Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 The Solitary Arrow by Mack the Knife

   Part Five

   Harlen and Hyandai walked the narrow lane toward the village.  The road
was now paved with crushed gravel, rather than the plain dirt ruts that
marked the country road.  She watched about them with wide eyes, taking in
the village as the buildings grew closer together.  Human homes were very
different from the flets of her people, sitting high in the bowers of the
mighty ornthalion trees.  They seemed comfortable, though, she thought, and
quite practical for the environment they were set in.

   Most of the buildings were of a half-timber design, that is, they had
frames made up of large wooden timbers that formed interesting `skeletons'
that were then filled in with rocks and a form of plaster to make them into
a solid unbroken wall.  The timbers were often then painted in brown or
black, and the stucco painted a bright pastel color.  It made the village
at once cohesive and colorful.  The roofs were crafted of either tarred
thatch, which Hyandai took to be terribly flammable, or of baked ceramic
tiles, which overlapped to form a solid roof.

   Most of the homes had small gardens near them, full of small crops of
vegetables and other small plants, including spices, especially mint, which
perfumed the air with a subtle scent.  Her brother had warned her that
human cities were malodorous places with lots of disease, but she did not
perceive this in the least.  This place was spacious, with quite a lot of
green space, many trees, some very old-looking and tall.  They would not
have been shamed by any but the very largest growing in any elven
community. She did not even detect the slightest taint of toilet stench,
either, which she had especially braced for.

   As they neared the main center of the village, they came to a gate set
in a long wall that seemed to surround this central area.  Two men wearing
gold and violet livery stood beside the gate on either side.  Their chest
bore a symbol that looked like a dragon, standing on its hind legs, with
flame leaping from its maw.  When they saw her, they snapped to attention
like they had been prodded with a spear point in the behind.  As they
approached, they held their long spears at rest, sticking out from them at
about a fourty-five degree angle, but when they prepared to pass, the
guards brought them straight up, and slapped their heels together.  The
couple wondered at this sudden display of deference.

   "What goes, honorable soldier of the duke?" Harlen said, giving a small
bow to the trooper on the left.

   The soldier turned to face him, formally.  "We simply salute the lady,
good sir." He said, smiling toward Hyandai.  Then he said very quietly. 
"We didn't actually believe that there was an elf in the village, Harlen.
By the One, you're a lucky bastard!"

   Harlen smiled and said.  "I agree, Marell, very much." He patted the
soldier, an old friend, on the arm.  "Carry on then, trooper." He said. 
Marell snapped back to attention.

   Hyandai looked at him as they crossed into the village.  "They were
acting thus at my behest?" She asked quietly, leaning toward him.

   "So it would seem." Harlen said, grinning.  "I told you the people would
like you."

   As they entered the core of the village, people started to be about,
almost everyone comes into the center of town during the market, and today
was no exception.  She gasped as she beheld her first knot of a couple of
dozen people, standing around haggling over a newly-arrived load of cloth.
As the two approached, almost half of them turned to watch, and most of
them had mouths agape in astonishment.  Words emerged from the crowd, like
`Elven lady', `So pretty', and `So small.' Hyandai nodded toward the crowd
as they passed near, and several of the people gave small waves or nodded
in return.

   The eyes of the crowd followed them around the corner, and she said. 
"My word, they are shocked, are they not?"

   Harlen chuckled.  "Now you know why I gaped at you when we first met."
He stroked the hand that was thrust through his arm.  "You are incredibly
lovely, and also an elf.  Both things warrant you being stared at."

   She smiled at him.  "You are very sweet, Harlen." She said, and kissed
his cheek.  "Your flattery makes me feel special." They began to walk
again. As they rounded the corner into another open area, she gasped in
delight.  "Oh, Harlen, look at the children!" She nearly squealed.  Her
face was full of joy and eagerness.  A group of village children, almost
twenty strong was playing a game involving a beanbag and running and
screaming, and quite a lot of laughing.  "So many children." She murmured.
"Humans are blessed, Harlen, no matter what my folk say."

