I woke in the middle of the night with a throbbing erection and Miyani's sublime physique on my mind. I wanted to lay down next to her, stroke her body, kiss the back of her neck, move on top of her, and rest my whole body weight on her arse. I thought about sneaking outside somewhere to finish that thought.
As soon as I sat up, something shifted in the darkness. Beside where Geraln slept—with Chirpy on his chest—was something much, much bigger.
I lay back down. When I closed my eyes, I was in the grass looking up at the cloudy sky with a gaping hole in my gut, and Blue was over me with my liver in his jaws.
I had a problem, and I needed to stop.
Lust was a sin.
It cost me Sarina. It cost me Davina. I'd lusted after Oasis, and it cost me the church in Ulum. May well cost me my life if she caught up with me in Carthia; wouldn't that be a way to go out? Giant alligators, lizards that rip your throat out, venomous snakes, an invisible enemy lying in ambush in the jungle—survive all that for one really pissed off girl to get you.
She did promise.
Breakfast was some grainy, paper-flavored slop and came with large, green-red fruits that had a wonderfully sweet-tart yellow meat inside with a stringy texture and made a sticky, glorious mess. maŋo, they'd called it, and it was beyond delicious.
Gino sat across from me. "What have they got us doing today?"
Davod answered. "Some lady named Ahmi is supposed to give us a demonstration."
"On what?"
From the end of the table, Faren's smooth voice crept through the chatter. "He's good, man. Doc says his fever's improved and he'll be back to normal again soon."
My jaw dropped. Ales should have been dead within hours. It'd been days. Impossible.
Borel was silent. He spent the morning glaring at Chirpy, who still clung to Geraln's shoulder.
Northstar sat with his hands behind his head and an easy grin plastered all over his long, narrow face. Jame nodded towards him, "somebody had fun last night!"
Northstar's eyes popped. He blew out and shook his head vigorously.
Kelint's whole baby face smirked. "This place is insane, man! These girls…"
"Women," Davod corrected him.
"Yeah, that. My point is this place is un-fucking-bel—"
"Don't use that word." Davod shook a finger as if he hadn't cussed right along with the rest of us.
Everyone stared at him.
He took a bite from his bowl and went back to Kelint. "Anyway, you were saying?"
Kelint stared at my best friend.
Rock leaned in with a big smile. "I telling you! Nice Tobori girl, big…"
"Woman," Davod corrected him.
"Yes, big and fat," he held his hands in front of his chest for emphasis. "She saying it: We wanting sex to you I having the friends, you all come! We never seeing her before this! We eating—very more good the food to this shit garbage—when she saying this!"
"You're kidding?" Jame's eyes popped. "That's not even 'easy' anymore. That's just… downright…"
Gino grabbed Geraln's shoulder, the one without the miniature throat-ripping lizard. "This one met the love of his life last night."
Sæwi was stunning. Her face was the one in the grand ballroom where the crowd parts, clearing the way to the other end of the hall where, bathed in a halo of soft moonlight, she stands in a sparkly blue gown gazing at you with those lustrous eyes and tempting you with those large, flat lips.
Why she chose him over me.
Jame shook his head and slapped Borel's shoulder. "My man here lost half his money to some kid in a card game. By the time we figure out what's going on, mum shows up and they all scatter."
Borel clenched his jaw and muttered, "fuck this place!"
"Language," Davod corrected him.
"PISS THE FUCK OFF!" Borel stood, bumping his hips into the table spilling several bowls.
I stood; he didn't have his goon to back him up anymore.
Davod tapped my hand; his voice was like a gentle breeze. "He just lost his best friend. He's got a right to be upset."
"Arrrrrgh!" Borel launched his breakfast across the mess hall and stormed out through an arch, only to thrust his hands out to fight against the spider-web he'd walked through. "I FUCKING HATE THIS PLACE!!!"
As for Davod, I didn't know what got into him.
After breakfast, Commander stood in the practice yard while Borel was on his way back from the barracks. In the span of two seconds, a light tip-tap rose to a deafening roar as rain came down in sheets, clattering violently into pools all throughout the grass.
