Hey guys! I hope you are all enjoying my story, and as I said this is my first story with my OC I named Eretria who I paired with Octavia. They are a lesbian couple so if you don't like it, don't read it! As always, please leave reviews and I am open to any suggestions. Thanks for reading, and enjoy! This is one of my favorite chapters so far because I have a thing for rainy scenes.
Two Months Later
His sword crashed against mine, his sliding up and I dropped my arms and slashed at his stomach. Aden easily blocked it and threw an attack at me. I easily blocked but as I went to step back he swiped at my feet, forcing me to jump but I wasn't fast enough to block his elbow crashing into my face as I landed. Blood ran out of my nose. It's been like this for a month and a half.
Every morning Aden takes me and Eretria into the woods for archery lessons. We shoot at trees with bows and throw knifes at branches. Mid morning, we do bookwork about strategy in the courtyard of Arkadia. Eretria does all of this with us, just so she knows how to defend herself. Noon, when it is the absolute hottest, we condition; running though rivers, pulling large pieces of metal, flipping tires, pull-ups on trees. After eating lunch he them works with me on my swordsmanship, like we are now. After finishing this, we have stealth lessons out in the fields. That's my favorite; it makes us practically invisible when we do what we're supposed to. Once done with stealth lessons we're done for the day and start again in the morning. We work all week except Sundays.
I took Aden's extended hand and pulled myself up. The sun was shining and we were both soaked with sweat, smelling putrid. I always hop in the river before we start stealth training so I don't smell terribly and give up my location.
"Let's call it a night, Octavia. I have a meeting with the Ambassadors of Trishana in the glowing forest tomorrow, we need to go pack and we leave at first light tomorrow. You best go help Eretria pack; she does tend to be slow at it." With that he turned and walked away. I grabbed Helios and an extra pair of clothes and headed to the river where I always bathe. As my body adjusted to the water, I swam out to the small waterfall where I wash my hair and did just that. After bathing and changing into a simple white loose tunic and leggings with my tall black boots, I combed my hair and braided it.
Just as I finished braiding my hair I heard it. Someone was in the woods, not far from me. The noise was coming from behind tall bushes that I couldn't see through so I grabbed my sword from Helios saddle and held it up, making my way towards the noise.
"Who's there?" I called into the bushes, hoping for an answer. When I pinpointed the location in the bushes where the noise was coming from I was just about to stab into when Eretria answered me.
"I sure do hope you don't plan on stabbing the person you're supposed to be guarding, Octavia." She emerged from the bushes with a towel and soap as she made her way towards the rock I always put my stuff on and started undressing. I turned around and put my sword in its sheath on Helios before hopping on.
"I would turn my blade upon myself before doing that, Eretria." I could hear her in the water so I turned back around. We're both girls anyways. Her grounder grab was laying on the rock along with the soap she brought.
"I was only kidding, Octavia. You know, you can take a joke once in awhile." I couldn't see her as she disappeared under the waterfall and out of sight.
"You forgot your soap!" I hollered to her as I hopped off Helios and made my way to pick it up.
"Oh darn! Could you ever bring it to me?" I sighed and picked up her soap before walking over to where the river led under the waterfall. Vines hung over the entrance as I pushed them out of the way, feeling a bit chilly as the sun didn't reach under here. Droplets of mist hit me and the only sound I could hear was the waterfall, but I couldn't see Eretria.
"Eretria, this isn't funny, come on out." I looked around and my heart started to race at the thought of losing her. "Eretria come on, stop messing around!" My eyes scanned the waters I've been in a thousand times. I was just about to jump in to find her when something wet grabbed me from behind and suddenly I was crashing into the waters again.
When I finally submerged I found Eretria's green eyes digging into mine, giggling like a two year old.
"Eretria!" I scolded, before I myself burst out laughing. "I dropped your soap, just so you know." This just made her laugh harder.
