8. Foraging and Waterfalls
Chapter eight
Foraging and Waterfalls
“Hello, Cas,” Darion said in a shaky voice as he stared down at the blade at his throat. “Um…sorry for sneaking up on you like that.”
I pulled the blade away but kept it unsheathed at my side.
Why the dust was he following me? My mind instantly went to negative places.
Maybe he was a competing herbalist, trying to find my foraging spots.
Or worse, maybe he’d followed me out here to steal my coin purse, waiting until we were alone to strike.
“Explain,” I said with an edge to my voice as sharp as my blade.
“I wanted to surprise you,” Darion said with a sheepish grin. “I could tell you didn’t want to forage today, and I felt bad about you missing your midday meal, so I…uh…I brought it to you.”
He started opening the bag at his side. I held up my blade and barked, “Slowly!”
Slower now, he opened his bag and showed me the contents. Inside were a few pieces of fruit, a loaf of bread, and some cured meats and cheeses. He really had brought me food.
Well, now I felt like an idiot.
Still, why had he followed me this far out of the city? The food could easily have been a cover story. I decided to let my guard down a little while still keeping my eyes open. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that,” I said. “You might get yourself killed.”
“Noted. For the record, you are wicked fast. You were on me before I could even react.”
“One of my talents,” I said dryly.
Darion raised a single eyebrow and gave a half smile. His expression plainly said, I’d love to see some of your other talents. My face burned. One of his talents was clearly flirting savagely without even speaking. It was infuriating how easily he got past my defenses.
We stared at each other for way too long. This wasn’t me. I didn’t let people in. I couldn’t. I’d made the mistake of trusting people before. Letting them get too close. Telling them secrets. And it had backfired in the worst possible way.
Darion finally broke the silence. “Should we find a place to eat?”
This was spiraling out of control. Now we were going to eat together, like a picnic?
I felt trapped. I couldn’t just turn him away after he’d gotten that food and come all the way out here. But this was not what I had planned for my afternoon.
I sighed. “We’re close to my foraging spot. There’s a place we can sit.”
I wasn’t excited about revealing where I got my goldvein root, but I was already in deep, and my current assessment was that Darion posed no threat. Either that or he was a very competent liar.
After a short walk farther down the path, I spotted the boulder at the trail’s edge that marked where to turn. I quickly found the primitive trail I always took to the foraging spot.
“Where are you taking me, exactly?” Darion asked after a few minutes of walking.
“Almost there. It’s worth the hike.”
Soon, the forest opened onto a clearing filled with tall grasses and brilliant wildflowers in orange, purple, and red, their perfume floating on a gentle breeze. On the left side of the clearing was a small waterfall about ten feet high, splashing into a glimmering pool.
Darion’s eyes sparkled as he took in the scene. “You weren’t kidding about it being worth it. This place is beautiful.”
I pointed at a smattering of plants growing near the pond. “It’s a perfect place for goldvein root. With morning sun, afternoon shade, and plentiful water, this place was practically designed for it.”
Darion nodded in appreciation. “Should we forage first or eat first?”
At the mention of eating, my treacherous stomach let out an audible growl.
He laughed. “I guess that’s my answer. Good thing I brought food.”
I still couldn’t shake the feeling that this whole thing was a little…odd? What was his angle? What was he getting out of this? He couldn’t have come all this way just for my company. That sort of thing didn’t happen to me—I never let it, unless my meddling sister got involved.
For now, I’d play along. I’d see where this was going and try to uncover his real motivations.
We found a flat spot near the pond, dappled with shade from the nearby trees. Darion laid out a small blanket he had packed, then sat down on it and tapped the spot next to him. “Come join me.”
I did as he said while he unpacked the food. He made little sandwiches from the bread, meat, and cheese as I popped a grape into my mouth. The whole thing felt ridiculous.
When he handed me one of the sandwiches, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Can I ask why you’re doing this?”
“Does no one in your life do nice things for you just because?”
“Not generally.”
“Well, if you need a reason,” Darion said, “then it’s because you’re nice to take the time to do this. Just paying you back. Plus the company isn’t bad.”
He smiled. Still, for a moment, I could swear there was something else behind his eyes. Was it excitement? Fear? Deception?
Once my stomach was full, I tried my hardest to relax.
We chatted about the weather, the state of the streets in Analon, and other inconsequential things.
