“I couldn’t get you off my mind and I needed to tell somebody. My parents felt like a good option. I think they’ve been secretly hoping we’d get together ever since.”
My heart felt near to bursting. Not only had hehad a crush on me for a while now, but he’d even told his parents about it.
“I assume that we’ll be living in your cave when we get back,” I continued.
“I don’t think I’d survive the storage cavern with all the other people in there.” Axon laughed. “As long as that’s alright with you.”
“I’d like to move into your cave,” I smiled up at him. I’d never been in his cave, but if it was as comfy as his moon cave, which I assumed it was, then I’d be a very happy lady.
With that settled, we kept walking until the sun started its slow descent through the sky. That’s when Axon spotted some rare fall mushrooms that were used as a pain reliever.
“You see them up there?” He pointed to a tree branch that I wouldn’t have a prayer of reaching.
“Yeah, I see them.”
“I’m going to get a few. I’ll be right back.” He said after he gave me a quick kiss.
While he did that, I spotted some berries that Orsu had pointed out as safe to eat when he taught us about foraging.
“I’m going to pick these berries over here,” I shouted up to Axon who had shifted into his spider form and was half way up a very tall tree.
He looked at where I was pointing and nodded his head. “Don’t go too far,” he warned.
“I won’t,” I promised.
I collected as many berries as I could since they were probably the last of the season. Then I spotted another set of bushes close by. It felt like too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I collected those too.
To my surprise, there were some purple flowers here too that I knew Orsu used for certain teas. I might well harvest those along with everything else. It’d be a shame to leave them out here just to die when it snows.
I’d made my way halfway through the flowers when I heard a noise behind me.
“Did you find all the mushrooms?” I called over my shoulder.
“I didn’t find any mushrooms, but I did find myself a nice surprise.” An unfamiliar male voice reached my ears.
I whirled around to find two sirret males that looked to be a little older than Axon. One was tall and wore a leather vest, and the other was a bit shorter and had a broken horn.
“I knew it. I knew they were lying to us,” the shorter one said.
“How many of you are there?” The other male asked.
“How many?” I took a step backward and looked around for Axon.
“How many females!” The taller one seethed.
I took another shaky step back as he shouted. I couldn’t tell from the description Kayla had givenus if these males were the same ones that they encountered or not.
“Fine, don't tell us. We’ll take you back with us as proof of their lies.” The male with the broken horn walked up to me, and I took off in a run.
Unfortunately, they were much faster than I was. The tall one lifted me as if I weighed nothing and threw me over his shoulder.
They didn’t waste any time heading for the valley, because as soon as my captor had me in a secure position, he took off in a sprint.
I did the only thing I could think of and let out the loudest scream of my life.
Axon
CW: Violence
