[In the previous Mature update, Patience 'helps' Valon by offering her body. After their coupling and a few stiff words, Valon leaves to clean up while Patience returns to her hotel.]
“The bakery took a while,” Anax commented as Patience slipped him on again in her room.
“I may have run into someone,” she muttered.
“That hunter!” Anax gasped.
“Don’t worry. He didn’t harm me … but he did rough me up some in other ways,” Patience sighed. She undressed and laid on the bed to show the skull the aftermath of her meeting.
“Did he force you?” Anax roared.
“No! Not at all—”
“You let him do that to you?” snorted Anax.
“I wasn’t entirely opposed,” Patience’s voice echoed under the crown of Anax’s skull. Back in the relative safety of her hotel room, the girl breathed easier resting atop the sheets. “C-could you please clean me?”
The skull huffed, which Patience took as an affirmation. She pulled the tip of Anax’s snout to her sternum. Only able to see the dark recesses of Anax’s skull, Patience closed her eyes. Cold vapor fell across her shoulders as Anax began to coalesce. The soft bedspread cradled her naked body while the creature ran ropey tendrils over her, cleaning off any trace left by Valon.
Anax brushed the fresh bite marks and clicked his nonexistent tongue, “This hunter though …”
“Are you going to give me life lessons now?”
“No. I don’t blame you. Were he one of my kind, he would have many potential mates clamoring for his attention. He certainly is experienced, strong—very strong …”
Anax formed his thick arm and clawed hand. Patience only knew by feeling his forearm caress her belly, his fingers traveling down her waist.
“BUT,” Anax scowled, “I can’t share my pet! I do not approve of him marking you!”
“I know, but it meant nothing! All a part of negotiations. I’m talking him down.”
“With your body?” he rasped, clutching at her mound.
“Yes. Well—trying to,” Patience grunted.
“Is this something humans do?”
“They can. Human culture is varied and complicated.”
Anax relaxed his hold. He grumbled incoherently as he continued sweeping his hands and tendrils across her skin. One soft digit slid against her gap.
“Be gentle,” sighed Patience, “I’m still recovering. He was a bit rough.”
“Of course, Pet.”
Anax inserted a tendril and began excavating Valon’s remnants.
“You will get everything out? I’m not trying to carry a child.”
“Worry not. I’m thorough.”
Patience was not sure of the science behind it, or if it was magic, but Anax collected every last bit of dross from Valon around his coil. She imagined it was easier to target this foreign matter than the bloody material her own body made. Anax deposited the gunk in the wash basin to be cleaned out later by housekeeping.
She must have won some of Valon’s attention right now. How much of that was diverted from seeking Anax, she did not know. She only knew she had to lead the dog away, break his train of thought with a tasty morsel.
However, seeing both sides of the man made Patience sympathize with him all the more. She had intimately experienced his physical prowess and bore witness to his helplessness. Disease, a curse upon men. A war which never seemed to end. Patience scrunched her eyes and fists as past visions of her gaunt parents coughing and hacking filled her mind. She shook her head free from the darkest memories. The ways in which a body could decay while still holding onto life disturbed the girl the most.
“Perhaps Valon’s right …” said Patience, “Suppose you could actually help him recover. That—that could help revolutionize medicine!”
“And what? Have my kind hunted?”
“No, you’re sentient beings. I’m sure scientists could simply take samples of your bodies—”
Anax hissed, “I’ve done enough reading from your library to be wary. Do you really think with your species’ history of how they’ve treated their own kind that is likely to be the most they’ll do?”
“Wizards might be able to replicate the samples and—”
“Honestly, Pet, you’re getting ahead of yourself,” he snapped, “I’m not going to help him.”
“Anax …”
“What has he done for you? Naught but give you a good basting.”
Growing irritated with his tone, Patience raised her hands, threatening to remove the skull.
“Right. Run away from the discussion!”
She pounded her fist into the bed. He was right. Outside, the sounds of people going about their day drifted through the open gap in the window. How the girl wished to walk among them freely with the only decision weighing on her mind being what to choose for supper. She sniffed. Casting aside the possible advancements in medical science, her thoughts drifted into the wallows of self-pity.
Anax had a deep desire to see and experience new things. Doubts of whether she was fit to chaperone him rose in her chest. It took so much to get her to make this simple trip. She was not an adventurer. She enjoyed the comforts to which she was accustomed. Indeed, she was slowly creeping out of her cave, but perhaps Anax had little patience for baby steps. There must also come a time when he would grow bored of her, of her body.
“At full health, Valon might be a good life-donor,” Patience began. Perhaps Anax would do better with a different human. She swallowed. “He’s well-traveled, has lived through a lot, and knows so much …”
“Why are you trying to convince me to take his offer?”
“I-it could help the two of you …” she mumbled. “He could be cured, and you … you could see the world.”
“See the wo—?” he spat before falling into silence.
The girl’s lip quivered.
“Did you ever think that I don’t want to leave you?” Anax’s voice curdled.
Patience inhaled sharply and held still. All this time she had not considered how Anax would feel. From the moment Valon proposed the offer, she had only wanted to keep Anax for herself. She never thought Anax wanted to keep her. Indeed, he saw her as his pet, a possession even. Patience thought she was disposable, that Anax would want to move on at the prospect of something more exciting. Never did she entertain the thought that he treasured her so highly. Her heart dropped at the realization. A sad smile formed on her lips.
“Even if Valon took me through every square inch of the earth, it would not be as enjoyable as a week spent with you,” said the skull.
“I didn’t know you felt that way about me,” whispered Patience.
“I like you,” Anax stated. “Even with a new agreeable life-donor—which he isn’t—I would miss your opinion on things, the way you do things, you.”
These simple words pulled Patience back into a dark sea. Tears pricked her eyes. “It’s just if you offered to try and help, we wouldn’t force his hand to take more extreme measures obtaining your skull,” she sputtered.
“Pet …” Anax cooed. He formed a tendril and tipped it to Patience’s chin. It felt a touch warmer from the shaft of sunlight shining on the girl and skull. “You don’t think I can take him? I will protect us.”
“Unless he has a whole field of lavender to burn,” she blurted. More tendrils formed and he coiled around her in a tender embrace. She wearily slumped into them, finding familiar comfort in this coastal town far from home.
“I’m not going to leave you,” he said.
For the rest of the day, Patience remained in Anax’s company. Save for a quick trip to the deli for a sandwich, a bottle of lemonade, and another sausage link, she passed the time in her room in Anax’s arms. When a maid came by to tidy up, they explored the lower floors. The girl felt slightly vindicated when heavy clouds spread over the sky, threatening more rain. Patience bemoaned her lost vacation, but a small part of her was glad to return home the next day.
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