One day while they ate 'breakfast', the Shadow Priest announced that he'd be gone for a few days. He wanted to visit home, get a few things from his house and collect some herbs that grew around there. The Legion Commander stopped eating and frowned at this news. She almost blurted out a "don't leave me", but bit her tongue. That would sound way too needy and she didn't need Dazzle. She didn't need anyone. She just liked to have him around. So she nodded and forced herself to continue eating.
The troll looked at her for a few moments, as if he expected something else. Then he shrugged. He put everything away after they had finished eating and fetched his backpack.
"You'll come back in a few days?" Tresdin was proud that her voice was steady and she sounded cool and collected, the words being just a casual question. She didn't feel steady, though. Instead she was sad that she'd be alone, even if it was only a few days. And she was confused because his leaving made her sad. A little angry at herself perhaps because she'd grown so attached to the troll.
He nodded. Began to turn away from her and hesitated.
Then he bridged the distance between them with one long step and hugged her. Tresdin didn't feel much through her armour but she had taken her helmet off and Dazzle pressed his cheek against hers. His hair brushed against her nose and mouth, so soft, and she took a deep breath, her arms circling around his body as good as possible with the huge backpack on his back. The cloak she had given him was strapped to it and he was wearing the short sleeved shirt. He didn't smell like any herbs today, not even like the food he had made. It was only him and she took it all in.
When they separated, at least the anger in her was gone. It wasn't bad that she had grown attached to the troll. It was simply something new, something she had to get used to. And it was worth it.
On the day the Shadow Priest left, the Legion Commander stopped her training much sooner than normal. She didn't feel like going through her routines and so she finished and went in search for the food he had left for her. Her whole evening was like shit. She didn't go out after the sun began to set, didn't want to see it and be reminded of being alone. She didn't clean her armour because it reminded her of Dazzle and her loneliness, too, since he always sat with her when she did that. She was grumpy and bad-tempered and didn't know what to do with herself.
She went to bed early, but lay there and couldn't sleep. In her desperation and loneliness (how could someone feel so lonely after just a few hours and with the knowledge that it would only be for a few days?) she got up again. She left her room and stopped in front of the closed door of Dazzle's room. She had, not once, entered it since he had moved in. Not because he hadn't wanted her to, she had simply not thought about going inside. And he hadn't invited her in, so she had stayed outside.
But now she opened the door and stepped over the threshold. It was already too dark to see much but she could make out a table full of stuff, lots of shelves on the walls, all filled. One with books, one with herbs and other ingredients for his potions, one with things he needed to brew the potions, like pots and vials. One was almost empty. It was all very neat, though, well sorted and tidy. Except for the table.
The bed was made and suddenly, while looking at it, the Commander felt very tired. The room smelled like Dazzle, with all the herbs and such, and it felt like him. If it wasn't so dark, she'd probably see lots of pink and purple in here. All in all, it comforted her and made her feel not so very alone anymore.
She lay down in his bed and curled together underneath the blanket, his scent all around her now. It didn't take more than a minute for her to fall asleep.
The next day was better. She still missed Dazzle but it was only dull ache now. He would be back in a few days, she was able to be without him for that time. On her second day alone, someone who wanted to train with her appeared. Or maybe he just wanted to challenge her. It was one of those stupid-as-fuck males and she sneered as she saw him approaching. Arrogant and too full of himself. Thought he was better than her simply because she was female and he was male.
Well, it didn't take her long to prove him wrong. She knocked him down in their first fight within seconds. He didn't believe it, said she'd simply had luck and went at her again. The result was the same, him lying flat on his back, her standing above him, weapon pointing at his throat. She had to win five times before he really believed that she was better, that she was as good as they said. And the Commander hated it. Hated that she had to prove herself like that.
At least now the fucking male was eager to learn from her, probably wanted to be able to defeat her. That would never happen. Not because she didn't want to teach him everything she knew but because he wasn't good enough to become as good as her. It wasn't in him. What he had, though, was strength. He was way bigger than Tresdin and he was heavily muscled.
