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Ardor
Once awakened by the loud conflict between the three men, Alice was unable to bring herself to fall asleep as she did before. A searing, hollow pain slowly began to eat away at Alice's gut -hunger. None of the six had eaten since the latter morning, and not a single scrap of anything sustaining was present. The younger of the sisters sighed heavily, licking her thin, pink lips with her tongue. She felt dizzy, as though any sudden movements would cause her to faint -out of ill feeling and tire, Alice leaned her back against the trunk of a great pine tree and began to smooth out the soft wrinkles in her dress with her pale, womanly fingers.
The morning air was laden with chill, and Alice felt an almost numbing cold in every corner of her body. It was as though her insides were afire while her mantle was as frozen over like a pond in the winter -a sudden strong and abrupt shiver shook the whole of Alice's body, and even when summoned by her senses, it would not stop.
Cora, who had once again succumbed to sleep was laying in a fetal position next to Alice, and when called to wake, did not budge. Frustrated with the deepness of her elder sister's sleep, Alice swiftly brought a hand to Cora's ankle, and shook it. This action caused an extreme wave of dizziness to overcome Alice, and a rattling cough rose from her throat. “Cora!” Alice barked hoarsely, shaking her sister once more “Cora!”
And thus did the eldest daughter of Munro awaken to see her sister pale-faced and dazed with ailment. “Oh!” Cora exclaimed sleepily, rising to a sitting position and bringing a palm to Alice's fore head “You are burning with fever -have we nothing to eat nor drink?” The question had been directed to the men of the party, who, save Uncas shook their heads wearily -they had nothing.
“I have water,” Uncas said softly, reaching into his shirt and revealing a small and dented metal flask. Alice smiled weakly, and two rosebushes grew romantically dark on her pale cheeks. “Thank you, sir” Alice whispered, feebly reaching out to accept Uncas's flask.
It was no more than a half of a moment, maybe even less than that. It happened so quick that not even the gods took any notice. Really, it was nothing to fuss over -but who was fussing? While closing her fingers around the cold metal flask, their two hands whispered a touch -it was more than enough, and a smoldering ash sparked to life
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