One shot: Claimed
Dec. 10th, 2012 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frogs_of_warWhen one finds the man of their dreams and falls in love and marries him, one doesn't think of genetics. Or at least I didn't. Both my mother and his father have mental health issues, which raises my children's chances of inheriting them to 50%. Since my oldest became a teenager, I've held my breath to see if the signs appeared and hoped to survive the next decade or so unscathed (a lot of mental health problems surface between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five).
But it's blatantly unfair that I have to go through the worry and hand-wringing with two kids. I can only hope that my youngest doesn't make it 3 for 3.
And why can't you just walk in and get a referral for mental health issues the same way you can with other health issues? You don't walk into the emergency room and have the doctors tell you that you might have diabetes and that you need to see a different doctor to send you to a third to get you an evaluation or are given a list of people that might possibly be able to treat your condition but you have to call each and every one individuality to find out if the treat it and how much they charge. No wonder so many people leave their mental health issues untreated.
This isn't the first time I've spent hours (not counting the ones at the hospital) trying to find someone to help my son (since the school no longer has a psychologist, who my daughter saw) and I'm still stuck with the fallback position of a grad student at a free clinic.
Title: Claimed
Status: Complete
Genre: m/m, coming of age, [some term that means the story is set in the past in a world that might be our own in a place like Central Asia], Along the Silk Road
Rating: PG
Content: fear, calm, anger, pride, threats, a rescue, the truth, pain, escape, and a pleasant memory
Length: about 3,000 words
Summary: Priti might be his family's only hope when they are threatened by ruffians.
Priti’s mother pulled him behind her as men filled the area around their gher. His pride told him to stand in front of her, but he was too much of a coward to listen. These men were big and grim and Manraj was among them. Manraj was not much older than Priti’s oldest sister, but he’d made a name for himself as a ruffian, a sore winner, and a showoff even before his father died and left him his herds. Manraj’s father had never enforced his power, but Manraj was now the richest man in the area and his word was law.
Priti’s father walked down from the hill as if he had all the time in the world. He stepped onto the rock Priti used to climb atop his horse. “What brings you here today, Manraj?”
“I have come for what is owed me.”
“What would that be?”
“Anything I want.” Manraj and his men laughed. He turned to the gher. “Where are you pretty daughters, Harmeet? I will take them and your herds. I might even let the girls return once we are through with them.”
The men laughed again.
Mother shook and balled her hands into fists in the folds of her skirts. Priti huddled behind her. Those men were large and rough. Father couldn’t do anything to save them if the men hurt Priti and his mother. Father had only his words and honor and Manraj had already proved that he was too stupid to understand either.
Manraj advanced on Mother. Priti slipped inside the gher. A man yelled. Mother shouted and cursed. The curtain was dragged aside and men rushed in. They overturned tables and dressers and dumped out every chest, even those too small to hide a person, and left dirty prints on the fine rugs. A strong hand clamped over Priti’s arm and dragged him outside. He struggled and kicked and bit Manraj’s arm, but Manraj didn’t let him go.
“I could not find you daughters, but I found young Nayanprit. A joy to look upon, that he is.” Manraj leered at Priti. “I will take him instead. You will rue the day you crossed my path.”
Mother lunged at Manraj, but the men kept her away. Father turned his back. Everyone knew that once a boy tasted a man, he would never go back, never be a father or give his father an heir. But the same was not said about a man who tasted a boy.
Manraj passed Priti to another man and mounted his horse. “Get the herds.”
Priti’s sisters were with the herds. He couldn’t let Manraj and his men near them.
Mother held her arms out to Priti as she struggled against her captors. Priti had to help her. He had to save them all from ruin. Without the herds his sister could never be married. Without the herds they would all starve to death. Only he could save them. He fought as the man tried to pass him to Manraj. “You can’t.”
Manraj laughed. “I can’t what?”