The first day of the Commander training the male went without any incidents. He did what she told him without complaining and she was almost pleased with him in the evening. They stopped training when the sun began to set. She showed him a room he could use and told him to stay away from her's and Dazzle's.
Only then did the sadness from the day before come back. It hit her with force as she got something to eat from the things the troll had prepared for her. She took it with her into his room and sat on his bed while she ate it. Then she lay down, leaving everything lying next to the bed, and huddled herself into his scent. Fuck, she missed him.
The next day was okay, but the evening was bad again. And on the fourth day she couldn't stop herself from looking for a sign that Dazzle was coming back. He had been gone a few days now and she wanted him to come back. She scanned the sky every five minutes, watched the path that came up and the one that went up. She couldn't concentrate on the fighting and this time she wasn't as lucky as with the orc female. The fucking male saw an opening in one of their training fights and, just as the Commander did, he hit full force, didn't even try to soften the blow. He hit her hard on the side of her face and the Legion Commander was thrown backwards, skidding over the ground a few feet. Her head rand from the hit but she was up again in a second, well aware that her opponent would be over her fast. He was, but she was faster, had her weapon ready to block his attack, evade another one and have him on his back before he could attack a third time.
Her teeth were clenched tightly against the pain that was coming in waves from where he had hit her. Her vision was dotted but she saw enough to recognize the frustration on the male's face about her defeating him again. And though she would have liked nothing more than to make a break, to cool her face and to lie down for a bit, she knew that she could never do that while the male was watching her. It would be a sign of weakness, though he had probably almost broken her jaw or even her skull with the force of his hit and it would be only normal for anyone to feel pain afterwards. But as it was, she kept going. She was more concentrated now, didn't allow her eyes to wander as often as before. Or her mind. Because she definitely didn't want to get hit a second time.
It was difficult to take the helmet off when she was in the house. Her face was swollen and it hurt as fuck. She sighed and put the helmet on the ground. Her eyes wandered through the room (of course she was in Dazzle's room again) and they fixed on the bottles with finished potions.
Tresdin stood up and walked over, scanning the bottle, which were all labelled. And on one of them she read the words 'healing salve'. On the back of the bottle was a short instruction how to use the potion and she followed it. The pain on her face was dulled immediately and she sighed again. She ate and lay down on the bed. She hoped the Shadow Priest would come back tomorrow. He was already gone four days. Next time she'd go with him, no matter where he went.
The swelling on her face retreated during the night. The Legion Commander had no problem to put her helmet back on the next morning. Her face was tender on the side and it would probably hurt during the training but it was much better than the day before.
The sun was high in the sky before the male joined her. With this laziness he'd never get any better but Tresdin refrained from pointing it out to him. She was only here to show him what mistakes he made in a fight, and not how he had to change his habits to actually get better. If he was nice to her, she would point a few things out for him, but she didn't bother with stupid assholes. The male didn't go through any warm-up routine, either, just swung his weapon a few times before he faced her and demanded they start the training. He had improved over the days he had been here but it wouldn't get much better with this attitude. But whatever. Not her problem.
The Legion Commander tried to concentrate on the fight, though she was longing with every fibre of her being for the Shadow Priest to come back. If she didn't have a pupil, she'd probably be sitting in front of her house, staring at the sky nonstop, waiting for a griffon or something to come in.
When she finally heard the rustling of wings, her heart skipped a beat. It was only very soft, the troll having probably landed as far away as possible as not to disturb her in her training. The male saw the stutter in her movements and thought he could get through her defences again, but Tresdin wasn't stupid. She ducked and kicked his feet from under his body before he realized what had happened.
She made sure he knew that he had been defeated before she turned away to look into the direction the sound had come from.
