M.A. Kleen

Twenty-five years ago, I self-published The River of Rain, a philosophical exploration of freedom, human nature, and the modern world. To mark its anniversary, I’m releasing a fully revised edition, one chapter every Wednesday. This is the novel as it was meant to be.

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The blizzard buried the land beneath more than three feet of snow, the wind lifting drifts and carrying them for miles through the barren woods. The main road that cut through the region had long since been closed and was nearly impossible to travel.

Across the forest, the heavy blanket of snow seemed to smother everything into silence. Flakes swept over the cliffs and spiraled down into the warmer hollow below. Owing to the strange way the place had been formed, the broad basin carved into the rock held an unnatural warmth, and no snow lingered there.

Set deep within the limestone wall of this hidden, horseshoe-shaped enclave was a cave. Just inside its mouth sat two people, a young man and woman, both around eighteen years old, with a small fire flickering before them.

The man wore a fur cloth around his waist and a short fur cloak draped across his shoulders. The girl had wrapped herself in soft, tan leather fashioned into something resembling a dress, along with a nearly identical cloak. Together they stared past the cave entrance at the snowdrifts piled beyond the sheltering hollow.

“I’m hungry, Victor,” the girl whined softly.

Victor rolled his eyes.

“The food back there has to last all winter,” he said, motioning deeper into the cave. “We’ve still got another two months to go. Just try not to think about it.”

Ariana slipped into his arms.

“I can’t.” She pressed herself tightly against him and closed her eyes.

Victor slowly rubbed her shoulder with one hand.

“You know what I do when I get hungry during the winter?” he asked. “Nothing. Because there’s nothing you can do. It’s not like we can go to the store and buy something. Winter’s about conservation. Why do you think most animals hibernate?”

“I know,” she replied weakly.

As he held her, Victor’s thoughts drifted back to the first time he had found her. It hadn’t been long ago, only two months or so. She had been lost in the woods during a storm, and at the time he believed he was helping her. Instead, she had brought trouble into his life, trouble that still hadn’t passed. He knew spring would bring more people into the forest searching for both of them. Escaping the last time had already bordered on impossible. Next time the odds would be even worse.

But then again, when had the odds ever favored him?

He had survived this long. There was no reason to believe he wouldn’t survive this too.

Ariana’s thoughts wandered down similar paths, though fear weighed far heavier on her than hunger. She still dreamed about the close call in these woods weeks earlier. She had come so close to going home.

Why had she stayed?

The question haunted her until it nearly drove her to tears whenever she lingered on it too long. Ariana did not want to die out there in the wilderness. She wanted to grow up, have a job, maybe a family someday, like everyone else. What had she done to deserve any of this?

Her eyes began to water.

“Oh, no,” Victor said when he noticed. “Don’t start crying now. Come on, your eyes are going to freeze shut.” Ariana laughed despite herself and felt a little better when she saw him smile down at her. Before long, she fell asleep in his arms.

Continued in Chapter 12…