HowtoPleaseanAlien

by Ann Raina

  “Please, don’t stare at me like this. I feel like some flat-nosed. They’re strange, not I. Who are you, anyway?”

  The young man had to clear his throat to find his voice again. He felt struck by an alien eight-fingered hand. His head was numb and it took him a moment to remember his name.

  “I’m Kianto.”

  “Welcome, Kianto. Don’t expect a prize ‘cause you made it down here. It’s much easier to get here than to get back.”

  “It is said you are dead.” Kianto slowly recovered and shook his head. “Well, I did not believe it, but still… Man, there are stories around you wouldn’t believe.”

  “I heard them all.” Hanjek made a dismissive gesture. “And some more. Some are good and some are simply unbelievable. The best was that the flat-nosed took me to their home planet to cross-breed me with some of the home animals or else. Ah, it still gives me the creeps just thinking of it!” He slapped his thigh. The other men around laughed. “That was a good one, really. I don’t know why they should have done this. To make their own men jealous? Train their men how to do it right? Well, if you want my two cents they could use some training.” He put a hand to his groin, still laughing. “They are slow-witted, the ones they call their guards. And I haven’t seen any of them fuck a woman right. Not once!” He shook his head, grinning. “But that’s not what you wanted to hear, right? Well, I can tell you, if we had had weapons it would’ve been easy to send them back tails between their legs, but so…Granted, they don’t have tails. But still we might have won.” He sighed and looked at Kianto as if he suddenly realized that the young man was a guest without knowledge. “Now, my friend, enough chit-chat about me. Tell me, what brought you here?”

  Kianto was too flabbergasted to react at once, which caused more happy snorting around him. Hanjek bent forward, eyes big and bright with amusement.

  “Want to save us all, ey?”

  Kianto looked around, from one smiling face to the next, unable to believe his eyes.

  “You are prisoners here, aren’t you?”

  Hanjek weighed his head.

  “Yes. You could call us prisoners. You could call us survivors. You could call us the more intelligent lot that understood.”

  “Compared to others who did not,” another man said, nodding in unison with the group that had gathered around Kianto.

  “They gave you the choice to live and stay imprisoned?” he wanted to know. His voice tilted high at the end so he cleared his throat.

  “Imprisonment is a question of definition,” Hanjek pointed out and slapped Kianto’s shoulder heartily. “But tell us about you. Do you want to join us? We’re a fine group. Have always been friendly with them all. You’d fit here pretty well. Now, the thing around your cock would have to go, but we could arrange that so you’d have more fun. We are all called to have fun here, believe it or not. And the women…well, you wouldn’t throw them down the balcony, I swear.”

  Kianto was at a loss.

  “You want to stay here?” The happy faces irritated him. He had sworn that if Hanjek still lived he would find and rescue him. He had never believed the stories about his death. Now he sat with him and he seemed pleased as punch with his situation. “You don’t want to go back to your families? Your homes? They all think you were killed by the Mawanies.”

  Hanjek upturned his eyes.

  “They don’t understand! The Mawanies are no killers. They caught us, yes, but they brought us here and told us to stay. So we stayed.”

  Kianto frowned. The sound of it was too light, too easy.

  “Did they torture you so that you obeyed?”

  “No! They—” Hanjek blew out air. The other men sat down, murmuring to themselves. Hanjek upturned his hands, grimacing as if the words to come would hurt. “Listen, it was a hard time. We were pressed into a corner. The riot had seemed fine in the beginning, but we never knew whom we dealt with. The Mawanies are an old, an ancient people, wise and well-trained in warfare. They have put out riots like we put out campfires. And when they caught us, they told us that we are never to start another one.”

  “So?”

  “You don’t get it, do you? If we had returned to our villages, all the people would have pressed us to plan anew! They would have wanted us to be revolters again. And then we only had had the chance to become cowards in their eyes or face the Mawanies for a second defeat. Guess why we chose this way.”

  Hanjek let the words sink in. Kianto lowered his head, disbelieving. He had come so far only to learn that the heroes were only men at last.

