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Jake, Lao Shi and Fu Dog decided to stay the night on the Isle of Draco and wait to see what was to become of the Hunts Girl. They were boarded in the castle's best rooms and fed a substantial meal. They sat around the table and chatted while the maids cleaned up the remains of dinner.
"Good work American Dragon," Councilor Adam congratulated Jake. "The capture of Hunts Girl will give us much of the information we need against the Hunts Clan."
Jake smiled, but there was no doubt that it was all show and no heart.
"What troubles you, young dragon?" Councilor Kulde asked.
The eyes of the Dragon Council, his grandfather and his animal guardian were on him. He was taken aback by the sudden attention and fumbled for a suitable answer.
"N-nothing," he stammered.
No one was convinced. They gave him looks that plainly said, 'You might as well tell'. Jake sighed and stood up, his chair making an annoyingly loud scraping noise on the stone floor. Everyone watched him curiously.
"I need to go see her, Hunts Girl I mean," Jake responded in a sort of subdued voice that wasn't at all like him. "I've got some…things I need to talk to her about."
Jake requested that he be allowed to take the prisoner her food, and the Dragon Council reluctantly agreed. They were going to send down some rather disgusting looking junk that borderline passed as nourishment, but Jake immediately replaced it. The Dragon Council and Jake's accomplices sought to question him on his careful scrutiny over what was fit for her. He only responded to their queries with silence and exiting the room, carting a tray of food that was overloaded for the young huntress a floor below.
Once he was out of their sight, Jake transformed into his dragon form. This was between Hunts Girl and the American Dragon, not Rose and Jake. He took the torch from the wall and headed for the dungeon. As he descended to the lower level, he thought about how he was going to approach Thorn. She'd be less than happy to see him, he was sure of it. He remembered a vial of some purplish potion he'd brought with him. They'd gotten it off Thorn when she was knocked out and Fu ran a test on it. This potion would allow the drinker to forget everything magical he or she had ever seen. He wanted to question Thorn about it, but more importantly, they really needed to talk.
They hadn't seen each other since the night of the Hunts Clan's Grand Equinox Hunt. Jake would be the first to tell that it was hard putting Rose out of his mind and he'd almost succeeded until she appeared on his rooftop threatening his life. It would've been routine for them to banter and fight, but then was different. She seemed like she actually wanted to kill him for her own reasons. To see her look at him so coldly, and to hear that icy edge in her voice hurt him more than her staff could ever do.
Finally he reached the dungeon. The place was an absolute dump, and it smelled worse than any giant's foot. He deposited the torch on a hanger attached to the wall. In a dark corner of the room where the torchlight barely reached, he spied Rose, locked up in one of the cells. She looked so abandoned, so small and…scared? The sight alone made him want to rip half the cell wall off, gather her up in his arms and gush thousands of affectionate words. He knew that she wouldn't allow it and she'd fight him with everything she had right now.
Thorn sensed his presence but strangely, she felt nothing at all. There wasn't a trace of that hate that had burned so strongly and fiercely only hours before. In the few hours she'd been here, her spirit was wearing down and already she was sinking into depression. She felt a hint of hopelessness seeping into her with a voice that sneered so wickedly in her ear of impending doom. Its volume grew until it was almost unbearable.
Jake swallowed nervously and went towards her. She didn't stir as he approached and she made no noise to acknowledge him when he quietly cleared his throat.
"I…uh, brought you some food," he said uncertainly.
Thorn ignored him. He stood there for a moment undecided on what to do or say next. The tense silence grew between them. She wished he would just go away and let her be. Finally, she couldn't stand the silence any longer.
"What do you want?" Thorn snapped impatiently.
Jake was caught off guard by this sudden outburst.
"To talk," he answered quietly.
"Why must you confront me as a dragon then?" she asked. "Too coward to show your human face?"
"No, this is between a dragon and dragon slayer," Jake answered, slightly irritated. "But while we're on the subject, are you?"
Thorn glared at him indignantly. In a flash she leapt to her feet and jerked her mask off. To see the face of his much-adored Rose glare at him so angrily and see her pouting lips curved down in a scowl caused him to flinch. It seemed the sight of him fueled her anger that had lain dormant.
"Why did you come back?" Jake asked. "I thought you…"
"Transferred?" Thorn finished. "I did, to Hunts Man's version of home school. What he taught you wouldn't find on any normal school's curriculum. I got pounded into the ground every day, was given a potion to take the edge off at night, and got up the next morning to go at it again."
A look of surprise and disgust took siege of Jake's features. Thorn found any discomfort she could cause him was rewarding.
