Muhahaha! Howdy there strangers ;) haven't seen you in a while. I'm gonna tell you guys the strangest thing ever! I'm only 17, which means that exam season affects me massively. But I swear to god that it is almost over for me (only one more exam to go!) which is why I have been slacking with this chapter. It has nothing to do with me giving up on this story (that will never happen in a million years!) or writers block, I've just had a lack of free time. Hope this chapter was worth the wait.
Enjoy! :D
It was the morning after my little encounter with Haytham and I was sitting at the desk coming to terms with all of the pros and cons that came with such a risk that we both took. Already I could tell that he was regretting making the decision that he did; later that night he returned but much later than I was expecting and he was behaving in a manner that seemed like he had forgotten that I had existed. The minute that he had returned I had fallen asleep on the desk. He was intending to sleep in the double bed but made no attempt to make any conversation or even eye contact for that matter and on those rare occasions that eye contact was accidentally given he took it back in an instant.
He was gone again when I woke up that morning from my uncomfortable slumber, all the feelings that had surfaced last night seemed to have disappeared completely as the feelings I was having at that point in time where the complete opposite; I felt empty, meaningless and alone which all came from a lack of contact between us.
I was half expecting something like this to happen, no such romance can occur between a prisoner and a kidnapper; an enforcer and a rebellion… a Templar and an Assassin.
"Is everything alright?" I heard Haytham say behind me while I was in a haze. I turned around to see him standing and looking down at me. I had many questions that were on the tip of my tongue that were dying to be asked but were best left unspoken.
"Shouldn't we be leaving?" I asked standing and avoiding any possible eye contact.
"Arianna, don't," he stated and forced eye contact with me.
"Don't what?" I uttered with a somewhat threatening tone.
"Ignore the fact that something bad happened," he said harshly.
"Bad?" I questioned. Why did he suddenly think that it was something bad? I knew that he certainly didn't think that in the heat of the moment.
"Yes, last night… what happened…" he looked down in shame of what happened which offended me. He shot to attention and looked me straight in the eye.
"It was a mistake, and not a mistake that will happen again," he finished and walked to the door.
No weapon could have wounded me deeper than those words, a feeling similar to that of a dagger being jabbed into my chest and twisted was occurring, I froze in my spot not wanting to move or to breathe. So be it. I turned in my spot and walked over to him opening the door and I pushed past him wanting to get out of that stupid inn. I could feel and hear Haytham hot on my tail and anger that I felt toward him once before was returning with a stronger feel to it, one that made me want to push him out of my life forever, lock the door and swallow the key.
Too many feelings toward this man had arisen just from one stupid kiss, a dangerous encounter that he had realised much sooner than I did but I cared little to none at that moment and the point of my anger was unknown at the time. I was angry with him for calling it a bad encounter and for saying it was a mistake.
"We shall be in Boston by tonight if we move quickly," he stated when he managed to pick up enough pace to walk next to me.
"Oh trust me, I'll be moving quickly," I stated bluntly.
"It will be a long journey if you keep at your childish endeavours," he stated being a blunt as I was.
"I'm sorry that my 'mistake' cost you your pride or even your ability to have a painless conversation but it's hard to hear what you just uttered and not take any of it to offence," I said in attempt to explain my 'childish endeavours'
"I'm sorry that my words offended you, however I am sure that you are aware as much as I am how inappropriate it was," he stood tall and posh which is the side that I didn't like in him.
"Since when do you care about how others might see your actions? You lead an order so it would seem to me that the only opinion that would matter is yours, in conclusion to that statement you are lying to me Haytham," I made up those words as I went along but the impact it had on Haytham made it clear that my words were no less effective than they ever were.
"If no-one finds out then no-one will have an opinion about this," he stated.
"So explain your sudden feeling of regret," I demanded.
"There is nothing to explain Arianna! It wasn't right! And you know that, we shall not speak of this moment again," he raised his voice to me then walked away from me to continue outdoors. I didn't want to further our debate any longer, I didn't get any answers from him at that point but I had no intention of pushing him anymore.
I continued following him to the short walk outside back to our horses, I was refusing to give Haytham any contact whatsoever whether it was verbal contact or simple eye contact, the lack of respect he showed me angered me deep within but I had no desire to express that with him as it would only lead to conflict and more anger so I decided to repress it and let it fade in my core as much as it went against my nature of saying every little thing that pops into my head.What an affect this man is having on me. I shook the thought immediately from my mind denying that he could be influencing me.
