Nathan-

Grey, early morning light streamed through the tiny cracks of the door.

I yawned, feeling particularly warm. I stretched one arm up and froze when I heard a small hum.

Looking over, I saw Lyra cuddled up right next to me. One hand on my chest, her cheek rested against me, she moved a little, throwing her leg over mine. Tangling us up further.

She was melted into my side like she was supposed to fit perfectly there. I felt incredibly guilty for making her cry last night and I knew I should probably move away from her.

But I couldn't bring myself to move an inch. So I tightened my hold on her and fell back asleep to enjoy her being right next to me.

-----

I cracked my eyes open again for the second time this morning. Stretching my arms I noticed a cold, bare spot next to me. Lyra was gone, no longer curled to my side. I looked around the cave. Empty, bow and arrows gone.

Sighing, I stood up and changed into a new set of clothes. I put on my light brown jacket, feeling the cold chip in the air. It was steadily getting cooler now. Walking out of the cave, I sat outside for a while. Lyra was nowhere to be seen.

Worry gnawed at my insides like the guilt that ate me alive earlier today.

She's fine. She can take care of herself. Probably just checking the snares.

But what if there was a bear?

Lyra's smart. Plus, we haven't seen a bear around here.

Yeah, but still. It'd be all your fault if she got hurt and you weren't there to protect her.

I growled frustratedly at my mental, one sided argument and stood up to go find Lyra.

"Lyra," I called quietly every now and again as I walked through the forest. This was a truly beautiful place. The sun dappled the pine needle floor and birds sang cheery melodies.

At the base of a large pine tree, I stopped and leaned against the trunk.

"Lyra," I called again. No answer.

"Hey Nate."

I stood upright and looked around. No one was around me. Going around the tree trunk, I found I was still alone.

"Morning!"

I turned around and bumped nose to nose with Lyra. We both rubbed our noses and said embarrassed sorry's.

"What are you doing?" I raised an eyebrow. Lyra was hanging upside down on one of the lowest branch of  the tree like a bat, her hair dangling freely below her.

"Getting a good view. Hey, look what I got in the thicket," she hung by her legs and dug through her pack. I nervously positioned myself underneath her incase she fell. She grinned proudly and held out three rock grouse, each shot straight through the eye.

"Wow, nice," I grinned, examining the medium sized birds. No doubt that they'd taste just like chicken.

"They're stupid birds, they are," Lyra chuckled and folded her arms across her chest, still upside down, "I walked up to them and shot them in the four yard range."

"Um, yeah. Please come down before you fall and hurt yourself," I begged, taking the grouse from her to store in my backpack.

She scoffed, "Oh I'm fine, there's no way I could fall."

"You're going to hurt yourself," I said flatly.

"Nuh uh."

"I can't let anything happen to you, so please come down," I whined. It was either the blood rushing to her face or she was blushing, but she rolled her eyes.

"Fine, worry whale."

Crack, snap.

Lyra squealed as the branch broke in two. I gasped as she fell a little ways before I could catch her.

We both landed on the ground with an 'oomph'. She landed right on top of me, a fistful of my shirt clutched in her hand. Panicking slightly, I sat up with her in my lap, her legs wrapped around my torso, and looked her over, "Are you ok?"

Her eyes adjusted on my face, a little unfocused, "Uh, yeah. I think so. You broke my fall. Stupid gravity."

"I told you you'd fall," I smirked. She's just as stubborn as my little sister.

"I didn't technically fall. The branch snapped and then physics kicked my ass," she growled playfully.

"Either way, no more climbing trees," I said sternly.

"What are you? My mother? I'm fine Nathan," she smirked. The mentioning of her mom made her look away.

"Hey uh, about last night? I feel really guilty for bringing that up. I should've known better, I'm sorry," I grimaced.

Her eyes met mine and she smiled slightly, blushing a little, "It's okay, you have a right to miss your mother and your family."

I smiled back. She glanced at our position on the grounded and pushed herself away from me, stumbling over her own feet. Her face burned bright red. Laughing nervously, she extended her hand to help me up, "Ha, sorry about that."

I took her had and stood up, "It's alright. Maybe you could listen to good ol' Nate next time, yeah?"

She rolled her eyes, "Shut up. C'mon, lets go have grouse for breakfast."

I followed her through the forest. Baine appeared out of nowhere and trotted beside me. When we reached the cave, I took her small hatchet, "I'm going to get some more firewood."

"Okay, I'll tell you when things are ready," Lyra settled outside the doorway to clean the grouse. Baine wriggled beside her, impatient for treats.

I started with some trees outside the camp. Chopping three thin ones down, lashing them together and bringing them back to the valley to chop up.

I tossed my jacket away when I got hot, leaving on my long slevee black shirt.

"I shoulda told you to leave
Cause I knew all the time you couldn't handle me
But you're hard to resist
When you're on your knees
Begging me."

I stood up straight and let the axe hang by my side. Lyra was singing. What song is this? I walked around the side of the cave and listened.

"I tear you down
I make you bleed
Eternally
Can't help myself
From hurting you
And it's hurting me
I don't have wings
So flying with me won't be easy
Cause I'm not an angel
I'm not an angel," she sang, her voice carrying a melodious tune that my ears loved.

I leaned against the doorway and watched her. She was roasting all three grouse on a spit.

"Hate being that wall
That you hit
When you feel like you gave it all
I keep taking the blame
When we both know that I'll never change," she stood up and danced to her own singing, swaying her hips and bouncing around as she twisted the spit.

I grinned as she danced, singing her lovely song. I didn't know it, but I was sure she must be singing it better than the artist. She pulled the spit away from the fire.

"Nathan! Lunch!!" She yelled and turned around.

"Aghhh!!!" She screamed when she saw me, almost dropping the food.

"How long have you been standing there?" She scowled at me.

I grinned sheepishly, "Uh, a little while. Sorry."

Lyra blushed and looked away. I walked over to her, "You sure can sing. Lunch looks good by the way."

"Uh t-thanks," she smiled and pulled off a bird, setting it on a camping plate of mine and handing it to me.

"I just thought it was too quiet around here," she shrugged and made up her own plate.

I watched her toss a whole bird to Baine, who snatched it up and went off to his own corner.

"I've never made boiled cattail root so let's see how this goes," she muttered, pulling the top off the pot that sat next to the fire.

Fishing out a wrinkled white root with her knife, she handed it to me and got her own.

Taking a bite, I rolled it on my tongue. It was a melted down starchy flavor. A little bit like peanut butter if you chewed enough.

"Gross. Filling but gross," Lyra wrinkled her nose.

Tearing off a grouse leg, I smiled at her, "It's fine, I bet this is better."

"Probably," she smiled, pulling off her own meat.

She chewed thoughtfully, "Nate what if we built a cache? That hole isn't big enough to store everything. I would rather have just roots in there. We need the meat away from things."

A cache is a place to store things. In our case, we'd build it on a four stilted platform very high up. It would look like a large dog house on top where we could package meat, and the only way up would be a ladder that we would take down so bears wouldn't get in.

"Well you did want something to do. Let's do it," I shrugged. I wanted a goal too.

She chewed the leg and took a stick to draw in the dirt.

"Okay, so if we chop down some fourteen foot stilts, lash those to a few platform boards..." She drew out the entire blueprint.

This was going to be fun.