Author: Elizabeth
Rating: A saucy PG-13... cause that's all I can write... and no more, else you'll be highly disappointed with my knowledge thereof.
Disclaimer: I wish I did... but I don't... wish I was one of the official writers, but I'm not... and never will be <sigh>... so, is that good enough to disclaim my non-existent ownership of W/T?

"Willow?"

"Tara!" The redhead jumped off her bed in a hurry to meet the blonde halfway through the small room. However, in the process her foot caught unexpectedly on the animal skin, and instead landed roughly on her backside.

"Willow!" The blonde rushed to her side to help the redhead up as she clumsily muffled an "ow." She's so cute, and soft... It was hard for the blonde's senses not to go into super alert mode with Willow near. Everything was louder, everything was bigger, and everything was a lot heavier in the small room.

"I'm okay, I'm okay..." Dork, "I just, you know, lost my footing." She looked down at her leg and saw what the problem was. It snaked around her ankle and smartly shimmered black in the sunlight.

Damn chain.

"Ugh, it's the chain, isn't it?"

"Well..." Just say yes, Willow. Say yes and save some face, "Yeah, the chain, I'm still not used to the one leg act."

"Here, hold on a second," Tara disappeared behind the curtain again and just as quickly came back through with a small metal key, "Keep this," Willow tried to speak up in protest but Tara talked over her sternly, "You shouldn't be kept locked up, just be sure to be discreet only at night, and only if I, Buf'aneah or Fa - if one of my friends come."

"Okay..." Willow grasped the key, her fingers slowly curling around the metal, barely touching Tara's. Okay, that was tingly. The two girls stared up at each other, nervously glancing around.

"So... ritual?"

"Yes," Tara nodded emphatically: apparently her ability to speak coherently had been heightened in the last five seconds. She had probably scared the poor girl by now.

"What do we do?"

"Well, for this one we finally say our prayers for tomorrow's fight."

"Okay!" A smile spread over the girl's face - prayer, in her mind, meant she got to smear paint on Tara. In what world would she not smile about that?

"What?"

"Oh, nothing, I just, uh..." Bugger. She caught you. She caught you smiling dreamily, you little perve, "I like praying, it reminds me of when I used to go to church with my Nana, although, now that I think about it, I didn't like going to Church, I only liked it because I got to wear nice clothes, but the sermons were boring. But, prayer, um,,.yay? It's not like the blood letting, with the drop of blood from each person and well, I prefer praying to pain, in my personal prayer opinion."

She breathed.

Willow smiled weakly.

Good, I breathed. That means I shut up.

Tara quirked her eyebrow.

Good, she breathed, that means she's still alive.

"So, isn't this the point in time in which one of your buddies come in with a question?"

"What?"

"I mean, whenever I manage to sound stupid, at least they'd pull the attention away - but it seems like when I actually need one, none are here to save me."

"I don't think you sound stupid," Tara said stepping closer.

"Oh..." Willow gulped audibly, and Tara did not fail to hear it. "Well then, you've yet to hear my dissertation on why Frogs are evil."

Laughter erupted, and Willow's smile grew by miles at the sight and sound of Tara's happiness. She created that. Just her. She had the power to make Tara happy - albeit through laughter - but it didn't matter.

"No, I don't think they'll be bugging us anymore... you noticed, huh?"

"Only every time that I wanted to talk or do anything with you, yes."

"Well, we have only the last prayer and then I'm all yours to talk or do anything with..." Willow's blush was nothing compared to Tara's at this point, but both girls decided to forget about it.

"Thanks," Willow blurted out and then with Tara's confused expression, "For the keys?"

"Oh, well it's fine, I know it's not much to get a few feet more..."

"No! It's everything, I can see now."

"What?" Tara's confused expression only added to the glint in the redhead's eye. She would show her.

Willow knelt down and unlocked her ankle. She righted herself and grabbed Tara's hand, pulling her over to the small hole cut in the hut.

"I could barely reach the window before, at night the stars are..." she turned and saw Tara staring intently back at her, "... beautiful..." And she was; the starlight was dancing over Tara's skin, playing with the color of her eyes, and highlighting the deep blue hue of her lips in the night.

A moment slipped in between the two and ever so slightly Willow leaned in.

"Willow?" Tara murmured, "D-don't you want to see the stars?"

"I do," she whispered.

A Crack sounded as a figure strode towards the Tree.

A few footsteps and another sounded below and above the woman, her grey hair rustling as she quickly turned towards the angered bark.

"Arboliahe, uhglaj-" a small prayer in apology was whispered but to no heed. Rumblings could be heard below the woman's trembling feet.

"Arboliahe, ughlaj iuha-" she tried again, but the ground would not listen.

A final crack bolted from the sky, and it seemed the Tree moved - a limb crashed down, slashing the woman's side and knocking her to the jungle's floor.

She moaned in pain, and slowly drew herself up, slumping away, slowly, clutching her side in pain.

Caranthia... she had to get to Caranthia... and then warn the others... she must warn the others...