Frost Bite.

Chapter Five.

I apologize again. I lost the first part of this chapter but will be summarizing it like I did with chapter four. I hope that was helpful since I tried to get as much detail into it as possible without having to retype the entire chapter. Also I will be retyping every summarized part soon.

Blythe.

She is taken to her bed chamber which is a room described to be big enough to fit half a house. There is a king size bed pushed up against the far wall with white bed sheets that are embroidered with blue and silver thread. Blue, white, silver and black are the colors of the Triguard family line which is the Royal family of Myres, the continent and they reside in Vexin which is the Capital city. The furniture in the room including a vanity, the bed, a living room area with chairs and the doors are made of black wood. There are curtains similar to the bed sheets that hang over the balcony doors. A large tub big enough to fit seven people is pushed into one corner where a floor to ceiling window is placed, overlooking the forest and sea beyond. A screen is placed to hide the tub from people who may be sitting in the living room area where a fireplace is lit. There are candles everywhere, on the walls, furniture and dangling from the ceiling while white and black marble flooring line the entire space. The servant girl pours some hot water that she heated by the fireplace into the tub and continues to do so while cold water pours in from a bears head that is mounted on the wall. She sprinkles dried rose petals, imported from the South into the tub along with rosemary and lavender. The girl has long auburn hair that hangs down her back in a detailed braid. Her eyes are brown and she wears a white dress that goes down to the floor and has long sleeves, over that she wears a brown overcoat with brown flats. Once she is done with the tub she dries her hand on a cloth that is always dangling from her shoulder and begins to strip. She moved to take the hem of Blythe's torn shirt in her small hands to tug it over her head but Blythe catches one of her wrists and pries it away. She girl giggles and explains that it is expected of servants to bathe and dress their masters. Blythe gives in and allows her to remove her torn shirt. The girl then leads Blythe up the steps that lead to the tub and into the water where she instructs our wolf to sit on a platform in the center of it. the water level reaches to just below her breasts. The servant girl wets Blythe's shoulders, neck and back with her hands then reaches across her for a glass cup, causing her smaller breasts to press up against Blythe's back. She instructs Blythe to lean her head back so that she may wet her hair using the cup that she fills with water. The girl uses scented oils to wash Blythe's silver hair and massages it into her head as well. Once she is done with her hair, the girl moves around Blythe and heads for a cloth that is neatly folded across from Blythe. She wets it and wrings it out a few times "What is your name?" Blythe asks her and the girl replies with "I am Mila, my lady" after a few moments of inspecting the girl and realizing that she had most likely been born in the South because of her darker skin tone and beauty spots that littered her flesh, Blythe then repeats the name, tasting it. She stands and as she does she speaks the words "I may be the new Commander of the Royal Guard but I am still a commoner, just like you" the water falls from her skin, rippling the surface as she moves towards Mila, stopping only inches away from the shorter girl with her blue eyes still rimmed in a thick circle of black from having given into her wolf. Her face is still splattered in red and her fangs show through when she speaks "So please, call me Blythe" she takes the cloth, now coated in oils and salt and moves away from Mila to scrub her own body free of blood, causing the water to turn red around her. With her back to the servant girl, Blythe is caught of guard when her lips part and she asks a question, Blythe had not been expecting "Are you and lord Aron lovers?" Blythe's back muscles stiffen, her face hidden from Mila's view as she thinks of the huntsman. The image she sees is one of him working on his arrows seeming so calm and at ease, it was a stark contrast to his usual teasing, crazed side that she had seen. She remembers his taste, the taste of alcohol and musk that stained his lips when she had kissed him, she even remembered what it felt like when his hand had gripped her hip. She realizes that Mila has a thing for Aron and glances back at her from over her shoulder, trying to hide a faint grin "He is someone very important to me" she says, meaning not that she is in love with him but that he had been the first person she had encountered and spoken to in more than a decade, he was the first person to want to willingly protect her as she had seen in the throne room and the first person to not fear her for what she was despite having seen what she was capable of. She looks back down at the water and sees her own reflection, a monster "However we are not lovers, no" she responds which allows Mila to breathe a sigh of relief as Blythe asks in the back of her mind 'Who could ever love a monster?'

