The Start of Time

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  She said, “Of course. I’ll treasure it. And someday we can use it for a great home!”

  I laughed this time, thinking about the pile of similar gems in the bag at my waist.

  I said, “I don’t think it will be necessary. If you like it, it will be yours forever. My token to the girl I love.”

  Aeyli-ah didn’t say anything, but I felt her hug me and lean her cheek against my neck. After a few minutes, she said, “Mark, did you enjoy feeding me?”

  I said, “What? Oh. Yes! That was amazing!”

  She said, “I very much enjoyed feeding you too. And being fed by you. That doesn’t have to be only in dire circumstances. I plan to feed you as often as you like…and you can feed me as often as you want to as well. Look. Here we are. And, it’s still an hour until dark. We made it! Let me down and I’ll walk.”

  We walked the last 50 yards hand in hand. We hurried, but didn’t run. Aeyli-ah was cautious, but in good spirits.

  She said, “My Prince, the watering hole is in the center of the main building. We won’t find other people there, but we don’t know what other creatures will come here to drink after dark. In the morning we ‘ll be safe enough, but we need to drink what we can quickly and then find a chamber on an upper floor and barricade the door until sunrise. We need to hurry.”

  We quickened our pace, going as fast as Aeyli-ah could comfortably run, and made it to the ruined buildings a few seconds later. We rushed silently toward the larger central building and darted inside. The girl led the way into the interior, down a hallway, and into a central courtyard. In the middle of the yard was a fountain pool, about six feet across, surrounded by two steps leading down to the water. She pulled me to the water’s edge and knelt down to drink. She quickly removed the bag that she wore at her belt and filled it with water and held it out to me.

  “Here, drink, it is safe,” she said.

  I took the container from her hand and sipped the water. It was clean and fresh and I gulped it down. When it was empty, she filled it again and then drank the full container herself. Filling it a third time, she said, “Again, we have to hurry.” I drank one more time, probably a total of 16 ounces from each bag, and then Aeyli-ah filled and drank the contents a second time herself. When she was done, she filled the bag a final time and then tied the top tightly to seal it.

  She said, “Come quickly!” and she led me down another hallway to a room across from the doorway that we had entered from. Inside, we found several straight round wooden poles that had probably been used at some point to hang tapestries or drapery. The cloth hangings were long gone, but the poles remained. Each was about six or eight feet long. I grabbed three of them and Aeyli-ah rushed us back out of the room and up a stairway to our left. At the top, we crossed a balcony and went up a second set of stairs. From there, we rushed across a large central room, ignoring closed doors on each side, and ascended a third staircase to the topmost floor.

  Going directly past two doors on our right side, and stopping at a third, she quickly took the knife from her belt and slid it into a crack between two stones above the door, triggering a lock mechanism, and pushed the door open. We hurried inside, and whirling around Aeyli-ah closed the door quietly and set a lock near the top.

  She whispered, “The lock deters casual visitors, but it won’t hold against a forceful battering.”

  Looking at the floor and finding an uneven stone, I braced two of the poles that I was carrying against it and braced the door.

  I said, “That will help some.”

  I looked around the room to see what safety we had, even though I had no idea what the dangers actually were. The room was about 15 by 20 feet wide. There were no windows. A few of the glowing lamps, like the ones in the cave but this time red instead of blue, dimly illuminated the place. These lamps were mineral, and lasted for centuries without fuel. At one side of the room was a raised platform, about the size of a king-sized bed, and apparently used as one. It was covered with and assortment of furs, presumably for comfort and warmth. Aeyli-ah grabbed a large one from the bed and draped it on hooks so that it covered the door, having me remove and then replace the bracing poles.

  Aeyli-ah said, “This will help muffle any sound we might make tonight. The door and walls are thick. We’ll be safe enough now.”

  Apart from the bed, there was only a sack, the size of my day pack. It contained a few more water bags and a few scraps of leather, but nothing else.

