Following Tides -Book II - Sascha & Yuri: "Healing"

“Following Tides II - Sascha and Yuri's Tale”

T H E   F O L L O W I N G   T I D E S   S E R I E S
PART II  - SASCHA & YURI
Author: D. Sanders a.k.a "The Fablespinner"
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CHAPTER SIX  -- "HEALING"
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Sascha awoke confused, he vaguely remembered sleepwalking the past few days. He felt the lingering traces of a spell lifting and he blinked the fog away realizing he was back home on Safe Harbor Isle, in his and Yuri’s big comfy bed with the windows thrown open and the smell of honeysuckle and jasmine wafting in the windows. It was just about mid-morning and he heard a seagull call in the distance, the sounds of the waves washing up on shore and the tinkle of the seashell wind chime Yuri had made during their last visit gaily welcomed the morning.
 
Yuri was still sleeping beside him, and Sascha pulled her into his arms, drank deeply of her fresh scent. The soap she made out of peaches still lingering in her hair, her dark skin on crisp white sheets and framed in her white night shift looked as rich as tea as light long eyelashes kissed her cheeks. “Yuri.” Sascha breathed, shuddering as he wrapped around her, his love for her so strong it was suffocating him. He blessed his family for bringing them here, getting them to a place of safety and giving them the rest they both had so desperately needed. The rage and blame was gone, now it was the ache that came after sorrow, the lingering sadness that would purge itself in time. They were whole, they had one another again and that was all that mattered. He had her back and he’d not lose her again.
 
Yuri’s eyes fluttered open to see big blue eyes gazing at her. “Sascha!” She cried her arms reaching up to embrace him, her face pressing into his chest as she cried.
 
“It’s over beloved. All over.” He reassured, stroking her back softly, calming her.
 
“Tomas! Where’s Tomas?”
 
“Think love, they’ve had us spelled. We’re on the Isle; he’s more than safe. I hear Ilya and the kids on the beach, will you be all right long enough for me to go out and check?”
 
“Aye.” Yuri sniffled leaning back. Sascha kissed her brow as he stood. Clad only in loose cotton pants. His strong chest bare and his muscular arms shoving sleep tangled hair out of his eyes as he stood. Yuri shivered. “You’ve lost weight beloved.”
 
“Aye.” Sascha smiled back at her as he reached the door. Ilya was indeed just down the beach, the children playing in the surf. One dark haired toddler catching sight of Sascha standing in the doorway of the small bungalow.
 
“DAA! DAA!” The child came racing over and Sascha squatted to scoop him up in his arms. Hugging him fiercely, Ilya just waved and carried on, scolding his own toddler, again, for trying to wander off too far.
 
Sascha turned and took the child inside. He immediately demanded to be let down when he saw who was also inside. “MUMMY!” He burst into tears as did Yuri as he scrambled up onto the bed and launched himself at her.
 
“Oh baby, sweetheart, please don’t cry. Mummy is alright. Tomas love it’s okay.” Yuri cried kissing his two year old face joyfully, holding him tightly to her breast as he joyfully embraced her. Sascha sat in bed with them, his arms around them both.
 
“See, Tomas? Daa promised he’d bring mummy home didn’t he?”
 
“Aye.” Tomas croaked and Sascha laid his large hand on his son’s hair and kissing Yuri’s temple. Yuri sank into his arms, Tomas cradled in hers.
 
“No more tears. We’re together again.” Sascha reassured and Tomas’ tears stopped almost as soon as they’d begun and he sat up on Yuri’s legs smiling. “Mummy! Look.” He showed her a shell he’d been clutching in his hand the whole time.
 
“Oh, how pretty.” Yuri indulged, it was broken, covered in sand, and it stank of its former occupant.
 
“Shell!”
 
“Aye. Can Daa see it?” Sascha asked and he was handed the shell which he quickly set aside before the toddler got sand in their bed and he stood. “Think you can take care of mummy while Daa finds her some breakfast?”
 
The tot nodded emphatically and Yuri smiled into the hair at the back of his head. Her eyes peering at Sascha amused. Oh but it was good to see life in her eyes, Sascha fell into them and leaned over to kiss the top of her head.
 
“Me! Daa ME!” Tomas puckered up comically.
 
Sascha chuckled “Oh Bad Daa. Forgive.” He said as he kissed his son.
 
