"Keep your weight in your heels," Feytan ordered me as I was slowly bending my knees for the exercise he'd given me. For today's training, we were focusing on my legs. "Don't let your knees track past your toes." Feytan kept giving me pointers, making me readjust my posture every few seconds. The exercises looked easy when I saw Feytan or the other training wolves perform them, but when I tried them myself, my own body seemed to fail at even the easiest of exercises.
But Feytan seemed to see it differently, since he kept praising me about how well I was adapting and how fast he told me I was learning. I felt slightly insulted and complimented at the same time at his surprise about my performance.
I threw every inch of myself into this training, to keep my mind from straying to thoughts about Lotta. I felt worried about her. I didn't know when she'd return or if she would even return. I assumed she'd been called away for this secret mission to avenge Willis. But Fire Moon was dangerous territory, and I didn't dare to think about Lotta being there.
Luckily, Feytan was wearing me out and didn't give me the slightest opportunity to think about anything other than the acidification that was building up in my legs and my buttocks. My legs were trembling every time I had to push myself back up, and the more exercises I had to do, the more sure I became that I wouldn't be able to get back up.
To my surprise, I was able to finish all of them. I fell to the ground once or twice, but I quickly recovered, got back up and continued with the exercise. I hadn't even taken the effort to dust off my trousers, which earned me a respectful nod of Feytan, accompanied by a small smile he tried his best to hide.
"Well, look at you killing it," Jerr suddenly said. My head turned to the source of the sound, and I saw him standing at the edge of the clearing, leaning against a wall of a small building that adjoined our training place. His brown waves were ruffled away from his face, allowing the slight sharpness of his jaws even more to be noticed. I had been too consumed in myself I hadn't even noticed Jerr had joined the clearing. How long had he been standing there?
"I didn't know I had any spectators," I shot at him.
He threw his hands up, shrugging his shoulders. "What can I say, maybe I like looking at you."
"I'm sure you do," I sniped. I heard Feytan snickering behind me.
Jerr winked at me before he addressed Feytan, who had gone to get some water flasks for us. "Aven wanted me to come check how Sari's progressing."
Feytan handed me my water, and I almost drank it in one go. "She's doing good. She's a quick learner."
"Wonderful," Jerr mused and he looked at me with flickering, green eyes. I rolled my eyes at him. Bloody Wise Moon. "Is her training finished?" He asked Feytan.
Feytan nodded in response. "We are done for today."
"Perfect," he smiled, turning to me. "I want to show you something."
Jerr and I were walking side by side in the streets, heading towards the outer parts of the city. My legs were slowly killing me, but my pride refused to let me slow down. To my great annoyance, Jerr refused to tell me where we were going, or what it was he wanted to show me. "I don't want to ruin it. The surprise is half the beauty of it."
"Now that's only feeding my undying curiosity," I pleaded.
"Your patience adorns you," he stated, his intensely green eyes glimmering teasingly. "Besides, now we have plenty of time to finish that conversation we had two nights ago."
Oh, by the Moons. I could remember only vague shards of that night, but I could still somewhat remember talking with Jerr. I had hoped that had been some sort of fever dream. That I hadn't crashed into Jerr in my drunken state, saying things I was now regretting. That sunburned grin that grew on his face only confirmed my embarrassment and made the blood rise to my cheeks. "Oh, oh no. No, we don't. I was drunk, we can just forget about it." I tried waving the subject away.
"But I don't want to forget about it," Jerr said, his grin becoming a tad more serious. "You said I was nice, why would I ever want to forget that?"
"Oh, by the Moons," I grumbled. I wanted to bury my face in my hands and disappear out of this conversation.
"Don't be embarrassed, Sari," Jerr said as he gently poked his elbow in my ribs. "I feel flattered."
"That only makes it more embarrassing," I grunted. "But fine, what did you want to talk about, exactly?"
"As I just said, I want to continue our conversation."
I glared at him with squinted eyes. "You will have to be more specific."
Jerr breezed out a laugh. "Is the evening such a blur for you?" He continued when I deigned to respond. "Alright. Let's start with why you thought I don't like you."
I sighed. There truly was no escaping the shame I felt bubbling up in my chest, rising all the way to my already reddened cheeks. "Didn't I already tell you all about that?" I tried my hardest not to relive that drunken conversation.
"Ah, yes. But you see, the evening is quite blurry for me as well. Although I assume you were still worse off than me."
