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I blink and drop my head. Unfortunately, there is nothing
I can do about my eye and hair color. It makes me stand out, and I am
self-conscious about that as well as my strange clothes. I am starting to
wonder if I shall ever fit in here or anywhere. I am so very different. Janice
makes a clucking noise and I look up at her quickly.
“You never mind. The guys will probably try to fall all over themselves over you’re novelty, some women probably too. Come on; let’s get to serving these folks, hmm.” I follow her once more. I am a novelty now. Great. One more thing to make me stand out. We approach a table that a couple sits at. “What can I get ya, sugars?” I watch Janice closely as she makes conversation and takes their orders, scribbling on a pad she carries in the apron she wears. “Coming right up.”
We next head to the bar, where Janice tells Mark the order and he makes it. I watch closely and carefully, craning partially over the bar to see. Mark winks at me as he places the drinks on a round tray. My gaze drops and I hastily stand back to let Janice take the drinks. I hear a low chuckle. “Rather shy there Dewey. I’m not sure this one’s going to make it.”
I look up at him and give him one of my more haughty looks. “I am unused to males being so forward. I shall be fine once I understand your rules.” Strange looks from all three now. I am starting to seriously wish Mother had just killed me instead of banishing me. Unfortunately, that is forbidden since we are so few. She probably thought I would go to another settlement and live. I doubt she ever expected me to be so stubborn as to try to live in this new place.
Janice is the first to recover. “Come on, we have drinks to serve. You’re learning nothing here being picked on.” She gives Mark a foul look. I am grateful to her for ending the strangeness. We deliver the drinks and move to another table. This one has a young looking male sitting by himself. Janice speaks as we approach. “Best way to learn is to jump in. You saw how I did it. Why don’t you try with this fella, hmm?” I nod, not really feeling the least bit ready, but game all the same. I need this job.
As I step up to the table, I incline my head respectfully and step into formal mode. “Good Eve, Sir. Dost thee know which refreshment thou wishes?” Wrong. I can feel Janice’s stare at my back. My gaze drops. I am going to have to go to a place full of people and learn speech patterns. I give a soft sigh of disgust. I probably should have done that first thing. Oh well, no help for it now. Perhaps tonight will give me a start on fixing that problem. I raise my gaze back to his as I await his answer.
“You never mind. The guys will probably try to fall all over themselves over you’re novelty, some women probably too. Come on; let’s get to serving these folks, hmm.” I follow her once more. I am a novelty now. Great. One more thing to make me stand out. We approach a table that a couple sits at. “What can I get ya, sugars?” I watch Janice closely as she makes conversation and takes their orders, scribbling on a pad she carries in the apron she wears. “Coming right up.”
We next head to the bar, where Janice tells Mark the order and he makes it. I watch closely and carefully, craning partially over the bar to see. Mark winks at me as he places the drinks on a round tray. My gaze drops and I hastily stand back to let Janice take the drinks. I hear a low chuckle. “Rather shy there Dewey. I’m not sure this one’s going to make it.”
I look up at him and give him one of my more haughty looks. “I am unused to males being so forward. I shall be fine once I understand your rules.” Strange looks from all three now. I am starting to seriously wish Mother had just killed me instead of banishing me. Unfortunately, that is forbidden since we are so few. She probably thought I would go to another settlement and live. I doubt she ever expected me to be so stubborn as to try to live in this new place.
Janice is the first to recover. “Come on, we have drinks to serve. You’re learning nothing here being picked on.” She gives Mark a foul look. I am grateful to her for ending the strangeness. We deliver the drinks and move to another table. This one has a young looking male sitting by himself. Janice speaks as we approach. “Best way to learn is to jump in. You saw how I did it. Why don’t you try with this fella, hmm?” I nod, not really feeling the least bit ready, but game all the same. I need this job.
As I step up to the table, I incline my head respectfully and step into formal mode. “Good Eve, Sir. Dost thee know which refreshment thou wishes?” Wrong. I can feel Janice’s stare at my back. My gaze drops. I am going to have to go to a place full of people and learn speech patterns. I give a soft sigh of disgust. I probably should have done that first thing. Oh well, no help for it now. Perhaps tonight will give me a start on fixing that problem. I raise my gaze back to his as I await his answer.
My mother named me Jasper Pascal Fletching and I never did
like the name. She must have smoked too much pot to think of something
normal for me. Who my father was, was anybody's guess. People
called me JP mostly, but if they were trying to piss me off they called me
Jasper. It had been a hot day on the rail and I wasn't much in the mood
for talking at the bar. Mark was fun, but sometimes fun just was too much
energy. Janice brought over some new girl that looked like she might have
been into too much pot as well. The forest green of her hair was oddly a
really, really good dye job. It almost looked like her real hair color.
I could only imagine what crazy hell her life must be to choose such a hair
color. Her eyes were actually, amber? My dark brown eyes flared
open at the realization. If the track had not been so hot today, I would
have guessed it was Halloween.
She asked for my order. At least, that is what it sounded like she did. "Whoa, Janice, you guys didn't advertise Shakespeare night on the announcement board up front." Dewey's was my favorite bar. I came here all the time and even got occasional breaks on the drink prices. Janice and Mark knew me well. It wasn't like a town of a little over 800 people gave you any new faces. I wished Union Pacific had not parked me in Moorcroft, but there was little to do but try and work up seniority to move down to Platte or something. Until then I was kind of stuck.
It was kind of curious to see a new face that was so strange to look at. I-90 could toss some real oddities our way, but this woman was so out there and yet so beautiful. Her torso and arms looked like they would either bend backwards or snap while her legs had an interesting amount of curve to them for her light frame. Her clothes looked like all raw leather. Dewey seemed to be going for some kind of odd sex theme with his new help or he had taken a visual liking to her. Hell, the way she took my order almost caused me to pop a woody. My jeans saved me from that though. There was no denying she would be a sight to behold in a bikini at Keyhole Reservoir.
"What do you ladies have today in the way of ales and beer? It was ugly today and I'd like something light but not watery." I was still in my jeans, but I had peeled off my hot steel toed boots and replaced them with my moccasins. A few Native Americans ran a shop I got them from and they felt good on hot feet. My reflective shirt was replaced by a blue cotton T-shirt. It was tight, but it was Friday night and you never knew what woman might blow in off the freeway. My jeans weren't too messed up so I just wore them on in. A nice light beer would cool me down just fine.
"My name is Jas...JP, by the way. I haven't seen you here before. What's your name?" Her nose was sharp yet petite. She was hot alright. It would be nice to know her name if she made it here. I was going to have to find out what brought her to Moorcroft and if she was single or not. There was something about her almost magical.
She asked for my order. At least, that is what it sounded like she did. "Whoa, Janice, you guys didn't advertise Shakespeare night on the announcement board up front." Dewey's was my favorite bar. I came here all the time and even got occasional breaks on the drink prices. Janice and Mark knew me well. It wasn't like a town of a little over 800 people gave you any new faces. I wished Union Pacific had not parked me in Moorcroft, but there was little to do but try and work up seniority to move down to Platte or something. Until then I was kind of stuck.
It was kind of curious to see a new face that was so strange to look at. I-90 could toss some real oddities our way, but this woman was so out there and yet so beautiful. Her torso and arms looked like they would either bend backwards or snap while her legs had an interesting amount of curve to them for her light frame. Her clothes looked like all raw leather. Dewey seemed to be going for some kind of odd sex theme with his new help or he had taken a visual liking to her. Hell, the way she took my order almost caused me to pop a woody. My jeans saved me from that though. There was no denying she would be a sight to behold in a bikini at Keyhole Reservoir.
"What do you ladies have today in the way of ales and beer? It was ugly today and I'd like something light but not watery." I was still in my jeans, but I had peeled off my hot steel toed boots and replaced them with my moccasins. A few Native Americans ran a shop I got them from and they felt good on hot feet. My reflective shirt was replaced by a blue cotton T-shirt. It was tight, but it was Friday night and you never knew what woman might blow in off the freeway. My jeans weren't too messed up so I just wore them on in. A nice light beer would cool me down just fine.
"My name is Jas...JP, by the way. I haven't seen you here before. What's your name?" Her nose was sharp yet petite. She was hot alright. It would be nice to know her name if she made it here. I was going to have to find out what brought her to Moorcroft and if she was single or not. There was something about her almost magical.
My gaze drops again. I want to just flee, but am too
stubborn for my own good most times. I will work on sorting out my glaring
differences as I can, for now I will bull through as I have always done with
difficult challenges. I can hear Janice make an odd laughing sound, before she
can speak though, I raise my hand to hold her off. “We have Duval, Saison, Celis White, Bud
Lite, and Miller Lite.” My gaze has returned to his as I spoke. I can feel
Janice staring at me again. I had rattled off the names of drinks as if I had
been doing it for some time now. Another thing I will have to tone down. It
seems a good memory is an oddity as well.
“My name is…” I pause as I have to remind myself that my actual name is far too unusual for here. “…Ciara Adare. Tis a pleasure to meet you, JP.” I study him as I wait for him to order. I note the shoes on his feet, and feel slightly less bad about my own clothes. I note color to his clothes, and now understand my natural tanned clothing is also odd. I will have to find the ingredients for dyes in future clothes I make. Perhaps things to decorate them as well? I do not yet know.
His brown eyes are rich in color, like fresh turned earth, but they hold a restlessness within that is very unlike the earth. His hair is dark brown as well, and slightly short. It has surprised me that the males of this place have mostly short hair. He has a rough looking face fur on his jaws and that too is odd to me. Many times I have been tempted to reach out and feel this fur to see if it is as rough as it looks. But once more I refrain. I am already considered odd enough. Were he one of my people, he wouldn’t exactly be considered beautiful, but for one of his people, it is clear he is. My gaze settles back on his eyes.
I cringe at bud light and miller light. Apparently poor Ciara didn't know what watered down was. Maybe she just didn't like me. "What in the world brings you to Moorcroft, Ciara? Shouldn't you be in college or something?" I should have paid more attention in college. Maybe I could have avoided Moorcroft entirely. "I already know Janice is here stalking me, but you don't seem like the kind to stalk me." It was fun teasing Janice. She had enough brass to throw it right back at you. I even shared rail jokes with her. Dewey was slipping though and Ciara didn't need to mess with that kind of thing. "Janice, when is Dewey going to get some nice summer beer in here? We need a microbrewery." Janice would give me hell for that one too, but it was all in good fun until I got a beer dumped in my lap.
I figured I better order before I got myself into real trouble. "Duval, please." The beer was badly needed anyway. A nice cool swim in Keyhole would go a long ways were it not for my tired limbs. The beer was going to do just fine and Ciara wasn't half bad to look at. The leather was kind of alluring in many ways. She just didn't fit here though. She was someone you'd expect near a college campus at a strip club or Hooter's or something. Maybe Dewey conned one of his nieces to spice up business, but it wasn't like the crowd in Moorcroft was going to change in a quick hurry. Sure, he would get one or two nights of the two other bars in town showing up, but that would more likely cause a ruckus from the mixed crowd and then the novelty would wear off sending things back to the status quo.
It would be interesting to know where Ciara lived or even hung out. There was something refreshing about her and I could not deny she was an interesting prospect. Sure, I was thinking like a dog, but if you didn't, some other dog would move in and take what you were looking at and not bat an eyelash. Maybe I was a bit on the old side for her, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
I see his cringe and wonder what I have now done wrong. With a sigh and a nod, I turn and walk away. I do not remember to answer his questions in my preoccupation with how to fix the things I do so wrong. When I get to the bar I tell Mark I need a Duval. He looks me over as he pours the drink. “You know I meant nothing by earlier, girl. I was only teasing.” I just nod, accepting him as he is. Then it dawns on me that I never answered JP’s questions. My eyes close as I drop my head in mortification. I do not think I will keep this job long now either. I am horrible.
Before Janice could reply to JP’s quip, she notes Ciara walking off. She stares after her with a perplexed look. “That one is very odd, JP. Dewey doesn’t even know where she comes from. You know how people blow through here, but she was very desperate for a job, and I think Dewey took pity. She may last in spite of herself. I have this feeling he’ll find somewhere for her to fit.”
Mark hands me the Duval on a tray like Janice’s. I gingerly pick it up and walk awkwardly with it in both hands in front of me. I recall Janice carrying it with one hand, but I do not feel the least bit confident I can yet pull that off, even with my agility. I see Janice talking to JP, but they have stopped by the time I return. I set the tray down on the table since I cannot remove the drink easily otherwise. Then I grab the drink and set it carefully in front of JP.
“I am not in this college you speak of, no. Is it a good place to be?” I hesitate to say anything about why I am here. In fact, I ignore the question entirely. It wouldn’t do well for my well-being for these people to know the truth I feel. Also, since I do not know these people, I do not trust them. Our legends have always put them in a really bad light. I have decided with my banishment to see how close to truth they really are. So far, I am not impressed with our legends.
I pick the tray up and hold it in front of me with my arms folded over it. Briefly I look to Janice, who is once more giving me the Odd Look. I have erred once more. Pity the job required me to speak. I’d probably stand out less if I didn’t have to talk. A sigh escapes me and I shake my head, dislodging the what ifs.
Janice overestimated the challenge of running a bar really. You just needed people who didn't get sauced on the product and started doing a lousy job running the tabs and exchanging the money. Ciara seemed to have the drink list down pat and with her looks was probably going to get good tips anyway. "She'll be fine, Janice. No worries."
It was funny seeing my beer show up on a tray. Ciara was definitely a formal one. "Thanks, Ciara. College beats this place up and down. The boys are younger and probably going to be richer and you can do something more interesting than move alcohol, dig dirt, or help them move it down the track. I'm surprised your parents never told you about college. You've been home schooled up in the mountains I take it?" She had to be the best looking woman I knew that had no idea about college. Maybe her father or uncle kept her locked up in the mountains and she finally escaped. It gave me the shivers to think what her childhood must have been like.
Of course my childhood had not been exactly peaches and cream. Not sure how many men beat the crap out of my mother. Hell, Gerald stuck a knife in her a few times and ended her child bearing prematurely when I was still in diapers. Wasn't sure where that monster was living these days but I'm sure he was making someone's life hell. At any rate, it left me guaranteed to be an only child rather than an oldest brother of several, but it didn't keep the parade of losers from visiting our home and ruining my mother's life. I remember kicking the living hell out of Otis when I was seventeen. It was too bad they invented dentures, but he decided my mother wasn't the woman for him after that.
Ciara had that sexy empty tray hold. "She's doing fine, Janice. Give the girl a break. Besides, guys think that's cute. You should try it more." I smiled at the women. Janice was funny and the girl obviously wanted to do well. A desire to do well made a quick learner. Maybe Janice was worried Ciara might replace her one day. Somehow I didn't think that was going to happen though. I took a sip of my beer and let the stuff cool me down. You never knew who might blow in on a Friday night.
A sour look crosses my face at the word money. I shrug slightly. “Money is not everything. Neither is a potential mate you have no interest in in the first place.” I look away at that point, my thoughts having gone back to my former life. Janice touches me, bringing me back with a start. “Come, sweetie, we must work.” I nod and walk off with her. I look back over my shoulder at JP. “Have a good night… JP.”
Janice takes me around and the place starts to fill up. It becomes very busy and a tad confusing. We are back and forth many times. I am still not overly comfortable with holding the tray in one hand, though Janice encourages me constantly to do so. A couple hours later a lull comes into the business, and I have a tray full of drinks I am trying to deliver. One of them is JP’s. Finally, Janice has convinced me to hold the tray with one hand.
As I approach JP’s table with the tray with four drinks, I loose the balance of the tray and it tilts dangerously. I try to move quickly to catch it, but fail horribly. He is doused in the drinks and I stand there absolutely mortified, too stunned to move or think. I am fired, I know this deep in my soul.
Poor Ciara was going to find out Moorcroft not only did not have potential mates or money and that life without either wasn't very exciting. I had been living on my own for four years since college and not much had happened in my life at all. There was the local crowd that already had everything sorted out among themselves and then there were drifters like me that came through from work and left as well having only advanced in age.
"I'll be hanging out awhile. Have fun yourself, Ciara." Usually I drank a good bit on Friday nights. The weekend was off for me as long as no emergency calls came in and I was free to get plastered. I took my time with the beers though and watched the baseball games on the TV. My beer consumption rate was a slow beer every thirty minutes. Ciara was finally learning her balancing act with a single hand on the tray. After the rush it looked like she was getting brave and doing a multiple order delivery. My fifth beer was on that tray so my eyes watched her weave around the tables my way. Samuel had joined me and was shooting the bull with me. He had a Bud Light coming as well. "Looks like our beers are inbound, Sam."
My eyes were checking out Ciara's leather as she approached. Her body was simply too tempting to look at. Her body suddenly jumped to my surprise when she approached me and my eyes darted up to her face. She had lost control of the tray and the image that hit me was one of Ciara's shocked face staring at an empty tray facing my face. Cold wetness was rapidly soaking into my lap. My hands shot out and away as my face turned down to my lap. The two bottles were busy discharging themselves on the floor and my hands whipped down to grab them by the necks and set them on the table. Certainly there would be a little alcohol left to salvage in them. Whoever ordered the drafts were out of luck unless they wanted to suck them out of my jeans. Personally, Ciara was the only one I would want doing anything like that anyway.
My hands retrieved the empty mugs from my lap and set them on the table with the half full bottles of beer. "No worries, Ciara. Nothing broke and these are track clothes anyway. You can come to my house and run my laundry tonight and we'll call it even." Sam was laughing at me. "Damn, JP, can't you use the bathroom for a change instead of pissing your pants?" I handed the two empty mugs up to Ciara and gave Sam a smirk. "Very funny, Sam." There was a little excitement on Friday night after all; it was just at my expense this time.
His voice brings me out of my shocked state. I look up at his face and blink furiously. I feel stupid and frustrated, and when I get like that tears tend to fall. Something I hate even more so. I shake my head a bit at JP. “I am so sorry… I… laundry?” I feel Janice come up behind me at that moment.
“Dewey wants you.” She gives me a slight nudge towards the bar, and I obediently turn and walk to the bar. My shoulders are slumped and I am still blinking to fight the tears that want to spill. Useless things. I hear Janice as I walk away. “JP, you poor dear. You okay?” she is clucking and making a fuss, and I am assuming she is cleaning up my mess.
I approach Dewey and look up at him. I have my eyes mostly under control at this point. I wait for him to speak. I dread it, but understand, he will fire me and send me out. He stares at me, as does everyone in the tavern, er, bar. I am wishing that the earth would just open beneath my feet and swallow me whole. Finally Dewey speaks. “Come with me.” He leads me to the back where his office is and closes the door after I enter.
I jump in and speak before he can. “I will go, no fuss. I have messed up badly. I am sorry. Sorry I have wasted your time as well.” He doesn’t say anything at first and motions me to sit in one of the chairs in the room. He takes the other after I do, and stares at me some more. I start to grow uncomfortable and am starting to wonder why he’s so silent. I have been staring at my lap waiting, and finally can’t take it anymore and peek up at him.
He is… laughing? It looked that way. He body was shaking and he was almost red in the face holding back the laughter. Finally he releases it in great gales. I stare at him wide eyed. This was not the reaction I had expected. Finally he settles down enough to speak. “Ciara, I’m not firing you. Accidents happen; fortunately it was JP that particular accident happened too. He’s fairly level headed, even when he drinks. Janice has told me how well you have been doing. In all actuality I’m glad to see you screw up. It shows you’re actually human, not some perfect automaton as you’ve been displaying.”
I jerk slightly at being called human, but frown at him as the rest of his words sink in. “I am not supposed to learn everything flawlessly?” I am so confused. I want to do my best as I usually do with any task, I do not understand being imperfect is acceptable. Do not humans strive to do their best? I sigh trying to sort out everything. It seems our legends and knowledge is sorely inadequate.
Dewey stares at me for a moment, humor gone and confusion on his face as well. “No… You are not a machine Ciara, and you need to relax and quite trying so hard. No one expects you to do everything perfectly your first night.” He sighs and looks me over. “You’re a refreshing change, but so odd.” He shakes his head. “Now, I want you to arrive two hours early every day. We’ll practice you carrying a tray until, you are comfortable with it, and there’s no one around to dump drinks on. Ok?”
I nod in acceptance. I am confused with being compared to a machine, and hurt at the odd comment. I do not understand the one, and will work on the second and hopefully become less odd. “Good. Now why don’t we call it a night. Go home and get some rest, hmm.” I nod again and rise to leave. I stop at the door and pause.
“Sir, would it be possible for me to take a tray with me to practice with as well?”
Dewey looks up at me a bit startled. He stares at me a moment thoughtfully, then slowly nods. “Ask Mark to find you one of our old ones.” I nod and exit finally.
I approach the bar, eyes are on me again. Mark looks me over. “You ok?”
“Yes. Dewey told me to ask you to find me an old tray to take and practice with.”
He raises his eyebrows but turns and hunts around behind the bar. Finally he returns with an old battered and stained tray. “Here you go. See you tomorrow?”
“Thank you.” I nod as I hold the tray against my belly with my arms folded over it and head for the door. My eyes are on the floor and my thoughts have already turned to trying to practice holding a tray proper and what I’ll use to help me in this endeavor.
Janice ran over and rescued Ciara from the embarrassment. It wasn't the first drinks to get spilled at Dewey's and they would not be the last unless someone burned down the place. "Everything is fine, Janice. I don't melt with beer. I would have been wetter than this earlier if I did. How about getting me my tab so I can get home and into some dry clothes? I think Sam got his show for the night anyway."
I flashed Sam some wide eyes while he laughed at my demise. "I think the new girl likes me, Sam. If you were cuter than me you would have been wearing the beer instead." Sam waved me off. "Whatever, man, you don't stand a chance with a good looking lady like that. Hell, Janice wouldn't even take your scruffy butt home, especially not soaked like that." I rolled my eyes.
Janice brought the bill. I was sure to put on a full tip. A little accident didn't turn me into a cheapskate. Anyway, I would be back and it was better to be the help's friend than their irate problem customer, especially when it came to ordering food. "Thanks, Janice. Tell Ciara everything is cool. You would have thought she put a live hand grenade in my lap by the look on her face."
I paid in cash so I wouldn't have to wait for the credit card to come back. One of the great things of being single is you knew where you blew all your money anyway and didn't need paper to keep up with it. "You working tomorrow, Janice? Maybe I'll see you then." It was time for goodbyes with Sam as well. "Well, Sam, don't have too much fun without me." Sam grinned. "Alright, take care and see a doctor about that incontinence problem." I rolled my eyes and headed out the door.
As I walked to my truck and got ready to get in, Ciara came out the front door with a tray. It was kind of odd to see her knocking off already. No way had Dewey fired her over that. Hopefully she didn't quit. I walked up to her to investigate the situation and make sure she understood everything was cool. In the back of my mind I kept telling myself there were no ulterior motives, but that was just me trying to lie to myself.
"Hey, Ciara, you know everything is fine. It was just an accident. You didn't quit over that little thing did you? Janice has dumped more beer on me than I can count." It was a lie, but Ciara seemed rattled and there was no reason to let her run around upset at something so minor.
“Yes, JP, I work tomorrow. When don’t I work?” Janice grins slightly at him. After returning with JP’s tab she nods at his request. “I will JP, don’t worry.” She turns to Sam. “I would too take JP’s scruffy butt home. It’s yours I wouldn’t take.” And with that she walks off to get back to work.
I am startled from my thoughts by a voice. At first it does not register as familiar and I am instantly in a fighting crouch with the tray held like some sort of weapon. My body is turned sideways from the speaker to make myself less of a target, left foot slightly back and my weight is evenly balanced on both feet to come up in any direction with a simple shift of my body. The tray is held at an angle to throw or hit, depending on the moves the speaker takes. My fighting instructor would have been proud.
It finally registers that I recognize the voice about the same time I really look at the speaker. I blink and quickly stand upright. I know my face is turning red now, but hopefully with the dark it is not so noticeable. My gaze drops to the ground as I once more cradle the tray close to my body. Finally the words JP had spoken filtered into my mind and I shook my head. “No, I did not quit.” I pause briefly and my voice drops a bit lower. “I need this job, I cannot quit.”
I sense the lie told about Janice, and while it is kind of him to try to make me feel better, I am unsettled that he told it so effortlessly. Of course, if I could have ever brought myself to lie so easily, I would probably still be at home, instead of here. I take a small step back from him and look up at him from the corner of my eye. I am uncertain what to do now.
A thought comes to me and my head comes up. I start to speak, but then prudence grabs me by the short hairs and my mouth snaps closed as I take another step back and drop my gaze again. I am already considered odd; better not compound the issue by the question of what laundry is. I search for a way to politely escape. After all he seems to be a returning customer to Dewey’s and I don’t want to add chasing off the guests to my already growing list of mistakes.
Still looking at the ground, I finally speak. “Thank you for not being mad. I should go though, Dewey has told me to go home and rest.” I started to slowly work my way around him since he stands between me and my way home. I am sure to stay facing him though as I move. “I am sorry again for the spill. Be safe.”
I'm surprised to see Ciara go into some kind of fighting stance. It's sexy, but a bit bothersome too. Maybe they had not been kind to her at all in those mountains. Her blush and down turned eyes seemed like a bit of a turn on, but her steady steps away from me spoke more of fear. She must have took me for a potential rapist.
Her retreat was very obviously guarded. "The spill is nothing. You stay safe, too." There was no need to spook the woman any worse than she was. I walked over to my truck. Ciara didn't seem to be walking towards any cars though. She looked like she was going to walk down the street. "You going to be okay, Ciara? You need a ride?" She was probably safe in Moorcroft, but there was always the occasional good ol' boy looking for trouble. I wasn't sure how deadly the serving tray might be.
The evening air cooled my beer soaked lap. It smelled good to me, but the eye candy was going home for the evening. I figured I could turn in early, get some rest and maybe head up to Keyhole for some swimming and hiking. It was the best course of action for a day off in this sleepy town.
I still for a moment at his stay safe comment. Not something usually heard on this side of the Veil. I smile slightly at him and nod. I turn and walk off. Almost to the street and I hear JP’s voice again. I stop and turn towards him. I raise my voice slightly. “I am well, JP. Thank you.” I turn and head down the street at a quick pace headed for the larger of the two overly green meadows they have here. Beyond that are twin metal lines and then on to the river, I will be at my encampment in an hour’s time.
It is not overly late in this town, but traffic is light as the residents are either home, or off seeking entertainment. The walk is peaceful and I enjoy the night air. I am worried though for I can scent the ending of summer and that autumn is not all that far off as seasons go. Soon it will be too cold for me to live out of doors. If I cannot find some way to obtain shelter soon, I may very well freeze to death. Briefly I wonder if anyone would truly care. My Mother certainly would not. Neither would any of my power hungry siblings. I give a soft sigh as I continue on.
I got in my truck and drove home. Getting home, I shed the beer soaked clothes into the washer and decided to take a shower before running the laundry. After washing off, I got the laundry cranked. I always ran it on cold and just threw everything in together. My briefs were all colored anyway so white dingy was never a problem. As the laundry ran, I grabbed a beer out the fridge and sat down naked on the couch. It was funny how a small house could feel so big when you lived alone. I had one whole room I wasn't even using.
I flipped on the TV. A bunch of shows were on I never really got to see since this was not my normal Friday night time. Some nature show was on, so I let that run while I finished off my beer and waited for the laundry to finish. Keyhole was definitely the plan tomorrow after seeing the nature show. The laundry machine buzzed so I turned off the TV, leaving the empty beer bottle on the coffee table in my living room. I tossed in a fabric softening sheet into the drier and moved the wet clothes to the drier. After the drying was running, it was a matter of crawling into bed and falling asleep quickly under the relaxing influence of alcohol.
The morning light through the bedroom window woke me up. Hopefully Ciara was feeling better and home safe. I got up to fold my clothes and put them away. From there, I made some scrambled eggs, ate them in the kitchen and put on my blue swim briefs, some jean shorts, and a white T-shirt. I grabbed some bottles of water to refill my cooler and headed to Keyhole in my truck. It was another sunny day and a good swim and hike would be nice.
As I arrive at my encampment, I drop the tray near the fire pit. My next order of business is to check the traps and snares I set up this morning. Now that I have a job, I will not be able to hunt on a regular basis. I will have to reserve big game hunting for what days I do not have to work. I also need to start thinking about getting in enough stores for the winter. I find a rabbit and a quail in my traps and snares tonight. It is enough for now. I quickly kill the quail, the rabbit is already dead. I take both back to my encampment and drop them near the fire pit as well. I am quick to get a small fire going. I skin the rabbit while I wait for some nice hot coals.
Soon I have the rabbit on a spit, and the quail roasting in a mud shell. I set to work scrapping the hide of the rabbit. I will tan it later and use it for winter clothes along with the other skins I have saved up. After an hour, everything is cooked. The rabbit is stored away for breakfast in the morning while I wait for the quail to cool some before cracking it open. I dig out some tubers I have stored and lightly roast them as well as I wait a few more minutes on the quail.
Once I am done, I take my discard and leave my encampment. I go several feet down stream and leave what is left for any scavengers that might be interested. Then I head back and finish storing everything away. Up in trees has always been safest from most animals, and I even sleep there myself. I settle in for the night and look up at the stars and thinking about my first night at Dewey’s. My thoughts drift to JP just before I fall asleep. He was so kind over the spill, it was nice. I fall asleep to eyes the color of the earth.
Morning comes and I am up with the sun. I am soon down with rabbit and tray in hand. I have decided stones might work for practice. Heavy stones. I take time to break my fast first. Then I go and check my traps once more. The morning yields a raccoon and a fox. Both are still alive, and I quickly let them go. Neither is all that palatable to me. I reset and then head to the river to find stones for me to use. Soon I am back to my encampment and trying to practice balancing the tray one handed with stones large and small scattered across its surface.
I spend the morning this way, by the end of it, my skill is improving, but I still have troubles. As I am ready to call it quits for the day, it spills once more and a rather large stone lands on my left foot. I yelp in pain and hop around for a minute. Gingerly, I set my foot back down and yelp again. I sit, hard, and look over my foot. I wince as I feel it. I am afraid it might be broken. I try to heal it, but the Magick is weak on this side of the Veil. The pain is lessened, but it is not healed. I sigh in disgust. But now I do know it is broken. Oh, well there is no hope for it.
I get up and hobble around carefully. I put the tray away and grab a bag I have with healing plants I have found around here. Quickly I make a paste and apply it to the top of my foot. It should help keep the swelling down and might help aid in healing it quicker. Using scraps left over from making my clothes, I quickly wrap my foot and put my shoe back on. Putting everything away, I head into Dewey’s now. I will be slow on the walk now with my injury, but there’s no help for it.
I arrive just in time for my tutorial on tray carrying. As I limp in, Dewey looks up. “What happened to you?”
I am embarrassed. “I dropped a rock on my foot.”
He gives me the Odd Look I am starting to grow accustom to. “You ok?”
“I am well, thank you.”
“I didn’t ask how you felt, I asked if you are ok.” I give him a confused look. I do not understand. Seeing this, he gives a sigh and speaks to me as if I am a child. “Is your foot ok? How bad is it?”
I blink and want to take offense, but just cannot. In truth I am like a child all over again. “It is broken, but I will manage.”
Dewey blinks and shakes his head, and I hear a whistle from in back as Mark and Janice walk out. “Ciara, you can’t work with a broken foot.”
I lift my chin and know my most stubborn look crosses my face. “I can, and I will.” All three look at me oddly once more.
Mark finally shrugs. “The girl’s got spunk, gotta give her that.”
Dewey sighs. “Very well, then, start practicing, but if it gets worse, you are to stop immediately. Understood?”
I nod my understanding. I am not about to tell him it already hurts worse than it did after my healing attempt. The walk in was not good for it evidently. The pain was ebbing as I had just chewed some willow before coming in. I would be fine.
Janice and Mark set me up with a tray and mugs full of water to practice with. I am better, hurt foot aside, and even manage to not spill anything in the two hours of practice. I set the tray down and squeeze my eyes shut. My foot had just flared up in sharp pain. Both Mark and Janice look at me with concern, but I pull out some willow and chew on it. Mark looks at it sharply. “What is that? Drugs are forbidden. Didn’t Dewey tell you that?”
I nod. “It is willow bark. I… do not do drugs?” I do not know what drugs are, and my logic says if I do not know, then I must not do them. Mark just nods and accepts my answer. People are starting to enter the bar. I move away and get ready to work. I look for faces from last night as people enter.
I spent more than a half day at Keyhole. It was relaxing to feel the cool water and the shade of the trees. The sun wasn't bad at all when hot rock and metal wasn't adding its heat to the mix of the day. After enjoying the exercise and good weather, it was time to head back. I showered got into my jeans and moccasins and headed over to Dewey's to see the same old same old and have a few more beers. Hunger hit me before I made it to the door though. A few sandwiches solved that problem with a nice glass of milk. I gave the dishes a cleaning and put them away and even remembered to toss the beer bottle in the trash from last night. Satisfied the house was in order, it was time for the drive to town.
The sun was still up when I got to Dewey's, but there was bound to be someone to talk to inside. I parked my truck and went in to see the scene.
When the front doors parted my eyes scanned the scene. Ciara was back but it looked like she was limping. "Damned, Mark, you beating the help now?" My frown turned to Janice. "Why is Ciara limping around?" This was an aggravating situation to see. I knew Ciara said she needed the job, but to be working as a waitress with a hurt leg or foot was madness. She didn't even have a car.
I look up as I hear the voice that is becoming more and more familiar each time I hear it. I frown at his comment to Mark. “Nah, JP, I have this strange feeling she’d hand me my ass if I even thought of making such an attempt.” I look sharply over at Mark. Did he see my instinctive reaction to JP last night? I look away frowning slightly in thought. I suppose it is possible, or maybe someone else saw and said something. I was going to have to be more careful.
Before Janice can answer JP though, I do so for myself. “I may be uncertain to many things, but I am quite capable of answering for myself.” I know I have gone into Royal mode, and try to ease out of it, but it irked me that he asked Janice as if she was my Mother, or Keeper, instead of just asking me. “I broke my foot today. Not anything to get excited about. I am well.”
I turn away and move behind the bar to a trash receptacle and spit out the chewed bit of willow. My mouth is a bit numb, but the pain dulling properties of the willow have entered my system a fresh and the pain is ebbing once more. As I come out from behind the counter, I limp a bit less. I will survive the broken foot, even if it kills me. As my Instructor taught me, ignore pain if you can, if you cannot, then use it as a goad to get you through.
I looked at Ciara. She was crazy. "Yeah, well, if you were so wise you'd know a broken foot bleeds internally and walking on it without a cast or splint damages the bone more until you get gangrene and lose it. I work for Union Pacific and we have enough safety training to minor in medicine. If you are walking around on a broken foot, you aren't well, you are heading for trouble. I have a foot splint back at my place from when I messed my foot up at the crossing. Maybe you should take a week off so you don't lose your foot. I can drive you by my place, get the splint on your foot and then drop you off at your place. This isn't elves and fairy tales. No one is going to wave their magic wand and make it better. It isn't Rocky either. You aren't going to be able to just bear and grin it without potentially crippling yourself. You might need a doctor already treating an injury like that so bad."
The new girl had issues. Maybe she was afraid of doctors because she did something bad or didn't have insurance. Whatever the reason, running around on a broken foot without a splint was asking for serous disability. My eyes gave her amber ones a tough stare. She was being flat silly.
I just stare at JP as he speaks. Most of what he says is beyond my understanding. I do flinch, strongly, at the mention of Elves and Faerie. Then I frown, how did magic wands come to be associated with my people? We do not use wands. Magick comes from tapping the force lines that abound and drawing into yourself to manipulate the way you wish to cause a desired result. Far as I knew, Faeries did the same, but then the legends of humans were way off, so maybe it was with the Faerie as well? Problem with this side of the Veil is that the force lines were extremely weak.
Something he said finally did sink in enough for me to comprehend, and I start shaking my head. “I cannot take a week off. I cannot.” If I do not get the money the human’s desire, how am I to find shelter for the winter? I look at JP desperately. “I have wrapped it, and have a paste applied to help it heal. Willow helps to keep the pain from being bad.”
