Chapter Text
With steady, determined steps you follow the small path that winds in front of you, leading you further uphill through the untouched, beautiful nature. Birds are chirping in the sky, a gentle breeze rustles through the trees and over your cheeks while the sun beckons you seductively - it's a day you couldn't have imagined more perfect.
The air out here is refreshing and clean in a way that feels unfamiliar to you - you have totally forgotten the smell and the feeling of the wild. You greedily suck it in with every heavy breath you take - eager to let as much of it as possible stream through your lungs. It blows away the city dust that accumulated over the past years and created an itchy feeling in your chest for far too long.
But out here are no waste gases, unpleasant stenches or pollutants - only the faint smell of trees, rivers and grass.
You value it with every step you take, paying little attention to the backpack and the additional bags in your hands. They weigh heavy on your body and the exhaustion continues steadily to creep into your legs, arms and shoulders but you try your best to keep it in the back of your head - you don't mind the physical exertion because you know you will get rewarded for every bit of it soon enough.
So you keep going.
And indeed, as you finally break through the thick of the forest the view that opens up to you doesn't disappoint - it's like something out of a picture book, better than everything you remembered and imagined.
A stream winds its way through an alpine valley - the water so crystal clear and pure that you have no trouble seeing the stony riverbed. Ferns, grasses and flowers guide its way to each side together with some smaller trees that stand scattered between bushes and boulders. In the distance the peaks of a majestic mountain chain crown the scenery together with the outflows of a glacier.
You freeze on the spot as this magnificent view arises in front of you - formed thousands of years ago through powers you can't even imagine. Suddenly you feel all small and insignificant as you stand in between. With widened eyes you greedily suck every detail in to imprint it on your retina - every straw that wavers in the wind, every droplet of water that splashes in the stream and every flower that seduces some busy bees.
It steals your breath away.
Only now you fully come to realise how much you missed this - being kept away in a too small apartment and a too dark office building for far too long. Of course you often take some time off outside - for a walk, for sports, to read, to hang around in a nearby park. But it's always that - a park or a small afforested patch of land, far from the real deal and far from even comparable to this. And you really needed a break - an escape from the dull everyday stress.
When you slowly find your composure back you enter your newly found wonderland and follow the stream a little bit further uphill - eyes still busy with the sight, you don't even know where to look first and where next. But when they pause on a particular beautiful spot of land you know immediately that this is where you want to set up camp - deciding that this is more than far enough away from civilization.
The ground here is grassy and flat, the river is right in front of it and there are even two bigger trees nearby where you can hang your hammock. It's just perfect and without much of a rest you start scurrying around already.
Self-confident you position the entrance of your tent facing towards the scenery in the distance - keen that this surreal sight is the first thing you see in the mornings.
When the tent is set up, your camping mat and sleeping bag already in place, you store the other goods you carried all the way up here in the tent as well - a change of clothes, some toiletries but most importantly food. Food that won't go bad that easily and is lightweight to carry. You brought a few fresh vegetables and fruits as well but with the knowledge that you have to consume them in the first few days.
After the main work is done you set your hammock up and allow yourself a well-deserved rest in its soft folds. From the spot between the trees you can oversee the complete stream - up and downhill. Uphill it winds further through the plane only to disappear between mountains and the glacier, downhill it meanders through a wide, grassy valley that you can oversee almost completely.
Your heart skips a beat in excitement - excitement for being surrounded by this untouched, beautiful nature for the next two weeks and excitement for exploring it in some long, relaxing hikes.
Excitement for finally finding some peace and solitude out here where you can leave the stress of your daily life behind.
Gleefully you let those pleasant thoughts occupy your mind while you let the soundtrack of the countryside carry you away. Only now you realise how drained and tired you actually are - from giving a hundred percent for the past months straight, from the exhausting drive out here and last but not least from the walk uphill with all that extra weight on you.
And so you allow your heavy lids to rest, falling into a peaceful, light slumber.
*****
You awake to a set of low growls and grunts - breaking through the steady sounds of nature that carried you through some faint dreams.
Your head feels a little dizzy and you need a few seconds to make sense of the still unfamiliar environment surrounding you. Slowly you realise where you are, come to sit in an upright position - as far as this is possible in the shaky hammock - and swing your legs over the hem to let them dangle in the air.
