When they got to the bushes Clay stopped and, with a flourish of his hand, said,

“Welcome to our humble abode!”

Corliss frowned. “I don’t see anything.” 

Julia smiled and crawled into the bushes, calling for them to follow her. The twins were the first ones down, then Clay, but Corliss refused to get herself dirty and made Clay hold the bushes apart while she minced down towards the chamber. Once everyone was in, Julia gave the twins the grand tour, while Clay stayed in the main chamber trying to get Corliss to relax.

“Well, this room over here is the bedroom, it is filled with grasses and moss to make it more cozy, and through here is the escape tunnel, which is really just a back entrance, here is another tunnel which connects us back to the main chamber, and off of that are two spare rooms. That’s it, it’s not that big, but it's warm and mostly stops the rain, and that’s all that matters.”

Aiken piped up “I think it’s great! Does it have a name?”

“No, not really, Clay and I just called it our hideout.”

“Well, it should have a name, and I think i’ve got one, how about the cave?”

“That actually sounds pretty cool, but i’d have to ask Clay first.”

“Then let’s go ask him.”

They headed back to the main chamber and saw that Clay had gotten Corliss to calm down slightly by promising her that he would protect her from any bugs. 

He was holding her hand and squeezing it, and Julia frowned when she saw them, but Aiken, totally oblivious, charged right into the room. 

“Hey Clay, I have this great idea for a name for this place! How about: the cave.”

Clay dropped Corliss’s hand and looked up guiltily, “uh, sure, I guess that’s fine, but wouldn’t it be the caves?”

“Yeah I guess it would, but the cave sounds cooler.”

“Then the cave it is!”

I’m enjoying this story a lot!  Please keep posting it!

They were all tired and it was getting dark, so they decided to go to bed. It took a lot of persuasion to get Corliss to even enter the bedroom, much less sleep in it, but finally tiredness overcame disgust, and they settled in. In the middle of the night Julia woke up to the sound of rain, she felt it dripping on her leg and sat up looking around to see if anyone else was awake. Gradually everyone woke up and we passed a sleepless night. Finally the sun broke through the clouds and the rain stopped. 

“I told you this was no place to sleep!” Corliss crawled out of the cave and sat down on a log. “You wouldn’t listen to me but I was right!”

Julia shrugged “it’s just a little water, it can’t hurt you. Plus, if we get some sticks and leaves and plug the holes it’ll be fine.”

Clay nodded “she’s right, let’s all go look for stuff to plug the holes with and meet back here once your arms are full. Everyone headed into the woods, even Corliss tagged along after Clay. When they had brought the sticks back they proceeded to fill the gaps in the bedroom ceiling. They had some extra branches and they took them into the main chamber for later use. 

Aiken grabbed the knapsack and looked inside. “Hey! There’s some bread in here!” He pulled out a thin slice of very moldy bread, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “Oh gross, i’m not eating this!” He threw it outside then turned to face Clay. “Is there anything else to eat?”

Clay nodded, “why don’t we split up, Julia and Corliss can go look for any sort of greens that we can eat, Julia always knows where to find that sort of thing.” He grinned at Julia and she blushed slightly.

“Not always, just most of the time.”

Clay shrugged. “Well, I never know how to find them. Anyways, Aiken and Alder come with me, we're going fishing.”

Everyone agreed and they headed out, Clay, Aiken, and Alder heading in the direction of the river, and Julia and Corliss heading deeper into the woods.

TOP

Julia walked in silence, listening to Corliss gabble on about how she was going to “spruce up the cave.” After a few minutes of this she knelt by a log where several morel mushrooms were growing and began to pick them, putting them in the pockets of her pants. Corliss wrinkled her nose.  

“You’re going to get your pants dirty! Though why a young woman of your age would be wearing boys clothes I have no idea!” Julia ignored her and walked over to a glade which was filled with dandelions,  picking the leaves and stuffing them in her pockets. Her pockets were soon full and she turned to Corliss. 

“Make a basket with your skirt so I can put some more dandelions in it.” Corliss frowned, but did as she was asked, and soon they had enough for several salads. They headed back towards the caves.                                    

Meanwhile, the boys were having much less luck. They were attempting to catch fish with their bare hands, and the only one who had caught anything was Alder, who had caught a nice fat carp. Aiken was too impatient, and Clay was just too slow, so they decided to call it a day. They skinned the carp with Clay’s knife and headed back. When they got to the cave they found the girls making a fire with the extra sticks they had gathered earlier that morning. Julia had struck her dagger against a piece of flint to start the fire and now she was fanning the flame into existence. Clay sharpened some sticks and Alder made a spit, and soon they were laughing and talking around the fire, while the smell of morels and fish roasting wafted into the blue sky. It was midafternoon when they had finished eating, and everyone was quite full and content. They had a little left over for dinner, and it seemed that they hadn’t a care in the world. But Corliss, ever the practical one, pointed out that they would want some more for tomorrow, and it would be wise to gather it today. Of course she was feeling rather faint and needed some rest, but surely the others could go out foraging? They all agreed, and headed out to look for some more food, though there was plenty of grumbling about Corliss “slacking off” Clay staunchly defended her, saying that maybe there was something that she had eaten that had upset her stomach. Aiken and Julia rolled their eyes, though Julia seemed to be trying to hide some amount of jealousy of Clay’s attention to Corliss.

