William continued to ride home, the skies darkened. As it darkened, his eye sight changed and his pupils grew in size to take in light from the moon to allow him to see in black and white around him as if it was day time. With this eye sight, wild animals could easily be seen if they where trying to attack, but as most animals know, elves are their friends for the most part.
He stopped Arabella shortly to look at his view.
He then dismounted the horse and stepped toward a small opening in the trees where he could fully see the moon, and looked around him. He looked to see Arabella move toward a tree and scratch her head against it and trying to nip on some tall grass at the same time. He smiled then took his gaze back to the forest around him. He then closed his eyes, and lifted his head up to look upward, he then opened his eyes and took a deep breathe, and exhaled then returned his head to look in front of him.
Not far behind him, he could see a form moving toward him. A form that usually wouldn't be moving through the forest. He watched for a second as the form fell over. Bethia..... he softly whispered to himself. Then tied Arabella to a tree quickly, knowing this would cause noise, as Arabella hated being tied to close to anything. He then gracefully moved deeper into the woods toward her at an angle, in order to see what she was up too, but not to reveal himself. He hoped that Arabella's rustling would be distracting enough to throw off her grace a little.
After several moments, William was diagonally behind her, watching as she moved, him moving closer with each step toward her, as his stride is far longer then hers.
The sun set and the moon rose and Bethia suddenly realized how foolish she'd been. The heat from the sun had quickly dissipated with the approaching moon, leaving the air cool, and wind icy against her skin. She fought the urge to freeze in panic. Her vision was unbeatable in the daylight hours but in the dark... she could barely see ten foot in front of her. Her cry for William had gone unanswered, and she now wondered if she'd somehow not been following him at all, but an animal.
Stopping she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering as she berated herself, stupid stupid girl. She knew she wouldn't be able to find her way in the dark, and the guiding sounds had stopped...now what was she to do? Maybe on a normal day she would have been able to get herself home, but that day had been anything but normal, her nerves where frayed and she had only a tenuous control on her Grace. So the panic in her quickly rose, but before she could start hyperventilating she heard a horse's snort, and the sound of a bridle. Relief flooded through her, and she quickly moved towards the sounds.
She noted that they were getting closer and she started to move faster, which only made her trip and fall again. With a gasp she lay on the ground for a few seconds, knowing she was going to have many bruises the next day. It was then she heard the other sounds, the sound of a stalking animal, the soft sound of feet, and a slight vibration under her body. Fear at once took hold, and she scrambled to her feet, not caring that her dress caught on a bush and tore again. She ran forward, faster towards the horse, her only thought that there was some animal stalking her, and she had no way to defend herself, and she couldn't even SEE the creature! With a choked sob she fell again, but was quick to regain her feet, praying that William was the one with the horse she heard.
Watching the girl as she suddenly ran, and fell, he realized she picked up on his sound, but she continued to fall repetitively. The poor girl, didn't know where she was, lost, confused, distraught, could her day possibly be worse?
He was only feet from her this time as she fell again, clearly distraught and scared for her life. He could see Arabella had finally decided to calm down in the distance. As she fell again, he was just behind her. She had never looked back during her dash which made it easier for him to catch her.
As she lie there again placing her hands to get back up again, he leaned up against a tree, smiled and softly spoke.
You seem to be in an awful hurry. leaning forward to help her up from the dirty leaves and brush.
He could have yelled at her and it wouldn't have scared her as much as his soft words did. Bethia screamed, then clapped her hand over her mouth as she stared up at him through tear filled eyes that blurred his features. It took her several moments to regain her breath, and when she had she let him help her up. "There was...I though that...panther. I can't see in, oh..."her words came out in a rush and stopped just as suddenly as it dawned on her that he was the one that had been stalking her. "That wasn't nice..."she whispered.
