Her breath made her perfectly carved breasts rise and fall before his mesmerised eyes. Her dress is styled to charm admirers, especially men, and to provoke envy from females. Her hair is piled on her head, yet many silken tresses fall on her white décolleté.
Garty can barely speak for a moment. He looks at his horse’s mane and knows he must fulfil his mission and gain her favour. He looks up at her again.
“Can you please help me?” He asks.
Before she replies, Crystalina has leapt down from the platform as if it is merely a foot high, not six feet! She is limber and light of foot and keen of eye as she stands before Brill and himself.
“You want a deal?” She asks him.
He knows she is a canny person who can take money at a whim, but now someone’s life is at stake he must pursue his mission with fervour and intelligence, not lust and passion for her.
“I need to find a missing person,” he says as she moves close. He can look right into her spell binding eyes and he withholds a gasp. She knows she is able to control this man who has a multitude of weaknesses in her mind, like every man.
She tosses her hair and breathes heavily, trying to heave her petit bosoms so that he might lose his train of thought.
Garty fights the desire to take her in his arms and kiss her ripe red lips and bosom. I must keep my head. Bubba’s life is at stake now! He slid easily from his steed and stood next to his beast and faces Crystalina, who looks at him with lowered eyes, eyelashes that shade her eyes, making her even more fascinating. She licks her lips and he drools with desire for her touch, but resists with great determination.
“I need to find the men who work for Axamanix very soon, for they have captured a young woman…”
Crystalina stalks him, looking him up and down, flashing her lashes, protruding her beautifully formed breasts at every opportunity before speaking.
“What’s in it for us? We are of one blood here,” she adds dramatically.
“I have a plan,” Garty begins.
“A plan?” She moves so close he feels her fresh breath, a tang of bergamot.
Very enticing, he muses.
“You are my plan!” Garty says in a stilted voice. He stares into her crystal ball eyes and bears his soul to her.
She is left openmouthed. He turns his gaze away.
“I shall pay your tribe well.”
Garty clinches the deal with his offer of gold.
She makes him wait a few moments to enjoy this painful pause.
“I shall do it,” she says at last.
He is satisfied. Gold answers to everything!
“I shall have to consult Mother,’ she says bluntly.
“I am sure she shall agree when I explain the circumstances to her,” Garty says.
It seems that evening has come suddenly and the camp fires are beginning to blaze with heat.
“You must not refuse our hospitality,” Janda says as Garty wonders what to do next.
The aroma of rabbits cooking and trout grilling are too much to bear for Garty. He is willing to stay and eat with this gypsy band, gladly.
“I will join you, friend,” he says to Janda.
He seats himself next to Crystalina and her mother as they eat around the campfire.
It is a pleasant experience, eating and drinking something unidentifiable to Garty, but delightful.
“What is this drink?” He eventually asks Janda, who is watching everyone and everything with extreme interest. Her eyes are similar to Crystalina, dark and piercing, as if she can see inside a person’s soul.
“Hawberry wine,” she says, smiling in a way that Garty found disturbing to his deepest manhood.
“It is very sweet,” says Garty, belching wildly.
The women on either side of him simply laugh heartily, so much that they almost fall off their humble log seating.
Garty wonders what affect this wine may have on his good judgement, but for a moment in time, feels the sway of dance, the rhythm of music as the flutes play, the banjos play and guitars are strung, amid fire and flame, wine and friends. He feels very much at home.
“I must find Bubba, taken by Axemaniz’s men,” says Garty at last to Janda, who looks him in the face. She becomes serious for a moment in time. A moment of anger floods her dark eyes.
“We shall find her, and do our best to defeat Axamanix and his allies, for we are foes,’ she says dramatically.
“Thank you!” Garty replies, grateful for her support and all the clan with her.
“May we persuade you to stay overnight and we shall commence our search tomorrow?” Janda asks, seemingly ignorant of whatever might befall Bubba before morning.
Garty wanted to think a little more about this matter. He needed to find Bubba as soon as possible, but knows that everyone in his present family need a good night’s sleep before commencement of a tryst with foes. He has no option but to agree to Janda and her already half-drunk daughter, Crystalina.
“The night is upon us and we must rest,” says Janda dramatically, staring into the skies, overcast with clouds and a seldom peeking new moon. Garty stares into space and falls backwards, groaning.
“You must rest a little, sleep with our tribe overnight, for we are with you,” says Janda, decisively.
Garty replies “Yes,” without resistance.
He lays on the ground near the fire that is slowly diminishing as its embers turn to ash. He is very tired, his pain is returning despite too much wine. He thinks of Bubba, struggling with the men of vice and he trembles.
She saved my life, now I must save hers!
