Loving Rain (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 29 - The Swing

Loving Rain - Ch. 29

______________

               I had to rub my eyes for a second before I could tell where I was. The light streaming through the leaves just mixed with the darkness, causing this sort of gray haze that covered everything and made it almost impossible to see. Pure black night would have been better, because then at least my eyes wouldn’t be able to play tricks on me. Now, like this, I kept trying to walk towards what I thought was empty space only to run into some tree or rock that would make me stumble.

               Nevertheless, something told me to keep moving. Where I had been wasn’t a safe place. So I ran into all those trees, fell over all those rocks, and never once stopped for more than a mere second. Once my feet were too bloody and raw from all the cuts and scrapes, I fell onto my hands and knees and tried to feel my way through the forest. But even that didn’t work any better.

               I cried out as a sharp stick sliced through the palm of my left hand. I still couldn’t see, but I could definitely feel the blood leaking all the way down my arm. The small drops even reached my ears as they plummeted to the ground. It was a pretty deep cut.

               Tearing off a strip of my dress, I began to wrap it around and around my hand in an attempt to slow the flow of blood and to keep as much dirt out of it as I could. When I reached the end of my strip, I tucked it securely under the part that was already tightly in place and then hurriedly continued my trek through the trees. I knew that my stop was already costing me sweet time.

               The hand on my shoulder caused me to jump several feet in the air. I hadn’t heard a single sound, and yet someone was on me. I flipped myself around, but the gray light still made it impossible to distinguish anything but occasional shapes. It was the voice that tipped me off as to who it was.

               “Rain, what are you doing?” Cian asked me, his hand automatically reaching for my injured one and bringing it up as if to inspect it. But I knew it was futile, because there wasn’t any way he could actually see it. “What happened to your hand? And why are you crawling around?”

               I tried to choke out a few words, but nothing came out of my throat but a few mangled noises. In my mind Cian’s eyes narrowed the way they always did when he became so strongly concerned about me. “Are your feet hurt, Rain?”

               A nod from me, and then he was automatically picking me up in his strong arms and somehow carrying me through the thick foliage. I struggled for a moment trying to ask him how he was managing, but finally had to give up and just be content burying my face into his warm chest. My arms reached up and wrapped around his neck, careful not to touch my injury. It still stung.

               I heard the river before I noticed that the light was suddenly brighter and allowed me to see it. Cian carried me all the way over to it before setting my down and lifting my feet into the cool water. The shock of it made me flinch slightly, but then I relaxed and watched him wash away all the caked on dirt from the forest floor. The water also came away with a slight reddish tinge, but it didn’t make me as worried as it did Cian. His eyebrows furrowed and he tore off his shirt, making two rough bandages like I did for my hand. He soaked the first little bit in water so it was cool against my cuts, but left the ends dry so they wouldn’t gather mud if I had to walk. Which, honestly, I didn’t expect him to let me anytime soon.

               He slowly grasped my hand and began to carefully unwrap it. He used the same method to clean it, but this time the cut was deeper and so the water hurt more than it had on my feet. I made a small moaning sound and Cian bit his lip, but kept cleaning it anyway. His grip on me tightened and wouldn’t let me pull away. I knew that it needed to be clean, but I almost didn’t want to handle the stinging that came with it. Finally, he was done and washed some blood out of my strip before wrapping the hand right back up again, caressing it as he did so.