~Memories~

By Ola

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A/N~ thank you for all who reviewed! =)

-Eri- oops…I did NOT realize it. =( but when you pointed that out, I was reading "Exile's honor" as yes, you are right, there too there were women guards…so I guess this does screw up my plot line. Oh, no, it doesn't! let's say it's in the reign of ANOTHER Selenay (and there WERE others. For one, selenay the peacemaker, and let's hope there were a few others more =). Or you can simply call it poetic license =) but thanks for pointing it out!

-trina ti- I think I already read something by her, although not this particular piece. I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the advice! =)

And now, on with the story =)

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Part 23~

A nock at their door, then two men coming through, carrying a metal tub, and a third one two buckets of hot water.

"Thanks guys." One of them nodded. After they left, closing the door after them:

"Who's going in first?"

"Go ahead."

"You're sure?"

"Uh humm." Sindarin took off his clothes and sat in the tub, while Lan watched on with interest. The water barely reached his belly button.

"I can't believe we were lucky enough to get a room for us alone."

"Uh hum, but every group has one." Lan took her shoes off.

"I know, but the captain could have packed all of us in one room, and saved some cash for himself."

"I guess he likes us" cheesy smile.

The girl stood up and slowly raised her shirt, exposing a firm and smooth stomach. She untied the string of her pants, and they dropped onto her hipbones, revealing the top of her panties. Sindarin forgot about the soap that had slipped from his nerveless fingers into the water. With a delicate move, the pants slowly slipped all the way to the floor, followed a few breathes later by a long piece of cloth that had been used to bind the girl's breasts. A few more quickened breaths and she stood in front of the tub in all her glory, an impish smile stretching her lovely lips.

"God Lan, how do you do that? How do you manage to make me so happy and excited that I forget about the whole world and can see and think only of you?" he whispered with awe as the young woman stepped into the warm water, nestling herself comfortably against him.

"You're so beautiful…"

"So are you, my tall and handsome warrior." Giggle.

"I can't believe I've been living and sleeping next to you for two months without realizing you were a woman." He gently caressed her hips.

"I thank whatever deity watches over us that no one did either."

"So you can have me all for yourself?" a grin. She didn't need to answer in words, but claimed his mouth with hers. A few seconds later, they were embracing each other so hard it hurt, but it never seemed hard enough; never close enough. This time, they didn't even ask; they didn't need to. They already knew.

Some water splashed overboard. Lan's knee slipped on the half dissolved soap and she banged her elbow against the side of the tub. Sindarin's legs were hanging over the rim, while soapy water splashed into his eyes. They didn't notice. Only, try as they may, they couldn't do it in the little tub. Without any decision or argument, they half-jumped, half-stumbled, half-carried each other to the first of the narrow little beds, their arms still around each other, their lips still locked together. Only then, glistening wet and stretched along their full length could they satisfy their passions and desires.

And they did.

Long into the night, with butterflies in their stomach, and tingles in their fingers.

~*~*~

"Today, ya will be matched with a guard of this town, and ya'll go on his rounds, observing what 'e does, and doing what 'e asks ya to. I do not want misbehavior. Of any kind. Ya are not little kids in need of a nanny, but mature human beings who know what's at stake." The Captain glared at each of the trainees under his commend, driving the point home. "Did I make myself clear?"

A chorus of "Yes sir!"

"Good. Mat, you go with Severil," he read off, while an older man somewhere near his fifties took a step forward. "Jek, you follow Meeko. Lan, go with Jack." Sindarin followed the blond man with his eyes, as the latter took his place beside Lan and the two started talking softly, while the captain went on. Only the mention of his name brought Sindarin out of his thoughts, and he was startled to realize he hadn't registered the name of his companion for the day. A broad shouldered man with a face as square as any Sindarin had ever seen came to stand next to him.

"Um, sorry, but I didn't quite get your name…"

The man slowly turned his eyes at him. "I am captain Drex. Pay attention youngling." He spoke slowly, and his voice vibrated deeply, reverberating in Sindarin's belly.

"Ah…" when he turned his attention to the inn's common room again, Lan had already walked out.

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"There's usually not that much to do around here. Everyone knows each other so there's not much of anything we can call a crime, although there's plenty of disputes. If you had gone with Drex, or Severil, ah, those two could have told you about the time Shedlington was invaded by some northern barbaric tribe. Servil showed us the scar on his leg he got from a nasty stroke of the blade. Ugly thing. It still has a purple edge, although I don't reckon to know how a bruise could last that long."

"How long have you been a guard?" Lan managed to squeeze in when Jack stopped to take a breath.

"Ah, it's only my fourth year. where are you guys coming from? You seem to know each other pretty well."

"We're from Melin. Well, that's where we recruited at. I didn't know the others until about two, three months ago, but we spent the entire time together, so yeah, we all became great buddies."

"Oh." For the first time, Jack's smile faded a bit.

"Are you from around here?"

"What? Err, no. I'm from Haven."

"Haven? Wow, I've never been there before. What's it like? Why would you want to come here instead of Haven?"

"It's pretty big. I…I don't much like big cities…" he didn't elaborate, which was a first, since he seemed to always be talking. "We never got to travel mush. During our training I mean. There were twenty three of us, and most of the training we got was in Haven, so we got more of an urban training, which is neither good nor bad. Depends on where you end up later. It's really not that bad here. Haven is four day's fast run, if you have a good horse, and less for the heralds, so they come from time to time, to settle big things and such." He shrugged, and turned into a slightly smaller street lined with little square houses.

