45 BULLETS

When I woke and realized we were still in the tree, my hand raced back to clutch the branch in fright. Thann's hand wrapped around mine and pulled it softly from the branch. "Safe," he whispered softly in my ear.

It caused a delicious chill to speed up my neck.

"Right. Thank you." I twisted just my head to look back at him. "Uh? Can we go No Tree now? Grass?"

He nodded and adjusted me so I was cradled up in his arms and then dropped from the tree. He pointed to the ground and set my feet upon it. "No go." He added a stern look.

"Sit. Stay. Got it." I grinned and then laid back over my sleeping bag still across the ground.

His eyes widened slightly, "Isisca!" And then in an instant I was back in his arms, hovering above the ground. I hadn't even seen the movement.

"Whoa! Hi to you too," and then I laughed, clutching around his shoulders.

He started kicking my bag around, but I guess his spider search was unsuccessful because he laid me back down on it. "No go."

"No go." I saluted. "Go find your batfrog eggs."

He ruffled my hair playfully and then jogged into the wilderness.

"Jerk," I protested, as I pulled my hair down from the bun and tried to finger comb all the loose bits back. Then I tied the bun back in tight and took some time with a human minute, changing my clothes and replacing the pink intimate item back to its case. I flicked at the little bar in my arm. "At least you're doing your job at shortening the tide."

I finally found the headlamp and wrapped it around one of the wheelbarrow handles when Thann came strolling back into camp. He was holding his arms behind his back and wearing a monster grin.

I smiled back and sat down on the sleeping bag, pretending I'd been there the whole time. "What?"

He sat down beside me and then held out a black and white fur.

I took it and examined it. It was a pouch connected to a belt, just like the one he wore, but made with skunk fur. Beaming I looked up to Thann. "Is this my skunk pelt? Did you cure it?"

"El isikhwama." He patted his pouch. "Thann isikhwama."

Bounding at his neck, I wrapped him in a tight hug. "Thank you. I love it!"

He stroked down my back and whispered huskily, "Ngiyajabula ukuthi uyayithanda."

I sat back and looked over the craftmanship. It was superb. And when did he even make it? We've walked all day? During his morning runaways? Maybe I shouldn't be so upset with being abandoned when he uses it to make me presents. Meeting his handsome eyes, I smiled bashfully. "It's very nice. Thank you."

His face was in a soft smile and he rubbed a thumb over my cheek tenderly. "Okowesifazane omuhle."

I thought about leaning forward, my eyes darting south to his lips, but chickened out. Instead I stood and shimmied the belt around my jeans. Then I moved my hips back and forth to watch it. "What do you think?"

He sat forward, arms wrapping his knees with a grin gazing at me strutting around. He nodded appreciatively.

Thann watched me for another minute and then stood and grabbed the food bin. He walked into the trees calling for me to follow. "El, yes go."

I stopped flaunting my new pouch and twisted back to the other bin grabbing up the wheelbarrow. "Wait! Don't we need the other bin? Thann! That has all my..."

He stepped back and adjusted his bin with one hand and caught one of mine from the wheelbarrow. "No. El go. Water."

"Oh. Water?" Starting to tug me, I smiled and let him lead me through the trees. We only went a hundred yards or so when a small stream opened up into a wading pool. The water had a greenish hue with moss floating along the top, but Thann started digging out our empty water bottles and filling them, so I assumed it was good enough to drink.

"Water drink yes-no?" I asked cautiously.

"Water drink yes." He leaned in and cupped a mouthful.

I thought about dashing back to my supplies for my water straw but decided to just go with it. I pulled a drink to my mouth and the water was slightly warm, with a soft seaweed type flavor, but I was happy with water to drink.

He then pointed to a little way down the stream where there was an overhang and I saw a handful of small golden fish swimming in it.

"Can we catch them?" I asked myself, imagining going through everything in my emergency kit, but I didn't have lures or string. I started trying to think about how to piece my extra wire into a trap or net, but Thann just hopped over to the other bank and placed his hands in the water. My thoughts calmed and I watched him.

He was entirely still for thirty seconds and then in a blink had both hands out each with a small fish, barely the size of his palm.

"Cool!" I exclaimed, watching the fish dash around the pool at my loudness. "Oops, sorry."

He seemed to know it was praise and looked proud. He then positioned both fish in one hand and brought the dagger from his side pouch and cut the heads off against a rock. Then made quick work gutting them.

He handed them to me. "Fire meat."

"Okay. Thanks." I smiled and then started back to the camp holding a fish in each hand. They didn't look so tiny in my palms.

The fire had pretty much died down, but I made quick work bringing another small fire to life and set the fish in my small pot. While it cooked I quickly went through my things figuring out which items I wanted to keep in my new pouch. Surely the extra bullets, mace, and the lighter. Out of habit my cellphone, and a few other little emergency items went in too.

