by Kim Cormack
Frost said, “She damn near killed me earlier. I haven’t been this sore in forever.”
Kayn opened her eyes to the shocked looks on everyone’s faces.
He explained, “We went for a run. An extraordinarily long damn run. I am pretty sure she was actually trying to kill me this morning.”
She smiled and shut her eyes again. She had been.
“I knew it,” Frost laughed as he splashed her in the face.
She tried to kick him back under the water but her muscle tightened into an excruciatingly painful cramp.
Frost, seeing she was in agony said, “I can fix that.”
She smiled, knowing that both Melody and Lexy had the ability to fix what ailed her. She’d invited the others on their sort of first date. Kayn had little to no dating experience and felt a tiny bit guilty. “All right,” she answered while stretching her leg towards him. He took her calf in his hands and began expertly kneading the knots out of her muscles. It felt so incredible, she almost forgot they weren’t alone as she groaned, “That feels amazing.”
Lily sat up and announced, “I am pretty sure we need supplies from town.” She gave everyone a look that was hard to miss as she got out of the hot tub. She tapped Grey on the shoulder because he hadn't moved.
He caught on and added, “Oh yeah, sure, supplies. We should be gone for supplies for a few hours at least.”
Kayn opened her eyes. Zach was staring at her. He shook his head to show his disdain for her scantily clad Frost massage. Melody grinned at her and winked. She grabbed Zach’s arm and towed him away. They all dried off leaving them with not one dry towel for when they got out and disappeared as quickly as they’d arrived.
It was getting far too hot in the hot tub for so many reasons. Frost rhythmically massaged her sore muscles. He stopped just short of the tender flesh of her inner thigh. Kayn had begun to allow her mind to forget everything but the pleasure of his skilled hands, kneading her sore aching muscles. He took the other leg and started on that one once she stopped grimacing in pain from the first. It felt phenomenal. She didn’t want him to stop.
“Want me to massage your back next?” Frost not so innocently enquired.
Kayn wanted him to keep touching her. She scooted up against him without actually thinking about what she was doing. He massaged her shoulders for a few minutes. Everything in her was humming with pleasure. Her mind was screaming at her, turn around, tell him that you want him. Intending to do exactly that, she turned to face him. She began to feel light headed and a tiny bit woozy. She whispered, “We should get out for a bit. I think we’ve been in the hot tub too long. I’m getting dizzy.” She glanced over the edge and the towels were all sopping wet.
“Here, I’ll get you something to dry off with,” Frost replied as he got out first. She stood up and climbed out onto the pile of sopping wet towels. He brought her one of the terry cloth robes. They both put them on over their wet undergarments. Frost strolled over and looked out the window. “It’s pouring rain outside. We can take our wet stuff off underneath our gowns and hang everything up to dry. I can finish giving you that back massage on the bed?”
Her cheeks blushed at the thought of his hands massaging her bare skin.
He paused a second to gauge her reaction before whispering, “I’m teasing. You know I’m not allowed to take this further than extremely comfortable friends. Why don’t we take advantage of the fact that we’re already wet and go for a swim in the lake? It’ll be a refreshing change from the hot tub.”
Kayn grimaced at the down pour outside and said, “Do you really want to go swimming right now?”
He threw out another thought, “We can go back to the motorhome for supplies. Some clean dry clothes etc. If we put them in a black garbage bag, everything will stay dry on the walk back.”
Kayn wandered up to the window and stood beside him in the fluffy white robe. Option one was both an amazing and incredibly terrible idea. Option two sounded like a scene from a chick flick. Swimming with Frost as the rain pelted down on them from above. That scenario was just as hot as the massage. He smiled back at her with weird timing and she knew he’d read her mind.
Frost chuckled, “Making a run for the RV might be fun.”
