FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Jade and Amethyst (Chapter 4)

By

3669AD and BlazeLucivar

After a few hours of flying in the sun, Alaric decided to finally go home. He transformed to his human form and waited for Giada to show. About an hour after Alaric returned home, Giada walked in. She looked a little strung out after the events of a few hours before, but she still smiled when she saw Alaric. "Thank you again for saving my little sister, Alaric," she said. "I don't know what I would do if I lost her."

"Sister," he said as he stepped toward her. "I had a sibling, long ago. I have no idea what happened." Alaric set his hand on Giada's shoulder and smiled. "I'm glad I could help." The warm weight of his hand on her shoulder was extremely comforting, and she smiled again, putting her hand on top of his and giving it a gentle squeeze. She was suddenly overcome with the urge to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him, but Giada resisted the urge. "Are you sure you want to train today? Would you rather stay and visit?"

Giada shook her head. "I doubt I would be able to focus on training right now. But if you don't mind me staying to visit, I would love to."

"Please, adjourn to my chamber, then. I will meet with you in a few minutes." Alaric was naked, as was his wont, but if they would be visiting, then he would dress. It was only polite. He went to the chamber of his cave where he kept his clothing and picked out some loose fitting garb, then met with her.

Giada had chosen to sit leaning against a wall of the chamber. Since it was such a gigantic space, she would have felt extremely awkward sitting or standing alone in the middle of the chamber. She smiled and waved to let Alaric know where she was, though he probably needed no signal to find her.

Alaric walked up to Giada and sat a few feet across from her. "Was there anything you needed to get off your mind?"

She shook her head. "Not really. I think I would like to learn more about you, though. How about we share stories. You tell me something, then I'll tell you something."

He nodded as he decided what to tell her. "What kind of story would you like to hear?"

"Tell me something about your youth."

Alaric looked up toward the ceiling as he chose a story to tell her. "I shall tell you how I learned my style of fighting." He looked down and back at her as he began. "Six hundred years ago, I decided to travel the world. During my travels, I came across a monastery on a secluded island. Their way of life appealed to my nature, so I stayed there for two hundred years, training with them. I left to see how the world had changed, and I stayed away for seventy years before my return to the island. However, when I finally did return, the monastery was in ruins and the island was uninhabited."

"How did their way of life appeal to you?" Giada asked. "What was their way of life, for that matter?"

"They lived their lives as neutrally as possible. Aside from the monastery and their garden, they communed with the earth, only taking what was necessary and putting back what they took. It was peaceful, and no harm ever came to anyone."

"That sounds like it would be nice," Giada said quietly, then she chuckled. "But I think I would get bored living like a monk."

"One must first master desire before one can know what one truly wants."

Giada smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Oh? And have you mastered desire, Alaric?" she asked.

"Two hundred years living on a secluded island training with monks has taught me how to control my earthly desires, yes."

Giada let slight disappointment flicker over her features for barely an instant before leaning back against the cool stone wall of the cave. "All right then, what would you like to hear from me?" she asked.

His eyes noticed the change in her face, but he made no outward notice of it. "Have you ever seen combat?"

"Combat? You mean aside from fighting off bandits every so often? Real combat?" Giada shook her head. "If you mean a battle, no, I've never seen combat in that form."

"I see. Of course you wouldn't have seen war, it was fifty years before your time." He shook his head at his stupidity.

"Do you mean...the war seventy years ago?" Giada asked a bit hesitantly. "My grandparents met during that war. On the battlefield, in fact."

Alaric nodded. "What of your childhood? How did you come to the position you are now in?"

"My childhood? Really, it was much the same as that of the children in my village now. My father was one of the village boys who chose to train as a soldier in the city. My mother was a diver like I am now, but she taught dance more often than she went diving. When my father returned from his training ten years after he'd left, he saw my mother dancing and fell in love with her. He took to accompanying her on her diving trips, acting as her guard and learning the tricks of the trade from her. My mother died a few months after giving birth to Nashita seven years ago."

He looked down at the ground. "I see. That is why it's so important to keep her alive." He looked back up at her. "But what of your father?"

"Yes, that's why." Now it was Giada's turn to look at the ground. "My father...I don't know what's become of him. He left the village to sell some of his coral and pearls in the city, and he never came back. I was fifteen when he left."

He reached a long arm over to touch her knee with his hand. "Did you search for him?"

"For months. He reached the city. We think something happened to him on the way home."

"I am sorry to hear it. I cannot imagine the amount of pain you went through in your heart." He let a silence hang between them.

Giada hugged her knees to her chest. "Let's talk of something less depressing, please. I don't want to end our conversation on a sour note."

"Of course," said Alaric as he removed his hand from Giada's knee. "How do you find the inspiration for the trinkets and jewelry you create from your dives?"

"My inspiration? From my surroundings and things I find beautiful or enchanting in some way." A moment later, she remembered the coral dragon she'd made for Alaric and a blush started on her cheeks.

He smiled as he stood and extended his hand to her. "Would you like to dance?"

Giada looked from his hand to his face and back again. "To dance?" Then she smiled and took Alaric's hand, standing. "Of course. I'd love to dance with you, Alaric."

Alaric used Giada's own momentum to bring her close to him, wrapping his left arm around her waist and taking up her left hand in his right. He began the dance.

Giada had never danced the way Alaric was dancing with her. She found herself quickly getting lost in the dance and his warmth being so close.

He continued to lead her around his bed chamber slowly, in a ballroom dance he had learned long ago. His nostrils were filled with her scent, the smell of the ocean; of wind, and salt, and sand, and fish.

Giada didn't know what prompted her to do so, but as they danced she rested her head against his chest. "Alaric? I think...I think I may be falling for you," she whispered.