Kalımıty

Chapter 15: No Longer Choices

The trees in the woods outside the kingdom are tall and lush, but they do little to prevent the heavy rain from pounding down onto Kali and Finn as they run through the paths.

Stumbling over some logs, Kali struggles to keep up with Finn. His movements are fluid and memorized, like he's run this trail many times. Her back brown pack bounces on her back as she goes, keeping unsteady beats with her heart as she breathes heavy as she strains to catch up.

"Can you slow down a little?" She begs out, calling to him. She's not sure that he can hear her over the heavy stormfall, but luckily she hears a quick call out in response.

"We're almost there! Let's hurry and get out of this rain!"

She can see him running toward a mountain in the clearing, what looks to be a large cave in the side has her feeling a lot of unease. A cave? Is that where we're going?

He makes it inside first, taking a moment to catch his breath and she runs up beside him. The interior is empty, other than some logs stacked in the corner and evidence in the middle of the area that a fire has been built a few dozen times.

"This cave is usually empty, I like to stay here when I'm on missions or stake outs..." He says simply, stretching his arms for a moment before heading to the wood pile. "We;ll start a fire and get it going first, ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course... Uh, do you know how to start a fire?" She asks nervously, getting a look of annoyance from him as he stacks multiple logs into his arms.

"You're kidding right? You don't know how to make a fire?" Disbelief is etched into his words.

"I mean, I didn't usually need to, Dakki always makes them..." Because he can literally summon fire, but I don't need to tell Finn that.

He sighs and walks over to the center of the room, dropping down the logs before looking around, grabbing a rock and some twigs. "It's not too hard, you just need big sticks, little sticks, a a rock... and this-" he pulls a chunk of flint from his pocket, holding it up and waving it at her.

"This is the key to it. Look, you just stack everything on top of each other, hit the flint with the rock and..."

A small hint of smoke flicks out with each hit, until a spark pops from the friction of the rocks, landing on a stick and slowly, very slowly, catching fire.

"Now we just need to feed the flames. How do you not know how to do this? Did no one ever teach you?" He cocks his head, looking up at her and she stands above him watching. She crouches down and gets to eye level, watching him as he starts to catch more and more logs on fire until it becomes a sturdy flame.

"I want you to stay in here and keep the fire going, ok?" Finn looks at her for a long moment and her face softens.

"Where are you going?" She asks softly.

"I'm going to go looking for the bear, I won't make you have to see it." He nods to himself and stands up, brushing off his shirt. He looks back down at her, her expression sullen as she looks deeply into the fire.

"What is that face?" He sighs and sits back down next to her, resting his arm on his knee.

"I feel guilty..."

"I told you I'll do this for you, and I want to. Don't you worry, it won't take long. Just stay here and wait." He hesitates a moment and jumps back up, grabbing his pack off the ground and sliding it onto his back. He checks his sword and takes a deep breath.

"Kali, why don't you like to kill things?" A long glance happens between them and she contemplates what to say.

"My mother told me not to. She told me life is a give and take. If you take something, then you must give something."