  She said, “This is where I stay on my way to and from the shrine. No one disturbs it. Only beasts will visit this place now. We can relax. Tonight, we’ll stay in this room, and tomorrow we can fill more water bags and continue on our way. Or, we can gather some food and stay another night or two if we want to. Making your weapons, and teaching me to use one might be worth a delay of a day or two.”

  I said, “Aeyli-ah, I don’t have a plan or a place to go. I came because I searched for John Carter’s cave, and once I found it, I had no choice but to see where it would take me. In many respects, I’m willing to trust you completely and place myself into your hands. You seem to have an idea of where we should go, and I’ll gladly follow you there.”

  We moved to the bed and sat on the edge together and I took her hands in mine and looked at her.

  I said, “But, we still need to talk. I’ve told you that I’m very happy to have been given the chance to choose you as my mate, even though you felt that I had no choice, but you said that you didn’t have a choice yourself. You bound yourself to me out of obligation, because you couldn’t let me die.”

  She stopped me and said, “My Prince, I chose you in my heart before I ever set eyes on you. And when I saw you, and felt your heart, I knew that I had chosen what I truly wanted. I could have chosen differently. I wasn’t under an unbreakable vow. I followed my heart in the moment. It wasn’t my past or future that decided for me. Listen, it has been a long, momentous, very hard day. I think that by morning, we’ll both be sure of our true feelings.” And she smiled at me. “And, besides, haven’t I promised you my body as well?”

  I said, “You are absolutely the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen! If your body is promised to me, I will cherish it and make you as happy as I can that you chose me. Um, you call me ‘My Prince’…do you mean…?”

  In the stories of Barsoom, I knew that the phrase ‘My Prince’ was a very intimate title reserved for lovers; something a woman would only say to the one man that she had chosen and could not live without.

  Aeyli-ah said, “I do. My love, I do. You are My Prince! My whole heart belongs to you. We only met, but I don’t need time to know my heart toward you.”

  She stood up and removed the belt from her waist and laid it aside. She was completely naked even before she did it, but that act was the sexiest thing that I had ever seen. As much as my wife and I had loved each other, I knew that she had never loved me like this.

  I stood and said, “My Princess!” and removing my belt, I took her in my arms and kissed her.

  Chapter 8 Mating Night

  Our bodies melted together. This was our first true embrace. The past several hours had been a fight for survival. It had brought us close emotionally, and it had created a bond that we now felt was unbreakable, but despite the intimate contact that we’d shared in order to sustain our lives, this was our first real touch.

  I kissed Aeyli-ah, and she responded. Her lips met mine and our tongues intertwined. She pressed her bosom against my chest and pressed her pelvis against my groin. Our hands explored each other’s sides, faces, hips, backs, and buttocks. This was love, pure and simple. No questioning of the decisions that we had made or of the vows we had professed.

  She reached down between us and finding my erection poking into her belly, she guided me to the space between her legs and wrapped her thighs around me. I was taller than she and there was no way to enter her in this standing position, but we slowly thrust against each other, me sliding along the folds that were quickly moistening and
over the nub of her rapidly engorging clitoris. I felt the telepathic indication of a small orgasm causing the trembling of her body.

  I whispered, “My Princess, I don’t know what the ways of this planet are for this night.”

  She buried her face in my neck, continuing to thrust against me and said, “Neither do I My Prince, but, uh, I don’t think that will hinder us. Oh, uh…the only instructions that we were given as young girls were bawdy rhymes that the older women told us. Oh, my prince! The ‘little death’! I want to die a thousand times tonight!”

  I felt another spasm take her and she clenched my manhood hard between her legs. The ‘little death’ was her euphemism for orgasm, just like in French, and I knew it was appropriate. A ‘little death’ that let you know that you are very much alive, and in love.

  She said, “You see, My Prince? Only lovers…only mates feel this way toward each other. Oh, yes! Uh huh. Here, oh, let me go for a moment …no don’t…oh wait, yes, just for a moment.”