Seeing his hard stare unrelenting though, the fight and stubbornness drains from me. I am upset and think I should just quit fighting the inevitable. I am neither fit for this side of the Veil nor my own side. I look to Dewey. “Thank you for giving me a chance. You were the only one who did.” I move and walk out of the bar. I look at no one, my confidence in myself to surmount anything I put my mind too, is now gone. I exit the bar and head across to the street, heading for my encampment.
Tears of frustration run down my face as I hobble along. Perhaps I could move on to another human town? But by the time my foot heals winter will be upon me. I will not survive the cold; I am too ill prepared for it on this side, and most of my things to survive such conditions are still on the other side. I just do not have the time to make what I need, especially now that I am hurt.
I know Mother had wanted me to suffer; she would be delighted if she knew just how much I suffered now. Especially since she waited until this time of year to banish me, and then denied me the things that were rightfully mine as I was sent across the Veil. The tears continue to flow, and I do not even have the strength of will to try and stop them. The only thing to keep me moving at this point until I can reach the safety of the wilds to find a place to die is the fact that I do not want someone to find me first and stop what should be done.
As I reach the road to take me back, pain bright white and hot sears up from my foot. My vision then goes to black and I feel myself falling, though I cannot stop myself. My mind disappears down into the darkness. I am no longer aware of the world around me. I briefly wonder if this is what death is like, before I loose all thoughts and the Glamour I had been maintaining.
Ciara wasn't being reasonable. "If it's hurting that means you need to rest it. Masking pain is basically breaking your body more. That's your body saying, 'Keep still, I need to heal.'" I watch Ciara try to quit her job. I try to reason with her as she marches out. "Look, I have some spare money. If you need a loan to get you through the week, I can spot you a loan. You just have to let your foot heal. You don't have to just give up."
I follow her out. She is completely ignoring me. Her tears break my heart. "Look, if you are going home at least let me give you a ride. This is silly to walk on your foot like this. Why is it so important to work without letting your foot heal? Would you at least tell me that?"
She is like talking to a wall. It's as if I'm not even right here walking along side of her. "Ciara. Ciara!" She leads us to a dirt road but then starts fading, probably from the pain. I catch her. My arms lift her underneath her thighs and behind her shoulders and I gather her into my chest. She's incredibly light.
I'm not sure whether to take her to the emergency room or to my house to splint her foot. Maybe she would come to and we could figure out what she wanted to do. I didn't want to take her to the emergency room and get her in more trouble if she was in trouble with the law. I didn't even have any identification on her. It strikes me she doesn't have a purse on her. What if she was an illegal alien? She would really hate me for dragging her into the emergency room then.
I decide to take her to my house. She might bash my brains in thinking I was no good, but at least she would be safe and I had a foot splint for her. Maybe she would talk about her problems for a change and there would be a way to work something out. One week of work shouldn't kill anyone. Ciara was missing something completely.
I claw my way back to consciousness and feel myself moving. It is a strange swaying motion that I quickly realize is someone carrying me. I feel my stomach go all fluttery and realize I am going to be sick. As the sensation grows, I groan in distress. I violently push against whoever is carrying me and twist my body. I land on the ground and my foot flairs up once more.
Stubbornly, I cling to consciousness as the contents in my stomach regurgitate. It would not do to fall face first into the mess and drown myself. There is not much that comes up, just a small bit of the rabbit I had for breakfast that my stomach had not finished absorbing and the fluids that reside there. Once done, I flop onto my back. I look up, but my vision is already tunneling and all I see are eyes the color of the earth that chase me back into the darkness.
I can't believe I dropped her. Not only that, she puked. I really needed to get her to the truck just to clean her mouth off for her. It was crazy she was thinking of working all night. I wonder how she broke her foot. Knowing my luck she broke it playing with that silly tray just because I got some beer on my jeans.
I scooped her back up again. "Come on, Ciara. Let's figure out how to put you back together again." It was kind of odd holding a woman I didn't even know and carrying her back to my truck. Something about her seemed to need protection though. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something really trustworthy about her. Maybe that's why Dewey gave her the job.
At my truck I open the door using my hand from the arm beneath her thighs. I lay her on her side and buckle her in. The napkin stash from the door glove compartment comes in handy once again to clean off her face. She seems situated, so I close the door and hop in the driver's side.
It was too funny how my night of kicking back and drinking was getting replaced by nursing the new girl back to health. In many ways it was a lot more constructive. This activity seemed a lot more constructive and giving. It was refreshing to give instead of survive. I would figure out what Ciara needed to get back on her feet and get her there. It was a worthy mission and beat the hell out of talking about the latest sport events at the bar.
I fired up the engine and started driving home. It was a twenty minute drive. I wondered when Ciara would come out of her unconscious state. I drove carefully. She was not in good shape and sudden turn or braking might tussle her up. Pulling up to my house, I killed the engine. I got out, opened the front door and went back to the passenger side.
Opening the passenger door and seeing Ciara there, it hit me how vulnerable she was at this point. If I had been a bad person, she would have been in big trouble. At least she was safe. Hopefully she would understand that before she panicked too much. I unbuckled her and carried her into the living room to lay her on the couch. My left foot closed the pickup door and front door behind me. I got a glass of water from the kitchen along with a wet washcloth. The foot brace was in my living room closet. I pulled that out as well and sat the items on the coffee table.
Sitting down next to Ciara on the couch, I took the washcloth with my right hand and started washing her face. It was a very beautiful face and I intended to keep it safe and beautiful. Once her face was clean, I would put her hurt foot in the brace and hope she woke up soon so we could get her home and safe without having to worry about her missing work for a week.
A new and strange motion brings me partially back to consciousness, but I cannot seem to break through the last veil of darkness. Only partially aware, I hear strange sounds and feel myself picked up and carried once more. I am placed on something soft, and then more sounds are heard. Just as I am sinking into the more helpful and healing sleep instead of oblivion, a cold wetness caresses my face and jerks me to full wakefulness.
My eyes fly open as I bolt upright, and nearly fall over. I do not know what I am on, but the side that is blocked throws me off balance and I nearly fall off the other side. I catch up awkwardly against something warm and hard, yet yielding. I look up and see JP’s face, and my nose flares as I fully catch his scent for the first time. He smelled of water, earth, the sun, and something else I had nothing to correlate too. I hesitantly look around and realize I am in some sort of dwelling, but not the bar. I look back at JP confused. “Where?” It is all I can think to ask, as my foot once more makes itself know, causing me to wince.
Her amber eyes popped open in a snap when I resumed washing her face. It shocked me. Her head flew up and something was odd about her ear. There is no time to digest that though, my hands move to keep Ciara from taking another tumble. She seems to be taking her bearing and I use the lull in her panic to gently guide her back into the couch by her shoulders.
"Shhhhh, lie back down and relax. You are at my house so I can splint that broken foot of yours. You've passed out from the pain and even threw up from shock. I have some water here we need you to drink. I'm just washing off your face so you don't get acid burn on it."
My left hand strokes her left cheek and I keep going to draw back her forest green hair. My eyes grow wide at the site of her ear. She isn't human or has the oddest birth defect I've ever seen.
"Ciara, I'm seeing amber eyes, forest green hair, and now pointed ears." My fingers trace over her ear. It feels very real. "Are you from another planet or something? Something tells me you are not human at all. I was thinking of getting you medical care, but I'm not so sure that's a good idea. Unless you have a social security number, I'm guessing you are not going to get a warm reception from police around here."
"You are safe here. I'm not going to hurt you. We just need to figure things out for you to make it without walking your foot literally off. How did Dewey say he was going to pay you anyway?" If anyone knew her identification it would be Dewey. I wondered what Dewey already knew. It could be dangerous for Ciara in the end if he knew too much.
I am easily pushed back into the softness. I listen to him explain and am starting to even relax. I do not know why, but I feel… safe? with him for some reason. As his hand caresses my face, my eyes actually even close, the touch of another had been denied me for so long, before my banishment. And after, well, it was better to keep my distance, least my secret is found out. I do not even notice as he moves to my hair, not until he speaks and the change in his voice registers.
My body has frozen completely. My secret is out; blast myself for that moment of weakness. My eyes fly open once more and dart to look at him, panic and the need to escape I am sure very vivid in them. In my panicked state, he was able to easily trace the delicate whorl of my ear. It makes me shiver, and that breaks my paralysis.
I jump upright again and scurry to the far end of the thing I sit on. My teeth clenched against the pain as I knock my foot around in my fear. My eyes dart frantically around trying to figure out a way to escape the box he has brought me too. I am feeling like a trapped animal again, and most of what JP had been saying after the whole description of me, had been lost in my fear and panic, but finally something clicks in my frightened mind. ‘You are safe here. I’m not going to hurt you.’
Though not as frantic now, I am far from relaxed. I look to him warily, uncertain if he speaks truth or not. As I slightly calm, I do not sense a lie, just concern and maybe confusion. I pull into myself, careful not to bang my foot more and stare at him. I am confused and uncertain in what to do. I had never thought to be in such a situation, and like being banished here, I am ill prepared to deal with it. “What will you do with me now?” I am scared to hear the answer, but I need to know.
Her panic is not what we need at this moment. Luckily she calms back down. "Well, first let's splint this foot. You are a terrible patient, you know that?" I take the brace off the coffee table and stand up. "Can you gently stretch your leg out so I can put this brace on properly?" It would be too forward to stretch her leg out for her. She still seems to think my motives are sexual and that's the last thing I need was her being spooked, running off, and hurting herself again.
"Ciara, it's going to really help if you tell me the truth of the situation. I mean, if you go back to Dewey's are they going to find out you aren't from the United States and try to export you? Are they going to think you are an alien from another planet and try to experiment on you? I need some help here. It's not about what I'm going to do with you. It's all about what you can do without getting into trouble. It might be a really good idea for you to stay at your house and let this heal up. Why you are so desperate for the job though makes me think you have money problems. Maybe I can pay some urgent bills for you or something until you have a way to work. Unless you have some identification or a birth certificate or something, that could go all wrong though. Let's start at the beginning maybe. When and where were you born?"
This was just too wild. Her eyes looked real though. The hair looked green for real. The ears looked real. It couldn't be a costume. Maybe it was just really weird traits. People evolved, right? She would have a birth certificate though, or would she? I needed to hear it from her. I could think up too much stuff from in bred types in the mountains to aliens dropping her off for not having a ticket fare.
I blink at him. His first words were not at all what I expected. A smile even tugs at the corners of my mouth. Me? A terrible patient? I had never had problems with myself before. Well, not until now, now that I live on this side of the Veil. I sigh. I do not stretch my leg out at first. Instead I work at removing the shoe with some difficulty. It seems my foot has swelled. I also remove the scrap wrapping and with much wincing and gritting of my teeth, wipe the herbal paste off my foot.
I look at it distantly, as a Healer. It is swollen alright, badly. It is also very black. I frown at it as I study it, turning my leg to one side then the other. My toes aren’t black surprisingly, and neither is the bottom of my foot. That’s a relief at least. I bit my lower lip and look at JP briefly, then close my eyes and search for a force line. There is one not far, and it is surprisingly stronger than the one near where I have been staying. I tap into it, and reach my hand out to hover over my foot. I feel it respond, but it is slow, and still far weaker than what I am used to.
After but a few heartbeats, I have to stop. I open my eyes and look. The swelling is down, and my foot is a dull purple instead of the dark black. I raise my eyes to JP. Quietly I speak. “No wand needed. But then it is not healed completely either.” I finally stretch my foot out for him. I watch him as I do so. I am still undecided on what to tell him. Half of the things he asks me I do not understand the meaning behind. I wait, tense. I have given him an opening. What will he do with it?
It was amazing to see her heal herself to a degree. "That's...incredible. How many times can you do that in a day?" I kneel down at her foot with the brace. Gently I place the plastic around the bottom of her foot and over her ankle. "You need a sock. I'll be right back." Quickly I retrieve a white tube sock from my room and come back out to Ciara. My hands roll up the sock so I can unroll it over her foot without having to pull it up her foot and leg. Lifting her calf with my left hand, my right hand unrolls the sock over her foot. When her skin is protected, I start fastening the straps snugly around her leg, ankle, and foot to immobilize the injury. "It's important to keep movement down on a broken bone for it to heal without the magic or whatever it is you just used. Serving drinks is not good for a break as you just saw with the blackness on your foot earlier." With her foot splinted up, it is time to get some water into Ciara.
I stood up and brought her the glass of water. "Drink that slowly, but drink all of it. If you want more, I'll get it for you. The pain of mistreating your break put you into shock. Your body needs water to even itself back out." It was funny, I was using human first aid techniques on someone I wasn't sure was human. This had to be the oddest situation I had ever been in.
"Would you please tell me when and where you were born. If you are going to work in the legal world, they like paperwork. If you don't like paperwork, we are going to have to figure something else out. I don't recommend dealing in drugs or sex though. Those are bad places to travel into." Even strippers needed social security numbers to work. The only sex trade she could earn money in without an identity could really create a world of hurt for her. The last thing I wanted was to see Ciara hurt worse than she already was.
A sad look crosses my face briefly at his question. “I used to be able to use Magick as often as I needed. I cannot anymore here. It is weak and slow. All I can do with the Glamour is make my ears look more like yours. So I am stuck with my unusual eyes and hair.” I watch him as he works on my foot. I do not know what a sock is, but I am soon shown as he finds one to put on my foot. My head tilts as I study it. “That is a sock?” It feels strange on my foot and leg. Gingerly I reach a hand out and touch it. It has a very odd texture, and I am not sure I like it.
My gaze returns to him as he stands, and I tense slightly. I relax though as he hands me the vessel of water. I slowly drink from the cup as he directed, watching him the whole time over the rim. My face once more holds a puzzled expression as he continues to talk. It does make drinking difficult and I lower the cup briefly. The water is already half gone.
I study him for a long moment. Thus far he has brought me no harm, and seems to be taking everything in stride. He has been kind and helpful. I am sure there was all manner of things he could have done to me while I was oblivious. He could have even left me where I fell. Finally, I drop my gaze to the cup in my hand. I speak softly. “I am ninety-seven turns of the seasons, born in the Season of New Green. I was born on the other side of the Veil.” My eyes rise slowly to look at him after I am done speaking.
Well, the best I could tell was she was ninety-seven and didn't have papers. "Um, yeah, you will want to call a turning of the seasons a year. Everyone is calling one orbit of the sun by the earth a year these days. So, I don't suppose you have a husband or boyfriend or something having been around for so long have you?" Maybe she had relatives. "I don't know what the veil is. I would guess the season of new green is when everything wakes up from the winter. We call that spring these days. You aren't going to have papers or even a birth certificate I'm guessing. Working at Dewey's could cause problems in the long run. If you want to change your hair and eyes to blend in more, there is hair dye and colored contacts which are colored glass lenses you put directly on your eyeball to float over your irises."
Ciara was one odd situation. It was like she was from some magical land that time forgot. Maybe she was an elf after all. Maybe beyond the veil was elf territory where you could hurt your foot and make it go away in the blink of an eye. What she was doing here was curious though. This place was dangerous for a lone person outside the law. What it was going to take to figure out what she was up to and how to get her there was going to be tricky.
"I guess it's important to know why you came here, where you are currently staying, and what the money problem you have is. Walking to your place is going to be a bad idea for a little while. Maybe I can bring you groceries and cover things for you for a while. It's looking bad to earn money legally though. Everyone is tracked by the government for taxes and you are not in the tax system. People are jerks if you don't play by their rules. They don't care how wrong or right the rules are either."
I look at him curiously. “Year?” Then I turn cold. “NO!” I blink at my own outburst. I drop my gaze, embarrassed. “I have no Mate.” I file away the word spring. I sigh though as he clearly has no clue about the Veil. And I do not understand the rest of his words, though I try, and do grasp that it was a good thing I had quit after all. My shoulders slump and I pull my foot in towards me. “Then I shall truly die on this side.” My voice is almost a whisper, my forehead drops to my knees.
Lost in my thoughts, I nearly miss his next questions and words. I am very still for a long, long time. Finally I raise my head enough that he can hear me speak. “I stay by the river, past the overly green meadow, and the twin lines of metal. I need your money to find shelter for the White Cold that will be here soon.” My head lifts and I look at JP. “I do not understand most of what you are telling me. There is no correlation in my home.”
I start blinking furiously as tears threaten to spill suddenly. I am upset, frustrated, confused, and hurt. But more importantly, I am really and truly scared now. I have no hope of surviving the White Cold. I am starting to wish JP had left me to my fate when I collapsed. My gaze drops again as I fight the tears that finally spill over to no avail.
I'm surprised at her lack of faith. "Look, Ciara, there are no houses..." My eyes pop wide. She must be camping down on the river. "Look, you can stay in my spare room for the winter...I mean white cold. Look we call the white cold winter. It's winter when the ice comes, spring when the life comes, summer when the heat comes, and fall when the trees go to sleep for the winter. My heater works and you are not going to die of the cold."
I couldn't handle the tears. My body leaned forward and I hugged her. "It's okay, I make plenty of money. We will figure something out. When your foot is better you can keep my house clean for me or something. Maybe we can find someone to make up a name and fake birth date and birth place for you. Then you can work and pay taxes and the government won't care because all they really like is money. Do you ever get to go back home? What happened at home that is so terrible, Ciara? Family don't treat family they love like this."
Something had gone terribly wrong in Ciara's life. I was just thankful I found her before someone bad did. She was going to be okay. I just needed her to understand that. It was no skin off my back to help someone out like this. Charity was better when you knew who you were helping anyway. Donating to causes just let corporate hounds run off with the bulk of the cash by either skimming it or spending it on their own products.
The hug is nice, and I miss it when he pulls away. “Winter, summer, spring, fall.” I repeat the words dutifully. At least I am learning some of their words. I shake my head at first. “I cannot…” I stop. Something tells me JP will not let me leave or allow me to decline to stay with him. I sigh in resigned acceptance. I am actually grateful for having met JP in truth. Somehow I do not think anyone else would be so accepting or helpful.
Again I am left confused by his words until he asks about home and family. I look away, wrestling with just what I should tell him. I finish unfolding, tucking my legs back off the edge of the object I sit on, my torso leaning against the blocked up side. I drink the rest of the water in the cup, and finally look back at JP. I hand him the cup. “May I have some more please?” I will tell him, but I wish for the water. It is a long tale I will be telling.
I take the cup back to the kitchen and get Ciara more water. I pull a coke from the fridge for myself. It looked like Ciara was finally going to take a load off her back. That was good. She needed to get that foot put back together. Coming back into the living room, I hand Ciara her water and settle down on the opposite end of the couch. I pop open the bottle and drink the first sip.
It's odd seeing a beautiful elf sitting with me on my couch. It certainly isn't hurting my eyes looking at her. My night was probably going to be a good one anyway. Ciara looked a lot better than Sam and drinking soda to talk was going to be a lot cheaper than beer at the bar. Ciara probably had some exciting things to tell me. It looked like she might be family for a while, at least through the winter.
I take a sip of the water. Stalling, I know, but this was difficult for me. “I am fifth born of seven younglings. And the last female of four. I have a twin brother, he was born first. We are the only set born to my Mother. Because of that we are to inherit the ruling of Kaelyr, the city-state of my birth. My actual name is Vyleis Mysolandryl. I grew up in the ruling house, and unlike my siblings, except my twin, I refused to be waited on hand and foot. I chose to learn how to do things for myself, took lessons in the ways of the warrior and the healer. None understood why we did this, and we really could not explain when asked. It just felt right. I can also cook, sew, tan, hunt, make dyes, and gather useful plants.”
I sip at the water again. And one hand trails down to the sock to rub my leg. It makes me itchy, and I decide I really do not like its feel against my skin. “My twin and I also chose to run around with the common children instead of the noble ones. This made us many friends. Though our Mother did not understand us, at first she turned a blind eye, having more important things to do. But lately, she had become disapproving and restrictive. I would not allow my nature to be caged nor would I lie about what I was doing when asked. For some reason, she has it in her head that we were trying to gain support to overthrow her. That is not the Elven way. She will rule until her death, along with my Uncle, her twin. When they finally pass, then we will take our place. But that will not happen now. I have been banished to this side of the Veil.”
I pause again, my look distant as I think. “Most who are banished travel to another city-state. I have chosen to stay in your world. By going to another Elven city, my Mother can still keep track of me, and cause me grief. Here she cannot. Here, I escape her influence and sudden hate. So no, JP, I will never get to return home. I must either learn to survive in your world, or die. I may die anyway. My twin was not banished with me. And usually Elven twins do not survive being separated.” I am silent, and exhausted. It was a relief to finally be able to tell someone my side of things. Not that it mattered on this side of the Veil, but still it was nice.
"Maybe your twin will come for you." It was odd. She was taking on a big challenge leaving her home. It looked like she might need that fake ID though. "If you get sick from separation of your twin, would there be a place I could take you to return? I mean, maybe your mother would come to her senses when she saw your brother getting sick from the separation. If that happened I could take you to the doorstep or something." Ciara seemed in a hell of a pickle.
"Look, you can just live in the spare bedroom in my place. You won't die of cold. It's not like I get a lot of girlfriends over anyway. Maybe I could talk to Red. He's an American whom I bought the moccasins from. If you want to try to make leather things to sell, I bet he would put them up for sale for a cut. I could pretend to be the tanner and deliver your money to you. Sewing doesn't make much money these days. Modern sewing machines have taken over. Hunting is kind of out. Most things are domesticated now. Maybe we could go by your camp tomorrow, pick up your stuff and move you into the spare bedroom. I have a roll away cot you can use for now and we can look into getting you a bed."
It was a little crazy moving an elf into the place. She needed to take care of that foot and didn't have any other help though. I could always talk to Dewey about having her back after her foot healed, but I would need to feel him out on using black market labor for the job. Maybe he already knew she was black market labor. I would have to see on that though.
I give JP a sad smile. “No, see therein lays the real punishment. Mother knew banishing us would not be a difficult punishment for either of us to endure. But separation is. If I sicken, just accept the inevitable, and if it is at all possible, take my carcass to the wildest place you can find and leave it. Preferably with no clothes, it just makes it more difficult for the animals to get to the meat.” There is not much more I can say. In Elven lands that is the way of it. I do not know though if maybe the rules become different in the lands of Man. I had to wait and see. Except for the broken foot, I am well thus far.
I frown slightly at JP. I did not exactly understand the girlfriend comment. “Girlfriend?” I think over what he says about my skills. It seems all but the tanning is useless on this side of the Veil. I sigh. And shake my head. “I only need your form of barter to have shelter. I do not need anything else from your world I cannot obtain myself from the…” I trail off and my eyes widen. It dawns on me that with my broken foot, and JP’s insistence I stay off it, and I have a feeling he will enforce that by any means he must. I cannot even fend for myself. Then I frown and shake my head at him. “I am hurt, thus I will not be able to get the things I need to make anything for your friend.” I watch him closely.
It was kind of somber hearing her last wishes. Hopefully things did not come to that. "Oh, girlfriend usually means a woman you have sex with. A guy would call a friend a friend, but if he has sex with her, he would call her his girlfriend. Women call their male sex partners boyfriends. Now if they get married and stay exclusive mates, the man is called a husband and the woman is called the wife."
Her worry over getting stuff was getting annoying. I sighed. "Look, your job is to stay off your foot until it heals. Rent is covered and you can eat off my groceries. Just get your foot better. When your foot is better we can talk what you might like to do. A roommate is not going to hit my budget that hard, okay? You'll save me a mint in no beer charges alone since I'll be taking care of you."
Evidently helping a neighbor was a foreign concept on the other side of the veil. I guess that was so much for elves being good.
I look at him. “That sounds… very complicated.” I am not sure I completely understood his explanation of Girlfriend. But I let it go. It is not important right now anyway, just my curiosity. I drop my head as he gets annoyed with me. “I am sorry. I…” I just sigh and drop that as well. There are things I have stored at my encampment that I can work on in the meantime. My foot should be healed with what little I can help it with Magick, before I run out of things to do as I sit on my hind.
I drink the water I still hold. As I finish I realize two things, I am very tired, and very hungry. As I realize this I yawn and my stomach makes itself known rather loudly. I become embarrassed at such a betrayal of my body. I know though that I have not eaten since the morning, and according to JP, I sicked some of that up. The two attempts to heal my foot have also drained me with the fight to bring the Magick forth. I hold the now empty vessel out to JP. I do not look at him, but I do apologize. “I am sorry. I do not mean or wish to be a burden.”
Ciara was still not getting the concept. I take the glass from her. "You are not a burden. I'm behind on my good deeds. Now what is it going to be? Chicken, beef, or tuna?" I get up and head to the kitchen. Before long I have broccoli boiling on the stove. I get out a frying pan to cook the meat.
"It's more important to get your foot better right now than anything. I can always get you some library books or something." She was able to read the alcohol list so I figured she knew how to read. "You seriously do not need to apologize. Everything is cool. You are the most excitement I've had in this town for years."
Hopefully, Ciara started settling into the role of having to heal a hurt foot soon. I didn't want to have to wave off a bunch of apologies for no infractions done.
I stare at JP for a brief moment, and then I completely and finally relax. Good deeds I understood. So now I understood why he was helping me, strange though I am, and an entirely different race as well. “I do not understand the question. Be what? And what is chicken, beef, and tuna?” I move about on the furniture I am upon until I can peer into the other room he has gone off to. I am precariously perched now to see what he is doing, but my balance is usually good, so I am not concerned.
I have been ignoring the itch in my foot and leg this whole time, but it suddenly comes to mind. I try to twist to rub at it again and loose my balance. I land with a loud thud and a whoosh of air escaping me. I had instinctively moved my foot in such a way that it was partially curled towards my body and thus hit nothing on the way down. I had also twisted myself to land on my back. I lay there staring up at the topside of his dwelling trying to get air back into my lungs.
"Well, it's a bird, a cow, and a fish." I see Ciara disappear off the end of the couch out of the corner of my eye and then hear a thump. "Good heavens, Ciara. You really need to watch out for your foot. I'm going to have to lie on top of you to keep you still." I move fast to where she landed. She's out of breath but not passed out. That was a good thing she wasn't passed out. It looked like the splint did its job of protecting her foot as well.
Kneeling down I put my hand on her stomach and massage it a bit to try to get her breathing again. "Talk to me Ceri, are you okay?" Her poor amber eyes looked tortured. Maybe I could get her to go to bed and get some sleep after she ate. She seemed a terrible nuisance to herself. I thought elves were supposed to be graceful. Elves seemed to be having troubles these days.
My eyes flick to JP as he hovers over me. His hand rubbing on my belly does the trick; my lungs finally remember how to breathe. After a few gulps of air, I speak. “Well, why did you not just say bird… Wait, what is a cow? I am well, my foot is another matter.” I reach to my foot and rub vigorously over the covered area that the sock lays upon. It is really starting to bother me, and I fear it will drive me mad. My arms have trapped his hand on my stomach, but I am unaware as I try to end the itching.
Finally I still and sigh in relief as it dissipates. My eyes close at the enjoyment of the peace, but it is short lived and my eyes snap open with a groan. I start rubbing again, more frantically. “I think your sock dislikes me.” Just as I feared, the itching is starting to drive me mad. My teeth clamp down and my jaw tightens as I fight the urge to just tear the whole blasted contraption off my foot.
Ciara traps my hand on her stomach as it moves with her breaths. It feels good and it feels intimate. Her questions dart by my mind as my body reacts physically to the touch of her stomach. She finally calms down and I take my hand back before more lust stacks in my brain.
She gets to scratching again. "Calm down, I'll take the sock off." I pull the straps loose and take the splint off quickly. My hands quickly remove the sock. "I'm worried the straps of the splint are going to bother you as well. Let me get a silk sock." I get up. My cock is pressing against my jeans but is mercifully held in check. Snatching up the sock I go back to my bedroom, replace the tube sock and pull out a black silk sock. I rush back.
"Okay, hopefully this silk one won't bother you." I roll up the sock and look down at Ciara. She really was beautiful. I smile without realizing it.
I sigh in pure relief once the sock is removed, my leg and foot already feeling much better. I inspect my foot while he leaves. I close my eyes and once more work Magick. His voice breaks my concentration, I had pushed myself beyond the limit the Magick wanted, and am really tired now. But one look at my foot makes it all worth it. It is no longer purple, but has that faded look a healing bruise will get, that green and yellow sickly look. The swelling is almost gone as well.
I look up as I realize he just stands there. I see his smile, and return it without thought. It is a smile I have not seen on him before. I like it, it reaches his eyes. My own orbs flutter shut as exhaustion slams into me. I pushed myself too far with that last use of Magick. Brown eyes the color of the earth, his eyes, chases me into my dreams as I finally succumb to much needed healing sleep.
Ciara fell asleep right there before me. It was kind of odd. I kneel down to put on the sock and noticed her foot was doing much better. Maybe she just needed rest. I walk back to the extra bedroom and put out the rolling bed, locking it in place. From there I return to the living room to pick up Ciara and take her to the bed. Her light frame feels nice in my arms. My mind fantasizes that I'm taking her back to my bed to share intimate feelings. My body carries her left instead of right though and I lay her gently on the bed and pull the sheet over her.
She will need food when she wakes up. She will have to end up with chicken. I put the plates together and wrap them both in plastic to put in the fridge. I finish my coke and start in on beers. The TV has some fun stuff on the science channel. My mind keeps thinking about taking Ciara up to Keyhole though. Three beers later sleep starts hitting me.
I feel myself picked up and carried, it does not bring me to full wakefulness though as I catch JP’s scent. Instead I curl into him and mumble something. I feel myself lain down upon something soft, and covered. I roll and sink deeper into sleep. It is needed to regain my strength to heal my foot more.
My sleep is peaceful, full of pleasant dreams. But then the nightmares come. They had not plagued me for many days now, and I had thought myself perhaps done with them. But it seems not as I start to toss and turn. I become entangled in the covering and as it tightens around me it adds to the nightmare. I am struggling now to free myself both in dream and in body. The nightmare reaches its peak and I scream. “Bai! Sheilaes!” I hear a tearing sound which is actually what wakes me, since it has no place in my nightmare.
I bolt to a sitting position. I am covered in perspiration and breathing as if I had run the whole of the city. I look around confused. This is not my room. Where am I? My mind is still partially caught in the nightmare and I do not recognize my surroundings. The cover still restricts me some, and I fight to get it off. It tears some more in the ordeal, but I finally get myself free. I look around for an escape.
I wake out of my slumber with a start. A woman is screaming and it sounds like it's in my house. My mind racks itself a quick moment and my eyes pop wide open. "Ciara!" I jump up and rush back to the extra room, throwing on the light. Ciara is fighting the sheet. "It's okay, Ciara, you are safe." I rush up to her and take her into my arms. "Shhh, it's okay. Shhhh. Everything is safe."
I wonder what kind of nightmare she is having and what it's about. Did elves dream of the future? Was it something from ninety-seven years of living? I hug her tight. "What's bugging you? What was that about?" She was going to need food. But she needed to get her bearings first. She wasn't going to be able to get up without hurting her foot until she got herself back under control.
"Do you think you are ready for some food? Maybe that will help you sleep better." Something was really stressing her out. Maybe she would share it over dinner. It was kind of funny we were both fully dressed, but we had both dozed off. It would make getting dinner out easy.
A male rushes into the room and grabs me up. At first I struggle against him, until his scent hits me. Then the soothing calm of his voice is next and I finally fully wake up. My body goes limp against him and a shakes a bit as the last wisps of the dream fade away. Clearly, I had had another nightmare. I hate the dratted things. I still remember the first time I had one after I had been banished. Fell right out of the tree I had been sleeping in. I had a headache all that day. I started loosely tying myself in at night just in case after that.
I take a breath, it is rather fluttery though. I feel safe being held, and am not eager to bring it to an end just yet as the terror of the dream still grips me. I hear JP’s questions though. “I am sorry.” My voice is muffled slightly with my head pressed up against his chest, but I refuse to move unless he pushes me away. “I have suffered Night Terrors… mmm, nightmares, since I crossed the Veil. I had not had them for several days and thought they had left. Otherwise I would have warned you.”
A shudder runs through my body. It is in response to something, but it is too elusive for me to grasp. “I never remember them upon waking. Just that they involve my twin and I am helpless and can only watch.” I hear the steady and rhythmic pounding of his heart, and it calms me more.
I am loath to leave the circle of JP’s arms, but have already figured out he will fuss until I agree to what he wants, thinking it is best. I am not hungry now, but nod my head anyway at his question of eating. Reluctantly, I pull away. I straighten up and look down at the mess that covers me partially. “I am sorry about your… cloth.” I work to extract myself the rest of the way.
Ciara feels nice in my arms. My hug seems to settle her and that is special to me. Her nightmares involve her twin and that worries me. Hopefully her dreams aren't prophetic. If something happens bad to her twin, it could kill her. That would be a terrible tragedy.
I feel the nod of her head against my shoulder at eating. Reluctantly I let her pull back as I stand up. "Don't worry about the blanket. I have more. You can have a fresh one to get back to sleep after you eat." The blanket is easy enough to remove from her. I offer my right hand to her to help her up and lead her to the kitchen. Her delicate hand feels comfortable in my own. Touching her feels good. My mind is over conscious of it, though. My cock presses against my jeans. I have to remind myself this isn't sexual. Ciara needs help and not a boyfriend. "Let's get you some food." She was hungry before she went to sleep and my guess was she was hungry now.
I led her to the kitchen and sat her at the dining table. It's a round wooden one with cushioned wood chairs. Pushing her up to the table after she sits is easy. Her delicate frame is so light. I head over to the fridge and give each plate a minute and half warm up in the microwave. "We have chicken and broccoli. The chicken is a meaty ground bird. The broccoli is boiled." As the microwave heats up the food, I take time to get forks, knives, and napkins and set them at our places. "What would you like to drink? I have water, milk, orange juice, coke, and beer." I retrieve the plates as they are done reheating. Ciara gets her plate first and then I set mine at my place next to her. I'll pour myself some milk and bring Ciara whichever she chooses.
My mind fantasizes again. It bothers me I think these things about Ciara. It's impossible to help though. I think how wonderful it would be if she rushed into my room in the middle of the night and snuggled with me to keep the nightmares away. She would slip under the covers with me and put her arm on my bare chest while pressing against my side. We would drift back off to sleep together and wake up to each other’s' faces. She doesn't know where the bathroom is yet. It's possible she won't know what one is. I'll have to show her after dinner.
He helps me untangle myself and offers me his hand. I take it without hesitation and rise. My foot twinges and I am careful with my weight on it. The silk sock feels far better than the other one that had been there before. He leads me to the cooking area, and this seems to be the place one eats as well. He helps me to sit as well, which was particularly sweet.
I watch him as he removes plates from a rectangular box and unwraps them. My head tilts as I see him put first one than the other into a smaller rectangular box. He then brings them over and sets them down. He brings cutlery and napkins as well. I shrug at his drink question. Except the beer and water, I’m not sure what those are. “I will have whatever you have.” He brings me a white liquid and I sniff at it. My head rears back and I study everything before me. It is an interesting mix of smells.
The green plant is one I am actually familiar with. I point at it and look at JP. “Broccoli?” I sound the word out, trying it on my tongue. I pick up the knife that at least I recognize and stab at one of the plants. I pop it in my mouth and start chewing. I stop and my eyes widen. I fight to not make a face. I go back to chewing and then swallow. It is rather bland on flavor.
I finally look over at JP and study how he is using the utensils and try to mimic him. It does not go well, and I give up and use my fingers. I take a bite and chew only to stop again. This time I am not so successful at controlling my facial expressions. I finish chewing and swallow that as well. I take a quick drink of the white liquid. I am surprised at how good that tastes, though a bit strange.
I look back at the food and give a soft sigh. It is bland in flavor, but it is nourishment. I eat anyway, after steeling myself to finish. While I eat I look around this room to take my mind off the food. I see no fire pit or hearth. In fact, I have not seen a place to build a fire anywhere. I wonder how he cooks. There are other strange things in the room that make no sense to me. I give up and finish my food instead.
I brought Ciara her milk and settled down with her. "Yes, broccoli. It's good stuff." My eyes watch her stab and pop it into her mouth. It was odd seeing someone try broccoli for the first time. Her wide eyes made me wonder what her impression was. Her reaction seemed to indicate it wasn't particularly good but not disgusting either. I wonder what she does for vegetables.
My eyes kept glancing her way. Part was curiosity at watching her eat and the other was to see her beautiful face. She is attractive to me and there is no denying it. It will just have to be my secret though. Sending her screaming into the woods would not do for her. Her use of fingers is sexy but she doesn't like the chicken. The tightness in my pants might have been embarrassing but the embarrassment of having served something she didn't much care for kept me in check. She at least seemed to enjoy the milk.