We reached the door that then led us outside and the warm air met my angered face and my love for the outdoors took over my heavy heart and strong opinions. Life always seems so much easier whenever I am outside. My connection with the wilderness always seemed to frighten me at the best and worst of times. It was almost as if I was raised like a native. I sometimes asked Connor what being a native was like whenever we could hold a conversation long enough without trying to tear each other's heads off but he was always very vague with the answers he gave me, eventually I gave up trying to get any answers out of him to feed my curiosity and we went back to our typical fighting.
As we were walking over to our horse which were being tended to by a stables men who was feeding them at the time, I couldn't help but give a wondering eye to look for the children that I had met when we first arrived, just after one encounter I had grown attached to them and wanted to bid them farewell. As my luck would have it they were no-where in sight and time did not afford me the luxury of finding them which lowered my mood even further.
Haytham had dismissed the man feeding our rented horses and turned to me to attempt to assist me in climbing onto the saddle of mine, I was sure that this was the gentleman layer of him peering out so I didn't not oppose at first, it was when he was helping me up with one hand on my leg and the other finding my lower back that brought a feeling in my chest that was awkward and unpleasant.
"Okay! I have it!" I shouted, I hadn't intended this line to sound so harsh but it came across harsh with a slight tint of bitterness added that made me feel worse than the feeling I was trying to cancel out.
"Sorry, thank you," I muttered quickly. He nodded at me but with no added smile which was unlike him.
We set off on our continued journey and remained in the cold silence that was aching in many ways, ways that I did not understand. I did not know if this silence was causing me pain because the silence around us was suffocating me or because it was giving me the impression that he didn't want to talk to me. This man was growing on me, and I didn't like it.
"Is this bitter silence really necessary?" I asked, I heard him chuckle slightly and my spirits were risen faintly.
"I thought our argument might have set the bar for an awkward conversation every time I might have tried" he repeated my words from previously before.
"Don't mock me," I uttered jokingly.
"I am merely trying to lighten the mood, my dear," I smiled at my nickname that he uttered again, I was glowing inside to the fact that we can still hold a conversation such as this one, I would have missed something like this too much to have had him give me awkward silence for the rest of my time with him.
"Well you have succeeded," I smiled. He rode beside me briefly before staring at me for longer than I was able to bare comfortably, the moment I noticed I began squirming uncomfortably in my saddle.
"What are you staring at?" I asked.
"You have a lovely smile," he said softly, causing me to blush.
"Thank you?" I replied in the form of a question.
"Pardon?" he asked.
"Forgive me, that didn't sound like something that you of all people would have said," I thought out loud.
"I have many sides to my personality, as do you and many people that we know; certain things bring them out as I am sure you are aware," he explained causing me to smirk in response.
"And what side was this?" I asked through a smile.
"I'm not sure… perhaps my flirting side," he sounded like he was joking.
"Right, sure," I said sarcastically and heard another chuckle from his end.
"I have seen your flirting side on many occasions, Arianna," he gave me eye contact.
"Hah! Name one time!" I would not consider myself a flirt.
"Alright, just now, when you asked me what side of me was showing, that's flirting," he said in attempt to work his way under my skin.
"I do not flirt," I defended, I turned to look at him to see he raised his eyebrows at me.
"I don't!" I repeated.
"I believe you," he said half-seriously.
"that is so typical of you, as soon as I am nice to you, you take it as flirting," I started a debate with him which was rather common when it came to one of our conversations however it rarely led to an argument, it was usually a friendly debate that we would have. The debate part is to be expected considering we are on completely opposite sides of a war but the friendly part often confused me. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't bring myself to have any hatred toward this man when we were having a debate or chatting about our differences which made little to no sense to me at the time.
"I think I know the difference between flirting and being nice, Arianna," he defended.
"Name one time that I have been nice that you wouldn't classify as flirting," I demanded. Our eye contact was at its minimum I put this down to us riding while we were talking but I didn't think much more of it.
"You were entertaining those children at the inn shortly after we arrived. That was nice," he said almost straight away which made me think about how he would usually think during a heated debate.
"Would you have thought the same thing if it were a grown man instead of children?" I asked.
"Probably," he answered hesitantly.
"Indeed" I replied sarcastically. I heard him scoff which made me snigger with a sense of victory.
I galloped off to the distance in front of us shortly after wanting my inner love for the outdoors to have its way with me. I heard Haytham call my name getting increasingly annoyed every time he repeated but I did not stop, I may have been his prisoner but he had loosen his grip on me over the weeks that I had been with him enough for me to have the courage to disobey once in a while. Thats when it hit me.
