Zion - LotNM Character Prologue (Yeral Rakenn Prologue)
Zion - Light of the New Moon
Prologue, Captain Yeral Rakenn
Captin Rakenn lay on his back, gazing up at the timbers of the inn-room ceiling. His paws were folded behind his head resting on a pillow. His breath came quietly, rhythmically, calmed already from the exertion of the night. A slender, white-furred paw slid up the lion's chest as a pair of amethyst orbs gleamed at him reflecting in the halflight that filtered through the open window.
"You are an enigma to me, Yeral Rakenn." a soft, seductive voice spoke. The tone held an almost hypnotic allure-- nothing new to the lion, who had become familiar with its owner over more than a decade. The white mouse gazed at him, her naked body held against his beneath the covers, head propped to address him.
"After all this time?" he spoke to the ceiling, not bothering to look at her, "You said long ago that none of your clients remained a mystery for long."
"Some take more time than others." the mouse responded, her fingers curling gingerly through his chest-fur.
"And an hour per visit is not 'enough time'?" the lion questioned. The casual comment held a double meaning and he knew Thera was astute enough to catch it.
"That is it exactly." she responded, sitting up. The linens slid down her shapely form, revealing the fine, petite contours of her body, still attractive-- proof that the prostitute still held her own against other girls on the street, many of which were almost half her age. She curled around on the mattress until she lay with her back against his abdomen, half-draped across him, "You have asked for an hour for as long as I've known you, and yet you never use the entire time. It is my job to please you and yet you have never once failed to outshine me in every way... and you're content to lay beside me for whatever time you have left. Why do you pay for more time than you need?"
"You're paid for the entire hour." he answered plainly, "Why should you be worried with how I spend my money?"
"Because I have never been content to let an enigma go unanswered." she responded, turning her head to meet his gaze with hers. Captain Rakenn had met hundreds of men on the field of battle; he had stared down the mightest of foes and they had always flinched under the resolve of his steely gaze... and yet, for whatever reason, Thera never had.
"What do you find so intriguing?" the lion asked, staring right back.
"I am not cheap, Yeral Rakenn, and yet you always come back." she answered.
"I do not settle for second-best." he replied without hesitation.
"And yet you decline when I offer to use a Pearl?" she inquired, the faint glint of a tooth and the shimmer of a whisker in the dimly lit room giving away her smirk.
"I prefer reality to fiction." the Captain answered. Thera spoke of his first payment to her-- enchanted pearls that would grant the semibalance of eternal youth to the user, if only for a limited time. They were a common enough trinket from where he had come, but in the city of Myrh they were a rare treasure. That simple payment had covered her services for nearly five years. For the rest of his visits he had paid in coin; he was by no means a poor lion-- rank had its benefits.
"And so you remain an enigma, my sweet Captain." the mouse answered, slowly sliding her body to his as she raised a leg, curling it around his abdomen. She raised her hips and settled herself down upon his stomach, straddling him, "Desiring the best, yet refusing to let me take a more pleasing form."
"Thus you remain stumped, silly girl, if you think that youth always equals beauty." he answered, raising a paw to grip her shoulder. With gentle but firm guidance he slowly eased her off of him and back to the mattress as he sat up, "There are many things far more attractive than attraction and far more gracious than grace."
"So you do not find me attractive?" she asked. He chuckled as she said it, knowing far too well the trap she attempted to weave. The half-effort she put into it helped him realize that she knew that he would not be so easily caught.
"The years have been far kinder to you than to me." he explained, "I would do you a great injustice to expect you to put on airs when you only get me as I am." he turned to her, the taste of victory on his muzzle, even going so far as to offer her a wink of one amber eye.
"And now it is you who does not give yourself enough credit, my good captain." the mouse noted, scooting closer to him on the bed. She sat on her knees beside him as he turned to regard her. She rested a paw against his shoulder where numerous scars parted his fur. Her other paw sought out the criss-cross of imperfections along his muzzle and cheek, "Nothing could make you any less beautiful to me."
Yearl laughed at that, restraining most of his scorn before he added, "You are a lady who knows many uses for her tongue, Thera, and each new one you discover is finer than the last."
The mouse did not pull away at his dismissive remark, "You are the one man who has never asked anything of me but what I am... and that is what I find so strange about you."
"You make no demands of me but my coin." he responded, "How would doing anything but expecting you to uphold your end of the bargain be fair?"
"You would be surprised how many men do." she responded, drawing closer. She hesitated for just a moment before her muzzle touched his. He did not resist as she kissed him, but neither did he reciprocate.
"How many men have you kissed, Thera?" the captain asked without emotion.
"Including you?" she inquired, tone just as neutral, "One." and she pressed her muzzle to his again. The second time he slowly withdrew, a paw resting on her shoulder. She looked to him, her gaze meeting his once again, "In my years in service to the needs of men I have heard the greediest ask me to run away with them and the most naiive of men seek to take me away from this life... yet how is it that the man that I have serviced the longest has never once offered the same?"
"Because we both know what your answer would be." he responded, standing.
"Do we?" she countered.
Captain Rakenn slipped into his breeches and belted the buckle without responding. He grabbed his traveling satchel with tunic inside, pausing only long enough to set a leather pouch of coin on the dresser. The mouse spoke up before he could even retract his arm.
"Keep it." she responded, "No man has ever made me feel like you do... that is more payment than I could ever hope."
The lion's paw hovered over the coin for a moment before returning to his side, satchel left on the dresser, "Where I go I will no longer need it." he responded, heading to the door, leaving Thera with her dainty, round ears raised in confusion. Before the door closed, he added, "Tomorrow, we march for Zion."