The Solitary Arrow Ch. 05

His face blushed a deep red. "She said that in about ten years, she'd see if her younger sister would come visit me and keep up a tradition in these parts." He smiled. "She said that good huntsmen who obey the ways of the wood are often rewarded with a elf-maid's company for a time." His eyes took on a dream-like state as his mind wandered far afield.

Harlen nodded. "It is so, I deem, else why would I have her company, hmm?" He said to the youth. "And old Tammer, my mentor, as well, in his youth."

The boy's eyes grew wide. "You're serious?" He said, excitement suffusing his face. "If I become a hunter, and am a good man, I may attract a lovely maiden like Miss Hyandai?"

The hunter nodded. "As I say, how else do you explain her." He pointed to the rear of the house. "You can see she is far too beautiful to be attracted to my ugly face." He pointed to his own face. "Now run home for the night. And you can come late on the morrow."

The lad smiled and left. Harlen had no doubt he would be early tomorrow. He smiled as the innocent youth ran out the front door, and thought that he was just a little less innocent after this day, but there be no harm in so gentle of a removal of one or two layers of a youth's blinders.

A moment later Hyandai stepped in, holding her clothing in her hands and waving them in the air to dry them. "I think that young Trevir is a bit smitten with me." She said, smiling.

"I would imagine so, you are probably the first girl he has seen unclad, except perhaps his sister, who is all of six." Harlen said, chuckling. "I only hope you haven't spoiled the boy's expectations of women for the future." He said, eyeing Hyandai's flawless skin and lovely shape.

She tilted her head slightly. "Has it yours?" She asked, smiling slightly.

"For certain." He said, and embraced her, then kissed her. "I only have eyes for you, Hyandai." He said. "My sights are aimed very high now."

Her face adopted an expression of confusion. "Aspiring to me requires high sightedness? Why?" She asked.

Harlen stood quiet a moment, his demeanor thoughtful. "For you are a combination of all the things that people aspire to - wit, beauty, wisdom, loyalty, happiness, knowledge, and kindness." He said. "And more than that which I have no words sufficient to express." His eyes lightened and he said. "Because you can love."

She smiled at that. "You can love, Harlen, and I think just as well as I, else I have been feeling something rather than love from you."

He shook his head. "I am a hunter, not a philosopher, Hyandai." He said, touching her hair. "Please do not expect my words to be sufficient for your high values." His eyes fell, I cannot express how I feel for you, for it would involve expressing everything of me, and making words for them. You consume me, my mind, my heart, my body, and my soul." He fell to his knees.

She nodded seriously. "I see." She sat on the little walkway about the tub. "Are you certain that being consumed by a lover is a thing that is good?"

Harlen caressed her legs, pressing his head to her long thigh. "No. I am not certain. I simply know that it is so, and there isn't much I can do about it."

Hyandai petted his hair, and touched his rounded ear. "I cannot either, Harlen. Disbelieve me if you wish, but I am equally consumed with thoughts of you."

He looked up into her golden eyes, soft now with thought. "How, m'lady. How can a simple man, a common man, just a hunter, consume one as high as you?"

Then she giggled. "I am not so lofty, Harlen. I am simply an elven girl, barely an adult." She touched his ear, then traced her delicate finger along his jaw. "I will speak plainly in this. Harlen, I am not considered beautiful among my kind, did you know this? I am actually considered quite homely, my hair is thought to be too thick and my eyes too golden, the youths of my land desire silken haired girls with silvern eyes, such as my sister has." Her eyes focused into the distance. "Loskenaur was beautiful, far beyond me, and she is powerful, and skilled, and a joy to be around, if I weighed myself against her, I would be found wanting."

"I do not believe that." Harlen said, turning from her. "I don't think that you would be found wanting when measured against any rule."

She rose from her seat, and walked to him. She put her small hand on his shoulder and turned him back toward her. "Explain something for me, Harlen." She said, her face set. "If you think I am lovely against any compare, then why, after almost a week of traveling with Eleean, to whom I was betrothed and prepared to give myself freely, I was still a maiden when the orc took me?" She tilted her head to the side. "Do you find me prudish and unwarm?"

Harlen shook his head. "No." He said. "You are far from unwarm."

