Azarei's Quest

Chapter Five

"Incendio," Azarei cast.

The pile of wood set ablaze.

"Well isn't that handy," Utia said, with amusement in her voice.

She took one of the sausages from the bag they'd 'acquired' earlier that evening and pushed it onto the end of a long, skinny stick. Utia had seen the sausages sitting in a bag on someone's back porch, ready to be cooked. Of course she helped herself to the entire bag. But she's no thief, mind you. Azarei followed her lead but with two sticks. He was a hungry boy.

"I guess I'm good for something," Azarei joked.

The corner of Utia's mouth quirked up in a slight smile and in the fading light of the evening and the flickering flames from the fire she was an otherworldly type of beautiful.

"I'll probably only eat two of these," Utia said, peeking in the bag of sausages.

There were 3 left, not including the ones on their sticks.

"You can have the rest," she said, looking at Azarei with a lazy smirk. "I'm sure you need a lot of food. You know, being a beast and all."

"How considerate," Azarei said, toasting his sausages over the fire, a stick in each hand. "Us beasts do need a lot of food."

"Yeah, I'm sort of a really nice, considerate person," Utia said absentmindedly. "Or at least that's what I'm told all the time."

Azarei snorted. "So you hang out with liars?"

Utia shoots him a playful glare.

The more time they spent together the easier things became. Their banter was fun and light hearted and their silences didn't feel nearly as suffocating as before. Utia was definitely warming up to him, or at least as much as Utia can warm up. She strikes Azarei as kind of a prickly person, hard to get close to.

They ate their dinner with a mixture of easy conversation and comfortable silence. They fall asleep on separate sides of the fire, using their backpacks as makeshift pillows. It seems, Utia too, had no problem sleeping under the stars. Afterall, it was the middle of summer. They didn't really have to worry about rain.

The next two weeks go much the same way as the first day. Easy, humorous banter and a lot of walking. They don't talk all the time, Azarei has gotten used to the silences now, they're comfortable. But when they do talk they don't talk about anything personal. They seem to talk about everything but themselves. Azarei gets the sense that Utia, like him, is avoiding a past she wants to leave behind.

Azarei handed the vendor a few coins and took the dried meat from him, turning to stuff it in his backpack. When he looked to Utia she was watching a couple engaged in a disgusting display of PDA. She seemed to be lost in thought. Azarei nudged her and she snapped out of it, following him down the road back toward the forest. They walked in silence for quite a while and they had long left the town behind when she spoke.

"Have you ever been in love?" She asked, glancing at him. She was lacking her usual cocksure nature.

"No," he answered honestly. "But I've made a lot of love."

Utia looked at him, bewildered. He can tell she doesn't believe him at all. "No you haven't," she protests.

"I have," Azarei argued with a wry smile. "Girls like me, they think I'm charming. I guess they don't mind the beast part as much."

Utia still looked like she didn't believe him.

"Plus I'm a fantastic liar. It's a real talent," Azarei said, smug. "Girls love being lied to."

Now Utia is looking at him like he is the Goddess of insanity herself. "Girls do not love being lied to," Utia said, disbelief evident in her voice. "Nobody likes being lied to."

"Girls want you to tell them what they want to hear," Azarei argued. "They want you to say they're the most beautiful girl you've ever seen. You have to lie."

Utia shook her head, looking bothered.

"You're telling me you never lie?" Azarei asked, it was his turn to be disbelieving.

A guilty look flashed across Utia's face but it passed so quickly Azarei wondered if he imagined it.

"I don't lie to trick people into sleeping with me," Utia said, not so artfully avoiding the question.

Azarei snorted. "That's because you don't have to trick people into sleeping with you. You're gorgeous. You could have anyone you want with a snap of your fingers."

Utia turned to him, surprised. "You think I'm gorgeous?"

Azarei's stomach sinks. Has he given himself away?

"I mean yeah," Azarei said. "Objectively you're really good looking." He put his hands on the straps of his backpack and squeezed tightly. "Not that I'm into you or anything, because I'm not. I'm just saying, you know, objectively, you look like one of the Goddesses."

Utia's eyebrows shot up. "You think I look like a Goddess?"

Azarei swallowed hard. He's really just digging himself into a deeper hole isn't he? Sometimes he wished he'd just shut the hell up. "Objectively," Azarei repeated.

Utia's expression turned thoughtful. She didn't say anything for a while and they walked in silence which made him even more nervous. He started to sweat. Did he make her uncomfortable?

"You're not bad either," Utia spoke, breaking the silence. She smirked. "You know, for a beast and all."

Did she just say she finds him attractive? Azarei's filled with a warm satisfaction he hadn't quite experienced before. His sweating also gets worse. He really needs to get it together.