Lavender & Ice

16. Conversation

Milleck would have the rest of the torunk butchered in a few days. Kietnan thought Ashima might be excited when Milleck cut and packaged a strip of the tenderloin meat for them to take fresh, but she seemed completely lost in her own mind.

He glanced at her small form under the sleeping cloths he had provided her. Perhaps today's hunt was too much for her. He frowned and turned to continue his task.

He had already cleaned his knives and empty jars and put away all of the supplies from their earlier trip. Now he took the select spices he ground, adding just enough tuka oil until it formed a paste. He carefully rubbed the paste all over the long stretch of meat before wrapping it in a cloth and setting it aside. After washing off his hands, he removed a few of the dried root vegetables Ashima seemed ok with eating and rubbed it with a blend of the tuka oil, water, and spices, leaving them in a bowl to rehydrate.

He then opened a bag that Milleck had given him, smelling the sweet aroma of the bundle of small pink fruit. He cut each in half and squeezed the juice into a bowl before adding sweetening spices and a bit of water before pouring the mixture into two large glasses.

Leaving those to settle and marinade, he cleaned up everything else and then made his way to his clothing armoire. He pulled out a clean outfit and then retrieved some washing supplies. He glanced at the sleeping form nearby.

"Shima." He said quietly. "Are you sleeping?"

No reaction.

All the previous days since she had been living in his tent, he had spent hours in the clean, crisp lake water and hadn't bothered to further bathe himself. But with his recovery yesterday and the hunting trip today, he needed a true bathing. His people would consider it a contamination to use soaps in the lake or rivers and they offered no public bathing since each dwelling tent provided its own.

Deciding that she was sound asleep, he turned his back to her as he pulled out the basin and removed his clothes.  

Ashima stirred to the sound of water.

Where was she? She slowly opened her eyes as she quietly rolled to her back and took in her surroundings.

Right. She was in Kietnan's tent.

The sound of sloshing water nearby had her turning her head and she froze when her eyes landed on lavender skin. Kietnan was bathing, with his back side to her. Before she could come to her senses, her eyes roamed over his body. She already knew his upper body was strong. Lean, but muscular. But here she was, staring at his shoulder and back muscles as his arms moved to wash his face and chest. Her eyes lowered, and she bit her lip to hold back a groan that wanted to pass by her lips. Every inch of his body was perfectly toned. She watched as his arms lowered to wash his chest and abdomen before lowering to what she could only assume were his reproductive organs. She couldn't help but wonder what that part of his anatomy looked like. Was his entire body hairless? She even dared to wonder if it would be compatible with humans. Out of purely scientific curiosity, of course.

Her eyes wandered further down as soapy water dripped down his legs, falling into the shallow bathing basin he was standing in. Suddenly the blankets she was under felt suffocating and she resisted the urge to throw them off and fan her face. Instead she quietly returned to her original position that faced the wall and closed her eyes, pretending to sleep once more. She couldn't control her pounding heart but she did her best to slow her breathing by taking slow deep breaths through her nose and exhaling them through her mouth. She listened carefully as he finished washing, got dressed, and then emptied the bathing basin.  

When she heard him in the dining area, she contemplated pretending to wake up but decided she wasn't ready to face him. Would she ever be?

One minute she was ready to never wake up again from depression and despair, and the next she was practically drooling over and ogling a big lavender man she couldn't even properly have a conversation with. For what felt like the millionth time today, she thought she was truly losing her sanity.