Clarestes. Chapters 31 to 34.

Chapter 31 - “And even when I am being difficult, I am always very entertaining. It is a gift.”

One day as Clarestes and Mera tilled in a field and talked, Mera sensed she was trying his patience. She said, for the umpteenth time, how she thought her appeal was wearing thin and he would probably be happier here, on his farm, with her problematic ass gone.

Clarestes stopped tilling and he looked at her. After a time she noticed his gaze upon herself and she said, “What?”

“Your appeal has not diminished for me, and I remind you that you are now the owner of this farm, not me. So all you need to consider is whether my appeal has worn thin for you.”

Mera said, “I did not want to take ownership of this farm. I think I did the wrong thing and I regret agreeing to do so. This is where your parents raised you, this is where you grew into a man. I want you to consider taking it back. But if you won’t, can we at the very least, think of this as a place we share?”

“Agreed,” said Clarestes. “We will act as equal owners, for now. I like that. But Mera, do not be mistaken, this farm is not as dear to me as you think. I will not take it back, as I do not want to take it back. No backsies!”

Mera looked at him questioningly and she asked, “You do not like this farm?”

Clarestes said, “I like it very much now, but as a boy I hated it.”

Mera saw her favorite opening and she said, “You still are a boy.”

Clarestes went back to hoeing and said, “That joke never gets old. Hmm, let me reconsider the whole appeal wearing thin thing...”

Mera laughed and she said, “It’s your fault, you walk right into it all the time. When I was a boy…”

Clarestes made no comment, so Mera looked at him for a time. “I thought you loved this place,” she said.

“Since you arrived I have come to appreciate it more, so much so that now I love it almost as much as you, but as a b...for most of my life I have thought of it as a loathsome prison.”

“Why?” asked Mera in confusion as she looked around at the beautiful fields, picturesque landscape and the adorable, gentle sheep that grazed at pasture.

“Well, let’s see...It is boring here, as it is remote and isolated. Growing up here, I saw very few people, other than my parents, and I hated that. It demands much hard, unrelenting and tedious work. That takes its toll.”

Mera’s lips sputtered and she said, “It isn’t that much work.”

Clarestes looked to Mera and he said, “Maybe not to you. I have never seen anyone work as hard as you. Even my father did not do so, and he was as diligent and disciplined as a Spartan. Yet even he knew when it was time to quit for the day. You work without relent every day and, as you well know, I have to beg you in order to get you to cease every twilight.”

“Well, it’s not that I am so diligent. It’s more that you are so supremely lazy.”

“Are you ever serious?” asked Clarestes in exasperation.

“Always,” said Mera. “You are a shirker and a dandy. You are a dandy of a shirker. You would not…”

Clarestes interrupted her saying, “Mera, would you put up your hoe?”

Mera ignored him and was about to say something else, but again Clarestes cut her off by saying, “Mera, this is important to me. Please, halt with your tilling and look upon me. I wish for your attention in whole.”

Mera put up her hoe and looked to Clarestes. She was going to roll her eyes at him, but when she viewed him, he looked strange...and serious...and so she did not.

“Do you not see? I can barely get you to stop working, even for a moment. When I returned home from my last labor to find both of my parents dead, I went mad with grief. And then there was this loathsome farm to contend with. The animals needed urgent tending, as did the fields, and I was not up to the task. Nor would I have wanted to do so if I was able. As a b...when I was younger, every year my parents would send me to Aggripos during the winter season to learn and study. Those were treasured times in my life and I was truly happy there. When those winters drew to a close, I dreaded coming back here. Then later, when I was older, I traveled and helped my father when he was in task. I loved these times away from here as well. When my father grew older and desired not to perform tasks for others and wanted only to stay here with my mother, I began to labor afar without him, and I was never happier. So after my parents died, I soon contemplated getting rid of all of this farm, to finally be released from its never ending tedium and remote isolation. The only reason I did not sell it off immediately was for the guilt I felt, as my parents had loved it so much. I believed selling it would have been a betrayal to them - but I tell you Mera, that sense of duty did not last long. Indeed, the very day you arrived here, I had firmly made up my mind that the next day I would give it to Nycius...for no cost. But if he did not want it, then I would sell it, and finally be done with the burden of it.”

