It was midnight and they both took the shorowed of darkness to run to a differnt land they hurd of an empire were her priestess powers would be accepted and no longer her oddness frowned apon no longer will she be a slave ....They took by foot and headed for the boat they had hidden in the water's a mile out from his home her love kissed her softly to resure her that hes with her all the way no matter. Hand in hand they left there old home behind....to there new home ....what ever shall become of them now from once king now to a villien in his own name takeing a slave girl under as his own ....no longer would she call him master but now she could call him her love they had hidden it for far to long ....this was there time to make new freinds and embrace there happiness.....forever...thats what they shall be

The Night wind blew down from the mountains and across the rolling tundra of the steppes.
So much had ended this night....and yet so much had begun!


They both had been cold before but He had never been allowed to comfort her. Tonighht the realization struck him, that NOW He could! The rush of warmth it sent through his very soul scould be felt where she lay across from him under the boughs of the evergreen they sheltered under.

The customs forbade them to even speak except in formal ceremony. Why should something of such real beauty face away in the withering glare of others suspicions. But the two had. And had always felt as if they were betraying the other every time. They swore to each other they would take the first chance to break away no matter the cost.....wondering if it would truly.....ever come.

The King was new, and the local nameless tribes thought him weak......it was so soon none could tell. They came in the night and raided the settlement of the young king! The bandits were raising chaos everywhere! It was everywarriors own life as they faced four or more bandits each! and among the houses already! someone must have surrendered the gates! The Lady Hollie, a priestess but only a bauble to the personal wims of the powerful clans. The Young Councilor Shazir who had just been raised to the critical position by his friend, contrary to the desires of some others. Those who had thought to gain their own power their and manipulate the young king. Well there he was as well, having evening meal with the 2 other most pwerful people of his reign. As they dined that evening a shout of BETRAYAL! BETRAYAaaaahhh! Alarm arose and the Berater and he knew he must defend his King AND his secret Love! But he was glad he could now look into her eyes without regret and show her his Love. A s the bandits raced up to the central Hall...he saw the odds.......new they were poor, and just planted himself more firmly in their path..................

....................

But that was before...before now. Now he had only to ask with a whisper and she welcomed him...no other to intervene. This time he covered her with his cloack his arms and his warmth . The sweet smell of the swaet and ritual perfumes she had prepared herself with. These were his benchmark, his surety. Even as he loved her and she him, he could still enjoy the dedication this young priestess held to her Goddess and owed to her other world. She had had a service for one and yet, he had fely another presence almost the power he had always suspected was her Goddess , where the service she had befor in among all the others had NEVER been so .......poingant as this simple one for two.
with that blessing, he knew. He knew at least one in the universe approved of them....and 1 other than them, was always MORE than enough.*he kissed her and held her and fell to sleep without worry wrapped round her.*

Things were differnt no longer will she look across the hall to hope he would look to her to give her that little peace of happyness she had craved all day for ...regerteble my goddess forgive me she whisperd to her self urgenceys were made up just be in his prences to breath the same air as his ...then mounths would pass ...it was more us hideing from the guards in the shadows a linering kiss ...a rose pettle left in her room ....they were like adem and eve biteing in to the forbidden fruit and as she lie with the fact she no longer had to hide the kiss she keept just for that much longer maybe just to make sure it was real.....and when she opened her eyes he was still there she sighed in reilf and griped his hand a little tighter ...."i love you" she said as she made her self comfey in his lap the fact she will no longer have to fear the bandits and the chaos they brought ....that night ....he protected her ...it was the night that they were found and her promise she had keept for so long...she thought more then any it was time to plan it ...it took them over a year and she was been forbidden from the royle rooms and rejuesed to a slave she shudders but that is the past he his there new hope

Hearing all the noise, Dogun goes to the window to see what's happening. He sees smoke and a lot of people fighting around. The thracian tribes revolted and attacked his tribe. All he wanted was to unite and rule them all to prosperity. He sees his dream getting ruined in a couple of hours.

The 2 strangers he met and received them as friends came in rushing and yelling something about betraying.

[b]I've seen/b], Dogun says. I've seen how I am received as ruler.

He wait some moments thinking then rushes in another chamber of the building they were in.

Come quick. There is a door here that takes right out of the village. You take this way and I'll take another one. I hope you will be good. Good bye now!

He turn tu Shazir whispering, Take care of her!

She nods to the king and takes off .... she had some news for her love but now was not the right time for him to be told ....but soon enough it shall show she took the door with Shazir hand in hand and runs

Waking up with his body folded around hers instead of looking across a room to a threshold cot..........
Heaven really had beenso far away and yet in his reach for so long.
He breathed deep the fragrance of her and wondered what peculiar way the little slave and the young priestess and the wise woman he now held.......always smelled so like a breeze from paradise? Always she smelled so pure and fresh....even now their 2nd day as refugees. Slowly he took himself from her.