She is obviously taking in the site of my house. My windows have only white blinds. My walls don't have pictures. The dining table is only a round four seat table with us sitting next to each other. The two blue chairs and brown sofa in my living room don't match. The wood coffee table was even a different shade of brown than the chair legs. The flat screen TV seemed a bit modern for everything else, and the entertainment case was yet another shade of brown laminated press board.
"I'm sorry the food sucks. I guess you'll more than pay rent just cooking up something good for a change." It's rather amazing she choked down the dinner. I feel bad I actually enjoy it. I finish a bit quicker than she does and start collecting the plates.
She finishes finally and I ask her while taking her plates to the sink, "You ready to get back to bed? I'll show you where the bathroom is." Hopefully she wasn't going to freak out on how to use a bathroom. Out house users usually thought indoor plumbing was disgusting until the winter rolled around.
I look at JP startled. “I… Cook?” I look around the room again. “How? I see no hearth or fire pit?” While I do not mind the prospect of cooking, I see no way to do so. Not to mention, I would need to gather much more herbs than I currently have stored away in my encampment. I frown thoughtfully.
I am pulled from my thoughts by his question. I do not really wish to go back to sleep. The nightmare might come back, or some variant of it. I sigh though and nod acceptance. I need the sleep to help heal anyway. I just hope I can achieve it. Besides, I am curious as to what this bathroom is. I stand and wait for him to show me the way. I watch curiously as he finished cleaning the plates. The captured stream fascinates me. Maybe humans have their own form of Magick?
"Oh, the stove cooks things with heat. Fires are messy and inefficient." I point to the stove. "The four burners on top burn gas. An electric spark lights the gas and the pot over it heats up from the flame." My hand pulls open the oven door. "The oven lights up gas to heat up this for baking things in heat. There is flame here, it's just small, hot and efficient."
I finish off rinsing the dishes and stow them in the dish washer. There is still plenty of room in it so I don't start it yet. That will be a lesson for later.
"Okay, the bathroom is this way. I'd let you sleep in my bed with me, but I sleep in my underwear and that might not be very comfortable for you." I remember my fantasy of her coming to my bed. It would sure be nice if it ever came true. My tease was probably not an appropriate one but it was only fair to warn her of the risk of coming into my bedroom unannounced. I took her hand again to show her the bathroom. It probably wasn't necessary, but the feel of her delicate fingers had been nice and it was good to feel them again.
I take her back to the bathroom. It's the first door to the right in the hall, with my room the next to the right and hers the far room on the left. The room across from the bathroom is my weight and computer room, though it was probably meant to be a three bedroom house. My hand flips on the light to reveal a tub with a shower head, a sink, and a toilet. Two towels are on the towel rack, but there is only one washcloth in the tub. I point things out as I describe them. "This is the sink. It's normally used for washing your hands, face, and teeth. I shave my beard as well here. Sorry about the trimmings. I'll have to get better about that." My toothbrush was relatively new, but the toothpaste was three quarters gone. I had a plastic cup and electric razor sitting on top as well. "There are extra towels under the sink here and extra toilet paper. This is the toilet. You just pee and poop into it. It has a seat here you will probably yell at me to put down. Be sure to check for it or you will fall in." I drop the seat on the toilet. Maybe I was just going to have to start sitting down to pee. "When you are done, the toilet paper is to wipe up and you toss it into the bowl and pull this lever." I flush the toilet. "Don't drink the water out of the toilet obviously, but the water in the sink is drinkable as well as from the tub and shower. At some point I can show you how to operate that. Any questions?"
I was going to have to write a book on how to toilet train your elf. There probably wasn't going to be many customers to buy it though.
I look at him askance as he explains a stove. I hobble around the table to peer into the cavern as he opens a door on it. Then I look at him again. My confusion is clear. This was going to take a while to understand. Perhaps once I see him use it I’ll understand better. I watch him finish up the dinner ware and then store it away in another box thing.
He takes my hand again. I like when he does. It is nice to have contact with another again. I look at him oddly as he describes the way he sleeps. I shrug slightly. “Back home, I never slept in my clothes. It wrinkled them and they would begin to smell bad, needing washing more often.”
We enter the bathroom and I look at it curiously. The room is crowded looking and confusing. I listen as he explains everything and watch his movements closely. I am reluctant to let his hand go, but know he needs it. The bang of the thing he calls a toilet makes me start. And I move closer peering at it as he makes water swirl around in it. That too is a loud sound. I look back at him when he asks me if I have questions. I have for too many to even pick one to start with. I am also very tired still. “Yes. But I do not know where to even begin.” I sigh quietly.
"Well, do you have to poop or pee? You know? Expel digested food or let liquid waste out of your body." It was odd and pleasantly bothersome to know she liked to sleep naked. I fantasize about bumping into her sleep walking in the hall. What if she crawled into my bed naked from nightmares? I was going insane. I didn't really want her to have nightmares. It would be better if she just had a custom where a guest has to sleep with a member of the house to move in. That really doesn't seem right either. I don't want her to have to sleep with me. It would just be better if she wanted to. Hopefully she would be able to figure out the question and I would pull my mind back into thinking straight. I was probably a fool for having her over. My mind was going to start torturing itself into fantasies with her.
I feel myself coloring at his question and my gaze drops. “No. I do not need to relieve myself.” I stand there uncomfortable and uncertain. Finally I point to what looks to be something one bathed in. “Is that a bathing place? How and where do I heat the water for it?” I am afraid to sleep again, maybe I can get JP to let me take a bath first. Anything to prolong going back to sleep.
I smile. "The water is heated in an insulated tank with gas. The left valve turns on cold water, which is really outside temperature water. The right valve turns on water from the water heater. The water in the pipes cools off though, so you have to let the hot water run a bit before it goes hot. Normally I just do a shower which is like a warm water fall, but a lot smaller and more controlled. If you want to bath, I can show you the shower or a bath."
My mind messed with me again. I fantasize about her needing to know how to do something. She's naked and doesn't try to hide anything when I come to help. I was going to have to watch myself or I was going to become a bad teacher. An erection wasn't going to help in demonstrating how to run the tub or shower.
I am confused by his explanation. I just do not understand. I am getting frustrated and upset. I drop to the ground and pull my knees toward myself and drop my head on my knees. The tears fall, and I am now getting mad. I hate crying, it never accomplishes anything and makes your nose a clogged mess. I am over tired and know it. My emotions bounce everywhere and I am not grasping anything he tells me.
She is having a difficult time with things. I kneel down and take her into my arms. "Look, maybe we just get some sleep and I can show you all this stuff in the morning." I remember her enjoying my hug. My stomach leaps in nervousness. I take a big risk. "Look, you can sleep with me tonight if it will help you feel better. Once you get some rest it will be easier to figure stuff like this out. I'll need a shower then myself. If you don't like a shower, you can just take a bath. Right now how about a simple lie down and sleep?" I can't believe I'm proposing one of my mini fantasies to her. I keep telling myself it won't turn into sex, but part of me knows I want it to. I hate that that part of me is there. This would be so much easier if Ciara was a guy. It was her that was banished though and not her twin.
I burrow into his hold. There is peace and safety in the circle of his arms. I cannot explain why I feel this way. I nod at his suggestions. I feel relieved actually at his sleeping suggestion. I do not want to be alone. And part of me hopes the Night Terrors will not bother me with another close. I get myself under control again.
I move slightly and raise my head. I look at JP and give him a weak smile. “I am sorry. I am not usually this bad. Thank you. You are far too kind to put up with me as you are.” I look away and down. “Your world is complicated… and over whelming. So much is wildly different than our legends.”
I cannot believe a beautiful woman is going to sleep with me in my bed, even if it is for comfort. "You have nothing to be sorry about. I guess your people haven't been watching us much. Anyway, there are a lot of mean people. It's possible a lot of us live up to the legends." I scoop her up into my arms and carry her to my bedroom. I have a wooden night stand with a lamp, a queen bed with brown and forests green covers and sheets, two pillows and two chairs in my bedroom. The chairs are actually a forest green too, but they don't match the sheets. I sit her light frame down on the mattress.
It's an awkward moment for me. I turn around, go to a chair and peel off my shirt first. I kick off my moccasins while I do. "I can help you with the splint to get ready for bed. I'm sleeping in my underwear. You are free to sleep in your clothes or naked. I'll behave." Hopefully she doesn't tempt me. I'm not so sure I can resist if she does. Luckily she doesn't know about birth control so I figure I'm safe.
I am startled when he picks me up yet again. I am starting to feel like a small child with all of his carrying me around. I shake my head though and speak. “It is not so much the personality of your people, though it is mentioned. It is your tenacity and warmongering. And the fact you drove us from this world, as you have many others.” I look around his chamber as we enter. It is soothing and nice, the colors of the earth are everywhere.
After he sets me down on the large bed I watch him for a moment. I then pull my shirt off and then turn to working my pants off. I have some difficulty when I come to the splint, but the legs of the pants are actually just wide enough that with some tugging it comes off over it. I fold both pieces carefully and then look for somewhere to place them. Seeing nothing close, I just drop them to the floor within easy reach.
I go back to watching him. His last words make no sense. “You will behave?” My head tilts again as I study him thoughtfully. I do not get it and wonder if it might be a joke. My hand is running along the covers. They are surprisingly soft and I turn my attention to looking them over. I shift a bit and bring my legs up folded slightly with my feet hanging over the edge. The pattern upon the covers seems to be abstract and I study it.
I pull down my pants. I'm wearing gray sweat pant colored bikini underwear. I like the support. They fit my tan line from my swim briefs anyway. As long as I don't get overexcited, it's going to hold my cock down anyway. "Yes, I'll behave." I don't understand she doesn't understand the word. I turn around and see she got her pants off over the splint after all. They had been very loose on her. "Here, just turn down the sheets and I'll turn out the lights unless you think they'll help." My eyes keep trying to catch visions of her body without staring. I thought about how humanity must have been some tough brutes to beat people that could heal themselves. I pick up her clothes and move them over to the chair. "I'll set these on the chair so there is no tripping if you have to go to the bathroom. Just wake me and I can help you." The last thing I needed was for Ciara to freak out and pee all over the place.
I look up from my study of the covers and frown at JP. “Turn down sheets? What is a sheet, and why would I be turning it down? Turning it down for what?” I am surprised he has not yet become impatient with my incessant questioning. It seems I question nearly everything that comes out of his mouth. I shake my head and study him thoughtfully. My head tips sideways as I do. It is an unconscious habit when I am curious, or trying to figure something out.
I look him over from head to toe. His body is well formed and sculpted. Put some pointed ears on him, slant his eyes a bit, and grow that ridiculously short hair out, and he could pass as one of my people. One this side of plain, though not beautiful. I find the similarities curious.
It was getting harder and harder to not look at Ciara. "Um, here. We sleep under these cloth panels. They are called sheets. Turning them down means folding them back to get under them. They feel good and keep you warm. Maybe you don't like sheets though." I remember the blanket torn up. "Maybe I'll just have to hold you." This was getting a bit complex. I moved up to the head of the bed and folded the covers off the pillows. I turn on the lamp and move over to the door to turn off the overhead light. As I start towards the bed again, I realize I'm getting in a bed with a woman that is probably naked that I've been too shy to look directly at to hold for body warmth while sleeping. I figure I may as well see her. I let my eyes look her up and down.
I continue watching JP as he shows and explains the bedding. Must they have a name for every piece? It seems they must. I follow his movements as he turns out the light and comes back. I have noticed that he does not look directly at me anymore and wonder why. My head cants sideways again. I am wondering if I have done something odd again by human standards. When he does finally look at me, I almost jerk back startled. I watch him studying me and wonder what he sees.
Am I so foreign looking to him as he is to me? Does he see past the green hair, amber eyes, skin lightly kissed by the sun and flawless, with no scars or marks? Does he see a person behind the differences or do I just continue to be strange and odd? The only adornment I currently wear is the splint he put on my foot. Otherwise I am dressed as I was born, with nothing. I sigh and finally look away from his scrutiny.
My gaze falls to the part of the bedding he had pulled back. I shift and move up on my hands and knees, giving JP a full view of my backside as I pull down the bedding on the side of the bed I have been perched on. After pulling them down enough I sit back down and tuck me feet under them. I sit there once more and look back at JP. He has not moved and I frown slightly.
I look him over carefully again and note the piece of clothing he still wears. Perhaps I should have slept in my clothes? We Elves are not bothered by nudity. It is considered normal. After all one does not swim in their clothes, nor sleep in them. But maybe it bothers humans? I start to fidget, uncertain as always in this new environment with its strange rules.
I should have never looked. Ciara was amazingly beautiful. My eyes couldn't stop looking. Just when I thought I had seen way too much, she got into the bed and showed her entire back side. My cock started going erect. My briefs start giving way. She was going to think I was a freak for shaving my pubic hair off. I move quickly to the lamp and turn it off. I don't even consider if elves see in the dark or not. I am too panicked to bother to that level of detail. Thinking I was safe in the cover of darkness I walked around to my side of the bed. It was too late. My gaze had set my cock off too hard and it wasn't fitting in my briefs anymore.
"Um, Ciara, are you okay if I just sleep naked?" I don't want to scare her by taking off my underwear without her knowing. At the same time hugging her is going to be tricky now. I really blew it with my gaze.
I blinked a bit as JP moved and shut the light off without warning. My eyes soon adjusted though, and there was just enough light to see by coming in through a window. I watch him move away and my gaze drops to my lap. Why had he turned the light off so suddenly? I must be too strange for him to continue to look at. It is the only conclusion I could draw.
I move and slide further under the bedding to lie down. My foot feels odd with the splint on it and I am coming to really dislike the thing. I am perplexed by his question that pulls my thoughts from my foot. “I… er… no, not at all.” I did not understand why he asked me. I settle down finally and stare up at the top of the room. I relax finally, preparing myself for sleep. I let go of the confusion and insecurity I am feeling. As I do, I feel myself drifting into sleep.
I pull my underwear off. My cock jumps up to its full seven inches without the cloth interfering with its position. It's good to know she's not intimated by my nudity. My body slips into the sheets next to Ciara. "You are a beautiful woman, Ciara." I turn onto my side and snuggle into her body. My left hand moves my pillow to lay my head down on it and then moves to stroke her wondrous forest green hair. My right hand comes down on her left breast. The inside of my arm feels her stomach beneath it while my right hand enjoys the softness of her delicate breast. My right thigh crosses over the front of her thighs. My erection is caught between her right hip and my stomach. The warmth of her side against my stomach feels nice.
I want her now, but she probably needs sleep and is probably not interested in sex. My mind reviews how she looks in the light using my memory. It's odd how open she is. Hopefully my touch is able to keep her calm and she can get sleep.
I am in the twilight of sleep, that half-awake state just before one fully slips into dreams. I feel JP finally climb into the bed. As he settles close to me, his scent envelops me. I feel his body both on and next to me. His caressing of my hair finally sends me spiraling down into dreams.
The dreams start immediately, but they are different than dreams I have been having. It is like I am a spectator watching a play. I see myself, and my family, people I know from Kaelyr. We are in the audience chamber of the palace where petitioners, messengers, emissaries and the like are received. A new Elf has come to Kaelyr from another Elven place. Not unusual or unheard of. Those banished from one, will usually move to another. Some just want a change of scenery, a new place to live. Then there are the traveling Merchants that move from settlement to settlement.
This new Elf is unknown to my dreaming self, though I sense a sort of odd recognition from her. My watching self recognizes him though and gives a start. I study him thoughtfully and realize I was wrong. He is far from plain looking, though he does not quite reach the ethereal beauty of my people, and it makes me giggle. I continue watching as he greets my Mother and Uncle. I also see my twin look over at my other self perplexed. We are twins, able to sense the other’s emotions, and he feels her recognition and confusion at such. He looks back at the stranger and studies him. Like me, he has the unconscious habit of canting his head to one side when examining something.
My attention is brought back to JP. He explains his presence here. Royal, himself, but from the male side, he has nothing to hold him in his former home, and set out to find a new home. Only twins born of the female ruler ascend to the thrones of the city-states. For they are the only ones that are guaranteed to be from the Royal Line. Once upon a time, twins were married to rule, that way it insured no common blood intermingled with Royal blood. Eventually though it fell out of practice. Now Royal younglings from other city-states and either side of the Royal Lines are attempted to join and marry. A serious bone of contention between my Mother and I. I think that is the real reason for my banishment, the actual charges being a cover. I refused any that were paraded before me for a variety of reason, but the main reason was the fact that they all expected me to sit on my hind and allow others to do for me, like a Royal is supposed to. My people have become so decadent.
I am returned to the scene before me as my Mother and Uncle welcome him graciously to Kaelyr. He is welcome to stay as long as he wishes. I notice my Mother look to my other self, a frown and warning look on her face. I sigh as I realize what she is thinking. She expects my dreaming self to accept JP as a mate and do what it takes to get him to agree. At that point the dream slips from me and I descend into deeper, healing sleep. I never realized my reactions to the dream transmitted to and through my physical self.
I slip off into dreaming. I find myself in an odd kind of dream though. It doesn't feel like my dream at all. It feels like my mind is projecting myself into a totally different place made by another person. My body is moving under the control of someone else. My eyes don't go where I want to look. My voice doesn't say what I want to say. It's like my body and mind aren't mine, but I feel, see, and hear everything this other being is experiencing.
Whoever I'm in, walks up before a king and queen of an elven kingdom. The queen reminds me of Ciara, but she seems older and more stern. Eyes are on me. There are two twins and one of them looks like Ciara while the other is decidedly a male version of Ciara. I want to look at her by whoever I'm in isn't even concerned. It's extremely frustrating. Greetings are exchanged in a style that sounds like Ciara's. My mind screams to look at the elf that looks like Ciara, but despite my scream everyone, including who I'm in don't hear, see, or feel me at all.
I'm in a male elf. The male elf announces his royal line and explains he needs a new home because he is not heir in his kingdom. Something about being the son of the king instead of the queen. It confuses me why I'm having this dream. I barely understand the conversation and the issues at hand seem to have nothing to do with me. Ciara's parents, at least that's what it feels like, welcome whomever I'm in into their kingdom. He has a permanent welcome. Whoever I'm in traces the glare of the queen. She looks stern and commanding and the eyes finally turn to what I wanted to see in the whole dream. The elf looks exactly like Ciara. I try to call to her, but again there is nothing. I'm powerless and unheard in the dream.
My mind tumbles. Something seems to have snapped. Dark clouds envelope me in the dream. My mind goes back to being its own.
I wake up remembering the elf dream but nothing else. My eyes pop open. My nose smells fresh trees as my breath runs in and out of Ciara's hair my face is nuzzled against. My left arm is still behind her head and my right hand is still on her breast. My cock is erect and the feeling of her hip against the bottom of it is as intense as the feeling of her nipple on the palm of my hand. The inside of my thigh is comfortably against the front of her thighs as well. The sun is streaming in through the windows.
I drift my right hand down and play very gently with her nipple with the tips of my fingers. We are so close a little breast play feels harmless. My cock tries to jump at the excitement of touching her though and I feel it pulse between her hip and my stomach. My eyes close back to experience the full sensations of the touch of her body to mine.
I exit healing sleep straight into a dream that is as strange as the first I had when I fell asleep. I am back in the Elven court, my Mother glaring at me her warning. “Vyleis, Sheilaes, show our guest to the Sky Rooms, please. And make him feel welcomed.” My dream self gives a soft inaudible sigh, which brings a sharp look from my twin. The Sky room is next to my own Sliver rooms. There is no doubt now. Mother will try to make a match. The familiarity is drowned in dislike and contempt now. It is not directed at the JP-Elf, but at Mother.
My twin is quick to rise, grabbing my hand and pulling my dream self up with him. He bows to Mother. “Of course, Your Highness.” He drags me down from the dais and we approach the newcomer. Once close enough, JP’s scent wafts over them. It is not the scent of sun and trees, but his scent from the world of Man. My dream self’s eyes widen slightly and just stare at him, at a loss as to why the scent is familiar yet not. I could tell her why he’s familiar in both scent and sight, but she would neither hear nor believe me.
My twin gives me a sidelong perplexed look, but quickly covers and returns his gaze to the Elf. “Come, this way.” He is quick to walk off, practically dragging me with him. My twin has always been good at covering for me, keeping me out of trouble more often than I do. As we head out of the audience room, my twin makes a left and heads down the corridors. Once beyond Mother’s hearing, my twin becomes less formal and relaxes. “So I am Sheilaes, this is obviously my twin Vyleis. I missed your name I am afraid.”
They continue on making small talk while my dream self is silent and watching the JP-Elf surreptitiously. They reach the rooms delegated to the Elf. The scene shifts suddenly. It feels like days have gone by, perhaps even moon dances, and my dream self and the JP-Elf are in his rooms alone together. They are sitting on an Elfin couch, the ends rise up and curl back, but the sides are open. They each lounge back on an end and are talking. Legs of both are tucked up, knees almost touching as their feet hang off opposite sides.
They are having some sort of tense conversation. Not really arguing but it is slightly strained. I watch curiously as I realize it is an old theme that made me reject many a suitor before. My dream self is tense as she awaits to see how he feels about her choice to do for herself. He is still relaxed as her questions wash over him. He smiles and shrugs. “Good. I hate lazy people.” My dream self is too stunned to think of a response. I watch surprised as he moves and sits next to her. His face moves in close to hers and his right hand comes up to gently play with her left nipple. “So, shall we tell you Mother we are agreed to marrying? I am not blind, I see the looks. It will get her to start looking elsewhere and perhaps even make us both happy.”
The dream shatters around me as I feel my own nipple played with. A soft moan escapes me and my body shifts. My dreams turn strange and erotic at this point. I cannot see my lover in them. All I see are eyes the color of overturned earth. My physical body though responds to the dreams.
Ciara moans at the nipple play. My heart races. She turns to face me and her eyes open to mine. Desire seems alive in her eyes. My hand on her nipple continues playing and she doesn't say anything. My hand releases her nipple and throws the covers back, baring our naked bodies to the freshly lit room. My face moves into hers to give her a gentle kiss on her lips. A rush fills me as I feel her lips kiss me gently back. My right hand comes up and strokes her left ear. She gives me a soft hum. We both seem to want each other. Excitement causes my body to shiver. My hand moves down to her shoulder and gently lays her back on her back. Her eyes stay on mine. It's hypnotic. Her amber eyes are so beautiful and seem to tell me to continue.
My hand drifted down from her shoulder, back over her breast and down her stomach. She spreads her legs for me. My fingers proceed down to her pubic hair and stroke the soft forest green surrounding her crevice. Heat radiates from her valley. My fingers stroke the insides of her thighs and she spreads further for me. It's intense and erotic. My head cranes down to put another kiss on her lips, our eyes still locked. My tongue comes out to explore her lips and her lips part to tease the tip of my tongue with her tongue. My tongue chases her tongue in and they intertwine inside of her mouth. My finger travels up her soft pubic hair to the tip of her crevice. My middle finger stays in contact as the rest of my fingers lift away from her soft skin. My hand travels down running my middle finger against the bottom of her valley. The soft skin feels warm and damp as my finger reaches her hood and travels over it to her labia. My finger parts the way between her petals and the soft pink flesh is wet and smooth. She moans again as my finger stops on the entrance to her canal. My finger presses into the opening and moves around the entrance. The beginning of her walls are wet and lubricated. She moans again and her walls clinch on the tip of my finger.
Precum wells up on the tip of my throbbing cock. My body wants her so badly. My hand moves from her folds to the base of my cock. I roll my body on top of hers. Her legs lift around my hips and thighs. My ass feels her foot and the split take it in the embrace. My lips press hers more passionately. Our tongues orbit each other slowly and pressing as well. I guide the tip of my cock towards her entrance as it brushes her hood and parts her petals on the way. My ass and hips roll up. My shaft penetrates her welcoming canal. "Oh, Vyleis." My mouth seems to make her name on its own and then returns to her lips. My shaft moves in as my hand comes away and moves up to her left hip. My body rests on her stomach with her breasts pressing into my chest. My left hand travels down the side of her face and torso to take her left hip. My hips press into her and feel her pubic hair press against the bare skin at the base of my cock. Her arms come around me and her hands gently take the back of my neck. Her eyes are still looking into mine in a lustful trance it seems.
My body starts a gentle thrust into her canal. She hums in pleasure each time my cock presses its way deep inside her. Her wet walls squeeze against my shaft. My breath is heavy. The moment is sheer magic. My moans start as my body moves. She moves her hips into mine with each thrust. She wants me in her as much as I want to be in her. Her voice is silent but her body tells me to continue. My body will not stop. I am lost in the pleasure and her returning moans and whimpers into our kissing mouths tell me she is lost there too. It lasts several minutes. The union is sheer bliss. Suddenly my body shudders as my hips press into her lap desperately. She gives a soft cry and her hands quickly grab my ass and pull it against her. My back arches pulling my lips from hers. I call out. "Vyleis!" My mind isn't used to that name but it keeps coming out of my mouth. My cock pulses and I feel my cum pumped up my shaft to exit deep in her canal. My muscles relax to settle back into her body. I kiss her tenderly again and move my cock inside her.
As my head clears I realize I did not use a condom. It's too late to do anything about it. At least Ciara was not concerned. Her hands press into my ass still telling me it's okay. I continue to thrust. I don't want to end this without her satisfied as well.
In my dream I hear my name, from a familiar voice. Though the name is my Elven one, it is not familiar sounding; it’s not the one the voice usually calls me by. I feel my lover’s seed fill me hot and heavy; it makes me moan in delight knowing he was pleased. He still moves inside me, and I feel the return of his kiss. My eyes flutter closed and my hips move faster against his.
I can feel my lover’s body atop my own, it is a really strong sensation for a dream. My hands leave his hind and start to explore the planes and angles of his body. He feels good under my hands and on top of me. It is like we fit together perfectly. I deepen our kiss, and my hands go from soft exploration to hungry need. My own pleasure is close and I long for it desperately.
I press into the deepened kiss. Her hands grip and press against my body. My shaft feels her silk gripping and pressing so I resume thrusting her. It is a sheer delight to feel Ciara's continued surrender. I lift my chest and my hands grip her breasts. My loins slowly work on reloading. My chest settles back onto my hands and my palms play on her soft globes trapped beneath them. It has been a long time since my last sex. I know I can have her again. It feels too magical and right to care. We can make love all day if we want. She is so beautiful and kind and her desire for me is so strong and intense. Hopefully this relationship works out. She is already living with me and I really want to make this one work.
My lover moves and changes things, his hands now trapped between our chests, and they feel so right there. He feels so right. I am almost frantic to know who my lover is, but the dream keeps his identity from me. Shortly, that fades from importance as my body suddenly curves up against my lover, our kiss is broken and I cry out. My pleasure is mind numbing in its intensity, and it makes my body shake almost violently. I cry out again. My body does not seem to be in any hurry for the pleasure to end either. It continued to tremble with each of my lover’s thrusts into my body.
I feel her body arch into me. My lips lose hold of hers and she gives a cry of pleasure. Her body shakes beneath me as her silk milks my shaft with urgency. I keep thrusting though. My palms use the extra space her arch makes to grasp them and then catch her nipples between my fingers. Every time the head of my rod plows into her body her form shivers. Her acceptance of me seems complete. It feels like we are lovers now. Everything about her sounds and moves tells me to take her and my body tells me to take her. The complications of her being an elf are lost in my mind. My mouth descents on her neck and my lips open against it to taste her skin. The smell of our union fills the air now. "Oh, Vyleis." It happens again. Whatever the spell is, I don't care anymore. The pleasure of her canal hugging my shaft signaling our togetherness is the only thing important. We will work the other parts out later.
My dream shatters around me as I orgasm. I am now awake and find the dream is real. My body is still trembling with new sensations as I feel someone thrusting into me, and my nipples are being teased, my neck it kissed and licked. My eyes fly open as my Elf name is uttered again. I find JP on top of me. The first thing that comes to mind is his eyes, the same as the lover in my dream. Confusion enters my mind, until his next thrust and I loose it to more pleasure. My body reacts automatically in the immortal dance of lovers. Though I have found release once, I am already feeling myself building up to another as JP works my body.
My lips move up Ciara's neck to her ear. I nibble at them delicately. Her canal is steadily building my pleasure to claim her again. My fingers steadily press her nipples. "Vyleis, you are pure magic." My eyes crave the vision of her amber ones. Pleasure and happiness fill my expression as I move my face to look into her eyes. I wonder what her traditions are and how long she will stay with me. The moment is too precious to ask questions though. My body needs the release as the pressure is building too much to stop. It is an investigation for later. For now there is only pleasing Ciara and consummating our union once more. "You have blessed me with your beauty." A few thrusts and I am moaning again. Her yielding flesh sends waves of pleasure again. My body prepares to expel more of my essence into her. I have no idea if her eggs are susceptible or even in cycle. It doesn't matter in the end. I'll just deal with whatever nature delivers or doesn't.
His lips find my ear and nibble so delightfully on it. My body reacts strongly to the attentions of both his mouth and his fingers. My sex tightens around his member as I moan with the pleasure. He says my Elf name again. It sounds strange from him, yet it sends shivers through me. Strange as it sounds, I find I like my name on his lips. He feels good, we are a perfect fit, much like my dream.
He rises up and stares into my eyes. I stare back. I like his eyes, they are so beautiful. I study him, and find I like the way he looks as well. I never would have imagined us in this position. Am I upset over it? I find I am not. I do not understand why. We are so different; he is a child of Man, while I am a child of Fey. He speaks again and my body shivers once more. His words are precious to me. With my banishment, I have felt far from worthy of much of anything.
His continued thrusts end my musings as my body once more reacts to his and his makes mine sing. I cannot help my body arching against him again as he once more gives me intense pleasure. Nor can I stop my body’s tremors, or even want to as the pleasure washes through me. I call his name. “JP.”
I feel her canal grip my cock. Her body is so right beneath mine. She has admiration in her eyes for me. The shudder of her body is so welcoming and brings a shudder from mine. The pleasure is so intense. My shaft is thrusting her unprotected. It is my first time taking a woman with her nectar soaking my shaft. I'm fully aware her womb is open beneath me and it feels right. It doesn't seem reckless to me at all.
She arches into me again. Her canal anoints my manhood with her sweet juices once more and I moan in anticipation of my body's reaction to her body's welcome. Her tremors don't quite set me off, but my ears hear her voice call my name. A wave washes over me with that sound. It's like a loud wind through the trees. My body presses hers and my cock throbs as my fresh cream pumps through my shaft deep into her. "Vyleis, oh yes." The bed seems to swirl in pleasure. My muscles relax to settle my body on top of her. My face nestles against her neck.
My chest heaves air in and out. The smell of her hair seems like the fresh woods and her skin feels so alive against my nose and lips. My mind returns from that intense swirl of fantastic sensation. "Say you are mine, Vyleis. Say you are mine and I will be yours." My hands drop from her breasts and hug her sides beneath me. The aftershocks of our climaxes send tremors through me. I pray she will say yes.
His body conforms to mine after our shared pleasure. I wrap my arms around his shoulders. Both our bodies relax though still throb with the after effects of our joining. As my mind settles back into the here and now, I start to think about how we ended up this way. I remember my strange dreams of Mother’s Court and JP as an Elf. I then remember the second dream. My body tenses slightly as I remember JP as an Elf approaching my dream self. Could that have done it? Had I reacted and made him do this? I frown perplexed.
I am drawn from my thoughts by him speaking again. I start at his request. He wants me to be his mate? Why? I am so, different, so odd. I do not know what to say. As much as I am enjoying this closeness, I am suddenly self-conscious and confused. We are too different, it could not work. Could it? I find myself longing to say yes, but I am afraid. Suddenly I squirm and try to get out from under him.
She doesn't answer. It makes me nervous. She squirms beneath me so I roll to the side, my cock slides out of her pussy and my arm lies across her upper stomach. "It's okay. Let's give it a trial period. What do you think would be a good time to work with our relationship? For me, a year would be a good trial. You are special to me, Vyleis. You are so beautiful and you seem so kind and patient with others. You wanted to do your best at the bar. Your dedication was beyond amazing. Our union just felt right. It's never felt that way to me before. Please, if a year is too long or too short, let me know. We have to face the winter together anyway."
I'm confused that she seemed so at peace with our sex through two orgasms and now she is pulling away. I've probably been way too fast, but it happened and it was worth pursuing. There was nothing that seemed wrong at this point. It had to be right.
When he rolls off me I start to bolt. I freeze though at his words. My head turns towards him. I study him closely. Finally I give into the impulse and reach out and touch his face. The face fur feels very strange under my hand. It is rough and prickly. My hand moves up and into his short hair. It is soft to the touch and far different from his face. “Your hair is preposterously short.” It burst out of me and my eyes jump to his in surprised horror. “I…” I suddenly giggle. I cannot help it. I am nervous suddenly.
My hand and gaze both drop. I get myself back under control. My voice is soft as I finally bring myself to speak. “You wish to court me? Why? I am so different from you, your world. Kindness, beauty, patience, and stubborn determination are not enough reasoning. You do not even know me, or I you.” Yes, courting would reveal all those things eventually. But also, one normally does not join together then decide to court either.
"I can grow my hair out." I laugh at her hair comment. Hair is nothing really. Union Pacific wasn't going to care if my hair was long. "You don't understand your own value, Vyleis. Most women I've met are selfish. They used me and moved on. We call courting dating now. Of course we are going to date. In fact, I would like to take you to Keyhole today. The reservoir is beautiful and the water is still nice for swimming. There are nice hiking trails. You don't think I would have sex with you and then just end the relationship, do you? You are very special and beautiful. The elves were silly to exile you. It bodes poorly for them and the fact our system won't give you a good spot bodes poorly for humanity. Dating you and having you for my girlfriend is my chance to do something better than either of our societies have chosen. You are a great person. Everything I've seen tells me that. I'm sure I'm going to find a lot more good things about you and I'm excited for the chance. You must have felt something for me. Our sex was beautiful together. Why would you share something so beautiful if you didn't want to give us a try?"
My gaze rises back to his. I move and sit upright to really look at him. “The hair is unimportant. I am just used to seeing longer on all.” I shift and fold my legs up, banging that blasted splint in the process. I hiss and turn to glare at the cursed thing for a brief moment. This was important and I did not need the distractions. I look back at JP. I study him for a long moment. My hand moves out again to feel the fur on his face. Rough and prickly though it is, I like it and I smile.
I look into his eyes. I like them too. They are so warm and rich. I like him. He is kind and caring, he took me in when he did not have to. He has been so patient with me, and he still wants to court… date me. He seems to want to take care of me. I frown slightly. “When I am healed are you going to have a problem with me doing for myself? Once I learn your ways…”
It's fun to share gazes with Vyleis. Her amber eyes are so amazing to look into. She touches my beard and it is so nice to feel her hand on my face. Her smile is priceless.
"I'm going to do everything I can to make you feel as normal as you can. You will be as employed as we can get you. There is no problem with that at all. If Dewey will let you work for cash, that will be fine. We just have to make sure it won't get you in trouble. We can't let the authorities ruin your life. We have to be careful and stay unseen unless we can be sure trust is warranted. If something bad happens to you it is going to haunt me forever. You want to check on your foot? Bring it up here and let's take the split off to see how your foot is doing."
I give a soft laugh. Like me he is adept at maneuvering around a question. Though his answer is not direct, I am satisfied enough with it. I sense a strong bond between us I cannot even begin to explain. It is as if he is what I have been searching for, and until now, I never realized I had been searching. I lean towards him, just before our lips touch, I give him an answer. “I will be yours.” Then I kiss him, fully awake and aware of my actions.
It is as if the Gods opened a path to Arvandor, and I feel the bond grow stronger between us. A peace blows through my soul that I have not known since I was a small child. He was right though, our joining had been beautiful. Like the Gods had made us just for each other. My tongue darts out to taste and tease his lips. My hand slides along his face back to his hair, and my body molds itself to his. I want to know him again, join with him, not because of some dream, but because we both want to. Both of us fully awake and aware of what we do.