He lay in the grass, dry from the fire’s licking flame, and closed his eyes.
“Here!” The hypnotic voice of Crystalina speaks into his ear.
Garty wakes up from a shallow slumber. He did feel the cold and is grateful for the blanket of wool thrown over his weary limbs. He feels a breath on his face. He opens his eyes.
“I am cold too,” says Crystalina.
She pulls a corner of his blanket over her fine arms that are bare. He reaches out and draws her closer to him.
“Warm up next to me,” he says. He barely believes what he is doing and saying to this woman who is too beautiful for a man to imagine. She snuggles close to him. He inhales the aroma of her thick and lavish hair, glowing blue in the firelight and feels utmost satisfaction. I am a lucky man, he thinks. He pulls her closer.
“Are you looking for a princess?”
Her words speak into his ear. His foggy mind is clearing.
“I am searching for a princess, and now for a missing young woman,” he explains in no rational way. His words sound convoluted when spoken aloud, even his quiet whispering.
“The invisible princess?” Says Crystalina, opening her eyes, staring into his in the shadows and flicker of fire.
He stares into her mesmerising eyes. She is goading me.
“That is my commission and I shall complete it,” he says. Though he now suddenly feels weary in this mission.
She recognises my feelings, he thinks, like some mystic. He is content with her strange company. He kisses her forehead as a father would a child. That felt impulsive.
He tries to remain calm and rational, but it was becoming absurdly difficult. He desired to ravish her beautiful body.
Then she spoke.
“Could I be the princess?” She asks Garty, unexpectedly. His eyes open wide. He has never considered Crystalina as the princess!
“No, I doubt it very much!” He mumbled at last. Crystalina responds to his words by slapping him on his bicep.
“Ouch, that hurt!” He rubbed his arm. His chest hurt.
“Why not?” Crystalina asks. He detects anger in her voice. He is scared for a moment. Then he remembered why she cannot be the princess.
“Because you do not look like her,” he explains in as few words as necessary.
“What do you mean?” she asks vehemently.
She is worrying him so much now that he wonders if her family might kick him out of their campsite immediately.
“Be quiet,” he whispers, trying to calm her voice down. He searches for the picture of the queen in his pocket. Finally he retrieves it and shows it to her. She snatches it from his hands and holds it closer to the glimmer of fire still glowing in its embers.
“This? Who is this?”
“It is the queen,” he says. His eyes are open now and he is immediately sober in mind and heart.
“The queen?” She asks the question. “You said you were looking for a princess, not a queen,” Crystalina says, her voice puzzled.
“That’s true, it’s the queen, her mother,” he explains. She looks deeply into his eyes now, confronting him fiercely.
“Do I look like my mother, Janda?” She asks defensively. Garty is taken aback and cannot answer her.
As if they have startled Janda in her nightly routine, her voice echoes across the encampment.
“Crystalina, where are you?” Janda calls out.
Crystalina leans over and kisses Garty on the mouth fiercely so that his lips ache.
“I am the princess,” she says, rising, brushing her silken dress down and disappearing into the shadows before she answers her mother’s call.
“Here Mamma,” she says, after a couple of minutes.
The figure of Janda moves as a shadow does and she disappears into the caravan bedroom as Crystalina leaps up to where her mother stood a few minutes before.
Garty snuggles beneath his blanket and falls into a fitful sleep, wondering what to do about his feelings for Crystalina, sensing subtle dangers. Garty is grateful to her mother for calling her away. Now he can rest and refresh his plan to save dear little Bubba!
Breakfast is an informal affair with the gypsies gathering around and lighting a fire. Cooking all sorts of game comes next and Garty watches from around the edges of the campsite. Finally he has an opportunity to speak with Janda about the mission in hand. They have already enjoyed a sumptuous breakfast of roasted fowl and chestnuts, along with delicious sugary treats and breads.
“That was very nice, thank you,” Garty says to Janda as they finish up the food and clear the mess, rapidly burning everything unnecessary that is left behind, with the good bits given to the dogs.
“We like to keep the place clean,” says Janda, taking out a pipe and smoking a very aromatic burn.
Garty watches and observes that Cyrstalina does not come for breakfast.
“Where’s your daughter?” He asks, a trifle worried. “I hope she’s not upset about anything?” He asks, carefully choosing his words.
“Why would she be upset?” Janda asks, then continues with her own thoughts.
“Crystalina is just lazy, that’s what’s wrong with her!”
“I see.” Garty replies tentatively, hoping she does not ask about anything that occurred last night. He licks his dry lips.
“I need help to find a young woman,” he says, as he stares at Janda. She sucks her pipe, squinting her eyes as she stares at him.