It was as if time had ceased, like I stood on a watery plane between reality and fiction, a dark abyss void of anything other than myself. No friends to remember, no family, no-one. “Hello?” I called out. My call echoed off into the darkness, reverberating on the thin layer of what seemed to be water that flowed beneath my feet. No matter which way I turned, the water flowed away from me. “Hello? Anyone there?” The echo travelled along the stream the same as before, slowly dying out, falling into a deafening silence.

My feet pattered against the water while walking down the stream. The muscles in my hands tensed slightly as my breaths grew heavy. The further I walked the more sweat flowed down my body, conjoining with the water below; the tenser my hands became, the harder it became to breath. The pattering of my feet echoed louder through the abyss with nothing in sight. Not even a reflection of myself was in the water, yet thankfully my body was still visible to me.

I walked for what felt like hours, my legs had begun tensing with each step, my panting had become unbearably loud. Rubbing the back of my neck, I stopped and looked around more. Nothing had caught my eye, yet I continued to look. The distance was still dark and bleak, my body remained the same, as did my missing reflection. The water’s ripples continued to exude from my position, but the ripples ahead were different now, coming towards me instead of away.

Pushing myself, I walked over to the different waves to see it focused on a single point. It was like me, water waves dispersing away from this one spot, but nothing was there. The water was too shallow to hide anything of substance, it barely covered the bottom of my shoes. Shaking my head and turning to walk away, more ripples flowed towards me from a spot behind me. My body tensed immediately, that wasn’t there before. Nothing was different on my other sides, just two spots acted the same as where I stood.

Did I drop something? My necklace maybe? My griffon necklace still hung by my neck. A hole in my bag or pouches? While they were worn, no holes were apparent. What was this? Was it a trap? I had to check to see if something was covered by the water. I got down on my knees and felt no water against them. My pants nor legs felt even a speck even though they were slightly covered. Reaching for the spot, my arm began to shake, none of this made sense, I had just walked through the part I was reaching for. I knew there was a floor only an inch deeper than the water.

The cold water slowly enveloped my hand as I pushed against it, and felt no floor beneath. The skin of my hand felt ablaze, like it was stuck in a flame. My bloated looking hand disappeared into the dark murky water as I continued to reach down, completely submerging my whole forearm. This didn’t make sense. None of it did, it was like the rules were changing, bending to someone’s whims.

My arm was frozen in place and yet shook continuously, still submerged by the water, it was impossible to see. The muscles in my fingers started to contract, I tried to move them even just a small amount, but they had stuck in place. That’s it, I’m done. But before I could pull my arm out, something drifted into my hand. My whole body froze over as what felt to be a tangled and damp bunch of string wrapped around my cramped fingers. Looking down into it, I still saw nothing, but it had attached to me. Is it the branches? No, too thin and soft. It feels more like…

My eyes grew wide, my body reacted on its own. My fingers clamped onto it and yanked, pulling it immediately out of the water. Water splashed out along with my hand. The hair clung to my fingers as a human head swayed, attached to the strands. Its hair was dark, and its skin was pale, just like mine. Its eye lids hung open, revealing its empty dark blue eyes, just like mine. Her thin lips sat slightly ajar between her drained yet pink, puffy cheeks, and on her right cheek sat a dimple, right where I remembered it. Mum? The lids of my eyes struggled to hold back the tears that were building up. I pulled my mother’s head in closer to my chest and lent forward surrounding it with my whole body. I hoped to feel its warmth, but only felt the cold of the water dripping down my arms onto my legs. My grip grew tighter as more of her began bobbing up from beneath the depths. Her clammy hands appeared first, followed by her stubby legs, her bare torso, her wrinkled feet, and finally her plum iron shield and purple spiked hammer. My right hand reached out to her, but I pulled it away. My face grew sombre as I turned away. My nose and eyes were flowing like a river, no matter how hard I tried to stop it, I just had to keep wiping all of it away. My throat went hoarse as I cried out. “Anybody! Help! Alistanna! Sylv! Mrs. Moskav! Forland!” My eyes grew puffy and red, my voice was now barely a whisper. “Please, save us. Save us, Queen Maria.” How could this be real. I don’t want it to be real, do I?

An air bubble popped from the water behind me. My eyes grew wide once more, the ripple. My head snapped around to see in the middle of the ripple, a single brown and blonde feather bobbed. My unwavering grip loosened, and my arms dropped to my side, causing my mother to roll down my lap and splash back into the water. I rushed over to the feather, not bothering to get to my feet, and dived into the water. It was just as deep as the other, maybe even deeper. My vision faded as I swam further beyond, the cold water grew warmer the further down I got. I was coming, I was going to find him, I wanted to save him.