"Did you not wonder why I took you to my side that very first night?" She asked, her head tilting the other direction. "Do you think yourself quite so alluring?"

He looked down. "No." He was losing this argument and it was one he greatly wished to not loose.

"How many elven girls do you think reach the age of fifty-nine with their maidenhood still within them?" She said, raising his face with her hand, forcing him to meet her golden orbs.

"I don't know." He said, but feared she knew.

Her eyes hardened to orbs of cast bronze. "We elven folk are not many, and girls my age, fewer still. I know each of them, and I know I was the only one." She said. "As youths, we elven folk have much time to explore their passions with one another, since we have a bit more than the eight years given humans, we have almost thirty." She smiled bitterly. "Rare, indeed, is the lass who manages to escape those years without having some lover or several to her bed." She turned and spun into the room, pirouetting prettily with her arms out and her head tilted back. "Yet, I, the beautiful and cold maiden, Hyandai, was so lovely and frigid that no youth approached me, for fear of having his heart frozen, I suppose." She laughed, and it was not the warm laughter Harlen loved, but a cold laugh, with years of bitterness and self-disgust in it. Her spinning ceased and she railed at him, bending at the waist and spitting the words. "No, Harlen. I am no beautiful maiden, I am a homely elven whore, who has been orc-fucked and has been throwing herself at a man, and will have to leave him before he discovers his own mistake in taking her, so she can avoid the look of disgust that he will give her when he does so."

He grabbed her arm, and pulled her to him. "You think you can ever disgust me?" He said. She tried to escape his grip, but the strength she admired in him thwarted her. "You think I will suddenly find you unappealing?" His strong hands pressed her back, making her short of breath. She grunted like a caught beast, and her arms flailed to be loosed. "No. Hyandai. I have earned the right to have my say with you." He said, turning and pinning her to the wall. He stepped back and held her there with his hands upon her shoulders. Her golden eyes were feral and seemed almost go glow with a red inner light. "Were you a homely human lass, who had shown the bravery and loyalty you have. Still, I would covet you." He looked down at her. "You think yourself a whore for desiring me?" He yelled. "Are the girls who have taken me to their beds whores as well? They've not been many, but I promise you, they were no mere whores, they were good women, and worthy of my affection and I of theirs." He let her go, and she slumped against the wall, ugly blue marks showing where his hands had been. "And you are, as well, perhaps moreso."

She was crying now, her head hanging down and tears falling to the floor. "I do not mean to insult you or girls you have known."

He turned again. "But you have." Harlen said. "You have called my own judgement into doubt, charged with the heinous effrontery of desiring you." He took her hand. "You hold being orc-raped against yourself?" He said. "That is most unfair, blame me instead, for my inability to protect you from the orcs, as was my duty at that point. Hate me for being too unskilled to defeat them, and detest me for not escaping the bonds quickly enough to keep him from opening you."

She shook her head. "They were matters beyond your control." She said.

"As they were to you." He pointed. "No, Hyandai, I refuse to accept you as anything less than the wonderful and kind, and, yes, beautiful lady that you are." He pressed against her again, and kissed her, roughly and with much passion. "You will not hide behind a wall of words." Harlen said, kissing her neck and shoulder. "I will have you, you have promised that." He said. "Unless you wish to break your word."

She put her hand on the back of his head and entwined her fingers into his hair. "No, I have no plans of breaking any promise to you." She smiled to him. "I truly wish you to be my first lover."

He still had some anger in his eyes. "Are you just settling for the human, because he will have you, or do you desire me?"

She kissed his neck. "I desire you." She said.

"I am not just some sufficient standby?" He asked.

Her eyes softened. "No. I desire you, Harlen of Morrovale. For being my hero, for being handsome, and for being good to me."

"Then you would have me to you?" He said, then took her flesh between his teeth, causing her to gasp and then moan as he let it slip loose, lightly marked by his sharp canines.

She moved her hands down his chest and over his stomach, then around to his rump, then pulled his pelvis into hers. "I would have you to me, fullwilling, and with gladness throughout my body." She said, grinding her pelvis against his. The lust in her golden eyes was flaring up. "I would have you to me now." She said. "I deem I am recovered enough, were you to be gentle." She said, her voice lower now, and her eyes full of promise.