"FUUUUUCK!" Borel shook his fists at the sky.
And while the rest of us huddled together beneath the stone awning outside the entrance to the mess hall, Commander watched us and smiled wide. Streams of water flowed over his muscles and dripped down from his kinky, dark-bronze hair.
After a minute the rain stopped, and the ten of us slogged through the muddy grass to form a circle with him at one end. At the center, few blades of grass clung to specks of blackened blood where the remnant of Massi had washed away.
Borel pulled his hair to the front to squeeze the water out into the grass with a terrible scowl across his face and glared at Chirpy, still on Geraln's shoulder.
Commander wrung out the front flap of his loincloth and bellowed out in his deep baritone, "I love war."
I looked around. Everyone else was taken aback as I was.
"Who wants to guess why I love war so much?" He grinned.
Kelint spoke first. "Because you get to kill your enemies?"
"I hate killing. If any one of you gets to a point where you enjoy it…" he shook his head. "I pray you never do. Guess again."
I shrugged. We all did.
After a while, Commander smiled wide. "I love war because it cuts through the bullshit…"
Gino furrowed his eyebrows.
"... Out there in the real world, bullshit is the currency that makes the world go around. I have my bullshit, you have yours, and so does everyone else. It doesn't matter if you're incompetent as long as you can convince everyone you know what you're doing. Similarly, you can be an unparalleled master—an expert in your field—but if you can't master convincing everyone you are, what good is it? It's bullshit!
"But not war. In war, be incompetent, and you will get yourself killed along with anyone stupid enough to follow you. No. War is proof. It's the decider. The ultimate judge. Tax the rich, or tax the poor; which one's better? War reveals the truth. Imperial authority or self-governance? My god or your god? Slavery or freedom? War decides. Always has, always will. War doesn't leave room for bullshit…"
"I see you philosophizing to a captive audience again." A velvety woman's voice, perfectly balanced between alto and soprano.
She stood among three of those giant lizards. She was a native, dark-green skin with a soft, angular face and deliciously soft lips. She was very short, maybe an inch or two taller than Miyani, and had the most marvelous legs the world had ever known.
Commander chuckled lightly. "Gentlemen, this is Ahmi. Unless you want to go the way of your friend yesterday, listen to her."
The day we arrived at Carthia, she'd overlooked us from the balcony of the administration building, standing alongside the Imperial Voice and the woman with the braids. Today, the dress she wore was simple tanned linen, buttoned along the front from her modest neckline all the way down to the hem about mid-thigh. She wore no jewelry but a black rope tied around her waist, her long white hair feral behind her back, and she stood barefoot in the grass.
"Good morning to you all." As she spoke, my mind lingered on her figure—hips of a goddess, delicate breasts, toned arms, and absolutely phenomenal muscular legs.
Rock spoke what we were all thinking, holding his hands out before his chest. "Why cover you titties because every Carthia girl don't?"
She answered, "because I do not need to justify my choice of attire to you. The purpose of this—"
"Do those things need to be here?" Borel crossed his arms and scowled.
One of the lizards she'd brought with her had a dark green color across its back and a light blue underbelly. It wandered around and turned its head to look at each of us, keeping within arms reach of her the whole time. While my eyes traced the muscles in her thighs, the creature stepped between us, bared its jagged, serrated teeth, and clicked.
Ahmi approached Borel. The green-and-blue lizard kept in front of her until she tapped the side of its neck, then it stepped to the side and allowed her to stand close to him and look up into his face. She spoke with an accent dripping of pure sex. "I am sorry about your friend. I know how it feels to lose someone that you care about."
Borel closed his eyes and lowered his face to the ground. The angle at which she stood gave me the most perfect view of that dress as it fell over her body. Davod elbowed me in my side and whispered, "stop looking!"
Jame held his arms crossed and snapped at Ahmi, "yeah, well that bitch is a fucking menace that needs to be put down."
"Maybe you should be put down," she snapped.
Jame scowled back.
