Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rem entered just in time to see that kiss on the gryphon’s beak. Damn. She was going to be pissed. Well, he would wait until after she had put the soup down before telling her. “It smells delicious,” he commented. Potatoes. That had been one of the foods that kept remarkably well during the war. Potato soup had been common at meals and had eventually become every meal towards the end. But this would probably be a lot better. He sat down, going over what he was going to say in his mind.

“Listen, I have to tell you. I… sort of lost Leolin while we were out there. He tried to get me on his back, and I yelled at him. He flew off. I’m really sorry about it though.” He shifted a little uneasily in his chair, wondering just how she would take it. Well, at least he had told her.

On the bright side, Laura was too worried about her gryphon to bother badgering Rem about it. On the downside, she had left the nobleman to stew in his own guilt as he stirred his foot aimlessly with a fork. It smelled absolutely divine, but he suddenly wasn’t hungry. Not that he would let that stop him. One of the lessons of life that he had learned during the war was eat whatever is in front of you, because you never knew when you would get to eat next.

He had told her the bad news. He wasn’t about to stick around for the berating that was sure to follow. The whole part where he was in charge hadn’t really occurred to him at this point yet. About eighty percent of human behavior was driven by guilt, Rem had once heard, and he was ready to believe it too if he was any judge.

Maybe if he ate really quickly, he would be able to sneak off to his room before Laura was finished mothering the gryphon…

Remiel took one look at Laura and then looked away again, feeling extremely embarrassed about the entire situation. Tears?! Now that just made him feel even worse. His shoulders hunched a little around his face, so he could hide some of his embarrassment from Laura, but the posture probably made it even more obvious. Not that Laura remained inside long enough to see it.

“Umm… he can stay inside…” he muttered just a little too late as the girl led her gryphon outside, presumably towards the stable. For a moment, the noble stirred the food on his plate aimlessly, trying to figure out what to do. This had started out as such as simple day. He had gone to some local stable to look at the animals because he had nothing else to do. He had planned on coming home to write. He had considered doing more cleaning. And now he was sharing his home with another person---not just a person, but a young lady and her gryphon---who was more and more confusing by the minute.

Speaking of minutes… after about fifteen went by and Laura didn’t return, Remiel got a little concerned. Maybe she had decided to leave after all? That would make sense… after all, if Rem couldn’t keep track of a gryphon, maybe Laura had decided that he didn’t deserve to sponsor Leolin. Alright, so it didn’t make much sense, but that didn’t really matter.

Putting the dirty dishes in the sink---and washing them---Rem took his time, just waiting for Laura to return. When she still didn’t, even after he had put the gleaming dishes back in their places, the lieutenant got even more concerned.

Carefully, he crept into the stable, trying to make as little noise as possible. The horses were asleep by now, and he didn’t want to wake them up. It was an immense relief when he saw that Laura and Leolin were still here. Just… sleeping. It was a rather nice woodcut, the image of Laura all curled up next to her gryphon. For a moment, Rem merely smiled and watched. But, it didn’t seem very comfortable…

“Laura?” he kept his voice at barely above a whisper. “Laura?” Coming a little closer, he stopped just a mere foot away.

Rem drew his hand back sharply as the gryphon clicked his beak at him. He honestly wasn’t sure what to make of the gryphon. For the most part, he was used to animals being… well… animals. Gryphons were different. He was just starting to understand that. He was also very fond of all of his fingers and wasn’t looking forward to getting them snapped off by Leolin. Besides, he still felt guilty about the whole thing where Leo had flown off. No doubt, the gryphon would remember that for a long time and hold it against the noble.

“Leo… she can’t sleep out here. It’s cold,” he said patiently. Sure, he didn’t think the gryphon would understand the words, but he was pretty sure Leo would understand the tone. That was the important thing. It was a quiet soothing sort of tone, the one that Rem usually reserved for spooked horses. Very carefully, he once again attempted to peel the blanket back from Laura.

Rem let out a sharp cry as Leolin grabbed his wrist. It wasn’t that it had hurt at all---Leolin was merely gripping his hand, not actually biting it---it was merely that the lieutenant had been surprised by the action. Once the gryphon released him, Rem took a few steps back, deciding that maybe, just maybe, it would be wiser to back down. It wasn’t easy to talk sense into overprotective gryphons, after all.

