The Savage

Part 2: Chapter Nineteen: Vada

Pelagoes of Kallistos was known as the jewel of the continent. The lime washed stone buildings that made up Pelagoes, with their royal blue shutters and violet accents, covered the arid rocky hillside. The meandering roads, twisted between the white homes all the way down to the crystal clear water's edge. The hot, brilliant and bright sun high in the sky made the city and the sea beyond glow. Being the southernmost part of the known world, Pelagoes was warm throughout the year and the sun shone nearly everyday. As far as Vada was concerned, this was her home and it was paradise. This was where he was, her love, her soul; the sea.

Like all summers in Pelagoes, the summer of her fourteenth year had been unbearably hot, driving the people, rich and poor alike, to the water. With the exception of Vada and Eavan, their mother wouldn't allow them down with the common children. Forcing them to remain hidden from the sun inside the white stone walls of the keep. Like any other young person, Vada had once been ignorant of danger and immune to her mortality. Evading her mother and the guards, she had slipped out. She'd over heard her mother's ladies talking about a cove southwest of the city that was supposedly, often empty.

Leaving behind her jewelry and silks, Vada wore a simple orange linen dress. Keeping her face mostly covered she paid a copper mint for a ride on the back of a cart out of the city. Unlike her father and mother, Vada loved the people of her home city. Their laid back and relaxed attitude seemed to seep into the city itself. Pelagoes seemed to urge you to slow down and enjoy the white sands and turquoise water.

A quarter of a mile outside the city, Vada spotted the path beside the road, disappearing into the palm jungle. Without hesitation she hopped from the moving cart. Making her way cheerfully down the sandy path. Even in the shade of the palms, sweat trickled down her back.

As she approached the white beach, Vada stopped. There was a man out in the water. The black bearded man stood in the waist deep water lathering himself with soap. From where she was, just in the tree line, he was some distance away, but she could still see the sculpted, darkly tanned muscular body.

At her feet, sitting on the ground at the base of a palm, his clothes were piled. Vada watched him scrub the soap into his beard and hair. He submerged several times to rinse himself before coming out of the water.

He was halfway across the beach before he noticed Vada. Only briefly did he hesitate in his approach when he saw her.

"M'lady. I'm afraid I wasn't expecting anyone else to come along." he said politely, covering his groin with his hands.

"I didn't think anyone would be here." Vada replied, blushing to the roots of her hair.

"My apologies." he smiled.

His teeth were white, straight, aside from one gold canine.

"Are you a sailor?" she asked, indicating the dark tattoos covering his torso and arms.

"I am m'lady." he confirmed, "May I ask what a highborn lady like yourself is doing all alone?"

"How do you know I'm a lady?" Vada asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Your accent." the stranger replied simply.

His own accent Vada couldn't place. He sounded Ulki, but didn't look it, and the way he said 'm'lady' was how a common descendant would pronounce it.

Vada lifted her chin defiantly, "I go where I please."

The stranger chuckled, "My clothes, m'lady, if you please?"

"Oh!" Vada lifted the pile of leather to hand him.

Still covering himself with one hand, he took his clothes from her with the other.