Hidden Paradise

---Aaron---

Katherine stirred and mumbled something incoherently, and I leaned my ear close to her lips. I managed to make out something that sounded like "why can't I even rest peacefully in death" and couldn't help but smile a little. It looked like Katherine and I were on the same wavelength. "Kath, you're not dead. Wake up. It's me, Aaron." I shook her again.

Slowly, her eyelids fluttered open. I stared down at her as she blinked several times. Her gray eyes struggled to focus on my face. "Who—what—" Katherine tried to form a coherent sentence. Her voice came out as a raspy whisper too. Her brows wrinkled as she closed her eyes and shook her head to clear her muddled mind.

"Kath, it's me, Aaron. You remember me, right?" I watched Katherine anxiously. She opened her eyes again, and this time her gaze locked onto me with a hint of the sharpness her eyes always carried.

"Yes. Aaron. Of course I remember you." Katherine cleared her throat and studied me carefully. "We are…alive?"

I nodded eagerly. "I know right? It's such a surprise. Kath, we're not dead—isn't that great?" I couldn't help but smile widely. Seeing Katherine awake really confirmed the fact that we were both still alive, and I felt giddy with euphoria. In my excitement, I grabbed Katherine's hand and squeezed it. She winced ever so slightly.

"Aaron, that hurts…"

I hurriedly let go of her hand. "Sorry Kath. It's just…can you believe we're alive?" I really wanted to hug Katherine all of a sudden to celebrate our narrow avoidance of death. My own pain was long forgotten.

"Where are we? Who saved us?" Katherine's gaze swept through the room and landed on me, before quickly averting her gaze. "And why are you…half naked?"

I looked down at myself, my face flushing a little. "I'm not naked," I protested. "You can't see anything with all these bandages."

"Yeah, well, I'd rather you put on some clothes so you don't catch a cold. Where are my swords? And your magical bag?" Katherine shifted uncomfortably and sat up slowly, the blanket falling from her shoulders to reveal a simple white tank top. "Oh heavens, what happened to my clothes?"

"Oh! I brought you some clothes." I remembered the extra set of clothing I had stuffed into my bag for Katherine. "But where's my bag?"

"Is it on the armchair?" Katherine squinted across the room. "My vision is still a little blurry, but I think there's something on the armchair."

I limped over and saw that my bag was indeed sitting on the armchair. Underneath that was four sets of clothing, two of which I recognized as what Katherine and I wore on the day we escaped from Devil's Peak. They had been washed and folded nicely, and any rips and tears were sewn together so well I could hardly tell they were there. The other two did not belong to us, so I assumed they were from the person who rescued us.

I dug through my bag until I found Katherine's clothes, took back the two sets of clothing that belonged to us, and then limped back to Katherine. The room was small, so the distance between the beds and the armchair was really not that large, but to me it was still a challenge. Katherine called out encouragements as I slowly made my way back and handed her clothes to her, before returning to my bed. Turning so that my back was to Katherine, I slipped into my clothing. It was a bit hard to tug on my pants with the bandages on my legs, but I managed.

Behind me, I heard the rustle of cloth as Katherine pushed her blanket aside and swung her legs off the bed. She cursed under her breath. "Why do I have a cast on my leg? How am I supposed to wear my jeans?" I began to turn around, but heard her yelp, "Don't turn around, Aaron!"

I froze immediately. "I saw a skirt on the armchair," I said, embarrassed. "I'll go get it. I swear I won't look." I limped as fast as I could to the armchair, grabbed the ankle-length dark green skirt, and limped backwards until I reached Kath. She snatched the skirt from me and muttered something like "I'll stab you through if you turn around". I have never been so careful about standing still and not moving a single muscle.

When Katherine finished changing, we hobbled across the room together. Our three swords were standing nicely against the wall next to the fireplace. "Is anything missing from your bag?" Katherine asked as she strapped both of her swords onto her back. I rifled through my bag carefully before answering, "No, everything is still here."

"Who saved us? Who lives down in a ravine next to Devil's Peak?" Kath wondered. "Aaron, how did we even survive the fall?"

"I have no idea," I answered as I returned my sword to its rightful place at my hip. "Whoever it is took great care of us as we were unconscious. They literally brought us back from the brink of death."

Katherine nodded slowly, thinking. "That means they should be an ally of ours, but we can never be too careful. When we meet them, don't reveal our identities until we can be sure they're on our side."

I nodded in agreement. With Katherine holding onto my arm for support, the two of us stepped out of the room and into a cozy living room furnished with a fireplace, another armchair, a rocking chair, and a hand-woven rug. A small kitchen could be seen around the corner, and a short hallway led to two other rooms. However, no one appeared to be inside the house at the moment.

"Let's try outside," I suggested. We made our way to the front door and opened it to a hidden paradise. The sun shone down through a clear blue sky, and flocks of birds cut through the air, warbling their tunes. The sides of cliffs rose up around the area, while trees grew in patches at the bottom of the rocky cliffs. A little ways off to the side, I could see pine trees that stretched their branches high up into the sky.

Turning back around, I saw that we had emerged from a cottage built from wood and straw. Surrounding the cottage was a clearing full of green grass and wildflowers, even in this season. The cottage itself was backed by a small forest that lined the bottom of a cliff. A clear stream cut through the clearing in front of the cottage, carrying with it branches and fallen leaves of upstream trees.

"What a beautiful place," Katherine marveled, letting go of my arm to turn in a small circle. "Who knew all this was hidden amongst the mountains of Devil's Peak?"

"I doubt anyone knows this place existed," I mused. "Everything feels so peaceful and safe."

"That's because it is peaceful and safe," a voice rang out in front of us. "No one knows about this place, much less set foot here. You two are the first outsiders here in a long, long time."