Chapter 3: Gianna

I awoke as the sun was rising the next morning. I looked over at Gianna, who was still asleep. I walked down to the lake and splashed some water on my face. I took a small sip from my water bottle, then moved back to our campsite. The fire had died out a couple hours ago. She woke up as I walked back, looking at me.

"Can you sit up?" I asked her.

She slowly sat up, wincing at the marks across her back as she did so. I held the water bottle out to her. She looked at the plastic bottle questioningly. She had never seen a bottle like that, I knew. I unscrewed the plastic cap and took a light sip of the water, then handed the bottle to her. She drank it down, her eyes watching me. I smiled reassuringly at her.

When she was done, I asked her, "Is it okay if I look at the scratches on your back?"

She nodded. I moved behind her and raised the back of her shirt up. The scratches were scabbed over, but I didn't think I saw any sign of infection or anything. I wasn't a doctor, so I just had to judge how they looked right then as opposed to how they looked the day before.

"I think you're doing okay," I told her, lowering her shirt back down. I moved back around and sat across from her.

"Thank you for saving me," she softly said. "My mother always told me not to go swimming in that lake. Now I know why."

"Think nothing of it," I replied. "It's not everyday I get to come to the rescue of a pretty girl."

She smiled and looked down. I smiled too. Her smile was infectious.

She looked back up at me. "Do you have any food? I'm starved."

"I don't have anything to eat on me," I told her. "And I'm not from around here. Are there any berries or anything around here I can get us?"

She nodded and pointed in the direction I had been going the past two days. "There is a youngberry bush over there. I had been picking berries from it when I decided to go for a swim. You'll see my pouch of berries sitting beside it."

"Okay," I said, standing up and going the way she pointed.

I found the bush easily enough now that I knew what I was looking for. The bush had small orange berries growing all over it. I had passed a few of these on my walk through the woods over the past couple days, but I hadn't eaten any, since I didn't know if the berries were poisonous or not. I gathered her pouch and picked more berries from the bush to add to it. Then I set back to the camp.

As I approached, she turned back to me. She had been looking at my backpack, sitting on the other side of the fire I had made.

"Where did you find such a backpouch?" she asked.

"Wal-Mart," I told her. I sat down beside her and opened the pouch. We both eagerly dug into the berries. I was so starved, and I knew she had to be hungry too. The berries were sweet to taste, and I thought to myself that berries never tasted so good.

"Your clothing," she said in-between bites. "So strange."

"They're very common where I come from," I told her.

"And your wristguard?" she asked, nodding at my watch.

"That's harder to explain," I told her. I was done eating since I wanted her to have what was left of the berries.

"After you're done eating, do you think you want to try walking? I'm sure your parents are worried sick about you."

She nodded. "I can try walking. But as for my parents, my father is dead. My mother is all I have. And she knew I was out picking berries and may not return until sometime today."

"Well, I'd still like to get you home safe and sound as soon as possible."

She nodded in agreement. She finished eating the last of the berries, then looked at me. "Thank you again. For saving my life, for not taking advantage of my... undress. Thank you for everything."

"It's okay," I told her. "Like I said, it was my pleasure to save such a beautiful girl."

She smiled again, and this time she blushed.

She could walk, though slowly and with some strain. I ended up having her put her arm around my shoulder and letting her put most of her weight on me. She told me which way to go, which, as it turned out, was the direction I had been going in, more or less. We stopped occasionally so she could rest, but otherwise, she did pretty good. An hour or so later, we came out of the woods and into some plains. I could see a simple farmhouse a few hundred yards away from the edge of the woods, and that was where Gianna told me to go. A dog started barking at us as we approached. The front door flew open and a woman came running out to us. She looked very much like an older version of the girl leaning on me. She wore a gray peasant's shirt and a skirt of off-white. The dog followed her.

"Gianna!" she cried out as she neared.

"I'm alright, mother," she told her. Her mom took her from me. The dog apprehensively sniffed me. I held out my hand to it, keeping one eye on him and the other eye on the mother and daughter. I felt the dog licking my hand in friendship, but I hardly paid attention, more interested in Gianna and her mom.

"I went swimming in that lake in the woods," Gianna told her. "I was hot and sweaty from picking berries."

"Oh, Gianna," her mom said in disappointment. "I've told you not to go swimming there!"

"I know. A creature attacked me, something I'd never seen before and haven't read about. This boy, Lucas, saved me."

The mom looked at me and smiled gratefully. "Come, child," she told her daughter. "Let's get you inside so you can lay down."

I followed behind. The dog circled us, tail wagging.

The inside of the farmhouse was simple. The main room had a stone fireplace and a kitchen and not much else. A doorway with a curtain and a short flight of stairs going up led out of the room. Gianna's mom took her daughter up the stairs into the loft, with me helping. As her mom laid her down in her bed, I went back down the stairs and sat at the kitchen table. The dog came up to me and I pet him. Her mom came down the stairs a minute later.