“You can’t make me yours because I’m already Tanvir Sahib’s.”
The man released Priti as if he were a hot coal and everyone stepped back including Father. Mother, now free of her captors, pressed her lips together as tears poured down her cheeks.
Manraj looked from Father to Mother then back at Priti. “You are lying.”
Priti shook his head.
Manraj laughed, harsh and loud. “He will kill you, you know that, for evoking his name. Your fields will burn and no sheep or goat will be left alive.”
Priti held his head high. “I do not lie.”
And Tanvir Sahib was a gentle man.
“If he tells the truth,” said the man who had held Priti, “I am as good as dead. As are you, Manraj.”
“He lies.” Manraj turned his horse. “We will be back to take whatever Tanvir Sahib as left alive.”
Then he and his men rode away.
Mother pulled Priti against her chest. “Never scare me like that again.”
Father sighed and stepped down from the rock. “Komal, pack. I will send the girls to you. Tell them nothing.”
Mother nodded. “Will we take them with us?”
“No.” Father patted her arm. “I will separate their dowries from the herds. With fewer animals we will go faster. And they will be safe here with their new families.”
“Nayanprit.” Father watched Mother go inside and then he turned and slapped Priti’s face so hard Priti fell to the ground and his ears rang. “Never! Never mention Tanvir Sahib’s name again! Ever! Under any circumstance!”
Priti pressed his hand against his throbbing cheek and stared up at his father. His father had hit him. His father had never raised a hand to Priti or his mother or his sisters before even when Priti had fallen asleep and his herds wandered off and weren’t found for days, or the time Mother didn’t cook enough food and Father’s guests couldn’t eat their fill, or even the night Priti’s sisters tussled and knocked over a lamp inside the gher and the fire had destroyed their home and everything in it.
His kind, gentle father, who carried little lambs out to the pastures and brought food to neighbors without his good fortune had hit Priti after Priti had saved everyone.
Father looked at the gher then across the fields. “I hope going to your mother’s family will be far enough to keep us safe, but I know it won’t. If you wake up one night to smoke and death, know that you are the one responsible.”
Priti stayed on the ground until Father walked away.
Mother hurried to him and helped him inside the gher. She held a cold cloth to his cheek. “My baby, forgive him. He is scared.”
Priti blinked back tears. “I was scared too.”
“I know, baby, I know.” She tucked Priti into his bed as if he were a small child. “So was I. You were so brave.” She kissed his head. “If we hurry, maybe the Sahib won’t find us. Sleep, you can help me later.”
Priti wasn’t tired, but he was sore and his chest ached. He laid his arm over his eyes, but he couldn’t rest. His mind turned over and over his father’s reactions to what had happened outside. When good fortune fell upon a man, he shouldn’t complain about what form the fortune took. Father had said that, more than once. Priti saved them all. Father shouldn’t complain about how he did it.
His sisters came home. Mother couldn’t tell them who their husbands would be and she didn’t explain why they were getting married so suddenly or why Priti was in bed. He didn’t like the scrutiny or being unable to answer their questions, so he got up and set to work outside. Plus, this way his sisters wouldn’t see his cheek and ask even more questions.
Father returned after sunset. Four men in the village had agreed to Father’s bride price. The new couples would start with a hundred sheep and as many goats, given equally by each family. Priti’s sister who was just two years older than him would have fifty more of each because she was so beautiful, but Priti couldn’t be happy for her. Father wouldn’t look at him.
The next day his sisters’ husbands came for them. The festivities lasted all day and much of the night and Father toasted Priti when he toasted Priti’s sisters. Priti had been forgiven. The next morning Priti and his parents packed up and left. They set off across Father’s land. As they were a nomadic family, who moved their house every few months, the villagers wouldn’t know they were gone for a while. His sisters wouldn’t know where they had gone.