Actually, there was only one major road going through the center of the village, and four smaller and mush shorter ones, that dead ended in the fields. Jack pointed to an old, tattered house near the other end of the street, with rickety steps leading up to it. He started up again on one of his long speeches.

"The lady who lives there is a sorceress, as what people say. She has been living there all her life. The first thing she prophesized to the precedent major was that he would have kids again. Of course, everyone laughed because it was common knowledge that both the major and his wife were way too old for children. A few months later, his favorite dog bore him a litter of pups. No one knows if that's what the old lady had foretold. She won't say. Sometimes, she tells about the weather. The farmers saved their crops from bad rains more than once by listening to her. But other times, she mumbles and babbles nonsense to herself. The thing is, you never know if what she says applies to you, or if it's the truth, if you believe in those things." 

Lan wondered how old the house was. The walls were cracked, chipped by wind and weather, and creaked ominously as if dozen of invisible, ghostly feet padded on its wooden floors. Dark with age. And when she saw the bent figure sitting in a chair in front of an unlit fireplace, full of cold ashes, Lan wondered how old the lady was. She…well, she looked very old, was the only thing Lan could think of. Until the woman slowly turned her eyes on the two youths. Those eyes did not seem to belong there. It's as if her body had grown old while her eyes had stayed the way they had looked in her early youth. Innocence and knowledge peacefully cohabited in those startlingly blue eyes.

"Good morning m'am Harris. It's Jack. The mayor sent me for your four pence. It's the sixth of the month." His voice, as well as the subject of his interruption, did not fit in with the wind that whistled through holes, nor the creaking of the house that seemed to give it an uncanny life. Neither did her name fit her. But when she answered, her voice was as old as her body.

"Always in the same place youngling. Second drawer on the right in the cabinet."

"How are you feeling?"

"Same as always. Same as the last time you came and the one before that…" something rattled in a drawer.

"Oh, this is Lan. She's from the company of guard trainees that came for a few days." Lan smiled and nodded it was true. But the old woman said:

"I know" with a strange smile of her own. "Come visit me with you other friend." Lan's eyebrow rose, and she glanced at Jack, who shrugged and continued searching the elusive fourth pence.

"Aha! Got it!"

"Good, now shoo, younglings." Her frail hand hovered above her lap for a moment before quickly falling back there again. "Oh, and little Jack, don't go getting yourself in trouble for that girl. She's already taken." Lan's head shot up to look at the old lady, then glance quickly at Jack, who didn't seem to understand what she was talking about.

No, no, of course not. How can she know I'm a girl? And Jack isn't interested in me. I would know if he was. It's just a coincidence and I'm just too high strung. This can't be about me. How many girls live in this village? How many girls does Jack know? With his good looks, he probably bedded more than I can count on one hand. Yep, that's it. And here I am, giving myself an ulcer. Jeez, I really have to relax a bit. Silly me…

As soon as they stepped out of the building, the wind once again labored to find any opening in their clothing into which it could insinuate itself, and flared their cloaks. Brrr. Time to head back.

"Hey, what was that all about? You have a girlfriend?"

"What? I…errr, …ummm" his eyes dropped to the ground.

"What…come on…I won't tell anyone. I probably don't know her and I'll be out of here in a few days. No time to start rumors, and even less time to steal her from you. Not that I would do that of course. I'm not that type of…guy."

"It's not that…it's…I…no…I don't have any girlfriend…I'm…errr….Iamshaych." his ears turned bright red. Well, even redder than they were because of the wind.

"Err, what?...What does that mean?"

"You don't know?!"

"Err, no? Should I? I come from way up there, you know? From the middle of nowhere, remember?"

"Oh. It means shayachern. Shaych for short. It's…it's when a guy likes a guy."

"Oh." She shrugged, a little amused at his embarrassment. He gave her a quick glance.

"You're…you're not…errr...I mean…you don't…find it weird?"

"Weird?" she burst out laughing, but quickly stopped when she saw he was hurt. "Sorry, didn't mean to laugh at you. But weird? No. it's just the way it is…and anyway, I don't think you get any choice in that, do you?"

A long silence before he said a barely audible "no." Well, at least one subject can shut him up for a while. Poor guy though.

"Does everyone around here know, or is it a secret? I kind of don't want you to get mad at me if I let it slip and I'm not supposed to…"

He didn't look all too happy when he said it wouldn't matter anymore. "Yeah, everyone knows. Except your company I guess…and even that I'm not sure of." He heaved a sigh, looking crestfallen, as if remembering painful memories.

"Hey, cheer up. None of us are that bad. Actually, a few weeks ago, we…" and she began telling him the story about calling Sindarin gay. "I didn't mean it as an insult, really. I just ran out of things to say. But I guess he was in a good mood for a reason, even after I had called him names –go figure that out- and he grinned like an idiot and kissed me to prove he was gay. He isn't, but nobody got violent toward him. Actually, they all laughed their head of. At me of course. You should go bug him about it. Either he'll be pissed at me for telling, or he'll be in a good mood, and go along with the game. You may actually get a kiss out of it, and don't tell me you wouldn't like that. He's kinda cute don't you think? Come on, let's go!" with a huge grin on her face, Lan dragged a feebly protesting Jack into the inn's common room.

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A/N~ mmm, another long chapter eh? =) couldn't really cut it in the middle. But I guess you won't be complaining if you're still reading. I know I know, a bit of a cliffhanger here, but then, it would have been REALLY long. I have to keep up my image as a sadistic short chapter writer, ya know, *evil grin*…ok, err, ignore that =) and leave me a review please! I love them!!!!

~Ola~