Revisions abound.

"So you actually plan on showing up?"

Church merely glanced at the wall of Alleyne's all natural abode, sitting on the same bed he had first awoken in within this massive forest. He did his best to avoid the blonde's piercing blue eyes as she wrapped his sprained arm into a sling. She had never been obviously angry at him before, until today. In fact, he had never seen her angry at all, and he was wishing he didn't have to see it now, because her cold front was truly chilling.

He made no reply as the elf captain finished his putting his arm into an immobilizing sling of sewn leaves, and his silence persisted as she stood and rubbed her forehead with one hand. "I hope you are not so blind that you fail to see the foolishness of your actions?"

Church believed he was justified in his reply to last night's mysterious attacker, and he thought he should say so. "Echidna challenged me-!"

The Elven blonde interrupted him before he could go any further, her gaze all steel. "Echidna baited you, Church."

Church almost physically recoiled from the displeasure emanating from the woman. She was truly scary when she was mad. He averted his gaze, uncomfortable looking right at her. As she noticed his reaction to her outburst, Alleyne looked away from him and sighed.

"Look, it's not...I mean I'm not..." Alleyne kept pausing as she struggled to put her thoughts into the right words. It was not often that she didn't know what to say. Sighing again, she massaged the side of her head, and Church wondered if all of this was giving her headache. In fact, he wondered if that was all he was to her: a headache, a bother, or a nuisance...

"Church."

His dismal train of thought was interrupted by Alleyne's serious voice, and he looked towards her. But instead of seeing that uncomfortable anger in her eyes, he saw something...else. Something he couldn't quite place. But whatever it was held his gaze, and for the moment, the two looked right into each others eyes, two shades of blue, one deep and the other icy, staring right into each other.

Alleyne clearly did not feel the moment in the slightest, as she wasted no time continuing with what she had to say. "Contrary to what you might think, I'm not angry with you. I'm just..." She broke eye contact with him here and looked to the side, as though she were unsure of what she was about to say. "I'm just worried about you. I... would be saddened if something were to happen to you. That's all."

She added 'that's all' as if her concern was negligible or not worth getting worked up over, but Church was truly pleased to hear that this stoic beauty had found some degree of care for him even after such a short time in her presence. He must have been a real charmer.

"May I ask...why it would trouble you?"

Church watched her reaction, and Alleyne first gave him a look of surprise, before frowning. However, Church could tell it was because she was trying to come up with an explanation to a question she had not expected him to ask.

"It's just that... well... Nowa has become fond of you, and if something bad happened, she would be sad... and if my student is unhappy so am I."

Church almost scoffed at that ridiculously stuttered excuse. Alleyne apparently wasn't a great liar, at least when she was flustered, which he figured was because she didn't get flustered very often. But he had a feeling she wanted to avoid the subject, so he dropped it, creating an awkward silence. Well, awkward for Alleyne, not for Church, who was still inwardly making fun of the elf.

But Alleyne caught his attention once she started speaking again, and she had returned to her usual serious self. "I don't suppose you'll consider conceding in this pointless fight?

Church looked at his still movable hand as he thought of his attacker last night. Echidna had toyed with him, and he just couldn't stand the thought of accepting her challenge and then running away, even though his instincts told him to. As a sniper, one of the rules of his profession was to never directly engage the enemy. That was exactly what he was going to do, though not for anything as misguided as pride. She had more or less made a threat to his friends and given him a means of protecting them. That means included fighting her, so that was what he was going to do, though he certainly wasn't going to provide Alleyne with that explanation.

He looked back towards Alleyne with a believable lie on his tongue. "No. I won't surrender. I know I hardly have a chance, but I won't give her the satisfaction of knowing I ran."

Alleyne tried to give the man before her a small smile, but it ultimately ended up being a grimace. She admired Church's fighting spirit, but not his foolishness. "Well then...we'd best start preparing for it." She held out her hand to help him up. "Shall we?"

