The Man Behind The Mask

Chapter Three

Elizabeth POV
Three more days pass exactly like the last two have. We both walk in silence, I cook soup, we eat quietly, then I say goodnight in hopes that he'll respond. I wish he would open up a little more. It would make this trip a lot less boring and I could use a few more friends. I try not to be pushy though, I don't want to annoy him. We are on our sixth day of the trip and our fifth day in the thick forest. It's about two o'clock and really hot but at least the trees offer shade from the summer sun.
The ground starts to incline and it turns into a steep hill. I am gripping roots and trees to pull myself up. It rained yesterday which makes the ground muddy and slippery and harder to climb up. I can hear my escort behind me climbing with ease which makes me self conscious. He is an ANBU though so I guess I shouldn't feel bad, but I do. I reach for a root but my fingers slip and I start to fall down the slope. I don't fall far before a strong arm wraps around my waist. He pulls me into him and scales the rest of the hill swiftly. My face grows hot and when he lets go I immediately turn and start walking. We walk for a little while when his voice cuts in. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable ma'am. I thought it would be safer for you if I assisted you," he explains. I am caught off guard by this and I wait a little too long to reply. "Oh..yeah it's fine, you don't have to worry about it," I say trying to reassure him. "Thank you ma'am." We walk for a few more hours then set up camp near a stream.
We have a routine now. He gets the water and firewood and I cook the food while he bathes. We do this without exchanging any conversation. When he comes out from his bath I hand him a bowl of soup and we sit together eating in silence. "Tomorrow I will take some time to hunt for more food, we are running low on pork," he says as he finishes his soup. "Am I coming also?" I ask subtly hopeful. "You should, I would like to keep you near me at all times," he replies matter-of-factly. "Great," I say kind of loudly. He takes me bowl from me, that is my queue to go bathe. I grab my towel and soap and head down the stream a little ways.
I undress and splash water on my body then soap. I have to use bar soap on my hair which isn't great but is better than nothing. I finish and dry off then get dressed. I walk back to our camp and sit next to my escort on the ground. He always sits up and waits for me to get back before getting in bed. I sit next to him and stare at the low burning embers of the fire. "You should get some rest ma'am. We have to get up early tomorrow to hunt," he tells me. "Okay thanks," I say and stand up. He walks over to his sleeping mat and I to my sleeping bag. I wait a little and whisper good night to him.
"Ma'am." I open my eyes to a masked face staring back at me and a hand on my shoulder. "It would be wise for you to get up for us to hunt," he says softly. I nod and he walks away. I get up out of my sleeping bag, roll it up and he turns around as I change clothing. He already has every trace of our presence hidden and holds out a breakfast bar to me. I take it and begin nibbling on it as we head into the forest. "I would ask that you be as silent as possible and to let me do all the hunting, I don't want you harmed," he says. "I'll try," I say.
We head out into the quiet, low lit morning. He is incredibly attentive and seems to know exactly where he's going even though I haven't seen another living creature. He suddenly stops and holds up his hand to signal for me to stop also. I immediately halt and watch as he silently pulls sand from the large gourd on his back. I look ahead and see a small doe standing about 30 feet in front of us. He formulates the sand into a sharp point and flicks his wrist forward. The sand flies forward and kills the deer in an instant. I flinch at how quickly it happens but quickly recover.
He walks toward the deer, throws it over his shoulder, and recalls the bloody sand into his gourd. "How are you going to preserve that," I ask as we begin our walk for the day. " I will store it in salt when we get to camp today after I clean it," he tells me. "Sounds good," I reply, not knowing what else to say. We walk, we take a break for lunch, continue walking for a few more hours then find a pond to camp next to. He throws the dead deer onto a stone and starts to cut away the hide. I was him strip the bloody meat from the bones and cut it. I walk over to him and put my hand on the handle of the knife he's using.
"You're doing this wrong, to preserve it longer you should cut it this way," say and guide the knife through the meat at a different angle. I realize my hand is resting on his hand and pull it away quickly. "No please, will you finish cutting this while I make the fire and boil the water, you are obviously better at this," he says. "Are you sure?" I ask him. "Yes," he says and puts the knife in my hand and walks away. I sit and cut the meat in thin strips as I listen to him work on getting more purified water ready. Once he puts on the water on to boil he walks over to me with salt blocks and parchment paper. He lays out the parchment paper with salt shavings on it and begins wrapping the meat.
"I can handle this if you want to go bathe," I offer. "It is too dark for me to feel comfortable leaving you alone. I will skip my bath tonight," he says and continues to wrap the meat. "Okay but you're kind of covered in deer blood," I tell him. "I will just rinse off right here when I'm done wrapping this meat," he says flatly. I finish cutting the meat and help him wrap the meat. When we are done he pack away the meat in his bag and I put the purified water in our large water pouch.
I go to the pond and get more water for our soup that will use the last of our pork. My escort walks pulls off his sand gourd and his chest and arm armor then walks over to the pond. When I get to the water he slips off his shoes and pulls off his shirt. I am not shocked by the lean muscles this reveals. I feel myself staring at his exposed body and turn away to focus on the food I'm cooking. The food finishes cooking just as he walks back to the fire. His shirt is still off but his mask remains where it always is.
"I apologize but I need to dry my shirt after rinsing it off," he says a little shyly. "Um..yeah that's fine, I have the soup ready," I say. I hand him a bowl and he sits kind of far away from the fire,trying to hide himself. It's not a big deal to see a shirtless guy because I'm a medical ninja but he's a little different. In a weird way this is the most he's opened up to me and I kind of appreciate it. We eat in silence and he takes me bowl and walks to the pond to wash the bowls. I get my soap and towel and head over to the pond to bathe. I realize there is no place to find privacy to bathe. I turn to my escort and I'm pretty sure he can see the worry in my eyes.
"Don't worry," he says. With that he pulls sand out of his gourd and builds a divider between me and the camp. I pull off my clothes and wash myself quickly then dry off and put my clothes back on. I walk around the side of the divider and see him sitting staring at the forest, looking for potential threats. His shirt is still drying next the fire so when I sit down I sit a little farther away from him than usual. The sand flies past my head and back into the gourd with out him moving from his position.
"Do you think you could tell me your name yet?" I ask after a few minutes of silence. "It is not necessary," he replies. "Just because it's not necessary doesn't mean it's not important," I try to argue but it comes out kind of childish. "If I guess will you tell me if I'm right?" I ask, also sounding juvenile. He says nothing, just keeps staring at the forest. "I guess not then, okay" I mutter. I start to get up "Why do you care?" He asks. "I guess I just want to put a name to the face," I say. "I wear a mask, so even if you knew my name you couldn't put a name to the face, that's how the ANBU likes it," he informs me. "You're right, I still want to know your name," I say and walk to my sleeping bag.
He puts out the fire, pulls on his now dry shirt, and goes to his mat. We both lay down and let the silence settle in once again. I mutter a goodnight to him and close my eyes to sleep.