(no subject)

[persephone100]

The first night, after traveling all day until dark, we made camp at a beautiful rock outcropping; a miniature mesa where all you could see were stars.  We’d each taken the initiative to pack the Kakkahaar liquor we had come to love, so we indulged.  We were high on our decision and our adventure and it was a magical night, albeit a drunken one - maybe that did contribute to its magic.

We awoke a bit late the next day and the heat of the midmorning was upon us.  Being har, we knew we could handle it, so we set off.  It was searingly hot but we made good time and we had plenty of water.  Still, I harped on us being frugal with it.

That night we camped in a flat, desolate area.  The wind whipped us.  At first it felt good after the heat of the day, but when we went to sleep, it was cold.  We doubled up: Sola and Lon and Nyala and me, sharing blankets.  We were so exhausted, even the biting wind couldn’t keep us from sleep.

The next morning we rose early, ate breakfast and got going.  By our calculations, maps and Nyala’s trusty compass, we figured we’d get to Red Cliffs some time that afternoon.  After a dry, hot, dusty day of travel, we arrived at the aptly named Red Cliffs.  We saw first the red rock outcroppings and as we moved closer, we saw some tents, shelters, and a few wooden buildings where the hara there lived.  It was a small but bustling place, with hara moving about busily.  Most of them we passed gave us a nod or a smile.  I looked to Nyala and said, “Seems like a friendly place.”

He nodded. “I wonder if they have a bar?”

“First things first, a packhorse and a place to stay.”

He shrugged.  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

We walked through the settlement on the main road until we came to a square, of sorts.  It was all very primitive, but it obviously was the center of the place.  There were hara sitting outside at some tables drinking, eating and conversing.  Nyala asked me, “Should we ask somehar about a horse and a place to stay?”

“You ask,” I replied.

“Me? Why me?”

“You’re the prettiest,” I said, teasing.  He gave me a disdainful look.  “Go on.  We’re right behind you.”  Sola and Lon snickered.

Nyala shook his head and shot me another look.  “Okay.”

We approached two hara at a table.  Nyala smiled at one of them and asked,  “Hi.  We’re passing through here.  Can you tell us where we might get a horse and where we might find lodging for the night?”

The two hara exchanged looks and the one Nyala had addressed said, “Well, there’s the Red Moon.  It’s kind of an inn.  We’re pretty grassroots here but you can sleep under cover and get a bath.”  I could tell we were all glad to hear that.

“As for a horse,” he continued, “you can ask them there.  Ask for Holt.  He should be able to help you.  The Red Moon’s straight down the road on the right.  There’s a watering trough in front of it.  You can’t miss it.”  Real wild west, I thought to myself.

“Thanks,” Nyala said with a smile.

The har gave him a very smoky look.  “Any time.”

I laughed as we turned away, saying quietly to Nyala, “I knew we’d get results if you did the talking.”

“Shut up!” he said annoyed, but grinning.

We headed off and soon saw the place.  It really looked like an old west saloon or hotel from a movie.  We looked at each other and laughed.  I said, “I wonder if there are any dance hall hara.”  We went in and there was no piano or anything so ridiculous, just a counter and a har sitting behind it, reading.  It did look like it had been a hotel, though now it was pretty run down.  The har looked up at us lazily and stood behind the counter.

I looked to Nyala but he said, “Uh-uh.  Your turn.”

I sighed and walked up to the counter.  “We’d like a room or two or whatever.”

“The rooms each have one double bed.”

I turned around to the others.  Sola said, “We’ll take two then.”

I was surprised he’d answered so quickly.  I blinked, regarding him.  He and Lon just looked around uneasily.  I shrugged, looking back to the har behind the counter. “Okay,” I said.  We settled up and the har led us up some stairs to our rooms, which were next to each other.  As he handed us our keys, Sola said, “Lon and I’ll bunk together.  You and Nyala take the other room, Okay?”

