A Winters Memory

Twenty-Five

Alec and Ara pushed forward through the night, thankfully, the snow had stopped falling but that meant that Alec would have to cover up their footprints, himself instead of leaving it to nature as he had been doing.

The night was filled with silence, not a sound could be heard; making Ara feel uncomfortable. To her it felt like an eerie silence, one that made you feel as if danger lurked in every dark corner waiting, waiting for just the right time to strike; and danger always seemed to strike when it was least expected, which made it that much scarier and unpredictable.

The feeling of unease rolled off of Ara in waves causing Alec to stop mid-step and turn to look at her, a worried expression setting in as his brows furrowed. "What's wrong?" Ara looked at their surroundings before turning her attention back on Alec. "Nothing, I just, something doesn't feel right; it's too quiet out here, doesn't that seem a little strange to you?" Alec looked around for a moment then looked back at Ara.

"I don't sense anything wrong, besides it's freezing out here, the animals probably sought out shelter from the cold. Don't worry okay, we'll be fine." Ara sighed still unconvinced but nodded anyway. "Yeah, okay..." He pulled her towards him, placing a gentle reassuring kiss on her cheek as he began to walk again with her by his side.

They traveled another couple of miles before stopping again to relieve themselves and to eat. Once they had had their fill, they continued on for another while longer. They managed to reach what looked to be like an abandoned shack. They looked to one another and smiled as they quickly rushed on towards the small dilapidated shack.

"Stay here, I'm going to go check it out first." Ara nodded and watched as Alec made his way over; it was rather small and looked like it could barely house one person let alone two people. It was covered in snow from top to bottom, the small round window it had was completely shattered, and the door had been practically falling from its creaky hinges. There was a good size hole in the roof which meant that snow must have found its way inside and nestled itself in there. If anything, the small thing looked like it would fall over at any given moment or if a good gust of wind set out towards it.

The shack itself stood at approximately six feet which meant that Alec had to duck just to enter its tiny chambers. The inside was no bigger than it looked on the outside meaning you barely had enough room to move around let alone place a single bed though it mattered none to them. They wouldn't be staying there long, but just long enough to rest for the moment and get warm.

Alec led Ara inside, shutting the door behind him and setting his things down on the farther side of the room allowing enough space for the two to move around in. "Maybe we can spend the night here and leave when first light breaks through." Ara looked around the room and nodded thankfully that they would at least be resting a bit longer than she had thought Alec would allow them.

"I'll go gather some sticks to make a fire and fix that hole just in case snow starts to fall again." Ara nodded her head with a smile. "Try and get some sleep. I'll take watch first just in case we need to leave quickly." Ara frowned but agreed nonetheless. She was far too tired to argue and so, she made herself as comfortable as she could possibly manage and drifted off, falling into her slumber soon after.

Alec watched her sleep with a small smile, his hand moving over, pushing away a loose strand of hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear. He watched her in silence for a moment longer before standing up and heading out to look for some firewood.

The small fire managed to warm up the small shack rather quickly allowing them to remove some articles of clothing to use as a pillow for better comfort. Alec lay beside Ara, his arm draped over her small frame while his hand rested against her belly drawing small intricate circles against the fabric of her gown, the small intimate gesture sending warm electricity up and down her spine igniting the bond between them even further.