A Midsummer's Saga Pt. 09

"Gabrielle, this..." he shifted his elbow away from a pebble that was painfully digging into it, "this might not end up being the best sex ever had."

"We'll make the most of it, boy," she repeated. His cock was lying erect against her pubic mound. She shifted her hips, grinding against it. "You won't make me ask you to put it in this time, will you?"

He rested his forehead on hers and snorted lightly. "No, I won't." He waited a moment still, enjoying the full naked contact, her skin on his skin. Then he jerked his head back and shook it, failing to get hair out of his eyes. His cock fell heavily in between her thighs. She parted them, spreading her legs, and he carefully readjusted his knees to lie between hers. Her irises were shining up at him, her lips parted; the muscles of her neck taut, in clear cut relief; and when he slowly rolled his hips forward, sliding into her, she gasped for air, and the shadows beneath her collarbones deepened sharply.

There was some netherworldly silence about this shallow cavern. All they could hear was each other's rasping breath as he kept pushing in. She put one hand on his shoulder blades, the other on the small of his back, and felt his entire body inch forward in gliding motion, until she took all of him, fulfilled, complete.

His weight pressed her down. He thrusted, once, twice, found a short, a little off-beat rhythm, and took her that way, intensely, urgently, chest grinding against breasts, cheekbone to cheekbone. Under her hands, his back muscles flexed hard, his spine whipped forward and back; on her neck, his panting was hot and tense; his raw fervour spread to her, aroused her; her nails dug into his skin and she groaned, deep from her throat.

Her reaction made him moan, his gentle voice playing smoothly on his chords. He lifted himself up a little and kissed her in the middle of her forehead, then on its side, then on her temple, then on her cheekbone; then hovered above her mouth, and looked at her, and she at him; and their eyes met.

They looked on, as if surprised to see each other. His hips, from sheer automatism, thrust a few more times, slowing down, and trailed off at a forward push. Thus they now lay still, for a long moment out of time, his throbbing pulse deep in her, flesh to flesh, heartbeat to heartbeat, eye to eye, human to human.

He shut his parted lips and swallowed loudly.

"Gabrielle," he whispered.

"Aerin," she responded.

"Have I ever told you how... how being with you, this way..." Her warm, wet walls held him tight, a radiant, intimate sensation. "...How happy it makes me feel? How happy you make me?"

Her smile was bright, friendly. "I don't think you have. Honestly, we mostly talked shit whenever naked together."

"Well, I'm telling you. You need to know."

"Oh, I know. Your body language has been perfectly expressive."

"I know that you know." He looked aside, and smiled sheepishly. His cock twitched, surrounded by her. "I still wanted to tell you, though."

She giggled and placed her hands on his cheeks. She shifted her back a little; stones were painfully pressing against her. "My starry-eyed boy. Look at me." Blue. "You're such an adorable warm softy inside."

He gave a tiny shrug. "Yeah. I'm just like you."

"Just like me." She paused. "I really wish I got to... I really wish I'll get to spend more time with you." Hoofbeats were now audible, horses galloping in the distance, coming closer. She forced the sound out of her mind. They have no right to interfere with them, not now. She focused on the sensation of his cock filling her, feeling so delightful, so right.

"You're so hard, Aerin." She never took her eyes off his. They took in every shade of colour in each other's irises. His whole body gave a little shudder. He was aching now, stiff to the limit, tense and yearning. "I feel the same being with you. But you know that. Please be with me now. Keep looking at me, and show me. Show me what you feel for me."

He bared his teeth, tightened his grip, and started thrusting, deeply, strongly, desperately. Her eyebrows bent, and above them, towards their inner ends, tiny dimples appeared on her forehead. She sighed. If they found her, she wanted to be found stuffed full of him. They can bury her with his cock inside her, too. Here lies Gabrielle, died as she lived. Let all the world know.

With every thrust, he leaned a little bit closer to her. The hoofbeats were loud now, joined by shouts. They were almost here. He pushed all the way into her and rested his lower lip on hers, tasting her breath.

"Cum for me," she whispered. Her hands travelled to the back of his head. "Show me. Look at me. Cum for me."

He bit her lip. The tingling warmth building up in him mounted, swelled, and overflowed. With a quiet sigh and a twitch in his cheek he gave himself up to her, collapsed into her and let her swallow him whole, never breaking eye contact, letting her watch him, letting her see his naked soul melt into her. And she watched, she felt, his cock bulging and surging inside her, making her complete, and all her body and all her mind were open and exposed to him, welcoming him, overrun by him, letting him pass through and fill every last bit of her with his presence.

She exhaled and ran her fingers through his hair. "There, boy," she whispered. Above them, a world apart, a horse stopped. They rolled over to their sides, Gabrielle with her back to the cavern's opening. She hid her face in his chest.

"Here!" a voice sounded.

More horses clopped over. Some people were dismounting, feet falling heavily to the ground.

"There's a ledge here." She shut her eyes tight.

