I lead him to one of my favourite places in the forest. It was just off the stone laden path, and by a river. There was a patch of soft grass. I pointed to it. “Here. Eteri - ahh… I...I love rolling in this. Very soft.” I said as I finally let go of his hand. We were away from the town now and I felt a little safer. I swore I saw familiar eyes on me, from those days I was with Stefan and it unnerved me.

I didn’t like thinking about how so many people were into such...bad things and how they were walking freely around town.

Still….

I turned to look at Nevin. He still looked pale and sweat dotted his face. Despite his tired appearance he gave me a warm smile as he placed the sheet down, laying it out like a makeshift picnic blanket.

“Good feesh here…” I commented. I then started pointing out the things I liked most about the spot. I pointed to an overhanging flat rock, “This good for sun baking and sticking feet in river.” I pointed to the very large oak tree. “This tree nice climbing tree.” (I didn’t tell him that the knot in the trunk held a number of shinies I had ‘liberated’ from people that was my hiding hole)

“And this…” I pointed to a glittery cave opposite the area. Spots of granite and amethyst poked out. “This is very pretty at night time. Is Eteri….ah...uhm...Is I? No… Is my favourite to look. When night time.”

Nevin watched quietly as I showed him everything, a tender smile curling the corners of his lips. When I finished, he stepped over and kissed my forehead. “Well then, I'm glad you like me enough to show me your favorite place, Eteri. I think I'll quite like it here myself - just don't expect me to roll in the grass, I think I'm a bit too large for that.” He grinned before slowly heading towards the river. He studied it for a moment, then scratched the back of his head, making the loose tail of hair there dance about.

I wriggled my nose, it just….danced to and fro - that’s it. THAT’S IT! I jumped him, teeth nipping the back of his neck as they closed around the loose bang of hair and I tugged back on it. “Bleh.” (Hair tastes gross)

Nevin stumbled forward at the sudden impact, and he let out a startled exclamation, a wordless noise of surprise.

He stumbled forward. No! NO! Forward was bad. Using his back as a springboard I jumped off him and he...well he inevitably fell into the water. I covered my mouth to stifle a laugh, backing far enough away from the river to avoid his long muscular arms dragging me in. “Oops!”

I headed to the picnic blanket. “Not fault. Oops…” I sat on it and started to inspect the food he had bought, still laughing to myself.