Knight Shift (15 page)

By the time the sun crested over the horizon, the twins were roaring up Penny’s lane. Morgan and Max headed outside to greet them.

“Nice rides!” Morgan exclaimed as he approached the identical, blood red, motorcycles.

As both sets of twins worked together to gather all of their camping gear, Penny finished packing up the last of her equipment onto the luggage rack on top of her small car.

Examining their planned mode of transportation, Max said, “We might get there faster if we walk.”

Penny gave him a scowl. “Don’t pick on my baby. She’ll make it just fine.” Seeing the number of people she had to cram into her small vehicle, she added, “But it might be a tight fit.”

Max grabbed her keys and said, “I’m driving.”

Morgan quickly shouted, “I’ve got shotgun.”

Taylor waggled his eyebrows at Penny and said, “That means you get to cram in the back seat with us.”

She rolled her eyes and gave him a shove, saying “Get in.”

Once the twins crawled into the car, Penny said, “Make room; here I come.”

It took several minutes of rearranging bodies and a lot of laughter before Penny’s overly packed car made its way down the lane. Max stopped at the mailbox and crammed in their hiking plan for Ice. With Penny giving instructions, she led the group of adventurers to their destination. Once they drove up a dirt path as far as they could go with the car, she announced, “We’ll have to walk from here.”

Like clowns at a circus, everyone squeezed themselves out of the vehicle. They took a moment to stretch and get their circulation going again. The explorers collected the gear and headed into the woods with Penny and her GPS leading the way. After traveling for a couple of hours, they reached over the top of a ridge that overlooked a beautiful valley wilderness. Morgan looked at the view and exclaimed, “Perfect, Sis! You always did have an eye for this.”

They quickly setup camp, grabbed their rifles, and headed into the woods to scope out the area. When they decided to hunt for their dinner, the twins tracked an animal, but they let Max take it down. By the time they returned to camp, the two sets of twins were acting as if they had known each other all of their lives.

As they sat around the campfire that night, Morgan said, “You two are exceptional hunters. I’ve never been out with anyone that has such a natural ability at tracking.”

Tadd replied, “We’ve grown up in the woods. We’re actually more at home here than in the city.”

Taylor added, “How about hunting the south ridge tomorrow? There are a few of my favorite spots up there that I know you’ll like.”

After finalizing the plans, they decided to call it a night so that they could head out early in the morning. Each set of twins went to their shared tents while Penny walked to her own. She couldn’t stop looking out into the woods and discretely scanning the trees, wishing she would catch Ice coming their way. She knew that he had said he had other things to do, but she was disappointed that he hadn’t changed his mind.

She finally gave up and crawled into her tent alone. When she woke for her normal nightly stroll, remembering what Ice had said about nighttime dangers, she stayed in bed and stared at the tent above her. She filled her time by letting her mind wander with thoughts of a particular tall, dark, and deadly Changeling.

The next day after a long morning of hunting, they returned to their camp to eat and rest. Once they were done with lunch, both sets of twins decided to do some additional hiking, but Penny decided to stay behind saying, “You four have worn me out. You boys can go and I’ll rest a little longer. I’ll have dinner waiting for you when you get back.”

After the camp was quiet again, Penny decided to take a quick swim in a spring she had spotted the first time she hunted in this area. She didn’t bring a swimsuit so she stripped down and jumped into the cool water. While humming and floating lazily, she heard someone clear their throat. Thinking that her campmates had returned early and found her, she spun around in the water. She was shocked to find Ice squatting at the top of the ledge where she had dove into the water. Although secretly pleased, she cringed at his bad timing.

When they made eye contact, Ice teased, “Hi Peanut.”

Hearing her nickname, she said, “Not you too.” While trying to distract him from the fact that she was naked, she sunk down as low in the water as possible and said, “I thought you weren’t going to join us.”

“I decided to drop in to make sure the twins were behaving.” He looked around and added, “Where are they? Are they eating your brothers?”

“No. They actually get along great. It’s frightening how alike they are. They’re on a hike right now. They wore me out so I decided to stay behind.” Seeing the look in his eyes she added, “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe. My brothers don’t know and none of us are going to tell them.”

Trying to make conversation, he asked, “How’s the hunting?”

While continuing to tread water, Penny proceeded to tell him stories of their hunting adventure. Her tale was interrupted when she felt a twinge in the back of one of her legs. She yelled, “Ouch!” and awkwardly rubbed her leg while attempting to make sure that her body remained hidden under the water.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“My leg is cramping up.” After she swam to the edge of the spring, she said, “I’m getting out so turn around.”

“Why?”

“If you haven’t noticed, I didn’t pack a swimsuit.”

Ice faked a surprised look, although he was very aware of her lack of attire . When she grabbed at her leg again and cursed, he decided to do what she asked. With his back towards her, he heard her splashing in the water with a steady stream of whispered curse words. Without turning around, he asked, “Do you need help?”

“No. It’s just that the rocks are slippery and my leg cramp isn’t helping any.”

After several more failed attempts to get out of the water, Ice turned around. Seeing her distress, he held out his hand to help her.

Penny treaded water and stared at what he offered, unsure what to do. “Ahhh, well… thanks, but as you can see…” She pointed at a pile of clothes located at the base of a nearby tree and added, “I’m not exactly dressed for mixed company.”

As she bobbed helplessly under water several times, he said, “Penny, let me help you out before you drown.” Seeing her growing expression of discomfort, Ice became concerned. He was giving her one last chance before he was jumping in and dragging her out.

When Penny coughed out another mouthful of water, she knew she had no choice. She wouldn’t be able to get out without help and there wasn’t time to wait for her brothers to return. She cursed again and reached out for his extended hand.

