Slowly he saw her present to his mouth a small piece with the brownish spread over it, and he pulled it in.
He felt like he was in food heaven. It tasted similar to mushrooms he had eaten in the city, but the depth of the flavour was incredible. Without thinking he let out a groan of contentment at the effect it had on his taste buds, and had closed his eyes to savour the flavour.
Suddenly he heard her giggling at him, and he was awoken from his enjoyment, presenting her with a sheepish grin.
"I have not tasted anything that good for so long," he said and she happily broke off another piece to present to him.
~~~~~
"I must not stay here much longer or others will notice my absence," Isabella said to him as they both relaxed on the ground, lying down but facing each other. "But I shall come and find you after the evening meal. Will you stay here now?"
Trent nodded. While he could not keep seeing the grass and greenery, it was still a peaceful place to be, and he could wash more of his clothing in this spot while listening to the waterfall.
"I will. I do not think I can sleep here at night due to the sound of the water but I certainly could sit here all day. I might even venture back into there," he said, pointing to the pool once more.
Isabella sat up to begin her move toward getting on with other things she should already have been doing.
"Now that I know you like mushrooms, I shall be able to bring you more flavours to try. I can see that your appetite is already mending, and it will be good for your body to have better sustenance."
"Thank you."
She leaned into him and kissed him softly, at once feeling the passion for him so pulled away quickly.
"I shall never get anything done if I keep kissing you, and that would not do at all."
~~~~~
Left alone, Trent pulled everything from his backpack and laid it out in the sun. The warmth of the ground had resulted in the few things he had already washed earlier, already being close to dry, so he was eager to wash more items.
Uncertain about what lay ahead for him, he decided he would move ahead as if he would leave again when he found the strength, so could make himself prepared for the journey in the meantime. He knew inside of him that he would not … could not … survive a return journey, but he had to move through the day with something to do. A part of him yearned to be in another time - in her time - but as he could not see people of that time unless he made himself visible, he opted to remain hidden in his own time when she was not around. At least for now he was in a place where he could bathe and be clean, and completely relax.
~~~~~
"Miss Isabella, where have you been this morning?" Cook Joan was asking her, having witnessed her running off that morning after breakfast rather than asking for requests from the chef. "I am in need of carrots. Could you go and get some for me? Take that basket over there and fill it to the brim if you can. I am going to cook a carrot and barley stew, and it will be magnificent!"
Isabella laughed at the cook, and obligingly took the basket.
"Of course I shall do that for you, Cook Joan. I shall be back shortly."
As she left the kitchen area she saw Elder Rhys in the distance. The ancient rarely left the temple but seeing him now, Isabella veered off her path and moved toward him.
"Young Isabella. I wish to talk to you. Can we walk together?"
"Yes, Elder Rhys. I do need to gather carrots from the garden for Cook Joan. Can you walk with me, or would you like me to come to the temple?"
"Oh no! I gladly shall walk to the garden with you. It has been so long since I was there, and I am sure there is a heavenly scent there at this time."
They began walking together, at a slower pace than she usually would walk at, out of her respect for him. It was some time before he spoke.
"Where is our new friend today? The traveller?"
"He is near the waterfall, Elder Rhys. It appears to be one part of the village that is much unchanged, and this morning he was enjoying our warm water to bathe in," she said and the ancient saw a smile pass over her face at the memory of it.
"Isabella, you are now 21, are you not?" he asked and she nodded, not saying anything. "Have your parents talked to you about you going through the pairing?"
Isabella looked down, finding herself blushing and flustered at the thought of having such a conversation with him.
"I … yes, it has come up in conversation, but I have not felt ready."
"And do you still not feel ready? Or has something perhaps changed in recent days for you?"
"I do not know what you mean, Elder Rhys."
She saw him look closely at her.
"I think you do, Isabella. We have all believed you would pair with Adrian, but I believe now that someone else - another - is meant to be your mate. Do you not feel it too?"
He watched her and saw conflict on her face.
"I know that I should pair with Adrian. He and I are comfortable together and know each other so well."
"But?"
"But this traveller who has come. Elder Rhys, when…"
She could not continue her conversation, knowing she had done what she should not have in kissing him without having been paired with him first.
"When you and he join lips," the ancient said, stunning Isabella and making her look at him.
Suddenly he laughed, surprising her further.
"I have seen the visions the two of you are having in the nights, Isabella. Do not worry so. What I have seen these past nights is nothing I have not seen in many night visions before. I have lived for 600 years, do not forget."
"I…" she stammered. "I know I should not have…"
"You had been seeing him in visions of the night even before he came here, and he had been seeing you in his visions of the night also."
"Yes, but how can that be? And what does that mean?"
They neared the garden now and he stopped walking and turned to her.
"I think you know, Isabella. I think he is who you are meant to pair with. It is what was always intended for you."