My eyes opened to a blinding light, its movements were sporadic, it crackled and hissed, and with it was a dark figure who hung over me. Its head was round, with long and wavey black hair. Its straight, small nose sat between slightly hollowed cheeks, and its hazel eyes stared longingly into mine. “Thank you, Queen Maria.” She whispered. “He’s awake! Welcome back, you slept for quite a while.” Alistanna smiled ear to ear.

My head laid on her religious black and red robes, pressing against her soft legs. “Wish I could have slept for a little longer.” Or do I? “It’s rare for me to get a good rest these days.”

“Alistanna has been worried sick since you were knocked out.” Sylv said, dragging the collar of her white robes to her mouth to cover her giggling.

“Shut up! Just because I checked on him every once in a while, doesn’t mean I was worried” Alistanna objected, moving her soft, smooth fingers away from my hair.

Forland, who’s own chuckling echoed against his chest plate as he lifted it over head, decided to chime in, “Oh please. Like you haven’t been sitting over there this whole time going,” he placed his chest plate down to his side and pushed his leather gloved palms against each other and continued, “Queen Maria, please help Taros wake up healthy as soon as you can. My devotion will grow ever so stronger if you grant thy blessing.”

“SHUT UP!” Alistanna shouted, throwing a stick at Forland, but missed him entirely and instead had it land in the campfire the other three surrounded. Sylv and Forland fell into laughter while Alistanna’s face grew redder by the second. Boris, who was smiling and mixing something in a metal pot, used his furry palm to wave Alistanna and I over to the fire.

“Thanks for calling for me.” I said to Alistanna, placing my hand on her shoulder, causing her already red cheeks to glow. “Come on.” Getting to my feet, I extended a hand to Alistanna, pulling her up off the ground. We walked over to the fire and sat with the others on three bits of Stygian tree bark that most would assume as a normal tree’s lumber. “What’s for dinner?” I asked, hoping for my favourite, Groarden soup or mushroom pie with Boris’s brownies for dessert.

“Classic.” Boris replied cheerily in his deep voice, rubbing his stomach as he did. Yes, definitely groarden soup. “Bozkt soup.” Fuck you.

“Cool.” I said in a monotoned voice, trying to hide my excitement.

“Yes!” Sylv shouted at the same time, shaking so much her short violet hair began tangling itself. Her long and pointy ears were as high as any elves; her smile spread across her slightly hollowed cheeks. Her love for food never seized to amaze me, I mean, how do you like anything Bozkt related?

Boris stirred the Bozkt around in the boiling pot. Sniffing the pot with his larger snout, his brow furrowed. He reached over to his side and grabbed out salt and pepper, sprinkling them in. He sniffled again, and again his brow furrowed, his chubby cheeks tightened, but then it all smoothed back out as he reached into his short’s pockets, pulling out his special herb, Secria mountains uter, apparently, it’s different to Monulume’s uter. And with just a little piece of thyme and one more sniff, a smile sat on his chubby face.

Boris stirred as the fire raged on. The fire beneath was made mostly of dried grass, poppies and sticks, with one slab of Stygian bark stuck in the middle for the pot to rest. This was all surrounded by a moat of mud which had nearly turned to stone. This flame will be lit all night. The fiery orange flames popped as the water boiled over the pot, giving a quick burst of heat, and singeing some of Boris’s exposed chest hair, before returning to the soft warmth it protruded.

“Well,” Forland said as he finally finished unbuckling his armour, showing us his old, moist, brown tunic he had worn underneath. Getting to his feet, he wiped down his tunic with his coarse hands while continuing. “While we wait for Boris’s dinner to be prepared, I think it is essential for us to go over battle plans one more time, otherwise some of us may get too overzealous again.” He paused as everyone slowly turned their eyes onto me, then quickly back to him. “Now, we will get through the basics quicky. As you know- oops. Sorry.” He said, moving out the way of Boris so he could rest his bozkt to the side. Boris then threw a pan back onto the open flame with some meat and oil sitting inside, oh thank Maria. Forland continued. “As I was saying. We are in the Luna Forest, we will be resting here tonight and after we are done with the cave we will rest here again, so don’t pack too heavy tomorrow. Also, Alistanna, we will need a barrier up for tonight, don’t forget to do that. Do not want a repeat.” Forland looked down at his left leg and winced, before continuing once more. “Anyway, this cave is routed at the heart of the Forest, and we have been tasked with a simple clear out.”

