We stood at the cliffs.
My jacket flapped crazily. My jeans were soaked through. Yet, I never felt so alive. Wind and rain were elemental. I often felt elemental, too, deeply connected to the rhythms of night and day.
Allison, on the other hand, looked miserable. Her cheeks could have been two freshly-picked cherry tomatoes. She had also started sneezing. I needed to get my friend out of the storm - but to where, I didn't yet know.
"Where to, Sam?" Kingsley asked on cue. He seemed to be enjoying himself.
This was the first time I'd seen the big gorilla since the 'incident.' If anything, he looked even sexier. Dammit. Apparently, wet clothing suited him well. I loved a man with meat on him, and Kingsley had just that. Thick and meaty equaled great cuddling.
"Don't know," I said, although my voice might have been lost on the howling wind.
The evening was coming on full dark - although never too dark for me. The ocean was alive to my eyes, foaming and frothing and churning. Salt spray exploded from below with each crashing wave.
Some of that salt spray reached us. I tasted it on my lips, and then spat it out again.
I didn't know why I seemed to attract the medallions. Somehow, someway they seemed to find me.
He fearlessly stepped to the edge of the cliff and leaned out, looking down.
Massive and immovable, he looked a bit like a cliff himself, only hairier.
"You said some others have been digging for it, too?" asked Kingsley.
I caught his meaning. "You think we should start where they've been looking?"
"It's not a bad idea. After all, they might have narrowed things down for us."
"Except I don't know where they've been digging - "
"I heard someone mention some caves that were near the beach," said Allison, cutting me off. "If I were shipwrecked and wanted to hide my gold, that's where I would pick."
From here, I could see a wide swath of sand not too far away, where the cliff dropped down to meet the beach. Which is where Allison suddenly set off for, sneezing as she went.
"I guess we follow her," said Kingsley, chuckling lightly. He bowed in my direction and waved his hand. "After you, madam."
We followed Allison down the grassy slope, slogging through puddles and ducking against the wind. My new friend seemed oddly determined. And her mind, perhaps even more oddly, was closed off to me.
I frowned at that as I followed her, as Kingsley's sasquatch-like footfalls crashed through the tall grass behind me.