Flora & Fauna Pt. 07

The three-day journey to Prophia is cold and exhausting. The disappointment I feel at that makes me realize how much I subconsciously envisioned the trip would be a lustful romp with Andrius and I perpetually tangled together.

On the final day of traveling, it feels like my previously unworn riding boots have broken me in, as opposed to the other way around. Even though Andrius barely lets me run alongside him. I keep offering, jumping up and down at one point to show how healed my ankle is, but he's not wrong that riding on his back is faster. And I have no idea if Claudius would bother chasing me down again. For the same reason, we don't dare stay at human-owned inns. Which means we only get to sleep indoors for one of the nights. For all the others, I sleep curled up against his underside, with my back pressed against his warmth and a blanket cocooning me close.

"An hour away," Andrius sighs and points ahead of us to a tree.

I lean forward and squint from atop his back. The sun might as well be fully set for all the light that reaches through the forest around here. Each mile we traveled, I was certain a forest could not possibly get denser. But the only path here is so thin that the branches and bramble comb through Andrius' fur as he walks. As we get closer to the tree he pointed to, a glint of shine catches my eye. Bolted into one tree is a fully metal sword pointing North, the last leg of our travels.

"Can I say something selfish?" I mumble.

"Hm?"

"I'm so hungry."

Andrius laughs weakly and rubs a hand over mine, "How's that selfish?"

"Well, you're carrying me. I can only imagine how hungry you are."

"You could say I'm hungry as a-"

"Shut up!" I laugh so hard it momentarily wakes me up and I sit up straight to shove at his back.

"Okay, okay. There might be something in the pantry you can nibble on when we get back. Unless you want to go to a pub. It will be too late for anything else when we get back."

Just the thought of being surrounded by an entire bar full of rowdy centaurs makes me feel small and nervous. I'd only thought about being away from Claudius. Away from the arranged marriage. The vision of what a life for me in Prophia would look like had never even begun forming until now. Suddenly my hunger feels like a very small worry.

"Although then we might run into Ares," he continues, oblivious to my churning mind, "I don't know if I have the energy for him right now."

"Ares?"

"My brother."

"I thought you had a sister?"

"One little sister, Fern. She's the one that moved East with her husband. My twin sister, Aurora, lives in Prophia. And Ares, older brother."

All the information gets folded into my attempted imaginings of my life here. With him. He has an entire life in Prophia I know nothing about. A family. A history. And I have a backpack.

"What are they like?" I ask to fill my anxious silence.

"Well," his steps pause under me for a moment, "Fern is very demure, shy. She says that that's why she chose such an extrovert for a mate, so he can talk enough for both of them. Ares is a loud mouth, kind of intimidating when you first meet him-"

"Intimidating?" I gulp.

"Looks like an exact copy of our father. He's a sweet person deep down, just has no concept of inside voice and can be a little overprotective. And he's a giant."

"But," I run my hands down his back, "you're a giant."

"No?"

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"I'm a pretty average size for one of my kind."

"Oh. Um. And Aurora?"

"It will be a while before you even meet her, I'm sure. I shook off my workaholic phase when our father died. She just... never got out from under it. She lives a twenty minute walk from my place and I see her a handful of times a year."

I hum thoughtfully to myself and we traverse the rest of the way in silence. At least I don't have any siblings to miss. Some friendships, though they are mostly shallow relationships of proximity. Other girls with wealthy fathers who end up at boring high-society parties desperate for the company of someone who's willing to dance and laugh. The sharp tips of branches drag across my pant legs as we continue on the path.

"Finally," Andrius sighs as he reaches out to part a final layer of greenery.

The few lit lanterns and glowing windows of Prophia give me a general view of the town. The buildings are all single level from what I can see. Everything is strangely tall and wide to me like the proportions of his spartan lodge in the central forest of Leaven. The wide spacing between the houses gives the town the look of stretching on much further than Leaven, but as I count the buildings in my view, I get the impression they're the same population.

