Stinkfoot

Ellen Million

July 15, 2001

Sweet Tear has a huge crush on Lovemaker, but he's always too busy flirting with everyone else. She has all but despaired of ever catching his eye until one evening when she discovers a secret, and an awful smell...

Part 1

"Sweet Tear, you are not paying any attention, are you!" Firemoss waved the plant underneath the blonde elf's nose and she startled and blushed.

"I'm sorry, Firemoss!" Sweet Tear gave the older elf a sweet smile. "What were you saying?"

Firemoss threw her arms in the air in mock offence. "I've been talking for a mark of sun and I don't think you've heard a word I said! I was telling you about these new plants I found."

Sweet Tear looked at them carefully. "They aren't a variety of mint? They smell rather like it."

"No, that's the interesting thing. They have a very strange taste, and see here how the leaves connect..."

Sweet Tear glanced off down the canyon and lost the train of Firemoss' lecture. Lovemaker was swimming downstream with Briarbrace and she could hear him laughing and teasing the silver haired elf. The two were out of sight but she could picture his tawny hair and flashing smile. The sound of the splashing made her think about how he must look with water droplets clinging to his eyelashes and the sunlight reflecting from his wet hair.

Firemoss looked up from her rapt fascination with the strange plant and saw that Sweet Tear was gazing dreamily of into space again. She sighed and stood up. "You know what it looks like now. Maybe we can gather some tomorrow after sundown. It won't do any good to pick them in the heat of the day."

Sweet Tear leapt to her feet, all apologies for being so dreamy. "It's all this sunshine," she explained, lamely to her own ears. "I just can't concentrate."

Firemoss smiled, not offended. "It's alright. I'm going back to talk to Softglare. I will meet you at sundown to pick these." And tucking the one leaf carefully into her pocket, Firemoss sauntered away.

Sweet Tear walked slowly in the other direction. Perhaps from a little further down the path along the river she would be able to see down to where Lovemaker was swimming with Briarbrance. He wouldn't notice her watching him. Sweet Tear sighed. He never noticed her. He would flirt with every other available maiden, but he was all kind abstraction with her. He was friendly and would talk to her but his eyes were always watching someone else walk by.

Sweet Tear twined one lock of hair around her finger. Maybe he still saw her as a silly little cub? But Windspear was only twenty turns, and Lovemaker had persuaded her into his furs many times. Sweet Tear kicked a plant, which covered her path.

Maybe, she thought suddenly, he thought she wasn't pretty. She leaned over the riverbank, trying to catch a glimpse of her reflection. The water was swirling too greatly and all she saw was a messy blur of yellow. She thought about how Sparrow and Firemoss always wore feathers in their hair and wondered how she would look. "Like a crazy yellow bird," she decided sadly. Not that Lovemaker would even notice.

A little further on, Sweet Tear found a meadow full of blooming red flowers. Eager to distract herself, she picked a heaping armful and wandered back towards the holt to weave them into a wreath. Perhaps Firemoss would like one to wear in her hair as an apology for her lack of attention this morning.

Sweet Tear had her face buried in her flowers, happily inhaling the luscious scent when a sudden familiar voice interrupted her.

"Sweet Tear, I was just going to find you." Lovemaker was blocking the path, hair still damp from his swim. He smiled easily at her, and Sweet Tear felt her heart rise up and choke her.

Lovemaker wondered if he had ever seen anything as lovely as Sweet Tear, with her soft golden hair shining in the late sunlight, her elfin face almost overwhelmed by her armful of brilliant scarlet flowers. There were a few stray blooms tucked into her hair, which bobbed and danced in a stray breeze.

She didn't say anything, just looked at him with her shy, beautiful eyes. Reproachfully, Lovemaker thought. She had no respect for his outgoing ways, he knew, and found his lack of discretion quite unnerving. So rather than telling her how lovely she looked, he only explained, "Firemoss asked me to tell you that she was going to be busy gathering moonherbs at the top of the canyon this evening. She was wondering if you could get the strange plants she showed you by yourself."

