Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

by Stephanie Park

  Johnathan was tired, and he started dozing off, but that idea kept running through his mind, and the last thing he thought before he fell asleep was, if Herb, who isn’t a farm boy, could really love the land, then why couldn’t Fionn love it too? Why couldn’t Fionn want to stay here, forever, with me?

  He felt like he might weep into his pillow, but merciful sleep claimed him before the tears started to fall.

  * * * *

  Johnathan wanted to talk about it more, but he could never think of a good way to bring it up. And what did it matter anyhow? Fionn was long gone. Herb was here. So he continued to have Herb over for dinner and to go with him whenever there was a gathering in the area, and he found that he was thinking less and less of the adventurer and more of the farmer next door. Herb hadn’t yet moved to do so much as kiss him, but there were occasional looks and lingering touches that suggested he might perhaps be interested. Johnathan was still nerving himself up to make a move, but he knew that he wanted to, and that he should do it soon.

  The winter was late to leave that year, and there was a hard cold snap when spring ought to have been on the way. So it was nearly freezing one night as Herb drove the cart into Jonathan’s yard and unhitched his horse from it.

  “That was pretty fun,” he said.

  “Yes, it was. Will you be over for dinner tomorrow?”

  “You know I will, I…” he was cut off by a loud whinny from the horse. It was looking towards Herb’s farm. Herb spun around. He could only just make out his farmhouse through the fields and trees, but it was immediately obvious that it was on fire. “Oh no!” He started as if to run towards it. Then he froze and his voice this time was flat with dread. “Oh no.”

  Jonathan looked closer, and realized that there were dark shapes moving in front of the fire. Unfamiliar shapes, shapes that weren’t human.

  “Get inside,” snapped Herb. “Now!” he added when Johnathan didn’t move immediately. “And make sure your mother is inside and stays there!”

  Johnathan shook himself and ran for the farmhouse door, but even as he reached it, he could see some of those shapes in the road in front of the house. Herb’s horse squealed, and it spun around nimbly, in a move he’d never seen a horse do in his life, its hind hooves lashing out at the dark creatures.

  Herb nearly plowed into him running into the house. Johnathan scrambled inside and shut the door behind them. Then he blinked. Herb had vanished up the stairs to where the attic rooms lay. From outside came a confusion of thuds, inhuman screams, and the cries of an enraged horse. Then Herb came racing down the stairs, and he had Fionn’s saber in his hand. Even as he reached the bottom, there was another crash, and one of the creatures broke the door in.

  It was big, much bigger than Johnathan, with an almost canine snout full of scraggly teeth. Large ears notched with scars and pierced with earrings framed a crest of stiff hair that nearly touched the door frame as it stepped in. It was covered in matted fur and dressed in patched armor, half leather, half rusted chain. And it held a sword, a big sword. There were more just like it coming in behind it.

  With a yell Herb lunged at it. Jonathan stumbled back against the far wall, where he watched in stunned amazement. Herb moved with smooth, almost graceful speed among the creatures, and every time they swung at him, he simply wasn’t there. But his own swings and thrusts hit home each time, and it was only seconds later that four of the creatures lay dead on the floor. He didn’t pause though, he pelted out the door at full speed. The noise outside increased, more shrieks and yelps adding to the clamor, and then suddenly it fell silent.

  Herb appeared in the doorway. The sword was red with blood all the way to the hilt, and there was a gash across his collarbone and partway down his chest. “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “I…” Johnathan just gaped.

  Herb walked over and shook his shoulder. “Come on, back to earth. Are you all right?”

  “I should be asking you that,” he finally said. “You’re hurt…”

  Herb glanced down and winced. “It’s just a scrape. This shirt’s pretty done for, though.” He started peeling the bloodied thing off. Most of the blood didn’t seem to be his. He winced again as it pulled away from the one wound he had gotten. “I do wish I’d had time to put on the mail.”

  Johnathan blinked at Herb, shocked a second time. “You knew where the sword was. You went straight for it.”

  Herb smiled, a bit ruefully. “Yes I did.”

  “How? And…” he looked at the sprawled forms, each one half again as big as he, and nearly twice the size of the shorter Herb. “How could you…do that?” He wasn’t even sure if he was asking how Herb had been so skilled, or how he’d killed so easily.

