Bound To; The Wish of the Witch

IV

"Chess! Get your ass back here!" Tori yelled up at the trees only to be answered by silence.

After a moment of waiting for a response, Tori swore under his breath and scratched his head, sighing. Scinthia stood, also listening for Chess to say something. She couldn't understand why Chess would do something like this to her. She intended on going to kill the witch anyway, but now she had to worry about someone else getting in her way and possibly getting her killed. She had to think of a way to keep the ranger from getting himself hurt or killed while she went to kill the witch. She couldn't think of what to do and wondered what Tori was thinking of the matter. She really didn't want to travel and fight with this ranger and couldn't imagine that he wanted to either. She looked over at him, facing the other direction, still scratching his head.

"So, from what it sounds like, we have two options." Scinthia said, Tori turning to look at her. "Either one of us goes back to town while the other goes to kill the witch or we travel together, which I'd rather not do and I know you'd rather not do either. I have no intentions of letting that witch kill me so I have no real need for your help."

Tori looked at her with a confused expression before speaking.

"Come on now. I can't imagine you're dumb enough to think I'd go along with that. There's no way in hell I'm leaving my life in your hands. Considering where you're going, I'll be falling apart within a day if I don't go to keep an eye on you." Tori said in an irritated tone.

Scinthia grew annoyed from his demeaning comment and spoke angrily.

"You don't know anything about me. I can handle myself you know. I've made it this far without your help, I can make it the rest of the way too." Scinthia said before turning away from him and beginning to pack up her things.

"Listen, I'm not happy about this either. Personally, I wouldn't care if you wanted to put your life on the line and travel alone, but what if something like this happens again and you can't deal with it on your own? You'll die and take me with you. So if you're insistent on doing something as dumb as going to kill the witch alone, I have no choice but to just go with you, whether you want me to or not." The ranger said.

Scinthia stopped and turned to him again, even more annoyed.

"You listen, I get where you're coming from, I do, but I don't want or need the help of a ranger. I don't need you getting in the way and getting me killed." She said, turning back around and continuing to pack. "And don't ever call me dumb for trying to reach my goal again. It's my goal, so only I can call me dumb for it..." She added in a serious tone.

Tori remained quiet for a moment.

"Also..." She began. "If you didn't care, then why did you come to help me in the first place?" She asked, thinking she had him cornered.

He went to say something, but stopped. He stood quiet for a brief moment before releasing a heavy sigh.

"Look, either way, I'm going with you. If you don't want me traveling with you, I'll just have to follow you there. And I get the feeling that you'd like me practically stalking you a lot less then me just traveling with you."

She stayed quiet, briefly considering that alternative.

"And I apologize for insulting you, all right? It was out of line." He said in a more humble tone.

As much as she didn't like the idea of traveling with a sneaky ranger, she had to admit that he was right. She would certainly be more uncomfortable knowing that he was following and watching her. She stood up straight and sighed, still facing away from him.

"Fine." She said before turning around to face him. "You may travel with me. At least that way I can keep an eye on you."

He raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but quickly changed back to his normal expression before a more troubled look took over. He almost looked as though he were hesitant to speak.