Scrolls of the Prophet
Book I
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Young Lovers Gaze
“Eeeooo!”, Mechukmak called out in his new aspired mood as the young camel sensed our approach to the up and coming town.
“Easy, my benevolent beast...I’m sure there’ll be plenty of lemons still at their swing upon the vine when we arrive..!” I said gleefully in my hopes to console him, though I wasn’t quite sure if it would work, or just hold him back from his need to rush on without me.
“Eeeooo-eeeooo..!” he cried out in a great bit of muster, and bolted right past me as he kicked dirty-clouds in the air which left me quite dusted. Once that beast had made up his mind to go forth in a particular direction, there was little that anyone could do to dissuade his departure.
I decided it best to submit to his will, and I watched in fascination as he bounced side-to-side while he traveled into the distance, long swoops of sand sprayed off and were lifted as the beat of his hooves kept in time with his pace.
“Mechukmak, you fiend..,” I muttered out thickly, spitting out lips of sand while I dusted my tunic. “For the love of the father…” I panted...
“Save me some lemons..!” I pleaded in good will toward his seemingly extinct sensibilities, the distance between us grew rapidly as my steps in pace slowed. “What a bloodline of champions..!” I called out while amazed at the speed of his travel and how his form had so briskly faded into the rising heat of the day.
“Oh, buzzards..!” I cursed as I realized that he indeed carried my knap, the saddle bags full of honey-cakes, soured lemon-rings, and trail-mix—out of site, not to mention the wet water-bag which hung from his saddle-knob.
“Thank you for not leaving me with a partial mid-day meal..!” I bantered in misgivings, but the animal was long gone, and with his increase in distance, he would likely not stop until he had pilfered several lemons from the well-master’s trees. With our journey near completion with our trip into "Zoar", I was sure that the four-legged traitor would be fully fed and watered by the time I arrived. The stable-boy Gideon, he would brush him down thoroughly and provide him with a salt-lick, and then tie his reins lossely but securely at a station that was not far from those prized lemon-trees. All this lush treatment for the Mooch.., and all the while I was caught aloft and left to trudge through the waste-lands with no water for my thirst. At times like this I often wondered, “Just who was the master...and who was the slave..?”
“If only I had possession of a goat...then he would of probably gotten away with it too..!” I cried sarcastically, then increased my pace. The town was close by now and grew larger and clearer upon each given step. Half-grinning, I lifted my tunic and let the warm-breath of the air dry the sweat of my body. I returned whole-heartedly to my previous thoughts, ones of dear Maggy, and the sands out before time. A period when I didn't have Sara the mother camel or her offspring, "the Mooch..."
When I looked up, the silhouette of her face seemed to appear like an apperition which had faintly lit up in the distant floating clouds, swirls of dust then drew my attentions as they lingered in the arid desert breeze, one barely noticed the long, constant prodding of his weary steps as he walked. My mind fell back to that time when I got to watch her lean down in attentive motions and pick something up or aquire a low-lying stone with her curious fingertips. Her long painted nails would scroll across the presence of lost texts which had been etched with finely detailed lines on tablets of clay. With a swift motion to her rise, her lower-body would then disappear within the shimmer-curtain of her garb. She would then reenact the jubilant hair-dance that she new always stirred me.
It was a practiced ritual which we shared, and I had seen her perform it on numerous occasions, but upon each and every episode, my temptations only grew. She would gather her silky-dark tendrils into that thick mass of rope which she so casually draped from her display of forward-lean as it reached for the ground. Then with the simplest of wrist-motions and a forearm put to leverage, she’d grasp the thick grouping and, with a single thrust, cast the entire bulk to fly high over one-shoulder without effort or care. I always watched in excitement as the waterfall of dark strands would then fall away flawlessly and become a wide cloak on her back.
In only a moment, the vision of her vanished from my sight in the flowing cascade of a sky silk-filled with cotton. Her thick bushels of hair would dissolve like the temptation of sweet candy which came formed on a stick.
“Why the frequent rise from below..?” I had questioned of myself, my groin unpredictable in its slight swell to arise. The sequence of vivid images swirled in my head. And I had even once dared to speak of such things with the "Great Master, Sir Tancred", his lessons not so easily deciphered on the more mature topics about the birds, bees, and peaches...
There were other things that we shared which were far-less serious—I recalled a group of men chatting around me and an open-fire fleeting as our group sat about the Great Master, and his knights. They had been camped in the hills while trading in their stories about grand exploits and interactions. The men laughed out loud as they were always hard-wired in their earnest boast to get the other’s goat.
