A White Dove Comes!
Title: A White Dove Comes
Chapter: Two - Awakenings Of The Flesh
Challenge: A New World - Harry Gregson-Williams
Media: Original Fiction - WIP
Rating: M
Notes/Warnings: I have started this one, but it looks like it will be a bit longer, so I've tagged it as a WIP. I hope to post more very soon. I wrote this for a weekly music prompt at storytellersong .
PREVIOUS CHAPTERS: ONE
Chapter Two
Awakenings Of The Flesh
Ohiteka’s POV
I stood in the shadows and watched as the young woman worked as hard as any man in the field. There were so many things about her that I wanted to learn, but it would be hard to get close to her because I knew the others would be watching her like a hawk. She was an outsider. A stranger to my people and they still did not trust her.
When I first saw her, hiding by the wagon yesterday holding back her fear, I knew I wanted to know the woman trembling inside as much as I wanted to know the brave woman who showed on the outside. When Isi pulled her hair down and said she would do as a slave because she looked more like us and that she did not have the wild white hair of the other white women, I strangely found myself wanting to be the one touching her hair and looking into her eyes.
She was different from our women, but in so many ways the same. I knew she was strong because she did not run and cry when we came out of the trees. I did not see the need to harm the white men and women, but my brothers said that Ogima Onacona wanted to set an example showing those who would travel near our village that we would fight to protect our land.
Ogima Onacona and the others believed that letting the white men know how fierce we could be would save us from being attacked. So, what did we do? We attacked them first. Our people are take what they want sending fear into those around them. I as these unspeakable things were done and lives were lost, but I was not sure that this was the way it should have happened on this occasion.
Someday, if I am to be Ogima, chief, then I will try to reason with those who come near our land and our village. Then, if they do not listen, I will have no choice but to defend my people. This does not make me a coward, but a wise man. A man who will use his head, rather than the strength of his arms and hands to try and make things better for us all.
But now I had something, someone to focus on. The woman, Chenoa as I have begun calling her, had earned my curiosity and respect and for that I would become her protector. I would protect her from my people and those who sought to harm her, even though that is all I can ever be to her because we come from different worlds. The thought of this brought a heaviness to my heart and made my soul unhappy, but I did not understand why.
The day had been long and several of my brothers and I had gone out to hunt small animals near our village. When we returned with squirrel and rabbit for the evening meal, I left them with the women in the village and went to the clearing to check on Chenoa.
Aponi was working beside Chenoa, just as I had asked. They had made great progress and the field was almost cleared of all the grass, stubble, and dead vines. It appeared, if my thoughts were correct and what I had seen so far, that Chenoa was truly interested in helping feed my people. And for that I found myself grateful.
I spoke to Aponi as I approached and asked her in our tongue how the day had been. She replied, telling me that she was now fond of Chenoa and that she was full of spirit and kindness. She hoped to learn much from her, as did I.
"The sun will be setting soon and we will have our evening meal. Tomorrow we will all work to get the land ready for the roots. Now it will be time to rest," I said, nodding to Aponi.
She lowered her head and left, but she would be returning very soon. This only gave me a few moments with Chenoa.
"You said tomorrow ‘we’ will work to get the ground ready for planting?" Chenoa said, looking at me as she rubbed her hand over her face to wipe away the sweat.
"Yes, we will work together."
"I don’t understand. I thought that it was my duty to plant the potatoes?"
"You have brought the food to us but we are a people who work together. We share in the labor. Therefore, this planting will not be only a woman’s job, we will help too," I said, watching her brown eyes carefully.
When Aponi returned, she had new clothes for Chenoa and the things they would need for bathing.
"I will leave you then, so that you might bathe in the creek before it is too dark. I will see you in the village when we eat," I said and turned to start back to the village.
I heard Aponi talking with Chenoa as they went to the creek. She explained that she had brought some clothes of hers that she had made and that she could wear them for now. Chenoa thanked her and they continued to the edge of the creek.
My mind was curious and I knew I should be respectful of their privacy but I could not resist the urge to turn around. Chenoa had just followed Aponi into the water and I could see her white skin like day against Aponi’s which was like night.
Chenoa was waist deep in the water with her back to me and I am sure I lingered much too long looking at her. Aponi had gotten her completely in the water and was showing her how we cleaned our skin when I finally turned and continued walking.
The images of Chenoa’s soft, white skin would continue to haunt me as the night grew darker. And when she and Aponi returned to the village, I found myself watching Chenoa again and wanting to be close to her.
As the men took their seats around the fire, I was glad that Aponi and Chenoa sat behind the men on my left, so I could gaze upon her while she ate. She was very careful as she picked at her food, looking to see what it was and how it was prepared.