   Harlen said.  "Watch yourself, Hyandai." He warned with a smile on his
face.  Suddenly, the children saw her and with a surge, and they surrounded
the two.  All of them were touching her arms and hair, and ears.  She
grinned widely, unable to contain her happiness at all these charming
children, grubby with play, wishing to touch her hands and hair.  Cries of
`pretty elf' and `noble lady.' moved through the little crowd of kids.  The
two were obliged to stop walking while Hyandai tried to greet each of them
in elven, causing a wave of giggles and laughter to move through the crowd.
Finally, he managed to shoo them away, and she watched them longingly as
they took off to begin their game again.

   A tear rolled down each cheek and she was laughing.  "Hyandai, are you
okay?" Harlen asked.

   "I am well." She said.  "Children are so dear, and you have so many
here." She said, wiping under her eyes.  Then she cast a rather odd look at
Harlen.  "Do you humans spend so much time in your beds, or how do you
explain the number of children about?"

   Onward they went, and came to the edge of the market.  It was a large
open square, and there were dozens of colorful tents and wagons about it.
Hyandai flinched back from the burst of ambient noise that came from the
crowd of many hundreds of people.  "Harlen, I think I cannot go there.  I
have never seen so many folk in one place in my days." She said, her eyes
nervous.  "I must grow used to it first." She concluded.

   Harlen nodded, and they turned to the right, skirting the edge of the
crowd, and Harlen helped her up a small set of stairs into a building where
a wooden boar's head with a arrow through it hung over the door.  They went
in and instantly the pungent scent of beer hit her nose, causing it to
wrinkle.  "An ale house?" She asked.

   "Yes." Harlen said.  "My favorite place to drink, and dine, when I have
the money and don't feel like cooking."

   A very old man came from beyond a door and walked behind the counter. 
"Well, Harlen, I see you made it..."He had finally taken a good look at the
newcomers in his tavern.  "By the One." He said, walking out from behind
the counter.  "Loskenaur." He said, and knelt before Hyandai, bowing low
and staying that way.

   Hyandai looked confused for a moment.  "You know my sister?" She asked.

   The man looked up.  "Sister?" He rose from the floor.  "Loskenaur is you
sister?  You look just like her."

   She giggled.  "I have been told that is so." She said, trying to
straighten her face.  "But I am Hyandai, her younger sister."

   Harlen said.  "This is Tammer.  He was my mentor in learning the arts of
the wood." He pointed to the old man.

   Again Hyandai looked excited.  "Tammer!  I have heard that name.  My
sister oft spoke your name in our tales to one another." Then she gasped.
"You were her vernoyen.  I am very pleased to meet you."

   The old man looked at Harlen a moment, then back at Hyandai.  "Yes, I
was." He said with pride.  "For a year and a day, I am sure I was the
happiest man in the land." He gave Hyandai a sly look.  "Your sister was a
wondrous lady."

   She nodded.  "She is very well thought of." She said seriously.  "I
certainly think highly of her, as well."

   Harlen watched all this with some measure of confusion on his face. 
"You Harlen, you truant," Tammer said to him, "I don't know what to tell
you, son.  Best to just be good to this lady, else I will wager I can still
set you on your arse!"

   The hunter smiled.  "I have every intent on treating her like a Goddess,
as best I can." He said, stroking her hand.

   Tammer grunted and turned about.  "You two hungry?" He asked, pointing
at two stools in the empty tavern.  "I've good stew cooked." He said as
they sat.  He came back to the table with a large mug of beer, which he sat
before Harlen.  He went back behind the bar and rummaged about before
coming up with a bottle of wine, and filled a finely fluted glass with it.
This he set gently before Hyandai, causing Harlen to raise an eyebrow. 
"You don't expect the lady to drink that wolf piss we call beer, do you?"
He said, giving Harlen a hearty slap on the back.  "Ladies like her have
refined tastes."

   He nodded.  "I know she does." Soon, though they were eating the very
good stew, as promised.  And old Tammer was humming happily about the bar.

   "Your sister and Tammer?" Harlen asked her quietly over their stew.

