Closed Secret Dares (Aerion)

[Amara Waveracer]

When she realized the man who she believed to be one of the mans followers, by the name Nevran, was really Aerion she was stunned, mad, and happy all at the same time. She was mad because he didn't leave when she told her to, but she was also happy as he came back for her and saved her. She slowly put her arms around his neck and cried on his shoulder.

"Aerion.." She slowly regained herself as she was now safe in his arms, and stopped crying. She looked off into the distance at nothing in particular, keeping her chin resting on his shoulder and arms around his neck. "I was so scared," was all she said before the tears came back to her eyes. She didn't let herself cry though, telling herself she was stronger than this.

She realized she was leaving blood from her hand on his neck and back. Pulling herself away, she inspected her injury. Her whole hand was covered in blood as she had smeared it, and it was still bleeding. Looking up at his worried face, she managed a smile. "I'm okay," she managed to croak out.

She heard the thunder, then the rain started to fall on them. She looked up at the sky and used the rainwater to wash some of the blood off her hand. It burned slightly, but it worked. She turned around to watch the rain. Sitting with her back against him and his arms around her, she watched it fall.

[Aerion]

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Aerion smiled at Amara as she said she was okay, but when it started raining his smile drooped a little, he realized their campfire must have gone out, as well as their camp being undefended. He ripped some material from the slave leader's tunic, took Amara's injured hand in his own, and bound the cut with the cloth. Aerion made sure it was tight enough to stay on, but also made it a little looser than he probably should have, not wanting to hurt her any worse. He then went back over to the leader and took anything he saw of value, realizing he had left the other sword against a tree, he took the slave leader's sword instead; hoping it would be able to help him teach Amara to defend herself, and allow her to actually defend herself if need be.

"We need to grab our dinner and get back to camp, I don't like being caught out in the rain, and I don't want you getting sick." He said to Amara as he rushed about, not thinking about the pain in his leg, only her safety once again. Aerion walked over to the deer, lifted it up as Teren walked over, and deposited it across the horse's back. Doing the same thing with the fawn, Aerion took some rope from his saddlebags and tied the deer to his saddle. Bracing himself, he allowed Teren to kneel down so he could swing his injured leg over the horse to get on. He groaned a bit in pain while doing so, but he did not pay too much attention, trying to stay calm and collected, and conscious enough to get Amara back to camp.

Teren and Aerion made their way over to Amara, who was standing there soaked, she did not speak for some reason, but Aerion said, "Get on, it's time for us to ride back to camp, no more walking because there is no time, I'm hungry, cold, went, and in pain. I am sure you feel the same way, so we must go." As Teren bent his front legs so Amara could get on, Aerion offered her his hand, which she grabbed and got behind him astride Teren, holding tight around his waist. After he made sure she was in place behind him so she would not fall, he urged Teren to take them back to their camp. Teren obliged before Aerion could complete his request, breaking into a near gallop, going fast enough to speed their way, but slow enough to where he could dodge between trees and not slip in the wet ground.

[Amara Waveracer]

Amara was unsure as Aerion offered her a hand, but she took it all the same. As they sped off, she tightened her arms around him and cringed. She had never been on a horse and she was definitely afraid. She placed her head against his back and tried her best to not fall or panic.

When they got there, she wasn't as frightened as she thought she would be since it wasn't that bad after all. She accidently fell off the horse as she didn't wait for assistance. She got up off her hands and knees and wiped the dirt off onto her dress, her cheeks burning slightly. After she had, she looked down at the ground. Her head shot up as she heard a noise though, and she looked around for the source of it.

After a few seconds of silence, she finally heard it again and realized it was footsteps from behind her. Immediately turning, she saw a man who was dressed like the ones from earlier. She was shocked, which let him charge at her with his sword. She dodged his first attack, but stepped back into a tree. She couldn't dodge his next attack, but managed to put her arm in front of her before he struck her, which earned her a cut on the back of her wrist.

She sidestepped him, and continued to move around the trees until she moved around him, hitting the pressure points on his shoulders as hard as she could with two of her knuckles, and paralyzing his right arm. She couldn't fight that much, but she knew about a humans pressure points and what they do.

