by Paul Lucas
"It was not like that!" I protested loudly for the dozenth time. Flier, upon hearing what happened, immediately convened a council of Elders in the tribe. That our Chieftain was very upset was obvious to all, and when they heard the circumstances surrounding the incident that caused him such distress they were as shocked as he had been at Cloud's accusations.
The chief hunter of our people sat in one corner, smirking in triumph at his pummeling of Lerner and I being brought before this tribunal-of-sorts. Lerner was in a nearby chamber, his wounds being tended by Windrider.
"But Cloud saw you and the human engaging in an act of perversion," Azure the Elder said. "If that alien coerced you in anyway, Gossamyr, we assure you you have nothing to fear from him here."
I shot to my feet, knocking back the stool I had been sitting on. "For the final time, it was not like that! You have all known Lerner for well over half a year now! How could you believe he would be capable of something as monstrous as forcing me? I wanted him to touch me!"
A flurry of exclamations followed.
"Shocking!"
"Intolerable!"
"Perversion!"
"Will you be rutting with our wolf-dogs, next?"
"Enough!" Flier said, stabbing a tool-finger at the owner of that last opinion. "There is no need for filth like that, Azure! That goes for the rest of you! Conduct yourselves befitting Myotans or else I will eject the lot of you from this chamber myself. Remember you are here because I wish to benefit from your wisdom, not to listen to whatever excrement will fit on your tongue. Understand?"
They all murmured chastened assent, Azure doing so last and most reluctantly.
Our Chieftain turned toward me. "Be that as it may, I cannot say I disagree with some of their sentiment, Gossamyr. It was unsettling, to say the least, to have heard what you and the human were doing."
"Cloud was right," Azure said. "Lerner is corrupting our way of life. Gossamyr used to be an upstanding member of the community."
I sneered. "Oh? And when was that, exactly?"
"You may have been rambunctious and rebellious, but that is to be expected with youth. But you wear human clothes, talk constantly of their ways, and now even engage in mating behavior with one! How is that not corruption? And all to satisfy some lustful perversion."
"It is not perversion! I, uh, we--" My words stumbled over each other, trying to think of how to get them to understand. The Elders promptly ignored me and launched into a heated discussion amongst themselves. Azure and his faction were the most vocal with their denouncements, quickly pouncing and arguing down anyone who expressed a more moderate opinion.
Windrider slid into the chamber, quietly taking her place beside Flier. Hardly anyone noticed. She nodded briefly at me, knowing the question already on my lips. Lerner was going to be all right.
Listening to the Elders argue, I realized all this was more than just about me and Lerner. This was about all the change the humans had brought to the community since they first arrived, and the resentment he had been accumulating among the more conservative among us ever since. They liked things as they were, before the humans came. If they could, people like Azure and Cloud would use this incident to kick Lerner out of the community and dismantle any good he might have done for us over the past nine months. Unless the winds in this chamber changed dramatically, I could tell that was exactly how this tribunal would fly. Lerner would be forced to leave the next time a human helistat visited, and Azure and Cloud's faction might put a stop to human contact altogether.
That could not be allowed. To turn our backs on everything the humans had shown us, to retreat back into our previous unknowing lives would be insanity.
And, far more importantly, I could not stand the thought of never seeing Lerner again.
I had one strategy yet to try. I hesitated to use it for many reasons. I was not sure I wanted to be committed so fast to such a course, since I was still unsure of a great many of my own feelings. And how about Lerner? He had been so hesitant just to admit his feelings toward me, how could I expect him to react to this? He might hate me for it, never speak to me again.
But there was no other way to defuse the situation. From their talk, resentment against Lerner was growing quickly among them, and Flier could not ignore their conclusions if backed by the majority.
By the breath of the Sky-Spirit, had it really come down to this?
"Wait," I said aloud, then repeated it louder several times. It took a moment for them to quiet down. "You still do not understand. I wanted him to touch me, for us to be intimate."
Azure was annoyed at the interruption. "Gossamyr, we already know you surrendered to your own lust. That is not the point here. What--"
"I wanted him to touch me because I have feelings for him." As I said the words, I suddenly felt strangely empowered. The nervous treble left my voice, and I stood up straighter. Windrider, sitting across the room, must have anticipated what I was about to say. A broad smile of deviltry about to ensue crossed her muzzle. I continued, knowing I had at least one ally in the room. "Very powerful feelings. They have been growing stronger every day. Our touching was not just a spontaneous act of lust. We were drawn to each other like winds crashing, as if our spirits were crying out for a part of themselves that have been missing all our lives."
The gathered entourage was shocked into silence. They had heard the ritual words before, but could not believe they were coming from me at this moment.
Cloud shot to his feet. "Gossamyr, no!"
"Quiet!" Windrider commanded him. She turned toward me, the most serious face I ever saw on her. "What are you trying to say, Gossamyr?"
I gulped down a deep breath. "I intend to make Lerner my Mate."
* * *
Lerner's jaw hung loose when I told him. "You said what?"
