Dark Eros

3

"You are still angry?" Akua asked with bewilderment.

Fumnaya sighed, irritation written on his face. "Have you found her?"

"We have searched every camp near our own. The woman you claimed was not in any of them."

Fumnaya's face twisted. "Then I am not sated."

Days had passed. Moons had come and gone and still the woman was on his mind. She was all he saw in his dreams, all he desired. Regret twisted in his gut. He had been too arogant, he had assumed that she would be easy for his men to find. No one else would do anymore. He was no longer satisfied with his bed partner's thus far. The mere thought of sleeping with them diminished his arousal and on nights when he could not contain his hunger he merely imaged that whomever he was embracing was the woman whom he had claimed that night.

But regardless of how much he imaged her underneath him, he knew deep down that she was not yet his. He grew restless in his search of her. Wanting more and more each day. Never had he wanted something or someone as much as he wanted her. His men had been searching for her everyday since. But the search seemed invane. She was nowhere to be found.

Frustration painted his face and he turned. He ordered all that adorned his room to leave it. All except Akua.

"Do not fret so, Fumnaya. The annual festival will soon approach. All of our people, no matter the camp or distance shall be here. Your woman may be among them." Akua reassured.

He spoke of the annual festival that signaled the end of the summer months. All of the Aeneous people would travel back to the ancestor city to celebrate in the last warmth of the year. To give thanks for the crops grown this year, the love found, the lives borne. Such was tradition.

Fumnaya knew that the festival included all his people. She would likely be there. But still, the thought gave him no peace of mind.

"Keep looking, Akua." Fumnaya demanded.

Akua frowned but nodded his understanding. "As you wish. Shall I send you a bed mate?"

He tsked, "No. Do not send anyone to my bed. No one else will do."

"Are you so bewitched by this woman?" Akua questioned with genuine interest, "That you would deny a willing lover?"

"I want no other." Fumnaya said with a harsh finality that surprisingly made Akua laugh.

"I understand and in a way I am grateful to this woman. It has been years since there has been passion in you. Years since your eyes have shone. Years since there has been more than boredom and dis-interest in them." Akua grinned as he was prone to do, "The search will continue, do not doubt it. But in wait, do be less angry with the servants. You scare them with the scowls you send their way."

Fumnaya sighed, waving Akua out. "Go. Now."

Akua's grin stayed in place as he sauntered out.

Ife sat at her grandmother's feet. A bowl of sweet scented water beside her. She dipped the cloth in her hands in the water before gently washing her grandmother's feet. Her grandmother had long begun to lose her sight, her eyes now a misty, clouded over brown.

"You are quiet today." Her grandmother commented, reaching down to gently caress her cheek. "What ails you child?"

"I have been...having dreams." She admitted with hesitation. " Dreams that haunt me in the day."

Her grandmother seemed to smile at that admission, her blind eyes still shinning. "You are of age my child. Such is natural to dream of your love."

Ife froze, jerking her head up to gaze upon her grandmother. "How do yo-," her grandmothers soft laughter cut her off.

"It is a gift our family has, we have been seers, healers for generations. You have the gift of sight. You dream what is to come, you dream of what is yours, of what you must do to obtain what is yours. Do not deny your gift."

"I deny nothing. I just...I do not wish to be embraced." She whispered suddenly remembering the all consuming passion burning in those sad blue eyes. A passion that had excited her and yet frightened her to her gore at the same time.

No one had ever looked at her that way before...with so much want and need.

"Child," her grandmother said as she reached for her.

Ife dropped the cloth in her hands back into the bowl of scented water before reaching for her grandmother's hands.

"You must not run from everything you fear. For just because something has teeth, does not mean that it will devour you. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Ife whispered. She understood but even in her understanding her fear still stood. For her dreams had only grown more vivid throughout the days. He was all she saw. His blue eyes, staring past her external, seeing what lie inside. As the days passed her dreams grew more passionate, more...sensual. In some of her dreams he merely fell to his knees before her, his eyes begging her to save him.

In others he was embracing her in a wild carnivorous frenzy of sexual passion that always jolted her awake covered in cold sweat.

Those dreams...those wild carnal dreams put more fear in her than she dared to admit.

She had had premonition dreams before, as was her ability, her gift, but none of them had ever been so undecipherable. None of them had ever left her guessing as to there meanings. She did not know what it was she was supposed to do to clear the sadness from his eyes. The state of deep loneliness in his soul.

"Do not worry, my child." Her grandmother chided, once more caressing her cheek in loving reassurance. "You will follow the correct path. What will be done, will inevitably be done. Do not fear."

"Yes, grandmother." Ife mumbled under her grandmothers gentle affection.

"Good. Now, let us go and continue preparation for the festival. We must gather all of the cards and herbs. It is custom that our family share our gifts with our people. We will heal those who come to us and we will share paths to be taken. It is our duty."