Mera stood in complete shock at this and she did not know what to say.

Clarestes continued, “Now, on to your other misconception, and one that I have addressed with you many times, and yet I find myself doing so yet again. Listen and mark Mera, while I wholeheartedly agree with you that your ass is truly problematic, the truth is I am very much happier now with you here.”

She was stunned by this. When she finally found her voice, she said, “Well, it was not right for you not to give it to Nycius for me, or not sell it for my benefit as well.”

“I did not say I didn’t give it away or sell it for you. I did neither of those things for me,” said Clarestes. “When you arrived and then stayed here, I did not feel lonely, or sad. You were enough company. You were the only companionship I needed. That was how my father felt here with my mother, and she with him. She never wished to go anywhere other than to Nycius’s house, and to my recollection she never did. And my father, he hated leaving here. He did so only out of perceived duty for others in need. I never understood that before, him not wanting to leave here. I only understood it after you arrived. Then I became like they were, perfectly content here. More so, I couldn’t imagine myself happier anywhere else. So, then I saw what they saw. It is funny that old cliched expression, that we all become our fathers, no? I never thought that would happen to me...and yet it did...”

Mera blushed at this admission from him and she felt one of those strange, warm rushes through her body that Clarestes was able to impart upon her when he was laying on the smooth. She had never experienced that sensation before with anyone else, and here he was again eliciting those feelings again, as if she were his marionette and he the master of her strings.

She smiled and said, “Hmm, you are right, I have been operating under some misconceptions and now I see your points. I mean it is so true that boredom can seldom be an issue when dealing with the troublesome likes of me. And even when I am being difficult, I am always very entertaining. It is a gift. And of course, you did not mind this farm with its never ending tedious tasks so much now with me here, as I do all the labor.” Clarestes chuckled at these words, but Mera’s smile vanished and she said, “I am glad that my presence here makes you...happier...and content. You have given me so much, so I am grateful that my being here pleases you. This place pleases me to no end, so I am honored that with me here, it pleases you more. That being said though, again I ask that we think of this farm as not mine but at least but ours.”

Clarestes was silent about this. He looked about the farm and its fields for some time. Mera asked him what he was thinking.

He said, “It is hard for me to think of this place as mine any longer. If you were not here, if you left for some reason, I would go back to my previous decision and offer it to Nycius, and if he did not want it, I would sell it. But I would not wait again as I did before. I would do that immediately, for I would not want to be here alone and without you.”

Mera froze as Clarestes said this. Finally she managed, “Well there are other women who would come here, and live here with you. Just about any woman in Greece would want that.”

Clarestes looked Mera in the eye and he said, “I have never met anyone whose company I like as much as yours. Without you here, I would not want to be here any longer.”

Mera was chilled and yet somehow warmed by this. She wanted to say - You like my company above all others? Well, congratulations, you are the only one who has ever prized it in the least. And you are the only person whose companionship I have ever liked, or craved at all.

But she did not say any of this. Eventually she managed to say to him quietly, “Then I suppose I will have to stay.”

Clarestes smiled at Mera and then they took back up to their tilling, and as they tilled, they thought - of each other.


Chapter 32 - “You would rather stay here? You would rather toil here?”

Do you remember how Mera asked Clarestes to teach him how to cook? Well, he made good on that promise and began to do so. They made their meals together, and she gradually became better at it. In time, she began to do so without his help.

One night she did such, so Clarestes did nothing but enjoy this respite she gave him. Reclining as he strummed his lyre, he did not even bother to halt his plucking when he said, “I have to go to Agrippos for three or four days. I need to sell our farm’s fare, and purchase in return supplies, goods and tools that we require.”

Mera nodded her head, but said nothing.

He asked, “Would you like to come as well?”

She said, “No.”

Clarestes stopped strumming and he looked at her quizzically. “You would rather stay here? You would rather toil here?”

She said, “Who said anything about toiling? I plan to sleep late everyday, and then laze about in your absence.”

Clarestes said, “Be serious, you would rather stay here and work? You do not want to visit Aggripos again?”

