A Woman With Roses

Chapter 1- No money and bitter sweet ale:

A figure walked gracefully down the road. As she walked her tail swished behind her and her ears flopped with every step. She made her way to the front door of the tavern. But before she reached the cracked wooden door, she stopped and looked up into the night sky. Her eyes glimmered with the light from the brightly shining moon. Her eyes gazed at all of the beautiful stars witch sparkled against the dark color of the night sky. She shook her head slightly breaking the gaze. She began to walk again making her way up the stone pathway to the door. Her long black trench coat dragged along the ground, the bottom few inches were filthy with mud. The door opened before she reached it from all the people shuffling in and out of the tavern. She walked in quietly making her way through the crowd of people standing around conversing. The room seemed to be cheerful and filled with laughter. Her feet made their way to the bar at the front of the tavern. There she found a stool and sat down, she looked around for a tender, hoping fometomething to wet her dry mouth. She found the tender and ordered a pint of ale. The tender granted her wish an set a pint of ale on the counter in front of her. \"That will be 10gp\" He said in a demanding voice. She dug around in her pocket looking for any money she might have. After rummaging around for a few seconds, she gave the tender a worried look and began to talk in a very scared voice. \"All I got is 6gp\". She got up to walk away from the bar leaving her drink there, when she heard the tender speak to her. Her back still turned to him, \"\'Ats all right miss, on the house for a lovely travel worn lady\". He smiled and winked at her looking her over. She smiled sarcastically and accepted his offer sitting back down at the bar. She lifted the heavy goblet and took a sip of the bitter sweet ale.

As the night slowly went by she began to feel slightly tired and weary for sleep. People began to leave and the tavern became quiet. She laid her head on her arms that were crossed on the bar. Her eyes closed and she felt herself falling asleep. She jumped as she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. A deep voice came from behind her left shoulder, \"Better be gettin along miss, the tavern is closin for the night\". She gave the tall man a sleepy look and starred into his deep green eyes. She couldn\'t help but feel attracted to him. He wore a long black cloak and dark jeans. His hands were rough and travel worn. Strong and muscular arms were hidden away underneath his cloak. She began to speak with a confused look on her face. \"I have no where to stay...\" she trailed off noticing that there was no one left in the tavern besides her and this man. He looked at her and smiled. \"I know a place down the road that is very cheap and the people there are quite friendly.\" she gave an exasperated sigh and slammed her hand against her head making grunting noises as she did. The man looked at her with a confused look and grabbed her hand stopping her from causing any damage to herself. She looked at his hand holding on to hers, what she thought were rough and travel worn, were really very soft and warm to the touch. He began to speak again as he let go of her hand. \"Why are you hitting yourself miss?\" she snickered at being called miss, as this was the first time anyone has called her that. She had called many people miss in her life time, but had never dreamed of being called that from another person.

The tall man looked at her and thought to himself for a few seconds before speaking again to her. \"If you like you can stay at my place, I have a couch and an extra blanket and pillow\". She made a worried face and suddenly became interested in her boots. The tall man snickered and spoke sweetly to her, \"I promise to keep my hands to myself if that\'s what your worried about, seeing as I don\'t even know your n". S". She burst into laughter and spoke loudly. \"That\'s not what I\'m worried about kind sir\". \"Well what is it then Miss, if you don\'t mind me asking\". She stopped laughing and blushed furiously. \"Well.... Its... It’s just that, well... no one has ever been this kind to me\". Her eyes fell on his and they flooded with sympathy for her. \"You are a very lovely woman, and you deserve the best\". He blushed at saying this but hopped she wouldn\'t notice his slightly red face. \"Thank you kind sir\". The corner of her mouth twitched a little as she said this, trying to conjure up a smile. \"Are you sure you wont mind my intrusion\"? She asked. He nodded his head and held out his hand to lead her out the door into the cool night air, down the stone path way and onto the road. It was dark and eerie now that the moon was strangely covered by the late night fog that hung in the air.