Suddenly those unfamiliar sounds find their way into your consciousness again, remembering you of the reason for your disruption.
You prick up your ears, keen to fade the chirping birds, the rustling of the trees and grasses and the splashing of the river out as good as possible. But still you can't place those sounds. With fear slowly creeping up in your guts you wreck your brains but just can't think of any associated animal. Though there are bears in this area this doesn't sound like a bear, neither like a wolf, a deer or anything else you can think of that might live out here.
As the realisation finally hits you the blood starts to freeze in your veins - this rather sounds human.
You are wide awake on the spot and jump out of the hammock with a swift movement. You are not really keen to find out why a human would make such noises in a remote area like this as the imagination starts to blossom, nevertheless - something with blood, violence and murder shots to your mind but you resist to elaborate it furhter.
Instead you approach your tent and open it as silent as possible. Hectically you roam your belongings until you find the desired item - a small folding knife with a wooden handle. It's nothing special, just something you take with you for cooking and sometimes carving some branches.
But it's the only thing close to a weapon you brought.
You let it snap open and weigh it in your palm - it feels reassuring but at the same time it doesn't. You never got into a situation where you had to defend yourself and you are sure that you won't make a good figure trying to do so - not with this simple knife, not against an attacker who knows what he does.
Nevertheless, you push this concerning thoughts aside and tighten your grip around the handle. Then you leave the tent. With careful, well considered steps you make your way upstream to find the origin of the sounds as the awareness of your situation slowly dawns on you - you are out here all by yourself, the next inhabited area a few hundred kilometres away and nobody knows where exactly you are. Of course you told your family and friends about your plans but the final destination you chose only a few hours ago.
As the growls suddenly grow louder you feel like holding your breath. The tension rises in your chest as your heart pounds faster and faster - you don’t even notice how your knuckles turn white from the still fastening grip around that small knife.
Carefully you peek around a particularly large boulder, finding the first indicators of another human being out here - a bottle of water, some clothing and large pads scattered on the ground that you can’t make any sense of. Your eyes search the nearby surroundings as you finally spot the man whose throat must be the origin of the sounds of your concerns.
But the sight is far from what you were prepared for.
You freeze on the spot, mouth slightly agape as you watch the man cling to a boulder with his hands and feet, growling and gasping from the physical exhaustion. He doesn’t wear a shirt and his skin shimmers smooth and glistening from sweat in the sun. Totally hypnotised from the spectacle that can easily catch up with the beauty of nature surrounding you, you watch his lean muscles flex and stretch, his shoulders tighten as he puts a lot of force into them to fulfil a set of mesmerising motions.
As discreetly as possible you close the knife and let it glide into your pocket - suddenly feeling stupid for your previous fearful thoughts. You follow his precise and controlled movements further up the rock - every single one seems well planned and estimated - as you slowly allow yourself to step closer - still keen to not reveal your presence.
Suddenly the man loses his grip and falls all the way down, landing with his back on one of the pads - whose presence makes sense to you now - with a dull sound. “Fuck” he spits with a sour tone and you flinch at the sudden sound of his low and husky voice. His breath is so heavy that you can hear it from where you stand and you can see his bare chest rise and fall in a perfect rhythm.
He doesn’t make any attempt to get up from where he lies, just sighs in defeat and brushes a hand through his jet black hair - the single strands shimmer in the sun just as mesmerising as his sweaty skin does.
“Uhm, hey. Are you alright?” you decide that you watched him for long enough and finally bring yourself to ask with a shy voice while taking another step closer.
“It depends,” he shoots, too fast and in a too steady tone for what you expected. You feared that you would startle him since he was so focused on the task at hand but he doesn’t even lift his head at the sound of another voice.
“Depends on what?”
“If you wanna keep standing there like a fool and pretend I didn’t notice you,” he scoffs and finally comes to sit in an upright position - eyeing you properly with an indifferent expression imprinted on his face. So you weren’t as sneaky as you hoped you would be, you conclude indignant from his words.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t-,” you stutter, feeling caught off guard. “I didn’t want to interrupt whatever you were doing there,” you stumble as your eyes meet his - steely grey, sharp and contained. You quickly avert your gaze and, unsure where to look at instead, allow yourself to explore the other features of his face as he raises a questioning brow at you.
