The Star and the Ocean (Book 1 in the Starborn Series)

Chapter Five

"How come you haven't stayed in touch with your dad?" May asked.

Em shook the blanket off her shoulders and relaxed into the back of the couch. "As I was saying before I was interrupted by your super cool treehouse, I've been backpacking through the mountains for the last month or so. I have a phone but it's been dead for a while, what with there being no electricity in the wilderness and all."

May was intrigued. She couldn't fathom the idea of spending that much time living with only the things on her back out in the middle of nowhere. But at the same time, it did sound kind of exciting. She wondered if she was the type of person with the gumption to pull it off.

"Why were you out there?"

"Trying to get to the coast."

"What was on the coast?"

"I don't know." Em grinned over her glass. "That's why I was going."

At this point, the wine was warming May's face. She could feel herself loosening up and Em's coy responses made her laugh loudly.

"Are you going to keep making me ask questions or are you just going to tell me your story?"

Em laughed back.

"My story, huh?" She paused and seemed to consider her words carefully before continuing, "Well, for the last couple of years I was actually living in a mountain town called Tenna. Have you ever been?"

May shook her head. "I've never left the island."

Em raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"We'll come back to that," she said and May giggled. "Anyway, I worked for the region's emergency response team. It was a great gig–cool teammates, got to help people. Tough but worth it... What?"

The fascination was written so plainly on May's face. "I have so many questions!"

"Well, ask 'em!"

 May had so many that she wasn't sure where to start.

"What does an emergency response team do?"

"Everything," Em replied. "We find lost hikers, do avalanche control in the winter, manage forest fires in the summer – all that good stuff. Tenna is one of the only towns in that part of the mountain range, so it's a bit of a junction for travellers trying to get from one side to the other. Someone's gotta look out for them."

It all sounded so adventurous to May. She regarded Em in a new light, trying to see her as a life-saving hero instead of the wandering vagabond she had originally written her off to be.

The questions kept spilling out.

"How do you even get involved in something like that? And why did you leave? Did something happen?"

Em stretched and smiled. "No, nothing happened. It was just time to move on. As far as how I got into it, that's a much longer story but it'll have to wait. It's your turn again."

May opened her mouth to protest but Em cut her off.

"What do you do with your life, May?"

Had it not been for the placating effects of the wine, May might have insisted on hearing the whole story right then and there. But Em's question reminded her of the foul mood she had been in earlier in the week and her normal polite demeanor was waning.

She downed what was left in her glass and and sat up prim and proper, shaking her short hair back from her face.

"I'm a nanny," she said with false saccharine sweetness, emphasizing the word 'nanny' with air quotes.