Back at itttt and it's looking like a double upload today :)
Also I swear I'm updating the playlist today lol, I completely forgot to with the last upload
Enjoy, lovelies!

Caspian

I awoke before the sun had. I could tell by the darkness of the room, but as the light outside slowly grew through the small window across the bedroom chambers, as did my vision. It took a few moments to pull myself up into a sitting position, adjusting my back from the stiffness of resting on the floor, before I glanced over to Alistair.

My eyes shut a moment, then opened again... but I was still staring at an empty bed already made.

I hadn't heard any shuffling all night. No creaks in the floorboards. Not the sound of the doors hinges as it was being opened. Nothing.

He was just... gone.

I found myself finally getting up, pushing those aching joints till I was on my feet, then I hesitated. Less than a day ago, I would've seen this as a perfect opportunity to make my escape, but now... now I was terrified to even leave this room without Alistair at my side.

There was a slight muffled sound coming from below, it sounded like metal clashing, but not the metal I was used to. Not the sound of swords, and against all better judgement, I decided to investigate it. For all I knew, it could've been Alistair himself doing who knows what in the dining hall, but as I straightened myself out, folded up the sheet I slept on with the pillow placed on top, and headed downstairs, I was met with eyes I didn't recognize.

There was a young woman moving through the dining hall, making her way in and out of the kitchen area with impressive speed, and even better coordination as she carried pots and pans around. I hadn't noticed she hadn't noticed my presence, so when my leg accidentally collided with the leg of one of the dining's chairs, I watched as she unexpectedly jumped.

The noise that soon followed was a loud crashing sound, with the pots that were once in her hand, now scattered across the floor.

Before my mind could react, my body did, and its immediate response was to help. I found myself crouching down next to the young beautiful women, her face now clearer to me. Her hair was long and black, very different from Gaia's family and the rest of the people on this island. I had noticed most of their hair was lighter in shades, much like Gaia's.

There was something else about this women, her brown doe-like eyes staring back at me with something I instinctively noticed as fear. She accepted the pots and pans gratefully as I helped set them on the nearest table for her, but she still had that weary look mixed in with her otherwise sharp features.

"My apologies." I spoke first, keeping my voice low and a bit more comforting in an effort not to scare the woman further.

"N-No that was my mistake-" she started, but I didn't allow her to continue.

"No," I insisted, "I should've made my presence known. It's still early, isn't it."

That earned me a small smile from the woman, to which I returned.

"You must be Alistair's companion then?" She asked me. She had started to move the pots she was holding back to the kitchen, which was another room only separated from the large dining area by an open archway otherwise conjoining to two. I followed closely behind her with the remaining pots regardless of the gestures she gave me for her to do it herself.

"Companion is putting it kindly." I mumbled back before I could stop myself. I head her laugh ahead of me, then she turned back slightly to offer me another slight smile.

"I don't like the word slave. Companion is kinder." She explained.

"But is it honest, is the real question."

Her hands paused over the pots she had since set on a table in the kitchen, and I found myself just about to apologize, but stopped when her head slowly nodded.

"You're right. It's not honest." She replied with a small smile.

Oh the gods. Had I really lost the ability to even feign a bit of joy? Sure there was nothing joyous about being a slave, but this woman wasn't treating me as one now. Maybe in her eyes, companion was honest because she didn't see me as a slave.

I decided to abandon this conversation entirely. "Has Alistair gone somewhere?" I asked the woman, to which she slowly nodded her head again.

"He's out back. He must've noticed we were low on firewood, because I heard him say something about it shortly before he left through that door." She pointed to a door at the back of the kitchen that I hadn't noticed earlier. It blended in well with the wall itself. I gave her a nod, thanking her before I left the same way Alistair had.

From how the woman in the Inn described it, I expected to find Alistair just a few steps away from the building, but instead the sound of wood chopping was coming from a few hundred steps deeper into the forest. I followed the sound as it brought me further and further away from the Inn, and before I knew it I was back in the forest again.

Alistair had settled himself in a clearing spacious enough to chop freely. I noticed the piles of logs to one side of him, then split wood on the other, and in his hand he held something that made my eyes grow wide.

I had never seen an axe as big as this. The blade was almost the size of the Captain's head, which was only proven true when he swung it back over his shoulder.

My eyes then slowly drifted from the axe, to his shoulders. His bare ones. Somewhere along the way, Alistair had discarded his shirt, opting to do this strenuous activity in the earliest moments of the day, without any shirt. Whatever inked marks I could barely see under that white shirt, were now completely visible. I found myself stilled, watching each muscle move against the skulls tattooed on his upper arms and chest. Those very muscles were almost unreal to fully comprehend, I didn't understand how any human could be built like this.

Like a god.

His long black hair was spread across his darker now glistening skin in ease, with only the top tied back to keep strands from his eye. He still wore the patch on his left side, which made me wonder whether he had worn it to bed.

I wanted to know what had happened to him, yet considering the list of questions I had, it was an awfully low priority in comparison.

There was a sudden snapping of a branch that cut through the otherwise quiet forest, and all my thoughts. I spun around immediately to see what had made that sound behind me. That noise must've caught Alistair's attention too, because before I knew it, I heard my name.

"Caspian?" Alistair asked. My eyes still scanned the forest, looking for whatever could've made that noise, but with minimal light from the sky, it was hard to tell. I wasn't even sure how Alistair had found this place, I didn't see any torches or lamps near him in the clearing.

My feet eventually spun me back around to face a man that was almost half way to me by now. As he drew nearer, I found myself forcing to keep my gaze on his. To not let them...

