When sunlight touched through the curtains my eyes flitted open. And the first thing I thought about is her. The sound of fabric whispered through the room and I glance to my left as she pulled on her plain t-shirt. Unrealistic as it was, I had hoped she would stay in bed. "Morning" I mumble and eye her as turned to me. Even as she was dressing herself I was pulling her clothes off with my eyes.

"Ah you are awake. If you weren't up in ten minutes I was going to get you up" there is a ghost of a smile on her lips. My eyes ran down the length of her bare legs and back up to her black panties. It is a sweet sight and I can just see the outline of her tattoo spinning behind that fabric...

"Well you know I get up early these days" I sit up and the warm furs and blankets tumble off my chest making me shiver from the sudden chill.

"Oh so you already need a shower this morning?" Ever smirked as my face flushed red and I squirmed uncomfortably. So she does know...

"No!" I growl and reach for my pants before she can see I do actually need a shower.

"Fine, fine" she sighed and waved her hand as she made for the door. "Don't wait too long..." she left just as her pants rested on her hips.

I sigh in relief and rub my face. When I lowered my hand, a huge grin was stretched ear to ear. Last night was so spectacular and unexpected. When I close my eyes I still see her nearly naked and willing beneath me. Her gorgeous creamy skin that ran under my hands like silk, the large swells of her breasts and her rosy tips...They fit amazingly in my hands and the way she sighed pleasurably when I ran my fingers over them...And the way she let me kiss them...She even let me slide my finger...

I swallow thickly as I felt myself burning against my pants. Well the entire night wasn't spectacular, I mean...I was finished before she even touched me, if she was going to touch me. It is pretty embarrassing, but when the most beautiful and sexiest woman in the world is doing these things with you for the first time...Enough has been said. I stand up and slip out of the underwear I had last night and slipped on a fresh set plus pants. We are up and we have work to do. That's the thing with me and Evergreen. By day we are purely professional, only the job matters as it should at night...At that time as soon as we step through the door, we are suddenly burden less and relaxed. But I know somewhere inside that we should be professional twenty-four-seven. I almost wish we were and I know she does too. Because there is a tiny moment before I drift off into a timeless sleep, that I am drowning in guilt as parents mourn their dead and changed children. As the brave scouts suffer terrifying nights where they must watch this devastating threat grow on their shores. And how we can find some warmth and solace in each other that many others have nothing but a cold bed and a dead partner. I guess it is also a blessing then. The smell of roasting coffee beans wafts down my nose as I duck through the bedroom door and stroll through the kitchen. When I see Evergreen smiling over a pot of brewing coffee I find myself reluctantly thinking of the other things I learned last night. I don't want to think about it, but I am inevitably drawn to my sisters. I understood horrible things yesterday, I learned I do not share the same father as my sisters. At first I felt angry that my mother betrayed father- Father? Do I call him that? Unease coiled itself like a snake in my gut and I wondered what I should do. Can I really blame my mother for betraying that man who I thought was my sire? If she didn't love him...

"She couldn't deny your true father anything..." She must have loved him. I look at Evergreen as she poured two cups of the hot coffee. I smile as she poured a healthy amount of cream in one with a pinch of sugar, and left the other black.

"Because I am sweet?" I smile as she handed me the one with cream.

"Because you keep yelling at me how you want your coffee through the bathroom door" Ever raised a brow coolly and took a sip of her own coffee.

I sip the coffee, relieved with the amount of cream and sugar she put in it. The Dark Sea Islands aren't renown for the quality of their coffee. "I do not understand how you have yours straight like that" I nodded at her cup. The coffee is as black as ink and thick enough to almost be a syrup.

"Because I am bitter" she clinked her mug against mine with a sad chink , I frown.

"Bitter? You are not bitter" the words fell out of my mouth easily.

"Then why do I like my coffee bitter and your's sweet?"

"Because you are weird" I down the cup in two more gulps and set it on the bench. "We should go now" I say soberly.

"No breakfast?" Evergreen asked, any games she was playing gone to seriousness.

"No breakfast. I have a plan on how to get the one we want".

Evergreen's arms dug under my own as she struggled to balance my weight as we descended. Ever since yesterday and the corpses of the children... We don't trust walking in the forest. "You really need to...Find a beast that can fly" she grunted as we descended to the icy cliff. Even at this distance I can hear the roar of the angry water below.

