She wondered if these people, these two Ammarok men and their village, were of the same mind. She shifted, biting her lip as she thought about it, not wanting to appear rude in asking, but also feeling the need to know.
“I hate to ask,” she said. “But when will I be able to go back? To my home, I mean. I had only intended exploring, after all…”
The two men exchanged a look.
“Go back?” the one to the left said. “Why would you go back?”
“You’re staying here, aren’t you?” the other asked.
He sounded confused that she would even suggest such a thing, which only made her furrow her brows, her own confusion showing in abundance. She bit her lip.
“No?” she questioned, slowly, thinking perhaps there was a misunderstanding of sorts.
“Yes,” the one to the right corrected. “We found you. You’re ours.”
Suddenly, the two men weren’t so alluring.
III
Lyra
The pain in her ankle persisted, but she didn’t stop. She needed to get home, and there was only one way that she was going to be able to do so – escape.
Le’on and Karron – the two Ammarok warriors who had briefly been her salvation – hadn’t harmed her. She could at the very least say that. They hadn’t laid a hand on her the four days that she had remained in their home. That being said, those four days had taught her enough information about their people to know that perhaps she had bitten off more than she could chew when it came to being curious about the Out Zones.
We found you. You’re ours. That was quite literal to them, their people. The Ammarok weren’t male-dominated in the traditional sense. Most of their people tended to be male, and therefore most of their warriors, their leaders, were male. Their female population was drastically low, so much so that… well…
She had learned they often shared their females, and if they found a woman, as they had found her, wondering about, that appealed to them, they would take her as their own. It was as common as eating, and it was accepted among them – by the men and women alike.
Le’on and Karron were two of the Ammarok’s prized warriors, and had their pick of any females that they wanted among their kind or the neighboring groups of natives on Earth Two (which was called Ma’terra, to those who had lived there before the colonization of the Compounds.) They had been best friends since childhood, had shared their lives, battles, and women all their lives. It was their time to take a permanent mate however, but the only females available in their village were the elderly Mothers of All, as they were called, or young girls far too fresh in their youth to be bred off to warrior men.
She supposed that she could be grateful that the Ammarok were not fond of rape and child marriage. That being said, both Le’on and Karron had made it clear they had no intention of returning her to the Compound. They had said there was something about her… something that they hadn’t seen in others that they had considered. She had no idea what that was supposed to be; it wasn’t like she was like them, but her curiosity had quite quickly drained the moment that they told her that they intended to keep her. As a mate.
She wasn’t a brood mare, after all. She didn’t think so.
Lyra had snuck out the first night that she thought her ankle was well enough to move out and about on her own. They had gone into the village for a communal celebration, leaving her behind as she wasn’t mobile. Well, she was mobile enough to escape, and she was going to damn well do it!
The problem came when she got to the outskirts of the village, after having darted around in the shadows like she had when she’d slipped out of the wall around the Compound. She hadn’t realized quite how steep the hill she’d fallen down was – but it was damn steep. It wasn’t impossible to scale, no, but it was hard to do so with her ankle in the shape that it was. By the time she’d gotten to the top, she was sweaty, in more pain than she had been when she’d started, and breathing heavily.
Still, she persisted.
In the back of her mind, she kept thinking about Le’on and Karron. They had been kind to her – but how was she supposed to accept that she belonged to them? It wasn’t something that she had prepared for when she had gone exploring. She wished… maybe if they hadn’t come on with that in mind… it would have been nice to learn about the people beyond the Compound’s walls…
As she neared those very walls, she heard a crick of twig behind her. She whirled around, wondering if one of them had followed her. She saw nothing, and breathed a sigh of relief before she turned back around. The good thing was, she had managed to navigate her way back to the broken part of the wall –
Wait… except… No.
In a small bit of a panic, she limped up and down the section of wall that she had come to, looking for the breach in the wall. She could find nothing, though, and while she could see inside the holographic separation between the Compound’s insides, and where she was outside, she knew no one walking by would be able to.
That damn section had gone how long without being discovered? Fixed? It would figure the first and only time that she managed to get out, she would be locked out. There was no way to signal for help… no way to get someone to notice… The people in control on the inside ignored anything short of catastrophe going on outside their precious compound walls.
She kicked one of the pillars in irritation, regretting it instantaneously when a worse, sharper pain tore up her leg. She turned around, pressing her back to the pillar before she slid down. They, on the inside, would never think to look outside for her. everyone knew that she went on runs at night; they would assume she had gotten lost, or taken, or something equally sinister had happened to her. No one would speak up to think that maybe they should look outside the Compound for her, why would they? No one had ever left – you couldn’t.