   Hyandai nodded to him.  "Yes, she visited this land much in those days,
and she knew him, in particular, very well." She said, winking.  "She said
he was large, and strong, and skilled in wood lore, and that he made her
very, very excited with only his merest touch." She raised her eyebrows at
Harlen, and smiled slightly.

   He sat back with wide eyes.  "Oh." And looked back over at Tammer, who
was not a small man, even at his advanced age.  "It seems us hunters have
one good thing going for us, then, we find elven ladies."

   She nodded.  "Well, you certainly look in the right place to find us."
She agreed.  "And you also have the attributes that might well cause us to
take pause to admire you." She said, grabbing his arm with her free hand
and squeezing his large muscles.

   Harlen chuckled.  "He talks much of his `glory days' and I do recall a
tale or two of elven lasses, but I always thought he was stretching the
truth.

   She shook her head.  "Not in the least." She said.  "My sister has told
me many tales of him, actually, and some of them quite, well, descriptive."

   They finished their meal and Harlen paid for the food and drink despite
Tammer's protests.  As they prepared to leave.  Hyandai spoke.  "When I
prepared to be traveling in this region, Tammer, my sister bade me pass on
a message, should I see you." She said, almost formally.

   "Oh?  What's that?" He said, a look of confusion on his lined face.

   She reached up with both arms and grabbed Tammer's head and pulled him
down to where she gave him a very wet, very passionate kiss, her whole body
pressed to him and she moved against his chest and lower body with wanton
energy.  Her hands wound through his hair and knotted into it, clutching
him.  When she pulled away, she gasped a bit for air and said.  "She said
you would understand the meaning." She stepped back, and put her hand back
into Harlen's.

   Tammer leaned on a table for a moment, then said.  "Let her know that
the message was well received, and that I miss her too." He said, almost
panting.  He chuckled a moment, then said to Harlen.  "I'm glad she didn't
word the message more strongly, else I might need a healer." He bowed to
her and then went about his preparations for the after market crowd. 
Though for the moment they lingered, he kept casting short glances at
Hyandai, as if to refresh him memory of something half-forgotten.

   The couple walked out of the tavern and back into the streets, folk
watched them as they walked and there were a couple of pedestrian
collisions that could be attributed to Hyandai's beauty.  "Did your sister
really give you that message?" Harlen asked, smiling.

   "No.  But I thought she should have." She giggled.  "She always said he
was the finest kisser she had ever known." Her eyes flicked around the
village, watching all the people, and the tents, and booths, and the
children, especially the children.

   "And is he?" Harlen asked.  "The finest kisser, that is."

   Hyandai patted his shoulder.  "Should you wish to know, then kiss him
yourself." She said, and smiled distantly.  "A lady does not kiss and tell
of it." She kissed Harlen on the cheek.

   "But your sister did so." Harlen said, smiling at her.

   She looked at Harlen and gave a dismissive gesture with her free hand.
"My sister is no lady." She said.  And then looked forward with a
self-satisfied smile.

   They went about for a while, and came to several stalls that were not in
the main press of the crowd.  Harlen bought a large bolt of fine green
cloth from one vendor, saying that "I will make you a proper dress, per
your specifications." They then bought, and ate, some large sweetrolls from
one vendor, who tried to refuse their money.

   Harlen laughed as they licked their fingers of the sugary syrup.  "You
could probably walk away with half the market for free if you wished."

   Hyandai looked around.  "I am pleasantly surprised with the kind welcome
your people are giving me, Harlen." She said.  "The leaders of my people
say that humans are bitter at our parting, yet it seems quite the opposite
is true."

   "At first, it probably was true." He said.  "But more of a bitterness
because of something dear being taken away, rather than real hostility." He
touched her hand.  "I can comprehend that thought." He said, his face now
serious.

   She nodded.  "I suppose I do, as well." She said.  Then she kissed him,
hard and fully, and with enough show for several men nearby to congratulate
him, and a couple of women.  When she pulled away, it was Harlen's turn to
gasped for air.

   "What was that for?" He asked, trying to regain his balance.

