What genre is this passage?

[ffutures]

A small literary experiment:

I've edited a passage slightly to remove some identifying features. If you don't recognize it please say in comments what genre you think it is, when you think it was written, and what you think happens next. If you do recognize it please comment to say you recognize it, but don't otherwise comment.

Dried grasses and leaves gave under him, then remoulded about his body, and the fine scent of them filled his nostrils as he fell asleep easily. He did not dream at all.

When he awoke, the door of the big room stood ajar and from that direction he heard the call of birds. Still rubbing sleep from his eyes, T_______ rolled out of the bunk. The fire on the hearth was out and there was no one else in the room. But the clean smell of a new day in the Wild drew him out on the ledge, to stand looking down into the valley of the lake.

Something rose and fell with a regular stroke not far from the shore, and he realized he was watching a swimmer. A series of steps cut in the rock led down from the ledge, and T_______ followed them. Then a loose sleeping robe draped over a bush beckoned him on and he shed his own in turn, testing the temperature of the water with his toes, plunging into it in a clumsy dive before he could change his mind because of that chill greeting.

T_______ floundered along the shore, being no expert as was that other now heading, with clean arm sweeps and effortless kicks, back from the centre. His threshing disturbed mats of floating blossoms shed by trees bordering a rill that fed the lake at this point, and the bruised petals patterned his wet skin as he found sandy footing and stood up, shivering.

'Storm cold,' he commented as R_______ waded in.

The other stopped to wring water from his braided hair knot and then, surveying T_______'s dappled body, he laughed.

'A new refinement -- flower baths?'

I'll post more on this in a day or two.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I've certainly never seen it before.

The capitalized "Wild" says fantasy to me. The low tech might just be historical, but "Wild" sounds archetypal.

Other than that, the tone of the writing makes me think gay romance, or maybe gay paranormal romance specifically, because of the hints of fantasy.

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

Looks vaguely familiar. Late 50's fantasy, maybe in the post Burroughs vein of unknown wilderness translated to planetry romance? Feels like the pause point in a journey.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I don't recognise it. I'd guess that it was written fairly recently - say within the last couple of decades. It could be any genre, but based on the excerpt a slash romance is one possibility, possibly in a fantasy setting although not necessarily. If it is a romance, then what follows next could be these two characters falling in love and/or having sex.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Paranormal romance.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Hmm - until I got down to the braided hair knot it seemed quite 1920s English gentlemen abroad, or possibly Americans exploring their own continent.

The knotted hair on a male made me rethink to Japanese - then to the possibility of native American.

Or it is actually a fantasy piece and could be set anywhere and anywhen. Even Sci-fi ... Ringworld anyone?

What happens next? I think that depends on what their relationship had been established as before the passage started. It could lead into a love scene, but could just lead to awkward laughter and bacon and egg cooked once they relit the fire.