Chapter 3: Conflict
The next evening Riverwind decided to see Bella again, hoping she would be alone and available. When he arrived, she was sitting on her porch, they greeted each other in their normal fashion. As he gazed upon her his heart felt soft, but his mind drifted back to the night before, and it hardened back up. He wore his helm to keep his eyes from betraying his thoughts. She invited him to see her garden, he replied with a stern nod. The tone in his voice did not give way to any emotion he was feeling. He followed her through the teleporter to her garden. They looked around the garden walking slowly, the sounds of the water from the falls filling in the silence of the night.
"Very nice", His voice was cold.
"River," she asked, "please take off your helm."
He didn't want to and was hesitant, knowing that once he did, it would reveal his thoughts as he looked upon her. But he nodded and complied, taking the helm off slowly. He tried to remain stoic, his eyes were full of emotions though anger was the one that shone through. She turned her head to try to look into his eyes, reaching up to touch his face. Slowly he turned his head towards her, trying hard to turn off his emotions. But once their eyes did meet, her soft smiling gaze turned around. She had seen the anger and hurt in him and was saddened by it, but she knew that they needed to talk.
He tried to leave saying that he only stopped by to give her a gift and that he must be on his way. Being much wiser in the ways of the heart and such she knew he was lying. She invited him to come and sit and talk to her, he tried to refuse the offer that was made.
"I know you were here last night. We should talk this out, I don't want you to leave here angry. Please come sit downstairs with me and let us talk." she gestured to the porter.
They went down to the next floor where her settee room was, and from there the conversation was started. They both talked back and forth, the conversation was going smooth, then turned for a dive. Riverwind was confused; he had never expected to have any real feelings for her. They had discussed the nature of this relationship before it had even started, but the last few weeks, they had been spending more time together and his heart had started to grow for her. They talked for what seemed like hours but only minutes had past. It grew a little heated toward the end and Riverwind got up to leave, he thought this was best. He needed to figure out what his feelings were and how to deal with them.
Grabbing his helm he got up and started walking away, when Bella came up behind and asked him to stay. She grabbed his arm and tried to turn him towards her, he would not budge. Part of him wanted to leave, to get the hell out of there to think. The other part wanted to stay and make love to her, show her she meant something to him. He growled quietly, trying to resist her, his body was betraying him.