Ch: 6.5

At the forge, Shai put Gary on to making simple items the next morning, nails and rivets to start. As he began, his Artisan gift started pulling its weight. It seemed that it was the act of creating objects, not just the physical manipulation of raw material that triggered it.

Small items trickled from his little corner of Shai’s forge at a steady rate, while she twirled and spun to his rhythm, completing her own tasks at a speed even she was startled by.

Fortunately for Gary, Shai found Huey Lewis and the News at least as enjoyable as country, while Hall and Oats sent her wiggling in ways too distracting to ignore.

By fourth bell, She and Gary were ensconced in the same tavern, their assigned tasks for the day complete. This time he had the energy to eat, he even produced his mandolin and strummed a few bluegrass tunes.

Shai began to bounce slightly, tapping her toes. Swaying to and fro, she whirled from her chair, slipping, scooting and sliding across the floor.

Her ecstatic, twirling dance carried her around the room in a blur of flashing legs. A wordless song spilled from her throat, half humming, half crooning, filling the small space with life and thundering energy that rattled the dishes and made the pots in the kitchen hum.

“Gary,” She gasped, spinning back into her seat while the other tavern patrons gaped in wonder. “Ye’ll be taking me dancing at the temple of Joy this week end. Ye’ll be dancing wi me that night. No excuses.”

He gulped and nodded, fingers still scattering soft and soothing notes around the room. She reached out and tapped the body of his mandolin with a finger.

“Ye made that, yes?” He nodded again. “I’ll be seeing your workshop then; Liam says ye hae one, says it’s a thing to see.”

She rose gracefully, headed for the door. “Come along.” She called over her shoulder. “Keep playing, I like this music.”

Gary taught her ‘Sixteen Tons’ on the way, entertaining most of the women and all of the men in the carpenter's ward. The girl couldn't stand still while the music played.

The bell over his door was still tinkling softly as she giggled. “Nice shop, what’er ye selling? Empty shelves? Ye’er all stocked up on those.” She gently mocked, still swaying as he noodled in the blues.

“Very funny, workshop’s downstairs.” He kept playing, mostly because she kept swaying that way.

She tisked at his portable forge and immediately began rearranging it to meet her standards. “That's a fair bit o scrap iron over there,” She pointed to his shop tools “is it fer sellin?”

Gary switched on the sanding and buffing station and its use immediately became clear to her. “Oh my! That’s a fine thing!”

The drill press made her eyes widen with a hungry look that he was not sure he liked… No, it was sexy as hell. Any girl that looked at a belt sander that way was something special, he decided.

#

Later, sitting in the shopfront sharing a pipe with Liam and Aisha who ‘happened to be passing with Liam, by chance’ and also happened to have a basket draped with a towel over her arm; a nervous Gary suggested that the foursome should go and get a meal in the market. Anything to get them away from his house.

Liam smiled, slow and evil, making his handsome face twist. “Aisha and I were going to a new bathhouse… but don't let us stop you two.”

Shai’s face lit up with delight. “A bathhouse? In Wheatford? I had nae heard!” She spun in place, twirling with excitement.

Gary’s soft groan of despair completely escaped her notice. Liam grinned, while Aisha continued the obviously coordinated attack.

“It's a private bath, by invitation only, it's a bit of a secret so keep it under your hat. My dear Liam can surely arrange you an invitation… perhaps for this weekend.”

She batted her lashes winsomely at Liam, who played the role of unwilling, but indulgent boyfriend. Giving in and promising an evening in the mysterious bath would be granted by the equally mysterious benefactor.

Liam whispered in a conspiratorial way. “I am very close with the owner, I will arrange it for you…”

Coincidentally for the very evening a dance was to be held by the Temple of Joy…

#

It was brutal. When those two finished, Gary and Shai were eating in a local tavern and the two scheming serpents were ensconced in Gary’s bath alone.

He couldn’t even find the energy to be upset at the way they had weaseled their way into his house. He was too panic stricken by the horrifying way he had been coerced and twisted into this position.

