The Start of Time

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  I said, “No, I have lost. Use me as you wish, my conquering princess.”

  She smiled and laid aside the sword and said, “Good. Now service me!”

  I laughed and gave her a good ride. When she was done, she helped me to my feet and said, “Now remember that and let it be a lesson to you!”

  We both laughed. This was a side of Rani that I hadn’t expected. But I liked it. Strange, Alexia, at six-foot-two liked a more submissive play and Rani and Sashar who were much smaller, Sashar exceedingly so, preferred taking a more aggressive role where they pretended to be more in charge.

  I said, “Belle? Are you ready?”

  Without warning, Belle rushed me. She took a swing with her fist at my chin with her right, followed with a left to my ribs, stomped at my instep with her right heel, spun behind me and kicked at the back of my left knee, making me drop to the ground. In the next instant, her sword was around my neck and she began to choke me out. As I collapsed to the ground unable to dislodge her from my back, she let me up.

  I rubbed my neck and took a breath.

  She faced me and said, “Shall we go again?”

  I shook my head and said in awe, “No! Once was enough! Where did that come from?”

  She came and stood close in front of me and looked up at me. She cupped her breasts and squeezed them a bit and said, “I think it built up in my tits. You better get it out of me before I do it again,” and she smiled at me.

  I ogled her breasts and nodded. I lay down on my back and she positioned herself over my lips and I relieved her of the milk in each side until she orgasmed.

  Finally, I came to Sashar. I smiled at her and said very tenderly, “Sashar, what shall we do. It’s up to you. If it’s too much, we’ll practice later.”

  I didn’t want to force her to relive a trauma that she wasn’t ready for.

  Sashar said, “Mark, I cannot see that horrid fiend in you, or in any person, even pretending. Let me show you my Kata against the demon alone.”

  I said, “Of course. It’s just as good.”

  The other girls and I stood back to watch. Sashar faced away from us. She took her stance and when she was ready, she took a breath and held her bokken at her belt…and then she started. It was more graphic than any Kata I had ever seen. Because of her story, I could picture every move and even the facial expressions. I imagined the words and shouting that she pictured.

  Her demon faced her and sneered. She faced him calmly. He screamed in his rage at finding her worthless…and she stood still. She made it clear without a word that the choice was his: if he chose to die, then he would. Suddenly, he rushed at her and she raised her sword and struck viciously at the side of his closest knee, shattering several bones. The strike continued through the leg and a compound fracture broke through the flesh. The thing screamed; not in pain but in rage. Sashar waited. The demon could stop now if it chose to…but it didn’t. It was insane and had no capacity for rational thought. It tried to stand, and getting to one leg, Sashar looked at it with pity…and smashed its opposing hip, clearly breaking the bone. The demon collapsed, but propped itself on its arms and roared in fury as it attempted to drag itself toward her, still thinking to kill her in its blind rage. Sashar turned her back on it, intending to walk away, but the demon lunged and took hold of her ankle. Sashar wheeled about and her sword struck down on its head, driving it all the way to the ground, its skull caved in.

  Sashar looked down at the broken creature and said, “It was your choice. I’m happy for you,” and she turned and walked toward us.

  When she came to me she leaned up and kissed me lightly and said, “I’ll take my reward later, when my heart beats for you, not from battle.”

  I said, “Of course. You did well. I’m very proud of you.”

  Sashar’s knees went weak and I helped her to the ground and we all sat down in a circle close to each other.

  Chapter 35 Reviewing Our Practice

  All the girls stared. Aeyli put her arm around her tiny friend and said, “Sashar, I never knew. You never told anyone.”

  All of them could tell that what Sashar had demonstrated came from life, not imagination.

