BOOK TWO
Duwan struggled through deep snow, his arms laden with choice, tender needles from tall brothers. He had tired of dried foods, and had ventured into the dim sun of the short, cold, winter day to gather greens. He noted, as he neared the cave, that Jai, too, had ventured out, and he was concerned until he saw that there were two sets of her tracks, the second leading back to the cave. He entered, placed the tender green needles on a rock ledge where the food was stored, and then stood in puzzlement watching Jai using freshly gathered boughs to prepare a bed on the opposite side of the fire from the bed they shared.
'Tonight, and for some nights to come, I will sleep here,' she said matter-of-factly, as she patted the boughs into place.
'I think we will both be cold,' he said, still not understanding.
'It is necessary,' she said.
'Perhaps you will find time, since much of the winter is ahead of us, to explain why it is necessary.'
She turned to face him and laughed. Her full face, in laughter, was a thing of great beauty to him. He remembered her as he'd first seen her, thin to starvation, hair unhealthy and lank. She looked the proper Drinker female now, full and fat, even on winter fodder, and the thought of not having his arms around her at night was painful to him.
'You really don't know?' she asked.
'I am but a simple male.'
She opened her outer garment, pulled up the undersmock. He gasped. Her bud point had bloomed overnight. The fleshy petals had swollen and colored so that that most intimate part of her flared, gleaming in hues of the rainbow.
'Hold,' he said, as she started to cover herself. He had never seen a female in full bloom, and the wonder of it awed him. 'Come to me.' She walked toward him, her eyes downcast. 'We have a long journey ahead,' she said, 'and although I would be honored to bear your young I will not burden you in your journey with a female with a fat stomach and, perhaps before we arrive, a new young.'
He knelt, held back her clothing. From her flowering came a perfume that made him dizzy. He felt his own body began to change, felt his heart beat faster, and felt a swelling beginning far inside him.
'Beautiful, so beautiful,' he whispered.
'The air is cold, even with the fire,' she said, but she was smiling.
'Lie with me, let me see this wonder,' he said, and she went with him to the bed, lay down, allowed him to arrange her clothing until she was fully exposed. He stared for a long time, unable to get his fill of the beauty of that flower of femininity.
'Stop,' she whispered weakly, 'or you will color, too, and then—'
'I think I color already,' he said, pulling at his garments. It was true; he was pink, and the petals were expanding, and his bud was exposed, and even as they both watched, and Jai giggled delightedly, the color reddened to a flame and his breath was short and quick.
'I am going to run to the other side of the cave,' she said, pulling away,
'and I'd suggest that you go roll in the snow.' She smiled wistfully. 'Unless you want me to bear your seed, Duwan?'
'It would be
'As you will,' she said.
It was by far the most difficult thing he'd ever done, keeping himself from entering that flower of rainbow hues, that perfume-scented orifice to bliss. But he held her and talked to her. He tortured himself by uncovering her during the short days, when the dim light of Du helped illuminate the cave, and even as his eyes and nose loved her, he talked, and she talked, and told him of her young days in the pongpens, and how a master had forced her when she was still unopened, and how, after that, until she became gaunt and thin as she grew, more than one of the masters used her. And of the pain. And as she spoke he clenched his fists and hated.
