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UNTAMEDelegance
Member
since 2009-05-30
Posts 222
Oregon

0 posted 2010-03-30 11:03 AM


They were back at the bonfire. Anxious shadowlings waited in the background of the shadows, flinching every time they heard a cry of pain.
Upon arriving, Kuro—or whatever his name was—had gently set Tae down on the green blanket from earlier and brought out an older shadowling. That was when the cries had started. The older shadowling was bandaging Tae’s wounds. While he bandaged, Kuro and Tae talked; in English so that the shadowlings wouldn’t understand. Occasionally, Kuro would act as translator between Tae and the elder, who was named Maowey.
“OW! OW! OW!” Tae shouted as Maowey cleaned out a particularly nasty section of cuts that criss-crossed rather brutally. Tears were spilling out of the corvers of her eyes and she was biting her lip so hard that it threatened to split.
In between gasps of pain, Tae tried to talk. “So…wh-who are…you?” she questioned. Kuro rolled his eyes at her stubbornness and she scowled irritatedly. “Just tell m-mmmmmouch!” Tae let out a pained whine. Her hands were clutching anxiously at the blanket. Seeing this, Kuro reached out and slid his hand into Tae’s. She immediately clamped down on his hand; a python to its prey.
“Ow!” she cried out. “Would you stop?” This was snapped at crossly at Maowey as Tae struggled to get away from him.
“Maké! Maké!” Maowey snapped, pushing Tae back down.
“He says ‘Be still,’” Kuro said. “In case you didn’t get that by his actions.” A glimmer of amusement lit his dark eyes.
“Oh be quiet, you smug monkey!” Tae spat this through clenched teeth. “And tell me who you are, already!” She gasped in pain and squeezed his hand tighter.
“I am Kuro! Besides, I thought you said you didn’t believe the stories.” The topic had come up once or twice during their talking.
“Well,” Tae began. Maowey was taking a break to make a poultice, “when I meet a poster man for “tall, dark, mysterious, and slightly scary,” out in the fields, with the shadowlings, calling himself Kuro it’s a little bit convincing to the contrary.”
“Hm. Touché. Anyways, I suppose I should explain. I am Kuro. I’m practically immortal, but I’m not a vampire. I’m here to protect against the vampires. Each village on the mainland has a protector and I am the protector of Ziia. Because succession can’t be changing at every second in time, we are given extremely long life. We’re also given exactly one male heir with our chosen mate—who receives long life as well.”
He paused and glanced at Tae. She was frowning. That… was troubling.
Little did Kuro know, but Tae was only half paying attention to the words that he was saying. The other half of her attention was focused solely on her heartbeat and stomach and trying to calm her pulse and tame the butterflies playing tag. Why? While Kuro was talking, he had unconsciously begun moving his thumb in small, soft circles across Tae’s hand. Tae didn’t know why, but this action raised goose-bumps across her arms and sent her thoughts skittering like fall leaves in wind.
Finally noticing Tae’s lack of attention, Kuro swallowed. Was he that boring?!? Geez, after five hundred years of waiting for her, he should feel more confident and suave, and less like a fifteen-year-old, fumbling boy who had never talked to a girl before. Anxious to see what had so skillfully captured her attention, Kuro followed Tae’s gaze. His eyes rested on their entwined hands and the circling motion his was making. Then he sneaked a peek at Tae’s face and saw the light red flush that crept across her cheeks. A spire of hope spiked his heart-rate.
He pulled his and her hand sup to his mouth, drawing Tae’s attention to him. He laid a gentle kiss on the top of Tae’s hand. His heart soared further as he caught sight of the rosy blush on Tae’s cheeks spreading and her eyes lighting. “Tae, love. Would you be my mate? Would you marry me?”
Tae’s eyes widened and she gasped. Tears swam around her eyes before anger flashed like a brand of fire in them and an expression that could only be described as pure, unbound, horrifying fury crossed her thorn-scratched face.
Ouch… that was a harsh rejection.
“You stupid, brainless, rude, old jerk! That HURT! I cannot believe you just did that! You didn’t even warn me!” Tae turned to look at Kuro’s surprised face from where she had just been yelling at Maowey. He had just started to apply the poultice—half of which was now splattered on Maowey thanks to Tae’s rather violent twitch of pain. Tae continued, still shouting, and looking Kuro directly in the eye. “Yes, Kuro, I’ll marry you. I’d be ecstatic to. But first I have a stupid, gutless, son of a half-brained toad to murder!”
