Chapter XXI

The man known as Isu had gotten to be fairly old, his second wife had passed and all nine of his children had grown, and most of them had left the village to start their own lives in villages and cities far away. A few, thankfully, stayed with him to help work the wheat fields. All day they would tend to the fields, from sunrise to sunset, and at night they'd talk about what they'd heard from the locals, or about old stories they knew. Mostly heart-warming tales. These days Isu enjoyed recanting to his youngest children (who were all in their teens and could hardly be considered children) stories of their older step-brother and his exploits. Their brother had become famous lately, and stories always spread of his great deeds, though Isu tended to tell the same few stories over and over, and with increasing embellishment.

“...I tell you, he killed every one of the wild boars! With his bare hands no less! he seized the first one, the leader of the pack, by the tusks and wrenched it sideways, snapping the wild hog's neck, and then he beat the next boar down with his fists. He pummeled its skull into pulp! All this in order to save the King and Queen, who were trapped under a tree that had fallen!”

“So this time he punched the boar until it died?” asked Nym, the youngest daughter, in disbelief. “If you believe that you must think his strength is superhuman!”

“It must be!” Isu insisted. “After all, he is a paladin! They have access to all sorts of holy spells. Is it so hard to believe that there would be some holy magics that would make them stronger than mortal men?”

“I suppose anything's possible,” said Oliver, one of the boys. “Don't want to discount the possibility of miracles now.”

“It'd be much easier to believe if the stories didn't change with every re-telling,” Nym pointed out. “But you're right, miracles can happen.”

“From what I've heard, part of paladin training is that they punch a brick wall over and over for hours at a time, making their fists as hard as rocks,” Isu said. “That being said, I can imagine any paladin might be able to punch a boar to death.”

“You're underestimating how strong a boar's hide really is, pa,” said Portia, the second youngest daughter.

“Hey, believe whatever you want, in the end that's all anyone really does. Can you honestly tell me you don't want to believe your brother's a hero with amazing strength?”

“I know my brother's a hero,” Portia said. “He's been my hero ever since he rescued me from those bullies when I was a little girl and got accepted into the paladin school. You don't need to make up wild stories about him for me to see he's heroic.”

“The real question,” said Oliver. “Is whether or not you'd be able to accept that our brother is only human. A great man, certainly, but no living saint, no angel in human flesh, just a man.”

Isu laughed. “To all fathers their sons accomplishments are superhuman. Yours too, Oliver don't think I don't notice how hard you work every day. You have such a work ethic, the world would be better off if more people were like you.”

To Oliver this seemed like a poor attempt to make him feel special since he reminded him of this less than a minute after praising his older step-brother as a great hero. What was a hard worker to a hero? Oliver would've been jealous if it weren't for the fact that he too was proud to have a family member whose name was spoken in every household in Arx with great reverence and respect.

The conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door, three rapid taps, followed by two slower ones. In an instant Isu recognized the knock and ran to the door. “It can't be!” he exclaimed. Normally when answering the door at that time of night Isu would have been far more cautious, maybe opened it part-way so he could see who it was. That night he threw it open, because he knew exactly who it was, and he couldn't have been more excited to see his son after all these years.

Milo stood on the other side of the door. Isu had lost count of the years since he'd last seen his son, but even so, and even with all of the changes that came with growing up, he recognized him in an instant. He had those same, glimmering blue eyes, so full of love and curiosity. That same nose with an arched bridge. Even that same half smile that he greeted people with, one corner of his mouth turned up and one eyebrow raised. The only things that surprised Isu about his son were how tall he'd grown, how strong he looked, his long hair, and that a beautiful young lady was accompanying him.

Just the same Milo recognized his father immediately, though he was shocked at how much the years had aged him. His once black hair was now gray as storm-clouds, and mostly gone for that matter. There were far more lines on his face than Milo remembered, but most of them were around the corners of his mouth and by his eyes, lines that were said to come from so much smiling. Milo had always remembered his father as being much taller than him, which made sense, considering that Milo was only a small boy of eight when he left home, but now his father was more than a head shorter, and far skinnier than Milo remembered.

The two of them stared at each other in silence for a moment, huge grins across their faces and tears of joy in their eyes. Both Sarahi and Milo's brothers and sisters wondered for a while whether or not either of them would say anything at all or just stare in surprise at one another.

Finally, Isu broke the silence. “Damn, you got old, boy!” he said, laughing.

