The clouds had been gathering all day, a season of balmy spring sunshine finally interrupted as the opaque sky loomed. Smellerbee sat against a tree and watched as the colour of the blossoms drained away in the fading light. The forest was silent, anticipating rainfall. Not even a breath of wind or the call of a bird. Most of the trees had still not bloomed, the soil dry from a clear and cold winter. Only when the rain came would life be able to begin. She sighed and clutched the wide straw hat in her hands.
Longshot had wandered off again as he sometimes did, always returning but never saying where or why. He had been gone when she woke, his hat left for her as he did whenever clouds threatened. It was a habit she had come to hate, the skinny archer wandering bareheaded through rain, sleet and snow on some damned journey to do... what? The other Freedom Fighters were gone now. It was just them, surviving off one another from village to village, hand to mouth, scratching for fallen fruit and wild game. The war was over but the struggle went on, and now he was walking through the forest with the rain coming and not even his hat for shelter.
He wasn't hard to track, footprints on the path and the indentation forged through the long grass uncharacteristically obvious. Smellerbee swung her arms angrily, cutting at trees and bushes with her knife as she went. He knew better then to leave a trail like this. It was almost as if he didn't care any more. As if she didn't. The sky thundered, causing her to jump and she scowled, marching harder through the forest. What right did he have to keep doing this to her? It had become a more regular habit since it had been just the two of them. Sometimes he would simply wander further down the road when they stopped to rest. On the many ferries between the kingdoms they would sit side by side, for hours in silence. Even when they were able to get a room together in some diseased run-down inn they never had an actual conversation. She would want to talk but never knew how to begin as he lay silently on the bed or stood staring out the window. She wanted to talk about the old times with Jet and the Freedom Fighters, talk about being on the road, about the rotten world they were in, about anything. She knew he had always found it difficult to talk but what was he doing now? Ignoring her? Was this his way of saying he wanted to go alone?
The thought pulled her heart into her gut. Thorns scratched her face and cut her lip. Tears welled into her eyes but she refused to cry. Even alone she wasn't going to give anyone the satisfaction. The humidity was suffocating and she sweated profusely, cursing as the thunder scattered a wild spider goose across her path. It hissed irritably and she simply kicked it back into the brush, one more thing she was having to push past today.
At last she found him. Through the forest cut a great and gentle river and near the shore was a small islet covered in reeds. There Longshot stood, gazing upward into the violent black clouds in his typical dumb reverie. Sore and exasperated she yelled at him but was drowned out by yet another clap of thunder. A fork of lightening exploded the gathering dark, blinding her as she slipped and fell crashing over the rocks into the waters. She struggled to surface but the pain shooting up and down her arms made it impossible, the strong eddies beneath the river's placid surface pulling her down, thrashing, not even knowing which way was up. Light exploded again and for a split second everything was as clear as day – the reeds on the river bed, the rocks being rolled on by the current, two fish scattering as a hand plunged towards her.
A powerful grip took her and yanked her roughly as she struggled in her confusion, vision blurred and ears roaring with the sound of the storm. Suddenly she was out of the water and lying on a soft bed of reeds looking up at a sky dark as night. Fingers touched themselves against her face and neck, pressing lightly down her arms and legs searching for signs of serious injury. The sound of cloth tearing and then the pressure of a makeshift bandage on her arm protecting a gash, another holding a cooling mush to her bruises. She felt the rain on her face and looked over to Longshot, his shirt torn away to shreds, clutching her hand as he examined her. Was he crying? She couldn't tell. Water poured over his face and hair as the sky burst and emptied itself.
She sat up carefully, astonished by his attention, their eyes locking in a way which she had never known as he supported her in his broad bare arms. She suddenly realised she still had his straw hat, clutched so tight that that neither forest nor river had been able to snatch it away. She smiled a bloody, ironic smile and set it upon his head.
"There" she said triumphantly. "I didn't want you to get wet." And without thinking planted a kiss upon his cheek.
To her surprise he kissed her back.
They lay on the islet until the rain stopped, shivering together in their ragged clothes. He wrapped his arms around her slender form as tightly as he dared, terrified of aggravating her injuries. Smellerbee felt the heartbeat at her back, rough hands pressed delicately against her skin, hot breath at her ear. It was new and exciting, a side to his character in all their time together she had never seen. Her fingers touched his and for a moment he held his breath. She thought back to all those times, when he had wandered away, sat in the corridor, nervously avoided her gaze when she turned to him to talk. She thought too of the obvious trail he had left for her that day. She smiled to herself. He really had been trying to say something after all.
Soon enough the sun came again, bursting through as birds took flight and sang on the breeze. Hand in hand they picked their way back though a forest that become a very different place. Splendid flowers blossomed, the foliage now luxuriantly thick, mouse rabbits and squirrelhogs darting amongst the verdant grasses. Scarlet butterbees flitted around their heads, touching one another in shameless kisses of spring courtship.
They rested for a short while longer, dressing themselves in what clothing they had spare before going to the next village on the road. Longshot disappeared briefly and returned with a small sprig of blossoms - red, blue, pink and yellow, shining in the balmy evening sun.
"I'm... I..." The words caught in his throat as he fumbled awkwardly with his offering. "I'm sor-" He was interrupted with a kiss as Smellerbee accepted his gift and tucked it into her headband. She didn't want to talk any more.
Everything had already been said.