"Please do not be angry." I was in his quarters, an hour after the meeting had concluded. After my revelation, no one would question my being here with him now. He lay in his broad hay-laden cot, his head and shoulder expertly bandaged by Windrider. She had given him smelly but pain-killing poultices, as well as put a healing casting on him, which I guess would put the nanites in his body to work diligently repairing the damage to his tissues. "I did not know how else to keep them from punishing you. They were so angry, they might not have just sent you away. They might have hurt you more."
The meeting had exploded after my announcement. My words had hit like a lightning strike on a cloudless day. The assembled elders shouted at each other, the uproar crescendoing with Cloud swearing to kill the human on the spot for bewitching me. But Windrider, with her tiny, diminutive frame, stood up before the assembled lot of them and commanded them into silence. Such was her presence that all at once they fell quiet. "That is enough of that nonsense," she shot at Cloud. "You will do no more harm to Lerner. There is no magic here, hunter. Gossamyr is under no spell."
She cackled dramatically, playing up her long-crafted role as a slightly crazed caller of spirits. Flier rolled impatient eyes, but the others paid rapt attention. "No, that is not quite right. Magic is at work here, a magic most of us have felt at her age, when we found the one to whom we were destined to spend our lives with. To deny her feelings for her future Mate is to deny the magic that binds all of you to your current ones! She has chosen her Mate, and we must respect that!"
"But Lerner is human!" Cloud spat.
"That is inconsequential!" Glider said. "We have all seen his spirit and know it to be generous and hard-working. He has treated none of us with anything less than courtesy and understanding. We have seen how he and Gossamyr were drawn together even on their first day, as she stepped forward to speak into his translator-box. I have seen, even if many of you have not, how they have drawn together not as assistant and master, not even as friends, but as a couple over these past few months, as yet afraid to acknowledge the powerful bond growing between them until, apparently, very recently. It is not our lot to question the wisdom of the Great Sky-Spirit in bringing
these two together across the vast distances of the world. If they are destined to be Mates, then none here will stand in their way." She shot a murderous glance at Cloud, heading off his inevitable protest. "None!"
The assemblage was cowed, even Flier, who would never even dream of opposing his Mate over a spiritual matter. Murmurs of reluctant assent began circulating among them, acknowledging Lerner and I as a couple, if that was the will of the Sky Spirit. They had to, for to deny our spiritual bond would mean that they would have to reject the same bond with their own Mates. The incident of earlier, while it clearly still disturbed some of them, was downplayed as just some more pre-Mating "experimentation."
Cloud angrily stalked from the room without saying a word, casting a hell-fire glance back at me.
But the greatest surprise of the night came from Windrider, when I went to talk to her after the others had left. "Thank you," I said. "Thank you so much for what you did."
"I am glad I did it," she said. "They are all so full of themselves, anyway. You and Lerner should be allowed to do what you want. This world is so full of sorrow and cruelty that people should be able to snatch what pleasure they can in each other, no matter how different they may be."
I hugged her fiercely. "Pfah," she said at the embrace, but I could tell she was thankful for it anyway, hugging me back. "I could do no less for the daughter of my heart. If I had not said something, I am sure Flier would have. But I have a confession to make, Gossamyr."
"What is that?"
She craned her head to one side, then to another, to make sure none but myself could hear her. Then she lowered her voice even more. "You see, Gossamyr, you are not the only one in the community who finds Lerner exciting and attractive. I personally would like to see him stay around."
"What!"
She cackled. "Oh, do not get me wrong. I cherish the life I have had with Flier, and would not change a single moment. But truth to tell, after I realized what was happening between Lerner and yourself, I began to look at him with new eyes. Had I been born forty years later, you would have some serious competition for your new betrothed." She batted her eyes and canted her hip in the way males like, then chuckled and sauntered out of the room.
"I'm not angry. I don’t think so, anyway," Lerner said, bringing me back from my brief reverie. "I don't know what I'm feeling right now. But explain to me how this keeps us from being punished."
I sat down at the edge of his cot, taking a deep breath before I began. "You see, if what we did last night was just a random act of lust, a desire for each other's bodies and nothing more, that would be wrong. Intimacy is supposed to be reserved for Mating, you see, for when you join your spirit with another’s. What we did happens often enough, especially among younger people, but it is discouraged. If you had been just another Myotan, the incident would have been forgotten. But because you are alien, I think it shocked and frightened many people.
"But if we are meant to Mate, if our spirits were fated by the Great Sky-Spirit to join together for the rest of our lives, then what we did was not a petty act of lust but a consummation of our destinies. Our intimacy would be viewed as inevitable in the eyes of the community, and indeed would garner their blessing."
"So pre-marital sex is okay as long as it's with the person you're going to marry anyway. Is that right?"
I nodded. "To put it in human terms, yes."
"Gossamyr, I don't know what to say. They sure as heck didn't cover stuff like this in First Contact training."
"I am sorry I got you into this, Lerner. Maybe I should have thought of something else to say. But do not worry. No one expects you to make an oath of betrothal while you are injured. If you wait a few days, you can denounce the whole thing. By then everyone will have calmed down over what happened, and things will probably return to normal."
