When Val awoke one morning, her entire body shook with her shivers. Originally, when she had first come to Tavras’s Paradise, it had been early October. The entire month had passed, and so had some weeks into November. It would be far too cold to sleep outside without any kind of protection from the elements, so Val had been required to build her own shelter.

Tavras had mentored her in constructing a simple shelter, just as he had done with all of the other basics of survival: fishing, fire-making, cooking, even a little hunting. For a few days, they had eaten venison from the deer that she had killed. Primarily, she had wanted its pelt to serve as a mildly disturbing blanket.

“Land animals make great clothes, I will give them that.” Tavras had said things like that when he had shown her how to skin the deer and preserve its pelt.

Its coat helped keep Val warm every night thereafter. Overhead, she had a makeshift shelter which also conserved her body heat and kept her dry when it rained.

A long, sturdy stick was propped up against a fork in a tree. Many other small sticks leaned onto that singular rafter. Over these, Val had thrown a great number of leaves and pine needles, still attached to their twigs to form a covering. In this way, Val had a roof of a tent to call her home.

Doberman Pinschers were lean dogs with a single layer of fur. This meant that Foofy often shivered in cold weather. So too, he required the warmth of Val’s shelter at night.

Together, they would crawl their way into the shelter and weather the night. On top of the deer pelt blanket and the makeshift shelter, they also had each other’s body heat.

Waking up this morning though, Val felt cold because she lacked the warm presence of Foofy’s body curled up at her side. “Foofy?”

Normally, she would have to get up at this time regardless in order to complete her morning run before dawn. First, Val would have to search for Foofy this morning.

After she wormed her way out of the shelter, Val caught sight of two shaded figures running about on the beach. One had the tall form of a human, while the shorter one bounced about on four legs like a dog.

Did her eyes deceive her? Val never imagined that she would catch Tavras playing with Foofy on his own free will.

“Hey Foofy! Come,” she called.

The black dog came running through the darkness. His Dobie face became recognizable as he trotted up to her feet.

“Good boy.” She would give him a treat if only she had any food on her this early in the morning. Without further ado, she greeted the human. “Good morning, Tavras. Are you joining me on my run today?”

“Nope, I’m not—and you’re not running either.” Tavras’s voice rose and fell with the cadence of his good cheer. “I do believe that you are due for another day off.”

A gigantic smile climbed to Val’s face. Here, she did not have to work herself to exhaustion until she caved and begged for another day off. This invitation came from Tavras, and no one in their right mind would object to a break when offered one by him, considering how hard that he always pushed her in training.

Val skipped over to Tavras with Foofy on her heels. “What makes you say that it is time for another day off? Do you have something planned for today?”

“You could say that.” A sly smile drew onto his lips with his eyes pinched up. “Come on, Val. Would you like to go on a morning walk with me?”

She followed him with all excitement. Once again, her heart fluttered much too quickly for their easy stroll. Maybe now, at last, Tavras would decide to act on all of the tension that had existed between them.

The way that he so often flirted with her and teased her, he had to reciprocate these feelings of hers to some extent. Val sure hoped so, anyway, because she did not want to entertain the other possibility. Perhaps Val simply read too much into Tavras’s kindness and saw a connection where one did not exist at all, in actuality. This being her first real, long-lasting crush and all, Val had no idea how to determine between self-doubt and blind hope, so she let herself dream on.

Much to her surprise, Tavras led her farther inland into the forest rather than out to the beach. Their pace increased, especially as the trees climbed onto more rugged terrain. At the island’s center, the land rose into a small mountain, and this, they hiked.

Gray light began to seep through the leaves above them with the oncoming morning.

“It’s a good thing that we are almost there,” Tavras said. “I would hate to have come all of this way just to miss the sunrise.”

“Where are we headed…?” Val began. Her voice trailed off as the trees parted around the peak of the mountain.

At its heart, the land fell away into a cliff nearly as steep as the entire elevation in which they had gained. A steady roar filled her ears as water cascaded over the cliff, creating a waterfall on the far side. Below, a lake filled the crater, impossibly deep and blue.

“Wow,” she breathed. “This is amazing. How does a place like this even exist?”

“This is my Paradise,” Tavras said simply. He sat close to the cliff’s edge and beckoned her to join him with a pat of his hand against the mossy rock. “Won’t you come and watch the sunrise with me?”

Her heart beat as loud as the roar of the falls. Val approached with slow steps and lowered herself beside him. Immediately, she wished that she were still standing so that she could both kick herself and sit nearer to him. Rather than leaving only an intimate space between them, Val had been flustered enough to sit a casual distance from him.

Hopefully, Tavras would not take this as a preemptive rejection. If he would only close the distance between them and make his intended move, Val’s heart would do flips with the most exhilarating experience of her life to date.

They watched the sunrise in silence. The distance stayed between them. Tavras seemed to be at peace beside her, his blue eyes gazing steadily out to the east. Meanwhile, her thoughts spun around in a vortex.

Should she scoot closer to him and lay her head upon his shoulder? Could she reach out to his hand that rested across the rocks and dare to hold his hand in hers? Her stomach almost twisted up in an ache from all of this needless worry.

Foofy lay down beside her leg, giving her the reassurance of his presence. Her hand found his side to stroke his fur, calming her nerves from all of this worry.

In his lifetime of thousands of years, Tavras must have romanced hundreds of women. It would only be natural for him to have been interested in a number of people and to have fallen in love dozens of times before. The first move to initiate things between them, she would leave that to Tavras. He must understand these matters of the heart and know how to navigate a budding relationship better than anyone.

Val trained her eyes eastward as well and focused on the beauty of the sunrise. Her hand continually ran over Foofy’s fur.

Once the sun had completely bathed the area in its light, Tavras spoke up. “Your time here with me is nearing its end.”

“What?” Val asked, sad at first before realizing what this meant. “Do you mean that I am almost ready to go to the Summit of Ascension?”

“That is exactly what I mean,” Tavras said with a dip of his chin.

Her pulse practically doubled. Her heart pounded much faster than any crush on Tavras could cause. After all of this time in training, it seemed that Val would finally be ready to travel to her ultimate destination.

Her eyes grew wide in anticipation, taking in all of the vibrant colors of Tavras’s Paradise. She would have to leave this place soon.

“I’m ready,” she said. Confidence gathered in her voice, and she turned to Tavras with her broad smile. “I am ready,” she repeated, stronger now.

Finally, maybe she could see Ross in the foreseeable future once she had made it to the Summit. Her thoughts swirled around with these possibilities, her conviction growing to make her long-standing goal a reality at last.