Chapter 53

chapter Fifty-one

Damion's mind was muddled. Travion was more serious than Damion had ever seen him. He'd asked again about the last vision Travion had seen, but he still refused to share the details. They had talked about this gift being more curse than gift. Damion had always been the one who said it was a curse, Travion argued, even after the incident that there were good things to be done with it. His tune was different now. He claimed it a curse. His laughter seemed to be sucked out of him. What in the goddess's name could he have seen that would turn his mischievious brother into the stoic character whom he'd gone fishing with this morning?

Things hadn't lightened up until Damion suggested going craw hunting down river where the water calmed. Crawfish was their dad's favorite meal, but they usually brought striplings to wade through the water to catch them. It had been a long time since the two of them had done this together. They left the heavy talk behind, and splashed through the water laughing and joking as they each raced to get the most craw in their respective buckets. As Damion finally called it, Travion ran up behind him, tackling him to the bank of the river where they wrestled.

Damion got Trey in a head lock, and was sitting on his back. "You done now?" Damion breathed heavily.

"Yeah," Travion said, going limp and laying in the mixture of mud and dirt. "I'm done. You've been training, I can tell. I'm not sure you've ever given me a run like that before."

"Every day, for a few hours at least. I train with an army now it's much more intense than what we do here." Damion agreed. "Though, three of them don't hold a candle to your strength." Standing, he reached down to Travion to help him up. "I needed that." He laughed.

"I did too." Slapping Damion's back, they gathered their things and started home. "I'm going to bring my catch to the pit and see if anyone wants it. Are you going to just go hide inside and prep those? You want me to come over and help when I'm done?"

Damion agreed that he would like the help when finished. They separated, and he beelined for his little house. He peeked in before entering, still wanting to try to keep the fish secret if he could. Volencia wasn't inside, so he carried everything in and started prepping the kitchen for the chore ahead. After he was done, he would need to bath anyway, now that he was covered in mud. And he'd already tracked it through the house. He sighed, wishing he had thought further ahead to not make such a mess, but it couldn't be helped now.

Pulling off his boots and shirt, he went to the window near his sitting chair and hung the shirt over the edge and placed the boots outside the window. That's when he saw her. Her hair was plaited tight, slung over her shoulder. She was in a stripling's too wide dress, with the fabric bunching at her small waist. The shoulder of the dress hung low, revealing the creamy curves from the base of her ear to the middle of her biscept. She was kneeling at the edge of the garden near the berry bushes, picking one white strawberry after the other, every now and then, popping one into her mouth. Her cheeks were rosy from the warmth of the day, and her eyes downcast, focusing on the task at hand.

Even knowing he had things he needed to do, he suddenly had the urge to join her. Memories from the night before flashed through his mind, and he flashed a look at the counter top. Where she had been last night, fish now ruled the space, and he wrinkled his nose at them. In one fell swoop, he'd made a huge mess of the place, and realized he would be spending plenty of time tonight cleaning. Turning his attention back to his work, he started on the fish. Gut, skin, chop and done. Rinse and repeat.

A while later, Travion waltzed through the door and joined him in prepping the food for tonight. "Do you still have that cute basket Birna packs when you guys go on picnics?"

"Yeah, I'll grab it after we're done here and bring it over. But you're only sitting under the tree tonight, do you even really need it?"

"No, but I figured it would just be nice for the experience. It's probably been a long time since she went for a picnic. Likely since her mom passed, if not longer." Damion kept working. "I'm going to steal your big blanket too. The purple one, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. Just make sure you wash it before you bring it back." Travion winked at him. Damion couldn't help but blush, agreeing it would come back clean.

An arm broke through the curtains in the window where his shirt hung. "Hey," Volencia pushed through, leaning into the house. Damion froze, staring at her with a smile growing across his visage.

"Hey." He cocked his head at her.

"Looks like you made a mess of yourself earlier. What in the goddess's name were you doing?" She pointed down at the shirt.

"We were mud wrestling down by the river. It's a shame you missed it." Travion laughed. Her eyes sparkled at him.

"You were supposed to avoid the house today," Damion pointed out.

"I know," She blushed, "I just missed you. Can I come in? I want you to teach me how to help with prepping supper. And that looks like a disgusting way to have fun."

