8.
 Zara Upholder separated from her ladies and became just an attractive young woman climbing through the clodded soils among flowers and vines as she drew near me. The fateful look had by that moment already passed between us across the distance. Zara caught my gaze as mine locked into hers—a fateful instant, when our lives were sealed forever. Something like a cloud of desire or shock passed over the meadow line of her forehead. While her two companions obliviously laughed and chattered, she almost floated toward me. Instantly and instinctively, more than anything else in the world, we longed to be with each other. She strode toward me over the black clods of soil I had turned in the last hour, as if she were gliding on the air with her new leather sandals and perfectly formed golden toes. Her face was both beautiful and handsome, and her sky-blue eyes barely registered any shyness. She was always sure of herself. She captured me into the nets of her beauty. I gave no resistance, but surrendered gladly.
"Do you have any moon berries, brother?" she asked in a strong, clear voice. She came to me in a flight of blown sugary silk and saffron-yellow shawls, all billowing in that early summer wind of Tulearth. Her caramel limbs moved in a scaly mermaid glow, faintly but seductively under those flowing garments. "What is your name?"
"Ranay Fennelon."
"Ranay is a handsome name. What does it mean?"
"It's a very ancient Earth name. It means Reborn."
"What an odd, quaint idea." She wrinkled her pippish nose, then sprinkled laughter. "I'm Zara Upholder from Tellerine." She thus offered me a door, open to make acquaintance, and I gladly entered her realm. I did nor realize just then that she was a kind of wealthy royalty, as passes for nobility among the freeholders of Tellerine. She was high-born and well bred, a crown princess of the Upholder clan, so into her realm I swam like a deep-cruiser fish with glowing scales.
"I think I have heard of it," I said diplomatically, embarrassed at my ignorance. I had no idea who the Upholders were, nor where or what Tellerine was.
"Now about those moon berries," she said imperiously, positioning her fine legs apart to stride under that long sheer gown.
"Oh yes, come this way; I'll show you."
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Copyright © 2018 by Jean-Thomas Cullen, Clocktower Books. All Rights Reserved.
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