The Color of Jade (Jade Series Book 1) (22 page)

“How long do you think we’ll have to stay here?” I asked, as I lay down and let my eyes drift closed.

“We’re going to go home tomorrow.”

Contentment swept over me as he put my mind at ease. I wanted to go home and couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

I woke to the smoky scent of cooked rabbit with a hint of minty tea that wafted amongst the damp, stone walls of the cave and pulled me from my sleep. I stretched the stiffness from my muscles as the heavenly aromas stirred my stomach and it growled in hunger, angering my taste buds. Gage must have woken early and I smiled at his thoughtfulness as he handed me a cup.

My throat stung, almost to the point that I couldn't swallow, as I attempted to drink the soothing liquid. My chest burned all the time but worsened when I coughed, which increased over the last two days. The usual fatigue that accompanies the common cold settled in as well. “Thank you,” I whispered to hide the raspy, hoarseness in my throat.

“Are you ready to go today?” Gage asked. I glanced at the entrance of the cave and couldn’t hide the disappointment on my face that we were supposed to have left two days ago. The snow began that first night, and continued to fall, while we waited impatiently for it to stop. “I think once we get down past the tree line it won’t be so cold. It’s probably just raining at home.”

“I don’t want to stay here another night… I don’t care what we have to walk through,” I pleaded.

“I thought you might say that.”

His comment made me smile.

After a minute of searching through the pack, he pulled out a small tin container that he grabbed from the cabin that looked like it contained breath mints once. With his knife, he stabbed two holes in the tin, one in the lid, one in the bottom then cut off a piece of my old shirt that was already in rags and put it inside the tin, tossing it in the fire. It smoldered and burned for a while and then he pushed it out of the fire with a stick into the icy sand. Curious, I watched him.

“My dad showed me this once when we went camping, just before he died. It was the last trip Joel and I had with him before he left for the war,” he said, and stared into the fire as he talked. “He said that if you ever need to start a fire and you don’t have a light… This will make it easier.” He picked up the charred tin and opened it after it cooled down. Inside, the shirt was burned black, but not into ashes as I thought.

“You take sticks like before and put this charred piece on the flat wood, and set it at the base of the stick. Rub them together over the dried grass… The char acts as an igniter and the fire starts a lot easier. My dad used one similar to this one to light our fire so he could show us,” Gage said, as he put the tin in the front pocket of the pack.

“That’s good to know.”

“Yeah, you ready?” He asked, as he stood.

“Ready when you are.”

“Let’s go…”

We started on the trail in the opposite direction of the way we came and neither of us knew exactly where it led. The trail was flat at first. We were at the top so the only place to go was across the vast open ridgeline of the mountain. There weren’t very many trees and I could see for miles despite the overcast skies, filled with grey billows that threatened snow.

My breath huffed with exertion in a white cloud in the cool mountain air. A foot of new snow on top of the already slippery hard packed underneath made our decent slow. My toes and my nose felt numb, but the rest of me felt overheated. I wanted to peel off my jacket but decided against it. My chest burned as I attempted unsuccessful restraint of my coughing, which brought a watchful eye from Gage.

The snow and sheer cliffs seemed to go on forever and I wasn’t sure if we made it two miles by mid-afternoon. I stopped for a lungful of air as Gage came up behind me and slipped his arms through mine around my waist. I leaned back against him as I took in the vastness of the winter wonderland around me. The clouds thinned across the spacious skies and endless mountains ranges stretched for miles.

“It looks like we could just walk home and everything would be fine.”

“Yeah, but it won’t be.”

“I know, but from up here, it’s hard to believe that everything that has happened was even real. Don’t you think?”

“It’s still pretty real for me,” he said, as he turned me to face him. His cold fingers touched my bruised cheek as he inspected it.

“I guess what I am saying…
Gage,
” I paused, over-emphasizing his name to make my point, “is that being up here with you, has made this less painful and easier to deal with what Damian did.”

“Good.”

“Is it hard for you to look at me?”

“No… I could look at you all day.” He pulled me close, leaned down and kissed me softly. “It’s hard for me to see you bruised and not want to go find him and tear him apart right now… But his day will come.”

I could see that Damian had been on Gage’s mind a lot more than he was on mine and I shuddered, as I wondered how far his brutish stalking would go and dreaded what might happen next. Our future was uncertain and our lives would most likely get worse before it got better. However, to look out into the wide wilderness gave me something to hold on to, something to hope for and look forward to seeing again.

“Jade.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go home,” he said, as he held out his hand and I took a hold of it.

“Okay.”

I smiled inside. I liked the sound of that.

“I would give anything for a pair of studded snowshoes.”

I laughed. “Yeah.”

Golden shimmering rays of sun burned through the clouds that lingered, pouring warmth down on us and by noon, the skies turned a bright azure blue. The snow, inches deep compared to the earlier foot, glistened with brilliance. I shaded my eyes with my hand from the reflection, while the sun baked into my skin. I stayed warm the rest of the afternoon and at times wiped sweat from my neck to prevent the trickle down my back.

By the time we found a downward trail, the sun lingered just above the horizon. It would be dark soon and we were still a long way from home. With a very difficult hike ahead of us, I knew we wouldn’t make it home before dark. The tall trees choked out the heat from the sun as shadows hovered overhead and I felt chilled from my damp skin. I had to be cautious not to slip, as the snow grew thin with patches of mud and forest floor that surfaced through as we walked down through the trees.

We found a grove of pines at the base of the steep mountainside. There were big rocks that were about as tall as my home that worked well to shelter us from the breeze.

“I think we are going to have to spend another night out here... We should stop and make a fire before it gets too dark to see.”

“Okay,” I said reluctantly. I didn’t like that we had to spend another night out in the cold again.

