Chapter 9

Three things happened after that first night they all spent in an Inn.

First as they traveled during the day Lori came out of her shell and would talk with Dusty. Even though she still had her quiet moments, she no longer scowled at him and now that they traveled together Dusty found that she often would walk beside him, look up at him, and inquire about his life before he met them. She would sometimes even smile at him from time to time.

Second was that while Suzan would still play pranks on him, she started to now also stare him deep in the eyes when she talked to him. Before it was only Rachel who did that.

Sometimes she would also rub his face as she walked past him, stopping to stare at him and smile. She would also often do it while talking and it felt like he could feel her voice vibrate through her hand into him.

If he had to take a bath in a body of water she would sit on the banks for a few minutes and talk to as if it didn't remotely bother her he was naked. After awhile he stopped thinking about it because he acted more freaked out about it than she did.

But she took that time to talk with him because she said it was to let him purge his soul so he could heal. She proved to be a great listener and never judged him.

But she did seem irritated at Lindsey's actions and that made Dusty feel better. He needed someone on his side to see it his way without them pressuring him to pretend what she did wasn't as bad as he felt it was.

She messed with his health and that was always serious, but sometimes people ignored that fact and only focused on how Lindsey always felt about the break up instead. They seemed to minimize his feelings. But Suzan never did.

And eventually she got him to talk more in depth about his life before she met him. And he never felt uncomfortable about sharing any part of his life that she asked about with her. Before he knew it she had him laughing and talking about everything.

And the third thing was that Dusty no longer had more than one mug of Mead.

He would nurse the one he had to about half a cup. Since it was cleaner than the water in the inns he had to drink something, but he tried not to let himself have too much.

One other thing was the ladies actually got to witness a week later was what Dusty was really capable of...

When they were more than half way there they decided to spend one last night at an Inn in the closest town before they started for the town with the job in it.

That proved to be a choice that showed the women taking Dusty along wasn't such a bad idea.

Dusty had gone out to use the outdoor privy and when he returned he found six men hanging around the women trying to get them to come up to their rooms.

The men were even going as far as touching the hair of the women while they were attempting to talk to them.

He could clearly see that they were getting irritated.

Suzan and Rachel were slowly fingering their swords, Marie was casting sidelong glances at her staff on the wall behind them, and Lori seemed to be quietly muttering and whatever she was doing made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. It was also making him feel like he had static running around on his skin.

He suddenly knew he had to break this up fast.

"So LADIES did you miss me, is it my turn to buy drinks already?" asked Dusty loudly, waving, and with a large smile as he headed for their table.

He wanted the men to know that the women were with him.

"Kiss off, we're talking to the ladies here," said one overtly large man with both of his front teeth missing. He moved to block Dusty from sitting at the table by sitting in his seat.

While he was big, he had a large stomach that lapped over his belt. All the men carried large knives at their belts. They were dirty and looked as if a good bath was long over due.

"While I believe the ladies feel differently, it may be in your best interest to leave them alone. I think they may soon make their refusal very vocal and bloody," said Dusty with what he hoped was a warm smile.

"Look little boy I won't tell you again to mind your own business if you know what's good for you. Now run along we're speaking here" said the man hinting at malice for Dusty. His face didn't remotely contain a smile.

"Sigh Look, we all can be friends, but I do believe you are in my chair," said Dusty still trying to keep his smile. He was still hoping to disarm the situation without fighting.

"What? Did you miss what I told you? Boys take him out side and talk to him for a few minutes," said the man now with an evil grin.

Two of the men broke away from the group and started for Dusty, both with an evil smile on their faces.

Dusty let them get close and grab him. Once one had a firm grip on him the other went to hit him in the face.

Dusty ducked under the first blow and stomped the instep of the man holding him.

Once he was released, when the man howled in pain, he grabbed the back of the head of the man who threw the punch and pulled his head down into a knee strike to the face.

While the second man was dropping to the floor he spun and kicked the man in the stomach behind him hard enough to drop him to the ground. The first man rose about four feet off the ground to fall face forward out cold.

