Winter Legacy -18-

In a few years, Claus became a common sight in Al Simhara. He became friends with many of the locals, in fact, Sunset Valley felt like a vacation home to him.  He managed to get himself so entangled in the local culture that the Lufti family matron allowed him to court both of her daughter. Claus and Mena, the elder, chubbier sister became close friends and he couldn't risk losing that friendship if a relationship didn't work out.  It was Layla the younger sister that he became romantically involved with, although he was more attracted to her older sister physically.

Claus knew enough about the culture to know that one does not have physical contact with the woman until after they were married, so Claus and Layla were physically affectionate when nobody else was around.

Layla was perfect wife material. She cooked, she cleaned and she was obedient. Her mother had started asking questions about marriage and Claus was not yet feeling like he was ready to settle down. 

"Do you not love me Claus?" Layla asked. 

Claus toyed with his salad for a long time before he answered the girl. "Layla, you know I love you." He did not mention that he loved her, but only in a platonic way. "But I'm not ready to get married yet."

"I do love you as a wife should love her husband Claus. I will even risk my name by getting physical with you...if that is what you want."

Claus was taken aback, just what did these people think about him? So he spent his time with widows and those women that Al Simhara considered unclean due to their inability to wait until they were married to lay with a man. "No." Claus said, just as his cell phone rang. "I have to go now."

Flame Fruit. Claus wondered what MorcuCorp could possibly do with Flame Fruit. He still hadn't met Tahiya Shalut in person, yet she was constantly calling him and sending him letters with instructions that he was happy to carry out. He understood her desire to keep her identity a secret, MorcuCorp may as well have been the mafia, they dealt with some shady characters and kept their places of operation secrets. In fact, Claus said a prayer every time he left home. If the caves and tomes didn't kill him, there was a good chance MorcuCorp's goons would find out what he was up to on his frequent visits to Egypt and get rid of him themselves.

Before he started this adventure, Claus decided to take a rest. He never knew how long he would be wondering around, and he hated to stop once he got started. He quickly found out that the Temple of the Sun was accurately named, the heat inside the tent was so intense he thought he would pass out. 

Abandoning sleep, Claus got out of the tent and used a Shower in the Can, not because he needed to get cleaned up, but because he needed to cool down. 

Claus got to work trying to find the keystone to unlock the first door. He did not have much trouble doing so.

The door led to a dive pool. Claus stared at the pool for a while, he realized that he had no choice to get into steamy water. 

Claus was drenched when he climbed out of the pool, despite the warmth of the water inside the pool, when he climbed out the still air felt rather cool. Claus walked around aimlessly for a while, that was how he stumbled on a couple of Flame Fruit bushes growing out of the cracked tiles. He had been instructed to pick five. He gathered three from the first cluster of bushes which meant that he had to travel further into the uncomfortably hot tome.

Claus was not at all happy to find the second dive pool, the water inside this one was hotter than the first. 

Claus came to a room with some fire traps and more of the giant statutes that he had to push around. He inspected his surroundings and decided that the locked door would be easy to open, but the heat had drained him. He pitched his tent and despite the smoldering heat, Claus managed to fall asleep.

When he woke up, drenched in his own sweat. Claus felt more tired than he had before, and slightly dehydrated. He realized that if he did not leave the tome soon, the heat would kill him. So he packed his tent away and began the task of pushing the statues around. Claus' vision swam, the locks fell away from the door and he stumbled into the other room. Lucky for Claus, there were more than enough bushes inside the room for him to pick what he needed and more. And even more conveniently, there was a door that opened to the entrance.

After his experience in the tome, the young man knew that he would never take fresh air for granted again.

Claus delivered the Flame Fruit to the drop-off point that Tahiya Shalut had told him, then he went to Base Camp to rest. 

It was three hours before he needed to be at the airport, Claus went to see Layla one more time. 

"You are leaving? Already?"

"I have to, my little sister's thirteenth birthday is tomorrow and if I'm not there to celebrate with her, she'll have my head." He pecked Layla on the cheek and left. 

Two days later Layla showed up on Claus' doorstep. "What are you doing here?" He asked. 

"I missed you." Was all she said. He stepped back to allow her into the house.

Layla grabbed onto him immediately, kissing him so intensely that she bit his lip. Claus managed to peel her off him, but Layla fought him and continued to kiss him as if her life depended on it. "What are you doing?" Claus demanded when he pulled her off him so that he could breathe. 

"Making sure that you stay with me."

Claus wanted to give her the same speech he had given Snowie. There was not a thin line between love and sex, or at least not where men were concerned. They had a primal instinct to spread their seeds, and once this need was taken care of, where, when nor who mattered. 

But Claus' protruding pants made him a hypocrite. In that moment, all he wanted was to have Layla naked, all he needed to do was to cum so that his balls wouldn't explode. He would feel guilty later.