"Surprise you Dragon?" she asked, amusedly. "I could tell you stories about things that go on in that place that would make your blood run cold."
She stepped closer, her face illuminated by the flickering torchlight. The angry scowl had changed to a cocky smirk that did not suit his memory of her well. This was what Hunts Man had done to her. Already she was showing a slight hint of that crazed hunter gleam in her eyes.
"I would be lying on the floor watching my blood stain the ground and Hunts Man would repeat over and over that it was all your fault," she reflected, her smirk wavered. "At first I didn't believe him, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. If you hadn't shown me who you were, I would've slain you and gone about my life with no further glitches. Seems like I can trace every problem I've had since coming to New York back to you."
"Come on, you know that's not true," Jake contradicted, not wholly disagreeing with her.
"Is it?" Thorn asked skeptically.
Jake thought back to things prior to the ski trip, and found more than a few occasions that proved Thorn's theory correct. It wasn't intentional, but he always seemed to cause her pain in one form or the other. He stepped closer and clenched the bars so tightly that they crumbled under his fists.
"Aw man," he murmured sadly. "Rose, I…"
"Don't!" Thorn snapped holding up a hand to silence him. "I don't want to hear your apologies. Just go away and leave me alone."
Jake was stung by her words, but his determination prevailed.
"Walking away won't solve anything," he said. "We really need to talk about this. I don't want to fight you, Rose."
"You're not very bright, are you?" Thorn asked sardonically. "I tried to slay you a few hours ago, yet you come here and want to talk? If you were smart, you'd be up there with the rest of those slimy lizards plotting methods of torture."
Jake was tiring of her mockery and his patience was wearing thin.
"Then I'm glad to be a fool. Believe it or not, I still think you're good," he responded.
Thorn snorted at him.
"That belief's going to be the death of you," she warned.
Jake's irritation level heightened a notch. Taking a deep breath, he struggled to hold his composure.
"Can you go without insulting me for one minute?" he asked, calmly as possible.
Thorn smirked and shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.
"I guess," she replied, mentally starting the countdown.
Jake seemed appeased by her agreement and tried again.
He said, "I know you want everyone to think you're big bad Hunts Girl, but I just want you to know, I'm always going to see you as Rose."
'47…46….45…' Thorn thought, patiently counting the seconds.
"No matter what you do to me, or what you may say, I'm still going to be here for you," he continued.
Somewhere in the mid to early thirties, Thorn got the idea to appear disinterested and inattentive. Her eyes lazily scanned the room, pretending to be in search of something more interesting to look at. She vaguely acknowledged Jake's droning as background noise. A bored yawn escaped her, much to Jake's annoyance. Finally he got the hint and admitted to losing the battle for her attention.
"Look, I know you're ticked off right now and me being here only makes it worse, so I'm going to leave," he said tiredly. "I'll come back tomorrow."
Jake looked down at the meal he carried. He also noticed Thorn trying to hide longing glances at it. He grinned sort of lopsided at her and opened the cell door. He sat the overstocked tray of food on the floor and looked at her sheepishly.
"I…uh…thought you might be hungry," he muttered lamely.
Thorn stared at him, dumbfounded. She tried to think of something cruel and insulting to say, but her brain was too busy trying to find logical reasoning for what Jake had done. Without warning, Jake stepped forward and captured her hands in his. Carefully, he cut the ropes around her wrists. She rubbed the chafed skin and stared up at him. Her tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth.
Jake gazed into her eyes, longing to see something that wasn't there. He found himself not caring about the purpose of the potion. He didn't even care about what the others would think if they knew his mind. All he wanted was to disappear into her eyes and never remerge again, but that couldn't be. Jake straightened up and smiled despite his heart's aching.
"You're welcome," Jake said winking at her.
He shut the cell door and turned to leave. Thorn opened her mouth to say something, but only air came out. She watched him go in stunned silence. Thorn gripped the iron bars and pressed her forehead against them. Jake was trying to let her know he still cared, but she didn't trust him in the least. This was all a ploy to trick her again. Some sick joke he planned to play to amuse him and his lizard buddies at her expense. She would not give in to him, no matter if they kept her in this dungeon for the rest of her life. She looked down at the platter of food.
'I am starving though,' she thought.
She reached down and plucked a fluffy bread roll from the platter. Little did she know that one itty-bitty roll would be her undoing. She'd accepted food from the enemy, and that was a sure fire sign of weakness.
For those who reviewed, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Even if you didn't, I thank you for taking the time to read this fic.
Next chapter things will shift a bit. I know you're probably getting impatient for some Jake x Rose, but it's going to take a chapter or two before she even begins to trust him. It wouldn't fit for her just to throw herself at him now.