Author stuff: These last few have been short because the next one is a beast. On Google Docs, it's 18 pages. It's the longest stand alone that I've written since... my early years of college? Sounds about right. That's... be a while.
These just keep getting more depressing to me the more I write. I need some happy.
Day 6 - Daylight & Shadow
Heavy
Her footfalls on the forest floor were soft against the dirt and grass. She steadied her breathing, biting the inside of her cheek to keep herself from laughing. They were supposed to be training.
Instead, Jim was playing hide-and-seek with her. Whenever he managed to catch her, it was a kiss on the cheek.
Mary was totally wrong. Boyfriends were not worth having – especially when they did stupid little things like this. Okay, no. It was cute. It was totally cute. So cute, she wanted to bash his brains in.
May would like that.
God, she missed Mary and Darci and her parents and Enrique and Toby and AAARRRGGHH! and everyone else. Arcadia Oaks was so far away, almost 1500 miles away. Her bed was so… so far away. Everything about that made her want to cry, to sob and dry heave on the forest floor until she felt raw.
Don't get her wrong, she knew what she was getting into when she signed up for this trip. She was with Jim and the trolls, helping those who needed her. She was doing what she'd been raised to do, to lead others with a diplomatic point of view.
It was rather terrifying. Well it would have been if not for Jim and Blinky. The three of them balanced things precariously between them, each taking on something different every day. Because traveling with a herd of trolls was as difficult – if not more so – than herding cats.
She was just glad to have someone to hold on to –
"Claire, stop!"
She stumbled to a halt, realizing almost a little too late that she was about to walk off a cliff. She pushed back and tumbled down into a heap. The sound of rocks falling echoed up at them.
She looked back over to the person who'd called her – to Jim. He was by her side in an instant, though…
"Shit," she said, pulling him back to the treeline. His arm draped over her shoulder, hers about his waist. "Sunrise. I didn't think it was getting that late. Come on. We need to get back to camp."
His back was smoking, and he was biting back curses and growls and hisses. She tried to adjust her grip so she wasn't touching it, but she didn't think she could hold him up for very long if she didn't.
Her heart thumped erratically in her ears. She didn't like the sound of his breathing either. He hadn't been exposed to the early morning light for too long, had he? What if he was seriously hurt? What if… what if she lost him?
She gulped, hoping to move her heart back to its normal spot in her chest.
"Not too far," she said, trying to blink away the burn of the tears building up. "Geeze, you're heavy. You need to lay off the spoons, mister."
That garnered a throaty – if pained – chuckle out of him. His face warped into one that twisted the dagger that had firmly lodged itself into her heart.
He pulled himself along as best he could, but by the looks of it he was going to collapse. She wasn't willing to leave him and run back to camp to grab help, and he didn't seem too keen on the idea either. They had toughed out stuff worse than this before.
What was a little sunburn, after all?
A lot more than she had hoped for.
As soon as they reached the edge of the cave system they were bunkering down in, he collapsed. She wanted to call out to the others, but they'd spotted a campsite within hearing range. Dragging him the rest of the way it was.
Now, she wasn't kidding when she said he was heavy. The bulk of his new height and muscle weighed a lot. And his new set of horns – pretty though they were – were quite hefty on their own. Not to mention his armor. They hadn't figured out a way for him to get it off quite yet.
She was more than relieved when they were within eyesight of the trolls on guard duty. Back, safe in the shadows where he could heal.
They took him away, and she collapsed into a puddle on the ground, breathing hard and worried. No. She couldn't break right now. Not right when they needed her.
She had to go help them keep an eye on Jim. It was the right thing to do.