Page 17 of Hansel and Gerhardt (The GriMM Tales #3)

Gerhardt had never known the emotions that swelled in his chest just then.

Pain, he’d felt it all his life. Anger, sadness, bitterness, all of it.

But these mingled with a sense of… safety.

Warmth. Dignity. But simmering under it all, guilt.

No matter what Hansel said, Gerhardt couldn’t kick the feeling he’d let Hansel down.

By being weaker. By not looking out for him.

“Just please, promise me, whatever happens, don’t look back and remember me with anger. My actions were not—”

“I know exactly what your actions were,” Hansel replied softly, poking at the fire.

Earnest and true, the words were the very essence of Hansel.

And even if Gerhardt had so recently set that barrier between them, he felt the strongest urge to tear it back down.

And he might have, had the sun not, that very second, glinted sharply gold, and torn his eye away, across the forest, and far and far through the melting fog.

“Hansel. There’s something there. Come see! ”

He was on his feet with Hansel beside him. He squinted hard into the wispy air, curling, while Hansel stayed strong and silent by his side.

He had seen something. He was sure of it.

But they watched, and the fog danced and the sun shone and the seconds ticked by without moment.

And Gerhardt was about to make an excuse, doubly awkward because he was embarrassed by the closeness of that enormous shoulder he’d leaned on so hard the night before, but then Hansel said, “There! I see it!”

And following his outstretched arm, so did Gerhardt.

A sparkling reflection of the morning light.

The glinting roof of a magnificently tall tower, so distant as to be barely recognisable as a man-made object.

But there it was. Two days’ walk? Three?

Four? Who knew? But there, before their very eyes, was civilisation.

“We’re saved,” Gerhardt whispered. “Hansel, we’re saved!”

Hansel gave a slow nod, mentally mapping out the route.

A river ran along the eastern side of their rocky camp, steadily north for miles, until it swept further east, curling back westward so far in the distance as to be barely visible, if not for the morning sun catching like it might a glass window.

The tower was northeast. Directly. But some distance from the water.

Hansel let out a long breath. “If we keep to the river, it will be safer.”

Gerhardt chewed over his words with a fallen face. “If we keep to the river all the way, it will add several days to our journey. If we make directly for the tower—”

“Through the Dark Forest?” Hansel’s voice was almost mocking with disbelief.

“Yes, I know. But…” Gerhardt looked longingly at the tower. He surveyed the river, rolling golden in the sun. He scanned the carcass they’d found. “Just how long do you think that meat is going to last us? We don’t know how hard the going will be. What if it’s a week? More?”

“We’ll last longer hungry than we would thirsty. If we follow the river, there’s a fresh water source all the way. And who knows, maybe we’ll even come upon another habitation along the route to the tower.”

“Oh, Hansel…” Desperation pulled at Gerhardt’s shoulders.

He pressed his lips, scanning the horizon for any other sign of life.

But that was it. That one tower, strangely tall and isolated, but it must have been there for a reason.

“No, Hansel. We’ll take some sharpened sticks as weapons, and we’ll head directly for the tower. ”

“We won’t even be able to see what’s coming for us in the black of that forest,” Hansel protested.

“But we have fire now,” Gerhardt countered. “We’ll take the fire with us, and we won’t stop once, not even to sleep.”

“For days? Carrying that meat?” Hansel gave another scoff. “No. I say we do it slow, and steady, and safe.”

“And I say we hit it hard and fast, and that we don’t die miles from anything by walking away from that tower.”

“The river turns right back!”

“We’ll have starved or died of rotten meat by then!”

“Gerhardt—”

“Hansel—”

“ Gerhardt !”

“ Hansel !”

“If you could just for once in your life—”

“Me? You’re one to talk!”

Then, as if by design, a newer, closer, crisper wisp of curling air drifted up towards the heavens. Back, forth, back, forth, like a snake made of smoke, it appeared from the almost impenetrable canopy of the Dark Forest.

They watched a while, neither quite able to believe they were seeing it, both on their guard. “That doesn’t look like…” Hansel blinked. “It looks too dark to be a campfire.”

“Yes,” said Gerhardt. “It’s too concentrated. It looks like it’s being funnelled up. Like it’s coming from—”

“A chimney.”

Two sets of eyes locked.

Gerhardt slapped the back of his hand against Hansel’s great chest. “Look. It’s directly between us and the tower. We make for it, arrive by nightfall, then ask to shelter for a night or two. Won’t it be nice to sleep indoors?”

“In what doors? You have no idea who or what that is—if it’s even a house chimney!”

“What else would it be?” Gerhardt was back on his knees, clodding sticks together, flinging the cooked meat out of the fire, preparing to leave. “We can offer them some of our boar in exchange for a good night of sleep. Maybe even a bed!”

“We haven’t agreed to this,” said Hansel, automatically making for the carcass, helping to pack up, as though Gerhardt might leave without him if he wasn’t quick enough.

“It’s this or risking death and starvation by spending a week riverside.” Gerhardt paused his preparations to look Hansel in the eye. “Let’s do it, Hansel. Let’s go to that house, let’s go to that tower, and let’s survive.”

Hansel’s squeezing gut screamed at him to stay out of that forest. But Gerhardt’s bright eyes and hopeful smile filled his heart with the desire to keep him happy.

The differing considerations might have warred in his chest, but trumping the lot was the pink of Gerhardt’s cheeks, the ease of his arms, the aspect of a man fed and a part of life, no longer clinging on by his fingernails.

And all things considered, it was only a few days, three at the most, and they’d make it to that tower.

Hansel looked again.

There.

Civilisation.

Where his new life would begin.

Where he would live with Gerhardt, where they’d have their own home. Just the two of them, and money and food. And if he could only convince him his heart was true, maybe more.

“Very well, Gerhardt.”

Gerhardt jumped up excitedly, dropping his sticks as he ran to Hansel. “You won’t regret it!”

Gerhardt pulled up just short, just before he touched him, shoving his hands into his pockets, even as he grinned his success.

Hansel, still on his guard, warned, “If we get in trouble, any trouble at all, we head directly east until we hit the river. And if we get separated for any reason, follow the river to the tower, no matter how long it takes.”

“Yes, yes, Hansel. Let’s get—”

“Swear it to me.” He held out his hand for Gerhardt to shake on it. “Swear you’ll keep your promise. That we’ll go to the city together. That we’ll at least start our lives there together. Whatever happens next.”

Gerhardt grabbed his hand heartily. “I swear it to you, brother.” He looked deep into his eyes a few seconds, and with each one, his exuberance shifted.

Morphed into something that stroked along Hansel’s spine like beautiful fingers, that swept him up, gathering about him a blanket of warmth.

As his eyes mellowed, so he lowered his voice and said, “I told you, I won’t leave you for anything. It’s you who has the choice. Not me.”

With that, he leaned forward on his tiptoes, and kissed Hansel’s cheek, but before Hansel could turn his face to catch those lips, he was away, snatching up his bundle of sticks and cooked meat, skipping down the rock, calling over his shoulder, “Catch me if you can, Hansel!”