'Oh my god. I'm in the frontier, I know where I am. I can escape,' I thought to myself. In that instant all of my escape plans were rushing through my head like a picture show at top speed running through my conscious mind. I was still galloping and had every instinct in my body to keep going and run and go as fast as I possibly could away from the clutches of my enemy. With everything running through my head I was mentally deciding whether it was a good idea. If he caught me he would have started treating me like a prisoner instead of a guest; but if I escaped I could have alerted the other assassins that I am okay and Haytham's horrible plan to be rid of the assassin's would come to a halt.
Shortly after agreeing to follow my instincts and to be rid of this life as a prisoner I suddenly became aware of where I was going and the horse I had been riding had suddenly lost its mind and start whining and jumping around like crazy. That's when I saw that for the past few minutes had been riding dangerously close to the edge of a cliff, I tugged on the rains to pull my horse aside. It did as it commanded however as a reaction it quickly launched me from its back and left me helplessly flying toward the edge of this cliff.
"Arianna!" I heard Haytham shout. I turned my head to see him watching me fly toward certain death and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it, everything seemed to be going ten times slower than reality I was watching everything around me as I was gripping and grasping thin air in many desperate attempts to save my own life but no matter what I did the outcome was becoming every bit as clear as Haytham could see it with his horror stuck face watching me.
I hit the ground inches away from the edge and slid straight off the side. My view of the bottom of this pit became clear, there were rocks worn by years of water falls pointing directly up at me, if I were to fall I would be squered. The moment my hands reached the side of the cliff I gripped the harsh rocks pointing out as hard as a person fearing for their life could possibly do.
"No!" I heard Haytham scream from the top of his voice in obvious fear that I had been killed.
I heard the ground shuffle from where he had been running over to see and I was gripping onto the rocks for dear life.
"Arianna! Don't let go!" I heard him shout as he peered his head down to see me a short distance below the surface.
"Why on earth would I let go?" I shouted back.
"Grab my hand, it will be alright," I heard him say with a rather calm tone. I looked up to his hand above me which would require me to rely on one hand for a few seconds.
"I can't, I'll fall," I shouted in a blind panic.
"Just lift one hand, you will be okay, I won't let anything happen to you," he continued with his calm tone. I looked up again and lifted one hand to grab his as quickly as I possibly could, before I knew it he was pulling on my arm with an almighty strength, my shoes were slipping and sliding to get a grip on the rough yet smooth rocks but it didn't seem to matter, within about 10 seconds or less I was on the surface. The instant that I could get my feet a good grip on the floor I ran as fast as I could away from the edge that almost cost me my life.
Haytham jumped to his feet and turned to see me panting and scared to death. He ran toward me and wrapped his arms around me and held me tight and let out a gasp of relief as he did so.
"It's alright now," he said through his pants. I pushed him away from me.
"No, it's not!" I shouted much to his surprise.
"None of this makes any sense! You saved me from getting raped by several redcoats, then you saved me from several psychopaths in New York and you are taking me to safety in Boston and now you save my life again from falling from a cliff! You could have been killed yourself if you slipped! You risked your own life to save mine. Why would you do that for me?" I asked very emotionally with tears welling up in my eyes.
He hesitated to answer and I could see that he was finding it difficult to draw up an answer.
"At first it was to protect my plan to eliminate your band of assassins" he said, still shaken by the event that had occurred.
"And now?" I asked.
"I... care about you too dearly to let anything terrible happen to you," my mouth opened partially at his words
"I will not see you hurt in any shape or form, I will not allow it," I let a smile curl onto my lips as he said those words.
"You saved my life," I squeaked realising what risk he had taken for me.
"It was nothing," his modesty wouldn't allow him any honour.
"Not to me," I smiled. He cleared his throat and trailed off to find my startled horse.
"Come on, we need to keep moving if we are to reach Boston by tonight," he stated as if nothing happened.
"But-"
"We shall continue this conversation later when an opportunity presents itself, as for now, both of us need to calm down from the event that has just occurred," he explained.
"As you wish mister Kenway," I curtsied moderately; he smirked at me in response before I followed him.
I know that I am so so so late with this chapter but the ball is now rolling once more so please forgive me :3 exam season is almost over so I shall be continuing with my weekly updates from this point on. Thank you for being patient with me. Couldn't ask for better followers :D
