Chapter 10

I woke to the feel of Kailen softly tracing his finger along my cheek. I smiled before I ever bothered to open my eyes. I wanted to stay here like that forever.

I opened my eyes and he smiled back at me. “Good morning,” he whispered softly.

“Hey.” I said. “Have you been awake for long?”

“Just for a little while. I did not want to disturb you. You looked so peaceful. I know that you have been through a lot in the past few days. It was nice to see you with your guard down.”

I just smiled sheepishly

“We better get moving. We have a lot of ground to cover today.” He whispered encouragingly.

I groaned. “Do we have to?”

He nodded. “I wish that we didn’t, but hopefully we will find a more permanent place soon.”

We set about packing up our little camp the best that we could in the confined space. Kailen lowered himself to the tunnel floor while I changed into a pair faded blues jeans and an old grey t-shirt that was worn just enough to be soft and comfy. I hurriedly tried to rake a comb through my tangled hair, but soon gave up and tied it into a messy ponytail.

“Toss me the bags when you are ready, then I will help you climb down.” Kailen called from below.

“Okay, I am ready.” I tossed him the packs, and then I laid on my stomach as I swung my legs down from the ledge. I was dangling by my arms when I felt Kailen grab hold of my legs. He gently lowered me to the ground.

“Thanks.” I said as I brushed myself off.

We hefted our packs onto our backs and headed further into the depths of the tunnel. Kailen’s hand somehow managed to find mine and he held onto it, helping me over rocks and debris for the rest of the day. It was nice. I have never had a boyfriend, but I hoped that it would be something like that. I can’t say for sure, but it just felt right.

I know that I felt something for Brokk, very briefly of course, when I was with him. Maybe it was a familiarity from some forgotten time, or maybe it was fear. It could have just been that he was the first guy to treat me like a desirable woman. However, the short time that I spent with Brokk seemed nothing like the feeling that was blooming inside of me for Kailen.

I smiled to myself as I remembered that tender first kiss. I could hardly imagine how much my life has changed in such a short amount of time. Ten days ago, I was an awkward high school senior that never even had a date. Today I was a fairy princess, holding hands with a gorgeous guy.

I also went from a happy home to being homeless and traipsing around what was basically a sewer. And I really missed my parents. I could not believe that they were really gone.

Kailen must have noticed my sudden gloom, because he tugged me closer to him and put his arm around my shoulders, hugging me tightly.

“You okay?” He sounded concerned.

“I think I am just a little homesick. I will be okay.”

At least I hoped that I would be okay. My world was changing faster than I could keep up with, and not even in a good way. I could only hope that things could not possibly get any worse for me than they were right then.

He looked at me for few moments more, then brushed a stray piece of hair back from my face and tucked it behind my ear.

“Things are going to get better, Callie. You will see. Soon we will transform you into an amazing warrior who will instill fear into anyone who dares to cross you. You will take back what is yours and then you will live happily ever after with the guy of your dreams. Just how a Fairy Tale should be.”

I could not help but to let out a giggle at that. “What if I don’t want that? Not the part about the guy and the happily ever after. But what if I don’t want to go back to Petrona? What if I don’t want to be a queen?”

“Callie, you can not hide out forever.” He shook his head as if he started to say something else but thought better of it. “Let’s just take one day at a time. We can worry about all of that later.”

“Okay, you are probably right. One day at a time.”

The one thing that he was definitely right about is that I couldn’t hide forever. I had to get out of the tunnels and try to have some semblance of a life. I just did not want to think about having to go back to the city and deal with Lilith. Or Brokk. There had to be another way.

We had walked for at least another hour when we finally started to hear a steady loud roar. Kailen looked at me and then we both turned and started to run towards the sound. It grew louder and louder as we approached. It was nearly deafening.

There just ahead of us was an enormous river right through the center of the earth. The water flowed rapidly past us with tremendous force. It was at least thirty feet wide and there was no way that I could imagine that we would ever be able to get across it.

“We need to find a way around!” Kailen yelled over the noise. “There has to be a way!”

He backed up and started to look around. There appeared to be nothing but the shear rock walls of the tunnel.

“Hello!” We barely heard calling across the rumble of the river.

We stopped and looked at each other for a moment, and then we heard it again. “Hello!”

Far on the other side of the river, I noticed a man standing on the ledge waving his arms frantically over his head.

“Look over there, Kailen.” I said pointing.

“You have to climb to where the river narrows!” The man yelled while pointing downstream.

Kailen leaned around the wall to look in the direction that the man was pointing.

“The river narrows a good ways down. It looks like we may be able to cross there, but we have to climb along the ledge to get there.”

I peered around Kailen at the narrow ledge that jutted out from the wall along the river’s edge. It was only about six to ten inches wide and then it dropped off. The river was at least ten feet down.

“No way!” I shook my head. “There has to be another way.”

“It’s the only way that I can see to get across. The river is much to fast too try to cross here. You can do it Callie.” He encouraged. “I will be right behind you if anything should happen.”

I watched him for a minute. “Okay, I trust you.”

I trusted Kailen, but I did not trust myself. I could be a bit clumsy sometimes and I had never done anything like that before. The closest that I had been to something like that was hopping across the streams in the mountains when I went on vacation with my parents.

Kailen helped me around the wall and out onto the ledge. I tried to keep a hold on the rocks that jutted out from the wall as I slid my feet little by little toward a small bank that was at least fifty yards away.

Once I was a few feet down, Kailen followed me onto the ledge and eased his way along beside me. He repeated little phrases of encouragement the whole while.

