Chapter 8: Kuwazieh

At least, not until it was time for all of us to go somewhere. Before any of us knew it, the much-anticipated day of departure was upon us.

In the days leading up to it, Shimara had those of us who were leaving excuse ourselves from the hunts, allowing us time to make our own preparations, learning a bit more about where we were going and packing supplies. Of course, after Syukirin, this meant the number of available hunters was starting to grow a bit thin: seven female hunters had announced that they were pregnant since that night and taken leave of the hunting parties.

That may have been starting to turn around, though. There were a few youngsters interested in becoming hunters who were stepping up, and being taken on as Shimara's new disciples. It may be wrong of me to say this, but it was kind of satisfying seeing other people coming under Shimara's lash after the abuse she put me through.

Meanwhile, my three-way relationship with Heleen and Tekia started settling into a semblance of normalcy. It was a relief for Tekia and I to stop trying to hide or deny how we felt about each other, and if we were tempted to touch we didn't have to try to fight—although we tried not to do it so much in front of Heleen. Likewise, I made a point of trying to limit my PDAs with Heleen in front of Tekia. I wanted to try to keep both girls as equal in my eyes as possible. I wasn't sure how long that would work, but at least I was trying.

We didn't have any repeats of our little ménage à trois during that time. Instead the girls just sort of took turns with me. I would spend each night either in Tekia's bed or in Heleen's. I would usually alternate on a nightly basis, except occasionally when one of the girls would be more in the mood than the other, or one of them would be on that time of the month, and we would decide to go off schedule.

It may have seemed like an unfair situation in my favor, with me getting laid every night while each of the girls only got half of me. Well ... we didn't have sex every night. And anyway, so far the girls hadn't complained.

Knock on wood.

We gradually finalized the headcount of everyone who was going. Aside from myself, Tekia and Jazum, there were three other hunters coming along. Sabal was the senior hunter among us, a 30-something spearman who'd been doing the job even longer than Shimara. Apparently he'd been considered to become Kemkuva at one point, but he declined. In fact he was the one who recommended Shimara for the job in the first place. He had thick, neck-length hair, and a thin goatee, which was a bit more facial hair than most of the men in the village had. He was also one of the most expert fighters in the village, and one of the few who could give Shimara trouble when they sparred.

After him there were two sisters named Nanare and Attia. Nanare was the elder sister, and one of the most agile spear-wielders I'd ever seen. In addition to being a hunter, she frequently acted as one of the painted dancers during evening ceremonies, putting her skills handling a spear to good use twirling torches. She was tall and slender, with short-cropped hair and a swanlike grace that few hunters could match. Attia was more adept with a bow, and was about the same age as Tekia. She was a fairly recent recruit who became a hunter out of a desire to follow in her sister's footsteps, and was eager to hone her skills out in the world. She wore her hair in a tight, sporty braid, and not only was she shorter than her sister but was much more inclined to crouch low to the ground while hunting, getting down like a cat preparing to pounce, creeping up on her prey and firing deadly, flinch-inducing arrows from low stances.

Apart from hunters, Doriki was also coming along, both to act as an herbalist and to stay with Jazum. Since she was still only an apprentice herbalist, one of her mentors was coming along too: a woman in her early forties named Lalia, who was a longtime friend and colleague of Doriki's mother, and had practically half raised Doriki in the herbalist trade almost as much as her own mother had. Lalia was a nurturing, gentle-eyed woman with a head of dark brown hair and large breasts with just a hint of sag, and she wore a necklace of leaves that ran all the way about her neck, as opposed to the cluster of only three leaves on the necklace Doriki wore.

Rounding out the party was a guy named Patu, one of the chief yubaga's assistants, coming along to serve whatever medical needs might arise on the road. He was guy of small stature, who always seemed to be smiling at some joke that only he knew the punch line to. Not to mention he was a bit notorious for how often he'd been caught admiring the backsides of various women in the village, which was usually when he was smiling the widest.

So that made for a total of ten of us who would be leaving on the royal pilgrimage—or as the people called it, the Kuwazieh.

As the day of departure grew ever closer, the mood around the village grew increasingly anxious and restive. Everyone seemed to be buzzing around preparing to give us all the biggest sendoff imaginable, growing more excited about it each day. The village square was being decorated more and more with new plants and torches that weren't there before. The food stores started piling up with meat and crops and kolfa. It was all shaping up to be the biggest celebration since Syukirin.

On the night before we left, the celebration went underway. All the torches lit up, banners and streamers decorated the place everywhere, the musicians came out to play their best, and the bonfire in the square was set ablaze. Kezalo came out in his ceremonial cloak, stepping up onto the stage to address the crowd, inviting all of us who were leaving to come up on the stage with him.

