It Is You I Have Loved

Chapter 29

For dinner Alastor and Angel decided to catch fish in the river and Charlie and Vaggie went to gather roots, nuts, and wild onions. Charlie offered them a lace from her dress that they could use as a fishing line but Angel's spider webs proved to be the perfect tool. In fact he was the best fisherman out of all of them. In about one hour he had a basket full of wish caught in a giant web.

"I learned it from my grandma who learned it from her mother and so on." He told them.

"I'm impressed." Alastor said. "Tell me is your entire family made up of different spider species?"

"Well we're mostly albino but we're a third Dolomedes on my father's side and a fourth Black Widow on my mother's side. You can imagine that there aren't many males on her side of the family."

"We have enough fish but I'm going to look for flagstone that we can use for the fire."

"Alright."

Alastor first searched the dirt and soil but no luck. He tired the river next though he was certain that flagstone wouldn't be in there. He saw something that looked like flagstone but when he picked it up he realized it was just pegmatite. He threw it away, it collided with a larger rock and broke open. Something pink fell out. It was a rose quartz. He remembered the lace that Charlie had given him and an idea came to mind.

"Alastor what are you doing?" Charlie said when she found him working on something.

"Oh Charlie!" He nervously grinned and had his arms behind his back. "What are you doing here?"

"Vaggie and I found plenty of roots, nuts, and onions for dinner, and Angel told me that you were looking for flagstone for the fire so I decided to help you."

"Oh that's very kind of you my dear but I have it handled."

"What's that you got there?"

"Got where?"

"Behind your back."

"Nothing."

She tried to look behind him but he moved to where she couldn't see.

"You're lying." She called out. "What is it?"

"I told you it's nothing."

"If it was nothing then you wouldn't be hiding it. Come on, let me see."

"No!"

He kept moving backwards and she kept moving forwards. Finally he tripped and fell over, dropping what he had in his hands and Charlie grabbed it immediately. It was a makeshift necklace that had been crafted from her dress lace and the rose quartz Alastor had found.

"Oh how pretty." She said. "Did you make this?"

"Uh...Maybe." He looked away bashfully. "I was...I...I found the stone in the river and I...Well I noticed you're not wearing any jewelry and...And...And...I figured you'd want to look your best for your fiance right?"

"You made this for me?" She asked touched.

"Yes but it's just so you don't look so common when you meet Vox. I mean I know it's nothing compared to the jewels you usually get or the ones he'll give you but it's the best I could do and all."

She did something completely unexpected. She threw her arms around him and hugged him.

"This is the sweetest gift anyone has ever given me. Thank you."

At first he was so still. Probably the most still he had ever been in his entire life. He was struggling to comprehend with what is was she was doing. She was hugging him. He had not been hugged in so long that he had almost forgotten what it felt like. Eventually though, the memories were reawakened and his arms moved ever so slowly to hold the princess. Returning her hug. A warmth that he had not known in forever returned to his heart and he smiled so softly.