  Tears appeared on Sashar’s cheek as she said, “You can’t know how good that felt. It was like I was able to have compassion on him. I didn’t murder him; he was just a beast without reason. Just now, I wanted him to choose life, but if he couldn’t, um, well, it was my pleasure, and my duty, to end his miserable life for him. If I had known all of this back then, I would have saved myself a lot of pain. But, if I had known it then, I wouldn’t have become who I am and I wouldn’t have been in Tranna and I wouldn’t have become Mark’s mate and I would never have had my milk rush in when he called my name.”

  Her tears stopped and she looked at me. She said, “Mark, so much has changed now. Thank you. The training has been more than worth it. Who could have known that it could be healing?”

  I said quietly, “I could have. How do the rest of you feel? Tell us what you learned today.”

  Sashar said, “I’d like to start. I want to tell you all about my past…finally.”

  The girls looked concerned and gave her time to come to terms with her thoughts.

  Sashar started an abbreviated version of her tale for the girl’s sake.

  She said, “Unlike all of you, I has born before the start of the wars, and I lived through them. If you can call it that. It was a terrible time. For several years, I lived out in the wild, scavenging for food and staying away from people. I was with a small band of travelers for the first year, but the man who became the leader became as evil in his insanity as the green hordes.

  Girls, he would beat me, and when he tried to take me by force, I killed him with my bare hands…and teeth. I had become an animal. After that, I walked away from the others and for six years, I lived alone and never spoke. Then, when the wars ended, I finally went to a small village and lived there for another three years, still never saying a word. After that, I went to Tranna, after I taught myself to talk again. I was about 40 when I became an animal, and 50 when I became human again. Aeyli and Alexia, you were born about then. By the time your parents died, I was ready to live again and becoming your friend was the thing that allowed me to be happy and forget that old life. My own Fall of Time.”

  Rani said, “So, your Kata was against that man that beat you and tried to take you by force?”

  Sashar said, “It was. It was what would have happened if I knew then what I know now. He was insane, and he insisted that I end his life. It’s a powerful teaching.”

  I said, “Girls, I want you to know that I have never killed a man. The only beast that I have ever killed was the Great Ape that attacked Aeyli and I before we came to Tranna. I don’t want to kill anyone.”

  Sashar said, “But if we must, then we must.”

  Aeyli said, “We must never choose to die: we are bound to each other.”

  I said, “And not just to me. You are bound to each other. For that reason, we will always choose to live rather than die. So, that’s the reason that we practice. Not so that we can kill, but so that we can live…and hopefully convince others to live as well.”

  Belle said, “Like when you were insulted by Narhu! Another man would have fought him and one of you at least would have been injured or killed. But you told him to choose life and now you’re good friends.”

  Sashar said, “In my Kata, I gave the demon several chances to stay alive, even turning my back on him when he couldn’t really hurt me anymore. But he refused to live. So I killed him.”

  Aeyli said, “Mark, when you killed the ape, it seemed so easy, so fluid. I watched in astonishment and thought how different life would have been if you had been here on this spot that day. You say that you have never killed before, so how did you do it so easily.”

  I said, “I didn’t. Think of it this way. My practice taught my sword and my body how to kill; even a Great Ape that I’d never seen before. When the time came, I said
that if it chose to die then it would die; and then my body and my sword struck. It’s like I gave permission, and they carried out what they knew how to do. The saying is that at the moment of the strike, it isn’t me that strikes, but my sword strikes on its own. Think of Belle and how she attacked me. Belle, really, how did you know how to do that? Did you practice it?’

  Belle said, “Um, it was kind of weird. I had practiced with the sword, like you taught us, but when it was my turn, I was really aroused and I just wanted to get to you as quickly as I could. So, yeah, it was like my body just took over when I let it. I don’t really know how.”

  I said, “Think. Your first attack was your right fist to my jaw. That is the same and an upward strike with the sword, but without the sword. The second was a strike to my ribs. Again, something you had practiced over and over, but this time you did it without the sword. The third, you grabbed your sword and began to choke me out. In another minute, I would have lost consciousness. I think that you must have just done that from instinct because it made sense to your body at the time. See, the practice with the sword is the same as if we don’t have a sword. When Aeyli showed us her Kata, she worked with the sword, but when she was close to me, she switched to her knife and hit the same targets that we had practiced.”

