Lion Head Mesa dyestain

it was midafternoon by the time that tamar was able to escape.

she ducked into the storeroom she had once shared with @Arsenio. she hoped that he would find her here. him and not another mazoi. by now they all knew that she could be summoned to their alcoves.

tamar closed her eyes. she breathed. she waited.

It was her scent that drew him to follow her. Through the winding caverns and back to the storeroom where they had spoken before. The fragrance of Tamar was just faint enough. He did not know if she had passed through that part of the mesa recently, or if the thoughts of her had filled his mind and created an intoxicating brew upon the air.

As Arsenio entered the room, his features shifted into a smile. Light glimmered from the blue in his eye as he approached her and pressed his nose to her cheek, her throat, and lifted his snout to meet her gaze with his own. She was still the loveliest thing he had seen. His autumn leaf caught spinning in the chill of winter winds.

Tamar, his voice fell huskily into the room. I have thought of you every day. It was not a lie.

arsenio.

she breathed his name, came easily into his arms.

"you are in my mind every hour," she affirmed, tonguetip caught in her smile. her eyes danced.

"tell me how you live in your village. about — your den." shyness flushed her. but she wished to know.

A breath fell from him, sucked from his lungs by her touch, by her voice filling the room. Arsenio smiled to her, pleased to find himself so close to the maid that he could bask in both her scent and her gaze without worry of being seen.

He held her and listened as she asked him to speak of his village. He could only assume that she meant the peak he had been thrown from. But even then, he had spent time in other villages longer than he ever had in the place he’d been born.

I have known many dens in many villages, he rumbled softly to her. On Rhamnus Peak, it was a large stone cave that looked over the sea. To topple from the edge would mean certain death. Or so it was believed. Arsenio had been thrown from that very ledge and had washed ashore days later. Death had not taken him when it so easily could. After this, it was a forest of thieves and rogues. Those who served only themselves. A dense forest with long shadows and bleakness in the air.

The man hadn’t thought of his homes often. He did not like to reminisce on such things.

My favorite was again by the sea. The sands were gold. The skies were blue. The waters were like shimmering jewels. It was the only place I have known peace. And even it was gone.

tamar's mind created pictures as arsenio spoke.

she felt as though she could picture the den over the sea, the steep cliff below.

she leaned against him, seeking his strength and giving her own.

arsenio spoke of a darker place with darker wolves. thieves. the forest pictured in her mind filled with grey mists. it was not a place where he would glow as he did now.

gold. blue. riches. he was a man who belonged to a greater force that tamar could comprehend. she was silent in wonder. "what was it there that brought you peace?"

The man was silent for a moment, mulling her question in his mind.

Arsenio was not certain he could have said what it was about the seaside town that had given him peace. He had been young, and they had been good to him. The Greek had never known the support of others in that same way.

I was only a man there, he answered softly. Nothing more.

The redstone wolf was not certain she would understand, but it was the only adequate answer he could give. The weight of it was too much to speak. Knowing that he was not destined to live a simple life was something that brought him pride. It also made him weary. Arsenio knew that if he could provide for others, for those that mattered to him, the tireless days would be worth the effort.

tamar understood, she understood.

he spoke much under his words. arsenio was a man of many veils.

"there is too much weight in akashingo." there was too much for each of them to carry. "it was simpler when i was home, with my mother." tamar sucked air into her lungs. it hurt so much even now to think of how she had been taken. and how she perhaps might never return.

"but if i had not come here, we would not have met. here," she gestured at the store-room with a little laugh, "here we are only a man. and only a woman." she sought his eyes, believing it to be true, willing him to see the same.

Tamar was right, of course. Arsenio nodded his head, swimming in thoughts and memories of places long gone. The weight of the mesa was immense. He could not help but to imagine how much better it would be when they did not answer to the wants of the Pharaoh or his betrothed. The lady Satsu had only demonstrated a modicum of kindness in the time the Greek had been made her guard. He did not trust her, and he believed the Pharaoh would make her a nasty and spoiled woman.

I am so glad to have met you, even here, he confessed in a rough voice.

The man pressed his nose to her cheek and kissed her sweetly.

This heaviness will not last. Akashingo is not the final place for us, Tamar. It is only what brought us together. He had said it before and he would say it again, until the words echoed from the walls and she could believe in nothing else.

their time was coming to an end, was it not?

at least for the present. she allowed herself to be held by him, kissed by him. he said soft and beautiful words, things to make her breath catch in her throat and her eyes shine with tears. 

"only the beginning." tamar heard the hope in her own voice. she hoped he would hear it also.

Only the beginning, he whispered into her throat.

Arsenio held onto Tamar until the silence had grown heavy in the room, and he knew that he would be missed at his post if he did not hurry back to guard the queen. Still, he wished he could remain there with her for a while longer and have the sweet autumn maid for company. He wished to hear her talk, of her mother, of the sands, even of the leaves she gathered to tend to the wounded.

I will meet with my employer soon and will ask what must be done to fulfill your contract. You will leave as a free woman, and you will owe nothing to these wolves.

Arsenio’s gaze held her own for a while. He smiled to her, warmed by her presence. The redstone guard brushed his nose against her cheek once more and drank in her scent.

I should return to my post…

But you can give me a reason to stay.

ahh i am the WORST they need an updated one soon!

tamar wended herself close.

employer. contract. freedom.

she closed her eyes at the beauty of these sounds. she kissed his mouth, slowly at first and then with an insistent press of her tongue..

they could while away a little time more.

You spelled best a little funny there, friend. ^^

With a kiss, she could keep him forever.

The man pulled back with a smile, a breath of a laugh on his tongue, and a sweet nudge beneath her chin. He kissed her throat, her cheeks, showering her in love so sweet she would step away dusted with sugar.

Arsenio could not have enough, could not find himself close enough to her to be satisfied.

The man pressed himself to the warmth of her frame and hummed softly. The redstone wolf rested his throat upon her head and held her tightly. He breathed a steadying sigh and sang softly to the autumn leaf nestled close to him.

Poio to hroma tis agapis
poios tha mou to vrei
Na ‘nai kokkino san ilios
tha kaiei san fotia
Kitrino san to feggari