By the Will of the Gods Pt. 01

Rolling his eyes since he was sick of his longtime friend talking in such a profane manner in front of Tempest, Zofiel turned away from Aisha Temple and began walking. Tempest caught up with him right away as Sydell simply sighed and shrugged before shouting, "Wait up!"

* * *

Halfway through the Xaphen Desert, the company realized it was starting to get dark, so by the time they reached Norburgh, it came as no surprise when Zofiel told the dark elf to remain by his side.

"This place is bad enough during the day," the hazel-eyed man reminded Tempest, "So after nightfall, the place is an absolute slum. We need to be careful, Tempest."

The young woman nodded as Sydell said, "We need to check into some rooms. Obviously, I'll leave you two alone since I have prior obligations..."

Before the tattooed man could enter the inn ahead of the other two, Zofiel stopped his friend by grabbing one of his arms. "Sydell, I definitely agree that you should have your own room, but we have a bit of a problem."

"Oh. Don't worry. I paid for my room ahead of time and left Tempest's bags there. No one's touched them, I promise."

"No, it's not that," Zofiel told his friend. "It's actually kind of embarrassing. You see, I left my cloak in the desert, and I just realized my pouch of money was in one of its pockets!"

Sydell shot his friend a smile and pointed as he exclaimed, "I've got you covered, Zofiel! If you need to borrow some money, I'll give it to you! In fact, if you and Tempest want to do some...well, you know! Well, if you do, this one's on me!"

Tempest looked a little confused as she inquired, "What would we be doing...?"

"Loan me the copper," Zofiel harshly said as he opened the door to the inn and held it open for the dark elf.

"Wow," Sydell jokingly said in an offended tone of voice as he approached the inn. "A little testy, wouldn't you say? I'm just trying to help a friend..."

Tempest was still perplexed as the two men went back and forth.

Ignoring the perverted man, Zofiel held out a hand and ordered, "Give me the money...please."

The dark-haired man did as he was told and followed the other two into the shabby inn. Knowing that Zofiel was somewhat perturbed with him, Sydell decided to leave his friend of five years alone. He simply said goodnight to Tempest and went up to his room.

The young woman waved in response before turning and watching Zofiel approach the counter where the same innkeeper was still working. Without hesitation, the dark elf jogged over to her traveling companion and stood by his side.

"I need a room for the two of us," Zofiel informed the grungy worker in a stern tone as the pieces of copper clinked on the counter. "We'll be leaving tomorrow morning."

The gruff innkeeper was suddenly all smiles as he took the blond man's money. Putting the copper away, the worker leaned forward and whispered, "You and the darkie enjoy your stay, friend! I hope you get what..." But the innkeeper didn't finish. Instead, he found a hand clasped around his jugular.

With a harsh look on his face, Zofiel glared directly at the racist man and hissed, "Don't you ever let me hear you make a comment like that about my friend or any dark elf again. Do you understand?"

Tempest watched as the innkeeper tried to nod his head. The girl may not have appreciated what the crude man had said about her, but she didn't want Zofiel getting into trouble by angering a man three times his size. However, as she continued to view the spectacle, the young woman realized that her new friend was not exactly the man in trouble. It seemed like Zofiel couldn't be easily intimidated.

When the angered traveler finally released him, the innkeeper placed his right hand on his trachea and gasped for air. Thankful that he was still able to inhale what passed for oxygen in his establishment, the gruff man grimaced at Tempest as he watched her chase up the stairs after the man she was with.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that," Zofiel told the young woman as they walked across the rickety balcony. "Some people in this world have no manners whatsoever."

Following Zofiel into the small room, the dark elf answered with a simple nod. She then took a look around their new surroundings and saw that the dinky room didn't offer much of anything. There was one little table with a chair and a single bed.

As Tempest closed their door behind her, Zofiel lit a candle and then took the chair over to the flimsy portal and positioned it under the handle in such a way that nobody would be able to get in from the other side.

"What are you doing?" The young woman asked while watching the fair-skinned man.

"These doors don't have locks," Zofiel informed the dark elf. "I'm not taking any chances with those drunken fools downstairs. If one of them stumbled up here while the two of us were sleeping..." The mysterious adventurer let his voice trail off since he didn't want to think about it.

