Her cousin Joseph and she had decided to build a square base with pebbles from the nearby river for the fire, and the structure was still there.
Still smiling, she left the cave and looked at what was supposed to be their final destination – the Devil’s Mountains. They would have to walk a whole day to get to their foothills and there, set the camp as they started looking for the gold they had come for.
It was still mid-day, but if they tried to get to the foothills that same day, the night would catch them halfway there, unless, he took them there flying.
It felt a bit unfair to even ask him that, but it would take them to their destination a lot faster, and they would be able to start looking for gold the following morning, saving a day.
“What are you doing out here? I told you to wait inside,” he snarled, landing next to her and dropping their bags at her feet.
Startled, she turned to look at him, furious. “You scared me. I don’t follow orders, I thought you knew that by now,” she added, in a sassy tone.
“That attitude will get you in trouble,” he warned her, trying to hold back a smile. She didn’t need encouragement.
“I thought we shouldn’t stay here,” she said, changing the subject. “I’m probably asking too much of you, but if you flew us to the mountain foothills, we would be saving a day,” she explained.
“That wouldn’t be a problem for me. Where are we headed?” he asked, curious.
She showed him the dark mountains a few miles from where they were standing. “Those are the Devil’s Mountains. We’ll set camp at their foothills and start searching from there.”
The mountains looked steep and with very little vegetation in them. But Kael was sure he would be able to scan them, and if there were gold in them, he would find it.
“Very well, the faster we get there, the faster we’ll get back to the village,” he agreed. “I’ll take you there first, and then I’ll come back for the bags.”
“Are you sure that won’t be too tiring for you?” she asked, realizing all he would have to fly with her in his arms. She wasn’t very light.
“Of course not, don’t worry about it,” he assured her.
“Perhaps it would be better if I climbed on your back,” she suggested, not sure that was even possible.
“No, I wouldn’t be able to get a hold of you. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. If you want to make it more comfortable, just wrap your legs around me,” he suggested, with a faint smile.
Carrying her up the mountain had been a hard exercise on his self-control and taking her the rest of the way promised to be even harder, especially if she did as he told her.
But he didn’t care. Having her in his arms was probably the closest he had gotten to paradise, and he would take every opportunity he had to do it again.
“Let’s go, then,” he said, pulling her closer.
She wrapped her arms around him, and when he grasped her waist, she wrapped her legs around his strong body. Her heart immediately started drumming in a deafening rhythm she was sure he could hear.
“Ready?” he asked, smiling.
“Yes,”
His wings moved, and in a blink of an eye, they were up in the sky. It was fantastic to see the world at their feet, and she decided she would never get tired of it.
Being in his arms only made it more special, and she loved every second of the experience.
This time, it took them a couple of hours to get to their destination. She hadn't thought it would take them so long and she apologized to him. “You must be exhausted,” she said, flustered when he put her on the ground.
“No, I’m not. I’m used to flying long distances,” he assured her.
“Yes, probably, but certainly not carrying a heavy load like me,” she pointed out, feeling the heat coloring her cheeks.
“Heavy? You’re not heavy. Females of my species are heavy. They are almost as tall as I am and their muscled bodies are quite heavy. You don’t weigh a thing in comparison,” he retorted.
She wasn’t sure she liked his comparison. She knew she was small and chubby and judging by his words, anything like the women he was used to. If she wanted evidence he would never look at her twice, he had just provided her with it.
“Even so, it was a long ride. Why don’t you get some rest before you go for our bags?” she asked him, looking anywhere but at his face.
“There’s no need for that. I want to get back before it gets dark. Find a place for us to spend the night, but don’t go far from here. I’ll be back as soon as possible,” he said before he flew away.
She sighed and looked around trying to find the cave her family used to stay in. With luck, it would be as empty as the other one, and they would be able to set their camp there.
While she was searching, she collected all the firewood she was able to find. There weren’t many trees around, but she was able to find enough wood for the night.
The cave was there, and as empty as always. Its entrance was too wide and open to be attractive to animals, but it was perfect for them. Rhiannon deposited the firewood she had gathered and looked around, remembering the fun she’d had with her cousins there.
Life had changed way too much since then. She found the pebbles they had used to make their fire, but these were scattered through the place. She quickly gathered them and started a fire. It was beginning to feel cold, and she knew the night would be even colder.
When she had a good fire, she decided to go back to where Kael had left her to wait there for him. She knew it would still take him some time to return, but she was too restless to stay still.
To her surprise, she didn’t have to wait long for him. He had been away for less than an hour when she saw him coming.
“That was fast,” she said when he landed next to her.
“I didn’t have a special cargo this time,” he said, smiling. “Did you find us a shelter?” he asked, still carrying all their bags.
“Yes, I did. We’re staying in the same cave where I used to stay with my family,” she explained.
“Lead the way,” he asked her.
A few minutes later, they were back at the cave, and Kael deposited the bags near the fire she had started.
“I should go hunting, find some dinner for us,” he said, with a slight frown, “But I have no idea which animals you eat and which you don’t.”
“Is this place that different from where you come from?” she asked, curious.
“Not that much, but our animals are very different, yes.”
“I’ll go with you and show you. There isn’t much I can do here, for now,” she offered, and they left the cave.
They didn’t have much sunlight left so they would have to hurry if they wanted to find something to eat.
“What kind of animals can we find here?”
“Deer, rabbits, and we can also get some salmon from the river, it’s not far,” she explained.
They walked through the woods in silence for a while until she stopped him and pointed at a rabbit coming out of a hole. “That’s a rabbit,” she whispered.
He pointed his small weapon at the animal and with an accurate shot, he got them some dinner.
“That was easy. Where can I get one of those?” she teased him, smiling.
“I’ll teach you how to use it. It fires a jolt of energy that can be set to kill or just stun, and it recharges itself with the sun’s energy,” he explained, smiling back as they went looking for the rabbit.
Back at the cave, she showed him how to skin it and remove the entrails, before she put it to cook on a stick by the fire.
Like the night before, he went looking for some branches to make her a more comfortable bed and she appreciated the gesture.
“How close do you have to be from the gold reef to find it?” she asked, while they were waiting for the rabbit to be cooked.
“At least, within a radius of half a mile,” he replied. “We could try it now and see what it shows us,” he suggested, picking up his backpack and removing the scanner from it.
“It would be great having an idea where we should start looking,” she said, with a half-smile.
“I know, I doubt it will be that easy. These mountains are quite rocky,” he pointed out, as he turned on the device.
The mountain was filled with all sorts of metals and minerals, and Kael couldn’t tell which one was gold. He hadn't expected that.
“This place has a lot of metals and minerals in it. I can’t tell which one is gold. I would need a piece of gold for the scanner to recognize, so it searches only for that metal,” he explained, furrowing his eyebrows.
She searched for something inside her shirt and pulled out a thin leather neckless with a gold pendant. “Will this do?” she asked, handing it to him. “That was the first gold nugget I found up here in these mountains,” she explained.
He smiled. “That’s exactly what I need,” he scanned the small nugget and handed it back to her.
With the chemical composition of the metal, he scanned their surroundings once more, but the results were disappointing. There were a few traces of the metal, but nothing worth looking for.
“We’ll need to go higher,” she said when he shared the results with her. “I’m sure we’ll be luckier there.”
“Yes, I’m sure of it too,” he agreed.
The rabbit was finally ready, and she served it with a couple of slices of bread. “This is the last bread we have,” she told him. “From now on we’ll have to hunt or fish our food.”
“I don’t have a problem with that. Anything will be just fine,” he assured her.
“With that weapon of yours, we won’t have any problem getting what we need.”
He laughed and agreed.