Jen's Legacy.

Before they turned-in for the night, she had better, ‘go’, but it was pitch-black out there, with no stars or moon; raining, snowing, and windy, and the fire was bright enough to take away any chance of one’s eyes soon adjusting to the dark.

Claire turned away from the fire and closed her eyes, feeling the snow swirling in onto her legs and hearing the water dripping from the rock face just above them and falling near her feet.

Her eyes slowly adjusted, provided she did not look at the fire. It was cold but she would survive the two or three minutes she would be away from their shelter and the fire. She pulled on her socks and then her sneakers, feeling how tender her feet were.

“Royce. I have to go.”

He nodded understandingly. “Stay within my sight, please.”

He put his denim jacket around her, pulling it tight upon her with it being warm now, kissed her, and watched her walk away. She still needed privacy for that personal stuff where a man never would, but he wished he’d suggested she ‘go’ much closer in, where he could keep an eye on her, even as she squatted and peed in full view. She still had some hang-ups to get rid of. They would not survive for very long when she understood that there was very little that would put a man off the woman he loved, as he loved her. All she would have to do, was examine her own feelings and ask herself what was there that would put her, off him. It would be an easy answer; nothing that she could think of.

No woman wanted to be closely observed doing that very personal thing, though every man would want to see her; entranced by her doing that, and always wanting to help her, to touch her in some way, and interfere. He wanted to. He smiled seeing her pale legs and white buttocks receding into the darkness. He changed his position to still be able to see her, standing up to do so, always concerned for her.

In this weather she wouldn’t be out there for long.

She was walking carefully, trying not to make her tender feet any worse than they were.

She could just make out where there were trees, once her eyes adjusted. She wouldn’t need to go very far and wouldn’t be out there long enough to get really wet and cold, though she had been wrong about both; feeling the wind whipping around her bare legs, sending cold fingers up her body.

She walked twenty, then thirty feet out, as he watched the fire-light reflected from her pale skin revealed below his jacket. He saw her go mostly out of sight behind the nearest tree and lean back against it. She’d gone farther than he’d expected.

Another movement caught his eye.

They were not alone!

He instantly knew what it was, and why it was here. He reacted immediately, picking a flaming branch from the edge of the fire and running over to where she was, caring nothing for his nakedness as he shouted loudly, startling her, and the animal.

She’d seen the same thing too, hearing his shout, seeing something moving in front of her, and she had frozen. It was probably the best thing she could have done.

At that same instant, a flash of lightning illuminated everything as though it were daylight, blinding them for just an instant. Too close!

The thunder followed less than a second later (also way too close for comfort) startling them both, hurting their ears, and startling the animal too, setting their hearts beating fast in panic.

She saw the face of a devil looking at her out of the darkness before she saw Royce, and what he did, coming between her and that animal. Nothing would have sidetracked him from what he knew he had to do. He rushed at it, even as he put his arm out to the side and in front of her as she regained her feet, terrified.

He still faced out into the darkness, holding her arm and moving her behind him for the protection of his body, as exposed at it was; thrusting that glowing branch at a suddenly moving body which was retreating, snarling at this fire coming into its face, striking out at it then bounding away, growling at being disturbed in too many startling ways that it didn't understand.

Royce knew what had happened, but he had grown foolish, allowing his emotions for her override his common sense.

The animal had caught the smell of that meat on her fingers, and been attracted to that. He should have been more aware of that than he had been, but had been distracted by his desperate love for her.

Claire hadn’t even had time to pee. He backed to her and swept his arm around her as she put her arms around his neck, seeking his protection and the safety he represented. Women the world over had been protected by men, since the beginning of human consciousness. He picked her up; the adrenaline flowing through his body, giving him strength, and retreated with her to their shelter, where he put her down, tossing the branch back into the fire, making it up once more.

Seeing the terror in her eyes, he took her into his arms again and held her close to comfort her and to calm her fears as he touched her face and rested his head against hers, looking around every so often to be sure, but knowing that the animal was long gone by now, and would not dare approach their fire.

She was wet and cold; they both were, but would soon get warm again, except she had not been able to go, and felt as though she would burst.

“Please don’t go out of my sight like that again, Claire.”

"I won't." She meant it too. One wake-up call like that, was one too many. Just as she had been waking up to the wonders of nature and of the amazing things happening to her, this had happened. She could just as easily come to hate the uncertainty that nature represented. All she wanted was to be warm, and safe, and with Royce.

The way he looked at her as he caressed her face, said so much more than words.

“I’ve only just found you, Claire, and life too, and I don’t ever want to lose either you, or my chance at life again.”

They were wonderful words for him to say, and for her to hear, and she was glad to hear them despite the panic still gripping her.

What he said, how he said it, and the way he was looking at her…? What woman didn’t want to hear those words and to be looked at like that? But this was how he had always looked at her, even on that beach at the river after he had undressed her. She had not seen it then, too caught up in her fears about him, and following her recent escape from death (thanks to him), and she had been living in another fantasy-world at that time. It had taken her a few hours to wake up to this major reality-change, another one in her life, and just a few hours apart. Oh, the stories she would be able to tell their children.

Her heart was still beating far too fast after those scares.

She held onto him, daring now to close her eyes, coming back down from that moment of extreme terror.

“What animal was that?” She had been leaning back into the tree, when the lightning struck and she had seen that horrifying apparition watching her, creeping closer.

He played with her ear and touched her hair. “A cougar. Resting out of the weather just as we are; hungry, and attracted by the smell of that can of meat. I don’t think he would have bothered you. He was curious and attracted by that smell, but best not to find out the hard way. They are cats, and are stimulated to attack when their prey runs from them, and to hold or retreat when it stands its ground or threatens it.”

As he had done. She couldn't have run.

She wasn’t as sure about that—that it would not have harmed her—as he was. Chalk-up another learning experience, but this time, one she could have done without.

She could now think about it and what had happened.

Royce had thrown himself between it, and her without hesitation. She suddenly recollected that he had been naked, not pausing for an instant to get to her. He was still naked and holding her close, but after that scare he was no longer as aroused as he always seemed to be around her. It seemed the most natural thing to be doing; this..., and very soon they would move to that next, still elusive stage of true intimacy.

She had just seen another example of what love can do, although he had also gone down those cliffs as he had, and pulled her out of the river before he’d known a single thing about her.

Maybe it was just a man thing. It was what some men did; felt obliged to do, to protect women and children; save them, to take possession of them for himself. But she knew nothing was as simple as that. She’d just seen a man’s love for her in action, albeit not as she'd begun to expect it would be, with what they were progressing in doing with each other as they discovered more of each other's body.

“You can relax. It won’t come near the fire, and it’s already far away from here.”

He was too calm about it as he wiped over her hands and around her mouth with water caught from the drip line, to remove all traces of that meat from her, and then kissed her, feeling her breasts against his chest.

Her heart was still beating too fast, and she still needed to pee, and desperately.

“Royce. I still need to… you know. I didn’t get chance to… I really, really need to go. But I’m scared… and there’s nowhere I can….” He knew.

She was uncomfortable, fidgeting around, looking out into the night, afraid of wetting herself now to her great chagrin, which she might have to do, even where she was, and him seeing her do that embarrassing thing.

He touched her face, sensing her desperation, and close to being unable to help herself for much longer.