"I´m sorry! I´m sorry! I´M SOOOOOORRYYYY!"
Bell was down to his knees and kept his forehead pressed to the ground, apologizing again and again. A shadow towered over him, a really flustered, angry, female shadow.
"And you really should be! You should be ashamed of yourself, Bell Cranel!"
Riveria still only used his full name when she was upset with him.
.
.
After Bell had stopped sucking out the poison of Riveria´s wound, he had seen how she covered her face in embarrasement...then she glared at him.
"What came over you?!"
Bell was surprised by her sudden strength when she pushed him back, closing her spread legs immediately and pulling her robe down to cover herself. Never before in her life had she felt such shame.
"M-Ms. Riveria? I-I tho-"
"You thought what?!"
She pulled herself back a bit and got back to her feet, pulling her cape forward to cover her ripped pantyhose.
"That...you were...in dang-"
"This was just a scratch! I am a level six adventurer, have you forgotten? No poison that these creatures use could harm me."
While Rivera had not the extreme level of resistance like Bell, she still possesed the abnormal ability even if it only was on rank G. When she had the chance to level up, Loki told her about her choices of skills and this skill was essential for the deep levels, even poison from monsters in the 37th Floor wouldn´t make her much problem, due to her being level six.
"But I thought...you...I..."
"You?"
"I panicked...when I saw you getting hurt...and..."
"You just reacted."
"Yes."
Bell got a goosebump, he had the strange feeling of the whole tree shaking in Riveria´s anger. It was only partly because of what he did, but also that he reacted without thinking, she didn´t liked when people did that.
Her voice reached a seriousness that Bell had never heard before.
"So...you decided to push me down...pull up my robe...spread my legs...and ripp apart my pantyhose... When you just could have given me an antidot potion? Do you do that to every woman in the dungeon, that get´s hurt? Ripping apart their clothes?!"
Bell made a shocked face and all color vanished from it...only now realizing what he did to Riveria when her cape moved a bit in the wind. She immediately clutched her hand into the cape to keep herself covered.
I have...pushed her down...and...did all that...
What he did would be outraging for most women out there...except amazons maybe...and Riveria even was an elf...
"Sooooooorryyyyyy!"
So Bell dropped to his knees and used the secret technique of Takemikazuchi, advanced edition, to beg for her forgiveness.
.
.
"Bell, remain there and don´t turn around now."
"Y-Yes!"
He heard Riveria walking around him, then the rustling of clothes when she was behind him. Bell tried to ignore the sounds, since she had to take off her boots at first, definetely not imagining Riveria without boots and pantyhose, standing behind him.
After a few minutes, Riveria sighed. The situation was pretty similar to when Bell and Riveria were in the dungeon together and the Minotaur appeared, Bell had charged it and protected Riveria without thinking. While it was very chivalrous of him, it was also reckless.
"Allright, please stand up..."
So he got back to his feet but kept looking into the other direction.
"Bell, you can look at me."
Slowly he turned around and saw Riveria how she was supposed to look, properly clothed, graceful and dignified. Maybe it was the light in this tree, but Bell noticed again why Riveria was called more beautiful than a few goddesses out there.
"I´m really sorry."
"And you should be. But you tried to help me, so I won´t punish you...this time. If something like that happens again, I won´t be able to stop myself from slapping you. Please understand how shameful that was for me, what you did."
He bowed down one time and nodded.
"I appreciate your fast reaction, but you shouldn´t move without thinking for a fraction of a second."
"Yes..."
"You have enough experience for situations like this, should always took into account how strong your opponents are."
"Yes.."
Riveria was in her element. It was a reflex of her to cover her embarrasement by falling into her teacher mode. But...Bell could see that her ears were still really red. And...to his shame...he couldn´t forget the noise that Riveria made under his lips...that squeak...almost...a moan...
It had almost sounded like...a jolt of pleasure had shot through Riveria.
That is impossible!
Bell didn´t dared to think more into this direction.
It was a good thing that Bell couldn´t see inside Riveria´s mind and heart. Shame aside from what he did...the feeling of being held in his strong hands...and that he had basically kissed her thigh...Riveria didn´t understood the shiver that had shot through her body.
A various mix of feelings and thoughts rushed through her head, but in the end her proud, elven heart only had one thought.
