Passion (Book 1 of "The Fantasy of Life" Series)

Chapter 36

Ashanaya

We walked around trying to scope a good place for camp, we needed a decently flat place that was slightly less dense. We used to get York to clear it a little bit, but he's heavily advised against using his magic at the moment. The area wasn't promising, the trees were always very dense.

"Kel, are you sure you couldn't get us a good place to camp?" I asked.

"I don't like magic." She shook her head.

I groaned in response. "Well, we gotta find somewhere soon or we're not getting any sleep."

Cullen got closer to me. "Well, while we'r-"

"What about over there!" Kel called from behind me. She pointed into the woods, there weren't any trees, the ground was flat.

"Yeah Kel! That'd be great, if the ground wasn't covered in stumps." I rolled my eyes.

"Grouch." She mumbled behind me.

"I'm sorry, I'm just tired." I sighed.

The forest was dense and all the trees were dark, almost frightening, silhouettes. The grass looked almost blue in the pale moonlight. It was all kind of pretty honestly.

The world around was very dark but very light at the same time, it was confusing but normal. The moon was full, and the stars around sparkled brighter than I'd ever seen. there were very thin clouds, occasionally wafting over the moon, but only for a moment or two. The night was cold, and the world around was damp, and even darker still because of it.

"You were saying, Cullen?" I looked over at him.

"Huh?" He stared at me blankly for a second.

I raised an eyebrow.

His eyes widened. "Oh right! I was just saying, while we're alone we should take a minute to talk about... things."

"What things? There are a lot of things going on." I said sarcastically.

"Us things." He said, not seeming to notice my sarcasm.

"What about us?" I asked, looking back forward.

"Is there finally an us? Did what I say at the mountain show that I care about you or do you still want to wait? I respect your decision I just want to know what's going on because I poured my heart into that speech I gave you, and every bit of it was the truth and you kissed me right after, so it seemed like maybe you were changing your mind about us and I just kinda thought that maybe there was a chance for us but I wan-"

"Cullen." I stopped him from rambling any more than he already had. He was obviously very nervous.

"I'm sorry, just, what are we?" Cullen asked.

"Are you sure this is the conversation you wanna have just before we fight Valerie? It seems a little, irresponsible." I looked at him, scared of what I should answer because I really didn't want to hurt him.

He stopped to think for a second then nodded, seeming to be decently sure of himself, surprisingly enough. "Yeah, if we die tomorrow I wanna know if I at least had one night to call you mine."

"Well, I had already been kind of sure of my answer when talking to other people but now, I'm not sure. I don't want to say yes, then die and break your heart." I explained.

He didn't say anything.

"Well, I think there's an 'us' now." I said nodding slowly.

"Really?" He looked over at me hopefully.

"Yeah, after that speech after the mountain, I really liked what you said and it made me feel like it is you that cares about me." I smiled. "I care about you too, so I finally thought, why not?"

"'Finally' is the perfect word." He shifted around so that he was in front of me, he pulled me close and pressed his lips to mine softly. Small shivers ran lightly up and down my arms.

"What about there?" Kel called to us again. I pulled back from Cullen and looked to where she pointed. It was a small open area with a tree in the centre. The ground was flat and this time wasn't littered in stumps.

"That's perfect Kel, I'll be right there!" I called over to her, then looked back at Culled, smiled and kissed him again.