She bit her lip as he dropped his sword, only to pick it up in his other hand. He was not as good of an aim with this arm, however. She continued to sidestep him until he finally cut the back of her wrist again while she tried to block it with her arm, the cut slightly above the previous one and not as deep. It hurt immensely and tears sprang to her eyes but she would not let herself cry.

She started to run out of energy from dodging his attacks, but she still did not want to take his life. Part of her knew she had to, but she also didn't know why Aerion hadn't come to do it for her. Her question was answered as she looked over towards the camp. There was a man similarly dressed, but more like the first slave leader pushing his own sword at Aerion. Something snapped inside her and she grabbed the man who was attacking her, and pushed his head back, breaking his vertebrate and instantly killing him.

She ran towards Aerion to help him, but by that time he had pushed the man off of him. She still helped by wrapping her arm tight around his neck, choking and distracting him so it would be easier for him to plunge his sword into the mans heart. After he had, she fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands, crying. Blood dripped from the two fresh cuts on her wrist, which were nothing major. She was of course getting used to the idea of death, but it did not stop her from mourning and occasionally breaking down. She looked up at Aerion and tried to hold back her tears, knowing she needed to kill if she was going to survive with him.

[Aerion]

Aerion looked down at Amara from astride Teren, wondering if she was okay. He was about to ask as he was pulled off of his horse and into the mud. Teren reared and neighed, hitting one of the three men assaulting Aerion on the back of the neck, killing him. One of the other two pulled Aerion up, while his friend waved his sword threateningly at Teren, keeping him at bay. Aerion wiped the mud from his eyes, wondering where his sword went as he was being dragged upwards. He saw Amara being attacked through the mud and the rain, and he knew he had to help her. As soon as he saw that, he got thrown onto the ground again.

Aerion felt the hard cold metal under him, realizing that he was thrown onto his sword which was flat on the ground. He was grateful to the gods at that moment as he grasped for the hilt with his fingers. Finally finding and grabbing the correct end of the sword, he jutted his other elbow elbow back and up, hitting the man square between the legs. As the man groaned in pain and backed up, Aerion was on his feet, being fueled by something alongside his rage. His survival. Amara's survival. Teren's survival. As he thought of this, his body received strength, strength of a man fighting for everything cared about in the world.

Aerion faced the larger of the two men, the one dressed as a slaver leader. This one seemed different from the other leader he killed. He was dangerous. Aerion believed that with every fiber of his being, but did not let his stance sway as they paced in a circle, keeping the same distance between them. Suddenly one of the other slavers attacked him from behind, luckily Aerion was still wearing the leather armor, so it absorbed some of the blow. However, it still cut down and into his shoulder, he had no time to be thankful, as he swung around, the mans sword going flying from getting caught in the armor, and it already being wet, it was ripped from the slavers grip. As he swung around, he brought his blade to meet the mans hands, he cut one off and left the other dangling by a little bit of flesh. The slaver fell down screaming in pain.

Aerion was reminded of the Slaver leader by a blow to the head, which made his eyes cross. The Slaver flung him down on his back, Aerion brought his sword into a defensive block above his face, as the man pushed downward, trying to behead Aerion with his own sword. Aerion used the mans strength against him, using his uninjured leg he lifted him up and over his own head, bringing him crashing down behind him. Aerion got to his feet as fast as he could, which was not that fast, for as he turned toward the slaver again, he was already attacking. Aerion saw a flash of white and suddenly Amara was on the mans back, choking him. Taking advantage of this distraction, Aerion plunged his sword home, killing the man, who let out a gasp and fell to the ground slowly.

Amara was in a sitting position crying as Aerion made his way over to her, he felt awful, for he had asked her to stay with him. Noticing the cuts on her arm, he felt worse. He went over to the man he had just killed and cut a large swath of cloth from his shirt, then he went back over to the crying girl and took her arm in his hands, gently wrapping her arm with the makeshift bandage which he had cut into three strips, tying each one at different spots along the cuts. He finally dropped his sword and hugged her tight.

Suddenly Aerion thought of something and looked back over where he had saw the man attacking Amara. He saw the body of the man sprawled in the mud through the light rain. "How did you possibly escape him?" She stayed silent and he grimaced, just glad that she was okay. He put his arm around her and helped her up and into the tent, in which everything was still dry. He helped her to lie onto the bedroll, wrapped the blanket around her and went back outside. He came back a few minutes later with their bags and some bread he had found in the slavers bags. It was very soggy but he passed it to Amara and he was gone again, to look through their things, check on Teren, and see how that other man had died.

