A Gift

JP with Omni and Lorem

When the cool cloth touched her skin she winced at first with an abrupt intake of breath, but Gonyaul’s touch was gentle.

She heard his whispers… all of them. Thank Hoi. Even in her state she could uphold the honor of her Goddess.

“Thank you.” she said as a smile formed and she blushed.

It was not just a response to Gonyaul’s compliment, but his attendance to her wounds as well. Soon she closed her eyes in relaxation.

“You think me remarkable… but you are unlike anyone I’ve ever met… I have decided… I like your heart… and I shall keep it a little longer.” she teased him, looking back over her shoulder.

Occasionally, there was a spot that needed more passes with the damp cloth in order to remove the collected grime. When this happened, Gonyaul had to place his naked other hand upon her soft flesh to help steady her. When he felt the smooth warmth beneath his sense of touch, his hand instantly felt a yearning that was exponentially spreading throughout his entire body.

He blushed at her compliment, while simultaneously mesmerized by the landscape of her shoulder blades. In truth, he thought most people, if not all, just found him strange and bizarre. He didn’t care what others thought, but her opinion meant the world to him.

When she teased him and turned her head to glance over her shoulder, Gonyaul looked up and met her gaze. He instantly melted, swooning from the gorgeous sight before him. He was so transfixed his other motor skills, the washing of her back, came to a pause without him realizing it.

“Thank goodness, cause my heart tell me it like being with you better than me.” He playfully flirted back with a pinch of shyness.

He blushed long and hard as their eyes met. His gaze bashfully went down to her luscious lips and he had to fight the growing urge to drink from them.

His eyes next traveled further south, to the gracefulness of her neck, and he suddenly realized it was bare of the necklace he always had seen her wearing.

He inquired. “Necklace gone?” Had she just taken it off or was it lost he wondered.

Voah was pleased with herself as well as her beau’s response. Then she was taken aback at his next question. She reached her hand up to the empty space between her clavicles where Till’s teak figurine had once hung. It was gone indeed and in all the chaos of the last few days she had nearly forgotten.

“Yes… It belonged to a friend who I lost. I liked to think it brought me luck. I suppose, in a way, it did. For here I am… and the necklace… it lies somewhere beneath the mountains.”

Her tone was somber as she looked back over the memories. Perhaps the luck had come full circle and it had served its purpose. None of her lucky stars remained. She noticed that feeling had left Lord Riese and Till had very likely died on Sentinel Island.

Gonyaul empathized with her loss and stopped what he was doing for a moment and brought his hands to the back of his own neck. He untied his necklace. It was a simple necklace of a seed from a life sustaining fruit bearing plant, in the Kru’ll jungle where he grew up, that had been hardened by flame and sliced open to reveal the beautiful natural intricacies of its interior.

Voah could feel him move closer. Still behind her, he reached over her left shoulder and held it in his hand so she could see it.

“Sorry to hear loss.” He whispered, his mouth closer to her ear then it had been before.

“This necklace not luck, but brings reminder of life. Make choice to push against odds and does best to rise. Bears the sweetest fruits to enjoy. You let me give you?”

Gonyual was silent for a moment and when he came closer and whispered, she nearly shuddered at the exhilaration of his words upon her ear.

She examined the necklace with her eyes and hands. He had worn it in her presence before but she had to admit that his eyes and his tattoos had certainly overshadowed the fact that he was wearing it.

“That’s lovely.” she was referring to both the necklace and his words. “I will take it… only for trade. You have already given me a gift… remember?”

She was referring to the poem he had given her on her natalday and she had every intention of repaying him with a poem of her own.

Gonyaul tied the necklace around her neck. He let his fingers linger along its gracefulness and down her shoulders before picking up the wash cloth and resuming his attention on lower in her back.

“True. You give me lots of gifts my heart bursting to hold them all.”

She had turned slightly to see him better. He was laden in warm winter clothes. How sweet and respectable was he. She chuckled.

“By the Gods, you ARE adorable!“ Voah coughed a little a flinched at each body ache as she covered her laughing with a hand.

“Forgive me… I mean no offense, but take those silly things off. You’ve got to be sweating, darling.”