No, Anders, you need to stay here and rest. If you come with me, I’ll be too tired to make the return flight. I have never flown this much or this hard in such a short period, she told him.
Anders furrowed his brow, “Everyone seems to think I should be resting.”
Have you seen yourself?
Anders looked himself over and attempted to brush the crusted blood off his clothes. When the stains didn’t brush away after several swipes, he straightened up and said, Well, I guess if you can’t carry me, I’ll have to find somewhere to lie down, but I don’t like it when I’m away from you for too long. If anything happens, you’ll let me know, won’t you?
Zahara nodded, Go, get some sleep. I’ll be joining you when I return.
Anders did as she suggested. He stood back while she jumped into the air and flapped her wings, creating a rush of wind around him as she took flight. He placed his arm across his forehead, blocking the sun from his eyes as he watched her fly away.
Not feeling entirely comfortable in being away from Zahara for the first time since they’d bonded, Anders decided he should find Max, Maija and his cousins to let them know he’d made it back from the search safely.
He didn’t have to go far from the medical tent before Maija, Kirsten, Max and Thomas came running toward him from the camp. Surrounding him, they bombarded him with questions.
“What happened to you? Did you find the missing riders? Is that your blood? Where’s Zahara? Where’s Ivan?” The questions seemed to be coming from all angles. In his exhaustion, he couldn’t make sense of which questions to answer first, so he offered a short answer to each of their queries.
“Found one rider alive, injured, brought her back. Zahara is going back for Ivan. Yes, my blood,” he pointed to his head, “and, yes, blood from others,” he pointed to his stained pants. He finished by quickly adding, “Tired, headache and need rest.” Anders swayed slightly as he spoke.
“Here, drink this,” Maija said handing him a skin of water. He opened it and began gulping. The fresh water rushing down his dry throat felt amazing. He wiped away the dribble with his sleeve and raised his other arm over his brow to shield the late morning sun from his eyes.
He squinted and asked, “Is there somewhere quiet where I could lie down?”
“You can have my tent,” Maija sprang at the opportunity before anyone else could respond.
“Thanks,” Anders said. He followed them back to their side of the encampment.
“How did you get covered in blood?” Max asked, coming alongside him as they walked.
“Long story,” Anders said. “Zahara crashed, that was part of it. Dead dragon was the rest.” Everyone glanced at one another out of the corner of their eyes. Anders noticed their looks but was too tired to pay much attention. It was as if he’d just told them the world was going to end tomorrow. “I’ll explain in more detail after I’ve gotten some rest,” he said. “I need to sleep.”
Maija led him over to her tent. It was pitched slightly away from the others in their group and bordered a beautiful grassy hill at the far edge of the camp. She pulled the flap aside and ushered him in.
“You can lie here,” she pointed to several blankets that covered a cot.
Anders thanked her and laid down on top of the blankets, not wanting his dirty clothes to mess up her sleeping arrangements too much. Maija turned to walk back out of the tent as Anders called after her in a gentle tone, “Maija, wait.”
She stopped and turned, coming back several steps to the side of the bed.
“What is it?” she asked.
He held out his arm from the side of the cot and extended his hand toward her. She took his hand in hers and smiled, bending down; she kissed him softly on the lips.
“You can tell me all about it after you’ve rested,” she said.
He nodded, his eyes closing with the motion of his head. Maija took her hand and ran it through his hair several times, kissed him on the forehead, and left the tent. Anders was asleep before she’d closed the flap.
Anders stirred from his slumber twice before late the next morning. He woke the first time when Zahara returned. She’d dropped Ivan off at the medical tent where the elves were attempting to heal Natalia. He was glad she woke him, so he knew she’d made it back safely, but he fell right back to sleep as quickly as he’d awoken.
The second time was only for a moment and he wasn’t entirely sure it happened. He thought Maija woke him when she entered her tent. When Anders opened his eyes, the inside of the tent’s white canvas walls were brightly lit with the glow of the rising sun. He could hear the busyness of camp life bustling around them, muffled through the canvas walls. He turned his head to the side where he thought he heard Maija making some noise. He was surprised to see her lying next to him.
The cot wasn’t designed to hold two people, so their bodies were snuggled closely together. Her eyes were closed and she had a small smile on her face. She looked like she was dreaming of something sweet. Anders enjoyed how beautiful she looked in that moment. Her wavy amber hair was slightly ruffled from the pillow, exposing her ear on one side. Quickly he realized that he had never fully seen her ears before; she always wore her hair down. Seeing her ear now, he noticed that it came to a subtle point at the top.
His eyes followed the curve of her neck, her caramel skin ran down into the top of the blanket they slept under just below her collar. Anders’ eyes widened, she wasn’t wearing any clothes, at least not a shirt from what Anders could tell. He’d never seen her bare skin before. His eyes wandered, only for a moment, as he gawked at her beauty.
Suddenly he wondered if he was still wearing his clothes. He moved his hands to his sides and felt the clothes he’d been wearing from the search. He sighed in relief as he would’ve felt embarrassed if Maija, or any of the others, had undressed him while he was asleep. Bringing his head back down to the pillow, Anders fell back to sleep, snuggling with Maija.
When Anders stirred for the third and final time, his movements woke her from her peaceful slumber. He smiled at her and she pulled her arms out from under the covers and stretched them high into the air letting out a long and drawn-out yawn.
“Good morning,” she said, turning back onto her side, facing him and pulling the blanket a little higher up over her shoulder.
“It sure is,” Anders replied. “And from the looks of it, a late one, too.” He looked around the tent at all the brightly lit walls.
“Not too late, I hope. I want to check on how the elf woman you found is healing. We tried last night, but Ivan told us it wasn’t an appropriate time and to come back in the morning.”
Anders nodded, remembering all that had happened the previous day.
“How’d you sleep? You were out cold for a long time. Zahara fell asleep outside the tent right after she got back.”
“I slept hard,” he said truthfully. “I even fell asleep with my clothes on,” he added, looking down her neck to the edge of the blanket. “I hope that wasn’t awkward for you.”
“I tried sleeping on the floor, but I got cold, so I came into bed with you. I knew you were sound asleep and you wouldn’t notice. And, well,” she blushed, “I feel very uncomfortable sleeping with my clothes on. I hope I didn’t offend you,” she said biting gently at her lower lip.
“Oh no, not at all,” Anders said trying to show her that he wasn’t offended. “I hate sleeping in my clothes, too.” He attempted to pull off his shirt but struggled since he was lying down. “I’m glad you decided to come into the bed with me. If anything, I should’ve been sleeping on the ground; this is your tent,” he said with the shirt halfway off and his head stuck inside it. He jerked off the last bit that was giving him trouble. His head came out of the shirt with a bright smile, only to see that Maija had already gotten out of bed.
She stood facing away from him. His eyes widened as he caught the fleeting glimpse of her as she pulled up her pants, her exposed backside disappearing in a flash as she fastened them around her waist.
