“I can’t.” She shakes her head, eyes wide.
Right, she doesn’t want to get back in the hot spring. I get it. But I don’t have a fire made yet. I run to my horse and grab our supplies. I pull the two blankets out, wrap them around her, and cover her tight. Then I go back to the hot spring and fetch her clothes. I climb up and hand her things to her.
She stares up at me, her hair dripping onto the fur. Her mouth is still half open as she breathes hard.
“You’re soaked, too,” she says.
I am, and I’m cold, but I barely feel it. I grab the dinner pot and toss in some fallen sticks. My teeth chatter as I reach in the bag for the fire starter. I need to change, but getting her warm is all that matters right now.
The twigs catch, making a small fire right in the pot. I put it on her lap. It’s not much, but I can’t make a campfire without a pit and wood.
I scramble back down to the hot spring, strip off my wet underwear, and throw on my dry clothes and boots. Now, warm enough, I grab some rocks. I get enough to make a fire pit up by Aeri, then I take out my axe. It’s a battle axe, not a wood axe, and I had to sharpen it after taking down the warming hut, but it’s fine to chop up a young tree.
There’s a five-year pine that fell, rotten, not far from the boulders. I start splitting it into logs and branch pieces. I work so quickly and get so hot that I have to take the jacket off again. I stop and drape my coat over Aeri’s shoulders, then rewrap her blanket. She looks up at me with those big, brown eyes. She’s okay. She’s alive and here with me.
I get back to work. The exertion feels good. Each swing back, each split calms me a little.
As soon as I have enough, I bring the wood over and arrange it in the pit. The fire in the dinner pot is almost out, but it’s enough to start the campfire. I toss in some dry hay, and it flames to life.
Finally, I take a breath and crouch down next to Aeri. She’s put on her dry clothes, but she’s still as white as the snow and shivering. The fire will help, though. She eyes me, her jaw shaking because her teeth are chattering. Still, she opens the blankets to wrap me as well.
I pick her up and put her on my lap to give her my body heat, then close the blanket around us. She melts, shaking into me, as cold as ice. But gradually, she warms.
She nuzzles against me, safe now.
As I look around, I realize this isn’t a bad place to make camp. We’d be protected by the hot spring, and we already have the fire going in the twilight.
“Are you okay with staying here tonight?” I ask.
She meets my eyes. “Yes, but no more dips in the pool.”
I snort, and she smiles.
When she’s warm enough, I leave her with the blanket and get to work on the tent. I lay some canvas on the ground. It won’t be as warm on the snow as it was on the bare earth last night, but we’ll manage. I’ll do whatever I have to.
It’s not until camp is done and Aeri hands me my jacket, insisting I put it on, that I let myself think about what happened. Aeri drowned. She died, and I lost her. I lost all of the tomorrows I want with her. But then I brought her back.
I don’t understand it. Maybe it really was the gods helping us. I can’t explain it any other way—how I remembered how to save someone or that it worked. A minute more and nothing would have helped. I know it in my soul. If I was just a little slower or if she’d fallen a little farther, I would’ve lost her for good. If there was one time for the gods to shine on me, I’m grateful it was this one.
After Lora, I swore I’d never let someone in again. I thought it was better to just be alone. So much for that.
Aeri is slowly sipping water from a canteen as I rinse out the dinner pot. I put fresh snow in and hang it above the fire on the metal stand. I can feel her staring at me, but for now she’s quiet. When I met her, all I wanted was for her to take a breath and not talk my ear off, and now her voice is what I want to hear the most.
“Don’t do that again,” I say.
She breathes out a laugh. “Believe me, Royo, it isn’t the plan.”
I pour some rice into the pot. While it cooks, I reach out and tuck her wet hair behind her ear.
“It really scared me,” I say.
Her eyes get glossy, and she nods. “Me too. I thought… I thought you wouldn’t come.”
“I’ll always find you.”
We stare at each other under the rising moon. I want to kiss her again, but I won’t. I won’t ruin this moment. She’s safe, and that’s enough.
Aeri gently smiles, and then she reaches into her pocket. She pulls out a napkin and unwraps the paper. Inside is a little cake. She holds it out to me.
