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. Continued from Chapter 18.

---

The next morning Ariana awoke before dawn. For a long time, she lay motionless beneath the bearskin, staring at the cave ceiling while the last embers of the fire pulsed faintly across the limestone. Sleep had done nothing to dull what she had seen the night before. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Victor’s hand resting over Jenny’s and the two of them leaning toward each other beside the hidden fire.

Quietly she pushed the bearskin aside and fed a few small branches onto the coals. The flames slowly came back to life and she sat with her hands wrapped around her knees. She heard footsteps in the tunnel long before either of them appeared.

Victor emerged first. His hair was damp, and he carried an armful of fresh kindling beneath one arm. Jenny followed several paces behind. She looked exhausted. The moment she noticed Ariana sitting awake, she hesitated.

“Morning,” Victor said with an easy smile.

“Morning,” she repeated. Her voice sounded perfectly normal.

Victor knelt beside the fire and added another log. “You slept hard.”

“I guess I needed it.”

Jenny lingered in the background, unsure where to stand. She opened her mouth as though she wanted to say something, then thought better of it.

No one spoke while they ate. The dried meat tasted no different than it had the day before, but Ariana forced herself to chew every bite. Across the fire Jenny picked at her breakfast without appetite.

Victor seemed almost…lighter. His fever was gone, his movements stronger. He talked briefly about the weather, remarking that the morning felt warmer than it had in weeks and that the deer would probably be feeding lower on the ridge.

Ariana nodded when appropriate and smiled when expected, but inside she felt strangely hollow. At one point she caught Jenny looking at her. Their eyes met only for a second. Jenny immediately looked away.

So. She knew. Good.

Victor finished eating and stood, stretching carefully. “I made you a promise yesterday.”

Ariana looked up.

“The hunting lesson.”

For just a moment she considered refusing. Then she remembered his hands guiding hers around the spear only the day before. She forced another smile. “I’d still like to learn.”

Victor smiled back, pleased by the answer. “Good.” He reached for the bone spear leaning against the wall. “I’ll make a hunter out of you yet.”

Ariana watched him lift it. You already have, she thought, but she never said the words aloud.

The three left the cave shortly after sunrise. A thin layer of fresh snow had fallen overnight, smoothing over the old footprints that crisscrossed the clearing. The air was still cold enough to sting their lungs, but the hard bite of winter had begun to soften. Water dripped steadily from the rocks above the cave entrance, and somewhere deeper in the woods a woodpecker hammered at a dead tree.

Victor walked several yards ahead of the others, moving more carefully than usual but with far more confidence than he had only a day earlier. Ariana followed with the bone spear balanced across one shoulder while Jenny trudged behind them, saying little.

Victor stopped beside a patch of untouched snow and crouched. “Come here.”

Ariana knelt beside him. Jenny stayed where she was.

“See these?” Victor pointed to two narrow impressions crossing the clearing. “Rabbit. Passed through before daylight.” He brushed away a little snow with the back of his hand. “Fresh enough to follow if we needed to.”

Ariana studied the tracks carefully. “They’re smaller than I expected.”

Victor stood and continued walking. “The first mistake people make is thinking hunting is about weapons. It isn’t. It’s about paying attention. If an animal hears you, smells you, or sees you before you see it, you’ve already failed.”

As they climbed farther up the ridge, Victor slowed his pace until Ariana was walking beside him. “You’re holding it too tight,” he said, pointing at the spear.

“I don’t want to drop it.”

“You won’t.”

He wrapped one hand gently around hers and loosened her fingers. “If you squeeze like that, your arm will tire before you ever use it.”

Ariana nodded. His touch no longer comforted her.

“Good,” he said. “Now keep the point just below shoulder height. You don’t carry it like a walking stick. You carry it like you expect to need it.”

She raised the spear exactly as instructed.

Victor smiled. “Better.”

They continued through the trees until they reached a fallen oak lying half-buried beneath the snow. Victor stepped over the trunk, then turned.

