Summary: Kalina is kidnapped in the dead of the night by Dorien Hutt. Dorien is intent on protecting her life, but he won’t say why. These two strangers are forced to hide together as war breaks out in Econah. What does Kalina need protection from and why?

* * * * *

The next morning Kalina woke to the rising of the sun. Even though the vast trees covered most light, Kalina knew that the sun had just risen. She pictured it painted across the sky in a mesh of pinks and oranges. She sat up from the soft grass that had been her bed for the night. She inspected her arms to see that they were covered in bug bites, and she sighed wearily. She looked at her legs. There weren’t quite as many because her nightgown was covering them.

She looked over at Dorien uncomfortably. Things had been so fast that she hadn’t had a chance to realize she was in her night clothes. She felt a blush rise to her cheeks. She’d never been in front of a man in her night clothes before.

Seeming to sense her stare, Dorien opened his eyes and locked gazes with her. “You were watching me,” he accused.

Kalina looked away. “I was just wondering if you had any extra clothing, Dorien.”

“What for?” He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “You’ve got good enough clothing on, don’t you?”

“No,” Kalina said softly. She stared at the ground. “It makes me uncomfortable.”

Dorien was quiet for a long time. Kalina began to think he would just ignore her, but then he spoke: “I suppose it would be best. If you need to move fast, you’d do better in pants and a tunic than a dress.”

“Nightgown,” she corrected.

“Same thing.” He stood up and went to his horse. He opened up one of the side packs and dug inside. “I’ve got one pair of clothing that’s clean. If we’re going to stay here for another week, we’re going to need to find some water.”

“I need to bathe,” Kalina agreed. She stood up and took the clothing he offered. “I’m going to change in the forest there. I won’t go far.”

Dorien grunted.

She went to the forest, rolling her eyes. He’d better not try to watch her, or he’d be surprised at what she could do. She might take his horse, leave him stranded in the middle of the forest. He could fend for himself - what with his bow and arrow. She pulled the nightgown off, leaving her in her undergarments. She yanked the riding trousers on; they were supposed to be tight, but they were baggy on her slight frame. She put the tunic on next, tucking it in so that it would fit against her better. Once she felt situated, she returned to the clearing.

In honesty Kalina preferred men’s clothing to the dresses that women traditionally wore. Trousers and tunics were much more practical than frocks and skirts.

“I’m going out to get some food,” Dorien said when she appeared.

“I can get us something,” she offered.

“You? You can’t even stand to watch me skin an-”

“One doesn’t have to eat meat at every meal. Besides, it will take too long to cook it.”

“Not to burst your bubble or anything-” he threw his hands up, gesturing around him, “-but we’ve got all the time in the world.”

“We can have nuts for breakfast. We’re surrounded by trees, so it should be easy to find some.”

“Nuts?” he mocked. “Nuts? You want me to eat nuts for breakfast. Nuts and nothing else?”

“Nuts are very filling!” She felt her anger rising.

“Maybe for you.”

“You grate my nerves more than anyone I’ve ever met in my life,” she burst out.

“Ditto.”

“Fine! You can go needlessly kill an innocent animal, spend hours cooking it, and have a nice little meal. I’m going to gather nuts and have a healthy breakfast within thirty minutes.”

“Suit yourself.” He picked up his bow and arrow. “Happy hunting.” He disappeared.

Kalina made an aggravated noise and kicked the ground. She turned sharply to see his horse. “I could easily take you and run off,” she muttered to the creature. He looked at her doubtfully. “I’ll do it, too.”

She stood there angrily for a moment. Then she remembered that anger doesn’t solve problems; it just creates new ones. They were in a difficult situation, and it would be best if she tried her hardest to get along with Dorien. After all, she had no idea how long she would be in his company. Friends were much more fun to have than enemies.

She went out into the forest, tentative at first. She’d never been this deep before, and she didn’t want to get lost. She walked between the trees, listening to the songs the birds were singing for her. She picked up nuts here and there as she saw them on the ground. She didn’t want to take too many from one place; there were animals around here that needed food just as much as she did.

Out of nowhere a doe danced its delicate limbs to stand beside her, attracted to her warmth and love of animals. She held out a hand and petted the creature’s speckled back. “Hello,” she whispered. “Where’s your family?” The deer’s eyes looked up at her adoringly. “Aren’t you a sweet little thing?”