“Okay,” I said to him, a bit puzzled.

Just then the counter har said, “At the end of the hall you can take a bath if you want.”

“You have running water?” Lon asked.

“Yep. The only place in town that does.  Enjoy,” he said as he slumped off.

“Hey!” I called after the har.  “Are you Holt?”

“No.  He might be here later.”  He walked away.

Nyala and I went into our room.  We put our gear down and I flopped on the bed.  “Ahhh, the comforts of civilization, or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof.”

Nyala sat on the bed, too.  “We’re no strangers to living primitively.”

“Yeah, but somehow this seems different.  We’re on…a quest.  Now it seems like an adventure, not an inconvenience.”

Nyala laughed, flopping down beside me, his arms behind his head.  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

I turned to him.  “You know, we wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you.”

He shot me a challenging look.  “Oh, no.  Don’t pin this on me.  You’re just saying that in case it all goes bad!”  He poked me in the ribs.  We were laughing as Lon and Sola came in.  Lon said, “Hey, what should we do first?”

Nyala and I said in unison, “A BATH!!”

We went to the end of the hall and peered into the bathroom.  There was one ancient footed tub with a bare pipe for a faucet.  “Better than nothing,” I said.  We took turns and when everyone was clean we decided to search out a place to eat.  The Red Moon didn’t seem to have a bar or a kitchen, so we went out to look for an eating establishment of some sort.

I suggested heading back to the square, but Nyala shook his head, “I really don’t want to run in to the har we saw before.”

“Tell him you’re with me,” I joked.

“Like that would make a difference!”

We headed in another direction and found a sort of café, if you could call it that.  It was basically a bunch of tables under a tarp, but we could sit and be waited on, so it felt luxurious.  We all ordered some kind of chili and cornbread.  The liquor of choice seemed to be something akin to tequila, so we drank up.  After a while, we were all well fed and feeling no pain.  We were really enjoying ourselves.  We each chipped in, paid the serving har and headed for the Red Moon.

When we got to our rooms, Sola asked, “What about our packhorse?”

“We’ll worry about that tomorrow,” I answered.  Everyone drunkenly agreed and we went into our rooms.

Nyala and I staggered in and threw ourselves on the bed.  “This place is weird, but the liquor is awesome,” I slurred.

“Yeah, it’s a trip, alright.”

We lay there a short while, but then, there we were, two drunk hara on a bed and the delightful inevitable ensued.  Nyala was exquisite, with thick dark hair falling over his face and playing at the nape of his neck.  He had intoxicating dark green eyes, tanned, perfect skin, and full red lips.  He was irresistible.

He looked at me and gave me a sensual smile.  Oh, God, I’m only har, I thought.  I gazed into his inviting eyes and pulled him to me.  As we shared breath, I saw a galaxy of stars, deep dark chasms, and felt a glorious need.  When we parted, he panted to me, “Do you want to be soume or ouana?”

Breathlessly I answered, “I don’t care.”

“You choose,” he replied.

I wavered, then I knew I wanted him to take me.  “Soume.”

He slid his hand to my soume-lam and I gasped.  Once I‘d decided, my ouana-lim withdrew.  I reached for his which was erect and ready.  Not long after that I moved down his perfect body with my mouth and when I reached his ouana-lim, it was like finding nirvana.  As I teased and pleasured him, I tasted an essence bittersweet and unique.  He moaned and caressed me.  After a time, he coaxed me back to his lips as he said, “You’re good…so good…”  I lay on my back and as he penetrated me I heard myself let out a pleasured moan, and as I writhed beneath him he caught his breath, then groaned with pleasure.  I claimed his lips and sent erotic messages into his mind as we moved together.   All too soon I felt the tingle of imminent release.  He broke away from our passionate kiss and buried his face in my hair as we both climaxed, the delicious spasms cascading through me.

When we had both regained our composure, I lay beneath him, utterly satisfied.  I stroked his back with my fingers.  He kissed me, caressing my face.  He eased out of me and spooned beside me, running his hand over my chest.