When she tasted the rabbit, we had brought in from our hunt, I could not help but smile when I saw she was pleased. She seemed to be taking to our food well.
I tried to listen as they talked quietly, but it was only a whisper that I heard from time to time. Aponi looked at me several times and I wondered if Chenoa was asking about me. I did not want to seem obvious, so I began talking with my brothers on the other side, but I would glance at the two women often.
After we had eaten, I watched Chenoa and Aponi leave the others and go to Chenoa’s hut. The doeskin dress that Aponi had given her looked very nice. If it had not been for Chenoa’s long, flowing brown hair, which had begun to dry, and her pale arms, it would have been very hard to tell her from the other women.
That night I lay in my hut and tried to sleep, but my thoughts were on Chenoa again and again. I did not know why I could not get her out of my mind, but her face would meet me every time I closed my eyes. It made me smile to see her in my mind’s eye.
The next morning, I was eager to join the others for our morning meal. The women had prepared our flat bread, but today we had something special. They had made a mixture of wild berries that only grew in the spring. They were sweet and were very good on the warm bread.
I was surprised to see Chenoa wearing different clothes that morning. She was dressed in a doeskin skirt that was short, exposing her long white legs. She was also wearing a doeskin shirt that was above her waist, exposing her middle and her arms and her hair was in one braid that hung down the middle of her back.
This type of clothing was not uncommon for our women, but seeing Chenoa wearing it and seeing how the other men looked at her, I found myself wishing she had chosen to wear the doeskin dress she had worn the night before.
As we walked toward the field, Isi approached Chenoa and walked with her to the clearing. I could not explain how I was feeling, but I did not want him with her either. I watched as she smiled at what he was saying and when he picked a wild flower as they walked and stopped her long enough to put it in her hair I became even more agitated.
I saw the red in her cheek as she thanked him and looked down at the ground then continued walking, but I told myself it was nothing. Isi was the only one who was showing her any attention. The others just looked at her, although I am sure they were having impure thoughts, they did not approach her and for this I felt strangely relieved.
When we got to the field, the handful of men and I used long sticks with flat stones tied to them by leather strings to begin shaping the ground into long rows. Chenoa, Aponi, and several other women pulled more weeds and vines and by the time the sun was high in the sky, we had over half of the field ready for planting.
We went back to the village and ate a lunch of meat and flat bread then two of the women went back with us to the field and began opening the rows at the top while Aponi and Chenoa stayed at the village to cut the green sprouts from the roots Chenoa called potatoes.
It was not until later that afternoon when we returned to the village that I saw Chenoa again. She and Aponi had cut all of the sprouts and were getting ready to go bathe in the creek. They were walking out of the village when Chenoa accidently ran into Huritt, one of the men who had been working with us in the field.
He shoved her to the ground and began saying things to her in Chickasaw and as she looked up at him confused and afraid, he spoke to her in English, "I said watch where you go white dog. You should have been at the field too working with us," he said, then he spit on her.
It did not set well with me and I found myself pushing him back away from her as my rage became more apparent.
"She was working here at the village to prepare the roots for planting tomorrow. She has worked as hard as any of us and she is not a dog," I said, gritting my teeth as I tried not to fight him for the disgrace he had caused.
"She will be nothing but trouble to us. You will see," Huritt said, then he turned and walked toward the village.
Aponi had gotten Chenoa up and they had hurried off to the creek by the time I turned my attention back to where they had been, so I waited as the edge of the village impatiently for their return.
That night as we ate, I watched Chenoa carefully from across the fire, but she was disheartened and would not eat much or even look up for that matter. It made me upset to see her in pain and I wanted to reach out to her, but I did not know what to say. I knew the transition of her being here would not be an easy one.
The next day we planted the green sprouts and covered them with dirt, getting them ready for the growing season. We also planted corn seed the white men had on their wagons and hoped that we would receive a blessing and have a plentiful harvest. Chenoa said we would see the first signs of new plants in a couple of weeks and that now all we needed was rain.
It had been several days since we planted the last of the sprouts and seeds. I had followed Chenoa to the field wondering what she was doing away from the village. I knew she was not trying to leave, for she was a woman of determination and I knew she would carry through with the job she had set out to do, but she had not been the same since Huritt had been cruel to her.
She had walked around the field looking for signs of life in the plants then she went into the trees near the field. I walked quickly to catch up with her and found her piling up limbs from under the trees that had fallen to the ground.
Just as I reached her the sound of thunder echoed through the trees and I heard the first drops of rain hitting the leaves above us.
"What are you doing out here?" I asked, searching her face carefully.
"When the plants start to grow, we will need to have a fence around them to keep the animals out of the field. I was looking for limbs that we could use to make the fence," she said, looking up at me as the rain began to trickle down our skin.
