Devoured Destiny (Completed, but being rewritten and edited.)

Thought Nine. - Dispute.

I wake up to a silent house. Opening my eyes, I take in my surroundings. 

Ah, the cottage. 

Right, last night... everything that had happened. Jones had told me to go back home and get some sleep. 

Because I looked haggard. 

Men. 

I will never understand them. 

Throwing the covers of the duvet to the empty side of the bed, I topple out, feeling groggy and disoriented. 

My first step leads to a god awful noise. 

"What the hell?" Looking down, theres Neven, tucked into a thin blanket. He's clutching his chest, with a pained expression on his face. 

"Good morning to you too, sunshine." He gives me a heart warming smile. 

Guilt pangs my stomach. 

I just stepped on him! Embarrassed, I rush to the floor by his side. 

"Are you OK? I'm so sorry, I had no idea that you were there...or that you were back." 

So jones had kept his part of the deal. 

I find myself surprised by this. I'm not sure if I was expecting him to pull through or not. He is just so unpredictable. 

Maybe that's what intrigues me about him. 

Neven takes my hand and rubs it gently with his.

"Ariel, I'm fine. Relax. Your foot is nothing that I can't handle. Believe me." 

This makes me laugh a bit. 

"Okay, I believe you." I take my hand back, and get up, making my way to the bathroom. The floor creaking as I walk. 

"Ariel?" 

I peek my head out of the bathroom, the door almost completely shut. 

"Yes?" 

He props himself up on his elbows, his eyes on me. 

"Thank you." I watch him as he runs his hand through his messy morning hair. He looks anxious, embarrassed even. "You know, for saving me." 

"Your welcome. We will talk later, I need to get cleaned up." With that I take one last peek at him through the crack of the door as he lets himself drop back to the ground. 

I run the hot water in the shower, looking at myself in the little dusty mirror hanging above the rust eaten sink.

What a mess.

My appearance, and my situation, all of it.

A mess.

How am I going to tell Neven about the deal I struck with Jones?

Will he understand that I had to do this, to guarantee his life in return?

And is Jones really as awful as I have let myself believe? Well yes, he did throw me into a boulder, and into a tree, and hit me so hard that I was actually seeing stars.

But why?

He had looked so calm, so happy, in my past life. We looked as if we were friends.

Good friends.

Then theres Neven. The man I apparently have a destiny with. The one that I am to be with for all of eternity, saving the lands. How can two people save thousands of souls that are entrapped in a giant, magical willow tree?