Part 5 (Alette's POV)

I woke up the next morning with Iris’s arms wrapped around me. I didn’t want to move and ruin the moment, so I lay there, listening to her breathing. It was soft and steady, each exhale blew a few strands of my hair into the air before they fell back down again.

I rolled over so I could see her face. She had been so pretty when I first saw her with all that makeup on, but now that it had washed off, she was unspeakably beautiful. I couldn’t come up with the right word to describe her beauty. Ethereal, radiant, divine, enchanting, angelic, they were all fitting. The sun came through the cracks we hadn’t yet filled and glinted off her hair, creating a fitting halo on her head. Yesterday's tears had washed all the dirt off her skin and it was so pale and soft that I could barely resist caressing her cheek like I had done with Zara.

Iris was practically glowing, pulling me in further every second I lay there admiring her. I leaned towards her and closed my eyes, just one kiss on the cheek, that’s all I wanted. She shifted in her sleep. My lips landed right on hers perfectly. It was breathtaking, a split second of contact, but I could imagine myself falling so deeply in love with her that she’d become my entire life. Her lips were soft and tasted of spring water, pure, fresh, innocent. I wanted to stay like that forever, but Iris’s eyes flicked open and I pulled my head away so fast I lost my balance and rolled off the bed onto the floor.

My cheeks heated up as Iris began cackling at my stupid position on the dirt floor. She giggled so much she ended up rolling off the bed herself and landing next to me on the ground.

“So, uhm, you weren’t asleep?” I questioned, ducking my head.

“Not at all.” She replied, tilting my head up and pulling me into another kiss, for real this time. I giggled against her lips, melting into the kiss. She pulled away and smiled.

“So, now do you believe me when I say I’m staying?”

“Yeah.”

~ ~ ~

“Woah!” Iris said, grabbing the back of the log before it could slip to the ground and drag me with it.

“Phew, thanks! This thing is heavy!” I complained jokingly.

“No kidding, but c’mon, we need a better shelter before next winter.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going.”

We were attempting to carry 4 huge logs back to our shelter so we could begin the cabin. These logs, if we successfully moved them that is, would be the bottom logs for each of the four walls. So many trees had fallen during the winter snowstorms that it was a good time to gather.

We had a basic outline for the cabin, simple, 4 walls, a door, a couple windows. It wasn’t going to be very big, maybe 10 feet by 10 feet, but it’d be perfect. There’d be a fireplace on the back wall, with a bed in the corner by it for warmth. We’d have lots of shelves and hooks for storage on the left wall and a chair on the right wall by the foot of the bed. We were even planning on making a table to put in the center. Iris’s old dress would be taken apart, the seams ripped out, and then sewn into a proper blanket. It was a daunting amount of work, but I was thrilled to undertake it with Iris.

The plan was to have Cinnamon drag the logs, but the forest floor was so cluttered with debri it was basically impossible for a horse to navigate it while hauling lumber. So here we were, struggling to lug a something-hundred pound log, and it was only the first one.

We reached the shelter and I immediately let my side of the log drop, collapsing on the ground with exhaustion. Iris collapsed next to me and threw my axe off to the side.

“Break?” she asked tiredly.

“For sure.” I replied, turning towards her and grabbing some of her hair. I began to run my fingers through it, gently pulling out the knots. Her fancy princess style had fallen out ages ago and now her hair resembled mine, tangled and littered with sticks and leaves. I removed each piece of nature, flicking them to the ground.

“Whatcha doing?” Iris asked me, smiling.

“Styling your hair, Princess.”

She stiffened for a second at the nickname, “Princess as in royalty like my mom, or your princess?”

“Like my Princess of course.” I continued detangling her hair and felt her relax at my answer.

“Good, I don’t ever want to go back there. He, the prince, he, he, well…”

I took my hands from her hair and hugged her tight.

“You don’t have to tell me, Iris. You don’t have to tell me ever if you don’t want to, ok? It’s your choice, it’s your story.”

“No, no, I want to tell you, it’s just . . . hard.”

I turned her around in my arms to face me and looked into her eyes, “Take as long as you need, alright. I can turn away so you're not looking at someone when you say it if you want.”

She stared back into my eyes, took a deep breath and said, “He tried to rape me.”

I was shocked. She fell into me and I pulled her even closer as she began to cry. It’s not that I didn’t suspect something like that, it’s just, she was so happy, so positive. I don’t know if I would have been able to ever feel safe again if that had happened to me, let alone sleep in a shelter with a girl I had just met in the woods.

She tilted her head up, “Kiss me, Alette.”

“What?”

“Kiss me. Kiss me so hard I forget my own name for the night. I don’t want to think, don’t want to remember, please?”

“Your wish is my command, Princess."