The dark clouds in front of them seemed intimidating, but he had dealt with worse before. Lewis figured that Simone could probably handle it, and motioned for them to fly above. The two ascended sharply, and the temperature in the air dropped drastically. It would have to be something they dealt with for a small time, but they could not afford to waste time.

As they neared the storm, Lewis frowned. Things were starting to get worse. For a moment he doubted they could make it through, but he pushed the thoughts aside. It was far too late to do anything about it. All they could do was hope that things didn’t get too bad.

It was about thirty minutes into the stormy clouds that the fury blast of errant wind knocked Lewis to the side. He felt the joints of his wings absorb the shock, and he winced. It was the cry from Simone, though, that made him look back with concern. He was used to these kinds of things after flying for so long, but Simone was nowhere near experienced as he was. He cursed as she was blown off course.

Without thinking, he dove towards her, but more gusts of wind threw him off, making it nearly impossible to reach her.

Damn it all. He tried harder, and with luck he was able to finally reach her. Unfortunately, at this point, both of them had been knocked around so much that it was nearly impossible to tell where they were. And the storm was only getting worse.

“Down!” Lewis roared over the winds as he tried to keep hold of her hand. Another torrent of wind buffeted them. There was no way that Simone was going to be able to handle this anymore. Without waiting for an answer, he started to pull her down.

The descent was painful. It took everything they had not to lose each other, but soon the ground came into view. Rain started down in a torrent, and thunder and lightning pierce the skies above. Out of nowhere, and impossibly large gust of wind struck Lewis’ wings. A sickening snapping noise cracked in the air, almost louder than the thunder, and without warning, Lewis went limp.

Simone barely managed to get them to the ground…

The storm had been terrible and she hadn’t been allowed outside much to be able to handle these sorts of wings. A woman like her was to be seen as an idol or that’s what the courts had told her. Right now, her entire being was weighing Lewis down.

She pulled him with her. Even though she was weak she managed to drag them both to a small village not that far. “Please, do you have any rooms?”

The man looked at her. “Do you have any coin?”

“I don’t have coin but…” She set Lewis down and took off her necklace. “I have this…”

“I can’t take this!” The innkeeper was staring at it.

“Please, I’ll even take credit…” Simone was desperate.

The man sighed and waved his hand. “Norman, take the boy upstairs. I only have one room.”

“That’s fine!” She was given some coin and she looked down to it. “What’s this for?”

“You both are covered in mud… I can trade this necklace for coin. Go get new clothes from the general store.” Simone nodded and ran off to do so. She came back with medical herbs and a change of clothes for them both.

She knew a bit about applying herbs and helped Lewis with the pain he was feeling. “Hey, you’re awake. Try not to move so much.” She had gotten his shirt off and had it laid over a chair.

Lewis awoke with a start. He was covered in sweat, and feeling a rather agonizing pain in his wing joint. He tried to slow his breathing, and closed his eyes for a moment. “Where…” He winced, tensing up. Simone had him on his stomach, applying the herbs she had gotten to his wing. From what he could tell, the bones in his left wing might have been snapped by the storm.

The herbs were already starting to help with the pain, but there wasn’t anything that could be done about the broken wing. Healers would be required, and most of the ones in towns like this would be useless when it came to a night phoenix.

Not that Lewis would want to expose his heritage to just anyone. Most people assumed that his black wings were of a different avian breed, and not of the well hidden night phoenix race.

“Where are we?” he managed to ask. They were indoors, which meant that they had paid for a room. But that was odd. They hadn’t any coin. “How…how did you get this room? Those herbs?” Focusing on anything but the pain was helping. He winced as Simone rubbed more of the herbal paste on his wings.

“It’s…broken,” he muttered. “Guess we shouldn’t have braved that storm…”

“Easy…” She eased him back down and smiled at him. “We’re at an inn. I managed to get us to the village that wasn’t far.” She mixed some of the herbs once more so she could lather it on. “I sold my mother’s necklace. I didn’t have anything else of value.” She smirked a bit. “We are paid up until we need to leave. The innkeeper gave me the coin for new clothes and these herbs too so I can get you healed up.”

Simone shook her head, “If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have gotten hurt. I’ve never flown far at all so I should have told you that. I just wanted to look brave and meet my goals.” Even if she wasn’t strong enough to meet her goals which were becoming evident. She was soft and gentle.

“I’m going to go get you food.” She left and came back with some hearty stew and some warm bread. “Something easy for you.” She moved some pillows around and helped move him so he wasn’t in too much pain. “Do you want to feed yourself? Or do you need help?” She knew he had to be weak.

When Simone left to go get food, he silently cursed himself. She had sold her mother’s necklace, which at this point was more than likely irreplaceable. It was an unfortunate circumstance that they had found themselves in, and she had made the best of it with what she had on hand. He had to at least give her credit on that front.

Still, he had to think of a way to make it up to her. Losing something so precious must have been difficult.

When she came back with the food, he carefully tried to sit up. With Simone’s help, he finally was able to sit upright. Immediately he felt a little bit better. “I can probably manage.” He started to lift his arm, but a searing pain shot through his back, and he nearly dropped the spoon that was given to him. He glared at his arm and then at the food, and tried again, this time slower. He managed a bite of it.