  She pulled away from me and recited one of the rhymes as she turned toward the bed,

  “Come my prince,

  It is time,

  My ass is high,

  My pussy prime.

  Pierce my shield

  Now with your shaft.

  My tunnel wet,

  You need no luck,

  Come my prince,

  I’m prime to shalock.”

  The word that she used doesn’t have any good equivalent in English. It meant, more or less, ‘Make love with abandon. Make love vigorously.’ The word was used mostly in a bawdy, but not obscene connotation. It was both reverent and irreverent and only used when humor was called for. It would never be used in public, but only between lovers who wanted to be very clear about their intentions to ‘wrestle between the bed furs’.

  I have said that each word in their language had only one meaning, but there were often several words for similar things with different emotional context. In one case you might say ‘make love’ and in another, private setting, say, ‘shalock’. In one context, you might say ‘breasts’, but in a more private context, a lover would be more likely to use the equivalent of ‘tits’ or ‘titties’. And even in one context, ‘vagina’, but in the other, even the most refined girl would have no hesitation in talking to her mate about the needs of her ‘pussy’ and his ‘cock’. Because insults were rare here, people just said what they meant and these kinds of words had no meaning except as terms of aroused endearment.

  She turned her back to me and got on her hands and knees on the bed. She placed her cheek down on the furs and looked back at me, spreading her legs and exposing the treasure between. I hesitated a moment, never having seen anything so beautiful, so vulnerable, and so incredibly arousing. As I watched, my lover reached between her own legs and using her fingers, rubbed and spread the cinnamon lips, opening herself to me.

  I stepped forward and positioned the tip of my shaft against the opening, gathering lubrication by rubbing at the entrance. I pushed slowly…and met a barrier.

  Aeyli-ah recited,

  “Prince pierce my shield,

  Don’t make me wait,

  It is high time,

  The hour late.

  Take it now,

  Press in hard,

  Like cow and bull

  Out in the yard.

  It feels so great!

  My awesome prince,

  Push hard my love,

  Pierce my fence!”

  The emotion in the psychic message behind the words was pure love and ultimate lustful desire. I grabbed hold of my princess’s hips and pushed…hard. I felt the ‘shield’ give way and the force of my ‘piercing’ rammed home, all the way to the bottom. The beautiful woman screamed lustfully, more telepathically than verbally, but there was no mistaking it for anything but ecstatic. Her scream was accompanied by a giant ‘little death’ that wracked her body convulsively. I felt the spasms of her vagina grip and squeeze my penis firmly. Her hips rocked and began to thrust forward and back against me. I held firmly to her hips and matched her motion, thrusting hard at the pace she set.

  Aeyli-ah continued orgasming, time after time, thrusting, grinding, moaning and screaming with her emotional telepathy. It was beyond imagination. Each of her orgasmic screams shattered against my mind in lustful and loving waves, driving me on and on. Each one tempting me to explode within her…and encouraging me to wait and prolong this paradise as long as possible. My mind was numbed, only the moment and the pleasure and the sensations existed.

  I reached around my convulsing bride and cupped her breasts to play with her hardened nipples…and was surprised to find them wet and leaking breast milk. I pulled one hand back to my mouth and licked the sweet liquid from my fingers. I would have been happy to stay like this all night, but it was time for me to take charge of our lovemaking and let her know that I was an active participant, her prince.

  I suddenly pushed Aeyli-ah’s rump straight forward so that she fell on her face on the bed. She protested at the removal of my member, but I paid no attention and flipped her quickly onto her back facing me. I thrust her legs wide apart, and dove on top of her, impaling her once again and pressing my pubic bone hard down upon hers, grinding against her mound.

  The girl opened her eyes wide and arched her back in shock at the fresh assault of my manhood, this time more direct and more in my control. Her ‘death screams’ started anew. I raised up on my arms and squeezed a breast, and was rewarded with a small stream of the sweet liquid squirting up into the air! This was so erotic I couldn’t believe it. I dropped my mouth to the nipple and sucked hard. The girl increased the intensity of her moans and cries as I drank deeply of the precious honey flavored milk.

