Chapter 6: Disappointment Brings Enlightenment

“I’m not pregnant,” Anna said disappointedly to Jason after he came in from a day of working in the gardens.

“How do you know?”

“I’m bleeding”

“Where?” He replied, thinking that she was hurt.

She gave him a withering look and replied, “Where do you think?”

“Oh”, he replied sheepishly. “I’m sorry, maybe next time.”

They went about their business, keeping mostly to themselves and then went for dinner, where Jason noticed that the atmosphere was anything but jovial. When they returned to the cave after dinner, Jason had to ask. ‘How many others are bleeding?”

“Everyone; everyone, except the four elders.”

“You all get your periods at the same time?” He asked incredulously.

“Yes. When we first get our periods the days vary; but after a couple of years together we all seem to start on the same day.”

“I have actually heard of that before, but I always thought it was just a myth.”

“If I were you, I’d keep a low profile around here for the next couple of days. Fights have been known to occur over the pettiest of things. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Jason said as he slipped behind her and gave her a hug.

“That includes with me”, she shot back with more than a little venom in her voice. “I’ve got to go over to the fertility cave and get it ready to use again. Do you want to come help me?”

To Jason it really did not sound like a question, so he followed as she grabbed a torch and headed out. They crossed the valley in silence. Once they reached their destination, while Anna lit the torch and began to straighten up the main room, Jason entered the side alcove. The light from her torch was just enough to cast the interior in a soft flickering glow.

Looking around, Jason didn’t see much that needed cleaning. However, what he did see was something that had escaped his attention the previous week. On one wall was a series of images that could only be interpreted as the cycle of the moon as it orbited the earth. In the center was the full moon, to each side were half and quarter moons, depicting the first appearance and the last appearance of the moon. At the foot of that same wall were small, evenly spaced, holes. Jason counted twenty-eight in all, fourteen on each side of the full moon.

He was, at first, puzzled over what purpose this image could possibly serve, and then he spotted two piles of stones at the far side of the wall. One pile of stones was light in color, almost white; the other smaller pile was dark almost black. His first thoughts were that it was something to calculate when the next full moon would occur, but he dismissed that theory, the ancients had really no need to know when the full moon would occur. Jason pondered the problem and suddenly he had an epiphany. He counted the dark color stones; there were seven. Then he counted the stones in the larger pile; there were twenty-one. And then he knew.

“Anna come here, quickly please, I’ve discovered something important.”

When she joined him in the alcove, Jason pointed to the wall and the holes and stones. “Have you ever noticed this before? Do you know what it is?”

“I’ve seen it before, when I first became the High Priestess, but I was never told what it was or what it was used for. I figured it was just used in some sort of long forgotten spiritual ritual. None of the others knew what it was used for either.”

“Anna, it’s a primitive computer. One of your ancestors was a genius. She understood the movements of the moon and the menstrual cycle of the tribal women.”

Seeing nothing but confusion on her face, Jason turned to the small pile of dark stones and exclaimed, “Watch!”

“It’s been five days since the full moon.” Taking each of the seven dark stones, he placed the first one in the fifth hole after the full moon and the rest in each seceding hole and then filled the rest of the holes with the light colored stones. “Whoever she was she didn’t have all the answers, but she knew enough about the reproduction cycle to know when the best chances of getting pregnant would be.”

“I still don’t understand. What did she know?”

“I’m only speculating; but I’m pretty sure I’m right. Your bleeding period begins every twenty-eight days and I suspect it lasts on average five days. She would put the first dark stone in the hole that corresponded to the number of days after the full moon and then filled in the rest of the holes with the appropriate colored stone. Do you see this long series of light colored stones? Get the torch, I’ll bet that there are two different colors of the lighter stones.”

When she brought the torch into the room, Jason could definitely see he was correct and moved the darker of the light colored stones until they preceded the dark ones.

“I don’t know how she knew or, if she discovered just by observation, the fact that the best chances of getting pregnant occur during this period of days corresponding to the eleven pure white stones.”

Anna slowly nodded her head as the realization of this discovery hit home.

“But the real brilliance of this is in the fact that the moon’s orbit is pretty much constant; taking twenty-seven and a third, days to circle the earth. Since that is less than your menstrual cycle, the days that you can get pregnant change in relationship to the full moon. With this, she could calculate at what point during the moon’s cycle that period would fall.”

Anna stood over the holes, her gaze shifting back and forth between the moon images and the holes. “If what you say is true, we can’t wait for the next full moon; we have to begin the ceremony in the next seven or eight days.”

“That’s right and we don’t have to do the whole tribe in five days, we can do one or two a night, leaving the elders to the end if they insist on having a turn.”

“Based upon their exuberance during the last time, you can bet on it.” She said with a sly grin. “We’ve got to show this to the elders. You stay here I’ll get them.”

It took less than twenty minutes for Anna to gather the four women together and return to the cave.

“Jason, I’ll explain it to them. You may not have the right words to explain it properly. If I need any help answering their questions I’ll ask you and then translate for them.”