Ice leaned over the ledge and wrapped his large hand around hers. He hesitated for a moment and asked, “Are you ready?” When she nodded, he pulled her out as if she weighed nothing.

When she tried to stand on her own, her leg wouldn’t hold her weight and forced her rescuer to grab onto her waist to prevent her from falling over the ledge and back into the water. As her leg was seized by another cramp, she cried out. She had no time to dwell on the fact that she was dripping wet and completely naked. Ice instantly twisted her around so that she was draped over his hip. In the same position a rider would pick the hooves of a horse, he leaned over her and grabbed onto the offending leg. The pain forced her to let him work on the cramp with her bare backside very close to his face.

At first she debated on fighting to get away but, within seconds, his fingers had massaged out the knot. She couldn’t stop herself from taking a moment to close her eyes and moan as the pain slowly eased away.

With the major discomfort gone, she refocused on the position she was in. She tapped Ice on his back to get his attention and said, “I thank you for another rescue, but you can let me go now.” The amount of heat in her cheeks informed her that her face was beet red.

Ice gave her leg and her backside one last look and then helped her stand upright. Without changing his blank expression, he said, “Stay here and I’ll go get your clothes for you.”

She watched him walk away, seeing absolutely no acknowledgment to the fact that she was standing in front of him naked. She was horrified and humiliated by his lack of reaction. She couldn’t stop herself from looking down and wondering how bad she must look to his eyes. She thought, “
Maybe he doesn’t find me attractive
.” The idea made her feel like a slug.

Ice returned moments later and handed her the clothes, saying “Would you like assistance in getting dressed?”

She silently shook her head, her face flaming with her embarrassment. Seeing her flushed cheeks, he walked away to let her get dressed in private.

Once she was dressed, he asked, “How’s your leg feeling now?”

She put her full weight on it and couldn’t stop an expression of relief from washing across her face. “It feels much better. By the way, how did you do that?”

He shrugged. “Being a Changeling, we shift forms often. Sometimes the change isn’t as smooth as we would like or we hold a form too long and we get cramps. Over the years, I’ve learned techniques that seem to ease the discomfort.”

She put her embarrassment to the side for a moment and said, “Thank you for your help…both for my leg and getting me out of the water. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come by.”

Although his outward expression never changed, inside he cringed, realizing what the outcome would have been if he hadn’t been watching. To get his mind focused on something else, he asked, “How about we get you back to camp so that you can rest that leg of yours?”

Penny nodded and started to walk toward their camp with Ice at her side. They didn’t talk so Penny’s mind went back to his lack of reaction to seeing her naked. As the scene repeated in her mind, her embarrassment slowly turned to anger. She was upset over the whole situation, but she was even angrier over the fact that she cared about what he thought of her. By the time they stepped into the camp, her mood had turned foul.

Ice could sense her swing in moods, but decided to ignore it. His mind was replaying the rescue and what Penny looked like wet.

While Penny silently berated Ice from within her mind, she chopped up their food for dinner with unnecessary force. Ice kept his distance and worked on building the fire and preparing the leftover meat from the morning hunt.

The meal was well on its way when the hikers walked through the trees. The moment they saw Ice in the camp with Penny, Tadd and Taylor tensed, while Penny’s brothers smiled.

While they ate their meal, the twins told stories from their hike. Penny nodded occasionally to show that she was listening, but she remained uncharacteristically quiet. Although she tried to hide her anger behind a fake smile, her brother’s knew her well enough that they were certain she was mad about something. Given the glares she occasionally shot over at Ice, they also knew he was the target for her mood.

To try and find out what had happened, Max asked, “So Penny, what did you and Ice do while we were gone?”

She pointed behind her and said, “There’s a great little swimming hole back there and I spent time relaxing in the water. Although it isn’t big, it’s deep enough to dive into. Ice arrived as I was getting out.”

She was saved from sharing any more details of the tale when huge grins lit across the hikers’ faces. Then, as a practiced chorus, they let out a combined yell, tossed their plates, and ran in the direction Penny had pointed. The race was on and they stripped along the way. It was obvious that none of them were shy about running around naked. Penny followed behind and was touched that Taylor and Tadd made the race a close call since she knew they could outrun a cheetah.

As she watched them playing in the water, she noticed that Ice remained at her side. “Aren’t you going to join them?” she asked.

He teased, “I think I’ll stay where I can play life guard and drag anyone out that needs rescuing.”

Penny gave him a scowl and said, “You’re very funny today.” As her mind invented images of Ice wet and naked, her anger welled again, but this time at her lack of mental self-control. She stood and, seeing those in the water rough housing, she announced, “Watch over the boys and make sure they don’t kill each other. I’m going to go clean up the camp.” She looked into the sky. “A storm is coming and I want us to be ready.”

By the time Penny had cleaned and packed up the supplies, everyone else arrived back in camp. With lightning and thunder in the distance, they sat around the fire and told stories. Embarrassing tales of Penny’s childhood seemed to be the favorite topic.

When a coyote howled in the distance and Penny turned to look in the direction of the sound, Morgan said, “Oh no, Penny. You better look out; it might be a chicken.”

Penny shot him a stare telling him silently to keep his mouth shut.

Tadd asked, “A chicken?”

Max’s face lit up with mischief as he said, “Hasn’t Penny told you?”

Penny threw a clump of dirt at her brother and said, “Don’t you dare say it!”

Taylor asked with curiosity, “Say what?”

While dodging several well aimed clumps of dirt, Max said, “My fearless sister is afraid of chickens.”