Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1)

by Aaron Hicks

  His stream cut off, as he turned away from the voice. He quickly finished, as Laurilli untangled herself from the bush. He spat out the knife and said, “You realize that I’m going to need you to change your wording in regards to my manhood.”

  “What?” she said as she walked towards him. He pulled his pants all the way up and tried to belt it securely to his waist. “Oh, that was fine, but I don’t see what the big deal is.”

  Unable to see his face, he knew she didn’t see it scrunch up with annoyance. That still wasn’t very complimentary. “Still not good enough.”

  “Fine!” she exclaimed and threw her hands up, “Oh my,” she said and placed the back of her hand to her forehead as she pretended to swoon, “that was the greatest thing I’ve seen in my lifetime! If the heavens opened up and took me, I would die knowing that my life had finally been fulfilled.”

  “You know that I probably should also be upset with you for hiding and waiting for me.”

  “What,” she said with mock indignation, “maybe I’m the one who should be upset, because I had to do my business and you’re the one who followed me. It’s not my fault you didn’t look around.”

  “Clever.” he said and knew that she had planned that in advance, and would even bet that she really had done her business to give her that excuse. “Well, if you’re not too upset with me, do you mind helping me buckle this up and walk back to the cart?”

  “Of course not, future husband of mine.” she said sweetly, and suddenly in his mind everything was once again even. She ducked under his right arm, cinched his belt tight, picked up the knife, and together they walked back to the cart. Once again, he used the wheel as a step. Once over the edge, he rolled back into the space that had been set out for him and struggled to get under the cover that he was partially on top of. He lay there and needed to catch his breath for a moment, as Laurilli once again joined him in the cart and made herself comfortable next to him.

  “You know,” he said softly, “we’re going to have to come up with a way for me to wake you up without me getting injured.”

  “You and me both.” she said as she kissed him.

  “Sorry. Are you happy being even with me now?” he asked innocently.

  Sleepily she replied, “Yes, yes I am.”

  He pretended to think it over for a bit before he asked, “Perhaps we should become uneven again, so that we can become even after that?” He swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.

  “Whatever do you mean fiancée of mine?”

  “I mean that perhaps you could let me have just one more glimpse of heaven?”

  “An intriguing idea,” she said thoughtfully, “but it seems like an unfair trade off, since you seem to care far more than I do about this trade off. So what do you have to offer me to make it truly even?”

  “Well,” he said as if deep in thought, “I am rich you know.”

  “Not appealing to me since I’m rich as well.” she said mischievously.

  “I feel as if you have something in mind,” he said, even though he knew that she did.

  “Well,” she drew out the word and trailed a finger down his chest, “you’ve already agreed to train me, you’ve already agreed to marry me, you’ve even already agreed to never leave me, so perhaps the thing that I want is something that you can do for me that no one else can.” Her finger circled around his belly button before it started to travel up again.

  “I have to say I don’t mind the sound of that.” Uktesh said, and swallowed hard.

  “I didn’t think that you would. So here’s my suggestion: if we happen to,” then she got a look in her eyes that he’d seen only once before, he’d last seen it that morning right after he had shouted that they were engaged. “Oh forget it, happy late birthday!” she said before she threw off her shirt and then quickly joined him under the covers.

  He realized his jaw was hanging open when she gently tapped a finger to it and pushed it close. “That was,” he paused and tried to grasp for the correct word, “surprising, awesome, shocking, beautiful, should I go on?” he asked stunned.

  “Am I really that beautiful?”

  “What? Laurilli you’re the most beautiful woman in the world! If I live to be a thousand years old, I will never see anything as beautiful as you.”

  “Or just that part of me.” she said with a smile.

  “What? No. You’re so beautiful, every part of you! I just like that part slightly more, because I so rarely get to see it, but every aspect of you is beautiful to me.” He quickly began to get hot, so he wriggled out of his shirt and then back under the covers. Suddenly they had skin on skin contact and he saw her eyes go as wide as he knew his were. He saw her swallow and felt himself follow suit. “I didn’t realize,” he started.