   She looked at him with eyes tilted up.  "Practice." She said, then
started toward Harlen's home.

   Harlen jogged to catch up with her and she took his arm again.  They
finished the walk and entered his home.  The house was quiet and cool after
the crowd and warmth of the day.  As soon as the door was shut, Hyandai
shed her dress, and stepped out of the pile of cloth on the floor.  Harlen
gulped as he took in her long form, again nude before him.

   "Um.  You certainly like to do that quickly." He said, appreciatively.

   She picked up the dress.  "You humans wear too many clothes." She said.
"This dress, lovely as it is, is too confining." She looked at Harlen.  "I
should help you disrobe, as well." She said, reaching out and unfastening
his belt.  His arms were occupied with the cloth bundle and he could not
stop her.

   She knelt before him, and pulled his pants down to the tops of his
boots. "I think you felt confined, as well." She said, running her slender
fingers up his thighs and taking hold at his root.  She leaned in and took
him into her mouth, very straightforward and began to gently suck.  Harlen
fell back against the wall, and held his breath.

   "I thought you said you would do that whenever I wish?" He gasped.  His
rod stiffened within seconds, and he felt her teeth begin dragging on his
flesh.

   She pulled her mouth off his manhood, and smiled up at him.  "You do
wish it, do you not?" She said.

   "Well, now I do." He said, his voice laced with mock exasperation.

   "Then still your tongue, man of mine.  And leave me to my task." She
said, and began to take him in again.  She stretched her neck and made a
swallowing motion with tongue and throat.  More of him slipped down than
before, leaving only a couple of inches outside her lips.  She swallowed
again, and took him to his base.  With a long slow motion, she pulled back
off of him, and licked the head.  She then forced herself back down, taking
him deeply, then back out.  Now she was doing this repeatedly, and his
heart raced as she took him completely into her with each forward move.

   His legs stiffened and he dropped the bolt of cloth onto the little
bench.  She felt his organ twitch in her mouth and felt his seed pour over
her tongue.  Swallowing hard with her tongue she maintained pace as it
flowed forth, and kept up the motion with her head and lips.  Finally, the
last of it was gone and she slowed, then stopped.  Harlen slid down the
wall to sit on the floor.  "You should warn me when you're going to do
that." He said.  "It takes a bit of getting used to, m'lady."

   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.  He brushed her breast
with one outstretched hand and sent both himself and Hyandai leaping a good
three feet into the air.  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
mean to touch her breast, 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 ten." 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 now 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."

   "I do not believe that." Harlen said, turning from her.  "I don't think
that you would be found wanting when measured against any rule."

   She rose from her seat, and walked to him.  She put her small hand on
his shoulder and turned him back toward her.  "Explain something for me,
Harlen." She said, her face set.  "If you think I am lovely against any
compare, then why, after almost a week of traveling with Eleean, to whom I
was betrothed and prepared to give myself freely, I was still a maiden when
the orc took me?" She tilted her head to the side.  "Do you find me prudish
and unwarm?"

   Harlen shook his head.  "No." He said.  "You are far from unwarm."

   "Did you not wonder why I took you to my side that very first night?"
She asked, her head tilting the other direction.  "Do you think yourself
quite so alluring?"

   He looked down.  "No." He was losing this argument and it was one he
greatly wished to not loose.

   "How many elven girls do you think reach the age of fifty-nine with
their maidenhood still within them?" She said, raising his face with her
hand, forcing him to meet her golden orbs.

   "I don't know." He said, but feared she knew.

   Her eyes hardened to orbs of cast bronze.  "We elven folk are not many,
and girls my age, fewer still.  I know each of them, and I know I was the
only one." She said.  "As youths, we elven folk have much time to explore
their passions with one another, since we have a bit more than the eight
years given humans, we have almost thirty." She smiled bitterly.  "Rare,
indeed, is the lass who manages to escape those years without having some
lover or several to her bed." She turned and spun into the room,
pirouetting prettily with her arms out and her head tilted back.  "Yet, I,
the beautiful and cold maiden, Hyandai, was so lovely and frigid that no
youth approached me, for fear of having his heart frozen, I suppose." She
laughed, and it was not the warm laughter Harlen loved, but a cold laugh,
with years of bitterness and self-disgust in it.  Her spinning ceased and
she railed at him, bending at the waist and spitting the words.  "No,
Harlen.  I am no beautiful maiden, I am a homely elven whore, who has been
orc-fucked and has been throwing herself at a man, and will have to leave
him before he discovers his own mistake in taking her, so she can avoid the
look of disgust that he will give her when he does so."