She said, “Hades no! You had to drag me there the first time. Once was more than enough.’”

Clarestes eyes squinted and he looked at Mera with concern. “We have been nowhere but here for two turns of the moon, and here we have done nothing but hard toil. How can you not desire some break from that?”

Mera laughed and she said lewdly, “It has not been all but hard toil here with you.”

Clarestes did not find this funny and he said, “Well, if you come with me, we could do that as well.”

Mera said, “So very enticing, but you are not nearly as gifted in the sack as you think you are. I will survive in your absence. Actually, the break from your annoying presence will be a welcome change.”

Still Clarestes did not laugh. Mera said, “See? You tire of me as well. My lame jokes are falling short of you. You go alone and when you are gone, I will conjure up better jokes that hopefully will reach their mark in you when you return.”

“I wish for you to go with me,” he said.

Mera said, “I was reared in a city. They hold not a thing I wish to buy, or see, or do. I do not want to be among people, at all. I like it here. Cities are odious and foul, and this serene farm pleases me to no end.”

“I will worry about you here alone,” he said.

Mera smiled and she said, “I will be safe. I am not fearful. That is the truth.”

“I will attend to nothing but business there, and return as quickly as possible.”

Mera cried, “Do not do that! Do the things you wish to do, the things that well adjusted and friendly people as you are, need to do. Do not hurry back, I will feel badly if you do, like I cheated you. And I will be furious with you if you do!”

At this Clarestes became resigned to try and convince Mera to come with him. His thoughts became grim. Mera, as if reading them, said, “You need to promise me such.”

Clarestes asked, “Promise you what?”

“You need to promise me that you will not just do your tasks and hurry back. Visit your friends of old. Buy things that please you. Drink more than you should and take in entertainment,” Then she grew reflective and she added, “But do not even think about doing anything super entertaining with some loose Agrippian shank.”

Clarestes laughed and he said, “I will not. To this I vow.”

Mera went back to making their meal and Clarestes took back up to strumming his lyre. After a time he smiled and said teasingly, “What if I decided to tarry there, for say a full turn of the moon? What would you do if I decided to stay there forever? Or if I decide to go elsewhere?”

Mera said, “Umm, another in a great line of classic, provocative, and mean spirited Clarestes’s questions! What would I do? Let’s see...well first, I would hunt you down. Then I would beat you close to death. That accomplished, I would drag you back here by your ear. But if the reason you had left me was to take carnal pleasures with some trashy slut, in that instance I would drag you back here by your soiled dick.”

Clarestes laughed and asked, “Would you really do that?”

“No,” Mera said.

“What would you do?” asked Clarestes.

Mera thought for a time before she answered, “In truth, I would weep and weep, and I would let you go from me and to whom you desired...”

Clarestes’ lyre suddenly went quiet. He said, “I promise to enjoy myself in Agrippos. But I promise not to enjoy myself too much.”

Mera nodded her head to this.

Then he took back up to his lyre’s notes. He asked, “Do you really believe me capable of such unfaithfulness?”

“You can never really and truly know a person,” Mera said quietly.

“I do not believe that,” He said. “There are some people you can know and count upon. I know you would never do such to me.”

At first Mera was stone faced to this, but then she smiled and said, “Well, you know you can trust me about that. You know I loathe everyone but you.”

Clarestes said, “And I desire only you. It is my hope that someday, you will trust me, as I trust you.”

Mera’s face was a mask for a time as she cooked and thought about this. And then, just a little, she smiled.


Chapter 33 - “I can not do what you ask. I need to hold you close. I can do no other.”

A few days later and in the morning Clarestes loaded up his mule cart. He and Mera embraced and then parted as he made his way to Agrippos, powerfully dragging the cart himself as he had no mule.

Two days later he returned. He was relieved to find Mera safe. Indeed, she was well, other than she fumed at his quick return. When he claimed he had seen his friends of old and took leisure time while there, she grew livid.

“You lie!” she cried. “You did nothing but sell our fare, trade, and buy necessities. And then you left as soon as that was done.”

“Not so. See, I bought you this,” he said as he held up a toga sized piece of beautiful silk dyed with indigo.

