Flesh and Blood

Leaf speaks with Brother Christopher.

11.

Flesh and Blood

 

The sun had set by now, but a full moon gave the scene a silvery light.  

“I shouldn’t be speaking to you while you bathe, Lady Leaf; it is improper.”

“As well as a sin, I would imagine?”   She asked with a twinkle in her eyes.    Although it was hard, he held her gaze, for he was afraid to allow his eyes to wander from her face, for he knew where they would track.

“I’m not supposed to even speak to a woman unless she spoke to me first, so I’m probably already in big trouble.”

“Well, don’t worry about it; I’m not too worried about you, now that I’ve got to know you a bit better.   I was watching you while you gathered up what I needed - you kept your gaze away from me.    That tells me that you respect me when I ask you something.   It also makes me feel much more comfortable around you.”    With a casual air, she took the bar of soap from his hand and splashed out until she was waste deep in the pool, then began to scrub herself.

 

Christopher found himself shooting glances in her direction, more and more frequently, and this infuriated him, for it seemed to him that she now was almost trying to get him to look at her.

“I take it that you’ve not seen a woman naked before?”   She finally asked, amused by his struggle between spirit and flesh.

“No, all the monks are men.”

“Don’t you have any family?”   The way she asked the question told him that she already knew the answer that he would give.

“No; the monks are my family.    I’m an orphan.”

 

Christopher could not see her reaction to the news, for he was looking down at his feet on the edge of the water, struggling to keep his eyes locked.

“You are an orphan, you say?”   She asked him, stopping from her washing to scrutinize him.   He was tall and lanky, with a thick, unruly mop of blonde hair.     She knew then for certain whom he was.    Even his blue eyes were the eyes of his mother.

“Yes, the monks raised me.    Brother Michael said that they found me on the doorstep of the monastery when I was newly born.”

“Well, not exactly.  So you don’t know who your parents are, do you?”

“Nobody does, I guess… except my parents.”

“I know who they are, Chris.”

He looked up in surprise, for the news interested him more in that moment then seeing her shapely body in the moonlight.

“You know who they are?”

“Actually, I know who they were.    Your parents are dead, Chris.”

He nodded, not too upset at the news, for he had never known them or really desired to know them.

Leaf waited for him to ask her for their identities, but to her surprise, he didn’t.    He stared at her for a long moment, then, blushing again, looked at his feet.

“You don’t want to know who they are?”   She asked him gently.

“I already know… it’s odd, I’m not sure how I know it, but they were Cedric and Finola, weren’t they?”

Llaiannileaf was amazed at the guess, “Yes, you are right.    Mordric is your brother.”

“You mean he WAS my brother.”

“What?   What do you mean?”

“Lady Leaf, King Mordric has been dead for 12 years.”

“What?!   How?”  

“He was ruined by your retribution against his men.   He grew terribly paranoid of being murdered.     His own court could not stand him.    He would lock himself up in his room, they say, and scream at any shadows that threatened him.     Finally King Pendrake invaded the Kingdom.    Mordric wouldn’t even go out to meet him.    He feared that ‘The Banshee’ would be riding with Pendrake at the head of his army.”

“We all welcomed King Pendrake and offered him no resistance.    He put Mordric to the sword and this land became part of the Kingdom of Derry.   He’s been a good and fair King and everyone is very fond of him.”

“That’s not what was supposed to happen!”   Leaf exclaimed, wading up to him though still half covered in soap, “You are supposed to take revenge on Mordric by killing him, and then assume the crown that belongs to you!”

“Vengeance is The Lord’s alone, Lady Leaf.    I have no desire to rule as a King.”

Leaf stood there looking at him in disbelief, and he had no choice but to look at her.    Shyly he shrugged at the exasperated expression she gave him.

“I can’t believe this.”   She said in frustration, “I had it all planned out, Christopher!”

“I’m sorry, m’lady, but things don’t always go as planned.”

“They do for me!”   She snapped, and with an aggravated sigh, she turned and stomped back into the pool again to finish washing.

In spite of himself, he watched her go.    Now he finally understood what lust was, and silently cursed her, for he would never forget what he saw.  Not that he would have chosen to forget had he that option.