They traveled all day and as the sun set, Priti and his father set up portable pens for the herds that were left. He ate his food under the stars. Two years ago in this very valley, he’d heard the sound of horses’ hooves and he left his flock to investigate. A group of twenty men made camp by the stream and cooked food and ate. A few swam in the tepid water.
One of the men awoke something deep inside Priti. He crept closer. Water glistened off the man’s shoulders and ran through the hair on his chest and dripped from the dark curls on his head and the point of his short beard. His face, neck, and hands were a darker brown than his waist and shoulders, like any man who spent time in the sun. But he didn’t look like just any man.
His hair was as dark as anyone’s, at least wet, but Priti would have sworn the man’s eyes were green. Priti had only ever heard of green eyes. His sisters told stories they’d heard from his grandmother and aunts that some men traveled far to take wives with blue eyes, but Priti never liked those stories. Blue eyes, like the djinn and wizards, just couldn’t exist.
But green eyes, green eyes were possible. And this man might have them.
Priti move behind the last shrub. He had to get closer. He had to see.
The sound of many small feet came up behind him and a goat maa-ed. The herd had found him. He turned and sat. The goats showed their normal enthusiasm by jumping on him. The sheep couldn’t be bothered. Priti would rather not have been either.
A man in dark red, not his man, looked down at Priti. “What do we have here?”
Priti lowered his gaze. “I am shepherding my father’s herds.”
“Is this his land?”
“Bring him here.”
Priti stood up and turned around. That was his man’s voice. Wasn’t it?
He pushed the goats and sheep aside and stepped around the shrub. His man stood in the stream, the water low on his hips. Priti rubbed the heel of his hand down his front. His body ached in a way it never had before. His man’s eyes were green with a gold ring around the color. Priti had never seen anything half so breathtaking. They were like beautiful, polished stones set in jewelry.
His man grinned. “What is your name, pretty boy?”
Priti swallowed hard. “Nayanprit, sahib.”
“What a very appropriate name.” His man stepped out of the water. He was magnificent in every way.
Priti couldn’t breathe. His lungs were too hot to work, like the hottest of summer days, but his legs were antsy and his hands clasp and unclasp and he knew his manhood was making a tent of his trousers, but he couldn’t pull his eyes of the beautiful, huge one in front of him.
A towel moved between them. Priti frowned and pulled his eyes up to his man’s eyes. His man was grinning. “Do you like what you see?”
Priti nodded.
His man laughed a nice friendly laugh. “So refreshingly honest.”
“Do you know who this is?” asked the man in dark red. He’d given Priti’s man the towel. Priti was pretty sure he didn’t like that guy.
Priti dragged his eyes down his man’s body and back up. The towel was conveniently short enough to show off his man’s beautifully muscled legs, but not short enough to expose the wondrous hard flesh Priti wanted to touch. “He is the most handsome man in the whole world. Many people must have been born ugly to make up for your beauty.”
His man reached forward and tugged on Priti’s forelock. “The same could be said of you, my pretty little Priti.”
Priti blushed. His man laughed again and the men around him joined in. Priti smiled. He felt comfortable here with these men. But then the man in dark red handed Priti’s man green and gold clothing and his man put on the trousers. But at least he had to take off his towel to do that.
His man touched Priti’s cheek. “Would you rather I stay bare?”
Priti nodded. As long as he was naked, he couldn’t leave. And he was so pretty. Priti looked down at his man’s perfect feet. Priti dragged his eyes back up. “All of you is so beautiful that you will still be handsome with all your clothes on.”
But Priti hoped he didn’t dress too quickly.
His man brushed his strong fingers against Priti’s lips. “Are you anyone’s lover?”
Priti shook his head and stepped closer. He wanted those big hands against his skin and to touch the handsome man in return. He set his hand against his man’s hard belly. The hair was smooth beneath his palm.
His man wrapped his hand around Priti’s wrist and raised Priti’s palm to his lips. “First, my Priti, you must tell me your age.”
