Chapter 3

"Where is he going?" wondered Andrea as she saw Aric headed out of the city gates.

Once they reached twelve they were considered too old to still go to school. Andrea was expected to help out in her parent's bakery and Aric helped his uncle a little, but not like before.

He liked helping in the Blacksmith shop, but didn't want to join the guild.

While the guild helped ensure work for everyone at fair prices, there were too many that abused the protection of the guild to do shoddy work and there wasn't anything anyone could do to complain about it.

But because he wouldn't join the guild he could no longer work as a blacksmith or helper to his uncle. The guild sent someone else to apprentice to him. And his other cousins decided to apprentice to other crafts as well. So the new apprentice was living with them.

To make money and help out his uncle, he often brought back wood or stacked materials in the shop. Some of the other shop owners contracted with him to either move materials or provide lumber for them as well for money. Some even had him doing construction.

Aric's great strength impressed all and he moved very quickly and efficiently to finish as fast as he could.

His uncle would sometimes let him practice using the anvil or forge when he wasn't there, but he made sure to impress on him that he could never repair anyone items or make items to sell or give away to others. He could only work for himself. But Aric was ok with that.

But the other thing this did was allow him to practice twice a day instead of only early mornings. He wanted to be the better than his father if at all possible. Once he collected enough wood or moved supplies, the rest of the day was his, and he used it to practice daily.

Andrea had brought over some bread purchased earlier by his Aunt Mavis. On her way back to the bakery she caught sight of Aric leaving out the city gates.

This summer had been good to Andrea.

The booby and butt fairy had paid her house a visit one night and apparently spilled a little extra helping on her.

At twelve she looked like someone was trying to hide a pair of large oranges in her shirt. Her frame had always been slender with a tiny waistline, but with her hips flaring like they did, it made even grown men stop and take notice.

At her age she already looked like she was sixteen with a very pronounced hourglass figure. Some women went their whole life and didn't have the figure she had now. She always had clear blue eyes, but it seemed like her lashes became longer and that made the eyes seem bluer.

Her trademark that everyone knew her by was that she always kept her long hair tied high in a ponytail. Once when they were ten, Aric mentioned that he thought her hair looked cute in the ponytail she was at the time trying out. And she had never styled it differently since then.

Today she was wearing a summer dress that fit her very nicely.

"I always wondered what he did in the woods. I guess I'll find out today," thought Andrea.

After following Aric deep into the woods she saw him reach a clearing near a stream.

First he took a little time and stretched, and then she watched him go through the basics of some kind of martial arts.

Andrea knew that's what it was, even though she didn't know if he was doing it right. He was doing tumbling as well as kicks and punches. She was impressed at his abilities and there were times she thought he'd fall down, only to realize he was just doing an attack.

"Wow he's impressive, " thought Andrea smiling

Ever since they were seven and he protected her, no one messed with him, or her, anymore. But that's not what he wanted. He tried to befriend everyone, even the boy whose arm he broke. He even went as far as to bring some money to school saying that he didn't mean to hurt the boy and would like to be friends.

Then he took him to a candy store and bought candy for him and all his friends.

The boy kept his distance for awhile, but after he knew that Aric wasn't just setting him up for another attack, accepted his friendship. He even apologized to Andrea for tearing her dress.

Aric just had that effect on others.

Now that Andrea was older, she dressed much nicer. But it was hard to forget someone who stood up and protected you like he did.

Her mother often kidded her and called him her first love. She admitted that she liked him as a good friend, but wouldn't call him her first love.

But Andrea did realize that she had been watching her good friend for over hour and never noticed the time passing.

After Aric was done, he pulled off his shirt, pants, and shorts waded into the stream.

Most girls might have turned away, but Andrea couldn't help herself and she was drawn to him.

All she saw was part of his arms while they were growing up, and they looked muscular, but she never saw any more than that.

He always seemed to favored baggy short sleeve shirts.

But what she didn't know was that he did so because as he got older his uncle told him the best way to help avoid a fight is to not look like you're advertising to get in one. So his baggy shirts helped hide his build.

But now Andrea got to see him without it. And she was impressed. Very impressed.

He had grown a lot and was at 5' 4" so far, and was very tall for his age. But his muscles were what suddenly attracted her attention.

She had seen her father's back before, but it was nothing like this! When Aric moved he rippled! She could almost see each and every muscle he had. They separated and moved on their own. He was not quite as wide as her father, but he certainly wasn't built like him either.

She had also gotten a good look at his manhood when he started stripping and she was curious, were they all that sized? She wondered how he didn't snag it on something.

But as he washed himself she couldn't help staring.

"Wow he really is incredible, " she thought, and continued to sit and stare at him from a distance.

But a stray thought hit her "What will he think of me peeping on him?"

That thought made her blush profusely.

"I better get back before anyone really misses me," she thought.

She had gone about a half mile before she realized she was turned around and lost. She tried to backtrack to get her bearings, but that didn't help either.

Suddenly she broke into a clearing where there were eight men standing in it, obviously camping there.

They approached her and asked her if she was lost. She said no, but they wanted to know if she wanted to party and hang out with them. She said no and tried to turn around. One of the men ran up and grabbed arm and told her she should stick around and at least have some fun with them.

Andrea pulled away and said no thank you and started off again. This time the man caught her around her waist and said they really weren't asking. And then he started to drag her back to the campsite.

Aric was done with is practice, had a bath, and was getting ready to look for more wood. It wouldn't hurt him to get a jump on tomorrow's job.

Just as he was getting started he heard a scream not that far away. It sounded like Andrea, but he thought there was no way she would be this deep in the wood. It wasn't safe if you didn't know what you were doing.

But he couldn't ignore a woman's scream so he went running off into the direction of the sound.

As he got to the clearing he saw eight men and heard one of them tell someone they could keep screaming all they wanted but it wouldn't matter because no one would hear them all way out here.

But the woman kept kicking, fighting, and screaming anyway. She wasn't going down without a fight