They agreed that they were, so I continued my lessons, saying, “Now, don’t touch anything here, but look at the lines between us. You see how your connections to me are very strong, and your connections to each other are a bit less, and your connections to Lucy and Shaheen, because they are new to our family, are a bit less, but growing all the time. Harmony has a stronger connection to Lucy because of their long history together. And Brenda and Alice have a strong connection because they were wives together for many years. But there’s another type of relationship that Lucy showed me. There aren’t exactly really colors like there are with our eyes open, but we can sort of perceive colors even if we can’t say what they are. I see the connections that we have been talking about as what I might say are green. But everyone try to see this now. These other connections I see as orange. But not really. What’s important is that I can tell the difference. Think of the green ones, the first ones, as our friendships and relationships. They vary between us. But if you follow the ones that run off in other directions, you would find our relationships to Jean, or the children, or even my distant family members. But these second ones, the orange ones, they are more the same size for all of us. These are the love between us. At least that’s what I think they are. That’s what Lucy says. And I believe her. We just don’t know because we are discovering it all for ourselves and guessing at what we don’t know. Now, I feel like we need to hurry a little bit. This is tiring, and it might start to give you a headache in a minute. Quickly, don’t do this, because it takes practice, but if I pull very tenderly, like this, you might feel like you need to come to me. That’s how I called Lucy at times when we needed her. But here, if I do this, it’s going to feel funny at first, but by pushing my feelings for you down the chords, I can tell you that I love you, or want you sexually. I’m going to hurry, just another minute. Now I’m going to stop talking and communicate with you silently. At first you might just get a feeling about something, but later, you can learn to hear the words very clearly.”
I stopped talking and said something silently to each one of them, and then went back to speaking audibly.
I said, “There is one more thing. Look at Alice. Can you see that blue spot? In the middle of her abdomen? I see it as a blue gem, glowing there in her belly. It is a dormant part of her elveness. If I touch it, it will probably burst open like a flower, and some new trait will be open to her. Part of our elveness is the ancestry, but even with that, there may be dormant parts waiting to be awakened. We are probably tired now, so I won’t actually do it, but we will soon. No, on second thought, we should do it now. Alice, this won’t hurt a bit.”
Dawn said quickly, “It really doesn’t. In fact, it feels wonderful.”
I reached invisibly for Alice and activated the gem below her navel. I watched, we all did, as the blue thing seemed to blossom, and then burst, like a dandelion having the seeds blown away on the wind. These seeds distributed themselves throughout Alice’s body, and seemed more concentrated in her belly. We could hear Alice take a satisfied breath and let it out in a long sigh.
I said, “OK, everyone open your eyes and take a breath and relax.”
I opened my eyes and saw that I was on my back staring up at the sky. I raised my head and saw that all the women were in the same position.
I said, “Is everyone OK?”
They all answered that they were, and we rested silently for a few more minutes.
I said, “So this morning, while Brenda and I were making love, I saw dormant gems in each of Brenda’s breasts. And she was saying something sexy, and I touched them and released whatever they were. And Brenda started to make breast milk. Shaheen says it’s something that some elf women do. I wonder if the dormant parts are only visible when we are thinking about something in particular. Alice, what did you feel? Anything?”
Alice said, “It was amazing. Ronin, I don’t think I’m barren anymore. And I don’t think my ability to have children will end very soon. I can feel it. I think I can. I don’t know.”
Shaheen said, “Alice, we don’t lose our ability to have children at the same time as fully human women. I could still have a child if I chose to.”
Brenda gasped. She said, “So, I can have another? With Ronin? Lucy, could you? You and Alice have never had children. This means you still can if you want to.”
Shaheen said, “Of course they can. Brenda, you are the only one of us to have ever had a child. Alice, you say that you were barren?”
Alice said, “Yes. Well, I assumed so. I felt like I was since I never had a child. I was so thankful for April, even though she wasn’t mine, but now I feel like my body is fertile. Very fertile.”
Harmony said, “Alice, I want to make sure that I understand. It won’t make it different, but we do need to talk about it. Are we saying that April was a foundling?”
Alice took a breath and said, “She was.”
Lucy said, “And now she has a wonderful family. And she’s where she belongs. She was lost and now she’s found. She was abandoned for some reason, but now she is with her tribe. There is no shame at all for her. Perhaps her mother was human, and her father was like us, and the poor dear didn’t know what to do with a part-elf, so she left her with Alice. I bet that’s what happened. I bet that her poor mother was overwhelmed and didn’t know how she would raise someone so special, so she sent her to us. Just like sending her to a special school. Or maybe her mother died and her father, though he loved her, felt it best to have her raised by Alice.”
Harmony said, “That’s right. Just like how we will find suitable mates for Jack and Tanya. We will have to go look for them, but we will find them and make sure that Jack and Tanya have their own tribes. April came to us for a reason.”
Shaheen said, “Of course. We would fight a horde of goblins to bring her to us safely. To her home. There is no shame in being a princess of the elves. If the Elf King says you’re a princess, then you are. Isn’t that right Val and Dawn?”