Now a soldier jumped down. In the spaces between the leaves Aerin saw him up to his midriff, three feet away, separated from them only by the bush. The soldier's feet rotated as he was taking a quick look around, and then took a couple steps to the edge.

Aerin gripped the knife. He felt Gabrielle breathe against him. A thick drop of his seed spilled out of her and trailed warmly down her thigh.

"Shit," said the soldier.

Another man dropped down and walked over to the first.

"Alive or dead?"

"Look, had they been nothing but gossamer, feather, air, falling so far down they'd still have smashed like eggs."

"Mate what, are you a fucking poet now?"

"Well, this is, I mean, tragic like, no? Anyone would get poetical!"

"Ugh. Sir! Sir, here!"

A third man jumped down and joined the two. In a riding outfit and only seen from behind he was unrecognizable. It was only when he spoke that they knew him.

"What a mess," Clement said, and crouched down, so that Aerin now saw the back of his head. Some more soldiers dropped down to the ledge to take a peek.

"No way we can recover the bodies from down there," one said.

Clement turned his head to the side and ran his hand through his hair. Aerin could now see his face in profile, red in the sunset glow. Ignore the bush, he tried to will him. Nothing to be seen here. Ignore it. The knife's handle felt clammy in his shaking hand. He wouldn't do it. He couldn't do it. Go away. Just go away.

Clement kept thinking about something. A swallow passed the ledge, calling out. The wind subsided. The soldiers waited.

Then abruptly Clement slapped his thighs and got up.

"What a disaster, this whole affair." He walked back towards the cavern and the edge of the grass. "Set up a camp here, and we're going back right at first light. Gods, I haven't slept in three days," he muttered, climbing up the rocks and disappearing from view.

"Are they dead, sir?" someone asked, above them.

"They got the ending they deserved," came the reply.

*

And now, the short summer night has passed. And now, it was sunrise.

On an unreachable ledge jutting out of the cliff's face, two sets of clothes were flapping lazily around a wreckage of sticks and grass; a drab soldier's vest, and a courtly dress, once white, now red. Round this spectacle, dark liquid was pooling in the crevices.

A curious mistle thrush hopped over and bobbed its head around. It inspected the liquid, and gave it a test swig. It tasted very strange. The thrush took several more swigs. Interesting.

It spread out its wings and rose, erratically, along the rock wall. Just by the top there was another ledge, with a bush on it. The thrush attempted to land there, slipped, and fell on its back. The sky above it had a nice, deep summer colour to it. The highland was swaying and humming. The breeze was coming from the east, from far away places, the sea or even beyond. The thrush opened its beak and started singing, off-key.

To its supreme indifference, the bush suddenly shook and moved away, and from behind it two naked humans emerged and took a careful look at the ground above.

The soldiers had already been gone for a while, disappeared beyond the hills. Remains of their campfire were cold in the grass nearby. The two humans climbed out of the ledge to the ground above.

Aerin looked to the rising sun. Far off and below him, the lakes of Kontaria were shimmering pink.

He breathed free. He spread out his hands, and cringed.

"Fuck. I didn't even know I had all these muscles that are hurting right now."

She was sore all over, too. This whole night they had spent contorted, jabbed by uneven stone, anxious that the soldiers could still return to the ledge and by chance find them. When finally, before sunrise, they heard the search party pack up and leave, it took a great effort to stay motionless and quiet with all their nerves urging them to jump and scream.

All this bottled-up emotion swelled in her now, as she watched him stretch, naked, alive in the morning light, ribcage expanding with air, body unfolding and trying to rid itself of the ache. With a little yelp she pounced on him, hung herself from his neck, and they kissed laughing, and he seized her, swept her off her feet and whirled her around, once, twice, lost balance, and they both collapsed into the grass, shuddering chortling shambles.

She laid herself down on top of him and rested her head on his chest.

"So, what are we gonna do now?" she muttered.

"It's half a day's walk to Ys. We're going to cause a spectacle, showing up in there naked."

"Hey, we still have our underwear." She glanced back towards the ledge. "Somewhere." She swung her leg up. "I've lost my shoes, though. You'll have to carry me if my feet hurt."

"I will absolutely do no such thing."

"You're the worst." She twirled his hair, looked into his face. "We don't have to go yet, right?"

He looked around. In the dawn light, the world around them was at complete peace: from the wide open vistas before them, to the glimmering mountains far behind.

He smiled. Very soon, he'll be back home. Very soon, his parents and his friends will find out he's alive and safe. He pictured the scene and laughed to himself.

But no matter what they do today, the fastest way to Kontaria will be the regular daily barge that leaves from Ys, and goes along the river to the sea ports; they never object to taking travellers along, and if you know the spot, you can jump off into the shallow water when the river goes by the forest, and take some secret paths, and in an hour or two end up in the village. The barge leaves in the morning; how early or late they arrive in the city today makes no difference.

"No, let's stay here for a while. Nobody's waiting for us anywhere, nobody wants anything from us. Just relax, Gabrielle. After all, we're dead."

