Today's teaser is from L'il Red by MsPrism. It's a werewolf tale.
"I looove to goooo awanderinggg…"
"Shut up"
"…aloooong the mooountain trackkkkk…"
"Shut up"
"…and as I gooooo.."
"Shut up"
"…I loooove tooo singggg with a….."
"I’m warning you I’ll thrash you with a stick if you don’t shut up."
"….knapsack on my backkkkkk….."
"Look…I’m picking up a stick now. It’s a big one!"
"Valdereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…"
"This might be more of a poking stick that a thrashing one…"
"Vaderaaaaaaaaaaaaa……eek, oi, stop that…"
"Told ya it was a poking one." Leone smirked as she prodded her girlfriend’s curvaceous butt cheek with her bespoke pokin’ stick. She loved their teasing little games. Amy was an atrocious singer and had relished torturing her girlfriends aching ears for miles now with a series of camp songs in revenge for the ten mile hike Leone had dragged her on. Swatting ineffectually at Leone’s prodding Amy looked around the forest floor for a broken branch of her own,
"Wait til I get me a whupping stick we’ll see who’s singing then!"
As she spoke both hikers crested an incline and there in a soft, hazy blue Little Dip, a small fir lined valley in the heart of the Claw Ridge Mountains rolled out before them. They both stood silently soaking up a scene so beautiful and tranquil it seemed time had sat down and rested in this blessed little nook on God’s earth. From the barren mountain crests rimmed with cerulean sky steep verdant slopes tumbled to the valley floor and the silver ribbon of river that ran through it. It sparkled like an emerald in the belly of the majestic mountains. A secret oasis of peace and natural beauty.
Insects buzzed idly nearby. A warm breeze ruffled through the pine needles fluttering the petals of Blue-eyed Mary huddled in the forest shade.
The two women rested and drank in this little bit of wonder in reverential silence, until,
"Wow." Amy simply stated.
"It’s beautiful isn’t it?" Leone stood behind her resting her chin on top of her girlfriend’s shoulder.
"And your family own all this?" awe entered her voice.
"Well, just the valley up to the Ridge, then the National Park takes over."
"Looks like I got me a keeper!" Amy laughed playfully smacking Leone on the backside as she started out down the trail into the valley.
"You only love me for my pine cones." Leone grumbled adjusting her backpack as she began to follow.
"Hah," Amy smiled back green eyes sparkling, strawberry blonde hair lifting in the breeze, "I love your for your poking stick! Valderaha ha ha ha ha. Valdereeeeeeeeeeeeee…"
"Damn," Leone scanning the wiregrass, "I threw that thing away."
They arrived in the heart of the valley shortly after lunchtime. This was down to Amy’s meticulous planning of their hike, she liked to use mealtimes as the header and footer of any logistical exercise. If a task couldn’t be done within the boundaries of two set mealtimes then you were biting off more than you could chew and a rethink over a light snack was probably necessary. Leone was quite happy to blunder through anything with a strip of jerky as long as someone pointed her in the right direction. It was one of the many essential differences between the women that made their mutual friends frown at the strange but unmistakably strong bond between them.
Even to look at they were chalk and cheese, Amy Fortune was a 5’4in feisty little country girl. She had grown up far away in the corn-belt but had relocated to Portland Oregon and now taught kindergarten. A job she loved and which enhanced her natural assets of bossiness, playfulness and always knowing best.
Leone Garoul tall, dark and very intimidating in looks was actually incredibly easy going by nature. In fact she was so good natured and laid back she might as well have a hammock in her hip pocket. Life was a slow, meandering river to Leone. Everything moved along at a nice even pace, relaxed and peaceful. She was a veterinarian with both a city and country practise. City based was obviously for pets and domestic animals but in the country she dealt exclusively with horses and the local stud ranches.
They had actually met when the kindergarten acquired Cookie and Oreo as new classroom pets. Dr Leone Garoul had come in to show the children how to care for the Dutch rabbits and came away with a huge crush on the petite teacher. One it seemed she shared with every kid in the classroom. Except the kids couldn’t make a follow up call on the welfare of Cookie and Oreo and invite Miss Fortune out to dinner…hah! Suck it up rugrats!
It was this childish streak that actually sealed the deal between them. Amy took to the dynamics of their relationship like a fish to water, Leone was just taken. She totally adored her girlfriend, was so deeply in love with her as to be incredibly anxious about this long weekend break.
Effectively she had dragged Amy all the way down to her family’s holiday homestead here in this remote but beautiful valley so that the woman she privately saw as her intended could meet her kin. Of course she hadn’t told Amy any of this for fear she would turn and run, after all they’d been together for less than a year and she didn’t want to look too pushy. Plus she knew Amy to be very independent of her own family and she might not appreciate how much Leone pandered to hers. But it was important to Leone that Amy like the Garoul clan, as important as it was for them to love and respect her as deeply as Leone did.
A little further into the valley Amy turned to her companion,
"So, if you want me to top singing you better start talking. Tell me how your family got to own a whole valley."
"I already did."
"Yea, ages ago and it was the canned version. Tell me again Scheherazade and if I am pleased you shall live to see a new dawn. Come’on bard it up a little."
As there were still a few miles to go and it might waylay an incessant parade of trail songs sung badly off key Leone sighed and complied as usual.
