Arielle was bedridden for the next several days. She would simply float between sleeping, coughing, having quiet conversations with Eden and eating. And whatever the bard didn't have the strength to do, the guardian would do it for her. It was when she dropped her spoon into the trencher with a loud sigh and watched Eden take it from her and spoon-feed her the rest, that Arielle noticed a new side that the warrior tried to keep as well hidden as possible. Eden was gentle. The bard marveled over how an otherwise short-tempered and undoubtedly potentially violent woman could be so delicate and patient. Eden didn't complain or lose her temper, she didn't raise her voice or speak coldly. It was so different than what the warrior usually kept on display, yet it fit her so well.
And there was another thing that Arielle noticed- a need to be close. There was something nearly magnetic in Eden, drawing Arielle ever nearer and making her want to stay there. Night or day, sickness or health, safety or harm, Eden always seemed to be there. The bard knew that she had slipped far down into some place outside of consciousness in her sickness; she remembered feeling cold, exhausted, and scared. Yet she was also vaguely aware of a pulsating warmth that enveloped her and never left her. She didn't know what it was, but she approached it cautiously and then embraced it trustingly and let it warm her and bring her slowly back. It seemed to her that the deepest fears and greatest dreams locked far down within her outstretched their arms towards Eden, wanting her to pick them up and tell them it was all going to be fine and there was nothing to be afraid of. There was something beautiful and frightening in it at the same time. It was a wonderful feeling to feel so protected, so cared for. Yet she didn't know why it came from Eden and whether the unpredictable and mysterious woman was a good choice for a friend. There was something that emanated from the guardian, a light that Arielle seemed to see quite clearly. Yet no one else saw it. No one else even believed in it. Perhaps I'm just lonely or homesick? Perhaps it's because she seems so exotic and excitingly foreign? Perhaps. Yet... Yet each night, Arielle found herself lacking the warrior's presence near her again- the strange fusion of violence and distrust that transformed into security and care when it came into contact with the young bard. Arielle's soul called out to Eden across the dark with words she simply would probably never have the courage to say.
Eden was stoic on the surface, but underneath a fierce struggle was taking place. She felt the same strange magnetism. She watched what had started out as a thin thread of humanity begin to braid itself into a thicker and stronger cord of friendship that connected them more firmly and pulled them ever closer. The warrior felt the warmth, the goodness, the light and solace of that cord, but she saw the danger there too. Too many times, that cord had ended up either coiling around her neck in a noose or breaking when she was hanging onto it for dear life. Yet there was a nagging sensation and persistent notion that this cord was different. It felt different, it formed differently and acted differently. But the warrior didn't want to risk it. I wouldn't survive it again...
And there, outside of the thoughts and fears of both the warrior and bard, that connection had plans of its own.
"Here." Eden said shortly, walking over to Arielle and putting a small something into her palm.
The blond opened her hand to reveal a small, wooden, carved angel. The angel's wings were folded, its head slightly bowed, and its hands brought together in prayer. The details were scant, the carving was a rather rough one, but there was something in the simplicity and rawness of it that touched the bard. She turned it around in her hands over and over and the warrior began to think that she didn't like it at all.
"I just thought it might make you feel better since you're stuck here... It's silly, it's alright if you don't like it... It's just-"
"No, I like it a lot!" Arielle protested, turning her gaze to Eden and the warrior saw the appreciation in her forest green eyes, "Thank you... for thinking of me..."
The guardian shrugged weakly, feeling her heart begin to pick up its pace and got up to make some tea before Arielle could do or say anything more. The blond returned her gaze to the tiny angel, smiling at it and stroking its wings absently, something that Eden watched from the corner of her eye with content.
Eden opened the door to their room to find an awake bard half-sitting in the bed with a scowl on her face. The guardian put the packet of herbs she bought on the table and turned toward Arielle who was having a small fit of coughing.
"Is anything wrong?" Eden asked, noticing the blond's dour mood, "Are you feeling worse?"
