The Wet Cave

            

We continued to make our way through the thick brush.  I was grateful that Crow was proficient with using the knife to cut a path for us.  I followed closely behind him, trying hard not to complain about the heat or the thick mud beneath my feet or all the loud, pestering bugs.

            A few hours passed before Crow stopped abruptly.  I walked right into his back while I was swatting at a fly, and I almost swore.

            “What’s up?”  I asked, trying very hard to hide my immense annoyance.  I can’t remember ever being so annoyed before in my life.

            Crow turned to me, not understanding.

            “Why did you stop?”  I tried again.

            “Look.”  he said, pointing in front of him.  I stepped around him and nearly fell off a cliff that was overgrown with greenery, but Crow caught my elbows.

            “Careful.”  he said, which made me even more annoyed for some reason.  I stepped back, wrenching my arms from his grip and crossing them.

            “Great!  Just great!”  I said, my voice shaking.

            “Why are you so irritated?”  Crow asked after a moment.  “Are you angry with me?”

            Tears welled up in my eyes, for whatever stupid reason.  I sniffed and wiped at them stubbornly.  I didn’t want to cry in front of Crow.

            “I’m not angry with you, Crow.”  I said quietly.  “Just everything else.”  I gestured to the general area around us.  The tears escaped my angry eyes.  “I’m tired, Crow.  And hungry.  And it’s so hot.”

            “Shush.”  said Crow, his expression vague.  He was looking somewhere behind me.  What the hell?  Did he just shush me?  He didn’t.  He did.

            “Excuse me?”  I said, so forcefully that Crow looked back at my face.  “How dare you--“

            “No, seriously, just be quiet for a moment.  Listen.”  he said.  I bit my lip and listened.  I could hear water coming from somewhere…below?  Above?  I couldn’t tell.

            “It’s a waterfall.”  said Crow, almost sounding excited.  I glared at him, but he ignored that and grabbed my hand.

            “Come.”  he said.  Apparently we were going down.

 

~*~

 

            I carefully guided Nissa down the cliff.  It wasn’t too difficult thanks to the huge tree roots that stuck out of the rocks.  The rocks themselves were jagged and covered in moss, also making our descent easier.

            When we reached the bottom, I easily lifted Nissa by the waist and set her down.  She still didn’t look particularly pleased.  Before she could speak, I took her hand again and we started to run through the forest in the direction of the water.

            “Crow!”  shouted Nissa from behind me.  She was struggling to keep up.  “Where are we going?”

            “Just wait.”  I said.  I knew what it was.  It wasn’t just a waterfall.  It was a wet cave.  One of the only things I remember ever liking about Cabrän besides my friend Kristofer.

            Finally we were right there.  I actually grinned.  I stopped and turned to Nissa, holding her wrists.  She looked up at me with a cute expression of girlish curiosity.

            “Close your eyes.”  I said.

 

~*~

 

            He was excited.  He was always so blank-faced and seemingly emotionless, and I had never really seen him happy.  Now his dark brown eyes sparkled behind those darkened eyelids and thick black lashes.

            He stood there before me, waiting.  I shook my head and managed a smile.  He nodded.

            “Okay.”  I said.  I closed my eyes.  Crow went behind me and guided me forward by my shoulders.  We emerged from the trees, and the sound of water was much louder now.  It lapped over and against rocks, echoing oddly.  It was sort of calming sound.  Now I was getting excited.  It was definitely cooler here, and I didn’t hear or feel any bugs.

            We stopped walking.  Crow stood beside me, and I started bouncing on my heels.  Crow laughed slightly, which surprised me.

            “Oh, Crow!  Can I open my eyes?”  I cried, groping for his hand, but bumping his leg instead.

            “All right.  Open them.”  he said, and I immediately did, even before he said Open them.

            Besides Zephyria’s high temple, I had never seen anything more beautiful.  It was a waterfall, about fifty feet high, with a deep pool.  The water was pure and crystalline; tumbling over the cliffs; scintillating in reflections of all colors.  Painted fish, too beautiful to eat, swam peacefully in the pool.  The rocks were smooth and shimmering, like a cave wall.  I was mesmerized.

            “There’s more.”  said Crow.  I closed my mouth, which I had just realized was hanging open.  I looked at Crow, who was taking off his clothes.

