Orchid Chapter 3 - Lazaro's Flute
#3 of Orchid Volume 1
[Argeers - June Westfield] https://open.spotify.com/track/6TcerzbhKpc7qs9VMUcC8k?si=b4d2fb1fa3fe48f4
"Mother."
"You are late."
"I was exploring further than I usually was."
"The same reason why you smiled days ago?"
"Perhaps."
"Keep your secrets then. But I digress. Tell me, how many years have passed since your birth?"
"Two decades and two years, Mother."
"Wrong. Three years. It is time."
"Time for what, Mother?"
"For you to wield the clouds and the winds."
"Truly?"
"I will shape you and teach you. I will bring you to the seas, and there you will learn to harness your gift. You will be away for three days to unlock your suppressed side and-"
"But Mother, there are plants I need to tend to. Eggs and cocoons I need to protect. I cannot be away for three days."
"Is this not what you have always dreamed of ever since you were young? To be just like me and control the world with your songs?"
"That is true."
"I shall give you time to tend to your things for one more time before we leave, then. After your metamorphosis, we will return, yet our lessons will not stop."
"I see, Mother. Give me time for my things for one last time."
She nodded. "Once you are finished, meet me by the riverbank, the one we used to go to."
Sometimes I wonder if Mother is respecting my secrets, or if she knew of Lazaro to begin with.
The morning he came, I told him of my metamorphosis tomorrow, and that I will not return for three days and three nights.
"Metamorphosis? But you're not a butterfly, or any insect who can for that matter." His back leaned against the tree, hands buried in the pockets of his pants.
"Nevertheless, it is something I must do. When I come back, I will show you the wonders that I have learned, and you will not regret the times you spent alone from me." I smiled as I gave him a peck to his cheeks.
"Don't go. You're more than beautiful enough in my eyes, and I can't bear to see you change." He cupped his hands over to the shape of my face, and I purred in his touch of concern.
"I will be more beautiful then after the metamorphosis, yet I wish that you trust my heart and mind shall not change in those times."
"I believe you, but what should I do then in the meantime? Is there anything I can do for you, love?
I laughed. "Tend to your family and friends, your farm, and your duties, lummox. As long as you do anything but wait for me, then I shall be done before you know it."
"Before you leave, may I request one more thing?"
"What is it?"
"I wish you to touch me, tickle me," he whispered to my left ear. "Collect your reward before you leave."
I laughed, "If that is all you desire, then let it be then."
I lost count of how many times we kissed each other, much less how long this time. I always love it when he takes off his shirt, just like what he is doing now. How dare he show me those well-distributed muscles of his, that sweat that gleamed all over his body under the scorching son, and that haughty smile. Such conceit needed to be punished.
"Heh, I can never understand your willingness to tickle me," he said as he threw his tunic to the grassy floor.
"And I, your eagerness to be tickled so much." I leaned over him, tracing a finger over his sweaty pectorals, down to his belly button.
"Is it my fault I find you so beautiful?" He put a hand on my shoulder, the other to his crotch. "Every time you touch me, tickle or not, I find myself desiring more."
"Oh really? Will this change your mind?"
At this point, I was very familiar with his body. I knew what spots he hated the most, what spots he liked me to touch, and what spots didn't work.
I knew his armpits were spots that he loved me to touch. Whenever he would offer me his body, taking off his clothes and exposing his armpits were one of the first things he'd always do. I danced my fingers in a swirling motion against his pits. Hearing his restrained chortles filled me with an ecstatic high that roused me to tickle him harder. When his arms lowered and I could no longer touch him where he knew he would love, I poked his hips, his sides, his belly. His muscles bulged, twisted in reflex as chortles evolved to laughter, but not once did he tell me to stop.
When my fingers reached for his neck, his legs failed him and we both fell down to the ground. He landed on the fertile ground, while I, on top of him.
He panted, and the scales on his face reddened. Either because of me or the sun, I could not tell.
"Your breath." With my legs, I straddled his hips, and with my hands, I held his wrists. "Did you eat chicken today?"
He did not reply. He only gazed at me, spellbound, as if I was a mystical enigma.
"You're the most beautiful man I've ever met," he finally said in rapid, shallow breaths.
"You must be insane," I scoffed.
"I might be." He raised one hand, free from my grasp. "If this was a dream, I 'd wake up crying." He caressed my cheeks under the sunlight, his trimmed claws grazing my fur.
I rested on top of him, felt his heartbeat, and the rise and fall of his chest. "Perhaps this is a dream, for no other can love me as deeply as you."
"Yes..."
I yearned to stay with him for as long as Time allowed, yet I sat up from him and wiped the sweat off of my fur, cursing transience. It pained me to see that I had to be away from him. In my mind, I was already marking the suns and moons for the next time we will see each other. Oh, how I longed to be with him.
"Orchid, no, not yet," he moaned.
"I have to. The rest of my duties..."
"One more day, that's all I ask."
"My mother cannot wait. In three days' time, Lazaro." I stood up, rubbed the dirt from my clothes, and began to set off.
"Wait!"
I hesitated in my steps and turned to look back only to see a face full of agony. "What is it?"
"I...I love you."
I grinned. "I love you too. In three days' time, remember that."
"Mother, I am ready." I met her by the riverbank, just as she promised me.
"Have you tended to all your things and duties?"
"All of them."
"The eggs, the cocoons, the younglings, and the saplings?"
"You importune me, Mother. Trust in me that I am conciliated in all my duties."
"If that is all there is, then we shall go."
