Surrender by Heather Fox

Author:Heather Fox [Fox, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prospect and Raven
Published: 2024-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

“I shouldn’t be this tired,” I say to Calran as the dreamspace forms around us.

We’re in exactly the same configuration as we were in the real world, the furs bundled round me, his arm over the top of them, only I’m also dressed, and so is he, our clothing an extra layer of comfort.

“Emotions are tiring things,” Calran says. “Especially the difficult ones. In the days after the sickness, many of my tribe brothers spent a lot of time sleeping. It is something I was prone to, also.”

He toys with a lock of my hair, stretching it out to its full length, then letting it coil back up again.

“I admire your hair very much,” he says. “It is so very different. Beautiful.”

“Difficult is the word you’re looking for,” I say. “Taking care of it, keeping it nice, is hard work.”

“I wish I could offer you assistance, but it is not like raskarran hair. I would not know the ways to care for it properly.”

“My mother taught me the tricks when I was just a little girl. It wasn’t easy to find the time or the resources - even a few tiers off the bottom like my family were, we didn’t have a lot.”

It was a more comfortable living than the other girls experienced, but not by much. No education, no freedom, no rights - just slightly more skilled work for us to be trained into. I remember hearing Simon and his friends talking about their place in the hierarchy - how they had earned it, how much better than those beneath them they were. No one on my tier had that delusion. We knew we were kept out of the bottom by the luck of the draw alone.

“Do you have everything you need for it here?” Calran asks, shifting so he’s almost over me, but only to better look at me as we talk. It’s funny how well I can read his intentions. How safe I feel already with him.

Because he stopped when it mattered. And I know he would do so again.

“I’ve had to experiment a little,” I say. “But mostly it’s just having the time. That’s not something I’ve struggled to find since coming here. Raskarrans live life a lot more slowly than we did back home.”

“I hope that is a good thing.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have been able to have a nap in the middle of the day where I came from.”

Calran pulls a horrified face before giving me the kind of grin that makes heat coil low in my belly.

“I do not think your tribe chiefs were very wise, then,” he says, snuggling closer to me. “Midday napping is a very agreeable activity.”

I have to agree, but my mind wanders back to the cave. His hands on my body. That was more than just agreeable. Until it wasn’t, but right up until that moment, it was wonderful. I want to feel like that again. Almost need to.

Be brave, be brave.

I reach for his hand, draw it underneath my covers.

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