Chapter Twelve: Writing On The Wall
Afterwards Leto held Rosie close to him. She rested her head on his naked chest and rested her body on his shirt. They lay with each other with no movement and no noise. As if to speak or twitch would shatter the aura. After a few minutes there came a sound.
"I want to take you back," Rosie told him as Leto ran his fingers down her arm.
"What?" He asked, not sure what she was referring to or what she was talking about. He heard her clearly, but he did not understand what she meant. Rosie was a peculiar creature and she asked strange questions. It was one of the reasons he was attracted to the girl to begin with.
Rosie looked up at him and kissed his lips gently before pulling away, "I want you to come home with me. I want there to be some way you can be in Denerim with me. I never want to leave you…I don't want this summer to end…"
Leto sighed as he looked at the childish girl before him. He kissed her head, inhaling the scent before he looked up into the sky, "If things never end, we could not learn to appreciate the time we have left with people."
"That sounds something my nan would say," Rosie sighed as she ran her hand on Leto's bare chest, "Can you promise me something, Leto?"
He nodded as he put his hand on top of hers.
"Never forget me, Leto," Rosie told him, "Because I will never forget you…"
"I promise, Rosie, I will never, ever forget you," Leto swore.
"Leto, where have you been?" asked Dizen in the early hours of the next morning. The sun was barely up in the sky when the two elves met up to start their daily work. A flock of birds were sitting in the trees. They sung their song as they watched the young men speak.
Not responding to him, Leto just grabbed his axe and started on this work.
"Leto, Leto, Creators I bid you to answer me," Dizen hissed as he grabbed the axe and tried to get Leto's attention, "No one knew where you were last night. Your mother thought you were in the library, but I checked. You weren't there. I told her you were so she wouldn't worry."
"You shouldn't have lied for me," Leto said before he took back his axe.
"Well, I did. It's done. At least give me the courtesy of telling me where you were," Dizen said. He then took a small breath before he said, "I am sorry that I said those things about your mother. I did not mean to upset you."
The younger elf turned to the other and told him after a moment of silence, "I was with Rosie."
"Rosie? The Cousland girl?" Dizen asked to make sure. With a nod, Leto confirmed the question. With a small smile Dizen gave a gentle laugh, "Well do not hold out on me. What were the two of you doing all hours of the night?"
He said nothing about first, debating on whether or not this was any of Dizen's business. It wasn't any of his concern, but he was fond of the boy. He wanted to share the news. But Leto had to make something very clear to his dense friend. "This is between you and me," Leto said seriously, "You cannot. I repeat, because you are so hard headed. You cannot tell anyone what we did."
"Creators, be merciful. Of course I will not tell anyone. Have faith in me as I do for you," Dizen said, "Just spit it out."
Leto glanced around, even though there was no one else around. He then said, with a low voice, "Rosie and I went to the lake on Magister Mikel's property. And I…" He cleared his throat as his cheeks started to redden, "I stole her maidenhood."
And with a large grin, Dizen let out a long laugh before he slapped Leto on the back, "Leto! You sly dog! I knew you had it in you. Bedding a foreign noble's daughter. Well, don't fall silent now. Give me the details. Tell me everything! What's it like? She's a shem, so is it different from being with an elf?"
With a wince, Leto shot Dizen a glare as he tried to soothe the pain in his back. "Considering I have never been with an elf, I'm not sure what I can tell you," Leto said, rolling his eyes. Dizen annoyed him and he was beginning to regret telling his friend what had occurred. So far he was not impressed with Dizen and his actions as of today.
"You've never been with an elf. You need to work on that, Leto…So you've only been with humans?" Dizen asked, trying to get his friend's story straight.
"Yes…Rosie was my first," Leto said. As soon as the words exited his mouth, he tried to snatch them back in.
"She was your first?" Dizen asked with an even bigger smile on his face, "Little Leto lost his virginity to Rosie Cousland. Taking a noble is one thing, but on your first try…Congratulations, Leto." He laughed for a moment before he shook his head, "I'm sorry…I just thought that…Well, your sister gets around, so I figured like sister like brother-" He stopped himself before he cleared his throat, "Never mind, I shouldn't speak of your family."
"Especially when I'm holding an axe," Leto said, dryly, before he continued on with his work.
"A joke! You made a joke and it was somewhat amusing!" Dizen pointed out with a happy sound in his voice, "Someone mark it on a calendar."
Leto sighed softly as he just shook his head.
Life was good, wasn't it? Then why was he having such a queasy feeling in his stomach?
The two friends worked in silence. Leto was grateful for this. He needed a minute to simply think of the situation. He was a slave. Showing affection, much less falling in love, with a better was forbidden. He never even heard of a relationship like this. He was happy that the end of summer would take away this madness. Yet he didn't want it to end. That meant Rosie would leave and he didn't want her to leave. It would be easier if they were at least on the same level. If he was a noble...
However, he was not given this moment to think. As he looked up he saw two guards from the mansion approaching him. As he looked, he immediantly put his head down and stared at the grass. He knew never to look up at his betters. As they came closer, he felt his heart pound. It was like when he was with Rosie, but it started to hurt.
Certain that it was him the guards were after, Dizen began to ramble on, "Oh hello there. About those jokes about your mother, I-" Dizen was pushed to the ground as one of the guards grabbed Leto by the arm.
"Come, slave," the guard said with no emotion in his voice as he turned and started to drag Leto.
Dropping the axe, Leto tried to gain his footing as he started to stutter, "Where-where are you taking me? Why are you-"
"Shut up," the other guard snarled as he backhanded Leto across the young elf's face.
The sound of the slap startled the birds. They flew away, leaving the elves to the mercy of men.
"Hey! He didn't do anything wrong! You can't just do that to people!" Dizen yelled as he scrambled up and went to grab Leto.
The guard kicked Dizen in the stomach, forcing the Dalish elf down. He then put his foot on Dizen's throat and started to press on the bone, "If you don't want to end up like him, you'll keep yourself out of it, knife-ear." The guard took his foot off before kicking him in the face. Dizen yelled out and tried to sit up before he was kicked back down again.
"Stop it!" Leto yelled as the other guard continued to drag him away.
The words barely escaped his mouth when he felt a force attacking his voice. He lost his vision and almost lost his balance. He then felt someone grabbing his other arm. As he stumbled forward, he felt himself trip and fall on the ground.
"Get up!" One of the guards said as he yanked Leto up. The elf regained his vision and also gained the taste of blood in his mouth.
Unable to speak, Leto just started to shake in fear and panic as he was led into the mansion.
