10. Treading New Ground #2
Alluin didn’t seem to need any maps or orienteering, despite the fact that I knew he hadn’t set foot on Droesh for decades.
He moved through the woods with the same surety as the beasts that roamed it.
I trailed after him like a boy being brought on a camping trip, letting him lead the way without bothering to try to memorize it, devoting my attention to enjoying the beauty of the place and trying not to be nervous when Alluin acted on knowledge that almost certainly came from his connection to the land rather than his memory of it.
We stopped for a late lunch near a deep pool in an otherwise-rocky stream.
A narrow jut of the bedrock formed a natural dam over which a waterfall sluiced, green with algae and surrounded by moss and feathery ferns.
Behind the dam, the pool looked to be at least six feet deep, with crystal-clear water and a rocky bottom spangled with mica.
Alluin swung his backpack off his shoulder with a groan of relief and immediately peeled off his sweaty shirt, baring his lean torso.
“Want a swim?” he asked, unlacing his boots without waiting for an answer.
“The water’s cold, but not too bad this time of year.
We can rinse off the sweat and I can tickle some trout for our meal if you make a fire.
I think there’s a few good-sized ones upstream. ”
I managed to peel my eyes off of Alluin’s muscled back before he looked over at me.
“Did Droesh tell you that?” I asked, shrugging off my own backpack and starting to undress.
A swim sounded nice, and it wasn’t like we had to get anywhere in particular.
We had almost a month to ramble around before I needed to travel back to my posting.
“Not…exactly,” Lu said, sounding abashed.
I looked over at him with a frown. “Is everything alright?”
He shrugged, not meeting my eyes as he tugged down his pants. “I don’t mean to be…unsettling. Nyland didn’t like it, either.”
My brow furrowed. I’d be damned if I was anything like Nyland.
“Sure, it’s unsettling, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it,” I said, too sharply, because Alluin’s head snapped up and his gaze caught mine, eyes flashing gold as they caught the sunlight.
I kicked my second boot off and started undoing my laces, making a face at him to try to bleed off some of the intensity.
“Look, I may love it out here, but I’m a court fae, Lu.
I was born in a city. My magic is well-defined, and the people I interact with are mostly mortals and young soldiers.
This is weird for me, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t like it or that I don’t like you, alright? ”
His expression softened. “Surely you’ve interacted with nomads before.”
I stepped out of my pants and hung them over a branch.
“Sure,” I said with a shrug. “It’s still not the same, and I’m certain you know that.
There are some ancient nomads, but the ones we interact with are usually still born on Courts.
They don’t have spooky sixth senses or relationships with the land.
You were born before Stag Court, when all of this was still true wildland. You’ve got wild magic in your bones.”
Alluin made a face, one I couldn’t quite parse, and started folding his clothing—probably to have an excuse not to look at me, I thought.
“It’s just different, is all,” I said, tying up my hair as I moseyed down to the water.
I hissed out a breath at the shock of cold when I took the first step in, but it wasn’t any colder than a typical wild creek.
The temperature took a bit of getting used to, but once I was in, it would feel nice.
“I’ve never seen you like this. You’re… I dunno.
Less tame. It’s like taking a hunting hound out for the first time and watching them turn from a comfy housepet into a wild thing, all sharp senses and taut muscles.
Remember that I’m a city boy, alright? It’s strange for me. ”
I waded into the pool, not looking back at Alluin. The water got deep quickly, and I yelped when I misjudged the depth and accidentally plunged into the icy pool up past my hips.
Behind me, I heard Alluin snort. “It’s not that cold, Zhi.”
“Says you,” I retorted, relaxing at the wry humor in his voice. “My balls practically sucked back up into my body. Think of how sad the general populace would be if I became a eunuch.”
“Fates forfend,” he drawled behind me. I heard him start wading into the water behind me, and stuck my tongue out over my shoulder in an impish gesture, getting a low chuckle in response.
I turned towards him as I sank down into the water to swim out into the deepest part, the chill going from harsh to pleasant as my body acclimated.
I wouldn’t be able to stay out for too long; the summer sunlight would turn me into a crisp without sun protection, and I hadn’t brought enough sunbalm to slather over my entire body.
Alluin followed with a smile. He dove under the water and swam the distance to me with the lithe grace of an otter, all sleek strength. When he popped up next to me, he shook his head like a dog, sending water flying everywhere, including my nice dry face.
“You ass!” I said, laughing, kicking away from him as he grinned. “You know that if I get my hair wet, it’ll take ages to dry. You and your damn short curls better behave.”
“Or what?” Lu said with a smirky little smile.
“Or I’ll bitch and moan about having wet hair,” I said, giving him a pinched expression that only made him laugh again. “Gods, that’s nice,” I murmured before I could stop myself.
He raised a brow.
“You laughing,” I said, my face going warm. “I don’t think I’ve heard you laugh so much in one day as you have today, and it’s not even half-over.”
Alluin ducked his chin in what looked like shyness. “I’m happy.”
“I know.” I smiled at him, hoping my own happiness showed on my face. “I really like it.”
His mouth slanted up. Alluin balanced on his tip-toes in the water, the stream lapping at his collarbones. “Even though you have to see me being spooky and wild?” he asked, sounding hopeful, as if he was thinking for the first time that such a thing might be true.
“Because I get to see you being entirely yourself, which includes you being spooky and wild,” I told him seriously. “I’m out of my depth here, but I trust you. You’re my shield-love, too, right?”
“I am,” he said with an expression like the dawn. “Of course I am. Don’t ever doubt that.”
I found a spot where I could balance, fanning my arms slowly through the water to keep myself upright. “There you go, then,” I said.
Alluin was so beautiful like this, sunlight shining off his dark wet hair and gilding his warm brown skin.
The smile on his mouth wasn’t one he’d put there, but something born from deep inside him, a soft upturn of the corners of his lips that I thought would have been there even in his sleep.
He was so much more alive, like someone had cleaned centuries of grime from a windowpane to let the sunlight in.
“Can I do one more spooky, wild thing?” he asked softly, looking at me with such warmth that it felt like basking in the sun to stand there in his gaze.
“Do as many as you like,” I said.
Alluin flashed me a smile before ducking under the water. I kept a wary eye on him as he felt along the streambed, but he didn’t do anything more troubling than pick up a pebble, rolling it between his fingers to clean it before coming back up to the surface.
He swept his hair out of his face with his free hand and swam back over to me. “Here,” he said, holding out the small stone in the palm of his hand. “Eat this.”