Follow the Arrow

Chapter 14

Sunlight breaks through the bare branches, falling over my face. It turns the inside of my eyelids red and I begin to wake up. I notice there has been a somewhat dramatic drop in temperature, and even though I can feel my quilt over me and some heat source beneath me, I feel some tremors coming on. My teeth are chattering, I can feel my warm breath escaping me, so I grab at the heat source with one hand, yanking on a fabric to pull myself closer and curl into a tighter little ball to conserve the little heat I have. The other hand slides along it, then forces it closer.

Once I decide I can't make any more accommodations, I settle down, and try to drift back to sleep. I feel like it's one of the best nights of sleep I've gotten in a long time. But maybe that's because this past month I've been sleeping on the cold, hard floor of a dungeon. And that's only a guess because I really have no idea. But there's also this strange feeling of déjà vu nagging at the back of my mind. And it's not so much nagging in the back of my mind, as it is this strange feeling. Almost like butterflies, but that's odd because I'm half asleep. Of course sleep is familiar and comforting. Even sleeping like this in the cold is something I've been through, but what's so peculiar about that?

I push away the curiosity. I should just go back to sleep. I might as well since it doesn’t sound like anyone else is awake. Burying myself deeper into the warmth, I smile. I take a long breath, but something tickles my nose so I wiggle and scrunch it up. It doesn't help, so I do it more exaggeratedly, and even rub my nose on whatever I'm on, but then I'm going up and down slightly as it moves.

Or should I say as it laughs? And then panics.

"Dear lord, she's awake," he mumbles right above my head.

I keep my eyes shut and I control my shivering and chattering. "Zane?" Please, don't answer. Do not answer. If he doesn't answer, then I'm just hearing things. Then I'm not cuddling with Zane.

"I-I can explain." He almost says it like a question.

Why did he have to answer?! "You can explain why I'm on top of you?" Suddenly, I'm hyperaware of everything. Zane's leaning against a tree, so I'm not lying down. I'm basically a little ball in his lap, and his arms are tight around me- not loose, tight, very tight. And his arms aren't over the quilt, their under the coat I’m wearing. And worst of all, my arms; I've just realized I'm tucked inside his coat, one hand gripping his shirt like a vise, the other on his back.

"Y-yes. Yes I-I can. You see, last night… Um, you do remember coming over here to check on me, right?"

"Yes." I look pointedly at the spot I laid down at. It's was a few feet away, by a bush. "I also remember falling asleep over there. What I don't recall: getting up and crawling into your lap! So please, do explain!"

He stammers as he always does. "You-you were asleep. And I-I wasn't asleep yet. I wanted to wait until you were. But then it got colder and colder-"

I cut him off and sit up so I could look at him. "So you decided to cuddle with me for warmth?!"

He shakes his head stiffly. "No, no. Of course not! I fetched your quilt and my bag. I had you use the bag as a pillow and I laid out the quilt for you."

"And then you pulled me into your lap?"

"I-I'd never do that. That's crossing a line. I could never-"

"Then how did I end up here?"

He blushes. "You, erm, crawled into my lap." I suck in a breath to exclaim something, but he’s already babbling. "As I said, I wanted to wait until you were asleep. And when I put the blanket on you, you were asleep. But you managed to kick off the blanket. So I got up and set it on you, even tucking it under. But again, you kicked it off. So I got up again. You're relentless, you know that? I got up half a dozen times. Eventually I moved you closer so if I had to fix your covers again, I just reach out and do it. After that last time though, you didn't. But you were still cold because your teeth were chattering, and you just kept curling into a little ball. So I gave you my coat, though that didn't help either." He blushes even more. "I'm sorry, but I gave up. I wanted to go to sleep, but I couldn't because I was so cold, and I felt bad that you were cold, so I just ended up lying here with my eyes closed, listening to you freeze."