He enjoyed watching her squirm and she definitely was for various reasons. Kayn pulled her shorts on over her wet underwear. She was already wearing a soaking wet t-shirt and she was cold. He was staring at her. She knew that the white shirt left very little to the imagination. He just took his robe off and stood there in his shorts. Shirtless, he opened the door and held his hand out, with the pouring rain behind him. She smiled and took it. They dashed out into the rain and ran through the trails until Kayn slipped in the mud, making for a comical moment. She looked up at him. He held out his hand again and this time her heart did a flip flop. He tried to help her up and slipped himself in the black tar-like mud. They both began to laugh. She thought, just one cool moment, was that really so much to ask for?
“You’ve got some mud on you. Right there on your nose,” He teased as he purposely wiped a giant handful of the sticky brown mud on her face.
“You have some on you too. You should let me get that for you,” she laughed as she wiped a handful of the gooey substance across his cheek, getting some in his eyes. They began to roll around while attempting to wash each other’s faces with mud.
After their impromptu wrestling match finished. Frost lay on top of her. “Give up?” He huffed still out of breath.
“Yes... I give up,” she whispered. Her voice caught a little bit in her throat, letting him know of the hidden meaning behind her words. In that moment, it was as though time had stopped. The rain continued to hit the trees around them and dance through their branches. It picked up a touch as wind howled through the bushes. She imagined that the trees were cheering at the idea of what could happen between them in this truly magical moment. Kayn bit her lip and shivered a little. She was soaking wet and utterly frozen. But that wasn’t the reason she’d shivered. It was because every fiber of her being wanted him to kiss her. His lips parted when they were only a millisecond from touching hers. A loud snort came from behind them. Once again, they were frozen a breath away from each other.
His lips grazed her own as he whispered, “Don’t move.”
“Tell me that’s not what I think it is?” She whispered back. It sounded like a grizzly.
He covered her lips with his hand and spoke to her using only his mind. ‘You know the drill… Play dead. I’m going to move my hand slowly. You need to bite it hard enough to set off my symbol. Don’t draw blood. It’ll get Yogi all excited.’
The salivating creature was directly behind him as she responded with her thoughts, ‘There isn’t time to mess around. Throw something at him. Hit him with a tree.’
‘That will only piss him off. We’re not supposed to hurt him. We have to subdue him without seriously injuring him. Those are the rules. Bite me and someone might show up before he finishes us off,’ He answered with his thoughts. She bit down on his hand. Frost smiled in the face of the hungry grizzly as he thought, ‘You are going to have to bite me a lot harder than that to set me off.’
‘Even now Frost...Really? He was plying her with innuendo in the face of being eaten by a bear. She thought, ‘What if they all really went to town?’
‘They were just leaving us alone,’ Frost responded with his mind as the bear began to sniff at his legs. He flinched in preparation as he bit his own hand.
She felt her symbol heat up and it started to glow, which only seemed to intrigue the grizzly. Her adrenaline began pulsing through her and she forgot she was supposed to think it not say it, “Bears can’t run downhill,” Kayn whispered.
“Who told you that?” He mouthed and flinched as the bear grunted and gave his leg an excruciatingly painful swat.
They can’t die. They can’t die. She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Screw the rules. I’m going to roll off of you and draw him away. You
run.” Frost mouthed to her. The king of the wild had waited long enough for his snack. The bear’s jaws clamped down on the back of Frost’s thigh and yanked him off of her, towing him mercilessly across the forest floor. “Run!” Frost yelled as the ferocious beast swung his head and tossed the mighty immortal into the air like a rag doll.
Kayn froze...She couldn’t move. The bear had flung Frost out of the way in favor of her. It lunged at her, gnashing its terrifying jaws, it let out a deafening thunderous roar that sprayed her face with hot foul-scented bear spittle. Frost had barely enough time to regain his faculties after being thrown as he swept his hand across the ground and mud flew into the grizzly’s eyes, startling him for a second. He whimpered and then zeroed in on Kayn again. She scrambled out of claws’ reach but her attempts to flee her carnivorous assailant were hindered by the sticky mud beneath her. The bushes rustled and twigs snapped, signaling someone’s arrival. The beast cocked his head and snorted loudly as Grey burst through the bushes.
