August stared at the plate of delicious delicacies with his watery mouth.
As soon as the maiden handed him the plate he started eating without caring much about mannerism.
As it turned out the maidens were returning back to their home, a place called wind manor and they asked him if he could escort them there. While it wasn't a very big issue being a bodyguard to a group of about fifteen girls. However, August had to look for his way to return home.
Soon after he was done with eating, he fell asleep. The maidens had set up a camp nearby the water stream. Water was a must for survival after all.
After some hours of peaceful sleep August was finally awake. It felt refreshing to sleep without worries after a very long time. His muscles weren't hurting any longer. August felt it was because of the medicinal tea one of the maidens had provided him with, before falling asleep.
August had no reason to fully trust the maidens yet, the tea may have been poisoned he thought. But then his tiredness and exhaustion made him let go of his worries. What worse could possibly happen, he thought.
He did drink the tea and maybe that's why he felt more refreshed and his pain also eased up. So that was a relief.
Not only that, his wounds also seemed to have been dressed up by someone in his sleep. August wasn't sure about how to react to that exactly.
Letting out a long sigh he came out of the tent.
People were doing their jobs it seemed.
August saw the maidens who were preparing for the dinner, some were out there hunting, and some sat cracking jokes around a large campfire.
He approached the campfire silently and sat on one of the wooden logs around it. He talked to no one and glanced at no one because he did not know anyone yet.
To him, these maidens were an annoying presence, so it was better if he stayed away from them.
Not that the maidens seemed to be like him either. He was nothing more than an eyesore for them. Perhaps their first encounter with him was to be blamed here.
Many looked at him, laughing and cracking jokes at him but August did not pay them any attention. He had nothing to do with them. The only thing that mattered here was for him to return home.
Also he did not trust their saintess fully yet. Even if she had helped him. Not that it mattered because the ones to make trouble with him were her own maidens.
There was another reason also, he had a suspicion that Aireen, the saint, was hiding something from him. No, not hiding exactly but like she hasn't told everything about her strange request.
His intuition told August, it was definitely something important.
Why would she ask a total stranger to escort her back anyways?
'There has to be a catch'
Whatever it was though, August wasn't interested. He wasn't going to accept her request. He decided to leave as soon as he recovered to a healthy condition.
Also the fact that the camp was filled with only females made August a little uncomfortable, or nervous maybe. These were all stranger girls that he did not know of.
He diverted his thoughts away, it was his first time away from home. Surprisingly it wasn't as bad as he expected to be, he was feeling somewhat homesick —that was the truth, yes but it wasn't as severe.
He thought of his father, his mother, and Shelly. He missed them but it didn't break him and only made his will to return home stronger.
'I wonder what May might be thinking about now'
He missed her too. She was his treasured friend after all. They say friendship or rivalry both are strengthened by a shared secret. And August did share the biggest secret of his life with her and in return she shared with him.
Their bond was somewhat different. Something that could not be explained, something that stayed, something that was deeper.
'I definitely don't miss Damian though'
August was staring into the rising flames of the fire with a distant gaze he heard a voice, something that should not be heard in a female group. Voice of a boy who called for him,
"Hey! New here?" The boy wasn't much older than August. He was clad in armour with a shiny sword. The youth had dark hair which appeared a shade of light-brown under any light, he had a fair complexion and was mediocre tall. More than a warrior he looked like a knight of some kingdom with that armour.
He had a playful smile on his face which exuded a child-like vibes from the youth.
"Finally, I also have a companion" he said with a joyful smile, "So what is your name? and from where are you?"
August rolled his eyes as he was already fed up with him.
'Oh Gods! Not another idiot, please'
"Hey! Why aren't you saying anything huh?"
"Answer me"
"Augustus" he replied with a fed up expression, "My name is Augustus"
"I see. You are Augustus" the boy replied, "oh! A sword. That means you are also a warrior ha?"
"Also" August asked, "you mean you also fight?"
"Yeah, I do. That is what warriors are supposed to do right?" The boy said sitting down beside August, "Well, it's true I haven't fought a proper battle yet but hey I have hunted beasts …uh not quite beasts but that also counts as fighting no?"
Even if the youth hadn't said himself August was sure of him having no battle experience because a warrior would not roam around in a shiny armour in the middle of a forest which surely was filled with unimaginable danger.
His armour would have marks, dents serving as witness to his heroic victories or defeats.
While August seemed already fed up with the youth he had a question for him,
"So, what is your name?"
"My name is Miles," the youth replied.
"Miles?" August said trying to sound rude so Miles would leave him alone, "does not sound like the name of a warrior."
August was rude and he knew it because he wanted to be rude. However, the boy named Miles replied completely opposite to what he had expected him to.
"Yeah you're right. It was my mom who named me," He smiled, "she wanted me to grow up as a farmer but I didn't listen to her."
