"Watch your footing here, the rocks are going to be slippery from the  last dust storm that came through!" I called out to the small group of  men that were following behind me, ignoring the looks some of them cast  my way as they failed to listen and ended up sliding down the path as  Judar snickered at them.

"You would think they would listen to the person that Anneth named as  the leader, since we all know what David does to those who fail to  follow her instructions." The sadistic look in his eyes, like he was  looking forward to watching their awaiting punishment, had more than  just me shivering and hastening my steps to get further away from him.

We had somehow already made it quite a ways into the mountains, the  pass closer than any of them could imagine it being, even if I only felt  comfortable talking to Leon about the exact location as he sketched the  path we took and its surroundings lightly on one of the sheets inside  the notebook he always seemed to be pulling out of his pack every time  we stopped.

Leon really did seem to love his maps. Enough that even Judar didn't dare to touch them for fear of the repercussions.

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Anneth hid her smile as she was gently tugged down the hall behind  David, the small frown on his face unable to hide the happiness he was  feeling from simply being able to have her hand held within his own,  knowing she was safely within his reach. After reaching their shared  rooms, David tried leading her closer to the sheer cloth that hid the  entryway of their bedroom, frowning when Anneth slipped her hand from  his and turned towards her private labs instead.

"Anneth, do you not want to spend time with me?" His soft question  reached her sensitive ears, the slight hint of vulnerability there that  nobody ever got to hear from him but her.

"David, you know I want to spend time with you. Just let me check on  my experiments first and I'll be right with you. Maybe we can discuss  this upcoming meeting with Sin that you failed to mention to me previous  to today?" With one sideways glance from her luminous eyes before she  entered her laboratory, David knew he had made a mistake in not telling  her earlier that Sinbad was coming by soon.

He just couldn't seem  to help it. He didn't like the two being anywhere close to each other,  seeing the not-so-sneaky glances the flirtatious man gave Anneth  whenever he was around. It drove him mad and it was all he could do at  times to not just forget all his plans and simply kill the man.  Especially when the man didn't stop at simply glances and actually  opened his mouth to speak to her.

David couldn't stand  hearing the wandering merchant speak to her the way he did, even if he  knew that Anneth was fully capable of taking care of herself. He still  wanted to be the one who protected her.

That was why he  had planned on keeping her busy with new research and experiments during  the few days the man would be here, ready to provide all the 'research  subjects' she wanted, just so that man wouldn't be able to so much as  lay his eyes on her.

Sitting down on a nearby chair,  David rested his head in his hands, wondering just how he was going to  fix the mess he had gotten himself into. Why had he opened his foolish  mouth and made it clearn he was hiding things from his beloved? He was  smarter than that, damn it! There were so many ways he could have said  it that wouldn't have gotten him caught.

He just wanted to keep her safe from that man's eyes. And his mouth, his hands, pretty much everything that made up Sinbad.

"Oh,  how I hate that man at times... If he wasn't so damned useful, I swear I  would just kill him the next time I saw him." Running a hand through  his hair, he sighed in frustration and began thinking of all the ways he  could try to earn Anneth's forgiveness.

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"Are  you sure this is the right cave? We've been walking for hours already!  Shouldn't we have reached the end?" Judar peered into the pitch black  depths of the tunnel that curved ever so slightly ahead of them,  stalactites hanging from the ceiling in varying lengths, some meeting up  with the stalagmites that reached up from the ground.

"Yes,  we are in the right cave. No we have not been walking for hours, we  have been walking for barely one hour. This tunnel takes time though,  since it stretches through an entire mountain, just about. There will be  a fork in the tunnel up ahead of us soon, however. We will want to take  the tunnel that branches off to the right." I calmly ignored the look  Judar gave me, slipping past him and walking ahead, the torch I held  lighting the way.

"What's down the left fork?" Of course  Leon would be curious, mapping down the tunnel pathway every time they  stopped for even a moment, usually when one of the men complained about  the uneven footing like it wasn't something they dealt with often.

"What's  left of a treasure far greater than anything you would seek. But I  doubt any of you would be able to bring much of it back with you, if  any. But being the kind person I am, I will allow you to gaze upon it if  you would like." Grinning at Leon and Judar playfully, I couldn't help  feeling like a child about to share a secret that nobody else knew  about.

Most likely nobody else did, since not many  people braved these tunnels and those that did usually kept to the known  paths, since it was not unheard of for cave tunnels to collapse when  the mountains shook. I'd always been more willing to take risks than  most, sometimes to the point of stupidity as I had proven with the  actions that had placed me in my current situation.

My  grin only grew as we neared the tunnel's fork, seeing the slight  glistening of the stalactites as we got closer, ignoring the muttering  of the men following behind us as I mentally separated Leon and even  Judar from the idiots that trailed behind. I suspected that David sent  them with us because they would be expendable if we needed to leave them  behind at some point or it we needed to make a sacrifice.

  Although part of me suspected he wouldn't consider it too much of a  loss if Judar didn't come back, so long as we returned with his Artifact  intact. As much as I hated to admit it, Judar had started growing on  me. He might be whiny and he was definitely sadistic at times but he had  also proven himself to be an asset to the group.

Besides,  as long as I stayed mostly on his good side and didn't piss him off too  much, he joined Leon in keeping the other men from causing trouble for  me.