"I hate being cooped up in here all the time." Arielle complained innocently, "I don't really mind lying around all day, but this ceiling is beginning to drive me mad. If I could at least see the sky, the clouds..."
Eden understood. She herself had a hard time not going stir crazy, but she at least could go out to the market and sometimes snuck in some quick sword training while the blond was sleeping. Arielle's mood recovered much faster than her body did and it took a lot of effort and even more patience to keep the bard in bed resting and not wandering around trying to find something to do. Yet, Eden's tension faded and she became more and more relieved as with each day the color came back to Arielle's skin and the coughs became fewer and far between.
Arielle let out a rough sigh and tossed her hands up into the air and let them fall with a muffled thud onto her covers. Eden, who was now sitting on the edge of the bard's bed, gazed at her sympathetically. And then a thought struck her. Arielle saw a mischievous twinkle appear in the warrior's eye and she scrunched up her nose in pleasant suspicion. Yet, before she could ask what Eden was up to, she found herself being picked up along with her blanket in the strong arms of the guardian.
"What are you doing?!" she cried in surprise.
"Changing the ceiling."
"But it's late, it's dark, I'm heavy, you can't carry me!" the bard listed.
"I know, good, no you're not, yes I can."
"You're insane!" Arielle noted, secretly loving every moment.
"That we both know." Eden answered with a somewhat smug look on her face, "I can put you down if you want."
Arielle debated whether to let her secret happiness become known until she saw an awkward uncertainty begin to shade the guardian's face.
"Well," Arielle replied, her voice dropping to a whisper, "since you already seem to be on your way..."
Eden smiled shyly and pulled the bard a little closer to her chest.
"Put your arms around my neck," Eden said in a low voice and then quickly added, "if you want."
"Let's go." Arielle said simply.
Eden nodded once and moved towards the door when she felt the bard gently wrap her arms around the guardian's neck. Eden was suddenly overcome with a wave of serene warmth as if she was just covered by a padded wave of the sea. Her heart pounded strongly yet calmly and despite the extra weight of the bard, she almost floated down the stairs and out onto the streets of Tyre. They weaved in and out of the dark streets, alleys, and quarters and made their way to the port. The port wasn't that large, just as Tyre itself wasn't large, functioning more as a bastion than a city. It reminded Arielle a little of Eden, seemingly minimal, yet secretly formidable.
Eden found a spot where a few stone steps led down to the water and she placed the bard gently down and then sat down beside her. It was the middle of the night; it was quiet with no one around and the night air was crisp, the night sky clear and full of sparkling stars.
"Are you cold?" Eden asked, seeing the bard pulling her blanket tighter around herself.
"No... It's beautiful here. Thank you." Arielle replied softly.
Eden smiled lightly, a little proud of herself. She noticed then that when the bard was happy, she also felt better. And when the bard was sad, Eden felt miserable. It was a curious thing for her to see the state of one person have such a direct influence over another. It was even more curious that that other person was her. The warm feeling inside her grew when she saw the bard smiling out into the horizon.
"So... maybe you can walk on water?" Arielle asked suddenly, in a playful tone.
"Of course not!" Eden replied in playful exasperation.
"You know, I'm beginning to think that your being a guardian has no advantages."
Eden let out a small chuckle and Arielle turned and looked at her with a grin.
"Well, I do... know things." Eden noted.
"Know things?"
"Yes. It's a little like an extra sense. I just seem to sometimes know that something is serious or wrong, out of place, might end badly... They can be things far from me, forward in time..." Eden explained, looking out over the port.
"Fascinating! That must be wonderful to be able to somehow see something that will happen. I'm sure people just flood over to you asking you for your advice."
"Actually, they don't." Eden replied simply as the bard gave her a confused look, "Most people don't like being told that they're headed for trouble. They want to find out for themselves... My words often fall on deaf ears..."
"Really? That's interesting... So give me an example of when you knew something. Perhaps something you knew and I didn't."