She roughly shoved both Clarestes and his stupid gift away. “I want to strike you in the face,” she said, her face crimson from anger. “How can you lie to me? You know I hate deceit above all else. You promised me! You gave me your word, and then you broke it.”

Clarestes face pitched from guilt and he said, “All right, I admit it. It is true. I saw no friends and I did nothing for pleasure, except buy you some gifts.”

Mera cursed and screamed at him for some time. She ended her rant by shouting, “This was important to me! How could you break your promise to me?”

Clarestes said, “The truth is that I did not really break my promise to you. I did not want to do anything there, and so I did not feel like it. The truth is I missed you.”

“Another lie!” Mera spat. “You are called Charestes the Bold by the Greeks. I call you Clarestes the Bold Faced Liar! You worried about me and so you raced about your business!”

Clarestes anger was growing as well. He shot back, “So fine! I admit it. I did worry about you! Greece is a dangerous land, and you have a history of tangling with some of its worst denizens, not to mention your father, who is perhaps the most perilous being on Mount Olympus!”

Mera screamed, “You will worry about that forever with me! This is a burden you must release yourself from. You have to rescind your vow you took for me, and now!”

What Clarestes did next shocked Mera to such a degree that she stepped back from him in awe and in surprise. He vehemently bellowed, “Never!” and he did so loudly that Mera had never heard anyone yell with such force. Not even she was capable of such a shout. And that was saying something, because shouting loudly in anger was totally her thing.

Clarestes’s eyes blazed with anger. Mera was still and quiet for some time. Then she said, “We need to calm down here.”

At these words and at Mera’s now smirking face, Clarestes anger dissipated somewhat and he chuckled.

Mera was thoughtful. She said, “But what I said stands. You will worry about me forever. You need to release yourself from your vow to protect me from Ares and start to hold me at more of a distance.”

Clarestes went cold at these words. He said, “What I said was true. I came home quickly, not only because I feared for you, but because I missed you. The moment I left here to go, I thought of little but you. I wanted nothing more than to be back here, with you. It is your company that I prize above all else. I can not do what you ask. I need to hold you close. I can do no other.”

Mera was silent at this for some time. Then she smiled and said, “You think you are so smooth and can talk your way out of anything.”

Clarestes said, “Mera, I beg you, for now set aside your resentment, just as it is, at my quick return, my lie, and my broken promise. Let us go inside and I will show you the things I bought you. I’m sure you will hate all of them, and this I know will make me laugh.”

“My, my, aren’t we just the pushy one now. See what some time in an evil city can do to a boy? You leave all submissive and gaga for me, now you return all angry, yelly, and bossy,” she said. Clarestes laughed and was about to speak, but Mera cut him off, saying with mock demureness, “Just settle down. I am going inside like a good girl, just as you wish. I can not wait to see what pretty things you bought me.”


That night when Clarestes returned from bathing in the creek, he found Mera wearing the toga he had bought her. Her dark hair was undone, so it curled and spilled down to her shoulders. Her arms and legs were bare and her fair skin looked radiant against the deep blue-purple of the silk. Clarestes froze when he saw her and he could not speak.

She smiled and said, “I hope you appreciate what I am about to say to you, for I rarely utter these words...you were right! All of those other things you bought me in Agrippos were so idiotic. I mean, make up? Really? How in Gaia would you ever think I’d be putting any of that stupid crap on…”

“But this silk!” she continued as her voice became dreamy. “Great Hestia! It is so light and feels so strange upon my skin. This silk’s touch makes my body tingle with pleasure.”

Clarestes said, “That is odd, for that silk upon you makes my body tingle with pleasure as well.”

Mera laughed, and Clarestes said longingly, “It’s ironic though. For when I see you garbed in that and looking so beautiful in it, I immediately desire to see you not wearing it.”

Mera exclaimed, “That’s another great thing about it! It’s so smooth! Watch now how it will slide quickly off my body for you!” And then she pulled but one well placed pin and the toga fell from her to the floor.

Clarestes needed not be asked to watch her, and for a time he did nothing but ogle her. Mera laughed and motioned with her hand up and down her bare body. She said, “Some day you’ll become immune to all this.”

