Rayne leaves again and encounters Gaerwn. The pair get into another dealing which turns a little heated.

MINE.

~Angel~

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Rayne had her pack ready after the sun rose, her day to leave coming far too quickly. Magnus' wounds healed far faster than anything she had seen before, and where there were once gaping wounds now were scars in his white scaled flesh.

Magnus yawned, sharp teeth exposed to the air as Rayne saw a bone of something between his two canines. She cringed a little turned herself away, beginning to make her way towards the exit.

“Rayne,” Magnus said firmly. Rayne turned around for a moment, eyes looking at him questioningly. “Do not forget the bow.”

Rayne looked to the bow still settled against one of the wheels of her cart bed, before shaking her head slightly.

“I don't need it,” she replied calmly.

“No, you don't want it,” he corrected her easily, seeming to see right through her words and straight to their true meaning. Rayne didn't say anything, only waited for him to say something or dismiss her. “Why don't you want it? It would be very useful to have.”

“I can get by without it,” she answered, “No need to waste the arrows.”

She knew his face then, he heard the practical answer and knew it was a lie. But he didn't press it, turning his head regally up and spitting out a ball of flame to light an unlit torch near his head.

“Be off with you then,” he stated with a shoo of his paw, turning and lumbering off from her. Rayne adjusted her pack before leaving him to—what ever he did while she was gone.

The birds sang loudly as Rayne moved through the former harsh terrain of the thick forest. Knowing where she was going made the thicker shrubs and vines far easier than before. She would spend the first night in the cover of it, then move on towards the roadway back to Sagewynd.

She wondered if Gaerwn was still around, lingering there waiting for the opportune moment to...to do what? Gaerwn made a promise not to come into the woods, and knowing his type he would have left to go in search of something else to get his coin rather than spend it for days in an Inn.

Morning rose, Rayne ate a few little pieces of her rations and some roots she'd dug up near where she was sleeping before coming to the edge of the forest. She slowed and peered through the foliage to see if there was anyone around, or on the road. It seemed bare so she walked out but on lighter feet. She saw the tree he'd seemingly popped out of last time, looked around it for a sign of a fire, foot prints, left over bones...It seemed no one had at least been there waiting. She found the road towards Sagewynd calming, and before she knew it she was back inside the gravel streets and simple wooden buildings.

She took some time in the market in the center of town, asking if any knights had been lingering or seen since she had left, but there seemed to be nothing really that out of the ordinary. He was gone, thank the gods. She didn't have to worry about that knight...at least. Where had the bear come from? She never really thought about it until then and Magnus hadn't brought it up.

She went through the rest of her day in her lower apartment, storing her journals in a high, hidden place to keep them from getting damaged or someone breaking in and finding them. She had kept them under her bed once, and someone in desperate need of kindling broke into her place and took them to burn. After that the secret compartment became a necessity. With the rent from her tenants above she bought new leather and parchment, bound a few more journals and got supplies for the trip back in the morning. She climbed into bed for a good night of rest, wrapping herself up in her blankets.

Her dreams were heady, making her wake in surprise. Her blankets were tangled around her, body fur flattened with sweat. She prayed silently she hadn't been vocal, her tenants upstairs would definitely let her know if she had been.

She cleaned after gathering water from the well nearby since she wouldn't have another real chance again for a few days. Locking her door she left the streets and Sagewynd behind, spending the first night in the crook of a tree a good ways from the road. The second day brought her to the familiar forest line, stepping off of the roadway with an easy pace.

Until she almost walked face first into a leather vested chest. This time, however, she jerked back when she saw the body walk around the tree, muttering almost under her breath,

“Son of a—”

“Hello Rayne,” Gaerwn interrupted, still wearing his under clothes, the sword and knife still present on his hip. His eyes focusing on her with a slightly soft smile on his white, whiskered muzzle. She suddenly regretted Magnus' suggestion of the bow and arrows, she wouldn't kill Gaerwn, just make it almost impossible to walk for a long while... “You've been gone a very long time.”

“Why are you here? Don't you have a village to pillage for some nameless king or something?” she asked in a sigh, crossing her arms in front of her. He shrugged a bit as he looked off towards the road.

“I've done what I needed to do, and now I've come back,” he replied before looking back down at her, leaning on the tree with his elbow and exposing a scar through his white and black striped bicep. Was that there before?

“Back...for...” Rayne said in a slow manner. His smile was wicked, she could tell he was just waiting for her to come up with the answer herself. “You still think I'll tell you anything?”

She had to laugh at that, she couldn't help herself.

“We—hahaha! We had a deal,” she giggled and poked his chest with a finger. “You don't enter the forest and follow me.”

