by Isoellen
Unsure what he meant, Annabell let him pull her upright. She got a yes; that was the important part. Their blankets and furs fell away, exposing her nakedness to the room. In a curved hollow, she couldn't see anyone from her vantage point. There was light around the corner, and she rarely glimpsed the side of an Orki walking past, but this was the first place they slept with privacy. At her feet, there were many extra furs and blankets, supplies specific to this camp. She had no memory at all of arriving here. "Where are we?"
"The island of many fruits. Nesting grounds. This is the freedom tree. This is where the redress brides have their first heat. Anna's heat came early.”
"What?" She said that word a lot.
"Anna, no hear?"
She couldn't tell if he was teasing or serious. "Nesting grounds, first heat, Anna's heat came early. What does any of that mean? First heat? You mean like animals? Coming into season? I am a human. I have a cycle, I don't have a heat."
"Every redress woman who drinks the milk of the sister will have a heat."
"I don't understand what you're saying to me."
"Women of the Valley drink the milk, ripen for the seed. One born redress. Anna drink Zerzer-tor-ur. You are mine. Doku-ni yours."
Annabell tried to translate that information into common. Milky sour fermented something had been in the red pouch, and she drank it, thinking it was ritual alcohol. In reality, it was a type of drug? He said the women from the Valley drink that milk of the sister.
"The women of the Valley drink the milk—the Zerzer-tor-ur, the milk of the sister from the red pouch?"
His brow lowered. "Eid tell better."
"I don't know Eid. I know you. Is there something special about the valley? The Peace agreement—I remember—my papa. Did you know him? He had a copy of that agreement because our family came from the steel cities. My ancestors owned a mine. They were rich, always fighting for power, warring, stealing, lying. No one was ever safe. My great-great-grandfather was an heir and his family had planned out his wife, his life, where and how he would live, and who he had to kill to establish himself. Even back then, the Orki Originals controlled most of the land on the planet."
"Yes," he said.
"My great grandfather would do anything to escape his destiny, so he sold his daughter for a new one. He promised the Orki a bride."
"Yes."
She searched his face for more. But other than to confirm the history as she remembered it, he gave her no more information. "The contract agreement between the Peace River Villages and the Orki says that women who drink from the Peace River, eat of the water and land, can all become an Orki bride."
"Only one. But, the land and the milk of the sister prepare the bride."
"The land. Is there something in the land?"
"Yes. Eid tell. Has words. Is in the heart and soul of the Dorsus earth."
She would be such a woman. She could be an Orki bride. Special. Adventures would await her. She would see and learn things few other women experienced. She would be like the great aunt who would become a bride of the Orki.
She saw the red bladder and knew it was important. Having always wanted to be a bride, to have an adventure, to be taken away from her dull farm life, to live in the wild of the Orki territories—she had reached for it with both hands. Causing the feverish and upset stomach of "sickness," the drink in that red container helped transform her. She had a heat, experienced intense desire and pleasure, and she was now a woman capable of birthing Orki children.
She placed her hand on her belly. Was there a child growing in there even now?
"Anna is a brave and unique woman." Doku-ni laid palm over hers. "Anna understands?"
"I think I understand. My father kept the history. There were books and he told me stories. I forgot most of them. But I always wanted to be a bride."
"My Anna." He pulled her against him, touched her face, her cheeks. Resting her hands at his waist, she basked in the exchange of contact. Having someone to touch and be touched was a lovely pleasure she would never take for granted.
"Come, let us wash. Anna needs food. We will be here another night. You have had your heat; the others have not," he said.
He wouldn't let her bring anything to cover up. She didn't need it. Anna wanted to argue. She never walked over three steps naked in a room with a closed door. He wanted her to walk through to a place to bathe, past others, parts bouncing and jiggling, skin exposed to little biting critters, to the sun, to the air. He had a waistcloth and belt; she didn't even get that.
"What do the Orki have against clothing?" she asked when he picked her up into his arms.
"Anna hide from Doku-ni?" he asked back.
"No, but— I don't like being naked."
"No hide from Doku-ni, my redress." He told her as if the idea of being clothed and hiding were the same. They were not, and she had a hundred ways to tell him this was so.
Curious about this camp, she let the subject go to look around before she lost her chance. What was this structure? At times smooth and others rough. They walked by cabinets in the walls. He stopped opening one, pulling out a dark black and brown fur. Tanned by an artisan’s hand, it was soft as butter. Cream. The prime fur, from an animal she had never seen, was silky under her fingers.
She realized this natural structure was a giant hollowed-out tree. Their bed was off to the side in a deep indent. The grand scale of the sight in front of Annabell challenged her perceptions and understandings about trees and space. Huge. It was huge. With a smoke hole above, tiers wound down to a center circle where a large fire burned. With shallow, carved-out resting places for beds in the upper level, there was space inside of the tree for many more than the twelve Orki of a single hunting party. Since it was daylight now, it was the Orki night. She could hear the moans and cries of other women. It was impossible not to let her eyes fall where she heard them loudest. Orki males gathered down by the large circle of the fire pit around a blonde woman. Carried quickly to the exit, forbidden to see any other Orki or people, Doku-ni gave her no chance to understand what she saw.