If he dared say no, what would her reaction be? It didn't require much thought on Church's part to decide that he would rather not find out. "Don't mind if I do."

"This is not what we agreed on!"

Echidna made no reply, merely checking her nails as she waited out Elder Taowrol's rant in the confines of the temporarily abandoned council chambers.

"You were supposed to capture or kill the human there! What was so hard about that? Now we have to wait, change the plan, and deal with the entire village knowing about the affair, because you thought it would be fun! And furthermore..."

What a long-winded man. Echidna tuned him out as he continued ranting about incompetence and failure and whatnot. Truthfully, she had never actually planned on killing or capturing the boy, at least not at the time the council wanted. She hadn't even agreed to do all of this because it was what the council wanted: she had her own reasons for starting a fight with the human. Two, actually. First off, she wanted to know why Alleyne had taken such an interest in the man. The blonde usually refrained from dealing with outsiders unless it was to get them to leave the forest. The second was a bit more personal...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a very irritating voice that was growing loud enough that Echidna could no longer ignore it. She glanced at Elder Taowrol, who was obviously done ranting and now trying to regain her attention. What an annoyance. Then again, almost all men were just annoyances, useless as they were. They weren't good for anything; fighting, sex, intelligent conversation, the list went on forever.

"Are you even listening to me?"

This time Echidna actually granted the bearded man a response. "Not really, no. Was there something you needed?"

Elder Taowrol's entire face went red with rage. "You insolent...how dare you speak to me in such a way! Have you forgotten that I am the leader of this village!?"

Echidna waved her hand dismissively as she turned to leave the Council chambers. "Of course not, councilor, with you reminding me every twenty seconds, how could I possibly forget? Look, I'm going to leave now: I came all the way here to relax, and I'm still going to do just that. I'll be back later. Maybe."

With that, Echidna casually jumped out of the only window in the council chambers leaving the enraged elder to himself. If the man had gotten any redder, he may have been mistaken for a tomato.

Church was almost panting as he leaned against one of the forest's many grand trees. He vaguely remembered being this exhausted after the selection test for The Legion. And that had been a combination of all the most strenuous training programs the militant countries of the world had to offer.

One would think that with all of that physical training, Church would be in fantastic shape, but that was five years ago, and as a sniper, he had spent most of his career laying down and not sprinting across battlefields. Even though that was the case, Church was still pretty fit, being a soldier and all. Still, Alleyne was pushing him really hard with all of this exercise and physical training and stuff. He was pretty sure that he hadn't gotten any more than a thirty minute break in the last six hours.

Alleyne came to sit next to him as he rested. "I think we can stop for today. You seem exhausted."

Church struggled to respond between his gasps for air, though no reprieve was immediately forthcoming. "Heh...no kidding...but seriously...isn't this...a bit much?"

His companion responded almost instantly. "Not even close. You should be doing three times this much, and only that little because any more would kill you."

Church gave her an incredulous look, wanting to believe that Alleye was joking but knowing she was not the type. "Only that little? Are you telling me Nowa has to do this everyday?"

Alleyne smiled, finding Church's reaction her harsh training regimen somewhat amusing. "Of course. This is but half of Nowa's usual regimen."

Church gained a newfound respect for Nowa at that moment, but decided to admire her later and ask more questions about his own predicament now. "This woman I'm fighting...could you tell me some more about her?"

The blonde sighed. "I wish I couldn't tell you as much as I can. Really, that woman is a complete disgrace."

Church could tell Alleyne really didn't like Echidna too much. She had already called her a disgrace twice. "I take it you know her more personally than you would like?"

Alleyne grinned slightly, but it wasn't the kind she had when the two of them talked about more enjoyable subjects. "Yes, that about sums it up. The woman who attacked you last night is, well, used to be, a friend of mine. But that was a long time ago."

"Is this going to be a long story? Your last one cramped my legs something terrible."