Vyleis's answer makes my heart rejoice. It's impossible to understand. My mind just knows that she is the answer to my soul. Our kiss is priceless. It's is the great treasure of my life that I will never know the value of. The kiss is more complicate than it is possible for me to comprehend. Despite the fact my seed is alive inside her body, searching it out, somehow the kiss is even more powerful. Somehow I get comfort that the kiss means I am hers and she is mine. It's the only place to be really.
Her tongue samples my lips and her hands rediscover my face. Somehow their touch reignites my body. Her hands move back to my hair that is too short, yet long enough. She moves back into me and my body craves her touch. It's impossible to know whether her cunt accepts my cock's presence or whether my cock invades her body. We just end up together fully. "Oh, Vyleis, I don't know how this happened, I'm just thankful for it." It's as honest as I know how to express myself. My hips and ass explain it's an imperative that my body thrusts itself into her. Her lubricated silk seems to agree. That is all that is required really. My answer is only to moan with the pleasure of moving into Vyleis. Somehow the moan seems enough. The color of her hair and eyes is beautiful, but doesn't seem to truly matter. The only important thing is done. I'm inside her.
A sigh escapes me as once more we fit perfectly together like two puzzle pieces. I rise up slightly to look at him. His words make me shiver. My body moves slowly with his thrusts, happy once more to be joined with him. He is beautiful to me, with his short hair, face fur, round ears and human eyes. He tugs at my heart and soul, and I do not fear it.
My fingers move to trace his ear in exploration and sensory delight. I want to know every bit of him. My fingers go from his ear to travel down the side of his neck. Gently, I trace the fingernail of my forefinger along his collar bone up to his shoulder. My fingers then travel from his shoulder to his chest. I trace the planes and angles of his chest and belly and then back up. My gaze returns to his and I move my hips a bit faster against his.
Eyes locked, I slowly lower my head until our gaze is broken by his chin as my tongue darts out to taste the soft part of his throat. My tongue then travels up the other side of his neck to find his ear on that side. Softly I lick the outer rim of it. I move next to nibble at the edges of his jaw. His face fur feels funny on my lips and I almost giggle. Soon, I return to kiss him once more.
It's hard to imagine being inside of Vyleis again. It's such a wonderful feeling having her silk surrender to my cock searching her inner reaches. How we are right doesn't really matter as much as the fact we are right. We are unprotected yet again, but it seems my seed belongs in her if nowhere else. It's not important again. What is important is we are joined.
Her fingers seem to disarm me. It's like they are supposed to have their way with me and my skin sings at their touch. The back of my mind is vaguely aware she is ninety-seven years old to my twenty-six years of age. She is expected to know how to seduce me much more than I would have an inkling of how to seduce her. My eyes drink in the vision of her. Her nails are like magic against my skin. They paralyze me and I try to reach up to her face. The electricity in my collar bones seems to defeat my hand movement entirely. Her hips pick up the pace against me, confirming just how much our urgency to join is shared. "Oh, Vyleis. You should know just how wondrous you are.”
I look at him. “Ciara. Vyleis, is no more.” My voice is soft and gentle. By accepting to be his, I have fully turned my back on my people and my heritage. I will live in his world for as long as the Gods grant me. And I will do my best to live by his ways. These thoughts leave as our bodies become further in tune with each other. I feel him deep inside me, and it feels good. My pace picks up more. I want to pleasure him, and so I work to such an end. I feel my own pleasure mount, a moan escapes me. “JP.”
Somehow I understand what she is saying. It actually gives deeper meaning to her claim that she is now mine and I feel a wave of gratitude and triumph at the same time. "Okay, Ciara. Your insides are doing wondrous pleasure to me. I hope you understand we belong to each other on this one." I can't believe my cock is in her again. She is giving me so much of herself it's beyond incredible. I don't even have a reservation of cumming in her this time. She is mine and it is okay to just cum in her whenever the mood pleases us. My hands move to her nipples. They are her nipples, but she is okay with me having them. For now they are mine and my fingertips want to feel their tips getting gentle pressure between my fingers. In fact, I'm thinking she will let me play with them whenever I want. She is certainly welcome to my body. It will be interesting to see how that works out. Something just tells me it's going to work out no matter what.
I wonder if she can get pregnant by me. The thought crosses my mind that our children might grace the nipples my fingers are handling and using for pleasure right now. It will work out either way though. If we have a child, so be it. If we don't, so be it. Ciara is now mine and I am now hers. "Oh Ciara, you cannot know just how good this is to me." She is going to draw my cum deep inside her again, I can feel it. She knows it's coming too, and she doesn't care. That makes it intensely erotic for me.
I smile at his words. He is so sweet. “Of course we belong to each other, did we not already decide that?” I loose my thoughts and my breath as he reaches up and takes my nipples in his fingers. My body shivers fiercely and I am having a hard time concentrating on pleasuring him. I look at him a bit wide in the eyes. I have never known that kind of intensity before. It is not unwelcome, once more proving we are meant for each other.
Though his hands still keep me a bit off my rhythm, it does not deter me from giving him pleasure. My hands move back to his body, and I lightly run my nails over his chest in meandering patterns. I make no predictable moves with them. My head tilts slightly at his words. He did not say ‘how good this feels to me’, but ‘how good this is too me’. I am not sure I understand, but that is a discussion for another time, right now, we both need release.
Ciara's fingers on my chest are intense. Her question prior was lost in my mind. She was making too much pleasure swirl in my being. All my hands can do in return is press her nipples in-between my fingers. She had my cock caught, and as hard as I am trying to fuck her, it feels like she is fucking me.
My words lost on her are hard to explain. The difference in meaning in profound despite the subtle change of words. It is way past the feeling. It's about the connection and how important it is to me. My mind swirls. I wonder if she knows whether we can have children or not. If she thinks we can, this is more mind blowing than I have ever imagined. I can't ask her now though. It's too complex a thought and my cock is about to explode inside of her with a third dousing of my seed. If she knows she might get pregnant, her surrender to me is so intense, I can't even fathom it. She is from somewhere else allowing me the risk of putting her with child.
If she knows she cannot get pregnant by me, then this is still intense, but not as nearly intense. It's taking pleasure now with no consequence. Sure, there is the disease danger, but I don't have any. It would be her that is the only risk. We have so much to discuss it isn't funny. The fact I have an intense desire to spill my seed deep inside her yet again kind of is funny. "Make me cum, Ciara, make me cum." Something tells me she is going to do it. My body tells me she is going to do it shortly.
I see his reaction to me, it is a relief. I am pleasing him. That is good. I hear his words, and though they confuse me, I think I understand what he wants. My pace picks up and I groan. I am not going to be able to hold back at this rate. But I cannot stop. My body tightens, and my hands still on his body, holding onto him now. I gasp. “JP, I cannot wait any longer.” Suddenly the tidal waves of pleasure wash over me. My eyes close and my head falls back as my body convulses.
"Oh, Ciara!" Her orgasms milk me in a way that is crazily pleasurable. She really does make me cum by having an orgasm. "Oh, you get my seed." She has more than my seed and deep down inside me I know it, but won't admit it. She has my heart and something weak inside me needs to hide it. By the third spurt of my essence into her, that weakness loses its power. "I love you, Ciara."
I can't explain why I'm saying it now with cum spilling from my cock. It's a stupid time to say it, except the fact I'm not wearing a condom. My body has to finish emptying into her. My cock subsides finally and my lungs catch up. "Can we get pregnant, beautiful?" It's funny, as afraid as I am of having a child, I hope the answer is yes or 'I don't know'. Those two answers mean she has made a profound commitment to me and my blurting out my feelings towards her are not so damaging to my status in the relationship.
My body feels his seed enter me once again. Suddenly my own release takes new heights for I have pleased him yet again. I hear his words distantly, but am not yet able to respond. Finally, we both seem to settle back into ourselves. I slump forward, barely catching myself from just landing on him heavily. I am panting and trying to catch my breath. I cannot hold myself up any longer and finish collapsing on top of him.
As my body still vibrates from our union, I hear his question. I frown thoughtfully for a moment. “Our legends talk of long ago when both our peoples lived on this side of the Veil. There were younglings born of cross unions. I do not know though if that is still true now. Or if our legends even speak truth on the subject for that matter.” I nestle into his form more comfortably.
A sudden though jerks me upright and has me looking at him intently. “If I should conceive, will that upset you?” We Elves are so few, that any child conceived is considered a blessing from the Gods. We are not very prolific. Did he view it differently? After all, his people covered this world now. Could it be they had some rule against having younglings? But I had seen such in my walks through the settlement looking for a job… I am almost afraid to hear his answer.
Her collapse into me is beautiful. Her answer is one of not knowing and that is precious to me. She has made a possibility between us that is profound. "Oh, Ciara, if we have a child, that will make me so complete it's not even possible to consider just how happy that will make me." It's not a lie and not even close to a lie. It's a big step that means so much to me. If we make a child, we belong to each other so much and it is such a wondrous thing. "Ciara, this is just too meaningful and too deep to consider it any less than beautiful." My seed is searching her out. If it finds her and joins with her, we are solid to a point that I want badly. I want it worse than I wanted to ejaculate with her. "If you doubt me in the least, I will try to plant my seed in you all day. This is our first day and I want it to be special." My heart is intent on her. Hopefully she understands I planted my seed in her on purpose. I want her to be joined with me in a very real way. My arms try to draw her body back towards mine. My body needs to hold her close and let her know I'm true in my intent in my mind.
My relief at his answer is great, and I allow him to pull me back down to him. But I tell him something he should know. “JP, my people do not conceive easily. We are few in number as it is. I do not know if we can create a child, but I also do not know if a child will be granted us. We are not prolific as your people are.” I have that safe feeling again being in his arms. For once in my life I am truly happy and content. To think, I had to be banished from my home, my people, to find the one who I was meant for, and he’s not even an Elf. I start to laugh at the irony of it all. The Gods definitely have a sense of humor.
"Don't worry, Ciara, I don't have to have a child by you for us to be together. I'm okay with whatever happens." I'm still in her and she is still in my arms. Considering the risk I took with Ciara, that's a very, very good sign. "Just the fact you let me plant my seed in you is incredibly profound. I'm going to keep doing that. You are very special to me, Ciara." Our union is a very deep one. If my seed fails to find or penetrate her eggs, it's not going to change us. The fact is she let my seed try to go there. "We should go to the reservoir today. It's fun to swim and hike there. It would mean a lot for you to come with me." She is very probably going to say yes. I know we have to go to her camp and collect her belongings to move in with me, but I'm thinking that can't take too long.
His words make my laughter stop so I can hear him. I nuzzle up to the underside of his rough face. It makes me giggle briefly. “Very well. I should see to my foot now as well. Perhaps with the peaceful rest I have finally managed to achieve, I can heal more of it today.” I do not yet want to leave his arms, but things must be attended to. He wanted to move my stuff here as well. I sigh, but I do not yet move. I just want to be close to him for a few more moments.
Finally, reluctantly, I move. I sit up. He still sits nestled inside me, and I am loath to move to remove him, but we cannot spend the day here in bed, if we wish to get things done. So, I move off of him and sit to the side. I study the contraption on my foot, and soon sort how to remove it.
Once I have that off, it is a simple matter to remove the sock. My foot looks slightly better. I close my eyes and reach for the force line. It is stronger than last night and that startles me. Gingerly I reach out to it. It answers me, not like I am used too, but it answers me. I am elated at that and gather the energies needed. My hands hover over my foot. Soon it is nearly healed completely. I stop short of a complete healing because the force line is becoming like it was before. My eyes open and I blink. I frown and become lost in thought trying to figure out what exactly has happened.
Ciara moves off of me and my cock leaves her body. It's something that I don't want, but I know she will let me restore in the future. "Okay, just don't drain yourself healing the foot too much." I don't want her wiped out like she was last night. My interest is to get to her camp to collect her stuff and move her home. I double take on myself. It really is our home now. There isn't a more firm way to create that connection. All of the paper in the world cannot change the fact.
I snuggle slightly into Ciara and look at her take off the splint and sock. It's amazing how good her foot looks. Her hands block the view to her foot. When her hands come away I'm amazed. "Wow, you don't need the splint anymore. That's amazing."
Not paying attention my hand drifts to her breast. It's just too special to be able to touch it now without the threat of rebuke. "I have no clue how you do that, but it's truly a miracle. Us humans have to wait weeks or months for something like that to heal." Ciara is beyond special and I feel beyond blessed. "Are you ready to eat?" Maybe some food will keep the healing action from causing her to wipe out.
I come back to the here and now by his hand on my breast, my thoughts for now tabled until a later time to think without distractions. Oh, but he was a distraction I never wanted to tire of. I lean into his hand as he speaks. “Really? It is a simple matter of finding the force lines of your world and tapping into them. Drawing the energy into yourself and shaping it for the desired result you want.”
My hand drifts up and my fingers trace the back of his hand on my breast. It moves down his arm and back up. “Mmm, food would be good. I am suddenly very hungry. What will we break our fast on? Will I have a chance to see you use our fireless fire pit?”
Ciara's hand on my arm with her breast against my palm sends goose bumps up my skin. Her healing process sounds very complex to me, but then again, it's something I don't understand.
"Sure, I'll make some scrambled eggs for us. I have some oranges, too."
My hips send my legs to the floor and I break my contact with her breast. It's not fun letting go of her, but we will have time together now. Getting up, I move around the bed and help Ciara to her feet. I offer my arm to her to guide her to the kitchen. I'm not sure just how steady she will be on her foot, but putting the splint back on seems pointless. "Let's see if you can walk without the splint. Just use my arm to steady yourself." Her body is beautiful. I'm looking forward to showing her how to cook on the stove and enjoying being a couple.
It is almost painful when he withdraws his touch, but there is nothing to help that that will get us fed. And I am hungry. He helps me to my feet and that is nice, we are back in contact again. I put my weight on my foot and get a dull twinge of pain from it. Lifting it up, I wiggle my toes, and then my foot. The bones are healed, just the flesh around it is tender, That will work out with use. I put my foot back down and put my full weight on it. It hurts briefly then recedes. It is well.
I walk with him to the cooking/eating room. “I am well JP. The bones are healed.” My head cants slightly as I start to think on the force line. It had been stronger than last night for a brief moment. Why? What was different? Was it just the early hour maybe? I will have to see at another time maybe.
I turn my gaze back to JP and smile. “Eggs and oranges sound nice. What is scrambled?”
"Scrambled is frying the eggs slightly in a mix of milk."
I guide Ciara to the stove. "The four circles are gas outlets. You fire them up with their respective dials. The drawing on the panel next to the dial shows which one will light. Here is the dial to the right rear outlet." I turn the dial to the ignition position to light the gas. "That snapping sound is the electricity sparking to light up the gas. Now we just turn it to medium heat like this." My hand turns the dial to medium heat. The flame calms to a nice blue burn. My body bends over and I pull a frying pain from the cabinet. "This is a frying pan. It's wide with short walls. We put it over the flame." My hand places the frying pan on the burner.
"Now we get the milk and eggs." I move over to the fridge and pull out the milk and eggs. Coming back my eyes can't help but examine her shapely ass. My hands start cracking and depositing four eggs into the pan. "Now we just load the content of the eggs into the pan, add milk, and whip them up." I add a bit of milk to the eggs, pull out a whisk from the utensil drawer and start whipping the eggs. "Want to give the whipping a try?"
I frown at his description of scrambled. It doesn’t make sense to me. I watch as he shows me the fireless fire pit for cooking. My left brow cocks as small flames suddenly shoot up and then he turns them down a bit. Interesting magick to control fire like that. I am amazed and a bit intimidated. It is nothing like my campfire. It looks complicated as well.
I twist my upper body to follow his movements as he retrieves eggs the container holding the milk. That was the white stuff I drank last night. It had tasted rather nice. I peer at what he is doing, I can hear sizzling sounds, and smell the eggs. I watch him use a strange stir stick making the mix froth. My head tilts until he asks me if I want to try it.
I am hesitant, but need to learn this anyway. I do not think I will be allowed to build a proper fire pit here somewhere. I take the stirrer and try to mimic what I saw him do. I am very slow at it, and it does not look as if I am doing things right. A frown is on my face as I concentrate on what I am doing. This is going to take a lot of getting used to.
I smile seeing her not whipping the eggs, but only stirring them. My right hand can't resist giving her a playful spank on her bare bottom. "Here, you have to whisk it fast like this." I take the whisk and finish whipping up the eggs. When they are done, I turn off the burner, pull down two plates and split the eggs between the plates. "It just takes getting used to. Don't be discouraged." My hands retrieve a few glasses and two oranges from the fruit basket. I hand her one of the oranges, then carry the plates over to the table. "What would you like to drink?"
I put away the milk and eggs while she answers. Tossing the egg shells into the trash, I move towards the fridge. I notice apple juice in the fridge I forgot I had. "Oh, there is apple juice here as well, if you would like that." Ciara still seems a bit tense to me. Hopefully I can help her relax more.
I jump at being suddenly spanked like a small child, then he takes the stirrer away and finishes the food. I step back and fold my arms over myself feeling like a chastised child. I watch him dish up the food. And I take the orange handed to me. I go and sit at the table and wait. Looking up at him, I shrug. “I… that is fine, thank you.” I bite into the orange. The tart skin and sweet meat inside are a nice combination that reminds me of home. We have some foods in common and animals as well. I watch JP as he pours the drinks, chewing on my bite of orange.
"I'm sorry. Spanking is a form of intimate greeting. It wasn't meant to hurt. I'll pat lighter next time if that helps." Ciara puts another smile on my face as she ignores peeling the orange and just takes a bite out of it. "You can have my peel too if you want it." I start peeling my orange after pouring the apple juice and sitting down to the table. I have to jump up and get forks though. It was obvious I forgot them. Returning I sit back down and hand Ciara a fork. I give her a wink.
"Here you go. The eggs are better warm than cold. They get a little bland and rubbery when they cool." With that I take a bite of my eggs. "So, maybe it's just time for you to ask questions. I think I've overwhelmed you enough before breakfast."
I frown slightly at his words, but then shrug. “I live in your world now, I must learn the ways and customs of your people. Why would I just want the peel? You are supposed to eat them together for the full flavor.” I set the orange down and attempt to use the cutlery he gave me. I have difficulty and end up with more of the food on my plate than in my mouth. I pause as the flavor hits me, and bite the inside of my bottom lip to keep from making a face. Methodically, I chew what little is in my mouth and swallow. It… is interesting, though like last night’s food, bland. But it is nourishment and so I continue fighting with the cutlery to eat. At least I have the orange for after I choke the food down.
After fighting to only get about half the food in me, I give up and revert back to my fingers. It is messy, but easier. Perhaps today, if we get out I can find something to make myself flatware to eat with. His offer to let me question is welcome. “What is laundry? Do your people not use herbs for seasoning? What is Keyhole? What is orange juice? What makes that milk drink?” I look down at my plate, embarrassed, and finish the last of the eggs. I try a sip of the apple juice after sipping. I am surprised like the milk, it is good tasting as well. “How do they get the blood from the apple to make this?” I stop again and then turn my attention to the orange. I was like a river in a spring torrent with the questions.
It's hard to not laugh. Somehow I manage. "Usually peels are only used for baking or cooking. People rarely eat the peel of an orange and just enjoy the meat. I see my cooking sucks. I'm sorry." I don't understand why my food tastes so awful to Ciara.
"Laundry is dirty clothes that need to run through the clothes washer. We have driers that dry them back out after washing. Some people use herbs or spices, but I cook like a single guy. Keyhole is a lake formed from a dam. It's just north of here. Orange juice is the liquid squeezed from an orange. Cows make the milk. It's squeezed from their udders. It's the same stuff baby cows drink from their mothers. Apple juice is the liquid squeezed from apples. Apples are the red fruit you see in that fruit basket over there."
I continue eating my eggs. Ciara knows so little of human culture it seems a bit daunting to have to explain everything in painstaking detail. Even my detail seems to fall way short.
I feel bad and gently lay a hand on JP’s arm, I sense he is upset over my reaction to his food. “Your food is not bad… just different, and bland.” I look down at my orange as I remove my hand from him. I have lost my appetite now. I sigh as I set the orange where the eggs had been. My voice becomes soft. “It is nourishment, that is all that really matters.” I feel awful for not liking most of his foods. Finally, though no longer hungry, I take the orange back up and methodically eat. I have not taken in enough food to balance the over use of magicks the past two days. I know I need to eat, even if not hungry. As I do, my mind turns over his answers. They give me more questions than clearing up anything, but I hesitate to flood him with more.
I finish off my eggs. Ciara seems to retreat mentally. It's hard to tell what she is thinking. I wish I was in the habit of using more spices. "I would prefer to be able to make things you like. I guess I'm going to have to get you up to speed so you can show me how it's done."
I finish off my orange and apple juice as well. With the food done, it's time to rinse the dishes and put them in the dish washer. I collect the plates, glasses, and forks and move them to the sink. Giving everything a rinse, I stow the dishes in the dishwasher. "I have to pee if you are ready for a toilet use lesson." It's a bit crazy to me, but I don't want Ciara to get stranded on using the bathroom. I could show her tooth brushing and hand washing as well.
I blink and am brought from my thoughts as he speaks. I look at him, only to drop my gaze again. I am making things difficult for him. I look up again to watch him once more put the servingware into a box after running water over them. It does not seem very clean, but I do not bother him with my worries. I tilt my head at his information to relieve himself. I am briefly confused until I realize he wants to show me how exactly to use the contraption, toilet. I rise and nod. “Yes, thank you.” I wonder if I will get teaching in how to use the bathing tub also. I could use a cleaning.
I walk Ciara to the bathroom. My hand flips on the light and then turns on the fan. "You use this fan if you have to poop. It is also proper to close the door if there are guest in the house or you need the fan to take away the smell of the poop." My hand flips the fan back off for now. "I'm peeing, so it's not necessary to run the fan." Moving over to the toilet, I lift the lid and sit on the seat. My bladder releases to empty into the toilet. "You just let it go and then flush it down." My hand grabs a square of toilet paper and I dab off the remaining urine from the tip of my cock and drop it into the toilet. "This paper is thin so it will go through the pipes without clogging. Don't send anything down the toilet besides poop, pee, or toilet paper." My right hand flushes the toilet. The swirls carries the paper and urine away.
I get up and wash my hands with soap and water. "You just wash up like this after you are done and dry your hands on the towel." I dry my hands and then grab my toothbrush and toothpaste. "This stuff in the tube cleans your teeth. You just put it on the brush, clean off your teeth, tongue and mouth and then spit it into the sink and wash it down." I start brushing my teeth to demonstrate. I eye the tub behind us. The idea of showing her how to wash seems exciting in many ways. I've never had a chance to clean a woman's body before.
I follow JP to the bathroom. When he turns on the thing he called a fan, it made a loud sound that startled me. I had never heard a fan make noise before. I look around and see nothing that looks like a fan to me either. I am frowning as he sits and demonstrates the use of the toilet. I watch everything go down with the swirl of the water and then the thing fills back up with clear water.
I turn my attention to him again as see him running more caught water in a smaller basin version as the cooking/eating room. I move up and lean against him to peer around and see what exactly he is doing. The smell of whatever he is using with the water makes my nose wrinkle. It is not exactly unpleasant, but neither is it pleasant to smell.
I do not move and look curiously as he explains cleaning teeth. My head tilts, and now I smell mint… and other things, in the stuff he uses to clean his teeth. I give a soft sigh. Things were so complicated. I start to move away from him.
I spit out my toothpaste seeing Ciara move away. It's time to play my card. "Let me wash you in the shower. That will be fun." I rush through finishing my brushing. I'm not sure where I would think she would run off to, but keeping her interest is something I really want at this point. My rinsing is fast and a bit messy. I have to splash the sink basin clean.
I turn around in a hurry. "What temperature do you like to bath in? Here, put your hand beneath the tub faucet. The hot water valve starts cold water, but it heats up. You just start adding cold water to the mix to get the temperature you want." I stick my left hand down with hers to get a feeling for the water temperature myself. If I wrinkle her nose again, I don't want a burnt hand to be the reason. My right hand turns on the hot water valve. The gush of cold water starts.
I pause and look at him. The thought of being clean brings a smile to my face. “I would like that. Though, I must admit, I still do not understand shower.” I watch him finish cleaning his teeth in his odd way, and then clean the mess he made.
He turns quickly and nearly knocks me over. I am quick to twist my body and move my feet though and manage to almost dance out of his way. My head cants as I look at him. I do not understand his hurry. His question brings me from studying him. “I do not understand… I bath in whatever temperature the river or stream is I use. Some are colder than others depending on time of year and ice melt. Back home, I guess the bathing pool was not cold, but not warm either.”
I am nervous about putting my hand under his captured stream, that is until he places his there too. I relax then not sure what we are doing, but wait patiently for him to show me what to do next. Humans have strange rituals and magicks.
I decide to keep the water relatively cool for Ciara. If she doesn't like hot water, it will do no good to make another unpleasant experience for her. "Okay, the water is going to warm up as the cooler water flushes from the pipes. I'll turn on the cold water feed to balance out the temperature. You tell me if you want more or less heat."
My hand feels the water start to warm. I turn on the cold water to keep it tepid. The shower will probably be cold for me, but at least Ciara would enjoy this better than the food. My body enjoys her contact. We are close together for this activity and it's nice. She moved so quick to dodge me. She was probably not a good person to get into a fight with. I guessed ninety-seven years of looking as great as she did forced her to learn how to defend herself. "How many mates have you had?" I'm curious if she has ever had children.
“You can make the water warmer if you wish. It really matters not. I have been in a hot spring once.” I watch closely as he works metal… knobs and makes the water change temperature. I wonder if I will ever be able to work his Human magicks. I sigh at the thought and lean into his body. I like that we are close like this.
I stiffen at his question and pull away slightly. That subject had been such a thorne in my side for so long with my Mother. I wonder how thrilled my Mother would be to find I have finally taken a mate. Suddenly I chuckle and relax back into him. “I have never had a mate, until now. I have only been an adult by my people’s standards for almost two decades now.”
I feel like a complete male slut with her answer. There were two girls in high school and another two in college I had sex with. My adult life had dried up on me, but there was one woman who had a one night stand with me. I didn't even think I was her first lover. Her confidence had seemed so high she didn't seem like a virgin at all. I really feel like my responsibility is on an all-time high now. Not only is she taking a chance on me, she is taking her first chance on me.
Since she was fine with a hot springs I let the water get nicely warm. I knew humans liked 98.6 degrees. I wondered what elf body temperature was. "The valves just open up pipes. The water is moving from gravity. We pump it in the air. Do you like that temperature?" It was time to get her into the water stream and hope she liked it.
“It is fine, yes.” I turn a bit and look at him. His explanation confuses me yet again. I just do not understand Human magicks, it is so very complicated. I look at him curiously, not sure what to do now. I look at his warm eyes and am once more reminded of the earth. I smile. “What do we do now?”
Her smile brings a smile to my face. "We lift this valve latch and step into the shower." My hand pops the faucet cut off and before long the shower is spraying warm water into the tub. I offer my arm to Ciara and help her into the shower before pulling the shower curtain closed. "Move into the stream and wet yourself. I'll get the washcloth ready with soap and water." I take the soap and the washcloth and use a side stream to wet it and start lathering it up.
My eyes widen as the water changes from a stream to a higher up spray. I look at JP uncertainly, but take his arm anyway and step into the bathing area, though it is not exactly a bath. The water hits me and I jerk, bumping into him. It stings some and had startled me. “I am sorry.” My nose wrinkles again as I smell whatever he is making wet, what he called soap. But it is no soap I am familiar with. I now recognize the other smell on JP I could not recognize last night. I get back under the water, only flinching now and then as I get myself wet as he told me too. Done, I turn and look at him, letting the water hit my back.
"Okay, let's wash you off now. Are you not liking the shower?" My hand moves up and starts washing her face. "I'm very honored you chose me for your mate, especially since it is your first attempt at keeping a mate. I don't know how your society works, but in ours, sometimes a mate turns out a bad choice and we try again. I am very much hoping I'm a good choice for you." I wash her ears and neck. "There you go. Close your eyes and rinse the soap off your skin and then I'll wash the rest of you up. The soap can sting your eyes so it's best to rinse it quickly after washing."
“The… shower is fine. I am not used to the spray of water is all.” My eyes close automatically as he brings the cloth up to my face. I cannot control the twisting of my face as the smell of his ‘soap’ nears my nose. As soon as he finishes I am quick to put my face under the water and let the stuff rinse off. Once I am sure it is all off I pull my face out and open my eyes to look at him.
“My people take Lovers, and those who want a more permanent commitment will do so either with a priest or priestess or in a quieter ceremony of their own. I though, am Heir to Kaelyr, or was, and my mate is for life and supposed to be very public.” I wait patiently for him to continue with washing me. I am not sure how he will take such news, since his society is so different than mine, though his words make me hopeful.
I wash her shoulders and arms. "I can deliver on the life mating. I don't think we will be a public couple though. I only live to about eighty years of age. Will you be able to take a new mate after I die? Here you will be fine taking another mate. It would just have to be someone who is okay with you being an elf." My hands move to wash her breasts. My fingers take extra time on her nipples. "Your body is amazing, Ciara." I move to her underarms and sides before working on her flat stomach.
I'm not the religious type. It's looking hopeful we will be a permanent couple. Being away from her religious leaders, it's uncertain if she'll look to perform a marriage ceremony at some point or not. Legal marriage will be impossible unless we find a way to get her a social security number. It's just paper really. As long as we are true to each other, we will be as good as married if not better.
I am relieved he has no problem with a permanent mating. I chuckle though at his denial of being a public couple. “Public does not matter. We are not in Kaelyr.” I frown though at his telling me of his shortened life span. That bothers me, but there is no help for it. “Yes, it is acceptable to take another mate if your first dies, though it does not always happen. My Mother has not.” My eyes close and all thoughts of talking are momentarily disrupted as he washes my breasts. A soft moan escapes me and my breathing picks up. I am disappointed when he moves on, but my eyes open and I try to remember what we were talking about.
Ciara's response to me cleaning her breasts gets me excited. My cock starts rising. My hands finish washing her sides and I move to her stomach, kneeling down to do so. Water is beading in her pubic hair like little adornments. My hands drop to push open the insides of her thighs and then I proceed to wash her hips and work inward to her pussy. I wash the outside first. Her skin is soft and my eyes feast on the vision of her bare lap. My fingers work into her valley and wash over her hood, clit, and labia. I decide soap into her canal is probably not a good thing. My hand lets the water rinse the washcloth and soak up fresh water. I use the cloth to rinse her sex. When the soap is all rinsed away, it is impossible to resist moving my face into her lap. I plant a kiss at the tip of her valley and push my tongue against the floor of her valley. My mouth moves downward working its way to her hood and labia. At the entrance to her canal, my tongue dips into it and swirls around.
My mind fogs again before I can recapture our conversation as he moves down my body. He pushes my legs to open and my hands shoot out to catch his shoulders and balance myself as I move my feet for him. My eyes close and my body shivers as he washes my sex. A sigh of pleasure escapes me. He runs the cloth over me again and my hands tighten on his shoulders, a wordless sound emerging from my throat. Then I feel his mouth and tongue on my sex and my eyes pop open in surprised shock. I have no knowledge of such a thing, and am unsure what it happening. Then a shudder hits me as his tongue does a most pleasurable thing with my sex. It is all I can do to not let my knees buckle, dropping me and losing the sweet contact.
Ciara sounds like she is enjoying me touching her cunt with my tongue as much as I am. I can taste her nectar on my tongue. My tongue draws back and circles around the entrance to her canal, playing over her petals. I realize this is her first time with oral sex. She has probably not even given a blow job despite being ninety-seven. My tongue moves back up her soft wet valley to her hood. The tip of my tongue searches underneath it for her bud. My right hand moves up. I insert my index finger into her canal up to the first knuckle and stir it around pressing on the sides of her honey pot.
I hear steady moaning, and realize it is coming from me. His tongue is doing amazing things to me and my body it shaking nearly constant now. I can feel my body tightening as I grow close to a pleasurable release. My hands tighten on JP’s shoulders. I am gasping and panting before too long. “JP.” My voice almost sounds tortured.
It's fun giving Ciara such pleasure. Her moaning is precious and her shuddering tells me she is feeling my touch intensely. Her grip on my shoulders spells out her urgency. My index and middle finger sink into her canal and curl up looking for her bumpy pocket. I not sure if an elf has the same anatomy as a human. I'm guessing she does though. My lips press around her hood and draw the sensitive flesh into my mouth. My teeth play touches her bud which is now swollen. My tongue flits across bundle between my teeth as my other arm moves around her lower back to catch her if loses her footing.
I feel his fingers enter me and my sex tightens around them. His mouth playing with the most sensitive part of my sex makes my body tighten like a drawn bow string. Then my body snaps like one pulled too tight. My body is wracked with shudders and my legs finally collapse, no longer able to hold me up. “JP!” I cry out in my pleasure, unable to help myself. My mind is spiraling to some place full of pleasure.
My left arm catches Ciara's falling weight along with my right hand probing her sex. My mouth releases her bud and I draw her down to the floor of the tub, my left hand sliding up her back until I have her neck held safely. My back shields her body from the falling shower water as I rotate around to bury my face in her sex again. My right hand sends my forefinger and middle finger back into her down to discover her cervix. My tongue presses her bud and my knuckles rotate against her entrance. I'm uncertain if she had an orgasm or not. I want to be sure I give her one. My free hand explores her thigh and hip.
For a moment the pleasure abates and I feel myself falling, but caught and lowered gently and easily. I do not feel the water beating on me anymore, but I feel JP back at my sex, and my hips jerk up. The pleasure engulfs me again, and my hands latch on to some part of his body and holds on. My back curves up and I cry out again. By the Gods, does he make me feel so good.
I feel her back arch and her voice cry out, but I'm not sure if it's an orgasm yet. I run my ring finger into her canal and curl it into her g-spot. My tongue does pressing circles around her bud while my forearm starts rhythmically pressing my knuckles into her entrance. The warm water feels good on my back. The grip of her hands even feels good. It is a sign I'm bringing Ciara a lot of pleasure. My tongue switches to fluttering on her bud. Its swollen state makes contact with it easy.
He doesn’t stop with the pleasure. I feel the walls of my sex tighten around his fingers. As his tongue continues on my most sensitive area, I am finding it difficult to think or speak. His fingers move within me, and I am driven deeper into pleasure, moaning loudly. His tongue starts to do an amazing thing to my overly sensitive spot, pushing my mind past pleasure straight into ecstasy. My hands tighten on him, as my body convulses wildly under his. I do not hear the strange sounds coming from me; I have lost the ability to be aware of myself or anything around me. Nor do I realize my sex releases a torrent of fluid from his ministrations.
My hand feels the gush of her nectar. Her sounds of pleasure make my heart sing. I run my tongue up to my knuckles to taste the fresh flow from her canal. Her flavor is vexing and drives me into more want. My cock shudders, feeling a need to be inside her. My face lifts and I pull my hand out of her canal. Crawling around in a 180 turn I bring my face over hers to protect it from the falling water. "I have to have you Ciara." My right hand takes the base of my cock and I lower my body onto her aiming my shaft into her tunnel. My hips and ass push my manhood all the way into her with a fast thrust. Her silk is so wet it is an easy plunge despite the tightness of her walls. The pleasure of the surrender sends a pleasured groan from my mouth. My lips kiss the tip of her nose as my hips start taking her. My hands move to her wet breasts and start pressing and moving up and down over her softness.
I get a brief respite from his attentions. My mind slowly settles back into itself. I feel him move around above me and manage to let him go. I hear his words and open my eyes and see his beautiful face looming above me. A smile starts to form on my lips, only to be lost in a gasp as he enters me. His words make me shiver, and I moan. “I am yours JP. You have me.” I feel his kiss distantly as once more he pleasures me and sends my mind spiraling down that path. My hands move to his sides and hold on as my hips meet his and my chest pushes into his hands.
My hips press into Ciara with urgent force but my pace is steady to enjoy the feel of her silk surrounding my shaft. My hands move down her breasts so my fingers can take her nipples and glide them between my fingers. The wetness makes them slippery and I can press them as the erect nubs travel up and down my finger pads. "You are a sweet blessing to have, Ciara. Your surrender is so sweet." My lips move down to give her a tender kiss. The pleasure of her canal sends waves through my body. My emotion wells up as well. Ciara has given herself over to me completely and it is an awesome gift. I want to make good on being her man. She is so special, not because she is an elf, but because she is such a kind soul with so much trust in me despite my bland cooking and foreign ways. She might never conceive with me, but I wonder if over several decades we might share a child. I feel I am hers despite our short time together. "You have me, Ciara. All of my effort will be for our life together."
