Dies Irae

~~~ DIES IRAE ~~~

Quinta Charta: A New Day

Motto:

"Daylight - I must wait for the sunrise. I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in.
When the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too.
And a new day will begin." --- "Memories" - Barbara Streisand ----

Daizus whistled happily as he went back into the house, satisfied of how things were. The girl seemed to have taken the night's happenings quite good, even though for a moment he feared it had been too much for her. Maybe he ought to give her some space the next days; despite the tough façade she put on, there was an air of vulnerability looming upon her.

Rummaging through the contents of a large chest, he pulled out some clothes, dressing himself quickly. His arm was still throbbing faintly, and, unbeknownst even to him, he was quite proud of her fighting spirit. Daizus also chose other clothes, grinning as he imagined her face when she saw them. With a sigh, he headed towards the dishevelled bed, which looked as if a little war had taken place on it, which was, in fact, quite true. His good humour, however, vanished as if by magic the moment he spotted the spots of dried blood. Grabbing the blanked, he pulled it closer, making sure that it was blood indeed. Frowning, he rushed through his task, replacing the dirty sheets, locally turned into shreds by the girl's nail, with new, clean one. Hurling the evidence of their night together into the fire, he started pacing nervously through the room.

How could he have done such thing to her? He had made sure that she had been prepared, even if he had been rough with her she should have handled it. She was married, so virginity was out of question. Maybe the time of the month had come, and he started to panic slightly. What was he going to do about it? He growled through clenched teeth. He had to fight the urge to burst into the bath and question her.

Aemilia entered the room naked and a little angry. She was sore and now chilly, and he had destroyed her only dress. The water shinned on her body, the soft light of the candles giving her skin a golden hue. Her long hair, heavy with water, hung down her back, reaching her buttocks.

"Finally!" he exploded "What took you so long!?"

She smiled mockingly, and started playing with her hair slowly, watching with the corner of an eye the alternation of different shades of red on his face, and trying to foresee his reactions. Strangely, she realised she had began to understand him, to decipher the way he thought.

He must have figured out that he was being bait, because he huffed and took a rag, and started to rub her with it roughly, trying to dry her off.

"Stop it!", she meowed, "That hurts! Let me do it!"

Daizus gentled his touch but continued to dry her body himself, taking the time to assess the damage he had inflicted on her. There were nasty bruises on her neck, arms, hips and tights and a slowly fading one on the corner of her mouth. Besides this, she had a nasty looking bite on her shoulder, as a result of his ardour, but other than that she seemed to be in a satisfactory shape.

She stiffened when the rag came close to her breasts, but relaxed slightly as he moved the rag constantly, without paying special attention to them. Her calm however dissipated as he reached the pubic area, combing the slightly coarse hair sheltering her womanhood, as his other hand curled itself around the back of her neck, holding her firmly, yet gently, hence preventing her from moving away.

"Did I hurt you?" he whispered so softly that she couldn't be sure he actually said something.

"What?" Aemilia whispered at her turn, frowning.

He repeated the question louder, but received no answer, so he looked down on her, just as she looked up and they stared at each other for some time, although Aemilia was actually glaring.

Finally she spoke in a cold voice.

"THAT is none of your business, barbarian. Spare me of your sympathy, for I shall have no mercy for you as you lay dying on the flogging pole."

"So I did" he concluded unfazed by her threats. "I was hoping it was your monthly bleeding."

Despite her heated prayers to all the Gods in Olympus, she blushed heavily, partly of anger, partly for embarrassment. Daizus noticed the heavy blush, under the olive skin and chuckled, preparing himself for what was to come.

Letting her go, he motioned towards a pile of cloth on the bed, suggesting that she put it on. She was grateful to be out of his closeness , and hurried to get dressed, unconsciously swaying her hips as she walk. She bit her lower lip to prevent herself from limping, though she felt as if small icy daggers were cutting deep inside her. The coldness of her hair down her back was uncomfortable so, she improvised a bun, knotting the wisps to hold it together.

"What in Hades' name is THIS?" she inquired, raising a cloth from the bed, and holding it only with two fingers, holding it with only two fingers as if it were the most disgusting thing in the world.

Daizus just grinned and sat in a wooden chair, admiring the show.

"THAT is a pair of trousers that YOU, mea cara, are going to wear." He stated calmly.

