The Travels of Draconis Teine Part 4

There seems to be a few common elements that I seem to be experiencing and honestly I’m not a fan of any of them. First as I wake I’m confused and not sure where I am. I remember eating the pluemin then blacking out. From the light coming through the window I would guess that the morning had arrived and I could tell that I am laying in a bed.

The second thing is that my head hurts. The pain is a pulsating, throbbing pain throughout my head. It is also consistent to what I had experienced in the past when I over drank. Third, this is the fact that once again I’m naked. Naked and lying in bed trying to sort out last night while also trying to understand the fact that I am here in this world.

As I go to sit up I feel a swirling in my head. It definitely felt like a hangover. Hangover from a fruit? That is an odd notion. Plus why am I naked again? I look for my clothes but don’t see them in this tiny room. I figure if they want to see me naked then fine I’ll walk around naked. Standing I opened the door heading out to the next room, which is the main room of the house. The only person I found in the room was Adanu sitting at a table reading.

She looked up at me, “Good morning. Well what’s left of the morning.”

“Yeah. Hi.” I spoke with some irritation in my voice. “What happened to my clothes or did you want to catch sight of me naked?”

Adanu laughed standing up, “Oh yes. You caught me. I wanted to see all of this strange man that my husband brought into my house.”

I could tell that her words were dripping with sarcasm, but I still continued, “Well here you go. Take a good look. Me in all my glory. Satisfied?”

“Oh little Draconis,” Adanu’s words came out accompanied with even greater laughter and I wasn’t sure if she was talking about me as a person or my manhood until she finished talking. “Not at all. You are very lacking to satisfy me.”

I crossed my arms across my chest attempting to maintain my dignity by not sounding offended. “First appearances aren’t always a sign of potential satisfaction.”

Adanu had gotten closer and she touched my left cheek running her hand along my jaw as she walked around my left side, “On the contrary, humans are always lacking besides have you ever felt the thrill of soft hairs rubbing inside you?”

I could feel my face heating and was becoming very uncomfortable as she passed by my side whispering the last words in my ear, “Well. How about my clothes?”

“Over there.” Adanu spoke smacking my ass as she passed behind me pointing at the clothes hanging by the fireplace. “They needed to be washed after you made a mess all over them.”

“What?”

“Oh don’t worry. Humans have a low tolerance for the fruit. Eating one has them staggering around. A second makes them act like they had drank a full barrel of mead. Considering how fast you inhaled the first one I’m surprised you even were able to take a bite of the second let alone eat half of it.” Adanu spoke from behind me, “Now hurry and get dressed. I promised Lughvard that I would get you out to the orchard as soon as you woke.”

It didn’t take me long especially after her comments. Did get my mind running though wondering if the Tuatha would give new meaning to hung like a horse and yes I have a twisted mind but why not. Definitely makes things entertaining.

Past the barn and stable we walked out into the orchard. It was hard to see big hairy Lughvard and with him were three other people. Two of them looked like regular humans like myself. A little shorter than me but still human. The third was female and damn, hot as can be. By the teal swirls and lines across her skin my guess was that she was not human.

“Droconis,” Lughvard’s voice boomed. “Come meet my friends and workers. This is Ivan and Dieter. And this is Elana.”

I couldn't help but stare at her. I’d guess she was about five foot eight and well proportioned all around. Not too skinny and toned. I was mesmerized by her exotic look.

“What are you?”

The two men started to laugh and Ivan commented, “He definitely hit his head if he doesn’t know what a peantadha looks like.”

“Be nice you two.” Elana scolded with a frown. “I’m sure it’s very difficult not remembering things like that.”

She had a pleasant musical quality to her voice that I nearly didn’t quite catch what she said. I started to feel like a fool staring the way I was, but I felt that I couldn’t help myself until Lughvard elbowed me. I turned to him frowning.

“Ok. We have work to do. The pluemin won’t pick themselves.” Lughvard told us.

The other three went back to what they were doing while Lughvard went over telling how to tell if a pluemin was ready to pick, again. I started picking with Lughvard for a time until he felt comfortable letting me pick on my own.

Throughout the rest of the day we continued to pick. Sometimes I engaged in small talk with the others at times and found myself staring at Elana occasionally. The big hairy tuatha were an interesting piece of this world but if all the peantadha looked like Elana then damn.

Days of harvesting the fruit passed. I found myself joking around with the other two men, even seeing Lughvard join in, and talking to Elana. Elana was the most open to my blight, offering insight into the world she lived in. It hit me suddenly, after the harvesting was done, that at some point I had accepted my situation.

The night of the final day of harvest Lughvard three a party for all of us. The men and Elana had always left before the evening meal heading back to the city, on a horse drawn cart, where they. I, of course, had spent my nights at Lughvard’s place so I was pleased at the three of them sticking around and having a party.

I was never much of a partier, but the few I had been to, especially the quaint, small ones that had a few people, were a lot of fun. Crowds had always bothered me. Crowds seem to lower the intelligence level by a significant amount. Even the smartest people seemed to be idiots in a large crowd.

Adanu had put together a love meal of pork and potatoes as well as a vegetable I had never heard of, but was tasty. The pork was seasoned differently than I had even tasted. My guess was that it was something from this place, which I will say that I had no clue where this place was.

Ivan approached with a bottle that looked like a wine bottle, “Care to try some plumien juice. Don’t worry it’s not like eating the fruit. There’s other fruits in it and it is diluted for human consumption. It’s like a basic wine. “

I accepted. It still had the sweetness of the pluemin and I could taste a hint of the other fruits. The other fruits complimented the pluemin very well. It did make me feel better when I saw Ivan and Dieter pour themselves another glass. Elana was also drinking the juice. I slid in the seat next to her.

“Now that the harvest is in, what do you do next?”

Elana smiles her typical seductive looking smile, or at least it looked seductive to me, “We’ll still be out here. We work for Lughvard full time. There’s always something that needs done especially with trees. They need constant attention.”

I felt myself blush despite myself, “Yeah, that’s good to know. Who knows how long Lughvard will make me work to pay off my debt.”

“Maybe he’ll have you stay on.” I couldn’t tell if her voice hinted at something but part of me stirred and definitely thought she was.

“Yeah.” Words had left my brain.

It didn’t matter if I was able to find more words because Ivan crashed down into the chair before us, with Dieter right beside him, his words slightly slurred, “Come on you two. Drink up. Enjoy the fruits of our labor.”

Elana and I laughed as he refilled each of our glasses nearly overflowing them. The night continued on. Lughvard and Adanu were just as relaxed as we were. It was truly a festive evening. Ivan and Dieter passed out on the bed I had been sleeping in. Elana nuzzled up in a comfortable lounger. Lughvard and Adanu retired to their room.

I plopped down on a couch ready to sprawl out for sleep. As I laid there I realized that this relaxing evening had been one of the most enjoyable in my life. I wondered when I had stopped thinking about home and how I got here. As I fell asleep I thought, when had I accepted this as my new life.