The Immortal Blade Trilogy: Book #1: Fate's Destiny.

Lothandra.

Quinlan's P.O.V.

Alexandra decapitates the guard with ease, then watches as his head falls to the ground. I felt so sorry for her, having to carry all that armour when she's only just turning 15. I'm 17 and it was still very heavy for me. My homeland is Lothrandra, so is Alexandra's, but she's not supposed to know that. I watch her as studies the man's detached head, then faint. I rush over there and catch her before she hits the ground. Bentley is concentrating on taking his armour off and I still need to get the rest of my armour off. First, I have to take Alexandra's armour off. I remove her helmet first, then her pauldrons, then her breastplate and so on until I get to her leather. I'm wondering if I should take off her leather shirt. If I do, she'll be much more comfortable, but she doesn't have anything on underneath except her leather bra and she might get mad at me for intruding on her privacy. If I don't, she won't be comfortable, she will be hot, and it will be 10 lbs more for her to carry. And she doesn't need anything else weighing her down. I decide to go with the first option, so I take her leather shirt off and freeze. Where the arrow pierced her skin is infected all the way through, and she won't last long. I had to get her to Lothrandra quickly. I rolled her onto her stomach to look at her back, where she was whipped, to find the scabs healing nicely. At least it's not all bad... I roll her back onto her back and look up at Bentley. He's still trying to get his armour off. I doubt he's had any experience at all with armour and such. I look back down at Alexandra's wound and my eyes start to wander. I mentally slap myself. No! I'm going to get myself burnt at the stake if I keep this up! The orders were simple: Do not fall for her or poison your mind with worldly things such as love. Love is a trick. An illusion. It's fake. Nothing more. At least, that's what I've been taught my whole life, but I want to deny it, because if not love, then what is this feeling I have towards her? I mentally slap myself again. 'Seriously Quinlan! Stop it!' I scold myself. I take off my light cloth shirt and put it on her. For a brief moment, our bodies touch, before I mentally punch myself and set her down. I finished taking my armour off just as Bentley got his helmet and pauldrons off. My broken arm still hurts, but it has already started growing back together, and I can't not use it. "Need help?" I ask after watching him struggle for a while. "No." He replies. "Flip the latch to the other side when you unbuckle it." I say, because he won't get it for a while. He just looks at me with disgust, but does as I say. After 5 minutes all his armour is off and he just has his light cloth shirt on. "We got to get moving." I tell Bentley. He nods, and I pick Alexandra up and hold her in my arms like the princess she is.

Alexandra's P.O.V.

I wake up in Quinlan's arms. We're walking to who knows where. I don't jump or anything when I feel his arms underneath me, because I have woken up with him holding me so much. I just open my eyes and watch him as he navigates the way to where he wants to go. I watch him until he looks down at me, about 20 minutes later. "Alexandra, you're awake!" He exclaims. "Yeah, what happened? How long was I out? Where's Bentley? Where are we going? And why aren't you wearing a shirt?" I ask as I realize that he's shirtless. "Well, you fainted. You were asleep for about eight hours. Bentley is right behind me. We're going home. And I'm not wearing a shirt because... you're wearing it." He explains. "I'm... What?! Put me down!" I command, but roll out of his arms before he can set me down. Thud. I hit the ground hard. I look down at myself wearing his shirt, then back at him. I blush. "You dressed me?!" He nods. I'm actually not that mad but I start crawling backwards. "Alexandra... I'm sorry." He says, and scoops me up from the ground, this time hugging me like a Teddy bear. Off the ground and all. I squeak. He starts walking so I wrap my legs around his waist, my arms around his neck, and I lay my head on his shoulder. I only weigh around 100 lbs, so I'm not that hard to carry. We walk about two more hours before Bentley asks if we should stop and set up camp for the night. "No. We can't stop." Quinlan answers. "So, were just going to keep walking 'till we run into the ocean or something?" Bentley asks angrily. "No. But we aren't going to stop walking until we reach Lothandra." Quinlan replies. "What's Lothandra?" I ask. "Where we're going, Teddy bear." He responds. "But that's not home- Teddy bear?!" I exclaim and push him away so I can read his expression. He smiles. "Sorry..." Then pushes me against him again. I bury my head in his neck and fall asleep in his arms, once again.