The Valley

When Annie woke up that morning, a blurry David was watching her from his sleeping bag. She grabbed her glasses and turned away from him.

"What?" she asked, feeling a little annoyed that he was just staring at her. Wasn't staring rude?

"Sorry, I just-"

Annie interrupted him, "Please don't stare at my scar."

"I wasn't staring at your scar," David tried to defend himself, though failing miserably. "Well, I was a little... but I was staring at your entire face, o-"

"Stop talking," Annie got up and pulled one of the bags close. "Out."

David raised an eyebrow. When she pulled a shirt from the bag, he took the hint and exited the tent with some clothes of his own to change into.

He called to the tent, though his back was facing it, "Sorry, I just, uh-"

"Just stop talking," Annie groaned, also leaving the tent with a couple of bags slung over her shoulder and the map in her hands. "You're just digging yourself a deeper hole every time."

"Sorry," David looked at the ground.

"Whatever; let's just, uh, you take care of the tent and the other bags, okay?" Annie gave him a short smile before wandering over to the edge of the trees.

"Right, I will," David nodded and did as he was told.

When he had everything put away and the bags slung over his shoulders, David joined Annie at the edge of the clearing. He watched her while she stared out at the trees, lips slightly parted. His gaze wandered over the scar that rested on the right side of her face, and then he thought that he wouldn't be able to imagine the horror she must have felt when the wound had been given to her.

He almost reached out to her, to wrap an arm around her in an attempt to comfort her, but did she need the comfort? She seemed fine, even though she rarely truly smiled. Her voice hadn't broken when she had told him about her family last night. At any rate, his touch would probably be very unwelcome in that moment anyway.

Annie's shoulders rose and fell slowly as she let out a long sigh. She looked up at David from the corner of her eye, noticing that he was staring again. A frown turned the corners of her lips downward at the realization.

"Let's get going; we're wasting valuable daylight." Gaze returning to the map, she began to lead David to their destination once more.

"How far are we from the first location that William hinted to us?" David asked after a long while of walking through the forest in silence.

"We're very close actually; to a landmark that is rarely ever mentioned by anyone, anywhere," Annie replied; the information she remembered reading about the place in school a few years back had been slowly coming back to her.

"So, you've heard of the City of Weeping Angels?" David asked, his curiosity climbing higher and higher with each passing second.

"Yes; and if I remember correctly, we can skip the remaining landmarks through it."

"Oh? How?" A puzzled look formed on David's face. Annie gave a small smile, her eyes twinkling.

"You'll see," the smile grew as she stepped even further ahead of David.

"Come on, don't leave me hanging," David walked quicker too, in order to keep up with her.

Annie let out a laugh and insisted, "You'll see!"

"Aw, fine," David sighed and finally caught up with her, walking beside her.

They were approaching another clearing, David saw in the distance. The sound of rushing water met his ears as well as soon as he caught sight of it. He felt a little confused, and his pace slowed a bit again, though he continued to follow his companion.

When they reached the clearing, David gaped in awe at the waterfall that ran before him. The water was so clear and beautiful, and the body of water it poured into was also so clear that one could see through to the sapphire-colored rock that rested deep beneath the surface of the water.

"This is it," Annie was grinning from ear to ear. The greenery that grew around the water was breath-taking, as well. David looked around, doing the best he could to spot the city, but he couldn't find it.

"Where?" he asked, wondering how it was that she could see it and he couldn't.

"Through there," Annie pointed to the rushing water before them. David looked to the waterfall. She wanted him to walk through there?

"Are you ready?" she looked at him. Upon seeing how nervous he was, she couldn't hide her amusement.

"You've got to be kidding me," David shook his head. "I'm not going through there; I could drown!"

"Ah, but you won't," she took his hand. Curiously, David glanced down at their now joined hands.

"Um?"

"This way," she smiled at him.

She lead him along one of the paths that wound around the pool of sapphire and to the source of its water. There was an almost painful pressure on her fingers, and she chuckled at the fact that David was so frightened that he had to squeeze her hand. Annie gave his hand a gentle squeeze back.

"Relax," she whispered and they stopped before the pouring water.

"Are you ready?" she asked once more, turning her head so that she could look up at him.

David grinned widely to cover up his fear, and told her the very words she had told him the day before, "As ready as I'll ever be."

With that, Annie tugged him through the waterfall.

Though the water appeared to be otherwise, it was a very thin layer to walk through. The dark cave on the other side was only slightly illuminated by the light from the sun behind them. David delved into one of the bags he carried with him and pulled out a flashlight, quickly turning it on and lighting up more of the space before them.

What he had at first mistaken for a cave appeared to actually be a rather long tunnel. There were tiny streams running on either side of the group, fed by tiny holes in the walls through which water trickled slowly.

"I... Wow." David pulled his hand from Annie's and looked around more.

"I read that it's even more breath-taking at night," Annie grinned up at him and began to lead the way again. She was glad that the material the map was made out of was waterproof; otherwise the map would have surely been ruined by how damp the area they were in was.

"I'm not sure I find this very breath-taking at the moment, though it certainly is very... intriguing," David's eyebrows furrowed, and he followed Annie once more.

"It's a bit of a long trek," Annie explained, though she seemed rather excited about it. "Anyone to travel through here on their own is considered very foolish. Even so, this way is definitely shorter than the route William had planned out for us."

"If you say so," though David wasn't thoroughly convinced. Were the walls whispering to him?

He aimed the beam of the flashlight slightly ahead of Annie so that she might see where she was leading them, though it didn't seem that it would have done much good; Annie's gaze appeared to be on the map the entire time.

The two stopped every now and then for food and water. At one point when they stopped for another meal, something strange started happening to the water around them. It seemed to hum quietly, a faint aqua glow rolling off of the water.

"Is... is this what you were talking about?" David asked the petite woman before taking a bite of the sandwich he had made.

"I think so," Annie nodded, yawning and stretching before finishing up her own sandwich.

David laughed quietly before teasing her, "Are you getting sleepy?"

"Oh, shut up," she laughed, standing up and taking the map with her, "or I'll kick you."

"Ooh, the midget is going to kick me; I'm so scared," David stuck his tongue out at her. This made her roll the map up and smack him across the face with it; another burst of laughter erupted from the younger man.

"Oh, you're mean!" he exclaimed.

"Shut up," Annie rolled her eyes and unrolled the map, walking away from him.

"Hey, wait!" David scrambled to gather his bags up, cramming the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and following after her.

"Hurry up, slow-poke!" she called back to him.

The laughter and goofing around died down, and as they walked the water seemed to glow brighter and brighter. Annie grew too tired to continue on.

"We're going to have to stop here," she yawned again.

"But we just started walking again like ten minutes ago." David smiled down at his companion.

"If the water is glowing this bright, it's probably already much later than when we usually hit the hay."

"Well, alright," David sighed, looking around the tunnel once before helping Annie pull out the sleeping bags. "Are you sure it's a good idea to fall asleep in here?"

"Yeah, it'll be fine," Annie nodded. David was feeling exhausted himself, and decided that he wouldn't argue with that.