Filthy...indecent...lewd...and...he even called me by my name...like...l-l-lovers do...
She meant Bell´s actions as well as her own thoughts and the tiny spark that had felt good from getting her thigh kissed by him.
Riveria sighed. "As long as you understand it, let´s keep moving."
"Okay."
.
.
They moved through the tree again, looking careful around in case more Goblins would be there, but they had wiped them out completely.
"It is good that they won´t ambush the elves of this forest now."
"Indeed, we have saved many lives today."
"But it sure is different to fight against monsters that don´t dissolve to ash."
Riveria nodded.
"Very different."
"Ms. Riveria...what about...the corpses?"
"Just let them be, the forest will take care of it."
"The forest?"
"Spirits clean the forest on their own in some ways, so do the animals. Many Goblins will be eaten by wild carnivores and spirits will enter the tree again now, small fire spirits will burn the dead Goblins, so that diseases won´t spread.
I have seen this once...a fascinating sight, but I felt bad for the spirits."
"And they do that out of their own, free will?"
"Of course, they are part of nature and the nature always gets into balance in some form. Maybe the elves won´t come here for a while, but over time they will, or wild animals will use this tree, this is the course of nature."
"Hah.."
"Did you expect them to just rot here and turn this tree into a stinking mess?"
"Not directly...I was just wondering."
Bell held the Hestia Knife in his right hand, the cleaned Fairy´s Dawn was in it´s scabbard again. With the sword hilt that protruded from between his shoulders under the cloak, his shoulder guards and white armor plates...the deep red cape...Bell really looked like a knight.
My knight...
Riveria couldn´t help but thought about Bell´s title she had told the other elves.
What is this feeling in my heart again? This warmth...
She wished she could have talked to Aina, it would be easier for her to understand. The analytic part of her mind thought of possibilities...could she be in love with Bell? Or rather starting to develop feelings towards him?
Bell sure was pleasant companion and always polite and gentle...well except for that was just happened. But he also did that only because he panicked over her wellbeing. Which...was...kind of nice...if she had to be honest.
"Ms. Riveria?"
"Yes?"
"Is there a special room that we are searching for?"
"The basement, if anywhere then there."
Both walked side by side and Bell´s eyes wandered constantly around, searching for danger and taking in the scenery. Despite being demolished by the Goblins, the tree was still majestic. From time to time, Bell opened and closed his fingers around the Knife, to relax them. Since he didn´t knew what awaited them or what kind of substances he would maybe touch, Bell had put on his thick leather gloves.
But no Goblins ambushed them, the tree was empty now, all of the monsters had followed their instincts and had charged towards them as soon as they spotted the intruders. What awaited them wasn't a staircase, but a gently sloping ramp that spiraled down into the depths. The basement was build in between the giant roots of the tree and the earth here was bare.
He raised his Knife towards his lips and whispered.
"Firebolt."
Bell had trained a long time with his magic, to use it in different ways. Right now the Hestia Knife was covered by a bright, orange flame, so he could use it like a torch. The flickering light of the flame illuminated the area around them, and Bell saw mushrooms growing in various places and some smaller plants.
"I see nothing that looks like what you described, Ms. Riveria."
When he glanced over his shoulder, he saw that Riveria´s face had become stiff. She looked around at first, then she searched in every corner of the basement. Her lips tightened and she didn't look particularly enthusiastic. Riveria mumbled something that Bell didn´t understood, since it was elvish.
Except for Aina or Ais, Bell was possibly the only person in whose presence she would openly curse ... even if it was a very cautious curse, because eflisch did not involve strong curses.
Instead of calling out to her again, Bell waited until Riveria was sure that what they looked for wasn´t here.
"Nnnh..."
She didn´t said something when she whirled around and went up the ramp again. Bell could only imagine how she had to feel this moment, so he followed her in silence. He saw something he never thought he would see ... Riveria kicked a piece of rubble away from a closet in frustration.
Since Riveria wasn´t probably paying attention right now, Bell looked out for possible danger while he followed her and just let her vent her frustration. That they would find the flower at their first destination right away was most unlikely, but he didn´t said that.
Soon Riveria marched out of the tree and into the forest again, followed by Bell. He didn´t knew which direction she had in mind, but elves had an amazing sense of direction in forests. Further and further they wandered through the forest, in the direction of the mountains.
Is there another spot where it can grow? And how does she know that?
