Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for all the reviews, support, and advice that I have gotten. I love you guys so much!
Chapter Nineteen -The Hot Springs
As Eric and I reached the part of the tree where the limbs really began to branch out, we stopped climbing. "Hold on," Eric said, walking (if you could call it that) away through the branches that were sticking up towards the heavens.
It had stopped raining and the clouds were just beginning to clear, letting in a few leaks of sunlight. The day seemed like the longest day I had ever lived in my life.
I sat down on a nearby branch, resting my tired legs. I had done quite a bit of work today. Running, running, and running. Did I forget to mention running? There were also my clothes now covered in mud, which made them rather heavy. Not to mention all the trees I had been required to climb. Could this day get any worse?
I sighed and looked down through the limbs at the ground below. My eyes traveled over to the spot where Ray (the Raptor) had been killed. I couldn't see any blood or anything anywhere. Not the slightest hint that some animal had just been brutally slaughtered.
I smiled, remembering how I had pushed Eric so easily into the mud. Dude, he was so muscular that I didn't know how – but I must have caught him by surprise. I mean; he was totally not expecting it. But he was actually kind of buff and – WAIT! Back the truck up. How could I think that Eric was buff? He wasn't really that cute … ok, well, he was cute. But not hot. I mean – well … see – um …
"Lane?"
I looked up. Eric was standing right in front of me with a burlap sack slung over one shoulder and a roll of rope looped around the other.
"What's that for?" I asked, pointing to the rope.
"Oh, well, remember back on Costa Rica when – " He said.
"Don't remind me. I should never have come on this stupid trip. Nothing would have happened. I mean, we'd still … there wouldn't be … Hannah wouldn't … What's it for?" I asked. I couldn't see anyway to take my mind off of Hannah but to listen to Eric.
"O…k. Well, remember when we did archery?" He questioned.
I brightened up and stood to my feet. "Help me find a bendy stick sort of thingy," I said, dashing past him and grabbing at sticks.
"What for?" Eric asked, mockingly.
"Oh, I don't know," I said, bring my hand to my chin. "Maybe it would be … for my bow!"
"Well you catch onto an idea quickly," he teased.
I merely rolled my eyes and turned back to look at the variety of sticks I had to choose from. Bendy, non-bendy … uh … Well that about summed them up. Eric would show me tons of sticks but I would either say they were too bendy or too … non-bendy. One time I heard him muttering something about honestly thinking I knew all there was to know about archery … or something like that.
"What about this one!" Eric said, sighing and handing me a stick.
I turned from my cluster of four or five twig looking things way at the top of the tree and snatched the branch from his hand. I scanned it with my eyes and felt it with my hands. I gently bent it, then, with a swift movement, brought it down on my knee. It broke with a loud snap. "Nope," I said, smiling and handing the two pieces of wood back to him. "Not bendy enough."
Eric sighed and turned to climb back down the tree.
"Eric, wait," I said. He turned to look at me and I got an odd feeling in my stomach, so looked away. "You're allowed to talk back, you know."
"I don't feel like talking," he snapped. This startled me and I looked swiftly down at him, looking him in the eyes. "You just brutally murdered Bertha the Branch. How shall I ever forgive you?"
I laughed and waved him off, turning back to my own set of branches, shaking my head.
A few minutes later, Eric came back with yet another branch. This one, however, I did not try to break on my knee. It was too perfect to do such a thing to. After examining it for a few minutes, I looked up at Eric. "That'll do, donkey. That'll do."
We were walking back to the water truck (finally ending our long day "abroad", or so I thought) when a very revolting smell reached my nostrils. I quickly brought my hand to my nose, plugging out the pungent odor. "Ew!" I exclaimed. "What the heck is that smell!"
"It's the hot springs, one of the safest places on the island," Eric said, continuing to walk without plugging his nose.
"Ew, gross. How can you stand that smell?" I exclaimed.
Eric laughed. At first I didn't know what at, then I realized I had been talking while plugging up my nose. My voice sounded rather odd.
"And why, may I ask, is it one of the safest places?" I questioned, after I stopped plugging up my nose and just opted to not breath through my nose.
"You have no idea?" He asked mockingly.
"The smell?" I teased.
"Exactly," he answered.
"You have to be joking."
Eric shook his head. "Nope," was all he said.
"Then why are we not living here instead of the stupid water truck?" I exclaimed.
"The smell, for one thing, is practically impossible to get used to. I should know. I tried to live in here last year when I was here for eight weeks. Didn't work. I could only stand four days of it. After that, I had a headache the size of Canada and the smell made me want to throw up. AND I was in great need of food and tired of being wet from all the mist. You can only stand the place for a certain amount of time." He explained.
I shrugged my shoulders and continued to follow him through the trees, all the while the smell getting stronger and stronger. "I had no idea these things stank this bad," I coughed out.
Eric chuckled. "They don't. Usually." And he left it at that.
