The Solitary Arrow Ch. 02

Hyandai looked at him a moment, then sat up a little. She tilted her head back slightly and started to sing the words.

Without you, my heart would tear asunder - Without you, my eyes would see no light - Without you, my fears would always linger - Without you, my tears would fill the night

As she sang, her voice filled the chamber as if it were made to carry her notes. Her voice was perfect in pitch and timber, it belied the worn and used look she wore, and the horrid smell coming off of her from the orc's juices. The tears that fell from her eyes were fewer now, and seemed purer. She sang the verse again, then stopped. "It is actually a song of your people, from many, many years ago." She said. "We elves liked it and translated it, but it belongs in your tongue."

Harlen shrugged. "My people have forgotten it, so I would say it is yours now." He looked at her intently. "Think you that you can you walk, m'lady?"

She nodded. "I can walk for a little ways, but I am hurt deeply, Harlen." He gathered up their weapons, but instead of his hatchet, he picked up a finely wrought broadsword, of the sort used by soldiers, and thrown negligently in a corner of the cave. Hyandai waited, standing by the table, and clutching the blanket around her. Her face was haunted looking and sad.

"I know of another cave, near to here, that no orc has ever found." He said, picking up his items that had spilled from his pack while he had searched it. "We should not tarry longer here, others may come."

Hyandai nodded, and took possession of her bow and quiver by extending one hand out of the cocoon of a blanket she wore. They crept from the cave and stole down the hills toward the woods a ways, then he started north. Her stomach cramped painfully, and blood was coating her thighs. "It needs be close, Harlen, I cannot go much farther." She said, taking his offered arm to support her.

He nodded and pointed to their right. "It is near. Come, Rapier, we will get to safety soon." They went up what looked like a blind ravine and climbed some shallow skree. She almost could not make it, but finally they slipped into a narrow cleft between two stones. It went about five feet, narrow and confining, with barely enough room to move, then it turned sharply and disgorged them into a small cave. Harlen slipped the light stone out of his pocket and held it up. The cave was only perhaps ten paces deep and five wide. "Everything we need, Hyandai. For a while at least." Unlike the filthy cave of the orcs, this cave was meticulously clean. The end of the chamber had a tiny rivulet running through it, it disgorged into a little pond, only about three feet across, then ran off into the stone wall. "I carved out the pond, for bathing." He said.

"You are certain it is safe?" Hyandai asked, leaning back against the rough wall, and sliding down it a bit.

"Very." Harlen said. "The other man who knew of it was a huntsman friend of mine, and he is dead."

She said. "I'm sorry for your loss." And slipped farther down the wall.

Harlen still was speaking over his shoulder. "Don't be, It was my hand that ended his life." He turned at last and gasped when he saw her condition. He rushed to her side. "Hyandai." He said.

Her hands closed on his arm. "You said bath?" She muttered. "Put me in it a while." He picked her up gently and carried her to the bath. The rancid smell of the orc spend in her hair made him noxious. It was now turning black as it dried in her hair, and on her smooth cheeks. He sat her on the edge of the pool and took the blanket from her shoulders. She slipped into the water, settling into the little pool up to her neck. "Please, speak to me, keep me company. I feel very faint." She said. Looking at him with her golden eyes very tired and world worn.

He sat beside the pool and thought a moment. "I don't know quite what to talk about." Harlen admitted. He held out a small piece of lye soap to her.

She sniffed it dubiously. "Yeek. It will burn my flesh off my bones." She said. Then added. "I suppose this situation calls for nothing less, though." She started washing herself with the soap, wincing as she went over a bruise or open sore. She seemed less worn already, the water was supporting her weight, and she could relax more.

"How did you jump into my mind?" Harlen asked her, trying to think of something to say.

She rinsed one of her arms off, and looked at him, her eyes were looking more animated. "I wanted to be in your head more than my own right then." She smiled. "It is something that elves can do, at least some among us can do it."

Harlen looked at her a moment. "You could read my mind?" He asked, slightly alarmed.

She giggled at that, and the music in her laugh was beginning to return. "No, Harlen, only what you actively thought at a given moment." She answered. "And, I would say, you were a perfect gentleman."

