Dario the apprentice

“If it isn’t Dario!” Gerard roared. “Come in, boy. Has that git of an Aldaron sent you on an errant again?” he said as he stood up from behind his bench to greet their guest. Dario nodded and walked up to Gerard, passing Rayne doing so. Rayne was busy with her task the whole time Dario was in the shop up till now, but as he walked by, Raynes eyes quickly turned toward his back and his brownish blond hair hanging down it, tied in a tail reaching past his quite well shaped shoulders. Although Dario wasn’t a skinny guy by any measurement, he was more athletically build than muscular. “Aldaron sends his greetings to the best artificer in the city and already told me you’d probably would be calling him a git. If you don’t mind, I would like to keep what he asked me to call you if you did under wraps. Out of respect of course.” Dario looked serious and with clear, determined eyes. Gerard looked back at Dario and then smiled “That’s what I like about you, Dario. You possess courage to do things when they need to be done and the tact and respect when you should not. I am not joking about it, you should cherish those traits as they can bring you far in life.”.

Dario bowed and continued “Your words mean a lot to me and I thank you for them. To talk about why I am here: my master wanted to send you a blueprint of an artifact so you could make it and most of the materials to build it. The few materials my master couldn’t provide, he told me you could get them.”. Gerard took the blueprint from Dario and looked at it a bit and slowly nodded “These indeed are hard to come by and I used to be able to get them reliably. Nowadays though, they are quite scarce. I can still tell you the general direction though, but from there it's all you. The thing is, boy, that this blueprint requires something we almost never use anymore: wood. There is a reason for that. Therefore this requires not your typical kind of wood. Hence its harder to come by.”.

Dario nodded “I understand, Master Gerard. Show me in which direction I must look and I’ll get the wood for you.”. Gerard observed the young man for a bit, making Dario a bit uncomfortable, while he saw Rayne looking at him from the corner of her eyes, questioning his silence, then said “The road is one long forgotten by most and I don’t know what will be awaiting you on your travel.”. Rayne slightly turned her head toward the men, looking concerned as she watched Dario’s back. Gerard continued “Nevertheless, you are a capable young man, and I’m confident in your ability to overcome every obstacle on this path.”. Gerard walked to a big chest, rested his fingers on the cover, after which it automatically opened. Then he grabbed a thin, rectangular metallic object of 10 cm long, and closed the chest. “This map will lead you to Lanton forest.” Gerard said while pushing the top button on the object, after which a holographic map of the region popped out from the side.

“First make your way to Iretika Town, then follow the Forgotten Road until you meet the deserted town of Afrodia. From there on out you will leave civilisation behind, making it a 2 or 3 day journey to Lanton, depending on your travel speed.” Gerard told Dario while pointing out the route on the map, scrolling and zooming in where needed with the extra buttons on the object. He then walked to the back of the store and and grabbed some items, before returning to Dario. “Here, my boy, some things to help you on your way. As you will have to travel light for most of the time, I’ll lend you this lightweight, heavyduty backpack to carry the essentials. There’s also a flashlight on the side, next to some plasma torches to light up the camping sites. On the other side we got 10 days worth of energy packs. Inside there is 15 days worth of rations and on the back there sits a small hoverboard on which you can carry enough wood to let me forge what your mentor wants me to make.

Now last but not least, next to the board sits a high yield, low usage plasma blade to slice up those trees to neatly sized and easily carryable pieces. But be careful, Dario, for flesh and bones are still not tougher than wood, so watch the blade.” Gerard explained the gear he got from his storage.

Dario took the backpack and replied “These will come in handy, Master Gerard. Could you inform my mentor that I directly went on my way. I think he would be expecting that already. I’ll be off to get some supplies and will be on my way after. Thank you for your assistance and until I return, Master Gerard.”. He bowed to the older man, turned around and walked towards the exit. But when he walked towards Rayne, he slowed down and looked at her nervously from the corner of his eyes. She had already “resumed full concentration”, leaving Dario with slight disappointment, right before her eyes couldn’t pretend anymore and flew up straight into his. Her cheeks directly turned red and her eyes darted left and right as a shy smile appeared on her face.

“H-h-hey, uhmm, Dario,...h-h-how are you?” Rayne stammered as she shyly slid a pluck of hair from before her eyes to behind her ear. “Good. Good!... Uhmm, you?” he said super direct, more direct than he wanted because of his nerves being all over the place, while he tried and failed to act casual. Rayne smiled a bit giggly and nodded. “You...you...uhm….you look as r-radiant as...as ever.” Dario said as he tried to find a nonchalant stance while looking away. When his eyes tried to sneakily dart towards Rayne to see her response, he saw her blushing heavily, but with a big smile on her face and eyes really glistering. He quickly shifted his eyes back and turned red too as he continued “Uh-hum, uhmmm, so I will be gone for a few days, with this task and all. So, uhmmm, I’ll uhmmm, see you around then, I….guess…..”. “Be carefull out there, ok, Daar?” he heard her directly respond. Surprised, he lost his words and any bit of “coolness” he had and scratched the back of his head nervously smiling while nodding.

