Chapter 3

On their third day they decided to look for work to keep them busy as they explored around them.

But as they didn't know where yet to start looking, and after spending most of the day wandering around, they decided to go to a different Inn near the docks for a light supper and listen to see what was available.

As they entered Ariel went inside first and Nathan couldn't help but noticed that the noise level dropped more noticeable as she entered than when he came in a few steps behind her.

Once inside she looked around for a table in the back. She found one in the back corner she headed straight for it with Nathan in tow as she turn to grab hold of his hand.

As she approached the table she sat down with her swords still strapped to her side and Nathan took a seat as well, but they positioned their seats as to both have a wall reasonably close to their backs. Neither could stand to sit with their backs facing an open room if they could help it.

Ariel finally caught the eye of a passing serving girl and called her over.

The woman was moderately pretty with light brown her and her hair pulled back into a bun. She was wearing a nice light brown blouse that followed her figure and had the top two or three buttons opened slightly to show off her chest. She had on a plain white apron that covered her dark brown floor length skirt.

Ariel thought she would estimate her to be around her thirtieth season, but one would put her in her mid twentieth season and would be very wrong, so that might not be accurate either she thought with a smile.

But the woman had noticed Ariel when she entered. She had turned to see who entered when the hush fell over the room.

She noticed Ariel's attractiveness and couldn't miss the pretty sword scabbards on her side. But as soon as she saw all of this she dismissed her as someone playing warrior and only here for one thing, the men. Ariel's features also irritated her.

But the serving women had quickly looked away and hadn't looked back after Ariel entered so she had not seen Nathan as he in turn came inside behind her.

And while approaching them from slightly behind Nathan, she didn't know who Ariel's companion was and really didn't care. She thought that one of the men had quickly came over to her to try and get her in bed.

But now as the woman stood them she still wasn't really looking Nathan's direction. If anything she made it a point to not even acknowledge him if she could because she was still irritated by what she thought of as Ariel playing pretend warrior.

She spoke to Ariel in bored monotones and acted completely disinterested in taking her order. But eventually she told Ariel what they had to offer and waited for her to say what she wanted.

But after Ariel ordered a drink and something to eat Nathan spoke up in his normal deep tones and the serving girl suddenly looked over at him hard. It was obvious she was now staring at him.

Suddenly she went from bored disinterest to heavily flirtatious, even though Ariel was sitting right there, and started calling Nathan honey and sweetie giving him a big smile that helped make her look prettier.

She even went as far as to start touching his shoulders and arms as she re-recited what was available to order a second time just for his benefit, as she attempted to smile shyly at him.

Ariel sat and watched all of this with amusement, as Nathan looked over at her bewildered after she gave Ariel such a monotone reading.

As the woman seemed to skip off to fill the order, Ariel leaned over and said "I may need to eat off your plate instead of mine if I want to be safe."

Alarmed Nathan wanted to know what that meant, but Ariel said she was just joking and asked how Nathan couldn't be aware of the woman's sudden interest in him.

Nathan said he noted that he saw it, but he was choosing to ignore it because Ariel was the only woman he would ever be interested in.

The serving girl brought back their drinks first. But as Ariel was watching her out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed that the serving girl held her drink just a bit looser than she did the one for Nathan.

As she went to sit it down, she quietly fake stumbled, released the mug in mid air to fly across the table, where it was now headed in Ariel's direction. And as she did this she gave a fake sounding "oops" out loud.

But by turning and moving to be what seemed impossibly fast Ariel reached out and caught the mug before it could reach her and it only spilled a tiny bit of the liquid on the table.

"Thanks for the beverage," said Ariel with a smile.

The woman looked at her in shock as she did that, but then the look turned into mild irritation again.

"I see what you mean. Why do you think she has it out for you? You two just met," said Nathan as he watched her walk away.

"She wants something that's mine honey, and she's out to prove that I don't deserve to have it," said Ariel with a smile.

Nathan just smiled back in understanding.

As they continued to sit, they listen around the room for any information on possible jobs.

But after about ten minutes the serving girl was approaching them from along the wall with a refill for their drinks. She figured if Ariel wouldn't see it coming and she could spill it on her from behind this time.

But as she started for them, believing the noise from the room hid her approach to their table, Ariel turned to her when she was about three feet away and stood up to take the mugs from her without a sound.

Again the woman was surprised.

She was sure she was silent as she approached them and the very hansom man with her wasn't even looking her direction to tip her off. So how did that fake swordswoman know she was there?

"How did you..." started Nathan frowning after the serving girl left.

