Bandit Bride

The only familiarity Elisa had with orienteering was games played with a compass of her father’s; pretending to go on treasure hunts in the backyard. That hasn’t prepared her as much as she’d have liked when it came to trying to navigate herself and an unconscious Felix through the thick woods. She had managed to find a gentler slope in the hills down to the river, and had successfully pulled Felix out of the crevice. Unfortunately she couldn’t pull him more than a few feet before she ran out of steam.

Huffing, she stuffed the compass in her pocket and shook Felix’s shoulder. He didn’t stir. Elisa tried pulling him a little further but when she finally reached the hill she’d found, she worried that if she tried to roll Felix down it she’d send him right into the river; the bank below them wasn’t that wide.

“Okay Felix, I’m sorry but nap time is over.” She knelt down and shook him forcefully. When that didn’t work she smacked him in the face. He jerked and came partially awake, cracking his eyes at her.

“Whasthat?” he mumbled groggily.

“Felix you need to get up. I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t sleep after you hit your head and anyway, we need to find the others.”

“Jusfive...five more minutes.”

“Oh no you don’t.” Elisa smacked him again and this time it stuck more. He actually sat up and rubbed his face.

“That kinda hurt,” he complained.

“Well I’m sorry. But you left me no choice. Now come on, get up.” He half-lurched and she half-pulled and eventually they got him on his feet, though he swayed a little.

“No collapsing,” Elisa said sternly. “I need you conscious and walking.”

“You’re kind of bossy,” Felix remarked as he stumbled a couple steps. Elisa kept an arm around his waist to keep him upright.

“You’ve suffered an injury so I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” she said. She wrestled the compass out of her pocket and tried to get her bearings.

“We need to follow the river this way, right? And you’re sure we’ll be able to find the others?”

“They know...where to go,” Felix replies but that wasn’t especially reassuring. He was like a drunk person. Elisa sighed. She’d just have to take the leap of faith and hope they didn’t die. It was slow-going for a while because Felix kept stumbling but she’d occasionally shake him or make him y’all so he’d stay awake this time. Along the way she found a patch of colwort; a tangy plant that helped ease pain; and she made Felix choke down a few leaves as they walked. The sun began to set and darkness crept in. Elisa was worried that they hadn’t found Jack and the others yet; she prayed she hadn’t led them in the wrong direction.

Finally they had to stop for a rest. They’d been going nonstop for a couple of hours. Felix was more coherent now but he looked pale and when they sat down he complained about feeling nauseous. Elisa made him eat more of the colwort.

“It’ll help your head and your stomach,” she said. “We used to make a tea with colwort leaves for uh..lady troubles and such.”

“They taste weird,” he said, making a face as he chewed.

“It’s a bit of an acquired taste but your stomach should settle in a few minutes. I think I also saw some blackberries back there; I’m going to go pick some. You should eat something.”

She returned with several scratches on her face and hands from the thorns, but she had two big handfuls of ripe blackberries. She handed one to Felix, who was getting a little color back in his face. He wolfed down the blackberries.

“We’ll probably have to continue the search in the morning,” Elisa said. “It’s getting too dark to see anything, we’ll just get lost if we keep going. Let me look at your head.”

She scooted closer and inspected the back of his head. There was a large bump and some dried blood, but it didn’t look too serious. She tore her sleeves off up to the elbows, then used one to clean the wound before dabbing some of the colwort directly on it to help stave off infection, and she used the other sleeve to create a sort of makeshift bandage.

“That ought to do you until we reach the others. It just figured that I stole those supplies from the apothecary and now when we need them they’re in the pack Jack took.” She shook her head and started trying to form some kind of pillows out of leaves.

“What are you doing?” Felix asked.

“Trying to make a soft spot to lay down. We need some rest before we continue trekking through this apparently endless forest.”

She stretched out, trying to get comfortable. Felix just sat on his log, watching her doubtfully.

“You’re never going to get any rest down there. My back hurts just watching you.”