"Annabell join the community fire and watch?" he asked. He knew she had been looking around.
Shifting her attention, guilty, she lowered her eyes, afraid to look at him. Every time Annabell attempted to see her surroundings and other Originals were in the way, he turned her face into his chest, refusing to let her see. Now she had permission to look around? "The woman with the yellow hair is my sister by marriage."
"Yellow hair is succor. Anna wish to join the fire?" His question was low and gruff.
"Is she alright? What is succor? Can I go talk to her?"
He stopped, turned her to face the center of the structure where the fire burned and she could see Lurann. Not just at the fire, but engaged in a complicated sex act with two Orki at once. "Join the fire?" he asked.
"Join them? No. No. Is she a bride? No. I don't want to… join them."
Turning away from the scene, he said, "See community fire. Fire cooks ni-Orki food, warms ni-Orki, shares life ni-Orki. In the fire, we are ni-Orki. Out of the fire, we are Orki-ni. Orki group, but we are not the same. Orki-ni individuals. The fire is community, ni-Orki. Anna sees the community. Anna-Doku-ni-Orki. All invited to the fire, food and company."
His strides ate up space to the exit. Outside, the forest greeted her with more green hues than she had ever seen. In the vague memory points of her journey, she had noted the difference in the terrain and plant life, but this, by far, was the most wooded and succulent. One moment they were in a mote of daylight, the next, they were in the shadows, following a dark corridor of a path between the trees. The tree with the camp inside of it was not the only mammoth grower. This forest was a city of them, growing so tightly together that the path was in shadows that mimicked nighttime. Even on scale next to the Orki, the trees were huge.
Following behind them, silently, catching the light on their gray skins, were three Orki. Annabell saw them over Doku-ni's shoulder. Glanc
ing away, she pretended she saw nothing.
"Eyes on Doku-ni, Annabell. Glass water dangerous, but good for washing. Doku-ni strong but not stupid. Brothers will help to protect my redress woman."
"What is dangerous?"
"Glass water has sisskot kru," he informed her.
"Sharp fish," Annabell translated.
"Armored fish with sharp teeth," he said.
"And that is where we are washing?" She heard her voice rise in pitch at the idea.
A grunt answered her that Annabell took to mean yes.
He carried her to the 'glass water' the entire way. Keeping her eyes ahead of them, she wondered at the different kinds of foliage. Moss and ferns grew in abundance here, all different varieties, and colors of green, over rocks and up the sides of trees. Some mosses were decorated with gold mushrooms. Other mushrooms grew on the trees, big, black hooded things, with white spots that looked like something found them delicious. She noticed round-headed red ones, flower-like with lacy edges, in tight clusters.
There were bushes, with leaves she recognized, that grew along the Peace River, and other plants she didn't, like the delicate star-shaped flowers growing in bunches under the shade of tall, leafy plants with broad spade-shaped leaves. The place was beautiful.
As she had in areas during their travel, she heard the chittering of birds and tree critters. She smiled, catching sight of the back end of a black and white speckled animal, its long tail fluffing big as they approached, before turning sharp and whip-like as it dashed away.
The path led to a bank and a thin beach of round, dark blue river stones. Annabell twitched to get down out of Doku-ni's arms and examine everything about this different forest.
Passing them, the three other Orki sentries spread out on either side and went down to the beach. Holding long spear-ended poles, she saw them poke at bushes and the tree line, as if stirring a pot. Did the armored fish like to sleep on land? Catching her looking, Doku-ni shook her in his arms, giving the low grunt in his chest, which vibrated through her sharp and hard.
The reprimand stung. "I only see you."
"Do not look at brother. I have said."
"Yes. But it's very difficult not to watch my surroundings."
"Doku-ni watch. Keep Anna safe. Brothers watch. Keep Doku-ni redress safe."
Turning her face into his chest, she kissed him.
His answering grunt was softer now. That strange metal and wire had been around his neck for a long time. It baffled her how it worked that he could breathe and eat but not talk, his ability to communicate so many things with that one sound was rather remarkable.
The other Orki must have checked everything. She heard them use a word that she thought meant "clean."
Doku-ni answered with a louder grunt of assent.
She giggled. If she counted how many ways he could respond with that mid-chest grunt, there must be hundreds.
"What is that sound?" he asked.
"What?"
He imitated a stuttered noise—her giggle.
"I was laughing at how many things you can say with a grunt."
He grunted again, sending her into more laughter.