Priti stared at the gold embroidery on the green cloth of his man’s trouser legs. The cloth was beautiful and matched his beautiful green eyes. Priti looked up again. His man kissed his palm. “No matter what age you state, you are mine.”
His man sucked Priti’s first two fingers into his mouth. Priti could hardly hold still, but he didn’t want to pull away. He didn’t want his man to ever stop. The annoying guy in dark red returned. “Sahib, we must go soon if we are to reach the capital by dawn.”
Priti’s man turned to the guy in dark red. “Some things cannot be rushed.”
“Yes, Sahib.” He stepped away. The men around them rose to their feet. They would all leave soon. Priti wanted his man beside him forever.
“Tell me, my sweet.”
“I,” Priti wet his lips and said the dreadful number. “Twelve.”
His man sighed. “I feared as much. I cannot take you with me today. I will return in… three years. You will be old enough then.”
Three years was such a long time. His man touched his hair. “Do not be sad. You are mine. Who is your father?”
“Harmeet, sahib. This is his land.”
Priti’s man nodded and pulled his tunic over his head. “And where is your mother from?”
Priti answered all his man’s questions about his parents and grandparents and uncles and even his aunts’ husbands. The easy questions were made harder as Priti’s man covered up all his beautiful skin. Watching it covered was physically painful.
When Priti pulled his eyes away, the other men had packed their camp and were on their horses. Priti’s man was going to leave without him. The guy in dark red held the reins of two horses. Priti wasn’t ready for his man to leave. He took his man’s hand. “Please, sahib, don’t leave without me.”
His man touched his hair. “I will be back.”
“But, sahib, I don’t even know your name.”
His man froze for a second and Priti felt eyes upon him. The man in dark red stepped forward. “You really don’t know who he is?”
“He is a man touched by a god or even a god himself, no man is so handsome without blessings. But,” he looked up at his man, “I still don’t know which blessed man.”
Priti’s man got down on one knee and gently took Priti’s chin in his hand. “My pretty little love, you did not give me such compliments to win my favor?”
Priti shook his head. “I only told the truth.”
His man sucked in a breath. “I should take you with me and have you tonight. But we are in a hurry and I do not want to rush with you. I will return when you are older. Three years is not so long. And until then tell anyone who wishes to bed you – man or women, young or old, forced or with your consent — that I, Tanvir, will kill them if they do and their blood will fertilize the land.”
The threat was harsh but Tanvir’s eyes didn’t harden. He grinned at Priti. “No one is allowed to kiss you either. These lips are mine.”
And he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Priti’s. Priti opened his mouth. Tanvir leaned away. “You are too tempting by half.”
Tanvir got to his feet.
“Tanvir Sahib.” The man in dark red passed the reins to Tanvir.
He was leaving and Priti could do nothing to stop him. Tanvir touched Priti’s cheek again. “I will return.”
Priti put his hand over Tanvir’s. “I believe in you.”
Tanvir mounted his horse. “I will make a place for you. But for now I must go.”
He rode away. Priti watched until Tanvir and his men were smaller than dust specks in the distance. He stayed in the valley until the sheep and goats protested.
Weeks later, his father made him sit with the men when guests came to visit and he heard Tanvir Sahib’s name. Tanvir Sahib was rich and therefore powerful and he dealt his own version of justice. Priti’s father didn’t approve.
After that every time men gathered, Priti listened closely. Tanvir Sahib was always a topic of conversation. As he grew in strength and influence, men spoke his name with greater reverence. Priti listened intently to every story whether it was about Tanvir Sahib recovering jewels for a widow or massacring the men who stole them.
Men talked of his strong stature and loyal men, but many people called his green eyes eerie and not beautiful as they really were. But everyone agreed that he always kept his word. He would keep his word to Priti and return.
The three years were almost up. The rumor of a boy belonging to him would surely reach him and he would come for Priti.
