Part V: Beauty and the Beast II



Mathayus awoke well before his companions that morning, the dreams of his own death refusing the leave him be. He wandered the dawn lit streets, pale light shining down on the squalid city. Dead bodies laid in the streets amid the children and half dead. It almost made the large man crack his shell of uncaring, but he knew he could not. To try to help someone in this city was often a way that led solely to self destruction, or to being set up. Then why, he asked himself, was he so adamant when it came to that young girl? Akka...

Mathayus decided that he might as well go talk to his beast of burden, that stinky old camel which his brother and comrade constantly mocked him for. He entered the stall and was stopped by something that shocked him.

Akka laid against his sleeping camel, her eyes closed and her body completely open to rest. It was a fairly attractive position for the young woman; her head resting on her arms which were elevated by the back of the white haired camel. Mathayus saw this and immediately he smirked, deciding to play a small joke on the small woman.

"You're under arrest," he growled from behind her, quickly binding her hands with his behind her back and hauling the slender form to her feet.

Akka was still half asleep when the large man drug her to her feet, but the words registered loud and clear. 'Oh shit,' she thought to herself. 'I'm gonna die.' There was no way she'd be able to make an escape like she did last time. It didn't register to her that if a royal guard did catch her they would not bother to arrest her. They would, most likely, rape her repeatedly and then finally kill her.

She was pushed into fight or flight mode, and since flight wasn't exactly an option she defaulted to fight. Her right leg snapped back, cracking towards the man's knee cap. It hit just off target, but still the large man behind her groaned in pain, giving enough space around her wrists that she could pull them free. She twisted her wrists and pulled away.

Mathayus stood up straight and looked down on Akka, who still didn't see that it was him obviously, as she slapped him twice across the face. Each cheek stung with the blows as he finally got control of her hands again.

"Akka," he said once then repeated her name. "It's me," Mathayus spoke, careful to keep out of reach of her legs. As most women were, her power and strength came from her legs, rather than her upper body.

"I know!" she spat at him, her eyes glaring with a harsh stare which caught Mathayus off guard.

"Then why did you hit me?"

"Why would you try to scare me like that, you big ox?" she tried to keep her voice down, but it rose still. She had to stay quiet or else she might alert the -real- palace guards to her position. Her chest was still heaving as she took in deep breaths, her chest still thudding heavily.

His eyes moved over her body, watching her every movement. Her breasts heaved against the confines of her leather chest plate, bulging over just slightly. Her shoulders rose and fell, her eyes were alight once more. All he wanted to do was sweep her slender form up into him and have her for himself, but being the woman that she had proven herself to be, that wouldn't be the smartest course of actions he assumed.

Akka glared at the man, she was still angry at that dream she had, the one with him and another woman. She had grown to have feelings for this man, but she knew that it wouldn't last, nothing could come of it with those images hanging over them both. The woman who she had seen in her dream was his destiny, Akka was only just someone on the path to her and she refused to be that for any man.

She was deep in thought over that disturbing dream, so deep that she didn't notice the arm wrap around her or the man in front of her getting close. It seemed so natural, so fluid, as he pulled the woman into him, pressing his dry lips to her own and possessing them with a soft caress. Akka let herself fall into his kiss, become enchanted by it and the whole concept, the scent of his body, the feel of his warm hands along the small of her back. They pulled her into him, hoisting her up onto her toes and forcing her to lean into him for support, not that she minded.

Mathayus was surprised with the gentle way the woman pressed into him, the femininity in her lips spoke of her natural inclination, or at least what he was taught was a woman's natural place. She could, after all, just be surprised by the action, which would cause her to be tentative. It was a possibility. Everything, he had learned to realize, was a possibility.

Akka's eyes opened, and she caught her breath as Mathayus pulled away, a mischievous grin on his lips. He knew that he had just done what no man had ever done, and he liked it. He wanted more of it. More of her. His grip on her body tightened and she felt his strength confining her. It was how her sisters had described marriage in other tribes of Akkadians, tribes where men were in charge. She felt panic rush over her and her mind abandonded all rational thought.

"Let me go," she said in a simple, rushed tone as she went limp, her lithe and supple body slipping from his grip as she caught him by surprise. The strength and desperation in her voice had been indeed a shock.

As Mathayus' grip on the girl faltered, she ran, dashing down the street and disappearing into the early morning din that was starting to form in the market place. The great man's heart sank as he saw the woman disappear, weaving through the crowd, parting people and forcing her way through. Where would she run, though? The Palace guards were looking for her? Perhaps that didn't matter as much to her as getting away from Mathayus did. With that thought, his heart sank even more.

He took a knee beside his beast of burden and sighed. "My friend, women are strange creatures indeed," he spoke to the animal, knowing full well that it wouldn't respond, nor could it even if it wanted to. It simply looked at him and spat out into the street as camels have a tendency to do. "My thoughts exactly."