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The Sword and The Rose. ((Kolath x Butterfly))

Surely he heard her approach for Anya was not a master of stealth and soon his plate was offered to him while Anya took a seat upon the log next to him. "You shouldn't be deprived of your own prized buck because of my mistress. You no doubt worked up a hunger simply from the hunt for it alone." She had a sort of half smile on her face, "Eat? Please?"
 
He had heard her coming but he hoped she would just keep going. When she sat next to him he smiled and sighed a little looking over at her. he took the plate and then shook his head slightly. â??Iâ??m sorry about that back there I never like having to treat people like that. Its just not who I am but when someone forces me to be like thatâ?¦â? he shivered lightly, â??â?¦it shakes me that I can be that way.â?
 
She sort of half smiled back at him, "You don't need to apologize to me. You did what had to be done. Lady Terra was..." it was her turn to shiver then, "well let's just say I have never seen her like that before and I pray I never see her like that ever, EVER again. You did what anyone would do. In fact," her smiled turned a little wider then, "I think you might have been a little easy on her. Most men, when spoken to by a woman like that, would beat them and beat them good. But you are bigger then that."
 
He shrugged slightly. â??There is no reason for a man to beat a woman ever. If a man needs to beat a woman it only proves his lack of self worth and self respect.â? He sighed placing his head in his hands. â??Besides she had already done herself enough harm there was no need to do her any more. The only reason that she is confined to her room now is for her own safety. I trust my people not to harm her, but humiliation is something else.â?
 
She smiled, looking down at how he still was not touching his food. She nudged his hand with the plate a little, "Well then, you did good, see? You're only helping her. So.... you should celebrate this victory against the she devil Lady Terra with a good hearty meal." She smiled brightly. She felt so very comfortable with this man.
 
He sighed and placed the food down on the log on the other side of him. â??I canâ??t, I can never bring myself to eat after getting that angry. There is just something about the emotions that makes it so I canâ??t.â? He stood walking toward the pool standing at its edge just a few feet away. Bending picking up some stones and starting to skip them across the pool.
 
She sighed a little as well, feeling like she was attempting to talk to a brick wall. She was trying to help him. She WANTED to help him, but he was just... hard headed. How could she lighten his mood? Seeing him skipping stones then, she had an idea. Rising herself and crossed to the pool with him, acting with great amazement at what he was doing, "Oh! You can skip stones? I've seen it done so many times but..." she picked up a stone and tried to skip it herself, it only sank to the bottom, "I could never get the hang of it."
 
He looked at her with a sideways glance. How could someone not know how to skip stones. He smiled and picked up another flat stone handing it too her. â??You are using the wrong type of stone first off. The flat ones skip the best.â? He took another one and made a point of making it clear that he was through from the side. â??This is the trick. You arenâ??t throwing it out over your head like this.â? He showed her an over hand throw, â??Its to the side like this to get the stone distance but also so whe it hits the water it bounces.â?
 
The truth was... Anya knew full well how to skip a stone. One of the few things she had taught herself years ago in the little pound behind her father's manor. But he didn't know that. Teaching had brought him such joy before, she hoped it could lighten his mood again now. "So then... a stone more like this one right?" She knelt down and sifted through the rocks until she found a perfect stone for skipping and holding it up to him.
 
He nodded as he continued to skip rocks out over the pond. â??Thatâ??s a good one for it now just put your hand out to the side and keeping it level, to throw it out across the pond.â? His rock flew from his hand skipping twice before sinking below the surface. â??And with a little bit of practice you will be able to do that and more.â?
 
She pulled her arm back and let the stone go flying. It skipped across the water.... three times. She smiled at him, almost sheepishly, "Beginner's luck?" She knelt to pick up another to skip it, "So, how exactly does one find their way into a career in being and outlaw anyway?"
 
He smirked at her and raised an eye brow under his mask at her assertion that it was beginnerâ??s luck. â??If so then try not to repeat it.â? he sighed as she asked about his past and how he came into this. â??Circumstances out of oneâ??s own control really. You see enough injustice and enough people claiming things in the name of the king that never would have been allowed and you will do whatever is needed to set them right.â?
 
She fling the stone in her hand, bouncing it only once this time before it splashed into the water, but it skipped never the less. "And the people here? They feel the same way as you? Were we come from, the Earl speaks only highly of the way the kingdom is being run. And... speaks very poorly of outlaws. Your name comes up quite a bit." That was all the truth as well. Anya heard her father speak of it so often, but never to her. To her brothers. Politics was not for a lady's ears.
 