Dawn said, “Oh, um of course. I just was raised differently. A foundling was bad luck and well, cursed. So, that was a stupid superstition. I see that. April is blessed and loved. Um, yes, she is very wonderful, and we have found a treasure, not a castoff. Her mother, or whoever sent her to Alice should be honored for the gift that she left for us. Um, of course. I’m ashamed of myself for how I was raised. And for how I treated a particular boy when I was a child. I was not good to him. But we will love April, and she’ll be one of us, and she’ll be loved like she should be.”
Shaheen said, “Good. No one but us will know. And if they did, it wouldn’t matter. She is a little princess already.”
I said, “What are we going to do about that? About her transition from girl to woman?”
Val said, “Ronin, that’s up to you. We don’t know. You have to figure that out.”
Alice said, “But we know that you will know exactly what to do.”
Brenda said, “We aren’t even thinking about it. It isn’t our role. That’s all you. We will get the house ready. Rescuing damsels is your business.”
There was no hint of joking as they said any of this.
Chapter 3 - A Swim and A Resurrection
Brenda said, “Is it just me, or is that tiring? Is it just because it’s new to me? I’m exhausted.”
I said, “I think it gets easier over time. With practice.”
Shaheen said, “It’s a combination of things. But girls, you have to be very clear about something. Part of it is how much of what Elf Boy calls ‘elveness’ we have active. The thing that you have to be absolutely clear on is that you have almost no say in how much you have. It comes from our parents, and apparently can be activated by this thing where we energize dormant parts. The skills are practiced, and we can get better at those, but the amount of elveness has nothing to do with how special we are. My parents were stronger than yours. That’s all. To envy one of us for being stronger in this way would be the same as wishing that we had different parents. And the
only person I have ever known who would be so self-centered as that was Delilah. I’m pretty straightforward about almost everything. Being 311, and all that. But in many ways, I really do see myself in a motherly role here. I love you and I would do anything for you. If you think about it, I think that I have already saved every one of your lives at least once. Some of you over and over. I think that the number of times that I kept Harmony from falling down a hole can’t be counted on both hands,” and she laughed.
Alice said, “Shaheen, I mean Falcon, um, well whatever, did you really save all of us at some point? Even me and Brenda? And Even Dawn and Ronin who just came a few weeks ago?”
Shaheen looked thoughtful and said, “Well, yes. I love you. And we all knew unconsciously that we would be together eventually, so I was here all the time. Not as close at some times as others, but close by, nonetheless. Invisibility has its advantages. I hope you don’t feel that I should have done more than I did. It seemed like the right amount at the times. And none of you were badly hurt. Oh, by the way, I was not in the rats’ lair with you. I wish that I had been, but if I had, I would have had to reveal myself and things would have happened before it was time for them.”
Dawn said, “Shaheen, thank you! Thank you so much. Do you feel comfortable telling us a few things that you did for us?”
Shaheen stretched on the grass where she sat and said, “Well, for one, Dawn, I followed you into the alley when you sent that man to the next world. As you came close and whispered to him, I had a hold on his wrists at his side so that he didn’t move to hit you or grab you. And Harmony, that was a nice knife throw in the street when those other three came and had Brenda and Alice captive.”
Harmony said, “I didn’t throw that knife. I thought Val did it.”
Shaheen smiled and said, “No, I meant it was a nice throw by me. Brenda, I’m so sorry that you were scared that way. And again, I wasn’t in your house when they first came, and there was nothing that I could have done about it, because I didn’t know soon enough. But I sensed something wrong and I was there by the time the confrontation took place. Ronin kicked the knife right to me, as if he intended to. So, I used it. I guess you can’t count either of those incidents as me actually saving your lives though. But there was this other time. Well, two other times, but they are related. Actually, I guess it happened at least half a dozen times. Anyway, Ichabod was a drinker now and then. There were several nights that we drank too much. And when he drank too much, he got mean. Brenda, you and Alice were wise not to keep alcohol in the house. When he was out drinking, there were a few times when he would be in a mean mood, and even mutter about how he planned to treat you when he got home. But a little pressure on the arteries in his neck, and he passed out in the gutter and didn’t make it home until he was a bit more sober.”
Alice started to cry. She said, “Thank you. Shaheen, thank you. I can’t ever thank you enough. Thank you.”
Shaheen smiled and said, “Elf Girl, of course. I’m sorry for what you suffered, but I have always wanted to look out for you. And speaking of that, our Elf Boy was the scariest storyteller ever when he dealt with Ichabod and that woman outside the farm. So, as he wove his tale about them being fed to monsters, I made sure that at certain points, they felt a breath on the back of their necks, or a light touch on their shoulder, or a strange sound in their ear. It was so much fun. I hadn’t had so much fun in a really long time. And if things had gone wrong in the orchards, I would have been there. If you count how many Kobolds died by Harmony’s hands as she patrolled, you would be short by a dozen if you counted all the ones who died in the darkness as they hunted for you. Really, I’ve been tormented waiting to finally be here with you today.”
I said, “Why did you wait?”
She said, “Because everything happens in its time. Today you were ready to love and accept me without question, argument, or hesitation. The women had a discussion about how to convince you, but there was no need. Because today, here at the pools, after everything that you have been through so far, you were ready for me. You don’t have to answer, but what if I had appeared yesterday, instead of today?”
