In Huck's Hands

Chapter 11: Huck You...

Navah's callow skepticism gradually liquefied as I regaled my harrowing hardships in the lightless caverns and my transcendental encounter with the goddess under Buriti. She spoke gently after clinging to my vernacular like I was a consecrated village shaman. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you before guy...I mean--SHIT, King--Uh Huckleberry?"

She skated even closer on the soft fur pillow, unassuming gaze wide with marvel, dangling from every utterance as I depicted the crisp opaline waters and deific visions of Buriti's prophesied doom by my hand and judgment of my tainted soul only told to my ear.

I dispatched to her my elevation to dominion after my family's bombardment, scanning the horror etched on her face as I described hacking Warlord Aygu's hand maliciously into the hot sand. Her face mirrored the revolutionaries own as I dropped a diminutive stone to the sand, her eyes pursuing it till it hit the ground, mimicking his bloody phalanges.

Her velvety face scrunched tightly when I went into the in-depth segments of my dark claustrophobic descent into the grottoes. Her sandy-colored short and curly hair at times covered her awe-filled stare before she thrust it back reactively to my discovery of the diabolical ape-beast. She gripped her leg as she listened to me go on for what felt like hours.

Her infrequent outbursts of " Doutros' scales !" and breathy gasps fueled my melodramatic showmanship. I widened my arms demonstrating the outlandish ape's towering hellish height, sparing no treacherously gruesome detail of my narrow stale-mate. Navah cradled her olive tone knees, enraptured as I accounted my harrowing experience battling the demi-human beast to my last breath; As the last sands of my life flowed from my ruptured lungs in the mosaic-filled ruins.

The story crescendo of my watery resurrection and the female goddess sparked a fire in Navah's excitable eyes. She inquisitively cocked her head sideways, her gray-amber eyes still glistening with admiration. "So this 'Oasis goddess' just....touched your body?" She put her small hand on her collarbone, making a circle with her slender fingers lightly. " Was she beautiful or an ugly old durik milker like my Ma!?" Navah asked innocently though her cheeks washed red as she searched my vacant gaze over the dunes.

I nodded curtly, provoked both by memories of the goddess's exotic esoteric magnetism and my present company's drifting gaze, both women scrutinized me with the same mix of vulnerability yet blaze...but I couldn't shake the identical nauseous sensation I maintained with the deity at this instant.

How long had it been since I chitchatted freely with a woman near my age? The palace offered only aging advisors and battle-hardened soldiers mixed with horny noblewomen of the court. Though I did not want anything to do with this clingy buggy vagabond...It reminded me of a time when Aiko was more free with her words.

Beyond the canvassed rest site, ashy sandstorm winds ululated, hailing from the capital by its burnt aroma. Navah comfortably leaned into me as a harsh gale shook the green canvas. I caught hints of spice and fig on her hair and skin from life on the caravan pathways. She smelled of remote countries I'd never visited or planned to yet...My pulse hastened as her eyes melted even my King mask I had heavily worn since my family's decimation.

"A goddess, Unkillable beast, and absolute power.....in one day. You might be the most fearless man I've ever met in my life!" Navah smiled mischievously. "Or the craziest idiot this side of the Basklands...But I think I believe you Mr. King."

She playfully lifted the chrome flask. "To King Berry, the Monster Slayer, and Savior of Buriti!" Our gazes met as we drank I felt the warm buzz filling my stomach pleasingly. At that moment, I cared not whether she knew my true name or debased my crown. I had found an oasis from the desert storms within this wandering caravan girl...In this respite among the sands.