Chapter 66: Another Small Change
Serian was for sure lighter than he expected, but after an hour, even a light weight felt heavy. Her arms were wrapped loosely around his neck, her head resting against his shoulder. Her breathing was a soft, steady rhythm against his ear.
’This is so weird,’ he thought. He tried to focus on the path, on the sounds of the forest, on anything but the feeling of her being so close. It didn’t work. His mind kept coming back to it.
He could feel the warmth of her body through his shirt. He could smell that weird, clean scent of rain and leaves. It was distracting. It made it hard to think straight.
’Just walk, you idiot,’ he told himself. ’Get to a safe spot. That’s the mission.’
He finally saw it as the sun started to get low in the sky. A shallow cave, more like a deep overhang in a rocky cliff face. It wasn’t much, but it was defensible and dry.
"We’ll stop here," he said, his voice a little rough.
He walked into the cave and carefully lowered her to the ground, his movements surprisingly gentle. She let go of his neck, her hands brushing against his skin for a second. His stomach did a weird flip.
He backed away quick and started gathering dry wood for a fire, not looking at her.
The god chat came to life.