Heather's Adventures: The Search for Maxamus

Chapter 55. Max

After a few more miles of walking, Dawnlight and Josh finally agreed on a place to stay for the night. "Here's good enough, it's probably the only cave for miles." Dawnlight turned around to face the rest of us, "and it's best we keep Heather warm.

"I'll take care of her," I told them. It was my fault this had all happened. It was my fault for taking her 'exploring', and it sure as hell was my fault for making Rheannah so mad at me that she looked like she was about to take off my head with her sword.

Josh shook his head and tried to take Heather out of my arms, "I'm her trainer. I should take care of her."

"We're bonded, I've got her. I can take care of her myself." I responded back.

"I've been training and taking care of her since she was six."

"I've been bonded to her for that long."

"I've been with her in person!"

"We share a life force."

"I know how to take care of her."

"I know everywhere she's been in the past few days."

"I know what she needs to live."

"Nellie gave us the mission."

"Nellie gave me the responsibility to protect her."

"Yeah, and how's that working out for you? I'm protected by one of our lords, just like she is."

"It's been working fine, she's very strong and knows how to fight, thanks for asking. I'm of a family of protectors."

"And I'm an heir to the Merrywell family and the son of Eckhart who works for the lords. I outrank you."

"Enough you two! You're acting like a bunch of lovesick idiots! What would Heather say if she could hear you two?! It's disgusting!" Sheria put herself between the two of us. I still held Heather. "If you keep it up I'll take care of her. She's my sister after all. My sister. Family over any other rank. If you keep it up she's going to hate both of you. You're already not on her good list Josh, and Max you certainly don't want to be on her bad side. You're lucky she's being nice to you as is right now."

Rheannah crossed her arms, "yeah. You're already treating her like your real twin sister."

"Geeze, you guys are giving me a headache with your stupidity." We all looked to Heather. She probably heard the entire argument. My face flushed over quickly with red while I helped her to her feet at her request.

"Are you alright? Do you need anything?" I asked her. I noticed her staring up at my eyes again. She kept looking at my eyes and I couldn't seem to figure out why.

Heather grumbled, "I passed out, do you think I was alright? All I need is to start a fire and keep warm. It's the fastest way for me to become immune to the spring water and gain my strength back at the same time. Did you guys find somewhere to stay for the night?" She drew her cloak in front of her as she started to shiver again. I didn't hesitate to grab my other jacket from my bag this time and hand it to her. She took it without another word, unlike before. She was cold this time and realized it. She was just trying to protect herself.

"Yeah, we found somewhere. We were just about to enter before those two got into a useless argument." Dawnlight told her while looking from Josh to me with a very irritated glare.

Heather looked to me, "what was this argument over?"

"Nothing," I told her, "let's just take care of you now, alright? You need your strength before we can get back to Issola."

She nodded while she adjusted her cloak over my jacket, which she now wore over her own, "alright. Let's set up camp. I'll take first shift while I can so I can sleep in longer in the morning. I don't care what the rest of you do; just keep your arguments and your shouting to a minimal. If I do get a headache, someone's going to have to be treating the cause of it for burns." She started to walk slowly on her own ahead of us into the cave. She had her bow in her hands, clearly irritated that she was awoken with such arguing. I'm just glad she didn't question or hear the argument from before. I didn't know what she'd do to me if she did hear. Quite honestly, I don't really want to know. Sheria was right, getting on her bad side was perhaps the worst thing that could happen to me.

It didn't take us long to get set up for the night in the cave. Heather started a small fire and kept close to it, unwilling to move. I sat back and rummaged my bag. I created small talk between Rheannah. I was able to finally apologize to her over everything I had done without her. She didn't accept at first, but she finally gave in at the end with the promise of I wouldn't dare go back into the caverns without her with me. I guess I just didn't understand how much it meant to her.

I wasn't able to talk with Heather again for a few hours when everyone finally decided to sleep. I had to come to her; she didn't leave her spot next to the fire.

"Hey," I started. She turned to look at me from where she was now covered up with a blanket.

"Hey," she responded back softly, "thanks for the jacket."

"It's nothing; you need it to get better." I told her.

She brushed her hair aside, "I'm getting there. I just didn't know it'd affect me that much..."

"You shouldn't just think it won't, you're not that strong."

"I thought my amulet would protect me, and then I forgot I didn't activate it. So I decided to not use it anymore, that way I will not have to worry about remembering if I activated it, or not."

I shrugged, "you could just keep it active all the time."

"It tires me quicker then," Heather sighed, "and I don't want to learn to rely on it. What happens when it can't help me?" She warmed her hands on the fire, "and I'm still so cold."

"You're getting better, right?"

"My eternal flames are freezing over." She mumbled, "is it because of you? Your power is heart of ice."

"I don't know," I admitted, "I don't know much about that stuff."

She shook her head and looked back to the fire, "I can't fight like this. If someone comes I'm be completely defenseless. My defense is my offense. I don't have much defense with a bow with arrows made of fire. If I can't jump back with my fire, I can't defend myself."

"Here, then you can hold onto this until you get your strength back," I took off my watch and handed it to her, "I trusted you with it once before, so I know I can trust you with it again."

"Max..." She looked back at me again. She was looking at my eyes. I still didn't understand what was up with that, "I can't do this Max. You need it. What happens if you can't defend yourself?"

I hadn't thought of that, "I could hold onto your bow?"

"You can't make arrows. Water arrows would be completely useless."

"I could make them out of ice."

"True, I didn't think of that. That would work well. Freeze them and leave them out in the cold." She took her bow from next to her and handed it to me before putting my watch on, "I haven't trained with a sword in a few weeks so I may be a bit rusty at first."

I laughed, "I don't know how well my aim is. It could be terrible for all I know. I haven't done archery in a while."

"You'll be fine," She smiled, "your watch is cold." Yet her smile was full of warmth...

"Well it is a water-based sword; I don't know what you were expecting."

Heather lightly laughed, "I don't know either. I guess I just want to feel warm again. Do you have another jacket?"

"The one I'm wearing, that's it." I commented, "I guess you could have that one too if you really wanted it. You're so needy." I remarked while giving her my other jacket.

She stuck her tongue out at me, "you're the one who's giving in to my every whim. It's your fault too for spoiling me."

"That it is," I admitted, "that it is."