Alistanna raised her hand during Forland’s little speech and interrupted, “Is this something we really need to go over?” Forland’s eyes flicked, from jumping to each of us, to now rest purely on Alistanna. His brow narrowed as his glare burned into her. “I just mean right now.” Alistanna back tracked. “Like, we only defeated the trolls an hour or two ago, we have barely had any rest, and Taros literally just woke up. He nearly just died, just to wake up to this. His head’s probably still spinning, can’t this wait until tomorrow?”

Forland stood still; his chiselled jaw hung slightly open. He swayed slightly side to side, his mouth repeatedly opening and closing, his eyes looked upwards as he went from a wince to an open mouth then back wincing. Shaking his head, he replied, “While he shouldn’t have been by himself, I guess you are right. We will talk about this tomorrow, but still don’t forget to do the barrier Alistanna.” She nodded. “Well okay then, how long we got Boris?”

“Five seconds.” Boris said, taking his shield straps off his shoulders. He then grabbed and poured the Bozkt and meat into the bowls. As he got up and handed out the bowls, looking into mine, I only had one bigger and smaller piece of bozkt and two bigger and one smaller piece of meat to everyone else even two. Looking over to Boris’s bowl, I saw his had an extra bit of Bozkt but a bit of his meat was missing. We locked eyes for a second, I smiled, giving a little laugh, as he gave a little nod. We all looked at our food, picked up our cutlery and-

“WAIT!” Alistanna shouted. “We have to gift our resolve to the meal first.” She said, clutching onto the crown crest on her left side, all high and mighty-like.

“Alistanna,” Sylv replied in her soft, kind voice. Alistanna looked over to Sylv, possibly hoping for encouragement, because Sylv’s voice cracked, and she stuttered as she tried to push out a sentence that wouldn’t come.

“Queen Maria, gift our resolve to this meal.” I quickly spat out while taking my first bite. The normally terrible Bozkt melted in my mouth when it contacted my tongue. Boris, you’re a miracle worker. Its normally sour flavour was barely tastable, only enough to elevate the dish to another level.

“Taros!” Alistanna yelped, yanking the wooden spoon out of my mouth, thankfully without any of the food coming with it. “You know that’s not how it works! We need to read a passage from The Alignment.”

“Okay,” I said, snatching my spoon back from her. “You can do that, while we eat. Surely one blessing from a cleric should cover us all right?” The others nodded their heads in agreement, then dropping their heads, they began devouring their food.

“Fine, whatever.” Alistanna pouted, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms. She sat back down and opened her book up to a random spot, before mumbling to herself about whatever was on the page.

I rolled my eyes, let out a sigh, and swivelled over to her side, grabbing her book from her hands. She immediately glared at me, her eyes were redder than the flames they reflected, and I began to recite the first paragraph. “With Maria, the kingdom rose. With Maria, the people will go. Maria is strength, she is wisdom, she gives us power and grants our freedom.”

Her eyes softened, a little smile started to take shape, which quickly turned to a smirk as she sarcastically spoke, “I was actually doing this verse.” Shoving her finger towards the old crusted page in front of us.

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“This isn’t the one about the nymph who birthed an eight-legged horse again is it?” I replied, snorting.

“Shut up!” Alistanna laughed, shoving me to the side, with a wide smile on her face.

After gifting our resolve, we dug into our meals, devouring them in mere minutes while also trying to hold a conversation with one another. The chatter and laughter grew louder through the meal as the atmosphere became more comfortable. But then, we all fell silent as Boris slowly stood, he struggled because of his full, protruding gut. He waddled slowly over to his long camping bag, flicked the lock and began rummaging inside. All of our eyes widened, trained on his every move. As his arm rose outside the bag, so did we, straightening our backs and leaning forward. In his hands sat two leaves wrapped around one another. Drool ran down the side of each of our mouths as he started walking back with a smirk on his red cheeked and hairy face. This is it. He sat down beside Forland and Sylv, directly opposite me. Open it. His hands delicately took the top left corner of the leaf, slowly peeling it back from the other. We all lent closer as he grabbed the top right corner, peeling it back to reveal multiple brown and lumpy rectangles, Brownies! YES! “Sorry,” Boris said, “Only enough two person.” Damnit, it’ll have to do.