Sweet Tear blinked at him. "Oh, I...I suppose." She sounded disappointed and looked suddenly beyond Lovemaker's shoulder. Lovemaker turned to look, and saw Marshclay and Windspear waving from down the path. He waved back, and when he turned to say something more to Sweet Tear, she had vanished past him towards Rushwater Holt.

Sweet Tear could have kicked herself. "Why do I always sound like such a treewee when I'm talking to him?" she asked her toes. She walked slowly towards the place up the river where she had inspected the plants with Firemoss earlier. It was early evening of the next day but the meeting with Lovemaker was still fresh in her mind. Stars were just beginning to show through the canopy of leaves above, but Sweet Tear was far too intent on watching her feet and feeling glum to appreciate the beauty.

Ahead of her, she suddenly heard splashing from the river, erratic, like someone washing leathers with energy more suited for a hunt. Sweet Tear forgot her misery and detoured from her path to discover the source. In a small clearing just away from the river bank, she came across a pile of discarded clothing and a pair of short boots. Somewhere close was a terrible smell, a little like meat rot and a little like a bad mushroom soup.

Curious now, Sweet Tear crept forward on silent feet to inspect the pile of belongings. The smell seemed to be coming from the boots. Covering her nose, which was complaining bitterly, the blonde haired elf focused on the clothing, and her heartbeat suddenly quickened as she recognized the vest as Lovemaker's.

Sweet Tear turned to inspect the rest of the clearing, wondering if some animal nearby was dead and was amazed to find Lovemaker standing behind her, as naked as the day he was born, soaking wet and holding his equally wet sleeping furs, looking as surprised as she felt.

Part 2

Lovemaker had felt like a fool before. He had been embarrassed before. But he wasn't sure he had ever felt this keen a combination of the two. "Ah, er, Sweet Tear!" he managed unintelligently.

Sweet Tear looked back with huge blue eyes. "I think that there is something rotting in your boots," she said in her melodic voice. One finger was twisting a golden curl.

"Oh, that, ah...well..." Lovemaker tried to look anywhere but at the boots, desperately seeking an excuse or any semblance of his usual cool demeanour. He found himself caught in blue eyes again and was ashamed by the clear honesty that Sweet Tear always radiated. His shoulders dropped. "Please, promise me that you won't tell everyone about it."

"What is it?"

Lovemaker sighed and sat down on a convenient log. "Something is terribly wrong with my feet. They sting and stink and it is so embarrassing that I want to howl. Tailchewer doesn't even want to hunt with me right now. He says I scare away all the animals with my smell."

Lovemaker hadn't been able to have a female companion into his den for a hand of days as his feet and sleeping furs were so odorous. Then after Marshclay had teased him about being too impatient to even take off his boots, he had limited himself to encounters that involved swimming to wash away the smell, which built up so quickly. But he didn't mention that to Sweet Tear.

Sweet Tear cautiously sat beside him, at the other end of the log entirely. "Do they hurt?" She looked curiously down at his feet.

"It's not so bad with my boots off but running hurts a bit. It stings between the toes." He spread the toes to demonstrate, and winced.

Sweet Tear twisted her hands in her skirt and appeared to be considering deeply. Just as Lovemaker had decided to ask her what was bothering her, she turned and looked at him, and offered, "I could talk to Firemoss if you like and ask her about foot problems. She knows a lot about healing plants and illnesses. I won't mention your name."

Lovemaker gaped at her. "You would do that for me?"

Sweet Tear gave a little smile, "Of course." She stood up. "I can ask her sometime tonight. I'll meet you back here tomorrow early in the evening."

Lovemaker wanted to tell her that he would rearrange the moons in the sky to do so but it seemed too flirtatious and he satisfied himself by saying enthusiastically, "Yes, absolutely!" He stood and moved to his pile of clothing. Sweet Tear's eyes got wider, something he didn't know was possible, and she mumbled something about needing to go and fled away from the clearing.

