Entertain my jealousy

Archer laughed. "My idea of entertainment is quite messy, you would not like it. So I'm simply trying to figure out what would appeal the most to the general population." He defended himself. "I guess I should have mentioned the theaters or the restaurants or even the puppet show. But it's not like I ever go to those places so they easily slips my mind."

The only place he had ever gone to eat dinner on except for the inn he lived in was some place quite far away from where he currently lived, which had some interesting omelettes. He had mainly gone there to try their ostrich omelette, it was delicious.
 
Adrian had a strong feeling that yes, indeed he probably didn't want to be involved in whatever this other entertainment was. It definitely wasn't the sexual kind of messy so he was just going to leave it there for now. He might have been interested in some of the other stuff but Archer did not, so he was at a bit of a loss for a few moments.

He really wanted to ask about hobby's or skills but he just had a feeling he would either get an evasive answer or he would be thoroughly disturbed. "Right…how about we explore the forest then?" Surely there was something they both would enjoy aside from sex.
 
Archer looked curiously at Adrian. "Fine by me. But I won't be a very good guide as I've never been there." He chuckled. Sometimes he did travel through forests, but he never really just went into one to 'explore' it. He could enjoy them if he traveled through, but never thought of doing so just on the impulse of wanting to go into it.

"We should be careful though, there are rumors about some criminals having put up their camps in there." He whispered eerily into Adrian's ear. If they were true or not, he didn't know. Either way he could probably protect both himself and Adrian if it came to that. He simply wanted to see if he could scare the boy. "So let's go have an adventure." He said excitedly and took Adrian's arm to make sure he wouldn't change his mind just for some rumors.
 
Adrian wasn't concerned about any guiding, the fun part of exploring a forest was not knowing where you were going and challenging each other to see who could find the way back first. It was one of the few activities he and his brother both enjoyed as well.

That being said, criminals generally weren't part of the conversation and Adrian couldn't help a slight chill at Archer's words. Mostly because he still felt exceptionally vulnerable at the moment. He was mostly sure that Archer was joking though and made a point of giving the other teen a dirty look. "Rumors are only as reliable as the buffoon making them up." He did walk a bit closer to Archer than even the other teen holding onto his arm probably required though.
 
Archer smirked, noticing clearly how Adrian came closer to him than necessary. He was so cute when he tried to pretend he wasn't frightened. "True. It's foolish to trust rumors too much, but it's equally foolish to not listen to warnings." His eerie voice was back again. But gone, replaced by humor as fast as he continued. "But you could as well be ambushed by a killed in the middle of the city, so technically speaking we're not safe anywhere, warning or not."

No human could ever be truly safe as anyone could be an enemy out to harm you. That was one of the first lessons his master had taught him. The lesson continued with, thus you should not live in fear as that will hinder you from living until your life is taken from you.

"Don't worry, if they happen to be true then I'll protect you. After all, it would be a pity to not get to see that thing fly."
 
Adrian was hard put not to smack Archer for continuing to use that voice. "Aren't you a bucket full of cheers?" He grumbled to himself, finding himself slipping into slightly less refined speech the more time he spent with Archer. "I would say I look forward to seeing you taking out a band of bandits but honestly I would prefer not." Honestly if they came under attack he would probably just turn invisible himself and leave Archer to his own devices. He definitely did not have the power needed to fight at the moment.

He decided he had had enough of Archer's scare talk and pulled his arm away, just short of stomping his way ahead of the other man. He was supposed to be enjoying this but he would have to shake the grumpy first.
 
Archer tried hard to look hurt when Adrian pulled away, but he couldn't hide the side of him which was way too entertained by the situation. The little princess certainly didn't fit into Archer's world of brutality and crude words, which might be why he was so amused by it all.

"I'm sorry Adrian." He apologized as he followed the other teen, though there was still laughter in his voice. "I promise not to do it again, please don't be angry." He begged from behind the other young man. It was probably a really bad time to make his little fellow angry, as he weren't sure if there were or weren't others in the forest yet. And since he didn't believe in Adrian's magic, he would be slightly concerned if the teen went off on his own.
 
