Ozborn is sitting down on the beach, right on the edge of the water, admiring the view.

“You know, if I weren't stranded here, this would probably be one of the prettiest sights I have ever seen.”

The sky turns yellow, then orange, and finally black as Ozborn slowly drifts off to sleep in the warm sand.

The next morning he wakes up and remembers that he hasn’t washed himself in a while.

(Man, a pretty girl showed up and I smell and look like this, I should really try to be more civilized.)

He thinks while recalling her slender yet fit body, silver hair, and purple eyes that look much like his own.

(I hope she is doing alright, she’s the only one I have to talk to out here.) He thinks while looking down.

“Well, first things first. Let’s take a bath!” He says, suddenly excited.

He grabs some ashes from his fire and mixes it with some river water on a rock down by the water and then adds some leftover fat from the animals that he killed, mixes it, and now he has some wilderness soap.

“There we go, now it’s time for my transformation!” He shouts while throwing off his clothes and diving into the water. Though he is still careful because he doesn’t take off his scale-mail.

While cleaning up his body he also washes his clothes and decides to try to make some new ones as well because of how tattered they are.

“Alright now that I’m clean I’ll just dry off-... I didn’t make a towel did I… DANG IIIIITTTT!” He says while shivering and air-drying himself.

Once that ordeal is over he goes back to his daily activities: whittling some dishes and utensils for himself, fishing, and doing anything he can to train and get stronger for the fight that lies ahead.

A couple more days go by and Ozborn sees something, or someone, approaching from a distance.

(Is that who I think it is?)

“HEY, FRIEND OR FOE!”

She gets a little closer and he can tell that it’s Iris and that she is not doing too well and then she falls over in the sand.

“ARE YOU OKAY!” He shouts as he runs over to her.

When he reaches her he hears a strange noise:

“Guurg, guur.”

“What is that sound? Are you okay, were you poisoned?”

“Spspsp”

“What?”

“Hu-hungry…”

He hears the sound again, realizing that it was her stomach rumbling.

Suppressing his laughter at the fact that he thought that she was poisoned, he carries her back to camp where he gives her some food and asks what happened to her.

Having eaten and feeling much better she reluctantly tells him about what happened.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

On the first day that she was gone she ate all the food that Ozborn gave her and just walked all day and ended up sleeping on the beach.

The next day she was caught out in the rain while trying to hunt for food and had to take refuge in a hole in a very large tree.

As she says that Ozborn also remembers having to stay inside that day but since he had his fireplace and a few wood-carving projects, it was actually quite nice.

The third day she was absolutely starving and managed to find a berry bush that she was able to eat several large handfuls of berries off… and then puke it all up a half an hour later because it turns out that they were poisonous.

She spent the next two days heading back and got lucky by catching a mouse about halfway here and it helped hold her off until now.

“Wow, that really sucks, at least you made it back here without collapsing though.” Says Ozborn after hearing her story.

“For that, I am indeed grateful for.” She responds.

“What will you do now?” Asks Ozborn.

“If you haven’t changed your mind, and aren’t opposed to it… I would like to stay here and help you out.” She says shyly.

“Of course you can stay here. I have just two rules that you must follow though: you must not attack me and try to steal or cause harm to any of my belongings, and you must pull your own weight. If you can do that, then there is no issue with you staying here.”

“I accept these conditions sir Godfrey.”

“Okay then, and you don’t need to call me that.”

“You are now in charge of me, calling you anything less would be rude.”

“I said it’s okay, do you want to disobey that order?”

“No sir… Ozborn.”

“There, that’s better, now let’s get to work.”

He shows Iris around and teaches her how to fish, whittle, and hunt so that she can help him better, which takes until dark.

“Now for the most current problem, sleeping arrangements.” Said Ozborn.

“I know you're not a bad person but I won’t be comfortable sleeping next to you, no offence.”

“That’s understandable, no one would want to sleep with someone after talking to them twice. I’ll sleep out on the beach and tomorrow I’ll make a new bed. We might need to go hunting for more pelts for the mattress though.”

“Thank you very much sir… Ozborn.” She says blushing.

“No problem, ‘night”

“Goodnight.” They say, going to their respective sleeping areas.

The next morning Ozborn wakes up before Iris does so he heads down to the river to wash the sand off, remembering to bring a towel this time.

After he gets dressed he starts cooking breakfast and by that time Iris also got up and sat nearby, exchanging small talk with Ozborn.

When they are done eating they both go out hunting and when Ozborn spots a deer he instructs Iris to sneak up to it and kill it.

“Understood.” She whispers while putting her hood up and drawing her dagger.

(What! Where did she go?!)

She had disappeared right in front of him; the only thing he could see was the occasional branch being bumped and a footprint or two appearing as she made her way over to the deer.

When she gets within striking distance she uncloaks herself, dives forward, and plunges her dagger right in front of the deer’s shoulder, a perfect heart shot.

The deer falls to the ground, killed instantly.

(That’s crazy, I’m glad she didn’t try that on me, I would be quite the dead man if that happened)

“Nice, that’s quite the skill you have there, do you mind taking this one back to camp while I continue hunting?” Says Ozborn.

“Yes sir.” She says, grabbing the deer by the legs and dragging it in the direction of the beach.

(Alright now I can keep hunting after a big kill like that.)

He returns after an hour of hunting and got two rabbits and another deer.

When he gets back he sees Iris making a sand castle on the beach and the deer she hunted laid out by the fire.

“Ah your back!” Iris says, clearly embarrassed that Ozborn saw her playing in the sand.

“What are you, a little girl? Hahaha” Ozborn says

“Hey! Don’t laugh at me, you took forever!” She responds, trying to salvage her reputation.

“Alright alright, let's get to cleaning these animals.” Ozborn says while wiping the tears out of his eyes.

They clean the animals and Ozborn makes another bed and puts it in the house.

They hang out and talk about the day as the sun goes down and when it’s gone they gaze at the stars until they get tired and go to bed.