Andrius reaches a hand back and helps me down. I lay my arms across his lower back for balance and stretch the stiffness out of my legs. The streets are some kind of gravel instead of cobblestone and they swallow up the sound of Andrius' shod hooves. I follow the swish of his tail in the top edge of my vision as I stare down at my feet, watching the rare lights glinting off the more reflective bits of rock. The thump of something hitting wood makes me look up again. The house we're standing at is apart from all the others on one side and facing the other edge of the forest on the other. Another building sits several feet away, built close to the creeping roots of the trees. Andrius stands with his forehead flat against a door and one hand buried in his coat pocket.

"I'm so tired I think I forgot how keys work," he mumbles.

I laugh and slide in front of him with my back to the door, fishing a hand into the same pocket. The metal ring that comes out jingles in my grasp as I flip through the options. One stands out more than the others with a head of filigree. Andrius all but falls into the home when I open the door, taking me with him as I rush backward a few steps to not end up under his hooves. He removes the hoof-covers and tosses them aside, four metallic sounds clang behind us as each lands out front. I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with the lived-in, sweet smell of his home as I pull the door shut. In the dark I can hear the sound of Andrius pulling off his clothes and throwing them somewhere on the floor. I follow suit, tossing the stolen peacoat, my backpack, and boots in the general direction of his own discarded things.

Andrius takes my hand and leads me through the pitch black interior. We go through a door and my ankles hit the edge of a bed at the same time that I hear Andrius flop onto it with a sigh. I reach forward with one foot and feel the many sturdy, stout wooden feet of the frame that can amazingly support him. I shimmy out of what clothing remains and lean forward, feeling all over the surface of the bed for the warmth of Andrius before giving up and crawling on blindly. As soon as I find a pillow, I pull it under my head and collapse.

"Where are you?" Andrius mumbles.

The barest touch of his fingertips find me in the dark and I scoot forward so they can wrap around my middle. He yanks me toward him so fast I squeak in surprise. There's the sound of a thick, soft quilt being pulled up and flapped over our bodies as I hug around him with all my limbs.

"Wait, you wanted food."

"I want sleep more," I lie.

"Oh thank God."

"Andrius?"

"Hm?"

"Guess how cold my feet are."

"Don't you fucking dare."

His body shivers under me as I bury my feet in the thick fur of his sides. He gets his revenge when he ferociously grips my buttocks and pulls my hips forward. I stop laughing and can't hold back a moan as he forcibly grinds my clit against the iron-hard strength of his bestial lower chest. I whimper out a pouting sound at the clash of feelings in my body.

"I want to have sex but I'm so tired," I mope aloud.

"I didn't want to admit it but, yes, I feel the same way," his grip relaxes on my soft flesh, "But we have plenty of time now. We can just sleep like the dead for one more night."

I nod and feel Andrius' jaw touch the top of my head as he yawns. A contented smile spreads over my face in the dark as I fall asleep to the feeling of all his limbs tangling with my own.

.

The feeling of a hand lazily braiding and unbraiding one side of my hair gently wakes me up. One of my legs is stretched out, tossed over Andrius' lower half. I stretch out my arms and press my lips to the middle of his bare chest. When I glance up, he's watching me silently, still looking half-asleep.

"Have you been awake long?"

"Just a couple minutes."

Both us snap awake at the sound of knocking. I shiver and tighten my hug around Andrius possessively. His hand rubs the length of one arm as he answers my silent worry.

"It's not who you think."

"How do you know?"

"Are you a betting woman?"

A smile tugs up on my lips at his confidence, "Who is it then?"

His arms stretch high over his head and I slide off his body as he stands.

"Laith. A friend of mine."

The knock sounds again, a little more insistent.

"Do you want to meet him?"

"What?" I run a hand through my hair and feel it get caught in the various tangles.

"You don't have to meet him yet if you don't want to, Flora."

"I don't think I'm.. meet the friends ready."

"Fair enough," he chuckles.

Andrius leans forward and kisses the top of my head.

As soon as he's out of the room, I slink off the bed and to the edge of the closed door. On the other side, I hear Andrius hooves stop and the metal clink of the door being unlocked. There's another pair of hooves that join his and the sound of the door closing again. There's a strangely long pause of silence before Andrius interrupts it.

"All that knocking and nothing to say?"

"I'm a little afraid to say anything," the serious, deep voice answers, "Considering last time we spoke you disappeared for weeks. I must be worse at pep-talks than I thought."

