Ikovos moaned as he slapped Jaden's hand away with his head still buried down.

I watched openly now as Jaden pulled the pillow out from under Ikovos's head. I felt a little sorry for him when I heard the loud clunk of his face hitting the wood.

"Ouch," he let out, before rubbing his head.

"Get up, you idiot," said Jaden. "You're embarrassing yourself in front of our guest." The words of the sentence should have reflected care or concern, but with the way he said, it came across the opposite.

Ikovos seemed to react to it though. He immediately leaned up and looked over at me.

I waved as his face perplexed. "Why are you all wet?"

I looked down at myself. "Oh." I thought for a moment. "I went for a walk and it started raining." Nothing wrong with a little fib to keep me out of the weirdo bracket.

He almost smiled before a yawn interrupted him. See? Normal morning behavior. A pillow flew into his face as Jaden hopped up off the floor. Despite my morning embarrassment, the boy seemed quite jaunty.

"I'm guessing you want coffee?" It took me a moment to realize he was talking to me.

"Oh . . . yes please," came my all-too-lame response.

I felt Ikovos tap me on the knee. He was a little more awake now. "You should probably go change into some dry clothes. You're gonna get sick in that."

I was grateful for his concern and nodded before turning around to grab my knapsack. Once I was up I headed for the bathroom.

Jaden interrupted. "You do know that this stuff stunts your growth, right?" He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me.

"Yeah. I know," I smiled, "I drink way too much of it."

A devilish smile crossed his face. "That's what I meant." He eyed my figure, but it still took me a moment to realize what he was saying.

Once I did, I narrowed my eyes spitefully at him, trying very hard to not allow myself to speak. But the look he was giving me! Ugh! I resorted to biting my tongue. Having a fight this early in the morning wouldn't bid well for the rest of the day.

"Jaden, if your head wasn't so big you wouldn't be much taller," said Ikovos as he hopped onto his feet and rubbed his hands near the fire.

I knew better than to laugh.

Jaden gave Ikovos a mocking smile, then went back to making the coffee.

Feeling a little shorter, I snubbed my nose at him, his back was turned at this point, and pattered off towards the bathroom.

As I got out of my damp clothes I realized how cold I was. I thought about taking a shower, but quickly abandoned the thought. Once I was dressed I looked into the mirror to put up my hair. I had chosen an outfit suitable for a wet, cold, day, hoping that if I did the sun wouldn't dare come out.

With a final smile at my reflection to remind myself how brave I was, it never really worked, I walked back onto the main room.

Jaden was still working at the counter and Ikovos was waiting for the bathroom. I moved out of the way without a glance up as he shuffled past me.

Light was pouring through the window now. I noticed it wasn't yellow which made my hopes for a sunless day increase exponentially.

The cabin felt a lot different in the daytime. warmer, though I guess that didn't make much sense. Maybe it was simply because I knew it now.

A shiver rippled through my body and I moved unconsciously to the fire. It was bright reddish-orange again, and it was extravagantly filling almost the entire concrete space.

After a few seconds I noticed the bedding and moved instantly to clear it up . . . I guess I still felt guilty about the blanket situation.

Jaden didn't seem to notice me at all. As I folded, I thought I saw him fiddling with a knife in his hands. But I couldn't really tell, I was too afraid to look at him after having been caught so many times.

When I had stacked the last blanket on the pile I walked over to the window and examined the area. All I could really see were trees and sloping dirt so I occupied myself with watching a bird bath in a puddle the rain had left.

I turned around when I heard the door to the bathroom open. Ikovos looked completely alert now. His blonde hair, though rustled, was layered nicely, and his blue eyes were in full color. I frowned when I saw that he had a sleeveless shirt on . . . that was a sign of complete support for the sun and warm weather. I was a little surprised at how muscular his arms were, though.

I don't know why, I thought to myself, that's bound to happen if you're fighting with swords all the time. My unintended ogling was interrupted when a cup of coffee came into view.

"The cream's over there," said Jaden. He sounded a little annoyed.

It was probably just my imagination. I hadn't talked to him, looked at him, or acknowledged him in any way since entering the room, he couldn't have been angry with me.

"Thank you," I said curtly, taking the cup.

He walked towards the fire and faced it broodingly as he drank his coffee. I'm sure he would have gotten further away if he could have, but in a one-room building it was sort of difficult, bordering on impossible.

With an inward wave of surrender, I walked over to the island counter to fix my drink. Ikovos did the same.

"So did you sleep well?" he asked, looking down.

"Mm-hmm." I answered plainly. Whenever I wasn't around people for a while it was hard for me to pick up where we'd left off. Aka, my shyness returned.

"That's good," he said, passing me the cream. "I guess Jaden was right about the rain after all, it looks like it's dying down now, though."

I frowned, "Yeah. . . ."

He laughed as he looked up to take a gulp of his drink. "What, you like it?"

I shook my head quickly. "No . . . well, maybe. Yes." I sipped my coffee pensively.

He studied me, probably thinking about how strange I was.

I tried to make a case. "Why should everyone like the same weather anyways? I think there's probably a lot of people that secretly hate the sun. I mean, it's hot for one. It's creates very harsh lighting, and umm . . ."

I stopped when I saw the face he was giving me. "You hate the sun now, too?"

