The Solitary Arrow Ch. 05
She kissed his cheek. "I did." She said. "You just failed to heed it." She stood up and picked up the cloth, and carried it into the common room. Harlen stood back up and followed her after lifting his trousers. She glanced back over her shoulder at him, her golden eyes sparkling. "And while I do that, I am no lady, either." She said, giving him a very licentious grin.
They went into his small workshop and deposited the bolt of cloth. She looked about and then asked. "Whence do you wash your clothing?" She asked.
"There is a wash tub behind the house." Harlen said, as he looked over the cloth and was apparently sizing up what he wished to do with it. Hyandai grabbed up her doeskin clothes and headed toward the door to the bathing room. It was several minutes before he registered what she had just done, Then he bolted for the rear door like a man on fire.
When he barreled out into the small yard behind the house, she was indeed washing her new garments, and poor Trevir was standing, too stunned to move near the back door. She was not wearing any other garments, and from here, the young man had just received his first comprehensive lesson in female anatomy. Harlen grabbed the unfortunate youth and pulled him back into the house. "It's not polite to stare at people, Trev." Harlen said, trying not to laugh. The youth's expression was one of combined shock and bliss. Now, for certain, the lad would be fantasizing about Hyandai in the late watches of the night. Harlen doubted that he would ever fantasize about much else for all his days.
Trevir blinked a few times, then said. "I didn't mean to, Harlen, honest." He said. I was fetching some firewood, and refilling the tub prior to going home for the night." He explained in a rush of words. "I go out the door to get the last few bits of wood, and there's Miss Hyandai, starkers!" His eyes widened again at the vivid memory. "I tried to just go about my business, but then she ups and bends double right there, showing me all her delicate bits."
His face drifted back toward that blissful shock again, and Harlen was certain he had lost him. "Miss Hyandai does tend to wear fewer clothes than you or I, Trevir, so please to be keeping it between us." He instructed. "I doubt, very seriously, that this will be the last time you see her in her birthday suit. I ask that you maintain your head about you, though. She is a lady and her lacking clothes does not change that. You will refrain from gawking next time. Else, I may have to find a new boy."
"Please, no, sir." He said, the fear of being terminated shocking him out of his reverie. "I'll not stare again." He added. "I'll even try to avert my eyes, sir." His face was panicked.
Harlen relented. "I believe you, young Trevir." Harlen said. He went into the tannery room and came back out with a small bottle with a cork in the top. "Now, take this oil to Miss Hyandai and tell her to rub it into the leather of her clothes when she is done washing them, to keep the leather supple." He said, deciding to let the lad prove his professionalism.
He watched from the doorway as Trevir tried to navigate the short way from the back door to the wash basin, where Hyandai was nearly done with her scrubbing, with his eyes squeezed tightly shut. This almost caused Harlen to collapse in a fit of laughter as she turned on the child and then smiled widely. She took the bottle from him and then kissed him on the cheek again, while his eyes remained painfully squeezed shut. He turned and opened them, and ran back for the house. He slammed the door behind himself and said. "I didn't so much as look at her, sir!" In a rush of fast syllables. "I really, honestly didn't."
Harlen was wiping tears from his eyes as he tried to stifle his laughter. "I know, son, I saw you." He said. "Tell me, what did she say to you?"
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."
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