            “What are you doing?”  I asked curiously, not as embarrassed as maybe I should’ve been.  I had seen him dressed less than sparsely several times before.  Crow looked up and grinned at me; he was now only dressed in his underpants.  He tugged on my sleeve.

            “I want to show you something.”   he said.  “You’ll get wet.”  It took me a moment to register what he was waiting for me to do.  I took off my dirty, sweat-drenched, knee-length tunic, and slipped off my boots.  I wriggled my toes.  It felt good.  I tried to ignore the fact that Crow was watching me--not lustfully or anything like that, just patiently--while I peeled off my layers of clothing.

            Finally I was only in my underclothes and a chemise.

            “It’s no wonder you were so warm.  You wear too much.”  remarked Crow, smirking.  He gestured at our pile of clothes.  “We will take care of them later.  I hope you’re as good at washing as you are with complaining.”  He grinned and I attempted to splash him.  The water barely grazed the edge of his wild hair.  He gave me a look, and we both laughed.

            I love you.  I thought.  It came from nowhere.  It startled my mind, and I was completely bemused as Crow grabbed my hand and led me towards the waterfall.  Feeling returned to me when I heard a loud splash.  I blinked, and noticed that Crow was standing on the other side of the waterfall, soaked.

            “Crow!”

            “Jump, Nissa!  Be quick!”  he called over the noise of the crashing water.  I didn’t like this.  What if I slipped and hit my head on a rock?  “Come on, Nissa.  Don’t be scared.”

            “I’m not scared.”  I lied, and it was obvious.

            “I’ll catch you.”  he said.  Somehow, that made me feel better.  I sighed audibly.  I swallowed hard, closed my eyes, and pinched my nose shut.

            I jumped.

            Water crashed over me and suddenly I was soaking wet in Crow’s slick arms.  I looked up at him, gasping.

            “Not so bad, was it?”  he said, releasing me.  The flat rock was cold against my bare feet.

            “I…uh…yeah.”  I spluttered, wiping water and my hair out of my eyes.  I looked around.  We were in a cave behind the waterfall.  It was damp and cold, but beautiful.  I loved it.

            Crow walked ahead to look around.  “Watch your step.”  he said as I followed him.  The cave was a series of tunnels, some wider than others, but all of them shiny.  I hung behind, in war with my own thoughts.  I watched the way Crow’s slender, lithe muscles worked as he moved.  Even while wet, his thick black hair with the bright white strands was still quite impressive.  He was beautiful.  I knew this.  But did I really love him?  I would find out.  When the moment was right, I would know.

            “Come here.”  said Crow, breaking me from my reverie.  I hurried to him, and saw what looked like a good-sized room with veils of stalactites and stalagmites and a purple-blue pond.  The jewels embedded in the rocks reflected a ray of sunlight from outside, which reflected off of the surface of the water.

            “Oh, Crow, it’s beautiful.”  I whispered, breathlessly.  I involuntarily grabbed his upper arm in my excitement.  “Look at this!  I could live in here!”  My voice echoed in the room.  “Look, Crow!  There’s a window!”  I left his side and meandered my way over to the ‘window’.  Below, I could see the waterfall and the pool, and the forest, and our villages, and the mountains in the distance.  The view was incredible.

            I sat in my ‘windowsill’ and watched the world.  From here, even Cabrän looked beautiful.

            Crow appeared in my peripheral vision, and he quietly sat down beside me.  We took in the view until the sun began to set.

 

~*~

 

            I knew that she would love it.  This cave was even better than the one in Cabrän.  Prettier.  And cleaner.

            I glance at Nissa.  The melting sunlight still glows on her face and sparkles in her eyes.  She looks peaceful, content, and happy.  I never knew that you could feel all three of those things at one time.

            I leaned against the stone wall and watched her.  I felt like I wanted to say something to her, but my throat was all constricted like a limb of a willow tree.  My stomach was tied up in knots too.  I had never felt that way before, and it kind of worried me.  Was I getting sick?

            “Can I sit on your lap?”  Nissa’s voice startled me.  I blinked at her.  “I’m a little cold.”  I nodded, and didn’t speak or otherwise make a sound as she curled up on top of my crossed legs.  She sat sideways, and laid her cheek against my chest.  That made my nerves buzz.  I sat very still, my arms flat at my sides.  I almost wanted to touch her legs or her back, or even her hair, which was now so close to my face.  I could smell it.  Her hair smelt like those small plants…the flowers.