“No, I won’t,” he said.

She laughed and said, “Yes you will. In time, and probably soon, I will lose the very few gifts of beauty I possess. Then you become immune.”

Clarestes’s eyes squinted and he shook his head. He said, “Mera, no, I won’t.” Then she smiled widely as he closed upon her.


Chapter 34 - “Mera, you are the crazed, inbred product of a dickless, mindless god, and the daughter of a disease ridden, heartless whore.”

One day as they tilled in one of their farm’s fields, Clarestes asked Mera, “Would you teach me the Thracian language?”

Mera smiled wide and she said, “You have taught me so much. I would be very pleased to give something to you in return. So yes, I will try. But be warned, I have never taught it to anyone, so I do not know if I will be able to teach it to you. Actually, I have never taught anybody anything, so I will probably fail at this.”

“I’m sure you will be fine at teaching it to me,” he said. “May we begin now?”

“Yes,” she said. “We will speak as we till.”


Sometime later, Mera, with a wide, joyous smile on her face (for she was having so much fun) said to Clarestes, “All right, now repeat all that back to me.”

Clarestes said in Thracian, “Mera, you are the crazed, inbred product of a dickless, mindless god, and the daughter of a disease ridden, heartless whore.”

She said, “We will work on that some more as a few of those words were too accented, and so a Thracian might not fully understand you. But overall that was very good! I am impressed!”

Clarestes put up his hoe, as this was about the eighth thing like this that Mera had chosen to teach him. He said, “Mera, I think you now need to teach me how to speak some Thracian that is not extremely insulting, or vile curses, or sexually revolting.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “Well all that won’t be as interesting or as useful in life, but all right. What do you wish to say?”

Clarestes asked, “How do I say thank you in Thracian?”

Mera said, “We have no words for thank you.”

He looked at her in surprise. She said as she tilled, “The closest thing we have to that is, I owe you.” Then she told him how to say that.

He repeated that back to her and he was quiet. After a time he said in Greek, “Mera, thank you for teaching me some Thracian.” And then he repeated the Thracian phrase for I owe you. Mera smiled.

“How do you say in Thracian, you are welcome?’” he asked.

Mera said, “Again, we have no words for that. The closest thing we have for that is, do not mention it.” And then she told him how to say this in Thracian.

He looked at her with curiosity. He asked her, “Are there other Greek words, phrases, or concepts that have no direct Thracian translations?”

“Many,” she said as she tilled.

“Like what?” he asked.

Mera said, “We have no words for friend, friendship, sorry, love, hug, kiss, or kindness to name but some. Kindness we actually think is best translated as weakness. Fear is despised and rejected as a concept by Amazons and so this is usually translated as sickness, or weakness as well. As is love. Although sometimes we will say, “You are my sister,” or “My sword is yours as well,” to express something like what you Greeks call love.

“How do you say those phrases?” asked Clarestes. Mera told him.

Clarestes was silent about this for a time. And then he said to Mera in Thracian, “My sword is yours as well.”

Mera froze as Clarestes said this, and this actually saddened her. Mera knew that Clarestes did not understand that he just told her that he loved her when he said this.

She took back up to her tilling, but more slowly and thoughtfully. Clarestes tilled next to her. And then Mera said something to him in Thracian.

“What did you just say?” he asked.

Mera said, “I just told you, I would stand with you against anyone. That is also something that we say that is a close approximation to your Greeks’ phrase for I love you.”

Clarestes repeated the Thracian phrase and then he asked her if that was right. Mera answered him that it was.

Then Clarestes said it again quietly to Mera. And again she froze and could not make herself till anymore. She was afraid and her heart hurt. She wondered if he had meant what he said.

And as if to thrust a dagger into her already ginger and vulnerable heart, he said, “You have told me before those exact words, in Greek, that you would stand with me against anyone.”

Now Mera could not move at all. After a time she said as her face burned and her legs felt numb, she said, “I know, I remember.”

Clarestes said in Greek, “Mera, I love you.”