This time Alleyne smiled genuinely, which was a true rarity considering her usual aloofness. "Are you saying I talk too much?"

Church smiled too, all too happy to get such an expression out of the stoic woman. "Oh never, I'd be much too scared to make fun of a scary elf like you."

This earned a slightly wider smile from Alleyne, who, despite her own aversion to humor in most cases, thought she'd keep the jokes going a little longer. "I find it a little disheartening that I frighten you so."

Even though he knew the moment was light-hearted, Church thought carefully about his answer. "If it's any consolation it's only what you can do that's a little scary. Who you are is beyond charming."

He had meant it to be a sort of flirtatious joke, but Church hadn't honestly expected to gain any traction with a woman like Alleyne. Indeed, she turned away from him to hide her reaction, but Church could only guess as to what it was. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell that Alleyne was actually scowling. Such jokes didn't sit well with her, for a variety of reasons.

"Back to the topic at hand, please."

Sensing a not entirely pleased vibe from the woman, Church wondered if he had overstepped his boundaries. He was pretty sure Alleyne would forgive him, but he was kind of mad at himself for upsetting her if he had. Best just to let it pass though than to apologize. "Right, back to the topic at hand."

Another awkward silence, much like the ones the two of them had shared before, followed the exchange. These were getting far too frequent lately. Maybe Church should just keep the comments basic for awhile. The more he pushed his luck...

"Are you listening?"

Church snapped back to attention at the sound of Alleyne's voice. "Huh? Oh, umm...I zoned out for a minute there, sorry. You were saying?"

He was glad Alleyne didn't dwell on such situations for long. He had known too many people that would remain silent almost indefinitely after awkward moments.

"The woman who attacked you: you know already that her name is Echidna."

Church remembered hearing that name in one of their previous conversations. "I don't suppose that would be the same Echidna from your story the other day?"

"Indeed. One and the same, unfortunately. She's rather...bizarre, wouldn't you say?"

Her listener barely held back a laugh. It was weird for Alleyne to say something like that. She usually kept her offensive opinions to herself. "Yeah. Bizarre might be putting it lightly."

The platinum blonde grinned at him, amused that Church agreed with her so readily. He was glad she allowed him to be this friendly with her. These long weeks in the forest would have been much harder to endure otherwise. "Echidna doesn't reside in the forest anymore. She did for a brief while, mind you, but that was a very long time ago. She has spent the last couple of centuries as a mercenary, working for pay or favors or whatever she decides she wants. Needless to say, all of those hundreds of years of fighting have made her quite the deadly warrior. Few have met her in combat and survived."

Church made a joke at what probably wasn't the best time, trying to lighten the mood because he of all people felt the gravity of his situation. "Guess we can add me to the list of survivors now, huh?"

Unfortunately his joke elicited no smiles this time. "Only because she wanted you alive for later. Echidna is ruthless: had she wanted to kill you, she definitely would have. Please don't take this situation lightly."

The man in question here sighed, feeling the weight of his situation resting squarely on his shoulders. "This is some deep trouble I've gotten myself into, isn't it?"

Alleyne crossed her arms and sighed right along with him, though for her part it was because the people she taught always seemed to be this reckless and headstrong. "Yes, it is."

Another silence followed, but this one wasn't awkward: it was more of a mutual understanding that they both wanted quiet for the moment. This lasted for a good few minutes before Church decided to break the peaceful serenity with a question that he'd been wanting to ask for awhile now. "What's your favorite thing about this forest, Alleyne?"

The elven beauty cast a sidelong glance his way. "That's a sudden question. Why do you ask?"

This time Church didn't have to lie: he was genuinely interested. "Well, you've lived here for a very long time: surely there is something about this place that you like the most. Like a certain tree, or that pool that only you and Nowa know about, or..."

"Cherries."

Church nearly kept spouting off options, having not expected to be answered so quickly. "Cherries?"

Alleyne looked at him curiously, perhaps eager to see his reaction. "Do you find that strange?"