Looking around the room a bit more, Tempest realized her bags weren't present. She then remembered that Sydell had put them in his room. "Zofiel, do you think Sydell would mind if I went and grabbed my things?"

"I'll do it for you," the kind man offered in a gentle voice, and walked toward the door. When he passed the young woman, he was caught off guard by her left hand reaching out and wrapping around his left wrist. His head slightly turned and he found himself staring into her stunning, celadon eyes. He discovered at that moment that staring into her eyes was like gazing across a marvelous, untainted prairie.

"Do not worry about the bags," Tempest told the fair-skinned man. "They will not go anywhere. I trust Sydell."

Zofiel looked away and momentarily shivered. The girl to his side was so radiant, but he was scared to look directly at her. What if he wasn't what she was looking for? What if he wasn't good enough for her? What if he wasn't man enough for her?

"Zofiel," the dark elf calmly spoke the man's name. "You are shaking. Are you okay?"

"It's nothing," the mysterious man quickly answered, and pulled free of the young woman's grasp. He walked over to the table and placed his hands on it while repeating, "It's nothing."

Staring at her companion's back, Tempest asked, "How did you have the courage to stand up to that man down there for me? He was so big and terrifying!"

"I've dealt with worse," Zofiel informed the young woman without turning to face her. "I can't stand bigots. If I could rid the world of them..."

Slowly, Tempest began taking steps toward her traveling companion. Without saying a word, she stood behind him and slipped her arms around him. She felt him jump as she embraced him and placed her left cheek between his shoulder blades. Completely changing the subject, she questioned, "Why are you so jittery around me, Zofiel?"

Unable to speak, the man tried to form an answer in his mind. Finally, he was able to free himself and spin around. When he did so, he saw that the eyes of the young woman looked hurt. "Tempest...I..."

Frowning, the dark elf turned around and took a couple steps away from the hazel-eyed man before crossing her arms and muttering, "Why will you not let me in?"

Amazed at the young woman's words, Zofiel found himself staring right at the girl's back as he asked, "What do you mean, Tempest?"

"You know exactly what I mean!" The dark elf raised her voice while spinning around to face the man she cared for. "Every time I try to get close to you, I get pushed away! I keep telling myself that you may not think much of me and I should just leave you alone, but my mind keeps going back to last night and how kind you were to me! And after I think about that, I think about how you spied on me this morning..."

"And I'm so sorry for that..."

"Well...do not be!" Tempest cut the bumbling man short. "I have been telling you all day that I did not mind, and I have been dropping hints for hours!"

"'Hints?'"

Disgusted that Zofiel didn't understand her, the young woman turned her back to the man once more and sighed, "Oh, never mind!"

Not letting the girl off the hook so easily, Zofiel walked up to her and gingerly placed his hands on her shoulders. "Tempest, what's going on? I feel that there's some kind of tension between the two of us..."

Spinning back around, the dark elf stared directly into the big, hazel eyes of the mysterious man with a hint of anger on her face. "'Tension?' Of course there is some tension between us...and you are causing it!"

"Me?"

Pacing back and forth, Tempest told her traveling companion, "You were so kind to me last night and this morning, but after we met up with Sydell, it seemed as if you were avoiding me."

"I wasn't avoid..."

"You would not answer certain questions, you would not take your shirt off in the desert...and when I tried to get you to take your cloak off, you made it seem like I was asking you to give up a limb!"

"Tempest..."

"No!" The dark elf cut Zofiel short again, and felt a tear form in her left eye. "Something is wrong, and I have a feeling that it is because of me!" And after speaking her mind, the young woman began to cry. "Is it my age?" She sobbed. "I know I may seem old, but really I am not!"

"Tempest, no," the fair-skinned man said in a sweet and caring voice as he walked up to her. Wrapping his arms around her, he held the dark elf close while promising, "You have done absolutely nothing wrong, Tempest! It has nothing to do with your age...you could be a hundred and fifty for all I care! Everything that happened today...that's all on my hands! I didn't mean to push you away, but when I look back on the events of the day, that's exactly what I did!"

The young woman sniffled and wrapped her arms around the man holding her. She let a few tears stream down her cheeks before burying her face in Zofiel's chest.

