Wreckless Courage #3
There was a brief silence before River spoke. “I wonder if I’ll ever have someone to share that kind of connection with.”
“You will,” Aries said. “You’re kind. Women notice that.”
Nic sat up straighter. “You just need confidence. Look her in the eye, don’t fidget. Smile like you mean it. Drop your voice, say her name—‘You are just so beautiful.’ Works every time.”
Collin couldn’t suppress his laugh. “Is that what you said to Helen the first time?”
Nic scowled. “No! That’s different. She’s a goddess. Talking to her requires finesse.”
They all laughed. The fire popped, throwing sparks into the cold air.
“What are you most afraid of?” River asked suddenly, his eyes on Nic.
For a moment, Nic didn’t move. And then he jabbed a stick in the fire like a spear and grinned, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m terrified of vulnerability. Anyway, Collin—tell them about your beautifully narrated dreams about drowning and betrayal.”
Collin rolled his eyes. “Blood. It makes my stomach tern.”
Nic cackled. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “I can skin a deer, climb a cliff, walk on ice—but get me near a gushing wound and I can’t—"
River folded his hands. “Losing a patient,” he said quietly. “That’s my biggest fear.”
Everyone turned to Aries. He hesitated.
“I... don’t know.”
“Oh, come on,” Nic said. “Everyone’s afraid of something.”
Aries shrugged. “I haven’t really thought about it.”
Collin thought he knew a few things that terrified his best friend. Aries used to be afraid of mice in the shed and stepping on snails in the garden. He grinned. “I bet he’s afraid of Hadria.”
“Not everything is about her,” Aries snapped, though the corner of his mouth twitched.
“Maybe you’re afraid of her falling for me,” Nic said smugly.
Aries hurled a snowball across the fire. “In your dreams.”
“Hey! I’m just trying to help her explore her options.”
They all burst into wild laughter, tension dissolving into smoke and steam.
“I’ll go check on our fish,” said Collin. He scrambled away from his friends, chuckling as they continued to tease each other.
A thin layer of ice had formed over their fishing hole, so Collin chipped it away with the pick. Two of the lines were still empty, but the other had lost its bait—or had it stolen. He hurriedly re-baited the hook, impatient to rejoin his friends.
A crow’s feather lay a few yards away. It gleamed shiny black against the purity of the snow. He trotted over the ice to retrieve it. The creaks and groans under his feet made his heart drum with excitement.
The frozen lake in midwinter always held a strange kind of magic. It felt like standing on the edge of a secret world—thin ice stretched over deep, black water, barely separating him from the unknown. Just a few inches of crystal over a vast, glacial silence. The danger of it was thrilling.
Collin remembered watching older boys once, years ago, when he was small and invisible. They had cut a hole in the ice and jumped in, screaming from the shock. He had wanted to join them so badly—had crept closer with wide eyes and shivering limbs. But they only laughed and chased him away.
That longing had never left him.
He craved anything that made his heart race—climbing too high, running too fast. The risk was part of the reward. The ice plunge still lingered in the back of his mind like a dare left unanswered.
He had tried to convince Aries, of course, but Aries always hesitated at the edge.
It wasn’t that he lacked courage—but Collin possessed something a little different.
A kind of wildness, reckless courage, some would call it, the kind that didn’t stop to ask permission or consider the cost until the moment had already passed.
Aries was the voice of reason. Collin was the one who lit the fire.
Still, even Collin sometimes wondered why he yearned so badly to test the edge of things. Maybe it wasn’t about bravery. Maybe it was about proving to himself that he still felt something—sharp, real, undeniable.
Maybe that was why the ice called to him now.
Collin plopped back into his place beside the crackling fire. He twirled the long feather casually between his fingers. “What are we talking about?”
“If you had to change your job—pick anything, no limits—what would it be?” River asked.
Aries grinned. “Musician. A real one. Not just strumming old songs around the fire.”
“Chief steward,” Nic said proudly. “I’d run the biggest estate in Crimisa, throw wild parties, and manage a whole fleet of servants.”
“You just want the power and the wine,” Collin said.
“Exactly,” Nic agreed.
“Collin?” River asked. “What would you do?”
He stared into the fire for a moment. “A sailor. I want to see the world. Explore islands no one’s mapped. Find something untouched.”
Nic gave him a proud clap on the back. “That’s the most Collin answer I’ve ever heard.”
Collin chuckled, warmed by more than just the flames.
“Ask us a question, Collin,” said River.
He tapped the crow’s feather against his boot. “What’s the most thrilling thing you’ve ever done?”
