Time Together, Time Apart Pt. 03

Alyssa gulped, trembling in his arms. It was good to be close to him again and, even then, he soothed her. The feel of the fox's lightly broad chest against her, how she stilled against him, listening to his heartbeat... It was what she had needed, really, truly, absolutely.

But she still wasn't sure why things between them were changing so much, why they were becoming something else. Was he going to try to send her away? She still couldn't see any reason for him to have the indenture in his hands right there and then...

"What are you talking about, Sandor?" She said, whispering, she was so fearful of the answer, her heart pounding faster than the beat even of his. "This... My indenture... Why do you have it? I thought..."

"Yes, it was in my mother's house, my mother and father's house," he confirmed, resting his hand on her back, soothing and stroking in small circles. "I went back there, one night when I had heard that they would both be away attending an event... They've not spoken to me since, not bar a couple of letters from my father but I think mother keeps him under control, on a tight leash... Anyway, your indenture is lacking in some details. It looks like your mother and my mother, all those years ago, were in a hurry to sign this, though I cannot say why. But it means that there is no holder's name on here, no family name even."

Alyssa peered at it, licking her lips, her skin itching. Everything was so overstimulating, but she was so close to him that she didn't know whether the closeness made her feel better or not. His fur tickled her lightly and, while it felt good, it made her skin itch too, as if tiny sensitivities that she was not aware of were all coming to the surface. But that was not something that she could quite deal with, not at that time.

"What does this mean? I'm sorry...Sandor...I don't understand."

"The default, ah, master, is the holder of the indenture, just this scroll, this piece of paper."

He held it up, backing off from her with a smile, even as Alyssa's heart pounded. What was he doing? Was he going to put his name on it? Yet what the fox did should have been what the doe-taur had imagined all along, for it was so truly Sandor, in every way, that she remembered everything, right then.

He held the scroll up, seeming to give it a long, hard look, his lips twisted slightly in distaste. And then he snapped his fingers, flame leaping from his fingers to the paper, Kastalia near enough to allow him to channel his magic easily and nicely, scorching and torching the scroll.

"Oh!"

Alyssa shuddered and scrambled back, instinctively wary of the flame, her heart pounding. Yet she couldn't drag her eyes from the scroll, how the bright white flames, like the white of Sandor's fur, eating up the paper, a black, scorched line devouring it as it took more and more and more of the scroll.

She tracked it across the paper, seeming to stretch out the seconds that it took to burn up entirely far longer than they actually were, time doing funny things in that moment. But it was burned entirely, the flames fizzling out as the very last scrap of the scroll was eaten away, leaving only the portrait of Alyssa, which had been taken with a manual camera and developed with magic, when she had come of age at eighteen, behind.

No more scroll. No more indenture. There was power to be held in a picture but there was no power to be held in that particular image of Alyssa.

She stared at it, her lower jaw ever so slightly slack.

"Sandor..."

He smiled, ears splaying out in relief as his tail wagged lightly back and forth.

"You're free, Alyssa," he said, simply. "The indenture is gone and there is no way to bring it back, not ever again. "You're free, you're not owned by anyone. You are yourself, you are your own taur. You can do anything and go anywhere that you like in the world, with or without me. Though I hope so very dearly...that you will always be with me."

She stilled, so quiet, not knowing what to think. She'd always known that she was owned by him and his family, but had never known the details of it. She had just not thought that it was important when there was so much good to be had in her relationship with Sandor, that she was happy with him.

Sandor exhaled softly, his shoulders slumping lightly.

"I never thought it would come to this," he confessed. "I never thought I would leave, but I got the indenture before teleporting to you, when I found you again in the field. I had to steal it from my home like a thief...and it was all in her clutter, as if it was truly of no importance at all to her. I've been to many, many places in these thirteen months and now...finally, I can free you. It may not make up for me leaving you, but I hope it sets you in good stead to live out every last second of the rest of your life exactly the way you want to. You should always have been free, Alyssa, and I'm only so sorry that I did not think of this sooner. I needed the magic to get in there, I don't know what my mother might have done with your indenture if she worked out that she still owned you, while it was in her hands and her home..."