“God, Taj,” he murmured.  “We’re best friends but I never thought of us having this.  Why didn’t we ever do this before?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe we still think like humans sometimes.  But better late than never, I guess.”  He laughed taking me into his arms.  I soon fell asleep, his creamy essence inside me, his breath in my ear.

The next morning when I awoke I could hear the noises from the street through the open window.  It felt hot and I had no idea what time it was.  Nyala was still asleep, so I lay back down.  I regarded him, thinking about the night before.  Being har was so different.  You could take aruna with your best friend and not have to feel weird about it.  I was just dozing off when I heard a knock on the door so I got up and Nyala stirred.  Sola and Lon came in, Nyala sat up, rubbing his eyes.

“How did you two sleep?” Sola asked.

Nyala and I exchanged knowing looks and smiles.  “Better than I have in quite a while,” Nyala answered, grinning.

“Let’s go eat!”  Lon said.

“Okay,” I said, “but I want another bath.  Who knows when we’ll get the chance again.”

When we went downstairs to go out, the counter har was talking to another har.

“Morning,” the counter har mumbled.  “Hey, you still looking for Holt?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I replied.

“Well, here he is.”  He gestured to the other har.

He extended his hand.  “I’m Holt.”

I took his hand.  “I’m Taj.  This is Nyala, Sola and that’s Lon.”

He nodded.  “What can I do for you?”

“We need a packhorse.”

“Follow me.”

We went down the main road until we came to an enclosure, a makeshift livery stable where Holt showed us a few horses.  None of us really knew much about horses, so I asked him about prices.  We agreed to take the cheapest one and he said we could pick it up when we left, telling the livery har, too.

“Hey!”  Holt called after us as we were leaving.  We all turned around.  “You hara have any guns?”

We looked at each other.  “No,” Nyala said, “Why?  Do we need them?”

“Well, if you do and you don’t have one, you’re pretty much up shit creek, aren’t ya?”

He had a point.  “You sell them, too?” I inquired.

“Sometimes.”

We conferred, and then I asked, “What do you suggest?”

“Come with me.”

We walked across the street to another rather run down wooden building.  We went up some stairs to his room and there against the wall were quite a few rifles stacked up.  He grabbed one.

“Here try this on for size.”  I took the rifle, not really knowing how to handle it.

“Let me show ya.”

He gave us a crash course in rifle handling, so we ended up buying one and some ammunition.  We figured we could use it for hunting, if nothing else. Next we went to get supplies and means to attach them to the horse and then we took the rifle and the supplies back to our rooms.  We went back to the café from the night before for breakfast and ate heartily on ham and eggs, biscuits and coffee.  By the time we were done, it was already noon, so we debated whether to stay there another night or not.  We decided to go, so we got our stuff together and set off.  It was partly cloudy, so the heat wasn’t so bad.

We traveled for three mostly uneventful days. The third night out, we camped near a creek, so we decided to swim to get clean.  It was invigorating. After that we ate dinner, then we sat around the fire, drinking.  I watched my friends as they drank, talked and laughed, thinking about each of them, how long we’d been together and how I felt especially fortunate to have them as close friends. Suddenly Sola waved his hand in front of my face.

“Taj!  Where are you?  What are you thinking about?”

I snapped out of it.  “Nothing.  Just spacing out.”  He shoved me good-naturedly.

I was very pleasantly drunk and getting sleepy, and it looked to me like the others were, too.  Sola got his blankets and laid them out in front of the fire with Lon following suit.  So Nyala and I did the same on the other side of the fire.  As we lay there I suddenly heard noises.  I looked over to see that Sola and Lon were going at it, sharing breath.  Nyala looked, too.  We smiled, chuckling and I asked, “Should we join them?”

Nyala crawled over to me and kissed me, saying, “Let’s have our own party.”