The reality of her situation sinking further and further into her head, she put her face into her hands and attempted to stay the tears from falling. What had started as a desire to sate a curiosity had quickly turned into an abrupt, scary twist of fate. There was no way that she could go back, not at this stage in the game. But at this rate, she was more likely to die of starvation outside the Compound’s walls than she was having someone from the inside realize that there was someone outside, someone that wanted desperately to return to their home, their warm bed, all the things that were familiar to them despite the fact they’re brought this horrid situation on themselves.
What was she going to do?
*****
Lyra ended up sleeping against the wall’s pillar, into the early dawn of the next morning. She was stiff, and hurt as all hell. She briefly wished that a – what was it that Le’on had called it? A Starkee? – had come and eaten her, but that would have done her no good. Her options had quickly run out, and she knew that there was only one solution that would bare much help for her; she had to return to the village, knowing that for better or worse, at the very least there were two people there who had been invested in her.
She started her trek, limping slowly on the same path that she had taken the night before. When she got to the edge of the forest, and to the slope of the hill that led to the edge of the village, she sat down, choosing to scoot herself down the hill and cause the least amount of strife for herself. Her heart pounded in her chest as she did. Say she returned, and was punished for leaving? She knew what Le’on and Karron had told her of their people, but that didn’t make her an expert. For all she knew, they’d kill her for leaving them – but she knew there was no way in hell she would be able to survive on her own out there. Not by a long shot.
As the outskirts of the village became denser, and more of the intricate, wood-and-circuit homes came into view, she felt eyes on her. It made her feel self-conscious, as she was watched. It made her wonder what was going through the others’ minds. Did they see her as a dead woman walking? Were they going to approached her? Attack her? She had no idea. She had never felt so surrounded in her entire life, and she
wasn’t sure she liked the feeling.
“Lyra?”
She started, and turned. There was Le’on – and he looked rather surprised to see her. All she could do, though, was stand there, and stare at him. Her blood felt chilled. This was it. There he was. She shouldn’t have come back – she was going to die, he and his warrior brood were going to kill her –
Her thoughts raced like this, pounding through her head harder and harder as she watched him approach her, step by step, getting closer and closer to her. She remembered very suddenly, wild stories of alien races that would kill captors that ran away to regain their honor. That’s what was going to happen to her, she convinced herself. They were going to kill her because she besmirched their honor. Why the hell had she come back to them?!
For the second time, as if a curtain had fallen, everything went black.
IV
Le’on
He watched her as she slept, his head tilted as he took in the rise and fall of her chest.
She was an interesting creature to him. She wasn’t like they were – she wasn’t Ammarok – but she looked like them. The deep russet skin and strong features – though her auburn hair and grey eyes were a captivating, uncommon anomaly. The striking thing about her, though, was the fact that she had a presence about her that was distinctly like them. He supposed that’s what had captivated him about her, and had known when Karron had shared similar intentions with him, that it meant something. When he had discovered that she’d disappeared on them, he thought that perhaps they had both been wrong – but then she had returned.
It hadn’t been expected, and neither of them had had the intention of hunting her down. Both knew that it was impossible to force a mate-ship. That went against their practices and beliefs, and was not only frowned upon, but forbidden. When she had returned, then, it had been a relief. No one had made his head turn twice the way she had. There was something special about her.
He only hoped she thought there was something special about them, too.
It had been about a week since her return, with he and Karron nursing her back to health. She seemed to have had a bit of a panic when she had seen him again, and he had to wonder if perhaps they frightened her. There was little that they knew of each other. He thought that explaining things to her the first morning that she had been there, had been enough, but it was easy to see that… there was a divide between what was custom for her, and what was custom for them. It made him infinitely interested in what things were like for the humans on the other side of those strange holo-walls that they lived behind – but it seemed that, like the Ammarok, the humans weren’t interested in dealing with their neighbors.
Something pressed against him from behind, and he glanced back. Karron rested his chin on his shoulder, watching Lyra as she slept, as well. She looked peaceful like that, sleeping. Much more so than she ever did when she was awake.
“Do you think she’ll come around?” Karron asked him. He shrugged.
“I hope so. I think we should give her the chance to learn about us. Her humans have locked her out of her home… perhaps give her time to come to terms with that before pressing anything further.”
“Hmm…” Karron seemed to process that, before giving a bit of a comical sigh. “More waiting, how boring. But, I suppose you’re right. Give her time.”
V
Lyra
Time, it seemed, was what Lyra needed.
There was something insane about her predicament. Not long ago, she had snuck out of the Compound, with the intention of just exploring while she had the chance. She hadn’t planned on making a life outside of the Compound – she wasn’t some great explorer or navigator, she wasn’t a nature-kick kind of woman. And yet… here she was.
