Publishedat 2nd of September 2019 06:50:07 PMChapter 51
"No, I haven"t been given any other rewards . I spent the last one I got to find out where Eleanor is so we can rescue her . " Jack said, before adding "And trust me, n.o.body wants me to stop being burned by you three more than me . "
Rose looked puzzled, staring off into the middle distance in thought for a moment before she asked "Are you still able to touch me now?"
"I honestly don"t know . I"m almost afraid to try . " Jack said .
"Well, if you don"t, you"ll never know . " Rose said . "Hold out your hand . "
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"Okay . . . Jack said, hesitating .
He reached his hand out gingerly and held it out, palm up in front of him . Rose lifted one of her hands off her lap, and gently ran her fingertip across the inside of his palm . Jack instinctively flinched and pulled away, shaking his hand several times . She was painfully hot to the touch again, and the inside of his hand stung for a few seconds afterward .
"No good, huh?" Rose said, looking at him apologetically .
"Fraid not . " Jack said, grimacing .
"Sorry about that . " She said, and then added "I wonder what could have made it possible before . . . . Do you think it had something to do with me crying or something?"
Jack thought about that for a moment .
"I honestly don"t know . Do you normally feel cold when you"re sad or something?" He asked .
"I guess? I"ve never really noticed one way or the other . " She said, shrugging .
"Well, that"ll have to be our working theory for now, because whatever it was, it"s gone now, and I"m not looking to make you cry again just to see if I can touch you . It"ll be my luck you"ll be upset AND still burn me . " Jack said playfully .
"Maybe . " Rose said, lifting her head and making eye contact with him through her eyelashes . Her yellow irises seemed to almost glow in the warm, flickering lamplight, and she smiled a small, crooked smile . "Maybe one day we"ll figure out how to make it happen again . "
Her look took on an almost suggestive quality as she said this, causing Jack"s heartrate to speed up again . He wasn"t sure if she meant what he felt she was implying, but either way, he felt his face redden, and after a moment of her statement hanging in the air between them, Jack cleared his throat awkwardly, and changed the subject .
"So, we have about 3 days travel to get to the cave where Ellie is . It"s somewhere through a forest, over a river, and up the side of a mountain . I don"t know where that is in relation to anything else in this world, but that"s where we"re going . " He said .
"3 days . . . . through a forest . . . side of a mountain . . . . " Rose muttered to herself as she reached for her pack . Rummaging through it for a moment, she pulled out a rolled piece of parchment, and unrolled it out in front of her .
Looking across, Jack could see that is was a map of some kind . It was weather-stained brown, and looked handmade, which it probably was . After a moment staring at the map, Rose pointed at a spot on it .
"That"s probably where she is, if you"re right . " She said .
Her finger hovered above a single free-standing mountain sandwiched among a group of hills not terribly far northeast from the town they were located in on the map . Drawing a straight line with his eyes, Jack could see that, based on the drawing in front of him, they"d encounter all of the landmarks he"d described . From the looks of things, this would be the only mountain they could reach within three days travel that would have them cross everything Frumpkin had shown him .
"Yeah, that"d have to be it . " Jack said, nodding . He looked up at Rose and smiled . "Good work!"
Rose smiled back . "Thanks," she said, before rolling up the map again and sticking it in her pack .
"Now, I think it"s time for some sleep . We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow . " Jack said .
And with that, he blew out the lantern, plunging the two of them into the darkness of a long night"s sleep .