Melodis Tune

by Melodi's Tune (NCP) (lit)

  Gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes, she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. She fought down the rising panic that she couldn't breathe, would never see the sun again.

  Her limbs trembled with the effort of moving. If she didn't concentrate on each step, she would stand paralyzed. Just as she thought her courage was used up, a slight glow suffused her shut eyelids. Taking a breath, she opened them.

  They were out of the tunnel at least. Though surrounded by cliffs of stone, she felt a delicious thrill of freedom rush through her. They were alive and together.

  Darien turned to her just as she smiled. His smile was a dusky, smoky mirror of her own. Sweat from the long hours of running trickled down his chest. His long hair was pulled back from his forehead into a plait secured by a leather thong. In the gray light, every muscle was visible. The urge to touch him, make sure he was real, seized Melodi.

  Reality surged into her as she realized she didn't really know who he was. Desire and confusion waged their war; confusion won out. She averted her face and took in their surroundings while trying to quiet the rapid beating of her heart.

  A spring bubbled up in the center of the clearing. She gratefully knelt and drank. Never had water tasted so good. She splashed water on her face and neck. Wonderful.

  "Where are we?" she asked after Darien had drunk.

  "Tall Cedar found this place several years ago. He thought keeping its location secret might prove helpful one day. I'm glad. We needed a place to hole up and rest during the daylight hours. We’ll travel by night, it’ll be harder to track us that way."

  His eyes scanned the boulders scattered near the walls of the space. "Hah," he shouted, and pulled a pouch from behind a screen of rocks and bushes. "He said we would find provisions here. Come, eat with me."

  They sat together on the moss-softened ground and shared the dried berries and jerked meat they found in the pouch. It was not a relaxing meal, at least for Melodi. She twitched away each time he brushed her with his arm or thigh. Each touch released a shaft of heat through her.

  The light increased as the sun rose. It would be hours before it would be high enough to shine straight into this protected spot. The scents and sounds of a summer morning replaced the earlier chill. A great yawn escaped her.

  Darien laughed. "You must be exhausted. We’ll rest all day." He looked discomforted momentarily, then remarked, "It seems that this is the softest spot for a bed. Tall Cedar did not think to hide a pallet."

  "I could sleep anywhere." She cracked another huge yawn and lay down. The moss provided scant protection from the hard rocks, but it was better than being bound and dragged about by Young Buck. Her eyes closed, then snapped open as Darien lay down beside her and made to gather her into his arms.

  "What do you think you're doing?" She pushed against his hard chest, which was as unmoving as the granite surrounding them.

  "I thought I might act as your pillow, you looked uncomfortable." His reply was reasonable, but his grin teased her into an answering smile.

  The feel of his skin against hers drove all thoughts of sleep away. She had made love to this man, at least Little Raccoon had. Those memories were hers, but the feelings that came with them, of love and longing, confused her. The Darien Stewart she knew had been arrogant and selfish. Though she knew that Walks With The Wind was Darien Stewart –- somehow -- who was she in love with?

  True, she had felt an attraction to Darien, even the first flush of desire. But love? No, that belonged to Walks With The Wind and Little Raccoon. Which was who they were now, except that she also knew who they would be, in another time and place.

  "Damn." She sat up. She'd never figure this out curled up next to this oh-so attractive man.

  "Now what's wrong?"

  This might be the only quiet time they had to talk things out. She had to know. The truth was the only answer.

  "I know who I am now, my memory has returned. But with it comes thoughts and feelings that don't belong to me. Am I Melodi Mason or Little Raccoon? And who the hell are you? How did Little Raccoon fall in love with you when in the future I could barely stay in the same room with you without wanting to slug you?" Her questions finished on an angry cry of confusion. She wanted desperately to run away and think things through on her own, but the only way out was up impossibly steep cliffs or back through that tunnel. No, here and now she had to find some answers.