Kuro blinked. Then he smiled and wrapped his arms tightly around Tae’s middle.
“Huh?” Tae turned her head away from Maowey to face Kuro. Her eyes widened as he suddenly found her lips at Kuro’s. His eyes widened as well, but…well, never one to miss an opportunity, he kissed her passionately. Tae relaxed into the kiss, melting into Kuro’s arms; all thoughts of murder and pain swept away by Kuro’s attentions.
When they left the kiss, Tae’s arms were wrapped around Kuro’s neck and wound tightly in his hair, keeping him close. The two were smiling like love-struck idiots—which they were—with their foreheads resting against each other’s, nose to nose.
“I’m not translating that,” Kuro teased, referring to Tae’s excessive name-calling.
Tae chuckled sheepishly. “No need. I think he got the idea.”
Kuro laughed “If you’re that bad over a simple healing poultice on a couple of scratches, you’re going to be terrible when it comes to birthing our children,” Kuro whispered. He smirked amusedly as a steaming red blush crossed Tae’s face at the mention of children… or perhaps the activities that came with before the children. Suddenly, Tae’s gaze whipped to the side. “Don’t even think about it, Maowey!” she cautioned though hawkish, dangerously narrowed eyes. The doctor had been sneaking back with the rest of the goopy poultice.
Kuro chuckled and kissed Tae again. He picked her up with one leg on each side of his hip, each of his hands taking the weight of a leg as she clung to his neck.
“Come with me, love. Tonight we get married and tomorrow we leave to meet with the other protectors.” He lowered his voice and whispered into the shell of her ear. “Tonight, love, you’re mine.”
Tae’s stomach muscles clenched at the sound of his voice and her blush deepened—if it was possible—as she pulled back a little bit to look Kuro in the eye. “Won’t we need to pack?” she inquired.
Kuro gave a very deep, very seductive laugh and kissed Tae on the tip of her nose. “Exactly, love. Pack; that’s what we’ll do.”
After the small wedding ceremony, Kuro started moving through the thorns to the house hidden on the thickest part of the thorn forest with Tae in his arms exactly as she had been when her picked her up after she agreed to marry him.
“What was it you couldn’t tell me earlier?” Tae asked curiously as she clung tight to avoid the thorns…as if Kuro would let her get scratched by the thorns.
“Mm?” Kuro questioned.
Tae smiled. “I promise I won’t run away.” She teased.
“Oh, that.” Kuro smiled and brought her face so close to his that they were almost touching. “I love you.” And he smothered her with kisses.
As Kuro carried Tae away, the shadowlings watched, confused but contented that their protector was happy and married. They just stood there, watching them and hearing the lovers’ final exchange before the couple went out of hearing range. Meaningless garble to them, but…
“You know,” Kuro quietly observed. “You have a very strong grip when you’re in pain.” He glanced up towards her hands wrapped around his neck. “Very strong. Almost like a man’s ha—”
One of Tae’s “strong” hands came up to cover his mouth. She had a dangerous twinkle in her eye. “I dare you to finish that sentence.”
Like a little puppy dog, Kuro shook his head no.
Tae smiled mischievously. “Good, ‘cause I didn’t plan on letting you,” she said removing her hand from Kuro’s mouth.
A wave of confusion swept through Kuro’s eyes, but was quickly replaced with enlightenment… and intense enjoyment as Tae’s lips found his own.
“You realize I’ll want about ten little girls after our male heir,” Kuro murmured lovingly into the kiss.

……
………
WHACK!!!

Nothing is more painful than realizing he meant everything to you, but you meant nothing to him. (Unknown)

© Copyright 2010 Melissa Reneé Axtell - All Rights Reserved
fractal007
Senior Member
since 2000-06-01
Posts 1958

1 posted 2010-04-09 12:14 PM


I found this piece very rushed.  In all the series was good and a nice fantasy getaway from stories about the world we live in today.  

The romance between your protagonist and Kuro was drawn up too quickly.  Yes, it is true that we see Tae falling for Kuro throughout this story but there isn't a lot of fleshing out of what's going through her mind.  Tae's ultimate marriage and then escape into a life of child-rearing with Kuro could be seen by some as a rather dangerous picture of a submissive wife falling headlong into marriage with a mysterious stranger who has done nothing to prove himself aside from what has happened over the period of this one evening.

In any case, the series was good and I enjoyed reading it.  I look forward to reading more by you.


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