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The Solitary Arrow - by Mack the Knife
   Part Three
   The two traveled for most of two hours, and her walking became labored.
"I will need to rest soon, Harlen, my injuries discomfit me."
   "Not much farther, Rapier," he said, pointing ahead, "just past that
bend ahead.  They were now traversing a shallow valley between two of the
rocky foothills of the more distant Blackspine Mountains.  The hills were a
treacherous place.  He had told her of the humanoids here, the orcs that we
had to escape were probably even from these hills.  "The mountains ahead
are aswarm with dwarves, and the orcs dare not enter them." Harlen said. 
"But they happily raid some of the smaller settlements in these woods.  We
are far from the capital, and the duke doesn't have the men to patrol his
wide demnse well.
   Hyandai looked about nervously.  "The orcs dwell in these hills, yet we
seek refuge here?" She said, watching the slopes on either side of them.
   The hunter nodded.  "Yes, for I know a place they have yet to find
here." He confirmed.  They started going around the indicated turn in the
valley.  "It is just there." He said, pointing to a rock pile ahead of
them.
   "Surely we are not to nestle among that rockfall?" She said, eyeing the
pile of stones dubiously.  As they approached.  "I see no cave, Harlen."
   He smiled widely.  "That is why it is safe, or safer than elsewhere." He
pointed out.  "Because it is very hard to see." The duo moved toward the
rock pile and then actually onto it.  He helped her with the larger step
up's.
   Suddenly, the elf maid felt a cool breeze kiss her cheek.  She turned
toward it, and saw a narrow cleft between two largish stones.  Harlen said.
"Let me check it out, in case something found it in my absence." He
crouched and squeezed his bulky frame through the narrow crevasse between
the stones.  She glanced around the ravine again, watching carefully for
movement among the rucks and small scrubby bushes.  A half minute later his
head and shoulders emerged form the hole.  "Come, m'lady, it is safe." He
said, holding out a hand.
   Hyandai took the proffered hand and he guided her through the quick
twist in the dark cleft in the stones.  They moved some distance in the
dark before her eyes caught a dim illumination ahead.  They entered a cave,
some ten paces long, and maybe half that wide, the ceiling was higher than
her head, but not quite so high as his.  The light seemed to be coming in
from a pair of fist-sized holes in the roof, which let in two bright beams
of sunlight.  Harlen had to duck slightly when standing in here.  Against
the far wall were three barrels, and a couple of crude shelves.  There was
also a wooden framework with a rope hammock hanging from it.  "Home sweet
home." he said, dropping his pack.  He walked over to a shadowy corner and
dragged out a rather sizable chest.  "Let us get comfortable." He added,
opening the chest.
   Hyandai stood near the entrance examining the chamber.  It was
comfortable enough, and surely as secure as anywhere short of a real
settlement.  She slowly slid down the wall, and sat hard on the stone
floor. "How did you find this place?" She asked weakly.
   He was rummaging in the chest, and came up with a small black leather
bag.  "To be honest, I didn't." He said, giving her a wry smile.  "It was
shown to me by another hunter." His face turned downward a little.  "He is
dead now." He added.
   "I grieve for your loss, Harlen." She said.  Her voice weak.  He opened
a small drawstring on the little bag.  Light poured from it, striking the
ceiling.  He reached his thumb and two fingers into the pouch and they
emerged holding something that looked like a glass orb, about two inches
across.  Light filled the room, casting harsh shadows on the walls from
their forms.
   Harlen looked to her.  "Grieve not much, m'lady.  It was by my hand that
he died." He said, his face sour with memory.  Then the expression changed
from distaste to concern.  "Rapier?" he asked, moving to her side.  "Are
you well?"
   She shook her head, sending her thick mass of hair flying.  "No.  I am
not, Harlen.  I think I may have been injured by the orcs more than I
thought at first." She replied, holding her stomach.
   He dropped to one knee before her, and touched her hand.  "What can I
do?" He asked.  His eyes were full of concern for this small charge he had
sworn to help.
   Hyandai's beautiful face was twisted in pain.  "You have done more than
I should expect." She said through clenched teeth.  "This pain is deep,
Harlen, It will only mend with time."