"I was raised by vita'o, and as you can see, I still have my throat. But you know more than me, so go ahead and teach your friends how to not get killed. I will wait."
With that, she stepped to the side as though she were one of us and stood with her arms behind her back, looking at Jame in expectation.
Kelint covered his mouth to stifle a chuckle, and eyes turned to Jame. All around his collar and where his bow strap crossed his chest, his shirt was drenched in sweat. His boots were darkened from the wet grass, and he shook his lean face. Finally with a deep breath, he sucked his teeth and mumbled, "sorry."
Ahmi tilted her head to one side. "What was that?"
Borel faced him with his brow furrowed. Jame added, "I'm sorry. I would like to learn, uh… I'll be quiet, now."
Ahmi stepped towards the center of our gathering and explained. "There is a difference in mentality between your people and ours. In your culture, when an alligator eats a child, you kill the alligator. In our culture, we teach our children how to not get eaten. This is why I am here. What happened to your friend yesterday did not need to happen."
She walked around, checking each of us. "Vita'o are my life. I can promise you that if you adhere to the rules I give you, you will not have any problems."
As before, the green-and-blue lizard kept close to her side the whole time, stepping where she stepped and never permitting more than a few feet of distance from her. The second one had a white underbelly and a light-brown color over its back with white spots. That one stood like a statue, not moving its neck, a claw, or anything. I couldn't discern if it was breathing. The third one lay in the grass and stuck its claw in front of a beetle. The beetle wandered in the opposite direction, and it stuck its claw in front only for the beetle to wander off again.
When Ahmi came to Geraln, Chirpy jumped from him onto her shoulder and settled down, rubbing her tiny head in her cheek.
"Hey!" Geraln protested.
Ahmi continued. "The three rules I want you all to understand are these. Do not pull a weapon on a vita'o, do not assault their friends, and the ones who live out there are not your friends."
She'd pointed out towards the wilderness beyond the main gate. She was close enough that I could take in the smell of her—wild, like the untamed jungle itself dabbed over her skin like a perfume. I closed my eyes and bathed my ears in that delicious accent of hers.
"Which one?"
Beside me was the same native man from yesterday, the one who'd taken Davod to go do something.
He nodded towards Borel, "za."
Ahmi nodded. "I will not be long."
The man smiled, stood beside me, and watched as though he were one of us.
"Each of you," she said, "I want you to hold out your wrist like this." Kelint, Rock, and Northstar glanced at one another and obeyed, as did Renou. Faren did, as did Geraln, Gino, and Davod. Jame did as well. Ahmi stared at Borel for a moment. He looked left and right, then back at her, still holding his arms crossed. She continued to stare at him and spoke not a word to anyone for a full minute before Borel finally complied.
I'd have done anything she asked.
The blue lizard let out a sharp caw followed by a string of clicks. Ahmi stroked the side of his neck and whispered something to it in that native language. With that, the blue one made rounds, sniffing each of our wrists while she spoke. "His name is Zhagu'u. In Dayuda this means Thunder. We named him this because when he was a baby he would hide under me every time it was storm outside."
She'd turned her back to me, and my eyes were busy.
Davod slapped my arm and whispered, "cut it out!"
I whispered back, "what happened to always about that, huh? Like you're blind!"
He lowered his eyes and shook his head.
The second one, the brown one with white spots, still hadn't moved. When Ahmi whistled and clicked her tongue, it strode directly to Borel, sniffing his wrist, up along his arm, and then rubbed its head in his cheek.
Borel stepped back with his eyes wide and mouth agape.
The lizard clicked, then sniffed his shoulder.
"She is named Fluffy."
Davod chuckled, "Fluffy? You serious?"
Ahmi smiled wide. "She asked for a name that would cause her enemies to underestimate her."
Fluffy stepped to Borel's side and wrapped her long neck behind him, resting her head on his shoulder while Borel stood with terror on his face. She then let out a long chirp and clicked. Borel trembled. His voice wavered. "Why is she on me like this?"
"She feels very sad because you lost your friend and she wants to make it up to you."
