Don't Open That Door - GoM 1

14

Alex and Tom stood by the fire, watching them walk away. When she turned to him, she noticed the sweat covering his forehead, his clenched teeth, his hand pressing his wounded side.

"Come," she said softly, helping him to sit down on the stump.

"Thanks," he muttered.

She crouched down to take a look at what her friends had given them and was glad to find not one, but two six-packs.

"Good boys. Look, Tom," she said with a wide smile.

A cold gust blew through the leaves. They looked up and saw the dark heavy clouds hiding the sun. Alex recalled Jeff's forecast.

"It'll rain soon," she said, picking up everything. "We should shelter the fire."

"No need. We can keep some firewood under the back rainfly."

"Okay," she replied with a quick shrug. She took the supplies to the tent, kept them under the broad rainfly.

Claire wasn't exactly fond of camping, but when she agreed to join Alex for a couple of nights outdoors, she wouldn't suffer a tight tent with hardly room for their sleeping bags. So she'd insisted until Alex got a four-person four-season tent with a broad rainfly, to keep backpacks and shoes out but safe from the weather. Now Alex thanked Claire's whim, that gave her room to store everything away from the coming rain.

She went back to the campfire, bringing Tom his backpack. "What I do need is getting rid of all you silver lace stash. Can you fetch it, please?"

Tom frowned, not convinced at all. She swallowed a sigh—was it beg-for-trust day?—and crouched down before him. She met his eyes and spoke gently.

"Look, Tom, I can tell it's not like you, but I really need you to trust me on this one. The man who taught me about the silver lace spent many years hunting down all kinds of unusual creatures. So far, nothing he ever told me turned out to be wrong."

Tom held her eyes for a moment, as if weighting her words, and nodded.

The first light raindrops fell on them as Alex finished storing all their staff. She joined Tom by the fire and he gave her a handful of herbs tied with a white string. She flashed a quick smile.

"Thanks. Come now, I'll help you to the tent."

He shook his head. "It's okay. I like rain."

Alex wasn't about to pick up an argument over it, so she walked away with the silver lace. She went a hundred yards away in the opposite direction from the stream. She didn't want that big angry alpha possessed by a garthling lurking between them and their only source of fresh water. She found a dead branch and used it to dig a hole in the ground to bury the herbs.

The thought of the alpha's glowing red eyes caused her a chill. Really the best camping to clean her head ever. And to make it even better, it'd pour all night—Jeff's knee was always right.

However, bumping onto Tom was on the pros side of the scale.

She headed back with a little smile. Whatever. Nothing would keep her from cooking one damn good dinner, enjoy Stu's ale and sleep the hell off.

Tom fed the fire with the handful of firewood Alex had left out and opened a beer. The flames blazed up despite the light rain, reflecting on his face. He kept staring at the fire when Alex came back and paused by his side. He handed her the beer without a word. She sipped it and sat on the ground by his legs.

They lingered there in silence, watching the fire fight the rain and sharing the beer, while the storm rolled across Boulder Glacier and down the steep ravines to meet them.