A warrior’s heart

Chapter Four

Ariella had to think fast if she was going to de-escalate the situation. "What makes you think the world doesn't care?"

"You are the woman from the party. I know for certain from the sound of your voice." Nell says mater of factly.

"You are really stuck on that, aren't you?" Ariella says, "Since you seem to be so sure," she takes off her mask and some of the guards stop and openly stare at her because they didn't expect her to look so beautiful. "Now answer my question."

Nell smiles, "That's more like it. Now, to answer your question; I've known since I was young that no one cared for me. You remember I told you about the nuns that raised me, correct? Even then they only did the bare minimum and only fed and clothed me. Sometimes they would starve me if I misbehaved even just a little bit. No one encouraged me to do well in life so everything I did wasn't to improve this world, it was to make it so dependant on technology that it would be easy to destroy."

Ariella was shocked but she remained calm, "It sounds like you were abused by those who were meant to take care of you. You may not believe me, but I care about you," She says, "I want nothing more then for you to be happy."

Nell's face shifted from surprise to disbelief, "You're just trying to save this world and your boyfriend behind me."

The word 'boyfriend' perked up Ambrose's ears. Until she responds with a disgusted look, "Ew no! He's just my friend. He's a hungry idiot but he's still my friend. He's more like my brother."

"Good news for me then," He looks back at Ambrose then back to her, "I'll make you a deal; Stay here with me and I'll let Andy go and he can keep the cannon. Or I kill both of you and I find the weapon, then destroy this world and rebuild it in the way I see fit."

"I'll stay," Ariella says without hesitation.

"Ari," Ambrose chokes out in their language, "Don't do this."

"You know I have to do this. This is part of our training," Ariella responds, "For peace." He looks at her with a pained expression, shaking his head.

"Is your discussion over?" Nell says, starting to get bored of their private conversation.

"Let him go," She says in english, "But he has to take my weapons and tools with him."

"Why?" Nell says, angrily, "So he can try to rescue you?"

"He may be an idiot but he knows when not to be a hero. And would you rather I keep the weapons to possible attack you again?"

Nell mulls that over and nods his head to one of the guards and they let Ambrose go. Ambrose stumbles over to Ariella, "I'll find a way to save you," he says softly.

"Don't," She says sternly, "you would just put everyone in harms way. This is the only way. If you try to do anything to rescue me, you will only live to regret it." she hands over all of her weapons and Azar scuttled his way over to Ambrose. She spoke softly in Cowasian, "There is a message hidden in the belt that must be given to the Counsel. And when you see my parents, tell them, 'I love them. And that I'm sorry.'"

Ambrose looked pained as he took the utilaty belt. Before he could say another word, the guards escort him out of the mansion. Ariella wipes away a rogue tear and turns back to Nell. "Now, you wouldn't happen to have anything for me to wear, would you?"

"I have no women's clothes but we'll get you some after we get some rest. For now you can wear something of mine." He motions for her to follow and leads the way to his room. The guards go to their original postings and go back to patroling.

Nell leads her down several hallways that were practically bare. There was no indication of anyone actually living there. If it wasn't for the maids and guards that parted as they approaced, you would think this place was abandoned. There also wasn't any carpets or decrative plants of any kind could to be seen. "Looks like you need to have some sort of personal touch."

"I hardly leave my room and that's where my office is. I'm sure you'll find that my personality shines there."

They come to a set of double doors where he holds it open for her. His room was, as you'd expect, full of modern conveniences and video games. He had an Alaskan King size bed with a dark grey marble patern sheets that could be seen beyond a side door. On one wall there were posters of blueprints and the opposite wall was just a window that looked over the lake. In one corner of the room, there was a mahogony wood desk covered in paperwork. There was a 150 inch HD tv hanging from the ceiling with a sectional couch facing it. There were two other doors. One lead to a full sized bath room and the other lead to a large walk-in closet.

Nell makes his way into the closet and starts to rummage through his clothes that could fit and hands her an old shirt and a pair of his basketball shorts. Ariella silently takes a hold of the clothes and slips into the bathroom to change. Something that wasn’t mentioned about her was that her figure wasn’t as slim as her clothes portrayed. Her society had special clothing that both slimed your figure to fit into smaller places, and gave an opticule illusion to disorient others to never get a proper profile of who they were. She had muscles sure but she still had a very nice, feminine hourglss figure. Her hips and ass were firm and her breast were like having canteloupe in her bra. The clothes she was given fit around her waist but the shirt was still big on her.

She steps out of the bathroom and combs her fingers through her hair. Nell’s breath catches in his throat seeing her like that. While he wouldn’t say he liked her, he did have some sort of physical reaction towards her. Maybe he hoped for something more.

“It seems you were hiding quite the figure,” he says, trying to make it sound like a snide remark. "It looks good on you."

"I'm just glad they don't fall off."

"Wouldn't be the worst thing."

"For whom?" Ariella crosses her arms as she turns to look at him fully.

Nell just chuckles and walks over to his desk. "There isn't a room ready for company at the moment, so you can stay here in my room."

"So," she shrugs her shoulders, silently asking for more out of him, "Are you sleeping on the couch?"

"Would you rather sleep in a cell like room?" He says looking back at her, "Because that can be arranged."

"I'm just asking if we'll be sharing your bed." She says, holding her hands up to mean no harm.

