Their guide ran into the largest of the huts, and quickly came out accompanied by four other people, one of whom was a much older female and the tallest of the group.
‘You welcome to us.’ the older female said, smiling down at the two. ‘You come a long long way to see us. Come to my hutt, and take food.’
They all trooped into the stone building, and the pair was surprised to see things to sit upon and a big flat board on legs in the middle of the room.
‘Please to sit down,’ the older female said, pushing the three legged crude wooden seats closer to the table, ‘I get you food.’
She produced several flat wooden boards laden with fruits, most of which the pair hadn’t seen before, and were hoping they wouldn’t have to eat.
‘Are all of these good to eat?’ asked Kel, not wishing to place himself at risk eating something he knew little about.
‘All are good food. You do not have like these?’ the older female asked.
‘Not these.’ said Kel, pointing out the ones he didn’t recognize.
‘All are good, you eat this.’ and she handed him one of the ugliest pods he had ever seen. Taking a cautious bite from one end, he was pleasantly surprised at the sweet flavour and smooth texture, and the rest of the pod soon followed the first bite.
After they had eaten their fill, the old female smiled, saying,
‘You tell about you selves, where you come from, how you get here, and why you want to get here.’
Moss and Kel took it in turns to tell the story in full detail from the day their Story Teller had suggested that they go on their journey, right up to the moment the young female came running up to them.
The listeners seemed surprised at the description of the forest life the two had led, and the length of the journey they had undertaken for seemingly little reason other than to just do it.
By now several other females had joined the party, and despite the size of the hut, it was getting crowded and a feeling of excitement was in the air.
While the older female was addressing the newly increased crowd, Moss slowly leaned forward, quietly saying to Kel,
‘I don’t like this, there’s something going on which we are not aware of. They seem to know about it, but we don’t, so watch out and be ready to make a run for it.’
‘Now we tell you some of our life.’ the older female had a commanding tone to her voice, and every one paid attention at once.
‘We not have Story Teller like you, but I do the same kind of thing. I remember the old tales from long ago, and I tell them to us people. One time I tell them to the one who will be in my place when I go to the sky, and so the tales will go on to the new people.’ She paused to see if that had been understood, and seemingly satisfied, carried on,
‘A long time ago, a tall man came to us and said that if the men go into the forbidden zone and collected things, he would give them anything they wanted. Him a strange man, and not like us, for he had no hair on his body and a round shiny head. We think him ugly. We females not like him, and tell our men not to go. But they go to the forbidden lands and bring back the forbidden things, which we will not have in our hutts. And so the forbidden things were kept in a hutt way over there,’ she pointed with her old withered arm out of the doorway towards the low hills in the distance.
‘Not long after, we not have good children. Some have no arms, some no legs, some no hair, some die at birthing time.’
‘And then we not have any childs. None. We think it maybe punishment for men going to forbidden lands. Some of them get very sick and die early, some lose their hair and look ugly. Some can no longer do the child dance, and so we have no more childs.’
Moss and Kel were not too surprised, for their Story Teller had warned them to keep well away from the Death Sands, and the forbidden zone sounded as if it was something similar.
‘We have heard of a similar place, and we wouldn’t go there, for we think it does something to people which is very dangerous. How do you know that it is forbidden, and what does it look like?’ Moss wanted to see if he could find out anything more about the forbidden zone, so that he could recognize it in the future should they come across it.
‘We not go there, so not know what it look like. The old tales say it is a dead place, nothing grows, and there are strange lights.’ The old female was holding something back, but Moss couldn’t see what it might be.
‘You never go to a place like that?’ asked the older female with a touch of eagerness in her voice.
‘No, never,’ They both replied in unison, Moss wondering if they should have replied so emphatically, for some reason.
Kel noticed that the young female who had found them in the first place, had now moved up close to him, and he could feel the warmth of her body and the heady musky smell coming from her hair.
It made him feel hot and awkward somehow, along with a strange stirring in his loins which he had not known before.
The older wrinkle-faced female with only half her allotted number of teeth, looked around the rest of the group as if making her mind up about something, and then turned to Moss and Kel with her best effort at a sweet smile and said,
‘If we have no more childs, when we go to the sky, our people will be no more. We must have more, and our men not give us any because of the forbidden lands they have been to.’ She looked hard at the two, wondering if they had understood her unspoken request. They hadn’t.
‘You two are strong young men, you could help us,’ she blurted out at last, ‘you could give us the childs we need, it would be easy for you, and is good fun too.’
Moss and Kel weren’t too sure about that as they were too young for mating when they were back in the forest, and only had a hazy idea of what was involved.
‘I think we are too young for that kind of thing.’ Kel said, feeling the hot blush of manhood suddenly being triggered by a surge of hormones.
‘When you big enough, you old enough.’ was her sharp retort, and they both knew there was little point in putting up any resistance as the doorway out of the hut was now completely blocked by several larger females who looked as determined as the older one sounded.