“Lady Leaf, why does this news trouble you so much?”   He asked, sinfully observing her in the moonlight as she angrily scrubbed her hair with the bar of soap.

“Because I went to a lot of trouble to set things up so you would be King one day!    I even helped deliver you, Christopher, through my song!    Your birth was difficult and your mother died after giving you life when she saw King Cedric murdered by some of Mordric’s men.     I saved you from them and from your brother.   I killed all of them that had murdered your parents, except for Mordric.    I left him for your hand.   The blood and sweat I’m scrubbing off of me was from that very encounter!”

“Lady Leaf, I am sorry that I don’t live up to your expectations.   Did you not put me in the monastery?    The monks often spoke of the Great Lady that watched over the monastery, so I guess that had to be you.     I had no control over the death of Mordric, and I do not relish in spilling blood.    I am a monk, not a King.”

His words were reasonable and true, causing Llaiannileaf to calm down and then feel guilt for her reaction toward the young man.    She rinsed out the soap from her hair, content at its cleanliness, and waded back to shore.   

He no longer looked away from her, yet his lustful survey of her body was somehow innocent, gentle and rather charming.

The young monk held the towel out to her.

 

“I am sorry, Chris.”   She said as she began to dry off right in front of him, “This has been an overwhelming evening for you in many ways, hasn’t it?”

“Yes.”   He admitted, looking into her eyes, “I’m going to have to gouge my eyes out now, because I find that I really want to look at you.    I am sorry, Lady Leaf, but… you are so beautiful.     Are you going to kill me, now?    I heard that Faerie women do that to foolish men who stare at them.”

She laughed again, thrilling him with the sound, “Chris, this may surprise you, but I find your fascination of me strangely flattering.   I don’t feel threatened by you.    If I had, you would already be dead.”

“Oh, well, thank you for having mercy upon me.   Lady, how old are you?     You seem no older than me.”

 

Leaf finished drying herself and he handed her some monk’s underclothes, while managing not to stare at her too much. 

“Where I come from, there is no time, so I’m not sure how to answer that.     I’ve jumped in and out of your world for perhaps 60 of your years, but it has only been several days for me.      Amongst my people, in my world, I was the youngest of my family.”

She wiggled into the linen pants, and then took the monk’s robe from him, and quickly slipped into it.    Even dressed in the plain brown robe of St. Edward’s, Chris found that she was glorious to look at.  

“You are by far the prettiest monk I’ve ever seen.”   He told her plainly and she blushed, smiling sweetly.

“Now that I’m clothed, you don’t have to worry about sinning.”   She assured him.

“Just looking at your face would cause me to sin, I’m afraid.”   He admitted, amazed at how easy it was to flirt with her, considering that he had never flirted with anyone in his entire life.

She grinned, which only made his pulse race quicker.    Leaf tied the monk’s belt around her waist, and then slipped on the simple sandals.

“Lady Leaf, tell me something else - they say that you would sing a sad, sad song from time to time over the years and that most that heard your song would weep, though no-one understood the words.    What song were you singing?”

 

To her surprise, she began telling him about her family and of her life before coming here.   She told him about the Chronal Well and how her entire family vanished into it.   She even mentioned to him about the mulitverses that were slowly disappearing, which could be seen in the well.

“I’m here looking for my family.”  She concluded, “The songs I sang would draw them to me if they were in this world.”

“But so far they have not revealed them to you?”  He asked compassionately.

Leaf shook her head, and suddenly began crying at the thought of never seeing any of them ever again.

 

Instinctively, Christopher embraced her tenderly, hugging her gently (and respectfully) as she wept on his shoulder.    She felt so ridiculously childish at that moment -crying on the shoulder of a human boy.

 

But though he was only human, he was also of flesh and blood, and his warm compassion filled a deep longing inside her for companionship.   Oh, how lonesome she was!     She laid her head against his shoulder, basking in the touch of a living being.      Somewhat hesitantly, he patted her head and spoke softly to her.

“It’s alright, Lady, I understand, at least in part.     I am your friend.”

