Chapter 15: My Pregnant, Virgin Wife

Time: November 26, 8235 5:00 PM

We were moving through super-dense stands of red pines, one after another, the majestic old-growth trees reaching thirty meters above the forest floor. The sun had set twenty minutes ago and we could barely see through the tops of the trees. The evening twilight was fading rapidly, and I was feeling like an absolute idiot. I expected in another fifteen minutes we were going to be in pitch black conditions and in really serious trouble.

We moved cautiously through the trees, the soft pine needles masking the sound of our footfalls. My instincts weren't sounding any alarms. I didn't think we were being actively hunted by a bear pack, at least not yet, but I hated the position I had put ourselves in. I laughed silently at my stupidity, my mind flashing back to when I was still a boy, on a survival test outside Anqara. Afeef was there, persuading the other boys not to follow a risky idea of mine, yelling at me that it was crazy for us to put ourselves in a position where we had to rely on our instincts to tell us whether we were in danger or not. Careful Afeef! His insight probably saved all our lives that year. And now he was gone...

The three of us paused for a moment in a dense thicket, our world a universe of pine needles in all directions. The temperature was plummeting and a rising wind was whistling through the pines. "Just great," I thought. And then I admonished myself. Abigail and Michal were depending on me. This was not the time for sarcasm.

"Time?" Abigail whispered.

I didn't have to look at my watch. "5:05" I whispered back.

Abigail grunted. "Here the Holy is the moon?"

I thought for a second before whispering a reply. "The moon will rise thirty-three minutes from now. Thank the Holy the skies are still clear! In a few minutes, we'll have to stop and wait for it to rise."

Abigail made a brief sound of impatience. "But the moon was up at this time yesterday!"

Michal gave a small grunt. I realized Michal was astonished Abigail knew such a thing. I didn't feel like trying to fake an explanation with lies, and just let the matter ride. I could tell in the failing light that Abigail looked ashamed. She recognized her mistake too.

"Yeah," I said. "That's the normal lunar cycle. Yesterday the moon rose at 4:55 PM, today at 5:38 PM. The Earth spins once in 24 hours, and the moon spins in its monthly orbit. The Earth has to rotate some more to catch up to it."

Abigail sighed. "Oh, of course." There was a pause. "Sorry Ilias."

I wasn't sure what she was apologizing for. I just grunted and we moved ahead. I thought we had just enough light to go perhaps another fifty meters. Michal had one arm of my backpack, and Abigail had one arm on Michal. It was getting that dark.

"How close to the clearing do you think we are?" whispered Michal, almost in my ear.

"I'm beginning to doubt my sense of direction," I whispered back. "I feel as if we should be right on top of it, and yet..." I pushed my body through some dense branches. My hand was on my pistol and my visibility was zero. My mind was dwelling on Michal's description of a bear disarming Sofian by biting his arm off.

We broke into a huge clearing, almost three hundred meters across. I let out a small cry of relief. Out of the dense trees, we could still see a bit of twilight. We quickly hiked to the center of the clearing and set up camp in the last of the fading light.

By 5:30 PM we had our tent up and the proximity detector operational. We had gone from serious trouble to fine shape in those few brief steps by the edge of the trees. Abigail broke out some food supplies from Michal's large store. I was a bit surprised by how much her backpack weighed, but it hadn't bothered her at all. She was right. She really was a great pack animal.

We had a brief discussion after dinner about how to set up the sleep rotation. I wanted to stagger our sleeping, have one person start at 6 PM, then another at 8 PM, and the third at 10 PM. I didn't like the sound of the weather, and was hoping to break camp and be on our way again by 2:30 AM.

My first choice was for Michal to take the middle slot. That way either Abigail or I would always be awake. But then Michal shyly mentioned that her marriage book stated her sleep cycle started three hours after Evening Prayers, from 1 AM to 5 AM.

The memory purging cycle puts a tremendous stress on the human mind. If you try to start the next-day cycle more than two hours later or four hours earlier than the previous purge, the poor woman will start having hallucinations. The nightmarish flashbacks are horrific, and there are ancient tales of this being done intentionally as punishment. Without prompt medical treatment, the condition will begin to damage the brain, and the damage is both permanent and progressive. It's a horrible and painful way to die, delusional and in extreme fear.

So we decided that Abigail would sleep first from 6 PM to 10 PM, I would sleep from 8 PM to 12 PM, and Michal would go last at 10 PM to 2 AM. Both women assured me starting Michal's sleep cycle three hours early would be safe.

After dinner I started kissing and hugging Abigail after she stripped for bed. Michal sat quietly nearby at one end of the tent, our legs touching her legs. My new wife was smiling at how affectionate Abby and I were with each other. And then after one last sensual kiss, Abigail crawled into our one sleeping bag.

It was a small tent. After Abigail sacked out, I spent some time teaching Michal how to monitor the proximity detector. She would be the only one awake in the two hours between 8 PM and 10 PM. Afterwards we both crawled into the double sleeping bag with Abigail. Abigail was to my back, I was in the middle, and Michal was curled around my front. The zipper was at Michal's side, and we left the bag open in case I had to dash out quickly for an alarm.

I had a good view of the all-clear display of the sensors. Michal pressed her unclothed body against me and rested her head on my shoulder. The howling wind began to sound melodic, peaceful, and I felt myself relaxing. With three warm bodies in the arctic bag and good blankets, we soon got warm despite the howling wind outside and the open zipper. The softness of the two naked women against me felt wonderful.

Michal cuddled in my arms. I held her and we kissed for a while. She was all smiles and asked me if I wanted sex. The question made me pause. I have such strong feelings of loyalty to Abigail. Bringing a new woman into that sphere of loyalty would take some adjustment, and copulating with Michal before I did... well, it just felt wrong. I didn't want to abuse her.

I petted her instead. Michal's body is as beautiful as Abigail's, and also different in such interesting ways. Abigail is leggy, Michal is long-waisted. Her arms, the shoulders above her breasts, her hips, there are firm layers of feminine muscle everywhere. I petted my new wife, her arms, breasts, throat, face, more kisses... Lots of kisses... My hands wandered down to her hips and thighs, back up to her ribs, moving back down when she giggled to let me know I was tickling her. Her body was so fascinating, and she lay quietly and let me explore it.

I started petting her stomach. She cooed softly and wiggled in appreciation, accepting my explorations. My fingers started to caress her firm uterus, started to trace the core of her womanhood. And the time drifted by. Behind me I could hear Abigail's even breathing and feel the warmth of my first wife's relaxed body press against my back, feel Abby's warm butt press into mine. And the time drifted by.

I traced the outline of Michal's pregnancy with my fingers, back and forth. I was fascinated by the miracle within her. She smiled in contentment as I explored her. I caressed her and learned her body.

"Right here," I whispered, running my fingers across her midsection. "This is the top of your uterus, isn't it?"

"That's right, about two centimeters below my navel now. I'm still growing of course." Her hand caressed across my hip and softly encircled my penis. Michal seemed happy to find it stiff, and she gave it a firm squeeze. She sighed in contentment and whispered, "Soon the child will grow above my navel, eventually pop the navel out from the pressure. Here," she said, letting go of my erection and guiding my hand, "Feel the child's shape by my sides? Feel how snugly it fits into my pelvis?"

My erection quivered, disappointed in the brevity of her smooth and tight grip. My mind returned to Michal's pregnancy. "Yes," I whispered fascinated.

"And down below, that's right, push down through my fur... Push harder, Ilias, you won't hurt me. That's right... Your fingers are now pressing onto my cervix. Can you feel it, how it forms a neck at the bottom of my uterus?"