   The hunter leaned close to her and, placing an arm behind her back and
one under her knees, picked her up.  He was surprised at the lightness of
his burden.  She looked up at him.  "A girl could get used to this
treatment." She tried to joke, but the small giggle she gave out caused her
much distress.  He laid her upon the hammock and straightened out her
blanket dress.  When he pulled his arms from beneath her, he noticed the
one behind her knees was streaked with blood.
   "You're bleeding." He said, back to her eyes.
   She nodded, a look like shame on her face.  "I know." She said.  "I need
you to get me something to keep me from making a mess with my bleeding."
Her face took on a dark look.  "Or more of one, I should say."
   He stood up and crossed to the chest.  Inside he found what he sought.
Another blanket, this one of softer weave and more insulating, the took out
his knife, and started cutting small pieces from it, and handed one to her,
the others he put on a shelf within reach of the hammock.  He set the
glowing orb upon that shelf too.  She thanked him and pulled her arm into
the shift, she moved about a bit then her hand emerged again.  "That should
help." She said.  "I am going to owe you a fortune in blankets I fear.
   Harlen took one of the small cloths and walked to one of the barrels. 
Lifting the lid off the barrel, he dunked the cloth into it, it emerged
dripping water.  The hunter crossed the floor and offered her the cloth. 
She was asleep.  He hesitated a moment, but then knew that he needed to
minister to her, and she was his charge.  Grabbing the lowest hem of the
shift, he lifted it until he had revealed her most private place.  The
cloth over it was still dry to the outside, and he used the wet cloth to
clean the blood from her thighs.  He then lowered the hem and cleaned his
arm.  She slept, and they needed food, else she would surely weaken.  He
figured there was enough daylight left, so he took up his bow and the
broadsword, and slipped out of the cave.
   Back in the hills, he moved toward the small pool that he retrieved
water from.  As he got closer he crouched low.  The animals of this area
frequented the pool, but they were skittish creatures, mostly wild goats
and the occasional deer that had wandered far from the woods.  As he drew
over the last blocking cover he peered around the large stone.  Excellent,
he thought.  A deer was sipping water from the pool.  It looked was a young
male, recently driven from its father's harem.  Harlen drew an arrow forth
and kissed it.  I then knocked it to the string and drew back.
   In one fluid motion of long practice he stood and aimed at the same
time. By the time the deer started to raise its head, the arrow was in
flight.  The small beast was just turning to run when the arrow struck
home, piercing its chest deeply and from Harlen's long experience, its
heart.  It began to run, but only stumbled about four paces before
collapsing to the ground.  He approached it with the broadsword drawn.  It
stared up at him with a single terrorized eye, panting.  He brought the
blade down on its neck, severing the head cleanly, and ending its
suffering.
   The hunter knelt beside the fallen beast, and offered a prayer to the
One for his blessing of meat and skins.  He then took out a small but sharp
knife and slit its belly open, spilling the guts onto the stones.  In under
an hour, he had skinned the deer crudely, and salvaged two large haunches
of meat.  The remainder he left for the carrion birds and other such
creatures who specialized in dealing with such messes.  Again, he whispered
a thanks to the One, and set off with his prizes to the cave.
   As he crawled through the short tunnel that led to the cave, he heard
Hyandai calling his name.  He sped up his pace, managing to bang his shin
against a large protruding bit of stone.  "I am here." He said in answer to
her plaintive call.  "I had to get us some food." He dropped the meat onto
the top of the chest, and laid the skin in the corner farthest from the
hammock.
   She sighed, and fell back into the hammock, she had been elevating her
head to look about with her elbows.  "I was afraid you had left." She said.
"Though this would be a more than fitting tomb for me." She said, her voice
dark and sallow.
   "I promised to keep and care for you." Harlan said, coming to her side.
"Why would you fear me leaving?"
   She looked up from the hammock, her golden eyes intense.  "For I am
likely no longer as pleasing to your eye and mind as I was when we first
met." She broke the stare and looked at the glowing sphere.  "I am badly
used now, Harlan." She was crying.  "Mercifully for my betrothed, he did
not have to witness my rude deflowering."