The words were so sincere, yet tragically sad, coming from a human, for he would be old and gone in a twinkling of her eye.   

“Thank you.” She whispered to him, and then, suddenly, leaning over and kissing his cheek before pulling away, “It’s best that I not have any human friends.”

“Why?”  He wondered, offended.

“It isn’t you, Christopher - I see that your sentiment is genuine.    But it is heartbreaking to befriend someone who will live so briefly, where as I will never change once I have fully matured.”

“You’re immortal?”   Chris asked, amazed.

“All my people are.    Or were.”   Her face darkened at the thought.

“You think that they’re dead?   All of them?”  

“I don’t know… I can’t locate them.”   Her eyes filled with tears, but she successfully fought them off.

“But I thought you said they had all come into this world from your… world.”

“Yes, they did, but at different periods of time, and I don’t know when they arrived here.   I’ve moved backwards and forwards in time, singing to them, and they do not respond.   They would certainly respond if they heard my song.”

“Perhaps they are just out of range of your voice, Lady Leaf.”

She shook her head, “The song is magical; it would be heard by them all over the world.    They would sing it in reply and I would have heard them.   No, they are not here.”

She hung her head, lost for a few moments in the soberness of that knowledge.

“Lady Leaf, you cannot give up!”   He knelt in front of her, gently taking her hand, “I’ll help you find them.”

 

Llaiannileaf was very moved by his willingness to assist her.    Squeezing his hand, she sighed, “If it were only that easy, Chris.   My people do not stumble along in these worlds.   I am a mere child in most of my people’s eyes.    Their purpose was to move amongst the universes and intervene when we deemed our assistance was needed.   My father was a master of travelling back and forth into the multiple worlds.   He would have left a message to me; some sort of sign that I would recognize.”

“What sort of sign would he have left for you?”

“Something that would transcend long periods of time.   Something imperishable.”

“Such as a Barrow?”   The young Monk asked.

“Barrow?!   Absolutely… do you know of one near here?”   Leaf asked excitedly, for the boy seemed familiar with the term.

He looked at her somewhat incredulously, “Why, of course I do - the Banshee Hill, where you keep appearing.”

     Leaf was crestfallen, “Oh… I thought you meant an actual Barrow.”

“It is an actual Barrow, m’lady!    When the monastery was built and the workers dug into the side of the hill, they found a wall of dressed stone that ran around the perimeter of the base.   They didn’t excavate it, except for maybe ten yards, but the older monks told me that the entire hill is a huge, ancient Barrow.”

“A Barrow!”   Leaf knelt excitedly and grabbed his hands, “Christopher, are you absolutely certain of this?   The monks told you that it was an ancient Barrow?”

“Yes, ma’am.    In fact, Brother Michael has a collection of artifacts he has gathered over the years.   When it rains heavily, sometimes bits of silver or copper jewelry is exposed.     He even found a short sword made of silver!     I thought you would have known about this.”

Llaiannileaf shook her head, “It shames me to admit that I never even considered something like this.    The hill is too large and seemed very old.    Your world… at one time it was different than it is now.     An advanced civilization once ruled over this planet - you probably know something of this, don’t you?”

“I heard the old legends of things like that - how our ancestors nearly destroyed the world with great power.    The monastery has one of the ancient guns - it is very rusty, but they tell me that it is probably 500 years old.”

“I would imagine that is right.    Chris, if my father or any of my people were able to make a barrow as large as this hill, then they would have had to have done it before the cataclysm that destroyed the civilization of this world.    The hill looked natural to me, and the trees covering it are very old.”

“I can tell you all the tales I heard about it.     I’ll be glad to help any way I can.”

“Chris, that would be very helpful.   I also want to see the relics that Brother Michael has in his collection.”

“What are you going to do then, Lady Leaf?”

She froze in thought for a moment and then finally shrugged, “I don’t know yet, Chris.”

Reviews

[Elina]

"...amazed at how easily it was to flirt with her..." You will want to change "easily" to "easy."
"...in this entire life." I believe you were wanting "his" rather than "this."
"

[Eddie Davis]

Thanks, you are amazing, Elina.