- Emilia -

“That's amazing!”

I know a good amount of words in cavemanese, but I would like to know what their word for 'awesome' is. Because that would be the perfect way to describe their village.

We walk through the woods, with that creepy shaman dude leading the way, and then, without me ever realizing it, we've walked through a hidden gate and we see the village ahead of us.

It's a round, green hill with hundreds of white, little huts built all over it. It kind of looks like a muffin with green frosting, strewn with grains of sparkling white pearl sugar.

My eyes widen when I see it, and I can feel that it's good for the soul. Because all I've seen on this planet has been nature – green jungle and rock. This is truly a sight for sore eyes, so different from our own primitive cave in the wilderness. This is more like an actual city.

“Indeed our village is wonderful, when Emilia is here.” Ar'ox smiles down at me, and my worry dissipates. It'll be okay.

The members of the tribe come out of their houses to look at me as the word goes around the place that there's something weird happening. Of course they're all male. I knew that, but still it feels a little weird. Only men and boys of all ages.

Before long Ar'ox and I are surrounded by hundreds of curious dudes, all chatting and mumbling and staring at me. Some of the smaller boys come over and shyly touch my arms, and some of them bend over to look up my dress. They're not that threatening, but I cross my legs and pull the dress tight over my knees until Ar'ox shoos them away, mussing up their hair and joking with them.

I never liked being the center of attention, and I kind of want to sink down into the ground. Their attention isn't negative, exactly, but there's just so much of it.

I squeeze Ar'ox's hand a little extra, and he squeezes me right back. He probably understands that I'm not comfortable, because after a little while he plows through the crowd with me in tow. Then we're walking up a winding path up the hillside, among the many small houses that have been painstakingly built from white stones. A whole lot of the men and boys are trailing us. I notice that Ar'ox is both taller and wider than pretty much all of them, and his stripes are a more vivid orange than theirs. It makes me strangely proud. Of course my caveman is the best one.

Some of the houses have their doors open, and from what I can see they're a lot roomier than they should be. It looks like the houses are just a kind of doorways into caves that they have dug into the hill. It's pretty cool.

It takes us a good while to get to the top of the hill, and most of the tribesmen have stayed behind further down. Up here the air is fresher and we have a good view of the whole village and the jungle beyond. In every direction we can only see jungle – an infinity of green that disappears into the mist all around. On the way up here I had kind of been hoping that I'd be able to spot the spaceship/mountain Bune, because then I'd know approximately where to find the girls and the cave. But there's no sign of it. We have walked far the past couple of days.

But maybe this isn't a bad place to stay, either. There must be five hundred little houses here, and that's much more than I was expecting. Somehow the word 'tribe' makes me picture a little hamlet of mud huts, not a real town.

On the top of the hill there are eight salen trees growing in a rough circle. Wooden pipes lead from their trunks and down to the houses. That could mean that each house has clean running water. Yep, definitely not what I imagine when I hear the word 'tribe'.

I point up. “Aren't you afraid of the gray ghosts?”

Each tree has a whole lot of the yellow fruits growing among their branches. There must be hundreds of them, and in the sunlight they look so ripe and succulent my mouth is watering a hundred feet under them.

“No gray ghosts can enter,” Ar'ox says. “High wall all around.”

It's true. The wall goes all around the village. They're not taking any chances with that jungle. Still, the way that gray ghost moved, I think he could probably bounce over it if he really wanted to.

I take a deep breath and let it out again, slowly, relaxing my shoulders. This village looks like as safe a place as I can find on Xren. And Ar'ox is still here, radiating the rock-steady security that liberated my mind from the first minute I met him. If this is what my life is going to be from now on, then I can live with some little boys giggling and cupping their hands on their own chests in a childish imitation of my boobs.

I smile up at him. “It's very nice village. Wonderful.”

“We're safe here,” he says. “The tribe means safety and life.”

I nod. This does in fact seem like a pretty good oasis of humanity in a hostile and deadly world. I can understand why he was hesitant to take me back to my cave if it meant that he had to leave this place for a long time. Or even for good.