“If you have to use it…” He paused, choosing his words carefully. He stepped behind her and gently turned her shoulders. “Use your whole body. Step forward first.” He nudged her leading foot a few inches ahead. “Then drive through the target. Don’t stop when you make contact.”

He picked up a dead branch about as thick as a man’s arm and planted it upright in the snow.

“Show me.”

Ariana lowered herself instinctively, just as he had shown her with the bow. She stepped forward. The spear struck the branch with a dull crack and shoved it backward several feet before it toppled into the snow.

“There,” Victor laughed.

She looked back. “I hit it.”

“You did more than hit it.” He retrieved the branch and held it up. “If that had been a deer, it wouldn’t have gone far.”

Ariana stared at the splintered wood. Without realizing it, she tightened her grip around the shaft.

Victor noticed. “Relax.”

She forced her fingers to loosen.

“You learn quickly,” he said. “Faster than I ever expected.”

For the briefest moment, Ariana almost wished she had never learned anything at all.

Neither of them noticed Jenny watching from several yards away. She stood perfectly still among the pines, looking from Victor to Ariana with growing unease. Whatever happened the night before had not disappeared with the sunrise. If anything, it had settled over the three of them like the snow itself—silent, cold, and impossible to ignore.

Victor raised one hand as if to say, “Wait here.” He had spotted a line of fresh tracks disappearing through a stand of young pines. Handing Ariana the spear, he slipped quietly into the trees, leaving the two women alone for the first time that morning.

Neither spoke.

Ariana stood with the spear planted lightly in the snow, watching Victor’s footprints disappear into the woods. Jenny shifted her weight uneasily before finally walking over.

“Ariana…”

There was no answer.

“I’ve been trying to think of what to say.”

Ariana kept looking toward the trees.

Jenny sighed. “I know how it looked.”

This time Ariana turned, though her expression remained unreadable. “Do you?”

Jenny hesitated. “It wasn’t planned.”

“No?”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“I know.”

“I found that room.”

“What room?” Ariana’s eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

“The one with all the camping gear.”

For the first time, Ariana’s composure cracked. Camping gear? Victor had never told her about anything like that. Had he? Then it came crashing back. Her illness. The strange clothes she found deep in the cave. The fever must have clouded her memory.

“Did you know about it?”

Ariana slowly shook her head. “I … I must have forgot. What was in there?”

“Backpacks. Sleeping bags. Food. Things people left behind … even a camera.”

Ariana felt something tighten in her chest.

“There were pictures … of families. People the stuff belonged to, I guess.”

Neither woman spoke for several moments, then Jenny finally looked up. “He said he found them,” she said, hopefully.

“And you believed him?”

“I don’t know.”

Ariana lowered her eyes to the snow. “I believed a lot of things…” The words came out so quietly Jenny almost missed them.

“I don’t think he’s dangerous,” she said carefully.

“No?”

“I think he’s just lonely.”

Ariana laughed once, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “That’s what I thought too.”

“When we talked last night…” Jenny said, taking another step closer.

“You kissed him.”

Jenny froze. So, she had seen. “It wasn’t…” she began.

“Don’t.” Ariana raised one hand. The single word landed harder than if she had shouted it.

Jenny swallowed. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you.” She looked at the spear in Ariana’s hand and her face drained of color.

Ariana looked at her for the first time since Victor had walked away. “I know exactly why you did it.”

Jenny searched her friend’s face for anger, jealousy, anything familiar. Instead, she found something much worse. Acceptance.

“I don’t hate you,” Ariana said quietly. “But I don’t trust either of you anymore.”

Before Jenny could answer, Victor’s voice echoed through the trees.

“I found something!”

The moment was over. Ariana lifted the spear and started walking toward him without another word. Jenny remained where she was for another second, watching her friend disappear between the pines. For the first time since entering the mountain, she wasn’t afraid of Victor.

She was afraid of Ariana.

Victor emerged from the pines. “No deer,” he said with a shrug. Then added, “Too much wind.” He brushed his hands together. “We’ll keep moving.”

