Secrets Intertwined

XVI

"Go away, Raven," groaned Aislyn, pulling the covers over her head.

"Nope, its been too long since you've trained, and you're out of shape. And careful of what you call me."

"I'll train later! Not when the sun has barely risen."

She expected a sarcastic comment, or maybe a prod, but nothing happened. Not believing he had left her with no fight, Aislyn dared to risk looking out from under her blanket.

And was met with a pot of freezing cold water being thrown into her face.

"What the fuck!" She spluttered, spewing water everywhere.

"Up. Now. You get yourself ready and I'll get breakfast ready," said Galen, from over his shoulders as he headed downstairs.

Begrudgingly, Aislyn made her way into her washroom. She shut the door behind her and glanced into the mirror. Her hair hung in wet tendril across her head and her face was flushed from the cold water.

She brought both her hands to hover just in front of her face, palms facing inwards. A warm air filtered out from her hands, blowing into her face.

In no time, she was all dry.

Continuously grumbling under her breath, Aislyn went back into her room and walked over to the full-length mirror. She pulled her hair into a ponytail and started to rummage around in one of her trunks, looking for her training outfits.

She settled for tight brown leather trousers and a sleeveless linen top, wrapping a deep blue sash tightly around her middle. Looking at herself, she continued to grumble under her breath and stuck up her middle finger up at her reflection.

She plodded down the stairs and then stopped; Stopped and looked back at the closed doors around her. It had been a long time since she had to tread carefully and take other people. She walked down the last few steps on the tips of her toes, the only noise coming from the creaky, old stairs.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, looking around the kitchen. "I thought you said you were getting breakfast ready!"

"I did, it's over there," said Galen without looking up from the map he was intently studying.

Looking to where he was pointing, Aislyn saw he had left out some fruit.

"You're so chivalrous, you lazy bastard."

Grabbing an apple, she took a bite out of it and settled into a chair opposite him.

"You have five minutes."

"Hells, you're like a walking talking alarm."

Insult on the tip of his tongue, Galen looked up and choked it down.

"You're going in that?"

"Mmhmm."

" What if your brother, or Logan, or Tamani sees you?"

"Then they'll be blown away by my perfection."

Shrugging Galen looked back down at the map, "What are we going to do? Weapons or hand-to-hand?"

Chopping into her apple, she mumbled around her food, "hand-to-hand," swallowing she continued, "I need to get my strength back up."

"Okay."

Launching the apple core into a nearby bin, she stood up and went back to her washroom to brush her teeth.

She quickly pulled on her gloves and ran out to a waiting Galen, who had been shouting at her for the last two minutes.