Rayne knew Dario for years now. Dario joint Aldaron’s guidance, a good friend of Gerard’s, a year after Gerard took Rayne in. Rayne, getting mostly bullied by kids her age, first didn’t trust Dario at first when he came by doing chores for Alderon and acted distant and cold towards him. Dario on the other hand was part intrigued by the stories surrounding Rayne and didn’t understand what the rest was on about. He found Rayne rather pretty. As they grew up, Rayne slowly warmed up a bit to Dario, until her breasts started to develop. Being unlike the rest, Rayne started to get even more strange looks and nasty behavior in her direction, which she thought Dario would start to be showing soon too, distancing herself from him again to protect herself. Dario though, found her new curves mighty interesting and she caught him looking at them more often as they develop. Thinking he found them weird, strange and maybe even ugly, she eventually called out to him, risking to lose one of the only persons that was nice to her and the only person her age that chose out hang out with her because he genuinely wanted too.

“So, you want to make any comments on them? You stare at them so many times. Thought I didn’t notice such an obvious thing? Ok, come on then, have at it! Tell me that they are strange, unwomanly, silly bulbs, awkward, aberrations. Say it, Dario. Say it!” she yelled, hands in her side, her head red from fear and anger, hot tears rolling over her cheeks out of angst for losing her only friend. But Dario’s response stopped both her tirade and her tears. “I think they are beautiful.” he softly said. “Huh?!” she said totally flabbergasted while she was trying to wipe away her tears and Dario continued, filling up the sudden silence after the storm with his calm, gentle and honest voice.

“I think they are really beautiful.” he repeated. “They are unique, intriguing, pretty, they accentuate the rest of your body, are interesting, nothing any other woman has and make you even more special. And I don’t care what others think or about how one looks for that matter. I like you for who you are and now you even got these nice looking and interesting humps growing.” Dario said while smiling warmly as he saw Rayne relax a bit and was partly trying to comprehend this totally unexpected speech, while on the other hand happiness and shame for being so rude to her friend contested for the strongest emotion. Dario patiently waited for an answer, though Rayne didn’t know what to say to his speech.

She looked down to her toes, shoveling her feet a bit, happy that Dario thought about her that way and sorry that she yelled against him, potentially driving him away from her. The strength of his feeling of friendship for her though was strong, which, she decided, was very much worth all her trust. She slowly let her eyes meet up with hers, bit hard on her lower lip, decided he she could trust her personal stuff with him and that she kinda owed him and thus asked “You….want….to touch them?”. Rayne turned even more red, looked away and quickly added before Dario could answer “What am I saying? Of course not! They are strange and silly and…” while she quickly wanted to cover her breasts with her arms. But just before she could, her arms were grabbed and she quickly looked up into his eyes. He looked back with a soft smile and said “I don’t think you heard me the first time. I think they are very pretty. I don’t think they are strange or silly or ugly. I love them and I would love to touch them.”.

He looked from her eyes to her chest and saw it racing up and down. “Are you sure you are ok with this?” Dario made sure, to which Rayne took a second to think about it and then nodded. Dario felt her arms relax and let them go. As her arms fell to her side, she added “If it’s you…”. Dario smiled and reassured her “I’ll be gently.”, then slowly looked down and put his hands on her curvy, heaving mounts. His touch made her shudder from tension. “He’s touching them. Someone’s touching them. He’s really touching them!” she excitingly thought to herself. Then she realised something more special “Dario is touching them….”. With his attention fully on Rayne’s unique features, Dario softly caressed then, cupped them and kneaded them, making Rayne moan.

Quickly, he looked up into her eyes and asked “Did I hurt you?”. Rayne shook her head decisively and replied “No, not at all. It feels strange, but somehow quite good, honestly.”. Dario looked at Rayne’s blushing face and her fast breathing and then noticed her uniquely drawn irises and said “Even your eyes are special and pretty. I’d even dare to say they are pretty special.”. Rayne looked at him surprised and then suddenly burst in laughter. Dario let go of her breasts and started to laugh too. “W...what?!” Wow, Daar. ‘Pretty special’.” she giggled, looking at him and rolled her eyes. Dario, happy that he saw Rayne laugh again and felt their relationship strengthened once more, said “Pssshhh, so I’m not good with words. Sue me. I’ll try to be nice again next time.” and looked away “angry”. Rayne smiled at him, rose to her toes and gave him a peck on the cheek, just before she whispered “Thank you…”. She then turned around with her hands on her back and walked away on a light thread. Dario could do nothing but smile. After that they never again had such a moment, though they both felt a stronger bond and something lingering in the back of their heads. Something they couldn’t explain.

Something that drove Rayne to pack another backpack when Dario walked out of the store. Gerard saw her busy with something behind her bench and asked “Rayne?”. Rayne, with her head behind the bench, replied “Uhm. One sec, old man.”. Then her head popped out from behind the bench and she jumped up, throwing her backpack over her shoulder. “I noticed Dario forgot most of his rations and he’d better take some more energy packs, just in case.” she yelled behind her while walking to the door. Gerard yelled back “I’d better give you a week off then, so you can deliver him some company for his trip too then.” and saw Rayne turning around with a huge smile on her face. “I love you!” she screamed down the shop and he replied with a fatherly smile as the door closed behind her “How could one not love you?”.