They ate the entire fish between the two of them. Drake wished something stronger than water to go with it, but he made do. Alicifeomastoryblog.blogspot.
didn’t ask him about the fight, but she did offer to cook the fish in Drake’s place. Drake was glad she accepted the offer—Alicia knew how to season the fish with some wild herbs she found and it tasted much better than anything Drake could have ever cooked on his own.
Afterwards, Drake watched as Alicia set up the metal framework for her arm support structure. She used some of the strange alloy Guardians had discovered and set up the silver metal in complicated ways, with gears and springs and lattices, until her wounded arm was basically supported by a hollow robotic shell. It took her the better part of the day, but Drake watched with interest as the hours went by. He had never seen Guardian technology up close before.
“It’s ready,” Alicia said finally. She stood up tentatively and tested the support by moving her arm from side to side. “Good thing I took that first-aid course during basic training.”
“That looks complicated,” Drake said.
“Not really. It’s like putting a puzzle together. The machine does most of the work, compensating and stabilizing the arm. I just had to assemble it. If I were at base camp the doctors would probably give me a shot of healing nanodrones to speed up the process, but since I’m here I’ll just have to make the best of what I found.”
Drake looked outside. It was late in the day already, an hour to twilight at most. “We need some more water. I should go get it and maybe go back to the waterfall for more food. Even if it’s fish again.”
“I’ll go with you,” Alicia offered. “I’ll just take a pill for the pain and I’ll be good to go.”
Drake stood up. “Are you sure? You should probably rest that arm.”
Alicia rolled her eyes. “I am not staying. I’ve been in this damn cave all day. I want to go out for a bit, and I’m curious about that waterfall you mentioned. I want to take a look.”
Drake shrugged. “Okay. Let’s get going.”
They left and headed straight for the waterfall. Now that he knew the way, Drake had a much easier time finding his way through the quiet, dark shadows of the forest. As they passed underneath tall pines and made their way through soft carpets of fallen pine needles, it seemed they were the only people alive in the world. No animals were around, no birds were chirping. It was just the trees swaying in the wind, and the two of them walking.
As they walked uphill, Alicia stumbled on a slippery rock ahead of Drake.
“Ow!”
“Careful.”
“Thanks for the tip. Getting careless around these damn slippery rocks. Guess I underestimated how far it is to this waterfall of yours… and that pill for the pain I took is making me woozy.”
“Lean on me if you want. We’re almost there.”
Alicia hesitated, then draped her good arm around Drake’s shoulders and leaned on him slightly as they walked. Drake slowed down so Alicia wouldn’t have trouble keeping pace. Half-subconsciously, Drake slid his left arm around Alicia’s waist and held her closer so she would be better supported. They walked like that for a while. Drake was glad for the extra warmth in the chill of the evening, and refused to think about how right it felt to have Alicia so close.
“Um… Drake?” Alicia said suddenly. In the silence of the dark forest, her voice seemed louder somehow.
Drake stopped. “What?”
“I have to tell you something.”
She said it with a tone that made Drake wary. He let go of Alicia and took a step back. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
Alicia was looking everywhere but at him. Finally, she took a deep breath and met Drake’s eyes.
“I didn’t trust you,” Alicia confessed.
Drake relaxed slightly. This was not what he’d expected to hear. “That’s okay. Yesterday I didn’t trust you, either. Now I do.”
That seemed to surprise Alicia. “Really?”
“You’re a Guardian, Alicia. I had a good feeling about you, but I had to keep reminding myself to keep my guard up all day, just in case.”
Alicia nodded slowly. “But then… what changed? Why do you trust me now?”
Drake shrugged. “Lots of things. The fact that you dragged me to that cave and kept me alive. The way I saw you fight those wolves. Your voice, I guess. I get the feeling you don’t lie very often.”
That seemed the wrong thing to say. Drake saw Alicia wince, and look away. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Drake tensed up. Was this a setup? Was Alicia going to spring some trap on him? He strained his ears to catch the sound of enemies approaching, but there was nothing. He couldn’t see very far, but the there were no shapes hiding in the nearby trees.
“What do you mean?” Drake asked guarded.
“I… I spied on you.” Alicia admitted.
Drake blinked.
“What?”
“I spied on you. I didn’t trust you, and I put a small transmitter on your shirt. It’s in the collar, near the back so you wouldn’t find it. It only transmits audio, but it seemed a good idea when you were recovering. I thought I had to keep an eye on you.”
