War's Rose

Learning More

          Aries had never been so nervous in his whole entire life. Just staring at his little mate waiting for her to answer him felt like forever. Time slowed to a crawl and with every second he felt an unimaginable weight bearing down on him. Finally, she starts to say something in a very hesitant manner “I don't know how I feel about Dragons. I honestly haven't seen or interacted with many. I've only heard fables and stories growing up.” Aries is somewhat relieved when he hears this but wonders why she is so timid around him, he thought it was because he was a dragon. As he stares at his mate with a curious look, he boldly asks her “Why are you so timid around me then?” She brings head back down and isn't sure how to answer and if she should answer honestly.  As she starts to fumble with her words Aries feels her heart rate pick up and soon her breathing too. “Take your time love” he said as he leans down and rest his head on hers. She starts to tear up and Aries is completely lost on what to do.  Suddenly Aria jumps off his lap and runs back to the washroom and pulls the door closed. Aries falls back against the headboard lost on what to do for her. The only woman he regularly talks to is Ma. Finally, he had an idea, he walked to the washroom and told Aria “I will be right back, don’t leave the room”. He was soft but stern when he spoke to her. Then he headed out the door to find Ma.

          Ma was in her normal spot at the stove cooking. The new little helpers were happy and smiling as the helped prep the food a vast difference from earlier. The boys look up and see him first and give a slight bow. Ma see them and looks over to Aries kind of puzzled as to why he is down here when he has a new mate. “Aries?” Ma questions. “I need your help, again. I don’t know what to do.” Aries says. Ma looks at him and nods her head to motion to head to a room off the kitchen where they can talk a little more openly. “Whats wrong?” she asks not sure whats going on. Aries tells her what happened and what Aria and he had talked about and then the final question before she ran. “Oh” is all she says as she starts putting the pieces together. “Aries come sit down. I know you don’t interact with female humans very often or at all, but I think I know what's going on.” She let out a sigh “Did you ever think that it’s the fact that you are a male? You said yourself that she doesn’t seem to have an issue with the fact you are a dragon. So, maybe it's because you a very tall, very large, very built, male dragon?” Aries looks at her as if he’s not putting it together fully. Ma groans “Its cause you’re a guy and she obviously has issues with males.” Ma say almost annoyed. Aries looks at her in a very interrogative manner “How is it so obvious and I didn’t see it?” Ma realizes she might have let on she knows more than she is saying. “Ma?” Aries says sternly. With a sigh she says, “Aries sit down, and I’ll tell you what I saw.” Aries does as he is told wanting to get as much info as he can. Ma takes a deep breath and starts to tell him what she saw, “As I was helping you mate change into the dress, I saw her body.” Ma is starting to get worried about how Aries is going to take this next part. “She has marks, they are all in areas covered by clothing. So, you haven't seen them yet.” Aries voice deepens as he questions, “what kind of marks?” “Aries please stay calm. I don’t know what caused the marks, but it looks like most of them are healed.” “Most of them!” he shouts. Before Ma can say anything else, he is out of the room passed the kitchen and headed back to his room to see his mate.

          Aria hears the door burst open and hears Aries making his way to her, his loud steps getting louder the closer he got. Her heart rate is picking up and she is not sure what to expect. Aries flings the door open and finds her sitting in the corner with her knees pulled up in front of her tiny body. He rushes over to her and pulls her up to a standing position. Aria’s heart is about to burst its beating so fast. Aries faces her and makes her look in at him in the eyes as he says, “I need to see them” the deep tone of his voice gave her goosebumps. With tears in her eyes she gives a nod and slowly turns around pulling her hair to the side letting him have access to the lacing of her dress. She takes a deep breath and lets it out and gives him a nod letting him know she is ready.

