Chapter 2 STORY TIME

Wren's Pov

'Her story!' I thought. I had begged her like forever to give it to me, and she vehemently refused. Even the story of how she and Bryce met she once never told me despite always asking. And now she was giving it to me without even asking. This was so unlike her. She laughed which brought me out of my thoughts. The water surely helped. It had cleared her throat a bit and she looked much better.

"My worry twat. What are you busy thinking and worrying about? You have cute little wrinkles on your forehead. Careful, you might just grow old and die before me." She laughed again but it was not funny. I could see her sense of humor was still intact, but death was not something to joke about. Once she noticed I was not laughing with her, she stopped laughing.

"You should learn to take a joke or two."

"Not now Melanie. This is serious."

"Not mom today? Wow! You are salty today."

"My bad, Mom!" I said with so much sarcasm, she literally rolled her eyes in response.

"Since you do not want my jokes, let us go straight to sharing. I was born as Dios Wrenison to both Melanie and Strut Wrenison. I was their only child, and they were the leaders of the Blossom Village. Life was quite peaceful and good. We had good relations with our neighbors and barter trade went quite well for us because of that. We were famous for quite a few things, but the most prominent one was our extraordinary herbs. It grew only in our village hence the name blossom. The herb was known as Rarity because of its rare nature and people from all walks of life especially the healers came to trade for it.

Trade was, therefore, very good for us and we never lacked anything. Our village was the most developed and flourished under my parents' leadership. And I was the talk of everyone in my village. The only daughter of the great leaders. They said I was beautiful, fair and a lovely person. I associated with everyone. But I also liked to be alone. So, I would often sneak into the forest near our village without anyone's knowledge. There was this waterfall that I completely adored deep into the forest. It brought me peace and a lot of calmness. I had been sneaking since I was 9.

So, this one time, I was only 15, I sneaked out as usual. But at my waterfall I found a stranger. The most handsome stranger I had ever met. His back was to me, but I could tell he was good-looking. Tall height wise, broad shoulders, packed arms and a back to die for. His hair was short, pitch black and unkempt like someone had been running their hands in it. It just added to his attractive aura. He looked deep in thought, so I made a quick decision to let him be. He seemed to need the waterfall more than me. I could come back tomorrow. I turned to leave but he spoke out.

'You want to leave, and I have been waiting for you, Dios.' I was surprised. I did not know if it was his deep masculine voice or the fact that he knew my name. Before I could overcome my shock, he added, 'I have been observing you over the years and I must say I like what I see.' And he laughed. My first thought was to run. This was definitely getting creepy, but I was too shocked to move. All this time, he had not turned. I was yet to see his face. He stood up and slowly turned. I swear my heart almost stopped. He was definitely handsome. Round face, deep cut jaw line and the most striking blue eyes I had ever seen. His unruly hair matched his filled with color face." Melanie coughed cutting short her story and asked for another glass of water. I filled the remaining half and gave it to her. She downed the whole glass almost immediately. She cleared her throat, and she was sounding much better. even some color was returning to her face. But for this to continue, she had to eat something. And for the first time since I was born, I was going to cook. She always liked it when I watched her cook, and she loved cooking.

"Mom, let me make you breakfast. You need the energy to finish your story." As always, she threw a fuss.

"I cannot let you cook. You have never cooked in your life. Do not worry, I will make breakfast for us." She tried to get up but she only managed to move her head. Her hands could not even lift her.

"You see, you cannot even lift yourself. Just sit tight and let me make you something. I have watched you way too many times. Am sure I can manage." And I left for the kitchen before she could respond. But before I started cooking, I wrote a note and gave the messenger to take to Bryce. It read, 'Something is wrong with Melanie. Call for the healer.' I did not address her as mom since Bryce hated it whenever I did. It was what always started their conflicts.

However, I concentrated on making breakfast with the hope that the healer would come soon. Whoever that said cooking was easy definitely lied. I burnt myself too many times before I finished preparing breakfast. I made some fried eggs, sweet potatoes, some spinach and a glass of milk. Just how she liked it. I carried it up to her room. She was still sitting, looking better but deep in thought.