“There’s a bug on me?”
Alicia nodded gravely. “Yes. And I’m sorry. But when you left this morning I had no way of knowing where you were going, whether you would betray me to some Hunters or what. I had to be prepared.”
Drake nodded too; it made perfect sense to him.
“Anyway,” Alicia continued, “I heard everything you said this morning when you were at the waterfall. I acted surprised when you came back, but I know what happened there.”
Drake’s mind flashed back on his encounter with the deserter. “You listened to all that?”
“I did. And I want to apologize, Drake. I shouldn’t have doubted you. That other Hunter offered you a way out using me as a hostage, and it would have worked. You were two against one, like he said. When I heard that, I got ready to escape from the cave, to run away even with my arm in the old sling. But then you refused.”
“Yeah,” Drake said, imagining how his conversation with the deserter must have sounded like to Alicia, listening in on it back in the cave. “I refused.”
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Alicia asked him. “After a while I heard only the sounds of battle. Then nothing but you walking through the forest, and then you came back.”
“He was a coward,” Drake answered. “He deserved to die.”
“If he had been a Guardian, he would have been tried for desertion, probably imprisoned. But not killed.”
“Your ways are different from ours. For us, it’s honor or death.” Even if I am also a deserter,Drake thought. But he refused to consider that.
“I understand that now. And I wanted to say… I’m sorry I doubted you, Drake. You proved me wrong.”
Alicia reached for Drake’s neck, and Drake didn’t draw away. He felt Alicia grab the collar of his shirt and sweep her fingers around it until she found the transmitter. The two of them were very close. Then Alicia yanked the bug away and stepped back. She threw the transmitter into the bushes.
“I trust you now, Drake,” she said. “I just wanted you to know that.”
Drake nodded. He turned back to the path and walked on, with Alicia close by.
They walked in silence some more in the growing twilight. Soon the terrain began to slope down, and the sound of the waterfall could be heard. When they came out of the gloom under the trees and into the waterfall’s clearing, the sun was setting in the West, to their backs. The last golden rays were touching the tops of the pine trees in the forest. A slightly chilly wind was blowing, and the only sound was the constant din of the water falling on rocks, and the occasional splash of salmon as they jumped.
“Wow,” Alicia said as they got nearer the river, “this place is beautiful.”
“Do you think so?” Drake asked.
“Yes; it’s so secluded. Peaceful, too. Don’t you feel it?”
Drake shrugged and approached the river’s edge. He jumped over a pile of fallen rocks by the riverside to the place where he had put his things that morning. He was looking for salmon, and saw plenty swimming nearby. Alicia tried to jump after him, too, but she tripped on something and lost her balance instead.
“Ow!” Alicia yelled as she fell.
Drake turned at the sound and managed to grab Alicia by the waist with both hands to keep her steady. He lifted Alicia and put her down on the ground next to him as if she weighed nothing, surprised at how quickly he’d reacted. He felt the warmth of Alicia’s body on his hands and suddenly realized how right it felt to hold her. He didn’t take his hands off Alicia's waist, and Alicia didn’t say anything to make him let go. They were so close that Drake could smell Alicia’s scent clearly: pine needles, smoke, and sweat. Drake felt himself getting hard, holding Alicia like that. He had been staring at the ground, but now slowly, ever so slowly, he looked up all the way to Alicia’s face. When he locked his gaze with Alicia’s, he saw his wordless desire mirrored in the lady’s eyes. He saw the shadow of doubt there, the disarming innocence, the invitation full of lust. Drake couldn’t stand it anymore. He pulled Alicia to him, embracing her completely. Then Drake kissed her.
It was a hungry kiss, intense, almost violent in its suddenness. Drake kissed Alicia fiercely, holding her tight to his body, his left hand holding Alicia’s head and grabbing a handful of her hair. He could feel the sandpaper-like roughness of Alicia’s stubble as his lips strayed from Alicia’s mouth and down to her neck, breathing hard, kissing her with all his pent-up desire. When his lips and then his tongue found Alicia's throat , Alicia threw her head back and moaned.
Drake drew back, then kissed Alicia on the mouth again and soon their tongues found each other. Drake led Alicia to a patch of soft grass by the riverside as they kissed, moving slowly, and when they got there he pushed the Alicia down gently. He supported her as she leaned back to lie down on the grass, never breaking the kiss.