  Aeyli-ah continued to groan and chatter, “Oh, prince, oh, yes, full, tight, hard, yes, filled, loved, so hard, so firm, so full, so loved, oh, yes, dying, dying, loved, prince, screaming, Mark my Mark my Mark my Prince my Prince my…my ecstasy, my womanhood, my man, oh my man my prince my Mark. My Mark’s maiden, I waited, I…now no longer, done, finished, my love, my arms, suck my milk, take my love, oh so firm, so wet, so full, oh, death, orgasm, scream it my love, hear me maidens, fear my lover creatures below, love is mine, oh yes!”

  I continued to suck at the wonderfully large nipple, and then the other. With each swallow, it was as if my strength increased…and my penis hardened even more. It was a steel post, sliding in and out of the wet tunnel of love between my princess’s legs. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and I let out my own orgasmic scream of release. I burst forth into my lover’s burning tunnel and I felt it take hold of me in return. We clutched at each other, fiercely pulling our bodies into one another in our attempt to consummate our oneness. Spasms and convulsions rocked us for what seemed like several minutes, neither of us wanting our first coupling to end.

  Inevitably, our bodies gave out and relaxed in a heap, me lying heavily on top of my new bride, her legs wrapped around my waist, still holding me firmly within her love. She seemed to have yet another climax and then her body gave in to the release as well. I propped myself on my elbows and leaned in and kissed my lover deeply. We made love with our mouths for several minutes and in the end, I slid off of her and lay on my back on top of the furs, pulling the Martian beauty into my side and onto my shoulder.

  Aeyli-ah spoke first, “You see my prince? Can there be any doubt about our choices? About any obligation met but regretted? Didn’t I say that before morning we would both know?”

  [As an aside, I have tried hard to keep from letting my translation sound too formal. As I read back over it at times, it seems like some ‘Old English’ creeps in. I suspect that it’s a combination of the language used by John Carter in the manuscript that I had studied, the published stories that I had nearly memorized, and the natural tone of the mixture of spoken and telepathic communication and the foreign grammar. And, on a very personal note, Son, if you ever read these accounts, know that I loved your mother very much, and you�
�re a big boy now and you can handle, or ignore, the graphic ways that I describe my lovemaking with your new Martian Stepmother. I hope that you and your wife can be as happy. I better edit this heavily before I let anyone read it. Or, maybe not. We’ll see.]

  I said, “You did My Love. I have no doubts now. We love each other and we are certain. It’s different on my world. Well, this is my world now, but it was different where I came from.”

  She asked, “How can it be any different?”

  I answered, “On my world, language is more veiled. Because of it, people can never really know the meanings of another person. In some respects, every sentence contains a little bit of a lie. Not necessarily because the speaker intends it, but because the hearer always has to presume part of the meaning. When I talk with you, I know what you’re saying to me. I hear your voice and your thoughts. On my world, it is as if each person hears what the other says, but also another voice that talks at the same time and confuses the meaning.

  Um, consider if you hear two people talking: one says, ‘I love you and want to be your mate,’ and the other says, ‘That’s a lie. I feel like I should be afraid of you, but I have to go with you. I will never give you my heart’. Then the lover that they speak to says, ‘I love you too. I will always provide for you,’ but at the same time says in another voice, ‘I want you to love me, but I can’t trust you because you might betray me if you find someone more handsome than I’.”

  Aeyli-ah said, “But Mark, that’s madness! How can two people have four voices?”

  I said, “It may not be just four. Each person speaks with many voices and each person hears with many ears. You’re right, it is madness. On my world, lovers are often liars, and many of them will abandon their mates for others. It’s because they hear something different than what was truly said, and they don’t tell the full truth because it’s difficult for them.”