Riders of Tethra Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
The dance of light from the crackling fire performed a soft ballet across the faces of the four beautiful boys. They reached for their refreshments and looked silently at one another, the quiet momentarily capturing the room as day faded to dusk and the whole scenario of the last few hours lodged itself in their minds.
Finally, Rory broke the spell. "I guess there was stuff you wanted to tell us," he said looking first at Sayer and then at Hunter, each sitting in one of the chairs.
"How come you decided to be friends with us when there are other boys in fourteen?" Sayer asked.
"Are there secrets that have to be kept now?" Talen asked looking at Hunter.
"No," Hunter said after a quick look at Sayer. "You two are with us now. What you know you can share."
"You're right of course," Sayer thought at Hunter. "But could we just go slow to see how they deal with this please? We don't know where this is going yet."
"Ok."
Talen looked at his best friend. "Hunter can ride," he said.
Rory just looked at Talen with questions written all over his face.
"How come you didn't tell us you could ride?" Talen asked.
"He couldn't," Sayer answered. "It just happened last night."
"Like a flash," Hunter inserted allowing Sayer to control the pace of the revelations.
"How did it happen," Rory asked.
"You didn't answer my first question," Sayer said. "What made you become friends with two thirteen-year-old new guys over the others in Fourteen?"
"Ummm...." Talen responded first while Rory sort of blushed. "Maybe, we can answer that later if that's ok?"
"We think you guys are too," Hunter laughed.
"Hey!" Talen screamed. "That's not fair. We aren't allowed to ride you. You shouldn't ride us!"
Hunter got up and sat on the edge of the couch next to Talen, looking into his eyes. "I'm sorry," he said. "They said no one could ride us but they didn't say we couldn't ride. And until yesterday, I couldn't anyway. I'm not giving up riding now that I can do it. So, we think so too. You guys are awesome hot!"
"Hot?" Rory asked not really knowing what just happened nor what the term meant.
"Sexy," Sayer interpreted. "But I think it's beyond that. Bandor's sexy in his own way. You guys are different. Seems like you connected with us right away."
"Right at the dock on the first day," Hunter added. "And Talen knew I rode him yesterday. How did you know? What was that about `caring?'"
"It's a feeling," Talen said. "I don't know how to describe it. I've never talked about it with anyone besides Rory. I can tell when he rides me. I don't why, I just can. Then you rode me and I knew it was you. It's only happened with Rory before. It's because...."
Talen stopped, looking embarrassed to continue.
"I think we should tell...." Hunter began.
"Do you guys ride each other?" Sayer interrupted looking from Talen to Rory.
"No," Rory said quietly, almost sadly.
"Why not?"
"We agreed not to when we first got here," Rory explained. "We sort of thought maybe we shouldn't know what each other thought about because we were pretty good friends back in Lorenwood and we came here on the same day and all these other guys here and other stuff maybe."
"I think I might be able to guess what the other stuff was," Sayer thought at Hunter.
Hunter snickered. "And I know what other stuff we have both thought about!"
"What!?" demanded Talen.
"Ride me," Sayer said to Talen, knowing that he would be better able to block if Talen went too deep.
"Shit no," Talen said standing up. "We're fuckin' lucky we weren't expelled already once today. Ride you, then ride home! No way!"
"Who's going to know?" Sayer asked.
"I don't know but I'm not risking it," Talen said.
"I'll do it," Rory said softy.
Sayer looked gently at the beautiful boy who seemed to be the quieter of their two companions. "Good. Go for it," he said with a relieved smile.
Rory flipped his dark brown hair back and focused on Sayer. Hunter knew better than to ride Sayer as that would create a block.
There was less than two minutes of silence while Rory stood motionless, his green eyes fluttered as if he was in a trance. This was not an obvious `check-it-out' sort of ride. It was filled with emotion. Rory began to shake, tears welled up and rolled down his cheeks and then he collapsed on the coach next to Talen, breathing heavily.
"What?!" Talen demanded. "What did you find out?"
Rory was silent. His focus just bounced between Sayer and Hunter and back again.
"Are you gonna tell me or not?" Talen asked in frustration.
"Tell him," Sayer nodded.
"They love each other, Talen," Rory said softly, tears still streaming.
"Who does?" Talen asked apparently confused.
"They do." Rory looked at both Hunter and Sayer again.
"I'm gonna tell them Sayer," Hunter said to Sayer.
"Go ahead," Sayer said out loud.
"What the fuck is going on here?" Talen asked waving his arms around in space.
"Sit down and calm down," Sayer ordered and motioned toward the couch next to Rory. "I'm going to tell you."