Chapter Twenty-Three - Hurt Me

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That next morning when Emaia woke up, she had no idea what to do or expect. She didn't know who to start with; Aide or Dashel. Had Dash told everyone about what he saw? Would they all stare weirdly at her, as she walked through the village? Would they disapprove? Emaia couldn't see anything wrong with loving an elf. It was no different than a brown man loving a pale woman. They looked different from each other too, but when it came down to it, what was the difference really? Looks shouldn't matter. The heart didn't have eyes. It just had love.

And Emaia loved Aide. At first it was a little scary to admit, but that was the truth. She hadn't just fallen for him, she had fallen in love with him. And she knew he had feelings for her too – they might not be love yet, but there was something. Every time she kissed him, he always caved and kissed back. And last night he was the one who kissed her. Granted it could've been the alcohol doing that, but that didn't change things; He had wanted to kiss her, and the alcohol just helped him do that. Much like it had helped her back in Markon. It had given her courage, and it had done that for him too.

But even as much as they had to talk about, Emaia had to find Dashel first. He needed to know that what he saw wasn't exactly what he thought. He probably thought they were secret lovers, or that Aide had corrupted her or something like that. It was easy to jump to the wrong conclusion based on what he saw last night.

So Emaia left her hut that morning with a knot in her stomach. She glanced around to the people of the village who were already up. Some smiled, others simply just glanced at her. She couldn't tell if they knew. She hoped Dashel hadn't told everybody. She just wasn't ready to deal with all their judgmental stares.

She searched around the village, until finally, she found Dashel practicing his knife throwing skills behind a hut. He had even set up a bullseye and everything. But the look on his face was clouded. And of course she knew why.

"Dashel?"

He directed his eyes to her, just as he was about to throw. He paused midair, and looked surprised at her. Then he frowned. "What do you want?"

"Can we please talk about last night?" Emaia nervously asked. She hated having her friend look at her like that, like she had offended him or called him every dirty name in the book. She wanted her cheerful, smiling, goofy friend back. The one who always supported her, even when she said she wanted to buy breeches.

"Last night?" He snorted, and aimed at the bullseye. "You mean how you and Aide were about to get it on? How that creature was trying to lure you into his love shack?" He threw the small dagger with more force than needed and it hit the second ring of the bullseye.

Emaia gulped. Okay, he was mad. But it wasn't fair, he had no right to be. "Dash, that's not what was happening!"

"Is this the part where you try to convince me that what I saw was just him comforting you?" Dashel replied and sent her a flat stare. "I wasn't born yesterday. I know what was happening."

"No, you don't," Emaia said and walked up to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't Aide who was trying to do anything. It was me."

"You?" Dashel snapped and glared at her. "I don't believe that. Forgive me, Emaia, but you're just too innocent to do—to want something like that."

That irritated her. He looked at her like she was a kid and had no idea what the word 'intercourse' meant. Sure, she didn't know the how's of it, but she knew how children were made.

She had had enough with all their 'innocent' accusations. Emaia angrily grabbed the dagger from his hand, aimed it at the bullseye and threw. The dagger hit close to his, just within the second ring. Needless to say, it was one of the best shots she had made yet.

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