Embarrassing Understanding...

Her emotions trip over themselves as she struggles to take in all he has spoken of in the last hour or so. She was glad she corrected his impression of Valeros, who had never once come to her for... Her eyes flew open and she pushed against Kiril hard.

Enough to tip him backward. She leapt to her feet, a crimson flush covering her exposed flesh. “Oh gawds,” she stumbled blindly, first backing away, then turning and running. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she ran. She didn’t know where she was headed, she hadn’t gone far from the monastery unless she was with... with... her lip trembled.

Her chest heaved. It was still early but the sun was already scorching.

What a fool she’d been. She was no better than a common ...she should have let them place her in the fleshpots; the auctions. She would have brought a high price.

Her sprint slowed, her anger simmered. Fresh tears dripped as she thought to Kiril. He must – gawds, I don’t – can’t imagine what he thinks of me.

Sorceress tramp.

“How could I have been so naive? It’s just not possible. Why hadn’t Haleen at least glossed over this...” She stopped. “That’s why Gryfaw and Nasko left. She made them go away and never told me why.”

This enlightenment falling on her helped in one way, in another she was more confused than ever. She kept walking, her desert feet not minding the hot sand. “A little thirsty, but I’ll head back soon.”

“His lips were soft. Dry, and warm. Soft, dry and warm.” She was analysing her first kiss, and deciding she liked it very much. Her toes curled and her insides turned all electric. Fresh tears burst. “And he thinks I’m either the stupidest person in the desert or the... no,” she considered fairly. “He thinks I’m the stupidest.”

A noise to her right drew her head upward. “Oh, Thunder Sticks!” she muttered as a mugwumpie crested the dune in front of her. He was about twenty-feet away, but his smile indicated he had seen her and was eager to connect.

“Thunder Sticks!” She muttered again. The lack of sleep, lack of food, and the active morning left her low in energies. “Bring it on you son-of-a...” Spring closed her eyes, drawing deep within to the wellspring of her resources.

She called upon the new knowledge she’d been given this morning, calming her mind. She could sense the creature creeping closer – she knew she was mystifying it by not moving. If he’d looked closely enough he would have seen her lips trembling, her hands quiver.

She could smell the foul part human-beast. When he stood a mere foot away, his lip curled in a sneer, stroking his pouch. She threw her hands at the stunned being, rolling as she’d learned and coiling to her feet as the creature dodged her last bit of energy charging her, her feet gripping the loose sand waiting until he jumped, his fingers clawing to grab her when she again flipped her frame over itself coming to her feet ready for a fight.

A large needled cactus standing in her way provided some much needed weaponry and as the mugwumpie thrust his body at her again she flicked her wrist in the manner that Kiril had taught her, watching with undisguised glee and revulsion as the needles pierced, one in the mugwumpie’s left eye, sinking grotesquely in about six-inches, and the other entering one side of his throat and exiting the other.

His screams were bone-chilling. And they alerted his companion out foraging who crested the dune on the run...

Spring turned and began running back to the monastery only to find a third mugwumpie a few yards away with a big grin on his face.

“Boulders!” Leaping through the sand, not as graceful as it sounds, and dressed as she was, surely only the show before the dinner. She reached the cactus and broke another spine, “Now how was that again...?” she jumped, spun and threw to the space her eyes never left, dispatching a second mugwumpie with a squeal.

The final one running at her full bore didn’t give her a chance to do anything. He ran straight into her, his arms clasping around her scantily clad figure as they both flew back, landing on the hot, yellow sand, his heavier, although smaller, body on top of hers.

For a moment she freaked. His ferocious face only inches from hers; his foul breath, hot as he sucked air from his fast dash. Drool spilled from the corners of his ugly pink lips, landing on her cheek.

It spurred her to struggle; to fight back. He may be stronger, but she knew she was smarter.

They rolled in the ground for a few moments, the creature receiving repeated head-butts as Spring refused to be bitten. She so badly wanted to freeze this vile creature’s pouch so hard it would break; “and then I want to break it!” she shouted, her head growing dizzy as she repeatedly bonked his very stone-like cranium.

Without warning his body was flung several feet away, impaling on the very cactus Spring had found her previous weapons. A pair of hands grabbed her and hauled her off the ground and against a massive stone-wall, arms wrapping tightly around her, squeezing the air out of her.

“Kiril?” she squeaked. “Oh gawds, Kiril,” she pressed her lips against his her arms flinging around his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair, pulling his mouth tight against hers.

o0o