He wondered why Alleyne asked him that all the time. She had asked him if her words and answers were weird, bothersome, or strange many times.
Every time he asked about her about something personal, she responded that way, as if her answers weren't normal or the fact that yes, she was a normal person under that guise of legendary battle instructor and thousand year wisdom.

"Not really, no. But what about cherries? I haven't actually seen any around here..."

Alleyne cocked an eyebrow at him, as though the reason they were her favorite thing about the forest was obvious. "Well, they don't actually grow around Syrinidell as a whole. There is a special grove near the area where I grew up -needless too say it is very old- and it is one of the only places in the forest where cherries grow naturally. I guess that growing up with them made them my favorite."

Church thought of something his sister used to make with cherries. Well, he liked it better with chocolate, but it was originally a recipe with cherries. "I don't suppose you like sweets, do you, Alleyne?"

The elf twirled her finger around her braid as she answered, a sign that revealing the answer to this actually embarrassed her a bit. "Well, technically I should not eat such unhealthy things, but I do indulge myself every once in awhile."

While Church had been away from the kitchen for a very long time, he wondered if he could make the recipe on his mind adequately enough to please someone who had certainly had great food in a thousand years of living.

"OK then, if I make you some sweets, will you promise to at least try them?"

She looked at him warily. "When you say it like that, it almost sounds dangerous to make that promise."

Church feigned injured pride. "If you were trying to ruin our friendship in a single sentence, mission accomplished."

The beautiful blonde shook her head in mock dismay. "Oh, I'm sorry, I had no idea you were so easily offended. I guess I can try one or two, if you promise they won't poison me."

The man she sat with that day winked at her. "Couldn't poison the fair lady now could I? Seriously though, I promise that I'm decently good."

Alleyne smiled at him just a little wider than was normal for her, not quite sure why she felt so content right now, but glad she did all the same. "That remains to be seen."

"How did we find out about this guy anyway?"

Hachiel wondered how little her blue-haired friend even knew about Heaven, considering she lived there. "We are agents of Heaven, Nanael: getting information on the mortal realm isn't so difficult."

The two angels hovered above the great expanse of trees on the continent known as Syrinidell to its inhabitants. They were well aware that the person they were looking for was somewhere inside. Usually finding him in such a massive area would be difficult, but the only place the eyes of Heaven couldn't see into was those fetid swamps under the Witch's domain. That said, this forest was no exception, and locating this man 'Church' had been easy.

"So were is he right now?"

Hachiel sighed and eyed her friend. "Weren't you listening to me earlier? I already went over all of this!"

Naturally, Nanael waved her off. "Of course I was listening! But uh... refresh yourself with the details anyway: you probably need them."

Nanael's pink haired friend face-palmed. "Just when and how did we become friends anyway...?"

Two weeks were passing a lot faster than Church had hoped. By now there was but five more days until Church waltzed into what was likely a painful demise. Not that he didn't feel a bit more empowered after over a week of Alleyne's training. His whole body hurt, but he felt like he was in the best shape of his life, or at least anytime in his recent life. She apparently hadn't thought it necessary to teach him anything with weapons though, which concerned him. He had no idea how he could possibly beat Echidna with his fists.

These were his worries as he rested on one of the gargantuan roots of the forest. Surprisingly, after all this time he still didn't know what species of tree these giants were. He settled on asking one of his Elven companions at a later date.

"Hi, Church!"

The brooding soldier shifted from his thinking position that would have made for an excellent sculpture so he could turn to face the cheery voice behind him that was impossible to misidentify. "Hey, Nowa. Need something?"

The Half-elf girl in the scant orange attire plopped down on the roots next to Church, smiling with her usual infectious cheer. Ru was absent from her shoulder, but Church didn't care to question it. He did notice that she had a very strange rock in her hands though, being extremely smooth and ovular with a multicolored sheen of green and brown. "Not really. I just wanted to talk for a little while, if you have time."