"Mom, your breakfast." She eyed the tray and squeezed her face in a very cute way.

"That is too much for me. I cannot possibly eat all." It was my turn to laugh and she frowned.

"Okay then. You eat what you can. What is left after you are done, I will finish." That got her eating. She nodded and attempted to eat herself, but she could not. So, I offered to feed her. What was left I finished as promised. She managed to eat a little bit of everything but the milk. She drank it all. Bryce was not here yet. That had me worried, but I masked everything with a smile so as not to worry her. She was now firmer and ready to continue with her story. She asked,

"Where were we?" She was slowly getting back to herself. She always talked too much that she forgot where her stories had been left off once she paused.

"The blue-eyed handsome man." I answered her with so much sarcasm.

"Oh right. When he turned, I was in a trance. I was glued to the ground just looking at his handsome face. I did not notice he was walking towards me until I felt his breath on my face. He was quite tall. I had to literally tilt my face up to look at him. He bent down a little and whispered, 'I am Bryce by the way.'" I had to laugh at this point. She gave me a disappointed look, but I could not help it.

"I cannot believe you have been describing Bryce this whole time. He is not handsome. He is the ugliest human being on earth." I continued laughing.

"To you. To me he has always been good!" She literally shouted. I had to stop laughing and shrugged my shoulders instead.

"To each their own, I guess. You should continue." She cleared her throat and continued.

"Please do not interrupt me again. Anyway, the way he whispered his name just sent a shiver down my spine. I kept wondering how it would feel if he touched me. I just swallowed hard and looked up at him.

'You are nervous. Your whole countenance is giving you away. You should come down. I do not bite.' That got me back to my senses. I retorted back harshly.

'Who do you think you are to make me, Dios Wrenison, nervous?' He actually laughed which pissed me off.

'Your secret admirer.' And with that, he smirked, turned and left leaving me with my mouth open like a fish. 'Who does he think he is? He is annoying. I hate him!' But deep down I knew I would rather love him than hate him.

Over the next few days, I did not find Bryce by 'our' waterfall. I made sure to go everyday so as to not miss him. My heart and all of me was longing to just have a glimpse of him. After 2 weeks of coming daily, I gave up. And I got angry that he made me make a fool of myself. And I did not want to see him again. But this one day, a month later, I went to the waterfall as usual and there he was with his back to me once again. He was facing the waterfall deep in thought. Upon seeing him, all the anger I had towards him magically vanished. I slowly approached him and thought it would be funny to cover his eyes with my hands from behind. He was surprised at first, but he relaxed, and it was my turn to whisper, 'Guess who?' It did not take him long.

'Oh my. I smell lavender. What's up Dios?' And he yanked my hands from his eyes with so much force that I lost my balance and ended somehow in his lap, in his arms like a baby. How he managed to twist me into that position, I do not understand to date. His eyes were staring deep into mine as if bearing into my soul. And he said the sweetest words I have ever heard, 'I love you, my Dios.' Before I could comprehend his words, he locked his lips with mine and gave me an earth-shattering kiss.

The way his lips were dancing against mine was like they had known each other forever. They had a rhythm of their own that was in sync. His lips were soft and funnily he tasted like lemons. The kiss was long, and we finally had to part for air. That was my first kiss ever. I had never kissed anyone before and that realization made me look down in embarrassment. That got to him, and he sat me up in his lap and lifted my face with his finger.

'Hey. What is wrong? Did I do something wrong?' The look of worry oh his face broke my heart. I shook my head very fast in denial.

'No. You did nothing wrong. It is just that I have never kissed anyone before. That was my first kiss and am super embarrassed.' And I quickly looked down again but he was quick to lift my face once again.

'I am glad to be your first and hopefully your last. And there is nothing to be embarrassed about. You are an amazing kisser.' I just found myself hugging him and we kissed again briefly. After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up and getting to know each other.

I learnt he was Bryce Roberts from the Montes Village, and he was a famous trader in their village. He would often travel round the villages trading different things and his last destination was usually our village. His trip would take approximately 3 weeks after which, he would rest for a week as he distributed his goods to his people in exchange for other things he would use in the next trade. He came to our village to acquire Rarity because most humans believed it kept the wolves away. He told me that is why our village was never attacked by werewolves while those around us suffered in the hands of werewolves.