It was the Shadow Priest. He just scratched the wyvern, which had flown him here, behind an ear before the beast took off, back to where it had come from. Then the troll turned around and smiled at her. And Tresdin had to fight hard not to run towards him with fully speed in her joy to have him back.
She walked over, trying to take normal steps while she pulled her helmet off. Her eyes were fixed on Dazzle and her heart beat hard and fast. She smiled back at him and when she stood in front of him, she dropped her weapon and helmet and hugged him. She took a deep breath while she buried her nose in his hair. It was uncomfortable because her armour made her bigger than she was and she didn't feel anything through the metal. The backpack on Dazzle's back made it impossible for her to put her arms properly around him. But fuck, it felt good to be able to hug him like that.
The Shadow Priest chuckled. "I'm glad to be back. I missed you, too."
She wanted to deny it because it was a weakness she didn't want to show. But, aside from the fact that her hug totally would have revealed the lie it would have been, she didn't want to lie to the troll. She had missed him. Badly.
They separated but when he looked at her, his smile vanished, was replaced by a frown. He raised his hand but let it drop about halfway to her face. "What happened to you?"
So the hit from the male was visible. Which wasn't a surprise, it was rather that she'd already forgotten about it. Tresdin grimaced. "My thoughts were elsewhere and I got hit during training."
"Someone was able to hit you? Flat out like that?" He sounded disbelieving, and rightly so. He had in all her trainings never seen anyone landing a hit, especially not like that. "Your thoughts must've been very far away." He snorted and walked past her towards the house, luckily not seeing her blush that had appeared at his statement.
The Commander grabbed her weapon and helmet and followed him. She trailed past him like a lost puppy, through the house and into his room. Where he stopped suddenly and Tresdin almost ran into him. A glance over his shoulder showed her why: the bed was a mess, the dishes from the day before were piled next to it and dirty clothes were strewn all over the floor. It was absolutely obvious that she had been in the room and not only for a few moments. Or even hours.
"Why have you been in my room?" Dazzle turned slowly around and this time, he couldn't miss the blush on her face.
Tresdin tried to come up with a reason that didn't make her sound needy and soft and desperate, but what could she say to explain her sleeping in his bed? "Um, I…"
There was no reason. The Legion Commander clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, as if her not looking at the troll while she confessed to him would make it easier. "I missed you and the bed smelled like you and it was the only way I could sleep while you were gone."
Now, she had said it. She opened her eyes a crack to see Dazzle's expression. He seemed relieved.
"For a second I thought you had moved me out while I was gone."
"Why would I do that?" That was really a stupid thought. And unfounded. Tresdin frowned.
Dazzle shrugged. "Don't know. Maybe you've had enough of me. Or you liked my room better. Or just to annoy me."
"That would be an extremely strange way to annoy someone."
"That it would be." The troll was smiling again as he went into the room. He put his backpack down and began to clean the mess Tresdin had made of the room. It spurred her into action, too, because no way would she stand by and watch him tidy up her stuff. Then she helped him to unpack his things. She had completely forgotten that she had a pupil, who was probably waiting for her in the training area. Dazzle was back and he was the only thing on her mind right now. "How was your trip? Was it successful?"
The mass of herbs he retrieved from the backpack should have been answer enough but Tresdin wanted to hear him talking. And he talked, about everything. Whom he had visited, what they had done together, where he had been, which herbs he had gathered and so on. Meanwhile he sorted the herbs, putting labels on all of them before they were stacked in the shelves. He put a few aside with which he began to make some kind of ointment.
They had finished tidying up, the backpack was stored away and Tresdin was sitting on the bed, watching the shaman do his work while listening to him. From time to time he sniffed the ointment after which he'd add something. When he was satisfied, he put the ingredients away. His room was so neat, it was fascinating. How he could keep this neatness throughout his work, was even more fascinating.
The Shadow Priest grabbed the pot with the ointment and held it out for the Legion Commander. "It's for your face. To make the bruises go away faster and to get your normal skin colour back."