While Shai enjoyed a steak and salad of heroic proportions, Gary dined on fear until he was full up to the tonsils. His grilled chicken leg tasted like dust and ash, despite being obviously juicy and lovely.

His mind would not stop running through scenarios where Shai wound up in his bath…

He found several new and exciting ways to fear rejection. Particularly a whole new and paralyzing fear of being seen without his clothes… by this extraordinary woman. All his old insecurities came home to roost, his traitor mind began an exhaustive inventory of each time he had thought that maybe, just maybe. Each time it had become a cruel joke, or she didn’t see him that way. This woman, in this place… something in her laughing eyes and wide smile seemed open and honest.

The touch of her hand sent electric jolts through him, even while she was covered in sweat, or handing him a coal shovel in a stinking, blazing forge. That was new…

Suddenly, something snapped in his heart and he felt free, truly free for the first time. This chicken was good!

With a fiery resolve and new determination he sat up straight and started talking.

“Shai,” He said. “That bathhouse is mine, it’s behind my shop. Aisha and Liam were using you to torment me because I set them up. Well, I helped set them up, it was a community effort.”

“I see.” She said coolly.

“Yeah, I really like you, but they don't get to put me, or you in that position.” He went on. “I'm taking a stand here, anyone that tries to set me up from now on is getting disappointed. I will see who I want, when I wish, where I will.”

“I see.” She said again.

“You can use the bathing facility as you wish,” He said carefully. “Because I know I can trust you to respect my boundaries.” This was the dangerous part.

“Just as you can trust me to respect yours.”

He struggled with an instinct to flinch out of reach as she shifted to face him more fully. “I see.” She said again, her body rigid for the first time since Gary had met her.

“What Ye’er saying is yer friends connived to get me intae a bath with ye.” He nodded carefully. “An they’r in yer house right now.” Again he nodded.

“Gary, I did swear on me beloved step mother’s grave I’d nae be wi anyone, save I be choosing who and when… Mom agreed, so I did fill that grave back in.” Her smile was cold and hard as a razor to the throat.

“I’d heard that ye and Tawny of Healer were seen much together, she is a friend I would keep.”

“She made her position clear on that, threw me in the river and then saved my life. So we’re friends… but no more than that.” He paused for a moment. “So are we still dancing this weekend?”

“I will tell if an when ye kin break a promise tae me, Gary.” Her smile was as warm as sunshine and just as welcome. That chicken was great.

Shai swooped in and kissed his cheek when they parted, leaving Gary at loose ends. She was headed home saying something urgent needed tending. His house still contained a pair of venomous serpents and he had no desire to drive them out, so Gary walked over to the tailor's ward.

At Jennah’s shop, his new determination fueled aggressive actions.

“Mistress Jennah, I am taking Apprentice smith Shai dancing at the temple of Joy, what should I wear?” He asked warmly, placing the ball firmly in her court.

“Gary, Tawny mentioned throwing you in the river, is that where you washed up? Lucky for you, I've seen her dance, lucky for her I’ve heard you play.” Her smile was genuine and warm, without calculation or schemes.

Something clicked in his mind. “You and Liam… and Tawny… and Otho?” She nodded indulgently. “And that priestess… Naomi Quinn?” Now she was beaming.

“Very good, all correct, save Tawny and Liam. He was my cat's paw, while she told me to keep from meddling.” Gary nodded. “Shai knew nothing, Gary, this was in no way her plot.”

“I know, and I’m going to play along. Because I like her. No more plots, I was a fool to try swimming with the sharks in this ocean.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh Gary, you were a fool to think there was dry land where you could hide.” She pantomimed biting at him fiercely and laughed.

“I never meant to fix you to Tawny, that would have been a terrible match. You tower over her, your hair and eyes are too dark, but most of all you are an Adventurer.” She sighed. “Adventurers always heed the call of War, that would destroy her happiness… again.”

Jennah made shooing motions and said “I pointed you to Shai to thank you for helping my sister, you kind buffoon. Shoo! I will see to you and her, a woman cannot sew in peace with looming oafs about.”

#

During their morning workout Liam would not stop smiling and he barely spoke without prompting, lost in a world of his own.

