“I love you too,” she smiled sincerely.
Then, I began tugging at her clothes, needing her naked, and she was pulling at the material covering me too, just as needy.
As I plunged into her, and I watched her arch her back in pleasure, I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, she was the most beautiful woman on the entire planet. And she wanted me.
“Enrico?” she panted beneath me as I moved. “I have something to tell you.”
“What?” I moaned, wondering if this was essential to tell me right now, right in this moment, just as I was getting into it.
“I did a test today. I’m already pregnant,” she announced, with an excited edge to her voice.
“What?” I screeched, stopping what I was doing. “Are you serious?”
She flushed eagerly and nodded beneath me. “I’m serious. Our family is going to be complete at least.”
“Oh my God.” I pulled her tightly in for a hug. “That’s amazing. Just think… all from that one date…”
And then we burst into laughter, remembering the bizarre way that we’d met, and all that it had led to.
“To the future.” I smiled and kissed her.
“To the future,” she replied.
THE END
Bonus Story 8/40
Embraced by the Dragon Prince
The wind lightly rustled the leaves in the trees above Geneva as she stalked through the woods. The hot afternoon sun left spots on the forest floor that highlighted the dead leaves of early fall that had mixed into the undergrowth. Squirrels and other small rodents scampered up and down tree trunks as they searched for nuts and seeds to store away for the impending winter.
Her soft boots muffled her steps while her eyes and ears remained alert for her prey. Ahead of her Geneva heard the low grumblings and lumbering rustles of a mountain grizzly foraging. She halted in her tracks to discern the direction of the bear. It was heading east perpendicular from her path, safely away.
She waited a moment to be sure that the bear had not caught on to her presence and then breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t that she didn’t think she could handle herself if she was confronted by the grizzly, but she was glad to avoid the encounter all together. She was filled with a burning vengeance and she did not want to delay for any other creatures besides the one she hunted.
Onwards she travelled, up into the foothills of the southern mountains. This was the direction the great serpent of fire had fled when her arrows had torn its’ wing. The long wailing cries had stopped hours ago, but Geneva knew that the beast could not have gotten far on a wounded wing. Her anger boiled at the thought of the events that had set her forth on this journey. Only a day ago, things had been perfectly normal.
It had been late in the evening when Geneva finally returned from her hunt. Her friend Winda, a wild haired young girl much like herself, walked alongside her. The pair of them had been hunting together since they had come of age and were such close friends they might as well have been sisters.
The two laughed and joked as they made their way home on the familiar paths of the forest. Over their shoulders they towed the ropes of a small litter that dragged the carcasses of their respective kills. There was a fat boar that Geneva had killed, a young buck that was Winda’s, and a few small gamey squirrels and fowl all piled on the litter so they could be transported back to their small village without leaving a trail of blood for other predators to follow.
Between the spoils of the two huntresses it would be enough feed their little village for the next couple of weeks. Geneva and Winda would stay for the first few days while they rested and replenished their packs before they returned to the forests of the foothills for their next hunt. Being the only ones who actively hunted, the young women had taken it upon themselves to provide for their village, the small refuge that it was.
It was an unofficial community called Haven. It was full of runaways; children and adults who needed to escape their lives elsewhere. They were a community of victims banded together to build a new life away from their oppressors, abusers, and persecutors. Their unofficially elected matriarch, Brigid, united their little ragtag bunch of misfits.
There was a small congregation waiting with lit torches and lanterns at the edge of the village when the huntresses emerged from the forest. The older children that had been allowed to stay up late rushed out to meet them and relieve them of the great weight of the litter. They eagerly dragged the meat into the village, to the butcher’s house where it would be prepared.
Brigid, the matriarch, was present. The weathered old spinster, with her silver hair pulled back tightly and her wrinkled face all warm smiles, gave Geneva and Winda a strong hug with her sinewy arms. “We’re always so glad to see you return.”
“Well there’s no way we’d miss your smiling face,” Winda laughed as she pulled away from the embrace.
Geneva remembered fondly how the light of the torches and lanterns gave a halo to Winda’s wild dark hair. Her green eyes were glowing with happiness and her smile lit up the darkness of the night that was settling in.
Geneva held the image in her mind as silent tears escaped her eyes as she walked through the woods. She wanted to always remember Winda like this, not as how she found her that later that night. It was just as she found the rest of the members of her community, or rather, the few that remained. She knew a few people had escaped the horrors of the dragon’s fury by fleeing into the night, but most of her quiet community had perished in the fires.
The initial sound of the beast was a horrible shriek that had sent a cold rush of terror into her bones and woken her from the deep abyss of her sleep. Instinctively, she had reached up and grabbed her bow and quiver of arrows where they hung above her bed as she rolled off the mattress and into a low crouch. The air was silent as her eyes opened wide in the darkness, looking for what had woken her.
Quietly, Geneva stepped out the door of her little house just in time to see a couple of the village dogs scampering away, escaping the village. Heading the opposite way, towards the unknown danger, her bare feet crept quietly in the dirt paths between the houses.