We kissed some more, then shared breath and for some reason I started to become soume.  Nyala seemed to like that idea and I soon felt his fingers gently stroking my soume-lam to further encourage me.  Shortly thereafter he crawled down my body and as I raised my knees he pressed his lips and tongue to my soume-lam.  Sighing, I ran my hands into his hair.  I glanced quickly over and through the flames I could see Lon and Sola moving together, adding to my rising desire.  I moaned and moved as Nyala kept at it.  When I couldn’t take it anymore, I begged him to stop and he moved over me.  I could see his ouana-lim, metallic green-blue, pulsing and shimmering in the firelight.  I took it in my hands and as it flowered, he let out a small cry.

“Now… please, please,” I groaned.  At that moment all I wanted in the world was him inside me and as he pierced me, I felt such exquisite pleasure.  As his thrusting continued, I felt like I was flying over the earth, high above.  Soon all sound faded, I felt my eyes flutter closed and soon the release and pulsing pleasure of completion overtook me.  I felt him go still a moment, then shudder.  He collapsed on top of me, panting.  I looked over to our friends, but they were still.  All I could see were the flickering flames of the fire.  Nyala then moved off and cuddled next to me.  We didn’t speak.  We looked into each other’s eyes as I stroked his hair and he ran his fingers through mine.   Soon after, we fell asleep.

The next day was extremely hot and the sun burned relentlessly in a cloudless sky.  Nyala and I were leading the way.   Sola led the horse and Lon was behind, seeming a bit more bothered by the heat than the rest of us.  I was just thinking that maybe we should consider traveling at night and sleeping during the day, when my thoughts were broken by a yell.  I looked to see Lon lying on the ground moaning and holding his ankle.  I glanced to the side just in time to see a rattlesnake slither off at top speed.

Sola was already there beside him, panicking.  What?!  What is it?!”

“A snake...it…it was a snake,”  Lon stuttered.

Nyala rushed over and rolled up Lon’s pant leg.  There were two bloody punctures and a large swelling.  Nyala looked at me with panic in his eyes.

“I saw it.  It was a rattlesnake,”  I told him.

Sola lost it.  He stood up and moved away, his hands twisted in his blond hair, his light blue eyes wild, his slender frame trembling.  “Oh, my God, Oh, my God, Oh, God, Oh, God!!”  I grabbed his shoulders, shaking him.

Nyala shouted, “Shut up!  Shut up!  We’ve go to think!  He paused a moment.  “Get me a knife!”

I ran to get mine.  Nyala said, “If I cut it fast, the poison will drain out.”

I quickly lit a match and ran it over the blade to sterilize it.  Nyala was ready to cut when I called, “Wait!  Can a snake even poison us?  We’re har.  Aren’t we immune?  I don’t think we can be poisoned, can we?”

Nyala hesitated, raking his hand through his hair.  “Fuck!  I don’t know!  We can’t take the chance if we don’t know for sure.  Fuck!”

“You’re right,” I said. “Do it.”

Nyala told Lon, “This is going to hurt.”

Lon nodded, gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut.  Sola stayed back.  Nyala made a long cut near the bottom of the swelling.  The blood and fluids ran down Lon’s foot and into the sand.  When the flow slowed, Nyala warned Lon, “Brace yourself.”  He pressed on the swelling, squeezing out every drop he could.  Finally he poured some water over it, and then he poured alcohol over it.  Nyala fell back to a sitting position on the sand and wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve.  Lon sat staring at the fierce looking wound as Sola took a few steps closer.

“How do you feel?” Nyala asked Lon.

“Freaked out!”

“Do you feel sick?”

“No.”

“How long until we know?” Sola asked.  Nyala shrugged.

I saw a large rock not far away.  “Let’s get him into the shade,” I suggested.

Nyala and I carried him over into the shade of the rock.  Sola put a rolled up blanket behind him.

“Just lie still for awhile,” Nyala instructed.  Sola sat next to him, giving him water.