Eden searched her mind and the bard noticed the playfulness suddenly slip from the guardian's face. Arielle knotted her brows, confused over the sudden change in mood of the warrior. After a few moments, her brows relaxed in sudden understanding and she wanted to slap herself in the head with a catapult.
"You knew, didn't you?... When I said I would get better, you didn't say anything. You knew just how sick I really was..." Arielle whispered, gazing at the shadows on Eden's face, concealing her fright, but not her tension as the warrior nodded, "That's unbelievable..."
They both reflected on that day when the bard unknowingly teetered between life and death while Eden hung on to her with all her strength. The intensity of the emotions Eden felt then hadn't faded much for her. Her jaw clenched, her muscles grew tense, and Arielle could almost feel the power radiating off the disturbed guardian.
"You know, it was quite strange," Arielle reflected quietly, "I've never been that sick before. When it got worse... I felt like I was falling... How bad was it?"
Eden's jaw muscles flexed, the strain passing over her face and draining all the hope from her eyes.
"There was a moment... I didn't know..." she started and didn't finish because she neither knew how nor did she want to.
Arielle nodded solemnly and they sat there in the quiet for a while, the faint breeze caressing them both.
"Eden, when I felt I was falling... I also felt something warm catch me... envelope me... keeping me from falling any further..." Arielle said quietly as wonder crossed her face, "That was you, wasn't it?"
"Did you really feel something like that?" Eden asked, looking into the green eyes with a perplexed amazement.
Arielle simply nodded and they gazed at each other for a short time, neither able to fully comprehend what it all exactly meant nor how it really affected them. Yet Eden heard the gears of the world grinding slowly again. She felt that something that was out of position was trying to shift back into place.
"Eden," Arielle finally whispered, her eyes softening as she rested her hand on the guardian's forearm, "I'll owe you kingdoms and lifetimes for the rest of my days."
Eden didn't know what to say or even what to really feel so she laid back on the stones and looked up at the starry sky. Arielle looked at her with a somewhat perplexed expression.
"Do you also see a hawk?" Eden asked, pointing up towards the stars and turning to the bard with a warm smile.
"Oh!..." Arielle said in surprise, lying down on her back beside the guardian, who drew out the shape for her with her finger as a smile spread across the bard's lips, "No, it's definitely an angel..."
Eden would go downstairs at least once a day when Arielle was sleeping and order herself something to eat. Berta constantly eyed her warily, but said nothing and Eden continued to ignore her. In different circumstances, the situation probably would have been comical for the warrior, who would have simply stuffed the tavern keeper up her own chimney and left, but Arielle was in no condition to be moved so Eden simply grit her teeth and bore it. That was until about the fourth day of their stay when Eden was eating alone at the table in the corner as she always did and some commotion began to stir in the middle of the tavern. Eden looked up from her meal, already irritated and saw two men, the ruffian kind that Berta despised most, quite a ways past being drunk. They were roaring with laughter, spilling their ale, knocking things over, and being generally bothersome. Berta stomped over to them impatiently and told them a thing or two and they replied with a thing or two of their own, slapping the frustrated Berta in the rear with such force that she stumbled into the next table and the men exploded in laughter. Berta gave them a scowl and returned and the same thing happened again. Eden saw a pained look in Berta's face the second time and her intension to go back a third time.
Eden abruptly got up, walked over to the table calmly, and stood in front of the troublemakers before Berta reached them. Eden said nothing and just stood there, her fingers leaning against the table.
"You want something?" one of the men said gruffly, glaring up at her with one eye.
"I was eating." Eden said in a low and very level tone.
"So?"
"You interrupted me."
"And so what's it to me? You that hungry? I can give you a mouthful, sweet thing." he jeered, reaching out to pinch her in the rear.
His hand didn't reach its target before Eden suddenly grabbed his head by his hair and slammed his face into the table, picked it back up and flung him backwards.
"Bitch!" his friend cried as he turned his startled gaze towards Eden.
