~A Wild Heart~
Chapter Nine
~~~ooooo~~~
With a grunt of effort, Aeris hoisted herself up onto the next branch and quickly grabbed hold of a smaller one beside her head. She took several deep breaths.
"Wait!" she gasped. "Slow down please!"
The fairy turned to look back down at her. Fair eyebrows shot up at seeing how far below she was on the tree from him.
"I need to stop and rest," she said, feeling foolish and a complete failure. She was already breathing hard and perspiring from their race through the woods, and he'd picked the tallest tree in sight to climb. He could run like the wind and only slowed his pace once he saw that holding her hand and pulling her along was not very conducive to getting her to move any faster, and now he was climbing the tree as if he was walking on flat ground and not even breaking a sweat.
"I must leave soon and I want to get to the top before I have to take you back to the sheep. We're only about halfway up."
Aeris blew out her breath and let her head drop in exhaustion. From where she was perched on a thick, sturdy bough jutting out midway up the tree trunk, she could already see the tops of various trees around them. "I'm not a fairy. I'm not as strong as you and I can't climb very fast."
There was a slight disturbance in the air around her and his voice was suddenly coming from very close. "Let me help you."
She brought her head up, surprised to see him standing on the same tree limb as her but farther out, perfectly balanced on the uneven, knobby wood with both his arms hanging free at his side.
He extended a hand toward her. "There's nothing to fear."
Tentatively, Aeris released the death grip she had on the branch above them with her right hand and grabbed it. He yanked her forward with a force that ripped her other hand from the branch, and she let out a shriek as both her feet slipped and would've taken a nosedive but a pair of arms lifted her easily against a bare chest.
"Cloud!" She threw her arms around his neck. "I thought I was going to fall!"
She got her breath back only to lose it again with his next words. "I promise I will always catch you."
Her pounding heart beat even faster. He suddenly rose from the tree, and she quickly squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in his neck. Wind whipped at her skin and through her hair, and twigs and leaves brushed against her clothes, and she shivered and pressed closer into the reassuring warmth of his body.
All of a sudden, everything seemed to stop, including the wind itself.
"I think it's safe for you to look now."
Was that laughter she heard in his voice? Aeris pulled back to look at him and immediately forgot where they were. That was definitely amusement she saw lurking in those blue depths that were looking darker and warmer at the moment than she'd ever seen them.
"We're at the top," Cloud said, causing her arms to tighten instinctively about his neck. They were standing above the forest canopy that lay spread out before them like a great green carpet. Nearby, birds flitted over their nests while the cries of nestlings filled the air and where the trees were hemmed in by their borders, she could see the hills. They really did appear endless, going on and on for miles, until they faded into the horizon.
"You're looking the wrong way."
She wouldn't let go of him as she craned her neck to see over her own shoulder and he obliged her by turning around. It occurred to her that the branches at the top of a tree couldn't possibly support both their weight, but the thought fled her mind as her mouth dropped open.
The forest stretched even farther to the north but past that were more hills and beyond that rose great majestic peaks blanketed in white.
"That's not…?"
Aeris felt him nod. "It is," he replied. "Snow."
"Snow…" Her fingers curled in involuntary reflex.
She couldn't tear her eyes from the misty snow-capped peaks. They were so enormous, they completely dwarfed the much smaller mounds at their feet, and some were so tall their tops disappeared into the clouds. Just as he'd said.
"Mountains…"
~~~ooooo~~~
"Where do those keep coming from?" Tifa asked.
Aeris' head came up, her eyes going straight to the vase of wild lilies that Tifa was staring at.
Tifa had the oddest feeling that the other girl was struggling for an answer to give as she entered her room and went to sit with her on the bed.
"What are you looking at?" she asked, turning both their attention to the slender volume Aeris had been perusing.
Without a word she held it out, and Tifa saw at a glance what it was. The small leather-bound journal had belonged to Aeris' mother and was one of her friend's most treasured possessions.
"What's that in your hand?"
Aeris hesitated before opening her fingers to reveal a small white teardrop shape that looked like it was made of a very fine, thin layer of velvet and appeared as fragile as a snowflake.
"A petal?"
"The flowers are a little too big to fit inside the book," Aeris confessed.
"So you pressed the petals," Tifa deduced. "I don't think I've ever seen you bringing them home but each time I come in here, that vase has grown bigger."
Aeris' brows knitted together, confused as to where Tifa was going with the conversation.
"I remember how you used to pick them all the time for Mary," Tifa went on, her eyes returning to the vase sitting on Aeris' dressing table. "Her face would just light up whenever you came through the door with the flowers in your arms. She would always start off placing them in her favorite vase on the kitchen table. Remember?" Her voice turned wistful. "If you brought more flowers home before they dried out, the vase would get too full so she'd start putting them in whatever she could find and place them in every room until the whole house was soon overflowing with flowers. Bless her, she was such a dear, sweet woman."
