Tera tucked the children in and looked out the window, over the valley that lay beneath their town. She always worried when Sean traveled down to hunt. She watched for lights below as night began to fall, but the valley was cast into shadow as the sun passed below the mountains behind her.
It might have been because he was already coming up the hill, or because he was in some dangerous situation, but she could see no glimmer of fire or hint of smoke. The easterly wind was rising against the peaks, a storm brewing. She glanced out the window continually as she prepared a meal for two, just in case he was already climbing the cliff path back to their village.
She ate as the rain began to fall, hoping he would be okay, stay warm, but a part of her was angry and suspicious. She knew why he would remain in the valley in the rain, and she knew that it shouldn't bother her. Raised in this town lacking any belief in monogamy, she should be able to accept that his body was his own; it was against their way to place any restrictions upon oneself for the sake of a sexual partner. Still, she couldn't help how she felt. She only wanted Sean, and she wanted him to be with only her.
After placing the leftover portion in a container, Tera was just about to sit down in the soft chair in their receiving room with a book when the door opened. Sean smiled as he breathed in deeply through his nose, drawing back his hood. Tera rushed to him, but stopped when another man came in, a stranger. She stepped back, wary, offering him a traditional welcoming bow. She watched with a frown as he tossed his wet cloak over the nearest wooden chair.
"Best be careful," Sean said, hanging his coat on a hook. "Tera gets irritated if a man doesn't pick up after himself."
"Perfectly reasonable," the man said, casting a glance and a little smile her way as he sat in the chair. Sean was anxiously silent, even holding his breath, as he waited for her to react. The man smiled a little more when it took her a moment. She could hear rainwater drip from the cloak onto her wooden floor. "Seems the least I can do, really, after being invited into your generous home. Still not going to, though."
Sean hurriedly took it and tossed it up next to his own before Tera could react. "This is Evan," he said. "He's traveling to the tournament."
"Well, I was," the man corrected lazily. "I lost my medallion, so now I guess I'm just... travelling. You know, going from place to place, leaving messes behind."
Sean laughed nervously, still searching her face for reactions, anger. Tera was so baffled by the rude behavior that she couldn't even feel the indignation she knew she should. "Welcome," she said coolly.
"We bagged a boar and two deer," Sean ventured. "Evan helped me bring them up, so I invited him to spend the night."
"He invited me to all kinds of things," Evan told her.
"Oh, did he?"
"He offered me your cunt, if you'd have me," Evan said, shrugging and smirking. Tera clenched her jaw, glaring at Sean. "It wasn't quite the generous offer I'd imagined."
"Now hold on," said Sean.
"I just mean that she obviously isn't going to go for it," glancing at Sean, he finished his laces and tossed the boots off. "I concede defeat."
Tera, still angry, thought 'good' and meant it, but she was suddenly curious about what made him so sure. "I'm glad we got that out of the way. Now we can enjoy what I'm sure will be an evening of intelligent discourse and impeccable manners. I suppose Sean offered you a meal as well?"
Sean shrugged miserably as he moved toward the kitchen. "I'll get us something to eat."
"What a guy," Evan said once he had gone. "Do you mind if I ask what exactly you see in him, that keeps you from looking at anyone else?"
"I do mind," Tera said. "It's extremely rude. You have been horrendously rude this whole time, after my husband invited you in and..."
"Your 'husband'? I don't think that's a word used in this town," he cut in, smirking. He was right, of course, and it made Tera's cheeks burn to have made the faux pas. "I know how things work here, the sexual barter thing. This is just how a man behaves when he doesn't want to sleep with you."
"Sexual barter?! Are you serious? None of the men expect..."
"No, not expect. But want. That poor bugger you've hooked would lick your boots if you asked him."
"Picking up his own boots is not licking mine," Tera told him in a voice she fought to control.
"Sure," Evan agreed.
"I don't pay him for the work he does around here with sex. I love him, and he loves me, and wants me to be happy."
"Oh, he does," Evan said. He crossed his ankle over his knee. "Does it make you happy when he screws those other women? How about when he tells everyone that he wishes you'd fuck someone else for a while so he could have a break?"
"I was joking about that!" Sean insisted from beyond the doorway.
"I know how he feels about it," Tera said. "He can discuss whatever he wants with whomever he wants."
"That wasn't the question." Evan finished removing his wet sock and dropped it on the floor next to his chair.
"It was a stupid question. I have one for you: did he make a bet that you could, or you couldn't, get into my bed?"
"Couldn't, obviously. I was confident at the time, having sex with this other woman, in fact, while we were talking about it. I built it up like some mythical treasure worth questing for, but now that we've met, I've changed my mind. I don't think your pussy is worth how hard I'd have to work for it."
"Excuse me?!"
"What?" he asked innocently. "Isn't that the vibe you're trying to put out? Like you're too good for me? This is just me agreeing with you."
"I don't think I'm too good for anyone. I know how things work here, far better than you do, and I'm just as free to do with my body what I want as he is."
"I get it," he assured her. "Do you have any slippers I could borrow? Actually, a full set of clothes; that 'husband' of yours appears to be about the same size as me."
"No, I have nothing for you," she replied. "Your distain for proper manners relieves me any need for them."
Evan shrugged. "That's fair." He stood, scooping up his boots and socks. He placed the boots on the hearth's lap, though the fire was mostly on the kitchen side, and hung his socks on the laundry rack. Practically sitting on the furnace, he began unbuttoning his damp shirt, and glanced at her. "Better?"
"That's a lot of tattoos," she said as he peeled the wet fabric from well-built shoulders and pectorals. A six inch square seemed to be names, and he had eight fresh ones, names she recognized. Every woman who had been in the valley the last few weeks. "I thought Warens put them on their backs."
"Like this?" Evan asked, turning to place his shirt on the drying rack. Tera gasped despite herself as he revealed his back. Hundred of names covered his smooth skin and she looked closely. At the top left, they were straight and clean, but as one moved to the right and down, many were crooked and some overlapping, a sure sign he had applied them himself. A cluster of four perfectly straight amid the chaos of his lower right back drew her eye and the names were 'fuck you fuck face'.
"How many?" she asked breathlessly. A man could sleep with everyone of age in town and not come close to the number. "Are these all really...?"
"My score. I don't count married women, so I don't think I could count you. If you're not worth a point, it's not really worth trying."