Boris put them on the log towards Sylv and began handing them out, one by one. He took one and gave it to Forland, who gave him a nod in return. Boris turned to give one to Sylv, but she had already grabbed hers and was chowing down on the rich gooeyness. He instead went to Alistanna, who thanked him, and then he turned to me. I tried to keep my composure and not act a fool, but I was bouncing on the spot, vibrating at the thought of eating one after so long. He waddled over to me and placed it down into my open palm. The colouring was perfect, a light brown on the top with darker sides. Its bumpy top, not too thin mid-section. I raised it to my mouth and bit in. The rush of rich chocolate gooeyness overloaded my taste buds, sending me off the back of the log. By the time I got back on the log, the brownie had gone from my hands, and my stomach was aching in anticipation for more.

When Boris finished his second, he made his way around again. First to Forland, then to Sylv, who already had taken hers again, then to Alistanna, then to me. My hands bolted out in front of me, prepared to take on this second challenge, but Boris’s face went white. His head shot back to Sylv and so did mine to see in her small hand was a third brownie. She can’t do this to me. My voice trembled as I started on this impossible task, disarming the brownie thief, “Sylv.” Her beady eyes shot up to meet mine. “Drop the brownie.” Her eyes drifted to the brownie in the tips of her right hand, it hung for dear life. “That brownie is mine. You know it is. If this is because of the desert last time, it was a mistake. You know it, I know it. So, let’s just be rational adults and-.” Before I knew it, the brownie disappeared from my sight. I looked from her hand, back to her face to see her red chipmunk cheeks covered with specks of brownie. It was over, I lost. My head dropped, my voice quivered as I whispered loud enough to be heard, “You’re the devil.” She giggled, then swallowing the brownie, stuck her brownie covered tongue out at me. “DAMNIT, HOW COULD THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE!”

“Hey, she needs it.” Alistanna said, while shrugging her shoulders, “I mean, she needs all the energy she can to become an A rank.” The smirk that rose on Alistanna’s face silenced the group, her stifled snickering only added to it, being the only thing heard through the crackling flames.

The three of us, Forland, Boris and I, turned to Sylv, expecting her to be sad with her ears drooping, but to our shock, her face was beet red. Her ears were pointed straight out to the side, a vein visible boldened on her forehead, as she crunched her teeth. We all sat waiting, swallowing any words we thought to say. Sylv drew in one deep breath then blurted out in a snide voice, “Yeah, I’m still in B rank. If only I had worked as hard as you.” Sylv leaned back on her log as Alistanna stared, both now smirking. “I mean, having to cast one spell is such hard work. My battle is nothing in comparison.” Sylv said sarcastically.

It was like someone put out the fire, all the warmth left once her comment finished. We sat waiting for a response or something. I fidgeted with my hands as my gaze shot between the two, my face tensing with each switch. Forland was sitting, rolling his eyes with his head titled back, mumbling something under his breath. Boris was rubbing the back of his neck, all his hairs visibly stood on end, shaking with each of his heavy breaths. Both Alistanna and Sylv just sat there, no more smirks on their faces, just completely blank. Just say something, please.

Alistanna’s red lips curled, her unwavering eyes glared at Sylv, she slowly bent down over her knees, her arms wrapping around them. Oh Maria, is she going to cry? Whose side do I take? She started it, but she was trying to be funny, I think? Then I heard a snort. The three of us froze on the spot, all our eyes slowly turned to Alistanna. Then she snorted again. The three of us all looked to each other like one of us would know the answer. I reached out to Alistanna and just as I was about to place my hand on her back, she shot back up and roared with a hearty belly laugh. The three of us immediately shot back as well, all glancing between ourselves, then glancing to Sylv to see her now snickering. “Oh shit,” Sylv laughed. “We got you guys good.” The three of us gave out half-hearted laughs as we continued looking to each other, unsure of what to do or say.

“Jesus guys,” Forland said, still half laughing. “I thought I’d have to jump in and throw myself under the bus.”

“Cheated Forland. You A rank here.” Boris quickly inputted.

“It was a good bout though.” I added. “Considering the guy passed to be an S rank right after your fight, you did a damn good job. Though I wish the guy next to me in the stands would have shut up every once in a while.”

Alistanna’s head perked up at the last comment, “Hey wait! That was me!”

Alistanna glared at me as Sylv said in a snobby voice, overexaggerating every little movement she could, “Yeah, but we can’t have a commoner, especially one using the Valk style ruin the purity of the swordsmen ranking. That would be just unjust.”