"Well, the Garouls were a noble family from France, near the Mageride Mountains in Gevaudan. There were two brothers, twins. And they argued about who would inherit because the older one was sort of soft and the younger much more aggressive. The younger decided to kill his brother and take the lands and title. So they fought but the elder meeker one won and the younger one was sent into exile cos his brother was merciful and sent him to the New World and we got to own this valley. See?"
"That’s a rubbish story if I was the Shah of Arabia I’d be asleep by now and you’d be toast in the morning!"
"I told you I can’t do stories…"
"You need to sex it up…like they fought at midnight under a full moon in a field of snow. The Duchess…he was a Duke right?" she got an enthusiastic nod in affirmation, "…the Duchess watching from the castle ramparts hands clasped to her heart. Would her Sire survive this profanity from his younger more garrulous brother? Would her world and heart be torn asunder for she knew the cruelty of the younger would bind her forever to him as a courtesan."
"Oooo…" Leone’s eyes widened, "you’re good at this."
Amy smirked at the handsome profile. Leone was a truly terrible story teller, an awful joke teller and incredibly bad at lying. She would be the worst eye witness ever as she seemed to find it impossible to match action to description. But she loved listening to Amy’s stories about her day at school, the exploits of the rugrats, even what happened at the food store on the way home. She could listen to Amy’s voice forever it caressed and soothed places her hands couldn’t reach.
"Slowly they circled with the moonlight flashing off rapiers, taking each other’s measure, fixed upon each other’s quivering move. Shadows stretched ghostly across the frothing snow deadly dance churned like sea foam."
"Wow…" Leone could see it all like a little movie in her head. Family history suddenly felt much more exciting.
"And then the lunge, the flash of eye and blade, the sharp snap of steel on steel. Again and again they parry and twist. Until blood like fevered crimson melts design onto the crystal ice. And it is done. One holds the bloodied point to his sibling’s throat. But he cannot kill, he is too noble. His nature is to protect, his lands, his subjects, his family. He cannot destroy his brother and so he banishes him forever!" Amy flourished dramatically here.
"Yea…and then he comes to America and gets a valley. The End." Leone concluded.
Amy pouted,
"I was gonna tell you all about the penniless trek through France, living off the land, stealing from farms and hunting along the way for survival. Then the long sea journey where he had to work his passage. The disease and hardship among a mutinous and murdering crew. The bloody battering of the beleaguered and bereft on those floating cities of death. And finally he arrives in his promised land. Swathes of wild forests, a noble savage for a wife and a million opportunities to start afresh. He begins to build a new kingdom for his progeny, and so future Garoul generations move slowly west…" with a sigh and a flourish Amy indicated she was finally finished.
"Shit, you make up a hell of a story. Wonder if it was really like that?"
"Hey what happened to the French Garouls? Do you have a whole family connection in Europe?"
"Nah, they all disappeared in the 1700s. Plague or something…dunno."
"Ah, Death upon a blackened stallion riding on a seething cloud of rats…"
Her effigy on the Black Death was suddenly cut short by a loud growl. They both looked down at her tummy with amusement and surprised affection.
"Oh," Amy blinked, "are we there yet? I’m starving. It must be past lunchtime. I need to eat."
"Here, before you pass out." Leone offered her an energy lozenge and shook her head.
"Hey, Leone!" A call from up behind stopped them in their tracks. Turning as a big barrel of a man descended on them in a rush, the rod and reel box flapping at his side in time with his big feet.
"Claude." Leone cried delightedly and allowed herself to be swallowed in a massive bear hug, "You got here early?"
"Yea we did. Folks are still straggling in but we arrived last night. It’s good to see you, sunshine." With one more bone crunching squeeze the big man let Leone go and turned to look expectantly at Amy extending a huge hand.
"Is this your girl?" he asked.
Leone blushed to the roots of her hair much to Amy’s amusement,
"I better be." She smiled allowing her smaller hand to be absolutely engulfed, "I’m Amy. I’m glad to meet you Claude."
Her hand was so enthusiastically pumped she thought she’d have tendonitis for the rest of the week.
"Mmm, Amy this is my Uncle Claude, he and his wife Louise came all the way down from Jefferson Wisconsin for the weekend." Leone introduced them slightly belatedly.
"And I am so happy to meet you Amy. Maybe we’ll get a chance to talk later this evening at the barbeque. You can meet Louise and the rest of the family then."
"Barbeque tonight?" Leone tried to distract Claude from wrenching Amy’s arm off at the elbow. The man had no idea about his own strength.
"Yup," Claude disengaged and beamed at her, "Paulie got a deer so tonight’s a big party. Everyone should be in by then. It’ll be a hoot. I brought my fiddle and Maurice has his new accordion."
"Great. Good for Paulie I’ll bet he’s over the moon."
Claude began to makes moves to head off in the direction he had been going before spying his niece and her companion wandering along the trail.
"I gotta go. I’m meeting Pascal for some fishing. I think Marie left you some lunch in your cabin…" he had turned fully away now and was heading off back up the trail.
"Hey," Leone called after him, "what cabin’s mine?"
Without looking back he guffawed,
"Why the Honeymoon cabin, what else?" he boomed and lumbered off still chuckling.
****
L'il Red by MsPrism - 140 pages
Amy Fortune and her girlfriend Leone Garoul were very much in love. So in love Leone wanted her to meet the rest of her family in their remote holiday retreat in the heart of the mountains. What should have been a romantic holiday binding them closer together rapidly becomes a hellish nightmare tearing them apart. Can each overcome taboo and prejudice to survive as a couple or will secrets and lies destroy them forever?
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