Kaiya, Chapter the Third
#3 of Kaiya
The bards and singers, the players and the actors of the pantomime would have us believe that to fall asleep together is a romantic thing, a blissful communion of comfort, of ease, of joy. Any man who is old enough to be a man, and have known a woman's touch, will vouch it is not so. People, be they mannish or sidhe, make poor and restless cushions, and even the straw mattress of the peasant is apt to be more welcoming, in truth, than a lover's shoulder. And that discomfort is redoubled when the woman you lie with is bound, her arms doubled behind her back and between you by a harness of ropes.
So we stirred fitfully, drifting in the shallows of slumber, dimly aware of one another's small movements, shifting about each other. Her hands between us, flat against my abdomen, were small, and very warm...
I must have slept, a bit, for it was dark when next I opened my eyes, and cold where I had slipped, still wet, from within her. I rolled away from her, slowly.
"Mrrrrm? Hey... don' ... 'm cold."
"It's night. And you have your pants around one ankle. I'll get you a blanket, but I must unsaddle Bastion. 'Twas no kindness to leave him waiting, while we..."
The next words slipped my grasp. What exactly had I done? Was it dalliance with a strange and exotic woman? Or had I committed some unnatural act with a beast, an animal?
What was done was done. Worry on it later. I eased Bastion's tack and saddle, unpacked gear, thought the better of building a fire. Blankets would be enough. I wanted sleep.
When I returned with arms full of bundled wool, she risen up upon the fallen leaves, kicking away her trousers, to sit naked below the waist, dressed and bound above. I dropped my burden.
"Lie back so I can retie your ankles. I'll not have you running off while I sleep."
"Retie my..." She stared at me. I could just make out the glint of her eyes. "There's no need for that. I'm going nowhere now, not half-naked in the forest at night, with my arms bound so tight I barely feel them... besides, I..."
Her arms. Right. I'd not eased or shifted the harness of rope that bound her shoulders, elbows, and wrist since the previous day.
"Aye, I'll need to shift that. Lie down, and roll over flat, and I'll move those. And try nothing. What we did does not mean... I... I'll not let my guard down, and I'll kill you quick as ever."
I could not see to read her face, but her voice was flat calm. "I believe you would. I'll lie quiet."
It is no simple thing to bind a man, or woman, without leaving them some opening, but I am practiced at it; a knee on the back of her neck, a fist wrapped under bundled ropes, a quick slice of a knife, and I held a length of rope still tight about one wrist.
"Roll over slowly, and give me the other wrist in front of you."
"Can I have my shirt off? I've worn it for..."
"Very well, but be quick about it." I held the dagger point against her stomach where she lay, and left her her arms. Cloth rustled in the dark.
"There."
I set one knee hard against her breastbone, fumbled cloth off the end of the rope, and quickly bound her wrists in front of her, running a loose length down to her ankles and binding them as well. She did not fight, but... stirred... restlessly, strangely...
"Mmmmm. That's much better. Hurts less. And I can move a bit..." She pushed herself to her hands and knees and rubbed a flank against me, rumbling.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Mmmm. Isn't it obvious? I'mmm DONE with lying quiet. I guess you'll just have to stab me for being uncooperative... Mmmmm, well, stab me with SOMETHING, anyway..." This voice was not flat. This voice was oil and smoke and husky desire.
"You're not..."
"Done? What, do you ape-people only do it once a year? C'mon, I feel something stirring back there. Are you going to give it to me or do I have to beg again?"
I froze still, tangled in my thoughts.
"Stubborn ape. C'mmmon..."
Her breath was ragged. Soft, curving, parted buttocks rubbed up and down the front of me, writhing and curling against my growing hardness. Yes, I desired her. But...
I twisted away from her, grasped her hard by the tail, digging my fingers into fur like silk, dragging her hips forward and away. And swung a hard palm underhand.
She howled.
The second stroke landed awry as she tried to twist away, but I had three times her weight, and half again her height, and greater strength by far. My knees wedged between hers, and forced them apart, and that stiffened palm landed again and again, upon that soft female center she had thrust against me a moment before, and now struggled to jerk this way and that, to hide away, yowling and squealing.
At last she lay gasping, pinned to the earth by my bare foot, buried in the soft fur in the curve of her back.
"Why..."
"Because I mislike your tone. You will not be insolent. You will demand nothing of me, you will not cajole or mock. I will play no games with you. I have given you what you asked, but it changes nothing; you are my charge, and you will remember it."
She growled, but softly.
"Very well, ape. If your stupid pride will not sustain simple gratitude, I will give you none. I thought to have it in friendship, however we met, and wherever we must go. But you are a fool."
"Think of me as you please."
"I shall. Now will you give me again what you gave me before? I have a need."
"What?"
"Was I unclear? Are you stupid, as well as prideful? The need runs deeper than you know. Did you think I simply fancied you?"
I had not known what to think. In truth, I still stood hard against the cold of the night air. I had not noticed.
Ah, to the hells with it. I lifted my foot from her back.
"On your hands and knees. And lift your tail."
"With pleasure. Bastard."
My exploring fingers found her slick with wetness. The fur did not cover, there...
"My parents were married. And unlike some rutting animals, I know who my sire was."
"Ooooorrrhh. If I'm a rutting..." gasp "...animal, then you're another, or at least if you ever... rrrrrrrr.... stop teasing..."
"I'm not... just... You're different from human women."
"Stop teasing me! Please godsdamnit you son of a... Oh. Ohhhh. Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes godsthat'sgood. Yes, that's right, fuck
me."
"You... are... past... compre... hension..." I was panting now, in time with her.
"What? For...heeeeeeeeeeeattt? Don't... you... apes... have...?"
"Not...like...this... with... someone you... hate..."
"Isn't... stopping...you..."
In truth, nothing could have. My hands grasped the slender, curving hips and and fine waist of a beautiful woman, sheathed in the texture of ermine. I reached up, intoxicated, gliding along her, exploring for her breasts.
"Mmmmm..."
Less strangeness there; the fur thinned away from them, leaving them bare at each silky tip, which crinkled with a familiar excitement. I palmed them loosely, letting them brush my palms as her body jolted with each thrust.
"OWWWHH. Yes, yes. Like that. Don't stop... that. But... harder... Yes... Pull them... just a... little..."
She screamed. And as she bucked against me, driving herself upon me, I felt it again. When her moment came, she squeezed within her, with a pulling motion like a milkmaid's hand, again, and again, and again...
The pleasure of it cannot be described. I lasted but a moment before I, too, was bucking like a mad thing, and grunting like an animal.
An eternity later, or perhaps a heartbeat, a voice from somewhere down at my chest purred "I still hate you. You're a bastard, and the worst kind of vicious, and were I not in heat, I'd spit in your eye and kill you if I could. But that was... sweet."
It had been better than sweet. And neither of us moved from where we lay against each other.
"Hush. Bank your fires and get some sleep. We've leagues to cover tomorrow."
"Sleep? Already? I, ah... could do with another like that..."
"What? Gods give me strength. Will you last until morning?"
"Mmmmm. Yes, I think so. 'Tis not so bad now. But... you promise?"
"Yes, I promise. Now shhhhh."
I pulled the blankets over us, and did not roll away. She hated me, and I mistrusted her. But where we lay against each other, the chill night was warm.