The Khan Ch. 01: A Payment of Weregild

Then she fell to the stone floor beside him. His chiseled body was a rock hard pillow. She suddenly felt safe, so comfortable beside this man.

Then she turned his head to face her. And for the first time they kissed. His lips were leathery and rough and awkward to kiss. But it was a wonderful kiss. Passionate. Two lost souls searching for a place in the world.

*

Hours passed. She had no idea if it was day or night outside. Her body ached.

Hakkon ran a calloused hand over the smooth flesh of her leg. His touch excited her.

Then Jun'ai propped herself up on an elbow and looked down at the sweaty man beneath her. "I'm curious about something," she said. "You often refer to things as objects. You call someone a rock or the wind. You called me your chrysanthemum. Why is that?"

Hakkon shrugged. "All things are part of this world. People are not separate from the world in which they live. To compare our actions and our attitudes and hopes and dreams to that of nature, seems a perfectly reasonable thing to do."

She smiled. Pat his chest. "I thought you might say something like that." She had the sudden image of minotaurs as deeply spiritual, connected to the natural world around them. This was not the violent monster everyone thought.

"Let me ask you another question. What do you typically eat?"

Hakkon gave her a quizzical look. "Isn't it obvious?"

Jun'ai shook her head.

"Grass," he said. "Our head, our jaw, our teeth were made by the Creator for eating plants."

"So, you don't eat people?"

He jerked as if physically struck. "Why would you think that?"

"It's what we are told."

"Your species truly fears what it does not understand."

Jun'ai nodded. She was beginning to see that for herself.

"Now let me ask you a question," Hakkon said. "After you are pregnant, what happens then?"

"I return to Tyre to have the child and raise him as a warrior for our people."

"And I will never see him?"

Jun'ai looked away. The silence that hung between them was heavy. She had never really thought about his feelings in the matter when she started this quest. Then she had another idea. It was crazy, but not as crazy as it would have sounded a day before.

When she spoke, it was something she had never expected to say. "I will stay here and raise him." She looked at the minotaur laying next to her. "I would be honored it you would train him to fight."

Hakkon was still a long time. Then he gave a single nod.

And she crushed her mouth against his.