Adrian was much too dignified to actually turn around and stick his tongue out at the other man but he really thought about it. He did however look back and roll his eyes impressively. "Don't make promises you can't keep, 'Ark'." He had not been in Archer's company long but he doubted the other teen would actually be able to lay off trying to bother Adrian for anything more than a day. The begging was a nice touch though. He would definitely have to see some more of that once he won the bet properly.
 
"Aaw. You're hurting my feelings, I never break a promise." He pouted. It wasn't a lie, he rarely made promises so it was hard to break them. But he usually weren't very specific with his promises when he made them so he could easily get out of them one way or another. For example, he had promised Adrian not to do it again, but not said what. He could have meant the voice, his behavior, or just that particular joke. Thus he could easily do one of those things later and then defend himself by saying he made the promise for some other thing and lay the guilt on Adrian for not being specific enough.

"I'm really so..." He suddenly halted, both in words and steps. "Adrian, stay still." He said not higher than the other teen would hear, and with a voice that said it was something serious. He had definitely heard something and he needed silence. What he didn't need was Adrian running off into the unknown. "Someone's watching." He could feel it. He didn't know from where, but they were certainly there.
 
Adrian knew quite well what the other man was thinking but didn't feel the need to reiterate that Archer's tricks were a bit too obvious. Perhaps because he had been decided sidelined from that train of thought by the sight of Archer pouting, which he felt like he hadn't really seen so far and was terribly distracting. It definitely put him in the mind of what he wanted to see a lot of when he finally won the bet legitimately.

"Hmm?" Adrian blinked of his reverie, pausing to glance back at Archer questioning. A small part of him wondered if the other teen had decided to take the joke further but the rest of him decided it was not worth taking the risk. He wanted to just disappear but he still had Archer's warning against even talking about magic where other people could hear him very prominent in his mind. He would not turn invisible until the chaos from battle could hide his sudden disappearance.
 
'Where are you.' Archer thought as he tried to hear something. At first there were something running, but it was too small to be a human. Probably a squirrel. He waited patiently while moving closer towards the other teen. Maybe he had been paranoid. His hand was resting on the sword that was fastened on his side. Then weak, careful steps from very close by. Definitely more than one person. Maybe three. They obviously tried to sneak up on them without being heard, must be amateurs as they tried it even after having noticed that the two men stopped to listen after them.

"Adrian, run back to the inn. Now.!" He ordered his companion in a stern whisper as he reached him. There were more movements now, at least five people were surrounding them. Two from behind, three from the sides. He knew that once they started to run, those people would probably jump out and try to take them from the front, which would make them change direction and then the two in the back would be in the way. Which meant Archer would have to cut down the once in the front, leaving Adrian an opening. If they were a simple gang of thief's then it shouldn't be too hard to hit down some of them and then run from the rest. In worst case scenario, he would simply have to kill them all. From that he would not get away unharmed, so if he could he'd avoid that.
 
Now that Adrian had stopped to listen, he could just barely hear them too. His heart both dropped and started beating rapidly at the same time. He was glad to have Archer there but he knew there was several men around them and he were still incredibly vulnerable as he was. He wished he had some sort of blade of his own but while he knew the basics he had never particularly exerted himself in that area as he normally had magic to protect him, if not guards.

Adrian jumped at his companions order, hesitating for a moment to give him a doubtful glance. He didn't see how he was going to make it very far. He was well practiced in rationalism though and reminded himself that he was fairly sure Archer knew what he was doing. So while running seemed like a guaranteed way to get captured, if not killed, he had no better suggestions. With a mutter that was probably a curse Adrian did as he was told and bolted for it.
 
Archer was right behind Adrian, ready to draw his sword. And as expected, once they were close enough, two of the thief's did run out from behind the trees. Archer quickened his steps so to come in front of his companion instead of behind. "Don't stop, and don't turn around." He warned Adrian shortly before reaching the first obstacle. Of course they weren't prepared for them to actually continue running towards them, so Archer got the advantage of attacking first, pushing the first approacher to the side. It would give them some seconds at least.