          Aries gently starts unlacing her dress preparing himself for what he’s about to see. Little by little he starts to see the skin of her back as he makes his way down her dress. She holds the front up as it becomes looser and is nervous about being this exposed in front of him. Aries lets out a low snarl that makes Aria jump. She turns around quickly putting her back against the wall and looks down to the floor. Aries grabs her chin and brings her face to meet his, “Who?” is all he could manage to say with his jaw clenched trying to keep his temper from flaring. Aria stares at him and starts to tear up, “My old master” she said quietly. “What was his name?” Aries inquires in a menacing tone. Aria tries to look away but his grip on her chin is too strong. “I don’t know we were only allowed to call him master.” She says not sure how he will respond. Aries lets go of her chin and turns her around. Aria is started to feel faint with how long her heart rate and breathing have been up. Aries touches her side and she flinches. Aries leans his head down to her ear, “Where all do you have these marks?” Aries voice is deep and threatening. “My back mainly, but my sides and legs have a few as well.” Her voice reflects how nervous she truly is. Aries starts to move his hand up her side to the back of her dress. He slowly starts lacing it back up tightening it as he works his way up. Aria starts to breathe again relaxing as she realizes he is covering her back up. When he is done, he turns her back to face him and say, “We need to take a walk”. His voice held so much emotion, but she couldn’t tell which one was he was feeling the most.

Aria just nods that she understands, and Aries takes her hand as they head out of his room. As they walk together hand in hand, he realizes that he is basically announcing he has found his mate. This makes him worry a bit as he doesn’t know these people in the market very well and doesn’t want this getting out to certain other Hordes.

He presses on holding onto Aria’s hand. He makes his way back to the marketplace and finds the merchants packing up. Aries stops them both and begins to question them. “Where did you get your batch of humans?” Puzzled the merchant asks Aries which one he was referring to as he has picked them up from everywhere. Aries realizes Aria has moved herself behind him to hide from her former captures. He slowly moves he to his side and says, “This one.” The merchant tries to step closer to her, but Aries lets a low sounding snarl out as a warning to not come closer. The merchant nods and starts to think, after a few moments he seems to remember something. “She was given to me by a lord in the southern kingdom.” The merchant said. He went on “The lord said she was of no use to him anymore. And told me to take her and see what I could get for her.” Aries pulled Aria a little closer to help him stay calm. Aries asked the merchant if there was anything that would set this lord apart from the others. He thought on it once more and then he remembered “He had marks on his face like he had recently been in a fight, some of those marks are bound to leave a few deep scars on his face.” Aries knew Human Lords valued their looks. So not many will have a marred face. This just helped him narrow down the list of lords. The merchants wouldn’t know the Lord's name, they Just called them lord and move on to the next one. Aries told the merchant if there is anything that he thinks of that could be of value to let know. The merchant agreed and continued to pack up.  After what had just happened Aria was a little shaken up and Aries decided to just head make to his room. Spending the rest of the afternoon with her, just them, sounded so relaxing. As they reached his room, she waited for Aries to open the door. Aries wanted for her to feel at home here and he got the since that she is still very uncomfortable here. He gently led her in the room by placing a hand on her lower back. She still jumped a little at his touch, but she didn’t seem as scared as before.

Once the door was closed Aries swept her up in a bridal style hold and walked over to the bed. Aria was caught of guard and clung to Aries as if he might drop her not knowing how strong he really was. She looked up to see him with a little smirk at how she reacted. Once he got to the bed he stepped right up on the bed still holding her and sat down so he was able to lean back against the headboard. He placed Aria in his lap and started running his fingers through her hair feeling how soft it was.

” I am sorry if I scared you or made you nervous, that wasn’t the intention. The thought of someone hurting you made my protective side come out and I did my best to keep it under control.” Aries caressed Aria’s face as he moved a few strands away from her face. Aria just stared at him, not knowing what to say or how to react. Aries continued to talk “I want you to feel like this is your home and I will do all I can to help you.” Aries is carefully watching her expression as he holds her in his arms. He wonders if he should continue and tell her about the possible danger ahead. Aria sees his change in expression and looks in his eyes not sure what to expect. Aries takes this as a sign to keep going, “Aria as my mate you are going to possibly be in danger do to my station in the horde.” Aries was trying not to scare her but still convey the seriousness of the situation. “I want you to stay in the room till I can access how much danger you might be in. It my not be immediately as it will take time for work to get around that I found you.” Aria pushed off of Aries’s chest so she could look him in his eyes and with tears almost leaking she said “Please don’t lock me in a room, I don’t think I could handle that again . . “