“Lucky clerics only care if you’re religious.” Alistanna laughed.

“It really sucks that none of you guys can be a natural talent like me.” I said, leaning back on my log, resting my hands against the back of my head and stretching out my legs. “I mean, it only took me one go at my test to get my A ranking unlike you lot.” I chuckled to myself.

“You can’t build tent? And passed?” Boris sneakily replied. Forland, who was having a drink at the time, spat out all the water into the fire, causing it to sizzle, as the two girls burst into a fit of laughter.

“A Boris burn!” Alistanna cackled, “I was starting to think it would never happen.” The five of us laughed, raising our glasses, we were so loud the wolves around us join in, howling to the night sky, shaking the forest around us. We laughed for hours, only stopping because our throats went hoarse along with our dried eyes.

Forland stood up and stretched his legs which had fallen asleep from sitting, “Well,” He said, “It’s time for us to get some rest.” Forland looked my way, placing his hands against his lower back and lent backwards, “So Taros, are you sleeping in Boris and I’s tent?”

My nose wrinkled with my frown as I pulling my head back. I shuddered while bellowing out, “Maria, No! Never again! Not after last time!” A slight chuckle slipped through my curled lips. Forland rolled his eyes at me and looked away, going back to his stretches, while Boris trying to hide his red face behind his hands and fur, but he was already redder than a Blood Prot.

“Fine,” Forland spat, now stretching his arms, “Sleep outside on your failed tent again.”

“What?” I said, tilting my head, “Why’d I do that when I can just sleep with Alistanna?”

“HUH!” Alistanna screeched. Her face was nearly as red as Boris’s, her mouth hung open with her eyebrows raised, and her arms swaying limply by her side.

“I mean, you can’t leave me out in the cold alone. Surely that goes against the Alignment?”

“Ah,” She said, sputtering with each word as she tried to compose herself, “I-I-I su-suppose so.”

“Ehhh, worse comes to worse you can always tent with me.” Sylv teasingly said with a wry smirk plastered across her face.

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Alistanna barked, her head snapping straight towards Sylv with a fiery fury.

“Well then it’s settled!” Forland interrupted, ending our quick little escapade. “Good night, everyone.” With a swift wave and a good night from the rest of us, he turned towards the tents away from the fire and started his stroll of towards them but stopped after a few steps. “Oh, Alistanna.” Her head shot up towards him looking like a confused dog but was still red in the face. “Don’t forget to put up the barrier, and when Taros wants to sleep on his own, please help him build the tent. I would say wait for him to ask, but we all know what he’s like.” One, I was sitting right there. And two, I was always responsible and asked for help whenever I needed it. Lucky for me, I never did.

And just like that, Forland had disappeared from our eyesight into the tents. Not long after Boris got up to join him, then Sylv. Leaving just Alistanna and I sitting by the flames. “Well,” Alistanna yawned, stretching out her arms above her head. “Guess I better get this barrier up so I can help you build a tent.”

“But I’m sleeping in yours, aren’t I?”

“Shut up.” She giggled, shoving me in my shoulder. Alistanna got up from the log and while reaching down to grab her black staff, she cursed. “Dammit! Look at this!” She raised the bottom of her robes up to my face. A mixture of mud and ash plagued her robes and it was hardening, so much was stuck on it I could only see glimpses of the thick red lines that ran across the bottom half of it. “Oh,” She whined “This will take forever to clean out.” She threw it back down to the mud and started wiping the ash away from her upper half. It was hard to see where ash was and wasn’t, considering it was black. The only obvious spots were the red lines throughout the robe, and the red crown emblem with a red line underneath placed on both sides of her plump chest. “Where do you think you’re looking?” She said in a cold, monotone voice.

“Uh,” Now it was my face which turned beet red, and to stutter my words. “You see- uh- I was just looking- wait not looking- I mean for ash. I was searching for ash.” My bottom lip trembled as I put on a smile, hoping my eyes wouldn’t give it away.

Alistanna leaned in close to me, staring straight into my eyes. She leaned closer and closer until our noses were pressing against each other’s. I felt her short, heavy breaths push against my dry lips; her soft, smooth cheeks turning pink as her sparkling hazel eyes looked longingly in to mine. The thumping of my heart clouded my mind, staring into her eyes, I stopped breathing. “Shame.” She said, ever so causally. Huh?

