Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rem wasn’t quite sure why he had offered either. Maybe it was simply his good nature. He had a certain tendency for taking in strays after all, and she had needed help. Besides, he felt that gryphon racing would be a good way to get in touch with local gryphon breeders and see what they had available. It was, as far as he could tell, a mutually beneficial arrangement.

“It’s a short tour since I don’t really need a whole lot of room,” he said, sounding a little apologetic. “At the end of the hall is the kitchen. Over here there are a few guest rooms… Oh, my study is right here.” Pausing for a moment, he pointed out one of the doors that seemed, for all intents and purposes, completely identical to all the other doors.

Aggie yipped as she was ignored by the gryphon. Eventually, she got fed up and nipped at his tail, trying to get his attention. Ignore her, would he? Well, she would show him what that got him! Meanwhile, Trill snapped at Leolin’s beak, since he was rather sensitive about his tail.

“Oh! Right, right…” he had actually forgotten all about that. Stupid, stupid, stupid… it really should have been the first room. It was the one room that everyone had to use eventually, except for the kitchen which generally didn’t count. “It’s right over here,” he said, pointing out another door. Blushing? Well, maybe he was a little… he was still inwardly berating himself for being such an idiot. It didn’t feel right, waiting outside while she was doing her business. It seemed all… creepy. Like really creepy. “I’ll just be in my study when you come out.”

Yes. That seemed like a decent idea. She would have her privacy and he would be able to save face. And maybe actually get something done! He turned away and hurried back to the masculine safety of his study, still shadowed by Flash. The study door was left open behind him, since he felt that to close it would be giving the idea that he didn’t want to be disturbed. Or he thought that Laura would get confused between doors. Something like that.

If Laura had been expecting a pot on the ground and maybe some really soft paper, she would be pleasantly surprised to see… well… something else. For one thing, there was an actual bath. A full-sized bath big enough for at least two people to lie down comfortably in. And a few funny looking knobs on it too.

Rem had been just about to sit down at his desk when Laura peeked into the study. It really was a nice room, inlaid with rich oak. It seemed very… cozy. While he didn’t seem like the sort, this room seemed to prove that Rem was one of those slightly eccentric individuals who felt the need to collect everything that reminded them of anything and put them somewhere safe. The desk was awash with various papers, there were a few pots of ink, and quills in various states of decay. The walls were decorated with just about anything, from weapons to pictures. The fireplace in the corner was cold, but it had obviously been used recently in the past from the accumulation of ash.

Rem looked up at Laura with a bit of surprise. It was either because he hadn’t actually imagined her with breasts before or it was because he couldn’t believe she had never used a bath with knobs. Or maybe he was simply surprised that she was perfectly willing to take a bath in a male stranger’s house. It wasn’t exactly… proper. Whatever his reason for looking surprised, he managed to not stare at her boobs and merely nod at her question. “Well, you turn the knobs. It’s all controlled by pipes. You see, there’s a hot spring under the rock around here and the pipes tap into it. One knob controls the hot water and the other knob controls the cold water. I could help if you like?”

…There was a long pause as he thought about what he had just said. Promptly dropping his face into one hand, he continued in a somewhat muffled voice. “I mean help you fill the tub up. Not with the bathing.”

“You just turn them…” Rem lifted a hand and made a slight turning motion with it. But, being the type of person he was, he could never leave someone with just a spoken explanation and felt the need to go give a visual one as well. Leaving his desk for the moment, he led the way back to the bathroom. “Those are all just things that I picked up. I’ll tell you about some of them sometime when you aren’t concerned about getting them dirty.” At first, he was going to say, ‘when you don’t stink of horse manure’, but that wasn’t very polite. She knew she smelled and she was obviously touchy about it. No need to make it worse.

In the bathroom, he bent over---giving her a lovely view of his butt without noticing it, of course---and turned on one of the knobs. “See? That’s what you do.”

“And then you just AGH!!” Rem stood straight up as Leolin nipped at his behind and glared at Laura, obviously blaming her for touching his a**. How dare she?! He had gone through the trouble of taking her in and she repaid him by grabbing his a**?! That was just plain rude, that’s what that was! She was just lucky that he had more self-control than some soldiers. Some of them would have taken a friendly pinch as a sign of an attack and would have reacted accordingly. In fact, that was part of the reason why Rem tried not to carry too many weapons on his person. There was nothing more embarrassing than killing an innocent…

“Look, I know I’m helping you out and you’re very excited, but that’s no reason to start grabbing my a**, Laura,” he said, still glowering. Most men wouldn’t have given a damn. Come on! She was a girl and she had---he thought---touched an intimate part of his anatomy! What guy wouldn’t want that?

Remiel was one of those few men.

With his hands on his a**, Rem looked from the griffin to the woman, clearly trying to decide which one was more likely to make a pass at his behind. Still… Laura was giggling. If she was guilty, she would probably act guilty. That was how she had reacted before when he was annoyed with her. But he couldn’t punish a griffin for nabbing his bum! He waved a finger at Leolin anyway. “Don’t do it again!”

What else could he say? That it was just plain stupid to approach a soldier from behind without announcing your presence? That whenever anyone did that to him, his instincts screamed at him to kill them all before they could kill him? Of course not! That made him sound like he was some sort of homicidal maniac! Keeping his back to the wall, he sidled out of the room and made his way back to his study.

Right. He had some stuff to look over anyway. Some old journals and similar things...

Actually, while Rem was working, he had certain thoughts about Laura. And her clothes. And a lack of clothes. There was also something vaguely unpleasant happening to his lower regions.

With a sigh, he glared at Flash. “Must you drool in my lap?” he demanded. The dog looked at Rem with big soulful eyes before continuing drooling. Rem shook his head and scratched the dog behind the ears, wondering where the other two had gotten to. Probably sleeping on the bed in one of the guest rooms. That was pretty much what the beds were there for at this point.

He turned to look at Laura as she came in. She really was rather attractive once cleaned up, he noticed. Well, and once she got some clean clothes that didn’t smell of horse s**t. Speaking of clean clothes… it was a good thing that they were about the same size. That saved some trouble. Well, so long as she didn’t mind wearing male clothing, that is. Somehow, Rem doubted that would be a problem.

“It was really no problem. I’ll go get you some clean clothes.” He pushed the chair from the desk and got up before leaving the study. It wasn’t as if there was anything particularly embarrassing in the study. Well, except for what he was currently working on. It wasn’t exactly ‘embarrassing’. It was more ‘confusing’ than anything else. The author clearly was not Rem. The writing was cramped, messy, and appeared to have been written by a drunken three-year old. If you felt like being kind, the word to describe the spelling was ‘creative’. If you didn’t want to be kind, there was a whole slew of words waiting to be used. Rem had apparently been in the business of carefully copying the words on another piece of paper and circling a few.

Flash, the big black wolfhound-like dog, remained by the chair. His tail thumped heavily on the floor as he looked up at Laura, but he didn’t move from his spot.