Squinting, I peer down the tunnel in front of us and realize that far ahead, it does appear to be slightly lighter than the pitch black we’ve been in.
“I see it, there’s light there somewhere.” We resume our chain as we walk towards the light. Soon enough, we come to the end of the tunnel and see it opens up into a large chamber. Looking up, I can see a tiny hole above us where the light is entering. It’s notbright in here, but there’s enough light to see around. A small pool of water sits in the middle and it looks like a few tunnels branch off in different directions. Besides that, there’s not much else of note in here.
“I wonder where we are,” Penny says, looking around the tavern.
“I have an idea what part of the mountain this is, but I’m pretty turned around, so it’s hard to know which tunnel we need to take. If we can see what way the sun is rising in the morning, then I should be able to guess which tunnel is likely to take us towards the bottom of the mountain.”
“I guess we’re camping here till morning then,” Penny says cheerfully. She lets go of our hands and starts walking around the cavern, Brax hot on her heels, not wanting to let her get far. His protectiveness makes me smile. I move to the water's edge and bend down, dipping my fingers in, then abruptly pull them out.
Nope, no hot sauna for us. Luckily, we are away from any snow or wind down here and we could huddle for body heat. My gaze moves to where Penny’s strolling around the cavern without a worry and a smile spreads across my face. Yes, I think body heat is just what we need tonight.
I find a nice flat spot for us to rest, and place my furs down in a makeshift bed before sitting down. I wish I had something to offer her, food or even water. I glance again at the pool here, maybe it was drinkable? I’m sure Brax will know.
“Hey, Brax?” When he looks over, I point at the water. “You reckon we can drink this?”
He walks up to the edge and crouches down, looking around. I have no idea what he’s looking for, so I just wait for his assessment. After a minute, he scoops some in his hands and pulls it up to his face, sniffing it. He then touches it with his tongue before pulling his head back. He seems to be waiting for something. After a minute he takes a small sip and drops the rest.
“If I feel fine in twenty minutes, then it should be good to drink.”
“And if you’re not fine?” Penny asks, looking angry.
“I’ll get over it.”
“Brax! You shouldn’t put yourself at risk like that. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
I see his face soften as he pulls her towards him and wraps his arms around her. “Baby, you worried about me? It was just a tiny sip, the worst that can happen is I get a small stomach ache.”
“I’d rather you didn’t get one at all.”
“Me too, Baby, but we need drinking water if we’re going to be here all night. Who knows how long we’ll be going through these tunnels.”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll be out tomorrow, don’t worry.”
“How could you possibly know that, Red?” I ask her, shaking my head at her optimistic attitude. Truth be told, I love her attitude.
Do I love her?Yeah, it’s pretty clear I do, even though I’ve barely known her a day. There’s something about her that calls to me, driving me to do more, to take care of her, to keep her safe. The one good thing about being stuck in this cavern together is that we can get to know each other more and maybe she’d let us solidify our courtship.
Despite what she said, a part of me is afraid that as soon as we get to Havenridge, she’ll meet a group of brothers that will charm their way into her heart and she’ll drop us. I think that my heart knows she wouldn’t do that, but my head has twenty-eight years of prejudice pushing against me.
Eventually, the two of them finish their perusal of the cave and come over to join me. Brax sits down across from me and before Penny can sit beside me, I pull her into my lap, her back to my chest, as I wrap my arms around her.
“He got to hold you all day, it’s my turn now.”
She giggles and I watch as a smile spreads across Brax’s face.
“My, my, what a beautiful shade of pink you just turned.”
“Our girls’ blushing, is she?” I ask as I try to tilt my head around hers to see her face.
She gets all cute and shy as she looks down at her hands as if they’re the most interesting thing in the cave right now.
I smile as I sit back up, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable. “So, now what? We still got some daylight before we should go to sleep,” I ask them as I rest my chin on her shoulder.
“Are you guys hungry?”
“You got more chocolate bars in that bag of yours, Red?” I ask her eagerly. I had pretended to be put off earlier, but I have to admit it was pretty good.
“Yep! Snickers or kit kat?”
