My body and mind were tired from my intense training. My slim and weak muscles were now solid and strong. My figure showed womanly curves I didn’t know how to handle. I was getting better and more efficient, though. Between Rune and Najen, I was becoming a fair fighter. I didn’t think I could take on an army of Dramens, but I felt confident enough that I wouldn’t die in the first five seconds of a battle.
Najen told me yesterday that Rune would be back today and continue my training. I wasn’t excited about being yelled at to work harder or try again and again.
This morning, like every other morning recently, I rose early from my bed, sneaked out of the palace with a fish in my hand, and crept to the Hallowstags. I hadn’t seen Desmire since that one time, but I wasn’t losing hope.
The woods were quiet as usual. The sun wasn’t yet ready to break from darkness’s hold on it, and I was OK with that. The mornings were a time of peace where I could think and not have eyes on me or the weight of failure pressing against my shoulders.
“Oh no, who told you?” I whined, seeing the dark figure standing against the tree I liked to hang out on while I waited for Desmire.
“You think I wouldn’t know your every move? You’re still an outsider to this place.”
“Oh, good to have you back, Rune, to remind me where I stand in this world.” I smirked, only feeling slightly annoyed to see his handsome, scarred face.
He smirked back, his blue eyes watching me with every confident step I made. I didn’t shrink under his scrutiny this time. The general was losing his edge, or it could have been his relaxed lean against the tree or the soft slack in his normally tight jaw that had me moving without hesitation.
“What are you doing out here?” He observed our surroundings curiously.
“Waiting on a dragon.” I shrugged, setting my fish on the boulder I usually left it on and walked over to the tree. I grabbed the thick limb before hoisting myself up, then sat gently.
“A dragon? No dragon has been seen in over twenty years.” He looked at me in disbelief, and I shrugged again.
The silence between us was strange. He wasn’t making any moves to leave, and I would stay for the hour I usually did.
“This is usually my time to think,” I grumbled.
“So, think.”
I hit him with my best version of his one eyebrow-up stare. “You’re messing up my little morning routine being here.”
“Are there things you do that you don’t want another person seeing?”
His retort shut me up. It could be taken so many ways and I figured it was best to keep my mouth closed than to say something that would be used against me or teased for as long as I lived.
Then again, the possible reaction I could stir in Rune outweighed the implication of embarrassment on my part. “I can’t very well release some urging tensions in my core with you watching me, can I?”
Willing my cheeks not to turn red from what I was implying I did out here, I stared Rune down with my own smirk. Maybe I’d make him uncomfortable and he’d leave.
His lips turned up at the corners, and his eyes crinkled slightly at the sides. “If you needed release, you probably would have been better off somewhere less open. Anyone could find you here.”
“Hasn’t happened the past couple days.”
“I hope you aren’t telling the truth. Some of my men were out here watching you.” His face wasn’t as easygoing as it was before. His eyes closed and he ran his hands down his face in exhaustion.
“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.”
I heard a twig snap in the distance. My heart started beating in excitement for the arrival of my friend that would scare Rune, but then a deer walked by moments later.
“Your mouth was not something I missed while away.” Rune’s words caught me off guard.
“But you missed other things?” I made myself vulnerable to the inevitable pain he would inflict.
“You remind me of her. A pain in my ass and yet . . .”
Yet? What yet? What did yet mean?
I stayed quiet, eagerly waiting for him to finish.
“You aren’t afraid of me; you make me feel like a man instead of a cursed soul. She was the only other one who did that.”
