Demon's Design

Chapter 13 *Henry*

The next two days passed with more quickness than he had anticipated, given the tension that had formed between the two of them. For the most part, Zandra stayed quiet and would only speak to give him additional direction or to remind him to continue building his routine, as she called it. He would wake up, spend time stretching and meditating, then they would start their brisk walk till he almost fell over. He was confident that she was attempting to keep it quiet between them, as she was pushing him just enough to keep him too out of breath to speak.

It was now late afternoon and they were starting to set up camp for the night with Zandra setting up a perimeter and Henry setting up the fire. He hadn't even gotten the spot marked before she turned and told him with a bitter tone, "once you're finished setting up, I want you to do a hundred push-ups." She turned taking a few steps towards the woods, and only stopped when he spoke.

"Where are you going?" He asked a bit curious at her sudden rush to leave. The piercing glare she cast at him when she turned her head to face him made him gulp in fear, convinced he had done something wrong. How could one have such a strong presence from such a simple scowl?

"To bathe. Don't think about following me, if I see you, I'll kill you." There was intense venom in her voice which enforced her demand.

Henry somehow managed to nod in response and choke out the word, "understood," before she turned back towards the woods and disappeared. It took him a few minutes after she vanished for him to regain control of his body, why did she need to be so difficult? Letting out a deep breath, he tried not to let it bother him and he focused on the task at hand...gathering wood for the fire.

As he walked through the woods gathering sticks, he became lost in thought about everything that was going on and didn't realize how far he had gone from camp. Before he knew it, he was standing near the edge of the woods near a stream. A splashing sound heard nearby provoked his instinct to look around for the cause and as his vision settled on the source, he froze dead in his tracks. Several different emotions ran through him like lightening: fear for his life, shock for being there, amazement at her beauty, and admiration as he couldn't stop watching her move gracefully through the water. Her breasts were exposed to the setting sun, causing him further distress at the stunning sight before him.

She stopped moving and held something up with her hands, it seemed as though she was studying it using the remaining few beams of light from the setting sun. A red reflection caught his interest and he recognized that it was a ring, the only ring that looked like that was the one from the royal family. His family had talked about it when he was younger, one of the few things he remembered learning about. It signified the crest of the Clan of Divinity, the clan his family was sworn to help protect...a lot of good that did. Why did she have it? Who was she?

Another few minutes passed and she put her arm down and started swimming back towards the shore, and Henry realized that he was still standing there. His heart started racing as he moved back with a slow and careful motion, trying to keep his presence as low as possible until he was no longer within view of being caught. Once he was sure he was covered by the tree line he picked up his pace, grabbing any and all branches, sticks, and twigs he could find on his way back to camp. Rushing back he threw the pile down and lit the fire as fast as he could, praying that it would light so he could get started on his exercises and look as though he had been within the camp the entire time she had been away.

Just as he came up from his first push-up there was a snap and he looked over to see her walking back into camp, he hair still dripping behind her. He was glad that she ignored him and started tending to the fire as he found himself staring. Forcing his gaze away he focused on the task at hand to create a distraction from her, if he was exhausted maybe he would be able to clear his head and stop his mind from wondering to a place it shouldn't.