“Oh…Come the hell on. A frigging grizzly?” Grey complained as he cautiously backed away. The grizzly cocked his head inquisitively towards Grey. He began to lumber towards the lively, spirited snack.
With the grizzly’s attention on Grey, Kayn crawled towards Frost. His leg was torn wide open; blood was gushing from the wound. Damn it, he was going to pass out.
The critically wounded immortal commanded, “Give me your shirt.”
Kayn had gapped out, stunned by the sight of the blood. “My shirt...?” She questioned.
He repeated with more urgency, “Your shirt! Quickly! Before I bleed out!”
Kayn took her shirt off and tossed it to Frost. He tore it in half in one swift movement and tied it tightly around his leg above the wound. He grabbed a twig, slipped it through the knot and twisted it a couple of times, tightening it.
Grey was comically explaining in considerable detail the reasons why the beast should choose to eat him. Grey carried on his totally one-sided rant in an absolutely hilarious, heroic attempt to distract the salivating beast from the scent of the blood streaming from Frost’s thigh. All the while Grey had been trying to use his gift of fire but hadn’t been able to make the smallest spark. Every once in a while, the bear replied to his shenanigans with a snort.
Kayn grabbed Frost’s hand and tugged him to his feet in one swift movement.
“What are you waiting for? Burn that son of a bitch Grey!” Frost hissed.
Obviously, the time for being politically correct in front of her had passed.
Grey was managing to keep the bear’s attention. Frost grunted as he pulled a stump, complete with a tangle of roots, straight out of the ground. He ordered, “Think of him like an enormous stuffed teddy bear. Just burn him enough to scare him away. The sight of the flame might even do the trick.”
Grey was so amped up with adrenaline that there was almost no chance his gift would spark at the tips of his swaying fingers. “It’s not going to work!” he hollered in the midst of his comic conversation with the steadily approaching bear. Grey almost lost his footing as he backed away.
“Run down the hill!” Kayn yelled. The bear turned and grunted at her but kept walking towards Grey.
Grey stammered, “What! Why in the hell would I want to do that?”
“Bears can’t run down hills!” Kayn shouted.
Frost grabbed Kayn’s arm and ordered, “Run back to the cabin. We’ve got this.”
“I’m not leaving you two,” she asserted. They didn’t have anything under control.
Frost repeated, “We have this Kayn. Just go.”
There was no point in attempting to argue. This was not the time, nor was it the place. Kayn pretended to run away. She stopped, just out of their line of site. The bear towered up on his back legs and bellowed out a thunderous roar. It began to lumber after Grey, who of course ran down the hill.
Kayn could hear Grey screeching, “Bears run down hills! Bears run down hills!” Frost ran after the bear wielding a branch.
In a moment of absolute hilarity, Lexy’s voice boomed, “You are a naughty bear...Bad! You get the hell out of here... Go! Get!... Bad bear!”
The bear let out a couple of wails, yelps and cries as he lumbered off into the bushes.
Kayn came running down the hill just in time to catch the tail end of the Lexy show. The two guys paused for a second, obviously shocked at what had just taken place. Then they looked at each other and doubled over with laughter until they were both in tears. Lexy never even touched the enormous grizzly bear. She had just walked up to him, raised her hand as if she were prepared to slap him square on the nose and screeched.
Kayn walked over and gave Grey a giant hug, “Thank you for taking one for the team buddy.” She walked back to the campsite with her arm around him.
“Bears can run down hills,” he mumbled.
Kayn sheepishly responded, “Yes... I saw that. I was obviously misinformed.” She looked up at Frost. Their eyes met momentarily. He winked at her. Frost had always been there in the background, even if he hadn’t uttered a word to her. His actions spoke volumes. Her heart gave her another gentle tug towards him.
Lexy casually reached over and touched Frost’s arm. He understood her silent signal and began to slow his hobble beside her. She put her arm around him and after a few seconds Frost began to walk normally.
