Season's Change Winter's Plight Book 1

19 I Can Hear You

That stupid human was as stupid as they got. She heard him moving long before he made it to the entrance of their sleeping quarters. He was getting better at moving his feet and carrying his weight over the ground so as to not be heard while moving. But he still had so much to learn. This time she didn't hear him breathing as he approached, and his arms didn't rub against his clothes. In fact, he barely made a sound as he moved, but to ears that were used to operating in complete and total darkness, even the tiniest sound was perceptible; elven ears at that. She felt her heart swell with a sense of pride she was not certain she should be feeling. He was a very good student.

She considered just dropping a globe of darkness over herself, so she could finish bathing and go on about what she needed to do, but she did not like wasting her magic and it would take a long time for it to dispel. She had just finished washing. She was well versed in the ways of male Dark Faye. She wondered if humans were any different. Aside from hair in the oddest places, he was not put together much different than a male Dark Faye. She often wondered what all that hair was for. It didn't keep him warm like the big toothed heavy animals, bears, that is what he called them. It did not serve the same purpose as the fur on a wolf or even the tiny little rat looking things that had fur. It seemed useless, maybe decoration? Things in her dark world did not have hair on them. It made too much noise. She did not know and could not afford to find out why he had hair on his body. He needed to move either into the cave or out. His presence in the doorway was making her want to throw something at him, maybe even herself. She was done washing and needed to get out of the pool. If they had been in her homeland, she would have simply left the pool keeping her back to him until she was covered, then turned to see what effect that had on him if any. But that was before, and they were not in her homeland. He was not the son of a future matron or her matron and he was not Dark Faye. Save him that was what she had been commanded to do. Not educate him in ways she was not certain he was aware of.

In her homeland, she was responsible for preparing the males of the house for the roles that they would play in the house and others. She did not have the demeanor or desire to be a priestess. She was not displeased by that fact either. She had no desire to serve The Goddess or her people. The most highly praised position among the females of the city was First Matron and first daughter or that of high priestess. She wanted no part of that. She was not meant to be a priestess, so she was trained as a warrior, a nursemaid and used to teach the males their softer roles with women. That training and use included educating males of the house about the body of a woman, teaching him the different ways he could please a matron, for that was all that the males were good for. That and fighting or fodder, breeding, and pleasing females. If they could not fulfill those roles and responsibilities, they were sold as slaves or forced into servitude or killed. If a male failed to please his matron, he could be killed on the spot. Such skills were a necessity and she was the one that taught the males of her house those skills. She taught them and taught them well. She sensed that the structure of his house and home was very different. From all that he said females were revered, but the name of the house was passed down from father to son. It was a woman's responsibility to please her husband but there was no threat of death if she didn't get it quite right. Humans were so strange. She needed only to teach him how to survive and nothing more. She took a deep breath and fought to clear her mind of such useless thoughts. Food. Food was next. Food and water.

"Avi?" He jumped from his skin at the sound of his name upon her lips and shook himself from his daze near violently enough to fall over. His cheeks flushed hotly as the same heat spread rapidly through his body down to his toes. He was embarrassed and confused. How had she known he was standing there? How long had he been standing there staring at her smooth wet back letting his imagination take him places that he didn't need to go? His feet, despite the extra warmth, seemed frozen in place and his jaw locked tight refusing to open, and words refused to come out of his mouth. He swallowed hard and forced her name past his parched lips.