She was right. Even yesterday, it would have been different. Part of what made me ready for it was, strangely, what happened with Brenda and her awakening experience, and the taste and intimacy of sharing her breast milk, and even sharing it with Alice. Somehow, that experience, and the even stronger connection that it created, made it seem natural and inevitable that I love and accept Shaheen today.
Shaheen said, “And let’s not try to list the times that Val and Lucy tried to get lost, or a fierce dog was nearby, or they fell in the river when no one was around, or they tried to eat a poisonous berry when no one was looking. I wasn’t there every minute, and they both got plenty of scrapes and so forth, but they didn’t get as many as they would have otherwise.”
I was tired now. And it was sunny. And even though I had been unconscious for a few minutes, earlier, I felt like a nap in the sun. But first, a swim. I suggested it, and the girls agreed. They agreed, but we had all been through too much emotionally, and even Harmony was subdued as we walked into the water. We mostly stood together, just feeling the cool water surrounding our bodies, and we hardly said a word.
Val pulled me aside for a minute and said, “Ronin, we all love you. Me especially. It works both ways. I love you more than any of the others, in my own way. I am proud to be your wife. You are a prince and I am your princess. Thank you for the family that you have created for us. I’m very happy. And I’m very happy about Lucy and Falcon. And April. You are going to know just what to do for her. I’m going to take the girls back to the house and work on settling in. We have to get another bed ready. And the children have to be told that Lucy and Falcon are with us now. We won’t say anything to April about who she is yet. And, Sweetie, love Falcon tenderly very soon. As soon as you get the chance. I won’t try to arrange it for you, but if you do need my help to get you some privacy, or whatever, let me know, and I’ll do whatever you want. And when you have made a woman of Falcon, come and find me and remind me that I’m your wife too.”
Val kissed me with her arms around my neck and headed for the bank of the pool.
She called out, “Come on ladies. We need to go back and work for a bit. We have new beds to make. And Elf Boy needs to talk to Gerald.”
I gasped, “Oh, Gerald. Lucy, what am I going to say to him? Do you need to talk to him? What can I tell him?”
Lucy came and hugged her full five-foot-two-inch body against me and kissed me and said with concern, “I don’t know. But you are my true love. Gerald is a good man, and he knows in his heart that this is coming. I’m sorry that I put you in this position. I did the best that I knew how, but I made a mistake. I will always love you. I’m sorry that I have done this to you. I have never been so sorry in my entire life. Every day from now on, I will try to make it up to you. I feel like I betrayed you and committed adultery against you, even though, I assure you, Gerald and I have never had more than the one kiss. He has never seen me naked. I have never slept in his bed. It was you that I swam naked with and hugged and kissed and longed for, thinking that I could never be yours or truly happy. I am sorry. It was all my fault. If you want me to, I can go to Gerald and beg him to be understanding.”
I held her against me and said, “My lovely Lucy, I’ll take care of this somehow.”
She said, “Ronin, what do you want me to do? You are my master and my king, like the other girls say. Command me and I will do it.”
I smiled and said, “Lucy, do you love me as your husband?”
She said, “I do. More than ever. And perhaps more than my first husband as well.”
I said, “Then as your husband and king, I ask that after you get back to the house, that you bathe and stay naked for me until I say otherwise. I have been in love with you to the point where I have suffered, and now that you are mine, I want to explore my new kingdom very thoroughly. Stay naked and spread y
our gates. I’m going to want to explore over and over, and so often that I may not eat. Except the luscious fruit that you have for me. That fruit I intend to eat until I can’t eat any more. You can teach me subtleties later. Right now, I want conquest. Gerald tells be to learn to be a better hero. If I’m your hero, I’m ready to plunder the spoils of my victory. Your treasures are mine, and I want you to make sure that the treasure house is ready for inspection. Ready for me to enjoy it! Is that direct enough for you?”
Lucy was breathing hard and said, “Yes, oh yes. Very clear. Um, wait, tell me again. What?”
I said slowly, “Take a bath, stay naked, spread your thighs.”
Lucy melted against me and pressed her head against my chest.
She said, “My King. You give me an orgasm just by commanding me!”
I bent my head down and whispered forcefully, “Come for me again. Now!”
Lucy shuddered in my arms and moaned as she pressed her crotch against my thigh.
I said, “From now on, your name is not Lucy. Lucy means ‘light’. From now on, your name is Stacy. It means ‘fruitful resurrection’. You aren’t who you thought you were. Not anymore. You are reborn as my wife.”
I was being uncharacteristically bold and forceful, and I knew it. But somehow, it felt right. I just hoped that she would respond positively to it. When I felt her clutch me tighter and moan again, I felt greatly reassured that I wasn’t on the wrong track.
She gasped, “No Master! My name is Stacy. Yes Master! My new life has started. I’ll run home and bathe and I’ll never wear clothes and my legs are always open and your treasure house is always ready, and my fruit is always ripe for you. Thank you Master! I’ll go right now!”
The Heart of the Falcon: The Guardian Maidens Book 3 Page 3