She would later explain to him that she had read every legend about the flower and under which circumstances it could grow. While he walked behind her, Bell...somehow felt joy. Usually she was so reserved and noble, but now she let out her frustration and mumbled curses softly to herself. It meant a lot to Bell that Riveria could be so frank around him. He knew from the past that everyone had to ventilate at some point. But even when she did that right now...she still was graceful and so beautiful in his eyes.
Maybe even more since he got to learn a new side of her.
Bell followed Riveria up and down the forest for two days, searching in various places that all looked almost magical to him, small glades...hollow trees..and other spots...but no luck.
.
The forest around them changed a bit and he heard a faint sound of water. The trees were no longer so close together and the gurgling of the water got louder, the further they went, the more Bell could see the mountains between the tree tops ... it was amazing how close they had come, almost right at the foot of the mountain. After several minutes Riveria slowly accelerated, Bell wordlessly adjusted to her pace. They walked for about an hour until they reached their destination. Bell couldn't stop being amazed, instead of climbing gently, the mountain loomed in front of them in an almost vertical wall ... from which a small waterfall crashed down into a lake. The lake was about half the size of one of the Orario districts, and he saw a stream disappearing westward.
"Bell, please look this way on the lakeside, I'm walking this way."
"Okay."
Both parted ways and walked along the lakeside, looking for a golden spot. When Bell reached the end of the lake, where it went over into the rockface, he sighed and turned around. On the other side of the lake, Riveria did the same. Judging her movements, her frustration was gone, but she looked disappointed.
Twenty minutes after they parted, both met again. Bell looked amazed...a bunch of small spirits drifted behind Riveria and followed her, as if to comfort the sad elf.
"*Sigh*...It is not here..."
"Ms. Riveria?"
"Please...give me a moment...Bell."
He watched how she slowly leaned her head back, took a deep breath and sighed, one of the wind spirits got blown up by her breath and whirled around.
"Hah...I guess that was to be expected..."
Bell only looked at her, not saying a word.
"Bell...I´m sorry."
"Hm?"
"For acting the way I did just now...again. It isn´t your fault and I should be ashamed to act like that towards you...not saying aynthing and such."
He shook his head. "It´s okay, while I can´t completely imagine how you feel, I understand that it is frustrating."
"Still...I shouldn´t act like that..."
"Everyone needs to do that from time to time."
He would love to close his arms around her and whisper to her that everything would be fine.
"Ms. Riveria...try to see the bright side of it."
"Hm?"
"We haven´t found the flower here, but we will find it somewhere. We searched everywhere in the forest and didn´t found it. Now we are sure that it isn´t in this forest and we can move on to the next. I mean in only three days we searched through a whole forest."
Again, Bell´s ability to remain calm in certain situations helped Riveria.
"I guess you are right."
Riveria sighed again, then she straightened up and got her normal attitude back.
"Allright, it was unlikely that we would find it on the first try. Let us return to the village and then move on to the east, okay?"
"I follow you, Mylady."
Riveria blinked and to her surprise, her cheeks and tips of her ears turned into the slightest pink when Bell called her that and bowed in a elegant, polite manner. He had the right arm stretched out and held the left in front of his stomach. With his right he also held the edge of his cape, pointed towards the direction of the village.
Right now he was the very image of a knight that accompanied his princess...or loved one. It were these small gestures that helped to lighten Riveria´s mood.
"Thank you...my knight."
With a brighter expression, Riveria moved on with Bell at her side, the spirits followed them for a while, drifitng up and down to show their amusement over the shy "flirt".
.
.
"So, have you found what you were looking for?"
The small village elder held stood with his staff in his right hand in front of Riveria and Bell, other elves from the village also looked at them.
"No, it wasn´t anywhere to find."
"Well the chance is low to begin with."
Riveria nodded. "Also.."
"Hm?"
"The great tree in the north, Goblins had built their nest there."
Bell heard noises of surprise and anger from the elves and the village elder frowned.
"Goblins?! How dare they!"
Riveria nodded. "They are gone, all of them."
"So..you did..."
"Me and my knight cleansed the tree."
More noises and whispers from the elves came, again Bell didn´t understood a word.
"Praise lady Riveria!"
"She has saved us!"
"You are our saviour, lady Riveria!"