When the fish were just about done, Thann came back with the top of the bin covered in side-by-side fish. He sat beside me and started eating one right off the bin.

Noticing my attention, he held the half eaten fish out with a smirk.

"Oh dude, don't think you can tease me. I actually ate sushi every week on Earth." I grabbed the fish from him and took a bite, and then handed it back with my own wink.

He stared at me wide eyed, and when I went back to cooking the other fish with a smirk, he bellowed his laughter.

"Hlanzi, no fire?"

"Well, Earth fish no fire. I guess it would serve me right to get sick on fish of your planet. Like me trying to eat that chicken food."

He held a fish out, genuinely interested in if I would take it or not.

"Naw, I better keep to Lanzy fire." I pulled a cooked one out and started eating it right from my hands. I looked to him and smiled, holding mine out to him. He looked dubious. "Oh come on, El no fire fish. Thann fire fish. Are you chicken?"

He groaned and grabbed it from me taking his own bite. He squished his face up as he ate a piece and then handed it back to me. Good.

"Good? That face suggested no good," I laughed. I took a bite and smiled wide and fake. "Like." A pinch away from my heart. Then I grabbed a raw fish and pretended to take a bit and grimaced with a tongue out and everything. "Don't like." The same pinch, but then flicked away at the end.

He grinned watching my overkill faces.

"Like. Don't like." I repeated.

He nodded. Don't like.

Looking at his row of fish, I asked. "These. Fire yes. Fire no?"

He pushed two more over to me. "Fire." Then started placing the others in the bin atop the green tinted water bottles. "No fire."

"Got it."

As I was watching the cooking fish in the smaller pot, I handed Thann the larger thermal cooker pot. "Water. Please."

He nodded and started off for the stream. Getting out my pocketknife I chopped carrots, apples, and potatoes, and the two fish he allowed for me.

He smiled handing the pot over. Water.

"Thank you." I poured a little out of the top, much to his dissatisfaction and then dumped the chopped foods in. "Soup." I signed hot drink and then placed the whole covered pot on the fire, hoping it wouldn't topple my full meal over.

It balanced well enough and I turned to say something to Thann and he was gone. "Again Dothraki!? Why do you just abandon me? I swear I'm abandoning you sometime and seeing how you like it."

But he came back in just a few minutes hands full of greenery.

I lit up. "Herbs?! Please tell me those are herbs."

He put one handful right into the pot. The other he started mashing with his mouth.

Oh. I recognized those kind.

I pointed to my arm. "For the deathberry boils?"

He nodded, so I started unwrapping and wiping the old paste away. As he continued chewing, he scowled at the still present boils.

"Don't be too mad. No hurt. And look," I motioned the size difference. "Last week here. This week here. Healing."

He then spit the paste out and I diligently held my arm, waiting for the slimy substance. Massaging it in carefully, he examined the wound, still not very happy and growling in his language.

"Stop whining about it. Not all of us can be so freakishly good of healers." I looked over his completely healed torso. There wasn't even a scar.

He got a new rag and bandaged my arm up.



It was a later start to walking than we had before, but it was nice giving my feet a bit of a break. Break wouldn't last though and off we went again, Harry Potter now riding over the castle on the back of a hippogriff.

We only stopped for a few pit stops and a quick lunch that day, making up the time we rested in the morning. I was somewhere in the middle of a merpeople scene, still talking up my book when all of a sudden I was twenty feet away from the wheelbarrow and Thann had me pressed up against a tree, mouth covered with one large hand.

What the heck Dothraki!?

When my mind sped to catch up to where my body was, I looked at Thann in horror. "Excuse me?" came out more like "Mxmms mhm?"

"No mouth," he whispered down in my ear. And then I noticed how absolutely frantic his body language was. His muscles were stiff and strong, head sprinting about, ears perked. "Werewolf."

My eyes widened in fear and I nodded, acknowledging that no sound would come from my lips.

He let my mouth go, but stayed pressed up against me for a few strenuous minutes. He then leaned back down to my ear, "No go." Then he lifted me with one arm and climbed the rough tree trunk with the other. I was carried high up into the tree. I scrambled to hold on, balancing between the branches, but finally righted myself.

He looked up to me, making grave eye contact. No go. No walk. No mouth. He pointed to his lips.

I nodded, leaning back into the tree, knowing he was about to disappear.

When he was sufficiently certain I was going to stay put, he dropped then ran off like a bullet, image blurring with speed. In mere seconds both bins and wheelbarrow were tucked at the bottom of the tree and covered with massive amounts of forest greenery. Then his blur was shooting off over the hill into a next valley.

Holy Rambo! He was fast! I rubbed my eyes, trying to figure out if I saw what I saw.

