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THE PATH BACK TO DAWN:
http://www.amazon.com/PATH-BACK-DAWN-ebook/dp/B005EA029U
{Blake Adamson had been left chained to a tree in the New Zealand wilderness by the last fae. He escapes death by being given an apple of immortality from Idun's Asgardian garden.
By whom? Odin's ravens, Huggin and Munnin (that's MIND and MEMORY for those of you not versed in Viking - and yes, there is a bit of an allegory going on there.)
He has been discovered by Hone Heke (an angel on a sort of community service punishment) and by Kirika Amaratsu. In happy relief at finding him alive, Kirika has bowled him over on his back with her atop him.
Blake has kept a slice of Idun's apple for her. She agrees to eat it ... on one condition.
“What kind of condition?,” I asked with a sinking heart.
An evil gleam started to grow in her deep, large brown eyes. “Oh, nothing obscene, nothing bizarre, nothing sexual.”
She winked. “I lied about the sexual.”
Hone groaned, “Uh, oh.”
Kirika smiled wicked. “I will eat your apple. But only if you share the last bite ... in a kiss with me.”
She wiggled, pressing her hips dangerously into mine as I managed to croak, “I - I can live with that.”
She laughed, “I thought you might.”
She brought the apple to her lips.
“Oh,” I started, but Kirika had already bitten into the slice.
Her eyes rolled up as she stiffened in spasms on top of me. With horror, I saw her begin to fade, becoming a ghost on top of me. I wrapped both arms around her tight.
“Stay with me, Kirika! Don’t fade on me. Stay with me, please. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
The weight of her body pressed back down on top of me again. She was soft and firm in my arms once more. She squirmed her hips into me, her lips melting into mine.
She murmured, “Then, fade from you I never will. Never.”
I smiled, “I - I can live with that.”
She asked, “Are all the bites like that one?”
“Just the first.”
She raised an eyebrow, and I insisted, “Honest.”
“In that case ---”
She slowly took another bite. Her eyebrows shot up. She wiggled delightfully on my body. She actually seemed to glow. She let out a long, ragged breath.
“B-Blake, never have I tasted such a wonder. It fills me with such a power and joy. Starving, you denied yourself this for me?”
“Denied? Seeing you enjoy it this much is better than I have the words to describe.”
Her whole face glowed, her deep eyes seeming to swallow me. I went willingly. She bit slower and slower, savoring each bite, squirming more and more into me.
Hone coughed uneasy.
She seemed not to hear. Only the last bite was left. She took it and moistened her full lips with the piece. Then, she bent her face right to mine.
“When I place it in my lips, Blake, place yours around it, and we will kiss as I swallow. All right?”
I nodded. She moistened my lips with it, then re-wet her lips again. She smiled, and promises dark and tempting filled my head. Hone coughed again, but I barely heard him.
In fact, the whole world grew dim around the edges. All that was clear were Kirika’s gleaming, deep, deep eyes. She slipped the bit of apple into her wet lips, leaning right into me. I shyly wrapped my lips around the apple.
Like I knew she would, she tried forcing it into my mouth with her tongue, I thrust it back. Then, she caught me by surprise and swallowed it, wrapping her tongue around mine, doing some thrusting and rubbing of her own. I could feel my eyes roll back into their sockets, and tingles dance all down my body.
From the magic of Idun’s apple or Kirika’s tongue I couldn’t say.
She arched in my arms, thrusting her hips into me again and again. I was about to lose it completely, when she went limp in my arms, slumping across my whole body.
This time it was me that let out a long, ragged breath. I shivered in spasms. That had been --- something. Kirika purred in my arms.
“Next time, get a hotel,” growled Hone.
“I didn’t do that,” I sputtered.
Kirika breathed, “Was it good for you, beloved?”
I couldn’t help myself and let out a sigh, “Oh, yeah.”
Hone grunted, “Tell me again what you didn’t do.”
***
Thanks to all of you that have bought THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS :
http://www.amazon.com/BEAR-TWO-SHADOWS-ebook/dp/B004MDLWD0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1297389428&sr=1-1
My fable is a tiny candle in the cyber-night. But its flame grows stronger each time one of you buys it.
"Thank You" is too small a phrase, but it is all I have.
Before he was THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS ...
Hibbs was THE CUB WITHOUT A CLUE.
Here is one of the teaching tales found in THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS which Hibbs remembers when confronted with a mystery as a grown bear in Ancient Eire :
Hibbs' scalp suddenly prickled. Yet again, Hibbs' present had been swallowed up by his past. No longer was he in Eire nor even a grown bear.
Instead of the wet smell of spring, the crisp chill of Autumn tickled his wrinkling nose. But he was still walking beside a long-striding Estanatlehi.It was his first week in the Valley of the Shadow -- long before he knew it well enough to be cautious of what lay within its dark corners.
And he wasn't exactly walking beside GrandMother. Rather he was bouncing all around her, filled with the energy and wonder of all young cubs.
The Turquoise Woman was frowning at him as he skipped and leapt in a circle around her. "I hate to see you so sad." "Oh, GrandMother," giggled Hibbs. "You're so funny."
Estanatlehi smiled faint. "I do believe that you are the first to say that of me."
"Truly? Wheee! I'm the first. The very first. I bet I'm the first bear to explore this wonderful valley, too."
A thin arch of lightning rose skeptically over one turquoise eye. "Wonderful? I do believe that once again you are the first to call this valley that as well."
Hibbs did a hand-stand as he bounced around The Turquoise Woman. "What a day of firsts! It's great to be an explorer, isn't it?"
Estanatlehi sighed, "True, there is something to be said for heading into unexplored territory --- Uffff!"
Hibbs had collided into her side as he miscalculated his next hand-stand. She stopped suddenly and gestured.