"She couldn't bear to throw them out before they died." Aeris smiled fondly as she recalled the kindly old woman who had opened her home, and her heart, to both girls when they'd lost their families. "Neither could my mother. They both loved the flowers, too."
Tifa was silent for the space of a few heartbeats. "Is that why you stopped bringing them home?"
Aeris nodded.
"But you've been picking them again."
"Yes," Aeris said with a quickness that made Tifa immediately suspicious. Ashamed for doubting her friend, she tried to brush it aside.
"Oh." She smiled brightly. "I don't see you bringing them home."
"I—I only pick one sometimes on my way home," Aeris stammered. "You know how long they can last if they're placed in water. That's why I…keep them in the vase in here. So they can live as long as possible."
"Of course…"
But Tifa could not suppress the nagging feeling that Aeris was hiding something.
~~~oooooo~~~
The next morning, Aeris found a water lily on her bedroom window.
She made quick work of the warm cereal that Tifa had prepared and set out on the table for her, and hurried out to the barn to help Zack finish milking the cow. Once she drove the sheep to a new meadow with enough grass to keep them busy for a while, she headed for the old wagon trail.
~~~ooooo~~~
"That's a pretty flower," Zack said, looking at the flower tucked behind Aeris' ear. "It looks very…" he gestured to the white lily, and finished rather awkwardly, "pretty on you."
Aeris' eyebrows rose. "You're losing your touch."
He laughed, but he felt a strange heat rise in his face. "Let me try that again," he said, striving for the confidence and ease that had always come so naturally to him. "What I was trying to say is, you look lovely today… The flower suits you, Aeris. You look like you were born to wear it."
He saw her eyes widen slightly, but she only smiled and went to the pump to wash her hands.
"What's wrong? Did I stumble over that one, too?"
"Of course not," she answered over her shoulder. "That was very well done, as expected of someone as skilled as you."
Daisy and Lucy trotted up to him and sat down on their hindquarters, tails flickering like flames as they waited for their turn to be complimented by the one whom they knew was a master at the art of flattering females.
Zack chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, you both look very pretty today too." He scratched their heads affectionately. "I hear you're learning to be a bit nicer to the neighbors now. Never thought that was gonna happen. Keep up the good work, will ya?"
They looked reproachfully at him, completely unimpressed with his less than stellar attempt at praise.
Zack was duly chastened. "Your beauty would put a queen to shame. Certainly no other female can compare to either of you."
"I heard that."
He glanced back at the green-eyed brunette brushing back the wispy brown curls that the wind seemed set on blowing out of place. Her beauty was truly incomparable. "Except for maybe one."
An indignant harrumph came from his left. "Excuse me?"
"Or two," he said, quickly and smoothly, as though he'd intended to say just that all along. Now that was much more to his usual standards, he thought, silently applauding himself on the way he'd covered himself that time. "You didn't give me a chance to finish." He shot a reproving look at their housemate who had come from the barn and was standing by the woodpile, arms folded across her chest, glaring at him.
A peal of merry laughter rang out from Aeris.
Zack grinned ruefully at her. "Why does she look like she doesn't she believe me?"
"Oh, Zack." Aeris grinned back, her eyes lit with laughter. "You've had it far too easy with the girls. You're just too handsome and charming for your own good sometimes."
"Handsome and charming, is it?" he asked curiously. "I'll take that."
She giggled as she picked up her basket and staff, and headed for the house. "You can't trust a man with such a glib tongue. As soon as you turn your back, he's off sweet-talking the next available girl like there's no tomorrow."
"Isn't that the truth," said Tifa in a tone of disgruntlement.
"Hey now," Zack said. "I just like to be nice to everybody. Girls in particular." He winked at his loyal hounds. "Especially the faithful ones. Can't help it if they like being nice back to me." If he'd thought to get a rise from his companions, he'd thought wrong. They had already moved on from the topic and left him in the dust.
"I like the flower in your hair, Aeris," Tifa was saying to her as she passed by her.
"What, this?" Aeris patted the lily nonchalantly. "It's nothing."
"You used to do that a lot, didn't you? I remember now. I always thought it was so pretty." Tifa was hot on her heels. "Has something happened? Is there a reason why you're wearing them in your hair again?"
She didn't see the look on Aeris' face before she smiled and shook her head. But Zack did.
His eyes followed the girls chatting gaily as they walked inside the house.
"What was that about?" he asked himself. Why had Aeris looked almost frightened there for a moment? Tifa had simply made an observation about how she'd used to wear the flowers in her hair.
Lucy and Daisy were still sitting at his feet, their eyes knowing, full of things they'd seen and heard, and quite possibly, wanted to share. Or maybe he was just imagining things.
But his gut was telling him otherwise.
"I wonder," Zack mused, gazing into the soulful amber eyes of both dogs, "what stories you would tell."