I stayed put a few quiet minutes, maybe it was an hour, but I got antsy to know anything of what was going on. As quietly as I could I started climbing the tree higher, trying to get any view into the valley. When I was as high as I dared, I situated myself and pulled the rifle from my back, twisting to look through the scope.

Seeing clearer into the valley, I used the scope like binoculars. It seemed like any wooded valley on Earth, and nothing was out of the ordinary. Setting the scope all around, everything was clear, but eerily clear. Silent. No animals showed their face, nor made a sound. Seemed like those sabretooth tiger creatures were the apex predator.

I sincerely hoped they couldn't climb trees.

Replacing my gun to my shoulder, I laid back against the tree right there close to the top and just tried to give my feet a good relax after days of walking. I unwrapped my hands and let the sweat air out.

After an abhorrent amount of time and still no sign of Thann, I wasn't sure how long I should wait for his No Go rule. At best I was ten more minutes in this tree before I desperately needed a human minute. I climbed down to the lowest branch, the one Thann had lifted me to and realized that was quite a jump down and there was no way I was getting my arms around that trunk to climb back up. I could only imagine how angry he'd be seeing me hanging out on the ground after he told me to stay put.

But how long did I have to stay put? Until I died? Until I needed new unders? If Thann's so scared of those sabretooths there's a reason. Maybe he really could die. I mean, remember that wound the first day I met him? That should have been fatal. Am I supposed to be in this tree when he's bleeding out...

Nope.

Okay. I think I'm done with those thoughts.

But Thanners my boy, I think I'm done with this tree too. Sorry about that.

Taking a deep calming breath, I let myself hug the trunk as best as I could. Then I pushed off and held on, trying to let myself shimmy down. My palms and arms were getting pretty scraped up, and I could tell my pants were rolling up over my ankles, as the skin there was starting to sting too, but I couldn't go back now. I'd made my choice. I'd just have to bite the bullet and keep going.

Reaching about eight feet off the ground, I called that good and let myself drop the rest. Luckily, I landed on target and knew I hadn't hurt anything. Well, I guess not specifically anything. I looked over my arms and noticed the bunches of tiny scratches across them. They should be fine. I'll just rinse them with some water and let them dry. If I even had any bandaids left, there weren't any scratches deep enough to need them. I did need to readjust the deathberry bandaging from getting scooted around as I roughed it up against the bark, but I just squared my jaw and quickly retied it.

Then I ran for a bush.

Completing my human minute, I dug into the greenery that covered my supplies and grabbed out my notebook and pen. I put it and a carrot, water, and some jerky into my purse and then threw that over my other shoulder. Blowing out a large breath in question, I looked over my tree choices. They were all big maybe cottonwood looking behemoths that were going to give me some trouble climbing their trunks, but I could see a giant thinning spruce in the distance I could get a good climb on. It wasn't too far, and it wasn't out in the open, so maybe that would be a good compromise? I'd be back in a tree, but one I could actually climb? And Thann could see me just fine from the tree he dumped me in, so he shouldn't be too mad I wandered off.

I wasn't so sure that was true. Actually, I was almost certain that I was going to get my butt chewed when he got back, but I was almost tempted to play hide and seek, just to show him how it felt to turn around expecting someone there and they weren't.

I wouldn't tempt fates that bad....yet. But I was getting in the other tree.

Just a minute or two later, I arrived at the tree and hefted myself up in as high as I could go. Again, at the top I eyed through my scope to check the surroundings, but nothing of interest caught my eye, so I relaxed to try for some sketching to wait out the time.

When an inked owl in a tree had fully come to life on the page, I flipped back a few sheets and studied my new signs for what I had made up. I shouldn't expect Thann to remember the signs if I couldn't. But with still no hint of the giant, I made up my mini meal right there in the tree.

Colors of sunset were flowering in the sky when Thann popped back into existence. When I finally realized he was alive again, he was already coming my way, eyes on me. He was glaring and I giggled, waving silly fingers. I couldn't tell for sure, but with how his neck moved I think he rolled his eyes at that.

He climbed up the tree with ease and met across from me.

"Everything okay? Werewolves?" I made up a sign with tapping fingers in front of my mouth like biting werewolf teeth.

He eyed the new sign. "Safe. Werewolf go." He pointed over the valley.

A moment later his gaze came back to mine, a new smile emerging.

"What?" I returned his smile.

He held out his hand and in his palm were three rings. Two gold, one tarnished silver. One gold just a band, the other studded with red stones like rubies. The silver with a setting of a sparkling diamond. They were all gorgeous. "Mhlawumbe eyodwa yalezi zindandatho izosebenza."

I eyed between him and the rings. "They're very pretty. Are they for me?"

He grabbed my hand and slipped the silver over my finger. "Uyangiqonda?"

"I like it," I said.

