“Phew, it’s hot today.” he rubbed his forehead with his forearm looking down at the sweltering flame at his feet. It was a delightful autumn day at the forest edge, the clouds were slowly rolling in for rain, but this time Baron was prepared for the worst mother nature had! With the jewels he had left and determination he set himself a nifty little camping site where the beach and forest met, this way he wouldn’t have to go too far for food regardless of what he choose to hunt that day, rather he went fishing or trapping rabbits he would be fine to do either. Today he wouldn’t be doing much in the way of hunting given he had managed to acquire a bounty of crabs from his trap along the shore this morning.

The beach itself was fairly empty, no one was about save for a few people here and there soaking up the last of the summer sun before autumn and the rain took over the city. Baron would have to boil his crabs soon before it began to rain else he would be eating raw shellfish for dinner. His campsite was just at the forest edge beside the tree line, his moderately sized black and green tent situated at the back of his site, a yard or two from it was his fire and pot, the fire was built in a basic manor a pillar of sticks encircled by a few rocks, just as a boy scout may do it and his fishing rod rested on the ground not too far from the flame. Looking over his shoulder he would pat down his person just a general check to make sure everything was fine before he would turn to a small blue white topped cooler at his side. He would kneel beside the cooler and open it to reveal a mass two dozen crabs writhing, squirming, and scuttling over one another. “Looks like I caught too many, how about I put some of you little guys back home?” he spoke to his clawed stock as he closed the cooler and carried it down the beach with a smile. His attire for the dat was what he normally wore: a pair of black form fitting sweat pants, black sandals, and his cloak, chest exposed as the hood blew back in the wind as it picked up. When he arrived at the beach head, his cloak blew black revealing his well toned, athletic form.

“Gotta be careful, don’t wanna lose too many of you.” his words were soft as he lowered the cooler and opened it once again. Dipping his hands into the cooler he would pick up Crabs by the handful, scoping them out and putting them down so they could scuttle into the sand and water. When he thought he let enough go he looked back down at his cooler to see he still had 3 or so left, the unlucky scragglers that couldn’t get scooped up, pity, but he had to eat. Closing his cooler he made his way back to his camping site, food in hand as he would make it back, just before looking out to the sea, the storm was getting close and he wasn’t in any mood to get rained on again. After deeming the water hot enough he would pick up the first, it was about as big as his hand, six inches wide. He would drop it in head first to make sure it wouldn’t suffer long and pushed it down with his tongs to make sure it boils even. “Alright, about 30 minutes will work.” he nodded, putting the lid on the pot, getting up and stretching, “Let’s see if I have any seasoning left.” he mumbled to himself as he turned to his tent, unzipping and entering it to look through his bag.

Thunder echoed over the sea, rain was coming.

“Alrighty, let’s see… No pepper, no salt, ooo but I do have butter and spice.” he beamed with a smile on his face as he retrieved the items from his burlap bag. The inside of his tent was surprisingly spacious given the outward appearance. There was more than enough for him to stretch his legs, but it didn’t have all that much space for an arm’s length of stretching. The inside was relatively simple: the floor had a black mat, his bad rested in a corner to itself and his blanket and pillow were folded to the wide of that. Having not bought a sleeping bag it was a bit of a bother to get his things as neat as he would have liked, but he would make do with what he had.

With seasoning and butter in hand he poked his head out of his tent and slithered back towards his fire, little did he know a body was approaching as he was distracted by the boiling of his pot. Raising the lid he took a peek to see how his meal was doing and to his delight found that the crab was already reddening. He’d place his spice in the sand next to him and unwrap his butter from its silver confines. WIth no life he carefully cut a slice into the water with the end of his thumb, a plop signalling the yellow substance had dropped into the water.

His crab was almost ready and he still had extra, tonight might just be a night to get stuffed if he wasn’t careful. The last thing he would want was to be too stuffed to catch more. Just as he was about to re-lid his tasty morsels a low growl from his side caught his attention. His golden eyes shifted and into view came the form of a woman. How she snuck up on him so easily bewildered and amazed baron, but given the way she was staring into the pot her intentions for being here were all too evident. Smiling he wouldn’t mutter a word, instead he would pick up a stick that had been resting in the sand by the fire and prodded the flame a few times.