Alistanna grasped her staff, pulling it up to view in the fire. It wasn’t anything too special, it was just a black cylinder up until the top where it formed a half-moon. But in between the half-moon was a red crystal and a gold piece forged together, which apparently came from Queen Maria’s crown, and the staff was actually made from the Apostle stone used to make the Apostle statue’s from around the world. But considering how valuable that would be, I highly doubt it. She believes it though.

Using the staff, she pointed the red and gold crystal towards the sky. Her grip hardened around the staff, and the spell commenced. The crystal spun in place as she held up her staff, its twirling grew faster, the air around it started to whistle as it was slowly pulled into the twirling vortex. The more air it consumed, the faster it spun, which led to more consumption. The branches above creaked and the bushes swayed as the wind blew past, congregating around the tip of the staff, forming a ball of wind that was visible to the naked eye. A soft hum came from within the ball, then Alistanna began her incantation in a hushed voice. “From end to end the light will reach.” A shimmer of light refracted from the crystal into her eyes, and a smile blossomed over her face, and her voice boomed, “No darkness shall penetrate the blinding lights!” The surrounding trees rumbled from the sudden boom of her voice. From within the ball, the crystal started to glow and detached from the staff. As the crystal ball soared towards the sky, the wind streaked behind. The crystal’s glow grew brighter the higher it flew, higher and higher it went, and then the glow cut out. For a few seconds, Alistanna and I stood watching the tree line. “Kakoonae.” Alistanna whispered. Suddenly, a burst of light erupted from the sky, burning brighter than the stars above ever could. This burst of light stretched out around us, contorting itself into a dome, before dimming and disappearing before my eyes.

A rush of air left Alistanna’s lungs as she huffed. Flicking her staff with her foot, she twirled it around her hand with it smacking onto her shoulders. “Too easy.” She chirpily said. She was practically bouncing as she turned towards me with the biggest smile spread across her face. My heart skipped a beat as I raised the side of my lips, giving a half smile with a bit of a snort in return.

Within the blink of an eye, her light, bouncy self had gone from across the way to only an inch away from my face, looking up towards me. Her alluring hazel eyes kept me gazing inside them. The slight glimmer they had from the fire next to us made them look like they were sparkling at the sight of mine. My lungs felt a heavy load pressing in, my heart had to pump harder to fight against it, it was like every part of my body was on edge all from looking into the longing gaze of her eyes. “Why’d you snort?” She asked, in that same cold, monotone voice. The allurement of her eyes faded like it had a screen covering it in mist. My body was brought back to normal, my mind desperately tried to catch up but I had already tried to spit out, “Wind?” YOU STUPID BLOODY- I HOPE MARIA SMITES MY DUMBASS!

Her dead eyes stared into mine a few seconds longer, a cold sweat ran down the side of my head, I gulped as her neutral face slowly drooped from my answer. “Wind?” She asked in her same monotoned voice, but this time, it felt more malicious. I slowly shook my head up and down, Welp, may as well stick with it. She stared further for a few seconds more, then started to bring her head closer towards the side of mine. With each little bit she moved, the heavier it became around my lungs, the harder my heart had to squeeze to get even the littlest bit of blood flowing. My face fell white as her lips sat right next my ear, I felt her soft breathes blow through her lips and brush against the inside of my ear. Her warm soft cheek pressed against my brittle cold one. Each breath we shared brushed our cheeks further against each other, with my tiny bristles scratching against her. “Good” She whispered into my ears, before pulling back slightly and pecking me on the cheek.

My body heat rushed from an ice age to the inferno of hell, it was like someone had just lit oil in a blast fire furnace with me inside. My whole body turned beet red as she pulled back and stared back into my eyes, now with both of our faces beaming, and a shimmer in both our eyes. We stared into each other’s warming gaze for a few seconds longer, then I asked in a soft voice, “We better start setting up my tent now, I guess.” Her brow immediately furrowed as the lines on her face squished together, all culminating in a deep, ugly frown. Seeing her face warp in such quick succession, a shit eating grin developed on mine, sniggering at her apparent mood. “Fine,” I heartily said, “I guess if I have no other choice, I’ll-.” But Alistanna didn’t wait, placing her hands firmly against my back and gripping onto my cloak, she pushed against my back. “Hey, I was saying-.” But she refused to listen, I guess it’s no fun unless she’s the one laughing. She turned me around, like I was a little kid, and began dragging me by my cloak toward the tents. My heart fluttered as I smiled, slowly being dragged inside of the tent.