“Mummy turn!” The toddler directed and Yuri laughed and kissed and tickled him. Sascha was smiling as he wandered outside in search of food which was sure to be nearby. Their cabin was only a few minutes walk from the main longhouse and communal community kitchens. He came back loaded with fruit, juice, breads, cheeses and cold meats. Yuri was playing patty-cake with Tomas as Sascha returned and they made a picnic in bed as a family.
 
Tomas adding greatly to the healing process. One couldn’t stay sad with his bright cheerful face and attitude infecting them. He was thrilled to have his parents back and that’s all that mattered to him. His mummy was the center of his universe, and his Daa was the one who chased away scary things, everything was right again in his world.
 
~*~*~*
 
That evening they tucked their son into a little cot in the living room, tomorrow Sascha would shift around some lumber and expand their little raised bungalow around, adding a room for Tomas. Tonight he was too exhausted to care where he slept and so were his parents who had spent that day showering him with attention.
 
Sascha was reading him a story and somewhere in the middle of the sea battle with the dreaded sea-serpent who had stolen the pirate’s treasure Tomas had fallen asleep and Sascha tucked the book away as Yuri secured the blanket around him and blew out the lights in the living room while Sascha made sure the mosquito netting around the bed was draped over the sleeping toddler. Once they made sure he was settled and protected they walked back to their room and shut the door.
 
The sadness took them again as they readied for bed themselves. Yuri trembling as she changed into her nightgown. Hugging her bare arms over her chest, Sascha enfolded her in his arms. She shivered.
 
“Just let me hold you, that’s all I ask beloved.” Sascha whispered and Yuri nodded against his chest.
 
They lay in the darkness silently, just taking comfort being next to each other. It would be a long time before Yuri would be able to be more intimate again. Sascha would wait for an eternity if needed. She lay beside him, her head against his shoulder as she absently traced fingers across the thatch of black hair between Sascha’s pectoral muscles. He wasn’t a hairy man, but he did sport a thick thatch of it squarely in the center of his chest, and Yuri had always remarked how soft it felt. She was unconsciously running her fingers through it as they lay there in the darkness; she was taking comfort in familiarity.
 
“Ilya healed me a little. I can feel it.” She said breaking the silence.
 
“I thought he did. I vaguely remember conversations while we slept. Love I don’t care if we have anymore children. I just care about you and Tomas. Honestly love.”
 
“I know. I just wish now I hadn’t.”
 
“Love, please. We cannot dwell on what ifs; it will kill us if we do. I wish I had gone with you, I wish I had the foresight to check who else was ported. So many things I could have done differently and not a damn thing I can do to go back and change things. Nor you beloved. If we dwell on it we will never move forward.”
 
“Aye. I know. But still…”
 
“No buts beloved. If we can’t have anymore children together and you want more, we can adopt. Simple as that. There are plenty of children who would be blessed having you as their mother.”
 
Sascha felt a tear trickle down his chest and his arm around her back tightened. “I love you Sascha.”
 
“I love you too Beloved.” Sascha kissed her brow tenderly where she used his chest as a pillow. She fell asleep in his arms.
 
~*~*~*
 
Having ported two months early, it was only the five ships and the locals. Safe harbor Isle seemed almost empty in comparison to the hustle of thousands of people when all ships were in port. The following day, while Van, Sergei, Alexandre and Sascha messed about with expanding the bungalow. Yuri, Ilya, Anya, Sonja and Petra played with the children on the beach.
 
Sonja and Yuri wandering off hand in hand in deep conversation.
 
“Love, the best way to heal is to let go. Believe me I know.” Sonja began, relating a story of her own.
 
“I was born far south of here. It was so cold most of the year, huge Icebergs drifted by almost daily. We wore sealskin coats eighty-percent of the time and baths? Water was so cold and the air so cold it was courting illness to get wet.  What Alex saw in me then I have no idea. But he was on his maiden voyage, all cocky fifteen year old that he was and like a graceless idiot, fell ass over tip into the water slipping on ice. Cracking his thick skull open in the process and falling into the sea and almost drowning, I and my mother tended him. One can get hypothermia almost instantly falling into those waters.” She began as they strolled the shoreline.
 
“But he was handsome. Sascha looks exactly like his Grandaa at the same age. He woke up after a day or so, looked me right in the eye and proposed right then and there. I thought his brain addled. Who’d want a skinny nobody like me? But our magic had mingled while I tended him and he’d fallen in love with my gifts it turned out. I told him to piss off, that he was mentally off his rocker and a host of other things. That clinched it for him; he loved me for me then. He always did like a good argument.” Sonja chuckled at the old memory.
 