JP makes my body sing as it never has before. I am lost in the pleasure of it all. The Gods surely blessed me with meeting him. His voice reaches me, and with difficulty, I try to concentrate on what he is saying. My heart rejoices that he feels the same way. I meet his kiss with love plain and simple. I cannot explain why I feel such love so quickly for a man I barely know. But I have, to the point that I have agreed to be his mate. I do not regret the choice. His ways are strange, but I will learn them, and be a helpful mate to him, in all I can.
His next words trigger something strange. I feel as if our souls actually join as one for a brief moment. I know his longings and wants and needs. It even seems that I learn a bit more about his world. Our legends are way off. I then feel us separate and sense Hanali Celanil, Goddess of Love, there. I feel her bless both us and our union. Then I come back to the material plane and feel my body once more release in pleasure. “Oh, JP.”
Some kind of connection forms between us. She calls my name. The intense emotion I have for her wells up in full power. "Ciara, I love you." My loins convulse in response to the feeling. As my mind voices its truth, my body echos my heart. My seed pours into her canal as my shuddering body presses into hers. It is a kind of odd consummation. My throat calls out, trying to make her name, but my tongue and lips are too lost in the pleasure and it is only my overwhelmed voice that echos on the tub walls. Her body seems to be doing the same as mine. When the last of my seed expels into her reaches the tension in my muscles collapses. My lips fall to hers in a deep yet tender kiss. My tongue lazily brushes her teeth and tip of her tongue as my lungs work to return air to my spent body. Finally enough control returns to my face to lift my lips barely away from hers. My lips actually brush Ciara's when I speak. "We are married, Ciara. You have your man. It is an honor that fills my heart completely."
My hands move to hug her sides. The water starts to cool a bit from the shower but it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is I'm holding my new wife and she is a wonderful person. The warmth of her body beneath me is more than enough to fortify me against the cooling water. The compelling need to hold her joins with a desire to kiss her and my lips return to hers, feeling completely at home.
I resettle into my body after our shared joining. His word echo in my head. “I love you, JP. The Gods made us for each other, and brought us together at last.” My hands move to his sides and gently hold on. I am exhausted from this encounter. He kisses me again, and I delight in the pressure of his lips on mine. My hands tighten briefly on his sides, then relax. All I want to do is cuddle with him, but he has plans for the day. Slowly my fingers start to glide along his sides.
I reach up to the valves and stop the shower. The water is cool since the hot water heater is drained. I wish we are in the bed. We have to climb out and dry off to get there. I kiss her again with passionate pressure between our lips. My tongue teases out to caress her lips against mine. Her fingers send bliss along my sides and my own fingers start drifting along her sides as well. I break the kiss to tell her the new feeling in my being. "I want to lay down with you in the bed. Your camp is the only thing we need to take care of. We can get that later. I just want to be next to you, Ciara. Let me know when you are ready to get up and dry off. We can lay here for now. Your body is too magical to lose contact with until we are ready to start towards the bed." My body is now relaxed and a hike or swim is not as urgent. We are together in a very stable way now. It is good to just be in close contact.
I almost giggle as he kisses me and his tongue dances along my lips tickling them. Instead I open my mouth into the kiss and let my tongue come out to play with his. I sigh when he breaks the kiss. I give a soft laugh at his new plans for the day. “I think the bed would be far more comfortable to lie upon than the hard surface we are currently on. And more room.” I must wait for him to get up though before I can get out of the rectangular box we are in and get dry. I am not really in a hurry. He feels nice right where he is.
I give Ciara one more kiss and slowly pull myself to my feet. Offering my hands to her, I lift her up as well and then grab a towel. "Here, I'll dry you off and then you can use the towel for your hair." My hands start gently working over her skin from her forehead down. "Ciara, you are very beautiful. Men are going to be very jealous of me." After finishing drying her off, I hand her the towel and grab another to dry my body off. My arm opens the shower curtain and I step out to help Ciara out of the tub. My face cannot help but smile at her. She makes me feel very much at peace and happy. After placing my own towel on the rack, I lead the way to the bedroom holding Ciara's hand. I help her into the bed, lifting her legs. With another kiss on her lips, I head around to my side and slip in beside her. My one leg moves into hers and my arm reaches for her far side. We are back where we started before sealing together in the tub. It's a humble sanctuary, but it's ours.
“My name is…” I pause as I have to remind myself that my actual name is far too unusual for here. “…Ciara Adare. Tis a pleasure to meet you, JP.” I study him as I wait for him to order. I note the shoes on his feet, and feel slightly less bad about my own clothes. I note color to his clothes, and now understand my natural tanned clothing is also odd. I will have to find the ingredients for dyes in future clothes I make. Perhaps things to decorate them as well? I do not yet know.
His brown eyes are rich in color, like fresh turned earth, but they hold a restlessness within that is very unlike the earth. His hair is dark brown as well, and slightly short. It has surprised me that the males of this place have mostly short hair. He has a rough looking face fur on his jaws and that too is odd to me. Many times I have been tempted to reach out and feel this fur to see if it is as rough as it looks. But once more I refrain. I am already considered odd enough. Were he one of my people, he wouldn’t exactly be considered beautiful, but for one of his people, it is clear he is. My gaze settles back on his eyes.
I cringe at bud light and miller light. Apparently poor Ciara didn't know what watered down was. Maybe she just didn't like me. "What in the world brings you to Moorcroft, Ciara? Shouldn't you be in college or something?" I should have paid more attention in college. Maybe I could have avoided Moorcroft entirely. "I already know Janice is here stalking me, but you don't seem like the kind to stalk me." It was fun teasing Janice. She had enough brass to throw it right back at you. I even shared rail jokes with her. Dewey was slipping though and Ciara didn't need to mess with that kind of thing. "Janice, when is Dewey going to get some nice summer beer in here? We need a microbrewery." Janice would give me hell for that one too, but it was all in good fun until I got a beer dumped in my lap.
I figured I better order before I got myself into real trouble. "Duval, please." The beer was badly needed anyway. A nice cool swim in Keyhole would go a long ways were it not for my tired limbs. The beer was going to do just fine and Ciara wasn't half bad to look at. The leather was kind of alluring in many ways. She just didn't fit here though. She was someone you'd expect near a college campus at a strip club or Hooter's or something. Maybe Dewey conned one of his nieces to spice up business, but it wasn't like the crowd in Moorcroft was going to change in a quick hurry. Sure, he would get one or two nights of the two other bars in town showing up, but that would more likely cause a ruckus from the mixed crowd and then the novelty would wear off sending things back to the status quo.
It would be interesting to know where Ciara lived or even hung out. There was something refreshing about her and I could not deny she was an interesting prospect. Sure, I was thinking like a dog, but if you didn't, some other dog would move in and take what you were looking at and not bat an eyelash. Maybe I was a bit on the old side for her, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
I see his cringe and wonder what I have now done wrong. With a sigh and a nod, I turn and walk away. I do not remember to answer his questions in my preoccupation with how to fix the things I do so wrong. When I get to the bar I tell Mark I need a Duval. He looks me over as he pours the drink. “You know I meant nothing by earlier, girl. I was only teasing.” I just nod, accepting him as he is. Then it dawns on me that I never answered JP’s questions. My eyes close as I drop my head in mortification. I do not think I will keep this job long now either. I am horrible.
Before Janice could reply to JP’s quip, she notes Ciara walking off. She stares after her with a perplexed look. “That one is very odd, JP. Dewey doesn’t even know where she comes from. You know how people blow through here, but she was very desperate for a job, and I think Dewey took pity. She may last in spite of herself. I have this feeling he’ll find somewhere for her to fit.”
Mark hands me the Duval on a tray like Janice’s. I gingerly pick it up and walk awkwardly with it in both hands in front of me. I recall Janice carrying it with one hand, but I do not feel the least bit confident I can yet pull that off, even with my agility. I see Janice talking to JP, but they have stopped by the time I return. I set the tray down on the table since I cannot remove the drink easily otherwise. Then I grab the drink and set it carefully in front of JP.
“I am not in this college you speak of, no. Is it a good place to be?” I hesitate to say anything about why I am here. In fact, I ignore the question entirely. It wouldn’t do well for my well-being for these people to know the truth I feel. Also, since I do not know these people, I do not trust them. Our legends have always put them in a really bad light. I have decided with my banishment to see how close to truth they really are. So far, I am not impressed with our legends.
I pick the tray up and hold it in front of me with my arms folded over it. Briefly I look to Janice, who is once more giving me the Odd Look. I have erred once more. Pity the job required me to speak. I’d probably stand out less if I didn’t have to talk. A sigh escapes me and I shake my head, dislodging the what ifs.
Janice overestimated the challenge of running a bar really. You just needed people who didn't get sauced on the product and started doing a lousy job running the tabs and exchanging the money. Ciara seemed to have the drink list down pat and with her looks was probably going to get good tips anyway. "She'll be fine, Janice. No worries."
It was funny seeing my beer show up on a tray. Ciara was definitely a formal one. "Thanks, Ciara. College beats this place up and down. The boys are younger and probably going to be richer and you can do something more interesting than move alcohol, dig dirt, or help them move it down the track. I'm surprised your parents never told you about college. You've been home schooled up in the mountains I take it?" She had to be the best looking woman I knew that had no idea about college. Maybe her father or uncle kept her locked up in the mountains and she finally escaped. It gave me the shivers to think what her childhood must have been like.
Of course my childhood had not been exactly peaches and cream. Not sure how many men beat the crap out of my mother. Hell, Gerald stuck a knife in her a few times and ended her child bearing prematurely when I was still in diapers. Wasn't sure where that monster was living these days but I'm sure he was making someone's life hell. At any rate, it left me guaranteed to be an only child rather than an oldest brother of several, but it didn't keep the parade of losers from visiting our home and ruining my mother's life. I remember kicking the living hell out of Otis when I was seventeen. It was too bad they invented dentures, but he decided my mother wasn't the woman for him after that.
Ciara had that sexy empty tray hold. "She's doing fine, Janice. Give the girl a break. Besides, guys think that's cute. You should try it more." I smiled at the women. Janice was funny and the girl obviously wanted to do well. A desire to do well made a quick learner. Maybe Janice was worried Ciara might replace her one day. Somehow I didn't think that was going to happen though. I took a sip of my beer and let the stuff cool me down. You never knew who might blow in on a Friday night.
A sour look crosses my face at the word money. I shrug slightly. “Money is not everything. Neither is a potential mate you have no interest in in the first place.” I look away at that point, my thoughts having gone back to my former life. Janice touches me, bringing me back with a start. “Come, sweetie, we must work.” I nod and walk off with her. I look back over my shoulder at JP. “Have a good night… JP.”
Janice takes me around and the place starts to fill up. It becomes very busy and a tad confusing. We are back and forth many times. I am still not overly comfortable with holding the tray in one hand, though Janice encourages me constantly to do so. A couple hours later a lull comes into the business, and I have a tray full of drinks I am trying to deliver. One of them is JP’s. Finally, Janice has convinced me to hold the tray with one hand.
As I approach JP’s table with the tray with four drinks, I loose the balance of the tray and it tilts dangerously. I try to move quickly to catch it, but fail horribly. He is doused in the drinks and I stand there absolutely mortified, too stunned to move or think. I am fired, I know this deep in my soul.
Poor Ciara was going to find out Moorcroft not only did not have potential mates or money and that life without either wasn't very exciting. I had been living on my own for four years since college and not much had happened in my life at all. There was the local crowd that already had everything sorted out among themselves and then there were drifters like me that came through from work and left as well having only advanced in age.
"I'll be hanging out awhile. Have fun yourself, Ciara." Usually I drank a good bit on Friday nights. The weekend was off for me as long as no emergency calls came in and I was free to get plastered. I took my time with the beers though and watched the baseball games on the TV. My beer consumption rate was a slow beer every thirty minutes. Ciara was finally learning her balancing act with a single hand on the tray. After the rush it looked like she was getting brave and doing a multiple order delivery. My fifth beer was on that tray so my eyes watched her weave around the tables my way. Samuel had joined me and was shooting the bull with me. He had a Bud Light coming as well. "Looks like our beers are inbound, Sam."
My eyes were checking out Ciara's leather as she approached. Her body was simply too tempting to look at. Her body suddenly jumped to my surprise when she approached me and my eyes darted up to her face. She had lost control of the tray and the image that hit me was one of Ciara's shocked face staring at an empty tray facing my face. Cold wetness was rapidly soaking into my lap. My hands shot out and away as my face turned down to my lap. The two bottles were busy discharging themselves on the floor and my hands whipped down to grab them by the necks and set them on the table. Certainly there would be a little alcohol left to salvage in them. Whoever ordered the drafts were out of luck unless they wanted to suck them out of my jeans. Personally, Ciara was the only one I would want doing anything like that anyway.
My hands retrieved the empty mugs from my lap and set them on the table with the half full bottles of beer. "No worries, Ciara. Nothing broke and these are track clothes anyway. You can come to my house and run my laundry tonight and we'll call it even." Sam was laughing at me. "Damn, JP, can't you use the bathroom for a change instead of pissing your pants?" I handed the two empty mugs up to Ciara and gave Sam a smirk. "Very funny, Sam." There was a little excitement on Friday night after all; it was just at my expense this time.
His voice brings me out of my shocked state. I look up at his face and blink furiously. I feel stupid and frustrated, and when I get like that tears tend to fall. Something I hate even more so. I shake my head a bit at JP. “I am so sorry… I… laundry?” I feel Janice come up behind me at that moment.
“Dewey wants you.” She gives me a slight nudge towards the bar, and I obediently turn and walk to the bar. My shoulders are slumped and I am still blinking to fight the tears that want to spill. Useless things. I hear Janice as I walk away. “JP, you poor dear. You okay?” she is clucking and making a fuss, and I am assuming she is cleaning up my mess.
I approach Dewey and look up at him. I have my eyes mostly under control at this point. I wait for him to speak. I dread it, but understand, he will fire me and send me out. He stares at me, as does everyone in the tavern, er, bar. I am wishing that the earth would just open beneath my feet and swallow me whole. Finally Dewey speaks. “Come with me.” He leads me to the back where his office is and closes the door after I enter.
I jump in and speak before he can. “I will go, no fuss. I have messed up badly. I am sorry. Sorry I have wasted your time as well.” He doesn’t say anything at first and motions me to sit in one of the chairs in the room. He takes the other after I do, and stares at me some more. I start to grow uncomfortable and am starting to wonder why he’s so silent. I have been staring at my lap waiting, and finally can’t take it anymore and peek up at him.
He is… laughing? It looked that way. He body was shaking and he was almost red in the face holding back the laughter. Finally he releases it in great gales. I stare at him wide eyed. This was not the reaction I had expected. Finally he settles down enough to speak. “Ciara, I’m not firing you. Accidents happen; fortunately it was JP that particular accident happened too. He’s fairly level headed, even when he drinks. Janice has told me how well you have been doing. In all actuality I’m glad to see you screw up. It shows you’re actually human, not some perfect automaton as you’ve been displaying.”
I jerk slightly at being called human, but frown at him as the rest of his words sink in. “I am not supposed to learn everything flawlessly?” I am so confused. I want to do my best as I usually do with any task, I do not understand being imperfect is acceptable. Do not humans strive to do their best? I sigh trying to sort out everything. It seems our legends and knowledge is sorely inadequate.
Dewey stares at me for a moment, humor gone and confusion on his face as well. “No… You are not a machine Ciara, and you need to relax and quite trying so hard. No one expects you to do everything perfectly your first night.” He sighs and looks me over. “You’re a refreshing change, but so odd.” He shakes his head. “Now, I want you to arrive two hours early every day. We’ll practice you carrying a tray until, you are comfortable with it, and there’s no one around to dump drinks on. Ok?”
I nod in acceptance. I am confused with being compared to a machine, and hurt at the odd comment. I do not understand the one, and will work on the second and hopefully become less odd. “Good. Now why don’t we call it a night. Go home and get some rest, hmm.” I nod again and rise to leave. I stop at the door and pause.
“Sir, would it be possible for me to take a tray with me to practice with as well?”
Dewey looks up at me a bit startled. He stares at me a moment thoughtfully, then slowly nods. “Ask Mark to find you one of our old ones.” I nod and exit finally.
I approach the bar, eyes are on me again. Mark looks me over. “You ok?”
“Yes. Dewey told me to ask you to find me an old tray to take and practice with.”
He raises his eyebrows but turns and hunts around behind the bar. Finally he returns with an old battered and stained tray. “Here you go. See you tomorrow?”
“Thank you.” I nod as I hold the tray against my belly with my arms folded over it and head for the door. My eyes are on the floor and my thoughts have already turned to trying to practice holding a tray proper and what I’ll use to help me in this endeavor.
Janice ran over and rescued Ciara from the embarrassment. It wasn't the first drinks to get spilled at Dewey's and they would not be the last unless someone burned down the place. "Everything is fine, Janice. I don't melt with beer. I would have been wetter than this earlier if I did. How about getting me my tab so I can get home and into some dry clothes? I think Sam got his show for the night anyway."
I flashed Sam some wide eyes while he laughed at my demise. "I think the new girl likes me, Sam. If you were cuter than me you would have been wearing the beer instead." Sam waved me off. "Whatever, man, you don't stand a chance with a good looking lady like that. Hell, Janice wouldn't even take your scruffy butt home, especially not soaked like that." I rolled my eyes.
Janice brought the bill. I was sure to put on a full tip. A little accident didn't turn me into a cheapskate. Anyway, I would be back and it was better to be the help's friend than their irate problem customer, especially when it came to ordering food. "Thanks, Janice. Tell Ciara everything is cool. You would have thought she put a live hand grenade in my lap by the look on her face."
I paid in cash so I wouldn't have to wait for the credit card to come back. One of the great things of being single is you knew where you blew all your money anyway and didn't need paper to keep up with it. "You working tomorrow, Janice? Maybe I'll see you then." It was time for goodbyes with Sam as well. "Well, Sam, don't have too much fun without me." Sam grinned. "Alright, take care and see a doctor about that incontinence problem." I rolled my eyes and headed out the door.
As I walked to my truck and got ready to get in, Ciara came out the front door with a tray. It was kind of odd to see her knocking off already. No way had Dewey fired her over that. Hopefully she didn't quit. I walked up to her to investigate the situation and make sure she understood everything was cool. In the back of my mind I kept telling myself there were no ulterior motives, but that was just me trying to lie to myself.
"Hey, Ciara, you know everything is fine. It was just an accident. You didn't quit over that little thing did you? Janice has dumped more beer on me than I can count." It was a lie, but Ciara seemed rattled and there was no reason to let her run around upset at something so minor.
“Yes, JP, I work tomorrow. When don’t I work?” Janice grins slightly at him. After returning with JP’s tab she nods at his request. “I will JP, don’t worry.” She turns to Sam. “I would too take JP’s scruffy butt home. It’s yours I wouldn’t take.” And with that she walks off to get back to work.
I am startled from my thoughts by a voice. At first it does not register as familiar and I am instantly in a fighting crouch with the tray held like some sort of weapon. My body is turned sideways from the speaker to make myself less of a target, left foot slightly back and my weight is evenly balanced on both feet to come up in any direction with a simple shift of my body. The tray is held at an angle to throw or hit, depending on the moves the speaker takes. My fighting instructor would have been proud.
It finally registers that I recognize the voice about the same time I really look at the speaker. I blink and quickly stand upright. I know my face is turning red now, but hopefully with the dark it is not so noticeable. My gaze drops to the ground as I once more cradle the tray close to my body. Finally the words JP had spoken filtered into my mind and I shook my head. “No, I did not quit.” I pause briefly and my voice drops a bit lower. “I need this job, I cannot quit.”
I sense the lie told about Janice, and while it is kind of him to try to make me feel better, I am unsettled that he told it so effortlessly. Of course, if I could have ever brought myself to lie so easily, I would probably still be at home, instead of here. I take a small step back from him and look up at him from the corner of my eye. I am uncertain what to do now.
A thought comes to me and my head comes up. I start to speak, but then prudence grabs me by the short hairs and my mouth snaps closed as I take another step back and drop my gaze again. I am already considered odd; better not compound the issue by the question of what laundry is. I search for a way to politely escape. After all he seems to be a returning customer to Dewey’s and I don’t want to add chasing off the guests to my already growing list of mistakes.
Still looking at the ground, I finally speak. “Thank you for not being mad. I should go though, Dewey has told me to go home and rest.” I started to slowly work my way around him since he stands between me and my way home. I am sure to stay facing him though as I move. “I am sorry again for the spill. Be safe.”
I'm surprised to see Ciara go into some kind of fighting stance. It's sexy, but a bit bothersome too. Maybe they had not been kind to her at all in those mountains. Her blush and down turned eyes seemed like a bit of a turn on, but her steady steps away from me spoke more of fear. She must have took me for a potential rapist.
Her retreat was very obviously guarded. "The spill is nothing. You stay safe, too." There was no need to spook the woman any worse than she was. I walked over to my truck. Ciara didn't seem to be walking towards any cars though. She looked like she was going to walk down the street. "You going to be okay, Ciara? You need a ride?" She was probably safe in Moorcroft, but there was always the occasional good ol' boy looking for trouble. I wasn't sure how deadly the serving tray might be.
The evening air cooled my beer soaked lap. It smelled good to me, but the eye candy was going home for the evening. I figured I could turn in early, get some rest and maybe head up to Keyhole for some swimming and hiking. It was the best course of action for a day off in this sleepy town.
I still for a moment at his stay safe comment. Not something usually heard on this side of the Veil. I smile slightly at him and nod. I turn and walk off. Almost to the street and I hear JP’s voice again. I stop and turn towards him. I raise my voice slightly. “I am well, JP. Thank you.” I turn and head down the street at a quick pace headed for the larger of the two overly green meadows they have here. Beyond that are twin metal lines and then on to the river, I will be at my encampment in an hour’s time.
It is not overly late in this town, but traffic is light as the residents are either home, or off seeking entertainment. The walk is peaceful and I enjoy the night air. I am worried though for I can scent the ending of summer and that autumn is not all that far off as seasons go. Soon it will be too cold for me to live out of doors. If I cannot find some way to obtain shelter soon, I may very well freeze to death. Briefly I wonder if anyone would truly care. My Mother certainly would not. Neither would any of my power hungry siblings. I give a soft sigh as I continue on.
I got in my truck and drove home. Getting home, I shed the beer soaked clothes into the washer and decided to take a shower before running the laundry. After washing off, I got the laundry cranked. I always ran it on cold and just threw everything in together. My briefs were all colored anyway so white dingy was never a problem. As the laundry ran, I grabbed a beer out the fridge and sat down naked on the couch. It was funny how a small house could feel so big when you lived alone. I had one whole room I wasn't even using.
I flipped on the TV. A bunch of shows were on I never really got to see since this was not my normal Friday night time. Some nature show was on, so I let that run while I finished off my beer and waited for the laundry to finish. Keyhole was definitely the plan tomorrow after seeing the nature show. The laundry machine buzzed so I turned off the TV, leaving the empty beer bottle on the coffee table in my living room. I tossed in a fabric softening sheet into the drier and moved the wet clothes to the drier. After the drying was running, it was a matter of crawling into bed and falling asleep quickly under the relaxing influence of alcohol.
The morning light through the bedroom window woke me up. Hopefully Ciara was feeling better and home safe. I got up to fold my clothes and put them away. From there, I made some scrambled eggs, ate them in the kitchen and put on my blue swim briefs, some jean shorts, and a white T-shirt. I grabbed some bottles of water to refill my cooler and headed to Keyhole in my truck. It was another sunny day and a good swim and hike would be nice.
As I arrive at my encampment, I drop the tray near the fire pit. My next order of business is to check the traps and snares I set up this morning. Now that I have a job, I will not be able to hunt on a regular basis. I will have to reserve big game hunting for what days I do not have to work. I also need to start thinking about getting in enough stores for the winter. I find a rabbit and a quail in my traps and snares tonight. It is enough for now. I quickly kill the quail, the rabbit is already dead. I take both back to my encampment and drop them near the fire pit as well. I am quick to get a small fire going. I skin the rabbit while I wait for some nice hot coals.
Soon I have the rabbit on a spit, and the quail roasting in a mud shell. I set to work scrapping the hide of the rabbit. I will tan it later and use it for winter clothes along with the other skins I have saved up. After an hour, everything is cooked. The rabbit is stored away for breakfast in the morning while I wait for the quail to cool some before cracking it open. I dig out some tubers I have stored and lightly roast them as well as I wait a few more minutes on the quail.
Once I am done, I take my discard and leave my encampment. I go several feet down stream and leave what is left for any scavengers that might be interested. Then I head back and finish storing everything away. Up in trees has always been safest from most animals, and I even sleep there myself. I settle in for the night and look up at the stars and thinking about my first night at Dewey’s. My thoughts drift to JP just before I fall asleep. He was so kind over the spill, it was nice. I fall asleep to eyes the color of the earth.
Morning comes and I am up with the sun. I am soon down with rabbit and tray in hand. I have decided stones might work for practice. Heavy stones. I take time to break my fast first. Then I go and check my traps once more. The morning yields a raccoon and a fox. Both are still alive, and I quickly let them go. Neither is all that palatable to me. I reset and then head to the river to find stones for me to use. Soon I am back to my encampment and trying to practice balancing the tray one handed with stones large and small scattered across its surface.
I spend the morning this way, by the end of it, my skill is improving, but I still have troubles. As I am ready to call it quits for the day, it spills once more and a rather large stone lands on my left foot. I yelp in pain and hop around for a minute. Gingerly, I set my foot back down and yelp again. I sit, hard, and look over my foot. I wince as I feel it. I am afraid it might be broken. I try to heal it, but the Magick is weak on this side of the Veil. The pain is lessened, but it is not healed. I sigh in disgust. But now I do know it is broken. Oh, well there is no hope for it.
I get up and hobble around carefully. I put the tray away and grab a bag I have with healing plants I have found around here. Quickly I make a paste and apply it to the top of my foot. It should help keep the swelling down and might help aid in healing it quicker. Using scraps left over from making my clothes, I quickly wrap my foot and put my shoe back on. Putting everything away, I head into Dewey’s now. I will be slow on the walk now with my injury, but there’s no help for it.
I arrive just in time for my tutorial on tray carrying. As I limp in, Dewey looks up. “What happened to you?”
I am embarrassed. “I dropped a rock on my foot.”
He gives me the Odd Look I am starting to grow accustom to. “You ok?”
“I am well, thank you.”
“I didn’t ask how you felt, I asked if you are ok.” I give him a confused look. I do not understand. Seeing this, he gives a sigh and speaks to me as if I am a child. “Is your foot ok? How bad is it?”
I blink and want to take offense, but just cannot. In truth I am like a child all over again. “It is broken, but I will manage.”
Dewey blinks and shakes his head, and I hear a whistle from in back as Mark and Janice walk out. “Ciara, you can’t work with a broken foot.”
I lift my chin and know my most stubborn look crosses my face. “I can, and I will.” All three look at me oddly once more.
Mark finally shrugs. “The girl’s got spunk, gotta give her that.”
Dewey sighs. “Very well, then, start practicing, but if it gets worse, you are to stop immediately. Understood?”
I nod my understanding. I am not about to tell him it already hurts worse than it did after my healing attempt. The walk in was not good for it evidently. The pain was ebbing as I had just chewed some willow before coming in. I would be fine.
Janice and Mark set me up with a tray and mugs full of water to practice with. I am better, hurt foot aside, and even manage to not spill anything in the two hours of practice. I set the tray down and squeeze my eyes shut. My foot had just flared up in sharp pain. Both Mark and Janice look at me with concern, but I pull out some willow and chew on it. Mark looks at it sharply. “What is that? Drugs are forbidden. Didn’t Dewey tell you that?”
I nod. “It is willow bark. I… do not do drugs?” I do not know what drugs are, and my logic says if I do not know, then I must not do them. Mark just nods and accepts my answer. People are starting to enter the bar. I move away and get ready to work. I look for faces from last night as people enter.
I spent more than a half day at Keyhole. It was relaxing to feel the cool water and the shade of the trees. The sun wasn't bad at all when hot rock and metal wasn't adding its heat to the mix of the day. After enjoying the exercise and good weather, it was time to head back. I showered got into my jeans and moccasins and headed over to Dewey's to see the same old same old and have a few more beers. Hunger hit me before I made it to the door though. A few sandwiches solved that problem with a nice glass of milk. I gave the dishes a cleaning and put them away and even remembered to toss the beer bottle in the trash from last night. Satisfied the house was in order, it was time for the drive to town.
The sun was still up when I got to Dewey's, but there was bound to be someone to talk to inside. I parked my truck and went in to see the scene.
When the front doors parted my eyes scanned the scene. Ciara was back but it looked like she was limping. "Damned, Mark, you beating the help now?" My frown turned to Janice. "Why is Ciara limping around?" This was an aggravating situation to see. I knew Ciara said she needed the job, but to be working as a waitress with a hurt leg or foot was madness. She didn't even have a car.
I look up as I hear the voice that is becoming more and more familiar each time I hear it. I frown at his comment to Mark. “Nah, JP, I have this strange feeling she’d hand me my ass if I even thought of making such an attempt.” I look sharply over at Mark. Did he see my instinctive reaction to JP last night? I look away frowning slightly in thought. I suppose it is possible, or maybe someone else saw and said something. I was going to have to be more careful.
Before Janice can answer JP though, I do so for myself. “I may be uncertain to many things, but I am quite capable of answering for myself.” I know I have gone into Royal mode, and try to ease out of it, but it irked me that he asked Janice as if she was my Mother, or Keeper, instead of just asking me. “I broke my foot today. Not anything to get excited about. I am well.”
I turn away and move behind the bar to a trash receptacle and spit out the chewed bit of willow. My mouth is a bit numb, but the pain dulling properties of the willow have entered my system a fresh and the pain is ebbing once more. As I come out from behind the counter, I limp a bit less. I will survive the broken foot, even if it kills me. As my Instructor taught me, ignore pain if you can, if you cannot, then use it as a goad to get you through.
I looked at Ciara. She was crazy. "Yeah, well, if you were so wise you'd know a broken foot bleeds internally and walking on it without a cast or splint damages the bone more until you get gangrene and lose it. I work for Union Pacific and we have enough safety training to minor in medicine. If you are walking around on a broken foot, you aren't well, you are heading for trouble. I have a foot splint back at my place from when I messed my foot up at the crossing. Maybe you should take a week off so you don't lose your foot. I can drive you by my place, get the splint on your foot and then drop you off at your place. This isn't elves and fairy tales. No one is going to wave their magic wand and make it better. It isn't Rocky either. You aren't going to be able to just bear and grin it without potentially crippling yourself. You might need a doctor already treating an injury like that so bad."
The new girl had issues. Maybe she was afraid of doctors because she did something bad or didn't have insurance. Whatever the reason, running around on a broken foot without a splint was asking for serous disability. My eyes gave her amber ones a tough stare. She was being flat silly.
I just stare at JP as he speaks. Most of what he says is beyond my understanding. I do flinch, strongly, at the mention of Elves and Faerie. Then I frown, how did magic wands come to be associated with my people? We do not use wands. Magick comes from tapping the force lines that abound and drawing into yourself to manipulate the way you wish to cause a desired result. Far as I knew, Faeries did the same, but then the legends of humans were way off, so maybe it was with the Faerie as well? Problem with this side of the Veil is that the force lines were extremely weak.
Something he said finally did sink in enough for me to comprehend, and I start shaking my head. “I cannot take a week off. I cannot.” If I do not get the money the human’s desire, how am I to find shelter for the winter? I look at JP desperately. “I have wrapped it, and have a paste applied to help it heal. Willow helps to keep the pain from being bad.”
Seeing his hard stare unrelenting though, the fight and stubbornness drains from me. I am upset and think I should just quit fighting the inevitable. I am neither fit for this side of the Veil nor my own side. I look to Dewey. “Thank you for giving me a chance. You were the only one who did.” I move and walk out of the bar. I look at no one, my confidence in myself to surmount anything I put my mind too, is now gone. I exit the bar and head across to the street, heading for my encampment.
Tears of frustration run down my face as I hobble along. Perhaps I could move on to another human town? But by the time my foot heals winter will be upon me. I will not survive the cold; I am too ill prepared for it on this side, and most of my things to survive such conditions are still on the other side. I just do not have the time to make what I need, especially now that I am hurt.
I know Mother had wanted me to suffer; she would be delighted if she knew just how much I suffered now. Especially since she waited until this time of year to banish me, and then denied me the things that were rightfully mine as I was sent across the Veil. The tears continue to flow, and I do not even have the strength of will to try and stop them. The only thing to keep me moving at this point until I can reach the safety of the wilds to find a place to die is the fact that I do not want someone to find me first and stop what should be done.
As I reach the road to take me back, pain bright white and hot sears up from my foot. My vision then goes to black and I feel myself falling, though I cannot stop myself. My mind disappears down into the darkness. I am no longer aware of the world around me. I briefly wonder if this is what death is like, before I loose all thoughts and the Glamour I had been maintaining.
Ciara wasn't being reasonable. "If it's hurting that means you need to rest it. Masking pain is basically breaking your body more. That's your body saying, 'Keep still, I need to heal.'" I watch Ciara try to quit her job. I try to reason with her as she marches out. "Look, I have some spare money. If you need a loan to get you through the week, I can spot you a loan. You just have to let your foot heal. You don't have to just give up."
I follow her out. She is completely ignoring me. Her tears break my heart. "Look, if you are going home at least let me give you a ride. This is silly to walk on your foot like this. Why is it so important to work without letting your foot heal? Would you at least tell me that?"
She is like talking to a wall. It's as if I'm not even right here walking along side of her. "Ciara. Ciara!" She leads us to a dirt road but then starts fading, probably from the pain. I catch her. My arms lift her underneath her thighs and behind her shoulders and I gather her into my chest. She's incredibly light.
I'm not sure whether to take her to the emergency room or to my house to splint her foot. Maybe she would come to and we could figure out what she wanted to do. I didn't want to take her to the emergency room and get her in more trouble if she was in trouble with the law. I didn't even have any identification on her. It strikes me she doesn't have a purse on her. What if she was an illegal alien? She would really hate me for dragging her into the emergency room then.
I decide to take her to my house. She might bash my brains in thinking I was no good, but at least she would be safe and I had a foot splint for her. Maybe she would talk about her problems for a change and there would be a way to work something out. One week of work shouldn't kill anyone. Ciara was missing something completely.
I claw my way back to consciousness and feel myself moving. It is a strange swaying motion that I quickly realize is someone carrying me. I feel my stomach go all fluttery and realize I am going to be sick. As the sensation grows, I groan in distress. I violently push against whoever is carrying me and twist my body. I land on the ground and my foot flairs up once more.
Stubbornly, I cling to consciousness as the contents in my stomach regurgitate. It would not do to fall face first into the mess and drown myself. There is not much that comes up, just a small bit of the rabbit I had for breakfast that my stomach had not finished absorbing and the fluids that reside there. Once done, I flop onto my back. I look up, but my vision is already tunneling and all I see are eyes the color of the earth that chase me back into the darkness.
I can't believe I dropped her. Not only that, she puked. I really needed to get her to the truck just to clean her mouth off for her. It was crazy she was thinking of working all night. I wonder how she broke her foot. Knowing my luck she broke it playing with that silly tray just because I got some beer on my jeans.
I scooped her back up again. "Come on, Ciara. Let's figure out how to put you back together again." It was kind of odd holding a woman I didn't even know and carrying her back to my truck. Something about her seemed to need protection though. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something really trustworthy about her. Maybe that's why Dewey gave her the job.
At my truck I open the door using my hand from the arm beneath her thighs. I lay her on her side and buckle her in. The napkin stash from the door glove compartment comes in handy once again to clean off her face. She seems situated, so I close the door and hop in the driver's side.
It was too funny how my night of kicking back and drinking was getting replaced by nursing the new girl back to health. In many ways it was a lot more constructive. This activity seemed a lot more constructive and giving. It was refreshing to give instead of survive. I would figure out what Ciara needed to get back on her feet and get her there. It was a worthy mission and beat the hell out of talking about the latest sport events at the bar.
