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Roughly Northwest of Scorch Norton, ~noon Saturday May 4th, 1771


The air was still cool, dew-wet and sharp though the sun was warm. Edwin Worthey and Samuel Hartman dropped down into the lane heading for the village empty-handed but exhillarated. They'd planned a dawn raid for pheasants with slingshot and clubs, and got none; checked over snares and tried to raise rabbits, but got none of those either. They'd sought even fat pigeons, but it seemed the woodpigeons were away, too.

After tracking the prints of some wandering deer about to no end, at length they'd taken to other illegal activity, low in the bracken and wild garlic. Sam had been laid on his front, his shirt rucked to his shoulders and Edwin's arm tight around him, very much together, when he first saw the stag.

Night black in the dapples, it stepped up beside them, beyond the nearest tree yet far too close. One tine of the right antler was stained with recent blood. The thing had flared its nostrils, drawing breath into heavy lungs as they froze; stepped closer still...then wandered past and started trying to mark or loosen the past year's antlers on a tree further off.

Companions, then, with this wild omen, its scent of wet bracken rot, beast and animal masculinity brought something thick and hallowed only to atavistic, wordless gods into the air that rasped into their throats. The earth had seemed holy ground under them; all primal movement a kind of worship. Antlers scratched over bark and the two men's breath came fast.

They still felt the power now, in the simple sun of the lane. There should have been a storm to match the thunder rolling in their blood, not a cold and gentle breeze, but the fierce and feral joy was of the hidden world, not this one. Here Edwin just slipped a hand across Sam's waist as though escorting him to be shown something, though he could not keep from grinning.

They came to a gap in the hedging where some tree had died, and looked down over the village, its aspect like a collection of dollhouses from this hill. The fields sat calmly around it like the broad petals of a flower. There seemed to be out-of-the-ordinary motion in the nearer expanse between the strip of woodland in the dip below them and the Wyzenwood, though neither man could quite work out what was going on. Somewhere rooks laughed to each other, but otherwise for the moment they were alone with the sky's uncertain blue.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:43, Fri 15 Oct 2021.

Sam deeply enjoyed the time he got to spend with Edwin - while the other, slightly older man had been married for about a year now, he and Sam had both enjoyed each other as friends and as lovers far more than once. And right now had certainly been no exception.

It was right when they were in the act when Sam first saw the black stag, the scent of rotten garlic thick as a primal lust came over the two until they had finished.

"That was incredible," Sam teased as he hitched up his trousers, wrapping an arm around the other man. "What do you think caused that"?

He wasn't sure where to start with that stag, seeing as things had heated up greatly since it showed up, but didn't seem to disturb them. He made his way through the lane with Edwin, simply enjoying the morning sun.

Sam's teasing had got a narrow-eyed look from Edwin, briefly pretending to be put out by the implication of quality so far above his usual standard as to be unbelievable. It quickly dissolved to a sly smile and then a grin, however. "Don't know, but if he's one of the Good Folk or even the Devil he can come back as 'e pleases, I says," Edwin said with mild blasphemy - then again, the act itself was considered much the same.

He pondered as they came into the muted quiet of the lane. "Ah, maybe he was just a deer and we were that glad not to be trampled or gored to death. You feel it?" He broke away and stepped over the stump that made a gap in the hedgerow, onto the hill pasture beyond, and raised his hands right up. "I feel like I could tear the sky in two!"

He made grasping motions at the sky, which paid him no heed whatsoever, made a ripping motion and laughed, partly at himself, partly in relief that he hadn't demolished the heavens had his wild feeling been accurate. Standing there with his hands newly lowered and looking like a soldier from some great master's painting, a strong young man washed bright with sun, Edwin surveyed the activity below.

"Wonder what they're at - it's not a planting, they're over the wet field and in Durbin's back land, too." He watched, shrugged, and came back still joyful and wild with energy. "Hey. Hey - kiss me?"


[[Roll me a Listen, young Sam.]]

14:11, Today: Samuel Hartman rolled 1 using 1d100 with rolls of 1.  vs Listen 60.

Sam chuckled as Edwin pretended to be off-put for a moment before wrapping an arm around the older man's waist.

"Not a planting... I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it might be important."

Sam couldn't resist the chance to steal a quick kiss from Edwin, but ensured the coast was clear before he did.

Samuel recieved a kiss that was eager if relatively chaste, like a fine wine drunk by sipping; Edwin stroked the back of Sam's neck whilst he could, because he could, the wildness seeming to settle somewhat in response to Sam's steady caution. Somewhere down the lane and around its curve Sam could pick out a woman singing Hares on the Mountain in the careless, off-rhythm way of amusing herself whilst walking, heading their way.

Sally Ragge, he guessed by the pitch and her direction out towards the Ragge farm. She might know what was happening in the village, and would only assume them to be returning late from troubling the rabbits, as far as criminality went. The supposition was true enough, though they had nothing to show for it, a very plausible denial even if Sal didn't sometimes steal young coneys herself.