“Sounds like you could use a bite to eat.” he broke the silence with teasing words, as the flame raised just over the side of the pot. This was a pivotal time in cooking his crabs, he took extra time to get the fire blazing before he pulled his crab out of the water. With hands clapping together he mumbled a short prayer in respect to the crab. It was a thing of respect, as he killed the crab for his own nourishment he provided it with spiritual nourishment praying for it as it passed on to the next realm. All animals were precious creatures and he maintained respect where it was due whenever he took one’s life.

After praying and the scent of boiled crab filled the air he looked to the woman one again with yet another cool smile, “Join me for dinner?” he asked with no hesitation despite not knowing who she was. Sure, she could have been a murderer, thief, or lunatic, but what did any of that matter to him? A beautiful woman was a beautiful woman and it would be a crime if he left this one to starve, “I don’t have plates, but I do have uh…” he rubbed his chin as he tried to remember his alternative, “But we can find something else to use.” his fingers hovered over the boiling water he gripped the grab’s only leg that protruded from the water. With a yank he pulled the now beautifully red shellfish out of the water and rested it on the lid of his pot handing it to the woman. “Try it?”

He could only want with a warm grin on his face as she fed on what was supposed to be his dinner. At first he expected himself not to have company, so he only caught a few for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but it seemed he was down one so he would need to dig another hole later on or clear the water from the one he had. No matter, he would gladly do so if it meant he could keep this fine… Young woman? Around, he didn’t expect much in conversation so he sat by the fire and poked at it to keep it going. Come the rain storm he wouldn’t get the chance to boil crabs again until it all dried so he could at most try to keep this flame going as long as he could.

Turning his head for only moment he looked out to sea, seemed the storm was coming faster than he thought it would as the ominous grey clouds seemed to roam over the sea like giant grey balls of black sheep’s wool. Hm, in the event that it did rain would she just leave? He could offer her refuge under his tent until the storm passed, but then he’d risks looking like a pervert and he wouldn’t want that! Why would he care now? Typically he was always hitting on women, but now that he was in a new region it felt so rude to hit on woman he met, especially if they had a significant other and all. A blush crossed the bridge of his nose as a closed fist gently ‘plamped’ itself against his forehead. Darn this brain of his. ‘Oh no she’s probably look at me be weird!’ he thought to himself eye peeking at her from a corner. Oh no, she was still eating.

Letting his side glare shift back to the clouds, they were still a good few yards away meaning he had plenty of time to make a decision, but the issue of a friendly decision becoming a grave misunderstanding was still an extremely sturdy possibility between the two. ‘Think Baron, think, don’t be nervous, it’s just a woman with above average beau...ty…’ his thoughts trailed off as he stole another glance at her, his initial reaction to choke on air as her looks seemed to become far more radiant than he expected, ‘Ok Baron be nervous, she is gorgeous! Just asks her if she wants to hang out with you while it storms~ Yeah! Then you’ll look like a good samaritan!’ even his mind was flustered with speculation and nerves.

‘Now, or never’ he cleared his throat and clenched his fist. He was a man! He could do this! She was just like any other woman, head of blonde hair or not! So what if looked pretty! He saw pretty women all of the time! Yeah! All he had to do was be a man and asks her a simple friendly question and if she said no big deal and if she said yes… Wait, what if she did say yes… Oh no.

With a second clearing of his throat, the dark haired turned to the blonde and shakily raised a hand, “U-uh, excuse me mam, there seems to be a um.. S-storm coming and all, and uh ya know.” he pointed out to sea, “I was wondering if you would like to wait the storm out…” the last few words were babbled heavily only coming out as a mumbled ‘in my tent’

Oh god here came the slap, he probably wouldn’t feel his cheek for a month, rest in peace Baron Corbin.

The rain came beating down and he was surely unprepared. He looked at the woman for a moment and blinked, did she really just accept his offer? Wonderful! He felt a tad bit more confident in this meaning as he scurried to the flap and held it open for her. “After you!” he beamed with a cheeky grin. When she entered, if she entered one of two things would happen, he would dive in after her and push his luck, or just go on in and take a nap. Decisions, decisions. Splash. When she got into the tent he would quickly go in after her and zip it back up so no rain would get into his quarters. “Well, welcome to my tent, you’ll have to excuse any books you might sit on.” he pointed out, he didn’t read much but he did read a bit when he could, “So uh, I’ma take a nap.. Feel free to eat anything from my reserve.” he pointed to a picnic basket in the corner of his tent, it was the only smell in the place as fresh breads, cooked fish, and water awaited any who wanted to peek in it.

With that he laid down and stretched, “Nighty night.” he closed his eyes.

-exit-