"Next time you see one, point it out" Cold wind cut through my clothes and my feet skidded on the ice as we dropped suddenly. "I'm not happy about this..." I grumble as we stagger on the ice.

"Well it's you plan" Ever scowled as we look at the ragged hole in the ice cliff that a Draugr pulled me through. We leaned over the opening as gaze at the giant roaring sea surging between the fangs of rock that surrounded it. I shivered as I remembered getting sucked into that churning mess with twenty of those dead things taking bites of my feet. On the black rock fangs, hundreds of faint green flames glowed through the early morning sunlight, and the large black skeletal bodies hunched over the rocks like possessive gargoyles. "There is so much more..." she is right. Fifty dead things and more held their roosts on the rocks, the faint clacking of their bones can be heard even above the roar of the sea. "I don't like this. We should go to another spot, this is the place both of us nearly died Elfman!"

Then you are going to hate what I'm going to say next..."Ever, this is the best place to have a vantage point, and hopefully the best place to capture these damn things" something in my chest stirred as I strained with my eyes to glimpse the dead faces below. The warm stirring stretched up my chest and my eyes burned sharply for a second, and then everything is so much sharper and clearer. Including the skulls with the burning flames, slowly their heads swiveled up to ours...

I shift my weight restlessly on the ice, remembering the last time I stood here as a thing dragged me down. Come on come on where are you? I balancing entire action if he is here.

"Look, Gnash just said we need to grab one big Draugr. That doesn't mean we need to be here. In fact I refuse!" Ever stamped her foot angrily and summoned her wings to make for the trees.

"I'm not here for just one Ever..." I lean back up and scour the tree line with my new and powerful eyes. We should've been watching those trees too. It isn't safe to turn our backs.

"What do you mean?!" She snapped and stopped.

I turn back to the gaping maw of the ocean and peer at the rocks. Green flames for eyes bore into my own, but my gaze barely lingered on those. There is one specific one I am looking for. It may not even be-

There it is. Hunching over small like on the fifth rock fang closest to the cliff.

"We want a big one Ever. And there are plenty here. But we need another one too".

"Why another one? Why do we need another one. And what one" Ever crept closer to the hole I peered down.

"We need that one" I pointed to it just as it's green flames looked towards us. With my strong eyes I picked out the fine cracks racing along the front of the skull. The brutalized nose bone and the smashed teeth. I don't know if it was me or Ever that evoked the most reaction out of it, but when it lay it's fiery eyes on us it unleashed a foul and demonic scream. I shivered as the all sent my bones rattling and my ears stabbed with pain. My intense vision faded and when I looked up again, Ever is looking down the hole with wide eyes and tightly bunched fists. If He can remember me. If He can remember you, Ever. Than he can break down the barrier that protects this village.

"No".

"Ever..." I reach towards her hand and she yanked it away.

"We threw him down there for a reason!" she hissed and backed away. I felt my heart pull as she bared her teeth and backed away in distress, but we have a reason to pull him back up...

"I know we did, but Gnash said herself why having him around without control is-"

"So you just want to pull him back up into our lives again!" she shouted her voice full of venom. She grit her teeth and pointed her small slender finger at me. "If you l-If you care about me at all, we will find an alternative!"

I take her outstretched hand into my own and pull myself in closer, her hand bunched itself into a tight fist but she didn't pull away. You know I care about you. I love you.

"I know how hard this is for you".

"No you don't", now she pulled away. "People like you could never understand this". After my fruitful eighteen years of life, I've developed a thick skin for harsh comments, especially about my appearance. But this hurts in a way that makes me draw back from her, because its the fact that I'm trying to understand. She glares at me her eyes full of ice and venom, an angry snarl full of disappointment and loathing. "I put him down there for a reason!"

"We're on a job, Ever" I snap so suddenly that there is cold ice to my words. "Like it or no, we have to put personal things aside". Her eyes widened, full of shock and then they quickly evolved into a burning rage of fire.

"Put fucking personal things aside?!" she stepped in closer in a way that suddenly quelled any anger in me. A way that intimidated me. "When has this job been anything but personal to you?!" she growled and marched away towards the cavity in the ice. "From the very start all you did was make this shit personal! The way your pry all my personal shit out! And the way you just dump all your crap on me! You have no fucking right to tell me to put personal things aside!"