Jason remained silent as Anna explained what they had learned and what it meant for the future of the tribe. Everything seemed to be going well, Jason understood most of what was being said, but then the tone of the conversation seemed to turn accusingly against Anna. When he heard the question, “You are the High Priestess, why didn’t you know? It took a stranger to our ways to discover this.”

Jason could not remain silent. In the Pima language, he came to her defense. “She was never told by the last High Priestess, who probably was never told either. There is no way to know how long this has been here unused, since it is only used briefly during each generation. I’ve been going to school a lot longer than Anna was allowed to go. I learned a lot more than she was ever taught. I paid a lot more attention to this subject for the exact opposite reason. I wanted to know when the best times were for a woman or, in my case, a girl friend to NOT get pregnant. Anna was too young to be taught about this back when she was going to school and at home she probably didn’t get much of an education about this subject either. So don’t blame her.”

He stood between Anna and the elders; he could almost feel the venom in the stare of Starry Sky. ‘I guess this isn’t exactly keeping a low profile.’

Running Deer seemed to sense that the level of hostility was approaching a critical level and calmly stepped in.

“Assessing blame does no one any good. We should be thankful that this knowledge has once again been discovered, thank Jason for discovering it, and make plans for passing this knowledge forward. Jason, Anna, thank you, see you tomorrow at breakfast.”

She turned and led the group of elders out of the cave.

“That was very brave of you and also very foolish. You do not want to make an enemy of Starry Sky; there is no telling how badly she can hurt you if she is in one of her moods. Please be careful around her.”

“Maybe I can make it up to her this time around.”

“I’m afraid that choice will not be yours to make.”

The next morning, after breakfast, the elders called for a general meeting of the entire tribe to be held later that morning.

Running Deer came over to Jason specifically. “Jason, can I trust you to remain in Anna’s cave by yourself; you won’t try to run?”

“I’m not going anywhere; this is the chance of a lifetime.”

“Very well, I’ll take your word. Anna will walk you back to the cave and then return for the meeting.”

When they returned to the cave Anna turned to Jason, “I know you told Running Deer that you would not run, and I believe you; but I can’t afford to be proven wrong again, not at this time. Give me your clothes.”

Jason just stood there, not believing her lack of trust of him. He thought they were building a bond between themselves.

“Jason, I’m serious; give me your loincloth.”

When he hesitated, she got into his face. “Jason, I won’t ask you again. You know I can make you give me your loincloth if I have to. I don’t want to do that, but I will. Please, it will serve two purposes if you do, first, it will allow me to regain a little respect from the elders and second, it will add a little levity to the situation.”

Reluctantly, Jason untied his loincloth and handed it to her.

“That’s better; besides you really look cute that way, especially when that war club of yours is not pointing at anyone.”

Then she tied his cloth to the waistband of hers.

“I shouldn’t be too long; I can’t imagine there will be much debate on the topic we will be discussing.”

Jason wrapped an animal skin around his shoulders and sat on a rock, writing in his journal. He was so engrossed in his writing that he was not aware of the time. When Anna finally returned, she stood over him, untied his cloth and dropped it onto his journal.

“Sorry I took so long. There was a lot more debate than I thought there would be. Not so much about moving the ceremony to the time period indicated by your discovery, but rather, about whether to continue the ceremony at all. The elders, for the most part, wanted to continue the ceremony as always; it was the younger ones that wanted it changed; they wanted it to be more intimate, more like how you did it with Running Deer. They got their points across and turned the rest of the meeting to the topic of just how we were going to proceed. It was decided that each woman would remain in her cave, in her bed, and that you will visit them one at a time, alone, alternating between one and two per night until all the young ones have been serviced. I will escort you to the entrance of the cave, prepare you with the gel, and then wait outside until you leave. Then, depending on the night, either escort you to the next one, or bring you back home.”

“Do I get a say in this?”

“No, I’m afraid not. Since none of the elders appears to be able to have another child, they will be last, one a night until you’ve done them all. Then you’ll rest and wait for the results of your efforts.”

Jason put his loincloth back on and went out to help with the watering of the gardens, carrying two, orange, five gallon buckets with ‘We can do This’ written on the sides, at a time. He had to laugh each time he filled one from the communal bath, thinking, ‘what would the corporate planners think of this use of their ingenious promotional campaign’. Jason could only assume that the twins were responsible for obtaining this little slice of modern convenience for the tribe. He continued this process until the entire garden area was well watered. By dinnertime, his whole body ached, especially his arms and shoulders. He knew that after a few weeks of this he would be on his way towards firming up his relatively soft body. He realized he would never become like a body builder, but at least, he might be able to impress Anna a little.

Anna saw the pain on his face as they slowly walked to dinner.

“Jason, if you want I could ask that you be re-assigned to another job; one less physically demanding.”

“No, I can do this. It will just take a little more time for me to build up my arms and legs. I’ll be fine by morning.”

“After dinner, we’ll stop at the bath on the way back home; that will help.”

Jason could hardly wait.

