71

Chapter 91

I jump, my head snapping up, ears rotating frantically in every direction, searching for the source. The women's cry stops abruptly.
Joe.
I knew I forgot something!
I restrain myself from calling out, and instead crawl silently from the pool, feeling exposed and raw in my bare skin, freezing all over. I barely remember to locate my dress, damp as it is, with me still sopping wet. I struggle to yank the wet cloth on over my wetter head, then the green vest, which has definitely seen better days.
Shaking slightly, I haphazardly wring out my hair, twisting it over my shoulder, then I do the same to my tail (except for the shoulder part). Then I freeze, still as a statue, trying hard not to breath, listening for any little sound, the snap of a twig, a gasping breath, anything.
Then I hear it. But I'm confused now, because it sounds like giggling. Laughter, even. My head snaps around to face the direction it comes from, and then I take off, running like only a cat-girl can, silent and swift, darting and weaving effortlessly through the tall green trees, interwoven with bright patches of glowing fungus and vibrant mosses.
Breathless, I finally hear the trickling of the creek again, and then I'm standing in it.
"Not you too!"
I stare in disbelief at the scene, with Coal running from the creek in only his boxers, towards where his pants are hanging on a tree branch. I see Joe's back while she runs into the woods. Then I turn around, blushing horrendously no doubt.
"Decent?" I call back after a few more seconds, and I hear a muffled moan, which I take to mean yes. So I turn around, to see Coal, half-clothed, still bare-chested, unravelling the cloth bandage from where it was bundled on a rock.
"What happened?" I say, raising an eyebrow, and he looks down at me in confusion, and then his face gets redder than I've ever seen it before.
"Um, she just kinda...appeared." He shrugs at his feet.
"Good luck ever looking her in the eye again," I say. I look down at his wounds, suddenly preoccupied. "They're getting better!"
"Wha-Oh, yeah!" He looks down too, but while I'm overjoyed, he looks disappointed.
"What?" I bring my hand up to his clean hair, my fingers feeling their way around the wolf-ears, bringing him closer to me. "What is it?"
"It's just that-" He shakes his head, still not meeting my eyes. "I don't know, crazy, I guess..." He mumbles something unintelligible, of which I can only distinguish "Only way" and "Dying". But I try not to focus on that.
Instead I focus on the his perfect skin, that nose with a little ridge on the bridge that proves it's probably been broken before. The slight hollows of his cheeks, the nearly invisible shadows of exhaustion and pain beneath his eyes, tiny, fine laugh lines on the corner of his mouth, exactly where his skin folds when he smiles. The little cleft in his chin, a small one, so only in lighting like this with extreme shadows is it noticeable at all. And his eyes.
"Hey," I breath, and he finally looks up to meet my eyes, looking a little startled by my proximity. "I'm here for you, okay?" Slowly, breathlessly, I lean further forward, pressing my head against his strong warm chest, my hands on his shoulders.
"Oh, that makes me feel so much better." He whispers, and I can tell he's grinning.
"It should." I press closer, feeling the smooth skin beneath my cheek, and then his hands gently on my back.
"It does." Then I stand up on my tip-toes and kiss him, gently, our lips barely brushing, and then, my head's back on his shoulder, his hands on the small of my back.
I lift my chin to look into his eyes. I love his eyes. Those endless twin pools, full of secret and mystery, almost like-
"Coal," I say suddenly, and I feel him tense for a second beneath me.
"Mmm?"
"I want to see the ocean."
He holds me away from him, looking at me in confusion, and then he evidently decides he'll never figure me out, so he relaxes, and the corner of his mouth twitches up in a quirky half-smile.
"Okay, then."