Page 74 of Phoenix's Fire

"Ayla... It's huge."

"But I don't want to waste it," I insisted.

So he turned to face me again. "I'll help, but I have one condition."

"Okay?"

"You let me help you with your wounds. It will be embarrassing, and probably improper, but you just saved my life."

"You saved mine," I reminded him.

He chuckled once. "Okay, we saved each other, but to me, that means something."

"What thing?"

Those orange eyes of his slipped down to my mouth again. "That we're friends, Ayla. Good friends. The kind who can trust each other, right?"

I nodded quickly, more than willing to agree to that.

"Maybe even the kind of friends who can stop being afraid of each other?"

I glanced away, knowing he wasn't scared of me. He was talking about how many times I'd worried about things, or pushed him - and the other guys - away because I didn't want to make a mistake. Because I kept thinking I had to or they'd take advantage of me.

But he was right. He'd just saved my life. He'd risked his own to help me, and thatdidmean something. He didn't laugh at me for helping, or chide me for notbeing good enough with the bow. Instead, he'd held me so protectively. He'd taken care of me.

He also hadn't tried to do more.

Part of me wanted him to. Standing there, looking up at him, I realized how stupid all those rules were. Yes, Zasen pushed me. Most times, he made me braver because of it, but wasn't that what friends did? So many times, he'd had the chance to force himself on me, but he never had.

Instead, he'd fought for me. It didn't matter if that was the man in the street who'd thought I was a Mole, the people in town who'd been scared of my pale sun-sheltered skin, or the hunters when they came to Lorsa. This time, it had been against the bear.

He always helped me - and it felt good. Nice. Safe. Maybe even warm, although that didn't make sense. That had to be from the exertion.

"I trust you," I finally said. "I don't even mind if you kiss me again. I know you won't hurt me."

"Good to know," he said, stepping around me as he headed for the bear. "But if you want another kiss, you're going to have to be the one to do it."

"What?" I gasped, staring at his back, aware of the mark across his ribs.

He ignored me, saying instead, "You're going to owe me for this, you know. Ayla, where's your rope?"

Among the gear we carried into the forest was always a length of rope. It wasn't much, no more than six feet, but it let us tie up the game too large to carry until we could retrieve it. He'd shown me how to use mine to hang the carcasses from my body the last time we went hunting. So when I passed it over, Zasen taught me how to tie a knot, then moved towards the bear's hind legs.

Kicking at the creature once to be sure it was dead, he slipped the noose over its ankle, hooking it on the protrusion of its hock, then showed me how to do the same on the other leg. When both legs were secure, we leaned into it. The bear had to weigh a ton, maybe more, yet the forest was covered in leaves. It was enough, barely, to let the body slide a few inches.

Each step was a challenge, each foot towards town was progress, and we pulled, side-by-side, in our self-made harness. One step, then another, we kept moving. The night around us grew cool, broken by the sound of our panting breath, but we still kept going. The moon rose and the moon set while we pulled some more. When the sky turned that strange shade of blue that preceded dawn, we still didn't stop.

I had never worked so hard in my life. No one had told me I'd need to be strong to hunt; I'd hoped being fast would be enough. The bear proved me wrong. Step by trudging step, we returned to Lorsa with our prize. The sun was leaking over the trees when we finally emerged from the forest, well away from Zasen's house. Before us were a few small shops, and on the other side was the market area. People were only just starting to gather.

Up ahead, something began making a racket. The sound was loud, sharp, and repetitive. I looked, trying to find it. The noise reminded me of that beaston the day Meri had arrived, but the moment we were out of the tree line, Zasen dropped his rope.

"We got a bear!" he yelled.

People turned, shocked looks on their faces, then rushed over. Flapping his hand at me, Zasen let them take over and simply dropped onto his rump in the grass. I joined him, then lay back, sucking for air. A moment later, he copied me, but his tail stretched out to twine around my ankle.

"I think you picked the right career. Ayla, you're an amazing hunter, and today? You're going to make your first wages."

Grinning, I opened my mouth to say something, but a brown streak rushed up the hill, not stopping until it was able to lick Zasen across the face and neck furiously. I tensed, but he just laughed, pushing the creature back a bit.