  Herb looked at Johnathan for a moment, and a little smile quirked up the corner of his mouth. “You’re not thinking clearly just now, are you? I fought them because that’s what I’ve been trained to do. Gnolls are vicious, but they’re neither smart nor fast. Luckily it was a pretty small raiding band. But I knew where the sword was because I’d left it there myself.”

  “…What?!”

  Herb’s smile broadened a bit. “If you could see the look on your face right now…” Then he pulled the luck bag off from around his neck, and suddenly short brown hair and brown eyes were replaced with long orange hair and sparkling green eyes. His features shifted, his nose a little shorter, his chin more pointed, his skin tone lighter, and at his back were the white wings of an avian.

  Jonathan could not have been more shocked. “Fionn?” he said disbelievingly.

  “You said that if I could give up my sword and live as a farmer, you’d believe me. I’m afraid I wasn’t able to keep away from the sword as long as I’d hoped, but given that we’d probably be dead if I hadn’t taken it up again, I hope you’ll forgive me.” Fionn looked behind him then. “We’ll talk more later. I need to go take care of my horse. He’s mostly okay, but he got a few scrapes.”

  “He’s a war horse, isn’t he?” said Jonathan, with sudden realization.

  “Something like that, yes,” said Fionn. He sighed then. “It’s probably too late to save the farmhouse. I don’t know how on earth I’ll manage to rebuild it.”

  Johnathan gaped at Fionn again. “You’re staying here?”

  He gave Johnathan a flat look. “Of course I am. I didn’t do this just for a lark. I love the land, you said it yourself. I may have to pick up my sword now and then when my duty calls me, but I don’t love the land any less because of that.” Then he stalked still shirtless out the door, leaving Johnathan even more stunned, which he wouldn’t have thought possible.

  Half an hour or so later he walked down the road to Fionn’s farm. He’d done what he could to clean up his own farm, but that had mostly consisted of making certain his mother was fine—she’d been asleep in her room the whole time, so she had no notion that anything was wrong—and dragging the bodies out of his front room. Fionn’s farmhouse, though, was a gutted ruin and no amount of cleaning would save it. The goats were all dead, and the barn had been half wrecked; the hay and grain stored there were scattered across the snow. Fionn had found a shirt, somewhat soot-stained, but he wasn’t cleaning up, he was sitting next to one of the dead goats in the center of the yard.

  He was stroking it and crying, tears slowly trickling down his cheeks. His warhorse was nuzzling him as if to comfort him. Warriors don’t cry over dead goats, Johnathan thought. But I guess they do, because he is…That final thought sank in, on top of everything else, and made him realize exactly how foolish he’d been.

  “Fionn,” he said, and Fionn looked up, his expression bleak. “Come back to my farm. I’ve been an idiot several times over, and I won’t blame you if you don’t want to have anything else to do with me, but you can’t stay here tonight, and…And you’re always welcome there. Always.” He held out his hand.

  Fionn took it and stood. He wiped his eyes. “Thank you.”

  * * * *

  By the time the two of the
m took care of everything that absolutely had to be done it was well past midnight. The pair had finished by cleaning the worst of the blood from Johnathan’s front room, before retreating by unspoken mutual consent from the scene of the carnage into Johnathan’s bedroom, and collapsing on the rug in front of the hearth there. Johnathan kicked off his boots, and Fionn followed suit, both settling tiredly in front of the flames, which were the room’s only light. Fionn spread his wings out, as if to catch the warmth in them.

  “Your bed is still made up in the attic,” said Johnathan after a long silence. “If you want to go to it, that is.”

  “Stairs. Ugh.” Fionn made a face. “Maybe in a bit. Anyway it’s warmer in here right now.”

  “Yeah.” There was a fairly comfortable silence for a time. Johnathan, looking over at Fionn, noticed the upper edge of the cut he’d gotten showing above his shirt. “We should do something about that. I have some salve and bandages somewhere, I’m sure.” He rose to his feet. “Wait here.”