"Relax," he says, looking back towards the paperwork, "I hardly ever sleep. You can just sleep on the bed"

She would argue but she had been awake for almost fourty-eight hours. She carefully climbs into the bed and she nearly fell asleep right then and there. The sheets and mattress were the softest she ever felt in her life. It must have been that Egyptian Cotton she's heard of. Before she could give another thought, she pased out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Nell takes a peak at Ariella when she started to snore softly. 'She must have been tired.' He thought to himself before turning his attention back to his work and knuckles down.

A few hours pass when there is a knock on the door, "Would you like some lunch, sir?"

One of the maids was at the door. Nell looks at his watch to see that it was a quarter past noon. "Bring it in."

The maid walks in pushing a cart. Nell groans because this particular maid was always trying to get his attention. Or at least that's what his guards would tell him and he believed it. This woman took every oppurtunity to be near him. Even now, she wasn't wearing the approved uniform of matching dark blue slacks and blouse with an apron. Instead, she was wearing what seemed to be a maids outfit from a pornagraphic video. A black and white dress that barely covered her ass, showing off her lacy thong. It was so tight around her breast that it was practiclly bursting from the seam.

"I hope you enjoy your lunch, sir," she says in what she thinks is a saultry voice. She places the tray on the desk and makes an effort into showing off her oversized tits but he just ignores them.

"Thank you," He says not looking up from his work, "You may go."

The maid's sexy smile falters but she tries again, "Is there anything else I could help you with?" she gently places her hand on his thigh and goes to start rubbing when he rips it off.

"You're fired," Nell says briefly.

Her face becomes pale. "But I can help you with so much more then just cleaning," She says in a final desperate attempt.

"You were hired on only for cleaning the mansion." he says pulling out a form, "This a blataint disregard for your station and I believe I have requested you cease these actions which you have failed to listen to." He grabs the phone on his desk, "Now go collect your things and leave with immediate effect."

Tears begin to well in her eyes as she storms out of the room. He lets out an agrivated sigh and calls the Head Maid and tells her the situation before starting the termination process. Hopefully others would be disswayed from attempting the same thing in the future after this.

He chances a glance at Ariella and she was still sound asleep. She turns over, away from the open door, and he turns his attention to the food on the tray and his work.

A few more hours later, Ariella emerges from the bed and rubs her eyes. She looks out the window and, with sleep still fogging her brain, thought she had only slept maybe an hour but in reality she slept for closer to twelve.

"Look who finally woke up,"

She spins around and sees Nell still sitting at his desk with what looked like more work then when she went to sleep. "Yeah, It looks like your workload more then tripled in the mean time."

"Just trying to get everything done so I can take the rest of the year off."

"That's going to take you at least three days to finish," She says, "At least let me help."

"You might know the basics of physics but this might be over your head."

She scoffs at him before getting off the bed, making her way to the desk and looks at a single sheet of paper, "You have a mistake on line twenty-three. The variable should be '0.47' not '0.23'."

He takes the form and looks it over. He gives a side glance, "You just might be as smart as me."

"You said it, not me." She pushes him out of the way, "Go take a nap. You need a break now that I'm awake. I'll take over for now,"

Taking a look at all the work, he relents and gets up from his seat and Ariella came up to his chest. She didn't realise how tall he was until now. He moves out of the way and she takes the seat and gets to work. Nell moves to the couch and grabs the paper off the table and starts to read. Not long after, he was sound asleep with the paper on his chest. For the first time in years, Nell was relaxed and felt safe enough to actually get some shut eye.

While Ariella gave all of the noticable gadgets to Ambrose, she kept the nano gear that looked like a regular charm bracelet. She presses on a little charm and the nanotechnology encompasses her wrist and starts to scan the pages. With the help of her tech, she starts going through the work, ensuring that none of the engenering from her home slips through and gets more then half of the papers done.

The sun slowly made it's way below the skyline before his hand, that was resting on top of the paper, slipped off his chest, papers scatter to the floor, and he wakes up with a jolt. Rubbing his eyes, he sits up and looks around.

"Morning, sleeping beauty," Ariella says, putting the page in her hand away in a pile, "Or should I say 'Evening'?"

"Did you just say that I'm a beauty?" He smirks.

"Don't let it go to your head," She says rolling her eyes, "I've seen better looking men then you since I was born."

"You mean your friend Andre?" He says, folding up the paper.

"It's 'Ambrose' and no. I meant my father."

"Right, Axel." He says intentionally. "He was a good looking guy. Until my boys roughed him up that is."

"He once went five rounds in the ring with me and came out much worse." she says, getting up from the chair. She goes over to the tray that was brought in and made herself a cup of tea. "Not to mention he tried to fight my dad right after for some bizare reason."

"I can think of a reason why," he says, getting up from the couch and making his way to the tray as well. He grabs a crumpet and the jam. "But I imagine that you are the last person who would see that."

"What on earth do you mean?" She grabs some toast.

"If you don't know," he leans closer to her. "Then I'm not going to tell." He grabs the plate of snacks and walks away.

"Hey!" she moves to chase after him but Kia in her beetle form stops her. It lands on her shoulder.

‘I think you are getting too close to this man.’ Kia says to Ariella.

‘You think so? I agree but I have to keep him at peace to protect the world.’

'I also need to shift back into a dragon soon.'

'I can't leave with you. There's a cave not far from here you can hide out in and shift back. When you're ready and fed, come back here.'

Kia reluctantly agrees and leaves out the open window. Ariella turns her attention back to Nell and thought about what her companion said. They were right. Just because he was being nice to her now doesn't mean she should let her guard down around him. She couldn't allow herself to fall for her capture.