The moon slid across the sky. Priti got up and went back to the campsite where Father and Mother greeted him warmly from their bedroll. Priti crawled into his own bed. He would happily stay with his parents for the meantime, but he wasn’t going to hide from the man he dreamed of every night.
But it's blatantly unfair that I have to go through the worry and hand-wringing with two kids. I can only hope that my youngest doesn't make it 3 for 3.
And why can't you just walk in and get a referral for mental health issues the same way you can with other health issues? You don't walk into the emergency room and have the doctors tell you that you might have diabetes and that you need to see a different doctor to send you to a third to get you an evaluation or are given a list of people that might possibly be able to treat your condition but you have to call each and every one individuality to find out if the treat it and how much they charge. No wonder so many people leave their mental health issues untreated.
This isn't the first time I've spent hours (not counting the ones at the hospital) trying to find someone to help my son (since the school no longer has a psychologist, who my daughter saw) and I'm still stuck with the fallback position of a grad student at a free clinic.
Title: Claimed
Status: Complete
Genre: m/m, coming of age, [some term that means the story is set in the past in a world that might be our own in a place like Central Asia], Along the Silk Road
Rating: PG
Content: fear, calm, anger, pride, threats, a rescue, the truth, pain, escape, and a pleasant memory
Length: about 3,000 words
Summary: Priti might be his family's only hope when they are threatened by ruffians.
Priti’s mother pulled him behind her as men filled the area around their gher. His pride told him to stand in front of her, but he was too much of a coward to listen. These men were big and grim and Manraj was among them. Manraj was not much older than Priti’s oldest sister, but he’d made a name for himself as a ruffian, a sore winner, and a showoff even before his father died and left him his herds. Manraj’s father had never enforced his power, but Manraj was now the richest man in the area and his word was law.
Priti’s father walked down from the hill as if he had all the time in the world. He stepped onto the rock Priti used to climb atop his horse. “What brings you here today, Manraj?”
“I have come for what is owed me.”
“What would that be?”
“Anything I want.” Manraj and his men laughed. He turned to the gher. “Where are you pretty daughters, Harmeet? I will take them and your herds. I might even let the girls return once we are through with them.”
The men laughed again.
Mother shook and balled her hands into fists in the folds of her skirts. Priti huddled behind her. Those men were large and rough. Father couldn’t do anything to save them if the men hurt Priti and his mother. Father had only his words and honor and Manraj had already proved that he was too stupid to understand either.
Manraj advanced on Mother. Priti slipped inside the gher. A man yelled. Mother shouted and cursed. The curtain was dragged aside and men rushed in. They overturned tables and dressers and dumped out every chest, even those too small to hide a person, and left dirty prints on the fine rugs. A strong hand clamped over Priti’s arm and dragged him outside. He struggled and kicked and bit Manraj’s arm, but Manraj didn’t let him go.
“I could not find you daughters, but I found young Nayanprit. A joy to look upon, that he is.” Manraj leered at Priti. “I will take him instead. You will rue the day you crossed my path.”
Mother lunged at Manraj, but the men kept her away. Father turned his back. Everyone knew that once a boy tasted a man, he would never go back, never be a father or give his father an heir. But the same was not said about a man who tasted a boy.
Manraj passed Priti to another man and mounted his horse. “Get the herds.”
Priti’s sisters were with the herds. He couldn’t let Manraj and his men near them.
Mother held her arms out to Priti as she struggled against her captors. Priti had to help her. He had to save them all from ruin. Without the herds his sister could never be married. Without the herds they would all starve to death. Only he could save them. He fought as the man tried to pass him to Manraj. “You can’t.”
Manraj laughed. “I can’t what?”
“You can’t make me yours because I’m already Tanvir Sahib’s.”
The man released Priti as if he were a hot coal and everyone stepped back including Father. Mother, now free of her captors, pressed her lips together as tears poured down her cheeks.