   Harlan then did something that shocked her.  He laughed.  The sound was
rich and deep, and she realized that he had yet to really laugh since she
had met him.  It echoed off the walls of the cave, filling the space with
the uproar of many men.  She turned to him, her eyes hurt now more deeply,
feeling that he was ridiculing her on top of her own shortcomings.
   He saw her expression and stopped laughing instantly, biting off the
sound with a snapping of his jaw.  "Hyandai, I know of no female of any
race that I desire more than you." He smiled down to her.  "You are an
incredible person.  I've watched you kill, I've felt your healing touch,
and I've witnessed you in need and strength." He knelt beside her and took
her small hand.  Kissing it he whispered.  "If I do not try to turn your
heart to me it is because I believe such would be impossible.  For one so
beautiful as you, and as glorious of spirit would find jest in such a
misplaced hope."
   Her look of hurt and disgust at herself turned in a blink to one of
astonished pleasure.  "Harlan.  You have earned my heart thrice over
already, and we have known one another only a day." She pulled his hand
back with hers and brought it to her lips.  "Take it, if you would."
   She moved her hand down to her chest, placing his hand over her heart.
He felt the soft swelling of her small breast, and the breath flowing into
her lungs then back out, and he felt the fast staccato rhythm of her heart.
She reached up to his chest, sliding her hand between two of the ivory
buttons and felt his skin beneath, she slid her fingers along the center of
his chest, then felt his heart pounding like a drum, the power startled
her. She pressed her palm over it, the pumping was so tangible to her, so
solid.  He had life in his body, and power, and it was in her service.
   "You are in sore danger, Rapier." He said, quietly.  "Your heart
flutters as if you are going into shock." His face was worried and serious,
and wholly adorable to her.  "I will find wood and make a fire to keep you
warm."
   She smiled gently.  "My body is not in shock as you call it, sweet
Harlan.  My heart races for you, it leaps for your touch."
   He laughed nervously.  "Then perhaps you are sick with fever, then.  For
your judgement seems askew." He said.
   Her face grew a bit exasperated.  "Hear me, Harlan the Hunter.  If I
were not injured as I am now, I would place your hand elsewhere and prove
my response to your touch in a way I feel certain would not generate
excuses."
   The large huntsman blushed deeply at her words, and she felt his heart
give a mighty leap that was astounding in its power.  "Then I accept your
heart, Hyandai, and will keep it for you until you wish it returned." He
cupped her breast and pressed down, feeling her heart more firmly, and
could now tell the difference in the pulses as the heart performed its duty
of animating her body.
   "You may indeed be waiting a long while, hunter, ere you hear a request
for that.  Once a heart is given, it is not lightly retrieved." She could
feel it approaching finally, that which she had been looking for.  Then it
happened.  Her eyes closed as their hearts matched pace, thumping quickly
in time with one another.  She whispered "Ten ertendea ar er're lye vesta
melauva." She whispered into the air, and Harlan felt his heart swell with
those words.  It was a incantation of some sort, surely.  The words echoed
in his head, and wrapped themselves around his mind.  They burned with a
fire in his mind's eye, scorching themselves into his psyche.
   He looked down at her.  "That was beautiful, as everything about you is.
It was elven?"
   Hyandai said.  "It was." She said.  They are ancient words that one says
to their love.  I would be honored if you repeated them to me."
   Harlan stumbled a bit as she guided him through the phrase.  Then he
cleared his throat and said.  "Tel ertendea ar er're lye vesta melauva."
She sighed, and he wondered if there were words now burning into her mind.
Her smile grew beatific, and she just laid there for a moment, then
reopened her eyes.  They stared into him, and he thought for a moment he
saw the fire of those words there.  "If you would take me as yours, you
should kiss me, but be warned, taking an elven woman is not a light task.
We are not humans, and you may find that your choice will not be as easily
accepted as you might think."
   He paused.  "If I kiss you, we're married?" His face blanching a little
at that.  "I didn't think that you would want such a firm commitment to
me." He said.
   "If you kiss me, I will be yours for one year and one day." She said,
and tried to ignore the look of fear that had just crossed his face.  He
seemed to be second-thinking this commitment to a soiled maiden.  Quite
wisely, she thought to herself.  "If you would not have that, then do not
kiss..."
