Chapter 3

The sound of bare feet on ground laced in leaves is like the wind blowing directly in your ear, especially when you’re only half asleep. I had been lying on the ground drifting in and out of sleep for more than an hour when Bri woke up, looked around and then wandered a few feet away to relieve herself.

I didn’t move. I am not sure why I didn’t move, but I didn’t. Once she came back, I heard her pick up the blanket, give it a good shake, and then spread it out closer to me, considerably closer. She laid back down on the blanket and slid her body back against me.

It was her ass that she had pushed against my side, I could feel the soft, cool flesh against the upper part of my thigh. My mind exploded with images. Lying on the floor in a the forest in the middle of the night, the cooler hours closer to sunrise, a nude nun curled up against me. My imagination woke immediately. I thought of her slipping on top of me, straddling me. I imagined of her mouth on mine, a primal urgency between us.

Immediately, my clit began to swell and push past my pussy’s delicate folds, but I was on my back. There was no danger Bri, who was facing away from me, would know.

I tried to stop thinking of her, tried to stop imagining the warmth of her body, but the body wants what the body wants, right? It had been too long since the sukopuoli and besides, Bri was new and different and pretty.

Bri didn’t move, but I did notice her breathing change. If she was asleep, it was fitful. I couldn’t blame her. Something had set her walking in the forest before the boar had found her and whatever it was, it was bad. She hadn’t wanted to expound on the experience, but there was something. I thought back to the look on her face, the tone in her voice. She hadn’t given details, but I sensed anger and frustration.

I really didn’t know very much about the daily lives of the nuns and priests. Jennifer and Sarah didn’t like to talk about their past much. When it was brought up they were careful not to disparage the church, but they had no desire to go back. They certainly didn’t glamorize their time there.

My cock strained against the hide that wrapped around my waist and I grinned. If I had been alone, I would have reached down and satisfied myself, given my throbbing pole a few minutes attention and gone back to sleep, but I didn’t want to risk waking Bri. I lifted my right hand and slowly moved the leather to the side.

The hot flesh that grew from the top of my quim slowly rose into the cool night air and then laid back against my stomach. I was half mast and the tip was just below my breasts. The air tickled the hot, exposed flesh. Taking a long slow breath, I tried to ignore the urge to touch it. A cool breeze slipped along the hot skin and I swelled a bit more.

I swallowed and wondered if I could turn onto my side, away from Bri, and maybe...

Bri took a deep breath, grumbled something I couldn’t understand, and rolled over toward me.

I held my breath. I couldn’t see if she was awake or not, but I also couldn’t move without bringing attention to myself and my situation. I thought of my raging hard on, the thick branch of flesh lying across my belly and slowly growing thicker. No, come on, think of something else, anything else. I focused on my breathing and then started to count the stars over my head. It took a few minutes, but it worked.

Drifting off to sleep, I wondered about what Bri had said, about how she had become a nun. It was required. I could almost hear the venom in her words. I wondered why, what had happened. Had she committed some crime? How was service to a church required?

The shifting crunch of gravel along the edge of the stream woke me. I sat up and opened my eyes. The sky was cloudy, I could smell rain somewhere in the distance and, along the shore of the stream, stood a stag.

He was ten or twenty feet from our little campsite, standing on the edge of the shore, watching us. His head held a small rack of antlers, he wasn’t older than two or three seasons, but he was large and strong. He could feed many of us for days. Slowly, I reached for my bow and nocked an arrow.

Bri was in the grass beside me, curled under the tiny blanket, her body half on the ground and half on the blanket. I looked back at the animal on the shore. I ran over my choices. I could kill the stag, which was my job as a hunter, or I could let it go and get Bri back to the settlement and then continue hunting. Half asleep and a little cloudy from the Iti, I didn’t know what to do.

The stag took a long drink from the rushing water before it took a careful step and leapt across the width of the stream. It still didn’t realize we were there. My fingers tightened around the string and my heart beat faster. I felt the years of practice, the muscle memory tightened the muscles in my arms and shoulders. I took and breath and started to haul the string back toward my cheek.

“Oh my god, they know!” Bri sat up and looked around. Her eyes were wide and wild.

The stag jumped a foot straight into the air and then disappeared into the woods as fast as his legs would carry him.

Bri stared at the flicking white tail of the deer and then around the campsite, obviously still trying to figure out where she was and why. “Anu?” She pulled the little blanket around her shoulders.

I set the bow down and tried not to let my disappointment show. It wasn’t much really, I mean, I wanted the stag, but Bri was awake and naked and still beautiful.

“I’m sorry, I must have been dreaming.” She swept her hands through her hair.

“You shouted,” I stared off into the trees where the stag had run. How are you going to ask about today? What are you going to say?

“I’m sorry, she rubbed her eyes. “was that a deer?”

I nodded.

“You wanted to kill it,” she stared at the arrow on my bow, “I scared it off, didn’t I?” She was ashamed and embarrassed. “I am so sorry.” She glanced back at the place where the stag had been. “Can you...”

“No,” I smiled and tucked the arrow back into the quiver.

She stood and apologized again before walking toward the tree where she had hung her clothes. Although the sky was cloudy, everything was mostly dry. Bri pulled the black dress from the branches and slipped it over her head.

“I will get something to eat,” I went back into the forest where I remembered passing a simba tree, which is much like a mango, but blue instead of yellow.

When I returned with breakfast, Bri, already dressed, was washing her face and hands in the stream. I could afford to stay off the hunt for a day, I could find the stag that liked this spot along the stream. Besides, I was eager to spend another day with Bri. Our time was pleasant. I liked being near her and I could tell she felt the same.

Bri stood up and smiled when she saw the heavy red fruit in my hand. I set two on the ground beside the fire and then split the third with my knife. The blue flesh inside was warm and wet and sweet. The juice dribbled through my fingers.