Lost in her thoughts and pain, she can hear him yelling at her, but she barely listens to it. “We nearly lost this one! If you would have just stayed at your post like I ordered, this would have never happened!” He pauses waiting for some sort of response. “ Ariel… ARIEL! Are you even listening to me?!” Slowly she nods her head, trying not to meet her commanders eyes.  She knows what she did messed things up. There were many more people dead than they expected. Her commander runs his hands through his long blond hair, frustrated. Calmly, he speaks again. “Go take care of your wounds, I can’t have you going back into battle like that… Get out of here.” Ariel stands there for a moment, hoping to say something that may quell his anger. Throwing his hand into the air and pointing to the door, he screams at her, “I said ‘GET OUT!’ GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!” Shaken, she quickly turns and relinquishes the stifling air of his tent.

Outside it is cooler, the tears now running down her cheeks help to cool her further, but the air still weighs down on her. Though, she thinks, it may be more from the events of the evening. As she walks she carefully examines her wound, the broken shaft of an arrow protrudes from her side. It isn’t deep, but hurts more than enough to keep her from breathing deeply. She knows she should head to Melanoclia, the head healer and her friend, but instead she walks straight past her, heading to her tent. No one, but Melanoclia and Arioch, notice her as she passes the fire. “Ariel! Wait!” She ignores her. ‘I can’t deal with this now. I don’t want to give explanations for my actions.’ she muses, fresh tears welling in her eyes.

Ariel enters her tent, readying herself to lay down. Wound or no wound, she just wanted to sleep for eternity. Without invitation,  Melanoclia opens the flap to the tent, “Ariel… you’re hurt. I need to take ca..” Interrupting her, Ariel snaps, her voice cracking “I’ll be fine! We can deal with it later….  Just leave me be…”  Melanoclia withdraws her head from the tent, and begins whispering to someone outside. The fire casting their silhouettes across the door, one shadow much larger than the other… a hulking man. Arioch…
Only a moment passes before he steps inside the tent, staring her down with his head cocked to one side.   “You know… we can’t just leave you like that…” Ariel turns away from him, trying to hide her tears, as she glares back at him over her shoulder. “I just want to be left alone.” A smile cracks in the corner of his mouth, “Well, I can’t do that…” She takes a step towards a lopsided wooden table, that sits next to her cot, and picks up a small silver handheld mirror and glances into it to see a number of small scratches across her face. “Leave. Now.” He lets out a full chuckle. “No.”

She sits for a moment, and does nothing. Agitated with his refusal to leave, she turns towards him again a throws the mirror at his head. “GET OUT!” He easily dodges the mirror, allowing it to fall harmlessly to the ground, shattering. “You’re going to have to do better than that…” He jests mockingly.
Aghast, she grabs a couple of her books, the nearest things to her, and throws them. He dodges the first, and catches the second.  “Why won’t you leave me alone!?” She says while looking for something else. She bends down to find something heavier, and a searing pain shoots through her side, making her yelp. Arioch rushes over to help her and she flails her hands at him, trying to make him go away,  not able find the words.  Grabbing her wrists, he subdues her, picks her up and sets her on the cot. “I told you… we need to take care of this now. It going to be alright…” Sobbing and hysterical, she mutters “Its not going to be alright, they’re not going to come back, they’re dead… because of me…”

Arioch turns her head toward him, making her look him in the face, holding her gaze there. “Look, I saw what happened out there.. There is no guarantee that you running in there, did ANY more damage than our original orders would have. Simple as that. We were outnumbered.” He sighs, looking down at the arrow in her side. “Now… before I leave you alone. I want to get that damn thing out of your side. Alright?”  She nods quickly, and swallows hard. She knew what it felt like to have arrows pulled straight out, they tore flesh in the process. Unfortunately, for her, back out the way it came was the only option.
“Lay down and brace yourself.” As soon as she had settled into the cot, he wrapped his hand around the shaft and pulled it out, barely giving her time to ready herself for the waves of pain that followed.

Covering the hole with cloth, and pressing hard into it, he remarks “At least it wasn’t deep… it isn’t bleeding as much as I was expecting.”  Gritting her teeth, she snaps “Well then, maybe you don’t need to press so hard…”  He lets up a bit, and she attempts to sit up, breathing in sharply as she does. He helps her to sit, and pulls her in close. “There. Better?”  She doesn’t reply, but instead leans into him more, resting her head on his shoulder, allowing herself to relax. It felt like she sat there forever by the time she finally looked up at him. He was staring at her, looking as if he was thinking. Weighing possibilities in his head. He moved his arm suddenly, bringing it up to her face. Using his thumb and forefinger, he held her chin up and leaned his head down, catching her lips with his. Her eyes widen, take aback by the sudden tenderness from the warrior she had fought alongside for so long now. She felt her heart leap, and before she knew what she was doing, she was returning his kiss. He tasted spicy, like something exotic…