  “I know,” she said quickly, “what do we do?” He could feel the sudden increase of her heart beat through his chest.

  “I don’t know. I want to stay like this forever, but if we stay this way much longer, I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself.”

  “You’re not doing that great a job as it is.” she said.

  “What do you,” he started, then he realized that he was fully rigid and said, “I’m so sorry.” He rolled away from her as quickly as he could, and as painlessly. But with no extra room, all he ended up doing was moving so his back was to her and, pressed against him as she was, it did little to help the situation.

  “It’s ok, it’s happened before.”

  “What?” he heard his voice squeak.

  “When we were going to the tournament, I was awake before you woke up and left. Also at the house while you were sleeping during your recovery, and again today. Though, today I had to pretend to be asleep, so that no one would notice. I missed dinner because of it, so you owe me for that.”

  “What? Why? Both times you pretended to be asleep, you still head butted me or kneed me!” he exhaled unable contain the painful memories.

  “As to the first thing it’s ok, it’s what we’re made to do right? I just don’t like that we’ll have to wait another eleven and a half months to do it. As to the other thing, you know a lie is only good if you commit to it.”

  “I know, but we have to wait, right?”

  “I think it’s just guidelines to prove we can live together without killing each other.”

  “Then can we knock off three months of it since we’ve lived with each other for that long?”

  “No, you two may not.” said Heathyr’s voice from the foot of the cart.

  Startled, Uktesh jumped and Laurilli used that distraction to grab her shirt and hide it under the blankets. “Hi mom, did we wake you up?” Then she whispered to Uktesh, “And how much did you hear?” though she did not dare to ask the question that they both wanted to know.

  “No, I just woke up when you were talking about waiting eleven and a half months to get married.”

  “Oh, ok,” Laurilli said, and again whispered, “thank god.”

  Uktesh knew that if they were caught with both their shirts off, they would be forced to have a chaperone the whole time on the Isle de Tramonto, so Uktesh asked, “Is there anything to eat ma’am?” even though he knew that she didn’t like to be called ma’am by “a boy his age.”

  “Again with the ma’am, you might as well change it to mom.” Suddenly with the realization that he’d finally have a mom, he felt tears slide down his cheeks. “But stay there, I’ll get you something.”

  As she walked away, Laurilli quickly put her shirt on and said, “Good thinking.” as she helped him into his shirt. Once his head poked through the collar, she saw that he was crying and her expression changed to fear, “Are you hurt? What happened?” He tried to explain, but nothing came out. “Mom!” she whispered as loudly as she dared. It was loud enough that Heathyr heard it and rushed out of her tent.

  “What happened? Oh no, what’s wrong with him?”

  “I don’t know. I helped him sit up, but then I noticed that he was crying, and I think I hurt him.�
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  He shook his head unable to speak, “I,” but that’s all he could say before another wave of emotion choked off his words. Heathyr left and quickly came back with some water, which she gave to Laurilli, who helped Uktesh drink it. While he took a drink of the water, he was able to calm down enough so that when he was done he said, “I’m sorry. I just, I’ve never,” his voice choked off, but he fought through it, “had a mom before.” and was overwhelmed by emotion again.

  “Oh Uktesh.” said Laurilli before she wrapped him in her arms. He clung to her as she too started to weep.

  He felt Heathyr’s arms around both him and Laurilli. Their sounds woke up Esolc and Repus, who came out of their tent together. Repus cursed and asked, “Did Uktesh die?”

  Which made the three of them laugh, and he said, “No I just, I was trying to distract Heathyr, and so I called her ma’am, which I know she hates. Then she told me to call her mom. My mom died giving birth to me, so I just, I guess I wasn’t,” emotion choked his voice again, “I wasn’t expecting to get a new mom tonight.” He felt Heathyr hug both himself and Laurilli, before she kissed both of them on the forehead and got out of the cart. He saw that, even though they didn’t know the whole of it, both Esolc and Repus each needed to blink rapidly as they tried to fight back tears of their own.