More elves joined them and Bell noticed that Riveria looked uncomfortable again, but she endured it for the moment.
"We just did what we had to, so that you can be safe. Also I didn´t did it alone, my knight fought at my side."
Bell´s ears twitched when he heard the word "knight", one of the few he understood.
"Such grace!"
"Such modesty!"
"Such dignity!"
The village elder waved his staff around to calm the other elves down.
"Now, now, that is enough. You have my thanks...you both do...is there anything we can give you to repay you?"
Suddenly, Riveria frowned. "Normally I would never ask for something as a thank, but if you could spare a bottle of spirit wine and a few traveling rations?"
"You drink?"
"It isn´t for me, but my goddess is curious."
Again a few elves mumbled.
"It´s the least we can give you I guess."
But the village elder glanced to Bell, it normally wasn´t allowed to share traveling rations with non-elves.
"My knight was the one that charged at the Goblins first, he couldn´t stand the thoughts of someone getting ambushed by them."
"Argh...whatever...wait a moment."
Riveria glanced to Bell and nodded one time...she tried not to look to astonished when she looked at him. Small spirits drifted around Bell, one nudged his round ear curious, another sat on his hair.
The other elves were also surprised...this human seemed to be very different to other humans. After a short while, the village elder returned with a large bottle and a few small packages, as well as two bags. The packages were actually folded leaves with something inside.
"My knight, would you be so kind?"
"Of course, lady Riveria."
Bell took the things from the village elder, knelt down and put them carefully into his enormous backpack. Riveria hated to act like this but she had to keep on the act for now.
"So, what do you do now?"
"We will travel to the east until we reach the big river, follow it to it´s bulge, then towards Wishe."
The way would be longer than the way from Orario towards this forest. If they wouldn´t find the flower there, they would go to the north, to Ashenia and Ryumilua. Ryumilua was as far away from the Wishe forest as Wishe was from Orario. They would need over a week to get to Wishe alone...if everything went well.
"And you will give the seeds to the other village elders?"
"Yes."
"Then be thanked again and save travels."
"You have my thanks, elder Lilo."
The elves thanked and waved them as Riveria and Bell went to leave the village. It was early afternoon so they could move a long distance before night came, and Riveria didn´t wanted to lose any time.
"That was really something."
"You mean your first visit of an elven forest?"
"Yes, despite the reason...I want to thank you, Ms. Riveria. It is an experience I will never forget...and I look forward to see the other forests. This...really is an adventure!"
His happy grin let her smile slightly. Out the corner of her eyes she noticed a few lesser wind spirits following them. The whole time while they were in the forest, a few were always nearby to them, except in the tree.
Do they sense Ais on us?
Riveria didn´t knew how it was among spirits, but since Ais was the daughter of a greater spirit...even if she was a half blood...did that made her to some kind of...spirit princess?
.
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When evening came, both got out of the forest and reached the end of the river, which they would follow now.
"Shall we camp here? We can start early in the morning."
"A good idea, Bell."
"Ms. Riveria, shall I-"
"Bell...I think it is okay if you just say Riveria now. We will travel for a long time together."
"B-But I..."
"You already called me that, back then."
"I-I-I wasn´t thinking straight!"
"If you want to keep doing it, it is okay. But I am okay with you using just my name."
"I will try my best...Riveria."
She smiled slightly and they started to prepare their camp, it felt really nice to be called just by her name by Bell, without honorifics. Both had gotten used to it pretty fast and were a good team. After the first night, Bell didn´t tried again to do everything. As Riveria had explained to him, they were companions and would do the work together.
"Bell, do you mind if I go to take a bath first?"
"Of course not."
They took turns who washed first in the evening.
"What are about food?"
"I would like to show you something when we have washed."
"Alright."
While Riveria went to the river to wash herself, Bell set up the magic stone that produced heat like a campfire, and glew lightly. But there was no smoke, which made it more pleasant. Pretty fast, Bell had stopped to feel embarrassed about the thought that Riveria was washing herself not too far away from him, it was a natural thing to do.
He let his thoughts wander around the last days, feeling flustered when he rememberred what he had done to her in the big tree. Bell felt like it was a dream, he had visited an elven forest with such a beautiful woman.
After a short while, Riveria returned and still was busy drying her hair.
"You can go now, Bell."
He nodded and took his bag with him, they had gotten used to their nightly routine.