He was just in time to see a back fist hurled in his direction that knocked him straight off his bench. Berta gasped at the little show. Eden then took both fellows by the backs of their tunics and dragged them bewildered to the entrance.
"Didn't your mothers ever teach you that it's impolite to interrupt a lady?" Eden snarled to the men.
The warrior flung them out of the tavern door and they landed with a big thud in the dirt, groaning.
"And I don't recommend coming back here unless you want a mouthful of your own insides." Eden threatened and slammed the door behind her.
The guardian calmly walked back to her meal, dusting her hands off.
"You're right," Eden noted when she passed a stunned Berta, "they are shifty bastards."
Later that evening, Berta knocked on their door and the bard and guardian were offered the tavern's best room, with its own fireplace because of the "damn proper thing" Eden had done. Eden would have argued, but she knew that the fireplace was a good thing for the sick blond and she thanked Berta quietly. Arielle awoke to the commotion as Eden packed and moved their things and finally came around for the bard.
"Would you be interested in a fireplace?" Eden asked, standing over and looking down at the slightly drowsy bard.
"Why? Did they start giving them away all of the sudden?" the bard quipped.
"So to speak."
"Well, you're in luck then. I happen to be very fond of fireplaces." the bard replied, a weak smile crossing her face.
"Well then," Eden said, reaching over and scooping up the bard carefully in her arms, "we should get going... oh immense one."
The bard giggled and rested her head against Eden's shoulder as the guardian carried her to their new room.
Arielle wondered over the warrior's strength. Eden wasn't a large, burly woman. Arielle remembered when she once saw a Germanic woman during some festival at home. The bard recalled thinking the woman looked like an angry, walking castle and was afraid that an encounter with her would end up with broken bones on the bard's side. Eden wasn't at all what one might expect from a warrior when Arielle thought about it; she wasn't very tall, massive, or muscular. She was a rather tall, almost half a head taller than the bard, very fit looking woman. Yet the bard had no idea were her strength really came from. Because of this, the young, lean woman was often grossly underestimated which automatically gave her a large advantage in a fight. A calm, uninterested stance would suddenly explode into a fierce mass of trouble, emanating with a strength and power of unknown origin. She imagined trying to pick up the warrior and the corner of her mouth edged up in a smile as she saw herself probably breaking her back, stumbling over, and dropping an angry warrior on the floor. Yet the corner of her mouth fell when a sobering thought came that if the roles were reversed, the blond wouldn't be able to do the same things the warrior did. She pondered over that on the way down the stairs. She glanced up for a moment, seeing the look of concentration on Eden's face, feeling the security in her arms. She moved her gaze back down and decided then that this wouldn't do. She didn't want to only constantly owe Eden. After all, in the end, dues always need to finally be paid.
When they entered the new room, Eden gave the bard a slow spin around to show it to her. The room was generally larger and everything within it was also larger. Eden had already started a fire in the fireplace and put some blankets on the floor in front of it. It was warm in the room and in Eden's arms and Arielle let out a content sigh, absently placing her hand on the warrior's chest lightly. Eden willed her heart not betray how much she noticed it.
"So," Eden began, taking a deep breath, "I figures that this here room's got your approval and the like. It needs your approval, see?"
Arielle chuckled at the imitation of Berta and Eden felt the blond nod against her shoulder. She moved her over closer to the fireplace, propping her up against the footboard of the bed. Eden made them tea and they sat next to each other, sipping quietly, enjoying the warmth of the room.
"Can I ask you something?" Arielle asked, realizing the tea had a different taste than each one before.
"Hm?"
"Where did you learn all this?" she asked, looking at Eden with interest, "I mean, where did you learn everything about these herbs and what they do and when to use which?"
"I just picked it up here and there." Eden replied with a shrug.
"Eden, it's not exactly something ladies are taught." Arielle noted.
Eden sighed. She glanced out the window. Night settled quietly outside, the fire crackled inside, and the guardian didn't feel the constricting restraints around her soul, keeping everything that meant anything bottled up tightly. There was a crack and so she let a story slip through it.