Elisa sat up and flicked a leaf out of her hair. “I know this probably sounds painfully girly of me, but I’d really love a hot bath,” she said wistfully. Felix smiled slightly.

“When we come out of the forest, there’s a little town. Well town might be a bit of an exaggeration; it’s really just a little trading post for travelers to pass through. But they have an inn there.”

“Some light at the end of the tunnel,” Elisa said. She finally just propped herself against a tree trunk; Felix was right; she was never going to get any sleep on her sad pile of leaves. She hugged herself, feeling a bit cold now that she’d ripped her sleeves up. Felix came over and sat down, his back resting against the tree next to hers.

“Do you think the others are okay?” Elisa asked.

“Oh, they’ll be fine. They got away and the hunters came after us. Are you alright?” Felix turned to look at her when her teeth started to chatter.

“A little cold,” Elisa replied, her words coming out a bit muffled because she was biting her tongue to stop the chattering. She jumped in surprise when Felix moved a little closer and then after a slight hesitation, put an arm around her shoulders.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s cold,” Felix said. “We might catch hypothermia out here.”

“This is basically hugging. You said that was against the rules.” Elisa couldn’t keep the smile out of her voice and in the fading light she saw the tips of his ears turn pink.

“It’s not hugging,” he insisted. “It’s...survival.”

“Cuddling for warmth?”

“Huddling,” he corrected, not looking at her. “It’s huddling for warmth. Survival.”

Elisa shifted slightly, wrapping her arms around his waist and laughing softly when he fidgeted.

“It’s not hugging,” she reminded him. She tucked herself in against his side, trying her best to block out the cold night air. Her head rested against Felix’s shoulder and her legs started to a little numb from sitting so long but she ignored it and eventually drifted off.

She was woken the next morning by a doe and her two little fawns drinking from the river. One of the fawns wandered over to munch some plants and ended up sniffing at Elisa til she jerked awake and startled it away. The fawn ran back to his mother, who just flicked her ears and watched Elisa warily. Felix was still asleep, his chin resting on the top of her head. Despite her sore back and numb butt, Elisa thought it was a nice way to wake up.

“Felix,” she whispered. When he didn’t respond she leaned her head back a little. “Felix, wake up.”

He shifted and then blinked awake. He seemed confused for a few moments, looking down at Elisa, whose face was about two inches away.

“What-“

“We have to get up,” Elisa said. “It’s morning. We need to find the others.”

“Why are you whispering like that?”

“There’s some deer, I don’t want to spook them.”

His gaze flicked up toward the deer and then back to her. Elisa cocked her head.

“Hey, you have little flecks of green in your eyes. And you have a freckle right here by your left eye.” She reached up to show him and Felix seemed to finally realize that they were still “huddling” for “survival” with their arms wrapped around each other. His face flushed and Elisa’s lips twitched. She tapped his nose and scooted back before she embarrassed him even more. She stretched her arms over her head and arched her back.

“The tent may not be glamorous but it’s a lot nicer on my spine than a tree,” she remarked, twisting and turning to get the kinks out of her back and neck. Felix cleared his throat.

“Yeah. Well. We’d best get moving again, probably.”

Elisa went to the river and splashed some water on her face to chase away her lingering drowsiness and then went to check on Felix’s bandage.

“Is it still tender?” She pressed ever so gently on the spot, checking to see if the swelling had gone down. It had subsided a little which she took as a good sign.

“It’s fine,” Felix said quietly.

“We’ll have to bandage it up better once we get the rest of our supplies. Now here, chew some more of the colwort and don’t make that face at me.“ She handed him the compass. “Please tell me we’ve been going the right way?”

He nodded. “Yeah. We are. We just need to keep heading east till we run into the guys. They probably made it pretty far because they didn’t expect us to be slowed down by a head injury. But they’ll be waiting for us.”

Elisa blew out a breath of relief. “Good. Then let’s go, before we run into any more bounty hunters.”