“I refused for a good week or more, but he’s relentless and I really wasn’t putting my heart in my denials. He was quite charming and persuasive. What girl in her right mind refuses a handsome lad bribing her with cherries and peaches and a host of other exotic fruits and things she’s never heard of let alone seen? Not to mention the same girl’s mother practically lacing the bed with rose petals in approval. I caved and accepted I did love him too.” Here Sonja sighed, she was getting to her ordeal.
 
“It was my bonding day. Alex was on board “the Handmaiden” and mother was scrubbing me within an inch of my life. I was dressed in white fur and I hardly recognized myself by the time she’d finished preparing me. I felt pretty for the first time in my life and I had a horrible case of the jitters and I decided I needed fresh air before I climbed into that long boat to go get bonded to a practical stranger. That walk cost me greatly. The next thing I knew I was in a sack and being scuttled off by pirates. Alex was so busy below decks preparing, no one noticed the ship leave. They killed my mother and it wasn’t until Alex came to get me worried when I didn’t show up for our wedding he found her dead and me gone. He was furious.” They settled on a rock, Sonja rubbing the pad of her thumb lightly against the back of Yuri’s hand.
 
“I was taken and passed from man to man to man for three days. I had been a virgin, my first experience with a man tainted beyond all belief and I was a shell of my former self in just three days time. Alex found me naked and battered in a storage room. Freezing, bleeding and lost. I didn’t know what happened until much later. I was out of my mind, literally. It took months of Alex caring for me before I came around again, could even bear for him to look at me. Let alone touch me. I found out during this time Alex had killed them all, right down to the last sailor. He had never killed before and a hundred men became lost to the sea that day for what they did to me. He was tormented with his actions. He hurt just as much as I did. We overcame our grief together, we had to, we loved each other too much to allow the other to suffer. We bonded about a year later when we reached this Isle. Sergei was born the following year and we never looked back. So you see Yuri love, you can move on and the sooner you go back to what you had, the sooner you find joy again. Loving Alex all these years was and is my joy. The way he held me, loved me, held his children, and pampered me my whole life. Almost sixty years now. And I love him more today than I did then. Joy is in the loving, in the everyday things. He’s not bad looking for being almost seventy-five either.”
 
Yuri chuckled and leaned over to hugged Sonja. “I’m sorry.”
 
“Don’t be love. Some men are pigs, some women cruel as the year is long. It’s when you find the good ones you hold on tight and love them for all they’re worth. Just as Sascha loves you and you love him. I saw you two bond that day on Nanta and I’ve watched your love grow over the years. It warms my heart to see and my heart aches for you both having to face what Alex and I did all those years ago. But you’re both strong and your love will see you through this.”
 
“Thank you Gran.”
 
“Anytime Dearest. Now shall we go back before they miss us? I could do with playing with my Great-Grandbabies before I get to old to keep up.” Sonja’s eyes twinkled. Still a handsome woman herself at seventy-four. She was aging remarkably well and looked not a day over fifty, her once jet-black hair now peppered heavily with purest white.
 
~*~*~*
 
Sascha watched Yuri and Tomas making sand castles in the wet sand, both of them drying in the sun from paying in the surf. Yuri’s already dark skin, several shades darker now from exposure to brilliant summer rays and sporting about in crystal clear waters. She loved to swim and was teaching Tomas to appreciate the water as much as his mother did. She was wearing shorts and a halter and nothing else. Her smooth limbs open to the air. Tomas was in nothing but his nappies as he buried his own legs in sand. Sascha got up from their porch to go join the play.
 
“Where are my son’s feet? Mummy where did his feet go?”
 
“Here Daa!” Tomas grinned pulling his legs out of the sand and wriggling his toes and Sascha mocked shock.
 
“MAGIC!” He cried and Tomas laughed. Yuri smiled and shaded her eyes to look up at her husband. Wearing hardly more than his son as he flopped into the sand and let Tomas begin burying his legs in sand.
 
“I was beginning to wonder when you’d join us Daa. You’re getting lazy.” Yuri teased and Sascha winked.
 
“I like the new porch swing.”
 
“So I noticed.” Yuri chuckled dusting sand off her arms and moving to sit beside Sascha, her head on his shoulder. “I love this beach. We had dolphins this morning. Tomas loved them.”
 
