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Afflicted With Love (Erato and Cheshire Smirk)

Erato

Erato

Super-Earth
Joined
Feb 10, 2009
It was going to be a cool if not downright cold night tonight as she placed another log into the fireplace and watched as embers flew up in a brief flurry before settling back down again. The sight of the red-orange sparks reminded her of far simplier times when the nights were warm and she raced carefree under the moon along with another trying to catch fireflies so that they could make a wish.
"I wish I may, I wish I might. With you I'd spend the rest of my life."

She'd been young and stupid then, according to her father, full of dreams that would never come true. Young girls always dreamed of Prince Charming whisking them off to some castle in the clouds where they'd live happily ever after.
Nevermind that sometimes, Prince Charming fell victim to a curse and was robbed of his titles and land, then driven away from everything he'd ever known and loved, leaving his True Love to mourn his loss albeit in secret.
There was never a day or a night where her thoughts didn't turn to the one who had been her sun and moon before that terrible night when her father returned home and announced that she was never to see him again. Never to waste any more thoughts on a man who was more beast than anything now. A shame, but that's how it had to be.
So she tucked her feelings away after awhile, mourning him with each dawn and sunset, wishing that the man her father had engaged her to could look different, sound different...could just BE different.


"Isn't dinner ready yet?"Her father asked as he opened the door to their modest home, stamping the mud from his boots before shutting the door and sitting at the table where a bottle of wine and a simple goblet awaited him.
"Almost."Meredith replied in a hushed tone, lowering her green eyes shyly as she placed what had been prepared on the table, which didn't remain there long as her father stripped his hands of his gloves and began tearing great chunks of bread and wolfing them down.
"Your fiancee inquired about your health this evening. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that you ought to concider yourself lucky to have gained his attention, right?"He asked in between swallowing down food.
"Yes father."Came the reply that she knew would please the stern and weathered looking man.
"Good, now hurry with that meat. I've been riding fence all day as well as patrolling and I hunger."He ordered as she flitted to the oven and withdrew the mutton roast she'd been laboring over.
Her hair was a brilliant copper-red that bordered on scarlet, a gift from her mother along with several other physical attributes that gave her the impression of a lily growing in the dankest of swamps. The village had grown to be an almost opressive and dreary place since the dread infection had begun to spread.
While her father glutted himself upon the meal she'd prepared, Meredith stole back to the fire to kneel and poke at the embers in the hopes to see them fly once more. Fall back through the veils of memory to happier times.

"I wish I may, I wish I might...Dear god, why couldn't I be your wife?"
 
The clattering of hooves upon the cobblestones broke the silence of the night. A lone man garbed in a black traveler's cloak, face hidden behind a mesh cowl was making his way towards the small village. It was just another stop on the road for the weary nomad, yet another who'd fallen victim to the 'touch of the beast'. Displaced and unwanted, he could only hope that he'd be able to hide his symptoms for a few days so he could finally settle.

But then he heard the baying of the hounds, trackers hot on his trail. A sigh of disdain escaped the man's lips as he shoved his heels into the side of his stallion, forcing the beast to charge off the beaten path and into the dark woods at a gallop. The man leaned low in the saddle, keeping himself protected from any low hanging branches. The hounds continued to cry out, chasing after the scent they'd been trained to hone in on. The trackers had spilled his blood in a previous skirmish, and now their cursed hounds would be forever in pursuit.


Then the woods came to a dead end in the form of a rocky ravine, a lone charred oak tree standing before it. The man hurled himself off of the back of his mount and climbed swiftly up the tree, settling down in the crown of it's spread branches. He knocked an arrow and waited patiently, knowing the hunters would be in close pursuit.
 
Soon after he'd finished eating, Hector rose from the table and moved towards his room where his faithful mistress awaited him with her downy blankets and thick pillows.
Now was Meredith's turn to eat as she rose from the hearth and settled at the table to eat what her father could not. More potatoes and carrots left over than roast, which was to be expected whenever scavenging over dinner's remains though the gristle and fat left over from the roast would be saved and given to the wild dog who came around this time every evening.
When she'd had her fill, she silently gathered up the leftovers and moved to stand outside, waiting for the familiar shape that would slip out of the foliage and sit patiently, waiting for her to move away from the home and set the food down so he could eat. At least, she assumed it was a he, the great black canine that stared at her with far more understanding and intelligence than any beast ought to possess. But he'd never harmed her, never so much as bared his fangs at her when she sat nearby and talked while he ate.
Tonight however, he didn't show. Perhaps a bitch in heat had called his attention elsewhere or maybe he'd already eaten.
Waiting a few more minutes, Meredith sighed and moved closer to the bushes to place the meat out of view where she was sure he'd find it if he should happen by later.
 
