Chapter 111: Just Us
ELIA
Elia felt terrible. He was breathing heavily by the time they made it to the top, the first time she'd seen him really have to push himself physically. He was right, she never would have made it up here on her own. But he'd done it quickly, and happily, panting, but not really slowing as they climbed rung after rung to reach that ever-brightening hole in the rock above them.
When they finally reached the lip of it and Reth lifted his head over the side, with Elia clinging to his neck and peering over his shoulder, she gasped. They were on the side of a mountain. To Elia's left, the mountainside—rugged and grey—continued into the sky. But before them there was a flat of land, a small, teardrop shaped bowl with the hole where they stood at its narrowest point, widening from there and sloping gently upwards to a flat area about the size of Elia's college apartment at the top. A small cluster of trees perched on the edge where it met the mountainside, and a few bushes and scrubs lined the right before it plummeted back down to the clearing at the front of the cave. At least if Elia had her bearings, that's where it was. She couldn't see over the side, and thought that was likely a very good thing.
Reth grunted, heaving them up and out of the hole, finally grasping the tree stump a couple feet from the hole where the ladder had been fixed with thick vines circling the stump. He knelt again, and still gaping, Elia slid off his back to her feet.
"Reth… this is beautiful," she breathed.
All around her was sky, and trees, and rock, and… no one else.
No one. She started towards that edge, intending to look and see if they could see the clearing below, but he caught her wrist.
"If you lean over the edge, you'll be silhouetted by the sky. The guards will see movement and come looking for us, in case there's an intruder above the cave," he said quietly. Very quietly.
She smiled. "They can't see us here?"
"Or scent us. The air flows up this side of the mountain. And as long as we're quiet, they won't hear us either.
Elia felt her smile grow. "We're alone. Truly alone?"
"Truly alone," he said seriously. "I'm sorry, Elia, that I hadn't thought about you needing this. I grew up always being around my family and the pride. It's odd for an Anima to spend many hours by themselves. Scenting is something we do without thought. And even though they won't think twice about scenting sex on you… I understand that that isn't how it is for you. So, while I can't guarantee that no one will figure out what we've been up to, this is the best I can do to make sure they won't know anything about it."
She turned back to the view and almost lost her breath. The Wildwood spread out below her, the canopy of trees looking like springy grass and fluffy green clouds below them. Hints of movement and color flashed between the trees at times, but from this distance the Tree City was virtually invisible.
"Thank you, Reth," she said, taking his hand and squeezing it. "I know that was a horrible climb, but… thank you."
When she turned to look at him, he was staring down at her. "Come over here. It's more comfortable," he said, his breath already easing from the difficult climb. Elia followed him, shaking her head at the sheer strength of him. In this amazing outdoors, these impossible surroundings, she felt tiny and insignificant. But it all seemed to fit him. As if he grew when he went outside, to match the place. And the place accepted him.
He led her up the soft rise to the flat area at the top, and into the shade of the trees that grew out from the side of the mountain at a diagonal, reaching for the sun beyond the peak above. There a blanket had been spread, and a picnic basket waited.
Elia's mouth dropped open. "Wait… you already came up here once?"
"Yes, why?"
"Because…. That climb… aren't you sore?"
"No. Should I be?"
She gaped at him and he stared back, confused. "Elia, this is not a feat. Climbing with you was much harder than climbing on my own, but only because I didn't wish to jar you. It's the work of a minute to get up here on my own."
Elia shook her head and let herself sink onto the blanket. "No wonder they all think I'm weak," she murmured.
"No, you won't focus on that today. That's not why we're here," he said sternly.
Elia frowned. "You said I needed to feel strong and certain and that's what we were going to work on here?"
"Not like that, not by… not like that," he grumbled, coming to join her on the blanket, sitting cross legged in front of her. "Forget about lessons to learn, or strengthening. This is a time to just be us, Elia, like you said. Just us. Together. Alone. No one knows we're here. I didn't even tell Behryn—he'll have my hide if he finds out we snuck away, so let's pray he doesn't come looking."
"What if something happens, though?" she asked, though she didn't want to give him a reason to reconsider.
But Reth smiled. "That's the beauty of being up here. Sound rises. If there's a true emergency, they'll ring the bells and I'll be down there in minutes."
Elia smiled, her first true smile in hours. "Sounds like you've got everything figured out."
"Well, not everything," he said, frowning. Then he reached back behind his neck and pulled his shirt forward and over his head, revealing his chest and shoulders. Elia's mouth went dry.
"What's, uh, what's left?" she asked, distracted by the sheer beauty of him.
"I don't know," he said, then looked up at her. His hair had been pulled partly over his eyes, when he'd tugged that shirt forward. He peered at her through it, his gaze suddenly hot and intent. "What's at the top of your list?"
Desire flared in Elia's belly.
*****
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