Entity #444

7: Under Your Scars

Playlist songs for this chapter:
Beautiful Undone- Laura Doggett

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Update 5/17/22:
This is one of my photomanipulations of Nazarius, which also shows the setting of this chapter.

Also, THANK YOU all who have read and or voted on this book!! I will keep doing my best to update it regularly & keep writing from my heart & soul! You guys are the best!

~Marzena

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Our stride slowed quickly as Nazarius' pounding feet began to throw water. His eyes illuminated the outline of small open pipes sticking out of the walls, which were now cement. The pipes were all steadily dripping or pouring black water, and the temperature dropped noticeably.

Our bodies slowed to a lumbering trot, and eventually to a walk. The water swirled around Nazarius' fetlocks, covering his hooves, and his head lowered. Both of our chests were heaving.

It took me a few minutes to come down from the high of galloping through a pitch black tunnel with zero abandon. There was nothing to see, except him. Nothing to feel, except his scorching heat radiating from his spine into mine. Nothing to hear, except the intertwining of our voices in ecstacy, solar soprano blending with cavernous bass. Nothing to be, except free.

In those moments, my senses were overtaken completely by him, and both of us took each other's soul and made it feel like we were immortal.

I never wanted to leave.

As our nervous systems regulated, I couldn't help but watch Nazarius from upon his back. The way he sure-footedly navigated the waters, how his horns swayed with his skull, and how his hips and shoulders moved up and down with his gait.

Humming a small tune to myself, I reached out a hand and ran a few fingers along his chopped mane. What hair did grow there stood straight up, and I ran my fingers over it for the sensory bliss it gave them. I tried picturing what he would look like with a long, unkempt, wild mane, or a thick, braided mane. I found myself hoping I could be around him long enough to see it. He was certainly one hell of a beast.

My thoughts were interrupted by a rumble from Nazarius, which vibrated throughout his entire body and into mine.

"Marzena."

I looked up to see a dim light ahead of us.

"Oh my God, Nazarius- there it is! Finally! Oh, I knew you would get us through this!" I threw my body forward and gripped his neck with my arms, not quite able to reach all the way around. He brought his bony head back towards my left leg, and I leaned down and kissed him on the bridge of his nose.

So we paced faster toward the opening at the end of the tunnel. As we got closer, the air changed and brought a cool, rivery-scent with it.

My body reveled in the contact it had with Nazarius, knowing that I would soon have to travel on two feet once again. My hands absent-mindedly traveled over his shoulders, down his back, towards his hips and...

Stopped.

My fingers had run over a long scar, traveling from his low back, past his hip, toward his tail.

Nazarius' gait changed immediately. It became slower and stiff, and he constantly looked back toward me with one eye.

My eyebrows knitted and I positioned myself to sit on him sideways. I looked back and forth between his eye and his scar.

What's this... sensitive...?

I hovered a hand over his scar and used a light finger to trace it, glancing back at him. He dipped his head as he walked and made a deep half-rumble sound that I had not heard before.