She chuckled, and kissed his skin. "Let's rest in peace then." Grass swayed around her. Aerin's heart beat calm beneath her ear. His hand was in her hair. Sleepiness softly clouded her mind.

"Poor Clement, though," he muttered. "He's gonna have a lot of explaining to do when word gets out that you're alive."

"Clement's never gonna be in charge of anything larger than a chicken coop after this," she said.

They remained like that for a long time. Eventually, she sat up.

She looked towards Kontaria. It was there, still a little unreal, tinted blue with sheer distance, but it was close now, visible, no longer just a figment of imagination to her. And real places raise in the mind concrete, practical questions. She wondered where she'll sleep two nights from now, in what clothes, having eaten what, how, with whom. What about twenty nights from now? Two hundred nights, dead of winter? A thousand?

She arched back her neck and shook her head; it felt odd, cold and exposed, without her hair.

"Aerin?"

"What?"

"You think I'll adjust to life there?"

He peered at her from the ground. Her shoulder blades were delicately rising under her skin; the gentle groove over her backbone caught a deeper shade. He rose up behind her. His breath warmed the back of her neck. He ran a finger down her spine. "Girl, I've literally never been less worried about anyone. You'll be fine. Right away, you'll be a huge help to the elders by telling them Oren's coming and explaining all about him. And my family will be so grateful to you. And then -- you'll find your place. And you'll like the people." He glanced to the distant forest. "Except for Leapfrog. Leapfrog's an ass."

He leaned forward and wrapped his arms over her shoulders, backs of hands resting casually at her breasts. She rubbed her cheek against his. A cloud was soaring in the eastern horizon, an enormous rolling cumulus whitening slowly in rising sunlight, its bottom vague and foggy, its top crisp and defined, great soft thing reaching heavens from earth.

"And we'll get to be together," she said. "Us two, as..."

"Yeah. Us two." He hugged her a little tighter, chest pressed against her back. He smiled crookedly to the cloud. "Hey, Gabrielle? I guess I never actually asked you this..."

"What?"

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

This was his new favourite feeling, he decided. Her giggling in his arms. A little twitching fit, her body moving lively, like a small bird in hand.

She collected herself and turned her face sideways, towards his. "Man, I don't know. Will you take me out to cool places?"

"I'll take you on long walks around the lake. The paths are cool as hell. There are ferns and shit."

One last snicker. "Okay then." She pivoted and placed her hands behind his neck, so that they sat front to front, arms and legs intertwined, a small private world of theirs in the space between their bodies. She looked him in the eyes and gave his skin a little rub. "Okay then, boyfriend."

Aerin. Us two. Yes, very much yes. And yet, an unease wouldn't leave her mind. Some shadow, some doubt. What is it? Oh, I see. Air it. Air it out now. She began speaking.

"Honestly though, this is a bit unnerving... Just three days ago I thought you were just this brief moment in my life, that I'd sneak you out and we'd be separated forever... Hell, I only ever helped you because you looked sad and I thought you were hot, so it was like an exciting little adventure to try to save you... Now we can be together, on our own terms, on regular boring days... I guess I never even believed you actually existed on boring days. It all happened so fast. Fuck. You know what I'm saying?"

His expression never changed. "You're afraid that you're founding a new life on a passion that may be short-lived. We flew together, but you're wondering if we can walk together, too."

She cocked her head. The corners of her mouth twitched. "Well, you can read me. That's a good sign."

He kissed her on the forehead. "Poor girl. You're on an unfamiliar ground, and everything worries you in advance." He placed his hands on her cheeks. "Look, okay. I can't promise you that we'll work out. Maybe this is all just a haze. But I can promise you that no matter what, I will always be your friend. Because I know myself, and I know you, and I know that at the very least I'll always really like you. Because you're an amazing person. And no matter what, you'll be just fine."

She didn't respond at first. She weaved her left hand underneath his right and took it off her face, pushed it with its back to his chest, and there she let both rest against each other, fingertip to fingertip. There was a tingling sensation to it, that same magnetic current she felt by the brook, raw sexual energy mounting between them.

It may last, it may burn out. Well, what of it? All things go. Doesn't mean they weren't real.

"Okay," she said. Now she smiled. Her regular, catty smile. "So, you're saying that you at the very least really like me?"

He smiled back. His regular, horselike smile. "I do."

"Well, I at the very least really like you too." She leaned in and kissed him, slowly, meticulously. In their fingertips, they felt their pulse quicken. A long while passed before they broke off.

"Okay, that's pretty hot, keeping hands together like that," she said. "We should have more sex with our hands untied."

"Yeah. Starting now?"

She pushed him to the ground, straddled him, and ran her hands over his chest. "Starting now." A strand of hair fell into her eye. She flicked it away. "Can't wait for my hair to grow out again," she said.

He smiled and drew her close to him. "You look cute like this too, don't worry."

"I'm not worried." She searched his eyes. "I just want you to have something to pull at."

Well, that was one plan for the future made. Clearly, things were looking up.

And that is that.