Borel turned to face the creature, who opened her jaws wide and chirped before wandering to Jame to smell his wrist.
"This one," lay with its back in the grass, holding one talon up in the air while a beetle crawled over it. "He is named Du-u gati'ada."
Northstar erupted in laughter while Kelint lowered his face and chuckled. Even Rock let out a smile. Then she gave him a light kick in the side, to which he groaned but otherwise ignored her.
Gino asked Kelint, "what's that mean?"
"Best way to translate that… Lazy Bum."
Ahmi giggled lightly, brushing her fingers along Chirpy's back. "We told him that if he did not choose a name, that this would be his name."
Half of us laughed at that, but Lazybum didn't seem to care. Rather, he twisted his claw around and watched close as the beetle crawled over him. The beetle fell and bounced across his light-green scales onto the ground. Lazybum turned over and probed his nose through the grass near where it landed.
Ahmi tapped her foot in his side again. "pʊ baɣese tuzubo! gæðu zawa!"
He yawned his jaw open and croaked, turning back onto his back.
She opened her mouth and made a strange combination of sounds, like a click from her throat mixed with whistles followed by two clicks of her tongue.
The baby on her shoulder chirped excitedly and jumped down onto Lazybum's belly, poking her snout all over. Lazybum writhed around and gave out a string of clicks, each time reeling from where the baby poked him.
Ahmi glanced up at Davod with a wry grin. "He's also ticklish."
Chirpy was relentless, and soon the giant beast hopped up onto his hind legs. He stretched his neck all the way up and twisted his head around. After a good stretch, he slogged through the grass towards us, bobbing his head with each step. He sniffed Renou first.
"So," Ahmi continued, "I want you all to understand. The way the mind of a vita'o works is different from ours. They do not have a hierarchy, and they do not work in dominance. It is important to remember that they do not serve us any more than we serve them. It is a cooperative arrangement that begins with respect, but the foundation of respect is trust. They choose to abide by the rules we have, or they are free to leave. In this framework, we are mindful of the rules we establish. It is a beneficial arrangement…"
As she spoke, her eyes went about our gathering, checking each of us. When her lemon-yellow eyes came to mine, they lingered just a little longer.
"...to be able to rest here within the safety of these walls is a privilege for them. And so, they abide. If they feel the rule is unfair, they leave."
Geraln raised a hand. "Does that happen often?"
Ahmi nodded. "I will not say often, but sometimes one of them prefers to be with a tribe out there. When the war started, a lot of them left because they did not want to take part in it. The reverse is also true; this one's mother," she crouched low to rub a finger beneath Chirpy's chin "lost three babies to the jungle. When she was ready to lay again, she came here."
The baby leaped into the feral mass of her hair and climbed on top of her head. Ahmi's whole face scrunched into a laugh. Everything about her. Her calves, perfectly lean. Her thighs, sculpted by God himself. Her hips, her waist, her shoulders, her arms, her fingers, every curve absolutely flawless. Her dark, dark skin, her rough white hair, her eyes, she had everything.
Thunder brought the side of his head inches from my face and leaned one eye with a black vertical slit into me so close that I had to lean back some.
Ahmi smirked at me and continued. "Here is where you should pay attention. The imperative not to pull a weapon is not a rule for you; it is a rule for them. If you choose to make home at Carthia, and this is a standard rule that all human tribes have, then you may not harm a human unless they pull a weapon. That is the rule they must follow."
"What if they break it?" Jame asked. Borel humpfhed in agreement.
Ahmi nodded. "They will not. The human mind has a fluid relationship with rules; the vɪta'o mind does not."
"I have a question." The native man raised a hand.
Ahmi giggled lightly. "Ta'o, what is your question?"
"Will they ever try to convince us to pull a weapon?"
She flitted her eyes over to Borel for a moment. "Only if you really, really piss them off. But even then, as long you do not cross the line into weapons and violence, they will not as well. Now there is one exception to that rule. They are allowed to act in defense of their loved ones. So if you attack their friends, even if you do not use a weapon, they are allowed to protect them. And a special warning about this: everyone who lives in Carthia, they consider their friends. So basically do not attack anyone. Do not menace anyone, and do not threaten anyone. There will be no need for that, here."