  Heathyr came back with the food that he’d asked for and said, “Trying to distract me from what exactly?”

  “Oh, um, I,” he stammered as he took the plate from her. Laurilli still clung to him as she continued to silently weep.

  “It’s ok. Whatever it was, it is forgiven,” she ran her fingers through his hair and patted him and Laurilli on their shoulders before she returned to her tent. That was a signal for Esolc and Repus, who went back in their tent. Uktesh could hear that they were in the middle of a conversation of their own, but he could not hear the words.

  “Uktesh I,” Laurilli said before she kissed him tenderly, “you’re always so strong, I just never thought,” her eyes welled up with tears again, “I never thought that there was such a hole in your heart.”

  “It’s a hole that is being filled by you and your mom,” he paused, “our mom.” Laurilli broke down again and sobbed on his shoulder. As he put the plate of food down on their covers and gently stroked her hair as silent tears continued down his face. After a few minutes, they were both all cried out. Uktesh picked up the plate of food, took a piece and offered some to Laurilli. She took some, but was clearly not hungry anymore. Uktesh, however, hadn’t eaten since this morning, so he continued to eat while she calmed down. Soon the plate was empty and, drained emotionally as they were, Uktesh and Laurilli lay back down and quickly drifted off to sleep.

  Jubay

  The next morning, he woke up to the sounds of a camp in the middle of the process of being broken down. Laurilli was awake and, when she saw him wake, she smiled at him, “Told you it had happed before.”

  She must have seen his look that showed he didn’t understand, because her smile got wider and she glanced down towards their feet. He realized what she meant and suddenly Uktesh felt his cheeks burn. An emotion he’d been able to ignore, screamed for his attention, which Laurilli didn’t make any easier with her decision to choose that moment to kiss him passionately enough to leave him in desperate need for breath. She sat up and he noticed her hair was a tangled mess, but it caused him to want to run his fingers through it. She tossed off the cover and he saw that her shirt had bunched up and left her stomach exposed and a tantalizing portion of her chest just below the swell of her breasts. Her cheeks pinked slightly, but all she did was calmly readjust her shirt before she threw her half of the covers on his head.

  He lifted the blanket off his body and sat up, in time to see her slide over the edge of the cart. Again, he had to relieve himself, but this time he made sure to spot where Laurilli was before he moved toward the tree line. Once he had completed his task, he walked back to the camp and asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Yes,” said Heathyr, “eat this with Laurilli and keep her company.” He was handed a bowl of porridge. He held in the crook of his arms and Heathyr put a spoon in it when she saw that his hands still didn’t close. Uktesh looked around and saw that Laurilli sat on one of the horse saddles that belonged to either Esolc, Repus, or Basam. The other two saddles were next to her, so he chose one and sat on it. She ate in silence. He contented himself to stare at her and he would sometimes see her glance at him.

  “Ok what?” she said.

  “I don’t know. You just look so beautiful right now.”

  “My hair’s a mess.”

  “It’s perfect.”

  “My clothes are wrinkled.”

  “You enhance the wrinkles.”

  “I probably smell like sweat.”

  He kissed her cheek and breathed in as he leaned back, “You,” he coughed and pretended to choke, “no worse, much worse.”

  She smiled, and laughed, “I’ll remember that next time you’re pouting about needing a glimpse of heaven.” He lost track of time for a bit as he thought back on this morning, last night, and the morning of the final day of the tournament. He came back to reality, to the feel of Laurilli’s fist as it hit his leg, “Hey I’m talking to you here.”

  He stared at here blankly then sighed, “Heavenly.”

