Even covered in blood, sweat, and dirt, she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
This adventuring thing has turned out to be one long staring session for me. I can’t keep my eyes off Alessia. Everything she does has my world crumbling and rebuilding itself in the blink of an eye. A simple flick of her hair over her shoulder has my heart pounding; the sight of her swinging a sword has me weak at the knees; the image of her walking out of that goblin nest, dirt smeared across her arms, her hair a tangled mess, and a goofy grin on her face, has me liable to pass out.
She doesn’t need me on this quest. She could have gone without me and ramped up her experience on her own, but instead, she chose to bring me along. I’m so glad I get the privilege of witnessing such a holy sight. There’s nothing more attractive about Alessia than work ethic and passion colliding in a furious attempt to succeed.
Besides, the way she’s been looking over her shoulder at me, eyes sparkling like stars in the night sky?
It’s unforgettable. You’d have to kill me to erase that from my brain.
When we arrive back at our campsite, the sun is sinking below the horizon. I start our campfire while Alessia cleans the deer carcass, and soon, the fire is the brightest thing around save the moon. The smell of roasting meat has me salivating, but not as much as the sight of Alessia removing her shirt to wash it. Is it just me, or have her abs gotten impossibly more defined in the few days we’ve been adventuring?
“Aurelio, how long do you plan to stare?” she laughs.
I sit bolt upright, clapping a hand to my mouth. “I’m sorry! Didn’t think you’d notice!”
“You’re fine, honey,” Alessia muses.
She doesn’t skip a beat as she bends down to rinse her shirt in the nearby brook, but my heart is sure skipping beats. Did she mean to use a pet name, or was that unintentional? Either way, it was adorable, and I hope she says it again.
“I’m glad we brought seasoning salt with us,” Alessia remarks over her shoulder. “This meat would be tasteless without it.”
“Agreed. That was a smart move on your part,” I say. “I don’t know if it’ll keep the meat good for long, though. How do you suppose we’re going to store all this?”
Alessia hangs her shirt to dry over a branch, then sits beside me, twirling a strand of her hair in thought. I feel my heart palpitate just watching her. How can she be so adorable when she literally murdered a nest of goblins only an hour ago?
“Ah! I think I have an idea.”
I rotate the meat skewers over the fire as she gets up. A moment later, she returns with her backpack, pulling out the metal box she’d been storing her tools in. She shoves the tools into her backpack and presents the metal box to me.
“It’s not the greatest solution, but we can put a good amount of meat in here, right?”
“Uh…three days’ worth, I think, but not all of it,” I answer honestly.
“Well, regardless, we can save some of the meat if I put it in here and freeze it with my magic. I can just keep re-freezing the ice every time it melts. That should keep it from spoiling, right?”
Once again, her eyes outshine the moon, and once again, I get lost in their depths, melting into a puddle as she looks at me with all the enthusiasm in the world.
“You’re a genius as always, Alessia,” I say.
She beams. “I’m glad we both agree on that.”
Her arrogance should irk me, but as it always has, as of late, it only has me falling harder for her, the impact with the ground below of no concern to me. I trust her to catch me when I fall, because no woman is going to look at me the way Alessia looks at me unless she truly cares.
Setting to work cooking the rest of the meat, Alessia and I form a two-person assembly line, cooking, slicing, and storing the meat in an orderly fashion. I swear we stay up half the night trying to cook the whole deer, but it could have been one hour or ten hours, and I wouldn’t know the difference; I lose track of time whenever I spend it with my wife.
“Alright, that’s the last one,” I say, brushing my hands off. “If you want, I can start—”
Just then, there’s a growl from behind me. My heart seizes in my chest. If I didn’t know any better, it sounds like—
“AURELIO, LOOK OUT!”
In a flash, Alessia is tackling me to the ground. I hit the soft dirt with a dull thud. There’s a shuffling of feet behind us, then an excited squeal, like a cross between a pig’s and a child’s. I try to sit up to see the creature, but Alessia pushes me to the ground as she stands up, her sword drawn in front of her.
“Don’t touch him, you mongrel!” she shouts.
She swings, and I wince at the sound of a sword finding its mark in flesh. There’s an earth-renting screech, then out of nowhere, a blur charges, and Alessia yelps as she’s thrown ten feet across our campsite. She cries out again when her back smacks into a tree, and she crumples to the ground, lying still.
My initial panic is gone. Now, I’m pissed.
