The adventure begins...

Being a guest among this crowd is more than a little disorienting. Even by religious standards, these Watch types are very regimented, and you keep getting the strong sentiment that you aren't really wanted here. Dilah keeps close to you at all times, ensuring nothing bad happens to her friends favored student, but it makes you feel more like a prisoner than a guest. It's not all bad, you recognize, as you have an opportunity few others gain, to see how these people interact, and to see the world of a different faith than your own, up close and personal. For one, Mastro seems to believe in feeding it's followers better; because the clergy and the followers are one and the same, they can put more on the table beyond thin soup and bread for most meals. Dilah even offers you a second helping, something that had never happened back in the Cathedral. Beyond a more hearty table, the Colonel led the congregation in a regimented, ritualized prayer, where the prayers back home were always improvised and conversational. There was a certain calm in the entire group speaking in unity. Bed came shortly after, prefaced with the warning of a difficult task come morning.

Dilah wasn't joking. She awoke you well before dawn in order to leave by the prescribed time. Two haversacks full of supplies were prepared by her Initiates while you two slept, along with some clothing fitting of commoners, to alay suspicions. The packs were heavy, needlessly so by your estimation, and you struggled at first.

"You will have spent far too much in the Cathedral, miss Demetria, if you can't even handle a pack that size." Dilah, despite her age, is much more adept at carrying the load. "If you don't figure it soon, you may as well stay here so we don't have to bother turning back.

"No no!" You retort, as you hurry out with her, adjusting the pack as you go "I'm not turning back. I have to find him."

"Very well, but do try to keep up, we have a long way yet to go, and even with his bad leg, I suspect Fergus will outpace us." Leaving the city is easy enough, but the terrain outside is mountainous and slow, particularly burdened in this way. The elder keeps ahead of you, stopping and looking back at you often. You feel as though she judges you with every step you take, keeping completely silent. It's her silence that is the most uncomfortable thing. You recognize that the Archdeacon was a normally talkative person and encouraged people to speak freely, but Dilah seems so much the opposite of it. How could he have ever had a romantic interest in her you wonder. They just seem so polar opposite to one another.

The going gets worse by midday. A freak storm passes over, pouring a seeming impossible amount of rain on you both. The road becomes muddy almost instantly, but the wetness magnifies the chill of the wind, hitting you down into your bones. For all her hardiness, even Dinah begins to be affected, though not nearly as severely.

"There's no end in sight to this Demetria, we have to find some place to stop for now, let the storm pass and change into dry clothing. Let's hurry, with luck there will be a tavern we can stay in. With bad luck, we'll find a cave. With no luck, we'll just have to hunker down under a tree or whatever else is available..." You nod and follow behind her as best you can. As events transpired, 'no luck' turned out to be the fate of you both. Resigned to the fate, you are led off the road, hunkering against a large redwood tree, separated from the rest of the forest by a good distance. You breathe a sigh of relief as you finally take your pack off "No rest for the wicked Demetria. Come, there should be a change of clothes and a heavy blanket to keep you warm under." You open your pack and find the heavy wool blanket, but find large surprises. Many of the other supplies you were supposed to be outfitted with were replaced with a pair of large rocks. Supplies including a change of clothes.

"Dilah! We have a problem!" You shout through the rain as she gathers wood for kindling. She watches you struggle to get the rocks out of your bag. The senior paladin, seemingly impervious to passion and negative emotion erupts in a fury, throwing the accumulated wood down.

"Those idiots!" She shouted into the wilderness "Those cruel, short-sighted idiots! Mastro's heating his poker for the likes of them!" Scared at the outburst, you say nothing. She takes a few seconds to regain a sense of normalcy "Nothing we can do about that now. Take off your clothes"

"What?" You ask surprised

"I'm not running the risk of you getting hypothermia. Take your clothes off, sit down, and cover yourself in that blanket. Now!" You do what she asked in a flurry of activity. Dilah's actions stop for just a moment as you are fully exposed in the cold rain, but resumes building a fire, hanging your clothes slightly over them in attempt to dry them out. You properly taken care of, she begins to do the same for herself, removing her own clothing and taking her own heavy blanket out. You curiously marvel at her body. You haven't seen a woman in such fine shape before, with developed lean muscle and strength like this. The rest of her isn't bad either, though you inwardly punish yourself for thinking such thoughts. She's here to help you, not to fuck you, and she's not interested in romance.

Or is she? You recall the way she brushed your face before, talking about the direction her heart flowed. She wasn't interested in Fergus, but maybe she finds other women to her liking. You become even more confused as she bundles up along side you.
"Here, get close to me, and share your blanket?" You look at her quizzically. Seeming to understand your being at a loss, she answer the question before you ask it "We'll keep warm better by sharing body heat being directly next to each other and doubling up on the blankets, now come on." A perfectly reasonable explanation, you follow through her instructions.

"There, that's about the best we can do for now. We just have to wait for this accursed storm to clear. Just try to keep warm and stay awake. You nod out now you might not wake up" You nod quietly as your body involuntarily shivers from the chill. You're further confused by the Paladin's next actions, softly running her hands up and down your leg. You try to think nothing of it, and create a conversation.

"You certainly need to handle yourself outside Dilah. Have a lot of experience with this?"

"Oh yes, lots of rough days and nights. A few even worse than this. I was so clueless when I was young. Thankfully Fergus was around, showed us to how to survive through adversity."

"How did he learn these skills? Odd things for a priest to know, don't you think?"

Dilah smiled softly "He was a very different man Demetria. Headstrong, arrogant, like a lot of young men are. No need or respect for the Gods. He was a soldier, when I met him. His unit had returned from a campaign, and his service was up. Still yearning for camaraderie, adventure, and I think a purpose, he followed along with me and a few others. We tried to make the world a better place, in our own little way."

"What happened to him?" You ask, unable to mask the intense curiosity

"You mean what caused a change of heart and what led him to Phoenica? Well, he went back to war. It was going to be an awful, bloody mess, and I told him as much, but he couldn't be convinced of anything once he got an idea in his head." Dilah's voice went distant "He never told me about what he saw out there, about what he had to do to stay alive, but I could tell that it changed him. I was honestly afraid to ask him, I didn't want to know what my good friend, who did no wrong had to do in order to come back with an injured leg and a completely different view of the world."

You feel sullen hearing these words. It's hard to imagine the man you've known longer than anyone fighting in war, let alone doing any cruel or terrible things, but maybe it's possible. "I would have liked to meet him, when he was young" You say quietly

"Oh, he would have loved to have met you, no mistake about that. I would have too, for that matter." Dilah's hand brushes a little closer inside your leg, nearly touching your penis. You can't help but wonder now if she really is attracted to you, and your mind starts to wander, wondering what she looked liked near your age, curious if she would want to share blankets in a different way later on. You become hopelessly hard, counting your blessings that she hasn't discovered you in your embarrassing situation, although you suspect she knows about your special gift.

The storm finally stops shortly after. You still have to wait a while for your clothes to dry, and by than your erection has settled down. Dilah puts on her other clothing and you continue on for the rest of the day. You don't get as far as you had hoped in the first day, but you at least feel glad that you've made some initial progress.

Who knows, maybe you got further along than you initially thought?