  "Believe me, I understand your confusion. Even now a memory or piece of knowledge that I know is mine floods my mind, but Darien Stewart could never know." He searched his mind to find common ground. "Do you remember we played the tune together, then it played in us and we were brought to this time?"

  Melodi nodded.

  "Do you remember your feelings? The attraction wasn’t one way. I could see in your eyes that you felt something too."

  Melodi thought back. It was true. They had been on the couch by the fire, he had been about to take her into his arms when the tune had surrounded them. When the fog lifted, he had been Walks With The Wind and she, Little Raccoon. Neither had wondered at the discontinuity of time. They'd simply accepted the attraction between them as if it had always been there. The kisses and embraces, everything had felt so very right. Why couldn't she feel that way now?

  Tears formed and dropped as she wept for something that felt as if it had been ripped from her.

  "I loved you, or Little Raccoon did. Why can't I feel that? Am I so unable to love that Little Raccoon's feelings have no place in me?" Anguish racked her as she sought deep inside for a lost piece of herself.

  Darien took her into his arms and smoothed his hands over her skin and hair. "I don't know the answers. All I know is I was compelled by something larger than my own desires to come back in time and find you. I fell in love with Little Raccoon, a woman of great intelligence and courage. Qualities that were always present in you, though you hide them beneath a veil of scholarly privacy. In this time that barrier is gone. Don't put it up again."

  The words reached the hollow place in Melodi's heart. She allowed a bit of Little Raccoon's ability to give and take to come through. The possibility that she could be warm and giving, a woman deserving of love, began to grow. It had always been part of her, just put aside in the busy world of computers and automobiles.

  "Are you holding Little Raccoon or Melodi in your arms? Who is holding me?" Her voice trembled. She was afraid of the answer. She needed to be worthy of a love that drew him through time.

  "How many women are within you? Only you have the answer to that. I am all the experiences of Walks With The Wind and Darien Stewart. Little Raccoon knew that there was something more to me than my appearance revealed. She promised to be with me, to go where I go."

  In his eyes she saw hope, desire, and a plea not to turn from him. She couldn’t. Fate had brought them together across the ages. The pragmatic scholar might scoff at such a fancy but could not disprove the facts and feelings. As she accepted this, her heart filled with love. It didn't matter where they were, or what they called themselves. Their hearts and souls were meant to be together.

  "The only question I have left," she let a playful smile cross her face and watched the worried look leave his eyes, "is where do we go from here?"

  "Are we talking in the physical plane or the metaphysical? Because if you mean physically, we must stay here until the sun sets. Otherwise we would be in danger of giving our presence away to Young Buck and his pals."

  "I'd forgotten about them," Melodi admitted. "Well, looks like staying here is our best bet. What did you mean about the metaphysical? Don't you know how to get back to our own century?"

  He tightened his arms around her so she was unable to read the expression on his face, but his answer surprised her.

  "I thought we would be transported back when you regained your memories. Now I wonder what other work fate has in store." Far overhead an eagle swooped and soared in the thermals. Darien watched the regal bird in silence while Melodi watched hi
m. Again, as when all she knew of herself was as Little Raccoon, she felt a sort of awe of this man. His eyes were glazed, as if in a trance, though his grip on her never weakened.

  Minutes passed, the air grew warmer with the growing day. Finally, Darien shivered and broke his gaze from the sky. The eagle performed a majestic diving loop before it flew out of sight.

  "It seems you and I are caught up in a more tangled web of time and fate than Grandfather imagined when he helped me come back for you." Darien’s voice grumbled in his chest where Melodi rested her head.

  "What does that mean? Have you always been this cryptic or is just a function of your Indian persona? Honestly, Darien, the way you commune with that eagle is enough to give me the creeps. No wonder the shaman called you a wizard."

  "That's not just any eagle, it’s the spirit of Grandfather Larkfeather."