  * * * *

  The sound of someone jumping down from the level above caused all the men to turn their heads. Before Kianto could make a move to get up and hide, Na Ris Nei had entered the room with two guards behind him. None of them were armed, but their size and angry expression were enough to make the humans cower. They stood pressed against the rear wall.

  Na Ris Nei blew air through his flat nostrils and the horns at the side of his large head seemed to grow with his anger. His voice rumbled through the room.

  “We pay you for entertaining us and you sit here and keep my workers from working! Get up!”

  Kianto rose and realized that he had not yet found out what the men did down here. He looked around more closely. The casks, the wooden bottles and the funnels indicated that he had found a kind of winery.

  “What kind of liquid do you produce down here?” he asked. “What—”

  Na Ris Nei grabbed him by the shoulder, squeezing hard. Kianto cried out.

  “Be quiet, human! It does not concern you!”

  Kianto shuddered. Being manhandled by a group of false heroes would have been easier to endure than the iron grip of the alien in his fury.

  “Don’t dare keep them from working once again!” He pulled his captive hard by the shoulder once more, then, with a lack of clothes to hold on, took Kianto’s upper arm to drag him across the floor. “And you,” he boomed to the others still flattening against the wall, “work! I will have these casks filled by the first light of stars!”

  Kianto put his hand over Na Ris Nei’s, but could have tried to break a trunk with the same effect. His arm was numb by the time they were through the thick curtain.

  “You go back to Won and play pet for her delight!”

  “You break my arm,” Kianto pressed between clenched teeth.

  “Be content that the Creator taught me gentleness and the love for all beings, even those small and ugly like you!”

  He let go of Kianto’s arm to jump up to the next floor. For a moment, the young man thought to have seen the end of the maltreatment, but he was wrong. The two guards pushed him up so that Na Ris Nei pulled him up from the floor once more. Kianto winced with pain.

  Down the long corridor, more Mawanies appeared to watch the demonstration until someone told Won Ta Ki to come. Kianto’s face was contorted by pain when Na Ris Nei thrust him hard on the ground. He stayed down, dizzy and weak.

  “You disappoint me, Won,” he growled. “You take this pet and let it wander around. Have it better trained or be rid of it!” With that shot he pushed her aside to storm away, guards following on his small heels and elongated toes.

  Won Ta Ki knelt beside Kianto, head inclined, eyes wide open, more curious than compassionate. Her long fingers drummed on the ground.

  “You Rahenians are strange. You are never content with what we give you. You always want more and then you fall on your large noses.”

  Kianto massaged his arm. The bruise had already darkened to a deep purple. All eight fingers had left clear marks.

  “Hanjek and his men live. Why did you let us believe they were dead?”

  “Because a lively tale shall not be wasted on bleak reality. They made their choice and live with it.”

  “You keep them like prisoners.”

  “Again, you are wrong.” She helped him stand. “It is as I said. They made their choice. And they are part of the servants to come and entertain us. Come, I will take
care of that wound.”

  “But they could’ve gone back!”

  “To be forced to fight again, yes.” Won Ta Ki tweeted, a sound that Kianto interpreted as impatience. “Peace is wonderful.”

  “You invaded our planet to let us bleed!”

  “No.” They reached her chambers and she pressed him down to sit. “We came here and began a trade. You had much and more and our people were starving. We showed you what there is more to own than grain and a hut to stay dry.”

  “We did not need more!”

  Won Ta Ki bared her teeth.

  “Then no one would have wanted to have anything we offered.” She wiped a cool liquid on the bruise. Kianto twitched. “Am I not right?”

  “You would still have taken our harvests.”

  Won Ta Ki pondered for a moment.

  “Yes, because we saw that you lived in abundance. Some part of your harvest was thrown away or rotted on the fields. You even used your harvest for pitching games and other shameful things to pass your time. Sharing is an obligation demanded by the Creator.” She eyed him. “Tell me, did you come here to serve, or to raise another riot?”

  Kianto wanted to lie. He parted his lips to blurt out what she wanted to hear, but could not. Won Ta Ki caressed his face with cool fingers.