I felt like I was just thrown into that roaring turgid mess of water beneath us again. I don't know which way is up or which way to turn. I just don't want her to be looking at me with those raging hateful eyes. Oh fuck I have fucked up!

I turn to her and grab her hand. "Ever I'm sorry-". She wrenches her hand free with a twist and with the same hand she spins and brings her palm across my face with a mighty crack. Even with my tattoos protecting me, the force and the pain makes me stagger back. Only silence followed except the howling of Draugr that sounded too much like laughter.

"Shut the fuck up" she hissed as I touched my cheek. Piece of advice when you just had a cold and brutal fight with your significant other. Not knowing the difference between breaking her heart, or the feeling that you just broke your own heart is the worst feeling in the world. I think I've done a little of both in the period of a minute. I gaped in the freezing snow fall, unsure what to say or do as she stood over the crater fuming silently.

"If you want to pull him up again fine!" She said. "But expect no help from me!"

We stood on the pebble beach in front of the giant black Rock fangs and swirling maw of the ocean before us. The same pebble beach I nearly drowned in if it wasn't for her. She herself stood angrily well in front of me. Refusing even a glance in my direction. Gods I felt so so terrible. But the thing is we are both in the wrong. I definitely shouldn't have let my temper show and said that. We're on a job, Ever. Like it or no we have to put personal things aside. But the thing is...It's crucial that we have Logan's corpse under control. If he remembered us, then there is a definite possibility he remembers how to take down the magic circle defending the village. I was there the night he attacked her, I saw how scared she was. But doesn't she understand we need to do this to save lives?

"I will take that one" Ever pointed to a mountain of a Draugr. Even from this distance I can guess it's around nine feet tall. I went to object. To ask how the hell she plans on capturing a monster that big. If she even has a plan. But before I could even open my mouth she takes to the sky with a vicious ferocity and bright yellow green magic swirling in her palms.

"Shit!" I run to the edge of the shore. I grit my teeth and spin around, checking behind me and all around me for any of the dead things that may be in the forest. I wish with clenched teeth that it was Logan in my place. Between constantly checking my surrounds, I got fewer glimpses of Evergreen than I would like. A flash of long auburn hair. A flash of bright light. And then an ear piercing shriek howled through the air like ice crashing against ice. I heard something rush through the air and before I can even look, a huge body landed at my feet with a crash sending a storm of pebbles in every direction. "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" I yell and run back before the nine foot Draugr could grab me. Evergreen landed neatly next to it with a calm expression and kicked the bony body over. Skin crawling screams filled the air and large black corpses with green flaming eyes dived into the water towards the shore. Including my own prey. But whether they are after their own, or after fresh living meat I cannot say. I blink in surprise as Ever hauls up the eerily still Draugr by it's neck bone. Thin green webs of her fairy magic had wrapped itself into a fine net around the beast. When I look closely I can see it's huge phalanges twitching desperately for movement. "You caught-"

"Go catch your own fucking one" Ever sprouted her wings and took to the sky, the Draugr hanging queerly below her like a huge fish in the claws of a tiny bird. First anger at her abandonment raged in me like a storm but then the howls and screams of my enemies cut through the cloud of rage like a hot knife. Fear took it's place. I saw four of them devour Flynn within seconds. And now there is well over fifty and only one of me.

"Okay...Okay calm down" There is a couple of moments between the dead things reaching the shore and me. The thing in my chest stirred and stretched towards my eyes once more and everything became sharper and closer. Scanning the water, I glimpsed flashes of green flames and black grinning skulls as they slipped into the water. I flicked towards the fifth rock fang stabbing up to the sky but it is barren and empty. "Okay he has to be somewhere-"

Harsh screams bellowed behind me and when I turned many many green flames peered at me out from the forest. My heart plummeted down to my feet. A wave crashed around my feet and my heart crashed in my chest as I became surrounded. Run, just run! I thought. So I did. The beach and the environment that surrounded me began to pull backwards and stretch like a tunnel towards me. Hot energy charged through my body until smoke floated away in wisps from my fingers. When I ran, I ran out to the ocean. The water felt like solid rock as my feet lashed out against it, and the dark skeletal figures in the water became dense blurs with green flashes. But the blurs still lashed out with their sharp claws whenever they could. There was some lucky one even at the speed I am going and my defensive tattoos. Sharp claws punctured through my thick wool lined jeans and at the speed I am going they spear themselves through my flesh of my legs only to be ripped off the bodies as I run past on the water. I nearly fall twice in pain as the claws and fingers still wriggle in my flesh parted from their dear bodies only to hitch a ride with mine. But despite the pain I somehow manage to run across the roaring water as it blurred under my feet, and with my sharp vision I just catch a glimpse of a dead thing with a destroyed face...

