Chapter 39

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            Rune shook water off his face from Willow’s latest attack, treading water, and mouthed the word “Truce.”

            She grinned and nodded, feeling her faintly burning muscles go slack at the prospect of stopping. While their water war was fun, it’d been a long while since she’d been in such an extended battle, especially with the extra drag of her clothes slowing her. Willow led the way back to shore and their bags.

            Heaving herself out of the water, she felt the full weight of her own body settle back onto her, almost like a blow. She wondered if that’s how astronauts felt when they came back to Earth even as she offered Rune a hand. He took it, and she hauled him upwards. He scrabbled up onto the rocky edge of the pool, lying down once he was out of the water. She shook her head at his dead fish posture and poked him with a toe.

            He turned over to look at her, his lips moving too quickly for her to read. Willow shrugged, pointing back at their bags. Rune made a face but nodded. With him behind her, she was even more careful as she picked a path across the rocks. When they finally reached their bags, Rune dropped down to the ground, leaning against his bag, ignoring the spreading wet patch he was making on it. “You,” he said, looking at her as she sat. “Are a demon.”

            Willow chuckled. “You know I have a mess of cousins and that we run wild through the forest. You had to have known this isn’t my first trip here with someone. And you saw what Eloise, Parker, and Everett do to me. I’m used to being under attack.”

            He shook his head. “Like I said, a demon. So, what’s the plan? Are we heading back once we’ve recovered, or is there other stuff to see around here?”

            “Well, we could always climb up the cliff. There’s a path that goes up there, and it’s kind of cool to be at the top of the waterfall. Not that we can get too close to the edge since it’s too slippery to be safe. But it’s a nice view. And it’s windier up there, which ought to help us dry out quicker.”

            “You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you? You’re weakening me by exhausting me, and when I can barely move, you’ll go in for the kill.”

            “How long have you had these paranoia issues?”

            Rune grinned. “All my life.”

            “That explains so much. But if you’re too tired, we can just stay here. I don’t mind.”

            He snorted and shoved himself to his feet. “I’ll be fine. I didn’t come all the way out here just to stop because I’m a little tired. Let’s roll.”

            Chuckling again, Willow stood as well, swinging her backpack on, ignoring the half-plash sound it made as it struck her still soaked clothing. “Alright, follow me. And don’t worry. This is an easier route than getting up the rise is.”

            “Good. Since hanging out with you, I’ve become way more physically active, but I don’t think I’m anywhere up to your level. And I think that’s the level you’d have to be to swim for that long and then climb up a rock face.”

            “Baby. With some work, you’ll be fine. Challenging yourself is how you improve.”

            “It’s also how you die.”

She flashed him a grin. “You know I won’t let you die. You might wish you had, but you won’t actually die,” she said as she led him to where it was shallow enough for them to walk through the creek without getting their bags wet.

He followed close behind her, moving slowly as he felt the rocks and gravel that made up the creek’s bed. “You’re such a cheerful sort.”

“Like you’re one to talk.”

“How do you think I know? A snake knows a snake’s path.”

“You say the weirdest stuff some times,” Willow said, carefully clambering up the rock’s on the opposite side of the bank.

Rune sniffed, and pitched his voice to a whine. “You just don’t appreciate how special I am.”

“Don’t think I won’t shove you back in the water.”

“Too late, I’m on dry land.”

“I could always carry you.”

“You could try.”

Willow chuckled. “We both know I’d own you in a fight.”

“Only in a fair one. And I fight dirty.”

“So do I.”

He smirked. “Not like I do. I specialize in under-handed tricks, deceit, and the element of surprise.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’ve never seen me fight, so you can’t know.”

She shook her head. “If you were such a master of evil, I wouldn’t have found you with a bloody nose in the hall.”

“That’s all part of my cunning plan, you see. Let them think I can’t fight, and when it counts, boom! Right in the face.”

“You really are crazy.”

“As all geniuses are.”

Willow laughed at his superior tone, before nodding at the narrow strip of brown that zigzagged its way up around the rocks, disappearing, though she knew it went all the way to the top. “There’s the path. It’s less of a climb and more of a hike. I hope your legs are up to it.”

“Sadist,” Rune said, following her up.

The path, something that looked more like it’d been made by mountain goats than people, moved around boulders, over patches of rocks, and only sometimes went through grassy patches. Willow could feel her calves and tops of her thighs protest a bit as the path became steep. She ignored them, glancing back at Rune to make sure he was keeping up. His face was a little red, but otherwise, he looked fine.

Willow nodded to herself, focusing her attention back on the trail. It was longer than she remembered, and soon from a combination of the heat and her exertion, she began to sweat. Not that anyone would be able to tell, with her still damp clothes pressed against her in a way that didn’t help cool her.

When they finally reached the top, Willow was feeling a twinge of regret for deciding to do this, especially when she saw Rune’s shiny face. He came to stand beside her, on the last bit of grass before the rocks took over, eventually falling away into empty air. The creek ran to their right, hurrying over the edge, the thunder of its passage muted this far up. But what spread out beyond it was the familiar sea of green, the endless seeming forest that lay below them. The winds wrapped around them, catching their clothes and cooling the sweat on their bodies.

Rune turned to look at her, his breathing still not quite even after the climb, and said “This, is totally worth it.”

She grinned at him, until one of the breezes brought with it a faint, but still familiar scent. One that she knew shouldn’t be up here. Willow sighed. Someone had pot up there.

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