“John Browning...you scallywag..! Are you such a mannered man that you can make a good woman howl through the entire night and wake up the dead..? Show some courtesy my friend...and allow those less endowed among us who are far-lesser-blessed, to gather up some sleep...!” it came out from a man who had fiery red-hair.
His friend, a much burlier knight, had laughed in great heaps while his body-weight shook the ground with every boom of his guffaw. I wouldn't have wanted to tangle with that man within the heat of any battle—one stomp from his boot would surely bring a lesser man to his taste of a fitfull- bitter end.
And, as I watched, all of the men broke out in loud laughter and then returned to their incessant indulgence in a most foul-smelling drink. They called the equally rank-tasting dark-liquid “lager” by name, and they often drank it in overwhelming quantities which put them in a stupor before they would then fall about the place. They would each take a turn at their poke at another while they boasted of tales that surely wern't true.
"Master Tancred" had offered me a tall goblet of the vulgar-smelling brew, and after several gulps and swallows it not only tasted foul, but had put me to sleep.
When I awoke the next morning a terrible pain throbbed in my head as though I had been exposed for a period to way too much sunlight. And whenever anyone spoke, the pounding inside my ears seemed to thicken and grow worse. As I wandered throuh the camp, "Master Tancred’s" fine "Knights of the Realm" had slapped me on the back just as they had done to each other. They joked, teased and threw me, tossed me about like I was light as a feather! Supposedly this was because I had fallen asleep early on in the evening, only to the rise-up late the next morning and find myself burdened by the new ache in my head, and one that would hinder me through the course of the day.
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As I lifted my gaze, I saw that I was almost upon "Zoar". And fresh apprehensions filled me as I did not look forward to a my quick wash at the well. Once there, I checked on the condition of my pole-dragged cargo and considered brandishing a long lemon-tree branch to give some proper discipline to my abandoner’s plump-rump, but Mechukmak had been my most loyal and unwilling savior so many times before, and I couldn't find it in my heart to harm the great beast.
Indeed, it was only when "Hassani" and his "Daggers of Death" had tried to palm up my backside, that Mechukmak had charged in and freed my worthless carcass from its death in abuse. Yes, the Mooch had been a true friend from the beginning, and a much cherished gift from the "Heavenly Father" and "Holy Earthly Mother", ever since he had arrived at my side and made light my whole world.
Already, I was missing Maggy—she was the only real thing of value I possessed outside of "The Mooch", that I had deeply cared for in the last-pass of six years. Since she had first come upon me, early in my starry-eyed youth, I had been preparing for my coming-of-age manhood ceremony. It was easy to remember that wondrous time so well—especially because it was the beginning of the most satisfying part of my life. Now, many moons later, I pondered in wonder how it had all fallen apart, and just at a time when not so long ago everything had seemed to fall so easily into place.
I was just past my youth when I first attempted to seek the dowry of walking for my dearest love Maggy. The request to made of her guardians, Diensun and Marseda.
Maggy and I had been meeting in the low-shallows of a ditch beyond the base of a short wall which was located just outside the back of the "Madaba Town Temple School". We had had many interactions there in our exchange of texts, to both our growing satisfactions, and we were quite happy with the fun-filled youthful days which we had so happily spent together.
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On this particular late summer's day though, as our meeting had showed to be cloaked in the warm light of the sunset, I had regretted the star-lit skies which would soon strip us apart. Maggy had pulled up close to me, she had leaned heavily inward against my chest and whispered to me softly as she had many times before. Only this time, I felt no sudden heat or flashed rise in my body temperature—I only had absorbed the dissatisfied shivers from her warm petite frame as she snuggled ever closer.
“Oh Tav..!” she sighed, her voice in a tremble, “The woman of my hearth, she has spoken out against you...We must take what we can and flee from this place...” The wetness of her salty-eyes seeped down along her cheeks and they were instantly absorbed as they fell upon my tunic. Caring waves of calmness went strait to my head.
“Though we have no means for survival, we must travel far...far away—lest my guardian, Diensun, should end up upon us and disperse with your life-force to be aired with the gods..!” Her spirit came voiced in a deep resignation, and I could sense the immense sadness being expressed in her tone as her body convulsed mildly within sobs of dispair.
“Easy now, sweetest Maggy..,” I said while doing my best to console her heavy heart. “Surely the gods up above have smiled down upon us greatly and should continue to do so for as long as we keep faith. Speak to me sincerely...and tell me what Marseda has spoken which has offended you so deeply...”