“That was last time,” he stated. “And I didn't follow you did I? I kept my word. But...” he leaned in closer to her, making her neck lean back. “I fulfilled that agreement. You never said to stay out of the woods forever. Only to stay out of them, which I assumed was that particular—”

“Alright!” her paw was in his face, making his mouth close as her face fur turned red in anger. “I see where you're going with this.”

He leaned back up and raised an eyebrow at her, his stare roving over her frame. She didn't appreciate that, especially when she looked back up at him and didn't stop himself.

“Obviously I'm going to have to do make another trade to keep you out again,” she replied in a slight growl. “What do you want this time?”

“What if I don't want to trade?” Gaerwn questioned in a gentle, low voice. “What if I just want to follow you in?”

“If you wanted that, you would've waited for me to go in and followed without my permission or knowledge,” Rayne answered. “Presenting yourself means you want something from me directly. Now please stop wasting my time and tell me what you want.”

She enjoyed the shocked expression on his face. He probably wasn't used to women acting that way around him, being a knight. Women probably fawned over him, held their thoughts—or had none. Rayne wasn't about to let this knight think he would get away with tricking her a second time. She wouldn't let him pretend he had control of this situation, because now he didn't.

“You are a direct female,” he stated with a hint of annoyance.

“I don't like being used,” she replied, adjusting her pack and waiting patiently. “Well?”

His paw suddenly grasped a strand of her loose, long bangs, rubbing it in between his fingers. She frowned at him, was he trying to get a rise out of her?

“What are you doing?”

“Thinking,” he muttered, running a few of the strands through his fingers.

“Something you're not used to?” she asked as she brushed his paw away. His lips lifted, baring teeth slightly before growling in his throat.

“I know,” he said suddenly, the growling gone like that. “I get to kiss you this time.”

“Then you don't get to follow me into the woods ever,” she replied, trying to steady her heart in her chest. She could hear it suddenly in her ears and that did nothing but make her nervous. She needed to stay on target here, get around the slayer without a problem.

“Then I get to choose when to stop kissing you.”

And with that little add to the deal her mind went straight into panic, she knew her face read it when his head tilted down closer to hers.

“Only kissing,” she muttered trying not to move away, or towards him. “No other—touching.”

“I'll keep it above the neck,” he replied in a little growl. Sweet gods what was she playing at? Was she really agreeing to all this? She should just have him follow her to let Magnus roast him alive! “Deal?”

Rayne looked at his mouth, before looking at him with squinting, supposed to be threatening eyes. She was panicking in her mind, this was once about Magnus and keeping him safe but since she'd kissed Gaerwn all those days ago, she couldn't stop herself from wanting another one. Was this still about Magnus? Was he really here to try to get her to take him to his next kill? She had to keep thinking that, she had to focus on that. He was going to try to kill Magnus. This was going to stop him from doing that.

“Deal,” she agreed, putting out her paw and pressing the tips of her fingers against his vest to take it.

“I said I'd keep my touches above the neck,” he suddenly stated, before his large paw wrapped around the back of her neck and pulled her mouth against his.

Focus...Rayne focus...She tried to recite the mantra in her head...but her focus kept wandering to his mouth, on the sparks shooting through her nerves and the lack of her once controlled mind. Now, she thought, she was just being selfish...at least before this moment she could tell herself she was doing this to protect another. That wasn't the case now when her paw grasped his arms to lift herself on her toes to kiss him deeper.

Rayne was in very big trouble...

His kisses grew more demanding, before he stopped and leaned back, taking a few steps and leaving Rayne still slightly grasping the air in front of her. She put her paws at her sides angrily, she decided for the moment at him before walking around him without another word and into the woods.

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Had he completely lost his mind? Clearly. Yet once she'd left for the week he wanted to follow, he suddenly became far more—curious? Worried? Possessive? Over what she did and didn't do without him. And even though he thought he'd gotten over the little kiss they'd shared, he kept thinking about it. He would begin to study over the wing sizes and wing patterns of flight dragons and he would think about how Rayne would sketch them differently, and then the kiss. Over a dozen damn different subjects and in his mind she would appear, and it would always lead to that kiss. He knew he should have melted down the transfiguration band, but instead he pulled it from its hiding place and set off to find Rayne. He would kiss her again to his content, then be done with it.

But he had to stop himself from kissing her before he broke the deal and let his hands wander below her soft neck. She was trying to kill him, or worse...pull him from his real work. Feelings tumbled in his stomach as he still stood next to the tree in silence, sitting in the mortal form and beginning to wonder if it was the body he was currently formed in? Yes! That had to be it! The mortal disguise had to be the cause of all this!

He picked up his paw and wandered off the roadway a long ways, stripping off his slayer clothes and weapons and looking to the ring on his smallest finger. He twisted it three times and suddenly a burst of power rushed through him, his form looming over his now small clothes and his glorious mane hanging slightly in his face.

He waited...and waited...but the desire for Rayne hadn't ceased! By all the reason in the world! What had he gotten himself into?

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