At dinner, Jason, once again, became the object of everyone’s overt stares; especially from the young ones; who having had their first taste of a man, could hardly wait for seconds. After a while, he felt a little like a piece of center cut fillet-mignon. Anna appeared to be unaware of what was happening. Therefore, when Jason suddenly stood and announced that he was going back to the cave, she was very much surprised.

“Jason, what’s wrong.”

“I’m getting very uncomfortable being the object of all of their stares. I feel like a piece of meat.”

“You can’t really blame them; they’re twenty-two years old and have just had their eyes opened to the joys of having a man between their legs. You’ve opened the floodgates and there’s no turning back now. Come, let’s go take a bath; I’ll massage your sore shoulders.”

By the time they arrived at the bath, Jason was already becoming aroused. Without hesitation, he stripped off his cloth and waited for Anna to join him. They entered the water together. Anna dipped down into the cold water, while Jason stood in the waist high water. When she resurfaced, she was behind him, her cold hands resting on his shoulders.

“I’m sorry the water isn’t warmer, but this should make you feel better.”

Anna’s strong hands began to knead the tight muscles of his shoulders and neck. Jason could almost feel them relaxing as she continued to squeeze and manipulate his muscles until they felt like well-worn rubber bands. Moaning with pleasure, Jason was unaware that Anna had lowered her right hand off his shoulder and had grasped his flaccid cock. Now she was slowly manipulating this ‘muscle’, hoping for the exact opposite result.

“Anna, if you keep that up for too much longer I’m going to explode.”

Not wishing to cum this way, Jason turned to face her. He could see the lust in her eyes.

“I’m one of those whose eyes you have opened, I couldn’t wait any longer.”

Anna threw her arms over his shoulders and kissed him, their lips locked tightly, their tongues dueling for supremacy as she raised her leg over his hip allowing him free access to her entrance.

Jason entered her, buried himself to the hilt and then began to piston in and out of her. It was not going to last long. His mouth trapped Anna’s moans as her orgasm built within her. Her hands grabbed the sides of his head and brought his mouth to her breast. The trigger for them both was Jason’s sucking on her nipple. Anna screamed something in Pima, which Jason was sure that his grandmother had never taught him as her orgasm racked her body. Jason cummed hard as well, momentarily losing his balance; which was all that was needed for Anna to fall backwards, dragging him with her.

Moments later, they resurfaced, sputtering and laughing as they regained their footing.

“If you promise me that all of our bathes together will be this good, I’ll take one every night.” Jason said as he slowly regained his breath.

“I’m afraid we won’t always have the bath to ourselves, I may be forced to share you with others.”

Jason earned a punch to his shoulder as he raised his eyebrows, as if to say, “Yeah, so what’s the problem.”

“Let’s get out of here, I’m freezing.” Jason exclaimed as his teeth began to chatter.

It was then that they became aware that they were not alone. Someone was standing against the far wall in the dark shadows. She began to slowly clap her hands as they climbed out of the tub.

“That was quite a show. Jason I hope you saved some of that loving for the rest of us.” Starry Sky exclaimed in a lusty whisper.

Not wishing to confront her, they picked up their cloths and headed out of the cave. They didn’t bother to get dressed as they started out across the valley, Starry Sky’s laughter still echoing from the cave into the night.

“I’m beginning to hate her,” Jason said under his breath as they reached the cave.

“I’m afraid you’re going to just have to control yourself around her; she has power over what happens to you, when your role here is over. You’re going to have to win her over if you want to ever leave here and under what conditions.”

“Speaking of my role here,” Jason replied looking up at the half moon whose light cast an almost eerie haze over the valley. “When do you want to start round two?” Without waiting for a reply he continued. “I think by the quarter moon we should start again. At one per night, nearly all the young ones will still be in the fertile part of the cycle; then we can do the elders.”

“I’ll make the arrangements tomorrow.

“Anna, what happens when someone gets pregnant? Do I have to continue to include them in the ceremony or do they drop out?”

“I’ll have to ask Running Deer, she’s the only one whose answer won’t be biased.”

“If I have anything to say about it, I say they drop out, that way we can move those that don’t get pregnant into the middle of the fertility cycle. I assume the elders will all want their turn as well. That way we will have more time for ourselves.”

“I’d like that. Does that mean you’d like to be my boyfriend?”

“I’m already that, I hope; I want us to be lovers.”

“Come to bed; I’d like to cuddle.”

“I thought you’d never ask; it’s freezing out here.”

Four days later the ceremony began again. By the time the moon disappeared altogether from the night sky, Jason had serviced five of the young warriors and had discovered that apparently they had all compared experiences with the elders. None of them had assumed the ceremonial position when he had entered their cave, instead, they had reclined on their back, with legs wide open, several even forcing his head between their legs demanding oral foreplay before allowing Jason to enter them. One even forced him to clean her after the deed was done.

Anna was always waiting outside for him to reappear once he could escape the grasp of his eager partner. She would provide a reassuring shoulder to lean on as they made their way back home.

The process continued for the next eight nights, until all of the young ones had had their turn. Based upon the fertility cave computer, they were now into the infertile period of the cycle and it was now time to service the elders.