"Tempest," the blond man gently said while running his right hand through her white locks, "In my life, I have constructed so many walls, and now that I've finally met someone I truly care for...I find it hard to let her in." After finishing his sentence, Zofiel peeled himself away from the young woman and held her by the arms while gazing into her eyes. "Tempest, I'm not like the other guys out there. I don't look at women like objects, and I don't partake in certain activities just to be...pleasured."

The dark elf used her right hand to wipe some of her tears away while she continued to listen to the man speak.

"I guess that I've been acting the way I have been because...well, I guess it's because I don't really know how I should act!" Zofiel then took a moment to use his right thumb to wipe a tear off one of Tempest's cheeks.

Sniffling again, the dark elf found herself smiling as she asked, "What do you mean by that, Zofiel?"

Taking a deep breath, the blond adventurer decided to admit, "Tempest, I've never actually been with a woman before."

"I know," the young woman said after regaining her composure.

"You...huh?"

"I know," Tempest repeated as Zofiel stared at her with a puzzled expression on his face. "I know that you have never slept with a woman before, and I know that you have never done any type of meaningless fooling around before."

"But how could you know such a thing..."

"I asked the Seeress, Zofiel," the young woman admitted. "I was curious about you, so I..."

Unable to believe that the dark elf would waste her question on him, the fair-skinned man couldn't help but throw his arms around her once more. Letting his emotions overtake him, he felt a few tears well up as he held her close and mumbled, "Oh, Tempest!"

"Zofiel! You mean...you do not care that I invaded your privacy and asked about your personal life?"

"Tempest, how could I ever be angry with you?" The elated man paused for a moment before adding, "Especially when you're being such a sweetheart!" And for several minutes, Zofiel held the young woman close to him while she kept her arms tightly gripped around him. They remained together until a less than romantic sound from the next room over disrupted them. At first, neither the fair-skinned man nor the dark elf knew what the consistent slamming was, but it finally dawned on Zofiel as he sighed. The repetitive scream that suddenly accompanied the crashing clamor had a distinct rhythm to it. "Sydell," the hazel-eyed man groaned as he pulled away from Tempest.

Suddenly realizing what was going on, Tempest covered her mouth with her hands and asked, "What is he doing to her in there?"

"I think we're better off not knowing," Zofiel muttered under his breath while turning to face the young woman again. Sighing, the blond man pointed out, "I don't know how we'll be able to sleep if the noise keeps up, but we should try anyway."

Tempest nodded in agreement. "I suppose we should start early to find the next piece of the Byblos. It is located in a place called...was it Kragg?"

"Yes," Zofiel answered, and nodded his head. "Kragg is definitely a strange place to find one of the stones since it's such a small village atop the mountains." The fair-skinned man paused for a moment before asking, "You've heard of the place before, haven't you?"

The dark elf shook her head.

"Kragg is a walled-in town located in the mountains to the east of your birth home, Darkwood." Zofiel ceased for a moment after mentioning the name of the village. He didn't know if the young woman was over the fact that she had been banished yet, so he quickly added, "We'll just have to backtrack south and work our way to the east."

"Zofiel, you do not have to hide the hurt in your voice."

"Tempest?"

"I know you are trying to be kind to me about my exile," the dark elf gently said, "And believe me, Zofiel, if I had the choice to stay in Darkwood or meet you, it would definitely be the latter!"

The fair-skinned man smiled and then finally looked in the direction of the bed. "Well, I suppose we should get some sleep. You go ahead and take the bed, and I'll try to get comfortable on the floor."

"You will do no such thing!" Tempest told her friend. "We can share the bed!"

"But it's so small!" Zofiel pointed out. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable..."

"I will only be uncomfortable thinking about the fact that you are trying to sleep on a hard, wooden floor! Now come on! Let us try to have pleasant dreams!" And with that, the young woman pulled off her shirt to reveal a white, cotton brassiere.

"Tempest! What are you...?"

Bending down, the dark elf dropped her leggings around her ankles. Stepping out of them, she stood before the man she cared for in her bra, white underwear, and the leg garter for her knife. Combing her hair with her hands, the young woman told Zofiel, "I cannot get a decent night of slumber in so much clothing. Can you?"