Nyala and I walked away and decided to lead the horse to some scrub brush to eat.  “You think he’ll be okay?”  I asked.

Nyala looked worried.  “I don’t know.”

“What are the symptoms?”

“I’m not completely sure, but I know you get really sick.  We’ll know.”

“What can we do if it happens?”

Nyala just shook his head.  None of us had any training in healing.  Until that moment I never thought of caste training meaning the difference between life and death, but if a har is too sick to heal himself…  We stood there a while, silent and worried, just watching the horse eating.  Then, for some reason, the thought came into my head that in our first crisis, the gun we just had to have didn’t do us a damn bit of good and it pissed me off.

When we went back to Lon, he was resting, Sola lying next to him, his head on Lon’s shoulder.  Lon appeared okay so far.  Nyala inspected the wound.  It looked to me like  the swelling had gone down a bit.

“Looks better,” Nyala said, sounding somewhat relieved.

A few tedious hours passed and as there were still no signs of poisoning, we all breathed a little easier.  The sun began its descent, cooling things off some.

“Let’s camp here,” I said.

Nyala and I gathered wood for a fire, and then we all ate dinner, feeling confident that Lon would have been sick by now if he’d been poisoned.  We didn’t know if he’d have gotten sick without the cutting or not.

Nyala leaned down, squatting next to Lon, looking at the cut.  “How’s it feel?”

“Not too bad.”

Nyala stared down at the ground.  “I’m sorry.  I may have cut you for nothing.”

Lon put his hand on Nyala’s arm and as Nyala looked up into his face, Lon gave him a reassuring smile.

“And it may have saved my life.  You did the only thing you could.  I wanted you to do it and I thank you for it.”

Nyala finally smiled, too.

As we sat around the fire that night, I asked Nyala, “He won’t be able to walk on it for a while, will he?”

“No. He can ride the horse.”

I nodded.  Then I had an idea. “Why don’t we try a healing?”

“We don’t know how,” Sola said.

“We can try.  It can’t hurt.  It can only help or do nothing.”

“I guess we can try,” Nyala said.  “We can try to concentrate our energy into him with healing intentions and see what happens.”

Lon hobbled over next to the fire leaning on Sola.  We had him lie down on a blanket and relax.  Nyala put more wood on the fire causing the flames to shoot higher into the air.  He decided  that maybe he should say some prayers and incantations for healing.  I knew none of us had any idea what we were doing, but we were giving it our best efforts none the less.  We knelt on the ground around Lon, letting all our hands hover over the wound.   Nyala said to try to send our healing energies and mental intentions into him.  We closed our eyes and began.  I don’t know what the others did, but I tried to channel energy into my hands, then into Lon, picturing it healing the flesh.  My hands actually started to feel warm and I imagined the warmth going into Lon.  We kept this up for quite some time and after a while, Lon said “I feel it. It’s warm!”

“Shh,” Nyala said.

We continued what we were doing.  Finally, I heard Sola let out his breath and sit back.  Soon after, I felt fatigued and stopped as well.  Nyala stayed with it for some time longer, then he, too, sat back seeming exhausted.  Lon sat up and we all looked at the wound.  It appeared unchanged, but Lon said it felt hot and tingly.  In spite of all our efforts, Nyala sensibly still treated it with alcohol to prevent infection.

Just before we fell asleep, I asked Nyala, “Do you think we did anything for him?”

“I don’t know.  Time will tell, I guess.”

“Did you feel anything?  I felt like warmth was coming out of my hands.”

“Yeah, I felt something like that, too.”

“Do you think we imagined it?”

He laughed.  “I don’t know.  It’s hard to believe we could heal him with no training whatsoever.”

“But we’re har.  It’s in all of us isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I believe so.  But to really find our full potential, we need training.  Imagine if all hara got that training.  Who knows what our potential really is.”

I fell asleep thinking of hara generations in the future who could do almost anything.