KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Eight

That night they enjoyed a small feast as they dined on exotic foods purchased in N'shia-Potoma.  The next morning the men and boys would begin the long slow migration into the mountains where they would spend the summer.  After supper, Charissa took Karux's hand and led him off towards the brook.  Pulling him off the path, she slipped her arms around him and kissed him firmly.  He pressed her tightly to him and savored holding her.  Several minutes passed before she paused in her kisses.  "I wanted to say goodbye before you left," she breathed.

"I'm not sure I want to leave now," he sighed, stroking her hair.

"I am going to miss you."

"That reminds me, I have something I've wanted to give you."  Karux released her long enough to dig inside his tunic.  He pulled out the bracelet and slipped it on her wrist.

"Oh my!" Charissa held it up to inspect it.  In the soft moonlight, it gleamed like silver.  "I can't take this!  It must have cost you a fortune."

"Well it's too late now.  I certainly can't use it," Karux laughed.  "Besides," he took her chin and gently turned her head until he could stare into her eyes.  "I really wanted you to have it."

"Oh Karux," she choked and flung herself at him, hugging him fiercely.

Karux inhaled the scent of her hair.  "Will you remember me?" he asked.

"Yes.  I shall think of you every day."

-=====|==

The next morning as everyone prepared to set out for the high country, Karux slipped back into his house and found the stone from the sacred mountain.  He stuffed it into a small leather pouch he wore on a cord around his neck and tucked it inside his tunic.  Aside from the bracelet the pouch was his only personal purchase in N'shia-Potoma and he had bought it for this sole purpose. 

Charissa met him as the men and boys gathered their herds and drove them to the ford.  She would not be going with him into the mountains but she held his hand, her bracelet tapping his wrist, and walked with him for as long as she could.  Theris, Garick and other boys caught his eye as they passed by, smirking at Karux and waggling their eyebrows suggestively.  Karux couldn't help but grin like a fool.  He had never been this happy in his life. 

At the far side of the pastures, where the land began to rise into the foothills, Charissa stopped.  She hovered close by, brushing back her hair, acting as if she wanted to kiss him goodbye, but was too shy to do so in public.

"Awe, just go ahead and kiss him already," Bazma shouted as he walked past.

Charissa blushed and the other boys laughed.  Karux chuckled as well, though he also wanted to kick Bazma.  By drawing attention to them, he'd pretty much guaranteed Karux wouldn't get his parting kiss.

"I wanted to give you something to remember me by," Charissa said, blushing further.  "It's nothing so nice as the bracelet you gave me, but I wanted you to have it."  She cupped her palm over his hand and dropped something that felt like a coiled bit of thread.

Karux looked at it and realized it was a long narrow braid of hair.

"You cut your hair?"

Charissa turned one braid to expose the short hairs sticking out on the underside where she had cut it.  "Do you not like it?" she asked gnawing at the corner of her bottom lip.

Karux felt his eyes water involuntarily and had to clear his throat to speak.  "It was the best gift you could have given me."

"Perhaps... someday... I might cut the rest off for you."  Her blush grew so dark her whole face looked bruised.