Blythe.

Mila helped dress me in a simple dark blue dress that was made of a light material. It had long sleeves and went down to the floor, hiding the black sandals that clad my feet. The neckline dipped low in between my breasts while the back went down to just above my rear. My short hair was braided in various places, giving it a detailed appearance while my lips were stained red from crushed cherries and black charcoal lined my eyes, making them stand out more, despite their already distracting color. She had shown me to the Courtyard where the stable boys were walking horses and knights stood guard around the grounds. Men were pushing carts while others were yelling. I watched the smaller woman disappear back into the castle, leaving me in the freshly fallen layer of snow and surrounded by men who smelt of sweat and alcohol. I sighed, my breath becoming white before I headed for the armory doors that were sat across the Courtyard. I could feel the eyes of men watching me, undressing me but had grown used to it over the years of barely ever wearing any type of clothing. I did however wish that I could've been dressed in something less form fitting. The door was stood slightly open, allowing the cool breeze to brush into the room from the outside. I slipped in through the opening and found that the place was much warmer than I had been expecting it to be. There was an oven, burning hot enough to melt rubies while a man stood over a stone platform, beating a piece of heated steal with a hammer. Close by, Aron stood, inspecting a helmet that the other man had most likely hand forged. Neither of them had yet to noticed me so I stood perfectly still in the straw and dirt which was a welcoming sight in contrast to the constant white I was used to seeing "So tell me about him, this new Commander of the Guard" the man with the hammer insisted, standing upright and removing the helm that was meant to protect his eyes from the heat in order to inspect the piece of metal closely. He was an older man, a few decades or so older than Aron with a white beard, much longer than that of the Huntsman but the same dark eyes as him. For an old man, he was well capable of defending himself from his build. He lowered his helm and went back to beating the metal "She's stubborn, does stupid things and is a pain in my ass" Aron replied, turning the helmet this way and that to inspect the delicate detailing along the sides of it. His bow and arrows were set off to the side and his fur coat hung from a hook on the wall as sweat glistened his bare arms and parts of his exposed chest. The man halted, turning to look back at Aron, once again lifting his helm to expose furrowed brows "She?" he asked, wanting to make sure that he hadn't misheard the hunter. I stepped forward, feet crunching the hay beneath me and caught Aron's attention but the man only noticed me when I spoke up "Yes, she" the Blacksmith turned to face me, his eyes scanning my body as I stood with my shoulders back and my chin held high, hand neatly folded before me, close to my stomach. Aron's hand that had been gripping the helmet fell to his side, his eyes roaming every inch of me from the rings on my fingers to the necklace that still dangled around my neck and down to my partly exposed breasts but they came to a stop at my eyes "And you are?" the older man demanded, looking annoyed that I had entered his sacred workplace. I could tell that he was very protective of everything in that large building from the completed pieces that lined the wall to scrap metal that lay off to the side to the dust that coated the table surfaces. My lips tilted slightly upward "I am the 'she' you were referring to" he looked to Aron for confirmation, his eyes hard as he waited for a reply. I stayed rooted in place, not moving as I watched the two with interest. Aron glanced from me to the man, nodding his head once before he looked to me once more as if he was unable to take his eyes off me for too long "The new Commander of the Royal Guard" the elder man began, giving a breathy laughter after his words as he peeled set the hammer aside and abandoned the steal he had been working on to peel the helm from his head and dump it on a table nearby. he moved towards me, stopping a foot away "When I heard you were a woman I was expecting someone more man than woman but here you are, definitely a woman" he emphasized the last part of his sentence, eyes staring down into the valley of my breasts. Aron noticed and loudly set the helmet down on one of the tables which caught the man's attention, earning the Huntsman a glare. Aron ignored it and continued inspecting a few other things as if nothing had happened. I couldn't help but smile as I watched him act interested in a sword that was mounted on the wall "Ah, a she-wolf" I looked to the man who was watching my mouth intently. My fangs were still larger than usual from having given into my wolf which made them impossible to miss. My eyes glowed blue at his words as if my wolf had heard him through the barrier that separated our minds "That explains it" his eyes flickered over me, taking in my claws, unmarked skin and unusual hair color. Wolves were much more