Gary said little, wanting to enjoy the quiet, he was in a world of his own too, considering this was to be the end of his week at the forge with the lovely smith.

When he arrived, Shai had arranged extra work for them. Quite a pile of extra work. She was enjoying herself a bit too much, maybe.

Gary was feeling experimental, so he dialed his gift up a little more and tried something a little more contemporary, a little more disco. Shai had him making a shovel, spreading the steel thin to form the blade with careful quick taps. Taptatpttatatppap

Oooh!

You can dance, you can jive

Having the time of your life…

Gary kept ‘Dancing Queen’ rolling on the chorus, lost in the music and the work, until he was finishing the shovel. Truly he was lost in the work, when he finally finished the thing was remarkable. Ornate and elegant, it seemed almost alive in his hands. It felt alive in ways that suggested he should take a nap… a shovel shouldn’t feel so heavy and threatening. It was beautiful , but something about it felt like a blade, pointed at his very heart… It was perfect though, totally worth nearly impaling himself a few times at the grinding wheel, while watching Shai dance.

As long as he kept it going by whistling or singing, the hammers of the craftsmen around them were doing a fabulous job. There was an apprentice carpenter across the street who was a natural drummer.

Gary shook off his weird shovel paranoia and slipped the beat a little tighter. With a little funky groove, he brought the neighbors along into ‘Let It Whip’.

Shai’s hips were a pervasive element in the forge now, they seemed to be everywhere, certainly everywhere he looked... Driven by funky science, he couldn’t determine if they were a particle or a wave, sexy was the most consistent result. Observation pulled him into the experiment, as the scientific method surrendered to those legs... Soon they were working side by side, bumping their hips together and hammering in time.

#

They were sitting on a pier, feet dangling in the river as the sun slowly lowered, she leaned against him and smiled.

“I won't be making a smith of ye, but I've made a friend, maybe more… an that’s enough. See you ‘ere the dance Gary. Don’t be late, I've a marvelous fine gravedigging shovel ye made fer me.”

Gary laughed and didn’t feel doomed at all. He felt free and easy, like chains were being struck from his limbs.

While Shai walked back to her home with wings on her heels, Gary was back at the fountain giving Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ a ferocious rendition, his guitar thundering through the chords, while he danced with abandon around the fountain.

Did you think I’d crumble

Think I’d lay down and die…

Tawny was standing there when he looked up, smiling in that golden evening light. She was radiant, a gleaming golden beauty and a good friend.

When the song ended they hugged and strolled together to meet Liam and Aisha, it was bathtime. “I can’t believe this is my life now.” He sighed.

#

Dressed and freshly bathed, he lingered by the temple gate, watching down the road for her approach.

On first day Gary would start at the college with remedial introductory courses, designed for backwoods nobility with weak educational foundations. So what.

Today, he was meeting Shai for the temple dance and that was enough to have on the agenda. His clothes had come from Jennah, nothing fancy, dark green pants, green shirt and sash all in linen but it felt great. Everything felt great.

The exercises and conditioning Liam was putting him through were paying dividends in skills and fitness. His imbalance was managed, leaving his head clear and he was going dancing with a girl his age who was a potential rival in skill. A different craft thankfully, she had a competitive streak.

He saw her coming up the road dressed in a silk skirt the color of fresh spring grass, twirling and flowing at the hem, it snugged tight from her hips to her navel.

A brief, flowing top in bright green and a short chocolate brown vest embroidered with a spray of thorny vines, with blossoms stitched in white and red berries revealed almost as much creamy skin as it concealed. She was crowned with a garland of wildflowers, restraining her curly hair into a short coppery waterfall.

While he was admiring her, she was giving him the same treatment, Gary guessed she liked the result, since she took his arm, playfully bumped her hip to his and swayed across the square to get closer to the musicians.

He had yet to meet with any of Otho’s new minions, in fact he hadn’t seen the old man in a few days… He cast those thoughts out and focused on the beautiful girl beside him.

She was stretching and limbering up in ways that made it hard to breathe. While warming himself up, Gary called over the noise of the crowd and the band tuning up.