That thought was interrupted when he lifted his free hand that wasn't holding the axe, to his right shoulder, massaging the joints there. This caused his entire body to tense from his muscles, and I couldn't quite look away from the movements of it all. I knew by the way he carried that sword, he must've been strong, but nothing could prepare me for how completely menacing his stature was, especially when he drew close enough for his height to overtake my own.

"You're finally up." He spoke to me, forcing my eyes back up to his one.

I was still so taken back, I couldn't even process the correct response for that, so I found myself simply nodding.

"I thought you were dead. You didn't even stir when I left."

"Unfortunately that wasn't the case." I quipped back, to which Alistair's lips turned up into a slight smile.

"Pity. For you. Since you're here, here." The next thing I knew, Alistair moved that massive arm holding the even more massive axe forward, before he shoved the wooden handle into my chest. "Chop that while I load the chopped wood up." I followed his finger which was pointing to the remaining pile of wood logs. I then glanced down at the axe that weighed more than any blade I've ever wielded. Quite possibly all of them combined.

Alistair had already started walking towards the unchopped pile, and I thought it was to give me more direction, but that wasn't the case. Behind the pile was a large woven basket, something that the pile of logs kept hidden. He then moved it over to the chopped wood, and once he started loading pieces, I realized that was all the direction I was getting.

He was right, I thought to myself. Waking up was a pity. And had I known he was going to force me into labour, I would've left Alistair to wander off on his own the whole fucking day.

It didn't help that I wasn't the greatest at splitting wood, and it definitely didn't help that the axe I was using to do so, could probably send my whole body toppling backwards if I even attempted to raise it over my head.

There was no understanding when it came to Alistair however, and the look he gave me when he noticed no wood had been split yet, was a very strong reminder of that.

So I reached forward, grabbing a short piece of log before standing it up firmly on the stump Alistair had used as a flat surface. The axe felt like it was connected to bags of sand, and when it came time to swing the thick metal back over my head, I found myself whispering a small prayer.

A prayer that did nothing, unless it was there to answer my other wish of wanting to die...

Because once I swung that thing back, and my fingers unexpectedly lost their grip on the handle, nothing could've prepared me for just how close I had come to unintentionally driving that axe straight through Alistair himself.

When his and mine's eyes met, we each received a very clear visual of what the other was thinking. My face displayed pure shock, while his was tight with irritation. The axe was lodged into the tree Alistair once stood beside before he had to quite literally dropped to the forest floor in an effort to avoid the blade.

Well, I thought to myself. Maybe death would come sooner after all. I could feel the anger radiating from Alistair, yet he said nothing as his hand grabbed the metal of the stuck axe, and yanked it free. The move was so forceful, he took off chunks of the tree when freeing the blade.

"You fucking imbecile."

He had done that thing again. Where I heard him, but I didn't see his lips move as he took long menacing strides towards me. This particular scenario was not how I envisioned myself dying, especially by the hands of Alistair, but nevertheless I welcomed it. Imagine my suprise when my body was met with the blunt end of the axe instead of the sharp one, as he thrust the handle back into my chest. This time much harder, so much so I found myself stumbling back a bit.

"Take it." His voice was a low hoarse demand riddled with nothing but threats, which only forced my hand further as I finally gripped that wooden handle again. The weight of the blade made my arm drop almost instantly. "Turn around." Alistair continued his demands, to which I complied, turning my back on the man that looked like he wanted to burn me alive, then facing the short log still standing right where I left it.

The next thing Alistair did made my entire being grow rigid. I felt cold, rough, callous ridden fingers scrape against my temples lightly, before they dragged themselves into my hair, pulling the long strands that had fallen into my face, back.

It was the only part of him that had touched me, and yet my entire body felt his presence. It was almost an inexplicable feeling I had never experienced before, something that more or less frightened me.

He had used a tie to tie those strands back, which admittedly did help with my vision. Now I could see the wood I wasn't anywhere near closer to splitting, much more clearly. Great.

"Your hair is well kept." I heard him whisper, sending an indirect shiver straight down my spine. I half expected him to yank on those soft strands like he had days ago, but he was careful as he wrapped the tie around, binding everything. I then thought he would take a step away, but instead I felt a swift kicked to my right foot, nudging it forward and out more.

"Your stance is shit." He continued the insults. At this point, if his direction could get this blade up over my head, I was begrudgingly willing to listen. So I kept my mouth shut when his leg kicked my other one out. He was only using enough force to move them a few inches.

Next, his hands reached out to my hips, something I also wasn't expecting, which caused my whole body to flinch before he turned me slightly. It was brief, and yet I still felt it somehow all over me. It felt like he was touching more than just there.

Those thoughts were quickly overridden when I felt Alistair grab an unoccupied part of the axe's handle. He helped me lift it up with his right hand, until the handle itself was rested back on my right shoulder.

"You don't have to swing it back far, use your shoulder to anchor its weight like this..."

I heard him near my left ear, most likely keeping his distance since i was going to swing back on the right side. He tipped the handle back a bit more to give me a longer swing, then he finally put some space between us, taking a few steps back to watch.

I told myself to ignore everything else, including the inexplicable way Alistair's touch felt to me, and focused solely on this fucking axe. When I swung it down onto the wood, my eyes grew wide with how seamless it was. The wood split instantly, sending the sharp, thick blade straight through it and slightly into the stump underneath.

I looked over at Alistair on my left with a slight grin on my face that surprised even myself... but Alistair didn't mind returning it.

"Not bad." He spoke, before pointing to the next log on the pile. "Again."

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