Maggy pulled her head away from the dampness of my tunic, her tantalizing green-eyes showed slightly glazed over, her dark-liner was smudged as it sat within the traces of the crystalline aqua-blue-powders which over-shadowed her eyes.
She gently responded; “When Marseda and I had spoken in confidence during the preparation of the late-day's meal...she had spoken that I looked exceptionally light in my place of heart-matters...and wondered what had caused me to feel such delight..? I told her it was you...Tav...who had brought such contentment upon my heart...and that is was also you who had made me so happy...”
“Oh.., prepare me for the gods..!” My lungs whispered harshly in a pitch of concern. Maggy had sensed my distress and disillusionment which came matched with her own counter-balance of worry.
She added; “Marseda then warned me that to be caught in an embrace or in one's kiss of temptation—or even to be seen in such acts by the regular folk of the town...all while we were without any marks of devotion or other given sign of permission—it would only end in our sorrows...or even a stoning could take place at the temple if the clerics heard talk while they walked all about...”
“What did you say to her then..?” I requested, my voice growing desperate with a jaw put to slack.
“I told her you touched the flesh of my arm-bend...but only in passing...and that we had attempted a first kiss and spoken of our interest in our bouted promise for walking..,” she had replied with sincerity as the warm tears she was streaming ran down the cheeks of her face. Her gaze dropped sullenly, and she buried her face ever harder against me.
With a rough palm planted to each side of her face, I looked deep into the emerald-green depths that her eyes had provided. I lifted her head gently, and used the softer end-tips of my thumbs to wipe away the tears before I tried to soothe her fast growth in sadness.
“My sweet Maggy..," I said, "this may not be as bad news as one might think...we must only bring our hearts’ and our longing from its place behind the locked door where we have hidden our feelings so discreetly, and bring them into the great room light for all to bear witness...I will go on on the morrow...when you have returned from the Temple School, and put forth my intentions for our promise of walking...this upon next year...when you are of a more appropriate age..,” I spoke from my heart and with the sternest verocity, I wanted her to be aware of my honesty and the loving aspirations which I held.
She countered, “To Diensun...my guardian...you would ask for my promise..?” she squinted, her eyes blinked rapidly within her held look of passion. “There is no other guardian that one would consider for just such a request...That is...of course...if you would accept such an unworthy betrothed..,” I countered with a smile.
“Oh yes...Tav...oh yes..! I have dreamed of no less...But you must maintain the groin of a bull to even think of approaching my guardian...Diensun...especially with such delicate matters..!” Her eyes widened further and the flutter of her tears subsided somewhat. I felt the slow beginning of a smirk as she smiled gracefully and her better mood returned.
“I don't know if my groin is in close-match to such a beast...but I know this for true..: when it comes to you...my dearest love...Maggy...I shall certainly take such a bull by the horns..!"
“But what if you are denied by the gods...Tav..?” Her big green-eyes sparkled with a sence of renewdness. The dry crust of her tears then gave way to their gift of a more radiant glow..
In an automatic motion, I slid my hands from the tender swell of her cheeks and brought them down to rest on the tops of her shoulders. I pulled her up closer and felt the small lumps of her breasts as they pressed against my ribs, the flesh of her thighs brushed over my knee-caps...
Our bodies fell even nearer and I moved the tip of my nose to its close touch with her own. and with the friction of love, I nuzzled it side-to-side.
“By the will of the gods...I will not deny your heart’s desires...!” My mouth whispered softly in her ear just before we parted. I thought we were clever, but nothing felt better, than being caught in the pleasure of our, young lovers gaze…
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CURRENT VOLUME List:
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Scrolls of the Prophet...historical/biblical/adventure/coming of age
- Awakening
- Gathering
- Binding
- Bloodline
- Prophecy
- Phoenicia
- Future Dig
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Scrolls of the Past...historical/adventure/coming of age
- Amen Rey (Egyptian)
- House of the Fawn - (Greek)
- Spice Road - (Persian)
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Dominatrix...sci-fi/thriller/action/space adventure/coming of age/assassin
- Domina
- Bisal
- Alaran
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Terraformation..sci-fi/action/adventure/alien love story/space travel
- Terra-Form
- Terra-Rise
- Terra-Site
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Quest of the Seeker..thriller/murder mystery/afterlife/coming of age
- The Key
- The Clown
- The Seeker
**Hint: The Seeker is the Grim Reeper's brother...:)
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The Cleaner..action/thriller/coming of age/assassin
- The Child
- The Woman
- The Teacher
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Ready The Yeti..children's series/adventure/life lessons
- I Am Ready
- I Am Sassy
- I am Abominable
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