Sweet Tear wondered what on in the world had possessed her to offer to talk to Firemoss about Lovemaker's ill feet. And to meet Lovemaker again? What was she thinking?! She felt very strange and feverish and her heart seemed to flutter in her throat as she thought about meeting him again.

Did he think she was a clumsy bird, the way she couldn't even look at him sometimes? She thought about every stutter and every awkward moment and thought about all the smart and witty things she should have said. But he had been sitting so close and was so beautiful it almost hurt. Sweet Tear felt like howling.

Instead, she went and walked close to the river's edge at the bottom of the falls. Lovemaker liked it here and was often found sunning himself on one of the rocks or diving into the deep pools from the high cliffs. Or flirting with every available elf, male or female, young, old or ageless, except for Sweet Tear. Sweet Tear took off her boots and dangled them in a still pool of water, wishing that she could cool her wayward heart as easily.

Lovemaker sat hunched uncomfortably astride Tailchewer. His feet burned at the ends of his legs. He had declined an invitation to join Redblade in a hunt for tallhorn with some flimsy excuse. Redblade had winked back at him, probably convinced that Lovemaker had made arrangements to meet some lucky individual for a romantic afternoon. Lovemaker snorted. He hadn't entertained himself in such a manner in at least a hand of days. Not since he had been swimming with Briarbrace. He had become more of a loner than he had been since he had recovered from the deaths of Ripple and Featherfern.

Lovemaker winced. He only thought about his former lifemates when he was feeling sorry for himself. Most days he happily existed in the NOW that hummed in his head and burned in his blood, but some days he thought wistfully of that special closeness that had completed him. He had many friends and many lovers but none of that feeling of family.

A soft humming from the clearing where he was meeting Sweet Tear interrupted his self-pity and he nudged Tailchewer towards it. He was early by a long while yet for their meeting.

Sweet Tear was daydreaming. Perhaps some day she would do something amazingly heroic and save Lovemaker's life. He would look at her with an amazed look, as if he had never seen her before and sweep her into his arms...and perhaps she would be horribly injured and the Holt had no healer right now. She would lie on the ground, lifeblood seeping from an artistic wound. Lovemaker would gather her into his strong arms, and locksend to her, "I have always loved you and never knew it," and she would look into his eyes with her last strength and give him her soul name and sink into oblivion. Perhaps he would cry over her limp and lifeless body, perhaps...

Something made her look up. She was sitting on the log, arms wrapped around her knees and across the clearing was the object of her imagining astride Tailchewer. Honeypaw, her wolf-friend, whined a greeting from her position sprawled on the ground below Sweet Tear. Sweet Tear hoped that it was dim enough that her blush wasn't apparent. "You're, ah, early," she said. So handsome, she thought.

Lovemaker dismounted from Tailchewer and limped painfully to the log. It wrung Sweet Tear's heart to see how he hobbled and wavered. Forgetting her embarrassment, she leapt to her feet and went to help him. She ignored the way his hand on her shoulder seemed to ignite a fire within her and supported him to the log. "How have you been able to go on this way?" she demanded.

Smiling wryly, Lovemaker explained, "Mostly I stayed away from other elves or was on Tailchewer."

"You treewee," Sweet Tear scolded, "No one is going to think worse of you because your feet are sick. Firemoss says that it is not that uncommon."

"Did you talk to her?" Lovemaker looked as hopeful as a cub being promised a sweet.

The blonde elf nodded her head solemnly. "I even managed to get her to tell me some plants that might help. They grow at the top of the canyons. We could even get some tonight."

Lovemaker jumped enthusiastically from the log, wobbling uncertainly as soon as his painful feet reminded him of their presence. "Can you show me?"

Sweet Tear slipped down next to him and lent her shoulder to help him mount Tailchewer. "Of course," she said, and she smiled shyly at him while she climbed up on Honeypaw.

The moons were nearly full and close together in the sky. Sweet Tear was on hands and knees inspecting a small green plant. Lovemaker, crawling around in some bushes to her left, sighed noisily. "Did you find anything?" he asked.

