Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 19:39:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Corrinne S Subject: Dark Wishes Installment37: Part 5 Chapter 10 This is the on-going sequel to `Dark Wishes' both copyrighted under Nifty and International Common Law. It's a love story so if you're looking for something else, choose another story. While it's illegal for anyone to read this type of story in some places, this is a `G' rated work because anything that happens is in your own mind. Unspoken Wishes M.C. Gordon Part Five: Markel Chapter Ten Efren lay on a large rock by the side of a pool at the bottom of a waterfall, his nude body absorbing the warm rays of the afternoon sun. He had spent his afternoons thus for the past two weeks, Markel his only companion. His skin was acquiring a golden tone and the darkness around his eyes was slowly fading. He glanced toward the narrow waterfall where Markel was swimming. He loved his friend dearly but still felt a pang of envy as he watched Markel step from beneath the waterfall. More fair of complexion than Efren, as are most whose hair is the red of sunset, Markel avoided direct sunlight when possible and swam in the shadows of the tall cliffs that circled half round the pool. As he emerged from the waterfall he shook his head to release excess water from his hair. From where Efren lay watching, the droplets of water thrown out were caught by the sun and seemed to glisten and form a form a rainbow of colors. "How are you feeling?" Markel asked as he joined Efren on the rock, water dripping from his also nude body. "I feel much better than I ever remember," Efren replied. "You should have told us that the journey was tiring," Markel scolded, not for the first time. "Tynan was beside himself with worry." "I know," Efren said, "and I am truly sorry I did not. But I was afraid I would be left behind in Aolane." "You are not telling the entire truth, I think," Markel replied. Tears formed in Efren's eyes before he confessed, "I was afraid, deep in my heart, that Tynan would reject me as his lover if he knew I was weak." "Illness is not weakness," Markel said. "And now your health is returning, Narcia said so this morning." Efren bit his bottom lip and his brow furrowed before he replied, "Only so long as I keep at hand the herbal brews she gave me." "For which I will be grateful that our lords return soon," Markel said. "The cottage we share with Narcia smells too much of herbs and ladies flowers. Lord Tynan will need to stuff his nose against the aroma else he will think you have breasts when he makes love to you." "Will not!" "Will!" The two began to tussle in a game of pin and giggle until Efren began to cough. Markel rushed to their ponies and took one of Narcia's brews from Efren's pack. Running quickly to his friend he leaned Efren against his chest and held the small vial to his lips. "I am sorry," Markel said when the coughing attack passed and Efren was breathing easily. "The fault was mine." "There is no fault," Efren replied. "I am supposed to increase my strength. I should have signaled you to stop before I lost my breath." They were watched from a distance by two separate sets of eyes, one wild with hunger and crazed by madness from an earlier fight with one of its own kind. It frothed at the mouth and charged toward the two unsuspecting young men, huge tusks intent on death. The other, deep blue eyes guarding that which belonged to a Qell, sprang into action. Swifter than any eye could follow it lunged toward the invader, the tremendous power of his back legs propelling him forward with blinding speed. His back and front legs leapfrogged each other as he covered the distance between himself and the wild boar. Letting forth an ear piercing cry he pounced on the boar, bringing it down in one quick movement. Saber sharp teeth sank deep into the boar's carotid artery as claws plunged into the soft belly. The skirmish was short, the end predetermined. With a snuffle the white feline batted the dead boar aside and disappeared into a stand of birch trees, his coloring masking his appearance. The humans were safe and he had no further interest in the beast for he had already fed. "We did not see what killed it," Markel told Bidwell later as he sat eating his share of spit-roasted boar with Efren, Narcia, and the elder's family. "We heard a fearsome cry and saw the underbrush tremble. By the time I had pulled on my breeches found my knife, the boar was dead and the other creature gone." "I have heard word of a large wild cat which roams here of late," Bidwell said. "Perhaps that beast killed this one." "And left the kill behind? Why would it do that?" Efren asked. "Because the white tiger and I reached an understanding one night during a snowstorm," Tynan said behind them, and Efren rose to cast himself into his lover's arms. "You have added meat to your frame," Tynan announced as his arms circled his young love. "I hesitated to leave you but now see that it was a wise decision." The weeks had been long for Tynan and Iashain as they traveled through their western domain, separated from the young men they had recently taken as their lovers. But Narcia had announced that Efren's heart and lungs were weak and he could journey no further until his health improved. Iashain had reluctantly asked Markel to remain with Efren. Elder Bidwell insisted that the Qell chose from among the swiftest and strongest of the small Lippiz herd the village kept to speed them on their travel of discovery while Efren rested and recovered. Able to travel swiftly, the Qell managed to traverse most of the western kingdom in two short months. They were greatly relieved by what they found for there were small pockets of villages dedicated to the ancient crafts. Farmers, herders, smithies, weavers, and potters were found. One village, directly on the edge of Lake Sorrow, boasted divers who found shell creatures containing pearls which they strung into necklaces and bracelets. One village of smithies worked a soft golden-red stone into works of art. The Qell spread Trelaine's gold coins freely through the villages, even managing to convince the divers to work with the goldsmiths and others they had found who dug emeralds, diamonds, sapphires, and rubies from the hillsides. Trelaine's memory told them that women, and not a few men, prized things made of gold and jewels. This was yet another avenue of trade to be explored. . . . "My heart missed you," Iashain told Markel that night as he held him in his arms. "Only your heart?" Markel asked, his green eyes glistening in the light from Narcia's fireplace. "You know it was not my heart alone," Iashain replied as he drew Markel into a kiss that promised to last long past dawn. "You need not be afraid to love me," Efren was saying to Tynan at the same time. "Narcia has given me potions to take if I begin to feel ill. Now I feel no illness at all, only the desire to have you show your love for me." Tynan took Efren into his arms and gently showed him the love a Qell can have for a mortal man, wishing and yet not wishing that Efren would be with him for countless years. When he had accomplished what he wanted the mighty Qell, summoned by the forest grandmothers, drifted into peaceful sleep with his lover's head nestled on his shoulder, his own dark hair serving as a blanket. To be continued. Comments to: quasito_cat@hotmail.com or quasito_cat@yahoo.com