We both sat there watching the fire and listening to the wood crackle away. Eventually I felt the need to break the silence.

"So, how come you couldn't sleep, bed uncomfortable or something?" I asked.

"Oh, I always get this for the first night or two out on the road. I think it's a mixture of excitement and apprehension about what is to come."

"You get apprehensive about a quest like this? Lillia told me you were a ranking adventurer and one of the greatest swordswomen as well."

"Haha, I have been called that before. I'll let you into a little secret, everyone gets a little apprehensive or nervous about these things. This is a fairly low level quest, but once you're out of the cities anything could happen, no matter what level you are and it's not just what might happen to me that I worry about."

"I suppose you are all stuck babysitting a newbie like me. That has only got to add to your worries!"

"Well I wouldn't put it quite like that and we we're all newbies once. Anyway, Lillia tells me you handle yourself quite well. Didn't you manage to take out two flame wolves on your first try? With barely a scratch on you and when one of them took you by surprise."

"She said that?"

"She did."

"Well I think a lot of it was pure luck on my part. If Lillia had called out to me a moment later, it would have caught me with its first strike, and we might not be talking like this right now…"

"But it didn't, and you handled it afterwards. That's very good for your first time!"

"Thanks."

"And you needn't worry about the coming days too much. We'll make sure to raise your level before we arrive for the main quest and when we tackle it, we will be working as a team. It will be a lot easier for us to watch your back, not like when you train with Lillia alone."

"Thanks, but I don't want you all putting yourselves in danger to protect me."

"It is our job to watch your back and besides, I expect you will be watching ours too."

"Of course, I will!"

"That's good to know." She laughed. "So how have you been keeping yourself busy out here on watch? I normally get fairly bored after the first hour or so."

"To be honest I wasn't out here for that long before you woke up, but before that I was checking out a new skill on my skill tree."

"I see, didn't you go through all of your points with Lillia the other day?"

"I did, well most of them. You see I have a custom character skill tree and I'd saved just enough points to gain the next skill I'd unlocked."

"You have custom skills?" She sounded surprised when she asked.

"Yeah I did hear it was pretty rare."

"It is, I've never come across anyone with one of those before."

"That's what Jules the girl at the guild said too."

"And you spent all that time checking out a new skill?"

"Well the thing is I was wondering what it does."

"What is the skill called?"

"It's called 'disorient'."

"Well that should be a status effect, probably quite similar to daze from the sounds of it."

"That's what I thought, but all of the skills I've gained so far have ended up working in a strange way."

"Strange how?" Serin asked sounding a little confused.

"They just didn't quite work in the way that I expected them to."

"Hmm, well you need to know what it does before you need to use it. I know, you can test the effect on me."

"Oh, I don't know, I wouldn't want you to get injured or anything."

"Nonsense, it is only a status effect. I promise you it won't harm me." She said standing up a walking a little distance from the fire. "Now test it out, I insist!"

I could tell that she wasn't going to give up until I used the technique on her, but I had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next. Serin just stood there waiting for me to test the technique, so in the end I decided to activate "disorient" thinking it would be easier than explaining how the other skills ended up working.

"Have you done it?" She asked with a very slight hint of impatience.

"I have. You don't notice anything?"

"No not at all. It's like nothing at all happened."

"That's strange…" Was this one a duff? I wondered.

Serin came and sat back down by the fire next to me, this time slightly closer than she had before. I didn't think anything of it at first, until.

"So, Theo, a man like you must have had lots of women?" She asked suddenly.

"H-how do you mean?" I stammered.

"Oh, come on you must know what I mean…" She said leaning in even closer.

"I guess… I wouldn't say a lot, a few." I answered feeling slightly on the spot.

"I'm sure you have women throwing themselves at you… Even Lillia and Altria look at you that way. I've noticed their gazes."

"Oh." Was she alright? I wondered.

"Me, I've not even had a boyfriend before. I left the capital to join the adventurer's guild. The men of low birth wouldn't approach me, and the nobles are too scared to leave the capital to court someone like me. Not that I would be interested in them anyway."

"Well I couldn't say I'd blame you from what I've heard."

"What about you?"

"Sorry?"

"What do you think of a woman like me?" She slid her hand down her leather trousers as she asked and leaned in even closer.

"Well, I think you are someone that does what your heart tells you to. I think that's admirable."

"I suppose with Lilla and Altria on either arm wouldn't even look twice at someone like me."

"No, that's not true. You're incredibly beautiful, any man would count themselves lucky to have someone like you."

"Really? You aren't just saying that trying not to hurt my feelings?"

So, this was its effect. It was almost as if she was a little drunk.

"No, I mean it."

"You know, I would be happy to be with someone like you too."

She was starting to act completely out of character. She shuffled even closer and leant in to kiss me.

"Hold on Serin. Are you sure you're feeling okay? I think this is the effect of the skill talking."

"I feel fine… I thought you said anyone would be happy with me, yet you're resisting me?"

"I know and I would, but like this…"

I couldn't finish what I was saying, before Serin began to kiss me again. This time running her hand up my leg. If I put up any more resistance, I was going to end up hurting her feelings and I mean I was more than happy to do this, but when she was like this. It just felt wrong. She stopped for a moment to push the blanket out that we had been sat on.

"Don't you think you should wait? Perhaps see how you feel about this tomorrow?"

"I've waited long enough." She answered sitting next to me once again. "Everyone seems to think I have no interest in these things, but it isn't true."

She embraced me once again and begun kissing me as we both laid back into the blanket. There was no reasoning with her now. It seemed that I would just have to go along with her and hope that the consequences of this weren't so bad tomorrow.

Giving in I grabbed her behind. I could tell that she had spent many hours honing her body and skills, just like Beth, she was incredibly toned. As our kissing and touching got heavier, she sat up and begun to undo the fastening on her chest plate. Even the way she held herself now and did this simple task was refined. She took off the breast plate and laid it to side, she was now sat there in just a simple under shirt. Next, she carefully undid the laces to her boots before slowly sliding them off and delicately placing them next to her chest guard.

She preceded to gracefully remove her under shirt, revealing her pure white bra she wore underneath. It suited her noble and pure persona. She took my hand and pulled it towards her, I sat up as she did so. She pressed my hand against her body, her abdomen, but she continued to guide it further up her body towards her chest. I held back for a second just before I reached her bra.

"It's okay Theo. I want this."