Chapter 4: The First Day Ends

Dr Grimling and his team had spent the day watching Kara and her parents mating. Kovac had spent his day sitting on his chair as woman after woman came to him and tasted him. When he was compatible with her, they mated and Kovac filled her body with his essence then she would move off to look for another suitable mate. Helen was doing the same thing, tasting and mating. Kara, for being a newcomer, was mating with a lot of men on her first day. Dr Grimling’s team had been keeping track and found that she was getting close to having mated with 30 men so far in one day, and she was looking tired after all of those mating sessions.

The screen was focused on Kara and she was not looking good.

One of the festival aides, wearing the standard red vest with a white plus sign on the front and a larger one on the back, noticed when Kara stumbled from exhaustion in the late afternoon and quickly moved to her side. The older man, with salt-and-pepper hair, knelt beside her, gently guiding her arm around his neck as he wrapped his own around her body, helping her to her feet.

“There, there. I’ve got you,” he murmured softly. He guided her away from the center of the breeding grounds toward the edge and one of the support tents. Kara was too exhausted, lost in the throes of her breeding drive, to fully register what was happening. The aide brought her into the tent, settled her onto a cot, and had her lie back so she could be cleaned up. He and another aide used washcloths to wipe away the dust and grime that had settled on her throughout the day. Her face and body were coated in dirt from being outside, but the area between her legs was the most soiled, caked with dried essence from her many mates. Once they had cleaned her, the aides helped her to a relief closet and sat her down. The aide stayed by her side, holding her steady as her body released its water and waste into the collection tank below.

Kara had just enough awareness left to use a cleaning wipe on herself afterward, but the aide gently took her by the arm and guided her back to a cot. A plate of Runza balls was brought to her, and the aide lifted one to her mouth, waiting patiently as she opened her lips and took a bite. He offered her a cup of water, tilting it to her mouth, and she drank eagerly. The aide had been tending to festival participants for several years, but Kara was among the most exhausted he’d seen in a long time.

As Kara swallowed, her gaze sharpened, and she looked around, disoriented.

“Where am I?” she murmured.

“You’re safe, little one,” he reassured her gently. “Eat, drink, then rest awhile. Your mates will still be here when you wake.”

Without argument, Kara continued eating, finishing six of the Runza balls and drinking nearly two liters of water. Finally, her body relaxed, and she surrendered to the deep exhaustion overtaking her.

As she slept, the camera captured a tender moment when one of the aides brought over a blanket and covered her naked body. Another aide stood watching and made the comment, “The young ones have the worst time their first year.”

The aide attending to Kara stood up from covering her, “Yes they do. But did we look that young when we were 16 springs?”

The two men chuckled, “Yes I suppose we were that young, but that was many springs ago. Come on, I see a guy that is about to fall out of his chair.”

The two aides rushed over to a male who was leaning over almost asleep as the aides arrived and got him to his feet and brought over to the tent. He was given the same treatment as Kara, clean his body, feed him, water him and make sure he uses the relief closet then let him relax on a cot with a blanket over his body.

This happened more and more as the festival attendees succumbed to exhaustion after a whole day of mating. The act was simple, not very stressful, but doing it over and over again was taking its toll on the people and by nightfall, almost all 20,000 breeding people were all stretched out on a cot sound asleep.

As the quiet of nighttime fell over the breeding grounds, the festival aides moved about the breeding grounds and straightened chairs, picked up or cleaned up, whatever they found trying to return the breeding grounds to a pristine condition while the festival goers rested.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, that was day one of the Bloom Festival of Origins and this species’ mating ritual. I don’t know how they do it. The act of mating, even as low impact or stressful as theirs was, does seem to take a lot of effort out of them. So seeing Kara succumbing to her mating drive and having to be picked up and brought to a support tent for food and drink, makes this even more impressive.” Dr Grimling said, turning to look over the breeding grounds as red vested men moved around the grounds cleaning and making sure things were in order.

A plate of runza balls was given to Dr Grimling while he was looking at the grounds.

“Oh, yes. Excellent, thank you,” Dr. Grimling said, holding up the plate so the camera could capture it. “These are the food items consumed by participants during mating season.” He lifted one of the Runza balls, took a bite, and held it up to reveal the filling as he chewed.

His eyebrows lifted in surprise as the flavors unfolded on his tongue. “Oh my, these are delightful,” he exclaimed. “There’s a sweet note at first, but as you chew, the spices in the meat really come alive. The savory richness of the meat blends beautifully with the sweetness of the breading. Truly delicious.” He finished his bite with satisfaction, popping the other half into his mouth and swallowing.

The other men on his team sampled one as well, all nodding in agreement at the unexpectedly delicious flavors.

As Dr Grimling ate his meal, the camera showed the mating grounds being cleaned up and switching to show Kara, Helen and Kovac all sleeping on their cots. They were not together, having been brought to three different tents, so they slept alone.

Dr Grimling finished his meal and then turned to the camera. “With the mating festival at a pause, we will take a break as well. When we come back, we will pull in some of our world’s experts on reproduction and find out how our people compare to these people when it comes to reproduction. We will be right back.”