“Did you tear our all your hair in frustration with these crazy kids?” Milo said, touching his father's bald head. Both had a hearty laugh and embraced each other tightly.

“It's so good to see you again, Milo!” Isu said. “Come on in, sit down! Who's your friend?”

“Pa, this is Sylvia,” Milo said, gesturing to Sarahi. They knew that they couldn't tell anyone her real name and who she really was, so during the two day ride to the village they batted around various fake names that they could give, eventually settling on Sylvia. “She's my wife.”

“Your...wife?” Isu smiled even wider at this news. “My boy settled down and got himself hitched! Ha ha!” Isu took Sarahi's hand and shook it vigorously before kissing the back of it. “It's such a pleasure to meet you, Sylvia!”

“Likewise, Isu,” Sarahi said and rubbed Isu's shoulder with her free hand.

“Now that most of my children have grown up,” Isu said. “I have a guest-room free, you two can take that. Are you newlywed?”

“Yes, actually,” Milo said.

“Oh! Then I'm glad you chose this humble village for your honeymoon!”

“Thank you so much, Pa! Why don't we just grab our things and we'll be right back.”

Milo and Sarahi walked back to their horses and grabbed the many bags they'd taken with them, along with their weapons, wrapped in burlap cloth, just in case they ran into any trouble. They knew they couldn't wear their weapons openly, of course, because they didn't want to be identified as paladins, which would surely raise all sorts of interesting questions about what they were doing there.

The decision to come to the village had been mostly Sarahi's idea. “I don't want a typical honeymoon,” she'd said while they were still back at the castle.

“No love-making?” Milo had asked.

“Of course love-making!” Sarahi gave him a playful hit on the shoulder. “I mean I don't want to go some place that's all fancy and elegant, my whole life has been like that.”

“What would you prefer?”

“I just married for love, something that nobility never gets to do but peasants have the luxury of doing all the time. I want to experience something new! I...want to know a little of what your life was like before you came to Caelum.”

It was then that Milo came up with the idea of taking Sarahi to the village he was born in, to meet his family. He could certainly think of no better time for a reunion with his father, and no better circumstances under which to have such a reunion. They'd had to make a few preparations for the trip. From the stables they selected two horses who were large enough to carry them and a few important belongings but were also of low-breeding, cheaper horses so as to not draw attention. They bought some very cheap, low-end clothes from a tailor on the edge of Aius and made sure to rough up the tunics and cloaks. They dragged them in the dirt for a while to make them look like they weren't bought so recently. And one more, simple change, Sarahi took her hair out of her usual braid, in case a feature so simple as that might give her away. Grigori had advised them that commoners had a tendency to remember little features like that when trying to recognize royals or nobles whom they barely ever saw. The two of them left in the middle of the night, and the next morning Hadar announced that his queen was going some place safe because she was with child.

“But what if she comes back with no child? A woman doesn't become pregnant every time she has sexual relations, it's not a sure thing,” Hadar had asked Grigori.

“Simple enough to handle, either tell people that it was a hysterical pregnancy or that there was a miscarriage.”

“Probably a hysterical pregnancy,” Hadar said, “The people don't need any more tragedy.”

Milo and Sarahi rode for three days, passing through some beautifully green countryside and mountain passes with spectacular views, all the while Milo calling Sarahi “Sylvia” to get her used to responding to that name. Now here they were, in the quaint little village in which Milo was born, a village at the base of Mt. Hepha. A river ran right through the center of the village, and many bridges were built over it, as well as some houses built right on top of the water, with watermills in the river's flow to make grinding their grain easier. Also along the river were sawmills, with water-wheels to make the huge saws move and make splitting the cut lumber far easier. All around the village were fields of grain and wheat, in which Sarahi had teasingly said to Milo they should reenact what he'd written in one of his poems. It took a while for Milo to find his old house, since so many other houses had been built around it and Isu had even made some additions to the old place, but he recognized the old cobblestone chimney, which was slightly crooked.

Isu quickly set the bed for the two of them, spreading out blankets and sheets. The sheets were not made of silk like Sarahi was so used to, but rather out of linen, and the blankets were made of fur.

“If you two need anything I'll be on the other end of the hall,” Isu said. “Of course, I think you got what you need. We'll catch up more in the morning, m'boy. Good night!” Isu winked at Milo just before he left the room and closed the door behind him.

“You think it was alright to drop in unannounced?” Sarahi asked.

