Light of the Unexpected Adventure

Chapter 29 Are You Alright?

Gabriella's POV

Once every piece of his metal armor is strapped back on and secured, he flips around to face me. I noticed him huff out, looking exhausted, not frustrated though. I can relate to that feeling, because I am completely exhausted at that moment as well. This huff erupts within him right before he reaches down, extending his hand to me. Since he looks exhausted, this makes me want to ignore his extended gesture to help me out more that he ever should and try to take care of this for myself. But.. After many of my failed attempts to get to my feet on my own, I decided to give in and just accept his help.

I don't want to need his help, but I know I do whether I like it or not. So, I reluctantly put my hand out for him to take, and I think he noticed the reluctance and frustration in my actions as well. But that doesn't stop his actions. He reaches further for my limb, gripping my hand tight in his before he pulls me up to my feet. I feel his gentle hands go from my arms to my waist as he helps steady my wobbly body. Once I am steady, I look up and into his expressive eyes that are locked on me as I feel his hands tightening on my hips. I just wish I knew what he was thinking. "Thank you." I softly say under my breath to him.

Since we are in such close proximity to one another, I know that he heard me. With that comment I can see a small smile emerging before hiding away again. I figure that is all that will emerge from this interaction, as I wait for him to remove his hands, and get going but he does not. I get nervous looking up into his eyes, still not brave enough to say anything as I continue to just wait for him to remove his warm and gentle embrace that I seem to like no matter how much I fight those feelings. His worried eyes stay connected with mine for far too long, turning awkward as he finally realizes where his hands still are.

He instantly removes them from my body as if it is a flame that had just burned his fingertips, before looking away and apologizing under his breath. I nodded, silently letting him know that I understood what he was doing and that I would not be offended since I knew he was just trying to help me. I took this open moment to turn around as I fully expected to hobble wherever we needed to go after that interaction. But as I take a step, stumbling for a second as I hiss out in pain, trying to hold the agony back since my legs hate the extra weight put on them. I hear from beside me some groans of irritation as I notice him taking a step towards me.

I see him doing this, assuming that he is planning on throwing me over his shoulder again, but I hated that and would rather try to walk and endure the pain over that. So I instantly throw out my hands to stop him. "No I am fine.. I can walk or at least try. I don't want to be a burden to you or thrown around. It was very uncomfortable for me before." I stated as I watched his eyes roll. "What do you think, I am blind? Or just daft? I know that you can't walk on your own, nor will I make you try.. What kind of a man do you think I am?" he spats right back at me as I shake my head and walking backwards, away from him, until my foot catches on a large rock.

A squeak escapes from my mouth as I stumble and fall back, flailing my arms before one is caught by him. He uses his tight grip on my hand to pull me back to my feet. In one swift move, he instantly leans forward and picks me up effortlessly in both of his arms and not even throwing me over his shoulder this time around, which is nice. It all happened so quickly which surprised me, so my instinctive reaction is to squeak out before instantly wrapping my arms around this man's neck for support. He adjusts his arms with one that is behind my back and the other that is under my legs before straightening his back.

Our eyes connect only for a short moment before he looks straight ahead and starts walking forward. I am tired and scared but within his arms, I hate to admit that I do feel safe. I feel my arms loosening from not feeling threatened in this moment, but they stay nicely wrapped around his neck as if they are meant to be there. The moment is silent between us but somehow comfortable. My hand drifts down over the metal armor since there is a carved out Royal family symbol on his chest. I do this for a moment until I feel like I am being looked at.

I glance up to see he is looking at me before quickly looking away as if he is just as nervous as I am about being this close to one another. Especially since this seems to be a much more intimate position than I had imagined, at least intimate from my perspective. I need something to make me take my mind away before I start thinking too much about this embrace. "Leo.. I just wanted to make sure to say thank you.. For doing your best to protect me, when you didn't have to." His eyes bounced around, quickly glancing at me before nodding.

"Of course. I know you think that I am just a heartless guard for the King, but if given the chance, I can show that I am much more than that. I am not heartless or thoughtless." he declares as I send him a small smile that he reciprocates. What he doesn't know is that I am starting to really see that side of him and it's hard to not appreciate it, let alone hold myself back from liking that side of him.. We will see how long it lasts.