Lazybum sniffed around my arm and gave out a high chirp followed by a low croak. Thunder and Fluffy rushed up to sniff up and down my body.
Ahmi smirked up at me. "You're Cute."
All eyes turned to me. My heart leapt. "Wha?"
"We give them names we can pronounce, and they do the same for us. That is the name they have given you. It means You're Cute."
Her voice was like smooth silk. As she spoke, my mind carried my cheeks between the skin of her thighs and created the sound of her voice crying out, begging me not to stop in that delicious accent. "It is important to remember that they are not service animals. They do not understand authority, not like we do, and they will not accept it. They thrive on trust and respect, and in that framework, they will always obey rules."
"Are there other rules?" Faren asked.
She smiled. "Of course we have others—do not eat the opossums. Obviously this does not apply to you." She furrowed her brow and looked around, earning a few laughs. "Please do not eat the opossums."
Kelint translated for Northstar.
Ahmi pulled a lock of hair behind her ear and shot a glance at me only to resume her attention on all of us. "I want to draw attention to these points, now, because this is very, very important. Out there, in the jungle, they are not bound by any of our rules. In here, you will make friends with them. Play games. They want to be your friend; they love to do things for us that we cannot do and to have us do things for them that they cannot do…"
"Like lasso coconuts," Faren inserted.
She smiled, "yes. Like that. But my point is that you should understand this. The ones out there are not your friends. The Sewu'oni have vita'o like we do. They have allied with our enemies; they will hunt you down and kill you. And there are tribes that don't like any humans; they will hunt you down for meat. Vita'o politics is often complex and dynamic, and while some of the ones here may have a positive relationship with the ones out there, they may also have a negative relationship."
Jame scratched his head while Thunder sniffed around his arm. "We're going to be fighting these things… out there, where we can't see ten feet?"
She hesitated a moment. "You shouldn't. Vita'o in the jungle are aware that the human tribes are at war and they mostly prefer not to be involved. Most of the time, we are allowed to trespass on their territory during the day while they are allowed to trespass on our territory during the night. It is a delicate balance, and so when you are out there, be mindful that you might be trespassing and act accordingly."
"Ahem," the native man standing next to Geraln cleared his throat.
"Yes," Ahmi said. She then stepped close to Borel and looked up at him. "You may go. To reiterate the important points, number one do not pull a weapon on a vita'o who lives here in Carthia, number two do not try to overpower their friends with violence, and number three out there," she pointed towards the main gate, "those ones are not your friends and are not bound by any of our rules."
Borel looked up into the cloudy sky and blinked as he took in a deep breath. Then he turned to our visitor. "Where am I going?"
"Peyumi wants to talk to you."
As they went off, Fluffy walked with them. The native man brushed the side of her neck while Borel still gaped at her.
Lazybum was on his back, rubbing back and forth in the grass. Ahmi stepped close to Geraln and allowed Chirpy to return to his shoulder. She then tapped Thunder on the top of his neck, he crouched low, and she swung herself onto his back. I watched her glorious thighs as she rode him bareback around the corner and out of view only for Lazybum to follow a minute later.
Gino waved his fingers in front of my face. "I dare you to go talk to her!"
He earned a few laughs at that. Jame smiled wide, then reached into his coin purse and tossed a kren on the ground. Rock tossed a kren of his own along with it. "Don't pulling weapon!"
Kelint followed with another, then looked at me and grinned.
Davod pulled me by my arm and spoke softly. "You don't have to do this."
"What's gotten into you?" I said. "You let that go… shoulda made love to her… you're always the one pushing me into this sort of thing."
"This place…" Davod shook his head. "It's not what you think."
But I looked around at the others. Faren was rifling through his own coin purse, Gino grinned wide, and Jame, and Northstar were all looking at me.
"Keep your money. I will go talk to her."