Wandering

Eric had no idea what drove him to go for a walk. He grew up in the warm Florida weather, so the December cold didn't agree with him. Still, he ended up out here. He wore his black and blue Jacksonville Jaguars hoodie with jeans and his regular Nike tennis shoes. The hood was up and his eyes were staring down at the ground.

His foot found a stray rock and it rolled forward. Eric diverted his path to kick it again. Childish? Probably, but it was more interesting that just walking. He gave it another kick and it flew straight right into a stream.

"Well, damn," He sighed. He kicked some dirt, not as much fun as the rock, and then leaned against a tree.

Eric almost dozed off against the tree when someone said boo behind him. Luckily for him he was dazed otherwise we would of probably jumped. As calmly as he could we turned around to see who would be dumb enough to try and scare him and almost ran into Myka.

Now he jumped back. "Myka!" Eric exclaimed, "What are your doing out here?"

After getting over the shock of almost running face first into his girlfriend, Eric straightened up to full height. He shoved away his surprise and it was replaced with excitement. He tucked his hands into his hoodie's pockets, "I really don't know why I am here. Something just drew me out here."

Eric started walking towards Myka, "Well then, since we are both here, why don't we hang out together?" He took his right arm out and threw it around Myka's shoulders, pulling her close.

Eric looked down at her, "Come on. We can do better than that." He leaned down and kissed Myka.

Eric smiled. Myka always had this effect on him. When they separated, he said ,"Well if you don't want to call it hanging out, we can call it a romantic walk in the winter woods. I would just call it a date, but our last one didn't end so well." He lifted up the lower half of his shirt, showing a white scar from their trip to New York.

Eric laughed, "If you say so." He started walking downstream, dragging Myka behind him. Who knew where he was leading them? He knew his way around camp well enough he could most likely find his way back. Eventually.

The forest seemed to get colder the further they went. Though he was from Florida, Eric still was comfortable. He heard a growl of what he assumed was a monster. That or a really hungry satyr. Eric had a thought that he should of grabbed a weapon before coming out to the woods. He then realized that if a monster did attack, it would be facing daughter of Ares and a son of Cratus. He felt sorry for any monster that ran into them.

The stream continued down a little waterfall, about a 3 foot drop. Eric let go of Myka's hand and hurdled the rocks at the drop off. He landed uncomfortable on his right ankle but nothing was injured. He turned back and reached up for Myka, "Come on, my lady, it is best to keep moving for at night the monsters come out."

Eric liked the warmth of Myka's hands on shoulder but just held her hand instead. The stream rushed by, gurgling as air escaped. He stepped in a small puddle that seemed to appear out of no where, soaking through his tennis shoe.

"I have once," Eric hopped and shook his foot trying to empty out the water. "I ended up walking into a tree and breaking my nose. Is was fun until then."

"Hey if I wasn't okay, do you think I would be here today?" Eric kissed the top of her forehead. "It's not weird, just different. I like the evenings myself, That part right before dark, where you can see close but out far it is dark." It was dark enough Eric couldn't see two feet in front of him. He barely saw a stump and manage to serve around it at the last second. A slight breeze started up from the south but Eric hoodie shielded him from it.

Eric smiled, "Night sure is peaceful. No kids trying to get home before curfew, no traffic, and no sounds by natural creatures." He stepped on a twig and it snapped. in the one second he looked down, he ran head first into a nymph. She got knocked down and Eric only stumbled back. "And the dryads come out." He turned to help the nymph up but found she was gone.

Eric rubbed his head, "Those dryads have it out for me." He has mainly been trying to avoid them. For some reason, they really didn't like him. A fog rolled in, making it kind of creepy. He put his arm around Myka's shoulders and puled her close. This fog didn't feel right.