"Oh, thank you." The ointment smelled strongly of herbs the Commander couldn't name. She dipped her fingers in and smeared the paste on her face. The troll watched for a second before he turned away.
Just then Tresdin's pupil decided he had waited long enough. Heavy footsteps sounded from the living room. "Hey Legion Commander, don't you think you had enough time now to prepare for our next fight? I'm getting bored out here. One might think you are afraid to face me again!"
Dazzle's eyes widened. Then he leaned towards Tresdin and whispered: "Didn't you knock him on his back enough times? Why is he still so arrogant?"
The Legion Commander could only shrug at that. "Some males just never learn from their failures. I'll just keep beating him until he has either learned it, died, or decided he's had enough and leaves."
"Maybe you shouldn't have let him hit you. Made him more confident I think." At the look she gave him, he held his hands up in surrender and laughed. "Only joking."
Reluctant to leave, but not wanting to chance the stupid male outside to get even more arrogant than he already was, she put her helmet on and grabbed her weapon before she stepped into the training area. She completely ignored the male until the moment he attacked her. From the side, probably because he thought his chances were better that way. They weren't. He was too loud as he charged her, his movements too slow, obvious and predictable. She had told him that countless times now but he changed nothing in his tactics. He still thought that his strength was all he ever needed. She guessed he would learn nothing more from her at this point and when he'd leave he would have learned little during the training with the Commander. His loss, not hers.
Before, she'd had to force herself to concentrate and it had been exhausting. But now that Dazzle was back, her mind relaxed and her body moved effortless and without her having to force her thoughts back on the task at hand.
The fucking male seemed to realize it, because he got more and more desperate in his efforts to get through her defences and hit her. Tresdin wanted to make a break and tell him what he did wrong, but he didn't stop. He kept charging her like some mindless fuck, and so she kept blocking him. It didn't take the male long to be completely out of breath while the Legion Commander had barely broken a sweat. She didn't understand him. She could teach him so much but he wasn't interested anymore. At the beginning he had listened to her instructions but over the days it had changed. Probably he had only come here to defeat her, at least once, and he was too stupid to realize that he had zero chance in achieving this goal. Maybe he had hoped that after two days of training with her he had picked up enough new skills and enough information about her fighting style to defeat her. It didn't work like that.
She would give him this day, maybe one more, depending on how much patience she could summon, then she'd send him away. Fuck, she hated males. They were so unreasonable, it made her want to punch them all in the face.
When the Shadow Priest appeared in her field of vision and stopped on the side of the training area, she decided the male had pushed himself enough. She put him flat on the ground in a heartbeat and he was so exhausted, he didn't even try to get up.
They were halfway through dinner before the male joined them. Afterwards, Tresdin went inside to put her armour away. She was almost giddy with joy about the fact that she'd finally be able to watch the sunset with Dazzle again. Fuck, she had missed him.
When she came out of her room, she could hear the male talking outside. She didn't really listen as she went into the kitchen to get something to drink first. The word 'fuck' from the male made he cock her ears and stop moving to be able to understand him better.
The male laughed. "Do you clean her house, too? Like some little housewife? I've seen how it looked while you were away. Did you have to ask permission to leave? Weakling. She made you her little bitch and you even enjoy it. How a male, even a pink troll like you, can stoop so low, I can't understand. If I didn't find it so funny to sea you licking her shoes, I'd find it disgusting." He laughed again.
Tresdin was frozen in shock for long moments. How could someone talk like that to Dazzle? Did he really think that? That he was her bitch? Then the anger came. It was red-hot and it burned through her body.
"I will only say it this once." The Shadow Priest sounded calm, unbelievable considering how he had just been insulted. "You will leave. Now."
The male just kept laughing at these words. "Or what? You going to call your master? You think she'll protect her little troll puppy?"