River perked up. “Delivering a baby. First time alone. The mother was panicking, the baby wasn’t coming fast enough—thought I’d faint. But I pulled through.”
“No!” Nic covered his ears. “Too many fluids in that story.”
“It was beautiful!” River said. “And terrifying.”
Aries shifted uncomfortably. “Is childbirth really that horrible?”
Nic nodded gravely. “My mother is a midwife. It’s so painful! She says if men had to give birth, the species would be extinct.”
River huffed. “Painful isn’t the same as horrible.”
“Semantics,” Nic waved away River’s comment, and whispered, “She has a knife in her kit. A tiny one, for emergencies—when the baby’s stuck and the woman’s too small...”
“Gods above!” Aries threw his hands over his ears. “Stop. Just stop.”
Collin laughed, glad for the distraction, but he could see Aries’s discomfort. “Aries, your turn. Most thrilling thing?”
“Pulling that stick out of Lekyi’s leg. I’ll never forget that sound.”
Nic grimaced. “I’d have passed out.”
“Collin almost did!”
Collin would have objected if he weren’t laughing so hard.
Nic shoved a hand through his hair. “Alright, mine was the first time I trapped and gutted a boar. Lots of screaming. Most of it was me.”
Collin thumped Nic’s shoulder. “Me too! First time I killed a stag, I almost cried. I was only eight.”
“You did cry,” Aries said.
“I did not!”
“Here’s one,” Aries said. “If you were immortal, what’s the most dangerous thing you would do? I’d wrestle a forest panther!”
Collin shook his head. “That defeats the purpose. It’s only worth the risk because you might not survive. Danger without risk is just theater.”
“Deep Stuff, Collin,” Nic said mockingly. “You boys cliff dived last summer, right?”
“From the Mermaid’s Tail of Nereid,” Collin said. “We’re doing it again. Maybe the Singing Cove too.”
“I’m in,” said Nic. “As long as my mother never finds out.”
“You’re immortal, remember?” Aries teased.
River smirked. “Your mother would kill you before the cliff did. Besides, she’s still mad that you knocked out Uriah’s tooth.”
“That was an accident!”
Aries rolled his eyes. “No one believes you!”
“What other death-defying nonsense do you still have on your list?” Nic asked, prodding the fire.
Collin spun the feather thoughtfully between his fingers. “Gliding.”
Aries sat up. “Yes! With Grandfather’s chute! I wonder if it still works.”
“Let’s repair it,” Collin said. “Flying over the coast, the sea below us. The view from up there must be amazing!”
Nic grinned. “We’ll do it for your birthday. Whole trip—diving, gliding, campfires... and we’ll finally open that tragic bottle of wine you keep pretending is good.”
Collin laughed. “Now you’re talking!”
Aries drew a trail in the snow with a stick. “Yes! Start in Nereid. Follow the coast. End at the Singing Cove.”
Collin could already feel the wind against his face, the rush of air, the roar of the ocean beneath him—and he wanted more.
If only it were summer already! The sheer terror of standing on the top of the world, the anticipation, wondering if he had the courage to take that leap.
The ecstasy when he did jump, and then the rush of wind in his hair.
The sensation of falling and flying and losing control all at once.
The lack of solid ground beneath his feet, of the deep blue water and turning foam far below.
Wondering when he would hit the water—and then the shock of plunging into it.
Having all the breath pushed out of his body, seeing nothing but the clearest blue—and then the astonishment of his head breaching the surface at last. The utter euphoria of crawling onto the warm sand, lying on the beach with the sun in his face as he breathed, as he felt life rushing through his veins.
“There’s something we can do right now!” He leapt to his feet, fed by the images in his mind, his voice wild, his eyes trained far out on the lake. He ripped off his gloves and began fumbling with the buttons of his cloak.
“What are you doing?” Aries demanded.
Collin tossed his gloves aside. “Too much talk, action now!” He yanked off his boots and dragged the scarf from his neck.
River jumped up. “What’s he talking about?”
Nic was laughing. “You are completely insane!”
Aries made a wild grab for Collin. “Are you out of your mind?”
Collin adeptly dodged out of Aries’s reach. As he galloped across the ice, he yanked off the rest of his clothes, leaving nothing but his thin under shirt and shorts. The cold bit at his skin, but backing out now would be too foolish.
He stood at the edge of the fishing hole—but his friends were coming fast. River was gathering up his discarded clothing, and Aries was racing for the hole.
Collin jerked the fishing lines up with a quick flick, sending a spray of icy water into the air.
He stared down into the icy abyss. His teeth gritted, his fists clenched. He gazed into his own dark blue eyes as his reflection smiled back, silently urging him forward.