Teja son of Tagila (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ostro_goth) wrote2009-03-10 08:18 pm
ostro_goth) wrote2009-03-10 08:18 pm
OOM: A night in a stranger's room
As that girl, Carlotta, had said, the bar gave Teja a key; so he went up to room DLII, as the little brass label on the key indicated, and looked around, wondering if he would discover any thing which would tell him more of the stranger with his name and face that had been, it seemed, in this place before.
The room held some strange implements that Teja knew not the meaning of; it held his harp (an exact duplicate of the one he had come in with!) and a strange stringed instrument that Teja knew not how to play. It held a map table full with parchements, papyri and wax tablets, covered with drawings, with writings in Teja's own hand, and some very odd spidery symbols. Most were clearly drawings of things he would make -- blades, jewellery, implements of unknown purposes. Some were songs, complete with neumes so he would know how to sing and play them.
One of them was a love song, and the Gothic left now doubt that it was written to be sung to a man.
Hultha.
'My dear' or 'beloved' -- as said to a man. It might be an innocent endearment -- but it was not an innocent song! Rapidly, Teja turned away from the table.
Behind a door, a marvel awaited him. There was a bath -- an entire bath, it seemed, just to himself! There was a tube that would shower a man with water, and a large porphyry tub that could be filled with hot water to the brim. There was a washing basin, and a latrine, and all had running water from spouts, like the best of public Roman baths! They could even be opened and closed at will, by means of metal taps, that had been a rare luxury even among the Romans.
Beside the latrine, there was a box filled whith some sort of sand, and cat-droppings. A sieve-shovel was provided to clean the sand; so Teja did that, to be rid of the faint smell.
Then, he filled the bath and shed his armour, and climbed into the hot water. If there was one pleasure that Teja would indulge in without distrust when he could have it, it was a proper Roman bath.
After his bath, Teja took himself to the bed provided in the room; it held furs and blankets, and was narrow and comfortable, as if his own body had indeed made itself a place here for some while. When Teja had woken last, it was in his lava hall, and he had put on his helmet to break forth upon the Byzantines, making an end of it.
Now, past the end and in a place past imagination, he went to sleep in the bed of a stranger that was also himself.
Teja woke in the small hours to hear soft breathing at his side. No, not the nithing that had tried to kiss him -- it was a young cat, grey-striped, soft, and fast asleep. Not a tiny fluffy cat-child, but a half grown one, soft in parts and gawky in others, a cat-youth. Teja had never seen anything as endearing as the way he -- the cat-let was clearly a 'he' -- stretched his paws in front of himself and squashed his face between them.
"Are you my cat, also?" Teja said, softly. The kitten briefly opened one eye and purred.-
The room held some strange implements that Teja knew not the meaning of; it held his harp (an exact duplicate of the one he had come in with!) and a strange stringed instrument that Teja knew not how to play. It held a map table full with parchements, papyri and wax tablets, covered with drawings, with writings in Teja's own hand, and some very odd spidery symbols. Most were clearly drawings of things he would make -- blades, jewellery, implements of unknown purposes. Some were songs, complete with neumes so he would know how to sing and play them.
One of them was a love song, and the Gothic left now doubt that it was written to be sung to a man.
Hultha.
'My dear' or 'beloved' -- as said to a man. It might be an innocent endearment -- but it was not an innocent song! Rapidly, Teja turned away from the table.
Behind a door, a marvel awaited him. There was a bath -- an entire bath, it seemed, just to himself! There was a tube that would shower a man with water, and a large porphyry tub that could be filled with hot water to the brim. There was a washing basin, and a latrine, and all had running water from spouts, like the best of public Roman baths! They could even be opened and closed at will, by means of metal taps, that had been a rare luxury even among the Romans.
Beside the latrine, there was a box filled whith some sort of sand, and cat-droppings. A sieve-shovel was provided to clean the sand; so Teja did that, to be rid of the faint smell.
Then, he filled the bath and shed his armour, and climbed into the hot water. If there was one pleasure that Teja would indulge in without distrust when he could have it, it was a proper Roman bath.
After his bath, Teja took himself to the bed provided in the room; it held furs and blankets, and was narrow and comfortable, as if his own body had indeed made itself a place here for some while. When Teja had woken last, it was in his lava hall, and he had put on his helmet to break forth upon the Byzantines, making an end of it.
Now, past the end and in a place past imagination, he went to sleep in the bed of a stranger that was also himself.
Teja woke in the small hours to hear soft breathing at his side. No, not the nithing that had tried to kiss him -- it was a young cat, grey-striped, soft, and fast asleep. Not a tiny fluffy cat-child, but a half grown one, soft in parts and gawky in others, a cat-youth. Teja had never seen anything as endearing as the way he -- the cat-let was clearly a 'he' -- stretched his paws in front of himself and squashed his face between them.
"Are you my cat, also?" Teja said, softly. The kitten briefly opened one eye and purred.-