'Be considerate,' she said. 'Tell me that you want me to wait.'
'Ah, Alning,' he moaned, in an agony of indecision, wanting to do the honorable thing, knowing that it was very unfair to her to be left with any expectations.
'It is what I want,' she hissed fiercely, and for delicious, long, heated moments he felt an almost painful heat on his graft bud as she pressed hard to him, her own bud swelling, softening. He leaned, drank the condensation of the steams from her smooth, heated skin, moaned in pleasure as she put her arms around him and pressed him tightly.
'I named you Alning, Beautiful One,' he whispered. 'I saw you as a sprout, and watched you grow, freed you from mother earth, laughed as you fell, and rose swiftly to fall and rise again. I have had eyes for no other. I will never have eyes for another, my Alning.'
'There,' she whispered, 'was that so difficult?'
'But you will be alone, for Du knows how long, and—'
'Hush,' she said.
His eyes went wide, for he felt a change in the contact of their graft buds, jerked away, looked down to see a scarlet ripeness at her waist. Indeed, from waist to loin she had seemed to swell, and he was thrilled as he'd never been thrilled in his life. She tried to push herself back to him.
'No,' he said, holding her off with his good hand.
'Stay with me,' she hissed, with an intensity that raised his temperature.
'I would, I would,' he said, still holding her away.
'No,' she whispered, as her color faded, and she seemed to regain some control. 'I will not ask that of you, for, although I would accept you as you are, I want life to be full for you, and you must do this thing. Have no fear, Duwan, I will wait.'
'When the ripeness is fully upon you—'
'I will burn,' she whispered, 'but I will endure, until you return.'
'I, too, will burn, each time I feel the ripeness, each time I think of you.' He put his hand on her cheek, lifted her eyes to his. 'Hear me, Beautiful One. If, when the time of the long light comes and goes for the second time following this long light of my departure, I have not returned, you are to speak. You are to speak for another.'
'No,' she said heatedly.
'Do this,' he said harshly, 'or I will retract my words and give you a never word and that will end it.'
She went pale.
'To think of you wasted would be a great sadness for me in Du's paradise,' he said. 'I would be handicapped, weighed down by this sadness. You must promise. At the first dim following the second coming and going of the long light following this long light of my departure, you will speak for another Promise me this.'
'At your insistence,' she said, her voice very faint.
'Say it.'
'I promise.'
'Then entwine with me, Beautiful One,' he said, extending his arms, feeling her smooth, rich softness as she wound her arms with his and then he pushed her away and ran, not looking back lest her beauty be a fatal attraction for him, lest he lose all his resolve and stay, a one-armed one, to tend the young and bask in her beauty and regard until she, after the initial intoxicating ripeness and grafting, came to hate him for his handicap.
He ran hard, slowing only to greet the Elder of each of the villages through which he passed, reached the narrow, always guarded cleft that gave access to the cliff-bound valley, saluted the warriors on guard and climbed the steep, narrow trail through a cleft in the rocks to feel the invigorating fullness of Du on his face. Du was to the south, at evening, and he ran at a steady, ground covering warrior's pace as the source made its great circle, swinging away to the west and moving behind his back only to appear in the east and swing gradually into another evening in the south. For a full long circle of Du he had kept the pace, and he felt lighter. Moisture respired outward to his skin, and was evaporated by the heat of the source and the dry, invigorating chill of the barrens through which he ran.
The only life within days of swift marching lay behind him in the valley. He ran over sterile rock, through swales of pebbles moistened by the unevaporated remnants of the snows that covered the barrens when Du disappeared over