The hounds came dashing into the clearing to be met by the song of a skilled bowman. Two arrows flew quickly from the string, their path straight and true. With a pair of muffled thuds and twin yelps both dogs went tumbling to the ground, dead before their carcasses stopped rolling. The trackers who followed in close pursuit pulled hard on the reins of their horses, skidding to a stop just out of sight. It was a dark enough night that the lurking Afflicted was completely hidden in his arboreal perch.

However, the gifts his condition granted him allowed the Afflicted to see perfectly in even the darkest of places. He could smell the stench of the two men, rancid from days of pursuit with no washing or clothing changes as they attempted to get a better scope of their surroundings. They communicated in whispers, their voices barely low enough to escape Vallios' acute hearing. Their tone urgent and slightly panicked, the two men began an expedited retreat, heading back towards the main road.

The man loosed a low sigh of relief then looked straight up into the sky. Slowly his eyes drifted shut and he felt his logical, human mind begin to dissolve. Shudders ran through his body, and burning pain wracked his nerves. Bones stretched and narrowed, skin twisting and weaving together in different ways until a giant black wolf was resting in the trees, sitting on it's hind legs. The wolf pounced down out of the tree and took off, moving rapidly towards the farm he frequently visited for food...Food and closure. His first, his only love still dwelled their, living in misery beneath her selfish father's rules. It pained him to see her so mistreated, but exiled as he was he knew he was in no position to intervene...

That was of course, if the village still recognized him. Seven years was a long time, especially when those seven years took you from the young age of 14 to manhood. Scarred and chiseled, Vallios' appearance had been shaped by his life as a renegade. The wolf let out a low, saddened bark as it came onto the property, finding only cold meat in the spot where he usually found her waiting.
 
With the last dish now washed and dried to be placed away with it's brethren in the cupboard, Meredith was ready to retreat to her room for the night when the sound of a familiar bark reached her ears.
He came!She couldn't help but silently exclaim, feeling relieved that her secret friend was safe and sound. A pity though that all she had to offer him was cold meat and hadn't been there earlier as she grabbed a shawl and crept outside.
She'd never touched him, this strange and enigmatic wolf-looking dog. Though she did talk to him often enough and it truly did seem as if he had an understand of what it was she said. Good, she needed someone to confide in as her days living here were greatly numbered.
"I don't know what you're going to do when I'm no longer living here."She chuckled, moving away from the house and moving to sit on the stump of a tree that had up until a year ago, bore the names of her beloved and herself inside of a heart.
"My father is more likely to shoot you, boy, rather than feed you. And I doubt my new husband would approve of a hound that isn't his."She snorted, emphasizing her disdain on the word 'husband'. "I don't love him, I don't even like him."She confessed to the canine as she glanced up at the moon. "But my opinion doesn't matter. I think it only mattered with one and well...he's long gone."Brushing away a stray tear.
"So where were you anyway?"She demanded of him after taking a moment to sober up. "Did you find a pretty she-wolf to court?"She teased him.
 
"Grr..Grrowr grr...gr."

The wolf even went so far as to nod his head as if he was answering her question down to the very last detail, before it returned to the meal presented. If canines could sigh, the longest most depressed one ever escaped from Vallios' lips as he looked up at Meredith. A whine and then he pushed forward, nuzzling into her stomach in an attempt to console her...And soothe his own feelings.

Looking into her face so full of longing, of sorrow was heart-wrenching. The great wolf tugged at her skirt, trying to lead her further away from the house. He did so with a sense of urgency, pawing at the ground as he slowly edged in towards the woods. For some reason the illusion, the disguise was just too painful to continue. Fear was taking over, the unspoken fear that Meredith would give up on his return and allow herself to be unwillingly whisked away to another's hearth.
 
