“He deserves to have a thousand small fish swim up his tackle and bite him from the inside” Allana whispered to her, and then giggled at her mention of Kajika’s man-parts.
“Yes, he does. It would serve him right.” Tana returned, laughing as Allana’s blush deepened. “Oh, do stop being so innocent, Allana. Men have parts, so do women; it’s nature, darling.”
“I know, I am far too shy; it is why I remain unmarried. I just do not have what it takes to flirt like other women do.”
“Oh, is there someone you fancy then?” Tana hoped it wasn’t Kajika because he didn’t deserve Allana’s adoration.
“No, not that I have met. Maybe in the winter when the villages gather for our annual trading fair. I am not in a hurry.”
“No need to be really, is there?” Tana asked, watching as Mingan offered a cup of tea to Kajika and then headed towards Tana with another cup in his hand.
“I have brought you the tea of the gods. This will give you good sleep so you can wake rested in the morning for your journey down. Drink it now or later, as you wish.”
Tana was planning on going to bed soon so she sipped at the tea, hoping that would slow the effects but help her to rest later. That was something else she’d found out about this place, herbal medicines seemed to be far better than anything she’d ever taken from a pharmaceutical company.
She sat back on the buckskins, Allana running her fingers through Tana’s hair as they listened to one of the elders telling a new story and gazed up at the stars. She so longed to be home but life was simply beautiful here, she thought. Her gaze drifted until she spotted Kajika and then lingered on the man. He was the only blemish on her time here, a hateful man who enjoyed tormenting her. She hoped he ended up with little fishies swimming up his plumbing as well.
Her mind drifted as she watched Kajika, and she felt drawn to him. She resisted the urge to go over to him and turned on her side, talking with Allana and others in her group instead. He may be the most beautiful man on earth physically, but he was ugly at his core.
“Tana, will you come with me please?” Kajika asked.
“Pardon?” She asked as she turned over, shocked by the request.
“Will you come with me? I would like to speak with you please, before you leave in the morning.” He actually seemed to want to speak with her.
“No, I don’t think so Kajika, I don’t feel like being asked if Greenpeace are protecting me, or if when I sit around the house; I actually sit around the house. Not tonight. Let’s leave it at goodbye shall we? Have a nice life.”
“I promise, I will not be cruel to you, which is what your statement implies I suppose as I don’t know what Greenpeace is, but I would like to apologize to you and explain myself, please, if you would allow it.” He rushed the words out as if he only had seconds to say them.
Tana looked up from her place on the ground with the other women and saw honesty there, and something that looked similar to shame. This ought to be worth hearing, at least, she thought as she got up from her spot.
“Alright then? Where do you want to go?” She asked, looking around the village.
“Just over to the other side of the fire. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me.”
“It might be worth hearing. But the first crack of an insult sees me getting up to leave, do you understand? Tana asked sternly.
“Yes, I think so but not necessarily how you put it. But, yes, overall I believe I understand you.” He said, motioning for her to sit down on some blankets.
“Right. Well then, what do you have to say for yourself?” Tana asked, almost impatiently. That herbal tea was starting to kick in and she was getting sleepy.
“First, I would like to say I’m sorry for my behaviour over the last couple of weeks. I have acted childishly and spitefully and none of that was truly your fault. You are a beautiful woman, even if you look different from the women of my world. You have acted with honour, pride, and respect the whole time you have been here, but I have not. My wife left me many years ago for another, and I have not allowed myself to choose another wife. None have really caught my interest, honestly, but you did. To protect myself I have tormented you and though I do not deserve it, I ask for your forgiveness. I simply cannot allow you to leave hating me and I hope that you would come back to visit us again, whenever you are ready.”
Tana, sitting cross-legged on the blankets reeled back and looked at Kajika as if he had three heads. Whoa. Her head was spinning now but she was certain he’d just apologized and rather humbly asked for her forgiveness.