"When you fight as much as I do... and did... you have to learn. Especially if you lead an army..."
"You lead an army?!" Arielle squeaked, nearly spilling her tea.
"Well... yes." Eden replied with a slight shrug as if they were talking about something as ordinary as boiling water.
Arielle peered at the warrior with peeked interest, her eyes wide, feeling a good story about to be told when Eden took a long breath.
"During the last crusades into the Levant, Queen Eleanor of France decided to take part. She gathered around 300 of her vassals from Aquitaine. She insisted they all be women and further insisted that she go as the leader of her warriors.
"You were in Eleanor of Aquitaine's army?"
"Well, not exactly in it. She needed someone to lead the army. Maintain discipline, give orders, and so on. So I volunteered. And as I was the only woman to do so, I became commander."
"That's... amazing..."
"Not really. In the end, the army did little fighting, the incompetent Louis constantly getting in the way." Eden replied with a quiet growl, "Yet, they had their skirmishes and other... adventures and someone had to know how to put them back together. Like you said, not exactly something ladies are taught..."
Arielle tried to imagine Eden as the commander of Eleanor's army. She had heard the tales that they dressed as Amazons and fought and yelled like men. She pictured the guardian on her black steed, armor glinting in the sunlight, hair streaming in the wind, her sword upraised, letting out a battle cry and then charging the frightened enemy with hundreds of loyal warriors thundering right behind her. It was a romantic picture straight out of heroic stories of knights and dragons.
"Later, especially in the desert," Eden continued absently, "it was more because I didn't want any of my... comrades... to come anywhere near me if I could help it..."
Arielle glanced at Eden and saw a shadow pass over her face as Eden recalled the day she learned that particular lesson.
"What happened?" Arielle asked before she could stop herself.
She held her breath in anticipation of a violent reaction of a line she was sure she had overstepped. A thick, tense silence hung over them.
"My army trusted me. I held their life in my hands. It's a sacred thing almost. In return, I took care of them. I thought it was like that everywhere. But I was young..." Eden recalled slowly, as if she was weighing every word, "Once, out in the desert, I was wounded in the thigh. I needed stitches. One of the men experienced in healing said he would do it. I trusted him..."
Arielle knitted her brows as Eden's voice trailed off. The bard instinctively placed her hand on Eden's arm and felt the muscles there tense for a moment and then relax.
"Oh Eden, did he...?"
"No..." Eden whispered, shaking her head once, "but, he sure did try... I managed to fight him off. I never let anyone near my wounds again."
She hung her head a little and felt the bard give her arm a small squeeze which she rewarded with a gentle smile.
The morning came when they had decided that Arielle was well enough to travel again. Eden insisted that she have a hearty breakfast before going on the road and they made their way down to the tavern before going out on the road. They both sat at Eden's usual table and Berta greeted them warmly.
"See you're up and about again. Glad you're feeling better and the like." Berta stated, bringing them some warmed cider, bread and cheese.
"Thank you, Berta." Arielle replied cheerfully, smiling up at her, "And how are you doing?"
"Oh..." said the visibly stunned tavern keeper, "Well... ain't nobody asked me that in centuries it seems... Well, thank you, miss, I'm doing pretty fine, can't do much complaining, I figure."
They ate breakfast quietly; the tavern was rather empty at that hour in the morning. Arielle was more than happy to be going back on the road, her cheerfulness and excitement plainly visible. Eden was the more stoic one as always, throwing a hidden glance at the bard every once in a while, the memory of the cough not leaving her alone. They were too immersed in their own thoughts to notice a common, traveling pair sit down at the table next to them. Finally the words of their conversation floated over to the bard.
"I'm telling you, Rufus, I think we should take a different road."
"Ah, don't be silly, Alys. Why would you want to do that?"
"Have you gone deaf in your years? You haven't heard the stories? Lord knows you frequent the taverns enough."
"What stories are you talking about? Just come out with it, woman."