"But that cannot be so, Elder Rhys. He is not from our time - how could we have always been meant to pair?"
"Nature has its ways. What is meant to be, will always be, one way or another." He paused as he looked closely at her. "You must decide what you wish for, and then he must do the same. If you both wish for it, it can be done."
Before she had a chance to question him any more, he was walking away from her, back along the path they had just walked along together.
"Miss Isabella, what can we help you with today?" she heard one of the gardeners call out to her and she resolved to think nothing more about the ancient's talk of pairing.
"Master Martin, I have been instructed by Cook Joan to come and fill this basket to the brim with carrots."
"To the brim, you say? Very good, lass. Come with me and I shall find you the best that are ready, for you to take back to the kitchen. We can't have Cook Joan without her required ingredients when she has a masterpiece to prepare," he said with very apparent amusement on his face, reminding Isabella that it was quite alright for her to relax in her day and enjoy the simplicity of humour and laughing.
~~~~~
Adrian was mindless to his job for the whole day, his thoughts continuing to veer back to Isabella and the stranger who had somehow arrived and yet at the same time not arrived. He was sure it must be some kind of magic, or some kind of curse.
It had not escaped him when he had seen the two of them look at each other, that they shared a mutual look that he had only hoped he would ever receive from her. It made him despondent. He believed she loved him as a friend. But he equally believed that she would never be willing to pair with him. For that she sought … needed … another.
"Adrian, can you help me please?" he heard a voice call out to him, and turned to see Kat standing close to him. "I need to move these few bags of grain just over there but I am still finding it difficult to lift
such weights."
Adrian looked at the young woman before him. She was two years younger than him and he had never known her at all until she too had begun working in the mill during the day.
Feeling such a tender heart today … a bruised heart … he now looked at her in a new light. As someone attractive. As someone to fill a void. As a replacement for who he really wanted to be with.
"Of course I can do that for you, Kat," he said whilst smiling at her, and performed the duty she had asked him to.
When he had moved the few bags, he came back to her and saw her smiling shyly at him.
"Thank you, Adrian."
He looked closer at her still, and knew he must start thinking about his future without expecting Isabella to be his paired mate. And if he could not pair with her, did it really matter who he paired with?
Kat watched his face, enjoying the view even though she could see the extent of his thinking in that moment.
"Can I walk you to the dining area at dinner time, Kat?"
She smiled demurely at him, a flutter occurring in her chest.
"Yes."
~~~~~
"Oh there you are!" Isabella heard Cook Joan call out to her as she returned to the kitchen, her basket heavily laden. "Thank you Miss Isabella. Just in time, too, as any later and I would not have been able to cook them as slowly as I like to. Oh it shall be grand dinner this evening! Yes it will indeed!"
Isabella watched as the basket was pulled from her hands and the cook instantly began washing and scraping them, turning her back to Isabella and making the latter fully certain that she was dismissed and no longer needed.
She walked out into the sunlight, wondering what else she could help with for the few hours until dinner time.
~~~~~
When Isabella entered the dining area for dinner, she automatically looked around for Adrian but on not seeing him, gathered her food and sat at the table they always sat at, and waited.
She was greatly surprised when she saw him enter with a young woman - Kat, Isabella knew her name as. It was the very first time Isabella had seen him with a woman and she realized in that instance how much she had come to rely on his devotion to her. Suddenly presented with the consideration that he might not always be there for her - that one day he would pair with someone other than her - she felt a new emotion she had never felt before and it confused her immensely.
"Isabella, do you know Kat?" he was asking her, breaking her out of her reverie as he and his new friend sat at the table.
Isabella smiled as warmly as she felt she could.
"Yes, of course. Hello Kat. You work in the mill with Adrian, do you not?"
The young woman looked surprised but at the same time pleased with having been recognized by Isabella, and nodded her head before she gazed at Adrian with much admiration.
"How has your day been, Isabella?" Adrian asked her, finding this sudden situation of being in the midst of the two women quite different from how he had imagined he would feel if he escorted Kat to the dining area for their meal.
Reluctant to talk about her happenings with Trent earlier in the day, or about her talk with the ancient, Isabella restrained her conversation to that of the garden instead, and the few things the gardener had told her about this and that. That seemed to satisfy his curiosity at least for the moment, and he did not ask for information about the traveller, even though she suspected the topic would be on his mind.
When Isabella had finished her meal, she stood up, uncertain if Adrian would wish to leave with her on this evening or not. To understand accurately what he would wish to do, she took her time gathering a little bread and a small amount of the carrot and barley stew, which she discretely put into a small cup and removed from the dining area, along with a spoon.
Adrian saw her start to move but restrained himself from standing and leaving with her. Partly because Kat was beside him and she was still eating and talking. But partly because he felt he was approaching a time when he would have to extract himself from Isabella, one way or another, and he supposed the ache in his heart would ease if he could do that slowly rather than all in one go.