I clear my throat changing the subject as I feel him adjusting his hold underneath me, making me wonder if he is in pain as he is holding me. "Are you alright after all that?" I ask him softly while watching him glance down to me, then to my hand that is still on his chest, while drifting my fingertips over the symbol as he clears his throat. "I was hurt only a little, nothing that won't heal with the proper amount of time given." he declares in a nonchalant tone as if it is silly for me to even worry. "Are you sure?" I ask him, getting his attention on me again as I watch his eyebrows furrow.

"Why do you worry yourself with my well-being?" he asks curiously as I shrug my shoulders. "I was just worried about you since you did so much to try to protect us. You were still attacked as well and I saw that you were bleeding like I was.. but you have your armor on now, so it's hard to determine how much damage was done. Not to mention the fact that my light.. powers.. ignited as well and made everyone else expire, well besides you, that is.. I just wanted to know if you were hurt by any of it since I don't know how to control it." I say nervously to him as he softly responds. "Were you worried you hurt me?" I nod before looking down and away from his empathetic orbs.

"Oh.. Well don't stress yourself over me. I am fine. Why do you ask such things that get your mind worrying so much, when if you looked at me you could see that I am not hurt badly at all or I wouldn't be able to hold you let alone do all of this." he says this as if I don't know how to hold back my feelings. "Well anyone can hold back what they are really feeling to get something done and over with. Especially if that something is not completed and they could be killed for it. I just want to make sure that you were actually alright." I state making sure he knew that I wasn't making a jest, that this was serious.

"I like that you're worrying about me. It's makes me feel as if someone actually cares." He states playfully making me smile as I shake my head before slapping the crest on his chest making him smile with me. I look up just as he looks down to meet my gaze again. "I just had to make sure that I didn't hurt you. The other King's men were terrified of me, thinking I would kill them.. and if we are being honest I was worried about accidentally doing that as well... but with you it didn't happen and I don't know why.. Especially since I don't know what I am doing with that power." I explain to him as he adjusts his hold on me, making this look as if it is something hard to talk about.

A playful scoff escapes his lips, "I think I know how the power works." He states with so much confidence. "Oh do you?" I ask him with mocking in my tone. "Yea, I do. I think that no matter how much you deny it, Gabby, you have been tolerating me, but I think your toleration has developed into a like for me, you know because of my charisma." he states as I feel my eyes rolling while a smirk builds on my lips before he continues on, "So I would like to assume that your powers somehow knew you didn't actually want to kill me.. no matter how much you have fought me."

I think about that only for a second before I am scoffing then rolling my eyes once again, but making sure he saw it this time around. Before I can respond in defiance, he adds on. "I'm just jesting.. But.. In all seriousness.. Don't worry about me. I am not scared of you. I know you are not a monster that cannot control itself when it comes to the desire to kill. So give yourself a break. You saved us and you should be proud." he declares in my defense, which surprises me completely. I wasn't expecting that.

I smile, then nod to myself before I take this quiet moment to slowly and gently lean over on his shoulder. I adjust myself until my head is leaning on the curve of his neck as he continues to take us to.. Who knows where? I have no idea of where we are going for the time being, but I just hope we can at least make it to a safe place for the night because I am tired of running and being terrified, while having to fight for my life. I would assume that he feels the same way as myself, so hopefully we can figure out what to do and where to do it next.

We only get a little further before we hear from behind us. "So you mind telling me what you're doing?" It's a woman's voice, getting our attention instantly. I look up at Leo's face as he starts to slow down, His jaw automatically clenches before grinding his teeth together as he rolls his eyes, looking even more annoyed than he has been with me in the past. He slowly turns us around to face her as I hold onto Leo tight, not knowing who this woman is. Friend or foe.

We look from her then the surrounding area, keeping our eyes bouncing around just in case one of those undead monsters comes back for us. We were loud and brought a lot of attention after the commotion we made during that battle and my light explosion, plus our back and forth playful spat. So I am not surprised that we gained some unwanted attention. "I don't have to explain anything to you.. What are you doing here?" he asks in a frustrated tone before calmly setting me down to my feet, which hurts my limbs, but he is making sure I am steady before facing her again.