Sweet Tear knelt. "Not yet." She stood and turned to look behind her, and froze. She hadn't realized how close to the edge she had gotten. The fear which she had held at bay by concentrating on the task at hand overwhelmed her in one rush and terror griped her. She could feel her knees begin to quiver, and it seemed that the edge of the canyon was creeping towards her feet.

She must have made some small noise because Lovemaker limped to her side and looked out over the canyon. "What a beautiful sight," he breathed, then he glanced at Sweet Tear.

Sweet Tear hardly heard him over the rushing of blood in her head. She felt dizzy and weak and hot and as if the world were rushing at her. "Sweet Tear?" The words were so faint and far away. Were they really aimed at her? She knew she had to think about standing still, not shaking, or the yawning gap would suck her down. It was so far, so vast, so dark. And suddenly she was being pulled back, Lovemaker's strong arms were around her, leading her away from the edge.

She slowly came back to herself, sitting in a pile of green plants with Lovemaker stroking one hand. "Sweet Tear, come back to me," he was saying softly.

I should be more appreciative of this situation, Sweet Tear thought to herself but couldn't bring herself to do anything but shake and bury her face into her free hand.

"I didn't know that you were afraid of heights," Lovemaker said. "I can't believe you offered to come up here with me and look for plants."

Sweet Tear finally stopped shaking and went limp in Lovemaker's arms. She brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen in her face and laughed self-consciously. "I'm such a clumsy bird."

Lovemaker's arm tightened around her. "Nonsense," he said. Sweet Tear wasn't convinced.

Sensation was beginning to return. Sweet Tear could feel with agonising clarity the warmth of Lovemaker's body behind her, and the slight breeze. The moonlight was silver bright over the brush. And a distinctly foul smell was becoming stronger and stronger.

"Ugh!" Sweet Tear covered her nose with one hand. "Your feet are getting worse, I think."

Lovemaker helped Sweet Tear stand, covering his own nose. "That's not my feet! They smell bad, but High Ones! This is enough to make my eyes leak."

Sweet Tear faced carefully away from the edge. It was far enough away that it wasn't causing panic anymore. A crushed leaf was stuck to her skirt and she peeled it off. The eye watering smell seemed to be caused by the leaf and its bruised cousins where Lovemaker had pulled Sweet Tear to the ground. She was ready to toss it away and call Honeypaw but a distinctive red vein caught her eye.

"This is it!" She waved the leaf enthusiastically in Lovemaker's face. He blanched.

"This is the plant we've been looking for since moonrise? This vile thing is supposed to help my feet smell better?!" Lovemaker flapped his hand vigorously, trying to wave away the smell.

Sweet Tear looked more closely at the leaf. "This is definitely the one. Firemoss says that this will stop the pain and clear up the smell." She still held her hand over her nose. "And you thought nothing smelled worse than your feet."

Lovemaker groaned. "What do I have to do with them? It's going to taste awful, isn't it!"

Sweet Tear laughed. "Oh, no," she said gently. "You have to pack them into your boots and wear them for a few hands of days."

Green eyes met her blue eyes. "Tell me you are joking." Lovemaker knelt at her feet and grasped her skirt. "Please, please tell me that I do not have to smell like this for a hand of days."

"If you wish to heal your feet, I'm afraid you have no choice." Sweet Tear looked down at the soft tawny curls of Lovemaker's hair. She wanted to touch them, and see if they were as soft as they looked, but resisted. Lovemaker stood up and took the leaf.

"Do your worst, evil plant. Not even my wolf-friend will be able to abide me."

Part 3

"You'll wear out your boots if you keep beating on them like that."

Lovemaker looked up to see Sweet Tear perched on a rock just above him. He was chest-deep in one of the calmer pools of Rushwater, trying in vain to wash the smell out of his boots. He sighed and swam to the base of the rock where Sweet Tear sat with her skirt tucked primly about her.

"I don't even know why I bother. I am just going to make them smell worse when we go pick more of those awful plants." He tossed the soggy boot to land next to Sweet Tear. She wrinkled her nose and scooted away from it.

