Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 61: Weeping Willow

Taylor ran a hand down the trunk of the tree with a thoughtful frown on her face. "On the dream plains, you can change the surroundings all you want, but you can't change the form or shape of your soul. No matter how I make the plains look, this willow tree is hidden within them somewhere, and not even I know where until I begin searching for it."

Them had the feeling that this information she was telling him was very personal. "Why are you telling me this?"

Taylor hugged her stomach. She looked very delicate and vulnerable. "Because you've been kind to me, and because I want you to stay here with me forever! I wouldn't show all this to just anyone, you know!"

"Stay here forever?" Them repeated. The prospect seemed extremely desirable; he could stay in a beautiful land with a beautiful woman with nothing to do but make love forever—if she would let him--and he wasn't sure he could ever get tired of that. "But it wouldn't be real..."

Taylor frowned, crossing her arms. "So? What do you have to return to? I doubt anything can compare to this."

Them chuckled. "Well, how about we meet in the real world? It may not be as beautiful, but it is real!"

Taylor's frown turned into a scowl. "I won't go to the real world."

Them cocked his head to the side. "Why?"

"Because I don't want to!" Taylor spat. "I'm happier here!"

"Calm down, it was just a suggestion..." Them replied. "I would like to stay, but I have a life in the real world. Speaking of which, you promised you would tell me how I ended up here, I still can't remember."

A miserable frown befell Taylor's face. "But I don't have a life outside of the dream world."

Them didn't follow what she was saying. Compassionately, he asked, "What do you mean...?"

Taylor didn't answer. She brought her knees up to her chest and leaned into the willow, sniffling softly.

"Don't cry..." Them whispered apologetically.

Crickets filled in the silence that followed.

Taylor wiped the tears from her eyes. A twitching smile overcame her frown. "Tell me something about yourself. Something important."

"About me?" Them was surprised. "Well, there's not much to know. I'm in my late twenties, I—"

"Something important!" Taylor cut him off impatiently.

Her voice had deepened; it was loud and made Them sweat with apprehension. He cleared his throat and said the thing that was foremost on his mind, "I want magic more than anything."

Taylor's mouth formed an exaggerated o.

She let her legs dangle again with a jubilant smile.

Them was perturbed by her whirlwind of changing emotions.

"Which would you like more? A kiss from me, or a portion of my magic?" Taylor asked giddily.

Seeing she was feeling better and that she was playing a game that he liked, he replied, "May I have both?"

Taylor swept her luscious, unbound hair behind her shoulder and crawled over to him.

When she was close enough, she pushed him down and pressed herself against him.

She was close enough for Them to admire everything that he found beautiful about her; her heart-shaped face, her sultry eyes, and her shapely breasts.

Taylor leaned in close, Them leaned in close, too.

Her playfulness had him fully charged with passion; he wanted nothing more than to strip her naked, but he knew he had to patient.

Her lips came closer and closer, until...

She blocked his kiss with her hand.

Them scowled and couldn't contain a grumble of anger.

She cupped his face in her hands and brought her face close to his ear. She whispered, "You want magic? You wish to love me?"

Them nodded, barely able to keep his hands to himself.

There was a long pause in which he was allowed to simply enjoy her body being on top of his; it was times like these that he was happy to be so small in comparison to every other species.

There's so much more of her to explore. He thought to himself.

"You'll never have either. You'll never even kiss me on the lips again. This is the last kiss you'll get from me." Her warning terrified him, but he was too electrified to heed it.

She nibbled at his ear for a time.

He found it impossibly stimulating for such an innocent act.

An eternity of pleasure passed. He closed his eyes, relaxing.

Her kisses got rougher and deeper over time, until...

Them yelled when her teeth sank into his ear. She ripped off a chunk of it and spat it out.

He pushed her off.

Taylor climbed to her feet and loomed over him with a pitiless expression.

"You want to know why you're here? You're here because I reached out to you and dragged you into the dream plains. I saw you dying in the cold, and I saved your worthless life." Taylor said with her hands on her hips. "I can feel it in the back of your mind—I could feel it the moment I dragged you in here—you lost something very important in the real world, and you forgot about it because you care about me and your precious magic more than anything!"

Them remembered what he had forgotten.

"Pete!"

Taylor hugged the willow tree for comfort. She murmured, "Go ahead and leave, see if I care..."

Them was so moved by her resigned posture that he nearly stayed.

There she was, a lonely girl who preferred a dream to reality, and seemed to prefer being alone until he came along. And here he was, being selfish and abandoning her.

Weeping willow... Them thought to himself.

He was done with her when she ripped a piece of his ear off, but now it occurred to him that he never wanted to be done with her.

He wanted to be close to her. It wasn't just that he wanted to see what was underneath her clothes; he wanted to see what lay deep beneath the surface of the skin of such a bizarre, wounded woman who wanted to hurt him just as much as she wanted to kiss him.

"I'll be back." Them promised, and then he gathered magic in his closed eyes, pinched himself, and imagined himself back in his own body.

His eyes opened.

He was lying in the middle of a snowstorm.

His ear stung—it felt wet.

He sat up and realized that a chunk of his ear was still bitten off.