“What were you doing there anyway?” you finally ask to justify why you were ‘standing around’.
“What did it look like?” he counters as he pulls on one of his shoes until it comes off. You follow his movement with your eyes, thoughtful to not stare at his bare, toned abdomen. The shoes look awkward and totally uncomfortable to you - painfully tight on his feet, bending them down in an abnormal way.
“I don’t know, hugging some rocks?” you answer genuinely, more as a question than anything else.
“Tsk,” he scoffs and continues with the second shoe.
“Sorry, I- I set up camp a little further downstream and I heard…something…you. I didn’t expect to meet another human being out here, to be honest,” you explain yourself as he puts the shoes aside and stretches and bends his feet - so they really are as uncomfortable as they look like, you conclude.
“Yeah, that makes two of us,” he scoffs and rolls his eyes in a way that lets you know that he actually hoped to be alone out here as much as you did.
As he starts to scurry around the few items lying around and doesn’t say anything further you raise your voice again. “So, what were you doing?” you ask with more emphasis now.
“I tried to flash this problem but obviously failed,” he answers in a bored and annoyed tone - obviously dissatisfied with his own performance but with someone pricking the open wound all the more.
“Ehm, what?” you press with a frown as his words sound almost foreign to you. Suddenly he freezes in his movement, his shirt in one hand, as his eyes turn the slightest bit soft around the edges.
“I’m bouldering,” he finally explains but the words still don’t make much sense to you. As your frown deepens you already fear that he might lose his temper and snap at you - but he doesn’t. Instead his repellent aura seems to crumble and he patiently explains “basically rock climbing but at jump height, without ropes or harnesses.”
“Oh, I see. I have a friend who is into rock climbing but I never heard of bouldering before,” you explain as the pieces finally fall together. You never knew that there was a similar sport that doesn’t require the attendance of another person for belaying.
“It’s a little less prominent, I guess,” he says casually and shrugs his shoulders.
You feel that there is nothing more to add from his side but decide to break the silence, nevertheless, just before it can become uncomfortable. “I’m Thea, by the way,” you introduce yourself, winking sheepishly at him.
“Levi,” he says shortly and nods.
“Nice to meet you. So, are you staying in the area as well?” you bubble and feel how your cheeks blush the tiniest bit, your chest tightening. You have no clue why you are so keen to keep the small talk to this man you only just met going. Maybe you don’t feel that averse to having at least some human being close by even though he probably does, judging by his initial reaction.
To answer your question he just points his head a little further upstream where you only now spot a small tent between the rocks and bushes.
“Oh, I totally oversaw that,” you mumble as you realise that it must be visible from your camping spot as well - it seems all the more that you had only eyes for your breath-taking surroundings at your arrival.
He doesn’t make any attempt to continue the conversation and you finally don’t feel like dragging it any longer than necessary. “Okay then, I don’t want to bother you any further. Feel free to come around if you like…need anything,” you offer but feel stupid the second the words leave your mouth.
Levi just nods and makes an effort to put his shoes back on. Suddenly you feel like staying and watching him and his elegant moves just a little bit longer - but at the same time you don’t want to be intrusive. You don’t know this man and he clearly came here to be by himself - you don’t want to mess with that.
So you head back to your camp.
That evening you have some warmed up leftovers for dinner. You eat in your hammock but can’t help to steal some glances over to Levi’s camp once in a while. There is a warm, orange glow radiating from it, revealing to you that he must have put on a campfire. It lets you imagine the feeling of the warmth on your cheeks and the urge swells in your chest to give Levi a visit.
But then you realise that he didn’t return your offer and you are again reminded of the fact that he probably wants to be by himself - just what you longed for as well when you came here. But suddenly this desire seems to have shifted - suddenly you feel grateful for having at least someone around, for not being all by yourself. Someone who is not a wanted criminal, a murderer or what else you imagined first at the sound of these noises.
Suddenly you feel like his company will be worth throwing your intentions overboard - the first sight of him, climbing this boulder so skillfully, still imprinted in your mind.
