"Right. Good, glad you're in one piece. You too, big guy." Instead of giving them time to respond she quickly switched gears, unable to handle being nice for too long. "Come on, we should get going before they come back. Getting out of the troop's territory is in our best interests right now."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Ari stood and brushed himself off, coming over. Tasha swung off her horse to give the beast a break.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
A few days of travel passed, and though they managed to get out of the baboon's territory, they eventually agreed to make their way back to town in hopes of finding comfort in human civilization. Or, at least, that's what Amy was hoping. She knew James was averse to the idea as usual, but with the rest of them hounding him down he eventually gave in to the idea and they started to make their way towards the nearest town - of course, making sure it wasn't one too close to the thieves. Even Amy was still a little paranoid about them, even though she knew they were really only interested in capturing James... and maybe Tasha, since she stole from them.
The air was growing progressively more humid as the sun reached its peak in the sky. The midday light shone brightly through the trees, and she was grateful for the shade the surrounding foliage provided from the blinding light, even if there were gaps in the branches that momentarily left her seeing spots if she accidentally looked up.
She was enjoying herself, at least. Even though it had only been a little over a week, she felt she was growing very close to Ari in that time. He was kind, and strong, and soft at heart, and didn't seem to mind that she was a werewolf at all, and that was really all she could ever ask for. That, and he had a really cute smile, and big biceps and-
Her foot caught on a raised tree root and she tripped, barely catching herself as Ari's hand raised up to help her. They were trailing behind James and Tasha - along with her animal companions - and were out of speaking distance but still within shouting distance. As long as they were still within view, James didn't seem to mind, and she didn't mind spending more time with Ari alone.
She did wonder though, if James liked being alone... with Tasha.
Honestly, she couldn't really tell, but if she thought about it, she could see it. Two hardened, experienced fighters with dark pasts and a grumpy exterior? Sounded like they could get along quite nicely. Or not at all. She couldn't be too sure.
As she steadied herself, she laughed a little. "I'm okay," she said, before Ari could ask.
He smiled down at her. "Careful where yer goin', Amy, don' want ya gettin' hurt next time," he said kindly. "Don' wanna ruin that perfect face o' yours."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
He grinned in his typical, goofy fashion. "Why would I do that? You deserve every word."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Amy giggled and hid her face in her hands, her heart beating faster as butterflies flew around her stomach. "Oh my goooosh," she said again, muffled through her fingers. "Thank you, haha. You're way too pretty y-yourself," she said, peeking over at him, slowly pulling her hands away from her smile.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"ARIIII," she groaned, though still with a huge smile on her face. She giggled again and rubbed her face with her hands until her laughter died down and she joined him at his side, leaning her head into his arm.
"I was uh, thinking," she started, hoping to hop off the compliment train. As much as she enjoyed the flirting, she kind of needed her heart and her stomach to settle for a minute. "About James. Do you uh, do you know if he's ever been in a relationship? I mean, not like, I like him of course, I was just thinkin' cuz uh... I dunno... do you think him and Tasha might get along?"
It took him a few moments to put together what she meant. "Well, they seem t' have got a lot in common," he said. "'n they both got terrible bedside manner but James is nicer once he warms up. Maybe Tasha is, too. It's got potential."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Hm," Amy hummed in thought, putting an arm around his waist and leaning into him more as they walked. "They're both kind of the people to not really tell people how they're feeling though. I feel like it might be hard. They might not come together on their own."
He smiled slyly. "Maybe we should give them a nudge in the right direction."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Amy looked up at him, matching his sly smile with a grin. "How so? What do you think we could do? It might be hard to get them together... and even if they're together, like even now, just walking ahead of us, do you think they'd even talk?"
"Well, we could always get dinner someplace and then...I don't know. The two of us could have to go somewhere without much warning...."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
