Episode 103: A Different Future (Rylena)

Rylena wasn’t sure why she thought of Telek first, but she had. Now she was preparing for a date with him. They would leave from the foyer in the palace, so Aliks would see them together, and they would go somewhere and do something.

She had done her hair in braids, with wires encompassing them and running through them to create a look that was designed more to keep her busy than look appealing. It was silly. She had gone through her wardrobe, of which she had ten things, again and again, to find the right outfit: a dark green wrap that extended past her waist but wasn’t quite a dress, with cream leggings.

She stood in the foyer waiting for him to go on her first date ever.

Telek was one of the princes, but not the crown prince, of Keshmar.

It could be a good union, though unnecessary. She had a good relationship with Girik and Drella. She liked them. They had been giving and kind and was a useful ally.

Aliks…

Telek came down the stairs. His hair a mix of the pale blondes Drella’s albino genes carried and the darker hair Girik had. His soft blue eyes reminded her of tropical oceans.

He was standing in front of her now, and she could feel her heart pounding like race horses in her chest.

“Hi,” Rylena said.

She had never dated. Not once in seven hundred and twenty two years. She had married as an infant, and been raised by her husband. It had never been romantic. His own husband had been used to further the line. His newest husband had not. 

He looked warm. He was warm. He had fire magic. Of course he was warm.

She felt warm.

She tried to breathe and focus on paying attention to him.

“I really like your hair,” he said.

She lifted a braid off her shoulder and glanced at it from the corner of her eye. The wire, right. He liked it. Her resolve melted into a smile, “Thank you.”

A date was more than meeting. She tried think of what a date should be. She had read of dates, seen them in films, heard about them…

“Do you have anything in mind for tonight or would you like me to pick?”

“I had a plan for tonight, if you want to pick the next one?”

“That sounds nice,” she replied. She was relieved; she had idea what to plan. Seeing his would spark something. She could plan a date. It could be fun.

She knew how to have fun.

She didn’t know what he would like.

He held his hand out from his hip, palm open toward the sky.

Transporting. They were going out of realm. Or elsewhere in realm. 

She took his hand, the feeling of well worn hands with some layer of care. A softness. It was new, unfamiliar. She let her thumb run across the top of his for a moment, until his mood shifted from noticing.

In a moment they were beside a large, round, opalescent lake. The moonlight shimmered across the surface of the lake. The long arm of their home galaxy twinkled, reflected on the lake. Thin blue and brown animals with white antlers lapped at the edge of the lake. 

Trees two dozen feet tall framed the lake with hearty underbrush that teemed with life.

Across the lake from the gazelle, a placulin dipped it’s large flat head into the water. It had a round body that reminded her of a tortoise that had been flattened unread of having a domed shell. It also head leathery skin instead of an exoskeleton. She left spreading her fingers in the wide footprints they left; she hadn’t seen one in decades.

She heard the crunch of a prey’s death: a dozen feet away a frog clung to a tree, its pads sticking to the bark as it moved upward with a large dragonfly in its mouth.

She turned, and directly behind them, out of the way of the awe that filled her soul to see a place so beautiful and untouched, a blanket was spread across the ground. She could smell cranberries and a nutty aroma coming from the basket.

“This is,” she said, looking around again and taking in a new layer of the lake: a trio of bats flying through the air, an owl about to swoop, and a boney lizard peering off a rock. “Wow.”

She had no other words. But she still held his hand, and she squeezed it a little.

She tried to regain her composure again, but he was glowing.

“I grew up with parents who love to travel. Do you know what those are called?”

“Gazelles?” she guessed; his eyes were drawn to the group.

“I like the way they move; they seem like they’d make difficult prey.”

“They do. Do you come to this spot often?”

“It’s one of my favorites. Are you familiar with the area?”

“I’ve been here before, a long time ago. A few centuries. It’s changed a bit since then, if this is even the same exact place.”

She stopped herself from rambling, about the desert around this oasis and the things she had done.

“What changed?” he asked.

She looked around again and took each element in, “The water – the line has changed. Old trees are gone, these newer ones look no more than a century old. It’s a bit more peaceful.”

“A flood, maybe?”

She wished she knew. She should have come back more, but there were so many places and so little time to revisit them all and still see more.

“Possibly,” she replied. “How did you discover this place? Your mom?”

She cringed a little. She didn’t want to bring up his mom, who was Drey’s sister. Drey – the man she had birthed almost a dozen children by.

Telek let their hands fall apart as he went to sit on the blanket. She joined him.

“She used to come here with her brother to…I don’t know what. She hates swimming,” Telek replied. He began setting up the meal, and as she could she helped. He had set up a salad, full of cranberries and walnuts and sunflower seeds.

She held her breath for a moment, looked into his eyes, and smiled, “Maybe just to see it. This place is amazing.”

Telek glanced back at the lake, at the stars in the sky and the stars dancing on the surface in a thick band of light, “I think I might have inherited some of that, although what I really want is to build a giant mirror in the desert for watching the stars.”

“A mirror?”

