* * *
Darla softly stroked Ishtar’s arm while staring into a tear-stained face, sweetly cooing, “Don’t be so glum, my darling one. Our parting will not be for forever as you say it will be. Just a little while…” She choked back her own tears. “Just a little while is all it will be.”
She looked down at the tiny crystal figurine Ishtar was fondling in her fingers. It was part of a winged menagerie of her making - the flying stallion, KadashShure, a magical creature from a tale told Darla by PalaHar when she was little more than a babe. “Such a majestic and heroic beast it was, saving a little child such as I was at the time, from wicked monsters intent upon her capture.”
Reaching down and touching the figurine, she mused, “That stallion became something symbolic to me, special… my protector, I guess. To me, KadashShure became emblematic of our great warhorses of LathraNesion - the KaminosKtisis. Wondrous they are! There is none other like their kind, nearly indestructible, fast and powerful, as if on wings they carry you. I first mounted such a beast just before a battle during one of the Megiddo Wars, I giving it the very name of my hero from PalaHar’s tale. Whatever… my mount lived up to its name, protecting me throughout that campaign.”
Through tear-filled eyes, Ishtar confessed, “Pegasus...for me it looks so much like Pegasus...or so as my father described it to be.” She looked into Darla’s face with pleading eyes. “May I call it ‘Pegasus’ in remembrance of my father’s tales to me?”
Darla smiled, tenderly closing Ishtar’s fingers over the crystal figurine. “Call it as you like. It’s yours, the hero you wish it to be. Pegasus is a fine name, such as I believe your father was a fine man.”
“Thank you.” Ishtar grinned. “He was my father, my world.”
Darla was surprised how difficult this parting of souls was becoming. When healthy enough to travel, she had made her way back to Ishtar’s village, lavishing as much time as possible upon the child, knowing that all too soon other duties would separate them. Neither woman wished to leave the other’s company, so deeply close they had grown over the past few days.
Two weeks had already passed since the Council of Eighty, and now only hours remained before the Shikkeron left port on its eastern patrol. Darla requested the use of the Shikkeron because of its availability at the time as well as its crew’s familiarity with the Eastern Colonial Regions. This had not set well with Captain Bedan, who saw Darla as a threat to his authority, she being a superior officer of rank and able to take the helm of the ship should the woman feel the need to do so.
Darla had done what she could to ease tensions by assuring Bedan that his authority would not be questioned when it came to ship’s operations, maintaining her only desire was seeing to the welfare of the Marines under her command. It was Leftenant Crilen who finally managed to broker an uneasy truce, reassuring Bedan of Darla’s humble, honest desire to ally herself with the captain in protecting the Outer Colonies. Since then, Darla had divided her time tending to business at Palace City Spaceport during the day while romancing the nights with her precious charge.
Now they were come to the final hour. The Shikkeron was casting off at the rising of the high summer moon, taking Darla into its uncertain future. And Ishtar? Well, her future still hid in distant shadows.
Ishtar whimpered a lonely whine, stroking Darla’s long, satiny tresses, “Must it be this way? You say this is Heaven, yet I have heard only troubling tales of coming woe while watching my companions dress up in the garb of war to go marching off into destruction! Now you are suited up in the attire of a soldier, saying you are taking to the skies in one of those giant birds of prey, and I… I am stranded here, all alone. If this is really Heaven, our promised reward, why must you leave me, and why does it hurt me so that you are doing it?”
Darla leaned forward, kissing Ishtar’s forehead, softly answering, “Oh, my darling woman-child, should I be the master of the game, then I would never leave your side, making our sweet music together until the moon and sun were no more. Yet it is not I who spins the hands of Gradian’s Clock, the great timepiece that sets the months and seasons for this world. Tomorrow… tomorrow, my love… We must look toward tomorrow while dreaming of our yester-moments.”
Ishtar lowered her head, whimpering pitiably, “I’m afraid I will never see you again! I have overheard tales your people tell of death and destruction, lost lovers and companions. They speak of love lost and aching hearts. Are you immortal? That I doubt, if I am to believe your own words. I fear your murder and my loss… my loss of never seeing… touching… caressing you… again!”
The officer accompanying Darla suddenly excused himself, saying he would return momentarily. Darla smiled, tears filling her eyes. “We will be together again, and in not so long a time. Our romance we will share again under summer’s moon. My breath, our breath will mix in love’s embrace one again, I promise.”
Resting a hand upon Darla’s uniformed blouse, softly pressing her breast while fingers played rhapsodic with a hardening nipple, the woman’s milk beginning to stain the cloth, Ishtar looked in Darla’s eyes with yearning. “Do we not have time for just one more sweet interlude before you leave? Must I remember this parting moment with only a kiss? Oh, for another taste of your honey upon my palate...”
Darla was preparing to reply when the officer returned. “Major...” He politely, saluted to get Darla’s attention. “Our driver has informed me that we have a minor mechanical problem and there will be a slight delay before we can leave. She says that it should be fixed in an hour or so. With your approval, I have offered my assistance in making the repair.”
Darla thanked the officer for the information and his willingness to assist with needed repairs. After his departure, she turned her attention to other matters. “Well…” She paused, her eyes shouting out her own wistful longing. “We have an hour to while away. Would you wish to share it with me in more secluded places?”
Ishtar wrapped her arms about Darla, kissing her hard on the lips. Her passions rising, the girl cooed sensually, “Come with me and let me taste your love.”
Hand in hand, the two hurried away into the shadows, bolting the doors to their private world behind them.