Still, it just wasn’t right to leave Laura out here alone. There was no threat of anyone attacking her or anything. It just struck some strange chord in Remiel’s being, one that told him to do the right thing. It didn’t really matter why this didn’t seem right or anything like that. Disregarding his nice clothes, the noble sat on the ground and held his cloak tightly around himself.

Fine. Leolin would win this round, but that didn’t mean Rem would leave Laura in here alone.

Right, worry about the gryphon instead of the man he had been biting. Remiel sat up just a little as he realized Laura was waking up, but, as she apparently drifted back off once more, he settled back down. Maybe he ought to try waking her again… nah. If she was comfortable out here, she was comfortable out here. No need to ruin her rest. He made himself comfortable and tried to sleep.

‘Tried’ being the key word here. It wasn’t that he was uncomfortable or anything. Sleeping rarely came easily to him these days. After about fifteen minutes, he gave up and went back inside the house, deciding that Laura and Leolin would be safe enough where they were. Disappearing inside his room, he was asleep within ten minutes.
--------Time Skip!-----------------

Something above Laura’s head snorted a little and lipped at her hair lightly. She had, after all, fallen asleep in a stable… it wasn’t as if Rem didn’t have any horses at all. The horse in this situation was a young mare, and she was very confused about what this person---and this gryphon---were doing outside her stall. Craning her neck waaay over the stall door, the horse curiously nibbled at Laura’s hair. Her ears flicked slightly as she tasted the human’s hair.

Pah! Not as good as Rem’s, she decided, before nosing the gryphon inquisitively. The bay had never seen a gryphon before and was torn between natural curiosity and equally natural fear.

People usually expected a Lord’s bedroom to be swathed with smooth silks, luxurious sheets, intricate decorations, and lots of wealth. There was some of that in Remiel’s room. Admittedly, the bed looked pretty soft and comfortable but there was a certain lack of display of wealth. Things in this room were chosen for their practical qualities, not for looking good. Alright, so some of them looked good, but that was merely a perk. There was also a strange feeling about the room, a certain ‘unlived’ in feeling that came only with not being lived in. Remiel did not live in this room. It was merely a place he came to go to sleep. The bedstand table was occupied by only a few things: first, there was a dagger on it and there was also a corked bottle as well. There were also a few sharpening stones, suggesting that Remiel had been sharpening the dagger before turning in for the night.

All in all, it didn’t seem like there was any particular reason for Rem to forbid Laura from ever entering this room. Unless, of course, he was deathly afraid of being caught naked by the young lady… a shirt on the floor suggested that he was at least half-naked under the covers.

There was no warning before Remiel woke up. He simply went from asleep to awake in a blink of an eye. Unfortunately for Laura, he was a military man. Military men had the unfortunate tendency to assume that anyone waking them up was trying to attack them. His eyes shot open and one hand grabbed Laura’s shoulder, pressing her down on the mattress. Rem’s other hand wielded a dagger against her delicate throat, pricking just a little. And, as a matter of fact, he was shirtless. Chances are, Laura was a bit too taken aback with everything else to take too much notice of this little bright side though.

Rem blinked a few times, clearly confused.

“Laura?” he released her and backed away a little, looking exactly as he felt: a tad betrayed, confused and just a tiny bit worried. There was also an edge of anger in his voice as well. “…Didn’t I…I mean…I told you not to come in here… are you hurt at all?”

Slowly, Rem put the dagger back on the nightstand, trying to remember just when he had picked it up. He hadn’t even been thinking when he had grabbed Laura. Thinking too carefully during an attack could get a man killed, after all. Very carefully and slowly, he removed his hands completely, allowing her to move away if she wished.

“I’m… I’m very sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t know it was you, I just…” stopping himself before he said something too terrifying, he ran a hand through his hair and looked around the room, trying to look at anything besides the blood that was slowly trickling its way down Laura’s chest. There was also the vaguely annoyed part of his mind, the part that said snidely that it was Laura’s own fault for disobeying Rem’s orders to stay out of his room. Wisely, he decided not to voice these words, as it would only get Laura even more pissed at him, as if she wasn’t already.

“This is why I told you not to come in here,” he explained, trying to remain patient and calm. It wasn’t Laura’s fault. It wasn’t really Rem’s fault either. It was no one’s fault, as far as he was concerned. It was just… a simple misunderstanding. Damn. He was probably only making her feel worse. “I’m sorry.”