I fired up the engine and started driving home. It was a twenty minute drive. I wondered when Ciara would come out of her unconscious state. I drove carefully. She was not in good shape and sudden turn or braking might tussle her up. Pulling up to my house, I killed the engine. I got out, opened the front door and went back to the passenger side.
Opening the passenger door and seeing Ciara there, it hit me how vulnerable she was at this point. If I had been a bad person, she would have been in big trouble. At least she was safe. Hopefully she would understand that before she panicked too much. I unbuckled her and carried her into the living room to lay her on the couch. My left foot closed the pickup door and front door behind me. I got a glass of water from the kitchen along with a wet washcloth. The foot brace was in my living room closet. I pulled that out as well and sat the items on the coffee table.
Sitting down next to Ciara on the couch, I took the washcloth with my right hand and started washing her face. It was a very beautiful face and I intended to keep it safe and beautiful. Once her face was clean, I would put her hurt foot in the brace and hope she woke up soon so we could get her home and safe without having to worry about her missing work for a week.
A new and strange motion brings me partially back to consciousness, but I cannot seem to break through the last veil of darkness. Only partially aware, I hear strange sounds and feel myself picked up and carried once more. I am placed on something soft, and then more sounds are heard. Just as I am sinking into the more helpful and healing sleep instead of oblivion, a cold wetness caresses my face and jerks me to full wakefulness.
My eyes fly open as I bolt upright, and nearly fall over. I do not know what I am on, but the side that is blocked throws me off balance and I nearly fall off the other side. I catch up awkwardly against something warm and hard, yet yielding. I look up and see JP’s face, and my nose flares as I fully catch his scent for the first time. He smelled of water, earth, the sun, and something else I had nothing to correlate too. I hesitantly look around and realize I am in some sort of dwelling, but not the bar. I look back at JP confused. “Where?” It is all I can think to ask, as my foot once more makes itself know, causing me to wince.
Her amber eyes popped open in a snap when I resumed washing her face. It shocked me. Her head flew up and something was odd about her ear. There is no time to digest that though, my hands move to keep Ciara from taking another tumble. She seems to be taking her bearing and I use the lull in her panic to gently guide her back into the couch by her shoulders.
"Shhhhh, lie back down and relax. You are at my house so I can splint that broken foot of yours. You've passed out from the pain and even threw up from shock. I have some water here we need you to drink. I'm just washing off your face so you don't get acid burn on it."
My left hand strokes her left cheek and I keep going to draw back her forest green hair. My eyes grow wide at the site of her ear. She isn't human or has the oddest birth defect I've ever seen.
"Ciara, I'm seeing amber eyes, forest green hair, and now pointed ears." My fingers trace over her ear. It feels very real. "Are you from another planet or something? Something tells me you are not human at all. I was thinking of getting you medical care, but I'm not so sure that's a good idea. Unless you have a social security number, I'm guessing you are not going to get a warm reception from police around here."
"You are safe here. I'm not going to hurt you. We just need to figure things out for you to make it without walking your foot literally off. How did Dewey say he was going to pay you anyway?" If anyone knew her identification it would be Dewey. I wondered what Dewey already knew. It could be dangerous for Ciara in the end if he knew too much.
I am easily pushed back into the softness. I listen to him explain and am starting to even relax. I do not know why, but I feel… safe? with him for some reason. As his hand caresses my face, my eyes actually even close, the touch of another had been denied me for so long, before my banishment. And after, well, it was better to keep my distance, least my secret is found out. I do not even notice as he moves to my hair, not until he speaks and the change in his voice registers.
My body has frozen completely. My secret is out; blast myself for that moment of weakness. My eyes fly open once more and dart to look at him, panic and the need to escape I am sure very vivid in them. In my panicked state, he was able to easily trace the delicate whorl of my ear. It makes me shiver, and that breaks my paralysis.
I jump upright again and scurry to the far end of the thing I sit on. My teeth clenched against the pain as I knock my foot around in my fear. My eyes dart frantically around trying to figure out a way to escape the box he has brought me too. I am feeling like a trapped animal again, and most of what JP had been saying after the whole description of me, had been lost in my fear and panic, but finally something clicks in my frightened mind. ‘You are safe here. I’m not going to hurt you.’
Though not as frantic now, I am far from relaxed. I look to him warily, uncertain if he speaks truth or not. As I slightly calm, I do not sense a lie, just concern and maybe confusion. I pull into myself, careful not to bang my foot more and stare at him. I am confused and uncertain in what to do. I had never thought to be in such a situation, and like being banished here, I am ill prepared to deal with it. “What will you do with me now?” I am scared to hear the answer, but I need to know.
Her panic is not what we need at this moment. Luckily she calms back down. "Well, first let's splint this foot. You are a terrible patient, you know that?" I take the brace off the coffee table and stand up. "Can you gently stretch your leg out so I can put this brace on properly?" It would be too forward to stretch her leg out for her. She still seems to think my motives are sexual and that's the last thing I need was her being spooked, running off, and hurting herself again.
"Ciara, it's going to really help if you tell me the truth of the situation. I mean, if you go back to Dewey's are they going to find out you aren't from the United States and try to export you? Are they going to think you are an alien from another planet and try to experiment on you? I need some help here. It's not about what I'm going to do with you. It's all about what you can do without getting into trouble. It might be a really good idea for you to stay at your house and let this heal up. Why you are so desperate for the job though makes me think you have money problems. Maybe I can pay some urgent bills for you or something until you have a way to work. Unless you have some identification or a birth certificate or something, that could go all wrong though. Let's start at the beginning maybe. When and where were you born?"
This was just too wild. Her eyes looked real though. The hair looked green for real. The ears looked real. It couldn't be a costume. Maybe it was just really weird traits. People evolved, right? She would have a birth certificate though, or would she? I needed to hear it from her. I could think up too much stuff from in bred types in the mountains to aliens dropping her off for not having a ticket fare.
I blink at him. His first words were not at all what I expected. A smile even tugs at the corners of my mouth. Me? A terrible patient? I had never had problems with myself before. Well, not until now, now that I live on this side of the Veil. I sigh. I do not stretch my leg out at first. Instead I work at removing the shoe with some difficulty. It seems my foot has swelled. I also remove the scrap wrapping and with much wincing and gritting of my teeth, wipe the herbal paste off my foot.
I look at it distantly, as a Healer. It is swollen alright, badly. It is also very black. I frown at it as I study it, turning my leg to one side then the other. My toes aren’t black surprisingly, and neither is the bottom of my foot. That’s a relief at least. I bit my lower lip and look at JP briefly, then close my eyes and search for a force line. There is one not far, and it is surprisingly stronger than the one near where I have been staying. I tap into it, and reach my hand out to hover over my foot. I feel it respond, but it is slow, and still far weaker than what I am used to.
After but a few heartbeats, I have to stop. I open my eyes and look. The swelling is down, and my foot is a dull purple instead of the dark black. I raise my eyes to JP. Quietly I speak. “No wand needed. But then it is not healed completely either.” I finally stretch my foot out for him. I watch him as I do so. I am still undecided on what to tell him. Half of the things he asks me I do not understand the meaning behind. I wait, tense. I have given him an opening. What will he do with it?
It was amazing to see her heal herself to a degree. "That's...incredible. How many times can you do that in a day?" I kneel down at her foot with the brace. Gently I place the plastic around the bottom of her foot and over her ankle. "You need a sock. I'll be right back." Quickly I retrieve a white tube sock from my room and come back out to Ciara. My hands roll up the sock so I can unroll it over her foot without having to pull it up her foot and leg. Lifting her calf with my left hand, my right hand unrolls the sock over her foot. When her skin is protected, I start fastening the straps snugly around her leg, ankle, and foot to immobilize the injury. "It's important to keep movement down on a broken bone for it to heal without the magic or whatever it is you just used. Serving drinks is not good for a break as you just saw with the blackness on your foot earlier." With her foot splinted up, it is time to get some water into Ciara.
I stood up and brought her the glass of water. "Drink that slowly, but drink all of it. If you want more, I'll get it for you. The pain of mistreating your break put you into shock. Your body needs water to even itself back out." It was funny, I was using human first aid techniques on someone I wasn't sure was human. This had to be the oddest situation I had ever been in.
"Would you please tell me when and where you were born. If you are going to work in the legal world, they like paperwork. If you don't like paperwork, we are going to have to figure something else out. I don't recommend dealing in drugs or sex though. Those are bad places to travel into." Even strippers needed social security numbers to work. The only sex trade she could earn money in without an identity could really create a world of hurt for her. The last thing I wanted was to see Ciara hurt worse than she already was.
A sad look crosses my face briefly at his question. “I used to be able to use Magick as often as I needed. I cannot anymore here. It is weak and slow. All I can do with the Glamour is make my ears look more like yours. So I am stuck with my unusual eyes and hair.” I watch him as he works on my foot. I do not know what a sock is, but I am soon shown as he finds one to put on my foot. My head tilts as I study it. “That is a sock?” It feels strange on my foot and leg. Gingerly I reach a hand out and touch it. It has a very odd texture, and I am not sure I like it.
My gaze returns to him as he stands, and I tense slightly. I relax though as he hands me the vessel of water. I slowly drink from the cup as he directed, watching him the whole time over the rim. My face once more holds a puzzled expression as he continues to talk. It does make drinking difficult and I lower the cup briefly. The water is already half gone.
I study him for a long moment. Thus far he has brought me no harm, and seems to be taking everything in stride. He has been kind and helpful. I am sure there was all manner of things he could have done to me while I was oblivious. He could have even left me where I fell. Finally, I drop my gaze to the cup in my hand. I speak softly. “I am ninety-seven turns of the seasons, born in the Season of New Green. I was born on the other side of the Veil.” My eyes rise slowly to look at him after I am done speaking.
Well, the best I could tell was she was ninety-seven and didn't have papers. "Um, yeah, you will want to call a turning of the seasons a year. Everyone is calling one orbit of the sun by the earth a year these days. So, I don't suppose you have a husband or boyfriend or something having been around for so long have you?" Maybe she had relatives. "I don't know what the veil is. I would guess the season of new green is when everything wakes up from the winter. We call that spring these days. You aren't going to have papers or even a birth certificate I'm guessing. Working at Dewey's could cause problems in the long run. If you want to change your hair and eyes to blend in more, there is hair dye and colored contacts which are colored glass lenses you put directly on your eyeball to float over your irises."
Ciara was one odd situation. It was like she was from some magical land that time forgot. Maybe she was an elf after all. Maybe beyond the veil was elf territory where you could hurt your foot and make it go away in the blink of an eye. What she was doing here was curious though. This place was dangerous for a lone person outside the law. What it was going to take to figure out what she was up to and how to get her there was going to be tricky.
"I guess it's important to know why you came here, where you are currently staying, and what the money problem you have is. Walking to your place is going to be a bad idea for a little while. Maybe I can bring you groceries and cover things for you for a while. It's looking bad to earn money legally though. Everyone is tracked by the government for taxes and you are not in the tax system. People are jerks if you don't play by their rules. They don't care how wrong or right the rules are either."
I look at him curiously. “Year?” Then I turn cold. “NO!” I blink at my own outburst. I drop my gaze, embarrassed. “I have no Mate.” I file away the word spring. I sigh though as he clearly has no clue about the Veil. And I do not understand the rest of his words, though I try, and do grasp that it was a good thing I had quit after all. My shoulders slump and I pull my foot in towards me. “Then I shall truly die on this side.” My voice is almost a whisper, my forehead drops to my knees.
Lost in my thoughts, I nearly miss his next questions and words. I am very still for a long, long time. Finally I raise my head enough that he can hear me speak. “I stay by the river, past the overly green meadow, and the twin lines of metal. I need your money to find shelter for the White Cold that will be here soon.” My head lifts and I look at JP. “I do not understand most of what you are telling me. There is no correlation in my home.”
I start blinking furiously as tears threaten to spill suddenly. I am upset, frustrated, confused, and hurt. But more importantly, I am really and truly scared now. I have no hope of surviving the White Cold. I am starting to wish JP had left me to my fate when I collapsed. My gaze drops again as I fight the tears that finally spill over to no avail.
I'm surprised at her lack of faith. "Look, Ciara, there are no houses..." My eyes pop wide. She must be camping down on the river. "Look, you can stay in my spare room for the winter...I mean white cold. Look we call the white cold winter. It's winter when the ice comes, spring when the life comes, summer when the heat comes, and fall when the trees go to sleep for the winter. My heater works and you are not going to die of the cold."
I couldn't handle the tears. My body leaned forward and I hugged her. "It's okay, I make plenty of money. We will figure something out. When your foot is better you can keep my house clean for me or something. Maybe we can find someone to make up a name and fake birth date and birth place for you. Then you can work and pay taxes and the government won't care because all they really like is money. Do you ever get to go back home? What happened at home that is so terrible, Ciara? Family don't treat family they love like this."
Something had gone terribly wrong in Ciara's life. I was just thankful I found her before someone bad did. She was going to be okay. I just needed her to understand that. It was no skin off my back to help someone out like this. Charity was better when you knew who you were helping anyway. Donating to causes just let corporate hounds run off with the bulk of the cash by either skimming it or spending it on their own products.
The hug is nice, and I miss it when he pulls away. “Winter, summer, spring, fall.” I repeat the words dutifully. At least I am learning some of their words. I shake my head at first. “I cannot…” I stop. Something tells me JP will not let me leave or allow me to decline to stay with him. I sigh in resigned acceptance. I am actually grateful for having met JP in truth. Somehow I do not think anyone else would be so accepting or helpful.
Again I am left confused by his words until he asks about home and family. I look away, wrestling with just what I should tell him. I finish unfolding, tucking my legs back off the edge of the object I sit on, my torso leaning against the blocked up side. I drink the rest of the water in the cup, and finally look back at JP. I hand him the cup. “May I have some more please?” I will tell him, but I wish for the water. It is a long tale I will be telling.
I take the cup back to the kitchen and get Ciara more water. I pull a coke from the fridge for myself. It looked like Ciara was finally going to take a load off her back. That was good. She needed to get that foot put back together. Coming back into the living room, I hand Ciara her water and settle down on the opposite end of the couch. I pop open the bottle and drink the first sip.
It's odd seeing a beautiful elf sitting with me on my couch. It certainly isn't hurting my eyes looking at her. My night was probably going to be a good one anyway. Ciara looked a lot better than Sam and drinking soda to talk was going to be a lot cheaper than beer at the bar. Ciara probably had some exciting things to tell me. It looked like she might be family for a while, at least through the winter.
I take a sip of the water. Stalling, I know, but this was difficult for me. “I am fifth born of seven younglings. And the last female of four. I have a twin brother, he was born first. We are the only set born to my Mother. Because of that we are to inherit the ruling of Kaelyr, the city-state of my birth. My actual name is Vyleis Mysolandryl. I grew up in the ruling house, and unlike my siblings, except my twin, I refused to be waited on hand and foot. I chose to learn how to do things for myself, took lessons in the ways of the warrior and the healer. None understood why we did this, and we really could not explain when asked. It just felt right. I can also cook, sew, tan, hunt, make dyes, and gather useful plants.”
I sip at the water again. And one hand trails down to the sock to rub my leg. It makes me itchy, and I decide I really do not like its feel against my skin. “My twin and I also chose to run around with the common children instead of the noble ones. This made us many friends. Though our Mother did not understand us, at first she turned a blind eye, having more important things to do. But lately, she had become disapproving and restrictive. I would not allow my nature to be caged nor would I lie about what I was doing when asked. For some reason, she has it in her head that we were trying to gain support to overthrow her. That is not the Elven way. She will rule until her death, along with my Uncle, her twin. When they finally pass, then we will take our place. But that will not happen now. I have been banished to this side of the Veil.”
I pause again, my look distant as I think. “Most who are banished travel to another city-state. I have chosen to stay in your world. By going to another Elven city, my Mother can still keep track of me, and cause me grief. Here she cannot. Here, I escape her influence and sudden hate. So no, JP, I will never get to return home. I must either learn to survive in your world, or die. I may die anyway. My twin was not banished with me. And usually Elven twins do not survive being separated.” I am silent, and exhausted. It was a relief to finally be able to tell someone my side of things. Not that it mattered on this side of the Veil, but still it was nice.
"Maybe your twin will come for you." It was odd. She was taking on a big challenge leaving her home. It looked like she might need that fake ID though. "If you get sick from separation of your twin, would there be a place I could take you to return? I mean, maybe your mother would come to her senses when she saw your brother getting sick from the separation. If that happened I could take you to the doorstep or something." Ciara seemed in a hell of a pickle.
"Look, you can just live in the spare bedroom in my place. You won't die of cold. It's not like I get a lot of girlfriends over anyway. Maybe I could talk to Red. He's an American whom I bought the moccasins from. If you want to try to make leather things to sell, I bet he would put them up for sale for a cut. I could pretend to be the tanner and deliver your money to you. Sewing doesn't make much money these days. Modern sewing machines have taken over. Hunting is kind of out. Most things are domesticated now. Maybe we could go by your camp tomorrow, pick up your stuff and move you into the spare bedroom. I have a roll away cot you can use for now and we can look into getting you a bed."
It was a little crazy moving an elf into the place. She needed to take care of that foot and didn't have any other help though. I could always talk to Dewey about having her back after her foot healed, but I would need to feel him out on using black market labor for the job. Maybe he already knew she was black market labor. I would have to see on that though.
I give JP a sad smile. “No, see therein lays the real punishment. Mother knew banishing us would not be a difficult punishment for either of us to endure. But separation is. If I sicken, just accept the inevitable, and if it is at all possible, take my carcass to the wildest place you can find and leave it. Preferably with no clothes, it just makes it more difficult for the animals to get to the meat.” There is not much more I can say. In Elven lands that is the way of it. I do not know though if maybe the rules become different in the lands of Man. I had to wait and see. Except for the broken foot, I am well thus far.
I frown slightly at JP. I did not exactly understand the girlfriend comment. “Girlfriend?” I think over what he says about my skills. It seems all but the tanning is useless on this side of the Veil. I sigh. And shake my head. “I only need your form of barter to have shelter. I do not need anything else from your world I cannot obtain myself from the…” I trail off and my eyes widen. It dawns on me that with my broken foot, and JP’s insistence I stay off it, and I have a feeling he will enforce that by any means he must. I cannot even fend for myself. Then I frown and shake my head at him. “I am hurt, thus I will not be able to get the things I need to make anything for your friend.” I watch him closely.
It was kind of somber hearing her last wishes. Hopefully things did not come to that. "Oh, girlfriend usually means a woman you have sex with. A guy would call a friend a friend, but if he has sex with her, he would call her his girlfriend. Women call their male sex partners boyfriends. Now if they get married and stay exclusive mates, the man is called a husband and the woman is called the wife."
Her worry over getting stuff was getting annoying. I sighed. "Look, your job is to stay off your foot until it heals. Rent is covered and you can eat off my groceries. Just get your foot better. When your foot is better we can talk what you might like to do. A roommate is not going to hit my budget that hard, okay? You'll save me a mint in no beer charges alone since I'll be taking care of you."
Evidently helping a neighbor was a foreign concept on the other side of the veil. I guess that was so much for elves being good.
I look at him. “That sounds… very complicated.” I am not sure I completely understood his explanation of Girlfriend. But I let it go. It is not important right now anyway, just my curiosity. I drop my head as he gets annoyed with me. “I am sorry. I…” I just sigh and drop that as well. There are things I have stored at my encampment that I can work on in the meantime. My foot should be healed with what little I can help it with Magick, before I run out of things to do as I sit on my hind.
I drink the water I still hold. As I finish I realize two things, I am very tired, and very hungry. As I realize this I yawn and my stomach makes itself known rather loudly. I become embarrassed at such a betrayal of my body. I know though that I have not eaten since the morning, and according to JP, I sicked some of that up. The two attempts to heal my foot have also drained me with the fight to bring the Magick forth. I hold the now empty vessel out to JP. I do not look at him, but I do apologize. “I am sorry. I do not mean or wish to be a burden.”
Ciara was still not getting the concept. I take the glass from her. "You are not a burden. I'm behind on my good deeds. Now what is it going to be? Chicken, beef, or tuna?" I get up and head to the kitchen. Before long I have broccoli boiling on the stove. I get out a frying pan to cook the meat.
"It's more important to get your foot better right now than anything. I can always get you some library books or something." She was able to read the alcohol list so I figured she knew how to read. "You seriously do not need to apologize. Everything is cool. You are the most excitement I've had in this town for years."
Hopefully, Ciara started settling into the role of having to heal a hurt foot soon. I didn't want to have to wave off a bunch of apologies for no infractions done.
I stare at JP for a brief moment, and then I completely and finally relax. Good deeds I understood. So now I understood why he was helping me, strange though I am, and an entirely different race as well. “I do not understand the question. Be what? And what is chicken, beef, and tuna?” I move about on the furniture I am upon until I can peer into the other room he has gone off to. I am precariously perched now to see what he is doing, but my balance is usually good, so I am not concerned.
I have been ignoring the itch in my foot and leg this whole time, but it suddenly comes to mind. I try to twist to rub at it again and loose my balance. I land with a loud thud and a whoosh of air escaping me. I had instinctively moved my foot in such a way that it was partially curled towards my body and thus hit nothing on the way down. I had also twisted myself to land on my back. I lay there staring up at the topside of his dwelling trying to get air back into my lungs.
"Well, it's a bird, a cow, and a fish." I see Ciara disappear off the end of the couch out of the corner of my eye and then hear a thump. "Good heavens, Ciara. You really need to watch out for your foot. I'm going to have to lie on top of you to keep you still." I move fast to where she landed. She's out of breath but not passed out. That was a good thing she wasn't passed out. It looked like the splint did its job of protecting her foot as well.
Kneeling down I put my hand on her stomach and massage it a bit to try to get her breathing again. "Talk to me Ceri, are you okay?" Her poor amber eyes looked tortured. Maybe I could get her to go to bed and get some sleep after she ate. She seemed a terrible nuisance to herself. I thought elves were supposed to be graceful. Elves seemed to be having troubles these days.
My eyes flick to JP as he hovers over me. His hand rubbing on my belly does the trick; my lungs finally remember how to breathe. After a few gulps of air, I speak. “Well, why did you not just say bird… Wait, what is a cow? I am well, my foot is another matter.” I reach to my foot and rub vigorously over the covered area that the sock lays upon. It is really starting to bother me, and I fear it will drive me mad. My arms have trapped his hand on my stomach, but I am unaware as I try to end the itching.
Finally I still and sigh in relief as it dissipates. My eyes close at the enjoyment of the peace, but it is short lived and my eyes snap open with a groan. I start rubbing again, more frantically. “I think your sock dislikes me.” Just as I feared, the itching is starting to drive me mad. My teeth clamp down and my jaw tightens as I fight the urge to just tear the whole blasted contraption off my foot.
Ciara traps my hand on her stomach as it moves with her breaths. It feels good and it feels intimate. Her questions dart by my mind as my body reacts physically to the touch of her stomach. She finally calms down and I take my hand back before more lust stacks in my brain.
She gets to scratching again. "Calm down, I'll take the sock off." I pull the straps loose and take the splint off quickly. My hands quickly remove the sock. "I'm worried the straps of the splint are going to bother you as well. Let me get a silk sock." I get up. My cock is pressing against my jeans but is mercifully held in check. Snatching up the sock I go back to my bedroom, replace the tube sock and pull out a black silk sock. I rush back.
"Okay, hopefully this silk one won't bother you." I roll up the sock and look down at Ciara. She really was beautiful. I smile without realizing it.
I sigh in pure relief once the sock is removed, my leg and foot already feeling much better. I inspect my foot while he leaves. I close my eyes and once more work Magick. His voice breaks my concentration, I had pushed myself beyond the limit the Magick wanted, and am really tired now. But one look at my foot makes it all worth it. It is no longer purple, but has that faded look a healing bruise will get, that green and yellow sickly look. The swelling is almost gone as well.
I look up as I realize he just stands there. I see his smile, and return it without thought. It is a smile I have not seen on him before. I like it, it reaches his eyes. My own orbs flutter shut as exhaustion slams into me. I pushed myself too far with that last use of Magick. Brown eyes the color of the earth, his eyes, chases me into my dreams as I finally succumb to much needed healing sleep.
Ciara fell asleep right there before me. It was kind of odd. I kneel down to put on the sock and noticed her foot was doing much better. Maybe she just needed rest. I walk back to the extra bedroom and put out the rolling bed, locking it in place. From there I return to the living room to pick up Ciara and take her to the bed. Her light frame feels nice in my arms. My mind fantasizes that I'm taking her back to my bed to share intimate feelings. My body carries her left instead of right though and I lay her gently on the bed and pull the sheet over her.
She will need food when she wakes up. She will have to end up with chicken. I put the plates together and wrap them both in plastic to put in the fridge. I finish my coke and start in on beers. The TV has some fun stuff on the science channel. My mind keeps thinking about taking Ciara up to Keyhole though. Three beers later sleep starts hitting me.
I feel myself picked up and carried, it does not bring me to full wakefulness though as I catch JP’s scent. Instead I curl into him and mumble something. I feel myself lain down upon something soft, and covered. I roll and sink deeper into sleep. It is needed to regain my strength to heal my foot more.
My sleep is peaceful, full of pleasant dreams. But then the nightmares come. They had not plagued me for many days now, and I had thought myself perhaps done with them. But it seems not as I start to toss and turn. I become entangled in the covering and as it tightens around me it adds to the nightmare. I am struggling now to free myself both in dream and in body. The nightmare reaches its peak and I scream. “Bai! Sheilaes!” I hear a tearing sound which is actually what wakes me, since it has no place in my nightmare.
I bolt to a sitting position. I am covered in perspiration and breathing as if I had run the whole of the city. I look around confused. This is not my room. Where am I? My mind is still partially caught in the nightmare and I do not recognize my surroundings. The cover still restricts me some, and I fight to get it off. It tears some more in the ordeal, but I finally get myself free. I look around for an escape.
I wake out of my slumber with a start. A woman is screaming and it sounds like it's in my house. My mind racks itself a quick moment and my eyes pop wide open. "Ciara!" I jump up and rush back to the extra room, throwing on the light. Ciara is fighting the sheet. "It's okay, Ciara, you are safe." I rush up to her and take her into my arms. "Shhh, it's okay. Shhhh. Everything is safe."
I wonder what kind of nightmare she is having and what it's about. Did elves dream of the future? Was it something from ninety-seven years of living? I hug her tight. "What's bugging you? What was that about?" She was going to need food. But she needed to get her bearings first. She wasn't going to be able to get up without hurting her foot until she got herself back under control.
"Do you think you are ready for some food? Maybe that will help you sleep better." Something was really stressing her out. Maybe she would share it over dinner. It was kind of funny we were both fully dressed, but we had both dozed off. It would make getting dinner out easy.
A male rushes into the room and grabs me up. At first I struggle against him, until his scent hits me. Then the soothing calm of his voice is next and I finally fully wake up. My body goes limp against him and a shakes a bit as the last wisps of the dream fade away. Clearly, I had had another nightmare. I hate the dratted things. I still remember the first time I had one after I had been banished. Fell right out of the tree I had been sleeping in. I had a headache all that day. I started loosely tying myself in at night just in case after that.
I take a breath, it is rather fluttery though. I feel safe being held, and am not eager to bring it to an end just yet as the terror of the dream still grips me. I hear JP’s questions though. “I am sorry.” My voice is muffled slightly with my head pressed up against his chest, but I refuse to move unless he pushes me away. “I have suffered Night Terrors… mmm, nightmares, since I crossed the Veil. I had not had them for several days and thought they had left. Otherwise I would have warned you.”
A shudder runs through my body. It is in response to something, but it is too elusive for me to grasp. “I never remember them upon waking. Just that they involve my twin and I am helpless and can only watch.” I hear the steady and rhythmic pounding of his heart, and it calms me more.
I am loath to leave the circle of JP’s arms, but have already figured out he will fuss until I agree to what he wants, thinking it is best. I am not hungry now, but nod my head anyway at his question of eating. Reluctantly, I pull away. I straighten up and look down at the mess that covers me partially. “I am sorry about your… cloth.” I work to extract myself the rest of the way.
Ciara feels nice in my arms. My hug seems to settle her and that is special to me. Her nightmares involve her twin and that worries me. Hopefully her dreams aren't prophetic. If something happens bad to her twin, it could kill her. That would be a terrible tragedy.
I feel the nod of her head against my shoulder at eating. Reluctantly I let her pull back as I stand up. "Don't worry about the blanket. I have more. You can have a fresh one to get back to sleep after you eat." The blanket is easy enough to remove from her. I offer my right hand to her to help her up and lead her to the kitchen. Her delicate hand feels comfortable in my own. Touching her feels good. My mind is over conscious of it, though. My cock presses against my jeans. I have to remind myself this isn't sexual. Ciara needs help and not a boyfriend. "Let's get you some food." She was hungry before she went to sleep and my guess was she was hungry now.
I led her to the kitchen and sat her at the dining table. It's a round wooden one with cushioned wood chairs. Pushing her up to the table after she sits is easy. Her delicate frame is so light. I head over to the fridge and give each plate a minute and half warm up in the microwave. "We have chicken and broccoli. The chicken is a meaty ground bird. The broccoli is boiled." As the microwave heats up the food, I take time to get forks, knives, and napkins and set them at our places. "What would you like to drink? I have water, milk, orange juice, coke, and beer." I retrieve the plates as they are done reheating. Ciara gets her plate first and then I set mine at my place next to her. I'll pour myself some milk and bring Ciara whichever she chooses.
My mind fantasizes again. It bothers me I think these things about Ciara. It's impossible to help though. I think how wonderful it would be if she rushed into my room in the middle of the night and snuggled with me to keep the nightmares away. She would slip under the covers with me and put her arm on my bare chest while pressing against my side. We would drift back off to sleep together and wake up to each other’s' faces. She doesn't know where the bathroom is yet. It's possible she won't know what one is. I'll have to show her after dinner.
He helps me untangle myself and offers me his hand. I take it without hesitation and rise. My foot twinges and I am careful with my weight on it. The silk sock feels far better than the other one that had been there before. He leads me to the cooking area, and this seems to be the place one eats as well. He helps me to sit as well, which was particularly sweet.
I watch him as he removes plates from a rectangular box and unwraps them. My head tilts as I see him put first one than the other into a smaller rectangular box. He then brings them over and sets them down. He brings cutlery and napkins as well. I shrug at his drink question. Except the beer and water, I’m not sure what those are. “I will have whatever you have.” He brings me a white liquid and I sniff at it. My head rears back and I study everything before me. It is an interesting mix of smells.
The green plant is one I am actually familiar with. I point at it and look at JP. “Broccoli?” I sound the word out, trying it on my tongue. I pick up the knife that at least I recognize and stab at one of the plants. I pop it in my mouth and start chewing. I stop and my eyes widen. I fight to not make a face. I go back to chewing and then swallow. It is rather bland on flavor.
I finally look over at JP and study how he is using the utensils and try to mimic him. It does not go well, and I give up and use my fingers. I take a bite and chew only to stop again. This time I am not so successful at controlling my facial expressions. I finish chewing and swallow that as well. I take a quick drink of the white liquid. I am surprised at how good that tastes, though a bit strange.
I look back at the food and give a soft sigh. It is bland in flavor, but it is nourishment. I eat anyway, after steeling myself to finish. While I eat I look around this room to take my mind off the food. I see no fire pit or hearth. In fact, I have not seen a place to build a fire anywhere. I wonder how he cooks. There are other strange things in the room that make no sense to me. I give up and finish my food instead.
I brought Ciara her milk and settled down with her. "Yes, broccoli. It's good stuff." My eyes watch her stab and pop it into her mouth. It was odd seeing someone try broccoli for the first time. Her wide eyes made me wonder what her impression was. Her reaction seemed to indicate it wasn't particularly good but not disgusting either. I wonder what she does for vegetables.
My eyes kept glancing her way. Part was curiosity at watching her eat and the other was to see her beautiful face. She is attractive to me and there is no denying it. It will just have to be my secret though. Sending her screaming into the woods would not do for her. Her use of fingers is sexy but she doesn't like the chicken. The tightness in my pants might have been embarrassing but the embarrassment of having served something she didn't much care for kept me in check. She at least seemed to enjoy the milk.
She is obviously taking in the site of my house. My windows have only white blinds. My walls don't have pictures. The dining table is only a round four seat table with us sitting next to each other. The two blue chairs and brown sofa in my living room don't match. The wood coffee table was even a different shade of brown than the chair legs. The flat screen TV seemed a bit modern for everything else, and the entertainment case was yet another shade of brown laminated press board.
"I'm sorry the food sucks. I guess you'll more than pay rent just cooking up something good for a change." It's rather amazing she choked down the dinner. I feel bad I actually enjoy it. I finish a bit quicker than she does and start collecting the plates.
She finishes finally and I ask her while taking her plates to the sink, "You ready to get back to bed? I'll show you where the bathroom is." Hopefully she wasn't going to freak out on how to use a bathroom. Out house users usually thought indoor plumbing was disgusting until the winter rolled around.
I look at JP startled. “I… Cook?” I look around the room again. “How? I see no hearth or fire pit?” While I do not mind the prospect of cooking, I see no way to do so. Not to mention, I would need to gather much more herbs than I currently have stored away in my encampment. I frown thoughtfully.
I am pulled from my thoughts by his question. I do not really wish to go back to sleep. The nightmare might come back, or some variant of it. I sigh though and nod acceptance. I need the sleep to help heal anyway. I just hope I can achieve it. Besides, I am curious as to what this bathroom is. I stand and wait for him to show me the way. I watch curiously as he finished cleaning the plates. The captured stream fascinates me. Maybe humans have their own form of Magick?
"Oh, the stove cooks things with heat. Fires are messy and inefficient." I point to the stove. "The four burners on top burn gas. An electric spark lights the gas and the pot over it heats up from the flame." My hand pulls open the oven door. "The oven lights up gas to heat up this for baking things in heat. There is flame here, it's just small, hot and efficient."
I finish off rinsing the dishes and stow them in the dish washer. There is still plenty of room in it so I don't start it yet. That will be a lesson for later.
"Okay, the bathroom is this way. I'd let you sleep in my bed with me, but I sleep in my underwear and that might not be very comfortable for you." I remember my fantasy of her coming to my bed. It would sure be nice if it ever came true. My tease was probably not an appropriate one but it was only fair to warn her of the risk of coming into my bedroom unannounced. I took her hand again to show her the bathroom. It probably wasn't necessary, but the feel of her delicate fingers had been nice and it was good to feel them again.
I take her back to the bathroom. It's the first door to the right in the hall, with my room the next to the right and hers the far room on the left. The room across from the bathroom is my weight and computer room, though it was probably meant to be a three bedroom house. My hand flips on the light to reveal a tub with a shower head, a sink, and a toilet. Two towels are on the towel rack, but there is only one washcloth in the tub. I point things out as I describe them. "This is the sink. It's normally used for washing your hands, face, and teeth. I shave my beard as well here. Sorry about the trimmings. I'll have to get better about that." My toothbrush was relatively new, but the toothpaste was three quarters gone. I had a plastic cup and electric razor sitting on top as well. "There are extra towels under the sink here and extra toilet paper. This is the toilet. You just pee and poop into it. It has a seat here you will probably yell at me to put down. Be sure to check for it or you will fall in." I drop the seat on the toilet. Maybe I was just going to have to start sitting down to pee. "When you are done, the toilet paper is to wipe up and you toss it into the bowl and pull this lever." I flush the toilet. "Don't drink the water out of the toilet obviously, but the water in the sink is drinkable as well as from the tub and shower. At some point I can show you how to operate that. Any questions?"
I was going to have to write a book on how to toilet train your elf. There probably wasn't going to be many customers to buy it though.
I look at him askance as he explains a stove. I hobble around the table to peer into the cavern as he opens a door on it. Then I look at him again. My confusion is clear. This was going to take a while to understand. Perhaps once I see him use it I’ll understand better. I watch him finish up the dinner ware and then store it away in another box thing.
He takes my hand again. I like when he does. It is nice to have contact with another again. I look at him oddly as he describes the way he sleeps. I shrug slightly. “Back home, I never slept in my clothes. It wrinkled them and they would begin to smell bad, needing washing more often.”
