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A Simple Misunderstanding . . . [Bloodkiss and ChaosLord29]

The light seemed to exist solely for the purpose of waking her up, she thought. Dappled sunlight was cast across her face, let in by the window and open doorway. It took a moment for her mind to register what her body was doing. She was wrapped in Allister's arms, her form pressed close against his in a comfortable, familiar way. She blushed furiously, but didn't move for fear she might wake him, if he wasn't already awake. At this moment she wasn't sure what to do, or if she even wanted to get up. As emberassing as it was to wake up next to a near-stranger, it felt right to be in Allister's arms.
 
Allister slept on soundly, breathing deeply his arm still around Caoimhe he was still dreaming, on into the morning. During the night, his opposite hand had found it's way to hold Caoimhe's side, holding her gently at the hip. In his mind's eye he was far from there, his dream land mimicking the grand ballroom of the king's palace, where he was in attendance at a masquerade ball. He had spent the night laughing, talking, drinking and dancing, admiring his partners, as their masks seemed to blur with their features. In his dream, his eyes were drawn inexorably towards a beautiful, rosy haired woman in a dark, burgundy dress, masked behind a sultry, succubus mask as she beckoned to him. There was something wrong, and he knew it, but he enjoyed the dream none the less, and as he slept on, he held Caoimhe to him more tightly, leaning his head against her.
 
Aoimhe pulled away as gently as she could, taking his hand from her hip and holding it in her own long enough to scoot from beneath his arm. No doubt he was dreaming of his leman while he held her, imagining more than the innocent comfort he'd given her. She wished she could stay in those arms, regardless of what he might be dreaming. But that would be bad for both of them when he woke. It would be better for her pride and his sense of propriety if she slipped away now...
 
Allister rolled over towards her instinctively as she moved away, still smiling though his dream seemed to flutter and shudder before his inner eye. The area left vacant by her on the bed he did not fill and as he rolled over her lay flat on his chest, hugging the pillow a bit though his dream and his slumber were now disturbed, though his eyes remained closed. The sun fell on them however, and it was a few minutes before it fully registered with him that it was time to wake up, and even longer before he was actually able to muster the will to open his eyes and lift himself from the bed. His mind focused however on the slight pain in his chest, where the ruby he had kept in his tunic was pressing into him, and the discomfort stirred him to wakefulness, though the situation and circumstance of his rousing had not yet reached him.
 
Caoimhe aimed to make herself gone before he awoke, hoping to ease the awkwardness of the situation. She would go down to the spring and bathe, accomplishing two goals at once. Her body was still aching and torn from the previous night, and it would be good to wash the blood and dirt from herself and her clothes. She grabbed a coarse boar-bristle brush and a small jar of lavender soap. Midnight hurried from his sleeping place beside the dying fire, ready to join her. She slipped her feet into her boots and hurried off, glancing over her shoulder for a long moment at Allister's sleeping form. The way the sunlight hit his face made the hard angles that much more masculine. He was actually quite handsome, she noted. She made her way down to the spring, the water warm against the cool morning. Steam rose around the small body of water, and she was quick to slip out of her filthy dress and into the water. She washed the dress quickly, hanging it on a low branch nearby before returning to the water to soak.
 
((Sorry for the delay in my reply))

The exact circumstance of his rousing hit Allister sharply as he tried the soreness of his limbs and bruising from his encounter with the demon. His eyes shot open and he whisked himself out of the bed as if it were on fire, looking at it accusingly and then down to his hands and tunic as if for some sort of solace. 'Did I . . . ' For all his sense of propriety, it was not the first time Allister had spent the night in the company of a woman, but something about the situation caused him undo pause and concern. His training wanted to tell him that he had been enchanted, manipulated, but he had already learned too much to accept such an explanation. He turned towards the door, wondering where she had gone to, but deciding that it was something that could wait. His smile returned slowly, as he thought about what they had discussed, and despite his conflicting views, he felt assured in Caoimhe.
 
((It's quite alright.))

Caoimhe scrubbed herself clean, careful of her many bruises and cuts. The gash in her leg would be a while to heal, but she had managed to walk on it with only a small limp this morning. In the next few days it would be mostly back to normal. She was careful of her head as she scrubbed her hair, wincing each time her fingers struck a sore spot. When she was satisfied that she was clean, she removed the bandages from her hands, examining the burns. She would have scars for a long time, but she supposed it was a small price to pay for her life. The deep cuts had healed almost completely, but her palms were blistered and swollen from the use of so much magic, and unfortunately, her gifts would not heal the damage they had done.

