I'm Not a Thief, I'm a Treasure Hunter [FIN]

He certainly said uh a lot when he didn’t want to talk about something. He was usually such a smooth talker so when he stuttered like that it stuck out like a sore thumb. It sort of made her feel badly, like she was putting him in an uncomfortable situation intentionally, which of course she wasn’t. She gave him an almost pitying lop-sided smile. She wondered how he lived on a farm and never was taught to cook, but she dropped it in fear of making him more uncomfortable and instead said nothing. She didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t make him more uncomfortable.

She fell back behind him, almost grabbing his hand but then deciding not to, feeling a little distant and put-out for a reason she simply couldn’t identify. She pushed the uncomfortable feeling away and forced a smile, following Lochlann and trying, unsuccessfully, to not fall behind. “Right behind you” she called after him, trying to dodge twigs that came flying back at her as she moved.

Suddenly they broke through the worst of the tree line and Cassandra gasped, immediately pointing at the ocean “I can see the ocean from here!” she exclaimed before noticing the pirate flag in the tree, gasping and pointing to it as well. She looked awfully stupid with her mouth hanging open like that. She might have realized it cause she suddenly snapped her mouth closed and smiled at him sheepishly. “Uh. I guess so…” she giggled at his question. “I certainly know how to use meat and fire.” She wrinkled her nose at him as she teased him. She winked “I guess I will have to show you sometime.”

Suddenly she went sprinting towards the tree with the flag in it, laughing. “Race you!” She wasn’t a runner but she was in excellent shape.

She jumped up to hang by her arms from a tree branch for a moment, grinning and pretending to think about the offer. “Hmm. I dunno. HMMM.” She giggled before doing a full pull up and swinging her leg effortlessly up onto the branch and pulling herself up. She stood there looking down at him with a very mischievous grin before suddenly climbing up the tree fast as a monkey. “GUESS I’M CAPTAIN NOW”.

She couldn’t stop the giggling and laughter as she climbed up to the flag and pulled it down, hanging her backpack instead and making faces down at Lochlann in a mocking way. “How do you like dem apples FIRST MATE LOCHLANN?” she tossed an apple down towards him, trying not to actually hit him.

She was really asking for it and she knew it. She just wasnt sure what 'it' was just yet as she sat on the tree branch with no fear and tied the flag around her neck like a cape.

She laughed manically, an act that was rather out of character for her, but the situation simply called for it, but still just waited for him to catch her rather than climbing any higher. It took him much longer to climb the tree than her and she couldn’t help but laugh. It was definitely something he wasn’t used to doing and it was pretty funny, but it was pretty cute how hard he tried at it. She couldn’t help but smile down at him in a sort of half-mocking-half-affectionate way, giggling the entire time.

Soon enough they were both up in the tree and she moved herself to sit on the same branch as him on the outside, furthest from the trunk. He’d probably need something to hang onto more than she would. She grabbed an apple for herself and sat beside him, munching and smiling out at the sea. She swung her feet fluidly, careful not to shake the branch too much and leaning her head on his shoulder. “Mhm. Very good.”

They sat there for a little while, and she didn’t know how to thank him. Everything he did today was just too sweet. She looked up at her bag, seeing the outline of a couple stuffed legs poking against the fabric of the bottom of the bag and decided right then that she would give it to him. “Thank you… For everything. This is pretty cool and uh... the other day...” She trailed off, never finishing the thought. She spoke hesitantly, awkwardly and gave him an awkward sideways hug to match. “I uh.. have a gift for you actually…”

She was very red now as she started to move to get up and grab the bag she had hung from the branch, climbing up a few feet more slowly than she had before. As soon as she reached out a massive gust of freezing wind hit the tree. She fell, luckily she only fell down a couple feet and her pirate-flag cap didn’t catch on anything. She did however manage to smash her face some what bad and it took her a moment before she dragged herself off of the branch she face planted on. Her eye brow and cheek bone had split and was bleeding and she could easily have gotten a small concussion though it didn’t look like her face was broken, probably. She sat there silently for a moment, looking at the ground where her bag bad landed a few feet away from the tree. “What…” She looked at lochlann. She couldn’t feel her wounds yet. “I-I think we should get out of the tree.”

