Seven years is a long time to let things brew up and brewed they had. With the head chief leaving her alone, especially after the harbor and ships had taken heavy damage from boulders, Sabele managed to actually find peace in her cave. That's when the gods knew it was time.

The calm before the storm vanished, leaving a way for storm surges to lap at the shorelines and wreak havoc on the strongest of boulders. Before long, the typhoon would hit and Sabele wasn’t guaranteed to survive this time.

"Evåinic!" Agous voice boomed loudly, authority and urgency laced his tone. The demigod appeared before him, kneeling. With an undignified snort followed by a sigh of impatience, Agous waved him up, "I told you, you never had to bow to me, Ev. Please, stand."

"What do you need of me?" Evåinic stood, his body armored with his usual chest plate, arm, and leg coverings, and a sword strapped to his side. Rarely was he seen without it but he had left his helmet strapped to his hip and only wore it in time of war.

"Protect Sabele. They have made their move and now it is our turn. Nothing. Nobody. Touches. Her." The order was clear and he knew it would be followed by a tee.

"Of course." Ev disappeared from sight.

"Things just got interesting, didn't they?" Mia nibbled on her thumb in nervousness.

"They'll get a whole lot more interesting if someone touches my boy." Amist's glare had Zenké grinning.

"Ooh, war! So much fun!!" She clapped her hands in glee.

Down below, winter struck the town harshly. Herds had been driven to settle more north on the mountains, safe from where the snow brewed in the valley.

"You are the priestess?" A voice rumbled from behind her causing Sabele to let out a short scream. Turning, she faced a man in a black cloak. He stood well above her, even if she were to stand, and seemed huge in a not so friendly way.

"I'm busy. Return when I'm not." Sabele returned to picking herbs. She had to leave the safety of her dome, making her more irritated than usual.

"List-"

"No. I have a sick child waiting for me. I need to heal him and you're stealing my time, so leave and return later." Sabele walked away, back up the trail to her awaiting home.

Silently, he followed. Sabele didn't comment on it, just ignored him.

She returned to the child who was lying in his mother's arms, cold with a fever. She mixed and crushed the herbs until she finally dissolved them into a boiling pot of water. Then, she gave the drink to the mother who helped the child drink the potion. Once he had finished, they bundled him up and they left without so much as a goodbye.

"Now is later. I'm just asking you to listen." This time, he showed his face. His dark amber eyes sent shivers down her spine and his brown hair hung just at his collarbone.

"Fine. I'm listening intently." Sabele tried not to let his appearance affect her but it stirred something deep inside her. What it was, she didn't know, but she did know one thought that passed through her mind.

Run. Run and never look back. His built screamed killer and no matter how she tried to look at him, she couldn’t help the feeling that something was seriously wrong. Like he wasn’t himself.

"I've been sent by the gods to protect you. Allow me to do my job, Sabele."

"I don't believe you. Leave. Go back to the city and tell them nice try.” She turned then and gathered her supplies to put away in their proper places.

"Just give me a couple of days and I'll prove that I have been sent by the gods."

"No."

"Sabe-"

"What did I just say?" Her tone was laced with fury and it kept all her self control not to yell at him.

The mysterious man didn't say anything. Sabele gathered several things and set them in the pot over the fire. She continued to stir and cook the stew until twilight came.

A shadow drew closer and closer to the cave as the stars continued to come out and twinkle. Finally, a man came through the curtains. When he did, he stumbled upon the priestess cooking and a cloaked man watching her intently.

"Priestess, I have a gift for you," he set the bag on the desk behind her and continued with his message, "pick the new priestess by the end of the week." Then, he left.

"What does he mean by that?" Sabele ground her teeth at her unwelcome guest's question.

"Surely, you're not that stupid."

"Answer the question."

Sabele glared at him before speaking, "they've wanted me dead for a long time now. Technically, they can't touch me though they've tried. They can't kill me but I guess they won't suffer if I kill myself." Just as she finished, she was grabbed and pressed into his chest. His cold metal plating, hidden beneath his robes, seeped through her thin priestess clothes and sent goosebumps across her skin.

"Have they ever tried to touch you…?”

Sabele stumbled on her words as a deep blush crept up on her cheeks, "no… No, no, no, they haven't done anything like that..." She tried to pull away but he held her steady.

The way his tense shoulders seemed to suddenly relax shocked her. He cared. No, he was just acting. But those thoughts were gone when he let her go and moved past her. Grabbing the poison, he lit a fire on his hand and burned it away.

