The Cleansing (Book One: The Folara Chronicles)

054: Kara and Rion

The frantic beating of Kara's heart caused her to choke. Rion pounded on her back, and she winced. He apologized profusely and then handed her the fruit he'd procured. "Do you eat grapes?"

She couldn't bring herself to interrogate him any further.

And-- she'd never seen grapes, but she could tell they were a plant fiber and put one in her mouth. The soft skin popped against her tongue and she gasped and almost spit it out as the juice dribbled down her chin. Her eyes turned to his as the sweet flavor penetrated her senses.

Everything else was forgotten. Kara chewed, tasting... and knew she had died and gone to another realm. "This is exquisite." 

Rion's laugh rang out. "Never had a grape?"

Kara popped the grape and contained the sweet juice, more flavorful than any algae made fruit had ever tasted. Her eyes closed in delight.

Rion watched her, satisfied that something in his world had caught her attention favorably. Glad she had stopped her questioning of his Quarso involvement and Quildor.

He tossed a grape into his own mouth. They sat companionably munching for several moments until Kara finally leaned back against a rock and stared out into the darkness. Rion kept his side in complete contact with her, steadying her, and lending warmth and cover at the same time. The breeze was crisper up here on the ridge than it was down in the glen where he'd taken her to heal. Women of his culture may have worn a shawl or a small sweater over their dress. Kara's uniform would have kept her body temperature at a steady degree, but he liked her in the common gown of his people and didn't suggest she change.

Her hair blew into his mouth and nose and he gently lifted it out and tucked it behind her ear. Familiarity with her person had happened over the time spent, although being in close contact with his own people, reminded him that the freedom he felt touching her was not acceptable even in his disgruntled society. He also realized that having her thus gowned and eating food grown in his own backyard was heady elixir to his senses.

They had lost the dutiful warrior zeal they'd been trained to feel toward each other. He cocked his head on a bent elbow and contemplated her. She was watching the village, taking in the vista from up here. He sensed her thoughts were simple, wondering, actually awestruck. He looked out at what she saw and tried to see it from her point of view. In her eyes, the landscape was stark, overwhelmingly beautiful and so large!

That moment came back to him-- earlier when she'd seen the enormity of the ocean, and been so awestruck. Her wildly broadcast emotions, when she wasn't guarding them, were exciting to him. To see the potential in his world from her point of view, and find her comparing them in his favor warmed him like nothing else had. It seemed a burning testimony that his desire to take her away and start afresh was worthwhile.

He let his arm creep around her and brace her from the back, and felt gratified when she simply leaned against him. 

"Kara."

"Hm?"

"Do you think you could ever leave the-- the fight? Down there?"

"Maybe."

"I mean, could you ever put your own desires before the good of your people?"

"I might want to, but I doubt it."

"What if you were to-- fall in love? Be married, have a child? Whose needs would come first then?"

She popped another grape into her mouth and smiled crookedly. "Why, the child would have claim on me then."