"I'm okay," she muttered under her breath since she didn't want him to feel as if he helped her. She would be better if he took his hands off her. Artemis didn't need his help so she quickly slid away from his touch.
Alexander noticed the small action. She didn't want to be touched, however, she was too close to the growing fire. Was she just going to stand there and get burnt? Why didn't she move away? Suicidal or another fire lover?
"Are you sure you're okay?" He questioned again even though she said she was. He had to be certain seeing that she looked a little bit shaken up. He thought the fire must've frightened her into not moving.
Artemis gritted her teeth out of anger. How many times was he going to ask that question? "I said I'm fine. If my life was in danger I would've moved."
"Really? The way I see it, you were going to stand there until the fire got to you," Alexander replied, motioning his hands to show her the distance between her and the burning stall. "The smoke must've gotten to your eyes since you can't clearly see the fire which was close to you."
"As you can see, the fire is almost out. There's no need for me to run for cover. Everyone here is just being dramatic running around but please, take your time to save some screaming fool and not me."
Alexander was appalled by her words. A simple thank you would've ended the conversation. Whether or not the fire was big or small, he had pulled her away from it. "You don't know how to accept help from others do you?"
Artemis tilted her head to the side with a small smile on her face. "Because I don't need it."
She shifted her gaze to a woman screaming out, wanting some knight in shining armor to save her but here was her knight, harassing Artemis. Maybe the woman should drop on the floor and roll around, then this guy would swoop over to get her. "Goodbye general," she bid, proceeding to walk away from him with her arms behind her back.
"It's Alexander," he said, correcting what she should call him.
Artemis turned around not caring what his name was. "I'm sure you don't ask every villager, female at that, to call you Alexander and not general. Then again maybe you do. Who am I to judge?"
"General," a fellow guard named Leon called, approaching the two. He placed his right hand on the left side of his chest greeting his superior. He was accompanied by someone else who showed no intention of showing respect to the general. "Captain," Leon warned the male standing beside him.
Artemis was intrigued by this. Why was the general wasting his time patrolling around with guards when there was a capable captain here? Why not just replace the captain with someone more capable?
Leon decided to ignore the disrespect to Alexander for now. "The fire is almost out. The festival will be able to continue as planned."
"So you can run along and report it to the king like a dog," Thomas, the male who hadn't spoken earlier, finally did. "I would've had this under control."
Alexander was agitated by Thomas who liked to nitpick every single thing he did. If he was a captain then he should act like one. There wouldn't be a need for someone to keep an eye out for how he did his job. The only reason he still had the title was because of his family connections to the crown.
"Then get it under control yourself," Alexander calmly stated. He would not give Thomas the fight he sought after.
Thomas clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as he felt like throwing a punch towards Alexander but held himself back. "You think you're some fucking God just because the king has you as his right-hand man."
'Hilarious', Artemis thought at the man comparing the general to a God but she did enjoy the new entertainment nonetheless.
"Prancing around doing my fucking job. One of these days I'm going to enjoy watching you fall to the bottom you scumbag of a damn dog," Thomas angrily said only loud enough for the four of them to hear. He was tired of living far in the shadows of Alexander Mclane. He couldn't wait to see the day he fell to his knees.
Leon rested his hands on Thomas's shoulder nudging him to stop. "Give it a rest. It's about the people, not some title."
Thomas grabbed Leon's hand, tossing it off his shoulder. "We all know that's a damn lie."
The sound of Artemis snorting turned the three male's attention to her. She brought her hand in the air to wave telling them to not mind her but she couldn't stop the laugh from escaping. "I'm sorry. This just seems like one big joke."
"What did you just say you bitch?" Thomas snarled, turning his anger towards her. He didn't like to be laughed at, especially by some random woman.
Artemis immediately stopped laughing and glared at the man. "What did you just call me?" She questioned taking a step forward but was blocked by Alexander who stood in front of her, shielding her from the eyes of Thomas.
"You wanted to prove yourself, so be it. You're in charge for the day," Alexander said, letting the man sink himself. The best way to humble Thomas was to always let him fail by himself.
"I don't need your fucking permission. Hey! Hey!" Thomas yelled when Alexander took Artemis's hand and pulled her away from there. "Don't walk away from me."
"You're touching me again," Artemis whined, swinging her hands all over the place to get it out of his own. Didn't he see before that she didn't want to be touched? Here he went again grabbing her.
"Relax, I'm trying to protect you. You don't want Thomas setting his anger on you," he explained, still not releasing her hand. Alexander could only hope Thomas would leave her alone. Thomas never took too kindly to someone laughing at him.
"I said I don't need help or protection, you blockhead. If anything, he'll need to be protected from me. Don't underestimate me because I'm a woman," she said, still trying to get her hand out of his.
She couldn't use too much strength as it would be suspicious. Suppose she hurt him more than a human female could and he began to question it? He was a general and realistically she shouldn't be able to do much damage to him seeing as she was much smaller than him.
"Of course," came his short reply.