"Isn't it enough that I have to stand your ugly face around me and your disgusting barbarian clothes? I will never put on such disgusting outfits, made out for savages. You shall provide me with decent clothing, at once!" she hissed, stomping against the floor.

Sometime during her little speech, Daizus lost track of her sayings mesmerised by the slight flopping of her small breasts. He sure was happy that she had put aside her modesty, though he had a nagging feeling that it was happening only because of her current emotional state.

Brushing a hand through his blond hair, he stated her choices:

"Either that, or nude. The dress was the only thing remotely feminine I had in the house. I will get you some clothes for women as we get into the village. Until then you shall wear these, trousers included."

She just stuck her tongue out at him, in a child like manner and he arched an eyebrow inquisitively.

***

"I look like shit!" she stated grumpily brandishing her arms rapidly, causing the rolled-up sleeves to come down, the material engulfing her fingers completely. She sighed leaving her hands down, paralleled with her tights and watching defeatedly as the material went down a little past her knees. The trousers had been a bigger problem: too long down her legs, too large around her waist, too tight for her plump, round bottom.

"I hate you, this is all your fault!" she accused poking his chest with a finger.

"You know, you have quite a limited vocabulary, this is the only thing you have been repeating for days!" he teased her lightly, trying to find out more about her. It was disturbing for him, to say the least, not to know her name. He had been considering re-naming her, but he realised he wanted to know more about her former life, even if it were behind her now.

He had always been considered quite a catch, and he actually expected her to warm up towards him. The girl was a walking bundle of contradictions. When he had seized her she looked and spoke like a peasant girl, albeit a very beautiful one. Then why was she so anxious to get back to her world? She would have to return to hard work on the fields and probably to a lowborn husband who surely cheated on her and even beat her harshly. From this perspective, she would do much well with him: with him being the leader she needn't work so hard, plus he was going to be a good husband to her. She would be stupid not to stay with him, actually she ought to be thankful!

Still, not everything matched, starting with her unblemished skin. How could a peasant woman not have even a small callosity? And how come she couldn't perform simple menial tasks such as cooking and making a bed? Pus, there was a certain grace she possessed which many hard-working girls would have lost by her age.

"Since you've been a rather good girl, I'm going to show you something." He promised, lifting her hand and kissing the tip of her finger. "Hm, are you a good girl?"

"Fuck off!" she snarled, but with less venom she would have liked to. This man sure was confusing - she comprehended too well his rough behaviour, but these little gestures of tenderness made her oddly shy.

"But first, you have to dry your hair completely and quickly, or we will miss it. You know, when I was I child I had a aunt who get out after she had washed her hair to throw the water away, and she got very sick and she lost her sight. That was very sad, because she took her own life some time later because of it."

"Why?" she asked in a small voice, genuinely interested.

"She was a very beautiful woman, and she couldn't stand the idea that her husband wouldn't love her if she were blind. That was stupid, of course, because my uncle was madly in love with her and he would have loved her even if she were crippled or disfigured. He died a year later, during the first war with the Romans, and everybody though of him very heroic, as he went in the most dangerous missions and plunged into the most heated fights. But, in fact…"

"He wanted to die" she finished, nodding slowly.

"Sic est." he confirmed "Veni, let's get you dried."

***

"Are we going to stay here any longer?" she growled, pushing herself into his heat and hating herself for it.

After drying her hair, he had wrapped her so tightly in large and warm woollen capes and put a woollen hat on her head, leaving only her nose outside. Then he had practically carried her outside and up a cliff where they had been standing for some time now, the girl in his lap, waiting for Gods know what!

"Stop complaining!" he chided, placing her chin on her neck and wrapping his arms tightly around her.

She "hm"- ed and looked straight ahead, ignoring him.

Then the pale colour of the sky started changing, turning a beautiful shade of orange, knotted with red lines. The round face of the sun appeared from behind the mountains, starting its routine movement, and flooding the surrounding mountains with its light, loaning an orange colour to the snowed cliffs.

"Formosus est!" she whispered in an awe.

"Sic est!" he agreed, also admiring the view "I agree".

~~~~

mea care = my dear

sic est = yes, that it's true

formosus est = It is beautiful

veni =come