   He grabbed her arm, and pulled her to him.  "You think you can ever
disgust me?" He said.  She tried to escape his grip, but the strength she
admired in him thwarted her.  "You think I will suddenly find you
unappealing?" His strong hands pressed her back, making her short of
breath. She grunted like a caught beast, and her arms flailed to be loosed.
"No.  Hyandai.  I have earned the right to have my say with you." He said,
turning and pinning her to the wall.  He stepped back and held her there
with his hands upon her shoulders.  Her golden eyes were feral and seemed
almost go glow with a red inner light.  "Were you a homely human lass, who
had shown the bravery and loyalty you have.  Still, I would covet you." He
looked down at her.  "You think yourself a whore for desiring me?" He
yelled.  "Are the girls who have taken me to their beds whores as well? 
They've not been many, but I promise you, they were no mere whores, they
were good women, and worthy of my affection and I of theirs." He let her
go, and she slumped against the wall, ugly blue marks showing where his
hands had been.  "And you are, as well, perhaps moreso."

   She was crying now, her head hanging down and tears falling to the
floor. "I do not mean to insult you or girls you have known."

   He turned again.  "But you have." Harlen said.  "You have called my own
judgement into doubt, charged with the heinous effrontery of desiring you."
He took her hand.  "You hold being orc-raped against yourself?" He said. 
"That is most unfair, blame me instead, for my inability to protect you
from the orcs, as was my duty at that point.  Hate me for being too
unskilled to defeat them, and detest me for not escaping the bonds quickly
enough to keep him from opening you."

   She shook her head.  "They were matters beyond your control." She said.

   "As they were to you." He pointed.  "No, Hyandai, I refuse to accept you
as anything less than the wonderful and kind, and, yes, beautiful lady that
you are." He pressed against her again, and kissed her, roughly and with
much passion.  "You will not hide behind a wall of words." Harlen said,
kissing her neck and shoulder.  "I will have you, you have promised that."
He said.  "Unless you wish to break your word."

   She put her hand on the back of his head and entwined her fingers into
his hair.  "No, I have no plans of breaking any promise to you." She smiled
to him.  "I truly wish you to be my first lover."

   He still had some anger in his eyes.  "Are you just settling for the
human, because he will have you, or do you desire me?"

   She kissed his neck.  "I desire you." She said.

   "I am not just some sufficient standby?" He asked.

   Her eyes softened.  "No.  I desire you, Harlen of Morrovale.  For being
my hero, for being handsome, and for being good to me."

   "Then you would have me to you?" He said, then took her flesh between
his teeth, causing her to gasp and then moan as he let it slip loose,
lightly marked by his sharp canines.

   She moved her hands down his chest and over his stomach, then around to
his rump, then pulled his pelvis into hers.  "I would have you to me,
fullwilling, and with gladness throughout my body." She said, grinding her
pelvis against his.  The lust in her golden eyes was flaring up.  "I would
have you to me now." She said.  "I deem I am recovered enough, were you to
be gentle." She said, her voice lower now, and her eyes full of promise.

   Harlen stooped and lifted her.  He carried her from the bathing room and
up the stairs to his bed.  He laid her gently upon it.  She sat up and
watched him remove his boots.  "You are certain of this, Hyandai?" He
asked.

   She nodded, smiling, and her eyes were beginning to take on a deeper
hue, almost the bronze color they had when she had been angry.  "I am
certain.  Though it may injure me a little.  I judge that the worth shall
far outweigh the cost."