Soon clothes were throw aside, Their arousal evident, Drake without much of thought entered Alicia.
Alicia cried out when Drake’s big cock impaled her completely, but now Drake was past caring. Feeling the tight warmth enveloping his cock drove him half-mad with pleasure and he began pounding Alica hard. AlIcia’s eyes were shut tight, and she kept crying out, begging, whether for Drake to stop or keep going he couldn’t tell. But he knew they were both one body right then, one flesh, sweating and moving and feeling together. Drake reached for Alicia, bent to kiss her fiercely again while he was still inside her and Alicia returned the kiss, holding him tight, wrapping her legs around Drake as he pumped again and again and again. Drake soon felt the tightness around his cock loosen up slightly, and Alicia was now really begging for more. Drake gave it to her.
He pounded Alicia like a madman. He thrust inside her hard, and fast, and the sound of Alicia’s moans of pleasure filled his ears and drove him to a faster tempo, to go deeper, to fuck Alicia like with the force of a sledgehammer. He felt himself getting close to an orgasm. They were both lost in an ecstasy of lust and pleasure so intense that when Drake felt Alicia reach her explosive orgasm he went over the edge immediately. Alicia cried out as she spurted all over. Drake saw it, cried out deep in his throat and pulled out at the last second, giving over to his own electric climax and exploding all over her body, her breast, nd her face.
He fell on top of her, holding her close. His heart was pounding in his chest and he could feel Alicia heart racing too. They held each other, panting, sweating, and didn’t let go. They stayed together right there on the grass while they cooled down, and Drake couldn’t think of a more perfect sensation that the body beneath him. When Alir kissed him lightly on the lips, he returned the kiss with tenderness, smiling. He could get lost in Alicia eyes, die at that moment, and it wouldn’t matter.
“Wow,” was all Alicia whispered.
Drake smiled. “Yeah. Wow.”
Some time later, after an eternity of closeness, they began to feel the cold bite of the wind.
“I should wash up,” Alicia said grudgingly. “Though I don’t think the river’s any warmer than yesterday.”
Drake looked up at the sky: night had fallen already. It was cold, and the dark waters of the river had to be ten times colder. “I’ll go in if you go,” he offered.
“You first,” Alicia teased.
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh, come on, Drake. It’s just cold water. It won’t bite.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s go in already.”
Alicia waded into the water first, followed by Drake. Naked as they were, the water hit them with all the suddenness of winter cold.
“Oh man,” Alicia complained when they were knee-deep. “Okay. Drake, I’ll go down first. Can’t get my arm wet. One… two… dammit. One… two… three!”
She washed as quickly as she could and came up, hair wet, and shivering. Drake helped her back to the grass.
“I’ll b…b…build a f…f…fire,” Alicia stammered.
“You better,” Drake said. “My turn.”
Drake waded back into the river, grimaced and plunged all the way in. The water was so cold it knocked his breath out, but he scrubbed quickly and jumped out a few seconds later. He was soaked, shivering, and he suddenly wanted a fire very, very much.
He came back to where Alicia was starting a fire with her flint, striking sparks over some dried-up wood shavings. Drake went into the woods, naked and shivering, and gathered a pile of wood as fast as he could. When he got back to Alicia, he already had a small flame going. Drake fed it small twigs, then larger branches. It seemed to take forever but they eventually got a roaring fire going.
Dry now, they lay down by the fire side by side. Alicia draped her cloak over them both, and the heat of their own bodies added to the heat of the fire. Soon they stopped shivering, but they still held each other tightly. Drake was lying on his back, his head resting on an improvised pillow of his own clothes. Alicia lay next to him, her head resting on Drake’s chest. They lay like that for a long time, staring peacefully out into the night. A lot of stars had come out and they shone above them with what Drake felt was happiness.
“Look,” Alicia said, pointing up at the sky. The moon had come out over the treetops, shining silver and ethereal over them.
“It’s beautiful,” Drake said.
Alicia held him closer. “It is.”
They didn’t say anything else, but their closeness spoke for them. They watched the moonlight dance above them until their eyelids grew heavy. The heat of the fire made them relaxed and content, and Alicia was soon fast asleep. Drake heard Alicia breathing slow, and he allowed his eyes to close too. He opened them again one last time and smiled faintly, trying to capture the moment in his mind forever. But he was falling asleep, and his last thought was of Alicia lying in his arms.
To Be Continued...
To Be Continued...
So sweet oooooooh!!!
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