Alphonse rolled onto her side to peer at Delyth, where the winged woman still slept. She deserved a rest. She had flown far and fast to get back from her errand for Enyo. In sleep, Delyth’s face was devoid of all the careful stoic shielding. Her mask of impenetrable stone lifted, revealing the most beautiful creature Alphonse had ever seen. Her sharp cheeks, her supple lips. The way Delyth’s dark hair contrasted with her ivory skin, tanned by days of flying in the sunlight.
Delyth opened her eyes at that moment, catching Alphonse staring. The healer blushed and wriggled closer to her paramour, burying her face against pert breasts. She had said it a hundred times last night, and she would say it a hundred more today. “I love you. I missed you.”
Sylvie screeched from her coop, and Alphonse ignored the biddy. She could wait a few more Gods-blessed minutes!
“I love you. I missed you too.” Delyth yawned and stretched, pulling Alphonse closer in the same movement. “You should tell Sylvie that there are strict rules about yelling for food on the mornings after I get home.”
The healer chuckled and allowed herself a few more precious seconds nuzzled against her lover. And then Ines joined Sylvie in complaining, their squawks echoing through the open window. In the night, the breeze had been lovely, but now Alphonse was regretting leaving it ajar. Groaning, she bit Delyth’s breast affectionately and sat up. Her tawny locks tumbled over her shoulders as she looked for a robe to dart out into the garden and release the hens.
Then she could climb back intobed with Delyth, and maybe they’d not leave bed all day.
“Sylvie is an exacting lady. She doesn’t appreciate us upsetting her delicate schedule simply because we want to romp.” Alphonse smirked and stood, wrapping her robe about her naked form. Turning, she bent to kiss Delyth on the lips, smiling. “Tea?”
“I’ll get it started while you see to the chickens.”
The healer rounded on her lover and pressed a small yet firm hand against Delyth’s shoulder as the warrior tried to rise. “You shall not,” she sniffed, pulling her robe closer, affronted. “I will make the tea. You will stay here. In bed. You flew all day yesterday, and you deserve to rest.”
Every time she came back, the warrior insisted on helping with chores, though she needed rest. Besides, Alphonse enjoyed doting on the warrior even if Delyth wasn’t precisely the type to be waited on. It was important to make sure that the warrior knew how precious she was. How loved. How cherished.
Alphonse knew that Delyth would serve Enyo for the rest of her life because of the healer, and she didn’t take that lightly nor for granted. It was often dangerous, brutal, taxing work. The healer never once wanted to seem ungrateful.
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Delyth put a hand over Alphonse’s, securing her. “But, annwyl, if I make the tea, then you’ll be back here all the sooner.”
She turned her head to kiss one of Alphonse’s fingertips. She knew from past arguments why it meant so much to the healer that she be taken care of at home. But, despite the cost serving Enyo often exacted, she did not feel as though Alphonse needed to try and make up for it. Delyth would kneel beneath the weight of that oath again today for this. Besides, it felt nice to help with small things. Normal. As though Enyo were not still capable of showing up at any time to demand that Delyth leave.
Alphonse’s gaze drifted to Delyth’s lips as they pressed against her fingers, her pretty honey eyes wide and thick-pupilled.She smiled and tugged her fingers away. “You are a terrible tease. I don’t know how a girl is supposed to keep her wits about herself with you around.”
Delyth laughed. “Well then, I suppose you’ll just have to hurry back to me.”
She slid to the edge of the bed and stood, leaning down to press a kiss to Alphonse’s cheek before stepping over to their dresser to hunt for a pair of the soft, linen pants she’d gotten from the village below. The sounds of angry chickens came again through the window, and Delyth turned to grin at the healer. “You’re being summoned.”
Tawny hair flashed in the early morning rays as Alphonse turned and hurried from the room. Delyth could hear her from the yard, muttering to the chickens. There was a flapping of wings as, presumably, Sylvie and Ines hurried from the coop. Then the sound of Alphonse scattering feed along the garden path, prattling away at her birds. “I was having a lovely morning, and you ladies just couldn’t let me keep it.”
Delyth adjusted the shawl draped over her chest as she heated water for tea, listening to the vague, indistinct murmurs of Alphonse, the chickens, and the sway of wind through the firs around their cottage. It left a smile on the warrior’s face, relaxed and open within the home in a way she had never found in any other place.
There was a warmth here that sustained her even on the worst of Enyo’s errands. Simple and beautiful. Something that had much more to do with Alphonse than the place. Delyth was more at peace now, farther from the anger that had driven her to the edge of madness in those first moons of service to Enyo. She touched the twin dragon scales hanging in the kitchen window to catch the light outside. But there was still more of the world she would like to see with the healer.
By the time Alphonse had finished with her morning chores, the tea was steeping, its herbal aroma filling the small main room of the cottage in sweet tendrils, and Delyth stood, sipping her cup before the front windows, looking down the path towards the village below. It was quiet and empty. Not many knew of their