"Hm?"She asked him as he thrust his muzzle into her stomach, nuzzling her aand then seizing the hem of her skirt to urge her to follow him. What was he up to? He usually sat close by, but never made contact with her before until now.
It's almost as if he knows I don't want to go and doesn't want to see me go.She mused, patting the sable head of her companion to try and quiet him a bit. "Easy fella, what is it?"She asked as the woods swallowed their forms and she glanced over her shoulder as if to make sure that her father wasn't aware of her clandestine rendevous before her attention was back on the wolf.
"It just occured to me, I don't even know your name. And I'll be going away soon to a place I don't want to go. The thought of marriage to another..it just breaks my heart..."Unable to hold herself together any longer, she dropped to her knees and allowed those sobs she'd held back until now, usher forth.
"Vallios...what I wouldn't give to see your face even if for just a moment.."
 
Arms shaped by years of struggle wrapped themselves around Meredith's shaking face. Where there had been a wolf seconds ago there was now a man, a man who was holding the shaking woman in a tight embrace. A light kiss to the cheek and then silence, Vallios allowing Meredith time to process the events. The moon was shining bright above them, almost three quarters full. It's silver rays cast the two forlorn lovers into haunting silhouette, Vallios' face shadowed by his own waist length raven mane. The right half of his face was completely covered, dark locks hiding the triple scars that stretched equidistant across his right eyebrow, all the way down to his jaw. Other scars could be seen beneath the tattered fabric of the shirt that showed through his ragged coat.

"My darling, what I wouldn't give to be able to be free of my affliction..." He whispered in her ear.
 
"My darling, what I wouldn't give to be able to be free from my affliction."


Meredith froze when instead of fur, it was skin that skimmed along the surface of hers and a voice filled her ears that made her broken heart fuse together before exploding into a thousand shards. She'd gone crazy, must have gone crazy because there was no way in the world that he could be here. Be here and be holding her close to him. Holding her close and..and...

"Vallios?"She asked, lifting her carmine head so that her cheek rested against his, only a few strands of ebon hair to seperate them as arms grew stronger, held him tighter to her. "By all that is sacred and holy, have I gone mad with grief finally? Or do the Gods play a cruel trick on me?"She asked rhetorically, chin resting upon his shoulder and for the next few minutes, lapsed into silence and wept against the support of his strong frame.
 
"No, I'm here...I've been coming to see you in disguise every night since I returned to this land."

Vallios let Meredith cry out her pent up feelings, all the while holding her tight. He pressed his lips to her forehead and let out a quiet sigh, a few tears of his own slipping down his cheeks to join the pool at their feet. Somehow this was more painful than remaining hidden from her as that innocent wolf, even in their reunion he could feel fate working to drive them apart. A low growl of frustration escaped from Vallios' throat and he laid back, pulling Meredith into a more intimate embrace.

His eyes drifted upwards to the stars, the celestial lights that'd cursed them with such wicked destinies. It was a sad thing, to loathe the very blood that coursed through your veins. A feeling that'd blackened Vallios' heart and left him nearly hollow, and yet somehow being back with her almost managed to rekindle his humanity. Vallios could only hope that Meredith wouldn't inspect him too closely, wouldn't question his countless scars. The life of an Afflicted was not glorious by any means, the heinous things Vallios had been forced to do in the name of survival was enough to push most to madness.
 
Drawn into a far more intimiate embrace, Meredith continued to cry with a mixture of joy and sorrow until she could regain her composure. Or at least compose herself enough that when she looked at him, she could speak without breaking off into a fit of sobs once again.
"All this time, you've watched over me."She stated simply, cupping his face and taking note of his scars, her heart's pieces shattering again as she shook her head. "Oh my dearest love. My only love..."She mourned. "Seeing you now, feeling you in my arms once more, I can never go through with it."Speaking in reference to the arranged marriage her father had set up for her.
"I would rather be dead than to have another. Am I so foolish a child still after all these years, Vallios? There has never been a day or a night that I have not mourned your loss. Have not prayed that the Gods would strike me dead so my soul could at least be free to watch over you."Her fingers moving like spiders across the scarred skin of his face and down his throat to his chest.
"I don't expect you to say it back, but I still love you. Will always love you even if I'm thrust into the house of another man. I would die happily on my wedding night, biting off my tongue to deny him what has always been yours."
 
"Your words bring solace that nothing else could..."

No, Vallios' lips couldn't form the words. His eyes, baleful and serious gave deepest apology to Meredith that he couldn't reciprocate her vows on the spot. He nuzzled lovingly into her neck and gave the gentlest of affectionate bites, in the same manner he would when they were younger before he'd whisper those three powerful words. But this time the gesture was silent, though the shadow of the feelings were there, as if they were feebly reaching out from their death-bed towards life.

