Julia studied Falcon, watching the way he spoke with the elders, the way they all laughed, the way everyone was so at ease with him. Even the little girl he had just met was sleeping in his lap liked she had known him her whole life.
She marveled at his way with people in this world. She had noticed it during the time she had spent in Jaida Grove too. Everyone seemed to like him―men were always joking with him, women were always smiling at him, and children seemed naturally flock to him. What was it about him that attracted people like that?
She decided it was his easy smile, but more than that, his eyes. When he smiled, it was so genuine that you couldn’t help but smile back. And when he looked at you with those deep, brown eyes, they were always warm and gentle. He had eyes that said you could trust him, and everyone seemed to do just that. He was always kind and thoughtful, someone who would do all he could to help a friend.
She thought of everything he had done and continued to do for her, though there was nothing in it for him. He might have his own reasons for going on this quest now, but he still did so much for her―he practically took care of her. She had even stopped packing up her stuff in the mornings. Once she had stopped remembering to jump on something and get it done immediately, he just did it for her, but he never seemed to mind.
She now watched the way his eyes twinkled in the firelight, crinkling at the sides when he smiled. He ran the hand that wasn’t holding the little girl through his hair, getting it out of his face. She liked his hair; it was in long layers to his shoulders, the bottom of it curling in just slightly at his jaw.
And his face, when you stopped to really look at it, was quite attractive. It was very much like his personality: tender and yet strong at the same time. His wide jaw and the shadow of a beard, he currently had, made him look more rugged, but that was offset by his gentle eyes.
As if he could feel her watching him, he turned his gaze toward her and smiled that wonderful, crooked smile of his. She tried to ignore the way her heart leapt in her chest, and the flutter that stirred in her belly. She smiled back, blushing at being caught, and then shifted her attention to a mundane conversation between the two women on her left. When she glanced back, he was still looking at her, seeming lost in thought now. She quickly looked away again.
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Later, everyone sat cross-legged in a large circle outside, around a large fire in the center of the village. Clay cups and hot kettles with wooden handles were passed around. As she filled her own cup and handed the kettle to the next person, Julia could smell that it was the same fireweed tea she had tried inside. It had a very strange, buttery taste, but it was good and calming.
While they drank, someone played a large wooden flute. The music sounded very spiritual―slow and sure, beautiful and moving. They listened for a while, until the Nakoha people started to disperse and go back to their homes.
Falcon got up and reached down to her. She took his hand and stood as well. They walked through the village until he stopped in front of a cabin. “Takkum said we could stay here tonight,” he explained and opened the door. There was only one bed, so Falcon started laying out a bedroll for himself.
“Don’t bother,” she told him. “There’s enough room here… and… it’s cold.” She knew it sounded like a lame excuse―well, it was―but luckily, he didn’t say anything. He got in next to her and pulled her into his arms, so that they would fit better in the small bed. She smiled in the darkness as she rested her head against his chest, instead of keeping her back to him as usual. This way she could smell him―she loved his smell―and she could hold him too. He didn’t seem to mind.
They spoke quietly in the dark, and he filled her in on his talk with the elders. They had told him where the mine was, but then explained that mountain trolls had taken it over. Two villagers had been killed trying to drive them out, so the others gave up―their population was small enough without losing more of their people to the trolls. Takkum had said there would be a reward if they rid the place of the monsters.
“Well, since we’re going that way…” Julia said, trying for nonchalance.
Falcon just chuckled at her failed attempt.
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They found the mine easily enough the next day. A big, rocky hole in the mountain with tracks coming out of it at the end of the only road north was hard to miss.
Julia cast her light spell once they were inside the first room, which was just a small cave. A wooden lever, which they decided to leave alone, was built into the left wall, and a mining cart in front of them, standing on two iron rails, that led into a tunnel. That was it―the cart was the only way in.
She got in first, panic fluttering uncomfortably in her chest. All she could see in front of her was black darkness, since her light only had a twenty-foot radius.
“Ready?” Falcon asked.
She took a deep breath and shook her head no, but answered, “Yes.” It came out as little more than a squeak.
There was no rope or anything to use to pull the cart along, so Falcon jumped into it, providing enough momentum to start its wheels moving. The rails were more or less level, and the cart went at a slow pace. Occasionally they pushed against the side walls to keep it going.
After a while, they passed a side tunnel on the right, and about three seconds after that, they started going down. The cart gathered speed, racing faster and faster. It might have been just a few seconds, but it felt like far longer as they sped through the darkness. The white orb above Julia kept up, but she could still only see pitch black beyond its glow.
Suddenly they jolted to a halt as the cart caught on broken tracks. She barely had time to see that the railings had ended before she and Falcon were thrown from the wooden box. Her stomach lurched into her throat as they plummeted into the unknown. Their yells echoed in the darkness, and the air turned to wind as it whooshed past their ears.
Seconds later, they hit icy water with a loud splash. Julia sank deeper and deeper, with lungs that were emptied from her screams. Her feet touched something, and she kicked off as hard as she could. Her fingertips broke the surface, but the layers of clothes she was wearing were too heavy, and she was dragged back down. She kicked her legs, desperately trying to continue upward, but it was no use.
She couldn’t move fast enough. Her lungs started to burn, her head spun from the lack of oxygen, and her heart pounded in her ears and hurt her chest with its manic beats as her limbs moved slower with exhaustion. I’m going to die! she thought; she knew it. Still she struggled, frantically grasping for the shore as she felt water tear through her throat…
