Heartfelt Feelings

His strength is almost overwhelming but he quickly corrects it. He backs me into the closest tree before snaking his hands up my sides. I open my mouth and allow him entrance but right as he deepens the kiss, he quickly pulls back and stumbles away.

He turns his back to me and breathes heavily, confusing me at first but when I see his fists clenched, I realize something else is happening. I watch him in silence, catching my own breath but when I see CheeChee sitting off to the side, I can't help but smile.

His little paws cover his eyes as if he's too embarrassed to look. I clear my throat and shake my hands out before softly asking "Are you okay?" He takes a deep breath and nods before asking "Did I hurt you?" Surprised by his question, I blink before saying "Not at all..."

I see him finally relax before saying "We're being watched. We need to keep moving. How much further?" When he finally turns to look back at me, I'm surprised to see his blue eyes were almost back. We were being watched!?

I resist the urge to look around and instead ask "How much further?" I slightly tilt my head in confusion. This time he blinks at me and says "Yes. How much further?" Still confused, I ask "How much further until what?"

He gives me a surprised look before struggling not to laugh. He then lifts a hand and points behind him as he says "You said there was a way out. I thought that's what we were doing?" I frown at him in confusion and say "Yeah, that's what we're doing."

He gives me an asperated look before asking "Then how much further until we get there?" Suddenly, I realize what he means. I feel like rubbing my temples as I chuckle a little and say "I don't know. We just need to keep going until we see it."

He frowns and asks "Wait... are you telling me you don't know how much further it is or that you don't know where it's at?" I tilt my head from side to side as I say "A little of both. The old man said that the guy had returned but he couldn't remember much more than that because he was just a kid at the time. All he knew was that the guy who was eaten had come back."

Thane's face is completely void of any emotions as he asks "You're telling me you came here just because of a story some old man told you? You allowed yourself to get eaten... to come here with just the knowledge of possibly finding a way out?"

I open my mouth to say something but quickly shut it. I look at him in confusion before saying "When you say it like that, it sounds so much worse." Thane lifts both arms and runs his hands through his hair, allowing me to see how built he really was.

He blows out a breath of... frustration? Irritation or maybe disbelief? Maybe a little bit of all that...

He looks at me with a confounded expression on his face before he stalks over to me and grabs both sides of my face. He looks my entire face over before saying "I don't know if you're extremely brave or extremely stupid."

I feel my face drop as I glare up at him but before I can say anything, he leans forward and says "You could have died. That old man could have just made everything up... You could be stuck here forever..."

His ice-blue eyes feel like they're piercing my soul. I don't want to lie so I tell him "I told you before. I died the day you did. If there was just a small chance that what the old man said was true, then I was going to take it. If I get stuck, at least I'm stuck with you."

I give him a faint smile but he continues to stare at me without any emotions. "And if I wasn't here? What if I was dead?" He asks with a deep voice full of raw emotions. I look into his eyes and say "Then I would die here too..."

I see disbelief and astonishment on his face before he slowly pulls me into a hug and says "Terrifying... you're absolutely terrifying. I can't take my eyes off you for even a moment..." I try to push him away to tell him I'm not some child but he doesn't release me.

He squeezes me a little and whispers "We will find out a way to get out, no matter what." He then releases me and quickly reaches out behind me. I quickly duck and spin around to see something with a large mouth and sharp teeth snapping at me!

Why does it feel like they keep coming after me!? I use the wind to remove one of its arms but it barely grazes it! Thane grabs its bottom jaw and rips it off like it was nothing! It tries to thrash away but Thane holds on tight. Once the bottom jaw was completely ripped off, Thane shoves his free hand down its throat!

I look on in shock and slight horror as Thane rips its still-beating heart out of its throat and tosses the limp body away. I swallow hard and look up to see Thane watching me, covered in blood once again.

Still holding the heart, he watches me closely and says "Their skin is too tough to pierce so in order to kill them quickly, you have to remove their hearts this way." He then lifts the heart up and says "We have dinner for the night now."

I open my mouth to say something, anything, but... nothing comes out. I slowly close my mouth and silently nod my head as the heart in his hand finally stops beating. Thane still watches me as if he's trying to gauge my reaction to it. My reaction to him...

I release a deep sigh and say "I would have died if we hadn't run into each other when we did. I met one beast-like man before you but he was nothing like this." Thane's eyes suddenly darken as he fully turns to me and asks "What beast-like man? Did he hurt you?"

I chuckle at him and it soon turns into a full laugh. He watches me with a frown but I just can't help it. Here he stands, covered in blood, right after ripping a jaw apart and pulling the still-beating heart out. He then lifts it up to me and says 'We have dinner for the night now'!

Feeling a little brave, I quickly lean up on my tippy toes and place a quick kiss on a clean part of his face before walking past him with a chuckle. CheeChee quickly jumps up to my shoulder and turns back to watch Thane with fear.