The second one was able to grasp the situation, and thus attacked Archer first, while the third one a bit away was on his way towards Adrian. But as Archer had predicted, they weren't the most skilled of people. The two in the back had probably been their aces and knew what they were doing while the three in the front were more for scare tactics. The second one was fast down on his knees when Archer had stabbed him, and he were able to reach the third one just before he would have reached them.

Archer noticed immediately that the third one was stronger as he actually were able to defend himself against the attacks, and not giving Archer any room to run. Seemed like it had to be done the hard way, as the first man had gotten on his feet and came towards them, and the two in the back had realized that it didn't go as planned and also were on their way. Adrian should be able to run away, and hopefully he would get back to the inn without thinking about looking back. Archer didn't have any plans of dying then and there, that's why he would surely come back soon enough. Or maybe that was his ego speaking.
 
Once Archer moved in front of him, Adrian started to see where he was going with this. He still didn't like it but Archer did seem to know what he was doing and so far it was going passably well. He hung back just long enough for Archer to get the first couple of men out of the way while keeping a wary eye on the third one. He had to remind himself that he was working with very limited energy before convincing himself to actually leave Archer and make a run for it.

Of course, he didn't go far. He darted up ahead to the point where he could weave in-between trees and disappear from sight in the more conventional way, before turning himself properly invisible. The drain was more noticeable this time, even though he was smaller than the machine. The difference in power used was negligible but he was pulling the same amount out of a smaller pool.

Now that he was fairly safe for the moment, he started moving back towards the battle. If it looked like Archer needed some help he could surprise one or two of them with a rock, or come from behind with a makeshift weapon. If necessary he could even stun one of the men but that would be the extent of his usefulness if it came down to that, if he was lucky he would be able to hold onto his invisibility after.
 
Once Adrian were out of the way, Archer had a much easier time handling them, as he didn't have to worry about Adrian getting hurt while concentrating on fighting four people. As the first man to have attacked them came close enough and were going to stab him in the back, Archer were able to throw himself out of the way and push the other man he was battling into the attacker's sword, piercing the man's lung.

The companion didn't even bat an eye of his friend's soon to be death, and fast took back his sword to attack again. But as Archer had noticed before, he wasn't the strongest of fighters, and was mainly there to be a decoy, distraction or whatever needed. Which he himself didn't seem to get. Just as the other two men finally had run down from their hiding places, the first man was also laying on the ground. The easy part was over, it was the two other's that was the biggest problem as they probably knew more than simply the basic of sword fighting.

And he was of course right. At first he had tried to escape as he rather not take that fight, but the two men was faster and surrounded him quickly. The only thing that was saving Archer at the moment was that he knew that their strategy was, one attacks from the back and one keeps the victim busy in the front. He was just nearly dodging it, and his energy was running low fast. It didn't get better by the fact that they actually were able to get in some hits, though thanks to his fast feet, so far it was only scratches. That was until one of them were able to slice his left arm open, making it unusable for the moment. The pain didn't even register in his brain yet as the adrenalin was pumping through his body.

The wound did piss him off, that together with the adrenalin and the fact that he hadn't planned to die yet made him even faster on his feet dodging the next attack by ducking beneath the sword that was aimed for his chest, and burying his own sword in the attacker. But that only gave the other attacker his chance. Archer couldn't possibly take out the guy before he had gotten out his sword from the guy that was about to fall forward which would bury the sword even deeper into him. Archer couldn't use his other arm to push the man back, and didn't have time to dodge. A sword was flying towards his head, and he would have no time to get away.
 
Adrian was fairly impressed by the way Archer had handled himself so far. It looked like he might nearly be able to take the whole group. Just as he was starting to feel fairly confident about Archer's chances he seemed to actually take a notable wound. Adrian had the bad feeling that things were about to go downhill and swiftly moved from his position viewing the battle a good 20 feet away. He had a large stick to bash someone over the head with but he wasn't going to make it in time. There was no helping it then

He raised his hand, feeling like everything was going in slow motion. There was a crackle in the air and a bright flash as lightning arced from his hand and into the last man. It wasn't a full power attack (instead of stunning he had used something a bit more offensive by instinct) but it was enough to knock the man back a couple feet and seriously mess him up. He may still be alive but that could easily be taken care of with him in this condition.

