Cadha (#wattys2016)

Berries

Just wanted to let you all know that I have rewritten some of the previous chapters so that they flow better and the story makes more sense. This changes a few things later on, so you might want to go back a re-read them.

Thanks so much for reading!!!

-----------

When we had both finished eating the rabbit, which I have to say was pretty good without any seasonings, we started getting ready to go to sleep. Reid found some more wood, which was amazing since he didn't even have an axe to cut any of the wood he found. He put half of the wood into the slowly dying fire and put the rest in a stack for the morning.

Then Reid took a small bedroll out of his pack. It consisted of two blankets. Normally you would lay on top of one and cover yourself with the other, but since there were two of us and one bedroll we would be sleeping on the bare ground.

"Here," Reid said as he handed me one of the blankets. "This is the thicker one that normally I would lay on. You'll probably need its extra warmth since you're so skinny."

"I'm not that skinny," I retorted. "But thank you anyways."

"You're welcome my dear."

I had just started spreading my blanket out on the ground, but I paused. "Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Calling you what?"

"You keep calling me 'my dear.' How come?"

"Gosh, I thought girls liked being called that," he murmured to himself. "Well, you're my dear... my darling, and I just like calling you that anyways. It's more fun."

"Okay. Maybe try calling me by my real name more often though. I don't want you to get it into your head that you can just call me whatever you want."

"And if I don't what will you do about it?"

"I don't know... something," I said trying to sound intimidating.

"Well then, 'my dear' it is."

"Ugh... fine. I guess you can call me my dear," I said in an exasperated tone. "Just not all the time."

"Yes... my dear."

I ignored his last comment and laid down on the grassy ground, covering myself with the thick blanket. Reid was right, it was very warm and I was glad for it. The full day's activities finally caught up with me and I quickly fell asleep in the warmth of the blanket.

----------

I woke up to the sound of birds calling to each other. The sun was just peeking over the horizon and the light coming from it filtered through the canopy of leaves above my head. I tried to stretch, but felt someone's arm wrapped tightly around my torso. It took me a second to remember figure out what had happened last night and how I ended up in Reid's arms. He must have rolled over closer to me and draped his arm over me in the middle of the night. It was sweet how he was holding me against him; I wasn't uncomfortable at all, I just felt like he would protect me no matter what. Maybe he had really meant what he had said last night.

I settled back into his arms and looked around at the scenery while I waited for him to wake up. It had been mostly dark when we had come to the clearing the night before, so I hadn't been able to see the true beauty of the place surrounding us. The trees around us were tall and slender with light bark. Their branches reached far out from their trunks and their leaves created a majestic canopy over the entire stream and bank.