  She reached up to feel his head. After all, he’d been sick in the later century, perhaps he was hallucinating. Except for a trickle of sweat from the increasing temperature, which she also experienced, nothing was amiss.

  Logic had no place in the time warp they were living in. Maybe it wasn’t so strange that Joe's grandfather had followed them here. As a revered wise-man, a well respected spiritual leader. She shivered. This ancient world, a time she'd often glorified as simpler, easier even, was turning out to be more complex than any theory could have foreseen.

  "Tell me about Grandfather. Why is he here?"

  "Let's get comfortable first. Come on, we’ll be in the shade closer to the rock face."

  Instead of pulling her to her feet to walk beside him, Darien lifted her into his arms and carried her. As he eased her to the ground, Melodi tightened her hold around his neck. He made no protest as she pulled him down until he almost lay on top of her.

  "I thought you wanted to hear about Grandfather and our mission here." His voice was husky.

  "You said we had all day." Another inch closer, there. She touched her lips to his and drowned in the sensations that lapped through her.

  Darien groaned and pulled back. "Are you sure you want to do this? What if we don’t feel the same when we return to our own time?"

  "Hush. I need you here and now." Melodi hesitated then said, "I love you, Darien Stewart -- Walks With The Wind." She tried to say more but his hungry mouth on hers stopped any conversation.

  Chapter Twenty

  The small glade became a sensual suite. Surrounded by sun drenched privacy, Darien traced Melodi's lips with his fingers. Then he followed a path to the lacing at the neck of her dress. For a long moment, he stopped to kiss the pulse in the hollow of her throat. The tiny movement quickened at his touch.

  The lacing was loosely woven rawhide. While his lips worked to pull the salty thongs from the leather, his hands found first one than another of her full breasts rounding up beneath the softness. Melodi wove her hands into his hair and followed the line of his neck to caress his broad, sun-warmed shoulders.

  The last lacing gone, Darien pulled the bodice apart and found a rosy tipped nipple with his tongue. Again and again he laved then suckled on each one until Melodi arched beneath him and moaned her pleasure.

  As his mouth busied itself with her breasts, Darien sketched her curves through the supple doeskin with his hands. When he reached the hem, he found it had already ridden up with her twisting body. His finger stroked the soft skin of her inner thigh, silky and hot. As he suckled her breasts, he reached past the springy, curling hairs until the warmth and wetness of her arousal met his searching.

  "Oh..." Melodi moaned. She wanted him so much. His touch, his lips started a flow like burning lava flow through her. A swirling sensation pulled her into a whirlpool of sensuous flames until she though she would die from the pleasure racing through her.

  "Please, Darien. Come into me now." She tugged at his bulging loin cloth.

  It took less than a moment for him to remove his garment, but instead of entering her welcoming warmth he looked deeply into her eyes. In the reflected depths she saw a beautiful light that Melodi could only describe as the pureness of his soul looking into her own. The moment was so intense, she nearly wept with the beauty of it. Without words he was pledging his faith to the very essence of her being. With all her heart, she returned it.

  "I love you, Melodi, Little Raccoon, and all the people in between. It seems I have done this before, in other times and places. With this act we both begin and complete a cycle." He entered her.

  Time itself stopped when Darien and Melodi merged bodies and souls. More than pleasure flowed through them as they danced the ancient rite of human passion. Joy, ageless longing, and aching fulfillment culminated in their shared release. They were unaware of their surroundings until they breathed normally again and unlocked their gazes from each other.

  The sun shone at high noon, no shade was available in the small, magical place. Darien rolled over until Melodi lay along the length of him. Her skin was slicked with the sweat of love and from the rising temperature. With her eyes closed and her breathing soft and regular, he could almost believe she slept. Then her eyes opened. The light of happiness, combined with a twinkling of mischief mesmerized him. It was her squirming that did him in. They were still joined. He grew hard again inside her.