Church smiled back at her. No matter how serious his troubles it was impossible to stay sullen in the presence of the girl next to him. "I've always got time for you. That said, what's with the rock?"

Having actually come here with her own topic in mind, Nowa was surprised to have this asked of her, and more than a little worried about her answer. Still, she was glad to hear that Church 'always had time for her.' It was a notion usually only granted by Alleyne. "Um, well... it's just a pretty rock I found while patrolling the forest with Ru, is all... i-it's nothing special..."

If Church was aware that she was trying to steer the conversation elsewhere, he didn't show it. In fact, he asked the next worst question. "Do you collect interesting rocks or something?"

Nowa was reluctant to answer affirmatively to this, but she wasn't going to outright lie to someone she considered her friend. "Y-yes..."

"Well then, you must have a pretty great collection by now, huh? Unless you just started?"

Surprised at a lack of immediate criticism, Nowa tried to discern why there wasn't any. "Well, I've been collecting interesting ones for years, but... d-don't you think it's silly...?"

Church seemed genuinely confused by this question. "Not at all. There's nothing wrong with having a hobby. I have a hobby too. I mean, doesn't everyone?"

"You do? What... what do you do?"

"Painting."

Needless to say this wasn't the kind of answer Nowa had been expecting. "P-painting?"

Actually a little excited to talk about something he had a passion for, Church smiled at her eagerly. "Yeah. Interesting people, beautiful places, stuff like that. It's been a while so I'm probably a bit out of practice, but when I next get the chance, this forest is definitely high on the list of landscapes I need to paint. If I really get the chance to brush up on my skills I think I'll consider portraits of some of the people I've met too."

Happy that he was happy, Nowa decided to dive further into this particular avenue of questioning. "T-that's so cool... why did you get into painting?"

Unfortunately, this question actually brought a morose frown to Church's face, which was the exact opposite of what Nowa had intended. "Oh, y'know... catharsis. The shrinks recommended some form of art to release stress and stuff. I just picked that one and it kind of grew on me. Put some time into it and it turned out that I liked it a lot. Nothing special to it."

Aware that she had hit a nerve, Nowa was unsure of what to say next, though Church thankfully picked up the slack and simply turned their conversation to a different topic.

"So I get the feeling you actually had something you wanted to ask before I started talking. I'm all ears."

Unsure of if it was right to just move onto her own interests after learning of something potentially painful for a friend, Nowa nevertheless decided to follow Church's lead. "Well...it's about the Captain..."

Church was honestly surprised that this was the topic all things considered. Then again, he didn't know if Alleyne had told Nowa about his impending fight with Echidna. "What about her?"

"Do you like her?"

The unexpected question hit Church with unseen force, if only because the last person he had expected to ask it was Nowa. "W-w-where did that come from? What kind of question is that?"

His conversational partner tilted her head and looked at him quizzically. "A good one. Do you?"

Church avoided the true intent of her question: hopefully Nowa wasn't actually asking about his romantic interests. "Of course I like her. After, all, she's been taking care of me ever since I got here. It's pretty impossible to not think of her as a great friend..."

Nowa frowned at him, clearly aware that he was dodging the question. "That's not what I mean. What I meant was...do you like her, you know, as a woman?"

The target of her inquiry tried his best to suppress a blush at the mental answer he gave. Of course he liked Alleyne as a woman. How could he not? She was beautiful and smart and kind and everything he could ask for in a girl, besides being a little too stoic. But he also liked Airi too. Liking two girls in the same way already made him feel like a sleaze... Besides, Alleyne was like, a thousand right? There was no way she didn't already have somebody on her mind...

"I-I'm sure that Alleyne already has someone..."

Nowa's frown deepened, though this time it was in confusion. "I don't think so... Echidna says you would need a lever to pry her legs open. I'm not sure what that means but I think it's supposed to refer to a lack of romance, right?"