She blinked hard. Suddenly she was being held close to him. It was like everything was moving in slow stop-motion animation. Her pupils were changing sizes, her brain desperately trying to pull itself together. Through stars she saw Lochlann’s handsome face, filled with concern and flinched when he touched her face. Her own hand touched the wounds that were leaking blood down her face and onto her eyelid. “I am? I am….” She stated dumbly. She clearly did not know what was going on at the moment.

The fear in Lochlann’s face scared her. She thought it was due to her wounds and she wanted to tell him she was okay, though she really wasn’t sure. Her stomach turned when she realized he was looking around strangely and realized he was scared of something else. “I-it’s just a storm… We can just walk back right?” She started looking around fearfully, trying to figure out what he was afraid of. Suddenly his warmth left her and she clung to the tree trunk to keep her balance.

Suddenly he was calling up to her from the ground near where he bag fell. He wanted her to jump. She shook her head, wide eyed, clutching the tree as another gust blew. “I-I can get down…” she called back, unsure of herself. Of course, she tried but she started slipping due to some strange dizziness she couldn’t explain. “O-okay I cant…” She waited for another gust to past before edging to a safe place to jump from carefully, looking quite afraid. She hesitated for a long moment, shifting unsurely before jumping down, squeezing her eyes shut, pulling her arms into her chest and trying to hold as still as possible so as to not accidentally punch or kick him.

Suddenly she was running through the woods, holding a t-shirt against her face. Her one eye just couldn’t keep up with what was going on. She barely remembered slinging on her backpack before she was being rushed in one direction, tripping over everything in her way and bumping into trees. Still, she clenched Lochlann’s hand furiously even when the contents of her stomach began to turn warningly.

She could barely hear what he was saying. She blinked hard, trying to steady her vision but she just couldn’t. She felt the drool begin to pool in her mouth. Suddenly Lochlann was gone. She barely knew what happened. He said something, he made some sort of noise but she had been too preoccupied with not vomiting that she hadn’t heard. She hadn’t heard much of anything. She couldn’t even see.

Finally she fell to the ground and let the out the contents of her stomach. She heard a smashing sound and a splash of water. Suddenly she noticed that she was very very close to a cliff. She gasped for air, crawling over to the edge and trying to tuck her hair behind her ears. As she hung over the edge dangerously it began to rain. She looked up from trying to distinguish whether that was indeed a hole or if it was Lochlann crumpled up in a little ball much too fast. Just like that she was rolling head first down the slope, hitting a few rocks, a tree root and then finally the side of the hole crumbled against her ribs.

Suddenly it was very dark and then bloosh! She felt freezing water close around her. She couldn’t tell which way was up and floundered in panic before she felt he feet kick air. She was gasping and coughing as she surfaced and dragged herself to the edge of the pool before she vomited again, this time from swallowing and inhaling water. She looked like a drowned cat as she lay herself down, her chest heaving and her clothes clutching her body. The wound on her forehead had begun to stitch itself up, though it was beginning to swell and turn a mix of purple and green all along the upper half of one side of her face.

She now had fresh wounds all over her arms and legs and one or two on her back as well as a cut on the back of her neck. They all stung but they were not serious. The strange and horrible feeling in her head most certainly was. The world was spinning and now she was absolutely freezing. The flood of the cave she was in was hard, but she didn’t care. She pulled off her backpack with quite a bit of effort and threw it to the side before laying on her back, still panting heavily. She opened her eyes once in awhile, but most of the time her eyes were squeezed shut to push away the spinning and stars. She had no idea what was going on. She didn’t even remember that Lochlann was there.