  She scoffed and said, “You need to get a grip.” When he raised his eyebrows at her suggestively, she threw up her hand that currently did not hold a bowl full of food and said, “Men!”

  She quickly finished her food and stood up, but he said, “Wife to be of mine?”

  She paused and with her back to him said, “Yes?”

  “I was curious, would you be willing to help me out?”

  “How?” she said still with her back to him.

  “Well, I can’t really do this on my own.” When she turned back, towards him, he shrugged his shoulders, which reminded her that his bowl of porridge was still cradled in his arms.

  “Oh,” she exclaimed, immediately she sat back down and took the bowl from him. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize why you were looking at me. You didn’t help!” She dropped an octave in her voice, and gathered a spoonful of porridge, “‘cause you’re beautiful,’” she returned back to her normal voice and continued, “nonsense, when the truth was,” gave him a bite and reverted to the tone that mocked, “‘cause I’m hungry.’”

  With his mouth full of food, he couldn’t say what he wanted to without spraying her with food, so he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows again at her. He swallowed as quickly as he could and said, “Yes, I am.”

  Her cheeks brightened with color as she fed him another spoonful, “Eat your food and don’t promise what you won’t deliver.”

  He nodded and they ate in silence. Once he was done, he stood up and Laurilli said, “I bet you expect me to wash these?”

  “I’ll walk with you to the stream.” She took the bowls and spoons in one hand and tucked them under her arm so that her right side was free for him to lean on. It wasn’t far, maybe a hundred feet, but by the time they made it there, Uktesh was tired. His breath came hard and quick, and he needed to use Laurilli more than he had hoped to continue to walk. They stopped at the bank and when Laurilli slid down to the steam bed, Uktesh did a quick scan of their surroundings, the trees, field, and finally the water itself to look for any dangers. He couldn’t see any. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t out there, just that I can’t see them. He sat next to her. Laurilli washed quickly and soon sat with him again. She leaned against him and he put his arm around her.

  When his breathing had returned, he stood. He allowed Laurilli to help him to his feet, so he didn’t fall down the bank and into the stream. As they walked back to the camp ground, a sound made him turn. In the trees, he could see a pack of four wolf spiders in the shadows. He couldn’t tell because of the shadows, but all four looked like they were dark purple. If I see four, there are probably more. He picked up the pace and, even though he
was tired, they made it back to the camp in half the time. “Weapons! Spider wolves!” Uktesh gasped out when they got closer to the camp. Repus, Esolc, and Basam, who had decided to always wear their weapons, had them unsheathed instantly, as they literally dropped whatever they were doing. Heathyr was quick and collected as she grabbed her rapier and Laurilli’s swords. Soon Laurilli was armed as well, and Uktesh pointed towards where he’d seen the Afflicted beasts, but they were gone.

  “Where are they?” asked Repus.

  “I last saw them at the edge of the trees, but I don’t know where they went. We should pack up quickly, They all looked dark red.” Uktesh hurried as fast as he could into the bed of the cart and grabbed the bow they’d bought for Laurilli. It didn’t have a heavy pull, but even still he painfully, strung it. He was barely able to hold onto it as he notched an arrow and tested the draw.

  “What are you doing?” asked Laurilli, “If you hurt yourself again I’m going to be angry!” She didn’t have the time to do anything about it though, all five able bodied persons were needed to tear down the camp and pack it as neatly as they could in a hurry. Uktesh’s hands pounded in pain even from his weak grip on the bow, so to save his strength he rested one end on the bed of the cart and leaned on it slightly. Before he would’ve guessed possible, the cart was packed and the six of them were headed away. But the path they would’ve normally followed, brushed against the wooded area where Uktesh saw the beasts, so they went off the path for several miles. Once they were sure that the spider wolves were not going to jump out at them, they again found the path and continued along their way. Uktesh had Laurilli unstring the bow and pack it away again. He didn’t say anything and tried to keep it off his face, but Laurilli knew that his hands were in pain.