Neither woman mentioned their conversation. If Victor noticed anything had changed between them, he kept it to himself.

The three continued along the ridge in silence. The forest had begun to wake around them. A squirrel darted across a fallen log before vanishing into a hollow oak, and somewhere farther down the valley a crow called into the crisp morning air. The snow still covered everything, but patches of dark earth had begun to appear beneath the pines where the sunlight lingered longest.

Victor suddenly stopped and crouched beside a cluster of saplings.

“Deer were here yesterday,” he said, tracing several hoofprints with one finger. “See how the edges have softened? Fresh tracks have sharp walls. These have already started collapsing.”

Ariana knelt beside him, studying the impressions exactly as he had shown her. Without thinking she compared them to the rabbit tracks from earlier. She was learning to notice things she never would have seen a month ago.

Victor smiled. “I told you yesterday that hunting isn’t about throwing a spear. It’s about seeing what everyone else walks past.” He straightened and looked through the trees. “The forest tells you everything if you know how to listen.”

A dark shape swept low overhead.

Ariana looked up just as a large black raven glided silently between the branches and landed on a dead pine a few yards away.

Victor’s entire face brightened. “Ingram!”

The bird cocked his head, the emerald sheen in his eye flashing briefly in the morning sun.

“There you are,” Victor laughed. “I thought you’d abandoned me.”

The raven answered with a low croak before hopping down to a lower branch.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Jenny muttered.

Victor ignored her. He stepped forward slowly, one hand extended. Ingram fluttered down without hesitation, landing lightly on his forearm before climbing onto his shoulder. “There you are,” Victor whispered again. “I was wondering if you’d survived.”

The raven nuzzled against his hair and ruffled its feathers.

Jenny watched in open disbelief. “It actually knows you.”

“We’ve looked after each other for a long time,” Victor replied as he reached up and scratched gently beneath the bird’s beak.

“It understands you?”

“He understands enough.” Victor smiled at the bird before speaking almost as though he were addressing an old friend. “I’ve missed you.”

Ingram answered with another quiet croak.

For just a moment the forest seemed peaceful again.

Victor stood laughing softly as the raven picked playfully at a loose strand of his hair. Whatever burden he had been carrying over the past several weeks seemed to lift from his shoulders. Ariana realized she had never seen him look so completely at ease.

She watched him with an expression Victor mistook for affection.

It wasn’t.

Her eyes drifted to the spear resting in her hand. Victor had shown her exactly where to place her hands and how to plant her feet. How to drive through the target instead of striking at it. She adjusted her grip almost absentmindedly, her fingers settling into the same position he had corrected only minutes before.

Victor never noticed. He was still smiling at the raven perched on his shoulder, his back turned slightly toward the two women.

Jenny did notice. She glanced from the spear to Ariana’s face. Something about her friend’s expression made the warmth leave her body. “Ariana…” she said quietly.

Ariana didn’t answer. She took one slow step forward, then another.

“Ariana…” Jenny repeated, louder this time.

Victor turned at the sound of her voice. “What is it?”

Neither woman answered.

He looked from Jenny to Ariana, puzzled by the sudden tension.

“You two all right?”

Ariana’s grip tightened around the spear.

Victor smiled uncertainly and took a step toward her.

She didn’t move. “There is a lot you never told me,” she said quietly. For weeks she had believed every word he said. She had defended him. Cared for him. Nearly died beside him. She had even begun imagining a future she never thought she wanted. Now she wondered how much of it had been real.

Behind her, Jenny took a cautious step forward. “Ariana…please.”

Victor looked between them again. “What happened?”

No one answered.

The only sound was the wind moving softly through the pines. Ingram shifted uneasily on Victor’s shoulder. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t?” Ariana asked. Her voice remained calm. “You let me believe I knew you.”

Victor’s expression changed. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, understanding began to settle over his face. “She told you about the room.”

She said nothing.

He closed his eyes for a moment. “I was afraid of that.”

“You lied to me.”