   She knelt upon the bed, and helped him remove his shirt, then unfastened
his belt.  She slid off the bed and pulled down his trousers.  As she came
back up from the floor, she started to lean toward his manhood with her
face.  Harlen restrained her.  "No, my angel, none of that." He gave her
his uneven smile.  "I would have the energy to withstand my pleasure for a
few moments longer, if you will."

   She smiled and let him draw her up to her feet.  His manhood was rising
as he pressed her back to the bed, and she fell upon the covers.  He
brought his knees up between her long, shapely legs and then used his hands
on her waist to lift her from his crouch and move her to the middle of the
large, soft bed.  Then he moved forward and lowered his head.

   She watched in fascination as he kissed her stomach, then began kissing
his way lower, down to her mound, then over her tiny clitoris.  She gasped,
and her back arched as he dragged his tongue over the tiny button.  He
moved lower still, tickling her swelling labia, then sliding his tongue
into her.  The cinnamon taste he had from her skin was stronger now, and he
lapped at it hungrily.  Her body twitched slightly at the touch, and she
began to draw air in short gasps.  He drove his tongue as deeply into her
as he could manage, spreading it to its full width as he did so.  She let
out a loud groan, and grabbed his hair with both hands, lifting her head
and shoulders from the bed.  He let his hair take the weight of her upper
body, and his mouth and tongue drove a little deeper into her.  He moved up
a little, and began sucking and licking over the soft hood her clitoris
wore, pushing it back then gently taking the nub between his lips.

   Hyandai screamed at that touch, and her fingernails became talons in his
hair, he felt them break skin, but only slightly, as she pulled his hair.
Elven words were flowing from her, almost a litany.  She gave out with a
shuddering exhalation, then sucked air in with a great gasp.  Her heels
drove into his back, pushing him down harder against her mound, and he
began suckling on her clitoris in earnest.

   She started to tense her legs, holding him down and her pelvis began to
move up and down, dragging his teeth across her hooded button and the folds
of her labia.  She was grunting softly now, almost like an animal, Harlen
noted.  Then she started whimpering, as her climax built within her.  He
had never made a woman come this way, but he decided that he would try this
time.  Her movements became smaller, quicker, and tenser.  Then, suddenly,
she let forth a loud scream.  An elven word came out with it and Harlen
heard his name after it.  She then relaxed completely, her hands falling
from his head, and her legs back to the bed.  She let her shoulders and
head fall back onto the covers and lay there gasping for air, her entire
body was hot, he felt, and was richly colored a rosy hue, that was slowly
fading.  He also noted the smell of cinnamon strongly in the air, and a
sheen of fine sweat on her flawless skin.

   He kissed up her belly to her breasts, watching her writhe and twist as
he licked and kissed each nipple, then moved on to her breasts.  She
finally picked her arms back up, and put them around his neck.  When she
gazed up at him, he saw her eyes were green, like a patina had grown on the
bronze that had been there before.  The green was vibrant, like a wood
after a spring rain.  He watched her eyes for a long moment, as they slowly
lost their green shade, and faded, very slowly, back to golden.  "Your eyes
turn green when you have pleasure?" He asked.

   She smiled up at him.  "Did they?" She asked in return.  "I had heard
some of my folk do that, I did not know if I was one." She giggled.  "It is
part of why I love your blue eyes, Harlen." She said, putting her hands on
either side of his head.  "Blue is the color elves with silver eyes turn if
they have such a reaction."

   Harlen chuckled.  "So, I look as if I always have just had great
pleasure?" He said.

   Nodding, she said.  "You do." She turned a bit away and her face turned
a deeper rose.  "I imagine myself making them so."

   He bent down and kissed her, feeling her small mouth with his tongue,
and tasting her.  "If I could do such a thing.  Just looking at you would
make my eyes stay blue." He said.  She moaned as he laid his weight on her,
and she sighed in contentment when he rested there, his manhood pressed
firmly to her body between them.

   Her eyes now only had a slight greenish tinge to them.  "How long do
they stay that way?" Harlen asked.

   "I have heard many differing tales." She said, wiggling under his bulk.
"But they can stay edged with the changed color for several days."