In the doorway of her neighbor’s house, Geneva saw that she was not the only person who had been awakened by the sound. She nodded to the mother and child to stay inside while she searched for the disturbance.
Reaching the large central area of the town where the well stood, she looked around and noticed that Winda was just across the way to her right. Winda also had her bow out and was searching for what had woken the town. Signaling her with a birdcall, Geneva got her attention and the two began to head towards one another.
A scream, a human scream, rang out into the night before the huntresses could convene. From the opposite side of the village a figure ran towards them. Both of them instinctively drew their weapons and aimed, looking for the prey that chased what appeared to be a young, teenage girl. As she reached the moonlit clearing she stopped and looked up before screaming again.
The huntresses looked up just as a great shadow streaked across the sky and plunged towards them. Geneva turned to run back into the shelter of the houses. Winda ran towards the girl.
As Geneva turned back to look for her friend, she saw the fire erupt.
*****
Crows cawed as they flew above the treetops headed south. Below them, Geneva was headed in the same direction, continuing her trek filled with all of her silent, determined rage. Inside, she wanted to scream and make a ruckus in the empty forest, but she was intent on her quarry and if the dragon was close she did not want to willingly let him know of her presence. So it was that Geneva continued to travel with near silence, save for her boots softly brushing against the ground where her feet met the earth.
Gradually, the smells of the forest began to change as she climbed higher and higher into the foothills. The air became less sweet and the musk of the earth became bitter. As the trees thinned out to give into the rockier terrain, the air began to take on a metallic scent.<
br />
To the west, the early evening light reflected off of a boulder and caught Geneva’s eye. She changed direction slightly so that she could investigate this. The rocks did not have paths like the forest, but they were still relatively easy to navigate.
When Geneva approached the large boulder that had caught her attention, she found that it was covered in a patch of dark blood that shined as if it had been infused with silver. No common creature had blood like this, none that she had ever come across. It had to be the trail of the dragon.
She looked around her and saw that the trail continued to the south. The mountains loomed in front of her and she glared back at them. She idly thought of how nice the mountainside would look painted with the silver blood of the dragon.
The rocks proved to be a little bit of a challenge at times. They weren’t as quiet, as disturbing a pebble would send it scattering, bouncing and echoing off of the other rocks. At one point she slipped on a patch of blood and scraped her forearm. Another time she tore the front of the pants leg on the jutting edge of a boulder and the cut above her knee bled enough to leave a sizeable stain, but this did little to slow her down.
Pressing on, Geneva noticed the blood trail was leading to the opening of a cave up in the distance. Glancing to the west, towards the setting sun, she determined that either this cave would have a dragon within, or it would be her place to camp for the night.
As she neared the edge of the cave, Geneva notched an arrow on her bow, prepared to let it fly if the beast were aware of her and ready to attack. She crouched low as she looked around the edge of the cave to see inside. The dying light of the sun was just enough to illuminate a shape within. She stepped closer and noticed that the shape was human. With a quick glance around the cave, Geneva determined that no monster was immediately present. She dropped her guard and ran over to investigate the wounded person.
It was a man lying naked and face down. He was bleeding badly from his shoulder. The wound was claw marks, far too large to be even a bear. He must have been a victim of the dragon. Perhaps the beast had captured him and brought him back here to be a meal for later.
Geneva knelt down next to him, slung her pack off of her shoulder and dug through it to find some of the linen she had packed. Folding a piece, she applied pressure to his shoulder and turned the man up onto his side. He let out a soft groan and she lightly slapped his face with her free hand.
“Hey, wake up. Come on, please, wake up.” She didn’t know how much blood he had lost, but she couldn’t stand the idea of one more person being killed by this monstrous dragon.
He began to stir, his eyes fluttering open and shut as he moaned in pain. She fumbled with her water as she tried to un-stopper the goatskin with her teeth. She held the water up to his lips and he began to cough and sputter as the liquid hit his throat and he tried to drink.
Removing the water from his lips she asked, “What’s your name? What happened to you?”
“Cadmus,” he spoke hoarsely before moaning again in pain.
“Cadmus,” she felt a small bit of relief spark inside of her as she realized he could be saved. “Cadmus, that’s good. I’m Geneva. I’m going to take care of you. You look like you got hurt pretty badly.”
The man continued to moan as he regained consciousness and the pain returned to its’ full intensity. Geneva shimmied out of her jacket and balled it up for Cadmus to rest his head on. She gently laid him back down on his front so she could inspect his wound. The light was dying, and she couldn’t drag him to the mouth of the cave to get any more of it. She would have to do the best she could with what she had.
She quickly went through her pack and found the small store of dried herbs and medicines she had packed in case she had gotten hurt. Within she found white willow bark that she gave him to help with the pain. His moans began to lessen as the medicine took effect.
Geneva washed the wound as best as she could, hoping that the bleeding wouldn’t worsen. She bandaged his shoulder and by the time she finished she could barely see his outline in the dark.
“Cadmus?”