Leaving the clean animal pelts on the beach, he waded into the moving current up to his knees. Keeping her close to him, he had her kneel in the icy cold water to get wet. Teeth chattering and using him as a bulwark against the pressure of the moving stream, she didn't argue. As much as she did not enjoy being naked outside, the way he bathed her was a pleasure she did enjoy. She held onto him while he lathered her with a block of soapy stuff in his palm. The cold of the water and the heat of his hands and actions kept her from freezing.
Remembering the armored fish with teeth he'd told her about, she avoided the temptation of distraction. She wanted this wash, not to be bitten by some strange fish. Although she loved how they smelled together, they were sticky and crusty with it. Her heat, as he called the sickness, and his physical response to it had been elemental and filthy. Standing nude in the water, his cock hard, she pondered all the filthy things she hadn't yet gotten to do and felt a rush of trembling desire go through her body.
He knew the instant it happened. Answering the call of her body by clasping her throat and pulling Annabell into him, using her soapy belly to wash his hardening shaft. His change in demeanor was all it took to forget all about being outside, other Orki nearby, and the threat of a deadly fish. But the brief teasing was all she got. He made her kneel again, then pushed her back to wet her hair and washed her face, cooling off her outside if not her insides. He washed her long hair faster than she could, then himself faster than she would have, picked her up, and took her to the shore.
The day felt much cooler now. Reaching for the animal skin, she wrapped herself in it and watched him shake himself dry before picking her up. In his embrace, she pet his dry skin. "How is this happening? You were wet and cold like me, but now you are dry? All you did was twitch a bit."
"Orki different."
"You had metal in your throat for how long? You make a noise as intoxicating as a full bottle of berry wine? And a hunting party of twelve took out a small army of raiders. Yes. You are different. But I don't understand how you can be dry."
"Orki skin is special," he said. Either he wasn't sure the best way to explain, or he simply didn't want to try to. Snuggled in the safety of his hold, she traced her finger along the line at his throat.
Special indeed.
Back in the place where they had slept, he sat her down with a snoring Zerzer. The war beast and the Orki shared a connection that she didn't understand. Not only could they speak with one another, but they shared a kinship, a correlation in nature. Milk of the Sister, the fermented drink that changed her into an Orki Original war bride, had come from some kind of animal somewhere. The possible answers to that question made Annabell's eyebrows climb to her hairline. But no less strange was the idea that the massive killing machine had puppies somewhere. Kids? Babies. Zerzer had behaved with a teasing and motherly attitude towards her since their very first meeting.
Dropping her hands to cover her belly, Annabell wondered what kind of mother she would be. Was there a baby growing inside of her already? After not conceiving with Mark in the first year of conscientiously attempting parenthood on a monthly basis, Annabell decided motherhood was out of the range of her life's possibilities. It was the only reason she gave in to wed Mark.
Seeing to other tasks, Doku-ni left her side. But he'd only been gone for a minute when Annabell swore she felt a strange tingling warmth in her chest, the pulling of a drawstring. There was a sense of him and his feelings towards her—his desire and his affection. It must be all in her romantic imagination. She built up years of fantasies about the Orki Original myths that could not be true.
Arms full of fresh bedding and food, Doku-ni returned. Picking her up, he sat down in her spot, Zerzer complaining in a grunt when he leaned back and positioned Annabel in his lap. What an amazing thing to be able to sit in his lap. She was woman and child all at the same time, stirring emotions she didn't have words for.
He fed her cold meat, sweet cake, and the orange fruits. She blushed when she saw them. Snatching one off the plate, she popped one in her mouth and tried to bite into it. The too-hard skin didn't break, she only bruised it releasing, a tiny bit of the tangy flavor.
"May I use your knife please to cut it in half?"
He took the fruit from her. Caught in his gaze again, helpless to look away and turning red. He rewarded her with an almost-smirk. His tongue licked across the surface of the round thing. In his hand, it looked like a tiny piece of candy. That black tongue of his set butterflies and tingles rising in her belly. His big, round white head, that subtle smile, his gentleness, the intense way he did everything regarding her—this quiet male was the most attractive being she had ever encountered. She wanted his attention. Badly. Her core pulsed with desire for him.
He took the fruit, bit it in half, and handed it back to her. With the te
nsion in the skin broken, it was much easier to eat. Clear-headed now, Annabell appreciated the unique flavor. They must grow on the island. "What are these?"
He answered with a word that sounded like kut-coot. The ridiculous name tickled her sense of the absurd, and she giggled. His eyes danced in response. Sitting up, holding his face between her hands, she answered his smile with one of her own before letting her own boldness escape and running her tongue up one of his tusks. Afterward, she sat back, shocked at her actions, embarrassed she waited for rejection to come.
Tilting his head to the side, he said, "More."
"Can you feel that?"
"Doku-ni feel everything redress does for her one. Again."
She licked his other tusk, feeling the smooth ivory of the exposed tooth. It had a unique texture. Kissing his closed mouth, she sat back on her heels, blushing again. Oh, how she liked all of him.