[Amara Waveracer]

When he asked her how the man had died, the tears came back. She couldn't tell him she had killed him, she wasn't proud of it herself. Not wanting to remember it, she tried to think of something else, but it was impossible. No matter how hard she tried, the image of his dead body flashed in her mind.

After Aerion left her in the tent, Amara sat up, keeping the blanket wrapped around her cold body. She took the bread he had given her and started to eat it, besides the fact that it was soggy, it was fairly good, especially since she was hungry. Once she finished, she wiped the crumbs off her dress and stood up.

She wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered and exited the tent. Rubbing her arms and looked around for Aerion. The rain poured down on her, soaking her once again. She moved forward, avoiding the dead bodies and growing pools of blood. She squinted, trying to see through the rain, but it was no use. "Aerion?" she called, hoping she could find out where he was.

[Aerion]

Aerion ignored the rain as he looked at the body of the man before him, the obvious dead was a broken neck, his head was bent backwards so far that there was no way it could be normal. He was unsure how to feel, Amara had obviously taken this mans life, but on the other hand, she seemed so uncomfortable with death, that he had no idea how or why she was able to do so.

As he examined the body and searched it for anything useful, Aerion heard Amara call out to him, figuring she got worried after him leaving her alone in the tent for so long, he got up and walked over to her. "I'm here Amara." He said as he approached her smiling. When he reached her, he wrapped one arm around her shoulders and steered her back to the tent, "You shouldn't just be standing out here like this, on the other hand, I guess I shouldn't either." He continued smiling as he helped her back into the tent, onto the bed roll, and under the blanket once more. After doing so, he went to lie down on the other side of the tent to wait out the storm, trying to ignore the cold and get some rest, just happy that she was okay besides some minor cuts.

[Amara Waveracer]

Once he came into view, Amara felt slightly relieved, and went without a fight back to the tent as the tiredness she felt before came back to her. She avoided the puddles of blood and bodies once again as she walked, shivering a few times before they got to the tent.

After they got to the tent and laid down, she couldn't sleep. After jumping a few times from the thunder and shaking from fright, she sat up. She was never a fan of storms but she didn't mind the rain. She finally decided to crawl over to Aerion after a few minutes of watching him sleep and jumping from the continuous thunder. Pulling the blanket off of her, she went over to him and rested her head on his chest. Hearing his steady heartbeat both drowned out some of the thunder and calmed her so she managed to finally sleep.

[Aerion]

Aerion woke up slowly, he could see sunshine through the tent as his body slowly woke up. He started a bit as he felt something wet against his chest, looking down, he realized that Amara had come over and laid her head on his chest during the night. Smiling softly, Aerion decided to gently move her off of him, so he could start breakfast. Holding onto her, he gently slid her head and arms off of him, making sure not to wake her up as he did so. Making sure not to make a sound, he climbed out of the tent.

After exiting the tent, Aerion surveyed the damage around their campsite. There was mud everywhere, along with the bodies of the 4 slavers who had ambushed them the night before. His head was throbbing along with the scratch on his chest and the bite on his leg, so he sat down near the fire as Teren came up with some wood he had found. Aerion smiled at the horse, thinking how lucky he was to have such an intelligent, loyal friend, and battle partner. He greeted Teren over their bond and having piled everything he looted last night near the tent, he grabbed one of the slavers packs, in which he found some scraps of cloth that were in the middle of everything else, that had thankfully not gotten wet.

Aerion used those scraps with his flint and tinder in the fire area they had cleared the day before. Seeing the cloth light, he piled a bit of brush on top, that even though it was wet, seemed to dry out quick enough to light. As the fire slowly grew bigger, he added some dead sticks they had found the day before as well, which dried out as they were laid on top of the small flame. When those sticks caught fire and started to burn, Aerion finally felt the heat of the fire, adding a small log to it, he felt satisfied that it would be able to keep for awhile, so he walked over to Teren, favoring his right leg a bit as he made his way over.

