The Last Princess

Chapter 37

His eyes were full of too much anger to be possible, and as his eyes slid from the dead man to me, I charged in and wrapped my hands around him.

I was sobbing into him as his arms surrounded me protectively. He finally pushed me away, looking down into my tear-filled eyes. "You're okay now, Elvina. You're okay. Go get dressed."

I swallowed and ran to my clothes, pulling them on while Aiden stood with his back to me, watching the Forest.

Even from here I could see his white knuckles as he gripped the bow tightly.

I paused a moment to wipe away the last tears before I walked up to him.

"Are you alright?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. He kept his eyes trained on the Forest, not at me, as he said, "I found two caves where we can stay for the night. Do you want to go?"

I nodded again.

Then, when things couldn't possibly get worse, they did.

It began to rain.

Hard.

Within moments we were both soaked to the bone, and I was shivering, because a sharp wind had blown through, and it had suddenly become very cold.

"What's going on?" he yelled.

I could barely hear him through the wind and the rain. "I don't know! But let's go to the caves, now!" I shouted back.

He grabbed my hand and I followed him blindly, running through the Forest where there was some relief because of the slightly thicker canopy.

I could just make out two large shapes in the distance, and as Aiden led me closer I could see that they were the caves. He pulled me in to the first one, and the howling wind somewhat quietened. Aiden quickly dropped the bag and pulled out another towel, the one I had left beside that lake.

He tossed it to me. "Get dry."

"What about you?"

"I'll wait."

I wiped the cold rain off my hands and body as fast as I could (because I could see Aiden shivering), and threw it to him.

Not that it had much effect, because my clothes were drenched, so I was freezing.

He pulled out something from the bag, and I saw that it was clothes- a shirt, pant, and jacket. I realized what he was going to do just as he out his hands to his shirt, and I whirled around.

"What?"

"Change first!"

I heard him sigh, amused, and finally he said "You can turn around now."

Hoping I wasn't blushing, I turned to see him in dry clothes, which didn't help my numbing limbs.

"Well, we can't build a fire without twigs or sticks or anything, so..."

"I'm fine." I said, quickly, even though I wasn't.

"Let's just sleep." He suggested. I nodded and sat down, leaning on the wall far away from the cave opening. Even so, I couldn't stop myself from shivering, because a cold wind was blowing through again.

I gave Aiden a quizzical look as he sat beside me and put an arm around me. I wasn't used to being touched. "You're cold. And your dress is wet." he said defensively.

I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder, my legs curled up, his warmth bringing some relief to me.

Eventually I drifted off to sleep.