SO OVERDUE

conifer needles pricked and prodded at the taut skin of the man, leading shivers through his precarious veins. strenuous muscles flexed, remembering the struggle of his past conquests. marbled pools of inverted color indolently opened to a ghost of christmas past. but the woman spoke with clear vindication, no hint of teasing jest left. this was not his sister. as the threat only someone a cut above could deliver settled and brought his attention to present, a mock gasp flitted off the portentous jester's lips. "you mean to say that the salbei forswore about a tempting siren needing rescue?" abstemious frame leaned away from the spiny tree and toward the wench, medially masked mug screwing into a look of skeptical disbelief. "you're sure you haven't seen any tar-spitting nykr hiding under those h?bsche kleine zehen of yours?" bemused spectacles slipped a glance at her digits before a toothy simper split across his ghastly maw and he sought out her reaction.