He laughed softly, â??Of this I am not surprised. The Earl is making a tidy profit off of his poor people by the taxes that the regent has imposed. â?? he growled softly looking back over his shoulder, â??Your mistressâ?? attitude shows how well she had it looking down on anyone of lower station then herself.â? He shook his head slowly sighing and picking up another rock. â??The people here are mostly the poor that have had their land taken from them or escaped the dungeons for not being able to pay their debts.â?
 
Anya looked back as well and sighed. The TRUE Terra was nothing like the Terra he had seen. It almost stung her pride a little bit to think that when she left this place, he would think of the lady Terra as a spoiled, snobby, brat. She wanted him to think highly of her. But then she supposed as long as he thought that way of Anya, then she could at least be somewhat satisfied. "I don't think my lady knows much of politics Sir Fox. She had never spoken of them. Not like her brothers or her elder sister's husband. Especially not her father. Politics are not her place. What good could she do? She is only a woman after all." She skipped another stone. Again with three skips.
 
He laughed and shook his head slightly. â??I see that your mistressâ?? thinking has rubbed off on you a little.â? He skipped another stone this time with four skips. â??Here there is no â??only a woman after allâ?? We are all equal here. We all share the work equally no one being excluded from anything. Now the people have preferences what they did and all things going well we do let them help they way they want. However if we were attacked here everyone except the young children and those assigned to protect them would take up arms and fight. What would your Earl and mistress say to that?â?
 
"A woman fighting would be entirely unheard of," Anya commented as she knelt to pick up another stone. "A woman's place would never be in a battle. They would think it in the home. Baring heirs and maintaining the home." She thought for a moment before she cast out her stone, matching his four skips. "What about me? I'm here in your small village. Would I be permitted to fight if I chose to?"
 
He blinked a little bit shocked that she would ask such a question. His mind raced as she started to fit more and more into his vision of the perfect girl. â??Whâ?¦why would you want to? I mean we are the ones that kidnapped you and your mistress. I would think that you would rather have nothing to do with us, and yet I see you out with the children all the time. You have me and my men completely confused and this question just adds to that.â?
 
"Well, I didn't say that I WANTED to fight along side you all," She smiled as she skipped on last stone, "I just asked if I would be allowed to. I am after all here am I not? And you said that we are all equal here. I just wondered if I was part of that." She shrugged and turn, "Hey!" she said with a slight laugh as she found the same little puppy she had fed at the table now devourer the food on the plate that the Fox had left on the log. She picked up the pup, making him whimper from being separated from the food. She just gave him a stern little look as she held him up to her face, "How can you be so little when you eat so much?" The pup only licked her nose in reply.
 
He realized that he had made a jump to a conclusion about what she meant when she asked if she could fight. â??Wellâ?¦take your guards for instance we wouldnâ??t let them ever fight because they are known to fight for the other side. That is the real problem with it we couldnâ??t be sure whoâ??s side you were on in a fight, as I said we did kidnap you. However if that one fact had changed that you werenâ??t kidnapped then you would be welcome to fight with us.â?

He smirked coming over and gently brushing the ears of the puppy. â??I see that Bottom has taken a liking to you. Not that its hard when you feed him.â? his hand brushed over the little mutt who clearly knew the fox well as he pressed against the petting hand in pleasure.
 
"Bottom?" she asked looking at the pup. "This little fella is too cute to be a Bottom. Bottom sounds like a name for something short and stout. Bottom is the name for a bulldog and this little fella looks more like he's got some Border Collie in him. It might fit him now, but he will grow out of that. Won't you, won't you little guy." She nuzzled her nose against the pups and he yipped all happy, tail wagging away.
 
Nathan laughed, â??Well his name is really Bottomless Pit, because he can eat so much. it wasnâ??t meant to be a name just no one claimed him as their own. So we just kind of took him in as a camp.â? The connection that he could see between the pup and the woman was so very cute that he couldnâ??t help but wish that he was part of it. he blinked taking a moment to banish that thought before picking up his plate and tossing the last scrap of meat to the pup that caught it mid-flight. â??Well shall we head back?â?
 
She laughed, "Bottomless Pit huh?" She looked at the pup as she munched down the last of his food then looked up at here, wagging his tail once more. "Perhaps the name does suit him after all. And here I though him a hungry little thing when he's probably quite satisfied with himself." Turning her attention back to him, she nodded, "Yes I suppose we should. I need to return to my mistress and see how she fairs. I should have gone to her in the first place."
 
He offered her his arm waiting to see if she would take it. â??Come then let me escort you.â? It wasnâ??t like there was anything that would be a danger to her but no matter how he tried there was still too much gallantry bred into him to stop it. also the thought of being that close to her again had a certain appeal to it having enjoyed being that close earlier today.
 
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