"Is that so?" August felt a bit sorry, for a moment Miles reminded him of his own pitiful self and when he was talking about his mother —August remembered his own mother and her words of love and encouragement.
He tried to be rude but feared that he had gone too much on Miles. After remaining silent for a while he spoke, "hey I am sorry man. I know I can be such a jerk sometimes. Please don't mind me."
"Are you kidding me?" Miles said with his joyful, playful smile, "you know what Augustus, everyone here is my family. Since you are here you too are my family. I can't possibly take offence to your jokes."
"Me? Family?" August chuckled, "how exactly? I am not even a part of this group."
"Does it matter?" Miles replied, "you could be any warrior, any mage, politician, village priest for all I care, or maybe even mercenary what I think you are closest to, no offense.
I know about the request our saintess had made to you and you are taking your time to think about it. I know that too. But it doesn't matter. Not to me. "
"Everyone!" He screamed standing up and attracting the attention of everyone around, August however hid his face in embarrassment,
"You are my friends, my colleagues, my family" surprisingly everyone seems to love Miles back just as the jolly person he was, "you are all my sisters"
He winked at everyone and covered his mouth to whisper,
"Aside from our beautiful saint, ofcourse."
Everyone present their burst into laughter almost immediately.
The he turned to August once again and lowered his tone,
"That's why it doesn't matter to me. If you're here that means the saint has approved of you and if she has approved somebody, they become my family automatically."
He once again sat beside August,
"Now you get my logic?"
"Yeah I.. got your strangely convincing logic" August replied with a natural smile which he himself didn't know when exactly it had appeared on his face.
Miles sure was a strange person. The fact that these annoying girls love him proved the fact that he was not only true to his core but also an innocent person.
That was the part August was failing to understand though.
"Hey, can I ask you a question if you don't mind?" August asked hesitantly.
The jolly youth smiled even more, "you are opening up to me I see. Fine, go ahead."
August wondered what Miles thought of opening up meant exactly, but he ignored the useless thoughts and asked, "if you can't fight, why did you choose to become a warrior in the first place?"
"Isn't that obvious?" the youth let out a chuckle, "I chose to become a warrior not because I like to fight— that I hate. I became so because I wanted to be here."
Miles seemed to think about something beautiful, something that was very special to him,
"..and do you know why I wanted to be here?" he poked August, "come on ask me."
August let out a sigh, "Okay, fine. Miles, why did you wanna be here?"
Miles stretched the answer as long as he could, "beca..use … of ... .uh" his next words seemed kinda stiff "…saintess!"
August stared at him with confused expression, "Because of the saintess?"
"No, no the Saintess," Miles said with gritted teeth.
August had no clue what the hell was that answer supposed to mean and why the hell Miles was behaving like this suddenly. He only understood when a familiar voice called.
"Warrior Miles?" August turned, only to see the saint standing behind them with her attendant. Miles closed his eyes letting out an expression like he was so done, "are you having a good chat with our guest?"
"Saintess" Miles forced out a smile and tried to sound as convincing as he could; however , it was anything but, "I was about to relay your message to warrior Augustus."
"About to?" the saint asked as his smile grew wider, "but it has been about two hours already since I've given you that task."
"I …uh …oh god …ummm" warrior Miles seemed to be out of words, "I …uh. Sorry I forgot. I became so immersed in talking to warrior Augustus that I forgot what you asked me to do."
"It's fine," the saint replied in her pleasant, soothing tone. "No worries. Everyone forgets things sometimes. In the end we are all humans. And humans make mistakes. I forgive you. It's …it's fine. You are a human after all."
While the saint showed it as she was forgiving Miles, it was nothing but a huge lecture for poor Miles.
A punishment for slacking off on his work. The saint struck as a forgiving and kind type to August at first but when he saw her indirectly scolding Miles, he got to know that saints could also be angry sometimes.
'Good to know, I guess'
On the other hand August was genuinely curious about what might the saint want from him that she deemed important enough to come look for him in this dark night.
"Warrior Augustus," her tone seemed to have softened a lot more, "do you feel better now?"
"Much better"August replied with a warm smile, that was the least he could do in return for their hospitality even if they were at fault here, "I am really thankful to you Miss Saint."
"Good to hear that," the saint said with another gentle smile.
Looking at her in this kind of setup August was sure, she was kind, her behavior was calm and talked to everyone with a pleasant smile. She reminded him of May.
May was also an elegant and kind beauty after all.
Only the difference was that May carried an icy vibe around her and the vibe around the saint was a bit more warm in that regard.
Also her gently swaying chestnut hair reminded him of Shelly. Only the saint wasn't an idiot and a blockhead.
Suddenly the saint spoke as though talking about something important,
"If it's alright warrior Augustus, may I have a word with you?"
— — — — —