Stardew Valley - Dark Blue: When The Chickens Came Home To Roost (Shane)

Chapter 12: Unconditional Surrender

"I want to show you something, Shane," Litha said during their walk back to her cabin. Their arms were interlocked, and Shane was still stumbling slightly, despite his sobering run in with an actual fucking golem. His cheeks were freezing and wind burnt, snot had long crusted around his nose, and his head still ached and spun.

"What is it?" He asked, though the question was essentially moot. She could show him a bucket of week old fish heads and he'd think it was cool as long as she did, too.

As they came up on the cabin, Litha led them past it, stopping in front of that creepy mouse statue again. She took his hand, and Shane knew the drill — he closed his eyes until she gave the signal. He waited for the two telltale gusts of wind on his face, and then, she spoke.

"We're here," Litha whispered.

Shane opened his eyes and looked around. The two of them stood in a densely wooded area, overtaken wholly by massive snow dusted pines, save for the shimmering, foggy spring carved out near the center. A waterfall wept gently against the water's surface, sounding a soft trickling melody between the echoing trees.

It took a moment for Shane's eyes to adjust to the setting, lit only by the glow of the crescent moon and several strange orbs of light that danced above the still waters.

Like Litha, it was magic.

"Where are we?" Shane asked slowly, stepping away from the warp rune toward the water.

"This spring has special healing properties," Litha explained. "I thought we could take a dip."

Shane looked at Litha as if she'd grown an extra eye, and then up toward the sky, where clumps of snow were falling sparsely. "It's freezing out here, Li," he insisted rather obviously.

Litha chuckled, stepping close to him and kissing his cheek. "It's a geothermal spring, love. There's an underground cave beneath the water, and it regulates the temperature year 'round."

Shane was skeptical, but all the same, as Litha's clothes began falling into the snow, Shane couldn't help but to oblige her. As he descended the stone steps into the water, Shane was surprised to find that, indeed, it felt like bath water. Litha waded in behind him and wrapped her weightless body around his back, squeezing his neck gently with her arms while her head rested on his shoulder.

"Lately, I've been coming here after long nights in the caves," she said wistfully. "When I emerge from this spring, my wounds are closed up, and my muscles are soothed. It makes me feel safe, in a way — like I could be on the brink of certain death, and these waters would revive me."

Shane looked intrinsically, taking a mental inventory of his tired, beaten to shit body. After mere seconds in the water, he could feel the tension leaving his muscles, and the dull, tingly feeling leaving the back of his head. He felt closer to sober, too, which he wasn't sure if he hated or appreciated.

For nearly an hour, they waded around the spring in total silence, and once Litha declared it was time to leave, Shane felt like a new man.

************

Though he'd been standing in the very same cabin earlier that day with the very same woman, Shane felt an overwhelming sense of resoluteness from it all, now. To whatever end, he was willing to bend for her. He flopped down onto the ugly green couch next to the wicked orange barn cat, who purred upon his arrival.

"Satsuma missed me," he said as he ruffled the cat's ears.

Litha only watched him from the kitchen, arms crossed and booted foot tapping against the hardwood as the glow of a fat beeswax candle illuminated her profile. "Aye. Satsuma is a menace — kindred spirits and all."