On Adrian's end, he simply crumpled to the ground. His invisibly melted away and he clung to the ground fighting to retain consciousness.
 
Archer was baffled by the sudden lightning beam, or whatever that had been. For seconds, all he could do was stare even though a dead body was laying half over him still with his sword stuck through him. Archer shouldn't have been able to survive that, still something saved him. His head turned to the other side and he saw Adrian lying on the ground, barely conscious. "How the heck did he..." But he didn't get further than that as he realized that they had to leave. They couldn't be certain that those five were working alone, they might be part of a bigger gang. He would prefer not to meet their buddies.

It took some tries for him to get out his sword from the body as he only had his leg and one arm to work with. After putting the now bloody sword back where it belonged he rushed to Adrian's side. "Adrian!" He shook the boy lightly, but he understood that even if Adrian was still conscious, he wouldn't be able to move. Archer put one of the boy's arms over his shoulder, which was quite hard with only one arm, and then held onto the boy's waist. He was more dragging him than actually carrying his body, if he hadn't been filled with adrenalin he would probably not even have gotten one meter with someone hanging on him.
 
Adrian very nearly lost his war before Archer got to him but he couldn't just let go and make Archer carry him back. Of course such determination got him about two steps leaning on Archer's weight before the best he could do was try to sort of lean a bit harder against Archer so his weight was not hanging off so much. "Sorry…" He muttered weakly. "I…didn't mean to use that..." He tried to lift his head to look at the other teen and failed miserably. "Just sort of happened on instinct…" He was trying to apologize for using a spell that incapacitated him instead of one that would have just made him decidedly weak, but he probably wasn't doing a good job of conveying that.
 
"Idiot. Don't apologize when you save someone's life." Archer told him quite rudely. Though since one of his arms felt as if it would fall off any second, and he had to drag a teen while hoping the adrenalin would keep him going all the way back, he should be excused for any rude behavior.

"My shoulders would miss it's head if it wasn't for you." Now it was a simple reminder, both to himself and Adrian. How careless he had been, but he had been fighting against five people and he had only been training sword techniques for around two years. No one would have expected him to walk out of it, at least not without serious injuries, which he now had.

"Thank you." He said sincerely. That was probably the only time he would say it, so Adrian had better listened or else he'd miss the only sincere apology Archer would ever utter. Somehow he was able to make it back. The innkeeper sent his wife to fetch a doctor before Archer had even given them an okay to that action. In normal cases he would have just taken care of the wound himself, but he could feel the blood loss taking it's torn, and it was probably best to have a professional look at it. The innkeeper helped Adrian up as Archer wouldn't be able to get him up the stairs, actually now when he knew they were in a somewhat safe place he could probably not take him a single step forward even on even ground.

The doctor was fast there and had to stitch the wound close, nothing was broken though and he was fairly certain after some tests that Archer would be able to move his arm after a few days rest, as he still were able to moved his fingers. He also got some drugs for the pain, though Archer would most likely not take them as they would mess with his senses too much. He didn't like his defense to go down even more than it already had. And if that would give him some pain for some weeks... Or months.. Then so be it.
 
Adrian grunted lightly in agreement, he was still considering himself an idiot but it had worked out in the end. And definitely worth it. He had the distinct impression that Archer didn't honestly thank many people and he was quite glad he had never had any intention of leaving Archer there on his own.

Once they made it back to the inn Adrian's tenuous grip on consciousness faded. He was unconscious as soon as he hit the second floor, he didn't even make it back to the room. Once again he slept for a ridiculously long time, waking for the third time when it was barely even morning anymore. When he awoke he didn't move for a long time, just lying there dozing in the hints of sunlight breaking through the window.
 
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