I winced sheepishly and he laughed again.

"I'm just giving you a hard time," he said. "I know a lot of people that like rain . . . I just can't think of any right now. . . ." At least he was trying to act like I was normal.

I smiled at him before Jaden's voice interrupted us. "Ready to get out of here? We don't wanna get stuck another night."

Ikovos gestured to me.

I nodded immediately. "Yup. All ready."

What I really wanted to do was finish my coffee first, but somehow Jaden's suggestions always compelled me to obey. . . . Well, almost always.

"Good." he said. Then he snapped his fingers and the fire instantly went out in a puff behind him.

"Since when do you have to snap?" asked Ikovos. I kept my eyes down on my cup.

"I don't know," responded Jaden. "I thought it was worth a try."

I glanced up at him as Ikovos turned around. He appeared nonchalant at first, but then looked directly at me and gave a slight wink.

I dropped my head immediately, going red for the second time today. At the rate that, that was happening, people were simply going to assume I had a pink face.

When we'd gotten outside I was more than a little disappointed at the slit of sun showing through the clouds. We started moving down the mountainous hill without talking much, it seemed I had to concentrate a bit more on not falling down the hill than they did. . . .

After about thirty minutes of staring dutifully at my feet, I realized both boys had stopped, and looked up.

We were at the base of the hill now. I knew the area. I crossed it whenever I went to my rock by the lake. Tiver itself wasn't more than a couple miles to the left, but the lake was quite a bit farther to the right. All that was visible right now though was a sprawling field of greenish-yellow, reed-like, grass.

"Ikovos," said Jaden. He was wearing his heavy coat again. I was glad for the support of rain, or at least cold. "I'm going my own way now . . . I've got something to do before tonight."

Ikovos looked calm at the claim. "Okay," he said. Then his eyes become perplexed. "Where are you going from here, though?"

Jaden shrugged. "Back by the lake and . . ."

Ikovos eyed him.

". . . through the east portal," he finished. It was the first time I'd seen Jaden hesitant to say anything, or even reply to a question he didn't seem to want to answer.

"Jaden." Ikovos's tone was serious.

I started to feel anxious.

"You can't keep going through there alone. You know Thoran and Cornelius said it was off limits now."

Jaden's eyes veered to me. I wondered if he was afraid I would tattle on him. He looked back.

"Why don't you just wait till we get Evelyn back," suggested Ikovos. "Then I can go with you."

Jaden shook his head. "Now's the best time for-" he stopped. Both of their faces were so severe.

A moment passed, then Ikovos lightened a bit. "You better be back before dark."

Jaden tightened his coat around him with a smirk. "You guys should get going," he said, nodding his head towards the sky. "It looks like rain."

My head went up instantly to see that the sun had completely vanished. I thought I felt a drop of water hit my face, and it should have made me overjoyed, but . . . it was dwarfed by stronger feelings.

I looked back to see Jaden was a ways out now.

All the sudden I had this pitted feeling in my stomach. It was stupid and I don't know where it was coming from. I definitely didn't care that he was leaving. In fact I was glad I would have some time free of his teasing.

That's what made sense . . . but a voice inside me argued.

Even if I don't like him, that doesn't mean I want him dead. It's perfectly okay to be . . . concerned about his safety. I was just being a decent person.

He was barely visible now.

Why would Ikovos let him go if it wasn't safe anyways? . . . The thought trickled off.

When I finally looked to Ikovos, he was gazing back at me with a wide grin.

"You're worried about him, aren't you?"

My features contorted. "No! I . . ." He smiled wider. "No!" I repeated, tightening my coat. "No."

With a hard face, I stomped off past him into the field.

After a moment he came up beside me, but I kept my head straight, refusing to look at the grin I knew was still covering his face.

"You're absolutely crazy, you know that right?" yelled Ikovos beside me.

Within an hour of leaving the hill the rain had started pouring down in sheets. Ikovos had started simply complaining at first, but now that a strong wind had joined the mix, I think he may have been getting truly annoyed with me.

"It's wonderful isn't it," I said, spinning around in the field.

"Aren't you cold?" he yelled, shivering. I wanted to tell him he didn't need to speak so loud, but thought I shouldn't upset him further.

"Yes," I said happily, " . . . cold and wet and absolutely wonderful." I stopped my spinning to smile at him. The rain was falling between us.

His seemed to look more relaxed. "You know, " his voice much softer now, "you're not really like other girls."

My smile slowly melted. I had heard the words before, but not in the way he'd just said them. After a moment of staring I looked down with an uncomfortable gulp and started walking again.

When he came up beside me, there was silence for a few seconds. I broke it with a playful voice.

"You only say that because you don't know that many."

He chuckled. I was glad that the easy humor was returning to our conversation.

"I'm not stuck in the lodge all the time," he said. "Me and Jaden go to towns on errands quite often. We get our fair share of girl socializing there."

I looked at my feet. "Oh." I probably sounded a little surprised. I didn't doubt it though, he was in Tiver for five minutes and the two prettiest girls in town were drooling over him.

He laughed again at my awkward tone. "Not that kind of socializing." I kept my head down. "I just mean I see enough to know what most of them are like."

It was hard to tell with the rain, but I'm sure my face had gone red again.