He silently thought about it for several minutes. "First of all, I’m not sorry for anything that’s happened, Goss, and neither should you be. You didn't force me to do anything I didn't want to do. There were two people under those blankets last night, remember? Second, this is really going to mess things up for you, isn't it?"
I nodded. "Your refusing to become my Mate will make me look like a fool at best, and a scheming liar at worst. Announcing the intended joining of Spirits in Mating is considered a sacred act. It will look like I just said the words to save my own skin."
“And did you?"
My ears hugged my skull. “I could not bear the thought of them sending you away."
We were both silent for a long time. Finally, very quietly, he said, "Maybe I won't denounce it."
“Lerner, you do not have to do such a thing! Tempers are high right now, but in the end you will not be blamed for anything. You are not Myotan. I will bear the brunt of the shame. I have been in trouble before. I am used to it."
"Gossamyr, all we've done here is talk about what every one else thinks or feels or is going to do about what happened. We haven't talked about how we feel about what happened."
I opened my mouth to protest, but quickly shut it again. "And how do you feel?" I asked.
"A lot of different things. Angry at Cloud for attacking me, and more than a little annoyed at everyone else for sticking their muzzles into something that really isn't any of their business. At least, where I come from, it would be none of their business. And I'm disappointed that our first night together was marred by such an ugly incident. But mostly I want to spend more time with you, and to hell with what everyone else thinks."
“But, Lerner, Mating is for life. You should not do this because of me."
Lerner leaned forward, raising his unbandaged hand to stroke me gently behind my ear. I grumbled contentedly at his gentle touch, unaware until just now of how much I had longed for it all these hours we were apart. "Of course I'm doing it for you. What better reason is there?"
I took his hand in mine. "Do--do you truly want to Mate with me?" I whispered.
“Didn’t we kind of do that last night?”
I smacked him soundly--no place where he was seriously hurt, of course--even as my laughter joined his.
We snuggled for a while. Eventually, I stood and walked out into the corridor, making a show of drawing the outer privacy curtain tight on Lerner’s quarters. The corridor was unusually packed, as many had no doubt found an excuse to be close to whatever potential new scandal may erupt between the human and the Shaman's apprentice. They all turned to look at me, whispering among themselves, and many heads poked out of doorways to gawk. I spared them only a brief glance. Lerner was right. What they thought of us, good or ill, did not matter as long as we had each other.
I slipped past the curtain and found my way back to my human beloved in the near-total gloom. I stripped off my clothing and slid next to his warm, inviting body on the sleeping mat. We ‘practiced’ with each other for the rest of the day, and this time no one disturbed us.
THIRTEEN
Xenosexual behavior is more common than most of us are led to believe. This is mostly due to our own culture-centric prejudices. For instance, human-Orc marriages, which comprise about 1% of marriages in the KN, are not considered xenosexual matches. Now one could argue that Orcs are a very mild human variant race, very close to baseline humans, but they are a separate species nonetheless. And what about human-Centaur or Orc-Centaur marriages, of which there are about 4,000 or so in the KN? They’re not generally considered xenosexual matches either, but few can argue how radically different Centaurs are from the baseline norm.
No, it’s only because baseline humans, Orcs, and Centaurs have been integrated so inexorably into our cultural mainstream for so long that we do not consider sex among them to be aberrant, despite the fact they are all distinctly separate species. It is only when one of our own has an encounter with a member from an Outland race do we tag that person a xenosexual.
The term has become increasingly derogatory over the years, and I find that very unfortunate. Xenosexuality should not be derided, but seriously s
tudied and even embraced. Among other things, I think it can give us a serious glimpse into the minds of the Builders.
Look at the evidence on the Shard around us. So much attention has been given to the number of species that have been given human-style consciousness and language that we tend to overlook how many of those races have also been given a human-style sexual drive. Coupled with human-like physiology, it is inevitable that members from one Artisan-class species are going to find members of another Artisan-class species attractive.
Just look at the unusual response to the cover of August’s issue of Outland Explorer, the one that featured the photo of that Myotan girl looking up at the UTSite Tower at X12. The magazine received over 2000 letters and e-mails asking for more information about her, the majority from men. It was obvious they found this Myotan female attractive, but given today’s social climate very few would ever admit to having any kind of xenosexual response to her.
The Builders gave almost all their daughter races the ability to communicate verbally in order to assure that a link of some kind would always exist among them. Perhaps a similar reason would also explain why they made so many Artisan-class species sexually compatible. I believe that the Builders not only intended this to give their daughter races yet another common ground for understanding, but also they must have intended for there to be sexual contact of a limited extent between species. After all, what better way of understanding a person is there than through physical intimacy?
--from Xenosexuality: An Opposing View, by Dr. Hikaru Smith, published in the October 543 issue of Outland Explorer, PandoraNet Media, Kylea.
Then again, maybe the Builders were just pervs who liked to screw weird things.
--from an anonymous reader's letter written in response to Dr. Smith’s article, published in the December 543 issue of Outland Explorer, PandoraNet Media, Kylea.
* * *
I pulled the strap taut, unfolding the wing assembly into place. I quickly tied it off to the main glider frame, strumming the line once to make sure it was tight. The leather cord vibrated like a string on a music gourd.
