Angel in Bronze

She shook her head and stretched, relieved that most of her aches and pains had faded. She picked up her discarded shirt and went to the stream. She pulled off her boots and socks, then wriggled out of her pants and underwear. The water sloshing passed her calves was bitter cold. It felt amazing in the humid climate of the cavern. She gasped as she sat down on the smooth round stones at the bottom. It wouldn't be long before it was too cold, but she wasn't fond of the way she smelled. Using her shirt as a rag, she was determined to wash up. She lay back, letting the water rush over her head and shoulders, scrunching her fingers through her tangled hair.

When she was so cold, she couldn't take it anymore, Eva got out and lay on the ground beneath the light crystals to warm up. She made a quick breakfast of the rest of her rations, and she drained the water in her canteen. The garden was plentiful, and if she was trapped there, she was going to have to trust the water. She went upstream to refill and took a long drink of the cold clear water.

Eva returned to Trex to find his expression changed to a smirk. "Hmm," she said. "OK, I get it. We can do this. Two fingers for yes and one for no. Do you want to talk?"

Without waiting for an answer, she turned away from him and went back to the stream. Humming to herself, she rinsed out her clothes and hung them on a tree branch to dry. When she returned to the statue, Trex's hands had changed position again and held up two fingers. "Good," she said. "An experimental question: Is your name Advocatus Ellsworth?"

She went to her bag and took out her journal to make some notes. When she looked up, he'd raised only one finger in answer. She spent her day asking him questions, learning as much as she could through the yes or no method. At one point, she asked him if he would be willing to help her save Ru, and he told her he would. She wasn't sure exactly how they would leave the chamber, but she had to believe they could.

Not long into their conversation, Trex's good humor returned to his expression. Strange as it was, she caught herself smiling and even laughing. And Eva noticed her own yearning for the hour when he could come down form the dais and really talk to her. The wait seemed overly long, and she occupied herself as best she could by exploring the garden.

When it was dark, she tried to stay awake, but the dark warmth of the chamber at night was heavy. The sound of the crickets in the empty space lulled her into drifting off. She woke to a rustling sound and turned toward the glow of Trex's body. He had dumped her bag and was perusing its contents. Such a thing might have made her angry, but she had gotten to know him, and she could empathize with his curiosity.

He smiled broadly at her as she approached him and she smiled back. She wasn't embarrassed by her nudity, though he did scan her body with an appreciative look. "I like you naked," he said. "Our people do not wear clothes. What is this?" He held out his hands presenting the Winged Man fertility idol. "Is this supposed to be me?" he asked with a laugh in his voice.

Embarrassed, Eva tucked her lower lip between her teeth. With the heat of a blush on her cheeks, she nodded her head. Trex threw his head back and bellowed a laugh. Comparing the idol's ridiculous penis with his own well proportioned member, he said, "I am afraid you are going to be disappointed."

Though Trexien had only an hour a night, and he understandably wanted to break his curse, he made no move to touch her. She was well aware of their nakedness. Her desire for him grew with every moment they spent together, but her own expectations made her nervous. Eva felt silly because she'd denied him the night before, while she longed for his passion now. He seemed to understand that she needed time. She had to know the real Trexien and reconcile him with the being from her dreams.

He was so well spoken and gentle, then some savage quirk would appear out of the blue. He made her laugh again when he picked up the paper that had been wrapped around her jerky. Squatting there like a caveman, he sniffed at the paper and licked it, then he made a face. "This is disgusting." He frowned at her and asked, "This is food? No," he answered his own question, "This is not food. Wait here."

He walked off into the garden until she could barely make out his soft glow. When he returned, he had a ripened carambola in his hand. He peeled back the thin skin with his teeth and offered the sweet yellow fruit. "This is good," he said, "This is food." She couldn't argue with him about that.

He introduced her to the garden's bounty as they shared a snack together. His eyes wandered her body, but he kept his hands to himself. Though, once when she'd offered him a piece of fruit, he didn't take it from her with his hands. He drew her hand to his lips and sucked the fruit and its juices from her fingertips. The feel of his mouth created a pleasurable shiver.

They talked and laughed for the duration of Trex's hour of freedom, and the time passed far more quickly than she'd thought. She walked with him as he returned to his place of imprisonment, sad that he was leaving her for another long day. As he sat down in his customary position and the light began to fade from his skin, Eva surprised them both. She wrapped her hands around his cooling neck and kissed him. As the final traces of his light left her, she caught a glimpse of his delighted surprise.