He looked down. "I was only worried for you." His eyes were brimming with tears. "You didn't deserve that." He looked down into the water, and saw his own face. "Gads! I'm a terrible fright." He exclaimed, rubbing his hand on the clotted and dried blood on his face and neck.

Hyandai nodded to him. "We both are, I think, Harlen." She smiled sweetly. "Were there room in this bath, I would ask you in." She said, then murmured. "And were I foresighted, I would have done the same this morning."

Harlen blinked. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Nothing, sorry." She said. "Just a stray thought about what could have been." She was looking much better now. She asked Harlen. "May I ask you for help with my hair?" She said, handing him the block of lye soap. She turned her back to him and leaned back into the water, half her hair just above the surface, the other half submerged. He splashed water onto it and then rubbed the soap into the locks, he scrubbed her head, being careful not to get the caustic lye near her eyes. Then he used a small cup to ladle water into her hair until he had all the soap out. Her hair was incredibly soft and fine, and he longed to keep touching it. However, she was obviously uncomfortable in this pose and he finished as quickly as he could. The water was cloudy with the lye and bits of soap, but the constant inflow of fresh water was slowly clearing it. After about fifteen minutes she said. "I believe I am as clean as I can get right now, Harlen." She looked up to him. "Will you help me out now, please?" She said, holding up her hands to him and standing. She was visible from the waist up, her perfect breasts marred by small wounds that still bled a little. A long claw-mark drew a red welt down her stomach. He closed his eyes and lifted her out, turned to the right and let her down. She gasped at his strength to lift her free like that. "You are very strong, Harlen." She said. She looked about. "Have you something clean I can wear, or at least not orc-stained?" She asked.

He turned from her and opened his eyes. He then went over to a small chest and opened it. Out of it he produced a long shirt. "The best I have." He said, holding it over his shoulder. He heard her wet footsteps behind him, and felt the shirt taken from his fingers.

"Have you any rags or small pieces of cloth?" She said very timidly. "I need something to keep me from bleeding."

He pulled out another blanket, and used his little skinning knife to cut a small square from it. He handed this back to her also. She finally said. "You can turn around now, Harlen, I am decent." He turned.

She was standing in his massively oversized shirt. His heart swelled at the image it presented to him, of some possible domestic scene. The tunic hanged almost to her shapely knees. He took a length of rope and cut it and said "A belt." She took it and knotted it about her slim waist.

She finally looked about the chamber. "Very homey." She said. The room had a small cot, some shelves, covered with small items, and two chests. There was also a small breadbox on the shelf, and a large wooden frame against the wall. Several clay pots lay just inside the entrance. And, of course, the rivulet of spring water and the pool.

Harlen nodded. "More like homely." He chuckled. "But its somewhat clean and reasonably safe, anyway." He looked about. "Please lie down, Hyandai. I know you are careworn." He said, pointing to the bed. He left off that he could go bath out of sight if she did, the pool was somewhat in an alcove from where the bed lay.

She laid down. "I probably should try to rest." He said, and laid on the blanket. It smelled of Harlen, and that was agreeable enough to her. She lifted the covers from under herself and nestled into them. "I do not recall any finer bed, Harlen." She said.

Harlen smiled at her and went over to the pool. He hugged the inner wall, out of sight and stripped off his clothes. Then he climbed down into the water. He was remarkably sore. He supposed that Hyandai had not been able to heal every minor hurt he had suffered in the pummeling from the huge orc. The caked blood was washed from his face and neck. Then he washed out the rawhide jerkin he had worn. "Harlen, do you have any food here?" She asked from around the corner. "Not that I can eat right now, but for later?"

"Yes." He said. "I've some provisions in the breadbox." He washed his hair in a series of dunks and then went ahead and scrubbed his body. Finally he got out and put his trousers back on, they stuck to his body, as he had not dried off. He clasped the belt and walked to the second chest, where he had gotten the shirt and blanket. He opened it and retrieved another shirt, this one a blue shirt of rough weave.

She watched him move about, and enjoyed seeing him shirtless, with his corded muscles and well-formed shoulders. When he turned his back to her and looked in the chest. She gasped. His back was a web of scars. Harlen had been flogged in his past. The long scars were red and angry-looking. They made his back look as if it were somehow aflame. He put the shirt on and turned back around. "I am so sorry, Hyandai," He said finally, "that I couldn't get myself unbound sooner."