As he reached Teren, he untied the knots on the rope, letting the deer and fawn fall to the ground so that his friend didn't have to carry it anymore. He set about cleaning them, taking both dead animals a little ways away from their camp in order to not smell it up. Aerion took out his sword, a dagger that he had found on one of the slavers, and got to work cutting into the deer. He first cut it along the chest and opened it up, wrinkling his nose, he tried his best to remember what his father had taught him. He removed the contents of the deer's body, cinching the stomach off so as not to spoil the meat, he gently placed it in a hole he had dug. Doing the same with the other organs, he placed them in the hole as well. After doing so with all of the contents of the deer's body except for the meat and the skin, he went about separating the meat from the skin as best he could.

Aerion had no idea what he was doing, he knew he may not ever find a buyer for the skin, so he decided to just focus on keeping as much meat off the skin as he could, so as to allow larger portion size. As he cut the skin off, he made plenty of mistakes, accidentally digging into the meat, causing it to stick to the skin, and accidentally going too high with the knife and missing some skin.

After a couple of hours, Aerion was satisfied that he had removed all of the stuff that could spoil the meat, including removing the head, the tail, and several body tubes and their exits, places he would rather not think about. He had cut off the back end of the body, so as to make sure nothing back there would spoil the part he would be cooking. He then severed the front legs from the body at the shoulder joints. He then went and did the entire process on the fawn also, ruining some of the meat when he didn't cinch off the stomach as well as he thought, he cut the bad part off and stuck it in the hole he had dug, which was getting full. Leaving just the ribs, Aerion decided to just got ahead and split the ribs into two halves along the spine, then figured he should to fill in the hole and walk back after the hard work he had done. He was getting hungry and really needed to clean up.

Covered in deer blood and some bits of things he didn't want to think about, he felt confident with what he had done, and proud of himself. So he picked up the stick he was using as a handle to drag the meat was going to cook, having made something to drag it, out of the skin and some sticks so as not to get dirt on the meat. As he slowly walked back to the camp, he made sure to get some good sized branches and sticks to make the spit he planned to use to cook the deer with.

When he finally reached the camp, he had a fair sized bundle of sticks under his right arm, and the handle for the meat puller in the other. Emerging from the trees, he was shocked to see Amara standing toe to hoof in front of Teren, and she was yelling at him about where Aerion was.

[Amara Waveracer]

Once she woke, Amara didn't feel Aerion beside her, or hear his heartbeat. She slowly opened her eyes and sat up, looking around for him. When she didn't see him, she started to panic and stood up, exiting the tent. Looking around outside, she still didn't see him and tears started to sting her eyes.

She realized there was a fire, and avoided it as it hurt her last time. She had been scared of it since then. As she stared at the dead bodies around her, she grew insanely worried and had to look around once more to see if Aerion was dead on the ground as well. She then saw Teren standing there watching her.

She crossed her arms, walking in front of the horse. Narrowing her eyes, she asked him, "Where is he?" She raised and eyebrow and watched him for any signs. "I'm waiting. Where'd he go?" She grew slightly angry after awhile that she didn't know where he was or what he had gotten himself into, and started to yell at the horse.

After a few minutes of yelling, she finally heard Aerion and turned towards him immediately. She ran towards him and jumped up at him, hugging him with a huge smile on her face. When she finally let go of him, she realized he was covered in blood. Her smile quickly turned into a worried frown. "What happened to you?"

[Aerion]

As Aerion walked toward her, Amara broke into a run and threw herself onto him in a tight hug. Unable to hug her back due to the things he was holding, he waited for her to let go. When she asked what had happened, walking past her with the meat on the skin behind him and the sticks and branches under his arm, he said, "I thought you might like some breakfast, so I've been cleaning the animals that we hunted down yesterday. I know I'm hungry."

Upon reaching the fire pit, Aerion dropped the load of wood a few feet away from it to make sure it didn't catch fire, and took the meat closer so he would be able to cook it. Seeing that the fire was starting to die down, he grabbed another log from the wet pile and placed it into the fire, which hissed and sizzled as the flames heated the water, causing it to evaporate.

A few minutes later, after Aerion had rested, he walked over to a puddle of water that was about the size of a small table and started washing up, cleaning all the blood and bits of stuff off of him. After got himself clean, or at least cleaner, he walked over to Amara and hugged her tight, "I'm sorry that I did not tell you where I was going, I figured that you needed your sleep and I did not want to wake you."