But maybe I wasn't pleased enough because huffed and pulled it off, then tried the gold with rubies. "Kuthiwani manje?"

"It's nice too, Thann. Thank you. What are you wanting me to say? That I'll marry you?" I gave a teasing smile.

It still wasn't the reaction he was looking for I suppose because he tried the last. "Uyangiqonda?"

"I think this one is a man's band. You should have it instead." I took it off and replaced it in his hand.

He nodded with a large sigh and put all the rings into his pouch. "Eat."

"Soup should be ready for us."

A single nod and then he started down the tree, waiting for me to follow.

It had been quite a while since we cooked the soup, but it was still nice and hot, thanks thermal cooker. I spooned myself out a small bowl seeing as I already had something to eat, and then just handed the whole pot over to Thann. It was the first smile he'd broke since I rejected his ring.

Maybe I should just take that ruby one. It wasn't totally an engagement ring, and heck, he wasn't even putting it on my ring finger anyway. Maybe it meant something different here?

Probably not.

We slurped our soup, and when I was finished, I flashed a smirk Thann's way. "Fire fish. Soup. Like? No like?"

He took another deep mouthful from the side of the pot. Like.

El like soup. "Me too. Your herbs were nice." Looking to the sky, I asked. "Fire tonight? Yes-No?"

He shook his head. "No fire. Werewolf."

"You said werewolves go." I said confused.

"Werewolf eyes. Fire."

"They can see the fire? The smoke?" I nodded. "Makes sense." Then I wondered delicately, "El cold night?"

Smiling after another mouth of soup. No. Thann.

A small fluttering of butterflies stirred my stomach. "Okay."

He grinned and then drank the rest of the broth and picked out the leftover chopped veggies at the bottom in a handful to eat. Then he rubbed his hands over his pants like a napkin as he stood. He grabbed my sleeping bag from the pile and then held his hand out to me. "Night. Tree."

My eyes raked over the tall spruce unsurely, but I placed my hand to his. His grin lit and he helped me to my feet. I grabbed the headlamp from my wheelbarrow arm, then went back to the tree. He guided me, pressing me to climb first, so I started up on my way to where my lookout spot had been. But Thann called to me only about halfway up, leaning against two wider branches that had grown together. "Oh, that's a good place." I noticed it did seem like a much safer spot to be when sleeping and slid back down beside him.

This time when he opened his arms, I didn't hesitate. I leaned back into him, almost needing his comfort after a scary day worried about sabretooths eating me. He tossed the bag unzipped around us and tucked it around me, his arms then caging me to his warm chest.

All I could do was sigh and nestle back against him. I was starting to feel more at ease around him, so hopefully if I did fall asleep as hard as I felt like I would, he'd catch me before I fell to my doom.



I woke up several times throughout the night as either of us needed to adjust to be more comfortable, but there weren't any wolf howls or spider attacks, so the night went as well as could be sleeping in a tree.

When the cool morning air started to really sting my nose, I twisted and buried my face up against Thann's neck. He made some sort of laughing hum sound that rumbled his chest. It caused my lips to smile against him. "Morning Thann."

"El," he greeted and then adjusted his arms to hug around me better, with a small tilt of his cheek against my head.

I'm sure he was just wanting to make sure I didn't fall. That's all it was, right?

My fluttering stomach butterflies cried a no.

My nose was sufficiently warmed within a minute or two, so I sat forward and stretched. He adjusted so his legs were off to one side and followed with his own stretch, arms up high and twisting his back back and forth.

"Thann, your back!" I exclaimed, taking in the pressure points dug into him from the bark. "Hurt? Yes-No?"

Curving his chin over his shoulder to follow my point, he shrugged. "No hurt."

At least I had been able to move around a bit. He was pressed into the rough bark all night! "Yes hurt!" I complained. "Here." I grabbed on his shoulders and turned him to face away from me. I knew with how strong he was, he was only letting me turn him. Then I spent a minute rolling my hands over the indents and getting them to relax back into his skin. It felt a little awkward at first, but he had given me quite a nice massage when I needed it. I could return the favor.

Only a minute later, his arms moved out to branches on either side of him and his head rolled forward with a pleased sigh. It brought a smile to my face and made me more interested in continuing. It didn't take too long for the bark marks to release, so I roamed over his shoulders and arms a minute more in my own exploration.

The pressure of my hands eased as I traced the muscles and down his spine. Each definition carving into my own belly with tightening bands.

After a few more minutes and I could barely breathe, I patted his shoulder. "Done."

He stretched through his neck and turned back to me a full grin over his face. His eyes sparkled over me. Like.

I bit my lip and giggled. "Massage. Yes, like." I pointed down before he could beg for more. "Should we get going? Eat? Walk?"

He nodded and started climbing down with me right after.