Harlen stooped and lifted her. He carried her from the bathing room and up the stairs to his bed. He laid her gently upon it. She sat up and watched him remove his boots. "You are certain of this, Hyandai?" He asked.

She nodded, smiling, and her eyes were beginning to take on a deeper hue, almost the bronze color they had when she had been angry. "I am certain. Though it may injure me a little. I judge that the worth shall far outweigh the cost."

She knelt upon the bed, and helped him remove his shirt, then unfastened his belt. She slid off the bed and pulled down his trousers. As she came back up from the floor, she started to lean toward his manhood with her face. Harlen restrained her. "No, my angel, none of that." He gave her his uneven smile. "I would have the energy to withstand my pleasure for a few moments longer, if you will."

She smiled and let him draw her up to her feet. His manhood was rising as he pressed her back to the bed, and she fell upon the covers. He brought his knees up between her long, shapely legs and then used his hands on her waist to lift her from his crouch and move her to the middle of the large, soft bed. Then he moved forward and lowered his head.

She watched in fascination as he kissed her stomach, then began kissing his way lower, down to her mound, then over her tiny clitoris. She gasped, and her back arched as he dragged his tongue over the tiny button. He moved lower still, tickling her swelling labia, then sliding his tongue into her. The cinnamon taste he had from her skin was stronger now, and he lapped at it hungrily. Her body twitched slightly at the touch, and she began to draw air in short gasps. He drove his tongue as deeply into her as he could manage, spreading it to its full width as he did so. She let out a loud groan, and grabbed his hair with both hands, lifting her head and shoulders from the bed. He let his hair take the weight of her upper body, and his mouth and tongue drove a little deeper into her. He moved up a little, and began sucking and licking over the soft hood her clitoris wore, pushing it back then gently taking the nub between his lips.

Hyandai screamed at that touch, and her fingernails became talons in his hair, he felt them break skin, but only slightly, as she pulled his hair. Elven words were flowing from her, almost a litany. She gave out with a shuddering exhalation, then sucked air in with a great gasp. Her heels drove into his back, pushing him down harder against her mound, and he began suckling on her clitoris in earnest.

She started to tense her legs, holding him down and her pelvis began to move up and down, dragging his teeth across her hooded button and the folds of her labia. She was grunting softly now, almost like an animal, Harlen noted. Then she started whimpering, as her climax built within her. He had never made a woman come this way, but he decided that he would try this time. Her movements became smaller, quicker, and tenser. Then, suddenly, she let forth a loud scream. An elven word came out with it and Harlen heard his name after it. She then relaxed completely, her hands falling from his head, and her legs back to the bed. She let her shoulders and head fall back onto the covers and lay there gasping for air, her entire body was hot, he felt, and was richly colored a rosy hue, that was slowly fading. He also noted the smell of cinnamon strongly in the air, and a sheen of fine sweat on her flawless skin.

He kissed up her belly to her breasts, watching her writhe and twist as he licked and kissed each nipple, then moved on to her breasts. She finally picked her arms back up, and put them around his neck. When she gazed up at him, he saw her eyes were green, like a patina had grown on the bronze that had been there before. The green was vibrant, like a wood after a spring rain. He watched her eyes for a long moment, as they slowly lost their green shade, and faded, very slowly, back to golden. "Your eyes turn green when you have pleasure?" He asked.

She smiled up at him. "Did they?" She asked in return. "I had heard some of my folk do that, I did not know if I was one." She giggled. "It is part of why I love your blue eyes, Harlen." She said, putting her hands on either side of his head. "Blue is the color elves with silver eyes turn if they have such a reaction."

Harlen chuckled. "So, I look as if I always have just had great pleasure?" He said.

Nodding, she said. "You do." She turned a bit away and her face turned a deeper rose. "I imagine myself making them so."

He bent down and kissed her, feeling her small mouth with his tongue, and tasting her. "If I could do such a thing. Just looking at you would make my eyes stay blue." He said. She moaned as he laid his weight on her, and she sighed in contentment when he rested there, his manhood pressed firmly to her body between them.

Her eyes now only had a slight greenish tinge to them. "How long do they stay that way?" Harlen asked.

"I have heard many differing tales." She said, wiggling under his bulk. "But they can stay edged with the changed color for several days."

Harlen smiled. "Then, if all goes well, you will always have green-edged golden eyes while we are together."