Kalina continued to venture, becoming lost in nature and losing track of time. She kept her ears open in case there was water nearby; Dorien had said they would need it. She had no such luck though.

She had just found a bushel of berries that she was eager to try when she heard the onset of hooves. She froze in panic. Dorien had been wrong when he’d told her no one would follow them this deep into the forest. She fell to her hands and knees and crawled as close to the bush as possible, trying to hide in its leafy embrace.

The hooves came closer and closer, and her fear escalated with every inch. It was true that she had no idea why she was wanted, but she knew perfectly well that if she were found, terrible things would happen.

“Kalina! Kalina!”

Kalina stopped trembling. That was Dorien’s voice. She stood up suddenly. “Dorien! I’m over here!”

The hoof beats became louder, and then Dorien and his horse were upon her. “You were gone for over two hours,” he accused, his voice filled with anger.

Kalina’s eyes went wide as he jumped off the horse and marched up in front of her. “I was looking for food,” she explained.

“I thought something had happened to you,” he continued. “I rushed to find you when I got back and you didn’t come.”

Kalina felt guilty. “I wasn’t trying to worry you. I just got caught up . . .”

“Caught up in what?”

“The world.” She turned around and plucked a ripened berry off the bush. She held it up to where his mouth would be if the mask wasn’t covering it. “Try,” she urged.

He stood still for a long moment. Then he reached up and pulled his mask up to reveal his lips. He took the berry from her with his teeth and swallowed it.

“Did you like it?”

“It was a berry,” he said flatly. “I’ve had them before, and I’ll have them again. It’s nothing special. Nothing to risk your life over.”

“Oh, but you’re wrong.” Kalina took his hand impulsively. She led him between a few trees where there was a hole in the bark. “See that? There’s an animal in there.”

“I’ve seen-”

“Animals before, I know. You’ve seen them, but have you ever looked?” She turned to the hole and cooed gently, “Little friend, come out.”

The head of a squirrel appeared at the hole. She brought a hand up and rubbed its head. “I want you to meet someone. He seems rough around the edges, but I trust him.” She brought Dorien’s hand up to the squirrel. It tensed visibly, looking at the hand as if it was going to bolt. “No need to be afraid, little friend.”

She let go of Dorien’s hand and watched him as he reached forward to pet the squirrel. She couldn’t judge his reaction because the mask covered his face, but she knew that this meant a lot to him. The Elves were in tune to nature; it was a common fact. They often lived their whole lives in secluded land. That explained how he got around the forest with such ease and was so confident that they would survive. She didn’t understand why he was so brash about nature though. She assumed it was either his human blood or that he had turned his back on his roots.

Dorien continued to pet the animal’s skull as she thought. Then the squirrel suddenly disappeared. “Where did it go?” Dorien asked, annoyed.

“Wait.”

Dorien sighed in aggravation. Then, a second or two later, the squirrel reappeared with a cracked nut in his hand. He held out in his tiny paw.

Kalina took the nut. “Thank you,” she whispered. The squirrel made a noise and returned back to his home. Kalina turned to Dorien. She opened his palm up and dropped the nut inside, and then she closed his fingers around it. “Nature is giving, Dorien, and man takes. I just wonder if we take too much.”

She let go of his hand and walked back to the horse.

* * * * *

Before evening they found water. Dorien stopped the horse at the bank of the creek they’d discovered and jumped off. He held up a hand to help Kalina down as well. They had spoken to each other even less than usual since she’d held his hand up to that squirrel. He was irritated with her, and she, seeming to sense this, backed off.

Dorien kneeled in front of the water. He cupped his hands and drank greedily from it. The water was cool on his tongue and more refreshing than the day-old water in his husk. When he felt revitalized, he stood back up and turned to Kalina. “We’re staying here tonight. We can refresh ourselves and clean our clothes.”

“Okay,” she said simply. She leaned down in front of the water and took her own fill of it as Dorien pulled out his husk container. He dipped up some water, poured it out for the horse, and watched as he drank.

Kalina stood up again. She was looking up at him imploringly. “Do you have anymore fruit in your pack?”

