Lion Head Mesa Lachtára

He watches me closely. He is trying to find me, who I truly am, the man answered her, stiff in his delivery. Arsenio did not want Tamar to worry for him, or to think that she was in danger by being near him. How was he to go about his days if he could not see her? It was impossible. He wouldn’t do it.

Tamar told him that she was to lay with many Mazoi, but she had not.

Arsenio watched her closely, his chest rising and falling with the steady flow of his breath. He was not certain why she told him this. He had been sincere when he had told her that it did not matter who else she would lay with. It did not matter.

I do not understand, Tamar, he said. I would protect you from any of them. I would kill that man for you. Arsenio felt his heartbeat quicken and he wondered only to himself if she would not agree to it because she would feel indebted to him. That she could not go if it was because he had made it so.

The man’s eyes searched her, pleaded with her.

I would not force you to stay if you were free…