by Jariel Camen
81019.1700
continuing from Known to No Other: Two
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“Fleur, you’ve just seen a part of me known to no other. It would please me, if…you would always call me Camen.”
“All right, Camen.”
Using the communicator, he called for the return transport. The operator set them down just outside the new Springball courts.
“You were promising me to learn the rules of this, no? Besides you need to run a bit, and warm up. I will never forgive myself if you are catching cold.”
Camen grinned for the first time in hours, and took her inside the new building. They strung up a few temporary lights, enough to at least see what they were doing, and retrieved some racquet and balls from the boxes awaiting unpacking.
“It’s pretty simply really, you serve the ball off the wall there, and try to make a shot your opponent can’t return. You’re allowed to bounce the ball as many times as you wish off the walls, but never more than one bounce off the floor. Get ready, I’ll serve it to you.”
Camen lobbed the ball at the wall, Fleur shuffled over, drew her racquet back, and smashed the ball back at the wall. It ricocheted off two other walls, and buzzed Camen just below the chin, before landing on the ground and rolling to a stop.
“Ok then.” He said, before picking the ball up off the ground.
“I am, finding this much like an Earth game.”
“An Earth game you must be very good at.”
“Mmm, maybe I am playing on the Holodeck sometimes to get out frustrations?” She asked innocently.
“Whatever could you have been frustrated with, Fleur?”
Camen served the ball again, harder this time. Fleur returned the shot, and Camen sped to meet the ball. He delivered a backhand that surely she could not reach across her body for. Fleur however spun, sending her hair in a spiral around her face that sufficiently distracted her opponent, and returned the shot for a score.
“Now that is very much not fair.”
“What, have I broken a rule, Camen?”
“You serve.”
“As you wish.”
Fleur hit a rocket off the nearest wall. Camen stepped up onto the ledge at the base of the wall, and returned the shot. Back and forth they went, till each was breathing heavily, but determined not to concede the point. Camen stumbled finally, and Fleur, knowing he was left handed, could fire a shot out of his reach.
She sent the ball to his right side, but Camen flipped the racquet from his left hand to his right, leapt to return the ball, and skidded to a stop inches from Fleur, as the shot landed for a point.
She wiped the sweat from her brow as he held his position, barely a breath away.
“The Vedek is agile.” She said. “More athletic than we are led to believe.”
The moment hung, as they simply looked at each other for several moments. It was late, and quiet, and adrenalin coursed through each of their bodies.
“We should…get dinner soon.” Camen said, slowly. The handle of the racquet threatened to snap in his bare hand due to the intensity of his grip.
“Of course, Camen.”
Every fiber of his being wished to sweep her up right where she stood, but he knew it was still just too soon, no matter how much her eyes were begging him to do so.
Instead he stepped aside, and packed the racquets away. He walked her back to her residence, where Prylor Delle was just settling Tress down to sleep.
They shared a meal, and Camen stepped out as Delle and Fleur cleared the table. On a slip of paper he had found, he quickly wrote out a note for Fleur.
The Seine
The River once flowed
My pain out to the sea
Now it all has changed
As things awaken in me
And now the River flows
With joy to make me whole
But not to the sea
Rather, to your soul
The River once flowed
My pain out to the sea
Now it all has changed
As things awaken in me
And now the River flows
With joy to make me whole
But not to the sea
Rather, to your soul
He folded up the paper and slipped it under the sheet of her bed before stealing out into the night.
***************
Jariel Camen
On Bajor
Jariel Camen
On Bajor