“THE INTRUDER” by Lollipoppins

Twilight broke from the womb of a dying afternoon, emerging into the blueness of twilight’s embrace. The stallion threaded his way through orchards alive with olive and citrus fragrance. Stone-studded soil crumbled underfoot, dry and dark with soaked sunlight. Copses of cypresses speared the horizon, vineyards unraveling at their base like green threads against the gold patchwork of the fields. At sunset, if the wind blew just right (as it was just then), it stirred up indescribable aromas, tantalizing as any practiced lover. Compressed beneath the sun’s heat all day, the ripening grapes released their perfume, enough to entice, not strong enough to stifle.

It reminded him of Esmerelda, his latest conquest.

The ride cracked away all his cricks and broke his blisters—Zorro felt little or none of it. The euphoria of returning home after dueling and decapitating and slaying and putting people in slings for days was enough to buoy his heart above the irritation. Wearied bodies and soothed souls trickled from the fields, homeward bound, while overhead the sunset’s masterpiece stretched along heaven’s canvas. They nodded to Zorro tiredly, waving. Without his black mask, he was just another sweat-streaked youth of the village, coming home after toiling all day in the fields. And he liked it that way, too.

Zorro threw back his head, drank in the frothing amber and gold that dripped from paradise and stained the clouds with godly ambrosia. Home.

“Angreek87″