Short ficlet I wrote a while ago but never expanded on, at all. Translated without proofreading directly from French, so may have errors. Anyway, enjoy.
"If you were alone?" she asked, wondering as they went along. They were indeed alone at this moment, she noted, for the others had not been fast enough to keep up with either of them, nor been too keen on it.
The answer was swift and concise as the strongly muscled woman above her worked toward her destination. "I'd protect you."
So it was with the resulting inquiry. "Why?"
"Because I must." Simple, and effective, as the woman mustered it.
"Oh." The downcast look afterward afforded an unsavory view of jagged, protruding obstacles below.
Seconds passed, before the questions began again. "If we were as one?" she asked, pondering this thought as an odd ideal, even in the realm of fantasy.
So it was again, the same. She said, "I'd protect you."
"Why?" she asked, curiously, also in keeping with the parallels.
A brief pause and a sigh, coupled with a light growl as she continued on. "That, you must put into trust."
The sigh was repeated. "Oh."
Another beat was steeped in silence, until she asked again, hopeful – the irony. "If all was hopeless?"
"I'd," another brief moment of quiet passed, "protect you."
"Why?" So it was with this same, time-labored inquiry.
This, she said with dignity, grunting. "Because nothing is hopeless without purpose."
And so with this conversation was the turn of events that had transpired between them. Now, the fruit sat before the soldier, beaming in a way that, explained with words, would be incomprehensible. She grinned from her perch, sidled between a rock and a hard place.
"And if we fell?" she asked.
The woman's answer, as she surmounted the crystal pillar that was once above her, was sure and steady, "I'd protect you," and that was the last question of their long, laborious journey.