others that some natural attraction had quickly developed between the two.
"So, do you all understand your duties for tomorrow?" the professor asked, smiling before he sat to enjoy his dinner.
The young group, which had already begun eating their dinner—soup, salad, and fresh river trout, nodded their heads somewhat reluctantly at their leader. David turned and gave Crissa a subtly disappointed look, presumably about them not being together, which she secretly returned to him.
Following the dinner, as before, they watched the young Lara come out to clear the table. Brad, who obviously found her attractive tried greeting the girl in his rudimentary German, which she quietly ignored, keeping her eyes down to her duties. Once again, the group observed the host's daughter with both sympathy and curiosity regarding her reported loss of speech. Putting it together with what shocking revelation they had learned that day from a local only piqued their interest in her disability and what may have caused it.
As before, once the meal was concluded, the members of the group were free to sit and converse by the fire. As Julie excused herself to go back to her room, wishing, as she said, to try and contact her mother through Viber, David leaned close to Crissa.
"Come with me. I want to show you something."
He immediately got up from the table and walked leisurely to the stairs alone, it being understood that she would follow him later, not causing suspicions about their meeting somewhere.
As Crissa went up the stairsand into the darkened hallway which led to the guest rooms, she found David waiting for her.
"This way," he said and disappeared down another passageway that everyone had assumed ended with a closet door, possibly for cleaning supplies. David opened the door and it led into another hall which was dark. Taking out a small penlight from his pocket he proceeded down the mysterious corridor.
"Shut the door behind you," he told her as he went on.
Crissa could feel her heart beating faster as she quietly closed the door and went down the dim hallway. David waited for her, and then taking her by the hand, opened another half-door which opened to a steep and narrow stairway. Obviously, this led to the rooftop of the lodge. The two climbed the stairs slowly and pushed open hatch-like barrier from which they were able to crawl out onto a flat section of roof, open to the stars.
David led Crissa out to the middle of it. The cool night air was fresh and bracing, even in the summer. Crissa kept holding his hand as her fear was they were some three stories above the ground and did not want to go near the edge.
"Fantastic, isn't it?" he asked. He was looking up at the clear night sky where the Milky Way, as a cloud of whitish blue stars, shone prominently against an inky black canopy.
"Yes. It is fantastic," was all she could say.
"This whole place is unreal," he added, enthusiastically.
"It totally is, David. But . . . how did you . . ."
"I guess I'm a natural explorer. It's gotten me into trouble a time or two. But I can't help myself. I just love finding these out-of-the-way places."
He held her hand tighter.
"Wouldn't you just love to sleep up here?"
The question caught her completely off guard. It was the first time in her life she had even came close to being alone with a guy in such an isolated and beautiful place, let alone being asked to sleep with him there."
He looked at her and could see the shock on her young face.
"Hey, I didn't mean . . . sleep with me in that way. I just meant . . . experience this amazing view all night, under the stars."
Crissa was both relieved but also slightly concerned that perhaps he didn't find her attractive enough to mean the term in its more intimate context.
"I guess it would be pretty . . . daring," she said boldly. "I can't believe how dark those mountains are out there." This was in response to looking out toward the east, where they had been that day. The adjacent woods harbored no lights or sign of mankind.
David then unexpectedly turned and put his arms around her in a warm embrace. She felt a fluttering in her stomach—a sensation she had felt with him earlier, in Berlin, when he kissed her during the outing. And again, the delicious feeling had come just the evening before when he promised his protection and once more pressed his lips to hers.
Crissa felt as David's face neared hers, that this was going to be more than a mere kiss of protection, or a kiss of friendship. She sensed in her own body those pheromones interacting with his, realizing her animal self was truly awakening while in his arms.
As his lips met hers, softly at first, she let her body lean into his and felt as if she was surrendering totally to his powers of attraction--allowing him to do to her, all he desired. And as the quiet kiss evolved into a deeper, more passionate sign of their mutual attraction, newer sensations swept over Crissa in waves and pulses. Her body seemed to be floating as David's hands moved up and down her back and shoulders—resting on her hips and igniting yearnings she had only had in fantasies.
The moment was suddenly and unexpectedly shattered.
"Hey! You guys up there?" It was the voice of Brad on the stairs below.
"Yeah, Brad . . . Come up," David answered slowly. "Out here . . . on the roof."
Crissa felt a shock of cool air waft between their bodies as David left their sensual embrace and stepped away.
"Whoa . . . This is so cool!" Brad exclaimed as he appeared and stepped out next to them on the platform.
He walked over and gingerly looked down, off the edge.
"Kinda dangerous up here . . . but what a great place to catch the view, huh?"
"That's the idea," David said calmly. Obviously annoyed.
"How is it, Romero . . . you always find these . . . hidden places?"
"Just lucky, I guess."
Brad looked over at Crissa still standing hintinly close to David, and with a rather guilty look on her face.
"Yeah, Dave. Lucky is the word for it, pal."
He then smiled to himself.
"So. You guys coming down for a good night's sleep? Seems we're going to need it tomorrow. God knows what that crazy prof is going to expose us to out there somewhere."
All three looked out to the void and Crissa thought seriously about what he said.
Just before departing the rooftop, they all looked eastward once more. Toward the dark, forested German border and the lonely mountains of Poland beyond. While descending the narrow stairway, Crissa looked back at David following her. She felt her body cooling further in places only moments before it had reached a near boiling point.
* * *