Kausmak 2
The following morning, Anea woke on the couch and was momentarily confused. It didn't take long to remember why she was on the couch and more importantly, what happened leading up to her night out in the living space. "Oooh my god." She groaned, then clasped her hand over her mouth when she realized what she'd said. She scanned the room anticipating backlash from Kalaans deities, but all was still and quiet. "Sorry." she whispered sheepishly. She wasn't sure how strict the deities were when it came to other deities and religions, but until she found out, she made a note to be more careful, just in case. Anea rose from the couch and itched her head while she tried to decide if she wanted to eat then shower or shower then eat. Considering she had fallen onto the ground and had been in the hot sun for around an hour, she figured a shower would be best. She wasn't feeling terribly hungry anyway, not enough to make her feel sickly as she sometimes did while she had a hot rinse. She gathered a fresh outfit and her towel and shuffled into the bathroom. Judging by the amount of light streaming in, it was still early or at least still before noon and she was relieved by that. The sunlight reflected off of the sandy colored walls and from the earth tone tiles on the counters and floors and as well as the walls. It was already warm but she still didn't want to have a cool shower, but she decided that maybe later in the day she would. She stripped down and stepped into the upright shower wasting no time in getting beneath the war stream. She stood beneath the shower head for a moment and simply thought. She thought of the faces of the crowd and what their expressions could have meant. She thought of the Shaman and what his reaction could have meant...or mean for her. She felt ridiculous for having ran into him with her pointy, hard crate but he took it better than a human on Earth would have. What was it he'd said to her before he left? She recollected the best she could trying sounds and what little words she knew of Katayo. Nothing seemed to fit. Did his expression hold a hint? His expression. Anea remembered his face vividly. It was difficult to pinpoint his age or even approximate due to the paint but his chin spikes suggested he was around Amaus age yet still too young for temporal spikes. He was around middle age perhaps. Despite his hood covering his face from the sun, his orange eyes still shone brightly. She could have sworn he was smirking..grinning..when he had first knelt and extended one of his hands. Surely it wasn't because he found her clumsiness amusing, right? Surely he was genuinely friendly and trying to assure her despite her humiliating faux-pa. What did he look like without his paint? Anea closed her eyes and tried to mentally remove it but she had seen so many faces that they all seemed to want to imprint themselves on the blank canvas that
was his, all at once. Maybe he had freckles or maybe scars. Maybe his was actually older than she thought and the paint hid the fine wrinkles? Whatever he looked like, she'd never know as she was sure the paint was something they didn't go without when appearing in public. Unless he was going to or coming from some appointment? Event? She found herself somewhat desperately curious to know but accepted she might never. Besides, he was becoming with the paint anyway. Was the rest of him painted as well? Maybe his chest was. Yes..his chest was probably painted too..white dusted across his broad, toned pecs and deep brown streaked down his finely outlined abdomen emphasized by the males slightly slouched posture. How lucky was the one who got to apply the paint, even if just to his face. Anea's eyes shot open when she not only realized what terrible things she was thinking about a Shaman, but when she realized how vividly she was able to imagine them. She was again enveloped in a feeling that was not her own and she wrapped her hands around her body. Was the deity intervening? Was she going to be punished for having such naughty thoughts of a Shaman? Maybe there weren't naughty and onlys he thought so..perhaps the deity would see it as harmless curiosity, then again, the deity knows all and will know why she was thinking what she was thinking. She waited for the feeling to subside but it didn't. She slowly opened the door to the shower and peered out half expecting somebody to be in the room with her, an officer perhaps who has come to punish her for hurting the shaman? Nobody was there. Her home was silent save for the running water of the shower. She shut the door and stood, not sure of what to make of the foreign emotion. Whatever it was, it grew from simply being a presence to something more distinguishable. It became slightly giddy like an anticipation for something good. It was tinged with desire and...even lust. Were these actually her own emotions? Was the Deity trying to get a certain reaction from her? Was it testing her? That must be it! Anea shifted her thoughts to something else. She thought about her chores, about work. about planting her veggies and cleaning up after her animals. She thought about anything she could to defeat the amorous emotion surrounding her but it seemed to be fighting. She fought harder and thought of gross things and tragic things and painful things but the harder she tried, the stronger the emotion became. She wondered if it was simply futile to battle against the Deity. She hoped she wasn't digging herself a deeper grave by resisting the emotion. If she weren't and if she were doing what she was supposed to, she was failing miserably. Images of the Shaman broke through, sometime relating to whatever she was thinking about. She tried to think about the slaughter houses on Earth but they changed to images of him skillfully ending the life of an
