Passion of the Different Read Free

crowd and possibly danger. It might take me a long time to break the news about you. I have to get them acclimated to the idea, then maybe invite one at a time… but until then, please stay here and out of sight.”
    “Why?” he asked, more than a little bewildered. As he listened to her and carefully considered her body language, he realized there was more to this than a mild scolding. She was concerned for his safety, as if there was something about him that would make people afraid or angry. While his memory was terribly dark, there were common sense basic feelings he still found reliable. He had no sense of why people should be afraid or angry with him.
    “Come here,” she answered, quick to her feet and stalking across the room to the far wall where a tapestry hung, the weave making it appear to be a sunset with a mountain in the distance. As he approached, she tugged on a corner and it partially fell to reveal a long and wide mirror. Their images were sharp and the quality of the reflection high in detail. He stood next to her slender form and noticed his hard chiseled face coupled with a body that spoke of strength and height. With his broken memory refusing to share information, this felt like the first time he had seen himself.
    That bothered him on several levels but he didn't let it show in his expression. Being no judge of men, he didn't know if he would be considered handsome or not. At least he didn't look ugly to himself. The outfit she made him looked comfortable while hugging his frame, a V pattern stitched from the right side of his chest down to the left side of his waist. His wide chest muscles pressed through the material as it clung to him, as well as his leg muscles. Not super tight like stockings. Just noticeable. He started to shake his head when she frowned, the first time he had seen her unhappy. He didn't like that look on her face but there wasn't much he couldn't do about it at the moment. Her level of suspense in the mirror didn't go away either as she put all of her concerns into one word. “See?”
    “I’m afraid I don’t…” he started, but she cut him off.
    “You look nothing like anybody I‘ve ever seen,” she pointed out. Her finger addressed every part of him in the mirror. “Your long hair is dark and wavy. Your eyes are the color of a summer sky, which has never been seen before. You have huge muscles. I have never seen muscles so big in all my life. Your skin is like bronze. Look how tall you are. I was always teased for being the tallest girl ever among my people. Men are actually unhappy with having to look up at me. You… even compared to me you’re a giant. Your voice is so low, I can't even begin to describe the effect that has. Your ears are rounded and short and somehow it fits you instead of looking like a defect. Nobody in my town or whole world for that matter, as far as I know, looks or sounds anything like you. Is your memory so far gone that you don’t realize this?”
    Now it was his turn for his mouth to open and close several times before he got out his one worded reply. “Yes.”
    “For crying out loud,” she exclaimed, the realization of his condition being more serious than she realized had loaded more stress on the word than she intended. He staggered and almost fell. He put a hand to his head and his vision clouded, cleared and re-clouded in mere seconds. It wasn’t anything in her tone or expression. It was that one word .
    “What?” he muttered to her, astonishment robbing his deep voice of much of it’s volume, making it almost a whisper.
    Her slim form attached to him instantly, her shoulder going under his arm. She supported him with the quickness of thought and helped him stagger to a lowlying couch. Concern and surprise chased itself across her pretty features as his weight made the white wood frame creak. She detached herself but sat close, her hand going to his head to feel for a fever. He didn’t have one, but his eyes weren’t