We enter the bathroom and I look at it curiously. The room is crowded looking and confusing. I listen as he explains everything and watch his movements closely. I am reluctant to let his hand go, but know he needs it. The bang of the thing he calls a toilet makes me start. And I move closer peering at it as he makes water swirl around in it. That too is a loud sound. I look back at him when he asks me if I have questions. I have for too many to even pick one to start with. I am also very tired still. “Yes. But I do not know where to even begin.” I sigh quietly.
"Well, do you have to poop or pee? You know? Expel digested food or let liquid waste out of your body." It was odd and pleasantly bothersome to know she liked to sleep naked. I fantasize about bumping into her sleep walking in the hall. What if she crawled into my bed naked from nightmares? I was going insane. I didn't really want her to have nightmares. It would be better if she just had a custom where a guest has to sleep with a member of the house to move in. That really doesn't seem right either. I don't want her to have to sleep with me. It would just be better if she wanted to. Hopefully she would be able to figure out the question and I would pull my mind back into thinking straight. I was probably a fool for having her over. My mind was going to start torturing itself into fantasies with her.
I feel myself coloring at his question and my gaze drops. “No. I do not need to relieve myself.” I stand there uncomfortable and uncertain. Finally I point to what looks to be something one bathed in. “Is that a bathing place? How and where do I heat the water for it?” I am afraid to sleep again, maybe I can get JP to let me take a bath first. Anything to prolong going back to sleep.
I smile. "The water is heated in an insulated tank with gas. The left valve turns on cold water, which is really outside temperature water. The right valve turns on water from the water heater. The water in the pipes cools off though, so you have to let the hot water run a bit before it goes hot. Normally I just do a shower which is like a warm water fall, but a lot smaller and more controlled. If you want to bath, I can show you the shower or a bath."
My mind messed with me again. I fantasize about her needing to know how to do something. She's naked and doesn't try to hide anything when I come to help. I was going to have to watch myself or I was going to become a bad teacher. An erection wasn't going to help in demonstrating how to run the tub or shower.
I am confused by his explanation. I just do not understand. I am getting frustrated and upset. I drop to the ground and pull my knees toward myself and drop my head on my knees. The tears fall, and I am now getting mad. I hate crying, it never accomplishes anything and makes your nose a clogged mess. I am over tired and know it. My emotions bounce everywhere and I am not grasping anything he tells me.
She is having a difficult time with things. I kneel down and take her into my arms. "Look, maybe we just get some sleep and I can show you all this stuff in the morning." I remember her enjoying my hug. My stomach leaps in nervousness. I take a big risk. "Look, you can sleep with me tonight if it will help you feel better. Once you get some rest it will be easier to figure stuff like this out. I'll need a shower then myself. If you don't like a shower, you can just take a bath. Right now how about a simple lie down and sleep?" I can't believe I'm proposing one of my mini fantasies to her. I keep telling myself it won't turn into sex, but part of me knows I want it to. I hate that that part of me is there. This would be so much easier if Ciara was a guy. It was her that was banished though and not her twin.
I burrow into his hold. There is peace and safety in the circle of his arms. I cannot explain why I feel this way. I nod at his suggestions. I feel relieved actually at his sleeping suggestion. I do not want to be alone. And part of me hopes the Night Terrors will not bother me with another close. I get myself under control again.
I move slightly and raise my head. I look at JP and give him a weak smile. “I am sorry. I am not usually this bad. Thank you. You are far too kind to put up with me as you are.” I look away and down. “Your world is complicated… and over whelming. So much is wildly different than our legends.”
I cannot believe a beautiful woman is going to sleep with me in my bed, even if it is for comfort. "You have nothing to be sorry about. I guess your people haven't been watching us much. Anyway, there are a lot of mean people. It's possible a lot of us live up to the legends." I scoop her up into my arms and carry her to my bedroom. I have a wooden night stand with a lamp, a queen bed with brown and forests green covers and sheets, two pillows and two chairs in my bedroom. The chairs are actually a forest green too, but they don't match the sheets. I sit her light frame down on the mattress.
It's an awkward moment for me. I turn around, go to a chair and peel off my shirt first. I kick off my moccasins while I do. "I can help you with the splint to get ready for bed. I'm sleeping in my underwear. You are free to sleep in your clothes or naked. I'll behave." Hopefully she doesn't tempt me. I'm not so sure I can resist if she does. Luckily she doesn't know about birth control so I figure I'm safe.
I am startled when he picks me up yet again. I am starting to feel like a small child with all of his carrying me around. I shake my head though and speak. “It is not so much the personality of your people, though it is mentioned. It is your tenacity and warmongering. And the fact you drove us from this world, as you have many others.” I look around his chamber as we enter. It is soothing and nice, the colors of the earth are everywhere.
After he sets me down on the large bed I watch him for a moment. I then pull my shirt off and then turn to working my pants off. I have some difficulty when I come to the splint, but the legs of the pants are actually just wide enough that with some tugging it comes off over it. I fold both pieces carefully and then look for somewhere to place them. Seeing nothing close, I just drop them to the floor within easy reach.
I go back to watching him. His last words make no sense. “You will behave?” My head tilts again as I study him thoughtfully. I do not get it and wonder if it might be a joke. My hand is running along the covers. They are surprisingly soft and I turn my attention to looking them over. I shift a bit and bring my legs up folded slightly with my feet hanging over the edge. The pattern upon the covers seems to be abstract and I study it.
I pull down my pants. I'm wearing gray sweat pant colored bikini underwear. I like the support. They fit my tan line from my swim briefs anyway. As long as I don't get overexcited, it's going to hold my cock down anyway. "Yes, I'll behave." I don't understand she doesn't understand the word. I turn around and see she got her pants off over the splint after all. They had been very loose on her. "Here, just turn down the sheets and I'll turn out the lights unless you think they'll help." My eyes keep trying to catch visions of her body without staring. I thought about how humanity must have been some tough brutes to beat people that could heal themselves. I pick up her clothes and move them over to the chair. "I'll set these on the chair so there is no tripping if you have to go to the bathroom. Just wake me and I can help you." The last thing I needed was for Ciara to freak out and pee all over the place.
I look up from my study of the covers and frown at JP. “Turn down sheets? What is a sheet, and why would I be turning it down? Turning it down for what?” I am surprised he has not yet become impatient with my incessant questioning. It seems I question nearly everything that comes out of his mouth. I shake my head and study him thoughtfully. My head tips sideways as I do. It is an unconscious habit when I am curious, or trying to figure something out.
I look him over from head to toe. His body is well formed and sculpted. Put some pointed ears on him, slant his eyes a bit, and grow that ridiculously short hair out, and he could pass as one of my people. One this side of plain, though not beautiful. I find the similarities curious.
It was getting harder and harder to not look at Ciara. "Um, here. We sleep under these cloth panels. They are called sheets. Turning them down means folding them back to get under them. They feel good and keep you warm. Maybe you don't like sheets though." I remember the blanket torn up. "Maybe I'll just have to hold you." This was getting a bit complex. I moved up to the head of the bed and folded the covers off the pillows. I turn on the lamp and move over to the door to turn off the overhead light. As I start towards the bed again, I realize I'm getting in a bed with a woman that is probably naked that I've been too shy to look directly at to hold for body warmth while sleeping. I figure I may as well see her. I let my eyes look her up and down.
I continue watching JP as he shows and explains the bedding. Must they have a name for every piece? It seems they must. I follow his movements as he turns out the light and comes back. I have noticed that he does not look directly at me anymore and wonder why. My head cants sideways again. I am wondering if I have done something odd again by human standards. When he does finally look at me, I almost jerk back startled. I watch him studying me and wonder what he sees.
Am I so foreign looking to him as he is to me? Does he see past the green hair, amber eyes, skin lightly kissed by the sun and flawless, with no scars or marks? Does he see a person behind the differences or do I just continue to be strange and odd? The only adornment I currently wear is the splint he put on my foot. Otherwise I am dressed as I was born, with nothing. I sigh and finally look away from his scrutiny.
My gaze falls to the part of the bedding he had pulled back. I shift and move up on my hands and knees, giving JP a full view of my backside as I pull down the bedding on the side of the bed I have been perched on. After pulling them down enough I sit back down and tuck me feet under them. I sit there once more and look back at JP. He has not moved and I frown slightly.
I look him over carefully again and note the piece of clothing he still wears. Perhaps I should have slept in my clothes? We Elves are not bothered by nudity. It is considered normal. After all one does not swim in their clothes, nor sleep in them. But maybe it bothers humans? I start to fidget, uncertain as always in this new environment with its strange rules.
I should have never looked. Ciara was amazingly beautiful. My eyes couldn't stop looking. Just when I thought I had seen way too much, she got into the bed and showed her entire back side. My cock started going erect. My briefs start giving way. She was going to think I was a freak for shaving my pubic hair off. I move quickly to the lamp and turn it off. I don't even consider if elves see in the dark or not. I am too panicked to bother to that level of detail. Thinking I was safe in the cover of darkness I walked around to my side of the bed. It was too late. My gaze had set my cock off too hard and it wasn't fitting in my briefs anymore.
"Um, Ciara, are you okay if I just sleep naked?" I don't want to scare her by taking off my underwear without her knowing. At the same time hugging her is going to be tricky now. I really blew it with my gaze.
I blinked a bit as JP moved and shut the light off without warning. My eyes soon adjusted though, and there was just enough light to see by coming in through a window. I watch him move away and my gaze drops to my lap. Why had he turned the light off so suddenly? I must be too strange for him to continue to look at. It is the only conclusion I could draw.
I move and slide further under the bedding to lie down. My foot feels odd with the splint on it and I am coming to really dislike the thing. I am perplexed by his question that pulls my thoughts from my foot. “I… er… no, not at all.” I did not understand why he asked me. I settle down finally and stare up at the top of the room. I relax finally, preparing myself for sleep. I let go of the confusion and insecurity I am feeling. As I do, I feel myself drifting into sleep.
I pull my underwear off. My cock jumps up to its full seven inches without the cloth interfering with its position. It's good to know she's not intimated by my nudity. My body slips into the sheets next to Ciara. "You are a beautiful woman, Ciara." I turn onto my side and snuggle into her body. My left hand moves my pillow to lay my head down on it and then moves to stroke her wondrous forest green hair. My right hand comes down on her left breast. The inside of my arm feels her stomach beneath it while my right hand enjoys the softness of her delicate breast. My right thigh crosses over the front of her thighs. My erection is caught between her right hip and my stomach. The warmth of her side against my stomach feels nice.
I want her now, but she probably needs sleep and is probably not interested in sex. My mind reviews how she looks in the light using my memory. It's odd how open she is. Hopefully my touch is able to keep her calm and she can get sleep.
I am in the twilight of sleep, that half-awake state just before one fully slips into dreams. I feel JP finally climb into the bed. As he settles close to me, his scent envelops me. I feel his body both on and next to me. His caressing of my hair finally sends me spiraling down into dreams.
The dreams start immediately, but they are different than dreams I have been having. It is like I am a spectator watching a play. I see myself, and my family, people I know from Kaelyr. We are in the audience chamber of the palace where petitioners, messengers, emissaries and the like are received. A new Elf has come to Kaelyr from another Elven place. Not unusual or unheard of. Those banished from one, will usually move to another. Some just want a change of scenery, a new place to live. Then there are the traveling Merchants that move from settlement to settlement.
This new Elf is unknown to my dreaming self, though I sense a sort of odd recognition from her. My watching self recognizes him though and gives a start. I study him thoughtfully and realize I was wrong. He is far from plain looking, though he does not quite reach the ethereal beauty of my people, and it makes me giggle. I continue watching as he greets my Mother and Uncle. I also see my twin look over at my other self perplexed. We are twins, able to sense the other’s emotions, and he feels her recognition and confusion at such. He looks back at the stranger and studies him. Like me, he has the unconscious habit of canting his head to one side when examining something.
My attention is brought back to JP. He explains his presence here. Royal, himself, but from the male side, he has nothing to hold him in his former home, and set out to find a new home. Only twins born of the female ruler ascend to the thrones of the city-states. For they are the only ones that are guaranteed to be from the Royal Line. Once upon a time, twins were married to rule, that way it insured no common blood intermingled with Royal blood. Eventually though it fell out of practice. Now Royal younglings from other city-states and either side of the Royal Lines are attempted to join and marry. A serious bone of contention between my Mother and I. I think that is the real reason for my banishment, the actual charges being a cover. I refused any that were paraded before me for a variety of reason, but the main reason was the fact that they all expected me to sit on my hind and allow others to do for me, like a Royal is supposed to. My people have become so decadent.
I am returned to the scene before me as my Mother and Uncle welcome him graciously to Kaelyr. He is welcome to stay as long as he wishes. I notice my Mother look to my other self, a frown and warning look on her face. I sigh as I realize what she is thinking. She expects my dreaming self to accept JP as a mate and do what it takes to get him to agree. At that point the dream slips from me and I descend into deeper, healing sleep. I never realized my reactions to the dream transmitted to and through my physical self.
I slip off into dreaming. I find myself in an odd kind of dream though. It doesn't feel like my dream at all. It feels like my mind is projecting myself into a totally different place made by another person. My body is moving under the control of someone else. My eyes don't go where I want to look. My voice doesn't say what I want to say. It's like my body and mind aren't mine, but I feel, see, and hear everything this other being is experiencing.
Whoever I'm in, walks up before a king and queen of an elven kingdom. The queen reminds me of Ciara, but she seems older and more stern. Eyes are on me. There are two twins and one of them looks like Ciara while the other is decidedly a male version of Ciara. I want to look at her by whoever I'm in isn't even concerned. It's extremely frustrating. Greetings are exchanged in a style that sounds like Ciara's. My mind screams to look at the elf that looks like Ciara, but despite my scream everyone, including who I'm in don't hear, see, or feel me at all.
I'm in a male elf. The male elf announces his royal line and explains he needs a new home because he is not heir in his kingdom. Something about being the son of the king instead of the queen. It confuses me why I'm having this dream. I barely understand the conversation and the issues at hand seem to have nothing to do with me. Ciara's parents, at least that's what it feels like, welcome whomever I'm in into their kingdom. He has a permanent welcome. Whoever I'm in traces the glare of the queen. She looks stern and commanding and the eyes finally turn to what I wanted to see in the whole dream. The elf looks exactly like Ciara. I try to call to her, but again there is nothing. I'm powerless and unheard in the dream.
My mind tumbles. Something seems to have snapped. Dark clouds envelope me in the dream. My mind goes back to being its own.
I wake up remembering the elf dream but nothing else. My eyes pop open. My nose smells fresh trees as my breath runs in and out of Ciara's hair my face is nuzzled against. My left arm is still behind her head and my right hand is still on her breast. My cock is erect and the feeling of her hip against the bottom of it is as intense as the feeling of her nipple on the palm of my hand. The inside of my thigh is comfortably against the front of her thighs as well. The sun is streaming in through the windows.
I drift my right hand down and play very gently with her nipple with the tips of my fingers. We are so close a little breast play feels harmless. My cock tries to jump at the excitement of touching her though and I feel it pulse between her hip and my stomach. My eyes close back to experience the full sensations of the touch of her body to mine.
I exit healing sleep straight into a dream that is as strange as the first I had when I fell asleep. I am back in the Elven court, my Mother glaring at me her warning. “Vyleis, Sheilaes, show our guest to the Sky Rooms, please. And make him feel welcomed.” My dream self gives a soft inaudible sigh, which brings a sharp look from my twin. The Sky room is next to my own Sliver rooms. There is no doubt now. Mother will try to make a match. The familiarity is drowned in dislike and contempt now. It is not directed at the JP-Elf, but at Mother.
My twin is quick to rise, grabbing my hand and pulling my dream self up with him. He bows to Mother. “Of course, Your Highness.” He drags me down from the dais and we approach the newcomer. Once close enough, JP’s scent wafts over them. It is not the scent of sun and trees, but his scent from the world of Man. My dream self’s eyes widen slightly and just stare at him, at a loss as to why the scent is familiar yet not. I could tell her why he’s familiar in both scent and sight, but she would neither hear nor believe me.
My twin gives me a sidelong perplexed look, but quickly covers and returns his gaze to the Elf. “Come, this way.” He is quick to walk off, practically dragging me with him. My twin has always been good at covering for me, keeping me out of trouble more often than I do. As we head out of the audience room, my twin makes a left and heads down the corridors. Once beyond Mother’s hearing, my twin becomes less formal and relaxes. “So I am Sheilaes, this is obviously my twin Vyleis. I missed your name I am afraid.”
They continue on making small talk while my dream self is silent and watching the JP-Elf surreptitiously. They reach the rooms delegated to the Elf. The scene shifts suddenly. It feels like days have gone by, perhaps even moon dances, and my dream self and the JP-Elf are in his rooms alone together. They are sitting on an Elfin couch, the ends rise up and curl back, but the sides are open. They each lounge back on an end and are talking. Legs of both are tucked up, knees almost touching as their feet hang off opposite sides.
They are having some sort of tense conversation. Not really arguing but it is slightly strained. I watch curiously as I realize it is an old theme that made me reject many a suitor before. My dream self is tense as she awaits to see how he feels about her choice to do for herself. He is still relaxed as her questions wash over him. He smiles and shrugs. “Good. I hate lazy people.” My dream self is too stunned to think of a response. I watch surprised as he moves and sits next to her. His face moves in close to hers and his right hand comes up to gently play with her left nipple. “So, shall we tell you Mother we are agreed to marrying? I am not blind, I see the looks. It will get her to start looking elsewhere and perhaps even make us both happy.”
The dream shatters around me as I feel my own nipple played with. A soft moan escapes me and my body shifts. My dreams turn strange and erotic at this point. I cannot see my lover in them. All I see are eyes the color of overturned earth. My physical body though responds to the dreams.
Ciara moans at the nipple play. My heart races. She turns to face me and her eyes open to mine. Desire seems alive in her eyes. My hand on her nipple continues playing and she doesn't say anything. My hand releases her nipple and throws the covers back, baring our naked bodies to the freshly lit room. My face moves into hers to give her a gentle kiss on her lips. A rush fills me as I feel her lips kiss me gently back. My right hand comes up and strokes her left ear. She gives me a soft hum. We both seem to want each other. Excitement causes my body to shiver. My hand moves down to her shoulder and gently lays her back on her back. Her eyes stay on mine. It's hypnotic. Her amber eyes are so beautiful and seem to tell me to continue.
My hand drifted down from her shoulder, back over her breast and down her stomach. She spreads her legs for me. My fingers proceed down to her pubic hair and stroke the soft forest green surrounding her crevice. Heat radiates from her valley. My fingers stroke the insides of her thighs and she spreads further for me. It's intense and erotic. My head cranes down to put another kiss on her lips, our eyes still locked. My tongue comes out to explore her lips and her lips part to tease the tip of my tongue with her tongue. My tongue chases her tongue in and they intertwine inside of her mouth. My finger travels up her soft pubic hair to the tip of her crevice. My middle finger stays in contact as the rest of my fingers lift away from her soft skin. My hand travels down running my middle finger against the bottom of her valley. The soft skin feels warm and damp as my finger reaches her hood and travels over it to her labia. My finger parts the way between her petals and the soft pink flesh is wet and smooth. She moans again as my finger stops on the entrance to her canal. My finger presses into the opening and moves around the entrance. The beginning of her walls are wet and lubricated. She moans again and her walls clinch on the tip of my finger.
Precum wells up on the tip of my throbbing cock. My body wants her so badly. My hand moves from her folds to the base of my cock. I roll my body on top of hers. Her legs lift around my hips and thighs. My ass feels her foot and the split take it in the embrace. My lips press hers more passionately. Our tongues orbit each other slowly and pressing as well. I guide the tip of my cock towards her entrance as it brushes her hood and parts her petals on the way. My ass and hips roll up. My shaft penetrates her welcoming canal. "Oh, Vyleis." My mouth seems to make her name on its own and then returns to her lips. My shaft moves in as my hand comes away and moves up to her left hip. My body rests on her stomach with her breasts pressing into my chest. My left hand travels down the side of her face and torso to take her left hip. My hips press into her and feel her pubic hair press against the bare skin at the base of my cock. Her arms come around me and her hands gently take the back of my neck. Her eyes are still looking into mine in a lustful trance it seems.
My body starts a gentle thrust into her canal. She hums in pleasure each time my cock presses its way deep inside her. Her wet walls squeeze against my shaft. My breath is heavy. The moment is sheer magic. My moans start as my body moves. She moves her hips into mine with each thrust. She wants me in her as much as I want to be in her. Her voice is silent but her body tells me to continue. My body will not stop. I am lost in the pleasure and her returning moans and whimpers into our kissing mouths tell me she is lost there too. It lasts several minutes. The union is sheer bliss. Suddenly my body shudders as my hips press into her lap desperately. She gives a soft cry and her hands quickly grab my ass and pull it against her. My back arches pulling my lips from hers. I call out. "Vyleis!" My mind isn't used to that name but it keeps coming out of my mouth. My cock pulses and I feel my cum pumped up my shaft to exit deep in her canal. My muscles relax to settle back into her body. I kiss her tenderly again and move my cock inside her.
As my head clears I realize I did not use a condom. It's too late to do anything about it. At least Ciara was not concerned. Her hands press into my ass still telling me it's okay. I continue to thrust. I don't want to end this without her satisfied as well.
In my dream I hear my name, from a familiar voice. Though the name is my Elven one, it is not familiar sounding; it’s not the one the voice usually calls me by. I feel my lover’s seed fill me hot and heavy; it makes me moan in delight knowing he was pleased. He still moves inside me, and I feel the return of his kiss. My eyes flutter closed and my hips move faster against his.
I can feel my lover’s body atop my own, it is a really strong sensation for a dream. My hands leave his hind and start to explore the planes and angles of his body. He feels good under my hands and on top of me. It is like we fit together perfectly. I deepen our kiss, and my hands go from soft exploration to hungry need. My own pleasure is close and I long for it desperately.
I press into the deepened kiss. Her hands grip and press against my body. My shaft feels her silk gripping and pressing so I resume thrusting her. It is a sheer delight to feel Ciara's continued surrender. I lift my chest and my hands grip her breasts. My loins slowly work on reloading. My chest settles back onto my hands and my palms play on her soft globes trapped beneath them. It has been a long time since my last sex. I know I can have her again. It feels too magical and right to care. We can make love all day if we want. She is so beautiful and kind and her desire for me is so strong and intense. Hopefully this relationship works out. She is already living with me and I really want to make this one work.
My lover moves and changes things, his hands now trapped between our chests, and they feel so right there. He feels so right. I am almost frantic to know who my lover is, but the dream keeps his identity from me. Shortly, that fades from importance as my body suddenly curves up against my lover, our kiss is broken and I cry out. My pleasure is mind numbing in its intensity, and it makes my body shake almost violently. I cry out again. My body does not seem to be in any hurry for the pleasure to end either. It continued to tremble with each of my lover’s thrusts into my body.
I feel her body arch into me. My lips lose hold of hers and she gives a cry of pleasure. Her body shakes beneath me as her silk milks my shaft with urgency. I keep thrusting though. My palms use the extra space her arch makes to grasp them and then catch her nipples between my fingers. Every time the head of my rod plows into her body her form shivers. Her acceptance of me seems complete. It feels like we are lovers now. Everything about her sounds and moves tells me to take her and my body tells me to take her. The complications of her being an elf are lost in my mind. My mouth descents on her neck and my lips open against it to taste her skin. The smell of our union fills the air now. "Oh, Vyleis." It happens again. Whatever the spell is, I don't care anymore. The pleasure of her canal hugging my shaft signaling our togetherness is the only thing important. We will work the other parts out later.
My dream shatters around me as I orgasm. I am now awake and find the dream is real. My body is still trembling with new sensations as I feel someone thrusting into me, and my nipples are being teased, my neck it kissed and licked. My eyes fly open as my Elf name is uttered again. I find JP on top of me. The first thing that comes to mind is his eyes, the same as the lover in my dream. Confusion enters my mind, until his next thrust and I loose it to more pleasure. My body reacts automatically in the immortal dance of lovers. Though I have found release once, I am already feeling myself building up to another as JP works my body.
My lips move up Ciara's neck to her ear. I nibble at them delicately. Her canal is steadily building my pleasure to claim her again. My fingers steadily press her nipples. "Vyleis, you are pure magic." My eyes crave the vision of her amber ones. Pleasure and happiness fill my expression as I move my face to look into her eyes. I wonder what her traditions are and how long she will stay with me. The moment is too precious to ask questions though. My body needs the release as the pressure is building too much to stop. It is an investigation for later. For now there is only pleasing Ciara and consummating our union once more. "You have blessed me with your beauty." A few thrusts and I am moaning again. Her yielding flesh sends waves of pleasure again. My body prepares to expel more of my essence into her. I have no idea if her eggs are susceptible or even in cycle. It doesn't matter in the end. I'll just deal with whatever nature delivers or doesn't.
His lips find my ear and nibble so delightfully on it. My body reacts strongly to the attentions of both his mouth and his fingers. My sex tightens around his member as I moan with the pleasure. He says my Elf name again. It sounds strange from him, yet it sends shivers through me. Strange as it sounds, I find I like my name on his lips. He feels good, we are a perfect fit, much like my dream.
He rises up and stares into my eyes. I stare back. I like his eyes, they are so beautiful. I study him, and find I like the way he looks as well. I never would have imagined us in this position. Am I upset over it? I find I am not. I do not understand why. We are so different; he is a child of Man, while I am a child of Fey. He speaks again and my body shivers once more. His words are precious to me. With my banishment, I have felt far from worthy of much of anything.
His continued thrusts end my musings as my body once more reacts to his and his makes mine sing. I cannot help my body arching against him again as he once more gives me intense pleasure. Nor can I stop my body’s tremors, or even want to as the pleasure washes through me. I call his name. “JP.”
I feel her canal grip my cock. Her body is so right beneath mine. She has admiration in her eyes for me. The shudder of her body is so welcoming and brings a shudder from mine. The pleasure is so intense. My shaft is thrusting her unprotected. It is my first time taking a woman with her nectar soaking my shaft. I'm fully aware her womb is open beneath me and it feels right. It doesn't seem reckless to me at all.
She arches into me again. Her canal anoints my manhood with her sweet juices once more and I moan in anticipation of my body's reaction to her body's welcome. Her tremors don't quite set me off, but my ears hear her voice call my name. A wave washes over me with that sound. It's like a loud wind through the trees. My body presses hers and my cock throbs as my fresh cream pumps through my shaft deep into her. "Vyleis, oh yes." The bed seems to swirl in pleasure. My muscles relax to settle my body on top of her. My face nestles against her neck.
My chest heaves air in and out. The smell of her hair seems like the fresh woods and her skin feels so alive against my nose and lips. My mind returns from that intense swirl of fantastic sensation. "Say you are mine, Vyleis. Say you are mine and I will be yours." My hands drop from her breasts and hug her sides beneath me. The aftershocks of our climaxes send tremors through me. I pray she will say yes.
His body conforms to mine after our shared pleasure. I wrap my arms around his shoulders. Both our bodies relax though still throb with the after effects of our joining. As my mind settles back into the here and now, I start to think about how we ended up this way. I remember my strange dreams of Mother’s Court and JP as an Elf. I then remember the second dream. My body tenses slightly as I remember JP as an Elf approaching my dream self. Could that have done it? Had I reacted and made him do this? I frown perplexed.
I am drawn from my thoughts by him speaking again. I start at his request. He wants me to be his mate? Why? I am so, different, so odd. I do not know what to say. As much as I am enjoying this closeness, I am suddenly self-conscious and confused. We are too different, it could not work. Could it? I find myself longing to say yes, but I am afraid. Suddenly I squirm and try to get out from under him.
She doesn't answer. It makes me nervous. She squirms beneath me so I roll to the side, my cock slides out of her pussy and my arm lies across her upper stomach. "It's okay. Let's give it a trial period. What do you think would be a good time to work with our relationship? For me, a year would be a good trial. You are special to me, Vyleis. You are so beautiful and you seem so kind and patient with others. You wanted to do your best at the bar. Your dedication was beyond amazing. Our union just felt right. It's never felt that way to me before. Please, if a year is too long or too short, let me know. We have to face the winter together anyway."
I'm confused that she seemed so at peace with our sex through two orgasms and now she is pulling away. I've probably been way too fast, but it happened and it was worth pursuing. There was nothing that seemed wrong at this point. It had to be right.
When he rolls off me I start to bolt. I freeze though at his words. My head turns towards him. I study him closely. Finally I give into the impulse and reach out and touch his face. The face fur feels very strange under my hand. It is rough and prickly. My hand moves up and into his short hair. It is soft to the touch and far different from his face. “Your hair is preposterously short.” It burst out of me and my eyes jump to his in surprised horror. “I…” I suddenly giggle. I cannot help it. I am nervous suddenly.
My hand and gaze both drop. I get myself back under control. My voice is soft as I finally bring myself to speak. “You wish to court me? Why? I am so different from you, your world. Kindness, beauty, patience, and stubborn determination are not enough reasoning. You do not even know me, or I you.” Yes, courting would reveal all those things eventually. But also, one normally does not join together then decide to court either.
"I can grow my hair out." I laugh at her hair comment. Hair is nothing really. Union Pacific wasn't going to care if my hair was long. "You don't understand your own value, Vyleis. Most women I've met are selfish. They used me and moved on. We call courting dating now. Of course we are going to date. In fact, I would like to take you to Keyhole today. The reservoir is beautiful and the water is still nice for swimming. There are nice hiking trails. You don't think I would have sex with you and then just end the relationship, do you? You are very special and beautiful. The elves were silly to exile you. It bodes poorly for them and the fact our system won't give you a good spot bodes poorly for humanity. Dating you and having you for my girlfriend is my chance to do something better than either of our societies have chosen. You are a great person. Everything I've seen tells me that. I'm sure I'm going to find a lot more good things about you and I'm excited for the chance. You must have felt something for me. Our sex was beautiful together. Why would you share something so beautiful if you didn't want to give us a try?"
My gaze rises back to his. I move and sit upright to really look at him. “The hair is unimportant. I am just used to seeing longer on all.” I shift and fold my legs up, banging that blasted splint in the process. I hiss and turn to glare at the cursed thing for a brief moment. This was important and I did not need the distractions. I look back at JP. I study him for a long moment. My hand moves out again to feel the fur on his face. Rough and prickly though it is, I like it and I smile.
I look into his eyes. I like them too. They are so warm and rich. I like him. He is kind and caring, he took me in when he did not have to. He has been so patient with me, and he still wants to court… date me. He seems to want to take care of me. I frown slightly. “When I am healed are you going to have a problem with me doing for myself? Once I learn your ways…”
It's fun to share gazes with Vyleis. Her amber eyes are so amazing to look into. She touches my beard and it is so nice to feel her hand on my face. Her smile is priceless.
"I'm going to do everything I can to make you feel as normal as you can. You will be as employed as we can get you. There is no problem with that at all. If Dewey will let you work for cash, that will be fine. We just have to make sure it won't get you in trouble. We can't let the authorities ruin your life. We have to be careful and stay unseen unless we can be sure trust is warranted. If something bad happens to you it is going to haunt me forever. You want to check on your foot? Bring it up here and let's take the split off to see how your foot is doing."
I give a soft laugh. Like me he is adept at maneuvering around a question. Though his answer is not direct, I am satisfied enough with it. I sense a strong bond between us I cannot even begin to explain. It is as if he is what I have been searching for, and until now, I never realized I had been searching. I lean towards him, just before our lips touch, I give him an answer. “I will be yours.” Then I kiss him, fully awake and aware of my actions.
It is as if the Gods opened a path to Arvandor, and I feel the bond grow stronger between us. A peace blows through my soul that I have not known since I was a small child. He was right though, our joining had been beautiful. Like the Gods had made us just for each other. My tongue darts out to taste and tease his lips. My hand slides along his face back to his hair, and my body molds itself to his. I want to know him again, join with him, not because of some dream, but because we both want to. Both of us fully awake and aware of what we do.
Vyleis's answer makes my heart rejoice. It's impossible to understand. My mind just knows that she is the answer to my soul. Our kiss is priceless. It's is the great treasure of my life that I will never know the value of. The kiss is more complicate than it is possible for me to comprehend. Despite the fact my seed is alive inside her body, searching it out, somehow the kiss is even more powerful. Somehow I get comfort that the kiss means I am hers and she is mine. It's the only place to be really.
Her tongue samples my lips and her hands rediscover my face. Somehow their touch reignites my body. Her hands move back to my hair that is too short, yet long enough. She moves back into me and my body craves her touch. It's impossible to know whether her cunt accepts my cock's presence or whether my cock invades her body. We just end up together fully. "Oh, Vyleis, I don't know how this happened, I'm just thankful for it." It's as honest as I know how to express myself. My hips and ass explain it's an imperative that my body thrusts itself into her. Her lubricated silk seems to agree. That is all that is required really. My answer is only to moan with the pleasure of moving into Vyleis. Somehow the moan seems enough. The color of her hair and eyes is beautiful, but doesn't seem to truly matter. The only important thing is done. I'm inside her.
A sigh escapes me as once more we fit perfectly together like two puzzle pieces. I rise up slightly to look at him. His words make me shiver. My body moves slowly with his thrusts, happy once more to be joined with him. He is beautiful to me, with his short hair, face fur, round ears and human eyes. He tugs at my heart and soul, and I do not fear it.
My fingers move to trace his ear in exploration and sensory delight. I want to know every bit of him. My fingers go from his ear to travel down the side of his neck. Gently, I trace the fingernail of my forefinger along his collar bone up to his shoulder. My fingers then travel from his shoulder to his chest. I trace the planes and angles of his chest and belly and then back up. My gaze returns to his and I move my hips a bit faster against his.
Eyes locked, I slowly lower my head until our gaze is broken by his chin as my tongue darts out to taste the soft part of his throat. My tongue then travels up the other side of his neck to find his ear on that side. Softly I lick the outer rim of it. I move next to nibble at the edges of his jaw. His face fur feels funny on my lips and I almost giggle. Soon, I return to kiss him once more.
It's hard to imagine being inside of Vyleis again. It's such a wonderful feeling having her silk surrender to my cock searching her inner reaches. How we are right doesn't really matter as much as the fact we are right. We are unprotected yet again, but it seems my seed belongs in her if nowhere else. It's not important again. What is important is we are joined.
Her fingers seem to disarm me. It's like they are supposed to have their way with me and my skin sings at their touch. The back of my mind is vaguely aware she is ninety-seven years old to my twenty-six years of age. She is expected to know how to seduce me much more than I would have an inkling of how to seduce her. My eyes drink in the vision of her. Her nails are like magic against my skin. They paralyze me and I try to reach up to her face. The electricity in my collar bones seems to defeat my hand movement entirely. Her hips pick up the pace against me, confirming just how much our urgency to join is shared. "Oh, Vyleis. You should know just how wondrous you are.”
I look at him. “Ciara. Vyleis, is no more.” My voice is soft and gentle. By accepting to be his, I have fully turned my back on my people and my heritage. I will live in his world for as long as the Gods grant me. And I will do my best to live by his ways. These thoughts leave as our bodies become further in tune with each other. I feel him deep inside me, and it feels good. My pace picks up more. I want to pleasure him, and so I work to such an end. I feel my own pleasure mount, a moan escapes me. “JP.”
Somehow I understand what she is saying. It actually gives deeper meaning to her claim that she is now mine and I feel a wave of gratitude and triumph at the same time. "Okay, Ciara. Your insides are doing wondrous pleasure to me. I hope you understand we belong to each other on this one." I can't believe my cock is in her again. She is giving me so much of herself it's beyond incredible. I don't even have a reservation of cumming in her this time. She is mine and it is okay to just cum in her whenever the mood pleases us. My hands move to her nipples. They are her nipples, but she is okay with me having them. For now they are mine and my fingertips want to feel their tips getting gentle pressure between my fingers. In fact, I'm thinking she will let me play with them whenever I want. She is certainly welcome to my body. It will be interesting to see how that works out. Something just tells me it's going to work out no matter what.
I wonder if she can get pregnant by me. The thought crosses my mind that our children might grace the nipples my fingers are handling and using for pleasure right now. It will work out either way though. If we have a child, so be it. If we don't, so be it. Ciara is now mine and I am now hers. "Oh Ciara, you cannot know just how good this is to me." She is going to draw my cum deep inside her again, I can feel it. She knows it's coming too, and she doesn't care. That makes it intensely erotic for me.
