Chapter 5

        Shea and I ride for days, and I feel grimy and hot.  I find a nice cool river, and decide to take a dip to clean off and cool off.  I strip off and hop in.  I see soap lily and bracken along the river, so I dig up the bulb of the lily and the rhizome of the bracken to use as soaps.  I haven't washed my hair in weeks and I really long to.  Ahhh, it feels so good to be clean again.  I laze in the pool beneath willow fronds resting and enjoying the coolness of the water.  With the willow being so thick, I don't have to worry about anyone happening upon me either.

        I hear water splashing a few feet upriver.  I part the willow fronds just enough to see and spy a magnificent sample of a male body cooling off.  He looks Mediterranean, dark skinned, with a strong Roman nose.  Wonder if he has a Greek, Italian or Spanish background.  Damn!  He is definitely fine to look at.  I stay hidden just so I can watch him without his becoming self-conscious.  In a few minutes, he crawls from the river, dresses, and runs off across the fields.  Ah, he must be a messenger.  Wonder where he is going.  Why am I even worried about it!

        Wait, why wasn't he concerned about where Shea's rider was?  Where the hell is Shea?  I finish my swim and dress quickly to make sure Shea is still nearby.  She steps from the willow fronds as well.  “Well girl, you know the power of concealment too I see,” I say to her laughingly.  Shea just sticks her tongue out at me as she steps up so that I may mount to continue our journey.

        I ride on for miles before I realize we are headed back to Clomaria.  I hope everything is okay there.  As we approach all seems well, so that is good.

        Shea and I enter the town of Clomaria and everyone stops to watch us enter.  Oh right.  They don't know me this way.  The last time they saw me, I was a cat.  Oops.  Cassidy is standing on the steps of the Inn and starts when he sees me.  He quickly points to the stable, so I ride directly to the stable.

        I have dismounted and unsaddled Shea when Cassidy walks into the stable.  “Um, well, Moira.  I take it you know that I figured out you're a shapeshifter.  Why didn't you let me know?  I would have accepted it.  I'm not quite the same as everyone here in the realm either.”

        “Cassidy, I had the feeling that you weren't from here either.  When I first cross over, if I'm shifted, I can't shift back for a while.  And I can't talk in that form, regardless of Shea and Adar being able to talk.  I would have told you after the injury and stay here at the Inn that first night if I could have.”

        Cassidy puts his arm over my shoulders and says, “It's all good.  Now, we get to go tell Mintaka who you are.”

        We walk into the Inn and Mintaka looks up.  “Welcome back Moira.”  Cassidy and I both stop dead where we are.  Mintaka laughs and shakes his head.

        “Why are people so shocked when I know things they don't think I should.  And Cassidy, really, why wouldn't I have picked up on this from you?  You've been a bit conflicted lately and the kitty didn't come back with you.”

        Okay, I'm still shocked, because Mintaka IS of this realm.  What the hell?  Whatever.  Sometimes I get thrown for a loop when I'm in another realm.  And of course this realm has been good at it so far.

        Mintaka sets out a wide array of food and drink for me as I sit down.  It all looks so good after eating mice and rabbits as a cat for days.  He laughs as I dig in.  At least I am done eating and my face is clean when the dark-skinned god I spied on at the river earlier descends the stairs.

        I drop my fork on the floor, clumsy as ever as I watch him.  Mintaka nudges Cassidy so that he can watch my reaction to the man.  Great, I have an audience too.  It doesn't help that the man looked over and has been watching me too since he could look into the room.

        I can hear Cassidy whisper to Mintaka, “Uh oh, I think our kitty's in heat.”  They both chuckle as I reach across the table and swat them.  Mintaka pipes up, “His name is Patrick.”  I stick my tongue out at them both.

        Since it's evening, I tell Mintaka, “No offense on your accommodations, but I've never been one to sleep in a regular room.  I will just sleep in the hayloft.  I think it goes along with the cat shapeshifter.”

        Mintaka gets me a thick blanket to use as a mattress of sorts, and a thin blanket to cover with.  I go out to the stable to set up quarters in the hayloft.  There is plenty of loose hay off to one side so make a bed on and be comfortable.  I am tired from riding Shea all day and sit in the opening for loading hay bales into the stable watching the Fae folk go about their evening business.

        I see Patrick sitting on the steps of the Inn with his head cocked back looking at the stars.  I'm staring at his neck.  Damn, why am I so distracted by him?  I've seen hot men before – Cassidy is inside and I just think of him in a platonic way at least in this realm.  Oh shit, I catch Patrick staring up at the hayloft.  Did Cassidy and Mintaka tell him I was up here?       

        I scamper back from the ledge and sit in my bedding preparing to go to sleep.  I hear the horses, Adar and Shea rustling below.  I wonder what they're restless about.  EEP!  Patrick's head appears in the hayloft opening.  Shit, I'm gonna kill Cassidy.

        “Hello, there,” Patrick says as he pulls himself into the hayloft.  “Want some company?”  I inwardly roll my eyes.  Great pick up line, buddy.

        “Sure, might as well.  I really don't know anyone here anyway. Cassidy send you up?”

        “He told me where you were, but only after I asked,” Patrick replied.  Wait, he was looking for me?  Why?  Men are afraid of me back home.  I'm either the best friend or unapproachable.  What the hell.  Maybe I will stay here if I can then.  Men coming looking for ME!       

        “So what are you doing in Clomaria, Patrick?”  I am so trying to not let on that I've already seen him naked and am so willing to see him that way again. He might not be too happy to know he doesn't exactly have the upper hand in this exchange.  Most men typically don't appreciate that.

        Patrick runs his fingers up and down my legs as he answers, “I'm a messenger, so I run from town to town delivering messages.  I'd rather run on foot, I can take shortcuts that you can't on horses.  I can sneak through where the tyrant has his men without being caught, too.”

        His running his fingers up and down my legs seems familiar.  Why is everything so familiar here?  This is the first realm where everything has seemed so familiar.  It's almost unnerving.  But maybe it means that something really important happens here, or I have or will meet someone very important.

        Patrick's touch is just so electric to me.  Watching him in the Inn, I felt drawn to him, but I didn't think that I would be this attracted to him.  Damn!  Only a few men have ever had this effect on me.  And the one ended very badly.  I hope this doesn't end badly!

        I am surprised when Patrick leans over and begins to kiss me hungrily.  Ok, so at home, I'm not impulsive when it comes to things like this, but here, I'm going to throw caution to the wind.  I wrap myself around Patrick and drag him down into my bedding to spend the night.