She stood still for a time and she could not move. She remembered when he had told her that he loved her, many months ago. Then, she did not have the courage to respond in kind. Now, sadness welled inside her. She tried to reign it in…

Then she cracked. She cried and cried and she shook. And when she looked at Clarestes, she saw he cried as well. Although he did not shake as she did. And unlike her face, his face was not one of pain, but he smiled.

He held his arms open to her and she went into them with confusion. She could not stop crying and she wept with such wracking heartache that he could feel her violently shaking and convulsing. So his smile vanished, and he became concerned that he had done the wrong thing when he told her the truth.

Eventually she was able to get some control of herself and after a time she pushed herself away from him in shame. His face looked very troubled, but also very sweet. So she said to him hoarsely, “I am so sorry for that. Look, you are all wet from my tears and I got snot all over you. I am so sorry.”

Clarestes said ‘do not mention it’ to her in Thracian. And he said it correctly, so her tears started to flow again.

“Please, do not do this to me!” she begged. “Soon you will be covered in more of my snot again.”

Clarestes said, “I can’t help it, and so I will pay the wet consequences. And I can’t help it as it is the truth. I love you.” Again Mera started to shake, and again he opened his arms to her, but now she pulled away from him in shame. Yet he was persistent and so he got to her. He wrapped his arms around her and he held her tight. She stopped struggling and she eased into his embrace. Suddenly she realized how very good this felt. It was warm, strong, and comforting, and this time his hug surprised her as it gave her sweet relief from her pain.

When she finally pulled away from him, Clarestes noted that she looked drained and emotionally spent. He said, “We are caught up with the tilling. Indeed, we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s put up our hoes, take some respite, and go down to our creek to swim. Let us play and have fun. I would ask you how to say all this in Thracian, but I’m sure you will say - we Thracians have no words for respite, or fun, or play.”

As Mera wiped her tears away, she laughed and said, “You are right. We do not!”

She did as Clarestes wanted. As they walked down to their creek side by side, She taught him more Thracian. She was reminded that here on his farm with him she felt something that she had never felt before in her life. She felt at peace. And in thinking of this, she told him that the Thracians had no word for peace as well.

“What is the closest word you have for peace?” asked Clarestes.

She said, “For that we say, the absence of war,” and then she told him how to say that.

He said this in Thracian and he asked Mera if that was right. She said it was.

His brow furrowed at this and he said, “That is terrible. Those two things, peace, and the absence of war, are not the same or equivalent at all.”

Mera thought about this, but she was a Thracian and so she did not understand. She told him so, and then she asked him how they were different.

Clarestes was about to try to explain this, but then he smiled at her and he said, “Let us cease our language lesson for now, if you agree. I have made you distressed by this today, and I do not want to stir up grief and sadness inside you again. Let us stop this for now, as I want your heart to be at peace.”

Mera’s eyes lit up as he said this. And now she understood the difference. Being with Clarestes was not the absence of war. Being with Clarestes was perfect peace.


One year later, almost to the day, on this day, they were not at peace. Mera was giving Clarestes angry words in Thracian at…something…he had done “wrong.”

Usually, in situations like these, he was contrite and accepting in her anger, especially since she was usually in the right. But on this rare occasion, he thought she was wrong in her vehement complaints of him.

Eventually his “patience” wore thin. He grew angry and he started to yell back at her at length.

She went quiet and froze as he did so, and a strange look came upon her face.

When he finally noticed her changed countenance, he too went silent. He feared perhaps he had gone too far, that he had been too loud to her. Then he felt badly about that because he loved her like no other, and she didn’t deserve hard words…ever.

But eventually she smiled, and she said, “That was some great Thracian!”

Then he smiled a little as he realized he had unconsciously argued back with her in that tongue.

He promised, in Thracian, that he would try not to ever yell at her again.

Now her anger was gone. She laughed and said, “I will not hold you to that as that is impossible to do, especially with the likes of me. So when you yell next at me, please, do so in Thracian! It is the best language for insults and hate!”

Clarestes’ brow furrowed at this. He was about to say something to her when she said quietly, “I am very proud of you right now. That Thracian was perfect. As such, I’m also a little proud of myself right now…”

Clarestes smiled at this, then he said, in Thracian, he was very proud of her as well.