   Harlen smiled.  "Then, if all goes well, you will always have
green-edged golden eyes while we are together."

   She grinned and kissed his chin.  "Do you swear it?" She asked.  "That I
will always have cause to be colored." She said.

   Harlen said.  "I do." Then began to kiss her neck and chin, and nuzzle
her sharply-pointed ears.  "So long as we are together." He whispered.  She
clutched him to herself, and moved her legs over his back, enwrapping him.

   She felt so tiny under him, Harlen feared he would hurt her, but she
breathed easily, and seemed content to bear him.  He reached down to check
her wetness, and when he brought his hand up, he found a small amount of
blood.  "You're bleeding, my love." He said, and showed her.

   She sighed in frustration.  "Then my evil plans are thwarted." She said,
rolling her eyes.  "Will you forgive me for another day's loss?  I fear to
make matters even worse for us later."

   Harlen smiled and nodded.  "I would forgive you anything." He said, and
slipped off of her.

   She got a cloth from her bag.  "I hate that the wounds do not seem to
wish to cooperate with my goals." She said, dabbing at herself delicately.
"I wish you did not see me like this, man of mine." She said, and slipped
on her skirt.  She positioned the loincloth to hold the small cloth in
place.  "It seems, somehow, too intimate, even for your welcome eyes."

   Harlen nodded and looked away while she finished.  Then said.  "No one
likes to be observed when they are unwell."

   Another moment, and she said.  "I am again clothed, much to my
annoyance." She said.  When Harlen looked, she was wearing her doeskin
outfit, and looking quite chagrined.  "I had hoped that I was mostly
recovered." Then she smiled.  "For, mark my words, when I do, you will be
the one in need of time to recover."

   Harlen smiled at her.  "I look forward to you trying to exhaust me, but
I think you will find me quite resilient."

   She adopted a pose that harkened back to a fighting stance.  "Think you
so?" She said, her voice menacing.  "Then I accept your challenge, human,
and whosoever shall be victorious shall claim the spoils."

   He stood from the bed and hugged her to him.  "And what would the prize
of such a contest be, elf, with me having already won?"

   She shrugged.  "I know not, but it will be worthy of the challenge.  But
you will loose, human, and be forced by shame to do my bidding."

   "Then servitude of the fallen is the prize?" Harlen asked.  "The victor
then commands their will?"

   She smiled.  "So be it.  For a time, anyway." She paused.  "You best be
ready at my beck and call once I have vanquished you."

   "And you." Harlen said, kissing her shoulder.  "Best make ready to
provide some rather gracious service, with a smiling visage."

   "Done, then." She said, giving a curt nod, and grabbing his hand in the
manner of a merchant, to seal the deal.

   Harlen took the hand, and shook it.  "Done." He said.  "You are in above
your head, lass."

   She looked up at him and said.  "And you underestimate your foe because
of your large size." She giggled.  "Both of them."

   He clad himself with the pants he had worn and they both went to the
kitchen, suddenly hungry.  Or as Hyandai called it, readying themselves for
battle.

   She enjoyed the fruit that Trevir had acquired, several of which she had
never eaten before.  "Orange." She said, looking at it.  "Somehow, that
seems a shallow name for this fruit." She began peeling it, using her sharp
little nails like ten scythes, to flay the skin off in but a moment's work,
and not touching the pulp within.  "One might as well call a plum a
`purple' or a apple a `red.'"

   He shrugged.  "I don't choose their names, my love." He said "I merely
told you what it was called.

   She bit into the pulpy body of the orange, and then her eyes widened as
its tart taste hit her.  "By the spirits." She said after swallowing.  "It
could be called firefruit, or some such.  It is so acidic as to burn the
eyes if it were to get to them." She took another large bite.  "But it is
good." He mumbled around that mouthfull.

   Harlen picked up a small yellow lemon from the fruit she had set on a
platter before her.  "Do you know this fruit?" He said, eyebrows raised.

   "No.  It is not one familiar to me." She said, eyeing it.  "But I am
sure it is called a `yellow.'" She said, rolling her eyes.

