Chapter 16

16

- Anter’az -

The next two days go by fast. We gather some more leaves and berries and herbs to make things and to check for ways to use them. And we Mate several times a day, both of us insatiable. My bliss is absolutely perfect. Only she and I exist, nothing else.

Except Tren’ax, of course. But he’s not much of a nuisance, which I appreciate. He knows to keep his distance when we need him to. And we try to keep the noise down when we Mate down by the bathtub. I carefully ask him if the shaman has taught him and the others about The Woman and Mating yet, but he hasn’t. So he won’t have any idea what kind of mysterious activity that keeps Alba and me busy when we ‘take a bath’.

I finally remember the arapeg beetle I caught days ago. It’s still wrapped in its leaf, but it's eaten the one half of it it could reach with its mandibles.

“Good venom?” Alba asks when she sees me unwrap the arapeg, pulling her feet in under her.

“No venom,” I tell her. “It only eats bushes. But its shell can do interesting things. You have seen it happen.” I take out my sword and carefully run the rough back of the blade on the beetle’s carapace, producing a bright blue powder that I carefully collect. “Take a pinch.”

Alba uses the corner of a leaf to gather a small amount of the powder. “Is this for the fire?”

I nod. “It won't work so well now, but you can try.”

She flings the powder on the fire. The flames turn a whitish blue and burn brighter.

“I wondered how you did that,” she says, impressed. “Very useful when you have to heal someone in a dark cave.”

“Very,” I agree as I keep grinding, making more of the powder. “Even Tinies that don’t have venom can be useful. To thank this one, I will only grind off a little and then let him go. Outside in the jungle,” I add when I see the concerned look on Alba’s face.

Alba cleans Tren’ax’s straggled hair, cuts it, and makes him look remarkably different in a good way. Tidier, I suppose. The boy’s presence makes it much harder for her and me to act the way we did before he came, and seeing Alba always fully dressed in the cave and the hollow makes me want to grit my teeth. But I won’t send him home to the village alone. He needs some time in safety, too.

Right before sunset I ask Tren’ax to go down to the bathtub. “Wait there until I come and get you. Make a fire down there and boil water.”

He looks up at me with many questions in his eyes. Usually it’s Alba and I who go down there and he who stays where he can’t see what we do. But he’s too much of a tribesmember to protest. “Yes, Anter’az.”

Then I tell Alba to take off her dress. “I want to check on the wound.”

Her eyes widen. “Why? You just did this morning.”

“It’s healing slowly,” I tell her calmly. “I may have to clean it better.”

She takes her dress off and lies down on her stomach in the usual place, where the sun lights up her soft skin. “Alien women heal slower than the men on Xren. Is nothing to worry about.”

I sit down beside her and peel off the leather strip and the herbs underneath it. “Mmm.”

“How does it look?” Alba asks.

“It’s not looking bad, exactly,” I admit, not sure about what’s happening to the injury. “It’s just not healing.” Leaning in, I sniff the wound from up close. There’s a hint of something unsavory. Only a hint, and it could come from anywhere. The wound is an angry red, and a clear fluid is slowly seeping out. I would expect these things, but not after three days. I also wouldn’t expect the skin to be so red around the cut. It’s a strange purple that I’ve never seen on skin.

I lean down and sniff again. Surely Tarat'ex didn’t make his spear dirty on purpose? That hint of a smell is familiar, but I can’t quite place it. It just vaguely reminds me of old Fabur’iz’s cave.

“It may take longer,” Alba says again. “Or has nothing happened at all? The wound is not closed?”

“It’s closed,” I tell her, not wanting to give her more worry. “Yes, it could be that aliens simply heal slower.” Wishing I had more experience with aliens and how they heal, I clean the leather piece before I apply a good amount of crushed herbs and a small amount of a diluted venom I have some hopes for. I stick the leather square back on with sap, and then I give Alba’s sweet behind a little slap, making it jiggle wonderfully. “If it’s still stubborn about healing, I have a last option that I’m sure will work. We’re all done for now.”

She turns around and adjusts her lower garment. “Not all done. Is Tren’ax still down there?”

“He’s down there, emptying out the tub. It will take him a good while. Why?”

She looks up at me with those clear, dark eyes. “Because we’re going back to the village tomorrow. And I don’t want to leave this place.”

