Chapter 3

Once breakfast was finished Ariel wandered the guild grounds once again. She was trying to learn where everything was, and she passed various areas once again including the blacksmith shop where Nathan worked as a blacksmith's assistant.

When they first arrived they found that the guild already had a blacksmith, but like the other members he went on missions because he could make more money doing that than he could having the members pay him to fix their weapons.

So there was a need for someone to help out when he wasn't around. And after giving Nathan a few things to fix, the blacksmith Gabe was impressed with his skill and said that he had no problem letting Nathan fill in for him while he was gone or help him when he was around.

Ariel was impressed that Gabe wasn't threatened by Nathan's skill.

Another or lesser man might have been, but Gabe only saw this as a chance to take on more higher paying work without the fear of being replaced or that someone wasn't available to help someone in need out in his absence.

As she continued on she casually passed the training grounds and there she saw the man who was spreading those vicious rumors about her working on his unarmed combat.

Ariel mischievously had a thought and slowly approached the man.

As she reached him she smiled big at him and she asked if he needed a training partner. The man of course grinned widely as he said yes.

The man was roughly about her height at 5'10 and was somewhat muscular. He had a bushy mustache, and had a few days worth of stubble on his face. One might estimate his age as late twenties to early thirties.

And as he stood there looking he couldn't believe that Ariel asked him out of everyone around them to train with her and his thoughts quickly wandered to her body as he tried at first to slyly look her over without her noticing. But soon he gave up any attempts at being discrete.

The few other guild members there who were also working out looked their way jealous that she was going to train with him and they each started to wonder if his wild story might in fact be true.

And it was obvious as he blatantly stared hard at her that he was only thinking about getting his hands on Ariel's body and either calling it mistakes or training as he groped her.

But he never got the chance.

Before too long Ariel had managed to dislocate his shoulder by throwing him at a funny angle and he managed to twist his knee trying to get out of the hold.

She was already aware that his knee being damaged was a possibility if he tried to get out of the hold, but she had clearly planned on the shoulder. And she was very happy with the outcome.

As the man lay groaning on the ground in extreme pain, Ariel leaned over a bit and said loudly "Next time I'd be careful what you say if I was you. I wasn't happy to hear what you had been saying about me. The only thing you need to know is that the only man I'll ever be with is my husband and I'm not impressed nor do I find it funny what you decided to tell everyone else."

As the man looked at her in shock he realized that she was well aware of what he had been telling everyone that they had been doing. The other men around him had a good chuckle at his expense.

"Now if you're through being an ass with your wild stories let me help you to the infirmary," said Ariel with a smile.

As she helped him up she called over to another man to help him as well, and they both took him in to be looked at.

No one at that point ever tried to tell another wild story about her. Or if they did they made darn sure that she didn't hear about it.

Once the events of the day were through Ariel returned back to their room several hours later and she saw that Nathan was still sleeping.

As tired as he was he had just stripped off his shirt and pants and climbed naked under the covers, but over the course of the last couple of hours he had partially kicked them off and was almost totally exposed save for a thin sheet that barely cover his lower body.

Ariel, without really giving it much thought, locked the door behind her and stripped off all of her clothing as well and headed for the bed completely naked.

She had planned to crawl into bed next to her husband and just doze for a few extra minutes herself before she woke him. But seeing him lying there sleeping as he was, with one arm over his head, looking so cute and peaceful started to get to her.

As she lay down next to him she started to at first cuddle with him by sliding his arm down so that her head rested on it, but then she started to lightly kiss his chest and face when he didn't respond to that.

Soon Nathan started to stir and he looked over at Ariel as he realized that his arm was trapped under her head for her to rest against it.

"Morning love, but didn't we just do this a little bit ago?" asked Nathan as he sleepily opened his eyes.

Once Nathan appeared to be awake, Ariel quickly got over him, lowered herself where she was lying completely on top of his body, and looked down at him with desire as she said very softly "Are you saying that you're already tired of me?"

She giggled as Nathan growled, wrapped his arms around her body and rolled her over on to her back.

As he did Nathan could feel her body's heat and he came almost instantly awake.

It was another hour before anyone saw either of them again.

Early in the afternoon found the two of them working on Nathan's Bo staff training.

Earlier in the season Ariel finally put her foot down and made Nathan agree to work on other weapons skills. She felt that as a Battlemage he had too much room to grow with his abilities, but he refused to use that potential.

But now she was determined that she would work with him on it.

Ariel at first showed Nathan what he would be working with when she borrowed someone's wooden staff. Once he had handled it a few times he then later made a heavy six foot steel staff to use that collapsed into two three foot sections for easy carrying on his back.

Once his new staff was completed Nathan watched Ariel first go through all the various uses of the weapon for a few days and then they started working on his competency with the weapon.

At first he appeared to be very bad as he sparred against her with the new weapon and the few men who decided to watch them during the first few weeks found it humorous how bad he was against Ariel. They had no problem laughing at him when Ariel sat him down on his butt during those weeks

But after that initial introduction to the weapon Ariel then asked a few of the men who used staff's, and only from those who laughed at Nathan's attempts, to spar with him using their weapons.

The men were very surprised that they either couldn't beat him or he held his own very well against them. They just assumed that he was all thumbs the way Ariel made him look like a beginner when they sparred.