“I wouldn’t trust anyone but you old friend.”

Lilly sniffed angrily causing an amused smile to cross Jaden’s face. “Goodbye.” He mounted his horse and turned him to make sure Lilly was with him. With a brief nod they trotted down the road and away from her home.

They traveled most of the day in silence and made camp just past the border of her father’s lands. He was glad it was warm and the forest was thick with rabbits coming out to feed on the spring clover. The next night was the same after a long day of traveling in silence they made camp and he went out to hunt. He glanced over at Lilly who was sitting off to the side staring hard into the fire while he put the pheasant he got on the spit. She’d spoken all of two words to him since leaving. “Here.” He said getting her attention. “Turn the spit while I get more wood for the fire.” She got up and came over taking the handle barely making eye contact with him.

He had allot of experience with temper and Lilly’s was as acute as his once was. When he came back she was turning the spit too slowly and a big drop of juices fell into the fire making it flare. He flinched back and covered his face crying out.

“I’m sorry!” She said rushing to him and pulling away his hands to see how bad he was burned. When he let her take away his hands he smiled. “Oh!” She growled and pushed him back to the ground as he laughed. “Jerk!” She was about to kick him in the ribs when he caught her foot and twisted sending her to the ground beside him. After a moment he heard her laughing too. Again he found that one thing he had missed dearly was the pure fun of being with the one person who was most like him.

He sat up, his laughter fading and looked over at her. “That wasn’t so hard was it?”

She sat up and pushed on his shoulder trying to frown. “You’re still a jerk.”