It really is a fascinating !
The water was quite cold, since autum was approaching more and more.
Would be nice to have a real bath with hot !
He smiled by himself, of course he didn´t imagine to bath together with Riveria. Bell blushed a bit when he rememberred the moment again when he had pushed her down...she really had smelled nice.
.
.
"I´m back."
"Welcome back."
Bell put down his bag and sat down on the blanket.
"What are we going to do about food tonight?"
Riveria smiled slightly. "I would like to show you something."
She pointed towards the two bags they got from the elves. "This one contains vegetables and I would like to use them tomorrow, the other one has dried mushrooms and we should use them the day after tomorrow. But for tonight...I want you to try this."
Riveria slowly opened one of the leave packages, revealing the inside. It looked like something between a rectangular piece of bread and a cookie, only big enough to cover Bell´s left hand.
"Take one, I can assure you that this one will be enough."
Carefully, Bell took one of the two pieces, while Riveria took the other one.
"Is this a special elven cuisine?"
"Only elves procude these yes, but it is more like a ration than real cuisine."
Smelling it would be rude, so Bell took a small bite. The texture was crunchy on the outside, but soft on the inside. While he was not a fan of sweet things, the pleasant taste of nuts and honey filled his mouth, not too strong, not too weak.
Riveria also took a small bite from her piece.
"This tastes really good."
"I´m glad that you like it."
"And one piece will be enough?"
"Yes, one piece is enough to fill the stomach of an adult person. Well...maybe a dwarf wouldn´t have enough with just one piece."
"Elves really are amazing."
"If you say so."
"How long will the others hold?"
"About two weeks, maybe three but then they would be a bit dry. As long as we don´t open the leaves. In four weeks they will be dry and hard, but still eadible."
Riveria was glad to see Bell smile, they continued their meal.
.
.
"Bell?"
"Riveria?"
Again...her heart jumped for a short moment in joy when he called her by her name.
"I wanted to ask you, since I am really thankful that you accompany me...is there anything I can do to pay you back?"
"I don´t need payment."
"I have to insist on that, what you are doing right now is much more than just a favor. So please speak if there is anything you desire."
"Hm..."
For a few moments, Bell was in thoughts. There weren´t really many things he desired...and it was way too early to ask for a kiss...also that felt kind of lewd.
He looked at the forest, then into the direction they would be traveling, then at Riveria again.
"There is one thing that comes to my mind."
"What is it?"
"Would you help me learn more elvish during our trip?"
Her eyes widened a little bit in surprise, but then she nodded with a pleased smile. Riveria liked it when people continued to work on their skills. And she just couldn´t help the urge to teach young people things.
In the past, Bell had already turned out as an honor student.
"A good idea."
It will also help to prevent him from saying something embarrassing.
"Where do we start?"
"At first I need to know what you already can say, so please tell me the sentences you know."
"Ahm...I..."
Riveria raised an eyebrow, already in her teacher mode where she didn´t tolerated any slacking off.
"Bell? You want to learn it or not?"
"I do!"
"Then go ahead and tell me."
One by one...Bell spoke all the sentences he knew to Riveria, she wasn´t surprised that all of them had a romantic meaning. But since he said those sentences to her...her ears got really red to the end.
There wasn´t something lewd in these sentences...but Riveria wasn´t used to hear these kind of words from a man... Her heart pounded a bit to the end, never before had she reacted to words of flirting...why when they came from Bell?
"*Cough* Ahem...okay now I have a guess where to start. Now repeat after me, we have to make sure that your pronunciation is correct, some words will get a different opinion depending on the intonation or gestures that accompany them."
Riveria started with the common greeting among elves and told him how it changed when he did certain things with his hands. Like placing the right hand over his heart, bowing down with closed eyes, this spoke of much respect towards the other.
Maybe it will also help to teach him more about my culture.
The first evening when Riveria started to teach Bell went on for a while, and both had much fun with it. Riveria could relieve cravings to teach someone something and she really enjoyed that it was Bell.
Slowly...little by little...her heart started to open more and more...letting in this charming, brave, young man.
Riveria...started to enjoy the journey.
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.
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Authors Note: Since I was asked, yes we will see what Loki put in Riveria´s backpack. It might read a bit slow, but the path to open Riveria´s heart to romance and love isn´t a short one.