‘We give you food and drinks and shelter, for you have no hutts of your own, and you give us the childs, then you can go see the other lands you spoke of.’ It was an order rather than a request, and seeing no way out of it at the present, they both nodded their heads in submission, for the time being.
In one last desperate attempt to stave off what seemed to be an unavoidable initiation into an early manhood, Moss said ‘We don’t know what to do, as we haven’t yet been paired with any females from our group .....’
‘You not need to know, we will show you.’ said the older female with the wrinkles and a knowing smile.
Moss and Kel looked at each other, hoping that the other could think of a way out of the inevitable.
Fresh wooden platters of food were brought out from a recess somewhere in the hut, and lots of little gourd cups along with a very large gourd of some drink appeared as if by magic. Everyone tucked in, the drinking gourds of Moss and Kel being topped up as soon as they had taken a little.
They both found the drink very pleasant, slightly sweet and a full fruity flavour. Little did they know it had been fermented for a while, and although not very potent, would have an effect if consumed in any great quantity, which they were doing without realizing it.
As the Greater Sun began to slide down below the horizon, the party in the hut was in full swing. Everyone was eating, drinking and generally making merry.
Kel’s newly found friend was snuggled up against him as if she would freeze to death if she didn’t, while several young females were doing their best to hold Moss’s attention by asking him questions about his life in the forest.
Both adventurers had by now imbibed enough of the fruit drink not to care very much what happened, so there was little resistance put up by either of them as they were led out of the main hut and began the lon
g night of visits to the smaller huts of the rest of the group.
Finally, they both fell asleep locked in the arms of which ever female was lucky enough to have been deemed the last one for that night, and awoke next morning feeling tired, sore, and not a little confused.
Before they were too sure of what was happening, they were back in the large main hut and being confronted by the older female.
‘That was good fun for you each.’ she cackled, showing a semi-toothless grin, and Moss later told Kel he hoped he hadn’t mated with the ‘scraggy one’, but couldn’t remember if he had or not, much to his dismay.
‘You must eat now, and replace your strength.’ she said, replenishing the food platters with more fruit and pods.
Both realized just how hungry they were when they eventually came out of their sleepy stupor, and tucked in with a willingness which belied the size of their bellies.
Feeling full and bloated, and not a little tired, they were led out into the bright light of day to bathe in the strong light of the Greater Sun, while several strong looking young females stood around doing nothing in particular, but were always close to hand.
By midday, Moss and Kel had recovered from their previous nights exertions, and were feeling a little more refreshed. The fact that they were, in effect, being guarded by the females only caused them to wonder what was going to happen next.
‘I don’t think I could keep that up for too long.’ was Moss’s comment, looking around at the well muscled females who were keeping an eye on them.
‘I don’t think the normal mating thing is as strenuous as last night, as we are only supposed to have one mate instead of a whole series of them,’ Kel interjected, ‘anyway, I don’t remember too much of it after the first few huts, which is probably just as well.’
Kel beckoned one of the females over to him with the intention of asking a few questions about the group, but she either didn’t understand him or pretended not to. He tried several of the others, and eventually one responded to his smiling request, and came and sat next to him. This caused not a few dirty looks from the others, and then Kel knew that they had been instructed to keep an eye on the pair, but not to get involved.
‘Where do you get your fruit and pods from?’ was his opening gambit.
The female pointed over towards a low hill covered in a dark and broken rocky formation,
‘Down there’s a deep valley where the big water go, and it is full of trees and bushes of food things.’ she said smiling,
‘I show you, yes?’
‘Yes, I would like that, can we go now?’
The female got up and extended a hand to Kel, helping him onto his rather shaky legs. Moss somehow staggered up, and they began to move towards the stony hill.
The other females immediately gathered round and stopped them, angry glances being given to the bold one who’d dared to make contact.
‘You must wait here, I see if you can go.’ one of the larger females said, and walked off in the direction of a hut.
She returned a little later to say, somewhat reluctantly,
‘You go, we come too.’
The party trooped off, the larger female leading the way and the more brazen one having got Kel’s attention, helping him along by holding his arm.
They climbed the stony rise and before them was a deep valley, full of trees with the river running through it. The sunlight glinting off the water where it had broken through the green coverage, gave a gentle peaceful appearance to the scene, and Moss and Kel visibly relaxed in the false security engendered by what they saw before them.
As the first low bushes and smaller trees were encountered, the little group went in single file, some females leading and the rest bringing up the rear, the brazen one holding onto Kel’s hand as there wasn’t room on the narrow path for them to walk side by side.
‘Looks like you’ve found a friend,’ Moss quietly said to Kel, with a grin, ‘perhaps she missed out last night, and wants to be first in the line tonight.’
‘You mean we do it all again tonight?’ Kel looked a bit surprised at the suggestion, ‘I don’t think I could, I’m too sore.’ Moss just extended his grin with a knowing wink, and strode on into the small forest.
