"No." i said. i have no intention of marrying her. anyway that is not what i was agreeing to. i was agreeing to accompaning her to the rebels and that, was all. no wife no husband things. she sulked when I told her so, but I didnt care. it was all I could do considering I refused to marry her ten years ago.
i told her to turn around and she did. i took my dagger and peeled an aloe vera leaf and put it on my wound behind the trees.
as i treated myself, she moved about awkwardly and nervously.
we had breakfast together and continued ridding east. when we crossed the river, she asked if the river was in any safe to wash in and i told her no. a spring was safer.
we continued ridding until we reached the empty town that was evacuated a few years ago after sustaining attacks from the monsters of the moors the previous year. she rode her horse closer to me and thankfully, the emptiness of the town finally made her stop talking.
I've thought my ears were going to burst with her constant chatter.
"we'll camp here tonight." i said. as i stopped the horse and jumped off it. she looked at me like i just asked her to amputate her own hand.
"cant we ride on? this place gives me the creeps." she said, without even getting off. she looked around.
"no we can't." i said as i took a look at the horizon. this town was soon going to be engulfed in shadows. "the sun is about to set. if we keep on, well be on the open on the edge of forest and a ghost town. i dont want that." i said and led my horses to the brocken down house that seemed to have been the house of the nobleman of this town.
"i get the forest in dangerois at night, but cant we like find a safer place to camp in?" she asked keeping me in close range. "this place looks like its full of the dead. and its quiet. cant we camp in the open?"
"sorry we cant." four walls is better than no walls at all in this town. a roof even better than no room at all."
"but we would be trapped." she said. this is why i hate travelling with company. girls even worse.
i found a good room. a safe i should say. it had only three small windows, a trap door for an escape an average door. good enough to stop a lot monsters from coming in at once. "this is good." i said inside it after searching for few moments.
"this is bad." she responded. "we are almost trapped."
"you can escape through the trap door or jump out of the window. a lot of beasts a bigger so they cant use the windows or the trap door. plus i can fight them." I responded and began preparing to camp. she sighed as she saw me unloading the saddles and everything from the horse.
"you really do trust your fighting skills don't you?"
"yeah."
"do you trust them on fending off a snake?"
"depends of the size."
"what about sleeping on top of it?" what was she getting at? i looked at her.
"stop." she said after i had unloaded one horse. "if yoh are planning on sleeping on the floor, you have to clean it first, what if you sleep atop a snake?"
i looked at the ground. it seemed okay. there was garbage here and there but it was okay. "i dont think there's a snake on that pile. there's a forest not far from here, i dont think it will risk coming here."
"wanna gamble?" she asked.
"gamble what?" i asked, i doubt she had anything i wanted. "gold coins?"
"I'll stay with you extra 3 days if there's a snake." she said. confidently as if she knew there's a snake.
"If there's no snake?"
"Anything you want, but you dont leave me here."
"there's nothing i want."
"there's no man who doesnt want anything."
"i don't. i am okay with all i got at the moment."
"Okay, fine I'll marry you." she said fast and walked towards the pile with a stick.
"I have no desire to marry you."
"okay, fine I'll sleep with you."
"not in a while sweetheart." i said and turned. then i froze. what did i just say? i turned to her and she was slowly turning too.
she smiled and for a minute her face registered. but then, i was just immagining it.
"so i do have a chance?" she said turning to me with that.... that smile.
"you don't."
"it's a deal then." she said turning to the pile and poking it. what have i got myself into? i took my sword out of the horse saddle and just as i was about to put it down, she screamed and jumped.
the horses turned and left.
i drew the sword and advaced to the pile that was now in the air. a thousand insects shot out of the old clothes and parchments. she ran behind me and held me by the sleeve and the vambrace. i sighed and looked at her.
insects. its insects.
one crawled towards us and she let me go and jumped up and down screaming "sa'me" repeatedly trying to get away from it.
i stepped on the cockroach and she stopped. but the pile she had disturbed had a lot more roaches and they still crawled from it.
for a moment i almost forgot she was once a princess.
she ran out of the room shrieking and i followed her. she went to the courtyard and climbed the huge rock that was once something. i guess. from the patrern on the ground, it was once the epicenter of something.
hey, get yoirself together, its only roaches. roaches! i would have said, but seeing her this scared of roaches and the treatment she was given a day ago, somehow made me want to protect her. she seemed fragile.
"it's okay, its only..."
"i am not going in there again! ever!" she shouted standing on her toes. that ought to be uncomfortable.
"dont worry , i am not gonna take you back there." i told her giving her my hand. "I'm not gonna let anything hurt you."
she looked at me. i tried to coax her like the last time i saw the guy who saved me do to his daughter when she was scared of a snake that almost bit her, hadnt i decapitated it.
she xalmed down as the sun decended down the hill behind us.
she took my hand and got down the hard coarse rock. just when i thought everything was okay, she ran into me and held me tight.
she does want to sleep with me. but i d...
"if it aint the great witch hunter, Andreana, the light bringer." someone said behind me and i turned and saw Gruff and his goons walking into the compound from the side of the house.
"what a lovely show." he added. "what is it called? love of the hunter?"
"what do you want?" i asked, Ariana hid behind me and looked with only one eye.
"you know, months ago, i didnt believe it when the church told me you had fallen under the spell of the witch queen and you were madly that i didnt try my best to kill i just shot one arrow. but now..."
the church said... he is the... "care to repeat that again?" i asked him, wearing a frown. he smirked. i looked at his men. last time they were eight, how many were there now?
"why dont you ask the witch queen what i said? maune she can spell it out for you."
"i will, extensively when i meet her. now say your part." i growled.
he chuckled with amusement and asked me. "you don't know do you? or is it true that you can't see faces?"
"oh i can see faces Gruff, i just disregard them."
"is it why you are protecting the witch queen right now?"
i looked... her? Ariana was the witch queen? princess Ariana was the witch? Her?