Foretold

Chapter 7

Alex groaned as he sat up on the wooden frame covered in pine boughs, which served as a bed. The Praelia really needed to get more comfortable mattresses - if the uncomfortable branches could be called a mattress. As far as Alex was concerned, he would have been just as well to sleep on the floor - maybe better.

Vasiliki walked brashly into the little room. She saw that he wasn't wearing his shirt, and she went red. He cleared his throat, embarrassed, and pulled on his shirt hastily.

It had been three months since Alex arrived among the Praelia. During that time, Alex had been learning to speak their language and beginning research with Vasiliki. The language barrier was gone now, but still they discovered little to aid them.

"Vasiliki, we've found nothing for three months. Do you still believe that we can find a way to fix the Way?" He got off the bed and walked over to her.

She flinched slightly as he came near. Even after three months, she wasn't sure bow to deal with him. Her heart fluttered strangely within her breast and her stomach flopped when he came close to her, his broad, hard-muscled chest brushing against her bare, tanned arm. Nervous, she shied away from him, trying to maintain a distance of several feet between them.

Alex gave her a strange look. "What's the matter? I suppose I ought to find someplace to wash my clothes and myself."

His question eased the tension between them. She moved back next to him, but she didn't touch him. She rarely did. On occasion, she'd work up the courage to lean her head on his shoulder, but usually, she felt to shy to initiate much other contact. "It is not you. It is me."

He frowned. "You? What could possibly be wrong with you? Eh?"

She blushed. "Everyone has faults."

He glanced at the rising sun, then back at her. "That's not what you meant though, is it?"

Vasiliki felt her cheeks heat up once more. Alex always did this to her. She felt downright feminine with him - girly even. "I... I... Alex, of course that's what I meant. What else would I mean?" That she couldn't think straight around him and that she was experiencing a set of feelings that she had never experienced before?

No. To say that to him would be to embarrassing. And yet, a part of her longed to tell him what she was feeling. But she didn't know how to express it. It was sort of like the feelings she had for her family and tribe. But it was also completely different. What was the word for such intense longing and desire? She wanted nothing more than to have him smile at her during the day. Or to hear his laugh. Or just be near him and soak in the happy, fuzzy feeling his closeness sent rippling through her.

Alex noted her long silence and the rosy blush that stained her tanned cheeks. "Vasiliki?"

She turned to him, her heart bursting with emotion. But she let none of it fly across her face even in passing. "We should get to work." She strode from his chamber and did not look back, knowing he was following by the warmth beside her right arm as he walked up beside her.

***

Vasiliki sat in the tree's branches, tears trickling down her cheeks. Alex made her so happy, but at the same time, he made her miserable. She could never have him. If he succeeded at returning them to their home, he would leave to go back to a place he called home. And she would be left behind. But if he failed, she would still lose him. Her mother would kill him or enslave him, and he would be considered the lowest of the low. She wouldn't be allowed to see him or speak with him again.

This realization was like a punch to the gut. Vasiliki hated her mother for it then for being the thing standing between her and true happiness. If it weren't for her mother and her ridiculous adherence to rituals that would end in the tribe's extinction, Vasiliki would be able to have what she wanted. Never once did it occur to her that maybe Alex wouldn't have to agree with her. Or that he might not feel the same way.