"I heard the swishing of her skirt. You'd be surprised what I hear now. I better not catch you whistling at any girls. And if you're not careful I might even be able to hear your thoughts now," said Ariel with a mischievous smile and her eyes seeming to twinkle.

"Not me Ma'am. Nope not me," said Nathan with a smile holding up both of his hands.

"But if you could hear my thoughts about you, you'd blush all the time," said Nathan with a big smile.

"Somehow I doubt that, but I know you would blush if you could hear mine," said Ariel with a big grin of her own in return.

As they saw the woman again approaching their table with a platter containing plates with their food on it, the woman once again approached Ariel's side and just as she seemed to get to the table, she again seemed too stumble, but kept a hold of the platter, and only the food flew Ariel's direction.

Before anyone could call out, Ariel put both hands on the table and leaped backwards over the chair doing the splits in mid air, and once she landed Ariel was now standing behind her chair smiling, as the food spilled across the table and chair she used to be sitting in.

While what she did was truly an impressive feat, it didn't also fail to register on Nathan as he stared in shock that her reflexes when she reacted were almost inhumanly fast!

By the time he realized that the food was flying her way Ariel was already in the air.

All conversation stopped as everyone turned to take in what was the source of the noise and the few patrons that were facing them from the start looked at Ariel in wide eyed disbelief as she flew backwards over the chair.

Suddenly there were now a few murmurs going around the room as those who witnessed what she did told those who didn't see it what just happened.

"I'm sure you didn't mean to spill the food, but I just got these clothes and I'd like to keep them stain proof a little longer if I could," said Ariel smiling sweetly at the woman.

As the woman slowly bent over to clean up the mess while keeping an eye on Ariel, Nathan turned and asked her "Maybe we should pass on dinner and talk a walk?"

"Good idea honey," said Ariel, as she linked her arms in Nathan's.

Ariel left money on the table for the drinks they had, and they both headed out of the Inn without looking back.

The serving girl could only watch as they left.

A stray though hit her as she was staring at Ariel's retreating back "What did I just do? She really is a warrior and not playing at it! What if she is the type to want revenge on me for trying to embarrass her? She could kill me easy!"

Shaking, she suddenly was praying very hard to never see Ariel again.

Ever.

But they later found another Inn and had dinner without anyone trying to embarrass Ariel.

But it didn't stay incident free for long, because it was soon Nathan's turn.

Nathan had to go to the restroom to relieve himself once dinner was finished. As he washed his hands he was surprised to see a Spencer-Griffith hot and cold plumbing system on this continent.

His son in-law's and son's company was really starting to get some notice if it was starting to be used overseas.

But when he returned to their table he was surprised to find three young men now sitting there. It was obvious that they were there for only one reason he thought.

They were obviously sailors by the way they were dressed in their short pants, open short sleeve shirts to show off their muscles, and what looked to be canvas deck shoes

One with blonde had taken a chair and pulled it very close to sit besides Ariel and the other two had pulled chairs from nearby tables to sit down as well. One other with black hair was close to her as well on the other side, but not as close as the blonde haired man was. A brown haired man was across from her.

From what Nathan could see Ariel wasn't talking to any of them and she wasn't really smiling either. She was just sitting there trying to appear pleasant without doing much more than that. But the blonde young man was talking to her and gesturing animatedly.

The one with black hair glanced up at Nathan and returned to looking at Ariel smiling. Nathan couldn't help but notice that the brown haired one had his back to him as he approached and never once turned around to look to see who approached the table.

But with all of them sitting there at the small table for two, it really didn't leave any room for him to now sit comfortably at the table. He could force his way in, but he would have to sit diagonal from Ariel instead of beside her because of how close the two men were sitting to her.

But as he looked at the three of them, he thought that they had to be in their mid twenties at best.

"Look honey we have guests. Steve, Mark, and Robert decided to come over and keep me company while you were gone," said Ariel as she broke out into a wide smile with her eyes suddenly lighting up as she saw Nathan return.

She introduced them with some mischief in her voice as she gestured around the table, and she raised her eyebrows each time she slowly said a name, giving Nathan the impression that she was now introducing small children to an adult

The one she gestured too as "Steve" was the one sitting the closest to her.

Steve couldn't help but notice her new smile and mistakenly thought it was for him. He thought what he was saying was finally making headway with her.

"Look mate, why don't you shove off. We were all talking here and it's obvious that you don't know how to keep a woman interested in you if you were willing to walk away and leave her by herself like you did. Besides I know we can prove to be much more entertaining for her," said Steve with a sneer as he looked up at Nathan.

"I'm sure that between the three of us we can find something for her to do to amuse her, so she doesn't get bored again like she was," said Mark as he leered at Ariel.