“I could've sent him a letter, but he can't read,” Milo said. “And I wouldn’t want him taking the letter to someone else who could read it for him.”

“Good point.” Sarahi sat down on the bed and patted the spot next to her for Milo to join.

Shivering with anticipation, Milo joined her on the bed. He sat down next to her and gazed into her eyes, running his fingers through her long, dark hair. Sarahi did the same to him, but also comically scratched at the scruff along his cheeks. Sure, she did this in humor, but she'd always found his scruffy sideburns to be quite sexy, an extra little touch to make him look more masculine. Milo looked at Sarahi's lips, then at her eyes, and then slowly moved in to kiss her. Sarahi in turn leaned into the kiss as both of them wrapped their arms around each other, holding one another tightly. Milo's tongue licked Sarahi's lower lip and Sarahi's tongue found his and fought back. Sarahi's fingernails clawed at Milo's strong chest through the material of his tunic. Her fingers slid downward until she found his belt, which she almost frantically unbuckled and removed. Once the belt was gone she broke the kiss to lift his tunic up over his head and reveal his bare torso to her eyes, but she only had a moment to take in the sight before Milo leaned in and planted kisses along her smooth neck, and little bites at her jaw-line. His attentions elicited gasps and moans from her mouth. Sarahi's nails trailed down the bare skin of Milo's toned back as she relished the feeling of his lips and teeth on her neck. Milo's hands found Sarahi's rope belt and, following her lead, he untied it and removed her tunic as well, the skin of their bare torsos pressing against each other as they kissed each other all over and their hands explored each other's bodies for the first time. For a while the two of them wrestled a bit, playfully fighting for dominance. They rolled over several times, their naked bodies entwined under the linen sheets, Sarahi's muscular legs wrapped around Milo's hips.

Both had never done anything like this before, both were virgins, but making love to each other just came so naturally to those two. Not to say that the risqué romance novels that Sarahi used to read didn't help, or that the instructional books from the western city-states, written by followers of Nitaal, the goddess of eroticism, that Milo read didn't help either. For what seemed like many hours after they had made love the two of them lied in bed, holding each other and staring off into space in silence as they thought about the experience. Their hearts were too filled with joyful emotions to force their thoughts into any sorts of words. What words could possibly express what one would feel having their first time with someone they loved so deeply and trusted so fully? So they just enjoyed the lingering, tingling effects of their passion in silence.

In the morning they awoke feeling better rested than they'd felt in a very long time. Milo glanced out the window, though, and saw that the sun had been up for probably an hour at least, at which sight he jumped out of bed and started searching for his clothes. “Milo, what is it?” Sarahi asked, confused by his behavior.

Milo thought for a moment before realizing the silliness of what he'd just done. “When I was a kid here I was expected to get up when the sun did, if I saw the sun that high up in the sky it meant that I was late.”

Sarahi laughed. “Even after all these years you couldn't break that habit, hmm?”

“Aye, being in this house again seems to have brought back some memories.” Milo nodded and laughed.

“Well, let's get going,” Sarahi said. She jumped up and scrambled to get her clothes on as well. “Come on, lazy-bones! We're going to be late!” she teased. The two of them got dressed quickly and joined Isu out in the wheat fields as he tended to the crops.

“This is your honeymoon! You don't need to work on your honeymoon!” he insisted.

“This is what I want to do,” Sarahi said. “Back home we don't work like this. Life is far more complicated. There everything you do affects thousands of other people, and you have to weigh every action carefully. Here, I plant a seed, I water it, it grows, I harvest it. It's simple, it's natural, and it's refreshing to work with your hands every now and then.”

“What do you do back home?” Isu asked.

“Oh, did I forget to tell you?” Milo said.

“Tell me what?”

“We're paladins, Pa, both of us. I mean, you knew I was a paladin, of course, but so is she.”

“Oh! So you met at the academy!”

“Yes, but Pa, don't spread that around. It'd be best not to tell anyone in the village that I'm here. If they ask just say old friends are staying with you.”

“Good idea,” Isu said. “You're on your honeymoon, don't need everyone in town asking you all sorts of fool questions about what it's like to be a paladin, how many demons have you killed, and so on.”

“Correct,” Milo said. “And furthermore not everyone likes paladins.”

“Who could hate paladins?” Isu asked, perplexed by such a concept.

“Non-Agalmites,” Milo said, “We don't force people not of the Agalmite faith to join, but many are suspicious that we might do so some day.”

