To Be The Best

You guide Zoe through the mountain before taking a few turns, making your way back to your chambers. "Right through here." you point forward to the door of the chambers as you step up to open it. You take one step inside as you turn back and look at Zoe who is wide eyed and just about ten feet behind you looking at you. "What?" you raise her eyebrow.

"Darien! I've never been in here before! This is, this is your room! I've heard stories! Lots and lots of stories of what happens in here! Oh man and now I get to finally see it!"

"Zoe, it's just a room..." you grumble out.

"Don't downplay it!" she squeals "This is like, this is so cool. But don't get any ideas Mister!!!" her tongue sticks out "Okay, let's go in!" she shoves past you making her way into your chambers. "Wooooooooowwww!!!" her eyes look all around the room as her body spins in a circle taking everything in "So coooooool."

You close the door shut behind you before you make your way over to the dresser in your room. Lucky for you, Ashe didn't move much of your stuff as she either stayed living in the Villa or in the Castle as you were passed out. You open up the top drawer and start to look around it.

"Darien! No! Nope! I'm not going to!"

You stop looking in the top dresser drawer and turn towards Zoe "Huh?" Not going to what?"

"Sleep with you! Nope! I mean, I would, but I won't! Not me! I won't fall for your games!"

"Sleep with you? What the heck? Why would you think that was my goal, Zoe?" you question her.

"Well! I heard stories upon stories of what happens in here and boy oh boy is it craaaazy!" her head nods up and down at you.

"Stories? Whaaat? Pshh." you roll your eyes "From who?"

"Weeellllll..." her index finger goes to her chin and her eyes look up at the ceiling as she thinks "There's Ashe and Lexie and Karisi and Neira and Sylvius and Felix and Estra and..."

"Okay okay okay!" you interrupt her "Fine! wait...did Felix and Sylvius tell you what happened the night...err, nights of my blackout?" you ask.

"Oh yeah..." she laughs out loud "That sounded...woooow."

You still need to ask the guys what the hell happened those nights...

"Anyway...I wasn't trying to sleep with you, Zoe. Instead, I have something for you." you smile.

"Ahhhhh!!!" her mouth drops open "A gift?! A gift for me?! Wha wha whaaaat is it???" her hands clasp together as she pleads at you.

"So, you told me you wanted to be the best warrior, right?"

"Mhmm!!" she smiles

"Well, I've only ever been beaten in battle twice in my life..." you begin "And those two people are Commander Rixx and my sister Claire."

"Three." she says.

You tilt your head "Huh? Three what?" you question.

"Three times." she nods up and down. "Remember under the tavern I beat you." her smile goes large.

"Zoe..." you looked with a little annoyance at the always cheerful Sunrider.

"Sorry!" she yelps "Carry on! Yes, I want to be the best!"

"Well, if you want to be the best I think you should train how the best warrior I've known trained." you turn around and start rummaging through the dresser again.

"What do you mean? I'm training with you!"

You pull out a large blanket that is covering something and take a few steps forward towards Zoe whose eyes go even wider as she looks on "If you want to be the best, I think you should use the weapons of the best warrior I've ever fought against." you hold your arms out, allowing Zoe to open up the blanket.

As she does, her mouth drops open "oh my gawwwdddd..." she drones on as before her eyes are feasting over two of the most beautifully crafted Ulaks ever created. The same Ulaks that Claire used when she did battle. Those same Ulaks which were locked away in the Rathkin castle when Claire originally got captured but they were eventually recovered and brought back north to the Syndicate.

She just picks one up and slowly moves it around her hand, looking at the blade, the guard, the perfectly curved sections, the pitch black colored blades matching not only her hair but also her eyes.

After a few moments of just gawking over the Ulaks she folds the blanket back over them, picks them up and sets them down on the table and immediately jumps into your body giving you the biggest hug you could imagine "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!" she squeals out "This is amaaaazzzingggg!!!"

Pressing Zoe backwards away from you, you look down at her "So how about it?" your hands are gripping her shoulders "How about we start working on you being the best? All day, every day?" you smile.

Zoe just looks into your body, her face in a permanent smile, her cheeks bunched up as large as could be. She can't even talk, which is a first for her as she just excitedly shakes her head up and down.

"Good!" you pull her into a hug once more "Now keep these safe! They mean a lot to me."

Thirty more seconds go by as the two of you hold each other in a soft embrace. It's at that point you hear Zoe start to whisper something into your ear "So this is how you did it...but nope nope nope, I'm still not going to sleep with you!"

"Zoooeeee..." you groan as you push her backwards "Get outta here!" you order "We'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes, sir!" she stands straight and gives a salute "Good night, Sir!" she moves over to the table and picks up the blanket "And thank you again, Darien! This means a lot!" she skips towards the door happy as could be.