Hyandai smiled at him. "I know it, remember, I was in your head, also." She snuggled into the blankets more. "I am happy enough to be alive right now." She said quietly, looking at the natural stones of the ceiling.

Harlen nodded. "Yes, that is better than I would have thought as that brute put me down." He sat on the floor, and took the blanket from his pack and washed it, cleaning out the orc spend and blood that had gotten onto it. Hyandai could see him as he washed, in profile. His face wore the look of disgust.

She wondered briefly if he felt the same way about her now, used and orc-spent.

Harlen finished with that task and took the blanket and shirt and hung them on hooks set into the rough wall.

When he turned, he saw tears falling from her beautiful eyes and down her flawless cheeks. "Hyandai?" He said coming over to her.

"No, Harlen." She said. "Let me be, for a moment only." She said, curling onto her side and facing toward the wall. "I need to think." She murmured.

He stepped back as if stung. "I understand." He said, though he did not really. He went over to one of the chests and sat upon it. He opened the companion chest and took out a piece of doeskin. He unfolded his rolled up kit and took out needle and thread. Using only a small knife and that thread and needle, he started to sew.

She wept for longer than a moment, she wept for a greater part of two hours. Harlen patiently sewed on the leather, occasionally staring at Hyandei's back for a few moments then sewing some more. He took out more thread at need, and more of the supple leather. Harlen noticed the weeping had ceased and that she seemed to be asleep, he heard nothing from her, and her shoulder rose and fell rhythmically. He continued to sew well into the night outside. Simply watching over her and minding his handiwork.

At what he thought to be about midnight, she stirred. "Harlen?" She asked as she rolled over to face him.

"I am here, m'lady." He said, putting down his project and standing.

She smiled at him. "I hate to ask it of you, but I need another clean cloth." She said. He went and cut one from the blanket he had sliced before. He stopped, and cut another. The second one he took to the water and soaked it, then wrung it out. He handed both to Hyandai, then turned about, and walked to the far side of the cave. A few moments later she said. "Thank you, I am presentable again." She held out a folded rag that was very soaked with blood, but not quite through and through. He took it and went to the pool. He rinsed it clean then set it aside to dry. She was really enthralled with his thoroughness. "Harlen, you are one of the most detail minding men I have ever met." She said.

Harlen looked over at her. "What do you mean?" He asked. He stood and walked to the cot, and slid one of the chests beside it. He sat upon the chest and faced her.

"You finish all your projects before you move on. It is very nice to watch, you always do what needs doing next." She flashed her golden orbs at him.

Harlen shrugged. "My grand mother again, I think." He explained. "She always made me to finish anything I started, regardless of how badly I wanted to stop." The huntsman chuckled. "I suppose it helped me to choose my projects more wisely."

She giggled at that, her eyes flickering with life again. Harlen decided to try to make her laugh as often as he could, as it was lightening to his heart to hear her laughing.

"Are you hungry?" He asked.

Hyandai clutched her stomach. "A little." She said. "But I do not think I can keep food down until my stomach has gotten rid of the bile it has within." Her mind flashed to the huge orc filling her gullet and she almost retched again. "A while longer, I think."

Harlen nodded without comment.

Hyandai sat up part way, lifting herself up and propping her back against the wall. "Do you not need sleep, Harlen?" She asked. "It must be late."

"I was thinking of lying down, yes." He said.

She scooted over on the cot. "Then lie, Harlen." She said, patting the bed beside her. "Do not worry, I have been rendered incapable of ravishing you." She grinned sourly.

He wore the look of someone about to try to talk his way out of something. "No, Harlen, you will take this spot, please." She said. "After what I have been through today. I seek your comfort." Her eyes grew very imploring. "Do not make me beg." Her voice was very quiet now. "For I will."

Harlen shook his head. "No, m'lady, do not. I will comfort you, if that is what you would have me do." He smiled and sat beside her. "I don't consider this to be a particularly odious task, you know." He laid down, and she slid back into the covers. She turned to her side to face him, and he to face her. "I forgot the stone." He said. He slipped from beneath the covers and went to the light stone. Sliding it back into it's pouch, he returned to the bed.