According to him, Rarity has the compound Aconite, that is very toxic to werewolves, therefore, can be used to make wolfsbane. It could either be liquid or powder and mixing it with silver made it stronger. So, his village used the Rarity to make wolfsbane and they would pour it round their village and in their houses. That protected them. He said rarity was a rare commodity just like Rarity but, Rarity was cheaper and no one who had silver was willing to negotiate. I was happy our village was helping out others. We talked till evening, and he walked me to my village border. I was happy so I hugged him tight, and he promised to see me next month. And that is how our love story began." I had to cut her short. I was surprised.

"Wait a second, you mean to say, your Bryce is Bryce the famous trader? You guys are full of surprises." Melanie just gave me a disgusting look and said,

"I thought I told you not to interrupt me again!" I raised my hands in surrender.

"My bad, mom. You can continue."

"Better. Anyway, over the next few months, we kept on meeting and our love kept on growing. I even stopped going to the waterfall by myself. I would only go if I knew he was coming. He had a specific way of doing things, so I always knew when he was going to be around. And so, I looked forward to seeing him every time. This went on for a year. So, our one-year anniversary was coming up, and I needed to do something special. So, I started sneaking into our bookstore and stealing steamy sexy romance novels. I was the leader's daughter, so no one really paid much attention to what I did as long as I was comfortable.

So, instead of sneaking to the waterfall or sneaking to play with other kids, I was busy learning how to have sex. I thought I was ready. That whole month to our anniversary, I read anything and everything i could get my hands on regarding the subject. So, when our day came, I was ready. The plan was for him to come early complete his trade as the very first person then, send his comrades back with the goods with the promise of joining them soon as he had unfinished business. It was quite a solid plan.

I was 16 now and I felt like a grown woman. Most people were considered adults by 16. But whenever I was with him, I felt him holding back. We would only make out and whenever I wanted to go further, he would respectfully decline and be like, 'Not the right time yet.' I always thought he meant am too young for this. I wanted to do it on my birthday, but we weren't scheduled to meet then. So, we were going to end up doing it on a random day and it was not going to be special.

So, I passed by the trading square that early morning and sure enough, he was there. His goods were being inspected and counted. He winked at me, and I managed a smile without being noticed. I was a child though to be honest so I had done as much preparations as I could. I wore my best everything. Everyone I passed kept looking at me funny. Am sure they kept wondering where the celebration was at. I even had so much perfume on, am sure some people chocked on it. I just smiled at everyone and proceeded to the waterfall. I had to be secretive about it. So, I pretended to be going to the bookstore and took a detour as soon as I was out of sight. So, if anyone was asked, they would say they saw me go into the bookstore which my parents were okay with.

Once at the waterfall, I proceeded to make sure I was not followed and then I undressed and got into the water. This was our norm. Every time we meet, we would undress, not fully though, and get into the water. We would always make out in the water unless it was the cold season where we could not afford to lose any heat or clothing. I removed my clothes, that is, gown, socks and shoes. I was only left with this pair of inner clothing that he got me for my birthday. They were sexy for sure. A bra which was my first to own. It was jungle green in color and had a matching underwear. And when he gifted me, he said I would know the right time to wear them. I thought I had nailed it.

And that is how he found me, in the water and half-naked facing the waterfall waiting for him. I just heard him undress and came up behind me stealthily. I felt his hand touch my waist and he whispered, 'Are you insane? Why are you wearing that?' And instead of answering him, I turned and locked our lips. That kiss was fiery. I put everything in it, and I could feel he was doing the same. I felt his love, his passion, his care and need and I thought I hit the jackpot. But he broke us apart before we could go further.

'You know this was meant for when you are older. The bra can barely fit you because you barely have the breasts to hold it. The underwear I knew would fit because you have the hips.' I was angry beyond redemption.

'You said it was for the right time, and I thought...' I was cut short by a loud bang, like an explosion. And before we could react, we heard a..." She was physically interrupted by Bryce.

"Melanie! Melanie!" It was the panic in his voice that got us.