  “Humans are harder to understand than we thought. Mawanies are strong and straight. They honor their god and live by his rules. You try to betray, to falsify and pretend. What shall I do but keep you close and educate you?”

  Kianto’s lips twitched into an insecure smile.

  “What kind of trick is this? What will you do with me?”

  Won Ta Ki lowered her chin and opened her eyes wide, an imitation of the human gesture of seduction.

  “I will show you more of Mawany society than any other human has seen before.”

  Chapter Five

  Donego sighed, relieved to see Kianto alive.

  “I feared the worst,” he whispered as he knelt beside the young man he loved. He was bound hand and feet and the collar around his neck indicated that his punishment was not yet over, but at least he was allowed out of the alien lady’s chambers again. He kissed him lightly on the lips and frowned when Kianto turned his head away. “Are you hurt? Did she torture you? Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “She wants to keep me around,” Kianto replied with a false smile. “Isn’t that great?”

  “Now, without that many tethers around, yes, I would call it great.” He gently stroked Kianto’s cheeks and chin. “Oh, you’re so smooth! Did the murinjin do this, too? They are a marvel!”

  “Oh, yes, since I first grew a beard, I always wanted to be smooth as a baby’s back once again.” He turned his head when Donego did not let go. “Leave me be, I’m not some pet!”

  Donego smiled and quickly checked the corridor, but they were alone. He had watched Won Ta Ki walk off with her friends and leave her human toy behind. He could not help touching Kianto over and over again despite the young man’s obvious annoyance.

  “There were a lot of rumors about you being taken to another palace.”

  “I saw Hanjek,” Kianto replied urgently. “He and his men are here! We have to help them get away. They are prisoners!”

  “Oh.” Donego grimaced. “That’s bad news.”

  “Hanjek said they had no chance but to either stay or go home like cowards. But I think the Mawanies did something to them.” He clanked with the chains, impatient. “They forced them to say that. Or gave them a poison that they can’t think straight. If you find a way to untie me, we can both go and help them. They are here, just one level below in the palace!”

  “I know.” Donego shook his head seeing Kianto’s utter astonishment. “They’ve been here for a long time. They looked happy, right? And they are happy with their service. I see them often. Don’t worry about them. They made their decision.”

  “That’s what Won Ta Ki said! Have you all gone mad?” He hit the back of his head against the wall.

  “Don’t do that!” Donego put his hand between the wall and Kianto’s head. “You will only hurt yourself.” He traced the other man’s cheek and chin with his fingers, trying to find soothing words. “Listen, stories about martyrs are valuable. Why should we ruin them?”

  “We?” Kianto pressed air out of his lungs and tried to move away from Donego, but the chains were connected to the floor and went taut. Kianto cursed.

  “Calm down, please, it is not as you think.”

  Kianto pressed his lips together, telling Donego without words that he did not believe him.

  Donego sighed exasperatedly.

  “I’ve been here for more seasons than you can imagine. Why, they even call me the founder of the entertainment group. I wonder if the peasants in the villages would still call me a Rahenian. Are there horns sprouting out my head?”

  The joke did not go well. Kianto grimaced and Donego lifted his hands in defense.

  “All right, blame me. I still think the Mawanies are a good people. They have different rites, another language and they jump higher than a house, but they don’t mean harm to the Rahenians.”

  “They are invaders. Don’t you see that? The peasants work hard and still they live worse than before the flat-nosed came.”

  “That is your point of view. But in some seasons ahead the Rahenians will learn to cherish the Mawanies.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “Doubt all you want, but the first to turn to them were the parents of sick children the Mawanies healed not so long ago. Does that count for nothing?”

  They both turned when something tumbled across the floor. Donego stood quickly and checked. When he found Deran, he brought the struggling boy to Kianto.

  “Why don’t you tell this rascal to stay away from you?” he accused the man on the floor. “Why do you encourage him over and over to visit you?”

  “I don’t!”

  “Yes, you do!” Donego fumed. He cursed under his breath, relieved that no guard showed up. Deran fought his grip and even bit his finger. “Damn you!” He dropped the boy on the ground.