I calmly lie down on top of her, making sure all my weight is on my hands and feet as I gaze down into her eyes. “I thought I loved this place before. Only now do I see it for the true wonder that it is. At first I thought it’s because you light it up like a little sun, letting me see it at its best. But now I’m starting to think that any place you go is just like this.”

Alba reaches up and puts her arms around me. “I think it’s you . Everywhere you go is like this. Safe and warm.” Her voice cracks at the last word.

I place a kiss on her soft lips. “I don’t think so. Maybe it’s us. We make it like this when we’re together.”

“That must be it,” Alba rasps. She blinks, and two crystal tears run down her temples.

I kiss them away. “Then we must check if it’s true! We must go everywhere together and take careful notes. We must check every place on Xren. We must ask, is this a better place with us here? Then we leave and ask, is that place we just left better when we’re not there? Or was it better with us? Only then can we be sure.”

She giggles, eyes rimmed with red. “Of course! That’s what we must do. We must be scientific about it!”

“Exactly!” I beam. “Seyenfik. Very important to be seyenfik!”

Alba squeezes me hard. “I must be so annoying with all my alien words.”

“Yes,” I confirm. “So adorably annoying with your seyenfik and your plasik and baktria . But I happen to like being annoyed.”

“I know what happens when you’re annoyed,” Alba says and slides her hand between us. “Let me just check.” She strokes the bulge in my loincloth. “I knew it. Annoyed again. See? I can be scientific, too.”

“But that also happens when I’m not annoyed,” I admit. “It almost always happens when you’re nearby.”

She squeezes my cock outside the skin of my loincloth. “Humpf. That’s not scientific. Now maybe you will use this annoyance for something really nice?”

- - -

T he next day we’re up early, packing. I store some of the things we’ve gathered in the lowest levels of the cave. Checking the contents of my secret sack, I find no great change. But I can’t leave it, so I put it inside my large sack so Alba doesn’t have to worry about the creature getting out and biting her.

Taking off my leather armband, I check the wounds. They’re all healing well, which means the diluted venoms I’ve tried at least don’t make it worse. Only the last one is lagging, which I expected. It just means I must use another venom on it.

“Let’s see your back,” I tell Alba. “Tren’ax, go into the hollow and look for irox. Don’t look into the cave.”

Alba pulls the back of her dress up. There’s no change. If anything, the wound looks worse than yesterday. If she were a tribesman, I would try out a new diluted venom on her. But the one I tried already doesn’t seem to work, and I’m worried about using too strong remedies on her small and soft body. She can’t possibly be as resilient to venoms as my tribesmen usually are. But if nothing else works...

“We’ll give it more time,” I state aloud, sniffing the wound and definitely recognizing the smell. “I’ll just apply some herbs now. And some frit.”

“And the last option you talked about?” Alba asks.

“We’re not there yet. That medicine is only for the most desperate need.” I pour frit over the wound, but Alba doesn’t flinch, so I don’t think it will do much good. The frit should sting when it reaches the important parts of the wound, where it might do some good. Replacing the herbs, I reattach the leather piece with sap. “We’re ready to go.”

She drops her dress back down and smoothens it past her hips in a movement which I think must be extremely womanly. “Thank you. When I see the girls, I’ll ask for the poultice that we use.”

I nod, not feeling too confident about that. There’s something here I’m not quite grasping, but it’s tugging at the edge of my thoughts. “Tren’ax, we’re ready to go.”

“Yes, Anter’az!” The boy comes running and puts on the hat Alba made for him. Both he and I have become mindful about our hair after Alba cut and cleaned it, and we prefer to keep it free of sap or random fluids that fall from the trees of the jungle.

I stand there for a moment, looking out at the hollow where the streams are clucking happily, just like always. But still, this place has changed forever.

Alba comes up beside me and puts a thin arm around my waist. “I had a wonderful time here. I didn’t even know that would be possible on Xren.”

“Nor did I,” I confess, placing my arm around her thin shoulders. “Perhaps we can come here again someday.”

“Perhaps we will have to,” Alba says. “When you’re cast out and the girls can no longer stand me always cutting their hair the wrong way.”

I smile. “Let’s hope so.”

“I’m sorry,” she says softly, squeezing my waist. “I know being cast out is not something to joke about. And I not hope that for you.”