He shuddered and shook his head. That had been a lot of words all at once and he was exhausted. He didn't want to explain anymore, even though he knew well enough that Alyssa was owed even more explanations than that. Soon, he would tell her, when all was right with his mind and soul all over again.

"The problem is solved," he said quietly. "The scroll is gone. I never thought of how much of a relief that would be for me, but I can only imagine for you, I hope. I will not leave you again, Alyssa. I will not make this mistake again, not more than these two times already."

That was something that his father had said, long ago. He had called it an idiom. The first two times a person or an anthro did something, they could be forgiven, his father had said. But the third time that someone did something wrong, the same thing, that was crossing a line. Sandor had always remembered that, even though he had not meant to leave Alyssa a second time.

No more, he told himself. It had happened twice, even though he had not planned it. And it would never again happen for a third time.

He would make sure of it.

"You're cold, Alyssa..." His lips pressed together, ears softening, his eyes crinkling at the corners with worry. "Please... Can I warm you up? I don't want you to get cold out here, you've got to look after yourself, let me look after you too."

She didn't know what to make about all of that. It was so much information, all at once, still blinking and reeling in the revelation that she was a free doe-taur, that she would never again have to answer to anyone, even though she knew in her heart that, of course, she wanted to be with Sandor. Of course, she wanted to stay with Sandor, to be his partner, even though she didn't think they could be married in any of the establishments, regardless of the town or the city. There would be an uproar...

She nodded faintly. Sandor immediately took Kastalia between two hands, his fingers sliding comfortably around the wood. He seemed to need it to better channel his magic, which she noticed, even if Alyssa did not comment aloud on it.

I hope he's not too tired, after all... After everything.

For she still did not know, not really, what the fox had gone through. Maybe it had been something really bad for him to not tell her about it, but that would worry her even more than what had been said and done so far, or so she thought. It could not be solved that night, so she did her best to set the twisting curl and churn of worries in her heart aside for a little while.

His fire surrounded her, keeping a safe distance, though it still warmed through her fur to her skin and she sighed, rubbing her bare arms.

"Perhaps I should have brought a cloak with me..."

He smiled and offered her even more of his fiery magic, flames snapping and dancing, as if little shapes and figures were weaving through. Her eyes tried to follow them but she couldn't pick out anything in particular, even as she grappled with everything that was coming to a head that night.

BOOM!

BANG!

"Oh!"

She jumped, heart pounding, but Sandor stilled her, protecting her with his body. But it was not anything for her to fear, not at all, not as a red and then a purple firework exploded above them, shattering brilliant particles out in streaming tendrils. One after the other, more came, some shooting up in a straight line before exploding, others managing a lower altitude as they zig-zagged back and forth, first of all, some squealing. She could hear them from even that distance, but, thankfully, they were far enough from the city and the explosions themselves of the fireworks that Alyssa did not feel the need to shield her ears.

"It's the changing of the year, Alyssa," he said quietly, looking up at the beautiful explosions in the sky. "Everyone's celebrating."

That must have been why everyone was out so late in the Resort City, she thought to herself. That made sense.

She sighed, looking down, the fireworks illuminating her face in bright flashes. She didn't think she had forgiven him yet, even though the weight of not quite forgiving the fox weighed heavily on her. There was so much to go over and go through and, well...she still had the secret of her meeting with the doe-taur, Guinevere, to hold close to her, not knowing who the deer-taur had been or what her true intentions were at all.

Perhaps Guinevere was a spirit, or a manifestation of the worst parts of myself, Alyssa thought to herself, trying to settle down on the cold ground, though the flickering dance of Sandor's fire flanking her on her right side and behind her too helped keep her warm. I don't know. I will have to ask him about it, but I need to think about it first.

If she told Sandor about it, she was sure that the fox would just tell her that it was not right, that everything that Guinevere had said was a lie, but she wanted to think more critically about things too. She wanted to come to her own conclusion about it, with her own space to do so.

