Pontifex Ursa – Part 4
Wow. Just… wow.
My life is nuts. My wife’s life is somehow even more insane than mine. No clue how we both manage to keep things in check. Honestly surprised more often than not that I’m not a screaming madman with a bone in his beard.
Let’s do this.
Pontifex Ursa – Part 4
I hate embarrassing myself, and after asking such a blatant question, I thought my cheeks would never stop burning. Every time I looked back for the next few days, Priestess Lilith smiled at me and I blushed anew. I could’ve kicked myself every time, too. I’d always loved the Priestess, but as I’d grown, the feelings had changed somehow.
She’d morphed from kind and loving matron into kind and loving older sister into… Into what? I shuddered to think what she thought of me, and so every time we were forced to spend time talking I would ask the most complicated and esoteric questions I could think of, simply to force the conversation away from what I had asked.
The Pious Path also helped me in its own small ways. Fetching wood from the forest each evening, hiking up steep inclines on a regular basis, and finding out that the halfway point had taken over three weeks to reach; they all served to distract me from my shame. Priestess Lilith, Pontifex bless her, never did anything more than smile. She never pressed the issue, and gave me time to work through my own emotions at my own pace. Curse me if it didn’t make me yearn for her worse still, or make the blushes even deeper.
My desire to change the subject over our journey led to some amazing insights, and at times I would forget what I had done, avidly reading along next to Lilith as we explored the few tomes she had packed in her bag. Few they may be, but each was at least ten centimeters thick. It would take years to absorb all of the knowledge contained within! Especially as the subjects of each came to the forefront.
I thought that I had a solid grounding in what humanity had been like before the Last War. I was wrong. I learned some of the history guarded by the Priesthood during my journey. Humanity, before the madness of the Third War, before the utter nihilism of the Last War, had once spanned the whole of the globe. We had been billions strong, capable of communicating across the globe in seconds, and we had even gone to space?! It was insanity to see all that we could accomplish. Lights day and night, spanning hundreds of miles, simply so life could continue when darkness set in. Candles which never burned out, which beat back the stars above.
I had looked up into the heavens at that, and wondered what it would do to be denied such a brilliant vista each evening. The stars, where the clouds parted to reveal them, were a glowing embroidery against the darkness. It was a breathtaking vista, and after reading about light saturation and the utter disregard humanity had continued to show for their home, the view brought no comfort. I looked over to Lilith, and saw something strange on her face. It wasn’t full of the normal warmth and strength. She looked… wistful. Envious. Scared? Too many emotions for me to make out flitted past her face, and before I could think about what I was doing, I had reached out an arm to encompass her shoulders. I didn’t like seeing those things on her face.
My adulthood had been accompanied by one last spurt of growth. I was now slightly taller than she, even given her slightly larger Priesthood frame typical of all from that order. I hadn’t really noticed that, given how my interactions had gone recently with the older woman. She turned to me, her mouth back to the same smile she wore whenever she looked at me now, and before I could think about it, I came towards her, my mouth seeking hers. I paused before we met, unsure if what I was doing was simply an extension of my infatuation, or something Lilith would agree to in the first place.
Lilith brushed away my doubts by meeting me the rest of the way. Her mouth was soft and warm, the kiss lingering and inviting, yet at the same time I sensed that she was hesitant. I was afraid that I was the source of her reticence, and so I pulled back despite my body protesting the whole way. “I’m sorry if that was rude of me Priestess. I just…. I just….” My words faltered then. I just what? Loved you? Desired you? Respected you? What could I say that would be equal to my feelings?
She laughed again, this one wholly different from the pealing laughter that had haunted me for the last week. I blushed, but for an entirely different reason this go around. She put both furred arms across my shoulder, and gently turned me towards her. She kissed me again then, all beautiful sweetness but with a rising thread of heat running like a current through all the tenderness. She pulled back then, her breath coming slightly faster, her eyes wide as mine surely were. My heart was pounding more than any part of the Pious Path ever had.
“I’m sorry Renton. I’m really not much older than you, and I’ve never had anyone express interest in me before. You’ve become a handsome young man Renton, and your attention is very…” a gentle furred finger ran along the base of my chin, and my mind was consumed by the touch “… welcome.” She looked at me, and I could see the consent and the mutual desire lying there.
The fires had burned down to embers before our own flames were extinguished. We lay together under her fur lined cloak and atop mine, bodies as joined as our cold-wear, resting peacefully in the valley of our passion. As we drifted off, Lilith curled across me, tender and beautiful, wholly at peace with my presence. And I with hers.
To be continued…
Lilithfully,
Justin