“Wow. Um, yeah, thank you, Kajika, I appreciate the honesty and the apology. If I ever find my way back, I’ll be glad to visit. I can’t believe you just said all of that. Wow.” Tana flopped onto her back, looking up at the stars.
“If I stay now, I will have to taste your lips and that cannot be, so I will leave you now. I’ve said what I could no longer hold back. Pleasant dreams, Tana, and safe voyage.”
With that, Kajika left and Tana was alone, staring up at the stars. Pulling one of the blankets over herself, she fell asleep there, hoping that what Kajika had just said wasn’t just a hallucination.
Chapter 3
Two days later Tana knew she was lost and she wasn’t going to find her way home. The villagers had provided her with enough food and water and blankets to get her back down the mountain, but the food was only meant to last her a day and a half. She had been able to gather more water from streams, but food was scarce. She’d realized she was lost when she made camp the first night. She’d wandered the entire day, searching for her first camping point halfway down the mountain but either she was coming down on the wrong side of the mountain or it had disappeared.
After another day of searching with very little food, her ankle now throbbing in protest again, Tana made camp and fell asleep, tears defying her will and rolling down her face. She was lost and she couldn’t even find her way back up to the top of the mountain now to find a village. Going straight up should have brought her back to it but even that led her back to the middle of the mountain somehow. She was stuck and had no idea how to fix it.
If nothing else had convinced her about where she’d been the last two weeks, walking straight up a mountain only to find you were right back in the middle when you should have been at the top did. She was not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Definitely not in Kansas.
Tana fell into an exhausted sleep and dreamed of pleading with Mingan to find her, of chasing around the mountain for months, until her legs gave out and she died cold and alone, and of Kajika keeping her warm with his body in a different dream. That dream started to turn steamy and that confused her so she made herself wake up, staring up at the line of sunlight just breaking through the trees. Turning onto her other side, she started as she realized someone was sitting there.
“Kajika! How did you find me?” Tana launched herself at the scowling man, hugging his neck tightly. “Never mind, I’m just glad you are here! I’ve been so lost.”
“Mingan sent me to find you; he heard your pleas in his dreams. I suppose I must now take you back to the village again. I don’t know what Mingan gave me that night or what I did that you now find it necessary to launch yourself at me, but please refrain from doing it again.” The cold words were a shock to Tana and his curt removal of her arms, flinging them away from him, saddened her.
“Back to that are we? What happened to your ‘I humbly apologize, please come visit again’?”
“I do not remember ever saying those words to you. Now, follow me and if you can keep up we’ll be back at the village in a couple of hours.”
Tana stalled, almost certain she’d rather spend eternity wandering if it meant avoiding the taunts of Kajika but she soon followed, remembering Mingan’s food as her stomach rumbled. As they walked, Kajika made the occasional barbed comment about her ability to keep up and how she was doing better than he thought she would. As they neared the top of mountain and she saw the villagers there wait
ing for her return, her patience finally broke and she let loose of the anger she’d been biting back.
“Do you know something Kajika? You are nothing more than a pitiful little man. Oh sure, you’re tall, but deep down you’re just a little boy afraid of being hurt again. You torment me, you make fun of me, not because I’m actually ugly or I might hurt someone with my girth, if that was the case most of the men in the village would have wiped out the entire female population by now, no; your anger is at yourself and not me. You taunt me so you won’t feel soft towards me and for however ugly you say I am, the attitude you’ve treated me with is far uglier, and as the leader of this village, this village of people that have shown me nothing but love and kindness, you should bow your head in shame. You are not leading by example; you should be following the lead of your people if anything.” And with that she stomped off with Mingan, enjoying the way Kajika’s mouth hung open in shock.
“Come back here, you deserve a thrashing for that!” Kajika shouted at her receding back.
Tana’s only response was to turn slightly, still walking, and lift a middle finger to him before carrying on. She didn’t see it but he stomped off, ranting about lippy giants. She did giggle though, proud of herself for getting the best of him.