I do not know what came over me, but I took her by the hand and we began running through the trees. I took her up the hill where the ground began to get rocky and we worked our way up higher until we came to the mouth of a cave in the side of the hill.
We ducked inside laughing as we ran to get out of the rain. It was good to see her smile again and it felt good to be with her, free from the eyes and questioning stares of the others. It was just she and I, alone there in the dimly lit cave. We were still laughing as she began wiping the rain from her face and she pulled her hair loose from its braid letting it drape over her shoulder and down over her chest.
She was leaning against the side of the cave, so I leaned down and wiped the rain from her face causing her to look up at me. Her smile quickly became uncertain and she was uneasy. I do not know why I did what I did next, but at the moment it was all I could think of.
My face was now inches from hers and her head was leaning against the rock so I slid my hand behind her head and pulled her closer to me as I touched my lips to hers. Just one touch, just one kiss, I thought would be all I would need, knowing I had been wanting to touch her like this for some time, but would not allow myself to think of it.
But I was wrong. The taste of her sweet, pink lips against mine was so much more inviting than I could have ever imagined and I found myself pressing closer to her, holding her body close and tight against my own.
She trembled in my arms and I knew she was frightened of what was happening, I just did not want her to be frightened of me. I slid from her lips down her cheek and onto her neck tasting the rain against her skin along the way.
"Ohiteka, I....." she breathed against my skin.
I slid my hand up her back and under the doeskin shirt she was wearing. Her body was soft and smooth and I wanted to explore more and hold her tighter. But I felt her hesitate and pull away some to look at me.
Her eyes were heavy as she searched my face and I could feel her heart beating like a drum against her chest-against my chest.
"I......I am not like that. I am not that kind of woman," she finally said, as she pushed herself away from me slightly.
But I saw the want in her eyes and it made me realize how much I wanted her. It was not the fact that she seemed just out of my reach. I wanted her because I needed her and finally admitted that I felt something for her. But admitting this to myself would only make it harder.
It was true that I was aching for her, but she was a woman of honor and I would respect that. So, I smiled and slowly pulled away. I gathered some sticks that lay at the mouth of the cave and built a small fire just inside the entrance of the cave and we sat down to dry ourselves and wait for the storm to subside.
We did not speak, but I pulled her into my arms and she rested against my chest as I rubbed her long brown hair with my hand, smoothing it against her shoulder. It felt right having her in my arms and being wrapped around her.
But as I sat there watching the flames dance in the fire, I knew I would have to make a very difficult decision soon for she had awakened feelings inside of me that I had chosen to push away and hide.
I wanted to tell her how I felt more than anything, but I knew I would need to search myself even deeper to make sure that what I was feeling was real and what my destiny held for me. That would be too hard to explain, so I just held her and tried to warm her in my embrace.
The rain was a good thing, not only for the new crops we had planted, but it was also good for Chenoa and I. I could tell that she felt safe and comforted there in my arms in the small cave and I would never have given up this moment.
"What do you think of when you look at the flames?" I asked, stroking her hair.
"I see a struggle. The fire pushes upward trying with each lap of its red and orange flames to consume the wood, but the wood is damp and cold. It is hard for the fire to burn. They are two different things, the wood and the flame, but as the flame devours the wood it produces the heat which is a good thing. So together they are one and those around them feel their warmth," she replied quietly.
"You talk as if you speak of something else," I replied.
"No, just of the fire," she said as she drew her knees up to my side and I pulled her even closer wrapping both arms around her shoulders as I tucked her head under my chin. But I had to wonder if she was talking about some other meaning, possibly even about us with what she had just said.
When the rain had finally stopped, I put out the fire and told her she should go back to the village first and that I would come back a little later. I knew there would not be any questions if we came back at separate times. I did not like the feeling it gave me having to sneak around, but for both our sakes, this would be the best.
I watched as Chenoa made her way back down the rocky slope and toward the field. She turned and looked back at the cave once and I knew she was thinking the same thing. I did not want our time together to end, but I knew it must and I also knew that I now had to face my feelings and I was troubled as to how to handle them.
After a while, I too descended from the cave and went back to the village by a different route as too not draw attention to Chenoa or myself.
That night I found it hard to sleep. The moment I closed my eyes, I would see her beautiful face and I could still feel the softness of her pale skin under my fingertips and taste the sweetness of her lips. This to me was more intoxicating than the sun setting in a golden sky, or watching the deer scurry through the forest.
But we could not be. I should never have acted on my inner desires for her like I did. I should never have touched her and for this reason, I knew what I must do. I would make preparations soon for the journey I must take to cleanse myself and purge these feelings from within and maybe if I could we could move forward with me being only her protector, nothing more.