Maybe that was a part of being a free doe-taur? She hoped so. She could only try.

They settled down together, the fireworks show lighting up the sky, even though things were not yet healed between them. And Alyssa still had questions to ask...

"I saw her."

Sandor looked at Alyssa, who had not been so slow to notice where he had run off to, that time earlier.

"What?"

"The doe-taur, the one that you ran off with," she said quietly, so much so that he had to strain to hear her. "Who... Who was she? Was she the one that you had to talk with?"

Sandor gulped, hoping that the doe-taur didn't notice.

"I had something to ask her, yes," he confessed, which he felt he was doing more of that night than he had honestly anticipated doing. "I..." He had to tell her something, a little of the truth. "She is an ancient magical being, one that I learned about when I was away from you. She is a healer and proficient, exceedingly so, at healing. I had something to ask her."

He gave her a strange look, turning to face her.

"Alyssa... You do not think that I was with her, do you?"

Alyssa pressed her lips together, worry tightening around her heart again.

"Perhaps... You have not told me, Sandor, so how would I know?"

"I would never betray you," he said, hugging her tightly, the doe-taur fitting securely into his arms, as she always did. "I have never and will never cheat on you, you are the only one that I want, now and forever, I promise."

She relaxed against him, enough for Sandor to find a little of his old, sly side, the cheekier, naughtier side of his psyche that Alyssa had rolled her eyes at so much before. Well, he had rather a lot liked teasing her.

"Besides..." He said, nudging her obviously and winking, making it quite clear, that time, that he was joking. "If the deer was really my lover, that little time would not have been anywhere near enough to mate!"

"Sandor!"

She gave him a half-hearted shove, but he caught the tug of her lips, as if she couldn't believe that he was saying something like that at that time. But she leaned into him a little closer even then and Sandor made sure that he gave his sweet, dear doe-taur every ounce of touch that she craved from him.

"You know my stamina, Alyssa," he said again, one last tiny tease while she scoffed at him under her breath, good-natured and a touch more playful than she had been before. "And it is only for you."

"...Thank you, Sandor."

She appreciated that, letting his warmth seep into her. Somehow, that was even more warming, to her, than his fire was, stoking a deep warmth in her soul and her heart.

Alyssa sighed. She would have to tell him about the doe-taur, but she didn't know an answer to that conundrum, not at that time.

So it was that Sandor transported them, at the end of the night, every firework having petered out and fizzled away, no longer lighting up the sky. He flew them back to the inn using his magic, though he was not as smooth with it at all as he would have liked to be, their path juddery and jerky as they moved through the air. She clung to him, burying her face in his neck, but trusted him all the same, for she knew that his magic would hold them, even if it was not the easiest of rides.

"Don't worry," he said, pressing her in close to his chest, his staff in his other hand, his stomach lurching as he dropped a foot of height that he had not intended to. "I've got you, Alyssa, I've got you tightly. I'm never going to let you down again, I'm never going to leave somewhere like that ever again, I promise."

She exhaled.

"I believe you. Thank you, Sandor."

She had much to thank him for, but they would have to repair something of their relationship still, even if Alyssa privately thought that there would be work to be done on both sides. For her, that would come in telling him about the doe-taur who had visited her, the reason that she had had to flee the inn.

He, of course, did not tell her that the reason that he flew them back to the inn and through the window, though it was hard to wedge it open and Alyssa had had to help him, was because he didn't want to encounter the waiter again. He wasn't sure what he would say to him, whether there would be any pushback from the inn for how he had spoken to the black panther, or if there would be an apology from them. One thing was sure and that was, if they saw Alyssa, they would surely rebuke her still, for they only saw her as his servant and his pet.

He would correct that and come up with better ways of making it clear that she was her own doe-taur, his partner, all of her choosing.

Yet that would have to come at another time, as their holiday in Herring Archipelago was not yet at an end...

And so much was yet to come.

Continued in part four...