“We can come here anyway.” It’s tempting to promise her and myself that we will definitely come here and live just like we have these past few days, but there are too many things that are not up to me. My tribe fears Alba, and even if we get a better chief, I can’t expect her to want to live in my village. And I can’t imagine her tribes accepting me to live with them.

“What if you were chief?” Alba asks right into my thoughts. “You could make things right.”

“Perhaps I could,” I agree. “If they can be made right. We’ll know tomorrow night.” But I can’t imagine my tribe wanting me as chief. I’m too direct, too rough with them. I don’t flatter, and I don’t tell them the things they want to hear.

We crawl through the cave and out of the ground. The vral is in its web, not moving at all.

I take the lead in front of Alba, with Tren’ax at the rear where he can discreetly erase the tracks she makes.

Alba gave me the newest hat, one that covers my head in front and goes a ways back to shield my neck, but doesn’t obscure my view of the sky where an irox might spot us through the foliage. She called it a ‘ fyrfyter helmt’ , assuring me that only the bravest and most stylish of people wear those back on her planet.

Staying on my guard, I lead us in a zigzagging route that will make it hard for any trackers to find out where we actually went and where we came from. It means we won’t be at my village until nightfall, but I dread coming back there and seeing how badly my tribesmen have ruined it.

We’re about halfway when we walk straight into a band of Krast men.

“Hail, tribesman Anter’az,” the leader says. He’s tense, but very careful about keeping his hand off his sword. “We’re just coming to get you.”

“You are, Creb’oz? Were you worried I couldn’t find my own way home?”

There are six of them, and they quickly surround us.

“We were certain you could ,” Creb’oz says. “There were no doubts about that. But there was some doubt about whether you’d want to.”

“From what I hear,” I scoff, “nobody in their right mind would want to return to the Krast village as it is now. The tribesmen are fighting among themselves, it is said.”

Creb’oz gives Tren’ax a little glance. “Whoever said that wasn’t wrong. And some of us thought, it’s bad enough that we fight among ourselves if we’re not going to provoke the Borok and Tretter tribes, too. And so we want to make absolutely sure that the woman is returned to them.”

“You thought I might keep her?” I ask icily. “And here I am, bringing her back.”

“Women are strange and dangerous,” Creb’oz says, looking away. “Who knows how this one might use her black magic. I’m gratified to see that she’s on the way to our village. And then to her own.”

I laugh at his silliness. “Now that you see that I’m indeed bringing her back, as I promised, perhaps you will admit that she possesses no black magic at all?”

“She may possess all kinds of alien skills,” the man persists. “But perhaps on this occasion, Anter’az the renowned healer was too strong for her. Or maybe her powers will become evident later.”

I laugh again. “They will not, because they don’t exist. Woman Alba is exactly what she looks like: a small, harmless woman with powerful friends. That’s all, but believe me when I say that it is enough to make us Krast not want to make her angry. Now turn around, tribesmen, and make the same futile journey home as you made here! You may escort us and protect the jungle from the immensely dangerous Woman Alba! Pray you don’t look at her the wrong way, or she may turn you into a spront!”

“Yes, Anter’az,” Creb’oz mutters. “We’re only following orders, you know.”

“Following the orders from weak chiefs is the same as being even weaker. What are you waiting for, man? Go!”

The men rush to obey my command. They take up positions ahead and to the side, with two men bringing up the rear.

“Sorry about this,” I say to Alba so loudly that the men can hear it. “The Krast tribe is not what it was. Now their own shadows make them jump in fear.”

“So I see,” she replies in her clear, bright voice. “But surely they can’t be afraid of me, a small woman armed with only a spear?”

“It’s hard to imagine,” I agree. “But they told me themselves.”

We eventually go quiet, which is always a good idea in the jungle. But I felt that these men needed to be ridiculed for their fear.

We smell the village before we see it.

“What’s burning?” I ask and hurry up to get there. “That smells sour.”

When we get closer, there’s a plume of black smoke rising from the village. The gates are unguarded.

“This is much worse than when we left,” Creb’oz says. “There was no fire then!”

Making sure to keep Alba close to me, I walk fast into the village. My heart sinks in my chest when I see that the fire comes from the area around the Lifegivers.

Tribesmen are running to and fro, I hear the sound of blade striking blade and angry voices. The sickening smell of spoiled food is constantly in my nose.

But I don’t seek out the problem area right away, instead making for my cave on the other side of the Hill.