  Belle said, “And Rani stopped you and gave you a chance to live!”

  I said, “Right! She showed me that I was beaten and gave me the choice to live.”

  Belle giggled, “And then she mounted you!”

  I laughed and said, “Well, Aeyli did it first. Hey, Alexia, when I took you, you know that I was only playing, right? I would never force you! You know that, don’t you? I did it because we were playing and I thought that you would enjoy us playing like that. How did you feel about it? Maybe I was too anxious. I’m sorry if…”

  Alexia laughed and said, “Mark, did you feel raped by Aeyli or Rani or Belle? No! Because it was all play and we all wanted it. They didn’t really force you, they just told you how they wanted to play with you. You and I have discussed this and I told you what I like and how I want you to play with me. You gave it to me in a wonderful playful way. Um, did you miss my multiple orgasms? Did you miss the fact that I was already open and slippery with my love for you? I know that you did see how ready I was for you and you know what I like, and you gave it to me.”

  Sashar said, “Mark, we’ve all told you that you can have us sexually anytime you want, but we know that we could ask you to stop and that you would. We love you. We love you so much that we’re all pretty much ready to make love all the time.”

  Aeyli said, “Again, I think it’s because of the strange ways of men and women on Earth. I bet that for some reason, women on Earth don’t enjoy sex like they’re supposed to. Mark says that people never know what the other is really saying so maybe that’s why they don’t know if sex is OK.”

  Belle said, “What do you mean? If you’re mates and you treat each other well, shalock is always OK. Mark treats us like true princesses and we love him. He would never touch us in a way that was shameful.”

  Sashar said, “Yeah, fine. Enough said. But…Aeyli, you made love between his mouth and your mound…what was that like? It looked like you really enjoyed it. Is it that nice?”

  I laughed to myself at how often our conversation inevitably turned to sex.

  Aeyli smiled and said, “Well, we do have lips down there. They’re good for kissing too. You will just have to see for yourself. But I will say that when his tongue hits your little tongue, it is really nice!”

  Sashar looked puzzled and said, “My ‘little tongue’? What do you mean?”

  Aeyli didn’t know quite what to say and the two just looked at each other for a minute.

  Alexia finally said, “I’ll show you. Sashar, come here and look.”

  Alexia leaned back and spread her legs. Sashar moved up close and looked where Alexia pointed. She rubbed herself for a minute until her clitoris became engorged and started to peek out from under its hood.

  She said, said, “See here? The little nub of a button that peaks out from my blossoming lips? That’s what she means. Have you ever touched it?”

  Sashar said, “Um, no.”

  Belle said, “But Mark has. When he’s with you, his body rubs against it and that’s one of the things that makes us climax. You need to have him kiss you there. Do it now.”

  I said, “Not right now; we can wait.”

  Sashar said, “Um, yeah, I really want to, but maybe it will be best to wait. But, on the other hand…no, we’ll wait.”

  Alexia sat back up and we took our places in a circle again.

  I said, “I still want to hear more about how you felt about the exercise before we move on. Aeyli?”

  Aeyli said, “It was wonderful. I faced my demon and I killed it. I feel free. And now this spot has new meaning. This is the spot where I stopped on the road and made love on the way to Nobrus!”

  Alexia laughed, “Yes! I faced my demon, and then was taken like a she-Banth by my mate until I howled. It was a good practice!”

  Rani and Belle agreed that they had a good time and learned a lot. They both expressed a great deal more confidence in their abilities.

  Sashar said, “For me, obviously, it was one of the most important points in my life. I faced it, I had compassion on it, and in a way, I forgave it. Mostly, I forgave myself. My time as an animal has meaning now. I feel light and healed and whole in a new way. I also feel kind of like I want to make love.”