There was no response. Geneva placed her hand in the middle of his back and quelled the momentary panic that had flared up inside of her. He was breathing, calm and regularly. She pressed her ear to his back and heard a strong, steady heartbeat. Letting out a sigh of relief she stood briefly to stretch her legs after kneeling down next to him for so long.
Looking back at the mouth of the cave she saw the last light of the day disappearing. Geneva looked back at Cadmus where he rested on the cold stone. She could make out his outline, his wide shoulders that tapered down to a narrow waist. Then her eyes fell on his buttocks and she remembered that he was naked.
Blushing and chiding herself for her indecency, Geneva unrolled her blanket from her pack and spread it over her patient. Then she walked to the other side of the cave and settled down to sleep, her pack being a sufficient lump of a pillow.
*****
Geneva found it nearly impossible to sleep that night. It wasn’t because the cave floor was cold and hard, but because every time she closed her eyes and tried to sleep she would see the horrors of the dragon’s wrath. The soft calls of screech owls and coyotes turned into the wails and screams of her people being burned alive and torn apart.
After far too long, Geneva finally began to doze off. Everything fell away into blackness for a short moment. Then she heard Winda calling to her, their familiar birdcalls. Her laugh rang out and echoed in her dream. Geneva looked for her friend.
Winda’s face appeared suddenly before her. Her neck was broken and a piece of vertebrae was sticking out the side. Parts of her beautiful black hair had been ripped from her skull, her left eye was clawed out, and all of her skin was covered in burns, parts of it so badly it had begun to peel. The misshapen face of her friend opened its’ mouth and the shriek of the dragon filled her ears shocking Geneva awake from the restless slumber.
Shaking with grief and fear, Geneva stared up into the darkness of the cave ceiling, unable to clear the mangled image of Winda from her mind. In her right hand she was clenching a rock that she had picked up from the cave floor in her sleep. The cold hard stone was somehow reassuring to her. It was solid. It was real.
Geneva lay there for hours. Eventually the morning light began to illuminate the cave and she could make out the designs on the stones around her. She began to trace veins of minerals across the ceiling, following the winding paths down the wall she laid next to. Then she followed them back the other way, up to the ceiling and down the other side to where Cadmus lay.
In her numbed state of mind she had forgotten about him. She stared for a minute. His face in the morning light showed her what she hadn’t been able to see last night. He was actually rather handsome, with long locks of silvery blonde hair falling over his eyes. His straight nose jutted out sharply before falling back into softly curving lips. His square jaw was a strong hard line against the curve of his muscular shoulder. She followed the line around the tight curve of his pectoral muscle and then the smooth ripple of his abdomen and down-
Geneva turned away sharply as she snapped out of her trance-like state of mind. She’d forgotten about his nudity, and in his sleep he had turned over onto his back, giving her a full view that she had not had the time to appreciate the night before when she was tending his wound.
His wound. She knew she needed to check on it, especially now that she had enough light to see the extent of the damage. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen a naked man, but she felt embarrassed for having ogled him while he was asleep.
Across the space, she heard Cadmus shift and groan as he began to wake. Geneva took a deep breath and told herself that she had to check on him, there was nothing inappropriate going on.
She rolled back over and sat up. Cadmus was lying on his side, injured shoulder up, head resting on his good arm, with his eyes open and looking at her. His uncovered naked body was facing her.
Geneva approach
ed and knelt down next to him keeping her eyes purposely averted. Reaching behind him, she pulled the blanket over his exposed body.
“Thank you,” his dry voice cracked as he spoke.
“Good morning,” Geneva smiled as she brushed his hair aside and placed her hand to his forehead to check for a fever. He was warm, but not alarmingly so. She reached out for the skin of water she had left near him last night.
Cadmus propped himself up on his good arm, trying to sit up, a solid gold band set with amethysts chinked against the stone. Geneva helped him sit the rest of the way up before handing him the water. He mumbled his thanks again and asked, “Who are you?”
“My name’s Geneva. I’m from Haven. I was tracking a dragon that attacked my town when I found you here,” she explained while she began to unwind his bandages to check on his wound.
“I see,” Cadmus said as he took a drink of the water.
“Were you attacked by the dragon?” Geneva asked as she removed the rest of the bandage. The bleeding hadn’t been too bad, she decided as she noted how deep the wounds were.
“No.” The word was hollow and hung in the air for a moment.
Geneva wasn’t sure what he meant at first. Then the morning light caught a glimmer of something in the bandage. She looked at the bloody linen. It was infused with silver. This wasn’t human blood.
Slowly she stood. This was the dragon. His shoulder wound, the claw marks, must have been where he’d dug out the arrows, her arrows. He had attacked her village. He had killed Winda and she had bandaged his wounds.
*****
“I’m sorry.” Cadmus’s words echoed off the stone walls of the cave.
Geneva was backing away slowly to the other side of the space where her pack and her weapons lay. People had known of dragons, but not that they could turn into a human form. She had been tricked into helping the devilish serpent. She had tended to the very wounds she had inflicted.
The Crime of Protection Page 27
