(Note: Changed to mature for sexual content and violence.)

His hands were burning against her skin, the way he was pushed up against her back, his beating chest brushing against her bare arms, his slow, steady breathing torturing her neck, his whispering, his soft touches, she thought she was dead because she never expected life to treat her in such a sweet way. Her eyes were closed, she knew it must have been a dream that gave her such pleasure, and she refused to open her lids in fear of losing everything that moment had to offer. Her whole body was trembling with pleasure, her face was flushed in embarrassment since she could hear her own helpless moaning. And then he called her name, over and over again, small breaks in between to make her long for his voice, and she knew for sure that she wouldn't be able to stay in that dream for much longer.

"Alice.."

Her eyes opened as soon as she felt that soft touch against her arm, much more innocent than those seconds ago. It took her a long time to realize she had returned to reality, and the way Uncas was looking at her just now meant she had been quite vocal in her sleep. Crimson embarrassment covered her cheeks as she tried to slide away from his touch, but she knew she wouldn't last long without it, "Are they back?"

Uncas shook his head and never took his eyes off of her, his hand now grasping her arm tightly to catch her attention. He was bare chested again, those beautiful raven black locks of hair falling against his chocolate skin, the small rivulets of water indicating that he had visited the stream while she was asleep. The young woman found herself distracted from the water dripping down a vein in his arm, almost conjoined with it, until she felt the grasp around her arm getting tighter, "Forgive me," he smiled and that didn't help her regain her composure, but she finally managed to escape his grasp and stand up, her eyes wandering down his bandaged stomach. She looked at him as if asking for his permission and this time her hands were steady enough to tend to his wound, but Uncas touched her hand softly to stop her, "I've seen to it when you were asleep. No need to worry yourself."

The young woman looked at him, a small frown covering her face as she was denied the pleasure of touching his skin. God Alice, shame on you. "In that case, I would like to go wash my clothes now that the sun is up."

The Indian didn't seem eager to stop looking at her, even though she was trying to avoid his intense staring, and gave her his tomahawk, closing her fingers around it, "I will be close, but just in case."

Alice looked at the heavy weaponry in her hand and then back at him. He was holding his shirt as well, and she tilted her head in confusion since he seemed embarrassed, but he just gave it to her in silence and turned to leave.

She smiled softly as she held the shirt close to her, looking at the man's back as he walked away, and soon enough, she did the same.

Keeping the tomahawk close to her side, it only took her a few paces until she reached the stream. There were no sounds around to be heard, and in a way that scared her even more, but she knew that Uncas would be nearby. The thought made her uneasy. He was far from a stranger, especially after all the intimate moments they had shared together, but she was still as shy as a 10 year old girl when it came to exposed skin. Even his own.

The young woman looked around for one last time and removed her shoes, using her hair as a cover as she let her dress slip from her shoulders. She couldn't remember the last time she was completely naked of any clothes, and she had forgotten how wonderful it felt. She kept her undergarment and stockings on to wash her dress, keeping the tomahawk close to her, as well as Uncas's shirt. She didn't waste more time and got in the water as soon as her body was completely free of all her clothing. Feeling the water stroking her skin like that put a huge smile on her face, and for a moment she had forgotten where she was and what she was surrounded by. She dipped her hair in the water as well, stroking the locks with her slender fingers until reality got the best of her and she realized it was dangerous to be that exposed in that strange area.

She wore the man's shirt as she waited for her own clothes to dry, sitting on a rock with the tomahawk still in her hands. She was far off to another one of her memories, and the sudden feeling of a hand gripping her shoulder made her jump off the rock and turn to look at the source of this contact, a gasp leaving her throat when she came to face two French soldiers, whose eyes were glued on her bare legs. The girl kept the axe tightly behind her back, taking as many steps away from them as possible to keep a safe distance, but they walked forward, speaking in broken English when they realized she couldn't understand their French mumbling. "Sleeping with the savages," was everything she could decipher, and she assumed it was her clothing that caused such a comment. There was nothing she could say that would save her from this situation. Her lack of French, their lack of English, her appearance and the way they looked at her, gave her no other option. She began running as fast as her legs allowed her to, trying to rid her mind off all kinds of unsettling thoughts in case they grabbed her. But she wasn't fast enough. When she felt a pair of hands grasping her shirt, Uncas's shirt, she cried out his name, and when she fell on her stomach with one of the soldiers falling on top of her with a laugh, she knew her strength and wish to survive, were about to be tested.

He had been fighting with his own worry for the past hour, but at the same time he didn't want to embarrass the girl by arriving to her side when she wasn't fully dressed. He could sense something was going on, everything around him was different, there was a chill in the air that wasn't there before, like a warning that something bad was about to happen. He didn't give it much more thought. He grabbed his carving knife, as well as his shotgun, and followed the path to Alice's location.