  “They bound you again!” Deran blurted. “Did you ask them to?”

  “No, not this time.”

  “He committed a crime and is being punished,” Donego hissed. “And that will happen to you, too! You earned it just by annoying me!”

  “I heard what you said!” Deran turned and spat at Donego’s feet. “You betray us! You betray our people! I will tell the elders in my village and they will cast you out!”

  “They already did,” Donego shot back, then turned to vanish into a room close by.

  “Shall I try to untie you?” Deran asked.

  “You can’t. The tethers might be made of wood, but they are still very strong. And I don’t know what would happen to us both if I tried to escape.”

  “I told you they cannot be trusted.”

  “You were right.”

  Donego hurried back, a tankard in his hand. He put it into Deran’s hands.

  “Here. Drink this. It’s good for you. And then you have to leave.”

  “I don’t want to—”

  “What is this?” Kianto frowned. “Why do you want him to drink it?”

  Donego did not look up, but forced a smile for Deran on his face.

  “Hey, this is really good. If you want to it tastes like vinti-juice. And if you think of something else, it will taste different.”

  “I’m sure it’s an export hit,” Kianto cut in, “but why should he drink it now?”

  “He has to. Now do it,” Donego urged and pressed the tankard against Deran’s lips. “Drink!”

  “It’s the same smell as the liquid Won’s father—”

  “The one who made her!”

  “Whatever! It’s still the same drink that I saw Hanjek and the others bottle down in their prison. Deran, don’t drink it!”

  Deran tried to throw away the tankard. Donego cursed viciously, then grabbed the boy and pressed the tankard aga
inst his lips again. Kianto stretched to help Deran, but the chains pulled down his hands before he could reach the boy.

  “Damn you, Donego! Don’t do this to him!”

  “There is no other way!”

  The clear liquid spilled over Deran’s chin and clothes while he fought with hands and feet. The boy sputtered and sneezed, but still Donego held him fast and made him swallow more than what dripped down. Only when the tankard was half empty did he let go. Deran wiped his mouth, spat and turned to flee. Donego watched him run through the next room and heard him climb down. He put down the tankard, grimacing with disgust.

  “He’ll tell the elders and his family,” Kianto said. “And then the Rahenians will stand up once more.”

  Donego turned upon the other man’s glee.

  “We’ll see.”

  * * * *

  “What did you do to Donego?” Kianto asked when Won Ta Ki led him back to her chamber. Her girlfriends fell quiet behind them and Won Ta Ki cocked her head as if to find out where the question came from. “Why does he support your cause?”

  “Lie down.” She left him no choice, one hand firm on his shoulder. Her strength was amazing as ever and again he lay flat on his back. “You have too many questions, Kianto.”

  “You have too few answers yet.”

  “Right.” Won Ta Ki took her time to take away all the tethers. He massaged his wrists and wanted to get up. She held him down. “And my time here is precious.” She used the beladis-muzzle to gag him and gently stroked his face when he struggled and tried to pull it off. She held his hands. “Don’t fight me. I am the one doing good. Now relax and we will talk when your muscles are no longer sore.”

  Kianto still fought her eight-fingered hands when she pressed him into the floor. Soon he was enclosed by the fibers and felt the tiny teeth getting to work on his skin. He struggled to get up only to realize that the floor was nothing but another way to bind him. He was sucked under, screaming against the gag. The floor closed around and above him, giving him the illusion he was sinking deep. He saw nothing but long red fingers around him and feared suffocation. Yet, with a great intake of air he found out he could still breathe. Only his movement was hampered by the stuff around him. Unable to change the situation, he gave in as he had done before. His skin was pricked and gently bitten, his soles massaged. The small murinjin worked along his body, even exploring private areas. The sensation left him no choice but to enjoy the alien creature. His muscles turned to jelly, he forgot to fight, and he even forgot to be angry with Won Ta Ki and Donego. For a time uncounted, he floated weightless, thoughtless, embraced like a child in a womb.