EXCERPT Luanna hesitated. “I’m not good at this, you’re the first person I’ve ever
been in love with.” She took a moment, and Luna gladly let her, knowing her
lover had more to say.
“Ashrine-te is a form of endearment, it’s not used between friends or
even just causal lovers, some scholars choose to translate it as soul mate, but
that’s a simplification.”
“Beautiful.” Luna said sincerely. “Continue.”
Instead Luanna asked a question. “Do you really love me?”
“Always and forever, I’ll never forget you if I live a millennium.” Luna
answered instantly and with deep feeling.
“Do you trust me?”
Luna looked at her steadily for a moment. “Yes, but,” She began.
“No,” Luanna interrupted. “Do you trust me?”
“Implicitly.”
“Then drink.”
Luna only waited a moment, then she tilted her head back and drained the
wine. Luanna slid forward and took the empty cup; she swept a hand out to
indicate the bed.
“Please sit darling.” She asked.
Luna sat. She reached out and fondled one of the neatly wrapped packages;
let her hand skim over the pile of towels, Luanna watched her without saying
anything as she untied the package, she didn’t open it.
“Are these gifts?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Luanna replied evasively. “They are tools I
need to give you a gift.”
“Can I open it?” Luna asked quietly.
Luanna nodded, looking pensive. The package, one of two opened to reveal
several items rolled securely into a leather strip with rawhide thongs attached
to make it an Amazon style carrying hide.
The items glinted in the soft lamp-light: the most innocuous a small
wash-leather bag capable of holding anything drawstrings threaded through the
rawhide strap, a pair of long thin and deathly sharp knives with straight
blades, each sharp only on one side; most puzzling, a piece of pig iron, nothing
more than a foot long piece of metal with a blunt head and thick rawhide wrapped
around and tied in place to make a handle.
Luanna let her examine the objects silently for a moment, then she
reached down and as her lover watched, picked up the last puzzling object and
nestled its metal end deeply in the ember filled brazier; leaving the insulating
leather handle jutting out over the brazier’s rim.
Luna sucked in a sharp breath; glance going from the now heating metal to
her lover’s anxious face. “You Amazons do so love ritual pain, don’t you?”
“How do you know it’s meant for you?” Luanna asked.
“Because you’re getting me drunk to dull the pain; so I won’t feel it as
acutely.”
“Even drunk you’re quick Ashrine-te.” Luanna admitted apprehensively, and
appreciatively.
“I’m not drunk darling, just a little tipsy, I only had one glass of wine
with dinner.” The elf spoke softly. “Now tell me, Ashrine-te is the entire point
to see how much pain I’ll endure to prove my love for you? Because if it is I’ll
take as much as you want to give me.”
“No, no.” Luanna protested, sitting beside the elf, shifting the hilt of
her saber out of her ribs with an absent practiced shove. “The pain is only
incidental my love, if I could do it painlessly I would.”
“Do what? and don’t evade.”
“Ashrine is a thing rarely encountered, most go their whole lives without
meeting theirs; a ritual mark is often made to show the world Ashrine-che’s love
for Ashrine-te.”
“A brand.” Luna stated.
“Yes a brand, a mark to identify our love for each other; it is an
ancient and honored ritual.” She hesitated, then continued. “It is not actually
required, but you are an outsider, and I am the daughter of a tribal chieftain,
the mark would make it more acceptable, or else someone might take offense and
challenge me to a dual over our love.”
“Where?”
She understood implicitly, “on the inner thigh.” Luanna answered softly,
stroking the appropriate place.
“And I do this to you as well?”
“You are so very bright my love, one of the many thing’s I love about
you; but yes, it’s one of the reasons I can’t get you roaringly drunk.”
“I only have one more question beloved, and then you can tell me how to
proceed.”
Luanna smiled radiantly. “Ask anything.”
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Children`s Fiction
Erotica Fiction