Alternatively, they might hide on the field side of the hedge like a couple of giddy youths, though they'd win no more than a few more moments' time and go without information. Sam determined that the rooks were calling to each other that it was time to change field, somewhere down out of sight. His keen ears picked up a wood warbler singing somewhere back in the treeline, the tutting of a wren over something or other away in the hedges, and the fainter, intermittent song of the cuckoo calling summer in. The deep good feeling was still inside him, and somehow drawing in breath seemed a mighty act, being alive in the face of all the dead matter beneath the earth.


[[He hears All The Things (and knows precisely how long they have for smooches before Sal's concerningly close, so that's safely done - Edwin seems aware of her, too).]]

Sam was glad as nature seemed to calm down in response to their primal actions from earlier in the afternoon. While he wanted to hum along with Sally, he wanted more to spend time with Edwin once more.

"Interested in heading back in for a bit?" he asked, offering him a certain look.


11:59, Today: Samuel Hartman rolled 69 using 1d100 ((69)).

With that roll I think we can safely say, "nice." :P

This message was last edited by the player at 15:59, Fri 22 Oct 2021.

Edwin looked down at the village, then at Sam. He sucked in one cheek in thought, loath to erase the morning's strange liberty with anything that might not measure up, yet clearly tempted since it might be weeks before they could wrest the time to be so close again. "...all right. Further down, though - I've got to buy Emma something good before it gets much later if I'm comin' home without free rabbit."

Edwin broke into a smile at that and kissed Sam, almost to the point of risk; he stepped back when Sam did, taking a notion to hide behind the hedge. When Sam stumbled and almost hurled himself backwards into the bushes, however, Edwin couldn't keep from laughter as he gripped the younger man's arm and steadied him.

Sally Ragge looked around the hedge at the commotion, smirking to see Edwin looking vaguely sheepish and Samuel shedding leaves. "I hope you've not taken to highway robbery, sirs," she jested, mirth creasing a dimple in her cheek. "You're very bad at it."

"Ah, no, just...taking a walk," Edwin said, more because it ought to be said rather than because anyone there believed it.


[[Heh. Meanwhile, Edwin hilariously failed to help that Stealth in any way whatsoever...]]

"Of course not, Sally. Neither Edwin nor I are perfect men, but we would never even consider stooping that low," Sam teased with a chuckle as he brushed some of the leaves off.

"What was going on in the fields over that way?" Sam asked.

"Oh, they're trying to see if they can find trace of Mistress Durbin behind her house, for she's still not found and no-one's had any word of her - there'll be a bigger search when folk are done with the day work come evening, should they not get anything then," Sally reported. Edwin frowned a little, troubled by the news.

"Have you been out since early, sirs?" she asked with the hopeful look of a lass with tales to tell.

"She's still missing? That certainly doesn't seem to bode well," Sam said, his tone growing seriousness. "I hope she's alright, but my gut feeling is that... well..."

He didn't want to admit it, but he thought something had happened to Mistress Durbin.

We've been out since fairly early today,", he said with a chuckle.

Sally looked at the ground a moment, frowning. "Who'd want to harm her, though? -or steal her away? I can't think of any as'd do that, unless her parents did for her by accident and hid the body." The frown became almost a scowl.

"That Missus Durbin would probably like to be hanged, though, she always imagines someone's out to harm her or she has to sacrifice herself over no thing and tell all about it. Such an audience she'd get on a scaffold," she said, not without bitterness. It seemed Sally had not forgotten the time Mrs. Durbin had accused her of sneaking into their house with the implied intent of thievery over a badly-shut gate. Then again, the village girls tended to close ranks and take Polly's side in any squabble the Durbins had, particularly those within a few years of Polly's age.

"Come now, Sal, surely it's better to hope she's found a coachman and run off with him," Edwin put in, which brought Sally's look up with a new thought of scandal.

"She'd never - she's been about with Tom Bees this past month and left the green awhile on May night with him, I swear."

"All right, so what's the news from this morning, then?" Edwin asked, a little amused by the gossip though mostly serious on account of the search and Polly still not found.

"Ohh...only the village was invaded by rabbits and pheasants and all sorts of things, all a-tryin' to get themselves cooked!" Sally said with a little triumph. "You can ask anyone. There was a great black stag on the green, too - Master Sexton went out to shoo it off for fear all the wood-things were witched and it tossed him his full length like that was no feat then ran oft. We were all feared he was gored through but the antler just went in along the ribs an' Mouse walked off besides." She used her brothers' nickname for the carpenter, who clearly had more courage than those men thought.

Only Sam, standing beside Edwin, caught the slight flush across his lover's cheekbones at the mention of the stag. Perhaps it was the memory of their encounter with the beast, a hot clenching somewhere within, or perhaps discomfort at the link between the animal, eroticism and the brutal penetration of the flesh. we were that glad not to be trampled or gored to death, he'd said.