Halfway between the tunnel and the narrow riverbank I landed my foot on a small accumulation of rocks. My foot slipped out from under me and sent rocks spilling into the rushing water below. I let out a short scream and clung to the wall as I tried to regain my balance.

“Hang on, Callie.” Kailen said as he reached for me.

I tried to hang on but I felt myself losing my grip on the rocks and the next thing that I knew I was falling.

I landed on my back into the frigid water and sunk several feet under. I waved my arms frantically trying to pull myself to the surface. The strong current propelled me along underneath the water as I struggled to hold my breath for as long as I could.

I could not believe that this was happening to me. After all, that I had been through, how I could I die now? Like this, under the water cold and alone?

I was nearly about to give in to my bodies need to gasp for air when I felt something grip my waist and tug me up and out of the water. I opened my eyes as I coughed and sputtered, trying to pull as much air into my lungs as I could.

“You are going to be okay.” I heard.

That is the last thing that I remember. A sleepy darkened fog settled over my mind and I could no longer hold my eyes open. Slumber overcame me.

When I woke, I found myself lying on the damp rocky ground. I could still hear the deadly roar of the river very close by. My teeth chatter and I had goose bumps all along my arms. My clothes were wet and clinging to my skin.

Then I remembered my fall. I opened my eyes to see that my head was cradled in Kailen’s lap and that he was speaking to someone just outside of my vision.

I tried to rise up to see what was going on, but Kailen pushed me back down. He told me to rest as he stroked my hair back from my face.

“I’m okay.” I tried again to rise up. “Just really cold. What happened?”

“You fell into the water, and the current carried you away from me before I could get to you. I thought that I had lost you.” Kailen said with tears in his eyes. “I am so sorry, Callie.” He pulled me up slightly and hung his head so that cheek was resting against my neck.

“It’s okay Kailen.” I said as I reached up and wound my fingers through his hair, pulling him even closer to me.

I sat there in his lap, breathing him in for a long time. He finally released his grip and pulled away.

“How did I get out?” My voice was hoarse and my throat felt raw.

“Tucker used a long stick to help him reach you and he pulled you out.” He gestured to someone sitting a few feet away from us.

I managed to push myself up on my hands enough to see a young sandy haired boy staring intently at me. He was wearing baggy khaki colored pants that were rolled up at the ankles exposing his bare feet. He wore a long sleeve tatter green shirt that I noticed matched the color up his eyes as he blew his hair from his face.

“I’m Tucker Reed, but you can call me Tuck.” He held his hand out to me.

“I’m Callie. Thanks for saving me.”

“You’re lucky that I got to you in time, there is a waterfall just over there.” He pointed. “You probably would not have survived the fall if you had gone over it.”

I shuttered as I looked in the direction that he pointed.

“What are you doing out here, Tuck?”

“I have lived out here for a while. Ever since my parents died during a battle with the Petrona guards, two years ago.”

“I am so sorry.” I wondered what might have caused the battle, but I didn’t want to pry. I had just met the guy and I wasn’t sure how he would react to my asking.

He seemed so young to have been out on his own for so long. “How old are you, Tuck?”

“I am sixteen, but don’t worry. I can handle myself pretty well.” He swelled his chest up as if to convince me.

“I can see that.” I said and smiled.

All of my clothes were wet because I was still wearing my backpack when I fell into the water. Tuck built a small fire on the rocky beach and I laid them out to dry. I slipped into one of Kailen’s long shirts and washed the clothes that I had been wearing out in the river and set them to dry as well.

Kailen wrapped one of the blankets from his pack around me and we sat by the fire while Tuck ran down to where the river pooled and tried his luck at catching us some fish for dinner.

“We should ask him to come with us.” Kailen said into my ear as I leaned back against his chest.

“Maybe. I could not imagine being on my own like that at his age.” I was having a hard enough time dealing with my own parent’s death. I could not imagine being fourteen and having to learn to fend for yourself on top of it. At least I had help.

“He seems to be pretty good at surviving out here. I think that he would be good for us to have around and we would be good for him too.”

Tuck came back carrying several long silver fish by a string. He removed the scales near the water, and then arranged them on the fire to cook. The roasted fish smelled heavenly. I had not eaten anything other than jerky and cheese crackers for days.

“Tuck?” I asked gently. “I know that we do not really know where we are going, but I thought maybe you would like to come with us. I am learning how hard it is to be out here on your own, and I think that you would be a big help to us. We were hoping to find somewhere that we could set up as a permanent home for a while.” I didn’t want to seem like I was mothering him, so I tried to appeal to the survivor side of his ego.

He looked deep in thought for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and answered. “Sure, I don’t really have any reason to stick around here.”

So it was settled. Tuck would join us.

We filled ourselves with fresh roasted fish, it had me thinking about my dad. I remembered the times that we would all go camping and how I felt when I had caught a fish for the first time. I wished that he could have been there with me. He would know what I should do with my life, but I bet he wouldn’t appreciate all of my new suitors. I think he was quite relieved that had made it most of the way through school without him having to worry about who I was dating.

Then again, he may very well be glad that I have someone around to help me get through this. I smiled to myself as I thought about that. He would have hated knowing that I was out here alone.

Once I found that my clothes were pretty dry, I slipped back into my jeans and t-shirt, but I regretted having to give Kailen’s back to him. It smelled of the spring and the rain, just like him. I wanted to savor that smell.

“Let’s get going.” Tuck was starting to gather his things as well. “If we can make it there, I know a good place that we can camp for the night.”

“Ok then, let’s go.”