She hid her shaking hands by folding her arms across her chest. That was when she noticed that there wasn't much left of her dress, actually as she moved slightly, she realized that if she moved in a certain way what was left of her dress would slip off of her shoulders to land at her feet. She blushed slightly, but she had more important things on her mind besides her state of dress at that moment."I don't want to be alone tonight." She looked down at her feet, thinking that she'd been very foolish to follow him, but it was too late now to regret her decision. Looking up at him her two toned eyes wide and shining with tears, she wondered what he thought...after all she was just a child compared to him.
He kept a smile from crossing his face, then proceeded to help her to her feet. Bruises, scratched, cuts, blood tears and dirt, and beautiful eyes. That's what he saw in front of him. He stood there for a moment in silence and just looked at the sight in front of him. She had gone through a lot of trouble just to chase him, of all the people she could have visited, of all the other places she could have gone, her tavern, friends, Birdie...something.
He then moved toward her, and bent slightly at the knees and scooped her up into his arms, holding her close to him. As he walked back toward Arabella, he examined her legs as they where fully exposed to the elements now since the dress was nearly gone. Again all he saw was blood, cuts, dirt and bruises. He closed his eyes and thought of what that reminded him of, battles, brawls, and fights that he had been in. He then opened his eyes and looked at her eyes, shimmering as the moonlight glanced across them. He smiled, but kept silent.
Arabella was a couple feet away. He stopped just before he reached the horse, leaned Bethia close to him, and kissed her forehead, then placed her in the saddle. Making sure she was balanced and steady, he untied Arabella, and walked along side her and the horse.
Before she could really register what was happening she was in his arms. She couldn't say it was exactly comfortable, considering the cold hardness of his armor on his chest. She could feel the rough sturdy fabric on his arms against her legs and could feel her embarrassment grow, what was she thinking going into the forest like this... But despite all that, she felt safe in his arms. She watched his face as he walked toward Arabella, and wondered what he was thinking as he closed his eyes.
She was still watching him when he re-opened them, she found a small comfort in his smile, but she could still not muster up one for him, instead her lips trembled and she bit them, hissing slightly at the pain, having forgotten that she'd cut her lip the first time she'd fallen. But that was forgotten as he leaned her closer to him and kissed her forehead, and placed her on the saddle. She expected him to mount with her, but instead he took the reigns and walked beside them. She tried to fix the remains of her dress to cover herself, but it was a useless effort and she soon gave up, trying to ignore the shyness she felt because of it.
No words were spoken between them for a long while before she worked up the courage to speak. "Are you taking me back?" she whispered. She didn't want him to take her back and leave her, but she wouldn't blame him if he did. She'd been so stupid to follow him, and all because she didn't want to be alone to drown in her grief.
After some time walking, he heard her voice break the silence around them. He continued to look forward as they walked along. He decided he would let the view before them answer her question, as the rounded the end of the forest.
The view being seen of course from his own eyes. The lights from the castle lighting the skies as if it where actually day light. Elven eye sight was a art in itself. As for her, she would most likely just see lots of lights, and a large outline of a castle.
A grin crossed his face, and Arabella suddenly made noises. We where home.
Bethia wasn't sure what to think of his silence, maybe he just didn't want to talk to her. Letting out a soft sigh, she held tightly to the horse, not wanting to fall off. She was debating if she should ask him again, when she noticed flickering lights ahead, it was about that time that the forest started to end. In the middle of all the lights there was a shadow of a castle, and her eyes widened. He'd taken her to his home...not back to her own.
She looked down at him, surprised, but relieved that she wouldn't be alone this night, surely he hadn't brought her here to send her right back to her cave? Looking up she peered through the darkness at the lights, and wished she'd taken the time to better her night vision like she had her day. But it took practice, and time that she didn't always have. And an escort so she didn't get lost...like she had this night. She knew she'd have to wait until the sun rose to see the outside of the castle clearly so she relaxed her eyes, and looked down at him once more. "Thank you." she said softly.
She suddenly wondered what her father would think of this whole situation. A sharp pain went through her heart and she closed her eyes fighting it away. In an effort to distract herself, she pushed her hearing out towards the castle, to catch the sleepy sounds of the castle.