"I am the demigod, Evåinic. Son to a farmer and to Amist, goddess of love and motherhood. I am known to be the soldier of love as you may know. I am here to protect you." Sabele widened at his serious tone. His actions proved himself not human but she had never seen the demigod before, just heard about him from Amist and from her notes.

Evåinic hadn’t originally planned to tell her. Just guard her and keep himself on the down low, but she didn’t trust easily. To tell her would hopefully make things easier, especially since his mother and aunts were familiar to her.

"If you are a demigod, wouldn't you have the golden eyes?" To prove himself further, his eyes shifted into the pure gold irises of the gods. Even his hair changed from that of a normal brown to a bright blonde with scarlet streaks and shortened to tickle his ears. He grew a few inches even.

"I changed my appearance to look more normal but I guess I don't have to appear that way with you. Don't be afraid. You are our priestess and we will not allow them to harm our messengers. Now, off topic completely, what are you cooking?" He bent over the pot to look inside and even took a sniff of the steam coming up.

"Turtle stew..." She picked up the spoon she had been stirring with and hesitantly began again.

"Oh. Can I have a taste? When it's ready of course!" He smiled at her, his entire demeanor changing entirely.

An aura of friendliness surrounded him as he took his seat on the spare stool. He didn’t remove his cloak, keeping his armor hidden underneath, but he remained in his demigod form.

"Yeah, of course." Sabele didn't speak much, stunned by the sudden changes in him, and Ev didn’t try to start a conversation. When the stew finished, she poured two bowls and handed him one with a spoon.

"I know it's not like the food you're probably used to but-"

"Don't worry about it, Sabele. Plus, it's really good. Do you -uh- have enough for seconds?" He looked sheepishly up.

He knew she had little and hated to ask for more but he was a grown soldier who needed his fill. She whipped up the last of the soup and poured it into his bowl. He frowned as she literally had to scrap the bottom of the pot.

"Here you go. I don't usually cook for two. Why don't you just go back to eat? I probably won't have anything for you to eat that could fill you." Sabele wasn't used to a god, nonetheless a demigod, eating with her in her cave.

Summonings and visiting were very different and they had their lives and duties to other priestesses that they had to fulfill.

"I'm here to protect you, Sabele. I will not leave under any circumstances to where you can be injured or worse. My orders are simple. Nothing and no one is to touch you." Ev ate the rest of the meal and helped put up the appliance much to her horror.

"Um... I don't really have a place to let you sleep..." She scratched her head and looked towards her bed. She could give it up for one night. It wouldn't really hurt her. Or would it? "You can take my bed though. I'm sure I have something in storage I can use." Instead of taking her offer, he laughed.

"I don't mean to offend you by laughing." Her glare was enough reason for him to sober up but the embarrassment in her eyes made him feel guilty. "However, I'm not about to let you just sleep on the floor. Just take the bed and give me a pelt to use. I'm supposed to be guarding you anyway." Sabele wanted to protest but he just smiled again, refusing any room for argument.

She fetched him the best pelt she could find which came right off her own bed. It was the largest and softest she had. Zack had taken down a creature just north when he was exploring the mountain. She couldn't remember the name but she had kept it ever since. Ev thanked her for the pelt and they both headed to settle down for the night.

He kept his eyes away from her makeshift bedroom and focused solely on the dying fire in front of him. When he heard her move to get into bed, he looked over. The curtains were too thick to really make anything out but he thought he could see her form on the bed. Removing the pieces of his armor, he rested himself against the wall with the pelt wrapped around his bare torso.

Her smell of pine needles and smoke filtered through his nose. A strange combination compared to ones of flowers or of honeydew. Saphite even smelled of sea salt and cold breezes, strange but fitting. However, pine needles and smoke were the last things Ev could expect from Sabele.

Perhaps the smell came from her constantly sitting by the fire and walking among the trees. If so, he wondered what she really smelled like. Maybe a mixture of rosemary and honey. It seemed more fitting for a woman like herself.

Shaking those thoughts from his head, Evåinic looked at the mist forming in front of his face every time he exhaled. It would only get colder as the night continued on but there was little he could do about it.

Sometime in the middle of the night, he awoke again. Shuffling of feet could be heard before curtains ruffled. On high alert, Ev looked all around but no more movement occurred. Looking at his lap, he found three more pelts, just as soft as the first one, coated in Sabele's scent.

She had given him more pelts.

He smiled and settled down again.