“I missed that, damn.”
 
“You were helping unload this morning. Everyone’s here now, it’s lovely being all together again.”
 
“Aye. Did you see Danil and Danica on those flat boards? How those two can stand and ride waves is fascinating.”
 
“I know, Tomas wanted to try it too, he was up to his waist before I snatched him. Little stinker is fast.”
 
“Goodness gracious. And here we were excited when he learned to walk!” Sascha laughed and Yuri smiled up at him.
 
“S’truth. From Standing to running overnight. I want to learn how to do that first before he tries it, it looks dangerous.”
 
“If Ilya can stand letting them do it with as overly protective as he is, I’m sure its safe enough mam.”
 
“True. He complains a lot, but all empty words, his kids are everything to him. But I do think we’ve seen the last of his female aspect. He’s serious, Van is getting no more children out of Ilya.” Yuri chuckled and Sascha noted that the sadness was gone when Yuri mentioned children. She was healing.
 
“Aye. I can’t imagine eight when just one wears me out.” Sascha replied watching his son pile the sand on, Sascha was stuck fast.
 
“Amen! Oh Tomas that’s enough honey, You’ve buried Daa.” Yuri chuckled freeing her husband’s legs. “I’m going back in the water, who’s coming with mummy?”
 
“ME!” Tomas chortled and both parents took his hands, swinging him between them as they went swimming, Tomas clinging to his Father’s back as Sascha swam them around for a while and then Tomas dog paddling between them as he learned to swim on his own.
 
He was out like a light for his afternoon nap as his parents washed the salt of the sea off and settled down on the swing outside with sparkling grape juice and cheese. Enjoying watching Danil and Danica and their cousins out cavorting on their surfboards again, Ilya looking about to piss himself with anxiety as he monitored them. Van joining in the fun a little later and wiping out more times than he succeed. His eldest children heckling their father much to Ilya’s sadistic delight as he watched his husband, a powerful wizard who controlled hurricanes and lightening lose the battle of wood and water sports.
 
“Oh, I have to try now!” Yuri was up and heading to the water again. Sascha stayed on the swing and enjoyed the show. Yuri wasn’t too bad. She succeed a few times, laughing as she paddled out and rode the waves back in about half the time, the other half chasing down a board that she’d fallen off of. The children at least encouraged her and saved the teasing jeers for their father’s benefit.
 
“Just whose side are you monsters on?” Val hollered taking seaweed out of his hair.
 
“Aunt Yuri’s!” They all caroled in unison.
 
Van rolled his eyes at Sascha who laughed. Poor Van, he got no respect.
 
Ilya was choking up a lung in laughter, sitting with Sascha on the swing now in the shade watching the play-by-play action, the littlest children sleeping with Tomas inside.
 
~*~*~*
 
That night, Yuri happily got ready for bed, humming to herself as she folded back the covers and blew out the candles. The moon was full and it’s light flooded into the window. Sascha checked on Tomas, fast asleep and he shut the door and walked over to his wife, wrapping his arms about her. “You looked like you had fun today.”
 
“I did. It’s all in balance, once you get the hang of it and stop over compensating it’s fairly easy. Van just over balances, he’s top heavy, leans out too far and splash.” Yuri chuckled hugging her husband’s hips. “You never braved it I see?”
 
“Mercy no. I’m even more top heavy than Van. I’d much rather cheer from the sidelines.” Sascha grinned leaning over to kiss his wife. She responded nicely.
 
“Mmmm. You had mint.” She purred and Sascha grinned.
 
“Toothpaste.”
 
“Still nice.” Yuri sighed still in good spirits. “Come kiss me some more?” She asked crawling into bed.
 
“Beloved you never have to ask for those.” He replied crawling into bed with her and kissing her soundly. The spark had returned and she responded like she used too from his kisses.
 
They loved again for the first time since the incident that night. It had been almost three months, but at last they were moving forward and regaining some of what they’d lost. Sascha trailed kisses up her stomach after they’d make love and he drank in her beauty like a starving man at a banquet. He’d missed this more than he’d ever let her know.
 
“You are so wonderful Sascha.”
 
“I was just thinking the same thing Beloved.” Sascha replied kissing her again with his joy at seeing her whole again. They nestled together in the darkness, the sorrow just a memory as they loved and moved on with their lives.
 
~*~*~

tbc...