The fair-skinned man agreed with his traveling companion, but he felt uncomfortable disrobing in front of her. For reasons of his own, he wasn't ready for Tempest to see his body.

Pulling back the covers on the bed, Tempest couldn't help but point out, "There is no way you can possibly sleep in all those clothes, Zofiel...especially since you were sweating so much in that shirt earlier today!"

The blond man bit his lower lip since there was no way he could possibly come up with an excuse to not take it off.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Get some of that off and come to bed!" And with those words, the dark elf climbed under the sheets and sat up while eyeing the mysterious man in the candlelight.

Zofiel considered blowing the candle out and then taking his shirt off, but he didn't want to accidentally bump into Tempest while trying to get under the covers in the darkness. However, he knew that the young woman would see it sooner or later, so with his back to the young woman, Zofiel lifted his arms while tugging his shirt off...

From where she sat on the hard mattress, Tempest's eyes widened as her jaw dropped. "Zofiel! What is...?"

Knowing exactly what the innocent girl was wondering about, the mysterious man hastily said, "Um, it's just a tattoo!"

Tempest stared at the black body art between the fair-skinned man's shoulder blades. It looked like some kind of symbol: It was a crucifix overlapping a scythe. The design was simple enough, but the young woman knew there had to be more to it. She had noticed that most of Sydell's markings were either comical nature or naked women, but there was certainly more to Zofiel's single tattoo. "You will have to do better than that, Zofiel!"

The mysterious man fumbled with the shirt in his hands while trying to come up with a better explanation. "Well, the marking does have some meaning, but it's a long story. Do you think I could maybe tell you tomorrow?"

Smiling, the young woman laid down and gazed right into the enigmatic man's eyes. "As long as you promise to tell the truth."

Zofiel made his promise with a nod, and then he climbed onto the small bed next to the dark elf. He found a feeling of comfort just being next to her, and within seconds, the two were fast asleep.

* * *

A few hours past midnight, Zofiel felt his eyes begin to open. The candle had gone out on its own, but since the two travelers had the room at the end of the hall, there was a window for some moonlight to filter through. With that bit of light, the awakened man stared at the peaceful face next to him.

Tempest was beautiful, no doubt about it. Pure and simple, her face was like a perfect piece of architecture, and her long, flowing hair was one of the softest things in the world. Her steady breathing even sounded adorable.

Running a hand through the white locks, Zofiel couldn't help but lean forward so he could kiss the girl's forehead. After doing so, he noticed her smile in her sleep as she took a deep breath and rolled from her back to her side.

And that was when he noticed it.

Staring directly at the heaving chest now facing him, Zofiel couldn't help but notice that the white bra was pressing Tempest's breasts together in such a way that her cleavage could not possibly go unnoticed by any set of eyes. Without thinking twice about what he was doing, the blond man continued to gaze right at the meeting place of the two bosoms until he noticed that something else was happening...

Zofiel had no control over the fact that he was growing more and more aroused by the second, and as his erection pressed up against his pants, he reached down to try to stop it. However, he found that the more he touched it, the harder it became.

Not wanting to wake the sleeping beauty next to him, Zofiel managed to crawl off the bed without making too much noise or rustling the sheets. Tiptoeing through the dark room with his erection sticking straight out, the hazel-eyed man knew he had to make it outside and to the outhouse. Something was about to happen, and he needed to deal with it tactfully. He didn't want to go about things the same way Sydell would in a similar situation. He quickly fetched his white shirt from the table.

Moving the chair and quietly opening the door, Zofiel knew he had to take care of his business quickly. He didn't want to leave Tempest alone in an unlocked room since a bunch of drunken ruffians were down below.

Walking out onto the dilapidated balcony, Zofiel gazed down over the ledge and checked out what was going on below. There wasn't as big of a crowd as before, but there were still some thugs that Zofiel knew he couldn't trust. If he was going to go to the outhouse in order to get rid of his erection, he would have to be fast about it.

Wiping his pants off and trying to conceal his hardened organ by carrying the white shirt in front of it, the mysterious man made his way down the stairs. He knew that none of the drunks playing cards would pay much attention to him, but if they noticed he was aroused, they would think something was going on up in his room that they could join in on.