Xavior
I spread the ashes and poured water on the fire before we walked to the stream. We were both quiet as we made our way to the water. When we arrived. I began to strip.
“What are you doing?” Gregor asked.
“Bathing. What do you think I’m doing?”
He looked at me and shook his head. He’d sat naked with me across from him all night, and suddenly he was shy of me being nude? It was somewhat hilarious, and the thought made me laugh a little as I removed the last of my clothing.
“Couldn’t you bathe from the shore?” He was on the edge of the water himself, crouched down, water lapping at his toes.
“No. It’s better to get in. The stream isn’t all that fast, and it’s refreshing. It’s quite enjoyable, I promise you.” I opened my bag and removed a small piece of fragrant soap made with oil from a sage bush. It reminded me of my grandmother’s home and the potpourri of smells that were inviting as much as they were protective. It was a kind of hedge magic she practiced, but even so, it had power to it.
I moved to the stream and stepped. Steam wafted around me as my high-temperature skin made contact with the water. I could feel the pleasant coolness caress me as I walked deeper into the stream. Gregor made a terrifying sound from the shore as I sunk into the water up to my neck.
It occurred to me that he might not know how to swim. “You don’t have to come into the water if you don’t want to. I’m quite alright. I learned how to swim when I was younger.”
“You know how to swim?” The astonishment on his face was endearing.
“Surprised?”
“Yes.” He stood up and took a step or two into the water. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the temp.
The water wasn’t fast-moving. I had to tread a little to keep my place, but it wasn’t that hard to do. I only had to take a few steps to get my feet under me.
“Would you like me to teach you?” He looked at me, and I smelled doubt, even with the running water around us. “If I was going to harm you, I would have done it last night while you were sleeping.” I moved toward him, washing myself as I went. When I came near him, I tossed the soap up onto the shore and offered him my hands. “It’s easy. I’ll help you learn.”
He took my hands, and we slowly waded out into the water. When we reached the dropoff, I expected him to want to kick his feet. Most beings have a natural instinct to move. Instead, he dropped like a stone below the surface. I dove down and brought him back up by his armpits. I turned him so his back was to me as I swam us back toward more shallow waters as he sputtered and coughed.
“Sorry about that. I should have told you to kick your feet. I thought you would do it naturally.”
“You thought wrong, dragon.” The annoyance in his voice almost made me laugh.
Gregor was shivering from the scare, and I picked up fear and anger from him too. I put my feet down and let him float out in front of me. We stayed like that for a time, and he relaxed again.
“If you put your feet down, you can stand up.”
As he did, I let him go. He turned to look at me. I went back to the shore and retrieved the sliver of soap. I handed it to him as I returned to floating in the water near him. I told myself it was to help if he needed it or talk, but the view wasn't too bad either.
“Thank you,” he said. “You must be well off to have such a luxury.”
“Soap?” I forgot how uncommon it was in some areas. “My family makes it. We herd and tend farms around our estate. It has sage in it for protection. It also wards off illness. We often give it as gifts to residents and visitors.”
I tried not to watch as he used the soap on himself. Now that he was removing the grime he’d been caked in, I noticed that he was more than handsome. I closed my eyes to keep from staring and the after-image of him washing himself in the morning sun caught my breath. When he cleared his throat, I opened my eyes.
He was next to me, holding the soap in his hand. I put my feet down and stood up. He was taller than me. Long-limbed and well-muscled. I was glad the water was higher than our waists. I had an odd urge to kiss him and shook my head of it as I reached for the soap.
As my hand was about to clasp it, he moved, and I nearly fell into the water. I tried again, and he moved again. His scent changed to something playful, and maybe a little more. It made my heartbeat pick up. The game of keep-away was now in earnest as he switched hands and moved in the shallows away from me. It caused me to move closer to him as he kept the soap, and I looked for other ways to grab it from him. I followed my instincts.
Gregor turned his head toward me, laughing as he held the sliver of soap high above his head. Instead of reaching for it, I went for his face and kissed him. His laughing stopped. He dropped the soap into the stream and kissed me in return. Our kisses were urgent and passionate. I placed my hands on his hips to steady us as we offered up lips, tongue, and teeth to each other.
He walked us back toward the shore. We slipped over the rocks and moss there until we reached the higher bank where my pack and clothes were. I extracted the blanket and laid it out. He looked unsure about it until I sat down and offered my hand. He came to me willingly.
“You’re warm,” he said in between kisses.
“Dragons tend to run hot. Is it not the same for wolves?”
“Only so much.”
My hands roamed his body, caressing solid curves and defined muscles. When I reached his groin, the quiet moan that followed encouraged me. I moved my hand in a steady rhythm that had him panting in moments and spilling his seed into my hand a few moments later. He clung to me as he caught his breath.
“I miss him.”
I almost didn’t catch what he said with his face pressed into my shoulder. It was when I felt his breath hitch and his scent turn to grief that I figured out who he meant. I wiped my hand on the blanket and brought him into a hug. He sobbed. It broke my heart. When he quieted, I laid us down on the blanket next to each other and smoothed his hair from his handsome face.
“Do you think your grandmother will help me?” Gregor asked.
“I know she will, especially if I ask her. I’m her favorite grandson.” I smiled, and he laughed a little. Some of the joy from earlier returned to his eyes.
“Then we should not delay our journey any longer. We’ll need to return to my home. If we walk, it might take a week or more. I have followed the thief along the countryside for months. He stayed too close to towns for me to do anything. Then I lost his scent.”
“We could fly.”
“I thought you said you preferred to walk.”
“I do, but in this case, I think we should make an exception. Can you read a map?”
Gregor nodded.
I worked out the route on the map to his home. It was a small cabin in the woods near the foot of a small ridge of mountains. If I could fly us to the area, he could get us the rest of the way within a few hours' walk. We agreed that the best way for me to carry him was for him to shift. His fur would protect him from the wind.
Comments (13)
See all