“An enormous, curved mirror can see so much more than our eyes can gather. I want to know what’s out there.”

Rylena laughed and relaxed back on the blanket, “Oh, you mean a telescope?” she turned to face him, “Or just a bowl of mirror to look at from a tree?”

He laughed, “Astronomer monkey?” he made sounds like an orangutan and they both laughed more.

“Yes, a telescope,” he said once they caught their voices.

She could handle dating, conversations with someone, being together with someone to share her thoughts with. Looking into his eyes and imagining a lifetime with him; adventures, jokes, games… building a telescope together…was easy.

“We should go see some; there are so many ideas out there. Placement, sizes… that’s two whole factors.”

She blushed. It wasn’t often that she spoke freely, without thinking a statement out first.

He laughed, though, amused by her list.

“And then I can draw up a nice expensive proposal for my parents to reject,” he mused.

“Why would they reject It? Your uncle loved astronomy. If you named it after him and it became a tourist point for the realm, they’ll have to agree.”

“Named it after him?” he laughed again.

She hadn’t been in love with Drey, but she felt weird for bringing the idea up. She wouldn’t want her new … Telek. She wouldn’t want Telek to have to name his legacy after Drey. They could build it on her territory, even.

He looked at the gazelle, grazing closer to them than when they had first gotten there. “That’s a good idea. Maybe after the war. Right now they need soldiers, not stargazers.”

“Soldiers for what?” she asked, concerned. She followed Keshmar affairs diligently. Perhaps he knew about Aliks.

“My uncle claims they’re mismanaging the kingdom’s assets. He has a backing, it’s only a matter of time before he acts.”

“Unless I’m said assets, he already tried. He asked me to marry him. Yesterday.”

“That explains his mood. I’m not dating you to date the pixie queen. I just liked our talk when I delivered the Wäschgals for your dad.”

“I know. Even when I try to avoid it, intentions are easy to read.”

“How would you stop him?”

She liked the way Telek seemed aware of her, her abilities and her nature. The salad was a perfect example of him thinking if her; like most pixies, she avoided eating animals.

She liked the way he looked at her and smiled and made something as intimidating as a date feel like they’d already been together for far longer than this evening.

“Execution when he crosses a firmly established line,” She replied. It was blunt and honest. The pixie numbers were far lower than any other fairy; They didn’t waste time on arguing semantics. There were lines you couldn’t cross, like attempted murder or repetitious stealing, and you were punished accordingly.

Aliks was spreading lies and attempting to overthrow his family, or gain power to undermine them, it looked like. A line needed to be drawn for him.

“You think my parents have it in them?” Telek asked.

“I could always do it for them.”

He laughed and stretched back, “You may have to if he keeps bugging you.”

She inched toward him, part of her desperate for some sort of contact “Death for excessive attempts at flattery with underlying deception and unflattering intentions… sounds reasonable..”

His body shook with laughter, and she felt elated.

“It’s that bad?” he asked, turned toward her. She realized just how close she had moved now that their faces were only a foot apart.

“No, he wants a marriage as a large move. He doesn’t have the assets for a successful war though the division he is feeding off of is concerning. “

He propped his head on his hand, a mirror image of her own. Their faces lingered inches apart. “I don’t think he’s feeding off it. I think he’s saying little things until they conclude something he wants them to think and then he tells them how clever they are for realizing that. He tried it with me.”

“He had some things to imply with me as well. My trust in your parents runs far deeper than he realizes; he only scared me away from his plan.”

“You should pretend to go along with it, win their loyalty from him, and kill him. He’d never suspect.”

“Possibly. We wouldn’t be able to see each other other; he already may target you.”

“Is that a deterrent for you?”

“I’m saying for the duration of this, not indefinitely.”

“It may be a good time to visit my uncles in the Dells,” he suggested.

If he was in the Dells, she could visit without raising any concern. She could keep him safe, resolve the issue with Aliks, and continue exploring dating with Telek.

“It may. But tonight… This is nice.”

“Yeah. Really nice,” he replied. She could feel his breath graze her skin.

“What other places are favorites?” She asked.

She felt his lips against hers, soft and curious. She met them with her own curiosity and intensity.

She had never kissed someone who wanted her just to want her, who wouldn’t rather be with someone else.

“The aurora borealis in any realm,” he said as they parted.

She had asked him something.

Favorite places – she had asked him about his favorite places.

“Underground caves,” he continued. “with windowed ceilings, although they don’t usually have much wildlife. What about you?”

All she could think was about being there, with him. She scavenged her mind for some where else she knew she enjoyed. She had to like other places.

“Sand dunes,” she replied. She liked sand dunes.

“Have you ever played on sand dunes?”

She laughed; wondering if it was that obvious she had struggled to answer and how rushed the answer had come.out, “Yes. Have you?”

He kissed her again, and while his warmth spread across her lips, he shared dozens of memories of snowboarding, kites, dune buggies, and everything else he had done.

She shared her own memories, and let their bodies create new ones, her entire being encompassed in possibility.

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