The path widened, and they could see that the trees had been trimmed to make access more available, and probably boost the fruit crop, of which there was a plentiful supply.
The river was slow flowing and looked very deep when they came to it. Being only a little below ground level, it was easy to gain access to the water, and Moss asked if he could enter it to wash.
The females looked at one another, none wishing to take responsibility for the possible escape of their prizes if they let them out of their reach.
‘One stay here, one go in.’ was the compromise reached after a lot of subdued chatter among them. So, before they knew what had happened, Moss sprinted for the river bank and plunged in.
They had swum in a restricted fashion in the giant Water Plants back in the forest, but this was a kind of freedom they had never even envisaged, and Moss took full advantage of the open water to show off his swimming abilities, diving beneath the surface to come up some distance away, causing a lot of concern among the females.
‘You come back.’ one of them screeched at Moss, who gave her his cheekiest grin and promptly dived under the surface. He broke water near the bank after some considerable time, and even Kel was getting worried for his safety.
Heaving himself out, Moss said as an aside to Kel, ‘Now it’s your turn, give ’em a fright if you can, it’s the only way we can get our own back.’
The temptation to even the score was too much, and Kel leapt to his feet almost before Moss had finished speaking.
Eager hands made a grab for Kel, but he was too quick for them and made a dive for the water. The huge splash he made soaked those who had rushed to the bank to try and stop him, much to the amusement of the others.
He swam out, not as gracefully as Moss had, but considerably further, and that caused an outcry from the watching females. They seemed reluctant to enter the water, and shouted and leapt up and down on the river bank, obviously very angry, much to Moss’s enjoyment.
A different cry suddenly went up, sheer terror in their combined voices, and Kel heard it. Instinctively he surged for the bank, arms and legs thrashing the water into a foaming mass as he accelerated forward. Eager hands grabbed him as he reached the bank, and only just in time as a pair of mighty jaws opened just behind him, to later shut with a deep thump.
The water monster, fully ten times the length of the onlookers, slid back into the deeper water, with only its stalk mounted eyes visible above the surface. It must have wondered how its prey had escaped.
‘What was that thing?’ exclaimed Kel, when he got his breath back.
‘We call it Great Snapper,’ one of the females said angrily, ‘and you nearly got snapped by it. It swallow you in one piece, and you then no more.’
‘Why didn’t someone say that thing was in the water?’ asked Moss, who was just as angry, but for a different reason.
‘Not see very much, last time seen, very long ago. Sorry,’ one of the females offered as some sort of possible apology.
The bathing party, having had enough excitement for one day, set off back to the collection of stone huts, several of them collecting fruits on the way.
‘You eat all the fruits and pods of this forest?’ asked Moss.
‘Yes, all are good. The bad ones we dig up a long time ago. We not let them live here.’ said one of the females, handing Moss a brightly coloured round fruit which he hadn’t seen before.
‘Eat, it very good.’ and he did, and it was good. Kel was handed one of the new fruits, and having taken a small bite, due to his naturally suspicious nature of the unknown, he too consumed the rest of it.
The pair held their hands out for more, but were only given one more each. When they again tried to acquire more of the delicious fruit, heads were shaken, and
one or two of the females looked rather sternly at their companions, who had provided the fruit in the first place.
Kel’s suspicions were qualified when a little later, Moss began to giggle like a small boy, and he called out to him,
‘You’d better try and sick that fruit up, it’s not what you think.’
‘Don’t be silly, it’s lovely, I’m lovely, they’re all lovely.’ responded a very jolly Moss.
Kel tried to be sick, but to no avail, the fruit was inside him and he was feeling all right so far.
‘Funny lot, these females.’ he muttered to himself, stumbling several times but helped up by his female companion who never left his side.
Silently the little troop made its way up the hill towards the encampment, except for the occasional giggle from Moss and the quiet muttering of endearments from Kel’s companion.
Instead of going straight back to the main hut, which the pair expected, they were diverted off to one side and entered a smaller stone house on the outskirts of the group.
The whole party crowded in, and Moss and Kel were gently helped to lay down on a bed of soft fern like fronds.
By now the fruit had taken its full effect, and the two were in a state of euphoria, their eyes out of focus and their minds out of gear.
Moss began to make singing noises, but another mouth closed over his, and that was the end of the recital. Kel tried to sit up, but something soft and warm was holding him down and he soon gave up the unequal struggle and surrendered to the heady pheromone of the female’s hair.
It was dark when they came to, Kel’s little friend was still by his side, holding his hand and cooing softly.
‘What happened?’ asked Moss, the first to sit up, and trying to take stock of his surroundings.
‘I think I’d rather not know.’ replied Kel, knowing full well what had happened.
Moss was about to make a remark about his battered appendage when there was the sound of voices outside the hut. The Lesser Sun had risen and the soft silver light showed three older females entering the opening, and from the sound of their voices they were not in a happy mood.
Greenways Page 10