Darion mentioned nothing personal, and neither did I.
In my line of work, it was smart to keep things close to your chest. I’d never liked deciding what to reveal and what to hide, so avoiding everything suited me just fine.
One thing Darion did reveal was that he was wickedly funny. Nearly all of his comments were laced with a dry wit, but his observations were never mean.
When we finished eating, he got up from the blanket and stretched. “We should get to foraging.”
We spent the next twenty minutes on our hands and knees, digging up goldvein root and stuffing it in our packs. The afternoon sun was hot, and soon dirt mixed with sweat covered us in a muddy mess.
Darion stood up and tried to shake himself clean, but the mud clung to him like glue. “I’m filthy.”
“You are. You’ve got some mud on your face.”
“Where?”
“Right there.” With my index finger, also covered in mud, I tried to point to the smudge of dirt on his face. But a chunk of mud dislodged from my finger and smacked him right on the cheek.
His eyes went wide, and he barked out a laugh. “Why, you little—”
“It was an accident! I’m sorry!”
“I’ll show you an accident.” He smeared the entire palm of his muddy hand across my face.
My jaw dropped. I smeared my hand across his face in return. Then he reached down, grabbed a handful of mud from the bank of the pond, and flung it at my vest.
I looked down in shock at the mud stuck to me. “You didn’t just do that.”
Darion smirked. “Don’t start a mud fight if you don’t want to get muddy.”
An all-out battle started, and both of us grabbed piles of mud from the pond’s edge and hurled them at each other.
Our laughter grew louder, punctuated by the occasional gasp when a handful struck home.
An unfamiliar emotion flowed through me.
I never let loose like this…but I didn’t want it to end.
Being with Darion was intoxicating. And yet I couldn’t help my reflexive thought: I should stop before this becomes something I don’t know how to stop.
I rested my hands on my knees and yelled, “Truce!”
“Agreed. Truce.” He held out a muddy hand, and we shook on it.
I looked down at my clothing. “How am I going to get clean now?”
“Like this,” Darion said, pushing me backward into the pond.
I pinwheeled my arms to stop the momentum, but it was no use.
Utter shock. Then cold—very, very cold—water enveloped me like icicles against my skin. Maybe I should have been upset with him for pushing me, but there wasn’t an ounce of anger inside me.
Then he jumped in next to me.
When Darion surfaced, he cried out, “Wow! That’s cold.”
My eyes were daggers, but my voice was teasing. “Yeah, I know. Thanks for that.”
He shrugged and smiled. “We need to get clean somehow.”
Then he pulled off his shirt. His strong shoulders and the top of his chest peeked above the surface. It wasn’t a big deal, right? Plenty of guys swam together—this was just two new friends cooling down in a pond on a hot summer day.
That was when Darion pulled off his boots, threw them onto the shore, and then took off his pants. The water hid everything, but I felt my cheeks go instantly hot.
He saw me gawking and laughed a little. “You going to get clean too or just watch the show?”
Without waiting for an answer, he swam over to the waterfall with his clothes in his hands.
With a strange mix of relief and disappointment, I noticed he still had on his drawers.
I sorted through my conflicting emotions as I watched his lean muscles work to propel him through the water.
I couldn’t recall ever being so attracted to a man so quickly. This was bad.
He rinsed his clothes under the cascading spray of the waterfall.
As I pulled off my shirt, I felt my locket bat against my chest. Letting him see the locket felt too personal, so I hurriedly took it off and stashed it in my buttoned trouser pocket for safekeeping.
It hurt a little in a way I didn’t expect—an ache in my chest. I looked back at Darion’s smiling face, which took the sharp edge off.
I finished stripping to my drawers, then swam over to join him. When I approached, he smiled. “The water feels warmer once you’re used to it.”
“Speak for yourself,” I said, teeth chattering. “You’ve got more meat on your bones.”
Darion made a sad face. “Sorry. Once you’re done washing, we can get warm in the sun.”
When everything was as clean as it would get, we swam to the shore. Darion lifted himself out of the pond, water cascading down his beautiful body, glimmering in the noonday sun. His drawers clung to his backside in a way that left little to the imagination.
When he turned around, I nearly gasped. The front side left even less to the imagination, and it was pretty clear that this wasn’t just “two guys going for a swim.”
Despite the cold water, I could feel blood running south.