I didn't follow everything he said, but it was mostly about Heleen from what I gathered. He talked about her birth and her childhood, and how he and everyone in the village watched her grow up to become the Veseed she was today. Now he said it was time for her to continue growing without the help of her people, and that when she returned, whenever that might be, she would be a true grown woman, wiser and stronger, and ready to become a Farees.

Then Heleen came forward to speak to her people. I understood a little less of what she said, but that was probably because she was having such a hard time holding back her tears. It was mostly a very emotional speech about how much everyone in the village meant to her, and how much she would miss them all. She directly addressed her father and her sisters, expressing all the love she had for them, and how much they would all be in her thoughts while she was away. It was when she started saying how much she wished her mother could have been here tonight that she really broke down, and I was forced to step forward and take her into my arms, letting her bathe my chest in her tears.

I pulled her back with me to the rest of the traveling party, where Tekia gave her a comforting embrace too, and several of the others placed a gentle hand on her shoulders. Kezalo stepped forward again, and instructed Zeyla to decorate the ten of us who would be leaving tomorrow. We all knelt down, and one by one Zeyla placed a necklace of niliet flowers on each of us. It was a way of wishing us all well, and expressing a desire for our swift return. When we arose, Kezalo invited everyone to give a cheer for the ten of us. They all did.

After that, the party truly began. People started breaking out the food and the kolfa, the musicians started playing loudly, and people began to dance with each other. We ate hearty that night, as we knew we should; starting tomorrow we would be living off the land most of the time.

As it turned out, the first person who asked me to dance that night was Zeyla. I found myself chuckling a little when I got up from the table and the energetic twelve-year-old grabbed me by the hands and pulled me along into the open. It was a little awkward, but amusing, trying to dance with a girl who barely came up to my chest, but she had the enthusiasm to make it work. It was obvious Zeyla had taken a bit of a shine to me in the time I'd been there, and she told me several times how sad she was going to be to see me go tomorrow.

Rokina took her turn to dance with me, too, although she was a little less enthusiastic about it than Zeyla. Rokina of course had other boys in her life now, so she hadn't become quite as fixated on me as her older or younger sisters, but she admitted she would miss me too. Then I took turns dancing with a few other ladies, most of them fellow hunters whom I'd gotten to know over the last four months. While all of them told me that they were happy to have had the chance to meet me and were looking forward to my return, a couple did admit they initially thought I was a brofek when they first met me.

On those words, I found myself looking in the direction of Shimara, who was sitting at one of the tables behind a cup of kolfa. And lo and behold, she was actually looking back at me. I had no expectations that I'd be dancing with her any time soon, and indeed I didn't, but I couldn't help wondering what was going through her head about now. Was she happy to get an unwelcome guest like me out of her hair at last? Or had I managed in some way to get her to like me even just a little?

At any rate, the answer to that would have to wait. I eventually returned to the table, rejoining my two favorite girls after they too went a few rounds dancing with some of the gentlemen they knew. We had each given the time that was owed to everyone we would be saying goodbye to tomorrow, and now we were all there for each other. We wound down with a few more cups of kolfa, making comments about the night's festivities.

At one point, Tekia made a comment about one of the guys she'd danced with tonight, saying she had a feeling he was disappointed she had chosen to be with me instead of him. At first I felt a mild sense of smugness at those words—but then something about it made me look in Heleen's direction. And the look on her face was not lost on me. I could see Heleen imagining how things might have happened if Tekia had returned the affections of this other guy, and she hadn't ended up having to share me. That might have made things simpler for her. But she was civil enough not to make any outward comments. For that much I was grateful.

But it was enough to get me to worry, at least slightly, about the future prospects of our relationship dynamic.

And on that note, the question soon came up of who I would be spending our last night in the village with. We discussed it for a long while, both girls trying to be generous and offering to let the other one have me. But ultimately we agreed that tonight was about Heleen, and she deserved it the most right now. Tekia and I would have plenty of opportunities to be together once we were on the road—possibly not even alone, Heleen mischievously suggested.

So as the celebration calmed down, Heleen and I retired to her room, where we proceeded to make love for the last time in her bed.

I woke up the next morning in Heleen's bed to find her space next to me empty. When I looked up, I saw her standing at the window, looking out over the village. She seemed transfixed by everything she saw. Every house, every building, every villager making his or her way to the breakfast tables, every child jumping around seemed to fascinate her.

This was her home. This was everything she loved.

And she was about to leave it all behind, possibly for years.

