Alvery found himself surprised by the sheer iciness of the river, as he had speculated it would have been warmed by the heat wave that permeated the land.

He sat on one of the flat stones in the middle of the river that was deep enough that it reached his chest, and observed that its rushing speed was responsible for keeping its waters cool.

Though the next question that presented itself to Alvery was why the town didn’t try to extend itself closer to the river as it was an obvious source of food and other water.

A rustling sound interrupted his thoughts, and had Alvery turning swiftly as he slipped his glasses back onto his face. He was grateful that he’d swam with his pants on and kept his eyeglasses with him in that moment, though when he looked at his abandoned shirt on the riverbank, mentally kicked himself for being careless.

His heart hammering in his chest, his skin no longer feeling cold as adrenaline soared through him, Alvery slowly eased himself back into the river, while keeping his eyes on the bank where he had heard the noise.

He kept waiting, and waiting…

Something slithered over his foot in the water, and every inch of him wanted to squirm, or shout, or swim away, but he gripped onto the warm surface of the rock not moving an inch. When mosquitoes began to litter his shoulders, biting him mercilessly… He didn’t try to swat them away. Instead, Alvery lowered himself down farther into the river’s depths so that the bloodthirsty buggers drowned in the river.

He kept watching, the pressure of the water around his chest making his pulse all the more noticeable as it thrummed in his veins.

Then, Tiaznia popped out of the bushes, holding a lone, lean rabbit from its hindlegs.

Alvery relaxed for a breath, before he realized how she looked.

The peri girl had been slim when he had first met her, but since then she had become gaunt. The lines under her eyes had deepend, and her arms were barely bigger than sticks, but there was still the purposeful confidence in her movements. The same life in her eyes…

So why did seeing her in such a state anger Alvery so much?

Letting out a loud breath of annoyance, Tia squinted at the river.

At first Alvery thought she had spotted him, but belatedly realized she must’ve been looking for fish.

Alvery wondered about letting her know he was there, but then… Well… He wasn’t sure what would happen, so he stayed hidden.

Until she noticed his rumpled shirt laying on the bank.

“Kir,” Alvery cursed quietly under his breath. Though he could’ve spoken at his normal volume and the sound of the babbling water would’ve most likely drowned out his voice.

Tia stared at the garment blankly for a moment, and then her tired face brightened with a half grin as she peered around the space.

“Are you hiding from me?” Tia called out, the smile in her voice for some reason bringing even more relief to Alvery’s frayed nerves.

He slowly pushed himself back up onto the flat rock into her view, but turned and raised his knees to his chest as soon as he did so that she didn’t get a whole eyeful of his shirtless torso.

“Didn’t know who it was,” Alvery hollered back to her.

“You saw me just fine. You just think I’m still mad at you,” Tia retorted while bending down to pick up his shirt.

“That isn’t it,” Alvery sighed while gazing ahead of himself toward the river that had a thick canopy of leafy branches extending over it for as far as the eye could see. “I’m leaving soon, and you always seem to get more information out of me than I’d like to share.”

Tia stared at Alvery’s profile, her head tilted over her shoulder, her expression thoughtful.

“I’m not bringing you with me. I’m more trouble than I’m worth,” Alvery continued while risking a quick glance in the peri woman’s general direction.

“I’m quite problematic myself.”

“Yes, and putting more trouble on top of trouble wouldn’t bode well,” Alvery pointed out with a wry chuckle while finally turning to look directly at her.

Tia met his gray eyes, and Alvery felt a dangerous urge rise in his belly.

He wanted to ask her to join him when he left to see Georgie.

He wanted someone to share the burden of running and hiding… Of being alone with secrets and past guilts…

But she didn’t deserve that.

“Everytime I think you were right, and it was all pure coincidence that you arrived after my prayers, I run into you again,” Tia informed him casually while crouching down and examining his shirt.

“It’s a small town. It isn’t hard to run into someone,” Alvery countered, though his right hand gripped his left wrist a little tighter, and the spots the mosquitoes had bitten sling his shoulders began to itch something fierce.

“We’re not in the town, we’re in the woods. My caravan is three miles that way,” Tia pointed to her left, her eyes sparkling.

Letting out both a sigh and a wearisome laugh, Alvery dropped his head and stared off into the distance again. “You have to be one of the first people who ever wanted to hang around me so much.”

Tia stood straight again and shook out Alvery’s shirt.

“Why wouldn’t people want to be around you?”

“I’m told I tend to talk about my studies too much… Or I answer questions too honestly.”

Tia set her rabbit down, and then began folding Alvery’s shirt before placing it back on the ground.

Alvery watched her quietly as she did this, wondering if she would turn and leave him alone again.

“I’m sorry,” he called out.

Tia’s eyes snapped up to him.

“I said something terrible and unfair to you about how you’re a peri, and you’ve really just been nice to me… You’ve also been incredibly weird as well, but… nice regardless.”

Raising an eyebrow at him, Tia’s smile had disappeared during his apology, making Alvery wonder if perhaps he shouldn’t have mentioned the weird bit. Though he thought it was still a milder term than he could’ve used…

Tia started to wordlessly untie her boots, making Alvery frown as he realized she intended to jump into the river as well.

“While I was rude to you before, I am completely serious about you needing to stay away from me.”

The young woman ignored him, and pulled off the first boot.

“I can’t tell you what I’m involved in, or who I really am, but frightening people are coming after me, and if there is anyone I am close to they will use them however they can to make me cooperate.”