"There you are you bastard!" I reach into the water as I ran and snatch at the slimy black mantle that is stretched over the thing's back. It screamed in protest but I hardly heard it as I moved over the water in a rush. I swung the body around and tried to hastily bundle it in it's shroud. However, as you can imagine running faster than the speed of sound on water while trying to pay attention to where you are going and trying to wrap a thrashing corpse is harder than it looks. Not as hard as the rock that I crashed into...

The smash of rock colliding with my legs and chest tumbled me end over end until I landed with a slam. My head and face struck through the water like a cannon ball and cracked itself on the submerged rock while the rest of my body slammed painfully against the top jagged piece. Even know I could feel the claws impaled in my legs wriggle their way in my flesh. "You really need to find a beast that can fly" Evergreen you cold hearted woman. My vision faded into darkness and I dully felt the corpse on me begin to move up and towards my chest. It wouldn't be so hard to let myself lay limp in this water. I know I would be dead if not for Gnash's tattoos. But then I remember her slap. Not the one that still tingle on my numb cheek but the one a long couple of months ago when she found me nearly dead in two inches of water. She saved my life and hit me twice. "I don't care if your arms are chopped off. Next time you will crawl out!". I owe her that much and an apology. In fact we both deserve one. I don't know how I managed to lift my head up and out of the water, maybe it was the beginning of skeletal hands trying to claw at it. Who knows? But when I lifted my head, I was met face to face with a skull webbed with cracks and bright green flames burning for eyes, with huge poised hands ready to tear into my chest. Yes this bastard certainly remembers me. "Fuck off!" I growl and with trembling hands I grab it's skull swiftly and snap it's neck hard to the right. The neck bone splintered and the skull was know enjoying backwards view as the rest of the body spasmed and failed on top of me. I felt claws reach out from the water and snatch at my hair, fighting to pull me under, but with a jerk and a fistful of snowy white hair from my head I am able to evade them for a few seconds. I snatched up the shroud of the thing that was once Logan and swaddled him in it like he was a newborn babe, impossible for him to move. Come on, run like you mean it. As the thing wrapped in it's shroud twisted and wriggled in my arms I somehow manage to stand up on the rock as waves crashed into it like bombs. The shore and the forest stretched before me, and along them it crawled with dark shadowy things with green flames. One step in front of the other. I felt the claws in my leg wriggle until I nearly threw up from pain and my head stung with a sharp pain and throbbed with agony at the point where I almost couldn't move. But somehow I managed to lean forward to feel the environment pull around me like a tunnel and then I was moving. I moved too fast for the Draugr to hurt me and soon I raced along the shore, past the dark things that could scarcely see me. The woods made my world go black as they stretched out and into a tunnel. I trusted my feet instead of my eyes, knowing that they will give me sure footing. I felt something warm run down my forehead and legs. My head throbbed in pain to the point I nearly fell and collapsed in the woods with this abomination with me. But I kept running. When the warm thing dripped down my lips it tasted like blood. The tunnel evolved into whiter landscape before changing back to the darkness of the forest. At the very apex of my vision I saw a dark rickety hut with dirty yellow windows loom up to me. Stopping is harder than running. As I tried to stop, my feet caught the edge of the steps and me plus my parcel crashed through the old rickety floor boards of the veranda. "Oww..." I groaned and the dead thing underneath me twisted and tried to grab at my face through the thick oily shroud.

"Well that was clever".

I was trembling from cold and pain but when I looked up, Gnash stared at me with her scary large eyes. I shivered in fright. " Do you have the cage?!" I demanded.

"I only needed one Draugr. Not two" Gnash gnashed her teeth and pulled down a second cage from the attic above the veranda. "I was surprised when Evergreen arrived with a big one by herself. I wondered what happened to you".

"We had a disagreement" I stagger to my feet with pain lancing my body.