She grinned and kissed his chin. "Do you swear it?" She asked. "That I will always have cause to be colored." She said.

Harlen said. "I do." Then began to kiss her neck and chin, and nuzzle her sharply-pointed ears. "So long as we are together." He whispered. She clutched him to herself, and moved her legs over his back, enwrapping him.

She felt so tiny under him, Harlen feared he would hurt her, but she breathed easily, and seemed content to bear him. He reached down to check her wetness, and when he brought his hand up, he found a small amount of blood. "You're bleeding, my love." He said, and showed her.

She sighed in frustration. "Then my evil plans are thwarted." She said, rolling her eyes. "Will you forgive me for another day's loss? I fear to make matters even worse for us later."

Harlen smiled and nodded. "I would forgive you anything." He said, and slipped off of her.

She got a cloth from her bag. "I hate that the wounds do not seem to wish to cooperate with my goals." She said, dabbing at herself delicately. "I wish you did not see me like this, man of mine." She said, and slipped on her skirt. She positioned the loincloth to hold the small cloth in place. "It seems, somehow, too intimate, even for your welcome eyes."

Harlen nodded and looked away while she finished. Then said. "No one likes to be observed when they are unwell."

Another moment, and she said. "I am again clothed, much to my annoyance." She said. When Harlen looked, she was wearing her doeskin outfit, and looking quite chagrined. "I had hoped that I was mostly recovered." Then she smiled. "For, mark my words, when I do, you will be the one in need of time to recover."

Harlen smiled at her. "I look forward to you trying to exhaust me, but I think you will find me quite resilient."

She adopted a pose that harkened back to a fighting stance. "Think you so?" She said, her voice menacing. "Then I accept your challenge, human, and whosoever shall be victorious shall claim the spoils."

He stood from the bed and hugged her to him. "And what would the prize of such a contest be, elf, with me having already won?"

She shrugged. "I know not, but it will be worthy of the challenge. But you will loose, human, and be forced by shame to do my bidding."

"Then servitude of the fallen is the prize?" Harlen asked. "The victor then commands their will?"

She smiled. "So be it. For a time, anyway." She paused. "You best be ready at my beck and call once I have vanquished you."

"And you." Harlen said, kissing her shoulder. "Best make ready to provide some rather gracious service, with a smiling visage."

"Done, then." She said, giving a curt nod, and grabbing his hand in the manner of a merchant, to seal the deal.

Harlen took the hand, and shook it. "Done." He said. "You are in above your head, lass."

She looked up at him and said. "And you underestimate your foe because of your large size." She giggled. "Both of them."

He clad himself with the pants he had worn and they both went to the kitchen, suddenly hungry. Or as Hyandai called it, readying themselves for battle.

She enjoyed the fruit that Trevir had acquired, several of which she had never eaten before. "Orange." She said, looking at it. "Somehow, that seems a shallow name for this fruit." She began peeling it, using her sharp little nails like ten scythes, to flay the skin off in but a moment's work, and not touching the pulp within. "One might as well call a plum a 'purple' or a apple a 'red.'"

He shrugged. "I don't choose their names, my love." He said "I merely told you what it was called.

She bit into the pulpy body of the orange, and then her eyes widened as its tart taste hit her. "By the spirits." She said after swallowing. "It could be called firefruit, or some such. It is so acidic as to burn the eyes if it were to get to them." She took another large bite. "But it is good." He mumbled around that mouthfull.

Harlen picked up a small yellow lemon from the fruit she had set on a platter before her. "Do you know this fruit?" He said, eyebrows raised.

"No. It is not one familiar to me." She said, eyeing it. "But I am sure it is called a 'yellow.'" She said, rolling her eyes.

Harlen chuckled. "It is a lemon, you should try it next." Harlen said, and peeled it helpfully for her. Setting the small body of it on the platter for her.

She finished the orange, and was looking at its seeds. "I wonder if these would grow in my lands?" She said. "Whence do they come?"

Harlen said. "They're brought in by ship from the south." He looked at the other orange in the bowl. "They only grow where it never freezes, so I am told."

She looked saddened. "Our introversion is costing us dearly in knowledge of the world about us." Then she brightened. "But now, the lemon." She said, and snatched up the peeled fruit.