“That ought to keep him quiet for a while, Tana. Or he’ll rant more. We’ll see, we’ll see. I am glad you finally spoke up for yourself though, it was getting tedious.” Mingan said as he lifted the flap on his wigwam letting her in. “Now wait here, I’ll bring you something to eat and you can tell me what happened.”
Later, Tana ate from the slate plate and explained how she’d just gone in some weird loop, always returning to the middle of the mountain. Mingan rubbed his chin, looking at her with concern.
“Tell me, Tana, the day you came to us, what do you remember of that day?”
“Just that I got up, ate, and started up the mountain. I wanted to get up here before it turned dark. Nothing unusual happened, I didn’t fall through a wormhole, and pass through any strangely arranged trees, nothing like that. I just hiked up the mountain and then I found you guys up here. Why? What are you thinking happened?”
“I’m not sure yet but I have to guess something unusual happened. It may simply be that you haven’t fulfilled whatever you came here to do. We will figure it out eventually, I’m sure.” Mingan did not seem concerned about how long Tana was going to end up being here but she was.
She didn’t want to lose her job. Her parents wouldn’t really worry, they were illegal drug users and she usually avoided them anyway to stay out of their drama. She had friends but nobody really close in her life. The only person she could really count on to raise an alarm was her partner at work. John knew she loved her job and that she’d gone camping, maybe he’d be able to push an investigation, a search for her? She had a feeling she was stuck here, even if anyone came for her. That trip down the mountain taught her one thing, perhaps it was time to finally admit that she was not in the LOL anymore. Not in any way.
A few days later and Tana was soaking in a spring some of the women and children in the village used to bathe when it was warm outside. The mountain was massive and the land at the top covered quite a few acres. The spring was nestled behind some trees, the water cold but nice. It was deep enough to swim in but not very large, more like a small pool than a lake.
Tana rested against some rocks the ladies had arranged sometime in the past, letting the cool water soothe her ankle and sore muscles. She’d been helping the men with chopping the wood and piling it up yesterday, and now she was paying for it. She smiled though; the physical exertion had eased some of her anxiety and helped her to think. Even if she was stuck here life wouldn’t be so bad. She didn’t have a lot to leave behind after all. She frequently came to the mountains to escape, even going to camp when she had two days off in a row to get away from the frantic pace of modern life.
Tana’s serenity was interrupted by Kajika’s sudden appearance, his scowl alerting her that he was already in a foul mood. She tried to hide her body behind the rocks, not wanting him to see what he’d ridiculed in the past. She also tried to cut him off when he opened his mouth to speak.
“If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll leave. No need to insult me. In fact, I believe we should call some kind of truce, don’t you? It doesn’t appear that I’ll be going anywhere soon so we either call a truce or you slowly tear this village apart with your hatred of me. That or I leave and honestly, I have nowhere else to go.”
Kajika had the decency to look somewhat ashamed and hung his head as Tana spoke. He looked up at her when she finished and gave a grimace that may have been a mangled up grin. “I suppose you’re right. I have started to notice people are looking at me with distaste. Perhaps I have taken this too far? May I join you and we can discuss this further?”
“I suppose,” Tana said, looking out from her rock, privacy fence. She looked away as Kajika stripped but watched out of the corner of her eye. The man had a beautiful body, that part could not be denied. Tana ended her admiration of Kajika’s body as he moved into the water as if he owned everything he saw before him, no hiding of his bits, no hunching, just a confident stride into the water. Tana sighed wishing for a moment that the man hadn’t been such a jerk.
Tana sank lower in the water, determined that he wouldn’t be able to see anything of her nude form. He slid down in the water beside her, sighing as his skin submerged into the cool water. She tried not to think about that sigh, about other kinds of sighs men could make, sweet, erotic sighs.
Tana blew air out from between her lips and looked away again. “So, then, what did you want to talk about?”
“Could you tell me more about what I said to you the night before you left? I was really angry when you kind of threw it back at me but after I stomped off I thought about what you’d said. I have been trying to think of a way to apologize but could not exactly come up with anything that did not sound paltry.”
