THE END OF BEGINNINGS

FOURTEEN

The afternoon sunlight soon began to wain.  A misty twilight had begun to settle over the damp forest.  Deep, sinewy shadows stretched across the muddy ground between the towering trees.  Night birds, with their leathery wings, glided over the wet canopy.  Their piercing eyes scanned the floor between the branches for any scurrying prey that had begun to come out.  The humid air that had grown silent in the wake of the hunt began to fill with the haunting and echoing squawks of the circling birds.  It masked the faint and subtle noise of an alien mass pushing through the dark and dripping brush.
The object was small and spherical in shape.  A light layer of dew had begun to form on its metal body.  It moved effortlessly above the ground, gliding smoothly around the tree stocks.  Its trek was not a swift one.  It wasn't racing in any one direction or another.  Instead, it seemed to be searching for something.  A pale blue lens scanned the terrain immediately around whichever direction it would face.  Sensors within its palm-sized body probed the deepening dark, cataloging detailed data of the foreign place.
It stopped at a grove of young trees nestled amongst the deep woods.  The small bot took particular interest in the swath of broken saplings that had been carved through the narrow copse.  It noticed the trampled ground.  There were two sets of footprints amongst a blanket of splinters and woody debris.  Closer inspection revealed one set of tracks familiar to the hovering robot and one set that was brand new to its memory banks.  Nearby, tufts of long, wiry hair clung to a few of the jagged stumps of the mowed-down saplings.  There was no blood to be found, no evidence of body parts having been torn away and discarded.  The chase the stamped mud bore evidence of had not ended here.  So, with nothing else to scan, the flying sphere moved on.
It's likely that at that moment, the ancient android was probably aware it was being watched.  It might have assessed the pair of glowing eyes staring intently at it from within a row of nearby brush.  The animal hadn't moved the entire time the sphere had been hovering in the broken grove.  It was simply watching, keeping every muscle in its body deathly still.  The sphere might have recognized that the stealthy stalker would be no match for its own abilities to evade any attack.  But, then again, the little robot might have ignored the glimpse of the creature altogether.  Either way, the artificial intelligence would have had no way of knowing that the two of them were now, by happenstance, on the very same trail.

*         *         *

Geras Aurallio stood in front of the hut he and his family had come to call home.  He breathed in the evening air before slowly exhaling.  Just below the hill the modest, round structure had been built on, the teeming village of Agan buzzed with excitement.  There was laughter and loud chatter echoing around the numerous other huts.  Drummers had just finished setting up their heavy instruments near one side of the village's center.  An alter was being flourished with last minute additions of brightly colored flowers and silky, snow-white vines.  The whole thing had been placed in front of a small, old shrine.  A pair of great pyres flanked the focal part of the ceremony soon to begin.  A few of the Aganni women were at each tall mound.  They expertly laid dry leaves that would give off a crisp perfume once the bonfires were lit.
Geras watched the diligent activities and smiled.  He felt truly at peace.
"Are you planning on watching the wedding from here," asked the woman that had been humming behind him.
Geras turned his head to peer over his shoulder.  His smile widened at the sight of his wife standing near the open doorway of their hut.  "The view is certainly hard to beat."
Sidonia Aurallia looked up at her husband's playful tone.  "That may be," she said, smiling back at the man who never failed to make her feel as beautiful as the stars, "but we're going to be late if you don't finish getting ready."
Geras looked himself over.  "I'm ready."
"What about your paint?"
Geras scrunched up his face.  "Ahh, yes.  Of course.  Which family are we sitting with, again?"
Sidonia continued finishing her own preparations by the door.  She was going through a stack of small, wicker crates just inside the hut when she answered her husband's question.  "The groom's."
"Right."
"You probably should have shaved your beard."
"I'm not going to shave my beard," Geras replied.  Without thinking about it, his hand moved up toward his face, his fingers lightly stroking the soft hair that had finally started to thicken over the last few weeks.  It was pale-brown in color with a subtle dusting of gray speckled sparsely throughout.  "I finally have it growing in the way I like.  Besides, I thought you liked my beard?"
"Oh, I do," said Sidonia with a smile.  "But, you'll be the only man there with one."
"I'm fine with that."
"It will stand out."
"Only because the Aganni men can't grow facial hair.  Or much hair anywhere, for that matter."
Sidonia arched one of her eyebrows.
"What?  I'll make it work," he said with a confident smile.  "Anything else I'm forgetting?"
Sidonia stood up from the boxes and baskets she had been searching through.  She faced her husband, holding a large, fully bloomed flower in each hand.  "Pick a color," she instructed.
"For what?"
"The flower for your tunic," Sidonia said, laughing.  "Do you remember nothing the families instructed us on for the ceremony?"
Geras left the edge of the hill where he'd been standing.  "I remember watching you," he said as he approached his wife, "and being in total awe of your beauty and enthusiasm."
"Is that so," Sidonia asked playfully.  "Well, I can't really be mad at you for that."
"Thank goodness," Geras said as he wrapped his arms around Sidonia's waist, drawing himself closer to her.  He leaned his face closer to hers.  Their brows touched gently, a thin lock of her hair teasing his skin.  "Especially since it is something I am at a complete loss to control."
Sidonia blushed.  She lifted her chin to brush her lips against her husband's.  "Thank goodness for that," she whispered.
They kissed, softly at first, letting their tender lips linger on each other's for a moment neither wanted to end.  Geras held Sidonia closer against his body.  She sighed at the feeling of being held in his embrace.  She loved moments like these, when she could enjoy the comfort of his strength and the overwhelming warmth of his body.  It fueled her love for him, a love she had felt from the first moment she saw him.
"When does the ceremony start," he asked at a whisper, finally finding the power to break the lock their lips had held.
"At first moonlight," she answered.
"Good.  They we have time," Geras said, smiling deviously.
"But the paint for your face and chest..."
"I'll get it done."
"And you have to pick a flower," Sidonia protested weakly.
"You pick for me.  I trust your judgement implicitly."
Sidonia didn't get a chance to answer.  His lips were on hers again, or were her's on his?  It didn't matter.  They were together and that was all she cared about in that moment.  The passion in Geras was a passion burning in her.  They stumbled backward into the hut, giggling quietly as they tried to keep from breaking any part of their embrace.