"Well that is obvious" Gnash commented and I threw the body into the cage. That branch and leather cage somehow contracted itself as the Draugr struggled until the bindings crushed itself against the dead thing holding it tightly and cramped.

"This is-"

"Yes Logan. I can tell" Gnash gripped my chin with her huge hands and I shiver at the contact. "You need medical treatment".

"Yes I know" I turn and walk away from her.

"Where are you going?"

"I have someone in mind for that" I call back and somehow I manage to run again.

Ugly hopped on my shoulder as I weakly pushed the door to our house open. He has been gone awhile but I'm not sure where. I didn't have the energy to push him off. I could scarily lift my pounding head. The bone fingers in my leg wriggle deeply into my flesh and I felt bile rise in my throat. I will need to get those out quick. I stagger inside but didn't find the energy to close the door. A fire crackled merrily in welcoming and I limped over to the warm embrace of it. Evergreen must be home. But I don't have the energy to find her. I collapse to the ground, suddenly regretting my decision of denying Gnash's expertise when my hand came away red as I touched my head. Ugly cawed in anger as my back trembled and then collapsed against the floor boards. I wondered where Ever is. The fire felt like a weak tingle as it tried to seep through my half frozen half sodden clothes. I glanced at my leg, captivated in horror as half of my jeans was ripped away exposing my right calf and three bony fingers burrowing into my flesh.

"Ugly, can you get these out for me?" I mutter. "I don't have the strength".

"Strength! Strength!" The bird yelled in my ear.

Footsteps tapped quietly across the floor and I heard Ugly caw in greeting as she approached. Even if I had the strength I don't know if I could look at her. She is silent as she observed me. I felt the ice in her stare but when the claws in my leg burrowed down deeper I cried out in pain. Blood swept down my leg sapping the last of my strength. Her gaze seemed less cold after that. The footsteps edged closer to me and I glanced up as she stood over me. I expected anger in her eyes, fury that I would deserve. And that was there, but concern and worry too. Perhaps even a little fear. After standing in a long moment of silence she spoke.

"What the hell happened to you?"

I glanced up again and a faint smile twitched at my lips. "When you left. At least another thirty of those things showed up from the forest..."

She was silent for a second and then she knelt on the floor next to me and took the ash bucket next to the fire. I kept my eyes on her back as she gripped my leg and touched the meat of my right leg. "Hold still" she commanded and held my leg tightly. Great I thought and crossed my arms tightly as there was nothing to hold on to. Her fingers ran feather light over the bone fingers embedded deep into my flesh. The claws twitched at her contact as if in surprise and then she ripped the first one out. One single curse rolled out of my mouth with a spurt of blood from my leg and Evergreen tossed the finger into the ash bucket. As she touched the base of the second one, it wriggled desperately as if to evade her. It didn't and came out just as painfully as the last. My arms seized up and my head thudded against the floor slightly, but enough to send blood down my forehead. I didn't have the energy to curse so I just moaned in pain. "Last one" she gripped the third but this ones second knuckle was curled slightly in my flesh. As she wrenched this one out far more blood came out and my vision blackened as I shouted. The warm blackness of my vision stretched over me like a blanket and sleep threatened to wrap around me when small hands shook my shoulders. "You have a concussion, don't fall asleep!" Evergreen growled and yet I saw guilt and worry in her eyes. "Let's get these off" she pointed to my wet sodden clothes. Her hands made my frozen skin tingle as she helped me sit up. My head spun until I was nearly sick but I lifted my shoulders dutifully as she pulled of the coat. My shirt is matted with frozen blood and again the guilt shone her eyes. "I'm going to need to cut this off" she fingers the sodden fabric.

"You owe me" I mutter.

She pulled put a knife from somewhere and delicately slid it underneath the shirt so the cold metal stung my frozen skin. With ease she slid the sharp edge of the blade up the shirt to my throat sheering the shirt away. My tattoos may have saved my life but they didn't stop everything. There was some deep cuts I didn't know I even had. Ever pulled away the ruined shirt and gently touched the edge of a deep gash. "Did you at least get him?".

"Yeah I got him" I muttered and my head lolled forward. That warm blanket of sleep was within touching distance. Her fingers gently tipped up my chin so I had to look at her.

"And you said at least thirty came from the forest?"