The young cub froze upside down in mid-air. Twin turquoise eyes narrowed as she bent and placed her face right next to the face of the frightened bear.
"But there is also something to be said for knowing where you are going."
"Wanunhecun, (mistake in Lakota)," muttered Hibbs out of a dust dry throat.
Turquoise eyes narrowed further, and Hibbs managed to get out the one word, "S-Sorry."
Snow suddenly started to swirl around the upside-down cub. "Better."
Hibbs let out a sigh of relief. Of course, he had misunderstood her as he so often did. And The Turquoise Woman reached out and sharply tweaked his nose.
"N-Not better?"
Estanatlehi murmured in words of winter, "No. Not 'sorry.' But 'better.'"
Hibbs' eyes widened. "Oh, you mean -- don't be sorry. Be better."
Long ivory fingers gestrued gracefully, and the cub landed on his head. Hard. But Hibbs merely giggled and rolled to his feet, hugging the startled Turquoise Woman.
"Got it right that time didn't I, GrandMother?"
And feeling the warmth of the young cub's trusting embrace about her legs, Estanatlehi lost all her former anger. She reached down and gently ruffled the top of Hibbs's furry head. All the tension left her voice as she spoke.
"Yes."
Her eyes sparkled with something that rarely touched them -- amusement. "And no."
Hibbs looked up with such nose-wrinkling puzzlement that Estanatlehi had to laugh. "How can it be both 'yes' and 'no' at the same time, GrandMother?"
This time her fingers were gentle as she tweaked his nose. "Oh, Little One, sometimes it appears that your whole life is both 'Yes' and 'No.'"
"Truly?"
"Truly."
She reached down and gently tugged on his small right ear. "Come, and I will show you."
Though he felt like he would burst from just simply plodding along, Hibbs forced himself to walk beside GrandMother.
His steps were so small compared to her long strides though that he happily found it was necessary to skip to keep up. Estanatlehi shook her head in wry amusement.
"This path is much different in summer than it is now in Autumn. These gentle slopes, so pleasant to walk upon in summer, turn slippery and dangerous with winter snows."
Hibbs squinted this way and that as he tried to imagine the trees and grass about him covered with the magic of first snowfall. The brittle leaves of Autumn tickled the bottom of his bare feet, and he fought a giggle.
A hawk cawed high overhead, and the young cub strained to make it out. But it flew high into the clouds too quickly for him to pick it out against the utter blue of the sky. And so his first meeting with Little Brother was postponed to the dark future.
Estanatlehi tugged a bit sharper on his ear to snare his ever-wandering attention. "Yet in winter, we could safely walk over this very spot where in summer rattlesnakes love to hide."
"Yikes!," squealed Hibbs, slamming hard into Estanatlehi's left leg as he leapt in fright from the imagined attack of slumbering rattlesnakes rudely awakened by scampering bear feet.
The Turquoise Woman sharply gestured with long ivory fingers, whose tips sizzled with sparks of black death.
Yelping in fear and surprise, Hibbs was lifted bodily high in the air by the threads of Life until his eyes stared unhappily straight into eyes which had blasted the very flesh from the bones of Lakota warriors foolish enough to anger her.
"Does the air feel like summer to you?"
"I know it is Autumn, but --"
Turquoise eyes narrowed dangerously. "Autumn. Not summer. So by my very words, you know you are safe."
Hibbs swallowed hard and managed to get out, "You wouldn't say that if you were on my side of your eyes."
Estanatlehi stiffened, then laughed long and deep. "Oh, Little One, whatever did I do before you?"
As he was lowered gently to the dry leaves, Hibbs rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Probably walked without getting your feet stepped on."
Her head cocked slightly, and long, cold fingers gently ruffled the fur on the top of his head. "But I never laughed. Never. I believe a bruised toe or two is a small price for me to pay."
She tugged sharp on his right ear. "Now, what have you learned from all this?"
Hibbs looked up lovingly into her face and wanted so hard not to see it grow cold again. He thought and thought and thought. The obvious answer would only raise storm clouds again. An eyebrow of living lightning rose slowly.
Snakes in summer. Slippery tumbles in winter. The same path. His furry brow wrinkled as his tiny eyes squinted in hard thought. His eyes suddenly widened, and he smiled big.
"Different seasons make for different paths, even on the same spot."
The eyebrow of lightning kept rising, and Hibbs stuttered, "U-Uh, and -- and --- I guess that means that no one walks the same path twice even though it is the same road."
Hibbs heaved a sigh of relief as Estanatlehi's full lips slowly smiled. "I believe the end of the world must be near."
"Wh-What?"
Full lips struggled to be sober and lost. "It is written : there shall be plagues, floods, and famines. Little Hibbs will actually learn a lesson. Then shall the End come."
"Oh, GrandMother, you scared me."
She gently stroked the top of his head. "It is a natural talent."
Hibbs couldn't think of anything to say to that which wouldn't end up with him becoming even more scared, so he just hugged GrandMother's legs. Icy fingers patted his cheek. Hibbs smiled wide. For once, he had chosen the right path.
And abruptly, Hibbs was back in the present. And yes, he was still smiling but it was a sad smile, nonetheless, with echoes of loss and beckoning darkness. He looked to GrandMother and saw her lips twisting up in the same smile.
"The right path," he whispered.
Estanatlehi's hair of living lightning shivered as she nodded. "So you still remember?"
"I remember each of our walks, GrandMother."
His forehead wrinkled along with his nose as he said low,
"No one walks the same path twice -- even if it is the same road. Were you trying to tell me just now that even though I will walk the same unexplored territory as this other, I do not have to share his fate -- because I am different than he?"
Estanatlehi nodded even more slowly. "Yes ... and no."
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