  I laughed and said, “On Earth, we call that ‘horny’. Like, ‘Hey, come here and give me that horn between your legs.’”

  The girls laughed. “It is kind of like a horn!” “A wonderful horn of pleasure!” “I’m getting horny myself!” “Mark is a big shalock-beast with a huge horn!” “Take me for a ride you horny beast!”

  They laughed more and it looked like they were about to break out into a bawdy rhyming festival.

  I made everyone get up and we packed the cart and headed on our way toward Nobrus.

  The next time we stopped, we began practicing our sparring techniques with the bokken. One person would strike and the other would block. Then, one would strike, the other block and counter, and the first block the counter. Before we finished, we were all going at about half speed, blocking and countering whatever our opponent did.

  In the afternoon, we moved on again. This was our second day in the open. We had taken our time and walked at a leisurely pace. When I asked Aeyli how much farther we had to go, she said that she wasn’t really sure. The Barsoomian sense of direction doesn’t tell how far away a place is, just what direction. She hadn’t been to Nobrus since she was a child, and the trip had been traumatic. And even when it wasn’t, she didn’t really pay much attention because she was a child. She assumed that it was another two days at the pace that we’d set so far.

  It felt like maybe we were behind schedule and need to pick up our speed a bit. We had food and water for a few more days, but if Nobrus turned out to be farther than we thought, or if for some reason we were unable to get water there, we could be in trouble. We could make it back to Tranna on the provisions that we had, but the longer it took us to find a good source of water, the more uncomfortable the journey would become.

  We discussed it among ourselves and the girls were all in favor of really stretching their legs by running for a while. It made me think: those legs really did look like they were made for running!

  As a precaution, I took Aeyli and Sashar aside for a moment and asked Aeyli to set one of my two compasses to point at Nobrus. Sashar and I confided in her that Sashar also lacked the innate sense of direction. We all felt a little better knowing that if something were to happen that we had another way of finding our destination.

  Aeyli said, “Mark, your compass is set to Nobrus already. That’s where John Carter intended you to go. If you had gone there alone, you would have found it deserted.”

  We started running and I matched the gi
rls’ pace as we went. Rani and Belle were just as good at long distance running as Aeyli, having run back and forth to the shrine many times, but Sashar and Alexia had rarely been outside the gates of Tranna. Alexia’s longer legs helped her, but Sashar tired more quickly.

  I set Sashar in the cart and let her rest while Cassius kept up with the runners easily. When Alexia started to slow down, I picked her up and put her on my back and carried her, still able to keep up without taxing myself. Resting this way for a half an hour at a time, Alexia and Sashar insisted on running again to build up their stamina. Sashar insisted that they be allowed to trade off having me carry them and making the other ride in the cart.

  The next time I picked Sashar up, I made her ride on my shoulders. After a while, I thought I felt movements against my neck. I think she was getting off on it! I didn’t mind, of course, but it was once again funny to me how constantly sexual they were. I loved it. I was tempted to flip her over and hang her upside down in front of me with my nose in her crotch, but I didn’t do it.

  Chapter 36 Training at Night with Alexia

  We ran on and on this way, all the way until sundown. The moons were bright and we saw no reason to stop yet, so we continued running toward Nobrus. About an hour or so after dark, we stopped to eat and take some water. After our meal, we decided to go ahead and lie down to sleep.

  We lay down on our backs under the moons, close together, and talked. There were no important topics. The girls asked about Nobrus, but there was no new information. They talked about memories from their pasts, but it was just amusing stories of things that they had done.

  All five shared common threads. Alexia and Aeyli had been children together and their parents had been friends. Rani and Belle and Aeyli had all been shrine maidens for 50 years together. Alexia and Aeyli had been very close to Sashar after their parents had been killed and Sashar had helped raise them.

  After a while, the talk slowed and then stopped as the girls started to fall asleep. When the others had been asleep for a half hour or so, I watched as Alexia got up and took her bokken and moved off from us about 20 yards and began to practice in the moonlight.