Engraved - The Hunted Warrior

Chapter 15.2 - Meetings

Shaleh looked at him thoughtfully.

Why tell me he still loves someone else? Is he is trying to scare me away? Or is it some kind of test? Well more than one person can test.

"I was told that men look only for beauty in a woman." She smiled at him.

He smiled back. "You are more than beautiful tonight, you are mesmerizing. And you know it."

She blushed both from the compliment and the transparency of her vanity.

"But what will it be like in the winter when we are snowed in our tent with a crying child, and your silk dress is neatly folded away?"

Her smile faded at the horrible image.

"Let me tell you what it will be like," he continued. "It can be paradise, or hell. It all depends on whether or not we love and respect each other. And to love and respect means knowing each other. At the moment you definitely don't know me, and I don't know you. But I would like to."

"You mean it, don't you? You're not playing some game?"

"Games are for children, and I haven't been a child for many years."

"Fine," she leaned in throwing caution away. "But you will not like my answer. There are many things that bring me joy, but most of all is freedom." She expected him to frown or show some sign of displeasure. Most clansmen seemed to consider the ideal woman to be someone who looked after the tent and supplied a stream of babies.

"Freedom to do what?" Nurlan asked with a smile.

"Whatever I want." she said defiantly.

"Ah!" he laughed suddenly, drawing the attention of the others. "Then you have a problem! Freedom is an illusion. None of us in this world can do what we want. Especially those of us in this tent. Isn't that right, King?"

Kirill shrugged his shoulders in a gesture of helplessness. "It is the burden of leadership."

Shaleh glanced at her mother and caught Pim's scowl.

"So Nurlan, what do you think of this charming young woman?" asked Kirill.

"I think I would like to see her tomorrow, or the next day, once my duties are finished. That way she can see if she really wants a bitter soldier for a husband, and I can see if she is as charming in the daylight as she is in the night."

"Very few women are!" laughed Kirill. "The dark is when women are at their best!" Shaleh saw both Pim and Kirill's wife frown at him.

"As always, I defer to your superior knowledge of such things," Nurlan bowed.

Shaleh gazed at Nurlan.

What a strange man. Either he doesn't know the rules, or he doesn't care. I wonder how he is related to Kirill? Surely not a son.

"And Daughter," said Urlock, "What do you think of Nurlan?"

"I think he is an unusual man, but I have not decided yet if being unusual is good or bad. I accept his invitation to visit when he finishes his duties so he can see if I am more than a silly girl in a silk dress."

Both her parents frowned at her but kept their mouths shut.

***

Gretch the Hunter approached the sprawling camp. The sounds of joy were loud. There would be no joy for him.

A figure walked out from the tents and walked towards him. He checked his clothes. He was satisfied that he looked as much like a barbarian as he could, but his hand still wavered near the hunting knife on his hip. The figure was undeniably female. Her hips swayed rhythmically as she walked straight towards him.

Strange.

He relaxed his hand away from the knife. She was silhouetted by the camp fires behind her so he could not make out her face. But something about her tugged at his memory. She wore a long dress quite different from the clothes that the barbarian women wore. He caught his breath and stopped walking suddenly.

The woman from the dream.

As she drew near he was struck by her perfection. His heart accelerated.

"Hello, Gretch the Killer."

She was not smiling as he remembered her in the dream, if it was a dream.

"So you are real."

"Indeed," she crossed her arms impatiently. "Why are you here, Hunter?"

"You know why."

"Then despite my warning you still intend to kill the barbarian and his friend?"

Gretch locked eyes with her. "Yes. I hunt and I kill. It is what I am."

"You will not get what you desire from being what you are. I have seen it," she said.

"Is that what you have come to tell me?"

"Yes. Turn around and go home."

"Are you going to stop me?" Gretch asked. His hand moved to the knife.

"No."

"Then stand aside." With a supreme act of will he tore his gaze from her vivid blue eyes and walked past her. Before entering the camp he cast a quick glance over his shoulder to get one more glimpse of her, but she had disappeared into the night.

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-Y. V. Qualls