            We sat like that for a while, in perfect silence save our steady breathing.  I think Nissa may have dozed off a few times.  I didn’t blame her.  I was very tired myself.  I began to enjoy the tingly sensations I got whenever her skin touched mine.  Of course, I had never touched a girl before, not like this.   This was something else.  Something so strange and new.  Something more than friendship.

            Was this…love?  I started to think of the mess of trouble I would be in if the villagers found me, but all of that seemed so far away now.

            Right now, it was just me, and Nissa, and the cave.

            Nissa sat up and looked at me with a searching expression.  I had no choice but to look back.  I wondered what she was thinking.  Her eyes went to my mess of hair.

            “Can I…touch your hair?”  she asked.  I swallowed briefly and nodded.  I was afraid that if I spoke, my voice would come out all wrong.

            I closed my eyes as her fingers stroked my hair.  It seemed to me that she was trying to shape it somehow.  Is this how a dog feels when you pet them?  No wonder they enjoy that so much.

            I opened my eyes when she turned in her seat, so her body was facing mine.  Her knees were on either side of my hips, her privates dangerously close to mine.  I wondered if she noticed that.  I wondered why that mattered.

            I realized that in my daze I was staring at Nissa’s breasts, so I raised my eyes to her face.  She was touching my eyebrow and my cheekbone, my nose.  For some reason I felt embarrassed, and my skin flushed a bit.

            Then her lips touched mine, soft as a feather.  My mind went blank.  All I could perceive was her hands on my neck and my hands in the dip of her lower back and that she smelt warm and sweet, like honey.  And she tasted that way too.

 

~*~

 

            After our first kiss, I didn’t think of much else besides Crow.  I knew that he was always thinking of me too, because like me, he was quiet and distracted as we made our way out of the cave.  The air was chilly, and my arms were covered in goose bumps.  It completely escaped me how Crow didn’t look the slightest bit cold.

            Yeah.  It didn’t get much better for me after we leaped through the waterfall again.

            We walked around the pool and made a little camp at the edge of the forest.  Crow made a fire (he had to have done that like a million times before), and after I finally warmed up I washed our clothes and hung them near the fire.

            Crow watched me, silently.  He watched me with something new and different in his eyes and features.  A fondness.  A curiosity.

            We sat before the fire, beside each other, staring at the flames.  It was night now, and the full moon had risen into the sky.

            “I never believed that love existed.”  remarked Crow, quietly and thoughtfully.  “I grew up that way.  It was either that, or even more pain and suffering.”  I looked at him when he paused and lowered his gaze.  “As a child, all I knew was fear.  As I got older, I gradually came to the realization…how to be one of Astoria’s followers, and the terror that came with it.”  He stopped there.  I realized that tears were in my eyes, and at the time I didn’t know why.  I swallowed and reached for Crow’s hand.  I held it tight.

            Then he looked at me.  “Do you believe in love, Nissa?”  he asked, his bottom lip trembling.  I ran the backs of my fingers along his cheek.  He closed his eyes briefly, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob.

            “Of course I do.”  I said, and I meant it.

            Crow took a moment to study me; his eyes lingering on my eyes, lips, hair, collarbone, and then returning to my face.  He looked so fragile then, like a frightened child.  I held his hands, and stared at all the strange rings that encircled in his fingers.  On his left ring finger, there was an iron ring shaped into two intertwining serpents.  I couldn’t stand the fact that he was so afraid of something like love.  Cabrän must have truly been an awful place.

            “Do you love me?”  he asked, his voice barely a whisper.  The sudden question startled me.  I looked up at him.  Did he see the answer in my eyes or hear it in my thoughts?  Did he love me back, even if it meant trouble with the Cabränians?  Would I be able to say yes or no without my voice breaking?

            I leaned forward and kissed him.

            “Yes.”  I whispered between kisses, and we both cried until our tears mingled into one another’s.

            It was a wonderful feeling.  The feeling of being loved.

        

Author's Note

This is a deleted scene from my two-part short story, "The Crow and the Butterfly". I took it out because it is basically fluff and doesn't really progress the story in any way.

But...it is quite lovely fluff. :-) Ehehe.