"Without you my days have been empty, my life drudgery. It is your memory that's kept me going these seven long years."

The night was tranquil, even the wind had stopped howling to allow the two their privacy. However, Vallios knew it would not last long...The gods were not that kind. Being an Alpha-wolf, his scent was dominant and his trail marked. Sooner, rather than later he knew more zealous hunters would be hot on his heels...And he could not afford to be found just yet. When the moon waned so would his wolfish scent, he'd become more and more human the more the lunar cycle progressed.

"Another man's house will never keep you, that much I can promise..."
 
If she felt pain from his lack of reply to her troths of love, she didn't show it. After all, sorrow was sorrow, was it not? It had been a kind lie to say that she didn't care if he said it back or not when deep down, she'd wanted to hear those three simple words uttered from his lips once more.
Those kisses and playful nips upon her throat whisked her back to the bygone days of their youth, when awkward hands would explore flesh, growing more and more confident as love grew between them. Until that same love transformed them both from inexperienced youngsters, to well practiced lovers who seemingly loved and laid with one another for hundreds of years.
Idealistic notions, flights of fancy or ignorance, she didn't care what they called it as she suddenly seized his face gently in her hands so that he could see her face, look her in the eyes to see how sincere she was. Suddenly unable to still the quaking of her body as her lips crashed upon his. Trying to pour her love into him as if it were the heat, the spark of life that his form needed to feel once more.
"I cannot endure the thought of never seeing you again. For my weakness, please forgive me, my love."She pleaded against his mouth. "Take me away this very night or I swear I shall plunge the knife into my heart."Came her sincere if not desperate vow.
 
Vallios returned her kiss with passionate intensity, able to better reciprocate his feelings when he didn't have to speak. He drowned out her plea for salvation in another heated kiss, clutching her close as he tried to put his desires, his feelings into something better than words. After several heated moments he released her, though he did not break her gaze. The two sat in lingering silence until Vallios spoke quietly.

"Be patient my love...I'll form a plan. Just please, trust in me...Push off the ceremony for as long as you can. I need two weeks..."

Even as Vallios spoke he was plotting how he'd steal her away, how he'd forever rescue her from her sad reality. Slowly his eyes began to close, Vallios seeking a moment of inner clarity. So many possibilities, but how would he do it? Would he make the kidnapping obvious, would he stage her death? What would they do? The possibilities and the chances of failure were nearly overwhelming.

"Just talk to me...Let's treasure this time while we can."
 
"I don't have much time, Vallios. If my father wakes and finds me gone from the house, he'll come looking for me."She whispered, trembling anew with fright. If her father asked, she doubted she'd be able to hide the truth of this moment from that stern and cold man.
"Please, I am begging you my dearest..do not send me back into that life without you."She pleaded, crushing herself to him once more. She wanted to breathe him in until he was all she could smell, a secondary form of air she could not survive without.
To slip skins and meld into him so that they would never be apart or to have him take her on the forest floor right here and now. Let his seed germenate inside of her womb so that even if she was forced into a loveless marriage, the most precious parts of him and herself would manifest into something tangible she could devote herself to. An anchor to this world if this was to be the last time they saw one another, or else she would fling herself into the void.
Or could she take him with her into her new life? He had been the wolf after all for so very long..maybe..he could come with her, she could convince them to let her keep him so that she could in turn, keep him safe.
 
Vallios stole one last kiss from Meredith before he allowed his body to become lupine again. With a low bark he waited for Meredith to lead the way, resigning himself to continuing the masquerade. This wolfish body was not the least bit comfortable save when the wind was right and the hunt was on...But, Vallios would deal with it for her. Besides, once they were safely inside her own home, and her own room he could shed this body and resume his humanity, if only for a spell longer.

"Lead...way." Vallios growled, straining to make his bestial vocal cords cooperate and make human sounds.

Yes, he could speak in that body. Though the ability was limited, mouth structure and vocal cords both had problems forming the words of the human languages. However, what rudimentary communication was possible definitely beat a resounding and lonely silence. Hopefully Meredith would have enough sense to think up a suitable lie on the return home so that her father would not be too suspicious.
 
