Ch. 15: Shelter (2)

While Rosy and Lily were taking their bath, Adrian busied himself with sword training in the front yard.

Honestly, he had no idea where Bastion was, but as dumb as untrustworthy as the guy was, he wasn't stupid enough to peek on Rosy in the bathroom, so he didn't really matter. Since they were in the middle of nowhere, Bastion wasn't going to be able to find his own way anywhere without Rosy's guidance, and wandering aimlessly was far too dangerous as a wanted man. 

After a while of training, Rosy came outside to get him. When he saw her, his heart almost stopped. Her appearance reminded him of their first real conversation in her bedroom, when she had been wearing the red nightgown, except now he could see her perfectly toned legs and abdomen through the holes in the shirt.

For a moment, he found himself wishing that it showed more, but then he shook his head, embarrassed by the thought. Either way, it was clear that Rosy put incredible effort into her daily workout, and it showed. She was stunningly beautiful.

"You've got a wide swing and a flawed style." She told him, leaning against the doorframe.

"My style's always worked for me, but I wouldn't mind a little lesson." Adrian said, remembering the incredible way that she had fought back in the alley. Honestly, he knew that he'd never be able to replicate that skill, but any chance at learning from someone as capable as her would be too good an opportunity to pass up.

"After your bath. I'd rather not get your scent all over me. I already dumped the bathwater, so help me fill it up again." Rosy promised.

"Alright. I'm holding you to that." Adrian helped her fill up the tub again. He thought that she'd put on shoes or something as they walked from the well to the backdoor over and over again, but she had incredible spatial awareness, and was able to step around every single sharp object in the yard, be it broken glass or twigs, without even looking down.

After his bath, Adrian put on some more clothes taken from the master bedroom and found Bastion, showing him to how to draw water from the well for his own bath while he himself went to help Rosy, who was tying shreds of clothing to the trees surrounding the house. When he asked why, she said it was to confuse the Markers.

Since they had already bathed, changed into clothes filled with the house's scent, and were planning on sleeping inside the house, they'd done just about everything that they could do to confuse the Markers. Unfortunately, they couldn't change the natural scent that emanated from their skin, so the Markers would eventually trace them despite whatever they used to cover their trail, until they got to the Resistance's home base, which had ways of getting rid of Markers. 

"I'll wash our belongings overnight in the tub, so we'll be able to wear them when we leave. From there, it should only be a day or two until we get to the Resistances' home base." Rosy explained as they were putting up the decoys.

"Alright, but you owe me a training session." Adrian reminded her of her promise.

"You're right. Hand-to-hand training after we finish this?" She offered, "We shouldn't use our swords to train while they're still covered in our old scents."

"Hand-to-hand, huh? Alright." Adrian agreed reluctantly. She was right, but frankly being in such close proximity to her with what she was wearing at present didn't really sit well with him. Rosy may have looked really cute, and had a great personality to match it, but she was also incredibly dangerous. If he accidentally did something stupid, she'd kill him on the spot, and even in death he'd never live it down.

...

The training was brutal on Adrian. He had been worried about accidentally touching Rosy in some inappropriate manner, but he'd been tossed around like a rag doll, only touching her hands when she grabbed him, and her feet when she kicked him. He'd learned quite a few new techniques from her in the process, but she never wasted a single motion when she moved. It felt like trying to punch some sort of art-like gust of wind. Grappling techniques were similarly useless against her, with her freaky precognition-like skills. 

Beaten to a pulp, yet satisfied with what he'd learned, Adrian left the yard almost covered in bruises. Thankfully, Rosy had offered to wash their gear herself, so he was able to simply go to sleep after the fight, rather than fill the tub once more while he could barely move.

...

Adrian dreamt that he was in a lush garden outside of a familiar, yet unfamiliar castle. In front of the castle's gates was a clear stone plaza, with a large, ornate fountain in its center. Leaving the castle, Adrian ignored the fountain and walked down one of the paths as if called to do so. This particular path was extravagant, larger and lusher than the other paths, as if it had some sort of special end to it.  Walking down the path, Adrian quickly found an equally large gate.

Wrought iron and the size of five men, it was the most incredible gate that he had ever seen, but it was also completely overgrown. with moss and vines. Touching it, Adrian quickly pulled his hand back, wincing in pain. A thorn from one of the vines on the gate had accidentally pricked his palm. 

Touching the gate again, Adrian pulled off some of the moss to get a look at the other side. Dead plants and a black sky on the other side, but he still felt drawn to it. Then, he really was drawn to it. He was pulled right off his feet and his body slammed into the sharp vines of the gate. 

Screaming, Adrian woke up.

...

Luckily, just as Rosy had predicted, they didn't get any visitors that night. Apparently, the Markers had taken the bait and were following our horses on a wild goose chase. Unfortunately, the wild goose chase wasn't going to last forever, so they needed to leave. 

Another unfortunate thing (from Adrian's perspective) was the fact that Rosy had woken up before him. By the time that Adrian went outside, she was already in the yard, practicing her swordplay with her full gear back on, rather than the sexy shirt dress from last night. 

Adrian didn't get to train with Rosy this time, since she was 'just wasting time,' and didn't want to teach real swordcraft around Bastion, since she still didn't trust him. Honestly, I totally agreed with her, the guy clearly had a huge grudge against Rosy. He'd probably have tried to kill Rosy, even at the expense of his own life, if not for Lily's safety.

"How's your bloodlust?" Adrian asked, noticing that she didn't seem as angry as she had last night, he decided that it might be safe to bring it up.

"It's not a permanent solution, but I caught a small bear this morning and drained some of its blood. Only human-like blood can really satisfy my urges, but animal blood can tide me over for a little while at least." Adrian ignored the part where she said I caught a small bear, and focused on the not a permanent solution part instead.

"How long will it tide you over for?" He asked.

"A few days at most. After that, there are some pretty bad aftereffects, and the bloodlust comes back in full force." She explained.

"Alright, if we don't get to the Resistance's base in two days, then you can just use my blood as a last resort." Adrian told her.

"Urgh..." She didn't give an answer.