advanced than humans in strength, intelligence and speed but when it came to population, they outnumbered us a thousand to one, making it easy for them to wipe out our entire race. Only a handful of us still existed but if there were any others out there, I had never encountered them before "You know, I once smithed for a wolf" my eyes followed him when he moved to open a scroll of paper, laying it down onto a table after having cleared it. He placed weights at each end of the paper and moved to the opposite end of the room to search for something in a cart of items "Went by the name of Jacks Redwood" the name was a familiar to my ears, an image of the man surfacing in my minds eye. He was a father, a brother and a husband who had been loved by those around him. I had been a little girl at the time when our pack was ambushed and Jacks was our Beta which meant that he was second in Command to my father, the leader of our race and our Alpha "He was my father's younger brother" I announced. Both Aron and the man looked at me, afraid that they had stepped on touchy ground but I barely flinched at the thought of my dead family members, having had many years to deal with their brutal murders. His surname, was my surname, a name I had not used for over a decade, one that signaled Royalty to wolves and I, I was no Royalty, not anymore "He preferred to fight with a sword, one that was hand crafted for him" I remembered. My memory went back to a night by the fireplace, sitting in my uncle's lap with my head on his shoulder as I listened to him tell me stories of the great gods. He was cleaning his sword, a blade he had named Blythesal after his niece whom was more like his daughter, the only child he would know since he was killed before he could have children of his own "I recall its detailing, a hilt wrapped in black leather and encrusted with a sapphire, the blade had an engraving on it in our mother tongue 'Carvore del sentrovi' which means to die with dignity" the man looked shocked for a moment then gave a laugh as he retrieved a piece of charcoal from the crate and moved back over to the paper that was spread out, shaking his head from side to side with his eyes lost in the past "That sword took me over a year to forge to his liking" I smiled at the thought of my uncle, a young man who was as hard headed and stubborn as I was. It was nice to remember things from time to time but memories often came with sadness and pain so I tried my best to avoid thinking about the past. The man reached for a piece of rope "Let us start with the measurements" he said then moved towards me but before he could reach me, Aron appeared in front of him, taking the rope and wrapping it around each of his hands "I'll do it" the old man raised a questionable brow as he watched Aron walk over to where I was stood. He took a stand in front of me and I lowered my arms to my sides, raising my chin just a bit when he wrapped the rope around my neck. I could feel him tightening it more than what was needed, his eyes locking onto mine when did so. He then loosened it to get a proper measurement "By the grace of the gods" the old man exclaimed, throwing his head back in loud roar of laughter that filled the entire room. Aron removed the rope and turned to look at him in annoyance "My boy's smitten" he continued to laugh, his hand slamming down onto the table surface. It was then that I realized the older man was Aron's father. His words registered in my mind and I turned my head away, looking in the opposite direction while the man brought his laughter under control "You've got a job to do old man" Aron reminded him, his jaw set tight and his eyes slightly narrowed as he looked at his father. The man nodded and uttered a low "Right, right" before Aron gave him the measurements for my throat to scribble down onto the brown paper with the charcoal. Aron turned back to me, wrapping the rope around my chest, his knuckles gliding over my right n****e as he worked, making it peak as he brought the rope together in the canyon of my cleavage. This went on for some time with Aron taking the measurements of each body part then calling them out to his father to scribble down and sketch out a template of my armor. He moved to my waist then down to my hips, wrapping the threat around my rear and to the front where he brought it together very close to my core. I sucked in a breath and then let it out in uneven sessions. Aron noticed, his eyes flickering up from his hands to meet my eyes for a brief moment. I removed the rope and dragged a stool closer "If you will?" he motioned for me to place my foot on the stool. I hiked up the skirt of my dress and did as he wanted me too. He started off at my calve, once again wrapping the rope around it then stood upright, his hands pushing the skirt of my dress up higher until he was very much close to my entrance. He moved to measure my thigh, his hand brushing over me almost intentionally. I gasped and gripped his shoulder with my hand, claws digging into his skin, drawing small droplets of blood. The wound didn't seem to bother him as he worked, his hands moving away from me again to speak to his father as if nothing had happened.