“It’s…good.” He managed a few more painful spoonfuls, and let out an annoyed sigh.

There was a solid knock at the door, and a call.

“Don’t mean to disturb you two, but I have a little something for you both. A local buddy of mine made some…uhh…strong ‘medicine’. It won’t heal or nothing, but it’ll dull the pain and probably give you a good night’s rest. I just recommend not drinking too much of it lest you get a bad hangover.”

“Oh thank you…” Simone got up and took it from the man. “We appreciate how accommodating you’ve been.” The princess gave a little bow and it made the innkeeper almost blush as Simone closed the door. “Let me help you. You’re struggling.”

Ignoring her own hungry she kept helping Lewis until he was full. She only snacked in between his bites and once he was done so she was. She was used to being done when the head was done so this was nothing.

She sniffed it and reared her head back. “This is alcohol.” Strong too but she had never had it. She sniffed it again and poured a mug for Lewis. “I’ve never had any alcohol before.” Immediately Simone took a big gulp of it. “I don’t get it.” She reared back from it. “What’s so special about this.”

Though once she was up and about in a few minutes she was stumbling around. “It isn’t far Lewis!” She was yelling and throwing her hands up. “Who does that asshat think he is! Ending our engagement,” she was spitting fire. “Then he locked me up in a tower with that asshole. I’m not a damsel in distress. I CAN RESCUE MYSELF. I am a self-rescuing princess!” She beat her chest as she leaned across Lewis. “Right?” She was wasted.

Lewis was thankful for the alcohol to dull the pain, and carefully sipped his. Just from the smell alone, this was something that was brewed homemade. It was likely stronger than anything he had ever had, but he more or less knew his tolerances. He was shocked though, when Simone basically downed nearly double what he had drank in nearly a single moment.

Tonight was about to get difficult.

He was going to have to humor her a little bit. “Yes, you did quite well with breaking the seal on yourself.” Lewis was, of course, omitting the fact that it was Xeik who had broken the first part of it, the one on the tower that kept her completely concealed. In her current state, any mention of that might end up with Lewis worse off.

Lewis sighed internally. She was quite light, and judging by the way she had downed the drink earlier, had little to no experience with alcohol. It was probably only going to get worse as the night went on. There had to be something he could do, even in his state.

“Simone…you’ve barely had anything to eat. Please sit down at put something in your stomach. Maybe even some bread.” The warm bread might help absorb some of the alcohol.

Simone snapped up. “Did you just say bread?” Her eyes were wild and she crawled up into his lap. “I don’t want any bread! Bread is the devil Lewis!” She was shaking him lightly. “Bread is so bland and it is a torture device.”

Her eyes watered. “Five hundred years of bland sponge~” She yelled as she flailed on his lap. Once she realized he had full of line of sight of her underwear she popped up and had her hands holding down her skirt with a deep blush across her face. “You are a pervert!” She yelled at him.

Then her eyes were tearing up, “I’m never going to get a real first kiss. My first kiss is forever lost to that fucking asshole.” She flailed once more. “I’m going to be a virgin forever!” She rolled around. “Stupid dumb… BOYS ARE SO DUMB! They don’t know how to kiss! They are spoiled rotten! Then they throw you in a tower after luring you in with a kiss.” She was now explaining in detail to Lewis how the events of her being inside the tower happened.

“They are all: OH Simone but you aren’t good enough BECAUSE YOU ARE FLAT CHESTED AND BLAND LIKE FUCKING BREAD.” She looked at the bread and crawled up on Lewis away from it. “THAT BREAD IS MAKING FUN OF ME!” She put her face close to his. "He left because I'm ugly didn't he?"

Lewis could do absolutely nothing about Simoen climbing all over him. Luckily the alcohol he had imbibed was taking effect, and the pain in his wing was dulled, otherwise he might have been crying out due to the raucous behavior of the now wasted princess. Had Simone not even realized she was exposing herself to him, Lewis wouldn’t have noticed, but her rather eccentric display of trying to hide it made it all the more obvious.

“I’m not trying t-” He tried to say, but was interrupted as she started to dive into her tower rant about how she had been locked up. He stayed quiet for a moment as she got close to him, her face not even a breath away.

Lewis blushed, and glanced to the side. “I don’t think you’re ugly. You’re pretty…” His words were barely a whisper, but they were just loud enough for her to hear.

The princess stared at him with a flushed drunken face as she tried to see what he was thinking. “Are you drunk too?” She felt his forehead. “No one has ever thought I was pretty. Pretty bland like…” She dramatically pointed. “LIKE BREAD!” She wobbled a bit as she got closer. “I’ll show you! I’ll show them all!”

She yelled and closed the gap before kissing him hard. The stunned Lewis only kissed her back once she moved into a slower more sensual kiss. Mone moved to take off her shirt and she was getting frustrated with the buttons. She was dead set on having her way with Lewis and completing the mating ritual then and there.

However, after getting frustrated enough to bring Lewis’s hands up to help her she slumped over and passed out on him.