So he stayed where he was as he saw her prepare to leave. When she smiled at him, he smiled back, and then she was gone. He felt the thud inside his chest, but forced himself to turn and look at the young woman beside him, who seemingly had no idea that the man she was talking to was in that moment heart-heavy for the woman who had just walked out.
~~~~~
Isabella looked around her and made sure no-one was around when she started walking down to the area by the pool. She was pleased to see no-one else around at the time, and when she got there, Trent was in the pool once more, just sitting peacefully with his eyes closed.
He felt her presence and opened his eyes to find her standing at the pool side, watching him. He inhaled sharply as he was once again confronted with not only her beauty, but the reality that this woman with the red hair, who had invaded his dreams, was standing right here in front of him. Smiling at him.
Finally he came back to reality and smiled back at her.
"Have you been in there all day?" she asked him, laughing slightly.
He slowly made his way from the far side of the pool that he was on, to the side closest to her, grinning broadly.
"Most of it. It feels too wonderful to waste," he said as he started to climb out.
Immediately Isabella turned away from him but he laughed at her.
"It is alright, Isabella, I am covered on my lower half so you do not need to turn away."
She turned around then and was confronted with him being directly in front of her, indeed covered below as he had said, but his upper half was completely bare and she drank in what his chest, arms and belly looked like. While acknowledging he had a long way to go to build up muscle tone again, she liked what she saw, and he could see it on her face.
"I like you looking at me," he said and she came forward to him and kissed him, suddenly remembering the dream.
"I touched you … there," she said, pointing to the centre of his chest.
"Yes! And something happened … something passed between us."
She nodded, remembering.
"I do not think I should touch you like that until we know what it means."
He nodded with her.
"Yes, you are right. Tell me how you have filled in the hours from when I saw you earlier, till now."
She sat down and he sat in front of her, their knees almost touching as he sat cross legged and she prepared herself to feed him.
"I had to gather many carrots for the cook so she could make this carrot and barley stew. So I have brought some with me for you to try, and some bread also."
She looked around her to be certain no-one else was approaching, and then nodded to him to indicate it was safe for him to place his hands on the ground and let himself transport into her time.
Trent felt the energy surge through him and welcomed her leaning forward toward him and using a spoon to transfer a small amount of what was in the cup, into his mouth. His mouth burst with flavour and he wondered to himself why anyone in the western world could have let such wholesome goodness in food be replaced so easily with the food of today that sometimes almost tasted like plastic or cardboard. This was nothing like he had ever tried before.
"Elder Rhys spoke to me again today," she said as she let him take another spoonful of the stew into his mouth. "He said some things that I need to think about, but I think you need to consider too."
When he had swallowed, Trent questioned her and she continued to speak while letting another spoonful transfer to him.
"He…" she started and then he saw her face go into a deep blush once more, before she seemed to find the courage to continue. "He suggested that perhaps you and I had been meant to find one another. That we are meant to be … paired."
Trent sat silent, not knowing if she needed him to speak or not. She continued to feed him from the cup, and when
that was finished, she put the cup and the spoon down and ripped off some bread and placed it at his mouth and watched him pull it in and start to chew. They sat in silence like that until the food was gone.
He looked at her and looked around the area while the colour was there for him to see, and then pulled his hands up and let the world go grey and brown around him once more.
She saw his arms reach out to her as he knelt also, pulling her close to him and holding her tight, before releasing her again.
"Tell me more about what Elder Rhys said."
"He said that he believed you and I have shared dreams because we are linked somehow. That nature intended for us to be paired together," she said, looking and sounding thoughtful. "But that could not be, could it? We are not even of the same time…"
He kissed her then, to reassure the both of them that he was real, and she was real.
"Perhaps. But this feels real, doesn't it? When I look at you I desire you, Isabella. And I felt like that before I had even seen you in person. You came into my dreams, and you say I came into yours…" he said and she nodded. "So who is to say we aren't meant to be together."
She was quiet for a long while, wondering how this strange thing had come to happen to her, a normal girl without any clear direction in her life as yet.
"What does it mean, exactly, this pairing?"
She blushed heavily.
"It is what happens so our population can continue. There is a ceremony where the man and woman being paired are united and then they go to the pairing chamber together, where they remain for that night. It is expected in there that they will … love … so that a child will be made. After that night they will begin to share their life together, as mother and father."
He could see that in this culture the pairing they talked of was similar to marriage, although it appeared the focus was far more heavily on procreation than on the love that could occur between the man and the woman.
"And when paired, the mother and father remain together … for the rest of their lives?"
"Yes, until one is called forth to leave this world and pass to the next."
He nodded, taking this to be their explanation for death.
The Golden Desires Page 8