"Well we better find it," she wasn't even a foot away from me; I could feel the water she was treading, neither of us being able to touch. "Tell you what Octavia, if you can find it before I can Ill stay out here with you until your clothes dry, even start you a fire. But if I find it, you have to ride home wet." She baited playfully. I wanted to win so we could spend more time together so instead of saying anything, I pushed her away, took a deep breath, and dove towards where I could've swore I dropped the soap. After a few tries, I came up with the soap in my hands, victorious. When I opened my eyes they were met with the sight of Eretria, panting from the efforts of finding the soap before me, only inches apart.
"I think this means I win," I breathed out between gasps for breath. Our foreheads met, and there's nothing I wanted to do more than kiss her, but instead I pulled away and swam to shore, dragging myself out with effort. My boots were drenched along with all my other clothes as I walked back to Helios and unsaddled him, knowing we were gonna be here for awhile waiting for my clothes to dry.
Half an hour later we were sitting by the fire, me in nothing but my under garments and a blanket, and Eretria in her clothes next to me sitting on a log together.
"Just you wait, Eretria. Tomorrow if someone shoots at you, I'm not taking an arrow just so you can keep teasing me daily," she just scooted closer to me, leaving her hand out in case I wanted to hold it. I didn't know what was going on between us but I didn't want to ruin it by kissing her or holding her. My job is to protect her, not seduce her. Even with how beautiful she is, I can't get distracted.
"And in what ways am I distracting you, Octavia?" She just gave me a smile that made me weak in my knees. I stood up and got dressed in my still wet clothes, knowing we had to go soon as it was getting dark. "Are we going to talk about what happened in the river?" I sat back next to her, now fully dressed, and saw she was suddenly serious, all teasing and playfulness gone from her face. I looked to her and her dripping hair, then back to her hand laying on the log.
"I'm sorry, Eretria. I really do like you, but I was hired to protect you, and I can't protect you if I'm distracted by you and how pretty you are. I really want to but I cant-" I was cut off though, when her hand reached my cheek and she slowly started leaning towards me, my eyes closing as her lips gently met mine, only parting when we needed to breath.
Our foreheads were touching again, like in the river an hour ago. "So you think I'm pretty?" She asked me as I went in for another kiss, smiling into it at the end. "I'll take that as a yes."
"I'll think you're beautiful, Eretria. Whenever I'm training, I think of you watching me and it makes me fight harder. For you, I'd do anything." We separated and somehow our hands found each other.
"Anything?" She asked with an evil grin.
"Within reason, of course."
"Well," she took my hand and put it on her heart,"would you be willing to give us a try?" I was still unsure whether I could or not. Would it be wrong to try and be together?
"Eretria, I don't know. If something ever happened to you, I would never forgive myself. I would blame-" I went silent. I could've swore I heard something in the bushes behind her. Not thinking twice, I turned around to where Helios saddle was and grabbed my sword, letting go of Eretria's hand. She gave me a confused look before I grabbed her hand again and pulled her behind me, suddenly being very protective.
As I approached the bushes, I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw it. The tip of an arrow, sticking out of the bush aiming directly at me. Acting on instinct, I turned around and tackled Eretria to the ground just as the arrow left the string, embedding itself in the log we were sitting on earlier.
When we crashed to the ground, me on top, I tried not to hurt her as I pushed myself off Eretria and turned to face my attacker, now out of the bushes. He wore rugged old clothes, clearly something belonging to a bandit, had a full grown dirty beard and was twice my size.
The bandit roared a battle cry as he charged at me, now on my feet I easily blocked his first strike and his follow up before I threw an attack of my own. My sword struck home as a huge gash was drawn upon his chest, now falling to the ground. He was obviously not a very good fighter to be put down that easy, even by me.
I didn't dwell on the dying bandit in front of us as we heard the yips of other bandits coming from every direction.
"Eretria take Helios and ride to Arkadia, don't stop for anything." I looked back to see her still on the ground. Shit. She must've hit her head on the way down, now being out cold.
I kneeled next to her and sheathed my sword. I had to protect her at all cost, not just because it was my duty, but if anything happened to her I would never forgive myself. Picking her up, being surprisingly not as easy as I thought with her being all muscle like me, I carried her over to Helios and threw her on top.