I didn't really want to question him further, so I continued following his tracks, trying to place my mind on anything BESIDES the smell. I was so preoccupied at keeping the smell out that I didn't notice when Eric stopped … and I ran right into him (I seemed to do this a lot). "Ow," I said, rubbing my head. I was only about five feet, six inches tall and he was about six feet tall … or so. That meant that I had hit my forehead on … his back. Yeah …
"We're here," Eric said, not paying attention to me. He pushed through some vines with huge leaves on them (they were about the size of my torso!) and … so did I. We were standing in an odd-looking cave thing. The rock walls made it look like we were inside of a huge, brown ice cream. That pattern swirled around all the way up to the somewhat pointed top. There was a patio looking thing made out of rock to the left of the small, bubbling pool of water. It looked as though there was a light in the water, casting odd reflections on the wall. A small stream of water ran down the side of the rock, pouring into the clear pool. The whole place was rather warm and a thick mist filled the small room. The farther side of the cave was covered in shadow. The smell was even stronger inside.
"You want to go first?" Eric asked.
I tore my eyes from the pool and looked at him queerly. "What?"
"You don't want to smell like that all the time, do you?" He teased, flicking a bit of mud off my shoulder.
I smiled and blushed, looking down at my feet. My face was so covered in mud, however, that I doubted he could see the pink tinge in my cheeks. "Yeah, uh, I guess. Sure."
Eric smiled and began to walk back out the way we came in.
"And you're sure there's nothing living in here?" I called after him. He only laughed and walked the rest of the way out.
"Don't take too long," he said.
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered. What a stupid thing to say to a girl. 'Don't take too long.' How the heck was I supposed to not take too long?
I looked over my shoulder at the vines to make sure Eric was outside. Hardly any light was coming through the tightly packed leaves.
I slipped by shoes off and, just to play it safe, I eased my way into the hot water BEFORE I bothered to take off my torn shirt (which I was sure wouldn't make dress code at school any more) and skirt, both caked in mud.
At first, the hot water made the large gash on my back and the smaller one on my arm sting, but this soon ebbed away. I sucked in some air and let myself fall to the bottom of the small pool, where it seemed that the bubbles were just coming out of the rock. It felt so good on my tired body; I couldn't believe it. I felt as though I could just fall asleep right there and never wake up. Like Eric had said, this was one of the only safe areas on the island.
After I had soaked for a bit, I scrubbed my clothes down to get most of the grime out of them and placed them on the dry rock "patio" so that they could dry a bit before I put them back on.
I swam around for a little while, but mostly I just relaxed, knowing that I wouldn't be able to do much of this for however much longer we would be remaining on the island.
I had nearly fallen asleep, floating on the top of the water, when I sensed someone else was in the room. My eyes flew open and I saw Eric leaning over me. His face looked concerned.
"AH!" I screamed, slapping him on the face and pulling all but my head under the water. "Eric, don't DO that! You scared me half to death! I'm in my underwear, you pervert!"
Eric grinned. "Well sue me for being concerned," he teased. "Hurry up. The sun's going to go down soon and I don't particularly want to walk back in the dark." With that, he got up to leave, but just before he reached the vines he said, "By the way, your clothes are dry." And with that, he walked out.
I let out a deep sigh and pulled my self out of the water, wiped the little beads of moisture off myself, and pulled my clothes on. My stupid shirt came up about three inches above my belly button in the front and even higher in the back. It sloped down from the right to the left.
Shaking my head, I took my wet red hair out of its ponytail (though not much was still in it) and put it back up, a few strands in the front and back falling out. I gently moved my hand over the gash in my back. It was still a huge scab.
I walked out through the vines and saw Eric leaning against a tree right outside, staring absent-mindedly at the vines. He stood up straight when I walked out. I rolled my eyes and waved him in.
As he entered, I walked over to the tree he had been leaning against and looked out at the trees. I couldn't see any life (except for plants and smaller growth) around. There wasn't a bird in sight. 'I guess Eric was right' I thought.
Sighing, I turned back around to look at the vines and nearly choked when I saw that they weren't nearly as thick as I had thought they were from the inside. I could see Eric taking off his shirt! Wow, like I wanted to see THAT! I couldn't see it real clearly, which I was very happy about. But, boy he looked buff. I never thought he looked that strong. I crept over to the vines to get a better look. Luckily, he went into the water with his "shorts" on. They were really only his white slacks he had chopped off till just below his knees. Or … wherever they were chopped off at.
But what I didn't know was that I wasn't the only one watching Eric.
Author's Note: Was this chapter ok? Because I personally thought it was a bit sappy.
Please read and review!
The Elfin Child Oh … well … A-class then. At first I thought it was A-crad … then I thought that A-clad sounded better.
Shooting Star Hey, thanks for the pat on the back. Makes me feel … special, as do all of my reviews!
Amandabires It was really that romantic? Wow, I'm better at this mushy stuff than I thought. IT'S MUSHY WHEN I DON'T TRY TO MAKE IT MUSHY! Well … I was going for a tad, but one of my beta readers says otherwise.
Lauren Once again, it's spelled, C – I – A – O, but pronounced "chow". Not that you'll listen to me … but, yes. It was funny, wasn't it?
Like I'd tell u I KNOW WHO YOU ARE! So, tell me, are you proud to be short? Or are you short to be proud? –
Morning sunrise I hate it when computers do that. It's not cool. But, sorry, I don't think that Lane will be feeding Eric to a dinosaur any time soon.