Tia pulled off her second boot, dropped it unceremoniously on the ground, then leapt into the river.

Alvery turned, his right hand clenched into a fist as he pushed himself back toward the other edge of the rock. He anticipated her swimming up to the left side of where he sat.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

However Tia surprised him, and emerged right in front of him as opposed to the farside like he had been anticipating.

Crossing her arms on the rock, her amber eyes shadowed in the low light of the forest, she stared at Alvery with an unreadable expression.

“The people who are chasing me won’t care about who I’m traveling with. They’ll just want to kill me if they get their hands on me.”

“The viscount you mean?” Alvery asked before he could stop himself.

Tia’s features hardened, but her voice was still light. “No. Someone like the viscount, but… more powerful. The viscount I think just wants me because of something to do with my mother.”

Alvery found himself leaning closer, hanging onto her words, waiting for the secret of the peri woman’s story to be revealed.

“I think whether you want it or not, you and I will be together for a long time.”

Blinking at the bluntness of her words, and blushing at the implication, Alvery moved away from the young woman while clearing his throat. “You’re quite forward.”

Tia stared at him innocently.

Alvery then concluded she had no idea how her words could be interpreted.

“How old are you?” he asked next.

“Twenty-two. I’ll be turning twenty-three on the harvest moon.”

Her answer surprised Alvery.

It was strange… Tia wasn’t that much older than Fiona, and yet she felt at times even older than himself. Except for that very moment where Tia had failed to realize that she had inferred that the two of them would become a couple.

Not wanting to be the one to explain such a thing however, Alvery pushed it to the back of his mind, and shuffled toward the edge of the rock to push himself off back into the water.

“Do you believe in divorce? I know the previous emperor made it legal, but… Most people still don’t think it should be.”

Alvery froze.

Perhaps she had meant exactly what she had said before.

“I… I think some people should… Should know that they do more harm together than good, and should go their separate ways.”

“That’s more of a peri belief, you know. Though the peri marriages have to be absolved by one of the peri members with the gift of God’s Eyes, and there has to be a very good reason for it. Did you know there aren’t that many who are being born with the gift of God’s Eyes anymore? Or at least that was true a few years ago.”

Tia was beginning to chatter happily, and it was both endearing and problematic to Alvery as he found himself enjoying her company– even if it was still uncertain whether or not she were proposing they get married or something equally outrageous.

“Did you learn all about the peri gifts when you tried to join a troupe?”

Dropping her arms off the stone and allowing the current to take her a short ways down, Tia eventually swam back as she took her time answering.

“I learned that there aren’t as many people with the gift of God’s Eyes due to a troupe I spent time with, yes…”

The way she had trailed off indicated there was more she wasn’t saying.

Alvery felt a spark of annoyance in his chest.

Was she doing it on purpose? Being mysterious and charming in a wild untouchable way to lure him into being with her?

“Where are you going to go when you leave Aniselle?” Tia changed the subject smoothly.

It was Alvery’s turn to slip into the water without replying.

As he swam to the riverbank, he struggled against the growing desire to tell the peri woman the truth, but knowing her, she would most likely try to follow him if he did.

Alvery could hear Tia paddling behind him, and so once on the river bank pulled his shirt over his head quickly.

Then it dawned on him that for the first time since meeting her, Tia was wearing boots.

“I thought you had an aversion to footwear,” Alvery observed, as Tia hauled herself backward out of the water, though she kept her feet dangling in the river.

“Most peri don’t ever wear shoes except for in the winter. I usually wear them in the woods ever since I got a splinter the length of my pinky in my left foot.”

Alvery winced. It sounded painful.

As he stared down at the young woman, he once again eyed her frail figure.

“I can bring you some food here in a couple of days.”

Tia leaned her head back to gaze up at him, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth.

“Ah… Normally I would say it’s alright, but the tourists are rather persnickety this year, so I will take you up on that. You’ve lost quite a bit of weight yourself.”

Alvery averted his eyes as he felt himself growing red again. “Thanks.”

Tia bobbed her head then swung her feet out of the river and stood.

“I’ll see you the day after tomorrow after the dining hour?” she confirmed while plucking her boots back up.

“Alright. After that I don’t think I’ll be able to bring anymore. You… You should really think about going somewhere else if you’re going to starve to death here.”

Putting her hands on her hips with a boot in each hand Tia stared at Alvery with a teasing expression. “Well I’m trying to find out where we’re going, but someone is being difficult about it!”

Alvery couldn’t help it, he smiled.

He found himself able to relax around Tia in a way that even prior to landing himself in a world of trouble, he hadn’t been able to experience with another person. Even with Georgie he tended to be wary about whatever new outrageous antic his friend would dream up.

“I’ll see you in a couple of days,” Alvery bobbed his head and turned to make his way back to the Cremont farm, feeling wonderfully cooled off, and hungry for whatever delicious meal Eliza had whipped up.

“Oh, by the way,” Tia’s voice made Alvery turn back around, still smiling. “If you really insist on getting married in a Diolla church I’ll only ever agree to it if I’m allowed to wear my hoop earring and walk the aisle barefoot.”

Alvery’s expression dropped as he gaped at Tia.

The peri woman grinned in response, then picked up her rabbit, and strolled away still barefoot while whistling a merry tune.

Apparently getting married had been exactly what the woman had been suggesting, and Alvery found himself filled with a kind of panic he had never known before in his life.

The kind that only those of the female variety could instill upon the men they set their sights on.