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Night had fallen and the Darmoor—or rather, the man who was the Darmoor—began to build a fire and had already skinned an animal that was to be dinner. He kept Arianna still tied to the tree and she felt her wrists had already bruised with her futile attempts to free herself earlier. Whenever she moved her hands, the rope caught the injury and caused her to suck in a breath from the stinging.

"That is what you had gotten when you tried to act more tough than you already were, dear Arianna."

He had been calling her that since earlier that day. Her anger was so great that she kept silent. Arianna wanted nothing more than to kill the thing that had violated the trust her mother had with her father. She loathed him with every breath he took, felt the bloodlust grow every time he moved an inch…

"Light or dark meat?"

She again ignored him.

"You need to eat. You had barely anything earlier today. I believe the strong woman you are will want to eat more—"

"Would you stop? Enough of the 'strong woman' and 'dear Arianna' idle soothing! It will not work. It certainly will not make me fall in love with you."

He came over to her and crouched on the balls of his feet. "Ari, I don't mean—"

"Do not call me that!"

"Alright. I understand. In any case, you need to eat. You barely ate earlier and it is very dark now so that indicates that you are without sustenance. Do me a favor and eat. Please?"

Arianna clenched her jaw and just stared at him. He sighed and cut the bonds that held her to the tree. She instantly gripped at her wrist to try and rub away some of the pain that had come about from struggling. A bark-plate of food was set in front of her—some root vegetables—and he left her where she sat, watching her to make sure she would not just get up and run away. Taking her eyes away from him, Arianna picked up the food and ate, not caring if she shoved the whole of a tuber into her mouth. The tuber was so large that she had to pull it out and bite it in half in order to be able to chew.

"That was very unladylike. Is it because you are in my presence?"

She glared at him. "What do you think?" she asked, speaking around the chewed food.

"I just wish to know why you feel the need to emphasize your apparent superiority over me. I am a killer, you know."

"That I understand," she swallowed. "I understand that you kill because you have grown up where you are in control and if you can't have that control you take anger out at us shiftless humans. Did I get that right? Or did I miss the part about one of the symptoms of your control is the fact that you can't have a woman keep you warm—"

"I do not purposefully kill women! That is a complete accident—"

"It's an accident because you end up getting them with-child and they die because they can't handle your demonic offspring!"

He was silent and Arianna continued to eat. The crackling of the fire was all that could be heard and he turned his attention to the fire to see that the meat he had put there was already done. Leaving the silence, he went over and began to work with the meat so the two of them could have warm food. After a few minutes, he set another bark-plate in front of Arianna, this time filled with chunks of warm meat.

"You don't need to thank me," he sat back down and the tone was that of sarcasm.

Arianna took a chunk and popped it into her mouth, ignoring its intense lack of flavor. After a few more, she knew she had something to say to him and pushed the food away from her.

"Are you finished—"

"You are going to keep your mouth quiet while I give you a piece of my mind. This is probably something many have tried to tell you, but you killed them before you could hear the truth. I do not know how my mother looked this over, but I'm going to be so blunt and in your face that you are going to regret saying that you will love me, because you will undoubtedly hate me more than anything in the world.

"For the life of me, I actually believe you let my mother live. I know I should not trust the thing that killed so many of the villagers I have known and heard of from your horrible cravings for power, but I do. I believe that, yes, you may have loved my mother, but that does not mean I will be a suitable substitute for her passing. I am in love with someone, and it is definitely not you.

"Also, what you have made for yourself in terms of your fame; the stories families tell to their children as life lessons and the gory details passed along by the older children to the younger ones are all stemmed from your ever so accurate scheduled appearances and the fight we risk just so you can have someone to torture and eventually kill. Something like this should be a fairy tale, not a history and future for the people of the village."

He sat, taking this all in with an open mind, and added more brain activity to his inner thoughts. This girl implied that she was nothing like her mother, but rather she was almost a spitting image of the first woman he fell in love with. Sure they were mother and daughter, but he had lived a long time and had seen many generations of people. He found he could take her insults and know he would never be angry at her for her honesty.

"Do you really think that you will get away with this any longer? Those other women were just wives and lovers and people will want revenge. I am now a hostage to your whim and there will be many looking for me, even as we speak. You forget you are looking at a daughter, lover, and a warrior who has sworn to protect the village from you, the beast we fear as children throughout the rest of our lives. You have gotten over your head far this time."

"Have I?" he asked, coking his head. "I did understand the consequences of my actions when I first took my sacrifice those many years ago. Now I had become numb to particularity and that had also meant forgetting that I could feel some feelings for the sacrifice."

He stood up and came toward her. Arianna did not know what he was going to do until he gripped both her wrists and held her. Before she knew it, he came forward and pressed his lips to hers, giving her a one-sided passionate kiss. Together they were for what felt like forever until he pulled away and rested his forehead against hers.

"Arianna, I believe that I am gaining the same feeling I gained when I began to fall in love with your mother. Just let me keep you. Forget about the others. Please, stay with me."

Arianna felt she knew where this was going and she would not have it.

"No."

And instantly she felt bonds on her wrists and once again she was tied to the tree. He stood and picked the food up from the ground. Turning away from her, he ignored her and the two of them did not speak as they fell asleep.