The Legion Commander was at the door, intending to hurt this fucking asshole until he was sobbing from pain. Before she could open the door, she heard the troll cast his first spell. As she opened the door, he was standing in front of the male, his staff in his hands, pink energy all around both of them. It swirled and moved and with every spell the shaman cast, it changed. It attacked, cut through the armour of the male while it protected the Shadow Priest as his opponent decided to try and counter the attack. The Commander froze and watched.
In the town wars, Tresdin had seen him fight, but only ever in a supporting role, never in a one-on-one battle. Besides, in the town wars some abilities worked slightly different and some didn't work at all, so it could happen that a creature was much weaker in a town war than it was outside of it.
From the look of it, the Shadow Priest was one of them. The way he wove a pattern of pink energy around the male in front of him, which was now streaked with green, was something he wasn't able to do during a town war.
The male was starting to breath heavy as he tried to hit the troll. His movements were much slower than usual and his skin turned paler with every passing second. Tresdin could see how he clenched his teeth and she thought he had to be in pain, judging from the expression on his face.
After maybe a minute, during which the Legion Commander watched in fascination how the Shadow Priest wielded his powers, the weapon of the male clattered to the ground, followed by the male himself, who wasn't able to remain standing. On the ground he curled into a tight ball, making pained noises.
Dazzle waited a few moments, listening to the groaning of the male, before he slowly let the energy around them fade. The male didn't move. The troll tapped him on the shoulder with his staff. Nothing. He rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath before he tapped him again, this time harder. "Get on your feet and run while you can. If you stay here a minute longer, I'll call the poison back and you'll never again stop hurting." His voice was still calm, as if he hadn't just defeated a strong warrior with ease.
Tresdin was, to say the least, impressed.
The male opened his eyes carefully and unfolded his body. When the troll shaman just stared at him, he grabbed his weapon and ran faster than the Commander had ever seen him run.
As soon as he was gone, Dazzle sighed, all tension leaving his body as he leaned on his staff.
"I didn't know you were that strong." Tresdin walked towards him, smiling. She had been more than ready to kick the fucking male into oblivion for insulting Dazzle, but he hadn't needed her help. It made her feel strange and she wasn't yet sure if she liked the new feeling or not.
"I'm the Dazzle. Of course I'm strong." But he looked tired now. Using so much magic had to take its toll.
Tresdin linked her arm with his and together they walked to their place to watch the sunset. "I would've sent him away tomorrow anyway. He was an arrogant asshole. Wasn't willing to learn anything more from me. His sole goal was to defeat me once in a fight."
They sat down, Dazzle leaning against her immediately, and she wrapped her arm around him. The Legion Commander hesitated, but she felt she had to ask the troll. "You don't feel like that, do you? What the fucker said?"
"What? No, of course not. Why would I? We are friends, I do the things I do because I want to. You never ask me to do anything for you, neither the cooking nor the cleaning." He yawned, his head heavy on her shoulder. "It's good to be back."
"I'm glad you are back." And because she had missed it so much, she buried her nose in his hair, which was as soft as always, and took a deep breath. Today there was only a hint of herbs, but she could smell the warmth from his home, as well as the dust and the wind from the journey. And him.
She could feel the Shadow Priest falling asleep by her side and decided this wasn't the most comfortable place for that. Besides, she was tired, too, and so she stood up and pulled the sleepy troll with her.
He didn't go to his room, though he was barely awake by now, but followed Tresdin to hers. He lay down on her bed, let his staff drop to the floor, and was sound asleep within seconds. Incredulous, the Legion Commander stared at the troll sleeping in her bed. Then she laughed softly, shaking her head. She had two options now, first she could go to his room and sleep in his bed, or, second, she could join him and sleep next to him. Her bed wasn't huge but it wasn't too small to offer room for two.
She took her shirt, pants and boots off and, now only in her underwear but not caring the least about it, crawled into her bed. She pushed Dazzle a little to one side to have enough space, and pulled the blanked from underneath his body to put it over both of them. She fell asleep quickly, surrounded by the warmth and the scent of the troll shaman.