“Ah...never a shortage of paranoid fools,” Isu said. “But I must ask, m'boy, how many demons have you killed?”

“I think...two...and I assisted in killing one more, but Sylvia finished it off.”

“Amazing! And what are the King and Queen like?”

“They're very kind people,” Milo said. “Both of them. I couldn't have asked for better friends.”

Sarahi tried not to smile too widely, wary that Isu might realize he was talking about her.

After they'd completed all the work to be done in the fields, Milo joined some of the other men of the village in the saw-mill. Three strong men, working together, would carry logs many times a man's height in length. Together they’d throw them onto the mill to be split and cut down into lumber better suited to building homes. Milo helped them load log after log. He enjoyed the feeling of the exercise, and after Milo had helped them finish their workload for the day he showed Sarahi how to split firewood on a tree-stump with an ax. Together they cut enough to last his father's house well over a month.

The village was beautiful and peaceful, so many people all working together, no one was idle or lazy. “Everyone's equal here,” Milo told Sarahi, “In villages like this, men and women, young and old, everyone works, everyone contributes. I'd forgotten what that's like.”

“It is quite a bit different in the capital,” Sarahi said. “Everyone's worried about status, image, wealth, and so on. We have rich merchants who make a killing on the sweat of their workers who can barely buy bread, and beggars and pickpockets who would take even what little they have. I wish more places could be like this.”

As the sun was just touching the horizon, Milo introduced Sarahi to another day to day tradition of the village. The river that ran through the village split into multiple streams, and one of the streams had several little enclosures with walls but no ceiling, “Come on, I want to show you something,” Milo led Sarahi by the hand into one of the enclosures and closed the door behind them, “It wasn't until I arrived at Caelum that I had any idea what a bathtub was,” Milo said, starting to remove his clothes.

“Wait...so you bathed in this stream?” Sarahi asked.

“Aye.”

“Isn't that...cold?”

“No, the water that runs through this village comes from a hot spring.” Milo stripped himself bare and waded into the water until he was submerged up to his chest. “Ah! Yes, this is nice.” By the door of the enclosure was a small wooden box with a bar of soap in it, “Can you bring that over here?”

“Are you crazy?” Sarahi said. “Fish swim in that stream! It must be filthy”

“And yet the people in this village bathe in it all the time. Come on, Sylvia!”

“No, it's dirty!” Sarahi protested. Milo took some water in his hands and tossed it at Sarahi. The water splashed all over her chest and soaked her. “Oh, now you're gonna get it!” Sarahi shouted before stripping down herself and jumping in the water after him. Milo laughed as Sarahi splashed him back and dunked his head under the water, and he retaliated in turn, splashing her in the face, and when she stopped to rub the water out of her eyes Milo surprised her with a fierce kiss on the mouth. The two of them wrestled and teased and kissed for a long time before finally stopping and just staring at each other and smiling.

“You forgot the soap,” Milo said.

“I was a little too busy getting payback. Now there's no way I'm getting out of the water,” Sarahi replied.

Milo chuckled. “Alright, I'll get it.” As he climbed out to go get the soap from the box by the door Sarahi gave his buttocks a firm slap, and when he turned to look at her she just winked at him. Milo hurried over to the box and, with the soap in his hands, hurried back. “Turn around,” he told Sarahi.

Sarahi did as Milo asked. He lathered up soap in his hands and washed her long, dark hair, giving her scalp a gentle massage. The feeling was so relaxing, and Sarahi leaned back against Milo's chest. Once her hair was filled with soap he cupped water in his hands and poured it on top of her head to rinse out the suds. Next Milo lifted Sarahi up a bit out of the water and started washing the rest of her body. His strong hands caressed her wet skin, droplets of water tracing her every curve. Every time Milo rinsed a new area of Sarahi's body he kissed her skin there to show her his appreciation for her utter beauty. He was mesmerized by her, and he spent that time telling her so without words.

After that Sarahi had washed Milo's body in turn. She made sure to tease him by paying extra attention to certain areas, the two of them dried off, dressed, and walked back to Isu's house together.

And so went the next few weeks for the two of them. They enjoyed the peace of the village, enjoyed a simpler life than the one they'd been living, and enjoyed each other. It was like a dream, really, and yet it felt more real than their lives in Aius. It was as if Aius was the dream and this was the only reality, but deep down they knew that eventually it would have to come to an end. They had responsibilities back home, and they had to return to them in time.