Church cocked an eyebrow at her, wondering when or where she had ever conversed with Echidna in the first place. Then again, the emerald elf was obviously familiar with Alleyne, so it wasn't a stretch to say she had met her pupil once or twice as well. "I didn't know that you knew Echidna. You're not friendlier with her than Alleyne is, are you?"

The just slightly shorter half-elf scratched the back of her head. "Not really. The Captain always says that she's a disgrace, and that I shouldn't be around her. That seems kinda harsh, because I know she can be nice too. I saw her help a baby bird back to its nest when she was here last. But... she can still be pretty scary sometimes..."

Church knew that last part was true. Echidna was definitely scary. After all, she had subdued him in a matter of seconds, possibly less. And even if she had a centuries of experience, it really angered Church that he could be defeated so easily. And so back to his original problem: how the hell was he supposed to fight a veteran mercenary like her with no real combat training? All Alleyne had him doing was vigorous exercise. How was that supposed to help, besides letting him be punched maybe once or twice more than usual before passing out?

He rubbed his temples in a futile attempt to ease his by now aching brain. He had always taken the easiest solution to his problems. He had never run away, no, but always the easiest solution that got the job done. And besides, the problem wasn't his fight with Echidna: it was just that he was so weak. He was in shape, he was smart, he was a deadly soldier back home... but without a gun, he was useless. He was a sharpshooter, not a martial artist.

Of course, he had some martial skill. Like every soldier, he knew how to fight and grapple in close quarters. But what did he know about swords? Swords and spears and shields and the stuff of medieval war? He had no skill with these tools of war that were the main means of fighting in this world. And that made him almost defenseless against any real armed foe.

Seeing the obvious distress in his expression, Nowa looked at him worriedly. "Did I say something wrong? Are you OK?"

For some reason this innocent question sparked something in Church, bringing forth the true reality of his situation that he hadn't truly thought about in weeks. "No... no, I'm not. I'm lost in a strange world surrounded by strange people, I have no idea where my friends and family are, and in just a few weeks I'm going to get myself killed. Nothing is OK."

The orange clad girl next to him looked down at her feet dejectedly, interpreting many of his words in all the wrong ways. As for Church, he was not so blind that he couldn't see it.

"I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you Nowa, please don't think that. I'm mad at myself, really."

Sincere confusion was the only thing Nowa had to offer in return. "But why? There's no reason to be mad at yourself."

Church was careful to keep the bitterness out of his voice as he revealed his misgivings."It's just... I mean I'm... I'm just useless." There was silence between the two of them, and Nowa didn't look like she was about to speak up, so Church continued. "I mean honestly, I haven't been this helpless my whole life. Just in the past few weeks I've had to completely rely on other people to take care of me. And then I just stress them out with my own stupid mistakes anyway..."

He was about to apologize to Nowa for venting at her when the girl muttered something he couldn't quite make out. "What? I didn't hear you."

This time Nowa looked up at him with those soft honey brown eyes and raised her voice a little. "I-I said...I don't think you're useless. I don't think that's true at all."

Church stared at her blankly, unsure of how to respond since that wasn't what he had expected to hear.

Nowa noticed that he wasn't going to say anything, so she decided to continue. "So maybe you aren't the strongest, and you need help for a lot of things. But I think you have strengths elsewhere. You're... um, well I think that you're very kind. And that is definitely something useful. You probably can't tell, but the Captain is happier than she's been in a long time. And I think it's because of you. And I know that I'm happy when you're around too. I think that is your strength; making others happy. And that's way better than being a good fighter, or being strong or tough or anything like that. I'd much rather trade what I can do for what you can do. I wish I could make the Captain smile and laugh like you do..."

Unsure of whether or not Nowa was still trying to raise him up or instead put herself down, Church nevertheless felt the need to correct her completely erroneous belief in her own ability.

"That's not true, Nowa. You may not have noticed, but you make Alleyne really happy. Just in a different way. Trust me, whenever I see the two of you together, Alleyne is always happy. She's just good at hiding it: maybe because she's embarrassed, or maybe she's just trying to maintain her image as your teacher... either way, you are just as good as me in that area. Probably many times better."