I got up from the bed and stepped up behind her, wrapping my arms around her midsection and pressing my nose into her hair, nuzzling against her neck. She hummed softly and pressed herself back against me, placing her hands atop mine.

"Are you nervous about leaving today?" I asked her.

"It does not seem real yet," she said. "I keep thinking I will wake up and we will not be leaving."

"I know what you mean," I said. "I can't believe it's only been four months since I got here. This place already feels more like home than the place I came from. It's gonna be sad to say goodbye to it."

She slowly turned her head to look at me. "But you are taking what you love most with you, yes?"

I met her eyes and smiled. "You're damn right I am." And then I kissed her.

We waited there for a while, both of us now looking out over the village. I knew exactly how she felt in that moment; even I found it surreal to think that by this time tomorrow I'd be waking up with Jivalika far behind me. I could only imagine how much more surreal it was for Heleen, who had never left the village in her life.

Eventually I whispered, "They're probably expecting us in the square."

She nodded, and we untangled ourselves. She slipped her jewelry on and fixed her hair while I donned my medallion, and hand-in-hand we walked out of her room.

Before we could make it out of the house, Zeyla suddenly appeared as if from nowhere, flying into Heleen's arms. Her face was already tear-streaked as she clung to her big sister like a life buoy. "Don't go!" she pleaded, her little voice cracking. "Don't go!"

Heleen smiled warmly, stroking her little sister's back. "I don't want to leave you either," she said. "I will miss you so."

For a while there, it seemed like we wouldn't be able get Zeyla away from Heleen without a crowbar. But eventually Heleen managed to slip out of her sister's grasp, gently pushing Zeyla aside to continue for the door.

And that was when Zeyla ran to hug me.

I couldn't help but laugh when she dashed at me, nearly knocking the wind out of me as she impacted my body, grabbing me in a death grip. "Okay, okay," I said. "I'm gonna miss you too, little lady."

When she still didn't release me, I put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her back, bending down a bit to meet her eyes. "Hey, tell you what," I said. "When I come back, you're gonna owe me a game of Paliapa!"

She smiled, and nodded.

I grinned, ruffling her hair. "And I expect you to beat me!" I added. She giggled.

We made our way to the square, where most of the villagers were enjoying breakfast. A table had been set aside specifically for our traveling party. Nanare and Attia hadn't arrived yet, but the rest of the party was already seated when Heleen and I joined them. I took a seat beside Tekia, who smiled and stroked my thigh as I sat down.

Once all ten of us were assembled, we were treated to the biggest breakfast we'd ever had in preparation for our departure. There was smoked borfin meat, and bowls of tongaba fruit, and scrambled skemi bird eggs, and cups of goravo nectar, and more.

And then after we'd eaten our fill, we were given an hour or two to relax and let our breakfast digest before it was time to depart.

We assembled in the center of the square where our supplies had been gathered, and packed them up. Those of us who were hunters put on belts similar to the ones we regularly wore on our daily hunts, but with a few more pouches for a few more supplies. Then we grabbed our weapons, and those of us who were spear wielders also strapped packs of supplies to our backs, while the bow wielders had some bags slung over their shoulders, their backs being occupied with their quivers. It felt a little strange gearing up as if we were going on another hunt, but skipping the part where we painted ourselves up. But then, we were carrying a lot more stuff with us than we ever carried into the forest, laden with our food, cookware, medical supplies, and rolled up tents.

Doriki, Lalia and Patu also carried packs on their backs with more of our supplies. As for Heleen ... well, being the Veseed, she was expected to travel light, carrying only a couple bags with the important diplomatic documents and offerings she would need for the leaders of the other villages. But she insisted she didn't want anyone carrying her weight for her. She carried a pack of her own, though it was a bit smaller than the ones the rest of us carried.

Thus packed, we started making our way to the edge of the village. As we did, we found every single person in the village had come out to see us off, all lined up in two rows for us to walk between, allowing us to see the faces of every single one of our people on the way out, giving us one final chance to bid each of them a silent farewell. Heleen walked at the front of our procession, as she was supposed to, so I couldn't see her face all that well on our way out. But at one point, as she turned her head to look to someone on our right, I did happen to catch a tear running down her face.

Awaiting us at the ends of the lines were the families of everyone who was leaving on this journey. Everyone but me, of course. For a moment, as I watched everyone stopping to embrace their parents and siblings, I found myself thinking of my own parents whom I hadn't seen in four months. Who probably thought I was dead somewhere. If only I could've said goodbye to them like this...

If only.

But towards the end of the village, there was one person waiting to see me off. And it was someone I never would have expected.