I gathered as much wood as I could find, while Gage went off to find us something to eat. Starved and thirsty, I went out in search of water as my body screamed with stiff muscles and the neglect it suffered. I found a stream not far from where we would sleep and filled up the pot. The water was cold but looked clear and fresh as it bubbled down over the rocks. Soon enough, as the snow melted, it would rage down the mountainside, but for now, the creek ran at its own slow pace.

A shrill cry startled me and sent chills down my spine as I stood to leave. My heart bounded suddenly in my chest. I turned slowly as I heard it again and I saw her. The penetrating growl of a mountain lion pierced through my ears. With wild eyes, less than thirty feet away, she crouched down and crawled closer. I bent my knees slowly down to the ground and she hissed at me as I moved. With pinned ears, she barred her razor sharp teeth. Even crouched, she was huge and probably weighed more than three of me.

I set the pot down and slowly reached for my gun. My heart pounded as I brought it up gradually. Terror flowed through me like hot lava and I couldn’t breathe. My arms shook as I tried to steady the rifle. With the barrel pointed at her, I turned off the safety.

She inched her way towards me, ensnaring me in her black eyes. I backed up slowly. She pounced towards me suddenly then stopped. The twenty feet between us seemed more like two as she stood tall on her ledge. I kept my gun on her. She walked slowly down the rocks, with each antagonizing step of her thick paws, sharp spikes of her shoulder blades protruded from her neck under her thick hide. She stopped at the edge of the stream.

I continued to back up slowly. She waited and crouched low, prepared to pounce. As I brought the barrel into view, something moved in the corner of my eye. I glanced quickly. Two baby cubs tumbled from behind the rocky ledge. Their innocent little cries called out.

I squeezed the trigger and the deafening gunshot echoed through the trees as I shot at the ground in front of her. The crack of the gun reverberated through the trees and bounced off the mountain walls. She jumped in place. Startled and angry as she crouched down and whipped her tail. A low deep growl emerged from the pit of her gut.

Suddenly confused, she turned quickly to the trees with the sound of footsteps as Gage ran through the crisp snow.

“Gage, stop!” He stopped in his tracks at the edge of the tree line.

“Just come this way slowly.”

With every step I took, she took two towards me. I froze! She crossed the stream over protruding rocks.

“Gage…”

“Shoot her!”

“She has cubs!”

He moved towards me. Her eyes never left me, hissing as she paced the ground. Pushing me behind him, he moved in front of me and took the rifle from my trembling hands. He instantly shot at her feet, as he stood tall and pressed forward towards her. Dead leaves and dirt littered the air as the booming echo in the trees faded. Startled, with her ears flat against her head, her tail thumped at the ground. He shot again, engaged the rifle and shot a third time. This time she backed up as her cubs circled her feet, confused by the danger.

He backed us away slowly and eventually, we inched away from the angry feline. Once out of threat range she turned and moved her cubs back into the shelter of the rocks.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah…” My voice trembled. With firm arms, he pulled me into his chest and squeezed me tight until the pounding in my heart slowed.

“Let’s go,” he said, as he glanced around then we headed back to our camp. “If we had more daylight… I would say we should leave and find somewhere else to sleep… But I don’t think we will have time before it gets dark,” he said, as he prepared to make a fire.

The grey sky would be black soon and the cold settled in already. I knew we wouldn’t have time to move. We would be lucky to get the fire started before it got dark.

“Let’s hope this works.”

“It will.”

My numb body shivered, more from the shock of what happened than the cold, as I offered him my words of encouragement.

My eyes fixed on Gage as he pulled the charred piece of shirt out of the small tin and placed it on a piece of wood under the light tinder. Vigorously, he rubbed the two sticks together. After a few minutes, we had a spark and the tinder caught a small flame. He cupped his hands around it to keep the breeze away. It didn’t take long before we had a nice fire.

“That was a lot faster than at the cave,” I replied, as I skinned the rabbit Gage killed.

He smiled, proud of himself and I laughed at him as he charred another piece of material from my old shirt. We hung the rabbit from a makeshift tripod he built so it would cook over the fire.

“Where’s the pan?”

“Oh… It’s by the stream still.”

“I guess it will have to stay there, we can’t get it now,” he said, as he unhooked the canteen from his belt. “I filled this up... We should have enough water until morning.”

He handed me the canteen and I realized I was thirsty still. The cool water tasted good as it wet my tongue and soothed my sore throat.

“Do you think Damian heard the gun shots?”

“I guess we'll find out. I doubt he's around here. He's probably still searching the area of the cabin,” he said, as he checked the rifle to make sure it was ready.

“I hope so.”

The meat browned and the juices sizzled under the heat. I stared with a blank expression into the orange glow as we waited for our meager meal to cook. We ate most of it and saved the rest for morning. I could have eaten the whole thing myself, but it served the purpose and took the edge of hunger away.

He piled young pine branches as a bed to get us off the wet ground then moved behind me. With his arms wrapped around mine, I curled into his chest and stared into the fire as we huddled under the blanket, worn and dirty with two weeks of dragging it along. Puffs of our breath billowed in the cool air. Other than my cold nose, the only thing I felt was the warmth of Gage’s body next to mine.

I caressed his warm skin and softly traced my fingers over the swell of his arm. My eyes were heavy and I closed them with my cheek against his chest. I was half-asleep when Gage moved me to the ground and curled around me.

“Do I need to stay awake?” I asked sleepily, as snarling teeth and razorsharp claws came to mind.

“No, go to sleep.”

“Are you going to?”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you, Gage… For not letting her eat me.”

“You’re welcome,” he chuckled under his breath. He released a deep throaty snarl then bit playfully at the back of my neck. Chills exploded as goose bumps prickled over my skin. A warm smile grew as I hugged his arm closer to my chest.