Tortoise and Fox [BL]

3.31

"Goodbye."

Aisultan looped his arm into Eli's as they walked to the pagoda. Deep red roses painted the patio a gorgeous scarlet. The bickering women were clear as day, uninterrupted by Lucas's exasperated smile. Alyssa tugged Lucas by the shoulder to her side. The tortoise sat, slowly chewing through a red-tinted cake as it watched them all interact. A cloaked painting atop an easel stood, attracting the curiosity of anyone who stepped past.

"I just want to ask him some questions, Ally. You're being difficult."

Alyssa's eye twitched, "Difficult? Why can't I hear what you're going to ask, hm? Is there something you need to confess to the priest, love? A sin—perhaps? Lucas, come over here. Don't let the scary dog coerce you into this—I can protect you."

"Aisultan, help," Lucas managed to say before Fen'ra and Alyssa drowned his voice in louder chatting.

Aisultan, who already had squatted down and began petting the tortoise's gray-patterned shell, waved him off.

"You're fine. Just play with your new friends."

"Wha—I do have friends! Some of the vendors, I visit them now and we—stop laughing! Alyssa, you're laughing too?"

Their voices faded away like the clouds against the backdrop of the clean blue sky. Eli closed his eyes and breathed in the mellow, floral scents—and the ever-wafting smell of fruit-pasted cakes stacked in the tower of desserts. Chocolate and cinnamon crumbled onto his tongue. The soft buzzing, unseen insects and faint warbling of birds melted against his friends' laughter. Soft fur wrapped around his arm like a fleece sweater, and the wisping wind drifted past the tips of his ears.

Time twisted around the pagoda, splitting its quick stream down as but a moment slowed in place. Eli believed, truly, that there was nothing more perfect than sitting down at this shady table beneath the smiling sun and everlasting floral air.

And then, amber-speckled silver rippled like thick paint—sucking away every sensation Eli knew of—until he knew only Aisultan's gaze.

"How are the desserts?"

"Gorgeous," Eli blurted.

Fen'ra chuckled. "That's a strange way to describe cookies—not by the taste or smell, but appearance?"

"No," Eli continued, "not the cookies. Aisultan. The cuffs look lovely in the sunlight and compliment you—even better than I thought they would. The desserts are heavenly, though—better than anything I've ever tasted."

His fox tails thumped against the pagoda floor. The upbeat banter ensued. Alyssa's teasing and Lucas's pressed responses. Aisultan's increasingly strange proposals and Fen'ra's serious consideration of each.

*

Only when the tower of deserts emptied under Lucas's smug approval, did Aisultan break away from the conversations and return to the tortoise. A mini stack of emptied plates sat beside it.

"Are you ready for me to show the painting, Elijah? I think we're nearing time."

The tortoise rubbed itself against Aisultan's palm. He stood up not long after and stepped over the easel opposite the table. Eli's shoulders tightened, leaning over as Aisultan teasingly tugged the fabric. He paused for effect, and after Lucas' impatient exclamations, took off the cloth with careful hands.

The taste of melting sunlight and the soft grass-scented breeze. Strands of hair, tangled against a messy hairdo. Arms outstretched in a leaping swirl of petals and flowers. And the gleaming sun--a halo within bright scarlet eyes, upturned and delightedly laughing. Joy and wild, unadulterated excitement coated the canvas—sunflower yellows and soft, intermixed oranges—the blooming pink of flowers and the endless fields of green.