She closed her eyes and sank beneath he surface of the water, content to just sit for a while. The warm water soothed her knotted muscles and bruises, and it numbed the pain of the many cuts and blisters plaguing her. She came back up, rinsed clean, and floated about, relaxing among the sounds of the forest around her. She was comfortable here, the birds chirping quietly with the early morning sun, the wind breathing through the trees softly. It felt much like her home, before things had changed.
 
Getting up from the bed Allister stretched his arms high in the air and then his shoulders and his legs, stripping away his tunic and leaving only his trousers on, as he gathered up his armor and weapons as he exited the cabin. Setting them down aside his horse, he began to break down his tent and pack up the small camp that had gone unused, enjoying the feel of the dewy grass beneath his bare feet and the morning air in his lungs. Once he had finished, he began to make his way towards the nearby stream, emptying his water skin along the way to be refilled.

His limbs and body were sore not so much from the encounter with the demon previously, but this had been his first real chance to spend a night and evening resting without need for his armor, or to be on horseback, and walking freely having slept so well had done much to relieve the stress. 'Don't get used to it.' He chided himself, still smiling as he descended towards the stream, 'You've had an easy enough life as it is.'
 
Caoimhe sat up straight, surprised. She swore she heard footsteps nearby, just beyond the stand of trees that hid the spring. She sank down into the water until it reached her chin, then swam to the edge of the spring, leaning up on a rock and looking up at the stream that fed into the spring from a small waterfall. Allister was approaching the stream, and he was half naked. She cursed and back-paddled, hoping he wouldn't hear her. She hurried to the edge of the spring where she'd left her clothes, and cursed again under her breath as she noticed that her dress was still soaked. It hadn't had long enough to dry, and the thick wool would be difficult to pull on quickly in the state it was in.
 
Allister did not hear Caoimhe despite her cursing, somewhat lost in his own thoughts as he was as he approached the stream. He didn't know where the spring itself was, and thus as he approached the copse of trees he saw only the rocks that enclosed the pool and went to where the bubbling water descended down the side of the rock. He ran his hand under the water, trying to gauge it's purity, before putting his head to the rock and letting the water run down it, washing off his hair and face, and shaking the excess water off. Figuring that the spring itself might be nearby, he rounded the rock outcropping towards the pool where Caoimhe was still regarding her drying dress, still very much unaware of her presence.
 
Caoimhe heard him getting closer, and gave up trying to be quiet. She rushed out of the water and toward the tree where her dress was drying, kicking and splashing the water violently in her hurry. She was almost to the edge of the spring, tripping clumsily on her hurt leg. "Damnit!" She grabbed her thigh and cursed several times before resuming her flight.
 
That Allister could not ignore as he moved around the side of the pool and he froze in place as he heard the splashing noises from the pool. On one hand, that answered his question as to the source of the spring, but his initial caution resumed itself, especially given that he was without his weapons or armor. He thought he heard some muttering from around the rocks but could not be sure, and thus, setting aside the waterskin he rounded the rock face quickly, only to see Caoimhe cursing as she held her thigh, stark naked and dripping wet in the grass.
 
Caoimhe straightened and stubbornly limped to the tree where her dress hung, unaware that he had already spotted her. She tugged the dress from the branch, struggling to untangle the mass of wet, heavy wool. She cursed again and tossed the dress down, giving up for a moment. She needed to retrieve her soap and brush anyway. She glanced around for the items, spinning in a wide circle before turning back in shock as she spotted Allister. She quickly wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to hide her nakedness, blushing furiously. Her hair was plastered to her face and shoulders, and she could barely see through the mess of damp curls.
 
Allister turned himself away nearly as fast as she covered herself up, clasping his hands over his eyes for good measure as he blushed nearly as deeply. "I'm so sorry!" he called out, "I didn't mean to . . I was just coming down to . . . I wanted to fill my . . . waterskin . . . " His speech got progressively softer as he spoke, and each word seemed more and more flat as he spoke them. He hated making excuses, to anyone in any situation, let alone one as embarrassing and easy to take the wrong way as this one.
 
Caoimhe picked up her dress and struggled with the fabric, trying to keep her mind and her eyes off of his bare torso. The damn dress wouldn't cooperate, so she gave up once more, holding it in front of her for some measure of modesty. She wasn't sure why, but the though of his gaze on her naked body made her much more nervous than anyone else's. Perhaps not nervous, but something. It made her feel fidgety and heated. "It's...um, it's alright. I was...I was just about to leave, anyway." She mentally kicked herself. She was a horrible liar. And probabaly he and everyone else in the world knew it.
 
