The party broke camp as soon as the sky had cleared and rode together across the Lion’s Pass into the series of valleys within Skeleton Range. Oliver was the one who did most of the talking. That’s because there was a strange atmosphere between Cat and Eve ever since the other night with the wyvern, when the two girls almost kissed, and they still hadn’t found the time (or the courage) to talk about what that meant. But it had to be done. The longer she dragged it on, the guiltier Eve felt.

The opportunity to talk came when the group reached a rather flowery mountainside, and Oliver asked the girls to stay behind while he gathered a few herbs that he saw growing over there. “These might come in handy,” he’d told them.

Cat was sitting on a rock in the shade. The horses were lazily walking about, looking for the tastiest clumps of grass to eat. Eve sat down beside her. For a moment, nobody said anything. That silence between them was unnerving. Out with it, Evelyn, she thought to herself. It’s just an apology, it’s not that hard.

“Um... Catherine... about the other night in the Wilderness... I’m sorry for what I did there.”

Cat stared at Eve as if she legitimately hadn’t expected her to apologize. “Hold on, are you sorry for slaying a wyvern... or... for trying to kiss me?”

Evelyn winced. “The… latter,” she admitted. “It’s just... I really don’t know what I was thinking then. I guess I wasn’t in my right mind. It was wrong of me to do that, all of a sudden, and I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.”

Cat shrugged, and averted her eyes. “It’s all right. I wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, just... surprised, maybe? I wasn’t expecting it. Is it a custom in your world to kiss your friends?”

Eve felt her face grow hot with embarrassment, and she hoped Catherine would not notice what was probably already a very vivid blush on her cheeks.

“It’s… not,” the girl admitted.

Catherine paused for a moment, processing it, then her eyes grew wide. “Oh… so then…”

“Look, I don’t want you to start thinking that I have those sorts of feelings for you,” Eve said, frantically. “We only just met each other for the first time a few days ago, I barely know you, or you me. So I know that it’s not like that. It really isn’t. But then again, it’s not that I don’t like you, either. It’s weird, and confusing, and I do want to be your friend, but maybe it would be okay to be something more too, and... no, strike that, I don’t want you to think that I want something more, nor that I don’t want something more, I just—”

“Evelyn?” Cat interrupted her.

“Um, yeah?”

“You’re rambling,” she said, making Evelyn’s blush grow even more vivid. Cat giggled. “You worry too much, Evelyn. Why don’t we just focus on rescuing Brianna for now? We can talk about all of this awkward stuff some other time.”

Eve nodded, and smiled weakly at her friend.

Silence fell between them once again. This time, though, that strange atmosphere from before was mostly gone. Cat giggled as she watched Sirius prance around a very confused — and frightened — badger.

“Y’know, him and me, we’re kind of similar,” said Cat.

“Him who?” Eve asked.

“Sirius,” Cat explained. “When he arrived, people had huge expectations about him, but now most people consider him a disappointment. An embarrassment. They only keep him around out of obligation. He lives his days confined, restrained, even though he longs to run around wild and free. I think that’s part of why we get along with each other. We’re the same.”

There was a lot to unpack in Cat’s declaration. Eve wanted to ask her about all of it, but wondered if it would be prying too much into her personal life.

Then, again, if Catherine was willing to speak about it so openly, maybe it would be okay for Evelyn to pry just a little bit?

“Do people consider you an embarrassment?” she chose to ask.

“Well, not people in general. Just my dad.”

Cat had a forlorn look on her face when she said that. Eve stared into Cat’s saddened eyes, feeling heartbroken, and sighed. “Look, Cat, I... a few years ago, I came out to my mom as a lesbian,” she surprised Cat — and herself — in declaring. It wasn’t a story she usually shared with people.

“What’s a lesbian?” Cat asked.

“In my world, it means a girl who dates other girls, rather than men,” Eve explained. She saw Cat’s mouth form an ‘O’ as she understood what her friend was talking about. “I don’t know how things are in your world,” Eve continued, “but where I’m from, most people consider it a bad thing. It’s frowned upon. So, when I told mom, well... she didn’t react very well,” Eve took a deep breath, working on keeping the tears at bay. It still hurt to talk about it, though not as much as it did in the past. “At first she tried to change me. She threw away a lot of my more boyish clothes, and forced me to wear dresses, and girly stuff. That, and started taking me to church a lot.