Manraj looked from Father to Mother then back at Priti. “You are lying.”
Priti shook his head.
Manraj laughed, harsh and loud. “He will kill you, you know that, for evoking his name. Your fields will burn and no sheep or goat will be left alive.”
Priti held his head high. “I do not lie.”
And Tanvir Sahib was a gentle man.
“If he tells the truth,” said the man who had held Priti, “I am as good as dead. As are you, Manraj.”
“He lies.” Manraj turned his horse. “We will be back to take whatever Tanvir Sahib as left alive.”
Then he and his men rode away.
Mother pulled Priti against her chest. “Never scare me like that again.”
Father sighed and stepped down from the rock. “Komal, pack. I will send the girls to you. Tell them nothing.”
Mother nodded. “Will we take them with us?”
“No.” Father patted her arm. “I will separate their dowries from the herds. With fewer animals we will go faster. And they will be safe here with their new families.”
“Nayanprit.” Father watched Mother go inside and then he turned and slapped Priti’s face so hard Priti fell to the ground and his ears rang. “Never! Never mention Tanvir Sahib’s name again! Ever! Under any circumstance!”
Priti pressed his hand against his throbbing cheek and stared up at his father. His father had hit him. His father had never raised a hand to Priti or his mother or his sisters before even when Priti had fallen asleep and his herds wandered off and weren’t found for days, or the time Mother didn’t cook enough food and Father’s guests couldn’t eat their fill, or even the night Priti’s sisters tussled and knocked over a lamp inside the gher and the fire had destroyed their home and everything in it.
His kind, gentle father, who carried little lambs out to the pastures and brought food to neighbors without his good fortune had hit Priti after Priti had saved everyone.
Father looked at the gher then across the fields. “I hope going to your mother’s family will be far enough to keep us safe, but I know it won’t. If you wake up one night to smoke and death, know that you are the one responsible.”
Priti stayed on the ground until Father walked away.
Mother hurried to him and helped him inside the gher. She held a cold cloth to his cheek. “My baby, forgive him. He is scared.”
Priti blinked back tears. “I was scared too.”
“I know, baby, I know.” She tucked Priti into his bed as if he were a small child. “So was I. You were so brave.” She kissed his head. “If we hurry, maybe the Sahib won’t find us. Sleep, you can help me later.”
Priti wasn’t tired, but he was sore and his chest ached. He laid his arm over his eyes, but he couldn’t rest. His mind turned over and over his father’s reactions to what had happened outside. When good fortune fell upon a man, he shouldn’t complain about what form the fortune took. Father had said that, more than once. Priti saved them all. Father shouldn’t complain about how he did it.
His sisters came home. Mother couldn’t tell them who their husbands would be and she didn’t explain why they were getting married so suddenly or why Priti was in bed. He didn’t like the scrutiny or being unable to answer their questions, so he got up and set to work outside. Plus, this way his sisters wouldn’t see his cheek and ask even more questions.
Father returned after sunset. Four men in the village had agreed to Father’s bride price. The new couples would start with a hundred sheep and as many goats, given equally by each family. Priti’s sister who was just two years older than him would have fifty more of each because she was so beautiful, but Priti couldn’t be happy for her. Father wouldn’t look at him.
The next day his sisters’ husbands came for them. The festivities lasted all day and much of the night and Father toasted Priti when he toasted Priti’s sisters. Priti had been forgiven. The next morning Priti and his parents packed up and left. They set off across Father’s land. As they were a nomadic family, who moved their house every few months, the villagers wouldn’t know they were gone for a while. His sisters wouldn’t know where they had gone.
They traveled all day and as the sun set, Priti and his father set up portable pens for the herds that were left. He ate his food under the stars. Two years ago in this very valley, he’d heard the sound of horses’ hooves and he left his flock to investigate. A group of twenty men made camp by the stream and cooked food and ate. A few swam in the tepid water.