   Harlen chuckled.  "It is a lemon, you should try it next." Harlen said,
and peeled it helpfully for her.  Setting the small body of it on the
platter for her.

   She finished the orange, and was looking at its seeds.  "I wonder if
these would grow in my lands?" She said.  "Whence do they come?"

   Harlen said.  "They're brought in by ship from the south." He looked at
the other orange in the bowl.  "They only grow where it never freezes, so I
am told."

   She looked saddened.  "Our introversion is costing us dearly in
knowledge of the world about us." Then she brightened.  "But now, the
lemon." She said, and snatched up the peeled fruit.

   Harlen watched expectantly as she took a large bite of it, and tore it
loose.  A half-second later he was laughing as he eyes went wide and her
lips drew into a tight pucker.  "Eek." She said through her drawn tight
mouth.  "There be more sour here than is good for one." Her eyes grew
accusatory.  "You knew that this was such!" She said, holding out the
remains of the tart little fruit.  "Sabateur!" she accused.  "You wish to
make me pucker to filch a kiss from me." Her smile was rather curtailed by
the persistent pucker she had.

   "Filch a kiss?" Harlen said, placing his hand over his heart innocently.
"You already owe me one, from the second night, when you stole one from me
as we lay." He looked at her.  "You were the thief, I merely seek redress."
He kissed her and tasted the tartness on her lips.  "Plus interest." He
said, and kissed her again.  "High interest." He kissed her deeply as her
mouth finally relaxed from the lemon induced tightening.

   She pulled away.  "Usery!" She said, and kissed him quickly.  "I will
pay no more interest, you spendthrift." She said, and held the lemon
between them as a talisman, to protect her.  When he tried to move to kiss
her again, she intercepted his lips with the fruit and rubbed it on his
lips.

   They both laughed for a while, and ate fruit.  She eyed the remainder
dubiously, fearing he was planting another surprise for her.  She stuck to
fruit she recognized, and finally was left with two she did not.  A small
red fruit with tiny seeds covering its skin, and a long yellow fruit that
made her giggle just to regard it.

   "Strawberry." Harlen said, picking up the red fruit and holding it out
to her.  She bit the end off, then chewed.  Hyandai smiled widely then
nearly took his fingertips off getting the rest in one bite.

   "Oooh.  That is delicious." She said.  "I could eat a bushel of those,
and die plump and happy." She looked at the fruit bowl and smiled happily
when she saw a half dozen more in it.

   She finally looked down at the obscenely-shaped fruit.  "I fear to ask
that fruit's name." She said.

   He looked at it, and picked it up, making sure to have it curve upward
from his hand.  "This fruit?" He said.  Holding it before her suggestively.

   "Yes." She said, avoiding looking at it directly.  "I deem it has a
quite obvious name that will make me blush."

   Harlen peeled the fruit, pulling its skin off in long strips.  The smell
was nice, and subtle.  "You think so, eh?" He asked.  Then held the peeled
fruit near her.

   She sniffed the air.  "It smells nice." She said.  Then looked at it. 
"Yet it looks even more obscene now, with its little stem gone." Her
giggles overtook her.  "I hope that this manfruit is as tasty as it is
attractive."

   Harlen said.  "Banana." And held it before her mouth.

   She let her lips enwrap the fruit, like she had Harlen earlier that day,
and she took a few inches into her.  Then she smiled and glanced at him. 
Her teeth came together with a snap, severing the end.  She started chewing
with great show.

   Harlen gasped and winced as she brought her sharp teeth down on the
hapless fruit.  And set her to giggling as she chewed.  "Mmm.  It is good,
too." She looked thoughtful.  "I am forced to wonder if any other such
things may taste so if I chew them."

   "Let me assure you, without question, that the banana has no peer on my
body." Harlen said, with a bit of fear in his eyes.

   She looked at his trousers.  "You are certain?" She asked, finishing off
the last of the banana.

   "Like I am of few things." He replied, nodding assuredly.

   She shrugged.  "Oh, well, I suppose I can refrain from sampling." She
said.  And slipped off the stool.