"I'm sorry if I made you worried."

"I know you too well to worry about you," Laith pauses and from the sound of it, paces a little, "Were you in Leaven with that girl?"

My eyebrows perk up and I hold my breath to not miss any part of the answer.

"Short answer, yes."

"Long answer?"

"Unless you have today off, we don't have that kind of time."

"Fair enough. I only stopped by because I saw your shoes out front and thought you deserved a warning."

"About?"

"The afternoon after we last spoke, I came by to check in and Lillian was pounding on your door and windows. Apparently convinced you were in here ignoring her. I assume she'll be back at it soon, now that you're actually home."

I can feel the unhappy growl from Andrius more than I hear it.

"What did she want?"

"To convince you she's somehow the victim in all this, I'm sure. She kept demanding to know where you were, who you were with."

"And what did you tell her?"

"I told her all of that stopped being her business when she fucked Sean behind your back."

"Good."

"You look a little worse for wear, And. I can take a half-day if you want to talk or-"

"No, no. I'm alright. I just got in late and haven't washed up."

"Hm. And you got whatever closure you needed in Leaven?"

"Yeah. Something like that."

The steady steps of Laith head away, towards the door again before he says anything more.

"I don't envy that girl you found. It sounds like an awful predicament. I hope you two at least got to say whatever you needed to."

"Yeah, we..." Andrius trails off, "we figured things out."

There's a pause and the sound of the door opening again. Andrius says one final thing slowly, as if still choosing his words as he speaks.

"I think you would like her. If you met her."

Laith hums to himself, no pause in his steps as if he's already thinking of something else, "Maybe."

At the sound of the front door closing up, I stretch high to open the door I've been leaning against as I eavesdropped. Andrius is turning back to me as it swings open. I go to stand beside him and wonder over the conversation.

"Would I like him?"

"Eventually."

I make an uncertain face at the question formulating in my mind. His hand settles gently on my shoulder, sliding down to my back until I snap out of it and look him in the eyes.

"I didn't mean to upset you by being vague with the answers, Flora," he says softly, somehow seeing through me like glass, "I just think you should be part of telling the story."

His hand at my back pulls me forward. I press my lips to his chest and speak against the bare skin, "I wouldn't have known what to say yet, anyway."

The feel of him taking a sudden step back so he can lean down and kiss the top of my head lightens my mood. I keep my hands on his back, trying to pull him back to me and feeling how his immense form doesn't budge an inch. Even when I lean completely back, his stubbornness the only thing keeping me upright.

"It's late," he says, looking out a window that's too high for me, "I should get to work soon."

"Work?"

Andrius laughs and reaches over my head to open a cupboard, "Yes, work. Did you think I just sat around looking pretty all day?"

"That's what I'd been hoping."

He laughs again and I let him go, taking a step back to watch as he fills a kettle and sets it over a stovetop flame. At the front door is the disorderly pile of clothing we tossed off in the dark. I wonder if Laith noticed not all of it belongs to his friend. But from what I heard, he doesn't strike me as the type who wouldn't bring it up if he did.

The growing morning light outside streams in and I suck in a breath at the interior that I couldn't see last night. All the wood is dark and lacquered. The borders of the doorways and windows are framed in leafy, acanthus carvings.

"Did you want any tea? It's ging-"

"These are pretty," I hop up onto my knees on the countertop so I can reach the windowsill, dragging my fingertips over the smooth shapes.

"Oh, thanks."

"Wait, did you make these?"

"Um, yes," he says in a surprisingly bashful tone, "It was kind of a deal between Ares and I."

"What kind of deal?" I take the mug he offers me and walk around the kitchen, looking at all the detailed carvings.

"Ares was left the house when our father died, same with the lodge out by Leaven. He wanted to burn them to the ground. And I get why. But I always thought this place had potential. I asked if he would sell it to me. He said he would happily give it to me for nothing if I made it look nothing like the house we grew up in. So, I did. Knocked down the walls, made a new layout."

I turn back to Andrius in awe, he merely shrugs.

"He didn't want you to do anything with the lodge?"

"I convinced him to just keep that one standing so we could escape to it in the summer. It can get kind of sweltering in Prophia."

