The Spirit of Althimus Ch.01

With that Finn smiled broadly, patted Topaz on the arm and went to get a drink from the bar

Topaz closed her eyes as a shiver ran through her body at the touch and tried to recall exactly what had happened in her trance to make her feel so strange.

She could remember the garden now. The colours and fragrances had all seemed more vivid and more intense, making the flowers of Earth seem like pale imitations.

There had been a stream flowing through, gathering pace and size as it moved; sparkling in a way that hinted of more than water passing through.

She was lost in this world now, so absorbed by it that she slipped back into the trance, feeling the place spring into life as she did.

A heady, sweet smell engulfed her, making her head spin. A hand insinuated itself, encircling her waist and she felt the heat of a male body press against her back. She tensed, briefly, then allowed herself to sink into the embrace.

A warm breath stirred the hair hanging about her face as someone nuzzled at her ear, then placed a hot, sticky kiss just behind it, at that silky, tender spot by the hinge of the jaw.

The heat radiated out from that point, washing through her body in ripples of pleasure, setting her senses tingling and creating a dull ache in the pit of her belly.

A cool hand on her arm made her look down to see brown skin against her own and she turned her head to see Shula's face.

"You have to come back now," she was saying, "you remember how. Just drift back as I count you in, ok?

"One,

"Two,

"Three,

"Four..."

Topaz opened her eyes to be met with a circle of transfixed faces. She smiled at them and put her hand to the burning spot behind her ear.

"I think I will come to that retreat you mentioned Finn," she said, taking in a deep breath of the foggy pub air that smelt, overpoweringly, of honey.