As we continue uphill, the wind picks up even more, gusts hitting us head-on with the force of a battering ram. With it, the woody aromas blast our noses and muffle our ears with its rushing fronts. After a while, my face starts to sting from my hair whipping around me, and I long for a pony-tail holder from home. I gather up a handful of the locks and try to stuff it under my collar, but after a minute or so, it snakes its way out and begins thrashing all over again.

I let out a frustrated grunt and go back to shoving the strands out of my eyes when Luke extends something toward me.

"Elastic is hard to come by, but this should do," he says. He is holding a long strip of fabric, twisted into a kind of string. He shifts behind me and takes my hair into his hands. Goosebumps immediately rise across my flesh when his warm palm caresses my ear. His lithe fingers comb gently along my scalp, smoothing the hairs into uniformity before tying the fabric off.

"That should hold. If the knot comes loose, just let me know and I will re-tie it." He grins at his handiwork and my hand lifts to discover that he has not only secured any fly-aways, but he has tied it off in a bow.

If anyone in Herald had asked me to list the things a savage Outlander could do, tying a girl's hair in a bow was not one of them.

But Luke is full of surprises.

"Thank you," I tell him. And I mean it. "You're always helping me with the littlest of things. Bandaging me up, letting me sleep, giving me a say in how we proceed with this journey, tying my hair back for me. All of it... I appreciate it, Luke. More than you know. More than words can express."

Luke seems shocked at my words as much as I am. It's true, I am exceedingly thankful for his presence, but this feels different. It is as though there is more than understanding between us. There is friendship. Someone to have your back. I have not felt alone since we began this journey, and it is all thanks to Luke. I will have to find a way to repay him.

"You are most welcome, Sophie," Luke murmurs. His low tone is almost lost on the wind, but I still feel the warmth of his voice wrapping around me, stirring up butterflies in my stomach.

Atingle, I nod toward the up-slope, eager to get moving again and scared as to what prolonging that moment would bring.

The climb is much easier now that I can see. After a while, I can see the gray clouds ahead between the treetops. We hike up the side of the mountain for another half hour before I feel a fat raindrop land right on my head. I open my mouth to tell Luke that we should begin to search for shelter when the boom of thunder peals above our heads. I yelp, unable to help it.

Ahead of me, Luke snorts.

"Don't you dare laugh," I say. I don't have to see Luke's face to know he's smiling at my outburst. He turns, and sure enough he is barely holding back laughter at my expense. I kick up the leaves, flinging dirt in his direction. It does little in terms of retaliation, but it makes me feel better.

The act makes Luke burst out into full-blown laughter. Okay, so maybe I was being immature. It's not long before I begin giggling along. It feels good to laugh—freeing, even. Too long has passed since I last felt my belly ache with laughter, my cheeks sore, stretched with a broad smile.

Just in those few seconds of distraction, the rain had begun to fall exponentially faster. I watch as Luke's hair darkens and presses flat against his forehead, heavy with moisture. My gaze focuses on the droplets sticking to his cheeks and making rivers down his nose. His eyes are yet bright against the darkening sky, and he blinks lazily, as if in slow motion.

My heart hurts. It feels as though the devil himself set my chest ablaze. The laughter has faded, but something else has taken its place, something as tangible as the hungry look he pierces me with. It makes my stomach feel as though it may float away without me.

The only sound on the mountainside is the patter of rain hitting the ground as he reaches toward me and brushes his knuckles across my cheekbone.

"Pink," he murmurs. "Your cheeks are pink." Are they? I don't know how they could possibly be, the temperature has dropped significantly with the rainstorm, but I do know that I can hardly breathe.

"They feel cold," I whisper. Especially next to his warm hand. Thunder rumbles again overhead.

Luke blinks, the water making his long eyelashes clump together. He strokes the redness with the pad of his thumb. "You probably have a windburn." I can't stop myself from admiring the way his lips form the words.

The sky chooses that moment to unleash hell upon us. Lighting strikes nearby, lighting up the stormy sky, and the thunder cracks loud enough for me to jump. Luke pulls back, his hand falling by his side. The spell is broken. Reality settles in his features, and he looks behind him to the path rapidly growing muddy.

"We have to get moving and find shelter. Climbing uphill now is dangerous and will do us no good," he says logically. Am I the only one who is left speechless after that moment?

"Uh, yeah—okay," I manage. Shaking the fog from my brain, I wipe the rain from my eyes. Where do we begin?

Luke starts walking downhill, in the direction we came. "We traveled past an overgrown hunter's pass earlier. It's not too far. If we're lucky, it will lead to a hunting cabin," he explains.

I try my best to keep up with him, but just as he said, the mud is making it hard for my shoes to find traction. The smaller, more stable steps I have to take puts a sizable gap between us.

Just as we turn onto the old pass, the downpour increases in strength. The wind blows the rain sideways, creating a white sheet of falling water between us. There is water sloshing in my shoes, and making my clothes soggy and heavy. My leather pack is the only item spared, the wax coating causing the moisture to bead and roll off its surface.