I'm sorry I won't be able to post today, my family is going on a trip, but I will post tomorrow!!!

this is a really good story, Isabel/Mahriel! Im enjoying it a lot! 

Hey everyone, I'm really sorry I haven't posted in a while I will post tommorow. My family is completely redoing our kitchen so I'm very busy.

The rest of the day was spent in searching for food. At some point Alder headed off to the river and no one saw him till it was getting dark and everyone came back to the cave. When they did get back, they found he had caught and skinned three large fish and was laying them out in strips to dry in the sun so they could be kept and eaten later. Julia shook her head, they had found many plants to eat, including some wild strawberries, but Alder’s resourcefulness surprised her. She found herself noticing his tanned arms, well-toned and strong, she shook her head and turned back to Clay, looking at his stormy gray eyes and ever ready smile. She felt torn but tried to dash these thoughts from her mind. She turned to Corliss. 

“You say you want to spruce up the place, so tomorrow we will go to the burned-out buildings and get some scrap wood to build shelves for our stores, for now we will wrap them in grass and hang them up.”

Everyone, even Corliss, helped to take care of the supplies and then they cooked a small meal and ate it hungrily. Gradually everyone went in to bed except Clay and Julia, who stayed by the fire, watching the stars. 

“Do you miss them?” Clay asked, turning to Julia. She nodded.

“All the time.”

“Well, at least we still have each other.” He glanced at Julia then looked away, blushing slightly. Julia nodded. 

 “At least we have each other.”

She froze as she felt his arm brush hers. Goosebumps ran up her arm and she turned to go inside, trying to hide the color that was rushing to her cheeks. 

“Well, it’s getting late, I should go to bed.”

Clay nodded, and followed her in after putting out the fire.

When the sun rose the next morning, they all rose with it, feeling refreshed and hungry. They ate a small breakfast and packed some more food to bring with them. Clay and Corliss laughed and joked, and Julia looked on unhappily. 

“We should go.” She said abruptly, turning and heading into the woods.

As they walked, they listened to the birds chirping in the trees, and the sound of the river rushing over stones. Julia was walking ahead, and Clay trotted up next to her. 

“Uh, hey Julia, how are you doing?” He asked awkwardly, looking down at the ground in a fruitless effort to hide his nervousness. She glanced at him and then ahead towards the trees.

“I’m fine.” She avoided his gaze and quickened her step.

Clay looked on in bewilderment, then shook his head and kept walking. Corliss came over to him. 

“Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know, it seems like Julia is mad at me.”

“Oh, don’t mind her, she’s always so grumpy, and anyway, you’ve got me to keep you company.”

He nodded, but he didn’t seem very comforted. At last they got to a ruined house and began to search for scraps of wood. They soon had a big pile of the wood and they brought it back to the cave, then set out to get more. They continued in this way till midafternoon, only stopping to eat some lunch. By the time they got done they had a great pile of wood outside the cave and they had found some nails too. Using stones as hammers Aiken and Clay built a small shelf while Corliss made a fire, and Alder and Julia went fishing. 

Julia watched as Alder patiently waited for a fish to swim by, then with lightning speed he grabbed the fish and passed it to her to skin. He got two small ones and four big ones, and then stopped to help gut and clean the fish. He worked silently and quickly, clearly experienced in cleaning fish. Julia, on the other hand, kept getting cut by the fish’s sharp scales. Alder looked over and shook his head.

“Your doing it wrong, let me show you how to do it.”

He gently took her hands in his and guided them, showing her what to do. She blushed and looked at his face, which was intently focused on what he was doing. He let go and made her show him that she knew how to do it now, and after she had shown him, he returned to his own fish. Soon they were done and headed back to the others.

Reader participation is encouraged!!! Please comment who you ship, Julia and Clay, Clay and Corliss, Julia and Alder, etc. 

This story is awesome, I love it!!!

JULIA AND ALDERRRRRRRRRR 

okay-the shipping vibe im getting is Corliss likes Clay, Clay likes Julia, Julia is torn between Alder and Clay, and Alder has a teeny-tiny crush on Julia. ITS AN ENDLESS CIRCLE LOL

but i would really like Clay to reveal he has a crush on someone else, and Alder and Julia are shipped. um, thats it, but maybe Clay could like a boy, in honor of Pride Month? <3