"Thirty" I muttered and watch her face pull with guilt. I should feel angry with her. I mean I nearly died because she abandoned me in a place absolutely packed with man eating things. But I actually feel just as guilty and sad as she feels. I won't deny that I'm a little annoyed. I began to tremble violently from hypothermia and Evergreen quickly pulled a blanket off the couch and draped it over my back.

"I will be back" she said and quickly rushed off to the kitchen after she lay me down. That warm black blanket immediately reached out to me and I couldn't resist as I was pulled under. I drifted in a cloud of warmth, the sharp pain began to drift away with my awareness. And then those hands were back shaking me harder now, forcing me awake. "Elfman for the love of God don't fall asleep!" Evergreen yelled at me.

"God!God" Ugly cawed and tweaked my ear with his beak.

"Ouch!" I mutter and found the strength to somehow sit up.

"Here sit against this" Ever pulled me against the hot bricks of the fire place. The warmth sparked across my back in a different way then the warm blanket. I felt more awake because of it. Next to Ever, a large bowl filled with steaming water sat next to a pile of bandages. I sat silently as she pushed my bad leg up and brought put a cloth in the water and brought it to my leg. As the hot water touches my bleeding wounds it hurts but I don't say anything. Evergreen dabbed at it silently, mopping up the matted blood out from my skin and leg hair. The silence is thick and hard with unsaid things that seemed to wear down on me like a giant weight. Half of her hair fell in her face as she cleaned my leg, the fact that she is even helping me is saying enough.

"I'm sorry".

"Don't be" I watch her as she stopped the blood from flowing. She reached down for the bandages and began to wined them up my calf, in a masterful way that can only be developed after many attempts. "I shouldn't have left you there. You are my partner and you could have died". She met my eye for a second. "You nearly have anyway".

"What I said wasn't manly though" I peered at her through my drooping hair and sighed. "And you know it".

"I also know that we did need to have him around. As much as I hate it..." Ever tied the knot of the bandage. "Let me look at your head" she shuffled closer and pulled the back of my neck forward. I slump forward slowly and pillowed my head on the soft part between her shoulder and under her collar bone. A good memory flashed through my mind. Her soft skin under my hands and lips. Her smell burning itself into my memory. I smelt it now, warm and soft with a hint of salt from the sea. Sweet isn't a word I would use for her, it wasn't sweet and she isn't particularly sweet either. She is compassionate. "Bloody hell Elfman! Why didn't you let Gnash treat you?!"

"I didn't want her too".

"Want means nothing if you are like this!" her words are harsh and yet her hands are almost gentle as one held my neck and the other pushed through my blood matted hair. It made my head shriek in pain but I didn't move or call out.

"Would you be angry if I told you that I just wanted to be here?" my words are muffled against her shirt and I heard her muffled sigh.

"Your an idiot" she pulled my head back so I had to look her in the eyes. The fire light glinted off her glasses making her eyes hard to look at however. "I'm going to have to wash your hair, then bandage you up the best I can. But tomorrow you will see Gnash" she didn't even wait for a response and pulled me back from the warm fireplace wall and set me to the ground again. It is a cold cruelty compared to the warm fireplace, it was just beginning to warm past my skin. "Ugly!" she snapped her fingers at the bird her blinked at her. "Hair brush" she made the brushing motion in her hair and then pointed to the direction of her bedroom. "Hair brush!" a strip of bandage cloth was handed to the bird and he eyed it thoughtfully before snapping it up in his beak and taking off in the direction Evergreen wanted.

"What was that?"

"Crows never do anything without equal exchange" Ever picked up the bowl of hot water and placed it just above the crown of my head. "I'm going to have to put your head in the bowl".

"I suppose the shower would be to hard" I said tiredly as she glared at me.

"I honestly can't be fucked hauling your ass up, undressing you and trying to support a six foot eight man in the shower! So yes the bowl it will be" she said angrily. Ugly flapped back into the room with a nice looking hair brush in his claws. He flew over and promptly dropped it on Ever's head.

"Fucks sake!" She swore and rubbed her head vehemently.

"Having a rough day?"

"You know what I actually am!" She snapped and despite her rage she lowered my head gently into the bowl. I hiss as the warm water stung my wounds like a thousand wasps, with tear blurry eyes I keep my eyes on her. "Because today, my partner told me to grow up and put aside personal things that I thought he understood!". My heart began to sink to my feet as her eyes seem to sparkle with something other than firelight. "And then I abandon him only for him to come back nearly dead and bringing back that horrible person I sent down there!" she spat and withdrew her hands from my hair, the water dripping pink from her hands. "So yes I am having a rough day because I thought you understood!"