Lazaro
In those three days and nights, I was nothing but tormented. I missed the caress of his hands on my body and the music of his voice rimming my ears. At the first light of dawn, I ran, forgetting that he left. It wasn't until Johnathan made a joke about where I was going that I remembered Orchid wasn't going to be there on the cliffs. Whenever I saw that magical countenance of his, I could feel the aches in my legs and the calluses in my hands disappearing. The thought of him gone put me in despair, and I regretted not joining him when I could have.
I was already finished helping in the kitchen, and I was done feeding the feral chickens and the pigs. There was one thing left to do, I needed to tend to our rice farms.
After I was done, I used the time I had left to stroll across town. A part of me felt guilty for thinking that it was better than visiting Orchid, because I didn't have to suffer hiking through the woods.
I spent the time looking through the shops, greeting the gunmen, and talking with the neighbors. Nothing, however, took my mind off of him. I was already thinking what I would say to him the next time we saw each other. The things we would do to make up for the time lost in these three days made me shiver in the open with an absent-minded grin.
Then an idea rose out of it all. I wanted to give Orchid a gift. Its name almost eluded me, but I remember him calling it a metamorphosis. Whatever it is, it mustn't be easy, it might even be painful. I needed to give him something. If I'm wrong, then it must be for the three days we haven't seen each other.
What that gift was, I didn't know. I knew something as simple as food would make him the happiest man on Earth. A bouquet sounded good, until I realized I give him flowers everyday. Something like that wouldn't suffice, no. I wanted to give him something that I know would be permanent, yet something he would hold close to his heart.
I walked around town through shops once more, looking for that perfect gift.
All of a sudden, that gift came to me. It came to me through the sound of music wafting in the air. Elegant, yet enigmatic. Magical, yet whimsical. Careful, yet free. It was as beautiful as him in so many ways.
It was as if the music itself carried me as its notes pulled me closer.
It reminded me so much of the wonder I always felt whenever I saw Orchid.
The way the pink flower dangled on his head.
The way his eyes would sparkle in the sunlight as he tickled me.
The way we locked in each other's arms as we danced in the mansion.
The hours of conversations we've had together. The kisses we've done. The promises we made. All in secret, all for each other.
That was what I wanted to give him.
And then I found it.
Beneath the shadows of a lone tree, was a young canine woman playing a bamboo flute. She played in the far corners of town, one where hardly anyone passed by. One I hadn't discovered before, amidst my years of walking through town again and again.
"You sing so beautifully," I said.
"Oh!" The woman opened her eyes, surprised by my presence. "I- I did not expect anyone to hear me."
"N-no, no!" Judging by the baro't saya that she wore, the makeup on her face, I could tell that she was a rich woman, born from Spanish blood. "I was simply passing by. I can't simply ignore your flute skills."
"Thank you," she blushed. "I did not expect to see such a handsome dragon in my alone time. May I know your name?"
"Lazaro, Madam." I took a bow in front of her, a sign of respect for someone as prestigious as her. "If I may ask, how did you get a flute like that?"
Orchid
"Who are you?" Mother asked me.
"I am the son of the Immortal of the Mountains. Bearer of the Pink Orchid. Prince of Fairies."
"What is your duty?"
"To wield the winds, the clouds, and the rain."
I could not breathe, only speak beneath the torrents of waterfall drenching my fur.
"What for?"
"To balance, protect, and grow." I could not open my eyes, only feel the waters cascading down my skin.
"Then under my name, you shall be. From now and forever more, you bear the title as the demigod of storms."
"I am grateful, Mother."
I heard the unsheathing of a blade. Mother dragged the sharp metal behind my back. I felt the knife touch against my spine. It hurt, but I did not cry out loud.
Warm trickles. A stark contrast to the water's cold. I knew it to be blood.
She pressed her hands into my back. It hurt so much like the open wound it is. I wanted to cry, to tell her to stop. But I forced myself not to, for no other way can I grow.
When her hands left the spot on my back, there was something that remained. A little something that felt like a tick that dug itself into my skin. Something that screamed that wanted off of me. But I didn't do it. She buried something inside my wounds.
She did the same all over my back, and once she was finished, she said, "The magic has been planted."
"Mother," I groaned. "Will these wounds heal?"
"They will. In due time, they will sprout to flowers, just like the one on your head."
"Is this truly necessary?"
"Necessary, lest you wish the gods to see you a child still, and your powers unawakened."
"I understand, Mother."
~~~
We were now at the beach. The waves foamed to white and kissed my toes buried under the sand. My back was still hurting. Mother closed the skin of my wounds with a special thread.
"The winds obey your every command and the clouds anticipate your voice." She held my shoulders, my eyes closed with the waters before me. "Who are you?"
"Son of the Immortal of the Mountains. Bearer of the Pink Orchid. Prince of the Fairies."
"Who are you?"
"Demigod of the storms."
I opened my eyes and raised one hand. I could feel the winds, the clouds, and the rain. They whispered to me. Not thoughts, not words, but emotions.
They were alive and listening, just as I was to them.
I felt their restlessness growing on my limbs, and all they demanded of me was to give them peace. I swirled the wind around me, letting them wrap me in their embrace. Mother backed off. Above me, the sky darkened with cloudy domination and sunlight was gone.
"What should I do next?"
"What do the rains tell you?"
"They tell me they are restless. They wish to give rain."
"What do you think is best?"
"To let them. I do not wish to stop them, lest they become a typhoon and destroy without my consent."
"Then do that. After this, I will teach you how to listen to them better, and how to command them more effectively."
"As you wish, Mother."
~~~~