Chapter 17: Can I Hold Your Hand?

Chapter 17: Can I Hold Your Hand?Leaving the gifts at home, Oriana grabbed her bow and arrows to go hunting with her friend.

"Thank you for helping me again, Luke," Oriana said as she followed the aloof young man leading her way out of the village.

"You should stay away from them," she heard him say, his voice firm and commanding.

"I want to but those buffoons won't let me be," she complained. She then changed the subject, "What are we hunting today by the way?"

"Rabbits," he replied, his tone as if asking, 'Can you hunt anything but rabbits?'

Oriana hit him in the arm with her quiver. "Don't judge me! Not like I can't but more like I don't want to...Killing larger animals feels weird," her tone lowering the more she spoke.

"Small or large, a life is a life."

Oriana pouted as she had no come back to say.

"Stop pouting like a girl."

Hearing his mean remark, she sneered, 'Does he have eyes at the back of his head? I am a girl so I will pout.'

Their nameless village was situated at the outer regions of the forest, a place long cleared out of small preys it was relatively safe to traverse, even for children. Most seasoned hunters would go deeper into the forest, nearer the mountains, to hunt for larger prey like boars or deer; however, they would generally avoid the mountains themselves because it was rumored that predators like wolves and bears dwelled in that region.

Both Luke and Oriana were familiar with the forest path, and they did not need to talk, simply enjoying each other's silent companionship as they trekked through the dense greenery.

When they reached the banks of a rather shallow river merely knee-deep in depth, Luke moved with ease to cross it, stepping on the protruding rocks and boulders to avoid getting wet. Though getting his footwear and trousers wet would not hamper movement, most hunters found it uncomfortable to walk with drenched pants and sloggy boots.

Oriana admired his strong back as she followed him to cross the river.

'One would think a large fellow like him won't be so nimble—'

"Oh...oops!"

Luke immediately turned and caught Oriana's hand, preventing her from falling into the water. She hurried to move towards a less slippery rock with his help.

"Unlucky," she clicked her tongue. Only then did she recall she was wearing new boots. She was yet to get used to moving around with them.

Luke let go of her hand and commented, "Clumsy."

"Hey, I am not clumsy!" she frowned. 'I have crossed this river more times than I can count and I never slipped. Something always happens when I'm with Luke though. Is he some sort of jinx?'

Luke didn't deem necessary to reply, prompting Oriana to call him out.

"Luke, wait."

The young man looked over his shoulder, and saw the black-clothed lad smiling at him with large, twinkling hazel eyes.

"What?"

Oriana cleared her throat. "C-Can I hold your hand? I don't want to fall into the water."

He simply stared at her and heard her continue, "I-I know it's weird for a man to hold other man's hand, but you have to take responsibility! You bought me brand new boots. Won't it be a pity to damage them on my first wear? They are also a bit larger than my old ones so I need time to get used to them—"

Still, there was no reply from the guy. Seeing his flat stare gave her an urge to pick a stone and hit him, just so he would give a response.

Oriana carefully stepped on the rocks until she reached Luke and grabbed onto his arm. "There, better. You can start moving. We don't have all day."

Luke's gaze landed on that small hand grabbing him before raking up back to that cheeky smiling face of its owner.

Not like he was not going to offer her help, but Oriana was too impatient to even let him reply.

It would be difficult to keep his balance with her grabbing his arm, so he shrugged her off, only to wrap his much larger hand around hers. The pair crossed the river while holding hands.

The moment they reached the other bank, Oriana freed her hand from his.

"And that's how the Hero Luke saved the damsel Lady Boots from the terrors of the water monster!" Oriana good-naturedly laughed, theatrically showing off her dry boots before she turned to leave.

Sadly, her sole audience heard nothing of her jest.

Luke was staring at his empty hand. It was as if he could still feel the warmth of her small, calloused hand... and felt his heart skip a beat.

Shocked, the young man immediately shook his head.

Soon, the two of them started hunting and managed to catch a few rabbits. On their way back, they sat by the river to rest.

While Oriana went ahead to clean their day's catch and divide the meat evenly between them, Luke leisurely rolled up his trousers and removed his boots, enjoying the refreshing cold of flowing water against his feet.

"We got quite a haul," Oriana happily said as she approached him.

She sat on the rock next to him after folding her trousers up to her calves. Luke looked at her legs. "A rabbit has more meat than your bony legs."

She looked at his legs twice as large as hers. "Well looks better than your muscular and hairy ones."

"Men are supposed to be hairy," he replied. "They already tease you for not having a beard so you better not show them your legs."

Though he sounded offensive, Oriana could understand he spoke out of his concern for her. "No one is here other than you, so it's fine."

She pulled out the jujube berries from the pocket of her jacket. "Do you want some?"

He shook his head while Oriana started to pop them into her mouth one by one. Luke glanced at the person sitting next to him, unable to pull his gaze away from the sight of Oriana enjoying her berries.

His heart once again betrayed him with an unexpected 'thump!', which spooked him.

'What the hell!'

He stood up like he had been bitten by a snake. As soon as he put on his boots, he hurried away, pretending to check on the rabbits Oriana was drying on the rocks.