"Is it helping?"

Lovemaker shrugged. "I think it is starting to. I'm willing to try it for a little longer"

"Well, let your poor boots dry and air out here and we can go find more of those smelly plants." Sweet Tear stood, brushing her skirt out.

Mother Moon was full, and Child Moon was almost full so plenty of light bathed the path up the canyon. Sweet Tear clung to Honeypaw, who paced sure-footedly up the incline. Lovemaker watched the back of her golden haired head. This path to the top of the canyons where the redvein grew was not very steep and it didn't have any drop-offs but now that Lovemaker knew the extent of Sweet Tear's fear of heights, he was amazed at her courage.

Much had changed in his head regarding Sweet Tear. Where once he had thought her uncommonly timid, he now had to recognize that she was quite brave and her shy and dreamy exterior hid a sharp wit and a sense of humour. Her capacity to appreciate beauty astonished him. She pointed out sights he had never noticed, showing him the beauty of tiny dew-hung spider webs that he would have brushed aside, pointing out the way that shadows from the moonlight over bushes made strange waving shapes and admiring a tiny flower that he never would have noticed.

When they gained the top of the canyon, away from the edge, but near the growing site of the redveins, Sweet Tear turned to look at him, golden hair almost silver in the moonlight. "Now that I know the scent of that horrible stuff, I can actually smell it from here!"

They rode to the patch of plants and dismounted, Sweet Tear with typical elfin grace, Lovemaker with much grumbling and limping on his sore feet. "High Ones, I hope this gets better soon," he complained.

Sweet Tear knelt near the plants and began gathering the thickest, tearing them neatly at the base. "The Holt thinks you are off on one of your usual hunting trips. They might find it strange if you come back with no game."

Lovemaker sank to his knees a little ways from her. "I haven't been able to hunt, or track, or anything."

Sweet Tear grinned at him, a mischievous expression that was rare on her face. "Or live up to your name?"

Lovemaker threw up his arms in mock disgust. "Or that either." He ripped up a few plants and tore off the roots.

"Don't take it out on those poor plants," Sweet Tear chided. "It's not their fault your feet stink so bad that no one could bear you."

Lovemaker laughed. No, he wouldn't have guessed at this sense of humour a hand of days ago. "I should change my name. I can be Stink, or Foulsmell."

"Stinkfoot," Sweet Tear laughed back. "You should change your name to Stinkfoot. You can be the defender of the Holt, for none would dare approach when you threaten to take off your boots."

Lovemaker threw one of the plants at her. "How dare you mock my serious malady!"

When they had enough redvein to pack Lovemaker's boots, they started back down the path. Sweet Tear clung to Honeypaw's ruff, glad to keep both hands buried in fur, and both eyes firmly on the back of Lovemaker's head. Going down was much more frightening than going up.

She concentrated on Lovemaker's curls rather than the distance that stretched steeply before and below. She marvelled that he seemed to bring out something of self-confidence in her. When they laughed together, she could completely forget the yawning depth of the canyon and she never seemed to remember to be embarrassed around him anymore.

He only offered friendship and good humoured company and though Sweet Tear longed for more, she was thrilled by what she had and she held their budding friendship dearly close to her heart. She wished that she were alluring and exciting like Windspear or Marshclay but sighed. Lovemaker would never be attracted to a boring treewee like her. For now, it was enough that he was her friend.

Lovemaker wiggled his toes in the water, marvelling at the way they stretched and curled without pain. His boots, beside him on the rock, still wafted foul odours but it was more from the herbs packed inside than from anything new from between his toes. He had told Sweet Tear that his feet were better, but hadn't indicated how much and it puzzled him. He was wise enough to realize that he was pretending that his feet were worse than they were to spend more time with Sweet Tear, but his actions baffled him. He had courted plenty of elves, but he had never resorted to such underhanded methods to win someone's company before.