"There's a black demon in the deserts, Rufus..." the woman said in a tone of conspiracy, leaning over the table at him.
"A black demon?!" Rufus laughed, "Maybe you've been frequenting the taverns a bit too much yourself, eh?"
"Don't be silly, Rufus. I'm serious. They talk about a black demon warrior. On a horse black as night. Ruthless thing. Killing and plundering like there's no Judgment Day. They say she's on the road to Acre or Damascus. I don't want to be on the same road."
"She?! Oh, this just keeps getting better and better!"
Arielle ate her breakfast with a tighter and tighter throat. She stole glances at Eden from underneath her brows. The guardian maintained her usual stony expression, but the bard knew that the words didn't pass by her unnoticed. Eden ate a piece of bread slowly, her other hand around a goblet of cider. Arielle considered doing something as an angry heat rose in her chest. But she didn't know what.
"It's like talking to the backside of a sheep, it is. Rufus, women demons are the worst sort, everybody knows that. You never heard of Lilith? If you didn't sleep so much in church, you wouldn't be as daft as you are." Alys sighed in exasperation.
"Oh, get off it woman."
Arielle saw a strange and abrupt tension appear on Eden's face at the mention of Lilith. Eden slowly put her bread down, her eyebrows furrowing, her breath quickening a little. The bard now battled between leaning over and telling the couple to shut up or reaching over and putting her hand on Eden's in support.
"Rufus, I'm serious, I am. This one, she tears pilgrims limb from limb!"
"Pilgrims, you say?"
"You see! Even the God fearing aren't safe! They say she drinks the blood of children, you know? A tailor told me that there was a village near the road. Torched and pillaged, the people slaughtered, they were. Eyes scooped out, bodies set ablaze. That black devil did it. Singlehandedly! So tell me again how she can't be a demon, hm?"
"And you seen this?"
"Not me, Rufus. But the tailor said he did. Don't see why a proper Christian would lie to another." Alys commented and then dropped her voice in disdain, "Said he that even those Saracen infidels tried to help, but fled terrified when she turned her bloody blade on them."
"Hm, that ain't a common whore then, is it? But to take a different road, Alys?"
"By Christ's nails, you been listening at all? Now, you may be bored with this life, but I'm not keen on parting with it just yet. She's the bastard child of the Devil himself, I tell you!"
Alys's theatrical slapping of the table drowned out a sudden metal crunch that only Arielle heard. Her eyes darted to Eden and saw the goblet in her hand, now disfigured and crumpled, the cider spilling out in a tiny stream. Eden's eyes were almost burning holes into the table, her knuckles white, the muscles in her forearm tense almost to the point of snapping.
Arielle reached out and placed her hand on Eden's, trying to pry the goblet away from her grasp and finding a surprisingly immense strength that wouldn't let go. She looked at the guardian who continued to stare at the table, the goblet lightly beginning to shake.
"Eden..." Arielle whispered soothingly, wrapping her other hand around the warrior's, no longer prying, but just holding, "Hey... Eden... Let go... It's alright..."
The bard could almost hear the couple's words reeking havoc in Eden's mind and silently cursed them.
"Eden... Eden, look at me... Come on, look at me..."
The near pleading she heard caused Eden to raise her head and look at the bard. Arielle saw two intense seas of blue filled with both angry hurt and deep sadness and she almost lost herself in them. She took a deeper breath and gave the guardian a gentle squeeze.
"It's alright Eden... It's okay..." Arielle tried to convince.
The warrior was teetering on a razor edge of simply getting up and turning the travelers into a meat pie. She felt offended, disgraced, and simply hurt. She could take the heavy burden of the things she had done. Yet the things she hadn't done weren't her weight to bear, but she seemed to be carrying it anyway and Eden didn't understand why. She didn't expect towns to be named in her honor even if she did good deeds for the rest of her lifetime, but this? What was the point of change then? Why try? How could she change anything when the chosen one of God was despised by a follower of that same God? She looked at the bard with her silent question. Don't I carry enough already? Haven't I gone through enough? Arielle thought her heart might break if those eyes peered at her any longer.