   Her voice was cut off by a pair of large, powerful and quite
enthusiastic lips on hers.  Her heart leaped again with the contact.  There
was no hesitancy in them, and no doubt.  She returned the kiss, showing him
she was as enthusiastic in this matter as he, perhaps more.  Their mouths
joined, and their mouths opened slightly, and she felt the bulk of his
human tongue in her mouth, filling it, she liked the feeling and sucked on
the tongue greedily.  He withdrew after a moment, and she darted her tiny,
sharp tongue into his mouth, and he felt it dance in his mouth, darting
about, touching and feeling, and finding.  They fenced thus for several
long moments before finally pulling apart from the kiss.  He would have
moved sooner, but her other hand had come up and was holding his head in
place, keeping him in the kiss longer.  He put his hand behind her head and
cradled it.  Like all of her, it felt so small to him, and so totally
absorbing.  The hair, despite it's rather thick look, was incredibly soft
to the touch and ran through his fingers like water when he curled them
into it.  She laid her head back.  "It is done, malamin." she said,
happily, and her eyes half closed.
   "I think I should sit now, for else I will likely fall." he moved the
meat off the chest and dragged it beside the hammock.  His legs did seem a
bit unsteady, like he had drunk strong ale.  He sat upon it, placing his
face level with hers.  "Hyandai, you are certain you wish this?" He asked.
   She giggled, and again, it was the sound of the brook over stones.  "You
ask such questions a few moments late, Harlan, but, yes, I am quite
certain." He looked at her eyes, half lidded and very happy-looking.  "What
do those words we spoke mean, Hyandai?"
   She looked into space a little, recalling them in his language.  "For a
year and a day we will love." She intoned.  "It is like the human ritual of
`engagement.'" She explained.  "Except we will be a pair now, and decide
then whether we wish to make it eternal in one year and one day.
   He nodded to her words.  "Yes, I noted it, and I do not mind it at all."
He took her near hand and held it.  "I find myself glad, as this is a leap
year, and I get an extra day beside you."
   Her face looked pained, "Melamin, I am in need of your help." She said.
"Please wet me another cloth, and then turn away as I change my dressing."
She grimaced.  "I would not have you see your partner in such a state, but
I must have some help if I am to recover." She looked down at herself.  "If
I try to walk any more, I will tear all the wounds that are now mending
slowly." She gave him a long look.  "If it were my choice we would both be
much happier at this time, but I am content with your love for now."
   Harlan did as his betrothed bid him.  He gave her the wetted cloth and a
new dry one.  He went to the meat and began cutting it into smaller pieces
with his sharp boot knife.  He glanced back and saw that she had changed
and lowered her hem, and was apparently sleeping.  He risked waking her by
asking.  "Do you eat meat?" He had heard tales that conflicted on that
issue, but he had noted sharp teeth in her mouth when she smiled.
   Her giggle startled him.  "That eager, are you, melamin?" She pretended
to just now notice the haunch of deer meat.  "Yes, venison is quite all
right for me, and given the circumstances we find ourselves in, probably my
best choice of all foods." She looked on with alert eyes as he prepared the
meat for the spit.
   He smiled and finished cutting the deer meat into smaller hunks.  Then
he stacked wood in a small fire pit that had been dug out of the soft stone
floor in years past.  Once it was burning, he started spitting the meat on
small metal spikes that he produced form his large chest.  Next, while the
deer meat cooked, the scraped the deerskin he had acquired.  Preparing it
for tanning, a process he would have to go outside for.  He did not know
but she watched him surreptitiously from her lying position.  She marveled
at his confidence and ability to do whatever was needed of him at a given
moment.
   She quietly thought to herself.  I have chosen well, this is truly a
good man.  Then a darker thought followed.  And no elf would have me now.
She then chastised herself not to speak so, do not belittle your
commitment, or his.  For it was a well done and good thing, and you know
it.
   He thought while he scraped the veins and bits of meat off the deerskin.
And those thoughts were of Hyandai.  She had just accepted him to her, at
least for a time.  This, I think, shall prove a most interesting year, he
thought.
  
103 - The Solitary Arrow - Part Three