Alice was grasping on the soil around her in an attempt to crawl away from the man's grip, tears blocking her sight from finding the tomahawk she was sure was dropped inches away from her body. There was so much anger inside her, disappointment in herself and how she had allowed this to happen. She was angry at her own body for abandoning her like that, she was angry at her lack of physical and emotional strength. There wasn't a way to hear everything the soldier was saying on top of her, words of English and French combined, but she didn't need to understand what he was saying to know where this was going. He was taking his sweet time humiliating her, his fellow soldier holding a shotgun pointed close to her face, and when she felt the man's hands moving to places she had no desire to expose to him, she let out the loudest scream she could manage, which was welcomed with a hand covering her mouth and angry words entering her ear.

Everything came to a stop when footsteps broke the silence around them. The man holding the shotgun turned around immediately, but he was chasing nothing but shadows, his clumsy shooting giving Uncas the chance to slit his throat from behind with a swift movement, grabbing the tomahawk from the ground just as fast only to bury it in the other man's skull with a force he didn't think his current state allowed him to possess. The soldier fell on the ground next to Alice, who was trembling so violently he wasn't sure she had realized what had happened. He kneeled down close to her and touched her shoulder carefully, and when she raised her eyes and saw him, pale hands reaching for his shoulders to grab on, he wrapped his arms around her small frame in a manner that would, under normal circumstances, bruise her soft skin. She glued herself against him and buried her face in the crook of his neck, and even though he couldn't hear her cry, her tears were soaking his skin, and her trembling body confessed her current state.

He couldn't know how long he was holding her like that, and if it wasn't for the pace of her heart, he would have thought she had fallen asleep or even unconscious. He pulled back enough to look at her face, and she pressed her cheek against his chest, doe like eyes looking into his own, her arm wrapped around his side in a way that indicated he wasn't allowed to let go off her just yet. And he had no intention to attempt breaking the contact any time soon.

Alice squeezed his frame harder as she felt chilly air hitting her back, eyes still looking at his face as he leaned back against a tree, his eyes lifted to the sky. She could feel his beating heart against her ear and that gave her more peace than she could possibly ask for. "I don't want to go back just yet," was the only thing she managed to whisper before she closed her eyes, feeling his breath hitting her face as he leaned close to kiss her forehead, his words echoing in her head as she surrendered to her own exhaustion.

He opened his eyes the moment he heard footsteps approaching. His fingers squeezed around the tomahawk in his belt, eyes focused on the direction those footsteps were coming from. Alice was still in his arms, curled like a child against his chest, so peaceful looking that he hated having to wake her up. But the footsteps approaching were those of the enemy, friendly to those dead bodies around them. The young Indian pressed his lips against the girl's ear, his free hand clasping her arm tightly, "We have to go. Now."

Alice's eyes opened to the sound of that, and without giving it much thought, she pulled away from his warm embrace and let him lead her out of the woods. Only when she looked back and saw at least five more French soldiers headed their way, did she realize that she would have to run faster than her strength previously allowed her. She held onto his hand tightly, thinking about Cora and the others, what would happen if they returned and didn't find them where they had left them, thinking about what would happen if they weren't fast enough. Shaking her head violently to remove those thoughts from her mind, she squeezed the man's hand when they passed the stream, whispering his name gently when she spotted her clothes. She left his grip and with a swift movement, grabbed everything she had left on that rock before Uncas grabbed her arm and whispered something in his tongue, looking behind them when he heard the French shouting to their direction.

She didn't know how long they had been running for. She couldn't feel her legs, her soles were probably bleeding, but she never gave up or stopped again. Her throat was aching from the exhaustion but her grip to his hand was tight, and that kept her going.

"Uncas.."

It was softer than a whisper, but he realized she was warning him about more people ahead of them. Looking around, their only option being going deeper into the forest, he squeezed her hand to make sure she wouldn't slip from his grip, and ran impossibly fast towards the depth of the forest. She didn't know how she kept up, for the way he was moving was not human and for a moment she thought her feet were lifted from the ground. Her body stop aching, she could breathe much better, everything felt like what heaven should be like, and the force with which Uncas stopped her, ached her more than any wound she had ever suffered. It wasn't the woods they were running into. This was it, the end of it all. A cliff higher than any other, she turned to look at Uncas who was free of any expression, but when he looked at her in return, she could see the worry in his eyes. They couldn't go back, they had to move forward. "Let's do it," she was the one to suggest, and the man narrowed his eyes and shook his head, his hand glued on her own and refusing to let go, "That's suicide."

Alice gave him a soft smile and looked down at her hand. She dropped everything she was holding except for the necklace he had given her. Passing it around her neck, she turned to look at him again and brought their conjoined hands against her cheek, remaining silent as their eyes met.

Uncas held the back of her neck as he started kissing her whole face, and without another word, he pulled back to look at her until the voices from behind became more clear, leaving them no other option but to jump. And so they did. Fingers entangled, souls conjoined, they both fell into the water.

(Note #2: This would be a nice conclusion, but I don't feel like ending it just yet. We shall see..)