As we neared the ends of the lines, Shimara was waiting there, her attention focused solely on me. She stepped toward me as I approached, and we paused, regarding each other. I met the gaze of this woman who, for my first six weeks in the village, had done nothing but pound me into submission and call me ugly names, which most of the time she had probably been sincere about. In so doing she may have molded me into the hunter I had become, but I never had any illusions about what she thought of me.

And as we stood looking at each other, she reached out to place a hand of respect on my shoulder. She looked me right in the eyes and said, "Goodbye, brofek." And then she stepped back. As far as goodbyes went, with regard to Shimara I supposed that was all I could've hoped for.

Heleen's father and sisters were the last ones awaiting us at the edge of the village. At that point Heleen finally lost what little composure she had, and her tears flowed freely. Both her sisters came forward at once, enveloping her in a three-way embrace as each sister cried out their goodbyes. And then she peeled herself away from them, coming forward to embrace Kezalo. "I love you, father," she said.

"Remember us while you are gone," he said. "And remember your mother."

She looked up at him with her tear-streaked eyes and nodded. The rest of us started moving past her, turning around and starting to walk backwards as Heleen struggled to make herself part from her family. I stayed the closest to her, finally putting a hand on her shoulder when it started to seem like she wasn't able to let go of her father's hand. "Come on, Heleen," I coaxed her. "It's time to go."

With a lot of visible reluctance, Heleen finally pulled away from her father, looking sadly back at her family as she walked a few steps backwards with the rest of us. Then she looked to the long lines of the people she served as their princess, and raised a hand to them all. "Juwal, akweliav!" she called, saying goodbye to them for the final time.

"Juwal, Veseed!" the people shouted back.

And then she turned around, and we were on our way.

I think we got almost a mile away before she finally gave in and looked behind her again. We had climbed to the top of a grassy hill, when she stopped and looked back at her home. As I turned to follow her gaze, I found myself stopping to look at the view myself. I had never seen the village from his far away before. I paused to admire it myself, reflecting on what this place meant to me. The place I saw in the distance had become my home when I was lost. It had only been four months, but it seemed that was long enough. I had grown to love Jivalika.

So together with Heleen, I allowed myself a moment to say one more goodbye to the place in my mind. And then I put a hand on her shoulder again, making her turn her gaze to me. Then she gave me a nod, and we turned and rejoined the others.

She didn't turn around again after that.

Jivalika was behind us. All of Azakos was ahead.

Even with all the time I'd spent tramping around the forest in the last few months, I didn't think I'd ever walked so much in one day. I was at least grateful for how all that tramping around the forest had toughened up my bare feet, since I wasn't sure could've taken all that walking on them otherwise.

Most of the terrain we crossed was grassy hills and valleys, with trees interspersed here and there. We stopped for a rest break every two or three hours, though after that big breakfast it wasn't until mid afternoon that we felt any need to break out the food we'd packed. At first it was simple provisions; forms of bread and curdled milk, and some fruit. Stuff we didn't need to cook was our lunch.

After night fell and we set up camp, that was when we built our cook fire, and Sabal and Lalia started sizzling up the sausage links and bits of pravak meat that we'd brought along. I took a seat on a rock with my plate of food in my lap, as Heleen sat pressed to my side and Tekia curled up against my leg with her dinner. Jazum joined his fellow hunters for dinner, though his attention seemed focused on Doriki, who sat beside Lalia being instructed in the use of certain herbs in seasoning food that was cooked on the road. I was getting the impression his interest in her was becoming a bit more than casual.

Tekia seemed to have a distant look in her eyes as we sat around eating and chatting. It was a little too dark at this point to make out much of the landscape around us, but she still seemed to be looking at it all; at the tops of the trees and mountain ranges in the distance around us. "Dom sama?" I said, asking her if she was enjoying the long-awaited trip so far.

She smiled up at me, and rubbed a hand over my knee. "Very pretty," she said. "I am happy."

Heleen reached a hand down to stroke Tekia's shoulder. "I am happy you are here, too," she said. The two girls met eyes for a moment. After the little war that had gone on between them over me, I knew that meant a lot.

As the night wore on and everyone started making ready to retire, Sabal, Lalia and Patu decided they were okay sleeping out in the open. The sisters, meanwhile, started setting up a tent for themselves, while Jazum set up one to share with Doriki.

I started setting up my own tent, beginning to wonder who I would be sharing it with tonight. Then Tekia came and started helping me set it up, and I started thinking I'd be sharing a tent with her tonight. But then I looked up and saw Heleen at the other end of the tent, helping to set it up from over there. Now I wasn't so sure.

Once we set it up, I looked between the two of them as they approached me. "So ... who's sleeping where tonight?" I asked.