Nowa cracked a wide smile that was actually a bit more sly than Church had expected. "See? I told you that you were good at making people happy."

Church wondered if the half-elven girl had planned that out. "Wait, did you just con me into saying all of that just to prove your point? That's pretty low."

The girl kept right on smiling, totally unfazed. "Well it worked didn't it? I know I feel better! You really are good at this, aren't you?"

Church began to smile with her, having once again forgotten his woes. "You are really a dastardly little girl. Surely Alleyne didn't teach you to act this way?"

Nowa responded cheekily. "Nope. I learned that one all by myself. Which reminds me..." She moved closer and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You still haven't answered my question! You thought I had forgotten, didn't you?"

Honestly, Church had thought she had forgotten. He had hoped so, at least. "Ah, well... I mean, do you really need an answer? I think it's kind of obvious."

Though he had hoped this would simply defuse the situation, his comment actually earned a morose smile from the girl. "Yeah, I guess it is kinda obvious... I mean, it's not like there's much competition..."

Nowa glanced briefly down at her torso, frowning as she sized herself up. For Church, it was a glaringly obvious indicator of what was getting her down. "I think she has pretty tough competition if you ask me..."

Naturally Nowa didn't catch onto his meaning at all. "She does? Oh... I guess you're right, Ms. Echidna is very attractive isn't she?"

She was, in that weird frightening arousal kind of way, but Church decided against giving that answer. "Hardly, I've barely met her. But there's this other girl that's around Alleyne all the time, and she definitely deserves some recognition..."

Nowa was clearly putting some serious thought into this, yet somehow she didn't come to the right conclusion. "Hm... the Captain trains a lot of the warriors around here, but I haven't met any of them that are as pretty as she is..."

"Seriously Nowa? I'm talking about you."

The look of absolute disbelief on her face kind of made Church feel bad. Could she really not conceive such a thing? "M-me...?"

"Why not? You're cute, you're kind, you try your best to make everyone else smile. I think you're pretty wonderful honestly."

It was at this point Church discovered that elves (and half-elves) blushed all the way up to their pointy ears, and he found it absolutely adorable. Of course, it could have also just been because Nowa herself was adorable. "B-b-but Alleyne is... so m-much more womanly. I'm not even, I mean, c-c-cute isn't the same..."

While he normally would have been flustered himself in saying such things, seeing the girl he was speaking to be this shy gave Church more confidence. After all, it was much more embarrassing to say things like this to unflappable individuals.

"Cute isn't the same, but I don't think it's worse. You're a very attractive girl Nowa, trust me. And like I said, I think you're a wonderful person. What more could a guy ask for in a girl?"

The half-elf girl he sat with sported an even deeper blush at this, pressing her fingers together nervously. She had never been praised in a manner such as this. Sure, Alleyne praised her for her hard work and her abilities, but not on her personality and certainly not on her looks. This was the first real affirmation she had received in regards to being attractive. And though she liked to think that those things didn't matter to her, it felt great to know someone thought she was attractive; on par with Alleyne even, which she didn't quite believe even now.

Even so, she was entirely unused to earnest compliments on appearance, and Nowa found herself wildly embarrassed at the moment. Enough that she needed to retreat and regain her composure, which spurred her to stand up from her seat and make an excuse to leave.

"U-um, I have to... I have to go check on Ru! H-he's been gone for a long time, so... I, um, thanks for talking with me!"

Church watched the girl sprint away into the forest, but being seated he realized something was amiss as Nowa's skirt fluttered in the winds of her hasty retreat. Leaning over just slightly to confirm his incredulous suspicions, it was his turn to blush as he released what critical article of clothing Nowa wasn't wearing. Ultimately it still earned a perverse smirk out of him.

A very attractive girl indeed...

Yay, revisions...