animal and holding his bloodied hand to the sky with a focused expression. She tried to think about the impoverished streets of her home City on Earth but he came through walking down the rainy street with beads of water sliding down his face. They became too strong and it was as though her mind had been hijacked. She was suddenly in darkness but she could feel. She could feel rough hands gliding over her body and hot breath on her neck. The hands clasped her in the most sensitive places and sharp teeth pressed into the skin of her neck. She helplessly gave into the touches and turned her head with a faint moan. The mouth to which the teeth belonged came down over her trapezium and lips pressed. She could feel teeth scratching and poking her skin and a bumpy tongue press, warm and wet. The mouth detached with a very audible 'smack' and a face, clearly Tanauk, pressed to the side of hers. The mouth fell open and emitted a husky groan as she became aware of an unmistakable sensation of something hard and warm entering her pulsating sex. She mewled in response to her neglected womanhood being stretched to accommodate what she could only assume was this males member, and being filled with it. He clamped his teeth together, sharp and bared like he meant to growl. Instead he suddenly emitted a raspy sound, his body moving, hips thrusting. She fell back against him and gripped his arms taking in the near forgotten sensation. She felt herself nearing climax and actually smiled, but before she could achieve it, she snapped back to reality as though she had just started from a nightmare. She looked around frantically, confused and terribly disappointed. She has managed to somehow safely end up seating against the wall opposite the shower head with her legs parted to the warm stream of water. She quickly closed them and stood, her high dissipated. For a moment she stood and she considered finishing what her bizarre hallucination started, but somehow she suddenly couldn't focus, especially on him. Had she failed the test? She was too panicked to finish showering so she just shut it off and dawned her fresh clothing almost too distracted by the idea of being jailed or kicked off of Kalaan to dress properly. By the time she was out of the bathroom and seated on her couch with a cup of Kajo in her hands, the sun had passed noon but not by much. She stared vacantly at the floor a few feet in front of her and absently blew on her Kajo. She tried to call Noekakatu to see if she could offer some kind of explanation, but nobody picked up. She kept her phone beside her though, just in case she called back. It had been nearly an hour since she called so she still held hope that Noeka would return her call. Anea jumped when the doorbell sounded and some of the Kajo spilled onto her hand. It took everything she had to not drop the cup and spill more but she managed to set it down before putting her
mouth where the beverage had splashed. She sucked off the fluid and had a look. It was red but it wasn't anything serious or close to. She continued to look it over as she hurried to the door, still looking at it as she opened it. She was expecting whoever it was to immediately say something so when they didn't, she looked up and if she had still been holding her mug, she would have dropped it. The shaman from the day before filled the doorway. Their eyes met instantly and she felt as though she'd faint from anxiety as well as embarrassment due to her inexplicable fantasy. She looked immediately to the side, her hand on the door. They were both quiet for far too long. "I-" She began and looked up at him but was careful not to meet his eyes. He quickly held up one of his hands in a clear gesture for her to stop. She did so but still did not meet his eyes. "I will explain." He suddenly said, catching her off guard again. His voice was moderately deep and young and she blushed ever so slightly. She finally looked up at his face and seen him glance behind her. When their eyes met again, she felt a chill run down her spine. "Oh! Right sor-" She stopped herself expecting he would if she didn't. Anea stepped aside and entered the home and she closed the door behind them. She saw him glance both ways then half turn to look at her. She gestured for him to follow her and they both proceeded into the living room and sat. She saw