Mating of the Deer and Fox (Part 1: Fawn)

#Wss366

The Inacar woman looked across the clearing and shrank back. The man she’d just spotted examined her curiously. He was tall with broad shoulders. Fox tails dangled from his red hair, and a vulpine face adorned his bare, brawny chest.

“Lost?” he asked in a Shaw accent.

She nodded and looked back the way she’d come. The branches hung over the animal track in a tangled mass. Fleeing would be #totally impossible.

Her eyes returned to the Shaw. He was kneeling now, looking at her with a narrow, calculating gaze, as if she were a frightened titmouse or fawn. She shivered, remembering the stories about how the Shaw treated captured women.

“You don’t need to be frightened,” he said. “I won’t hurt you.” His tone held no trace of guile, but could she trust that?

“You’re a Shaw.” Her voice was a whisper, barely loud enough to reach him.

“I’m an in-between, no longer a Shaw.”

“Oathless,” she said. Fear still trembled in her voice.

“That’s what your people call me. Those that were mine have no name for me, for I no longer exist.”

He slowly reached behind him and pulled a pack from where it had been hidden in the ferns.

“If you’re cold, I can make a fire,” he said. “I also have food. Perhaps we can share.” He looked at the basket she held.

She took a hesitant, fawn-like step forward. “I was picking mushrooms and got lost.”

He nodded but said nothing.

She took another step forward when a loud crash came from the bushes. She froze, staring.

“It’s just a deer I was hunting. Perhaps one of your kin?” His laugh was a pleasant rumble in his chest. She liked the sound and stepped closer.

In response, he took off his cloak and laid it on the ground. “Sit while I gather wood.”

To be Continued

Note 1: #FanFiction for a yet-to-be-published book, “Soul Fire” by Jesse Sprague.
Note 2: #Kickstarter “Soul Fire” by Jesse Sprague.

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Serial #Fantasy #NMFic #NMV366