The pillow was achingly comfortable beneath his head, a cherished retreat after a long day of training. Since Rath had met the odd shadow girl, whose image had never failed to jump to the forefront of his mind all day, he'd had to ride through the daylight back to Arca and faced training twice as arduous for his tardiness. Stretching luxuriously, Rath heard the vertebrae of his spine snapping and cracking into place from their tensed position. It wasn't easy going hand-to-hand, face-to-face with the Infantry Commander, and physical training? To him, it was the worst. He'd much rather summon shadow fiends or cast spells than lug around a huge, sharpened slab of metal.
Speaking of swords... Rath craned his head to the side, eying the mysterious weapon propped up by the fireplace, along with the jacket draped around it. She'd left her things with him, so perhaps that's why he'd had the sudden urge to leave the base and head back towards the Port of Cerenis, trot around the woods all through the twilight, listening for her voice and scouting for any signs of her. But it was for naught, and since he was so frayed and worn, he'd taken to a nearby inn tucked deep into the valley, nuzzled between two imposing mountains. They'd been kind enough - Mageknights could typically pass out where ever they pleased, and the citizens of Serendipity tended to have open doors for their military. So here he found himself, collapsed on a mound of hay bound with sheets as a make-shift mattress for the poor, still donned in his light armor.
He buried his head deeper into the pillow filled with goose down, and sneezed abruptly at the dust he was rewarded with. "Fffff...." Rath cursed silently, fisting his hands in the pillow and rolling about to straddle the lumpy mattress on his belly. He wanted to sleep, truly he did, but he couldn't stop thinking about her. Why had she left her things with him? Furthermore, why hadn't he turned them all in? He'd had so many opportunity to tell his Lord Knight Commander what had transpired, had all of the time in the world to break her sword, destroy her soul, and end this problem before it started. But he hadn't! He hadn't breathed a word of her to anyone, but instead clashed viciously with his training mates all day to vent the frustration of his apparent disloyalty to his duties because of some stupid, stupid girl!
He wished he could have found her. It was dark, wasn't it?! Why couldn't she just take her belongings back?! Rath huffed, squirming restlessly in the bed, one leg hung over the too-short bed and dragging the steel-lining of his boot against the dirt floor. He'd just about had it with her, and if he ever found her again... if he ever! The thoughts hesitated as he drifted in and out of consciousness, sleep finally taking him down in her clutches.
And damn him if he wasn't dreaming about her, too.