Victor took another careful step. “I never wanted to deceive you. We don’t need any of that stuff. It’s all junk, from out there. I only used it once—to save your life.”

“And Jenny?”

Victor glanced toward her.

Jenny lowered her head.

“Ariana…”

“I wasn’t talking to you.” The words were flat, almost emotionless.

Victor finally noticed the spear. His eyes lingered on it only for an instant before returning to Ariana’s face. “What are you doing?”

She looked down at the smooth wooden shaft. “You told me not to think about it.”

Victor’s brow furrowed and he reached toward Ariana—not to defend himself, but almost instinctively, as though he could still stop whatever had broken inside her.

The spear drove forward. Her front foot planted exactly as he had shown her. Her shoulders followed, then all her weight. The sharpened bone punched through leather, hide, and flesh.

Victor gasped. The force carried them another step before the shaft stopped against his body.

Ingram exploded into the air with a frantic cry.

For a moment none of them moved. Ariana’s hands still gripped the spear.

Victor looked down at it as though it belonged to someone else. Then he slowly raised his eyes to hers. There was no anger in them. Only disbelief. “You…” His voice caught. “…understand.”

Ariana let go of the spear. Victor staggered backward, trying to keep his footing. Blood spread slowly across the front of his coat before dripping into the snow. Jenny screamed and rushed toward him just as his knees gave way. He collapsed heavily onto one side, one hand instinctively reaching for the shaft protruding from his chest.

“Ariana!” Jenny cried. “What have you done?”

Ariana didn’t answer. She stood perfectly still, staring at Victor as though she expected him to become someone else. Instead, he looked up at her with quiet, heartbreaking resignation. “You saw us.”

She nodded once.

A faint, weary smile crossed his face. “So that’s what this is.” He coughed, and bright red drops stained the snow beneath him. Victor looked at her for another long moment, then his gaze drifted past both women toward the trees.

A strange recognition had replaced the confusion on his face. He slowly lifted one trembling arm toward the forest. “He’s here…” His voice had become little more than a whisper. “Can’t you…” He swallowed. “…can’t you see him?”

Neither Ariana nor Jenny turned.

Victor’s outstretched hand slowly fell back into the snow. His eyes never left the trees. For several long seconds his chest continued to rise and fall in shallow, uneven breaths. Then even those became still.

The forest fell silent.

Ariana dropped to her knees beside him, pressing both hands against the wound although she knew it was useless. Blood seeped steadily through her fingers, staining the snow beneath him a deep crimson.

“Victor…” she whispered. “Victor!” There was no answer. She looked desperately toward Jenny, but Jenny couldn’t move.

Victor lay exactly where he had fallen, one hand resting open in the snow as though he had simply stopped to catch his breath. Ingram circled high overhead, crying out once before gliding lower and settling silently on a nearby branch. The raven watched without moving.

“You killed him,” Jenny said in a trembling, disbelieving voice. The words hung in the cold air.

Ariana stared at Victor’s face. The anger that had carried her this far was already slipping away. In its place came something far heavier. She remembered the first rabbit he had shown her. The fire he had built on her first night. His laughter when she fumbled with the bow. The hand that had tucked the bearskin around her only hours before.

Then she remembered the hidden chamber. Jenny’s hand against his face. The kiss.

Her jaw tightened. “I had to,” she said quietly.

Jenny looked up, tears running freely down her face. “No…” She shook her head. “…you didn’t.”

Ariana closed her eyes. Perhaps not. She would never know now. Without another word, she stood up and turned away. Each step through the snow felt heavier than the last. The wind stirred gently through the bare branches.

As Ariana reached the edge of the clearing, Ingram suddenly took flight. The great black bird circled once over Victor’s body before disappearing into the pale winter sky.

Ariana never looked back.

Neither woman noticed the movement among the trees beyond the clearing. Far back between the trunks, where the morning mist still lingered, a solitary figure stood watching in silence. Whether it had been there all along or had only just arrived, neither of them could have said.

When the wind shifted, it was gone.

Continued in the Epilogue…