The girls didn't answer verbally. Instead they just looked at each other with conspiratorial grins, and giggled softly. After that, Tekia ducked down and disappeared into the tent, while Heleen came up to me and took me by the arm.

"It is one thing when we sleep in different houses in the village," she said. "Now we travel together, always close. We think it is not fair to trade anymore."

My eyebrows started going up. "So then... ?"

Heleen grinned. "Come."

She pulled me along as we ducked down into the tent, where we found Tekia just finishing up lighting the few little paper lanterns she'd brought in there (which essentially consisted of candles surrounded by sets of four paper walls). Once the inside of the tent was illuminated and Heleen had closed the flap behind us, Tekia turned to me with a lustful smile on her face.

Heleen sat me down on the blanketed ground as Tekia started crawling toward me. Heleen took my face in her hands, and turned me to look at her, before she closed the distance between our lips. I luxuriated in the feel of her tender lips, and her soft tongue seeking mine, while to my side I felt the warmth of Tekia's body drawing nearer, and then her small but strong hands moving over my chest. I felt Tekia's lips beginning to plant little kisses on my pectorals, and I brought my hand up to the back of her head, running my fingers through her hair.

I ducked my head lower, and Heleen tilted her head back to allow my lips access to her neck. "Mmmmm..." she hummed happily as I kissed her smooth skin, and reached a hand over to cup her breast, gently massaging her mammary flesh.

Tekia started getting more aggressive in kissing my chest, pressing her lips hard into me, suckling at my flesh and occasionally getting her tongue involved, her hand grabbing at the flesh of my abs and moving still lower. It didn't take long for her to reach my dick, wrapping her hand around it as it grew to full hardness.

I started to lay down on my back, my hand taking Heleen by the back of her head and pulling her down with me to continue making out. I brought my hand up underneath her body to play some more with her hanging breasts, causing her to make soft little squeaks of pleasure into my mouth.

I soon felt Tekia's lips reach my cock. She started by kissing along the side of the shaft, working her way up and down a few times before she finally took the head into her mouth. I disengaged my lips from Heleen to look down at Tekia, and reached a hand down to stroke her hair. Tekia lifted her eyes to look at me, starting to moan softly around her mouthful of my cock as she bobbed her head.

Heleen got up on her hands and knees and rotated around, bringing her head around to where Tekia was orally pleasuring me. And the next thing I knew, I had become the recipient of my first dual blowjob as Heleen's mouth joined Tekia's.

She started kissing and licking the side and base of my shaft, as well as sucking my balls a little bit, while Tekia continued working on the head. At least at first. Then Tekia moved back down to kiss along the left side some more, while Heleen worked along the right. At that point I considered my mind officially blown; having the mouths of two separate girls on my dick simultaneously was a level beyond crazy good I had never imagined. I'm honestly not sure how I managed to not shoot off right then.

Maybe it was because I was able to distract myself with what I realized was right next to me. While the two girls both feasted on my cock, they were still facing different directions. Tekia was still down by my legs looking up at me, while Heleen was facing down with her hindquarters up next to my face.

Oh, yeah. Hello, Heleen's ass!

I brought my hand up and started feeling up that ass, making Heleen squeak in appreciation. My hand roved about, feeling all her curves back there, getting more soft moans coming from where her mouth wrapped around my shaft. And then I started moving inward, toward the junction of her legs, finding steadily wetter flesh under my fingers the closer I got.

When my fingers finally reached her nether lips, her head shot up off my dick and she breathed in sharply. I carefully slipped a finger inside her wet folds, and then another, making her shudder and gasp. Tekia lifted her eyes, looking up from where her mouth remained wrapped around my shaft, seeing Heleen momentarily paralyzed with pleasure.

As I continued gently finger-fucking Heleen, she gradually recollected herself and lowered her head to continue helping Tekia to fellate me. Only now the squeaks and moans she made around the thing in her mouth were considerably less soft, and they were coming a lot more frequently. I slowly sawed my fingers in and out of her wet box, causing small rivulets of her juices to begin trickling down her legs.

When it came to the point when she was practically squeaking and gasping rapid-fire around my cock, I determined it was time to up the ante. I took hold of the leg nearest me and lifted it up, pulling it over to the other side of my head, placing her pussy right above my face. I gripped her by her thighs and lowered her down, lifting my head up to taste her.

Heleen lost all ability to focus on pleasuring me when my mouth made contact with her. Fortunately for me, Tekia was still hard at work sucking me off after Heleen threw her head back with a long, hard gasp, followed by the sounds of her struggling to exhale. With her seated on my face I couldn't see much except for her back as she sat up, but I could feel her hands grab onto mine, gripping my fingers as if her life depended on it.