As Eva fell back into her slumber, she spoke out loud to the darkness, "My soul is an ancient queen from another realm, and my husband's a living myth. There are worse ways to go crazy." Her dreams brought more fiery passion than usual, and she wasn't even mad when she woke just before the end.

Eva's longing kept on a simmer throughout her day. She had decided to make love to Trexien, not only because it might be a way out for the both of them, but because she wanted to. She realized that she'd always wanted him, she just had to figure it out for herself. She couldn't understand how she could feel so strongly for him, or how she even remembered a name she'd never heard. Maybe none of that mattered.

His belief in her reincarnation worried her though, and at one point she asked him about it. "Trex, what if you're wrong, and I'm not really Nevvari? What if we have sex and the curse isn't broken? Will you still want me?"

When she received her answer, it was his typical smirk and two fingers for an affirmative. Eva said, "If you're lying to me just to get a piece, and you turn into a jerk, I'm going to kick your glow-in-the-dark butt." His presence was so strong with her, she could almost hear him laughing at her.

Eva couldn't wait for Trexien's hour of freedom. She walked around his perch, tracing the veins and ribs of his wings with her fingertips. She climbed onto his dais and leaned close to him. Running her fingers over his face, she imagined she could feel the pulse of his life beneath his cool bronze skin. She caressed the curling structure of his antlers and remembered the dream she'd had of his face between her thighs.

The memory caused a flare of heat, and Eva sat in his lap. She kissed his lips, a sardonic grin frozen in bronze, though he couldn't kiss her back. Feeling bolder, she put out the tip of her tongue to trace the lines of his mouth. Her hands explored the bulk of his shoulders tapering to the wiry muscle of his arms. At the end of one arm, two fingers remained posed upward. "Yes," Eva whispered, then bit her lower lip as she considered the temptation.

One leg balanced on the dais, the other on Trexien's legs, she positioned herself over his hand. She put out her arm to brace against his shoulder. Then she lowered until she could just feel the coolness of his fingertips at her labia. Using her free hand between her legs to spread her lips, she pressed further. She moved slowly, teasing her moistened sex against the hard bronze. As her confidence and her lust grew stronger, Eva moved faster. In moments, her fluid ran down his fingers into the palm of his hand.

Her heart beat faster, and her breath came in short gasps. She wanted more, so she tilted slightly and took his fingers inside. His hands were long and slender. At first, the fit felt good to her. The unyielding bronze was slick with her moisture, and she slipped easily up and down. She closed her eyes and rode his hand for a while, but still she needed more.

Eva wanted him to wake up, to fill her and take her body and soul to a place that she knew only he could. She opened her eyes and looked down to find Trexien's bronze cock standing at full attention. His face still wore his endearing smirk, but the want in his eyes was equal to her own. Seeing this, she dismounted form his hand and tucked her legs around his waist.

She held onto his neck and rotated her hips, swirling her wet labia around the head of Trexien's bronze erection. His penis had a girth that outstretched his fingers, and she moaned in ecstasy as the crown parted her. She buried her face in his shoulder and softly cried out as he filled her. Her flesh hugged the tip of his solid member, and she rocked as close as she could. The position he sat in prevented her from taking him all the way in, but Eva would take what she could get. Over and over, she took him in as deeply as possible. Lost in her lust, she panted his name and pleaded with him to wake.

Suddenly, a pair of strong yet tender hands gripped and supported her buttocks. Trexien's legs moved from under her, and he pulled her tighter, plunging himself further inside. Tears of relief and joy stung her eyes as she felt his chest heave with a breath. "Yes," he purred, "Yes, my queen, my love."

She opened her eyes to his living face, and he kissed her. This time, as his tongue met hers, Eva was not cowed by his hunger. She responded with a need of her own and Trex moaned. He was awake in the daytime, and that had to be a good thing, but it wasn't the time to dwell on that analysis. Trexien gripped Eva's hips and took several rapid grunting thrusts. Then he put an arm tight to her back and he growled to her, "Hold on, my Eva-Nevvari."

Then without disengaging form her, he stood and she locked her legs around his waist. His wings snapped open, and Eva trembled with a mix of fear, delight, and ever growing passion as her lover took her into the air. She didn't know how he could fly and mate at the same time, but Eva didn't care. The shock of flight combined with his powerful thrusts, and she felt a tightening in her lower abdomen. Her rings of muscle twitched, clenched and released around him.