her cup and quickly asked, "Would you like something to drink? To eat?" He shook his head then said, "Thank you, but no." She wasn't sure why she felt slightly dejected, but it was probably for the best. She was so nervous that she was sure she'd just make a mess and hurt or insult the Shaman. She opened her mouth again but he stopped her by speaking. "No need to apologize. It was a very common mistake." he started, his voice nearly sending her into a trance. "There's a reason for it." She looked at up him and was too curious to be too shy to avoid his eyes. "A reason? For me running into you? I Know, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. He shook his head again. "It was fate; Kausmak." She tilted her head slightly. "You mean..one of the deities made it happen?" This time he nodded. "Yes, and given the reason I would say it was Nanarak." He explained and gave her an expectant look. Her confusion must have been evident on her face since he elaborated further. "The Deity involved with" he paused glancing to the side, "Love and marriage." Anea tensed visibly and she made the connection to her fantasy in the shower. She wanted to know for sure if he meant what she thought so she asked. "I see. Nanarak had us meet so, you could help me find somebody to be with?" "Yes, well, kind of." They locked eyes again, her searching for answers and his searching for an
explanation. "It seems that..The Deities they-" He closed his mouth, clearly lost on what to say but she furrowed her brows now more confused than before. He just sighed then pulled down his hood revealing his horns which were elaborately decorated in something thin...paint or a strip of something. The bast of the right horn has a leather string around it and a feather and glassy beads were tied to it. He then did something she didn't expect and his wiped his paint off with the sleeve of his robe. She watched in silence eager and anxious and afraid. When he finished, he lowered his arm. "Am I what you imagined I would look like?" Her words caught in her throat and she felt like a child who had been caught doing something naughty. How did he know? One of the Deities, Nanarak maybe, must have made him aware. She searched his face for anger or disgust but she saw only a desperation for an answer. His face was average, only slightly lighter than the rest of him and he has just the lightest of freckling along his zygoma. She could see holes where his bottom lip was pierced but bare of metal as well as a center labret. She imagined him with a stud there beneath his lip with how they were slightly parted and nearly shivered. Somehow his eyes seemed more golden. She almost missed the scar on the far right of his mouth that went from his chin halfway up to his eye due to how the sun was hitting his face. She nodded once slowly. "I-I didn't get it exactly but y-yeah." He rose his brows and his mouth fell slightly more agape. "Is that..bad?" She asked. "No. It's confirmation." "Of what exactly?" She was so eager to know what it could be that the obviousness of it totally escaped her. "Nanarak has..brought us together." he said, almost a whisper. It took her a second but whens he realized what he meant, her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open though she was quick to place her hand over it. "You mean?" He nodded then looked off to the side as if shy all of sudden which was odd as he'd seemed so confident and sure before. "But..do you think it's bad?" He looked right at her, dead in the eyes, "I'm relieved." Once again he had caught her off guard. She didn't think any Tanauk male would want a squishy, soft, tiny human mate after all. Maybe she misinterpreted it and it wasn't necessarily what she thought. "But, I'm human." "That makes no difference. Not to me. Nanarak knows and if they say we're destined to be mates, then it must be true." She laughed a bit cynically. "We don't even know each other." He chuckled, "We don't have to. Nanarak has designated us as a mating pair so we must be compatible enough through and through." She wasn't quite sold and her expression conveyed this judging by the Shamans change of expression. "I don't like Analaya." She
began. "Because, they smell like peppers and cinnamon." he finished. Anea nearly jumped to her feet but managed to remain seated. "Lucky guess. I prefer to wear what in the evenings?" He paused but then became somewhat coy, "Safani. Because it's lightweight and easy to remove for...mating." She tilted her head. "Nanarak told you. That's cheating." "No. That's what I wear as well." It was her turn to give him a coy look but he pretended not to notice. "So I guess it's true." He nodded and both fell quiet. Suddenly she said something that caught him off guard for once. "Korak?" He looked up at her sharply anticipating something important. Maybe she'd deny the union, maybe she was going back to where she came from. She was suddenly endowed with the knowledge of his name and he, hers. "Yes...Anea?" "How do you know what peppers are and cinnamon?" A laugh exploded from him. "We do import, you know."