“I hated it, Cat. I hated everything. Church. The girly clothes. The constant tension at home. The way she flinched every time I mentioned that I was gay... Well, at some point, I decided I couldn’t stand it anymore. I cut my hair, got me an undercut and piercings, then when I got home I told her I wasn’t going to change, that I was a lesbian and an atheist, and that she had to deal with it.

“After that... it was hell. Mom told me I was a failure, and a disappointment. That she was embarrassed to have me as her daughter. One day I came home to find all my stuff in bags on the yard. She was kicking me out. I had to spend a few days at my ex’s place, then I managed to talk to an aunt of mine, and she agreed to let me live in her house for the time being.

“It took almost a year for mom and I to start speaking to each other again. Back then, I really thought she’d disowned me for good. But it turns out she started having these long conversations with my aunt, and also with a few friends of hers. She... changed. She came to my aunt’s place, one day, told me that she was willing to take me back. That she wouldn’t try to fight me about my sexuality anymore. I was surprised.

“That was about three years ago, I think. I stopped confronting her, and she stopped trying to change me. It was a sort of truce, maybe? It helped that we’ve always been so close to each other. And then, last year, just after Christmas, mom called me over for a conversation. She said she was proud of me. Proud of who I am, and of how brave I was to face everything life threw at me with my head up.”

A couple of tears ran down Evelyn’s cheeks as she told Cat this part of the story. She wiped them on her sleeves.

“I know I’m a little privileged. Most people never really change, so it was really my luck that mom was able to see things differently after talking to aunt and her friends. What I mean is... sometimes the people we love can say stuff that hurts. Really really hurts, you know. It doesn’t mean they’re right.

“So maybe I’m not the person mom expected me to be, and maybe you’re not the person your father expected you to be, either. And then they may say some horrible things about us. But it’s not a reality, it’s just how they think at the moment. I don’t know what you’ve been through with your father, Cat. But don’t let those things he say get to you. Maybe he’s like my mother, that he was taught things should be one way, and he’s never realized you could be different from his expectations and still be a wonderful person.”

Cat snorted, awkwardly. “I’m not wonderful.”

“I think you’re wonderful,” Eve told her, without hesitation. This, in turn, caused Cat herself to blush. “You went into the Wilderness with me, knowing how dangerous it was, because it was the only way to save Bree, and you only just met the two of us the other day. You’re brave, and free-spirited, just like Sirius. You’re wonderful, Cat.”

Cat turned her face away, both to watch Sirius trot back and forth through the valley and to hide her embarrassment. “I guess I’ll take your word for it, then.” And then, after a few seconds, she turned back and glared at Eve. “But you, miss, should stop complimenting me so much, or I’ll think you’re flirting with me again.”

Eve was flabbergasted. “But... Wait, sorry... I mean... I wasn’t...”

Cat started giggling, and just then Eve realized then she had been messed with.

“Oh, stuff it,” she said, miffed and embarrassed.

Oliver came back a moment later, with his leather satchel filled to the brim with herbs of various types. The girls stared, wide-eyed.

“Did you just harvest the whole mountainside?” Cat asked.

Oliver beamed. “These mountains are great! There’s plenty of everything here,” the boy started pointing at the herbs in the bag, enumerating them: “Chamomile, aloe, willow bark, opium, honestly I’m not even sure how all of these can grow together. I even got some cloudweed for you,” he said, showing them to Cat, who nodded appreciatively. “I swear that once we’re done with this rescue mission I’m going to come here for supplies all the time. This place is just too good to be true.”

Cat and Eve both laughed at the boy’s excitement.

“Come on,” said Cat, getting up. “We’ve wasted enough time already. Brianna is waiting for us.”

Eve nodded, and followed her to fetch Antares and the other horses.

After that, they resumed our journey, with Eve feeling a lot lighter now that she’d addressed the wyvern in the room. A couple of hours later, they made a quick stop at a stream to refill the water canteens. Cat approached her, then, and spoke to her privately.

“Hey, Evelyn... Thanks for telling me that story about you and your mom, earlier. It... helped.”

Cat was smiling at her, and goodness, she was way too cute when she smiled like that. It was unfair. For the second time in just a couple of days, Evelyn felt like kissing her.

This time, however, she knew better.

“Thank you for listening,” she replied.

Cat nodded, then turned to walk back to where Oliver and the horses were resting. A smile crept on Eve’s lips, and a warmth grew inside her chest.

“I’m not falling for her,” she told herself. “I’m definitely not falling for her.”