hair was dusty and grimy. Her t-shirt clung damply to her body, but she
looked anything but wilted. She was attractive in a strange, primal sort of
way that made Romi’s heart race every single time she looked at her.
“Should I uncover it?” Romi dodged a pile of rusty metal stuff, most of
which wasn’t identifiable as to what the original object was, and edged
closer.
She tried to ignore the pain radiating from her feet and ankles every
single time she took a step. The boots were too big and had started chaffing
unmercifully right from the start. When she got sweaty, and her feet got wet
and clammy along with the rest of her, they’d started slipping around in the
boots, causing even more pain. Pain she wasn’t going to show. Her muscles
were also screaming at her. This was the most physical labor she’d done in
a long time and it was hard physical labor. She admired how effortlessly
Kiera worked. She was strong. She wrangled even the huge things in the
barn with ease.
Kiera shrugged like she didn’t care, which Romi knew wasn’t the case,
seeing as Kiera had obviously worked hard to get to whatever was under
that covering. It looked strange. Lumpy, with something narrowing at the
top to hold the heavier, grey canvas tarp up like a tent. The fabric probably
used to drape nicely, but with time and all the junk pressing up against it, it
was now pretty much plastered at odd angles against whatever was
underneath the cover.
“Okay. Well, I’ll unwrap it, then.” Romi moved over, ignoring the fire
that sot up her legs from her poor, wounded feet. She was half afraid to take
them off at the end and see the damage.
Romi paused when she reached the lumpy object. Whatever was sticking
up from the object was taller than she was. She ran her hand over the old
tarp. It was made of canvas and her fingers left streaks in the thick brown
coating of dust on top. Dust motes shimmered in the streaks of sunlight that
filtered through the many cracks in the barn boards. There was a hole in the