I pointed to the middle tunnel. It was, by far, the least explored tunnel of the three and I wanted to give Ashley a real adventure.
As we walked, I found my pace was a little too fast and my arm stretched behind me. Ashley pickedup her walking speed. I didn’t want her to walk too fast though, so I slowed down a bit more until we were in sync at a leisurely pace down the dark tunnel.
It was just a few days ago when Ashley had pressed herself against the wall to avoid touching me, and now here we were, walking hand-in-hand. I didn’t think life could get much better than this.
Chapter 13
Ashley
This was nice. No, it was better than nice. It was great. I really enjoyed holding hands with Axon. He was warm and protective, always walking into any new caves first, and keeping me tucked behind him, making sure everything was safe.
He held up a torch with his other hand. He didn’t need the light, but he knew that I couldn’t see without it, which was sweet.
“I can hold the torch. I know you don’t need it, so I should be the one carrying it.”
Axon looked back at me and then his eyes drifted down to our joined hands. The corner of his mouth turned up and his tail thumped the floor.
“I’ve got it. Just enjoy yourself.”
“O-okay.” I found myself blushing again. I liked being taken care of like this. I liked being taken care of by him.
Our stroll eventually led us to a path that opened up to the outside. The cool fall air and the sound of water met our ears before we found the exit.
“Do a lot of these tunnels lead outside?”
“No, this is the first one I’ve found so far.” Axon said as he peered out at a muddy bank along a small stream. He scanned our surroundings and checked for any dangerous animals.
“Any monsters lurking around out there?” I teased.
Axon drew his attention back to me and smiled. “Just me.”
“You’re not a monster, Axon.”
“Oh yes I am, but I like being a monster. If I weren’t as beastly as I am, I wouldn’t be able to walk around the forest as freely as I do.”
I was happy to hear Axon wasn’t bothered by his shifter form like the other guys were. Axon, Jax, Sozu, and Orsu were the only ones who didn’t seem too bothered by it. Brexl also seemed a lot less bothered by his shifter form now that he had Taylor.
“I should gather some of this clay. It’ll be something to do while we wait out the storm.”
He handed me the torch and, without breaking our connection, bent down and did a one-handed dig through the mud until he found some natural clay. He gathered it onto the rock floor of the tunnel until we had enough to make a few items each. Then he put the clay in an empty canvas bag that he in turn put into his satchel.
“Can we go to the crystal cave on our way back? I think it’d be fun to put some crystals onto the clay creations we make.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. I think that’s a greatidea,” Axon agreed as he washed his hand off in the stream, still unwilling to let go of my hand.
When he was done, he took back the torch and led me to the crystal cave where we gathered handfuls of small crystal fragments to add to his satchel.
I held a particularly shiny one in my hand and commented, “I think these are going to really make our clay sparkle. Maybe we could make some Christmas gifts out of these.”
“Christmas gifts?” Axon asked, tilting his head slightly in that cute way he did when he was confused about something.
Now that we’d celebrated Valentine’s Day, we’d been talking about doing Christmas next, but we all agreed we should wait until after the first snow to celebrate. Gabby wanted to wait until after the offering, just in case things went particularly poorly, we’d have something to take our minds off our circumstances. We still didn’t have enough food to feed the dekes for the winter and give a proper offering to the goddess. I hated the other dekes more and more everyday. Why didtheyget to keep the food given in the offering but we did not?
I tried not to think about that right now. I was having a good time with Axon and I wanted to keep it that way.
“Christmas is a gift giving holiday back on earth. It’s a way to show your loved ones how much you know and appreciate them.”
“Oh, so it’s like your day of Valentine.”