She had apologized, to Le’on and Karron, for leaving. She thought it was the right thing to do, considering they had become her only chance for survival, but there had been that fear that they were going to take her leaving out on her, and against her. It had been her worry when she had finally come-to that they would punish her.
They hadn’t.
The strange thing was, they seemed to understand – or at the very least had chosen to be accommodating enough that they sat her down, and explained her options to her. It had been Le’on that apologized for being as blunt as they had been, making her feel like she had no outs. Karron had apologized, too, though seemed the less serious of the two and had joked that it was okay, because she would see what they meant in time. They had answered her questions after that – explaining to her that yes, they chose her, but ultimately, they couldn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to do. They merely hoped that she would agree to be theirs, willingly. Over time.
Lyra didn’t know if she wanted to be theirs, the impression that she got from their terms of mating being that it was akin to marriage. She had never even had a long-term boyfriend (friends with benefits, she figured, didn’t count) let alone two alien mates. She did agree, however, to stay. It wasn’t like she could return to the Compound, not at this point at least, and it was better to stay in the company of people who weren’t trying to harm her than out in the wilderness on her own.
She learned the ways of life for the Ammarok, deciding that if this was going to be a long-term thing, then she would need to know what the hell to do. She had a lot of options, which was comforting to her. Though they were a tribal people, they did have technologies. Ever curious, she explored, asked questions, and catalogued all that she learned. She had always fancied herself a bit of a writer, and took the time to do so now that she quite literally had all the time in the world, in abundance. She got to know one of the tribe’s story-tellers, a man name Tarron, and they often spent time together and spoke numerous times when she wasn’t around Le’on and Karron.
Those two… were interesting. She couldn’t deny the fact she had found them appealing physically when she had first met them – nor that she thought they were somewhat terrifying on their own. But she had learned that Le’on was quiet, reflective, and liked having long conversations about… well everything. The nature around them, the philosophy of their lives. He liked to explain things to her, like the way they built their homes and how to use the technology of their people.
Karron, on the other hand, was rambunctious, over-the-top. His personality shone brightly, and Lyra could tell he enjoyed being the center of attention. He liked to tease her, poke at her, but she found it flattering when she noticed that the bulk of his playful teases were directed towards her.
Of course, Karron’s playfulness and Le’on’s attentiveness translated into… other things. More interesting things. As she spent more time with them, a mutual interest made itself known. She didn’t know if it was proximity – they all shared sleeping quarters and the two of them had about as much modesty as a someone in a brothel – or just pent up tension, but.
One night, it snapped.
It was late in the evening, with Lyra winding down. Karron and Le’on were playing a game of Sar’kat – something like chess, played with the carved bones of the Starkee beasts that the Ammarok hunted rigorously. Her two companions had snuggled down on either side of her – Le’on to her front and Karron to her back. They were warm, so warm… and she couldn’t ignore that the heat was from a little more than just the contact. It wasn’t hard to notice the press of Karron’s interest behind her, and she didn’t stop him when his hand came to her hip, fingers rubbing her.
A kiss, was all it took. Le’on taking her lips against his while Karron touched her. they lit her body on fire – made it burn in the pit of her belly and warm within her womanhood. They took her, between the two of them. She had felt nearly split in two as they had their way with her, so completely full that she didn’t know what to do with herself. She had never had men like that before… never two at once and certainly never as many times. They seemed to go on and on, never tiring – even when she felt like her body was spent and her mind was so overwhelmed with pleasure that she didn’
t know what the hell to do with herself.
Either way, when she had collapsed against the bed in a heap, she thought that maybe this was the sign she needed to know this was the start of something new.
VI
Lyra
“You know, I never thought I would be out here, like this.”
She strolled through the forest, with Le’on and Karron at her sides. She had been curious (that hadn’t changed in her time with the two of them) about what lay beyond the village, and the two of them had agreed to go with her to explore. They took her fascination with an amused sort of interest. Both of them were already so used to their surroundings that they were almost mundane, but Lyra had decided she was going to make the most of her self-inflicted exhile.
“What do you mean?” Le’on asked her, sliding aside some brush so that they could pass.
“I’d always wanted to explore out here,” she explained. “As a child… My father was an Admiral in the Intergalactic Navy, and he was always talking about how wonderful different worlds were… how interesting experiencing other cultures and peoples were. When we were set to come and colonize Earth Two – Ma’terra, sorry – I had been so excited…” She sighed wistfully. “But they told us that we were only to stay behind the holograph walls and we wouldn’t actually be exploring the populated areas; our settlements would be in the areas that had no sentient life. I understand why; no one wanted to do what had been done on Earth to native populations, but still. To be completely cut off from everything so new and wonderful… When my father died, he told me to never let go of the idea of expanding my horizons and getting more out of life. I never thought I would actually be able to do it, even if I always wanted to.”
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