“When I first Got here I was afraid it was one of those crazy towns where they outlaw dancing”

She looked perplexed “Why ever do that?”

He tried to remember, it was something about Kevin Bacon... “Because getting drunk can get you killed… I guess.”

“I’m not sure ye are sane, Gary… but ye’er fun!” With that she swirled into the rising music, pulling him along by sheer joyous gravity.

Shai was a force of nature, pulling everyone into her twirling swirling skirts, leaving them stunned and breathless. She didn't dance with Gary, the whole crowd danced with her, caught up in the drum, the flute and the green and red dervish, whirling madly among them. Gary kept bobbing along in her wake trying to keep up, always barely within reach of her hands and spinning skirts.

They lost track of the time and eighth bell caught them both by surprise. Giddy, exhausted and dizzy, they stumbled off arm in arm.

In the square Gary’s ridiculous pipe appeared, puffing gray clouds into the air between them. Shai looked closely at it and compared it to her vest, seeing the similarities for the first time. Did ye craft this pipe, foolish boy?” She asked

He shrugged. “Yes indeed, like it? Maybe I’ll make one for you...”

“T’would seem ye had a hand in the delivery of this fine clothing frae Jennah's shop? Be ye bold, mad or a greater fool than I guessed?” She shook her head woefully. “Tae try an play dress-up wi me.”

“I asked her what I should wear, she said she had something for you on her own...” He eyed her up and down slowly again, she saw and gave a little slow twirl with a sassy smile. “Jennah knows what I like.” He said, feeling courageous, caught up in the heady evening.

“Liam has a fair mind fer me own proclivities,” She said, smiling. “He’s me brother, since and all.”

That sent Gary on a short stumble, arrested by the smith girl’s quick, strong hand.

“Master Harlan came tae town three years gone, he adopted me frae the orphanage, he's Da’s brother. Uncle Harlan I suppose, but I’m an orphan under the law yet. Were he me mother’s sister, mayhap I could make Contracts, but that be talk for rainy days, not summer nights, foolish boy”

“Well then, if you could travel anywhere in this wide world, where would you go?” Gary asked, fishing for some geographical info, since he had yet to find a map.

She mulled that prettily for a moment, stroking her jaw and throat in a way Gary felt was calculated to cause him difficulties. “I would go to a place where the music never ends.”

“Yeah it's nice there.” Gary said dreamily, as she snuggled closer to him in the cool of a late summer evening. “I have a little cabin there.”

“Ye are a silly man, I think I’ll keep ye.”

#

At the gate Gary turned to take Shai home, while Shai turned to go to his workshop. Colliding in the middle of the road caused a tangle of other party goers and pedestrians to form. As they escaped their own creation, each faced the other and said in tandem “I’ll take you home…” and began taking the other in that direction.

As they spun around each other, still caught up in the dance, she leaned close and kissed him, whispering; “Remember, I tell ye when ye can break a promise tae me. If you have a problem wi that, don’t go making them.”

Gary stood dumbfounded, trying to square that circle... “I'm fer bathing in yer bathhouse, as I were promised, ye addle pated, woodchewing termite. Carpenters… got sawdust fer brains.” She scolded him while grinning wickedly.

#

Gary’s house was a funny thing, anyone who was given entry, always had a summoned robe hanging in the bathing room, each one unique, conjured subconsciously, by Gary’s gift. Likewise there were always whimsical animal slippers in the cubbies and a chair that seemed to meet the guest’s backside just so.

The rooms were still rather spartan, but the contents of his storage appeared in their places making it seem more homey.

He had transformed the living space into a simple studio with a garden patio, his bed dominated the sleeping area, summoned on a whim and kept for the same reason. His instruments nestled in stands built just for them, against the walls.

They slipped through the side door into the living quarters of Gary’s house a few minutes later, breathless from excitement and kisses exchanged in private moments.

They embraced in the middle of the floor, holding tight and enjoying each other's warmth and scent. After a long moment that ended too soon, as Shai began tugging at Garys clothes.

