"If I had a guy like that looking out for me then I would never let him go from my hands..."
Nini whispered to Carmel, who just remained silent at those words. Carmel's eyes took in the sight of Austin being surrounded by the bees, the gift of their special honey they left, being held in his hands as he started to walk towards the two women awaiting him, his expression remaining cold as he faced Carmel who asked.
"If you could have done that, why didn't you do it at the start itself?"
To this, Austin looked at Carmel with another disappointed gaze, his words flowing smoothly.
"If it was simple for me to command and move bees like that I would have, why didn't you think that perhaps I had to use or sacrifice something for such actions?"
The counter of Austin's made Carmel bite her lips, her insides squirming with guilt again while Nini on the side whispered.
"Ouch... that's bad."
Though she did this, she looked at Austin and asked.
"What about the other two?"
To which Austin spoke.
"I've made it such that those bees won't hurt them too much, perhaps some light pranking after which the two would be allowed to be set free."
To his words, Carmel looked at Austin as she asked.
"You did that for them?"
"I just didn't want us to be delayed anymore."
Austin spoke as the honey in his hand disappeared towards his special ring, he went forth to take a seat on the horse, while Nini suddenly whispered to Carmel's ears.
"Something tells me he didn't do it for those two..."
Her silent remark made Carmel look at Austin with certain emotions, her mind reeling towards the meeting today where Austin asked if she didn't remember, his words and those hurtful looks he had for a moment, showing forth the fact that perhaps there lay a deeper plot of connection between the two that she doesn't remember at all.
'I wonder what that could be, can you remember anything?'
To her inner monologue, Carmelia replied.
'I don't but whatever it is, it's an important part of the relationship we have with Austin. We need to get to know what it is at all costs.'
There is also the added effect of the pride of these two, unwilling to use such things just for some bees. Though that pride had now come back to bite them in the ass, leaving them in such a bad state.
"Clean yourself up; we can't wait here for long; we have a journey ahead."
The words of Austin only pushed their boundary, but they kept themselves controlled for now, their eyes shining as they took out some healing items to get themselves better, while the two also moved to the stream to get themselves washed up too. Thus, within a few minutes, the two returned, looking better.
Carmel still stuck to the side of Austin, offering her honey to him, while Austin still looked cold to her, not minding her. This scene and all slowly yet powerfully chipped the sanity of the two as they sat across the three, with Melvin asking.
"Where did you get the honey from?"
To this, Carmel, quite reluctant, looked at Austin who, seeing this, spoke out in a cool voice.
"The bees that attacked you gifted it to me."
His words took some time to register in the minds of the two, their expression turning for the worse as Nix spoke.
"The bees gifted it to you?"
His tone was added with suppressed anger to which Austin remained quite nonchalant as he replied with a nod.
"Indeed, after you two ran off, I had a conversation with them, turns out they were really gentle, and once you talk to them, they let things be."
The two, Nix and Melvin, not taking this shit as Melvin shouted out.
"Then why the fuck didn't you do that first?!"
His anger fully exploded to which Austin, frowning a bit, replied.
"The situation wasn't that dire in the beginning, plus it's now I that ran off."
His words only pissed the two off more as Nix shouted.
"WE DIDN'T RUN OFF; THE FUCKING HORSE DID WITH US! WHAT KIND OF FUCKED UP REASON IS THAT FO-"
"NIX, ENOUGH!"
Suddenly Carmel spoke, shutting off Nix and even Melvin, who was about to speak, their expression turning shocked as they looked at Carmel for the first time shouting so badly at them. Even Carmel was taken aback by it, but she couldn't have it. From her perspective, they didn't go through that much; it wasn't even a life-threatening situation for them, and Austin made it that by god knows sacrificing what.
From the very beginning, Austin didn't want them and it's goodwill to her that made it such that these two could tag along with, and now just half a day later, these two have completely lost it and are now taking it out on Austin, who hasn't done anything wrong to them at all.