(MxM) Tales Of A Shifter (P1) - The Meeting

Chapter 60 - Playful Mistakes

The hay bales were much harder going. But as the next two hours trickled by Brandon was impressed to find that he and Ezekiel managed to burst open nearly twenty five bundles and spared them around nearly eighty percent of the farm. Ezekiel worked at a considerate pace, and saved most his breath so they worked in companionable silence.

Soon enough the minutes had passed into another hour and the silence turned to thinking on Brandon's part. And to his surprise Brandon soon found that he was reminiscing back on his various and volatile interactions with the different members of Ezekiels family. Particularly the green eyed brother Lander and his more amenable interactions with Nate and Walter and even Erin and his parents.

Brandon found that he wanted to avoid further confrontations until he moved on from the Leopards Clan....but he knew himself. He knew....that he had a bad habit of not backing down.....

And he knew that if the green eyed Shifter came at him again...he was going to go back at him, just as hard.

Brandon wondered what it was about Lander that got under his skin and why a man who did what Ezekiel did and spent his time caring for the wellbeing of his Clan, could be so nasty. While the rest of his family seemed so...nice.

Brandon slammed the hoe that he had been using to break apart and spread the hay bales in the mud and he called out to Ezekiel who was just marching back to his side from inside of the barn, with a new bale of hay balanced on his shoulder. The Shifter was now sweating a lot and contrary to Brandon's previous thought that the sweat would make him look unappealing....it just gave Brandon something else to look at and Brandon knew that he already had a hard time keeping his eyes off the Shifter as it was.

The moisture gathered along his hair line wetting the strands, then running down Ezekiels throat and glistening on the skin that shown through the unbutton shirt that he wore. Which of course pulled Brandon's eyes down to his chest and everything that the Shirt was covering. The sweat running down into Ezekiels shirt tempted Brandon's imagination against his will. It made Brandon wonder if the Shifter was going to remove the clothing sometime soon to escape the dampness the sweat cause....And it made Brandon question if he wanted "Soon" to happen "Right Now."

Hoping to get away from those thoughts Brandon tried to focus on his questions for Ezekiel, rather than Ezekiel himself.

"So Ezekiel...." He began, speaking to jump start his brain once more. "I was thinking about what you said about Guardians and everything that they do and I sort of realized that all of your family members seem to have jobs that are about helping in the Clan. Even your Mom."

Leaning on the shovel he waited on Ezekiel to get closer and reply.

"That's about right." Ezekiel finally responded as he stepped inside of the fence. "As the children of the Clan Head it's our duty to look after my father's people. So that meant becoming Guardians, and as for my mother it meant becoming a Healer. But besides just being our fathers sons, all of my brothers WANTED to go into this line of work. We all love our village and we sort of try to do everything we can to keep it going and healthy."

"Even your lovely brother Lander?" Brandon asked, unable to help himself, but also not seeing the angry and aggressive Shifter doing anything out of kindness for others. "I mean it's hard to see your older brother doting on anyone....or being nice to people. I don't get how he even fits in in that job."

Ezekiel sighed, chuckled and tossed down the bale of hay at his feet. He steeped around it and replied. "Look I know Lander may seem like a horrible person but Lander...even more than the rest of us; He takes the safety of our Clan and our family to heart." Ezekiel began to explain sounding both proud, but also subdued.