"Then why did you say I didn't?" I ask softly as she brought the brush to my hair in the bowl. My skin still tingled from where she slapped me. "People like you could never understand this!"

"Because you wanted to pull him back up!" she pulled the brush through my hair and I winced as it felt like knives were stabbing me. "And after all you have done for me I thought you understood!"

"But I thought you just said that you know why we-I pulled him back up?" I frown in confusion and her hands fall limp in my hair.

"I do..." her voice sounded thick and the sparkle in her eyes is now running down her pretty face.

My heart hand now fallen completely and didn't know how to climb back up. "Ever I'm sorry"

"Stop saying that!"

"Then what do I say? If I say sorry you get angry. But if I don't I feel like I'm hurting you more. You know I'm not good with these things-"

"Stop saying that too!" she hissed and passed her brush through my hair once more.

"Ever..." I sigh. Under all that armor you really are a big freaking marshmallow.

I struggle to sit up, my heads makes a strong debate on why this is a bad idea, but I have a better one.

"For fucks sake, don't sit-". Before she could finish I pulled her in to my big freezing body and hold her close. My soaking wet hair drips down my tattooed back and against her soft hair, it is good she isn't struggling. That might make be bleed more. "You are an idiot!" her voice rasped against my shoulder.

"You can be a bit of an idiot too" I kissed her head. I love you, I can't say that. Not know, I don't have the courage when I wish I had. When we parted, Evergreen's face looked patchy from tears but she also looked determined and settled, she even looked at peace. She brought out a roll of fresh bandages and wrapped it snugly against my head. My head hurt so much I'm sure it is going to split open, I told Ever this much.

"Take this" she brought out a vial of cloudy liquid and unscrewed the glass top. The liquid dropper at the end of the lid was covered in the murky liquid. "Open your mouth" she placed the dropper in my mouth and what tasted like burnt marshmallows scourged my tongue.

"Hell!" I cough as the sticky liquid rolls down my throat. "Have you tried this stuff?"

"I haven't needed to" she sighs and lowers me to the ground. She rests my head against another bundled up blanket, she sighs again and tries to pack as much blankets around me as possible to keep me warm. All the pain in me spikes sharply but each time it spikes it dulls twice as fast and takes longer to spike. That warm dark blanket is never far from me and it is creeping closer, and to be honest, it looks quite close to Evergreen too.

"You look tired".

"I didn't get much sleep last night" she raised a brow and me with a slight smile touching her lips. I felt a blush touch my cheeks, we haven't even spoken about that...

"Oh...Sorry" I mumble with inflamed cheeks.

"Don't be" her hand reached up and squeezed my good thigh. "It was nice..." the look in her eyes suggested it was more than nice. "When we see Gnash, tomorrow. I would also like to see Rojin" Ever changed topic and yet the tone in her voice is almost...Playful?

"A-ah. Yeah. Definitely!" I nodded.

"Good" she shuffled closer. "I don't expect to be getting much sleep tonight either..." she smirked and my face felt like and oven.

"Ah Ever, I don't think I can-"

"-Because I will be waking you up every hour because you have a concussion" she laughed at me as I flushed in embarrassment. The witch tricked me! She leaned down and pecked my cheek almost mockingly where she slapped it and whispered. "Serves you right".

"Your evil!"

"And your predictable" she smiled and stood up. "I will wake you up soon. Go to sleep" she turned and left without a backwards glance and I glare at her back. Like I said before, that dark warm blanket isn't far away, and with the mixture of a concussion and pain killer, I was pulled under fast. But it is like I never fell asleep, because she is always here with me.

"Sleep! Go to sleep!" I heard Ugly crow through the cloud of oblivion.

I just want to apologize for the lateness of this chapter and the last. I've been busy but I also want to put a lot of effort in this story so I keep leaving chapters to think about what I should write and if it would fit. Never fear a chapter will always come!

You guys have been great to me. Your reviews are gold, and I know the chapters may seem not so necessary to the plot, but they add up in the end for the long run. Thank you for reading!

Lots of Love.

San-of-the-forest.