As he laid down, Hyandai snuggled up to him. He slipped an arm under her head and she caressed it with one hand. Her other hand lay on his stomach. He held her that way for many minutes before he heard her breathing turn even and shallow. He then let himself drift off to sleep.

He awoke slowly, with Hyandai once again in his arms and pressed to her back. She awoke with him as she felt him move. "Good morrow." She said, pushing back into him a bit. "Thank your for your arms in the dark."

Harlan said. "Thank you for your company." He said, liking the feel of her against him. The cinnamon odor was gone from her. He was a little saddened by this. "I hope you find more of that perfume." He said. "It was wonderful."

She turned, though he could not see it. "Perfume?" She asked. "I wore no scents, I have not for days." She said. "It is not our way to go into the wilds scented to attract animals."

Harlen sat silent for a moment. "Then that sweet scent was yours?" He said, smiling.

He felt her nod in the dark. "Yes. I suppose it was, if you smelled one." She said, almost giggling.

"Well, then, I am blessed." He said and reached his free arm for the light stone.

Her small hand caught his arm. "No, a while longer, please." She said, and pulled his arm back over her. He held her for a bit, and felt her snuggle into him again. He pressed forward slightly and she held her position. They were very close now, and He could smell the lye in her hair faintly. Her hand petted his arm, tickling the hairs. "Elven men have no hair on their arms." She said. "Or else but their heads." She added, almost setting herself to giggling again.

"No?" Harlen asked.

She did giggle now. "Not a single strand." She said. "Nor do we women, of course." He lifted his arm and stroked her arm, and there was not touch of hairs, fine or otherwise. She leaned back, placing her mouth to his ear and whispered. "Anywhere."

His eyes opened widely at that word. "Um. Interesting." He said, with a little quaver in his voice. She smiled to herself as he reacted to her words, and felt his manhood stir. It was just pressed to her rear, but it felt good, nonetheless, to know she could arouse him so with just a few words. "I thought you just, well, shaved, as a man does his beard."

She shook her head. "No, I have never had any." She said. "I hear it is different with humans, many of you are quite furry, from what I have been told."

"Some more than others, but yes." He agreed.

He was fully aroused now and she enjoyed the feeling of his erection against her rump. She may have been violated just yesterday, she thought, but that does not make him or his presence feel unwelcome. She dearly wished that she had given in to her impulses that first morning, and let him take her. At least the orc would not have been the first into her body, then.

The muscular arm under her head felt good, also, and she turned a little and kissed it gently. It twitched with the contact. Harlen felt the kiss as a hot spark running up his arm and shooting to his brain, then down to his loins. He hoped she did not feel his manhood twitch in sympathy.

She gave a tiny smile in the dark as she quite certainly did feel it. Finally, though he said "I must rise." Hyandai almost choked trying to hold back the giggles that came to her.

"I understand, Harlen." She said, lifting her head to let him slip his arm out. "You will understand if I do not get up just yet." The hunter took his light stone from the pouch and the chamber filled with light.

Harlen sat up and nodded. "I do, and was going to suggest you rest today, m'lady." He said. Actually relieved to have his organ away from her rear. He had almost spent himself from her little movements alone and her rather provocative words. She turned over and watched him stretching. His organ stood out from his body as he leaned back and she heard his back give out a few small snaps. She admired him overall, and laid down before his stretch ended. He walked over to the breadbox and extracted a small loaf of bread. "Are you hungry now?" He asked.

"Please, yes." She said, suddenly realizing she was famished. Harlen came back over, his erection now gone and handed her the small loaf. "I have butter and cheese, also."

She took the little loaf in her hands. "Cheese would be nice." She answered. As he brought her the cloth-wrapped small wheel of cheese she giggled. "My first breaking of fast abed." She said, using her fingers to spread the softish cheese onto the bread.

"Mind the crumbs, then." Harlen said smiling. She devoured the bread in a most unelvish fashion, he thought, but then again, she was probably very hungry. He fetched another loaf, and spread his own with cheese as well. Holding it in his mouth he wrapped the cheese wheel, and took it back to the little breadbox. The food there would not last two people for long, but hopefully, it would suffice long enough. Hyandai was not fit to travel yet, and probably would need another day before being able to walk the distance to Morrovale.