Page 34 of Hunting for her Heart
I smile up at them. “It’s so soft!”
“It could be dangerous,” Hawk says, eyeing it with a frown.
“Well, it’s not like we can rip it out,” I say with a shrug. It’s just grass, I’m not sure how it could be malevolent.
“We could burn it?” Bo suggests, but I shake my head.
“Can we just… leave it? See what happens?”
Ronan squats down and runs his hand through the blades. “We’ll keep an eye on it. I’m not sure if it’s something we have to worry about, and it’s still a better option than going back out in the forest. The sun has set now.”
The cave was dark when we arrived, but the fire helps to light the small space. I glance up at the crack in the ceiling and see that he’s right, no light is coming through anymore.
Ronan’s gaze shifts to me, his eyes trailing over my poultice-covered body. “We should eat, then we need to get you warm.”
“Tomorrow, we should search for one of those supply crates they said they hid throughout the forest,” Bo says, his blue eyes roaming over me as well.
“Supply crates?” I ask in confusion.
Ronan gets to his feet as he explains. “When we signed up, they explained that since the Mating Hunt was for a week this year, and we were only allowed to bring a small bag with us,” he points to his bag on the ground as he continues, “that they would be hiding small crates throughout the forest with supplies we might need to help properly care for you.”
My mind starts to imagine what could possibly be in them. Food and water?
“They are sure to have blankets and pillows,” Bo says as he moves to the fire and picks up the sticks of roasted meat.
“And hopefully shoes,” Hawk adds, looking down at my bare feet.
Bo passes out the meat to the other two, then pulls a piece from the skewer and tests it. “Still too hot,” he says, looking directly at me.
Every time their eyes are on me, I feel so exposed, so naked. I’ve never worn anything even close to this revealing in my life. I look around for my dress and see someone has already laid it out beside the fire so it will dry. But it still looks soaked.
I glance at their own clothing, the strange coverings they have around their hips. They must be wet as well. “Do you not need to dry out your clothes?” I blurt out.
A small smile pulls at Bo’s lips, but Ronan is the one to answer. “If we remove them, we’ll be naked.”
My mouth goes dry and I lick my lips, my eyes dropping to his covered area, imagining what could possibly be hiding under there. I had gotten enough of a glimpse of that troll to know it was male, but what I saw was terrifying. I hope human men don’t look quite that… grotesque.
I try to focus back on my question. I had asked because Ididn’t want them to be uncomfortable hanging around and sleeping in wet clothing, but they either didn’t want me to see what was underneath or they didn’t thinkI’dwant to see it.
In the hopes of being more open with them, I tell them, “Where I’m from, we had to dress very modestly. Dresses and skirts down to our feet, long sleeves, high necklines. Nudity was forbidden outside of the marriage bed. I know it isn’t like that outside of the cult I grew up in, but it’s all I‘ve known.” I quickly glance at each of them before adding, “It’s clearly different for you.”
Hawk bites a chunk of meat in half, then approaches me and holds the other half up to my lips. I open my mouth and let him feed it to me as he speaks.
“Yes. What we’re wearing is common for Redmere warriors.”
“Warriors?” I ask in surprise. I haven’t heard them use that term before.
He nods, feeding me another piece of meat. “Yes. In Redmere, you decide as an adolescent what skill you want to hone. Some have great skill with vegetation and the land, becoming farmers and foragers. Some are skilled with their hands and tools and help to build. We were prophesied to save our land, so we trained as warriors.”
I swallow my mouthful of meat, it suddenly tasting like ash as I question, “Prophesied?” My father was always spouting prophecies, and they never meant anything good for me.
Bo nods. “Yes, there is a seer on our island.” He pauses to ask, ”Do you know what that is?” When I shake my head he continues, “She occasionally gets visions that help our people prosper. Our land started dying when we were youngboys, and when we were fifteen, she told us a prophecy that she said was only for the three of us, even though we weren’t brothers by blood.”
He looks at me as he asks, “Do you want to hear it?” I nod and listen to his husky voice spout the prophecy they have been following for half their lives.
Found in ruin, long concealed,
What once was lost can soon be healed.
