A Mother's Touch

HIS ACOLYTE

Lying on his back on the cave floor, the Stranger stared up into a colony of phosphorous moss growing between the cracks in the ceiling. Restless, he listened to Osha's erratic breathing from where she thrashed in his bed, trapped in the throes of a nightmare. The harsh intakes of breath and whimpering were the final monologue from the tragedy replaying in her subconscious. He felt sorry for her.

Three days had passed since she killed her former master, crushing his wind pipe in an inconsolable rage with the Force. A life for a life, the Stranger thought.

Sol's death was much deserved, maybe even earned, justice for the murder of Osha's mother and the sixteen-year cover-up that ensued. They left his contorted, lifeless body on the ground where he had fallen. And for three nights, Osha had suffered with the memory.

It was difficult to not comfort her, but became impossible to ignore when she cried out, screaming for Sol in her sleep. He sat up. "Osha?"

She did not respond.

Resting among a pile of throw pillows on a thin rug near the pool of water in the middle of the cave, he slipped from beneath his blanket and walked through the shadows to his bed, where she tossed and turned. Only the soft padding of his feet and her desperate cries disturbed the stillness. "Osha?"

Still, she did not respond.

The Stranger climbed onto the rocks beside his bed and looked down on her writhing form, unsure of what to do. Now that she had given herself to him as his Acolyte, he wanted no pretenses between them, no slips or violations that would damage her trust. He laid his hand on her hip. "Osha?"

She awoke with a gasp. Curling into a fetal ball, she rolled away from him as if still caught in the grip of the nightmare, but then she sat up and turned to face him. She bowed her head respectfully. "I was..."

"I know," he whispered. The Stranger ran his hand down her spine and across the small of her back. "But you're going to need your rest for tomorrow. Try and go back to sleep." He stepped back down to the cave floor.

"Please stay," Osha whispered. She shivered, her locs trembling along the sides of her frightened face.

Pursing his lips, the Stranger decided to acquiesce to her simple request. She was his Acolyte now, and the duty fell on him to keep her safe and well. He sat down on the nearest rock.

"No, I...I mean with me." She pulled the covers back to invite him in. "At least until I fall asleep?"

The Stranger suppressed a grin. Never one to let a challenge go unanswered, he crawled onto the pallet beside her and pulled up the blanket to cover both of them. As he settled on the edge of the bed to give her room, Osha scurried back and curled her body against his.

He kept his hands to himself. She was afraid, and that was not how he wanted their bond to evolve. Not through fear. Not through coercion. He needed her to desire him as much as he desired her.

Her feet were ice cold, and he braced himself with a chuckle, grateful to feel something besides loneliness.

Osha reached back and found his forearm. She ran her fingers across his skin, causing the hair to stand on end, and then pulled his arm across her waist.

The Stranger didn't resist, reaching beneath her shoulder with the other arm and loosely cradling her against him as she held onto his hands. "Don't go," Osha whispered. Her voice was slurred with exhaustion. "When I fall asleep, don't go."

He tucked his chin in the crook of her neck, between her locs, and exhaled deeply, so that she felt the warmth of his breath on her skin and knew that he was there for her. Like the wings of a predatory bird, he curled his shoulders over her body, cradling her against him and intertwined his fingers between hers. "I'm not going anywhere."