"Eden, it's alright. It's fine... There's no one else here, just you and me. Just you and me, alright?" Arielle began to soothe, absently stroking the warrior's hand. "There's no threat here, no enemy... Take a deep breath... There you go... Another... That's right... It's just you and me here..."
Eden's grip slackened and the bard was able to pull the goblet from her hand. Yet once the goblet was gone, she simply took the warrior's hand back in her own. Arielle gently stroked the guardian's hand as her breathing returned to normal and the tension from her body evaporated, the deep seas of her eyes turning back into still, shaded pools.
Eden slowly gathered her anger under control, a worry now creeping in of what the bard might think of her. Does she believe the stories? Absurd question, why wouldn't she? Yet, Arielle didn't. The bard didn't even really know why; Eden told her next to nothing. Yet, there was a voice inside her that told her that the stories were not to be believed and that the true story lay deeper beneath the surface. That was truly the only story the bard was interested in.
As Eden calmed, Arielle's anger grew. There was something that disturbed her to a great deal to see the warrior in such a state. It almost felt as if she had been offended herself. Eden noticed distant lightning begin to roll through the forest green eyes. The guardian gave the blond a sad smile and her hands a gentle squeeze and held it. The grasp told her that there was no reason to get into a dispute or fight over it. This was enough. Arielle understood and the lightning faded away. Once they were both calm, they released each other's hands like it meant nothing much in order to try to cover up how much it really meant.
"Let's get out of here." Arielle said, flashing a smile towards the guardian.
They got up to leave and were halfway towards the door when Arielle suddenly stopped, a decisive look on her face.
"Could you wait for a minute, please?" Arielle said flatly and turned back to the couple when Eden gave her a nod.
She approached their table, her shoulders squared back, her walk determined. Despite the lack of violence or strength in the bard, a spark in her eyes demonstrated that she was serious and her solid stance made her seem to almost loom over the traveling pair.
"This is as suitable for drinking as you are for calling yourself a Christian." Arielle spat, tossing the deformed goblet between the surprised couple.
Before they could say anything, she turned on her heel and stormed off to the other end of the tavern. Despite her anger, Eden didn't fail to notice the small, warm chuckle that stayed in her throat at the sight of the irritated blond and her emotional defense of the guardian.
They moved to say goodbye to Berta right before they left.
"Ah, so you're going then, are you? Well, God speed to the both of you. And you stay out of trouble, little one, see?"
"Oh, Berta. There's no need to worry about that at all." Arielle commented, putting her hand lightly on the warrior's shoulder and getting a small shrug from Eden.
"Yes, well, you can never be too careful around shifty bastards, see? Can be real shifty and the like, see?" Berta persisted.
"I'll- we'll be careful, Berta, thank you. I'll be sure to tell everyone of your wonderful hospitality."
"Oh... well... thank you miss." Berta said, a slight blush rising in her cheeks, "If you're ever around in Tyre again, you look up ol' Berta, see? Will always got a room for you, see?"
"Of course!" Arielle said, giving the tavern keeper a radiant smile that she couldn't help but return.
Berta's gaze then turned to Eden who was standing there with as much expression on her face as the tavern walls. Eden gave Berta a solemn nod, expressing all she needed to in it and Berta returned it.
"God speed, friends." Berta said and waved her hand once as the two women left the tavern.
They walked out and went to their horses. They checked and adjusted their saddles, bags, and equipment. They mounted their horses and turned towards the main gates of Tyre.
"I guess that makes us tied for coming to each other's defense." Eden said to Arielle quietly, staring down at one of the reins she began to play with awkwardly.
"Yes, I guess it does." Arielle answered with a wide smile, again reading into what Eden had really wanted to say.
Author's Note: As these two ladies near Jerusalem, the plot with thicken with new characters and a small earthquake in the storyline ;) Also, I just wanted to say that I'm loving your support and enjoying your reviews!