  While Johnathan went out to fetch the salve Fionn shed his shirt. It took a bit of work, for in order to fit over his wings, the shirt had to have buttons on the back, near his waist. Still, he was well used to that task. A moment later Johnathan was back, a little jar and a roll of bandages in his hands.

  “Hold still,” Johnathan said, and Fionn did so. Johnathan’s touch was gentle as he began to spread the salve over the cut across Fionn’s chest. It stung a little, but Fionn stayed still. There was something intimate in this moment, somehow; in the soft touch of Johnathan’s fingers and the gentle way he spread the salve.

  He was gentle but firm as he wrapped the bandage around it too. When that was done he didn’t sit back again, but stayed close to Fionn on the rug, running his fingers from his bandaged chest down across his body. He found Fionn’s strong but slender form more than a little pleasant to touch. It made him want more. He’d spent so much time doubting Fionn, holding back, avoiding such moments. He’d been such a fool. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “It doesn’t hurt,” said Fionn.

  Johnathan shook his head. “Not that.”

  Fionn gave him a curious look. “Then what?”

  “I’m sorry for being a thick farm lout. For telling you what you could and couldn’t love. For driving you away. For not trusting you. All that. I’m sorry.”

  “It seems to have worked out all right in the end.” Fionn smiled and reached out to take Johnathan’s hand. “I think?”

  “It seems so.” Johnathan smiled and, for the first time, it was he who leaned in, and kissed Fionn. “Stay here tonight?” he said, when the sweet, soft, wonderful kiss was done.

  “Yes,” said Fionn simply. Then he leaned in for another kiss, holding Johnathan tight and folding his white wings around him. He should have been exhausted, and his chest still ached faintly beneath its bandage, but in this moment he didn’t care one bit. All he cared about was Johnathan in his arms, his at last.

  Johnathan seemed happy to be there, for he was kissing back with rising heat, pressing his tongue into Fionn’s mouth. Next thing Fionn knew he’d been pressed back into the rug, his wings splayed out around him, Johnathan a warm weight atop him, kissing him deeply as he pinned him down. It seemed that now that Johnathan wasn’t holding back he was more than willing.

  Fionn continued to hold Johnathan, wrapping his arms tight around his love, kissing back eagerly, himself willing to do whatever Johnathan wanted.

  At length Johnathan sat back, still straddling Fionn, and looked down at him. He was panting a little, and Fionn had to admit that his own pulse was racing faster than it had been mere moments ago. Johnathan looked like he might be looking for something to say, but Fionn felt they didn’t need any more words. He slipped his hands beneath Johnathan’s shirt, running them up his chest, feeling the comfortable softness over the work-hardened muscles there.

  A moment later Johnathan pulled his shirt off, flinging it aside. Fionn took the opportunity to slide his hands all over, caressing the farmer’s chest, running his hands down his sides, then up his back. Johnathan did much the same, letting his fingers roam over Fionn’s lean chest. They dipped lower too, teasing both men with the thought of where else Johnathan might caress.

  A shiver of desire went through Fionn, and a blush followed it, for he was certain that Johnathan could feel the way his cock was beginning to harden in response. Something in the smile on Johnathan’s face suggested he could. He climbed off of Fionn, but only so he could start undoing the ties on his trousers. Fionn cooperated more than willingly, lifting his hips so that Johnathan could pull his trousers down. The other man took his underthings off with them, leaving Fionn totally nude in the flickering firelight.

  It shone red on his white wings, touched his fair skin to warmth, and brought a hint of gold to his green eyes. Not to mention how it seemed to wake fire itself in the red-orange tumble of his hair. Johnathan looked at him, drinking in the sight of him. He could almost curse himself again for how close he’d come to losing Fionn, but no. It was time to put such thoughts aside. It was time to demonstrate the love he’d come to feel for both the adventurer and the farmer next door.

  He reached out and lightly ran his fingers over Fionn’s chest, this time sliding them down from the edge of the bandage all the way to Fionn’s partially erect cock. Fionn let out a soft groan at the touch, his eyes half closing as pleasure swept over him. His cock hardened further, and Johnathan curled his fingers around it, feeling the hot warmth of it in his hand. It was not monstrously sized, but it was big enough, especially for a man of Fionn’s short stature.