A chuckel to himself. "Then again Shazir, wouldn't it be better just to thank the Gods you have her mysteries in your life!" Maybe it was part of the rituals she took so long after her baths that did it, but of course he was not permitted to view those rites......not unless he was a temple eunuch she'd said! Remembering their first ritual coupeling he had never asked to watch again! Of course that was before.

Before they had even been awakened to the realization of their destiny and the depth of their feelings he'd been with her and that had been,
awkward......exotic....glorifying.........shaming......magical....gratifying.....mysterious?

He just couldn't say what he had felt at the time? He was a well developed young man of 14 and a half when he'd been chosen for the Fertility festival "sacrifice" to the Goddess, and she for the Godesses avatar to bear the blessing and spirit of the "mother" if her sacrifice was adequate. After the blessings had been granted he had been shocked to be told she who had just been a conduit of a deific blessing with his assistance should be now his slave...to be bound by their act and vow. Something apparently neither had expected and that was where their shame had been both had felt trapped by the hidden fact. he was to bind her and her blessings to the tribe for the rest of their lives! The morning after had left such a mixed taste in him. She had been......his first.

They had been Sanctified and enraptured in the rituals and the evocations called through them! Such a translation of body and spirit was not possible, he thought...with a slave who had nothing but what he could give her at the time.

God's how he had been so wrong and blind at first......and even as she accepted her role he could not. Only thinking she had been perhaps not so naive and it had added to his turmoil! As the planting season weathers turned foul the villages mood had turned on them. Much as his own had been tuned on them...and her. All had gone so wrong. Slowly, but eventually he and his now outcast priestess were ostracized. Now , he realized that was his doing . Now he would Give her eternity to Prove that he had been so wrong.

Through it all She...she never abandoned Him, and as the days and the season changed she took her servitude with almost a joy. One day , she had found him returned from yet another failed hunt and as she went around him in his silent darkness doing what he didn't care to know she suddenly stopped before him and until she touched his hand he did not even see her there. He was too tired to feel, let alone fight any of it. He simply allowed himself to be lead and as she undressed him for a warm bath. As she stripped him without remark or regret he stood bemused and as she guided him into the waters he simply had to ask. How? How she could accept this so calmly? This bondage to a stranger? The theft of her right to choose her own future?!
Her answers that day and that hour had blown him away! Shattered who he was and the barrier his society had taught him but which he had erected all by his own hands. His new vision of her had begun there and his new awakening of the magic and love we had shared that first night!

Casting his eyes to where she now lay sleeping on the soft pine bowery smelling of Roses and Spices.
He had decided that today he would wake her to a warm bath, he had been a woodsman for a little while and he thought he'd caught a smell and seen signs of a warm mineral spring nearby. His turn to lead her to a bath and a revelation. Maybe even another blessed coupling of their free spirits like had been the real cleansing of his darkness that she and he had shared after that other bath.

Now was as good a time as any to demonstrate his dedication to the promise he'd returned as his King Dougan gave that last royal command, almost an eternity ago. And with it had given him his only token of safe passage the bronze circlet that the king had worn as a crown. A symbol that inadvertantly had made Shazir the Thracian King!

QUOTE:

Come quick! There is a door here that takes right out of the village. You take this way and I'll take another one. I hope you will be good. Good bye now!

He turn tu Shazir whispering, Take care of her!

And turning away from her after covering her with his tunic and stoking the fire he left in search of his first answer to that command. His cleansing would now be hers.

Back East and into the woods.

Shazir her love had once again gaind a role in the courts she was dishartend and hoped he would not turn to what he was .... around her he had truely became a man and that day they were paired by the rituel and now even more so by there unborn child she couldnt but help fall more and more in love with him .....in there state she would have to wait till she could talk to her godess for advice

He had spent some time to find for her the baths, pure and fresh in thes mountains. The search had not taken long and yet, when he returned he found her sitting with an unfathomable look on her face......turning the bronze torque in her hands while staring off as in to the beyond.

The image before him felt like warning of some distant doom. He could not help but wonder at why she was sitting like this.

"My sweet Priestess? My Love. I have found you a treat to enjoy. Won't you come with me?"

As she held up the hand with the royal symbol at his gesture to aide her uphe KNEW that now was not the time for him to take that hand. So he politely ignored the hand offered and took the other, gently raising her to her feet before him. Since she had not spoken yet he also did not. Gazing down into her eyes he did what he knew would best explain himself and she could not deny
He Kissed her.
and so she would not doubt how she read him the first time....
He kissed her again, even more lingering on her lips.

He watched as her face transformed and she wrapped her hands around his neck. She clung with the royal symbol hanging from her fingertips across his back, her arms around his neck. A thoughtful smile played around her lips as if she was tasting his meaningand yet just enjoying their Kiss. Placing a finger to her llips he silenced their talking for now. No look of concern to cast fear or doubt or caution to her.