"You were drunk too?" I asked, my left eyebrow raised.
"Yes," he answered coolly. "Did you expect anything else from someone in a bar in the heart of the night?" His tone was lightly edged with challenge.
"Oh."
"Now that we've established we were both enjoying the wonderful marvels of intoxication, can we go back to why you said I didn't like you?" Jerr snorted.
"Do we really have to?" I pleaded.
"Yes."
"By the Moons," I sighed.
"Our Moons won't help you out on this one," he said.
"Why?" I asked. I made a point to keep my gaze on the road we were walking.
"Why not?"
"Don't answer my question with another question," I said annoyed.
"Why?" He laughed.
By the Moons. "Stop being so sunburned impossible," I demanded.
"I will try," he said.
"Thank-"
"Once you've told me why you thought I didn't like you."
Bloody Wise Moon. "Why do you care so much about it?"
In the corner of my eyes I saw his grin reappear on his features. "Why do you care whether I like you or not?"
"I don't," I answered quickly. Too quickly. Jerr simply raised his eyebrows. He had won this round, we both knew it. "Fine," I grumbled, rolling my eyes. "It was quite obvious. When Aven told us we'd be riding together, you were ready to protest immediately if Aven hadn't prevented you from doing so. You said I reeked, you're disgusted by my scent. And I felt how uncomfortable you were on the horse the entire time. Don't pretend otherwise." I felt my pride slowly leaving me, going to a place I wasn't sure I'd be able to retrieve it from.
"Ah. I see," he answered.
"That's it?" I frowned. "That's all you have to say?"
"If you would have given me a few moments longer I would have explained myself," he retorted, a sly smile curling on his lips. "I admit, I was ready to oppose against Aven's orders of us riding together. However, that had nothing to do with you and everything to do with the fact I do not like to be ordered around like an obedient little pup. I'm sure you can understand that." I could. I had hated every time I had to submit to Beckett. Just thinking about lowering my head, made me sick to my stomach. "I also don't think you reek. Well, now you do. You might want to take a bath when we get back," he teased. "But normally, you don't reek. Fire Moon's remains on you do. Did. They're vanishing already, as you may remember me telling you. And you'd be uncomfortable being stuck with a horrible smell like Fire Moon on a horse for two full days, too."
"Okay," I said softly. I didn't really know what to make of this, or what he wanted to achieve with this conversation.
"That's it? That's all you have to say?" Jerr mimicked me dramatically.
I rolled my eyes at him. "So, if I understand correctly. This is all a misunderstanding and you do like me."
"It is a misunderstanding, yes. But I never said I liked you." He looked at me for a brief moment, before shifting his focus back to the street ahead of us.
"What? Then why did you pester me with this entire conversation? Was it just to stroke your sunburned ego?" The frustration grew in my voice. Those sunburned males.
"No. I just didn't want there to be any misinformation about my non-existing dislike of you." He took a turn to the left and I followed him as we walked in another little street. I was sure it was charming and beautiful, but I wasn't paying attention to the glamours of Rahas around me.
"You're impossible. Do you or do you not like me?" As soon as the words parted from my lips, I saw the pointlessness in this conversation. I felt like a young, ungrown wolfling again.
"I don't know you," he said simply, shrugging his shoulders. "So how could I know if I like you or not?"
"You look in my head at any given moment," I snapped. That bloody Wise Moon was getting on my nerves.
"Do I?" He winked. He was probably enjoying my frustrations.
"You know me well enough to trust me with information other wolves in this pack cannot know," I countered.
"Touché," he whistled. "But trusting someone and liking them are not the same thing."
"You took the effort to come get me now, to show me this big surprise," I argued.
"I'm just doing my duties to welcome the new wolf in our Pack." Enjoyment danced around his eyes and mouth. I was surprised to find that the small smile that took shape around his lips was easing my annoyance. This was another game, I noticed. But this was one I enjoyed playing.
"You stood up for me in that meeting," I said softly.
"I was merely making sure everyone was paying attention to the matters at hand." He quickly glanced at me. Our eyes locked for the briefest moment, before I quickly looked away, feeling my cheeks redden again.
I rolled my eyes at him. Something I found myself doing more often than average when I was around Jerr. "We both know you do like me."
"I suppose we do."
A victorious smile filled out my face. I won this match.
But Jerr spoke again before I could gloat in my triumph. "Welcome to the Temple of Sariranyasa."