Emily and Anna hiked back to their camp in near silence. Emily knew that Anna was angry with her for carrying on with Jack, but she had decided to live a little on this trip, and Jack was giving her the opportunity to do that.
Back in their small tent, there was no way to avoid conversation, so Emily tried to break the ice.
"Today was pretty fun," she said.
Anna shrugged and grunted.
Emily began to get upset, then she started to cry.
"I'm sorry if you don't thing that Jack is THE guy for me," she sobbed, "but he's fun, and he really seems to like me for who I am, and I just sorta need that right now."
"Jack's an asshole, Em'," Anna curtly replied. She wiped the tears from Emily's cheeks and brushed her hair over her ear. "He only LIKES you because you're, well, ... hot." Emily blushed and smiled slightly at the compliment. "You can do better than him.
"Frankly," Anna continued, "You CAN do much better than him."
"Well," Emily pleaded, "What if I just want to have some fun? Don't I deserve that?"
"Hon'," Anna said with a sincere smile, "you deserve some fun more than anyone I know.
"I just don't want to see you get hurt again. I don't want to see you losing sleep with nightmares again."
Emily hugged Anna. "I appreciate that. You're a great friend, the best, but I'm not going to get hurt again. I'm not going to let myself get hurt again.
"And I think my nightmares are over for good!"
"How so?" Anna asked.
"Well," Emily whispered, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but I had a terrific dream last night."
"Jack wasn't in it, was he?" Anna asked.
"Oh, no," Emily giggled, "I was alone, but let me tell you, I wouldn't mind having a dream like that one over and over again."
"It must be something about being out in the woods," Anna said, "Because I had a pretty terrific dream too."
"Yeah," Emily challenged her, "were you running naked through the woods in the middle of the night."
Anna's eyes widened and her mouth fell agape.
"Actually, yes," she said finally. "Were you running in these woods, the ones we were in today?"
"Yeah," Emily responded, slowly.
"Did you get to a cliff like the one we found today?"
"Well, I wouldn't say it was that cliff, but it was sorta like it."
"Were those women in it, the ones with the cloaks?"
"I ...I ... think so," Emily stammered. "I heard voices in the woods, calling my name, but then I woke up. How ... how did you know about my dream?"
"Because," Anna said slowly, "I had THAT dream too."
"You're shittin' me!" Emily said.
"No, Em', I swear, I had that dream, almost exactly like yours, except..." Anna got a far away look.
"Except what?"
"Well, first of all, I know it was the woods we were in today, and I KNOW it was the cliff we found today. Everything was exactly the same."
"And what about the women?"
"Oh, they were there alright. They gave me a cloak, just like their's, and I put it on .... and they took me to this clearing and ..."
"And what," Emily teased, "they ravaged you?"
Anna was silent for a moment, like she was replaying a fond memory, "Actually, yes."
"You little tramp," Emily said as she knocked Anna in the head with her pillow. I never knew you swung that way."
"I don't," Anna protested. "Not in real life anyway ...." Anna's voice trailed off as she recalled holding Shanna's hand and wishing for more.
"Well," Emily said, "there's a perfectly logical explanation for all this."
"Yeah, let's hear it."
"First, were in the woods, in nature. I mean that's gotta influence us subconsciously. So we think about being out here, free, and what could be freer than streakin' through the woods."
"Okay," Anna said as she nodded.
"And the cliff, you're just over analyzing it. It was a cliff, not THE cliff we were on today."
Anna shook her head, she wasn't going to be convinced that easily, but Emily didn't notice and went on.
"And we saw those women last night, they gave us that beer, it was ... weird. That's gotta stick in your head."
"What about the sex?" Anna challenged.
"Well," Emily said in a haughty tone. "First of all - I didn't have that part of any dream.
"Second, you had more to drink than I did."
"So?"
"So, I'm not a slut like you. I don't have dreams like that." Emily tried to stare down Anna at that point, but the longer she looked at her old friend, the less she could keep a straight face. A grimace turned to grin, and a grin turned to an out burst of laughter.
Anna laughed with her for a few minutes, then after regaining her composure,then said, "We'd better get going."