Each moment and each minute seemed like a lifetime in this strange place. There were no distractions here, there was only the present and planning for the morrow. Each day seemed like a week and each week like a month. They’d been stuck here for over a month now, and it felt like it was so much longer. Their time spent in each other’s company had been the longest she’d ever spent with anyone. They had gotten to know each other so intimately and now even more.
She had dated a lot of guys but she’d never been serious. There had always been something that had doomed the relationship. One drank too much, one smoked. Another was unfaithful, and so on. She also thought perhaps it had been her. She’d never thought of herself as a fussy person. Yet each man she dated fell short in some form or fashion.
With Aiden, he lived up to who he was. He was a simple man, but not simple minded. He was brave, but had control over his strong emotions. He would fight, but wouldn’t go looking for a fight. He asked for her opinion and listened to her, really listened to her. He’d never blown her off. She really appreciated it.
He was patient when teaching her things, and he wanted to make sure she could protect herself. She liked that. He looked at her as an equal, and maybe that was why she’d been so dissatisfied in the past. The men that she’d dated had never treated her that way. Many were nice, some condescending, some patronizing. But she never once remembered them treating her as their equal. Perhaps that was why she’d come to this competition in the first place? And because of that, she had indeed proven herself but she’d also met a man who treated her as his equal, who treated her as she’d always wanted to be treated.
She looked around the clearing, all was quiet. She felt safe in this place. They’d been careful coming back here from the main camp. Their last visit had been two weeks ago. They had both agreed to stay away for a while, since Connor and his bunch would hopefully die off quickly. Aiden shifted and blinked, and she smiled down at him. He smiled back at her and sat up.
“I don’t think I’ve slept that good for a long time.” He laughed, his face turning a little red.
“I wore you out I think.” Sarah laughed.
“I think you did. That was wonderful, you’re wonderful.” He said, leaning toward her to kiss her. She leaned in and kissed him back.
The smell of wood smoke reached them and she looked over to the small kiln that Aiden had built. They were trying their first stoneware experiment.
“You think the cup might be ready? It has been baking for about nine hours now.”
“There’s only one way to find out, let’s pull it out and see.” He said and got up. She joined him and both squatted down in front of the kiln. Aiden had dug a pit and built a wooden wall with green sticks around the hole. They’d lit a fire and let it go down to red coals and then placed the soft clay cup onto the coals. Then they’d coved the cup with damp grass and built another fire above it, adding thick sticks to keep it going.
There was a lot of smoke and heat, and they let it burn hot for over two hours, feeding the sticks. Then let it burn down to cool. Sarah used a stick to move the warm coals out of the way. She dug gently with the stick and felt it touch the cup below. She shimmied and moved the stick until she unearthed the cup.
Gently lifting it out, she let it settle on the ground. She put her hand over the cup and could feel the heat of it, it was black and looked burnt.
“It looks good, let it cool I guess and we can try some water in it.” She said, grinning at him. She saw his eyes darken and grinned and shook her head laughing.
“I guess we have some time to kill while we wait.” And she leaned over and kissed Aiden, her hands going back to his shirt to unbutton. She could feel the vibration of his laughter in his chest and she grinned while kissing him. She pushed him over and sat atop of him, looking down.
“You have the most sexiest eyes I’ve ever seen.” She said, bending down, her red hair becoming a curtain around his face. She felt his hands around her waist and laughed and felt him roll and flip her to her back, the cooling cup forgotten.
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The cup had been a success, there were hairline cracks but the cup itself was watertight. Sarah proceeded to make several plates, a larger bowl and a few cups for drinking water. She even put designs in them, pressing leaves and flowers into the damp clay. This left beautiful designs, as the greenery burned away and the imprint was left in the plates.
She’d made very functional dishes, but there was a beauty to them. She seemed to make thing just a little bit better, a little nicer. They planned to take some down to the main camp in a few days.
It had been nearly three weeks since they’d been to the main camp and Aiden thought it would be safe to make a trip down there. He was hoping that Connor was either dead or very weak and not much of a threat. It was wishful thinking, but he wasn’t willing to go after him head on, especially if