One of the men awoke something deep inside Priti. He crept closer. Water glistened off the man’s shoulders and ran through the hair on his chest and dripped from the dark curls on his head and the point of his short beard. His face, neck, and hands were a darker brown than his waist and shoulders, like any man who spent time in the sun. But he didn’t look like just any man.
His hair was as dark as anyone’s, at least wet, but Priti would have sworn the man’s eyes were green. Priti had only ever heard of green eyes. His sisters told stories they’d heard from his grandmother and aunts that some men traveled far to take wives with blue eyes, but Priti never liked those stories. Blue eyes, like the djinn and wizards, just couldn’t exist.
But green eyes, green eyes were possible. And this man might have them.
Priti move behind the last shrub. He had to get closer. He had to see.
The sound of many small feet came up behind him and a goat maa-ed. The herd had found him. He turned and sat. The goats showed their normal enthusiasm by jumping on him. The sheep couldn’t be bothered. Priti would rather not have been either.
A man in dark red, not his man, looked down at Priti. “What do we have here?”
Priti lowered his gaze. “I am shepherding my father’s herds.”
“Is this his land?”
“Bring him here.”
Priti stood up and turned around. That was his man’s voice. Wasn’t it?
He pushed the goats and sheep aside and stepped around the shrub. His man stood in the stream, the water low on his hips. Priti rubbed the heel of his hand down his front. His body ached in a way it never had before. His man’s eyes were green with a gold ring around the color. Priti had never seen anything half so breathtaking. They were like beautiful, polished stones set in jewelry.
His man grinned. “What is your name, pretty boy?”
Priti swallowed hard. “Nayanprit, sahib.”
“What a very appropriate name.” His man stepped out of the water. He was magnificent in every way.
Priti couldn’t breathe. His lungs were too hot to work, like the hottest of summer days, but his legs were antsy and his hands clasp and unclasp and he knew his manhood was making a tent of his trousers, but he couldn’t pull his eyes of the beautiful, huge one in front of him.
A towel moved between them. Priti frowned and pulled his eyes up to his man’s eyes. His man was grinning. “Do you like what you see?”
Priti nodded.
His man laughed a nice friendly laugh. “So refreshingly honest.”
“Do you know who this is?” asked the man in dark red. He’d given Priti’s man the towel. Priti was pretty sure he didn’t like that guy.
Priti dragged his eyes down his man’s body and back up. The towel was conveniently short enough to show off his man’s beautifully muscled legs, but not short enough to expose the wondrous hard flesh Priti wanted to touch. “He is the most handsome man in the whole world. Many people must have been born ugly to make up for your beauty.”
His man reached forward and tugged on Priti’s forelock. “The same could be said of you, my pretty little Priti.”
Priti blushed. His man laughed again and the men around him joined in. Priti smiled. He felt comfortable here with these men. But then the man in dark red handed Priti’s man green and gold clothing and his man put on the trousers. But at least he had to take off his towel to do that.
His man touched Priti’s cheek. “Would you rather I stay bare?”
Priti nodded. As long as he was naked, he couldn’t leave. And he was so pretty. Priti looked down at his man’s perfect feet. Priti dragged his eyes back up. “All of you is so beautiful that you will still be handsome with all your clothes on.”
But Priti hoped he didn’t dress too quickly.
His man brushed his strong fingers against Priti’s lips. “Are you anyone’s lover?”
Priti shook his head and stepped closer. He wanted those big hands against his skin and to touch the handsome man in return. He set his hand against his man’s hard belly. The hair was smooth beneath his palm.
His man wrapped his hand around Priti’s wrist and raised Priti’s palm to his lips. “First, my Priti, you must tell me your age.”
Priti stared at the gold embroidery on the green cloth of his man’s trouser legs. The cloth was beautiful and matched his beautiful green eyes. Priti looked up again. His man kissed his palm. “No matter what age you state, you are mine.”
