“Except that you don’t,” he said.
“This is cruel and unusual.”
“It isn’t. The whole point of this exercise is to put you in situations I hope you don’t find yourself in, while you actually have a safety net.”
“But it rained.” She gestured toward her fire ring. “And the odds are I’m going to have trouble getting this going. So why make it any harder?”
“Because sometimes things are hard. Sometimes things are hard, and that’s just how they are.”
“Well, I didn’t know you were going to make it this difficult for me.”
“I didn’t make it rain.”
She hushed and took the ferro rod out of her bag. Then she grabbed hold of her knife and didn’t look at him as she set herself up to start the fire.
She wasn’t incapable. She knew how to do this.
She had spent years of her life helping others, and this was something she could do to help herself.
This was her, engaging in her life.
This was her being courageous.
Being competent.
She ran the edge of the knife down the side of the ferro rod, and she felt that same sensation that she’d had the other day when she had done it just right to make sparks. There were sparks, but her tinder was so damp she was having a difficult time getting it to catch.
She tried again. And again.
She opened up her bag and looked around inside it.
She couldn’t find anything in there that might help her. Except…
The bag had a lining.
She picked at the edge, picked and picked until it came up. Then she tore a strip out of the liner in her bag.
She balled it up and placed it in the fire ring,just underneath the sticks, before she began to use the rod again, this time the sparks catching on the lining.
She just hoped that it wasn’t something synthetic that would go up so quickly, it didn’t have time to dry out everything else and help it catch.
But it made a big enough flame, a big enough flame that the wood began to catch, and then eventually, even the damp moss began to catch.
She stood up and threw her hands in the air. “I did it! I have created fire!”
To her surprise, Zane was grinning, and when she spun in a circle, he reached out and grabbed her around the waist and spun her the rest of the way.
She was dizzy, breathless, and when they stopped spinning, their noses were close together.
Her heart began to beat harder, more insistent. Like it was demanding she do something reckless. He was so solid. Like clinging to a mountainside. But he was hot too. She wanted to run her hands over his body.
The thought sent a rush of blood to her head, and to other places too. Her breasts suddenly ached. Felt heavy. Her body tingling in new and fascinating ways.
She wanted…
“Good job,” he said, releasing his hold on her and taking a step away, as though it hadn’t really happened.
She hadn’t had a chance to be reckless, because he had taken it out of her hands.