"I love this one," I perk up on my toes again and reach for a tiny flower hidden in the leaves on the corner of a doorway.

"Okay, okay," his hands wrap around my waist to keep me from face planting as I stumble forward, "My head is big enough."

Andrius' hand snakes around to my front as he presses himself flush with my back. Heat pours from his hand where it settles over my midsection. My contented hum turns to a squeak of embarrassment when I look down and remember I never got redressed. My arms automatically snap over my chest and crotch, tea nearly spilling out onto my bare skin.

"I've seen you naked, Flora," he chuckles.

"I know, but still," I mumble through my blushing.

I look over my shoulder and see him draining the last of his tea.

"I really do have to work," he kisses the top of my head again, "You should explore. You wouldn't even be the only human around."

"Really?"

"We're one of the biggest towns this far North, until you get past the mountains, we get a lot of travelers."

"Can I go like this?" I hold my arms out.

"It's only fair," he smirks, "My kind walk around naked all the time."

.

For the hundredth time, I perk up on my toes til I can just barely look out the window toward the workshop near the treeline. I've done everything but explore. The glasses on the low kitchen table, that I assume Laith and Andrius drank from before he came back to Leaven for me, are cleaned and drying beside the mugs. Everything I can reach has been dusted or cleaned. The dark tunic I took from Andrius' closet hangs off me like a baggy dress. My backpack sits open on the table. The contents seemed so much more when we were running away. When I was still drunk on rapture and feeling so haughty about leaving Leaven. Now, it doesn't seem like much at all.

A burst of laughter calls my attention outside and I run to the front door to peek. Luckily, the door is well made and doesn't make the slightest creak. Two centaur women rush through the gravel street side-by-side. One has speckled fur and short dark hair, she holds her hand over her face that's turning redder and redder as she giggles. The one beside her is almost the same warm chestnut color of my own hair, she flicks her braid over her shoulder as she continues whispering in her friend's tapered ear. They're wearing the same kind of thick, wool wraps I've seen on a lot of the female centaurs I've spotted. Quietly, I close the door on the sunlight and the cold breeze.

Somewhere in the long stretch of afternoon, I feel myself overdosing on boredom. But I'm still too nervous to venture into the town on my own. I slip out the back door and rush toward the workshop, lest anyone catch sight of a half-naked human running around. The cold air freezes my legs as I run, and I realize how dumb it was not to put my riding pants back on first.

The inside of the workshop is blissfully warm as I shove the wide, sliding door shut behind me. It's split into two sections, light streams into the first and shines on finished pieces. A few bolts of fabric wrapped in paper. Ornately carved frames and furniture pieces lined up along the walls, leaving a path just wide enough for Andrius that leads to a doorway. The warm, earthy smell of wood surrounds me as I make my way to the second section.

Andrius sits on a blanket of thick wool, the only space fully clear of dust or shavings. A leather journal is in one hand, another open in front of him which he sketches on with a pencil. His golden eyes laser focused on the information and his brow furrowed. He snaps out of it when I plop down to sit with my back against his lower half. I lean forward and he meets me halfway to kiss me lightly on the lips. I glance down at the measurements and drawings of various designs.

"Behind schedule," he snaps the book shut before stretching his arms over his head, "You do anything fun?"

"Umm. I got some stuff done."

"You didn't even leave the house, did you?"

I break eye contact with him and shrug, suddenly feeling strangely guilty.

"Flora," his hands wrap around my waist and lay me across his forelegs, "You feel safe here, don't you?"

"Yes. I mean, I think I do."

I close my eyes as he combs a hand through my hair. This is what I was really missing. The affection and warmth that I ran away with him for. I turn my head to let it be cradled in his palm.

"How did you get into this, anyway?" I ask, opening my eyes to look around at the half-finished works.

"When I was in my teens, I wanted out of the house, for reasons you already know. So, I went around asking about apprenticeships," he stands with me in his arms, sits me down on a workbench, and walks forward to stand between my open legs, "The only person who offered me a considerable amount of hours was a carpenter. He was about to retire and wanted to pass his knowledge onto someone. So, it worked out for both of us. I found that I liked it. It's satisfying to have a clear, tangible end goal, you know?"

"That's kind of him, to give you a safe place and a trade like that."