He nodded and opened up one of the flaps. He pulled out a pear that was looking shabby and handed it to her. She rinsed it off in the water and began to eat it. Dorien started to take his other set of clothes and her night gown out. He stopped and eyed her. Under normal circumstances he would have taken his own clothes off, washed them all together, and walk around naked for an hour or two. He had a feeling that if he tried to do this, Kalina might be a little offended.

“We can wash our clothes later,” she supplied as if reading his mind.

Dorien straightened. She probably had read his mind. He ignored her and kneeled in front of the water again. He put his spare tunic in the water. He let the water wash over it first, then he focused on the blood stain in the shoulder. There was a tiny rip where he had been pierced by an arrow. He fingered the material gently.

Kalina hadn’t had any idea who he was, why he had “kidnapped” her, or where they were going . . . but she’d healed him. If she hadn’t, he could have ended up with a fever and been sick for days. They wouldn’t have been able to travel so deep into the forest; they very well could have been caught.

Dorien turned his head around to look at Kalina. She was petting his horse and murmuring something to the creature. Dorien scrutinized her for several moments, taking in everything about her and sizing her up. He hadn’t had a friend in a very long time, and he was starting to wonder if Kalina was worth his time.

Kalina turned around, finally seeming to sense his gaze. He locked her eyes pointedly, letting her know that, yes, he had been staring at her. Then he turned around and plunged the shirt in the water again, working the blood stain out of it.

“Did you grow up in an Elfin colony?” Kalina asked. He heard her shuffle closer to him, and he could sense her standing directly behind him.

“No.” He didn’t offer any more to her.

“You’re half-Elf though.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Why do you hide your face?”

He gritted his teeth together and wondered why he’d thought of having her as a friend earlier. He didn’t like people asking questions about him; it unnerved him. “It’s none of your business.”

“You’re predictable,” she said, voice tinged with annoyance.

He didn’t offer her a reply. He’d learned that just ignoring people often got them to shut up sooner than telling them to do so. He finished washing the clothes in the silence and pulled them out of the water.

Kalina was there in an instant, taking them from him. “There’s a rock over here we can set them on to dry,” she said, voice quiet.

Dorien watched her as she stiffly set the clothes out on the said rock. He could tell that he’d hurt her feelings somehow. It bothered him that he cared, but he shoved the feeling aside.

“How much longer will we stay here?”

“Two more days.”

“Are you going to tell me why they’re after me? Or even who ‘they’ are?”

Dorien sighed. He sat down on the grass beside his horse. “Are you aware of whom Xuriden is?”

Kalina nodded slowly. “He’s . . . Isn’t he causing trouble?”

Dorien shook his head. “You must have really been out of it in that country home,” he said. “Xuriden is the enemy. There’s going to be a war soon: Econah against Xuriden.”

“What does this have to do with anything?”

He watched as she sat down next to him and looked at him expectantly. “He wants you.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Me? Why me? What‘s so special about me?”

“You can heal.”

Kalina snorted. “A lot of people can heal. I’m a mere novice as it is . . .”

“Kalina, you brought that animal back to life,” he pointed out, punctuating his words carefully.

Kalina gasped slightly. “I . . . I didn’t know I could. I’ve never done that before. It could have been a fluke.” She straightened her shoulders. “How does he even know of me?”

Dorien felt like he’d been plunged into ice water. “That’s enough questions for now,” he all but growled, standing up. He couldn’t explain to her why someone like Xuriden would want this lowly country girl. He couldn’t explain what events led Xuriden to find her.

“Wait!” Kalina stood up too and grabbed onto his arm. “You can’t leave me in the dark. I have every right to know. This is my life on the line here! Not yours - mine!”

Dorien jerked his arm out of her hands. He kept his face perfectly cool and in control. “I have every intention of protecting that life, Kalina. How else do you explain why I‘m here, helping you?”

With saying that, he opened up his horse’s side pack. He pulled out a rolled up piece of fishing line. He went to search for a suitable stick to serve as a fishing pole.

He left Kalina staring after him, trying to figure him out. She could sit on a stool and ponder on Dorien Hutt for decades, but Dorien wouldn’t give her an inch. And he paid careful attention to say as little as possible around her. She would never figure him out any more than he wanted her to.

* * * * *