Robert didn't say anything, but he was staring at Ariel with the same amount of longing that the young man behind the counter had done when they first arrived.

"Ariel, I wasn't gone that long, how fast did they show up?" asked Nathan smiling as he ignored the three men at the table to look only at his wife.

But surprisingly he was also showing some humor for the situation. He wasn't gone more than a couple minutes tops. Those men must really have wanted her badly to rush over as fast as they must have done.

"Oh not that long honey, maybe a couple seconds after you went to the back. They seemed to have thought I might be lonely and they decided all on their own to come over and keep me company. They've been trying to talk me into either visiting their ship or going back to our room at the Inn. Can you believe that?" asked Ariel again still sounding full of mischief.

What she found funny was that she could easily be their grandmother and they were still trying to pick her up without knowing anything about her. She found that very funny.

"Look dickhead, we're trying to talk to the lady and you are interrupting us here," said Steve with a hint of malice starting to show for Nathan, while trying to insert himself back into the conversation between them.

He was growing irritated that Ariel and Nathan were excluding them from their conversation, like he was some small child. It was obvious to him that they seemed to only have eyes for each other.

But he still clearly thought he might get somewhere with the gorgeous lady tonight and he wasn't willing to let anyone prevent that from happening, including her date from earlier.

He was used to women falling all over themselves for his attention. But Ariel didn't seem to be doing what he expected her to do. She seemed to be more after her date's attention than his.

But he hadn't seen anyone this attractive in seasons, and if he had to be honest with himself maybe ever. And when he saw them enter he knew before the night was out he was going to do his best to get her away from the man she was with.

So now that he was seated here, he really wasn't willing to let this opportunity go without a major fight. And if he needed to kick the ass of the man she was with so he could sleep with her, so be it.

As Nathan took the time to look them over, he saw that Steve was close to his size and build, but with straight sandy blonde hair and piecing blue eyes. Mark was just slightly smaller than Nathan and Steve with long black hair pulled into a ponytail and brown eyes.

Robert was on the slender side of the three, but still with clear and visibly defined muscles, with short brown hair, but only Ariel could see his eyes which were brown. He more than likely was the most dangerous of the three.

And they were still out classed by Nathan. They just didn't know it yet.

But Nathan thought they might believe that because they were sailors, and with their size, they were on average stronger than he was because of the demands of working on a ship. And he also figured that they planned to all jump him if they needed too.

But he wasn't average by a long shot.

"Boys, this is my husband Nathan. The only love of my life, father of my children, and the only one who will ever be for me. You should be nice to him because he can have vicious temper if provoked or fighting to protect me," said Ariel to them all with a smile. "You would run screaming from this building if you knew what he has done to protect me in the past."

"Husband huh? Just looking at him I can tell you he isn't that much. I've seen far better men hiding in most alleys drunk," said Mark as he sneered at Nathan.

"Honey if you think you like him, then its obvious what you really need is a real man to show you how it's done. Someone who knows how to show you a good time. I doubt he has ever satisfied someone like you ever. And I'm sure you're used to only the best," said Steve with a blatant leer. "And I'm the guy to do it. I know I can. I've done it countless times and the women always are left wanting more."

"Oh? Well exactly how old are you then?" asked Ariel slightly turning to look Steve directly in the eyes.

"I'm twenty four seasons. I've had plenty of practice pleasuring attractive ladies such as you since I was fifteen," said Steve proudly staring back at her.

He wanted her to know that he was already very experienced for his age. Steve already knew that women always found him very attractive and he figured her question was to judge his prowess with women.

Ariel suddenly laughed hard into her hand as she looked down at the table. Then she looked back up at Steve.

"Sweetie, I have grandchildren almost your age," she said with some humor. "Thank you all for your company, but now that my husband is back we would like to spend more time together. If you all don't mind could you please excuse us? We would like to be alone."

Nathan also saw the humor in that as well and he started lightly laughing as well.

"I know when a young babe like you is pulling my leg when I hear it," said Steve as he smiled and tried to play off her laughter at him. He wasn't quite ready to go just yet.

Women normally didn't laugh at him. And by now usually he, or he with his friends help, had already scared off the dates of the women he was interested in.

But somehow this woman was proving to be a harder challenge than he thought.

But he was really sure she was worth it as he continued to leer at her. His lust for her was blinding his common sense to a very real danger or any good manners that he should have been showing. He felt if he could push it just a bit more she'd cave in for him.

Then he made up his mind and leaned over and quickly put his arm around Ariel's shoulders so he could then leaned in very close to whisper right into her ear, "Let's get out of here and go and have some real fun. I can show you things you've never experienced before and will probably never experience again."