The wind whips debris around me; leaves, pine needles, and tree bark fly across the path. With the thunder loud in my ears, it spurs me on to close the distance between Luke and I. In my haste, I hop over a fallen log. Realizing my mistake too late, I slip, shrieking as I slide a few meters down the slope.

Luke turns at the sound of my scream, and I see the concern illustrated on his face. When he starts back up toward me, I try to wave him off. He stops, not at my gestures, but at the lightning strike and its ensuing crackle.

Above the booming thunder, a deafening crack resonates through the forest.

Time crawls. What feel like minutes are mere seconds stretched into an infinite existence. I sit in the mud, my nerves lost in the limbo between my brain and limbs. Luke's eyes grow to the size of saucers. The sound of timber crashing through the treetops blocks out the sound of Luke's footsteps running toward me. It's odd to see something happening but not being able to hear it.

Even more odd is the feeling of being lifted off the ground by a force other than my own two legs.

"On your feet, Soph. Quickly," Luke commands in a tight voice, and I barely register the words over the ringing in my ears.

Luke takes my hand and drags me after him, running at a pace where each footfall slips out from under me. Fortunately, Luke has enough balance to keep both of us on our feet as we dash away just in time for the tree to fall, crashing to a halt across the trail we just passed. The sound of branches breaking and bark crunching is one I will likely never forget.

With it, comes the smell of charred wood. I glance behind us, horrified at the thought of being crushed beneath the timber, and gasp at the trees ablaze with flame.

Drought, Luke had said. Fire was one danger we did not even think of considering.

In seconds, the fire spreads throughout the underbrush, catching quickly as tinder. I cough as the smoke wafts its way to us.

"We have to keep going," Luke rasps. I don't need much convincing. He sounds just as frightened as I am.

We continue moving down the path as quick as we can with muddy steps, hoping that the wind pushes the blaze away from us. I can't bring myself to look back.

I also can't help but think about how bad a wildfire could be for the people of Natio. Not only is the forest their home, but it is also the home for the animals they rely so heavily on for food. If game was already hard to come by, it does not help that an entire ecosystem can be destroyed by a single lightning bolt, not to mention burned crops and livestock pastures.

Never does the rain let up as we wind down the hunter's trail. The smell of smoke has long faded. Or maybe my olfactory sense has become accustomed to it. I may never find out.

"I knew it!" Luke cries triumphantly. I look up just as a small wooden structure comes into view.

Motioning for me to halt, Luke creeps closer, the sound of his steps masked by the deluge. In addition, the leaves are wet and pliable, aiding in a silent approach. The probability that the place is occupied by another human is slim, but these past few days with him has shown his preference to check for animals that may have taken residence in the cabin.

Easing open the door, he takes a quick look inside, then motions for me to enter.

As I get closer, I realize that only half of it is made of wood. The other half is made of rock. The cabin is set into the mountainside.

Once inside, I marvel at how much bigger the structure is than what it seemed. Only a small part of the shelter is seen from the outside, mostly containing the kitchen area. Through a small door, the majority of its interior is deep inside a cave.

Leaving Luke wringing out his shirt in the sink, I drop my soggy things and venture past the threshold and deeper into the cave area.

In Herald, I read about caves and caverns, and they have always fascinated me. The idea that there could be an entire network of underground tunnels beneath our feet has catapulted me into many daydreams of exploring and mapping them, just like the Old World did. I never thought I would ever actually be inside one.

I don't expect it to be so cold inside. I had been accustomed to being rained on for so long, when I feel the dry air hit my face, I shiver. Toward the back of the cave room, I hear a noise.

There is not much light this far into the cave, so the darkness makes it hard to see clearly. I don't think I would be able to light a torch with everything so damp, but I tip-toe forward, trying to allow my eyes to adjust. Training my ears on the silence in front of me, I hear the noise again.

It is soft clicking sound, almost like a purr, similar to the noise a cat would make, but just one. The rolling of a tongue only a few seconds long, then silence.

A blanket of ominous feeling is draped over me. My imagination is poised, ready to take off with my composure. Was it a mountain lion? Luke must have not have realized the cave went so far back. There could be any animal in there.

Just as I am about to back up and sprint to Luke, I hear shuffling. The purr sounds again, then it is followed by a soft, wet smack, akin to a bare foot slapping the rocky ground.

I freeze, holding my breath, and yet another smack is heard, but closer. The hair at the nape of my neck rises and something tells me it's not a mountain lion.

My eyes finally adjust, and out of the darkness emerges a pale face with dark beady eyes set too close together. There is no hair atop its skull. Just tight skin, seemingly pulled back too tightly over its oblong forehead. My heart practically jumps out of my chest when its eyes land on me. The pupils contract in awareness, and it opens its maw to show a double row of razor-sharp teeth.

I scream.