“Oh. Ah. Um, you told me that your wife had left you and that you didn’t want to let anyone else near to you. You were afraid of being hurt and that you thought I was beautiful. You apologized to me then kind of stumbled off into the darkness as I fell asleep.”
“Oh, well, that is not too bad then. I was afraid I had perhaps made a complete fool of myself. It sounds like I actually didn’t do a bad job the first time around.”
“No, it was really quite a lovely apology, as apologies go. You don’t have to do that again, if you don’t want to. Just an acknowledgement that you’ve been a complete bully would be nice.” Tana said with a smile, cutting down on some of the bite of her words.
“You are right,” Kajika said, “I have been unnecessarily rude, cruel even, with my words. Can we start over?”
“Sure but if you ever call me a giant again, I’ll break your knees.” Tana said with a beatific smile.
“Agreed.” Kajika said with his own apologetic smile.
Feeling a bit braver Tana moved out into the deeper part of the pool, letting her hair flow out behind her. She loved how the water tugged on the strands as she moved through it.
“You are truly beautiful, you know? Half of the time, when I was saying all of those cruel things, I was only saying the exact opposite of what I was actually thinking.” Kajika said as he followed her into the middle.
“Were you?” She asked over her shoulder, hoping that his words meant that he was interested in her. Because she was definitely interested in him if he’d decided to stop being a jerk.
“Yes, you remember when I said you had lips like two fat slugs? Well, it would not be polite to tell you what I was actually thinking about your lips.” He said, looking away as he tread water.
“Tell me, what were you thinking?” She had an idea but wanted to hear him say the words out loud.
Kajika looked into her eyes, a wicked but pleasing grin spreading across his face. “I wondered how those amazingly seductive lips would look taking me into their depths. If you wo
uld close your eyes as you swallowed me or if you’d look back into mine.”
His words sent a tingle up her spine and her lips parted, as if to invite him to find out. She floundered for a moment, not sure what to say.
Kajika was on a roll, though, and didn’t allow her time to speak. “I wondered if the glorious globes of your breasts would fill my palms or if they would overflow, and if your bottom would fit perfectly nestled in front of me, if your gasps would be sweet and timid or wild and free. I wondered so much but I wouldn’t dare allow myself to find out. You are not one of us; you could leave at any time, and I could not allow you to get to me. I am not sure why I am allowing it now but I know I cannot deny this anymore; I cannot deny that I want you beneath me, filling my senses.”
Tana just shivered, not cold or afraid, but anticipating what she knew was coming, unwilling to stop it. And then Kajika was there, kissing her lips softly, exploring slowly and giving her the chance to back away. Her next move might have been crazy but Tana had to find out, had to know what he felt like and she wrapped her legs around his waist, bringing their bodies together intimately.
Tana sealed her mouth to his, sliding her tongue between his lips to invade his mouth, to chase his tongue. She moaned as she felt his tongue slide along her own in answer and his hands clench at her hips, pulling her closer to his body, sealing them as close as their mouths were sealed. She could feel him there, between her legs, hot and hard in the cold water of the pooled spring, and she circled her hips, wanting to take him in.
Kajika broke the kiss, moving them to the water’s edge and then out of the water to a buckskin blanket she had spread there earlier. He laid her on the grass, his strong arms and back easily handling her weight, and followed her body down to the ground. Kajika explored her body then, his fingers gliding over her damp skin, over her already tight nipples, his heated mouth sucking at the tight flesh as his palms cupped the flesh there, her breasts overfilling his hands. Kajika grunted in pleasure at the sight. He moved lower down her ribs and over her soft stomach. No tight abs to be found there but he loved how tight her skin was, how rounded and soft she was all over. There were definitely muscles beneath her skin; they were just hidden by a soft layer that made her appear more feminine, somehow, than the lithe figures of the women in the village. Perhaps that’s why he couldn’t find a mate among them; they were all too thin for him.
Kane (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 1) Page 104
