Bride Price ✔

VI

You say your faith is shaken
And you may be mistaken
You keep me wide awake and waiting for the sun
I'm desperate and confused
So far away from you
And I'm getting near, I don't care where I have to run

-Misery, Maroon 5

...

Rage filled Tomori's eyes has he jumped up from where he sat, and he picked up his spear, running towards her shouts of distress. He practically flew towards her, ready to kill whoever it was that decided to attack Abebi. But as he got towards the stream, he slowed down in confusion, looking around her.

There was no attacker, no dangerous man harassing her, no army trying to take her away, she just stood, shaking as she pointed at something, incoherent words coming out of her mouth instead.

"What is it Abebi? Did I run all the way here for nothing?  If this is a joke, you had better stop it now!" He said sternly.

"Tomori- My - my Lord, sn- snake!" She whispered and he followed her gaze. True to her words, there was a snake laying a few leg spans away from her.

He sighed, grabbing his spear and throwing it at the creature, and the spear landed on its head accurately. He turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

"I hear your cries of distress and rush over to destroy any man that was attacking you, only to find you screaming over a little snake." He said.

"It could bite me! Did you not see the teeth on the cursed creature?" She whined, still amazed on how he could've killed the snake without any sweat. He did not even look frightened, but perhaps that was why he was the chief warrior. He had probably killed worse creatures.

"It is an infant snake. You could have killed it with a stick." He rolled his eyes, then groaned as the adrenaline has worn off.

"Oh my! I completely forgot about your injury. Sit down my Lord. Let me get the water." She said.

As she cleaned his wounds, he took a good look at her. If he could just look past the fact that he was eloping with another man's wife, and not just any man, but the king.

The king he had sworn loyalty to.

"Abebi, I apologize for my words earlier on. I should not speak to you in such manner. True, your marital status affects our relationship, but I would not bring it up and upset you again." He apologized and she smiled shyly.

"Thank you my Lord." He hissed in pain. "I'm sorry. These herbs sting a bit." She said, feeling heat rise on her cheeks at their close proximity. Her hands were on his bare chest, and she marvelled at how hard and perfectly sculpted he was. His beauty was no match to the sculptures of the gods in the village sqaure, the gods forgive her thoughts.

She lingered on the wound, pressing the area around his chest and resisting the urge to run her fingers around his chest. She shook the thoughts away. Where did she learn such sinful thoughts anyway? Her mother had never taught her such things, and it would be immoral for her to ask questions about what happened between a man and his wife.

She looked up to see Tomori closing his eyes. "My Lord, what is the matter?"

"I do not know if you are doing this intentionally to seduce me, or if you do not know that from this angle I have a perfect view of your cleavage. As a man of my word I would not look at it, so I ask that you cover up immediately before I lose control." Tomori said calmly, although there was a rampage in his head. All he wanted to do in that moment was take her right there in the bushes, but he could not violate her honor. Her virginity would have to be taken by her rightful husband.