Before he knew it Gary was bare to the waist, flat on his back with Shai straddling him, surrounded in a pool of her skirts. She leaned over and kissed his bare chest, then gently, she ran her fingernails over his chest and abdomen, making him writhe and groan.

He caressed his hands up her silk clad hips, over her bare flanks reaching for her pert, plump breasts, still hidden by her shimmering garments.

Her lithe and supple body made a lithe twist, as she leapt away, opening the door to the bathing room. She gave him a terrible smile as she waved and whispered; “Ye promised to respect me boundaries Gary.”

With a serious look, she drew a line with her bare toes in front of the bathing room door, before dancing out of sight.

As the last glimpse of green skirt vanished through the still open door, he sighed. She left that door open deliberately. She could have closed and locked it after her, the mechanism was beyond simple. That was the infuriating part, she left it open as a show of trust… and a show of power.

He could hear her splashing in the bathing room and singing a song he had taught her, ‘What A Wonderful World’. That was unnecessary, though her warm, rough voice was stunning.

Determined to get his power back, Gary rose, took his mandolin, went to the door and entered the garden.

He waited quietly on a bench until he heard her soft gasp of pleasure at first sight of the bathing pool.

At the liquid sound of a slender body slipping into the bath, Gary began to play. Sending his notes tumbling over the wall to shower onto her. ‘Sway!’ was a forward choice, but this was a night for courageous acts.

When marimba rhythms start to play,

Dance with me, make me sway…

Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore,

Hold me close, sway me more…

He kept his gift sealed up tight, nothing but the magic of music. Part way through one of his mothers’ favorites, ‘Quizas, Quizas, Quizas?’, right in the middle of the ‘pensando, pensando’s… Firm, warm arms encircled him and stilled his hands. He felt her breath on the nape of his neck as she whispered:

“Where be your boundaries Gary?”

“My boundaries? I was gonna play ‘Gimme One Reason’ and then go to the orphanage, if you didn’t come out.” He slowly turned around within her encircling arms.

She was wearing the conjured robe, he knew it was just for her, because it was a shimmering green and very short. He also knew what he liked.

She curled up beside him, squeezing close. “Play that song, I want tae hear where ye draw the line.”

“No.” He said firmly.

“Why not boy? Am I nae good enough tae hear?” She whispered roughly, her accent flaring dangerously.

“Because you came out, so that song is not for you.”

“An why not?”

He smiled sadly, as he began to pluck and thump on his mandolin, evoking a chaotic heartbeat, as the higher strings rang out in strident minor chords, he whispered.

“Because even doves have pride”

Take if you will a picture,

Of you and I engaged in a kiss…

He never made it to the bridge.

#

While she struggled with the ties to his trousers, he made her robe vanish in an eldritch breeze. ‘Is this the true power of home ownership?’ He wondered to himself.

Gary had filled out in muscle rather well in just a few weeks, but was still a bit soft around the middle and gawky, he felt like a great waddling oaf, compared to her lithe dancer’s grace.

She was a vision in milky pale skin, the faint scars of her profession did nothing to mar the sensuous twining of her pale arms. Her shoulders were a few helpless freckles drowning in an ocean of cream, while pink nipples almost trembled atop her smooth breasts. The intoxicating curve of her abdomen stole his breath as he got lost in the unruly patch of coppery joy that surmounted those wondrous legs.

While he stood there gawping like a fool, Shai grabbed his shoulders and steered him to the bed. His courage and determination had shattered and blown away before the tempest that was Shai. She hesitated, confused and upset by his dazed expression of half terror.

“Be this… your first?” She asked softly. He nodded dumbly and she sighed.

“Tawny promised she had nae, but to think no lass ever…”

He opened his mouth to speak, only to be silenced with a gentle finger. “Tawny did say ye came from a place most strange and nae more. Ye are here with me now, an I will see ye right.” She seized him in a grip tender but firm and guided him to the bath. “Ye must learn the game, ere ye try an break the rules, Gary.”

He had received a number of lessons since arriving in this crazy world, had given a few as well, but Shai proved an able instructor here, as well as at the forge.

#