Long slits at either hip allowed his legs their freedom of
movement. Beneath one of these as he crouched could be seen a tanned
and soft-beaten loincloth, tied off with a knot at the crest of the
splayed and sinewy leg closest to her. His boots were made of some
furrier hide, silver-black in color, and tightly bound to his calves by
crisscrossing leather thongs. He also wore thongs about his neck and
wrists, a sharpened clamshell hanging from the former, the strands
dangling loose in the case of the latter. Decorative in appearance,
they were in fact purely practical, serving many purposes as need arose.
He also wore the buckskin pouch, along with a drinking skin from which
he rationed water for the two of them, Akar being free to pursue it as
he might. As for the man himself, his hair was light brown and wild; a
short and irregular beard wrapped a face whose stern features implied a
determination and experience beyond his years.
Nor had she failed to note the striking body beneath, endowed very
probably with more supple and functional strength than any she had ever
seen. More than once she felt her eyes trail across it---the knotted
arms and shoulders, the well shaped thighs and buttocks---very much
attracted.
But it was this same strength of mind and body, infinitely desirable in
a tamer soul, that brought home so consistently her own helplessness
against him.
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