Looking up as I enter, I make sure nobody’s ready to throw a rock down on Alba as I push her into the cave.

But we’re not alone in there. Many boys are sitting on the floor and leaning up against the cages. Two of them are sitting in the chair, side by side.

When they see me, they all bounce to their feet. “Sorry, Anter’az!” the oldest exclaims. “We didn’t want to enter your cave without your permission. But the tribe has gone mad!”

“It has,” I growl and hang my sack on a hook on the wall. “Let me guess: the younger men against the older ones, led by the chiefs?”

“Yes,” the boys confirm. “Some want women here. Some don’t, especially those who are old and have sons of their own.”

“So who set the Lifegivers on fire?”

“They’re not on fire,” the oldest boy says. “Some men built a wall of trees and lumber to keep the Lifegivers to themselves. Then someone set fire to it. We all ran in here because…” He looks around as if searching for words.

“Because it’s all too wild,” Alba finishes his sentence. “They can stay in here, can’t they, Healer Anter’az?”

“Just don’t touch the cages,” I tell them as I get the secret bag out of my main sack. “And don’t go into the cave I’m going into now.” I go in behind the black curtain and empty the bag in the right place, then go back out and close the curtain carefully. “I suppose someone has to go and put the fire out,” I sigh.

“It’s a big fire,” a boy tells me. “Many are trying to put it out right now.”

“I think Healer Anter’az meant something else,” Alba says calmly. “The fire between the men.”

I check my sword, having no intention to use it against my tribesmen but wanting it in my belt just in case. “Boys, I will entrust Woman Alba’s safety to you. If anyone tries to harm her, I expect you to defend her to the last man. Only I am allowed to enter. Anyone else is to be considered an enemy. Understood?”

“Yes, Anter’az!” they yell as one.

I turn at the entrance to the cave and give them all a level gaze. “To the last. Man.”

Only now do they realize that I’m dead serious. Young faces go pale. Slender hands jerkily reach for knives in belts.

I take hold of Alba’s upper arm, lean in, and kiss her mouth. “You’re as safe here as anywhere else.”

She lifts her spear. “I know. My tribesmen are in their camp outside.”

“Boys, the Borok and Tretter men are not enemies. They are allowed to help you in protecting Woman Alba, if she agrees. Tren’ax, run and tell them that Woman Alba is in here.”

“Yes, Anter’az!” He sprints out of the cave like a young rekh.

I make my way to the fire, which some are trying to put out. It’s dangerous, because those behind the burning wall of wood are trying to keep it burning.

“What’s going on, tribesmen?!” I roar, which is not difficult because I’m getting truly angry at this complete nonsense. “Setting fire to your own village?”

“The Lifegivers are safe!” a man behind the burning wall yells. “But the young men wanted to destroy them, to force the tribe to capture women of our own!”

I recognize some of the older men in the tribe behind the burning barricade. “This is shameful! What will the outtribers think of us? What will they say to their chief? Karr’ox may have to wage war on us with both his tribes if he hears that we’ve gone Wild! He can’t accept having a Wild neighbor tribe that could do crazy things at any time.”

“We’re not Wild,” co-Chief Pury’an says from the other side of the flames. “It was Karr’ox who made us like this when he sent that woman!”

I shake my head. “You are saying that the whole of the once mighty Krast tribe has been defeated by a single woman the size of a boy, without a single blow with a blade?”

“They are agents of Darkness! They don’t need weapons. They are the weapons themselves!”

“Can you hear what you’re saying, tribesman? You think little Woman Alba with the big eyes and the strange way of speaking is a weapon? ”

“I know it’s hard for you to see, Anter’az!” Pury’an yells. “You’re blinded by her beauty and her sweetness! But look around you! Our tribe is in disorder, in chaos! We were not in chaos before she came!”

I can see how pointless this discussion is. I turn my back to the fire and go to look at the totem pole. It’s a little singed here and there, but it hasn’t suffered great damage. High up I spot the carving of Alba. It’s moderately well done, but it’s obvious that it’s her. The eyes have been made huge.

Well, whatever happens now, she has set her mark on my village. And on me.

What can I do to stay with her? Surely?—

“Help! Anter’az!” It’s a thin, shrill yell that resonates from the Hill.

Spinning around, I spot a boy who’s waving at me with both hands. Clearly it’s something about Alba!