Untitled Romantasy Project

Chapter One: The First Chapter

by Crandall

May 11, 2025

               Lulia Hawkthrone crouched in the bushes as the sunset painted the sky in vibrant hues.  Hearing sticks snap, she knew he was on the path to the glade.  Their secret path.  Their hallowed glade.  Her breath quickened as his steps neared.  Then she saw him.  Joppy Jampson, the tall, handsome man whose touch she dreamt of so often.  A thrilling tingle rushed through her, knowing this time he would not reject her.

               Joppy entered the glade, looking confused.  He took in the hundred whimsical jars with fireflies that hung from the trees and the white blanket adorned with flower petals in the centre of the clearing.    

               “Lulia?” he said.  She emerged, melting his shock into a soft, desiring gaze.  They held hands and he kissed her on the cheek.  “What is all this?” he asked.

               In answer, Lulia gracefully undid the ribbon of her blouse and the silky fabric slid down past her chest, exposing her breasts.  She quivered with anticipation.

               “Don’t, Lulia,” he said and turned his head away. “Your letter said you wanted to see me about something important.”

               “This is important,” Lulia said.  She touched his chin, turning his head toward her. “We are important.”

               Joppy took her hand off his chin and clumsily tried to place the blouse back onto her shoulders.   “This isn’t right.  I don’t want to do this,” Joppy said, blushing and stepping away as her blouse slipped back down to her waist.

               Lulia was suddenly enraged. “You lied to me, Joppy!”

               “I did not!”

               Lulia sighed and retied her blouse, feeling stupid for exposing herself.  “You did lie.  When we were falling in love, you said you didn’t want to have sex to make sure that our relationship wasn’t JUST a physical one.  I understood and respected that.  But Joppy, we’re engaged to be married, we’re deeply in love, why not now?”

               “You’re obsessed with sex!” Joppy said.

               “I’m obsessed with YOU!” Lulia yelled. “It’s not just sex, you hardly even kiss me!  I It HURTS me to feel so far away from you!”

               Joppy put a comforting hand on Lulia’s shoulder.  “We’ll have sex when we’re married.  For children.”

               “I never would have agreed to marry you if I knew you were not going to fulfill my desires.”

               “You’re obsessed with desire!”

               “Is a starving person OBSESSED with food?!” Lulia said boldly. 

               Joppy was silent for a moment, then said: “Don’t you love me?”

               “Joppy, I love you so much, but you are being cruel.  This isn’t the life I want.  Only having sex to make children?”

               “That’s what sex is for!”

               “No, Joppy.  Not to me.”

               Joppy quickly left the glade, looking embarrassed and angry.  Flower petals exploded out in all directions as Lulia snatched the blanket off the ground.  She wrapped it around herself and fell to her knees.  She screamed, letting out all her frustration and heartbreak.  The fireflies flew about wildly in their jars, smashing their tiny bodies against the sides over and over until the jars started to crack, then to break.  The bugs swarmed around Lulia.  She threw her arms open and her head back and watched as the hundred scintillating bugs flew high above her, grouped, and then, as her first tears fell, dispersed like an explosion of shooting stars into the night.

* * * *

               When Lulia entered her house, it was dark.  She was dirty and exhausted from crying on the forest floor.  She crept up the stairs and into her room, flopping on the bed.

               So this was her life?  Sex only a few times a year?  It was impossible!  She truly loved Joppy, but to demand both fidelity and celibacy was never going to work.  She could hurt him now by running away or hurt him later by giving herself to the first person to tell her she was pretty and give her a kiss.  And there could be children by then!  Heartbroken, she packed her things up into a bindle. Lulia took off her engagement ring and placed it on a short note: “It would never work.” She snuck out of her parents’ house, headed to the main road, and walked all night to get to the big city. 

               As dawn broke, she felt a glimmer of hope in the bustling town.  Wondering about her place in this new world, she pondered job opportunities in the many taverns.  Just then, a small, dirty-faced girl touched her elbow.

               “Please, miss,” she said squeakily, “can you spare a few coins?  I’m ever so hungry.”

               “Aw,” said Lulia, touched, “I have a sandwich in my bindle.”

The little girl nodded.  Lulia took her bindle off her shoulder and suddenly a group of children rushed her and snatched it out of her hands.  The little girl joined them as they ran off with her things.  She could not stop them.

               Maybe she was wrong.  Maybe she should just go back home and marry Joppy.  Maybe Joppy was right; maybe she was obsessed with sex.  Maybe she needed to learn to ignore the gnawing emptiness and loneliness that a life of little to no sex made her feel.  What were feelings anyway?  Was this better than a warm bed with love but no passion? 

               Suddenly, music captured her attention.  Following the sweet sound, Lulia found herself in a tavern called The Ladder and Mud.  With the few coins left hidden on her, she ordered a scotch and turned to watch the performer on stage.  It was a very handsome man and he played the instrument so well.

               “Who’s that?” she asked the bearded bartender.

               “Cannon Dawdinstry,” he answered unenthusiastically.

               “He’s wonderful.”  Lulia was transfixed.  His instrument playing was entrancing, intoxicating.  And when he began to sing, she swooned.

               He sang about how hard it was to make it in the city, but how he was doing so well now because he didn’t give up.  Lulia, in her trance-like state, understood the message to be for her. 

               “Bartender,” she said, “are you hiring?”