Wild Rose (Chapter 4)

Chapter 4

I sighed as I sank into the warm pond, I've been dying to clean myself, men. I'm glad I forced them to clean themselves, took me a while to get Ike to agree, that idiot was literally covered in blood. After a few threats to each other, we stopped at nearby ponds, the men were 5 minutes away from this pond. I bathed my hair and cleaned myself nicely, I got out and put on my new dress which Ike had stolen from my home kingdom. How dare he! How could he! That insolent brat! He ripped down my town to take it over our kingdom but ended up taking me instead. They left everyone poor and defenseless...I'm going to chew him out raw, oh just he wait! Oh! And he stole these new heels!

I'm wearing a white and green dress with matching heels, I walk back to camp. As I walk I grow a bit bored so I begin to sing, everything grew so silent...why have the birds just stop singing? I see a bird in sight and sung it a tone. It sings back and I giggle, "Your no ordinary bird, why your a parrot." It copies my tone and I laugh once more...I continue to sing, the parrot grew silent and cocked it's head to the side memorizing the tone. It flutters down onto my shoulder and I sing a soft hum, swaying back and forth, dancing on the toes of my heels. The bird flutters away and someone grabs my outstretched arms and twirls me around.

I stop singing and final break away from the person, who else could it be? Yep, Ike. I stand a few feet away from him and look down a little embarrassed. I didn't except him to hear me, though I was singing loudly. He bows and smirks, "What? You thought I was Prince Marth?" He started to chuckle, "As if...I couldn't help but follow your voice, and you dance nicely too...hm, I didn't expect that much out of you, especially considering that scowl you keep giving me.." I shook my head and spoke up after staring down at the ground for a minute. "Actually, no, I thought you were some perverted jungle man...wait, wait, you already are." I smirked, that smacked that smug little grin right off his face.

I lean against a tree and continue to smirk, while watching his glare. "Oh! Don't tell me I left the big boy speechless..." I swear I saw his eye twitch, Ha! "Your lucky that your a girl, I would've beat that smile right off your face." I shrugged and replied, "I am lucky..." he shook his head and changed the topic, "You like the dress...?" I look down and then remember the anger. I look up to see him approaching me, "I-it's pretty, but! You stole it, didn't you?" He nodded and I glared at him and he stood in front of me, for some reason I keep squishing myself against the tree. "How could you? How dare you! You burned down everything, all the supplies! You insolent moron!" I was going to punch him but Ike grabbed my wrist and gripped it extremely tightly. I began to gasp and wince in pain, he rested the wrist up against the tree and leaned in towards my face. "Enough is enough.." I looked up at him, taking in his words...so does that he mean he doesn't always like to take over kingdoms? That there in his heart he actually possess guilt? His grip on my wrist gradually loosens until it's just limp against my wrist, "I'm sorry...I'm just...just not used to acting, gentle. I'm sorry." I stare at him in shock, he's trying to apologize. He had his head lowered, Ike finally looked at me, I nodded my head and he finally let go of my wrist. The blood began to circulate again but it still throbbed in pain, there were hand marks all over my wrist. Ike grabbed my wrist again, this time in a much more gentler way, he held it up to his lips and kissed it. I blushed and the look on my face...bewilderment, priceless was a better term. I closed my eyes as I let the heat rush to my face, it made me dizzy. Ike let go and spoke up, "We have to get back to the the crew..." my head was spinning, I barely moved an inch before he caught me on time. Ike gently picked me up and carried me back, suddenly so tired.

We were back to camp in no time, all the pirate people, that's what I called them when they were really knights and mercenary. They had funny, smirky looks on their faces' and the thought clicked in my head...we were both in the forest together, he went in to get me and didn't come out for at least 10 minutes...man these people were sick! Yuck! I felt a chuckle escape from Ike, I looked up and he was laughing at my expression. My whole body felt like it was on fire, I think I hit a fever. I laid my head back against Ike's chest and listened to his heart beat. I was just so sleepy and tired, stupid fever! One of the pirate people asked, I believe his name was Lee, " So...what were you two lovebirds doing in there?" He had a smirk on his face and the whole crew cracked up, I looked up at Ike and his expression was serious. Lee spoke once more, "I mean, look at her face! It's red...and the fact that she can't walk!" Then he laughed, Ike finally replied, "Lee, shut up before I smack your teeth in." Lee automatically shut up, so did the others, then he continued. "She broke down in a fever and couldn't walk, so now we have to camp here for tonight, so go get some rest for tomorrow." The crew broke out to their tents and wished me a comfortable night.

Ike gently rested me down on my mattress, I closed my eyes and sighed. He held my hand to check of it was hot and then he rested his hand on my neck, I hand no time to react but I was sure my heart would pound right out of my chest. He sighed and said, "You still have a fever, I've never treated a fever before..." I opened my eyes and smiled, "It's easy, just get a piece of cloth and dip it in some cool water, really it's the best ting you could do at the moment." He looked down at me and nodded, "Where would I put the cloth?" I pointed to my forehead and he quietly slinked out of the tent, he came back a moment later with a piece of cloth and a bowl of cool water. I closed my eyes again and listened to him dip the cloth in the water and squeeze some of the water out. Ike moved some hair out of my face and rested the cloth on my forehead and then laid down next to me, I spoke up with my hand on my forehead to check if the cloth had heated up, it was starting to get there. "You should go get some sleep for tomorrow.." I heard some rustling and then opened my eyes, Ike smirked and then replied, "Who's gonna be there to keep your fever down?" I looked over at him and pouted, "Why are you being so nice to me?" He didn't answer for a while and then I added on, "I'm a prisoner, remember?" Ike touched the cloth and then dipped it in some water and rested it on my forehead once more, "Your a woman, I may not be used to being around girls that much but I still know not to treat people that harshly, be glad we aren't pirates. Or you would've been treated as an item." I noticed that he was right, "You sure look like a couple of pirates." I giggled. I looked at him and he was smirking, "Oh really? And wouldn't a pirate do something like this to a helpless young lady." Ike began to lean in towards my neck, "Wha-" I couldn't get myself to speak, then he stopped at my ear, his lips were just so close. I closed my eyes in fear and Ike whispered, "Cute. Your a strong girl, and your beautiful...it's so hard not to notice...I may not be able to hold myself back." Then he leaned back against a pillow next to me. I opened my eyes and he chuckled at my bewildered expression, "I was just messing with you, but I may not be able to hold myself back some day. For now, get some sleep, will you?" I smirked and then replied, "Sure, but you need to get some sleep also, my fever's probably going down anyway." Ike touched my neck again and nodded, "True, it's going down." He changed my cloth one last time and then quickly fell asleep, I did too, I think something changed tonight...but I'll let that go for now.