  He let go of it, but only to shed his own pants as well. He too was already partially erect, and his cock was very much in proportion to his broad frame. Fionn found himself licking his lips as he looked up at it from where he still lay on his back on the rug.

  Johnathan bent to him, giving him another deep kiss. Fionn reached up, putting his arms around Johnathan, running them down his back to his hips, and pulling the other man down to him. He felt Johnathan’s erect cock press against his, both trapped between them, and moaned into the kiss. Johnathan echoed his moan and ground his hips down to Fionn. Then he started to rock them, rubbing their cocks together.

  Fionn slipped his hand between them and curled it around both members, pressing them to each other. Johnathan groaned, rocking his hips more. Pre was leaking from both cocks, slicking them as they slid against each other in Fionn’s grip.

  “Ah…Sweet gods, Fionn,” gasped Johnathan. The feel of Fionn’s cock rubbing on his was amazing, making the very pent-up farmer rapidly approach his peak. Fionn only kissed him again, one hand still on his hip, his other hand giving another squeeze. He was breathing fast too, feeling the wonderful sensation of Johnathan’s cock against his, but Johnathan was on the very edge, his body trembling as pleasure built up within him. A moment later pleasure spilled over into ecstasy and he came, hot seed spilling out onto Fionn’s belly.

  Johnathan let out a low cry, and Fionn echoed it as Johnathan shuddered above him, the smaller man thrilled at the knowledge that he’d brought his love such pleasure.

  When the moment had passed Fionn pulled Johnathan’s head down for another kiss, soft and sweet this time. “You are wonderful,” he said.

  “I should be saying that of you.” Johnathan lifted himself off Fionn a bit, bracing himself on his hands and looking down at the avian, who smiled up at him warmly. He shifted his hips a bit. Johnathan’s cock was beginning to soften, now that he’d achieved his pleasure. Fionn’s, on the other hand, was still hard. Johnathan sat back and reached down to run his fingers along it, looking down at Fionn. He was a startlingly erotic sight there in the firelight, with Johnathan’s seed splattered across his belly and chest, and his flushed cock standing up erect and ready.

  “Mmm,” said Fionn as Johnathan’s fingers gently stroked him.

  “I guess I should do something about this,” said Johnathan with a smile.

  “You don�
�t have to but…” Fionn trailed off in a moan as Johnathan wrapped his hand around Fionn’s cock and squeezed. A moment later Johnathan had climbed off of him and was bending over him, lapping at the head of Fionn’s cock as he continued to stroke it.

  “Oh gods,” groaned Fionn. His wings fanned out around him as a shudder of pleasure went through him. Johnathan smiled, then wrapped his lips around Fionn’s cock and began to sink down. He took the other man as deeply as he could, caressing with his tongue as he did so. Fionn moaned loudly, his back arching, his hips lifting, and his wings twitching with helpless bliss.

  Johnathan half closed his eyes, concentrating on what he was doing, gratified with Fionn’s reaction. He began to slide back and forth, and Fionn moaned again. His wings were fanned out wide now, his head thrown back. His hands found their way to the back of Johnathan’s head, twining restlessly through his short, sandy hair.

  “Ah Johnathan…Gods yes…” He shuddered on the edge now, having to resist the urge to thrust into Johnathan’s mouth. It felt incredible. As much as he’d enjoyed taking his own solo pleasure previously, this was a thousand times better. His wings trembled as he felt himself about to tip over. He tried to gasp out a warning, in case Johnathan wanted to pull back. “Ah, yes, I’m about to…Oh gods…” Pleasure became too much, overwhelming him, and Johnathan didn’t pull back, if anything he sank down deeper, working to bring Fionn to his peak.

  With a final cry Fionn came, wings spreading wide, body shuddering with the utter bliss that crashed over him. Johnathan still stayed where he was, Fionn’s cock deep in his mouth, and swallowed. He felt a wave of bliss as well, intensely pleased that he’d brought his love to such a state, as he drank down the thick, hot pulses of seed that shot into his mouth.

  When the last drops were done Johnathan pulled back with a final swallow. Fionn lay, panting slightly, eyes half closed, wings still fanned wide. Johnathan sat back and looked down at him. “You’re beautiful,” he said softly.