Josephine Dezantro's Story

The night had passed by all too quickly for the whole group yet again, as the sun had slowly begun to rise above the horizon. Aetrius slowly began to stir from her recent daily reaction of being woken up early by the sunlight, but she remained in her half awake half asleep phase as she remained in her position of cuddling Linde. But as she went to close her eyes yet again as sleep was all but too tempting, an all too familiar sound began to slowly make its way towards them again, resulting in Aetrius quickly getting out of her spot and began to put on her armor and weapons by her side as she listened to the sound, metal on metal, countless of footsteps, and horses. Her heart began to sank as she could only think of one thing, the people from Veilbrand managed to find them after all.

She held her weapon by the grip, and slowly began to exit the tent, as she motioned for Linde to stay inside out of pure instinct. As she exited, she saw that the others had the same instinct and idea and decided to get out while they could instead of being lying ducks. But what was there surprised Aetrius, it was a group of heavily armed soldiers equally armed with heavy weapons, and crests on their armor Aetrius couldn't recognize. She glared at them as they slowly enclosed the space between their encampment and the road. Aetrius looked at Kieran who stood by her as well, "Kieran, who are these men...? I don't recognize the symbol..." she said softly and casually, Kieran gritted her teeth and held her weapon closer to her body as she recognized them, "Yes...They're Egruus, The Dictator's men, he sends them out fairly regularly just to keep an eye on things. And to make sure no one is causing any trouble. As long as we leave them alone, and pose no threat, we should be fine. Just don't do anything brash." she said softly. Aetrius nodded ever so slightly and kept her eyes trailed on the men as she conversed with Kieran quietly, "How do you know them and I don't..?" Kieran slowly looked down and away, then back up as she spoke with a saddened voice, "When we were first seperated, and I was taken from the city where you were, me and the slavers ran into them...Clearly I'm fine, but they're not good news, I'll tell you that much.." she said.

Aetrius gripped her weapon tighter by the hilt as she listened, "So you've been to Cre' Est before, then..." her voice was slightly angered, as she realized how far and wide Kieran had been transported, the realization making her sick. "Yes..For..Business purposes in the past...I'm sorry.." her voice dipped a bit, as shame and memories came back in waves, which resulted in Aetrius gently squeezing her hand, she peered over at Kyero, "So, what do we do then, Kyero...?" she said as she awaited her orders.

Aetrius listened as Kyero said to just let them pass, and so she did, but that didn't stop her from staring them down all the while until they had gotten far enough away again. She was only shaken out of her state as she felt her arm being pulled by something, then the feeling of warmth and something soft. Aetrius couldn't help but stiffen up at the contact and as she peered to look over to see who and what her arm was against, she felt her face turn a bright pink as to what was before her. Just remain calm, all is right with the world. This is okay, this...is...Holy Heresta save me..., she thought to herself as she could only helplessly stand there with her arm in Linde's dead arm lock. Kieran looked over and chuckled as she walked away, "Might as well just get a room, you two." she chuckled and began to prepare food for the group with Rose's help as they'd be heading out again. Aetrius shot Kieran a sharp and deadly glare, and then looked back as Josephine as what she had missed.

Aetrius was only able to chuckle, but not in a good way, how she managed to over sleep through the sound of soldiers and never mind be so carefree about it, annoyed her a bit as her left eyebrow twitched. "A whole group of soldiers just passed through here. What's more worrisome is that you slept through it, and didn't seem to notice." she said rather sharply and coldly, as she looked at the blood haired woman that stood across from her.

Aetrius watched as Josephine packed her things and and mounted her horse, declaring they'd leave now instead of in a few minutes. She sighed, and began to prepare her things as well, taking down the tent and packing things up, food would have to wait for the road. As Lolan spoke up of Linde having to get changed, Aetrius agreed, but she was not prepared for what would happen after she said the following, "Come on, Linde. Hurry up and get changed, we're heading out." she said as she placed things on Bree.

Linde rubbed her eyes sleepily with one hand.

"Mmm... Okay..." She mumbled.

Linde let go of Aetrius' arm and, to everyone's shock save Kyero's, she began to tug at the shoulder straps of her night gown pulling them to the side and exposing her shoulders. If she let go of them... The nightgown would drop to the ground.

Aetrius watched as Linde slowly began to get undressed right in the middle of everything that was going on, her jaw slightly dropped and she felt her face turn a bright red. She quickly reacted on instinct, and attempted to quickly cover Linde with Aetrius' cloak, but she was quickly pulled back by something on her arm, she looked back to see Kieran holding her arm, "Wha...What the hell are you doing?" she growled, Kieran chuckled and kept her grip on Aetrius, "What? She's gotta learn one way or another to wake up and be on her toes. Hmm...I know." she said with a grin and let go of Aetrius, and pushed her forwards, "H-huh, wha..!" she exclaimed as Aetrius lost balance and ended up tripping and landing on something. Kieran smirked and dusted her hands and turned back to join the others, seeing her plan had been a success.

Linde made an "Mmmm" sound as Aetrius was pushed forward and fell face first into Linde's now bare chest as the night gown fell to the ground around her ankles. Thank the Gods she had undergarments on to protect her... Ahem... Area.

Linde grunted a little as Aetrius fell into her chest, but looked down at Aetrius with a smile and chuckled sleepily as she kissed the top of Aetri's head.

"Mmmm I love you too... But we need ta git going..." She mumbled.

Aetrius found her face turning a bright red as Linde spoke, only being able to awkwardly fumble about and away from Linde, only after she threw her cloak over Linde, keeping it closed as she held it tightly in her hands, looking away from Linde as she found herself getting a bit light headed and her face felt warm, "J-just get dressed, we-we need to leave as soon as we can." she said as she looked away, her face bright red, and looked back at Kieran and gave her a powerful and bitter glare, which only resulted in Kieran grinning and giving her a wink as she turned tail with the others and started to leave, leaving Aetrius alone with Linde.

Linde mumbled in agreement and started going to her tent to get dressed. A few minutes later she emerged clothed and yawning as she and Aetrius folded up their tent, put it in the saddle bag, and began to leave with everyone else.

Aetrius let Linde get back into her clothing and helped get her things packed and loaded on Bree, and after they finished packing, Aetrius helped Linde get onto Bree, and got on herself and once they were ready, Aetrius pushed her heels into the horse's sides and eventually caught up with the others. Kieran looked at Aetrius and grinned and mouthed, "You're welcome." to her, which only resulted in a low growl from Aetrius, who looked straight ahead and tried to not get anymore flustered than she already was.