It suddenly occurred to him that he wanted more from Sweet Tear than just a tumble in the furs. Her gentle nature and dreamy imagination had quite captured him, and he didn't know what he was going to do about it. She had relaxed a bit from the stiff shy elf-maid that disapproved of him so thoroughly but she still offered no more than friendly warmth, with no hint of attraction or invitation. Lovemaker's personal code of honour forbade him from courting where he was uninvited and never before had it galled him so badly.

He looked at the angle of the sun and sighed. It was still too long before he was meeting Sweet Tear and yet not enough time. He drew himself to his now healthy feet and sighed. A swim before seeing Sweet Tear would hopefully cool him down enough that he didn't make a fool out of himself.

"...And Windspear said that she looked like a treewee and wouldn't attract a blind bristleboar!" Sweet Tear was laughing and holding her sides, recounting an event of the evening before with difficulty through her mirth.

Lovemaker hooted and slapped his knees, leaning against one of the rock outcroppings. They were sitting in the clearing where Sweet Tear had first discovered his unpleasant smelling boots. The offending boots had been newly repacked with the foul healing herbs and were laced firmly about Lovemaker's feet. The two had developed a habit of coming to this clearing after they gathered the redvein and Sweet Tear would share the news from the Holt. Lovemaker craved these times, and thought that it was more than just the isolation from other elves that made him treasure each moment of it.

Sweet Tear rose unsteadily to her feet, wiping tears of laugher away. "I should get back to the holt," she said. "I promised Firemoss that I would help her sort some herbs and hang them to dry."

Lovemaker, still chuckling, also stood, and extended one hand to steady Sweet Tear. He opened his mouth but whatever he had been planning to say was gone when his green eyes met Sweet Tear's blue pools, and he drowned on the spot. His laughter died into astonishment and Sweet Tear's soul name hit him square in the center of his heart.

Sweet Tear was lost, awash in endless green eyes and she realized the Recognition at the same moment Lovemaker did. She wrapped herself around the soul name that was suddenly in her head, happiness glowing through her.

But happiness was suddenly replaced by biting bitterness and she thought to herself, 'This is the only way he will ever be attracted to me,' followed by, 'It isn't enough!' She screwed her eyes shut with effort and a whimper escaped her lips.

Lovemaker, though not usually one to deny the urgings of his body, resisted the desire to draw Sweet Tear roughly into his arms and only took her hands, gently, fighting animal instincts at every step.

"I'm so sorry, Sweet Tear. I know this isn't what you wanted. It isn't how I thought it would be, but I'm so happy that it's you." Lovemaker stumbled over his words, speaking as clearly as he could in the overwhelming fullness of his heart. "Please don't hate me for this, Sweet Tear. I love you, and I know that you don't feel that way about me now, but give me time. I can try to be what you want me to be." He touched one cheek, aching at the tears that were leaking past her shut eyes.

But when she opened her eyes, she was smiling through her tears. "You love me?" She was hesitant, and laughed with a hint of hysteria. "I am dreaming again. You will vanish and I will be picking plants with Firemoss. I am afraid to close my eyes."

Lovemaker blinked. "Help me, Sweet Tear. I am being dense. You like me?" He grasped her hands more tightly and shook them frantically. "I am missing something very important here!"

Boldly, Sweet Tear reclaimed her hands and leaned forward, putting her arms around Lovemaker's neck. **I love you, Breii. I have loved you for a very, very long time.**

The clear truth in her sending was impossible to deny, and Lovemaker felt that something inside that had been empty was suddenly full.

**I thought that you disapproved of me. I never guessed that I would be welcome in your life.** He buried one hand and his face into her mane of golden hair, drawing her close to him with his other hand in the small of her back. **I have fallen entirely in love with you. I would have taken this stinkfoot illness for a hand of seasons to have won you.**

Sweet Tear drew back a little and put one finger on Lovmaker's lips. She wrinkled her nose and said in mock disgust. "Speaking of feet, I would appreciate it if you left your boots on."

Lovemaker laughed and lifter her into his arms. Sweet Tear laughed with him, and the clearing was as filled as their hearts wit the sound of joy.