His man sucked Priti’s first two fingers into his mouth. Priti could hardly hold still, but he didn’t want to pull away. He didn’t want his man to ever stop. The annoying guy in dark red returned. “Sahib, we must go soon if we are to reach the capital by dawn.”
Priti’s man turned to the guy in dark red. “Some things cannot be rushed.”
“Yes, Sahib.” He stepped away. The men around them rose to their feet. They would all leave soon. Priti wanted his man beside him forever.
“Tell me, my sweet.”
“I,” Priti wet his lips and said the dreadful number. “Twelve.”
His man sighed. “I feared as much. I cannot take you with me today. I will return in… three years. You will be old enough then.”
Three years was such a long time. His man touched his hair. “Do not be sad. You are mine. Who is your father?”
“Harmeet, sahib. This is his land.”
Priti’s man nodded and pulled his tunic over his head. “And where is your mother from?”
Priti answered all his man’s questions about his parents and grandparents and uncles and even his aunts’ husbands. The easy questions were made harder as Priti’s man covered up all his beautiful skin. Watching it covered was physically painful.
When Priti pulled his eyes away, the other men had packed their camp and were on their horses. Priti’s man was going to leave without him. The guy in dark red held the reins of two horses. Priti wasn’t ready for his man to leave. He took his man’s hand. “Please, sahib, don’t leave without me.”
His man touched his hair. “I will be back.”
“But, sahib, I don’t even know your name.”
His man froze for a second and Priti felt eyes upon him. The man in dark red stepped forward. “You really don’t know who he is?”
“He is a man touched by a god or even a god himself, no man is so handsome without blessings. But,” he looked up at his man, “I still don’t know which blessed man.”
Priti’s man got down on one knee and gently took Priti’s chin in his hand. “My pretty little love, you did not give me such compliments to win my favor?”
Priti shook his head. “I only told the truth.”
His man sucked in a breath. “I should take you with me and have you tonight. But we are in a hurry and I do not want to rush with you. I will return when you are older. Three years is not so long. And until then tell anyone who wishes to bed you – man or women, young or old, forced or with your consent — that I, Tanvir, will kill them if they do and their blood will fertilize the land.”
The threat was harsh but Tanvir’s eyes didn’t harden. He grinned at Priti. “No one is allowed to kiss you either. These lips are mine.”
And he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Priti’s. Priti opened his mouth. Tanvir leaned away. “You are too tempting by half.”
Tanvir got to his feet.
“Tanvir Sahib.” The man in dark red passed the reins to Tanvir.
He was leaving and Priti could do nothing to stop him. Tanvir touched Priti’s cheek again. “I will return.”
Priti put his hand over Tanvir’s. “I believe in you.”
Tanvir mounted his horse. “I will make a place for you. But for now I must go.”
He rode away. Priti watched until Tanvir and his men were smaller than dust specks in the distance. He stayed in the valley until the sheep and goats protested.
Weeks later, his father made him sit with the men when guests came to visit and he heard Tanvir Sahib’s name. Tanvir Sahib was rich and therefore powerful and he dealt his own version of justice. Priti’s father didn’t approve.
After that every time men gathered, Priti listened closely. Tanvir Sahib was always a topic of conversation. As he grew in strength and influence, men spoke his name with greater reverence. Priti listened intently to every story whether it was about Tanvir Sahib recovering jewels for a widow or massacring the men who stole them.
Men talked of his strong stature and loyal men, but many people called his green eyes eerie and not beautiful as they really were. But everyone agreed that he always kept his word. He would keep his word to Priti and return.
The three years were almost up. The rumor of a boy belonging to him would surely reach him and he would come for Priti.
The moon slid across the sky. Priti got up and went back to the campsite where Father and Mother greeted him warmly from their bedroll. Priti crawled into his own bed. He would happily stay with his parents for the meantime, but he wasn’t going to hide from the man he dreamed of every night.