Maintaining his silence, he himself was glad to be home. His stable boy again was asleep in the stable, but was quickly woken by their arrival. William moved his hand to his lip, requesting Christoper the stable boy keep silent.
The boy tiredly smiled and nodded. He preferred to sleep outside on warm nights, rather then inside, and William didn't mind. He did his job well to keep Arabella happy.
He handed the rains to Christopher, then reached up and gently pulled Bethia from the saddle into his arms again all in one smooth motion. He even started walking before she was fully in his arms.
He walked up the large steps and pushed open the front door, then made his way up the stairs. He examined her skin again as he made his way to a room. Opening the door to what seemed to be a large glamorous bathing room.
The bruises where hard to see under all the dirt, and he felt she would feel better after a relaxing bath, and to clean her wounds. Whilst still holding her, he emptied the warming pot of water into a bath, placed his hand in it to make sure it was of decent temperature.
He then sighed, and placed her on her feet again then stood behind her, and proceeded to remove the remaining tatters of cloths she had been wearing, and carefully removed any bit of cloth that may have been stuck in any of the open wounds then tossed them on a nearby stool. He then turned around, and headed out of the room, to allow her, her own privacy. He himself, needed to remove his own armor, and proceeded to his arms room.
His silence was unnerving to her, but she said nothing more, she wasn't sure what else to say any ways so maybe it was better that he didn't speak to her. She watched with silent eyes as the stable boy woke, she then averted her eyes from him, not wanting to know if he looked at her or not. Before she could really think about that, she was in William's arms again and being carried into the large castle.
She said nothing, but her eyes took in every detail that she could see. She couldn't help but think that there were a lot of stairs, yet he carried her as if she weighed nothing at all. She kept still, as he entered a room, she could only assume was a bathing chamber. Then, without even putting her down he poured warmed water into the bath, and finally set her down.
She winced at the pain in her feet, and was about to turn and thank him when she felt him removing what was left of her dress. She froze, blushing a deep red all the way to her toes, too shocked to say anything or to move away. What was he doing!? Was her only thought, and when she could finally move she turned to ask him just that, only to watch him walk out without a single word. Bethia blinked, no really sure what to think about what had just happened. She wasn't happy he'd seen her totally without clothing...he hadn't seemed to touch her anywhere that wasn't necessary in the removing of the ruined dress...yet she couldn't see his face to know what was there.
Confused and frustrated she moved over to the bath knowing she needed to wash the dirt and grime from her scratches. Climbing into the warm water she slowly relaxed and lay there for a long moment before she grabbed a rag and soap and set to cleaning herself, and her hair. A short while later she was clean but the water in the bath was dirty. Reluctant to leave the warm water, yet knowing she had to, Bethia stood and reached for a towel and wrapped it around herself before stepping out of the water.
Seeing a small table with a bunch of jars on it, and chair beside it, she walked slowly over to it and examined the jars. All where labeled, and she quickly understood that everything was there that she needed to take care of her wounds. Which she did, taking her time, and making sure she did what was needed with the various slaves, until she was sure that she'd left no scratch untreated.
Standing once more, she wrapped the towel more tightly around herself, and moved slowly to a large mirror. She made a face as she saw her reflection, there was a bruise on one cheek and her lip was swelled slightly, and even though her hair was clean it was being unruly and going in every which direction. Shaking her head she sighed. There was nothing to be done about it tonight.
Not sure what to do, she went back over to the chair and sat. She couldn't go out into the halls dressed only in a towel...even if she knew where she was going. She would have to wait for William to come back, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. She was still unsettled about him undressing her, it made chills go down her back to know that if he had wanted to do anything with her, she wouldn't have been able to stop him. But for some reason she trusted him...maybe it was because her father had trusted him, and her father rarely trusted anyone but himself.
Relaxed from the bath she pulled her legs up into the chair and rested her head on her knees, and closed her eyes as her thoughts whirled widely out of control.