"Cleaning fish is the opposite of fun." Damion shook his head. "But since you're already here and have seen what I'm doing, it can't hurt."

"You went fishing because I told you I miss eating fish, didn't you?" She leaned against the window frame. Damion only shrugged in response, placing a new fish on the cutting board.

"Since she's coming in to help, and there's only a few left here to do, I'm going to go clean up and bring over the other things you want." Travion said. Damion nodded, thanking him for his help. Travion held the door for her as she swept in.

"Wow, the whole house is a mess. Should I get Trisha to come over and-"

"No, she doesn't have to clean up after me. I can do it when I'm finished here." Volencia went to stand by him.

"You smell aweful." She giggled, leaning into him. As he wrapped his arm around her, she pushed back at him, "Oh no, stop!"

Chuckling he asked, "You're the one who said you wanted to learn, come on, you'll smell as bad as I do by the time we're done." Stepping back, she squeezed between him and the counter.

"Well, as long as we smell together." Lifting the fish in her hands she squeeled and dropped it. "It's slimy!"

"It's a fish, of course it is. Come on, pick it up, then slide the knife from here to here." He walked her through all the steps the first time, and the way she squirmed in front of him was driving him wild. "Okay, you give it a shot this time."

"Is fishing always this messy? You carried mud through the whole house. It's even on the counter here." She asked, sliding the knife through the belly of the perch like he'd shown her.

He placed his hands on her hips, lowering his face to her hair. She smelled like the rose soap he had. "Not always, Trey and I got a little carried away while we were out."

"Are you getting all hot and bothered while we're covered in slime and blood?" She laughed as he pressed against her.

"You could be covered in anything and you would still excite me. I'm surprised you wanted to help with this. I wouldn't have thought this would be of interest to you."

"It actually wasn't something I wanted to do. But when I saw you, I knew you would feel the need to bathe after, and I figured, if I was dirty too" She wiggled her back side as she pealed away the scaly skin with much more effort than it had taken Damion. She ripped at it, but a piece of meat ripped away with it and blood spurt into her face and she screamed. Dropping the fish, she all but panicked. Throwing her hands in the air, Damion laughed, turning her around to face him.

"It's okay, don't worry." He pulled his handkerchief out, but had forgotten that it was already dirty, as he'd used it while fishing. He dropped it on the counter with everything else that needed to be washed, and went for a clean one on his shelf. "Here." He gently rubbed at the blood on her face, she lerched toward the bucket on the floor where he had been putting the fish guts and vomited. But when she finished, she took a deep breath, which couldn't have been a pleasant one. She was on her hands and knees gagging. The more she vomited, the more she gagged. Damion grabbed the bucket away from her, handing her a clean bowl, then hunkered beside her. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" She just shook her head, clinging to him. "Come on, let's get the bath going real quick and you can relax while I finish up." He lifted her into his arms and placed her on the lip of the tub while he worked to get it filled.

"I'm so sorry." Volencia was now sobbing. "I just made everything so much worse." Damion leaned over, placing a kiss on her cheek, rubbing her back and softly telling her that everything was fine. He was gentle with her as her emotions ran away with her. He wasn't too surprised that she was fighting it so hard. He finished up the fish while the water warmed. Volencia waited, wringing her skirt in her hands. "Is there something I can do to help?"

"No, sit back and relax. I've got it." He smiled over at her. When the fish was done, he was finally able to grab the buckets of nasty and brought them outside. He disposed of the leftovers in the pit where they collected those things, and would eventually bury it, he brought the buckets to the river to rinse them. He filled them with water and brought that back too. By the time he got back, Volencia was laying back in the tub, and he almost followed her right then and there. Instead, he set a pot to boil, wiped down the counters, swept, knocked the dirt out of his shirt and boots, and set to getting everything reorganized.

Volencia complained that she could have swept or wiped things down, but he only shook his head. "I am the one who made the mess, I have no problem making sure that I clean it all up." Once the water was boiling, he poured some into the bucket he used to wash his dishes and proceeded to clean all his utensils and the counter again with the soap rag he had. Then got on his hands and knees to mop the floor. Besides," Damion looked over his shoulder at her, "have you, ever once in your life, mopped a floor on your hands and knees?"

Batting her eyes at him innocently, she blushed, "Of course not."