She was aware of his every breath, every muscle that worked to keep hold of her, to keep in the air, and to keep her filled. Heat burned throughout her body and the tight feeling expanded. Her muscles clenched again hard, and lightning struck at their joining. She'd never felt anything like it in her life, and for a second, she wondered if she was dying. There was nothing else but her connection with him, and she screamed as she felt her body and soul explode in a white-hot flash.

In that moment, she lost control of herself. Her hands clutched at his arms and his hair. Her head tossed back and she screamed as primal sex completely consumed her. Her body moved in time with her pulse and her mate's steady rhythm. As Eva slowly returned to her senses, she had a moment of fear that Trexien would laugh at her. But his eyes conveyed a look of love that she had never known before. He kissed her softly, deeply, and she realized she loved her Tenkaru in a way that was both ancient and new. He had called her Eva-Nevvari, and she finally understood who and what she was.

As her body calmed and their kiss parted, Trex gave her a truly wicked grin. She didn't know what he was going to do, and he didn't give her time to question. He withdrew from her, and she cried out in fear as he dropped her. She wasn't out of his arms for more than a second, for he'd only flipped her around in midair to catch her again from behind. One arm was around her waist, another held her breast. Part of her wanted to slug him for playing like that, but it seemed the wiser choice was to cling to his arms and hold on tight.

The hand on her waist moved down to guide his erection back inside. As he filled her again, his fingers stroked her sensitive clitoris. He chuckled softly in her ear and murmured, "The last time I made you cum like that, was two hundred years ago. I have time to make up for, my beloved queen."

Slowly Trex took his aerial acrobatics to the ground, but he was already working her up to another orgasm. As they landed softly near the dais, he bent her over it. He pinched and slapped at her buttocks, taking her from behind like a beast. As she neared another climax, she could feel him swell inside of her. He grabbed both of her hips in his hands. He snarled and growled as he pounded her hard, and her own orgasmic cries joined his animal sounds.

Trex roared as a torrent of his Tenkaru seed flooded her womb. Again and again, he released until he finally withdrew his semi-stiff member from her. She felt his breath on her back as he placed his hands to either side of her. Tenderly, he rained kisses across her shoulder blades and panted, "Gods, how I've missed you, my love."

She heard him, but what had her attention fixed in that moment was the dais he'd been imprisoned on for two centuries. There was a circular seam in that structure that looked just exactly like the portal she'd fallen through. Her Tenkaru had been sitting on another doorway the whole time. Eva rolled under him and playfully slapped at his chest.

"What is it, my queen?"

She pointed behind her at the newly revealed portal, "Trex? What the hell is this? Where does it go?"

"Oh," he said with a shrug. "I will show you."

Trex touched some of the symbols on the side of the dais, and the portal opened like an iris. He wrapped Eva in his arms and glided to the floor below. As they entered a long, curved hallway, lights magically appeared on the ceiling and floor. The walls were made of hundreds of large cells, much like a hive. Inside each cell was a Tenkaru.

They'd been down there for two hundred years, but Trexien was still alive. Eva whispered, "A-are they... dead?"

"Some are," Trex quietly responded. "In the cells that have gone dark, our people have returned to the gods. But take heart, my queen. As you can see, much of our original army remains in tact. They are..." He seemed to be looking for a word she could understand. "They are dormant until we awaken them."

Eva was stunned for a moment, but then realization dawned on her. "We have an army? An entire army?"

"We lost some of our people in the fall, but yes."

"And they can fight... like a real army?"

Trex laughed and shook his head at her. "Do you remember nothing, my love? The Tenkaru warriors have no equal."

Eva frowned, asking, "If Tenkaru warriors have no equal, then what happened? How were you cursed like this?"

Trex lowered his head and clenched his fists at his sides. His face darkened with an unaccustomed anger. "The Chosen lured you... lured Nevvari away with false promises of peace. They betrayed us. They used my wife against me, and then they murdered her."

He lifted his eyes then and cupped her face in hands. "I promise you, my queen, I will not be fooled again. Let the Chosen think they are mighty, but they will know the true wrath of the Tenkaru."

With her hands around his waist, she smiled into his eyes and asked, "Trex, my love, what do you say we overthrow an evil empire, and save an old friend of mine?"