Uncertain Future Ch. 05

"Are you...sniffing me?" Tarok realized Lara had turned around. He swallowed.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," he uttered and pulled his head back up. "Your scent just caught my nose. Did you use perfume?" he said quickly.

"No, not perfume, I can't afford it. It's just honeysuckle oil. I use it on my hair and body as a general medicine. How come you still smell it? I last wear the oil two nights ago."

"See my muzzle? I have better sense of smell than human. I can smell the oil, but only faintly. Very pleasing nevertheless. I remembered long ago, there used to be a scrub of white honeysuckle near the garden. Every summer I enjoy the aroma it gave off, and yet I didn't know the flower's name until now."

"You had a garden?" Lara blurted without thinking.

"It was my mother's. We lived alone in a forest very far up north of here. We grew our own food. She grew everything in there: cabbages, carrots, beets, plenty. I did the hunting, usually elk and deer, sometimes wolves. I skinned them cut the meat. Mother cooked dinner," he said casually. His forehead wrinkled when he tried to remember the details.

"You hunted wolves?" Lara gasped.

"Sure, I just waited for one of them to lunge at me, swung my axe, and they dropped like a sack of dirt. They have pointy teeth, but I have thicker skin. For elks and deer, I just set traps. They're too fast for me."

"You don't use a bow?"

Tarok chuckled. "Look at my fingers, what kind of bow can I hold?" He raised his right hand.

Lara looked and agreed. His fingers were two times her own and definitely not as flexible as human's.

"You looked stunned, Lara. Don't believe me?"

"No, I believe you. It just that, it is difficult to imagine you came from that life to be the leader of a mercenary band."

His face darkened. Lara became worried, she feared she might have said the wrong thing. However, Tarok's features relaxed as he inhaled and spoke.

"I was sixteen when my mother passed away. We live alone, and she was the only person I ever knew. I did many stupid things after that. Eventually, I joined a mercenary band. The one that I'm leading now. Unlike many others, they had no problem having a beast among their rank. We were all the same, the dregs and scums of the earth, the kind you approach with squinted eyes and withhold breath, the kind that you throw money at to solve problems which even the poorest knights would spit at you for even suggesting. I was so pathetic back then. When I first joined them, all I know about fighting was how to swing an axe. I had to learn fast, just to barely survive. My strength and size were the only thing keep me alive for the first year." He closed his eyes momentarily. "Eventually, the leader, Markus, the swine that he was, planned to kill a miller and his family just to rape his daughter. There was no reason for it except he saw her walked by outside the tavern. I had enough. I was sick of wanton murders like this, not to mention his numerous dirty 'side work'. So, I crushed his head against a wall. Afterwards, I challenged the others for leadership. No one contested. After that, the only killings we did were on the battlefield."

"I'm sorry about your mother. I know how hard it is to lose one. I'm sorry that you have to go through it alone."

When Lara's mother died, she had the support of the villagers for a time. It still hurt when she occasionally remembered the weight of her loneliness back then. She shuddered to imagine how Tarok must have felt.

"Do you think of your mother often?" Lara asked after a moment of silent.

"No. Not for a very long time. Not until today." He looked at her. Unreadable emotions swirled behind those human eyes. His mother eyes, Lara instinctively knew.

"You should sleep, Tarok. You need rest for the wound to heal," Lara said.

"You should sleep too, Lara. You've done a lot today."

"I think I'll stay up for a little longer."

Tarok gaze remained on her for a few seconds more before he tipped his head back and closed his eyes. Minutes later he was snoring peacefully.

Thanks to the much-needed sleep, Tarok's face was serene and calm. Strands of his hair fluttered slightly in the light breezes, swirling above the bushy browns. Without the pronounced muzzle and the oval fluffy ears, Lara reckoned he would look mostly human, maybe even a handsome one.

Handsome?

Lara shook her head, somehow blushing at the strange thought.

The only sounds surrounded them were the crackling of the fire and the occasional rustling of leaves. No howling wolves so far. Lara threw some more twigs into the fire and stoked it with a long stick. The roaring fire should last until morning.

Despite feeling warmer than before, Lara's hands, which rested on her lap, was still cold. She thought of hugging herself but doubted it will be much help. No, she needed something warmer. Lara eyed longingly the giant hand that had been covering her midriff and providing warmth to her belly. She looked up. Tarok was definitely soundly asleep.

Lara extended her arms and wrapped her hands around Tarok's warm fingers, being careful as not to wake him. He did not. She decided to keep them like this for a while and would retract her hands later. He wouldn't know.

Lara relaxed her body. The nervousness when she first sat with Tarok had dissipated and replaced with comfortable doziness. Lara noticed, despite being in the middle of a forest at night, she felt safe, and warm.

Lara probably would have realized one more thing, that this was the first time she'd slept together with anyone beside her mother, but she didn't. Her eyelids grew heavy, and in the length of an owl hooting, she was asleep.

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