  "Keep that up and you'll have a sunburn on your back side before I'm through with you." His growled threat failed to quiet her. She sat up. Above him, her head wreathed in a corona from the sun, he sensed rather than saw her smile.

  "Then I will stop, immediately."

  She did so. He groaned anew, this time in frustration.

  "Woman, you misunderstood me." In a fluid movement, he grabbed her behind and pulled her fully onto him, then knelt.

  She kissed him with all the hot passion she'd held back over the years. It felt as though the earth moved while he kissed her back, until she realized he was walking with her impaled on him. A shadow loomed, then they entered the cool tunnel of stone.

  The walls were slick with cold dew and moss. Darien pushed her against one moss-covered wall and pulled her legs until they encircled his waist.

  "You taste like salt and you move like an ocean wave," he murmured.

  As she leaned her head to rest it against the rock behind her, he took a sun-hot nipple into his mouth.

  "Ah... Now the other one. Oh Darien."

  The combination of her moans and the rocking of her hips soon brought them both to the razor edge of fulfillment. As one, they thrust in heated passion, all former restraint less than a memory. After one last pulsing push, eagerly met by Melodi's heated body, they fell into another river of delighted spasms.

  After the last tremor rocked his body, Darien took note of their location.

  "Damn." He withdrew and lowered Melodi to the floor.

  "What's wrong? Did I do something?"

  "I'm an idiot. Did I hurt you? Turn around." Gentle fingers touched her soft curves and explored her scalp where it had leaned against the rock. "Why didn't you tell me I was hurting you?"

  "Hurting me? The furthest thing from my mind was pain, Darien Stewart."

  "Maybe so, but now you're covered with mud and scratches. How was I supposed to think logically with your legs wrapped around me? I'll bring some water to wash with." He disappeared down the slope toward the waterfall.

  Melodi shivered and stepped back into the sun. Gladly she would follow Darien anywhere, and their lovemaking should have relieved any remaining unease concerning the tunnel.

  It looked like a monster’s mouth had swallowed Darien up. He must have forgotten about the spring in the glade.

  The eastern wall gave a little shelter from the sun. She picked up their clothing and waited for him there. Time slowed. What was taking him so long? Then, he was there. His body glistened. Drops rolled from his hair, chest, and shoulders. In his hands he carried a leaf container of water. The light in his eyes made up for his absence.

  The water washed away the last of her doubts. When they were both dry and had
eaten again, they snuggled together in the spot of shade. Melodi asked about Darien's travel through time.

  "Grandfather and Joe found us together on the couch in front of my fireplace. It seems like another lifetime." He sighed. "I guess that's exactly what it was. You were catatonic, shallow breathing, glazed eyes. Your skin felt like ice even after we built the fire to a roaring blaze."

  "What will happen to us if we don't get back?" Melodi reached for his hand, as much to reassure herself as to comfort him.

  "I assume our bodies will die. I worry for Grandfather. His spirit is as strong as the eagle, but his body is frail with age. How long will he last while helping us here?"

  "How long was it between the time you woke up there, and when you returned to this time?"

  "Not more than an hour or two, but that was almost a year in this time. I was frantic to return. Even then I felt something more than mild attraction for you. The kisses we shared before Shining Rock found us implied more than a scholar and a musician who had nothing in common but irritating each other." He kissed the top of her head where it grazed his shoulder.

  "You know, I knew there was something different about you, but I fought it. I had myself convinced it was nothing more than coming down with a case of the flu. Then you were so nasty about my tune and what happened every time I heard it."

  "I only said those things because you scared the hell out of me. What you described was exactly what I had experienced and couldn't admit."

  "What about your voice? Is that just a problem with your future body?"

  "I haven't thought about it since I lost you. Guess that knock on the head was more than physical. My sense of perspective returned when you didn't. I never want to go through that kind of fear again."

  "You're stuck with me now. But, back to Grandfather. Why did he feel that he had to come here, too? Joe must have tried to stop him."