Learning to be Your Own Hero
The others had really gone into town. Thank goodness a couple of them stayed behind. The black dust covered truck peeled into the campsite with everyone in a blind panic, just as the four of them made it back to the motorhome. They ended up spending the afternoon at the picnic tables under the green weathered awning and stayed to have dinner with the others. Grey regaled the harrowing tale of their narrow escape from the blood thirsty thousand-pound bear; the whole story was highly elaborated upon. Grey had the creativity to stretch the truth to its absolute limit and still have it sound almost believable. His accent always made everything he said sound just a little more exciting. The story, of course, was complete with Lexy’s newly discovered skills as the clan’s new grizzly bear wrangler. Nobody mentioned the fact that Frost and Kayn were comically caked in mud, from head to toe. After the tales had been told and their stomachs were full, they quickly gathered up some dry clothes and began the lengthy, dimly lit walk back to the rustic little cabin. They were both fairly certain the bear would not return. The grizzly probably wasn’t going to make a second attempt after its volatile run in with Lexy and her badass dominatrix skills. It had stopped raining and moonlight streamed through the branches along the path. The light from the moon on the path in front of them flickered each time the breeze caused the branches to dance. Tonight, this vision did not spark memories of her Sweet Sleep. On this night, it was a peaceful sight marking the end of an extremely long dramatic day. They each knew what the other looked like so it wasn’t necessary to mention it. They just walked in silence back to the cabin with a few stolen glances and utterly exhausted smiles. Fate seemed to stop them cold every time they had the opportunity to begin. Kayn knew there must be a reason. She was too tired to question anything. An owl began to ask, “Who, who?” That’s what it sounded like to Kayn in her subconscious mind. She felt like that was another sign to take pause. She was a chicken. A giant immature mud covered chicken. Kevin was gone. He wasn’t coming back. Frost was here and he had real feelings for her. This had been a pretty messed-up first date. She began to giggle. It was a little bit funny. This was sort of their first date and they’d been attacked by a grizzly bear. Frost looked like he was carrying a dead body through the bushes in a plastic bag. She’d always had a seriously messed-up sense of humor.
Frost glanced back at her and questioned, “What’s so funny?”
He was carrying the black plastic bag with their change of clothes in it over his shoulder. She was overtired and everything was hilarious. Her mind relived the serial murder jokes from earlier, the ones they’d shared during their run togethe
r and she chuckled. He was carrying a black plastic bag through the bushes. They trudged their way back to the cabin in silence with their feet sticking randomly in the mud. They arrived at the cabin bear attack free. He opened the door and motioned for her to walk in first. She walked through the threshold. She could have easily pictured being carried over this threshold by someone…
Kayn slipped into the bathroom first. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and began to laugh aloud. She was thoroughly covered in mud. She turned on the shower and listened to the pleasurable calming sound of the water humming for a moment before she stepped in. The streams of liquid revitalization feverously pelted her skin. She felt revived enough to feel like perhaps it would be possible to stay awake for a little while longer. She had to wash her hair three or four times before the water that rinsed it ceased to be discolored with mud. She turned off the shower and stepped out noticing that he had come in while she was in the shower and left her pajamas on the side of the marble sink. Her choice in sleepwear was an attempt at keeping things from going too far tonight. She slipped on the giant baggy red t-shirt and the matching oversized bottoms as proof of her PG rated mindset. She looked in the bathroom mirror for a bit and decided to leave her towel dried curly hair loose and flowing. She wondered for a moment how much he had seen when he dropped off her clothes in the bathroom. She took a deep breath, silently preparing herself for what came next. It was then that she noticed the hundreds of initials lovingly carved on the back of the wooden bathroom door. They were the other couples that stayed in this place. She sunk to her knees and ran her fingers across the painstakingly engraved etchings of love. It was an incredibly romantic tradition. The owners of the cabins had never removed them. She imagined carving her initials in the door on her honeymoon and then coming back year after year to see them still there. She reminded herself that things were different now. She would never have a honeymoon. Nobody would ever have a reason to carry her over a threshold. She stood up and grabbed the door’s handle and twisted it, leaving the romantic notions of door carvings and nuptials behind her.