"Home, Helios, home!" I shouted at my horse, knowing he knows where to go, as he trotted off carefully as not to lose his cargo. I watched Eretria bounce slightly on the trotting horse, faring her goodbye silently, before I turned my attention back to the bandits now in front of me. There were seven of them, one of me. Knowing I wasn't going to win this battle no matter how good of a fighter I am, I turned around and took off in a dead sprint towards Arkadia.
Having the home field advantage, I turned left to where I know the woods got thick. Everything was a blur as I ran for my life, hearing the yips and cheers of excitement of a hunt behind me. Jumping over a freshly fallen tree, as the leaves were still on it, I dove head first into the branches of leaves. In the tree I didn't move an inch, even though there was an enormous stick in my back and my temple was bleeding from the dive.
They wouldn't leave all night. I could hear the cheers and yips of the hunt still, though I did manage to crawl to the ground and had very good shelter from the fresh rain that started down. It was pitch dark out and I could see and count seven torches struggling to stay alight with the pounding rain.
I don't know why no one has sent reinforcements to help me, but I decided enough was enough as I army crawled through the mud and wet tree. The sound of the rain covered the noise I was making as the darkness of the night worked with it to cover the sight of me.
Hidden behind a large oak tree, I drew my sword and crept upon one of the bandits that separated from the rest. It wasn't even a fair fight as I put my small knife through the soft skin of his throat, killing him quickly.
I moved to the next closest one and did the same, hiding both their bodies. Two down, five to go.
Usually I would consider running, not bothering to kill a few simple bandits, but if they came this close to Arkadia it was no coincidence they attacked Eretria and I. They had to have been hired to come over here. Thinning them out and taking a lone survivor for questioning was the logical thing to do. Even if there was a good chance of me dying or getting hurt again.
The next one I snuck up on was near the tree I was hiding in earlier, poking around. Just like the other two I ended his life quickly. I wasn't as lucky as I was hoping though, as the last four bandits heard me step on a large branch and snap it in half. They immediately came over to investigate the strange noise even though it could've been one of their friends.
I abandoned the fresh body and went behind a tree, climbing up it and preparing myself for the ambush I was about to launch. The rain now soaked me down to the bone and the branches were slippery as I climbed but I managed to get up high enough to jump down and avoid getting hurt. Hopefully.
When I was in position, I took the time to calm myself and take a few breaths. The only one carrying a torch I decided was the one I would take back to Arkadia, noticing for the first time he wasn't a warrior at all. Instead he only held a torch and carried a backpack, no weapons. He couldn't be older than sixteen.
I took one last calming breath as they discovered their friends body and thought of Eretria. I thought of the kiss we shared, why I was fighting in the first place. This gave me the adrenaline boost I needed as I launched myself down at the remaining four.
In the air I was deadly silent as I fell upon the biggest of the remaining warriors and sunk my hunting knife through his heart, no chance of survival in his short future. The last three, technically two not counting the unharmed kid, charged at me. Blocking swords and swiping at feet I managed to take out the first one.
Searing hot pain ripped through my eye socket where a large rock the size of my fist bounced off it.
"Elliot run!" The bandit shouted to the kid whom hit me with a rock. He took off towards the river where Eretria and I were earlier, getting away.
Black spots danced around my vision every time my heart beat as I tried to focus on the battle at hand. Swords clashing, thunder booming and lightning striking we fought. Every time our swords met my energy drained more and more. It wasn't until I landed a lucky blow to his chest did he fall, not dead but dying. I wobbled a bit from exhaustion as he took a final stand, raising his sword. The blackness was consuming me and I couldn't keep my eyes opened or focused, even if it was to save my life.
The bandit standing now, he swung his sword, me blocking it with the last of my energy but I couldn't keep my balance as I fell. My sword was a few feet away as I gasped for air laying on my back facing the sky. I couldn't tell if it was the sky or black spots, but the last thing I remember was trying to get air but instead getting water from the heavy rain before the darkness consuming me.