Stealing back to the house as if she'd just had some secret tryst with a lover, she listened carefully at first for sounds of her father sleeping. And much to her great relief, he was snoring deeply and loudly, letting her know that he was less likely to awaken until morning.
Green eyes glanced at the lupine form of Vallios before she crept to her room and held the door open for him. Once he crossed the threshold, she shut the door and latched it shut to keep the rest of the world at bay then sat at the edge of her bed.
He had been her first. Her only. And she wanted to keep it that way as longing intermingled with desire, carressed with rebellion as she knew her father would strangle her if he knew what or whom she had in her room at the moment. But it didn't matter to her as she knelt on the floor and kissed the end of his nose. All that mattered to her was that they were together and she could be brave a little while longer, risk it all for a taste of the forbidden.
 
Yet again Vallios shifted, moving gracefully forward. Gently he pushed Meredith down onto her back, leaning down to snare her lips in another blazing kiss. One arm curled around Meredith's waist, the other wrapping itself around her back. With a teasing motion Vallios pressed his hips to hers, knowing that even the littlest games would drive the poor girl mad. Of course Vallios would leave the actual escalation of this situation to Meredith. It was always so much more fun that way, when she would practically beg for it.

Those wicked lips found their way to Meredith's neck and he began to nip and bite, working in a slow path along the base of her neck. All of the old teases, every trick he'd learned that made her knees buckle and her insides quiver. It was a rapid and relentless sensual assault, Vallios' way of making up for lost time.
 
How long had it been since he'd kissed her that way? Took possession of her tiny form and simply held her with such a dominance that stole her breath away? Just that tiny brushing, that playful nudge was enough to seduce color into her cheeks and make her silently wail, knowing that any noise from her would alert her father immediately that something was amiss.
And yet, the danger and forbidden element to laying here in her room with him looming over her and setting her blood to boil. Each nip and suckle from him making it harder and harder to stay silent until she had no choice but to bite down on his shoulder to muffle her whimpers and soft cries.
There could be no waiting between them, she needed him now despite the length of time it had been since they'd last joined. Needed to feel his form pressed, connected to her own.
 
Those skilled hand slipped down and then crept up her shirt, long nimble fingers caressing her sides lovingly as they journeyed upwards. Vallios nudged her chin upwards, exposing more of her tender throat for him. More biting and suckling, moving in slow lazy circles. He pushed himself up just enough to allow Meredith enough room to move her arms freely, to touch and explore him as she wished. Then, in a cruel tease Vallios pulled away, climbing up onto the bed and then laying invitingly on his side, watching Meredith in a manner reminiscent of a cat watching a most delicious mouse.


His fingers traced leisurely circles in the fabric, his body language calling out to Meredith to come join him for the height of pleasures. Vallios even went so far as to reach out and offer his hand for her to take, a playful smirk curving those lips of his. In such a sudden fit of passion it seemed as if things were back to how they'd been in their younger days, that shadow of the old Vallios suddenly so much more apparent.
 
Her trembling hands moved up his shoulders, fingers greedily entwining the ebon hair that flowed from his scalp like a negritude river as his lips and teeth made her body twitch and dance beneath him. She never wanted this to end, prayed to whatever Gods were watching, listening that if they could just be kind and prevent the Dawn from ever cresting, she would be eternally in their debt.
And then it was all over before she had a chance to touch him further, stifiling a groan of protest as he climbed up on the bed and watched her with that smirk, beckoned her forth with that gaze until she had no choice but to move. Move and lay beside him in her bed as she'd dreamed of for so very long, tucking her form against his and remembering the night they first made love.
Green eyes shimmered with a multitude of emotions and she reached down to gently ease her skirt off her lower torso, grasping his hand and pressing it eagerly between her smooth thighs so he could feel how much she needed this, needed him at the moment.
 
Their forms pressed close together, Vallios let his fingers roam along Meredith's thighs, long digits touching, tempting, and teasing all the sensitive spots as his fingers crept towards her core. Vallios' firm hand curled around her loins, his thumb giving her slit slow, steady strokes through the fabric of her underclothes. Meanwhile, Vallios had nuzzled himself into Meredith's neck, biting and nibbling at her throat to further her need.

Signs of want were not unique to Meredith alone, the length and strength of Vallios' manhood was fighting, and nearly winning a battle to escape from the close fitting pants that sat around his hips. With a low growl he pressed himself against Meredith's unoccupied hand, waiting for her to reciprocate his explorations.
 
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