And before anyone could react to what they just saw, he then ran for the table, where he put his hand on it and used it to jump over it, aiming for the head of the man in his chair, where he kicked him hard enough in the face to flip him over on to the floor.

Once there the man hit his head on the ground hard enough to knock him out. Dusty landed and rolled to stand into an upright position.

The other three men looking on decided to take off running into the night. They weren't sure what just happened, but they were sure they didn't want any part of it.

Dusty grabbed all three men he disabled one at a time by their ankles and dragged them out of the Inn to just outside the door and then he walked back in and took his seat between Rachel and Suzan as if nothing was wrong.

After watching the confrontation with Dusty, a few moments later all conversations resumed in the Inn. But every once in awhile someone would turn and look his way curious about what he just did. But no one approached him to question him about it.

"Was that your Moo ay tie fighting?" asked Lori quietly with wide eyes from across the table. She found herself seeking Dusty's eyes as she tried to speak with him.

She had been staring quietly at him both while he was dragging out the men and since he sat back down at the table. But now he had her rapt attention.

She had been in shock when he had flown past her face when he threw his kick over their table. She had never seen anyone do anything remotely like that before. Their table was easily four feet across. She thought it was truly amazing to see! Who fights like that?

"Yes it was, I was hoping to keep from fighting, but I didn't believe they would take no for an answer. Especially after they went and grabbed me," said Dusty with a chuckle.

"Wow, you can certainly take care of yourself at least. No need to worry if you'll get yourself killed showing off with pretend skills," said Suzan as she smiled warmly.

"I should have to pay more attention and I'll have you show me what you do again," said Marie suddenly smiling at Dusty with shining eyes.

Rachel just started at him in wide eyed wonder with her mouth open. She had reflexively reached out and put her hand over top of his right hand when he had first sat back down at the table.

"Are you still interested in showing me your prowess in your room? Maybe, tonight?" asked Lori quietly leaning a bit forward, while still staring at him with wide eyes.

Everyone turned to stare at her in shock, but she just ignored them as she focused hard on Dusty face.

Dusty was trying to stammer his way through a refusal that wouldn't hurt her feelings.

Suzan was highly irritated but she couldn't explain why.

She often found herself going round and round with the thought why as they traveled.

As she was trying hard to figure out why she was so irritated she just couldn't put her finger on who or why. She just had a feeling of uneasiness that was slowly growing.

It couldn't be Dusty, because they all agreed that whoever Dusty was interested in the others would back off. And Dusty still hadn't technically made his choice yet.

And only she knew his secret and he trusted her to keep it, and because of it she knew that he wouldn't be making a choice between the women any time soon.

But he did appear to everyone to be choosing Lori.

But why Lori? Until recently she was never even nice to him! She did everything short of telling him to leave her alone. She never smiled or talked to him when he tried to speak with her. Why did he have to show any interest in her?

Lori had never really seemed to like anyone, and she just barely tolerated the ones she could call her friends.

But after the fight in the Inn last week she seemed to be seeking Dusty out now more and more. And she couldn't be more obvious with it if she tried too.

Suzan soon found that she wasn't even able to have her nightly conversations with Dusty when he bathed because Lori kept turning up! And she stood there ogling him as she did.

She wished Lori would quit, that was her time to be with him!

But she knew that Dusty wasn't her possession, but she just wished sometimes that he was interested in her the way he looked at Lori or she wasn't so plain looking compared to the other women.

As they traveled to their destination she kept trying to examine her feelings around her uneasiness, but she found herself drawing back from Dusty unconsciously.

Marie couldn't believe how well Dusty could fight. He was really dangerous.

After that night she tried to seriously spar with him whenever she could, but he was so far above what she knew in hand to hand fighting that there was no way she could ever fight on par with him.

She even tested herself against him with her staff and he kept talking it away from her.

All those moves that he used looked deceptively easy, but when she tried them she found that they were harder than she thought. She just didn't have the timing or the reach with her kicks.

She would often watch his daily practice, while he did some kind of shadow boxing that he called it, and try those moves later alone. But they were hard!