He kicked in their small campfire and scattered the bedding branches. After draping his tunic over her pretty hair like a bridal shawl he made a face at her all googely eyed and mock adoration just to make her laugh. The light note of laughter that escaped her was like music that echoed softly as chimes on the morning air. His fingertip touched her lips but she'd taken a playful snap at it showing her beautiful white teeth. He chuckeled at the reply with a quick kiss ....and she bit his lower lip instead!

Leading just a few minutes more he stopped as they overlooked a small formation of hot springs and a small rivulet. Standing her next to one he modestly undressed but stood their before her as he had been created in his own mother's womb. No sensation but reverence for his woman as he slowly stepped back into the warm waters watching and waiting for her to drop the torque and more.........and join him in the lessed natural bath the gods seem to have put there just waiting there journey here some day.

Holding his hand to her to help her in.
A look of boyish hope and innocent happiness on his face.

She blushed to stand before him naked her belly she had not noticed before had grown and was growing fast she looked to him and then the torque and in her thoughts just said ..... it wont happen i now it.....she dropped it in to the dirt and went to his hand and went and dipped her self in to the water it was warm inviting...


Thank you this is a great treat my king my love


the water seemed to swallow her worries and fears away she sighed and looked to him his face seemed worry and concerned but to move that from his face she splashed the water to him and giggled she then feels his arm move around her waist to pull her close she sat next to him and lent her self on him


Will we be home soon ....promise me ....you will not change

she said it in a tone that was sure that she was not makeing this in to a laugh but maybe was the reason the royle symbol had hypnotised her so much.

The warmth of her smile and the relaxing warmth of the baths had an uncommonly calming effect on him.
He was convinced it was mostly the smile.

Her slim and almost fragile appearing figure was hypnotic to him. Especially since this was his first chance to truly observe it in the Daylight. Unguarded and unafraid of public watchers. Her large opalescent eyes with the violet irses....drew him in ...like the touch of he Goddess granting her a mirror of the starry heavens, through which to filter her visions...her gift.

As she dropped the torque of the Thracian Kings and entered the water the sound was a dull cold clang of copper and bronze against the dust and stone. her entrance by comparison was a musical melody of water splashing and swirling cascade of high and melodic notes, so much more alive.

He briefly acknowledged her thanks and allowed her room enough to lower slowly into the water. It was pleasing to see it rise slowly over the swell in middle, barely marked at all except she had told him the great news. The night before she had told him that her Goddess had given her a certainty of the life that now grew in her.

QUOTE:
Will we be home soon ....promise me ....you will not change

For a moment the look on his face must have gone through a hundred transformations.
Home, soon. He desired the safety and shelter of a home for the two of them so long...
Promise me. Almost as though she had lost him and needed his oath that it should not be...
You will not change. Oh so much hurt rang from this he could not see how he would ever do anything so drastic as this an immediately took her to himself and squeezed her in a warm and lingering embrace.

My dear I will endeavor to be FIRST, your husband and protector and friend and lover. Second...the Priestess consort and guardian and brightest of joys as confidant.
This time his words alone could not ease her worries...his kiss could not erase her troubles from her brow. Then he knew what it was she was most worried about losing in him.....

You will stop worrying or you will regret it!
He said with a lop-sided grin. her distracted face of course continued. So he gave her what she had been asking for. He begins to TICKLE her abruptly! At first just playfully. Then as she still cannot smile while she tells him to stop he continues relentlessly in the face stronger resistanse and her splashing in the pool! Suddenly the two of them find themselves wrestling naked in the pool and out onto the nearby mud becoming thoroughly mmucked until they both collapse there.

She looked so precious to him with nothing between them but that drying layer of mud...funnier as he watched her breath rapidly and tiredly laying next to him. He realized he must look deranged if anything, covered the same and just laying in the mud, chuckeling to himself lightly. ...She's a good fighter he had to admit, even for her small size.
Rising on one arm he looked to her.....

Look, I must do what I think is best for us. I will never come to you without at least one new treasure for our child, and at least one new thing to make you laugh when I return from the most serious times. You and our Babe are the center of my world and my True North. You can show me how the knight sky of Nyx, can always lead me home. Surely she will always help me back to you and guide me if you can only show me what I must look for. And as a proof of my hearts bondage to you.....use what you know how and make of me a slaves collar of this Thracian Torque of the Chieftans this leaders yoke of bronze and copper. One for which you alone will have the magic or the key to remove. I swear it will be my reminder of last resort of where I am most important in this life.

I can think of only one thing that should make you doubt me after all this. I mean, tell me please..... Has she already shown you a vision of us two failing?

And there he let the talking stop as he watched his wife's face and waited for that most important answer.....though it would change his love for her not one drop.