"So everything you might...see on your walk, sirs," Sally finished, grinning, "-was down there at home, whilst you were up here catchin' a grass snake!"

Edwin coughed back a startled laugh, having not realised they carried the smell of garlic with them. He leant his elbow up on Sam's shoulder like the latter was a fencepost, indicating Sam with the other hand like it was the incident and not the assumption that had brought a slightly abashed grin to his face. "It was him caught the snake," he told Sally, a little hoarse with keeping back laughter.


[[fun nature fact! there are two kinds of snake in the British Isles (and one legless lizard, the slowworm), grass snakes and adders. The latter bite with painful poison when they're upset, the former just secrete a garlicky oil and pee on you if that doesn't work. Both types sometimes hang out in the entrances of rabbit warrens in the early morning, both for the near-warm-spot shelter and the prospect of emerging baby bunnies to eat.

... Edwin is not going to be able to make up anything about snakes and holes in context without cracking up laughing, however.]]

In reply to Sally Ragge (msg # 11):

"I don't know who would want to attack her, truth be told,", Sam said softly. "I simply hope that she's alright."

He couldn't help the feeling of being slightly flushed when they talked about the stag, with the primal lust that came over them.

He also couldn't help but laugh when Edwin did - of course he made the damned thing even dirtier than it felt.

Sam's laughter didn't help Edwin's composture any. Sally looked bemused as Edwin tried to explain something about "...it was just the way he grabbed it..." and "..'e says 'put it back'..." in high gasps between bouts of contagious mirth, until at length she had to just laugh at them laughing over some mundanely silly mystery.

"Aaah...sorry, sorry. You're not feared of this stag on your way home, are you, Sal?" Edwin said when he'd recovered, that being the least courtesy he might offer.

"Not at all - he didn't do anything to anybody 'til Mouse got up close to be gored. I'm set to go tell my Dad about it, since he's off his feet with the gout again and where my brothers have got to I don't know, they weren't with the search," Sally replied, sounding a little annoyed at the latter men.

"Ah, well, then we'll not keep you - come on, Sam, let's see if there's more game to be had nearer the village." Edwin beckoned Sam back through the hedgeline and onto the lane as Sally bobbed them an entertained farewell and headed on up to her father's farm.

---

They did detour on the way down, as Edwin had agreed: a quiet spot where a stray yew grew against a steeper slope with brambles bounding the lower side. Sunlight reached in and warmed the carpet of old needles from upslope, giving them a sweet smell and the look of polished flooring where Edwin made a lazy love to Sam, at least until he remembered he had places to be and put forth every trick and touch he'd learnt to cause Sam's breath to catch in pleasure.

It was not rushed, quite, but rather the deliberate laying down of layer on layer of their discoveries to an end that left them not avatars of some ancient urge but just two men, together, and satisfied still. Edwin kissed Sam's neck in a way that said what he often found too difficult in words, then headed back for the path about as soon as he was cleaned off, because he could not afford to stay yet would be so easily tempted.

---

The sun was off its zenith by the time the pair emerged in sight of the fields being searched. Further off to their right people were coming up considerably nearer the treeline, but on the stretch of land right beside the lane a knot of people had gathered beside the boggy patch, both Long Tom and Maggie Yendale the local giants clearly among them. A youth that on inspection proved to be Jim Stone, the under-gardener from the Fox estate, wandered vaguely nearer them in a haphazard fashion.

Edwin narrowed his eyes at the nearer group, concerned. "Looks like...well, have they got something or haven't they?"


[[optional Spot Hidden to have more to go on than Edwin in that regard.]]

The pair higher up the lane saw Doctor Lovelace come up and halt Jim to look at him. There might have been some conversation, but they were too far back to tell. The searchers conferred, went back to work, and then a call went up away to the two men's right, somewhat part the curve of the slope they stood on.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:53, Mon 29 Nov 2021.

Sam was always glad to enjoy time alone with Edwin, when the two could enjoy each other's presence, and now was no exception to that time. He enjoyed the intimacy of their coupling, and just enjoyed embracing the other man.

After their dalliance, Sam laughed, enjoying the intimacy of the moment before getting dressed.

---

He looked out to the field to see what the group had found.

"Think they've found Polly?" he asked, heading towards the field to see what they had found.

[[GM edit: who are we looking for?/temporal fix]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:09, Tue 30 Nov 2021.

"I don't see her, live or laid out, but they're gathering a way out of view now..." Edwin said dubiously, squinting.

Master Fox became evident once more on the curve of the slope and spotted them as he looked about. The young squire paused an instant to say something to those behind and waved in a large gesture, commanding Samuel to come over to him. "Hoi Sam!"

Edwin saw that Sam had to go, and had not seen his pregnant wife among the searchers for the excuse of going over; he gave Sam a small smile and said "Catch you at the Hare sometime," and raised his hand in farewell, moving off.


[[please walk onto Thread 3a when you can.]]