After several days of hiking upstream they came to a part of the river where it was too dense of underbrush to hike through and too deep and fast of river to swim around. Deciding to head into the forest, Lera and Carlyn turned left, promising to keep heading in the same direction, just further into the forest, rather than along the bank of the river.

Lera shivered, looking around her. Everywhere, shadows jumped across the forest floor in patterns dappled by the sunlight. Green trees rose above her, and sparse underbrush and pine needles blanketed the ground below her. The air was cold, thick and moist. It pressed against her giving her chills and soaking her to the bone. Water ran in rivulets down her cheeks and arms. Her clothes were soaked through.

Carlyn and Lera found a relatively decent trail leading in the directing they needed to head. Walking at a brisk pace despite their sore muscles, they reached a large willow tree by the time night was dawning. The tree looked out of place and old in this forest of ever green forever young trees. It's pale green leaves dripping to the ground from a thin, but sturdy trunk. The branches grew so thick, like a curtain, hiding the innards of the tree from the world.

Lera parted the bows and stepped through. The ground inside the thick branches of the tree was dry, save for a few dewdrops that had not been able to evaporate through the thick ceiling of branches overhead.

The purlieu beneath the tree was about seven feet tall and was ringed around the trunk of the tree like a giant, dry donut.

Without much hesitation, Lera stripped her clothes off, leaving herself in a breast band, loin cloth and hose. She proceeded to hang her clothing over a low drooping branch that cut the passageway nearly in half. Carlyn did the same, though he(Thankfully) wore no breast band.

It was awkward at first, seeing so much flesh of one another, and they both bore blushes that crept up to their cheeks, and undoubtedly they both remembered the kiss, but as darkness fell and a fire was light, the only option was to hold each other close, for the sharing of body heat. The night was cold, and Lera could hear fat rain drops hitting the branches above and was thankful for the willow branches surrounding them. Chewing idly on her last bite of wild potato, Lera shivered.

Carlyn, almost hesitantly wrapped his arms around her. She could feel his muscled tensed with, what she didn't know. The heat of his arms on her almost naked back made her shiver more, though not with cold. Her stomach fluttered gently. She tried not to look at him as her chin quivered. She let her mind wander to other thoughts. She missed Drailin and Stu. A tear rolled down her cheek as she thought of the unmistakable pining for her friends. She missed humanity. It had been almost two weeks, but the days seemed to drag on and on, never stopping. Everyone would have assumed they died from the fall, if they had even been tracked that far.

Carlyn nearly jumped out of his skin as her salty tear splashed against his forearm, tucked neatly around her. He looked down at her, his eyes bright.

Lera, feeling Carlyn shift beside her, looked up, a mistake she had promised not to make.

They sat for a moment suspended in reality, Lera didn't breath, and she knew Carlyn didn't either. Suddenly his lips were on hers again, though she had been trying to avoid it, she gave into the gentle tingling in her stomach. She could taste the last bit of spring water in his mouth, and heat tinged from his lips through her body. Her hands traveled up his back, gently running up his spine, subconsciously she counted his vertebrae.

Carlyn pressed his lips against her, he couldn't hold back any more. He tried, since the day he met her, to keep how he felt secret, and he nearly succeeded. In the dark of the night, in a secluded willow tree, alone, shivering and lonely, he failed. Carlyn ran his hands over her hips, hooking his thumbs in her breast band, he pulled it easily off her and tossed it to the general area where their clothes hung. Lera hesitated for a moment, nervous as Carlyn's calloused palms slid over her breasts, their heat radiating.

Lera's own hands ran up his front and over the taunt, smooth skin of his chest. She never realised before how tanned his skin was, nor how his shoulders were sprinkled with a dusting of freckles. She smiled to herself and Carlyn lay back onto the ground, pulling her on top of him.

Lera was extremely aware of everywhere they touched. The heat of his thighs, stomach, chest, fingers and lips pulsating against her.

As Carlyn began to pull her hose down her legs, panic flared for the first time within her. Her chest tightened. He began drawing her hose down her legs, his eyes trailing across her muscled thighs.

"Carlyn!" Lera exclaimed, frightened, her voice barely a whisper.

Carlyn looked up at her, his eyes filled with intensity. She didn't say anything. She wanted him so badly, but only fear and.and self control held her back. She could see it in his eyes, he needed her as she needed him. Slowly he pulled her hose back up. He turned away, disentangling himself from her, his eyes unreadable.

Lera backed away, hunting for her breast band. She refused to look at Carlyn. She sat, fully dressed in her cold damp clothing, knowing it was entirely her fault, and shivering on the opposite sides of the trunk from Carlyn. She didn't know what to say to him. To correct her from humiliating him and leading him on like she had.

Eventually she drifted into a restless sleep. When she awoke, Carlyn was sitting cross legged in front of her, staring at her sleeping body. She blinked, not moving. His eyes ran up her legs and over her stomach and breasts. Eventually they dawdled up her throat and over her cheek bones, meeting her eyes.

He turned red instantly and stood to storm away immediately.

Lera jumped to her feet and tackled him down before he could escape.

"Don't go." She said, knowing very well he had no where else to go and he couldn't do much with her sitting on his chest. He glanced up at her, his eyes were filled with pain.

Suddenly she knew how he must feel. As if she lied to him almost. As if she didn't want him and like she didn't care.

"I love you." The words left her before she could think. All she could do was stare back into his blue eyes, which were once again unreadable and hope for an answer.

"No you don't." Carlyn whispered, his crystal eyes locking onto hers. "You don't love me."

Lera whipped a tear from her eyes viciously away. "I do." She replied, nodding in emphasis.

Carlyn shook his head, as if talking to small child. He sat up and she fell from his chest into his lap. His muscled arms snaked around her. "No." He said, "You Don't. It's the trees and the stars and the cold and the kisses. You don't love me."

Lera stared at him, fluttering erupting in her stomach as he traced his fingers over her cheek bone and down her jaw.

"I love you though." He said softly, to himself almost, remorsefully, his eyes leaving hers and tracing his fingers rout across her collarbones and down the slope of her shoulder. "Yes." He paused. "I love you. I always have. I always will." He met her eyes again, emotion seeping from their depths. Lera felt like she was drowning.

"But it's time to give up. I'll admit I've lost." Tears spilled from his eyes, and hers as she pulled him to her, her damp clothing pressing almost painfully against his chest. If only he knew. She really loved him too.