I smile at his words. He is so sweet. “Of course we belong to each other, did we not already decide that?” I loose my thoughts and my breath as he reaches up and takes my nipples in his fingers. My body shivers fiercely and I am having a hard time concentrating on pleasuring him. I look at him a bit wide in the eyes. I have never known that kind of intensity before. It is not unwelcome, once more proving we are meant for each other.
Though his hands still keep me a bit off my rhythm, it does not deter me from giving him pleasure. My hands move back to his body, and I lightly run my nails over his chest in meandering patterns. I make no predictable moves with them. My head tilts slightly at his words. He did not say ‘how good this feels to me’, but ‘how good this is too me’. I am not sure I understand, but that is a discussion for another time, right now, we both need release.
Ciara's fingers on my chest are intense. Her question prior was lost in my mind. She was making too much pleasure swirl in my being. All my hands can do in return is press her nipples in-between my fingers. She had my cock caught, and as hard as I am trying to fuck her, it feels like she is fucking me.
My words lost on her are hard to explain. The difference in meaning in profound despite the subtle change of words. It is way past the feeling. It's about the connection and how important it is to me. My mind swirls. I wonder if she knows whether we can have children or not. If she thinks we can, this is more mind blowing than I have ever imagined. I can't ask her now though. It's too complex a thought and my cock is about to explode inside of her with a third dousing of my seed. If she knows she might get pregnant, her surrender to me is so intense, I can't even fathom it. She is from somewhere else allowing me the risk of putting her with child.
If she knows she cannot get pregnant by me, then this is still intense, but not as nearly intense. It's taking pleasure now with no consequence. Sure, there is the disease danger, but I don't have any. It would be her that is the only risk. We have so much to discuss it isn't funny. The fact I have an intense desire to spill my seed deep inside her yet again kind of is funny. "Make me cum, Ciara, make me cum." Something tells me she is going to do it. My body tells me she is going to do it shortly.
I see his reaction to me, it is a relief. I am pleasing him. That is good. I hear his words, and though they confuse me, I think I understand what he wants. My pace picks up and I groan. I am not going to be able to hold back at this rate. But I cannot stop. My body tightens, and my hands still on his body, holding onto him now. I gasp. “JP, I cannot wait any longer.” Suddenly the tidal waves of pleasure wash over me. My eyes close and my head falls back as my body convulses.
"Oh, Ciara!" Her orgasms milk me in a way that is crazily pleasurable. She really does make me cum by having an orgasm. "Oh, you get my seed." She has more than my seed and deep down inside me I know it, but won't admit it. She has my heart and something weak inside me needs to hide it. By the third spurt of my essence into her, that weakness loses its power. "I love you, Ciara."
I can't explain why I'm saying it now with cum spilling from my cock. It's a stupid time to say it, except the fact I'm not wearing a condom. My body has to finish emptying into her. My cock subsides finally and my lungs catch up. "Can we get pregnant, beautiful?" It's funny, as afraid as I am of having a child, I hope the answer is yes or 'I don't know'. Those two answers mean she has made a profound commitment to me and my blurting out my feelings towards her are not so damaging to my status in the relationship.
My body feels his seed enter me once again. Suddenly my own release takes new heights for I have pleased him yet again. I hear his words distantly, but am not yet able to respond. Finally, we both seem to settle back into ourselves. I slump forward, barely catching myself from just landing on him heavily. I am panting and trying to catch my breath. I cannot hold myself up any longer and finish collapsing on top of him.
As my body still vibrates from our union, I hear his question. I frown thoughtfully for a moment. “Our legends talk of long ago when both our peoples lived on this side of the Veil. There were younglings born of cross unions. I do not know though if that is still true now. Or if our legends even speak truth on the subject for that matter.” I nestle into his form more comfortably.
A sudden though jerks me upright and has me looking at him intently. “If I should conceive, will that upset you?” We Elves are so few, that any child conceived is considered a blessing from the Gods. We are not very prolific. Did he view it differently? After all, his people covered this world now. Could it be they had some rule against having younglings? But I had seen such in my walks through the settlement looking for a job… I am almost afraid to hear his answer.
Her collapse into me is beautiful. Her answer is one of not knowing and that is precious to me. She has made a possibility between us that is profound. "Oh, Ciara, if we have a child, that will make me so complete it's not even possible to consider just how happy that will make me." It's not a lie and not even close to a lie. It's a big step that means so much to me. If we make a child, we belong to each other so much and it is such a wondrous thing. "Ciara, this is just too meaningful and too deep to consider it any less than beautiful." My seed is searching her out. If it finds her and joins with her, we are solid to a point that I want badly. I want it worse than I wanted to ejaculate with her. "If you doubt me in the least, I will try to plant my seed in you all day. This is our first day and I want it to be special." My heart is intent on her. Hopefully she understands I planted my seed in her on purpose. I want her to be joined with me in a very real way. My arms try to draw her body back towards mine. My body needs to hold her close and let her know I'm true in my intent in my mind.
My relief at his answer is great, and I allow him to pull me back down to him. But I tell him something he should know. “JP, my people do not conceive easily. We are few in number as it is. I do not know if we can create a child, but I also do not know if a child will be granted us. We are not prolific as your people are.” I have that safe feeling again being in his arms. For once in my life I am truly happy and content. To think, I had to be banished from my home, my people, to find the one who I was meant for, and he’s not even an Elf. I start to laugh at the irony of it all. The Gods definitely have a sense of humor.
"Don't worry, Ciara, I don't have to have a child by you for us to be together. I'm okay with whatever happens." I'm still in her and she is still in my arms. Considering the risk I took with Ciara, that's a very, very good sign. "Just the fact you let me plant my seed in you is incredibly profound. I'm going to keep doing that. You are very special to me, Ciara." Our union is a very deep one. If my seed fails to find or penetrate her eggs, it's not going to change us. The fact is she let my seed try to go there. "We should go to the reservoir today. It's fun to swim and hike there. It would mean a lot for you to come with me." She is very probably going to say yes. I know we have to go to her camp and collect her belongings to move in with me, but I'm thinking that can't take too long.
His words make my laughter stop so I can hear him. I nuzzle up to the underside of his rough face. It makes me giggle briefly. “Very well. I should see to my foot now as well. Perhaps with the peaceful rest I have finally managed to achieve, I can heal more of it today.” I do not yet want to leave his arms, but things must be attended to. He wanted to move my stuff here as well. I sigh, but I do not yet move. I just want to be close to him for a few more moments.
Finally, reluctantly, I move. I sit up. He still sits nestled inside me, and I am loath to move to remove him, but we cannot spend the day here in bed, if we wish to get things done. So, I move off of him and sit to the side. I study the contraption on my foot, and soon sort how to remove it.
Once I have that off, it is a simple matter to remove the sock. My foot looks slightly better. I close my eyes and reach for the force line. It is stronger than last night and that startles me. Gingerly I reach out to it. It answers me, not like I am used too, but it answers me. I am elated at that and gather the energies needed. My hands hover over my foot. Soon it is nearly healed completely. I stop short of a complete healing because the force line is becoming like it was before. My eyes open and I blink. I frown and become lost in thought trying to figure out what exactly has happened.
Ciara moves off of me and my cock leaves her body. It's something that I don't want, but I know she will let me restore in the future. "Okay, just don't drain yourself healing the foot too much." I don't want her wiped out like she was last night. My interest is to get to her camp to collect her stuff and move her home. I double take on myself. It really is our home now. There isn't a more firm way to create that connection. All of the paper in the world cannot change the fact.
I snuggle slightly into Ciara and look at her take off the splint and sock. It's amazing how good her foot looks. Her hands block the view to her foot. When her hands come away I'm amazed. "Wow, you don't need the splint anymore. That's amazing."
Not paying attention my hand drifts to her breast. It's just too special to be able to touch it now without the threat of rebuke. "I have no clue how you do that, but it's truly a miracle. Us humans have to wait weeks or months for something like that to heal." Ciara is beyond special and I feel beyond blessed. "Are you ready to eat?" Maybe some food will keep the healing action from causing her to wipe out.
I come back to the here and now by his hand on my breast, my thoughts for now tabled until a later time to think without distractions. Oh, but he was a distraction I never wanted to tire of. I lean into his hand as he speaks. “Really? It is a simple matter of finding the force lines of your world and tapping into them. Drawing the energy into yourself and shaping it for the desired result you want.”
My hand drifts up and my fingers trace the back of his hand on my breast. It moves down his arm and back up. “Mmm, food would be good. I am suddenly very hungry. What will we break our fast on? Will I have a chance to see you use our fireless fire pit?”
Ciara's hand on my arm with her breast against my palm sends goose bumps up my skin. Her healing process sounds very complex to me, but then again, it's something I don't understand.
"Sure, I'll make some scrambled eggs for us. I have some oranges, too."
My hips send my legs to the floor and I break my contact with her breast. It's not fun letting go of her, but we will have time together now. Getting up, I move around the bed and help Ciara to her feet. I offer my arm to her to guide her to the kitchen. I'm not sure just how steady she will be on her foot, but putting the splint back on seems pointless. "Let's see if you can walk without the splint. Just use my arm to steady yourself." Her body is beautiful. I'm looking forward to showing her how to cook on the stove and enjoying being a couple.
It is almost painful when he withdraws his touch, but there is nothing to help that that will get us fed. And I am hungry. He helps me to my feet and that is nice, we are back in contact again. I put my weight on my foot and get a dull twinge of pain from it. Lifting it up, I wiggle my toes, and then my foot. The bones are healed, just the flesh around it is tender, That will work out with use. I put my foot back down and put my full weight on it. It hurts briefly then recedes. It is well.
I walk with him to the cooking/eating room. “I am well JP. The bones are healed.” My head cants slightly as I start to think on the force line. It had been stronger than last night for a brief moment. Why? What was different? Was it just the early hour maybe? I will have to see at another time maybe.
I turn my gaze back to JP and smile. “Eggs and oranges sound nice. What is scrambled?”
"Scrambled is frying the eggs slightly in a mix of milk."
I guide Ciara to the stove. "The four circles are gas outlets. You fire them up with their respective dials. The drawing on the panel next to the dial shows which one will light. Here is the dial to the right rear outlet." I turn the dial to the ignition position to light the gas. "That snapping sound is the electricity sparking to light up the gas. Now we just turn it to medium heat like this." My hand turns the dial to medium heat. The flame calms to a nice blue burn. My body bends over and I pull a frying pain from the cabinet. "This is a frying pan. It's wide with short walls. We put it over the flame." My hand places the frying pan on the burner.
"Now we get the milk and eggs." I move over to the fridge and pull out the milk and eggs. Coming back my eyes can't help but examine her shapely ass. My hands start cracking and depositing four eggs into the pan. "Now we just load the content of the eggs into the pan, add milk, and whip them up." I add a bit of milk to the eggs, pull out a whisk from the utensil drawer and start whipping the eggs. "Want to give the whipping a try?"
I frown at his description of scrambled. It doesn’t make sense to me. I watch as he shows me the fireless fire pit for cooking. My left brow cocks as small flames suddenly shoot up and then he turns them down a bit. Interesting magick to control fire like that. I am amazed and a bit intimidated. It is nothing like my campfire. It looks complicated as well.
I twist my upper body to follow his movements as he retrieves eggs the container holding the milk. That was the white stuff I drank last night. It had tasted rather nice. I peer at what he is doing, I can hear sizzling sounds, and smell the eggs. I watch him use a strange stir stick making the mix froth. My head tilts until he asks me if I want to try it.
I am hesitant, but need to learn this anyway. I do not think I will be allowed to build a proper fire pit here somewhere. I take the stirrer and try to mimic what I saw him do. I am very slow at it, and it does not look as if I am doing things right. A frown is on my face as I concentrate on what I am doing. This is going to take a lot of getting used to.
I smile seeing her not whipping the eggs, but only stirring them. My right hand can't resist giving her a playful spank on her bare bottom. "Here, you have to whisk it fast like this." I take the whisk and finish whipping up the eggs. When they are done, I turn off the burner, pull down two plates and split the eggs between the plates. "It just takes getting used to. Don't be discouraged." My hands retrieve a few glasses and two oranges from the fruit basket. I hand her one of the oranges, then carry the plates over to the table. "What would you like to drink?"
I put away the milk and eggs while she answers. Tossing the egg shells into the trash, I move towards the fridge. I notice apple juice in the fridge I forgot I had. "Oh, there is apple juice here as well, if you would like that." Ciara still seems a bit tense to me. Hopefully I can help her relax more.
I jump at being suddenly spanked like a small child, then he takes the stirrer away and finishes the food. I step back and fold my arms over myself feeling like a chastised child. I watch him dish up the food. And I take the orange handed to me. I go and sit at the table and wait. Looking up at him, I shrug. “I… that is fine, thank you.” I bite into the orange. The tart skin and sweet meat inside are a nice combination that reminds me of home. We have some foods in common and animals as well. I watch JP as he pours the drinks, chewing on my bite of orange.
"I'm sorry. Spanking is a form of intimate greeting. It wasn't meant to hurt. I'll pat lighter next time if that helps." Ciara puts another smile on my face as she ignores peeling the orange and just takes a bite out of it. "You can have my peel too if you want it." I start peeling my orange after pouring the apple juice and sitting down to the table. I have to jump up and get forks though. It was obvious I forgot them. Returning I sit back down and hand Ciara a fork. I give her a wink.
"Here you go. The eggs are better warm than cold. They get a little bland and rubbery when they cool." With that I take a bite of my eggs. "So, maybe it's just time for you to ask questions. I think I've overwhelmed you enough before breakfast."
I frown slightly at his words, but then shrug. “I live in your world now, I must learn the ways and customs of your people. Why would I just want the peel? You are supposed to eat them together for the full flavor.” I set the orange down and attempt to use the cutlery he gave me. I have difficulty and end up with more of the food on my plate than in my mouth. I pause as the flavor hits me, and bite the inside of my bottom lip to keep from making a face. Methodically, I chew what little is in my mouth and swallow. It… is interesting, though like last night’s food, bland. But it is nourishment and so I continue fighting with the cutlery to eat. At least I have the orange for after I choke the food down.
After fighting to only get about half the food in me, I give up and revert back to my fingers. It is messy, but easier. Perhaps today, if we get out I can find something to make myself flatware to eat with. His offer to let me question is welcome. “What is laundry? Do your people not use herbs for seasoning? What is Keyhole? What is orange juice? What makes that milk drink?” I look down at my plate, embarrassed, and finish the last of the eggs. I try a sip of the apple juice after sipping. I am surprised like the milk, it is good tasting as well. “How do they get the blood from the apple to make this?” I stop again and then turn my attention to the orange. I was like a river in a spring torrent with the questions.
It's hard to not laugh. Somehow I manage. "Usually peels are only used for baking or cooking. People rarely eat the peel of an orange and just enjoy the meat. I see my cooking sucks. I'm sorry." I don't understand why my food tastes so awful to Ciara.
"Laundry is dirty clothes that need to run through the clothes washer. We have driers that dry them back out after washing. Some people use herbs or spices, but I cook like a single guy. Keyhole is a lake formed from a dam. It's just north of here. Orange juice is the liquid squeezed from an orange. Cows make the milk. It's squeezed from their udders. It's the same stuff baby cows drink from their mothers. Apple juice is the liquid squeezed from apples. Apples are the red fruit you see in that fruit basket over there."
I continue eating my eggs. Ciara knows so little of human culture it seems a bit daunting to have to explain everything in painstaking detail. Even my detail seems to fall way short.
I feel bad and gently lay a hand on JP’s arm, I sense he is upset over my reaction to his food. “Your food is not bad… just different, and bland.” I look down at my orange as I remove my hand from him. I have lost my appetite now. I sigh as I set the orange where the eggs had been. My voice becomes soft. “It is nourishment, that is all that really matters.” I feel awful for not liking most of his foods. Finally, though no longer hungry, I take the orange back up and methodically eat. I have not taken in enough food to balance the over use of magicks the past two days. I know I need to eat, even if not hungry. As I do, my mind turns over his answers. They give me more questions than clearing up anything, but I hesitate to flood him with more.
I finish off my eggs. Ciara seems to retreat mentally. It's hard to tell what she is thinking. I wish I was in the habit of using more spices. "I would prefer to be able to make things you like. I guess I'm going to have to get you up to speed so you can show me how it's done."
I finish off my orange and apple juice as well. With the food done, it's time to rinse the dishes and put them in the dish washer. I collect the plates, glasses, and forks and move them to the sink. Giving everything a rinse, I stow the dishes in the dishwasher. "I have to pee if you are ready for a toilet use lesson." It's a bit crazy to me, but I don't want Ciara to get stranded on using the bathroom. I could show her tooth brushing and hand washing as well.
I blink and am brought from my thoughts as he speaks. I look at him, only to drop my gaze again. I am making things difficult for him. I look up again to watch him once more put the servingware into a box after running water over them. It does not seem very clean, but I do not bother him with my worries. I tilt my head at his information to relieve himself. I am briefly confused until I realize he wants to show me how exactly to use the contraption, toilet. I rise and nod. “Yes, thank you.” I wonder if I will get teaching in how to use the bathing tub also. I could use a cleaning.
I walk Ciara to the bathroom. My hand flips on the light and then turns on the fan. "You use this fan if you have to poop. It is also proper to close the door if there are guest in the house or you need the fan to take away the smell of the poop." My hand flips the fan back off for now. "I'm peeing, so it's not necessary to run the fan." Moving over to the toilet, I lift the lid and sit on the seat. My bladder releases to empty into the toilet. "You just let it go and then flush it down." My hand grabs a square of toilet paper and I dab off the remaining urine from the tip of my cock and drop it into the toilet. "This paper is thin so it will go through the pipes without clogging. Don't send anything down the toilet besides poop, pee, or toilet paper." My right hand flushes the toilet. The swirls carries the paper and urine away.
I get up and wash my hands with soap and water. "You just wash up like this after you are done and dry your hands on the towel." I dry my hands and then grab my toothbrush and toothpaste. "This stuff in the tube cleans your teeth. You just put it on the brush, clean off your teeth, tongue and mouth and then spit it into the sink and wash it down." I start brushing my teeth to demonstrate. I eye the tub behind us. The idea of showing her how to wash seems exciting in many ways. I've never had a chance to clean a woman's body before.
I follow JP to the bathroom. When he turns on the thing he called a fan, it made a loud sound that startled me. I had never heard a fan make noise before. I look around and see nothing that looks like a fan to me either. I am frowning as he sits and demonstrates the use of the toilet. I watch everything go down with the swirl of the water and then the thing fills back up with clear water.
I turn my attention to him again as see him running more caught water in a smaller basin version as the cooking/eating room. I move up and lean against him to peer around and see what exactly he is doing. The smell of whatever he is using with the water makes my nose wrinkle. It is not exactly unpleasant, but neither is it pleasant to smell.
I do not move and look curiously as he explains cleaning teeth. My head tilts, and now I smell mint… and other things, in the stuff he uses to clean his teeth. I give a soft sigh. Things were so complicated. I start to move away from him.
I spit out my toothpaste seeing Ciara move away. It's time to play my card. "Let me wash you in the shower. That will be fun." I rush through finishing my brushing. I'm not sure where I would think she would run off to, but keeping her interest is something I really want at this point. My rinsing is fast and a bit messy. I have to splash the sink basin clean.
I turn around in a hurry. "What temperature do you like to bath in? Here, put your hand beneath the tub faucet. The hot water valve starts cold water, but it heats up. You just start adding cold water to the mix to get the temperature you want." I stick my left hand down with hers to get a feeling for the water temperature myself. If I wrinkle her nose again, I don't want a burnt hand to be the reason. My right hand turns on the hot water valve. The gush of cold water starts.
I pause and look at him. The thought of being clean brings a smile to my face. “I would like that. Though, I must admit, I still do not understand shower.” I watch him finish cleaning his teeth in his odd way, and then clean the mess he made.
He turns quickly and nearly knocks me over. I am quick to twist my body and move my feet though and manage to almost dance out of his way. My head cants as I look at him. I do not understand his hurry. His question brings me from studying him. “I do not understand… I bath in whatever temperature the river or stream is I use. Some are colder than others depending on time of year and ice melt. Back home, I guess the bathing pool was not cold, but not warm either.”
I am nervous about putting my hand under his captured stream, that is until he places his there too. I relax then not sure what we are doing, but wait patiently for him to show me what to do next. Humans have strange rituals and magicks.
I decide to keep the water relatively cool for Ciara. If she doesn't like hot water, it will do no good to make another unpleasant experience for her. "Okay, the water is going to warm up as the cooler water flushes from the pipes. I'll turn on the cold water feed to balance out the temperature. You tell me if you want more or less heat."
My hand feels the water start to warm. I turn on the cold water to keep it tepid. The shower will probably be cold for me, but at least Ciara would enjoy this better than the food. My body enjoys her contact. We are close together for this activity and it's nice. She moved so quick to dodge me. She was probably not a good person to get into a fight with. I guessed ninety-seven years of looking as great as she did forced her to learn how to defend herself. "How many mates have you had?" I'm curious if she has ever had children.
“You can make the water warmer if you wish. It really matters not. I have been in a hot spring once.” I watch closely as he works metal… knobs and makes the water change temperature. I wonder if I will ever be able to work his Human magicks. I sigh at the thought and lean into his body. I like that we are close like this.
I stiffen at his question and pull away slightly. That subject had been such a thorne in my side for so long with my Mother. I wonder how thrilled my Mother would be to find I have finally taken a mate. Suddenly I chuckle and relax back into him. “I have never had a mate, until now. I have only been an adult by my people’s standards for almost two decades now.”
I feel like a complete male slut with her answer. There were two girls in high school and another two in college I had sex with. My adult life had dried up on me, but there was one woman who had a one night stand with me. I didn't even think I was her first lover. Her confidence had seemed so high she didn't seem like a virgin at all. I really feel like my responsibility is on an all-time high now. Not only is she taking a chance on me, she is taking her first chance on me.
Since she was fine with a hot springs I let the water get nicely warm. I knew humans liked 98.6 degrees. I wondered what elf body temperature was. "The valves just open up pipes. The water is moving from gravity. We pump it in the air. Do you like that temperature?" It was time to get her into the water stream and hope she liked it.
“It is fine, yes.” I turn a bit and look at him. His explanation confuses me yet again. I just do not understand Human magicks, it is so very complicated. I look at him curiously, not sure what to do now. I look at his warm eyes and am once more reminded of the earth. I smile. “What do we do now?”
Her smile brings a smile to my face. "We lift this valve latch and step into the shower." My hand pops the faucet cut off and before long the shower is spraying warm water into the tub. I offer my arm to Ciara and help her into the shower before pulling the shower curtain closed. "Move into the stream and wet yourself. I'll get the washcloth ready with soap and water." I take the soap and the washcloth and use a side stream to wet it and start lathering it up.
My eyes widen as the water changes from a stream to a higher up spray. I look at JP uncertainly, but take his arm anyway and step into the bathing area, though it is not exactly a bath. The water hits me and I jerk, bumping into him. It stings some and had startled me. “I am sorry.” My nose wrinkles again as I smell whatever he is making wet, what he called soap. But it is no soap I am familiar with. I now recognize the other smell on JP I could not recognize last night. I get back under the water, only flinching now and then as I get myself wet as he told me too. Done, I turn and look at him, letting the water hit my back.
"Okay, let's wash you off now. Are you not liking the shower?" My hand moves up and starts washing her face. "I'm very honored you chose me for your mate, especially since it is your first attempt at keeping a mate. I don't know how your society works, but in ours, sometimes a mate turns out a bad choice and we try again. I am very much hoping I'm a good choice for you." I wash her ears and neck. "There you go. Close your eyes and rinse the soap off your skin and then I'll wash the rest of you up. The soap can sting your eyes so it's best to rinse it quickly after washing."
“The… shower is fine. I am not used to the spray of water is all.” My eyes close automatically as he brings the cloth up to my face. I cannot control the twisting of my face as the smell of his ‘soap’ nears my nose. As soon as he finishes I am quick to put my face under the water and let the stuff rinse off. Once I am sure it is all off I pull my face out and open my eyes to look at him.
“My people take Lovers, and those who want a more permanent commitment will do so either with a priest or priestess or in a quieter ceremony of their own. I though, am Heir to Kaelyr, or was, and my mate is for life and supposed to be very public.” I wait patiently for him to continue with washing me. I am not sure how he will take such news, since his society is so different than mine, though his words make me hopeful.
I wash her shoulders and arms. "I can deliver on the life mating. I don't think we will be a public couple though. I only live to about eighty years of age. Will you be able to take a new mate after I die? Here you will be fine taking another mate. It would just have to be someone who is okay with you being an elf." My hands move to wash her breasts. My fingers take extra time on her nipples. "Your body is amazing, Ciara." I move to her underarms and sides before working on her flat stomach.
I'm not the religious type. It's looking hopeful we will be a permanent couple. Being away from her religious leaders, it's uncertain if she'll look to perform a marriage ceremony at some point or not. Legal marriage will be impossible unless we find a way to get her a social security number. It's just paper really. As long as we are true to each other, we will be as good as married if not better.
I am relieved he has no problem with a permanent mating. I chuckle though at his denial of being a public couple. “Public does not matter. We are not in Kaelyr.” I frown though at his telling me of his shortened life span. That bothers me, but there is no help for it. “Yes, it is acceptable to take another mate if your first dies, though it does not always happen. My Mother has not.” My eyes close and all thoughts of talking are momentarily disrupted as he washes my breasts. A soft moan escapes me and my breathing picks up. I am disappointed when he moves on, but my eyes open and I try to remember what we were talking about.
Ciara's response to me cleaning her breasts gets me excited. My cock starts rising. My hands finish washing her sides and I move to her stomach, kneeling down to do so. Water is beading in her pubic hair like little adornments. My hands drop to push open the insides of her thighs and then I proceed to wash her hips and work inward to her pussy. I wash the outside first. Her skin is soft and my eyes feast on the vision of her bare lap. My fingers work into her valley and wash over her hood, clit, and labia. I decide soap into her canal is probably not a good thing. My hand lets the water rinse the washcloth and soak up fresh water. I use the cloth to rinse her sex. When the soap is all rinsed away, it is impossible to resist moving my face into her lap. I plant a kiss at the tip of her valley and push my tongue against the floor of her valley. My mouth moves downward working its way to her hood and labia. At the entrance to her canal, my tongue dips into it and swirls around.
My mind fogs again before I can recapture our conversation as he moves down my body. He pushes my legs to open and my hands shoot out to catch his shoulders and balance myself as I move my feet for him. My eyes close and my body shivers as he washes my sex. A sigh of pleasure escapes me. He runs the cloth over me again and my hands tighten on his shoulders, a wordless sound emerging from my throat. Then I feel his mouth and tongue on my sex and my eyes pop open in surprised shock. I have no knowledge of such a thing, and am unsure what it happening. Then a shudder hits me as his tongue does a most pleasurable thing with my sex. It is all I can do to not let my knees buckle, dropping me and losing the sweet contact.
Ciara sounds like she is enjoying me touching her cunt with my tongue as much as I am. I can taste her nectar on my tongue. My tongue draws back and circles around the entrance to her canal, playing over her petals. I realize this is her first time with oral sex. She has probably not even given a blow job despite being ninety-seven. My tongue moves back up her soft wet valley to her hood. The tip of my tongue searches underneath it for her bud. My right hand moves up. I insert my index finger into her canal up to the first knuckle and stir it around pressing on the sides of her honey pot.
I hear steady moaning, and realize it is coming from me. His tongue is doing amazing things to me and my body it shaking nearly constant now. I can feel my body tightening as I grow close to a pleasurable release. My hands tighten on JP’s shoulders. I am gasping and panting before too long. “JP.” My voice almost sounds tortured.
It's fun giving Ciara such pleasure. Her moaning is precious and her shuddering tells me she is feeling my touch intensely. Her grip on my shoulders spells out her urgency. My index and middle finger sink into her canal and curl up looking for her bumpy pocket. I not sure if an elf has the same anatomy as a human. I'm guessing she does though. My lips press around her hood and draw the sensitive flesh into my mouth. My teeth play touches her bud which is now swollen. My tongue flits across bundle between my teeth as my other arm moves around her lower back to catch her if loses her footing.
I feel his fingers enter me and my sex tightens around them. His mouth playing with the most sensitive part of my sex makes my body tighten like a drawn bow string. Then my body snaps like one pulled too tight. My body is wracked with shudders and my legs finally collapse, no longer able to hold me up. “JP!” I cry out in my pleasure, unable to help myself. My mind is spiraling to some place full of pleasure.
My left arm catches Ciara's falling weight along with my right hand probing her sex. My mouth releases her bud and I draw her down to the floor of the tub, my left hand sliding up her back until I have her neck held safely. My back shields her body from the falling shower water as I rotate around to bury my face in her sex again. My right hand sends my forefinger and middle finger back into her down to discover her cervix. My tongue presses her bud and my knuckles rotate against her entrance. I'm uncertain if she had an orgasm or not. I want to be sure I give her one. My free hand explores her thigh and hip.
For a moment the pleasure abates and I feel myself falling, but caught and lowered gently and easily. I do not feel the water beating on me anymore, but I feel JP back at my sex, and my hips jerk up. The pleasure engulfs me again, and my hands latch on to some part of his body and holds on. My back curves up and I cry out again. By the Gods, does he make me feel so good.
I feel her back arch and her voice cry out, but I'm not sure if it's an orgasm yet. I run my ring finger into her canal and curl it into her g-spot. My tongue does pressing circles around her bud while my forearm starts rhythmically pressing my knuckles into her entrance. The warm water feels good on my back. The grip of her hands even feels good. It is a sign I'm bringing Ciara a lot of pleasure. My tongue switches to fluttering on her bud. Its swollen state makes contact with it easy.
He doesn’t stop with the pleasure. I feel the walls of my sex tighten around his fingers. As his tongue continues on my most sensitive area, I am finding it difficult to think or speak. His fingers move within me, and I am driven deeper into pleasure, moaning loudly. His tongue starts to do an amazing thing to my overly sensitive spot, pushing my mind past pleasure straight into ecstasy. My hands tighten on him, as my body convulses wildly under his. I do not hear the strange sounds coming from me; I have lost the ability to be aware of myself or anything around me. Nor do I realize my sex releases a torrent of fluid from his ministrations.
My hand feels the gush of her nectar. Her sounds of pleasure make my heart sing. I run my tongue up to my knuckles to taste the fresh flow from her canal. Her flavor is vexing and drives me into more want. My cock shudders, feeling a need to be inside her. My face lifts and I pull my hand out of her canal. Crawling around in a 180 turn I bring my face over hers to protect it from the falling water. "I have to have you Ciara." My right hand takes the base of my cock and I lower my body onto her aiming my shaft into her tunnel. My hips and ass push my manhood all the way into her with a fast thrust. Her silk is so wet it is an easy plunge despite the tightness of her walls. The pleasure of the surrender sends a pleasured groan from my mouth. My lips kiss the tip of her nose as my hips start taking her. My hands move to her wet breasts and start pressing and moving up and down over her softness.
I get a brief respite from his attentions. My mind slowly settles back into itself. I feel him move around above me and manage to let him go. I hear his words and open my eyes and see his beautiful face looming above me. A smile starts to form on my lips, only to be lost in a gasp as he enters me. His words make me shiver, and I moan. “I am yours JP. You have me.” I feel his kiss distantly as once more he pleasures me and sends my mind spiraling down that path. My hands move to his sides and hold on as my hips meet his and my chest pushes into his hands.
My hips press into Ciara with urgent force but my pace is steady to enjoy the feel of her silk surrounding my shaft. My hands move down her breasts so my fingers can take her nipples and glide them between my fingers. The wetness makes them slippery and I can press them as the erect nubs travel up and down my finger pads. "You are a sweet blessing to have, Ciara. Your surrender is so sweet." My lips move down to give her a tender kiss. The pleasure of her canal sends waves through my body. My emotion wells up as well. Ciara has given herself over to me completely and it is an awesome gift. I want to make good on being her man. She is so special, not because she is an elf, but because she is such a kind soul with so much trust in me despite my bland cooking and foreign ways. She might never conceive with me, but I wonder if over several decades we might share a child. I feel I am hers despite our short time together. "You have me, Ciara. All of my effort will be for our life together."
JP makes my body sing as it never has before. I am lost in the pleasure of it all. The Gods surely blessed me with meeting him. His voice reaches me, and with difficulty, I try to concentrate on what he is saying. My heart rejoices that he feels the same way. I meet his kiss with love plain and simple. I cannot explain why I feel such love so quickly for a man I barely know. But I have, to the point that I have agreed to be his mate. I do not regret the choice. His ways are strange, but I will learn them, and be a helpful mate to him, in all I can.
His next words trigger something strange. I feel as if our souls actually join as one for a brief moment. I know his longings and wants and needs. It even seems that I learn a bit more about his world. Our legends are way off. I then feel us separate and sense Hanali Celanil, Goddess of Love, there. I feel her bless both us and our union. Then I come back to the material plane and feel my body once more release in pleasure. “Oh, JP.”
Some kind of connection forms between us. She calls my name. The intense emotion I have for her wells up in full power. "Ciara, I love you." My loins convulse in response to the feeling. As my mind voices its truth, my body echos my heart. My seed pours into her canal as my shuddering body presses into hers. It is a kind of odd consummation. My throat calls out, trying to make her name, but my tongue and lips are too lost in the pleasure and it is only my overwhelmed voice that echos on the tub walls. Her body seems to be doing the same as mine. When the last of my seed expels into her reaches the tension in my muscles collapses. My lips fall to hers in a deep yet tender kiss. My tongue lazily brushes her teeth and tip of her tongue as my lungs work to return air to my spent body. Finally enough control returns to my face to lift my lips barely away from hers. My lips actually brush Ciara's when I speak. "We are married, Ciara. You have your man. It is an honor that fills my heart completely."
My hands move to hug her sides. The water starts to cool a bit from the shower but it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is I'm holding my new wife and she is a wonderful person. The warmth of her body beneath me is more than enough to fortify me against the cooling water. The compelling need to hold her joins with a desire to kiss her and my lips return to hers, feeling completely at home.
I resettle into my body after our shared joining. His word echo in my head. “I love you, JP. The Gods made us for each other, and brought us together at last.” My hands move to his sides and gently hold on. I am exhausted from this encounter. He kisses me again, and I delight in the pressure of his lips on mine. My hands tighten briefly on his sides, then relax. All I want to do is cuddle with him, but he has plans for the day. Slowly my fingers start to glide along his sides.
I reach up to the valves and stop the shower. The water is cool since the hot water heater is drained. I wish we are in the bed. We have to climb out and dry off to get there. I kiss her again with passionate pressure between our lips. My tongue teases out to caress her lips against mine. Her fingers send bliss along my sides and my own fingers start drifting along her sides as well. I break the kiss to tell her the new feeling in my being. "I want to lay down with you in the bed. Your camp is the only thing we need to take care of. We can get that later. I just want to be next to you, Ciara. Let me know when you are ready to get up and dry off. We can lay here for now. Your body is too magical to lose contact with until we are ready to start towards the bed." My body is now relaxed and a hike or swim is not as urgent. We are together in a very stable way now. It is good to just be in close contact.
I almost giggle as he kisses me and his tongue dances along my lips tickling them. Instead I open my mouth into the kiss and let my tongue come out to play with his. I sigh when he breaks the kiss. I give a soft laugh at his new plans for the day. “I think the bed would be far more comfortable to lie upon than the hard surface we are currently on. And more room.” I must wait for him to get up though before I can get out of the rectangular box we are in and get dry. I am not really in a hurry. He feels nice right where he is.
I give Ciara one more kiss and slowly pull myself to my feet. Offering my hands to her, I lift her up as well and then grab a towel. "Here, I'll dry you off and then you can use the towel for your hair." My hands start gently working over her skin from her forehead down. "Ciara, you are very beautiful. Men are going to be very jealous of me." After finishing drying her off, I hand her the towel and grab another to dry my body off. My arm opens the shower curtain and I step out to help Ciara out of the tub. My face cannot help but smile at her. She makes me feel very much at peace and happy. After placing my own towel on the rack, I lead the way to the bedroom holding Ciara's hand. I help her into the bed, lifting her legs. With another kiss on her lips, I head around to my side and slip in beside her. My one leg moves into hers and my arm reaches for her far side. We are back where we started before sealing together in the tub. It's a humble sanctuary, but it's ours.