Allister was not nearly so concerned with her words as to worry about her lying however. He was now regretting the decision to try keeping his eyes closed as the image of her naked and still wet from her dip into the spring was now projected in unseemly detail across his eyelids. What's worse was the way his mind played tricks on him, the image of her scowling and holding her injured thigh somehow managing to twist itself into an innocent, seductive pose worthy of a bathing nymph from Greek myths. An analogy that did nothing to ease Allister's mind as he recalled the fates befell those poor souls who after gazing on that which they should not have were transformed into trees or worse. He could only imagine what curse Caoimhe might place on him, witch or not. "No, please I can just fill my waterskin somewhere else." he said, doing his best to convey a shrug backwards, "I didn't mean to interrupt."
 
Caoimhe was unsure what to do now. She supposed she should turn and walk away, but she couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she stayed. He was far more muscular than she had first assumed, and even from behind she couldn't deny that he was attractive. "I didn't know you would be awake yet. I thought I'd slip away for a few moments. I apologize if I woke you..." She almost laughed at her own ridiculous words. She was sure that was the last thing he was thinking about right now, but her mouth spat the words before her brain thought about them.
 
"Not at all, I . . . " Allister was about to say that she had not woke him, but it had not been as pleasant to awaken without her. He was all the more surprised that he had asked her to stay, not in fact saying he himself would leave. The memory of falling asleep with her, about the moment they shared in speaking about her family picked and pried at his sense of propriety and like it or not he thought of her differently now, and viewed their night spent together positively. 'Who do you think you're kidding?' the voice in the back of his head piped up, 'like-it-or-not?' there's not 'or not' about any of it.' And he had to agree. "I'm used to being an early riser, although I was unsure if I had offended you."
 
She cocked a thin eyebrow, confused. "Why would I be offended? You've done nothing wrong." She laughed softly. "If you don't recall last night, I do not have a delicate constitution like some of the ladies you've met at court." She had almost forgotten that she was still naked, and her grip on her dress had become lax. She tightened it once more, emberassed that she had shown the tops of her breasts once more. She really should have put the damn thing on, but wet wool was stubborn and uncomfortable.
 
"Oh I recall just fine." He said, perhaps a bit too defensively, though it felt more familiar and comfortable to hear her challenging such preconceived beliefs. "I also seem to recall a certain jibe about dancing naked in the moonlight, when first we met." He said, unable to contain a smirk risking turning his head a little bit. "So between your sensibilities and my sense of propriety, we may not be in as awkward a position as first reactions would predict." He had to laugh (if quietly) at that, risking a glance backward, and catching sight of her holding her dress before her in his peripheral vision.
 
She laughed loudly, if in a rather unlady-like way. "And if I recall someone looked terribly horrified at the idea of seeing me naked." She suddenly felt anger and defiance bubble up inside her, daring her to challenge him. She suddenly tossed the gown to the ground, all modesty forsaken, and put her hands on her hips. "Is it as horrifying as you thought it would be? Do I look like the terrible witch I'm supposed to be?" Her milky skin would be flawless, if not for the large gash in her thigh and the bruises riddling her body from the night before.
 
Hearing the dress flop to the ground, Allister had to wonder what she was up to and turned only to see her in her full nakedness, staring at him accusingly with her hands on her hips. Even standing across the pool he could see she was quite a beauty, the rival of any number ladies of the court, and he had to stop his jaw from dropping at her newly brazen attitude. He could not stop his eyes however as they made a quick but thorough assessment, taking in every inch of her from head to toe. "I . . . umm . . . well . . . " he felt compelled to stand and face her now, scratching the back of his head. "You're beautiful." he said simply, staring at the ground awkwardly, not willing to raise his eyes for a second look.
 
She blushed, all the fire gone from her attitude as he spoke those words. She was suddenly shy again, wishing she hadn't been so brazen. She needed his help, and making things awkward between them would do her no good. But she supposed it was too late for that. "Th-thank you..." All of the wind had left her sails, and she was unsure how to continue from here.
 
Allister looked up at her, hoping to cut the tension only to remember her nakedness and looked down again, "Uh . . . I take it you, haven't heard anything along those lines?" He asked somewhat hesitantly, immediately regretting it, and worrying about whether it sounded offensive. He wondered though, whether she had heard it, and whether she might have taken a lover before. He was not entirely unexperienced himself, but still he had at least contact with other people more regularly than he imagined she had.
 
She crossed her arms in an attempt to regain some measure of modesty. "No, as you can imagine, most men are terrified of the witch. And the ones who aren't are only seeing me so that I might heal their wife or deliver their son." She glared down at the damn gown, making a note to burn it as soon as she repaired her old one. She brushed a damp lock of hair from her face, the water cold now, and fought the urge to shiver, both from the unsettling turn their conversation had taken and the chill of being naked.
 
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