The shaman guy who I can feel hates my guts comes striding through the throng of giggling and staring boys, and I make sure to position myself so that Ar'ox is between me and him. He has an unhealthy vibe to him.

He has someone else trailing him, an elderly dude with wrinkly skin and a hollow chest. His tiger stripes are faded, but his eyes have a lot of life in them and he's almost as tall as Ar'ox. They have a similar look to them, and it wouldn't surprise me if they are related. Though the stars only know how that can work in a society without women.

“Here is the ... being,” the shaman says and points to me in a way that I can't help but find pretty rude.

The old man gives me a little smile and briefly looks me up and down. “Woman,” he says in a voice that once must have been pretty forceful. Not unlike Ar'ox's, in fact.

“Perhaps,” Hen'ex says and looks at me coldly. The fire in his eyes is much less intense and energetic than Ar'ox, and it adds to my uncomfortable feeling.

“Not perhaps,” I state. “Clearly.” I wish I knew more about their mythology and what they expect from me. What Ar'ox has told me doesn't sound much like Jax'zan's myths and prophecies. What exactly is my position here? Should I be imperious and dismissive, or reasonable and nice?

“She's definitely a woman,” Ar'ox says. “She is the Messenger that comes before the women return to our tribe. I found her. I'm her Mate.”

Ah. Messenger, huh? If that means what I think it means, it probably gives me some power. If things don't go so well, I can threaten to badmouth this tribe to the other women, telling them not to return.

“And my name ... is Emilia,” I add to Ar'ox's statement. I say it as if it's super significant and they really should recognize it. I probably should build up my own status here.

I'm not sure if they get it.

“The Gift,” the shaman says a little too eagerly. “You have not given her the Gift.”

“True,” Ar'ox counters. “Still, I found her.”

“The man who finds the Woman Messenger is not the Mate. It is of course the man who gives the Sacred Gift who reaches that Sacred Level of Mating. So our Sacred Ancestors tell us.”

Yeah, I really don't like that shaman dude. I can pretty much hear the capital letters in most of the words he says. And he uses the word 'sacred' far too often for my tastes.

“The Woman self decide who her Mate are,” I state firmly, more secure in the way I speak their language. “And mine Mate are Ar'ox.” I point to his chest for good measure and hang onto his arm in a way that really can't be misunderstood.

The old guy hasn't said much, but now he chuckles and says something that I don't quite catch, but which I choose to interpret as 'can't argue with that'. I reward him with an angelic smile, and he smiles right back. I guess the shaman is in the minority.

He probably feels the same, because now he smiles, too. But the smile doesn't reach his pale eyes. “The Sacred Gift will determine the Mate,” he says, and then he turns on his heel and walks away through the mass of curious onlookers.

The old guy says something to Ar'ox, and then they lead me through the mass of people to one of the houses nearby. I was right – it is a little house, but it's mostly the opening to a cave that has been dug into the white rock behind it. The walls are smooth and rounded, and it seems pretty obvious to me that it has been here for eons. It must have taken a lot of time and effort to dig it out of the hard rock by hand, saving the excavated material to build the little house from.

This seems to be the old guy's home, and the outer part of the cave is clearly where he works. There's a primitive loom on the floor and a half-finished piece of woven fabric on it. It interests me, because this old irox-skin dress is getting old in every sense.

The threads the guy uses are thin and cream-colored, and the fabric looks pretty supple.

I point to it. “You make?”

The man juts his jaw out. “Toh.”

“It's very nice,” I offer. “Take long time?”

“Deh,” he laughs. “It's a very simple fabric only. The Woman speaks strangely.”

We sit down on the floor and I suddenly feel how tired I am. I lean my head into Ar'ox's shoulder. “Come from far star.”

The man serves food, both nib soup and a cold stew that has a flavor pretty similar to the things Ar'ox has given me. And there's a faint taste of something else, too.

“Cathay Blue,” I say and nod in approval. “Real fancy.”

The two men just glance at me. Of course they don't understand, but it gives me some satisfaction to know that the leaves I found are used by actual cavemen, too, so they can't be that toxic.

Ar'ox and the other man, whose name is Gur'ex, talk quietly about me, and I finish my drink and relax against my caveman's shoulder while I let them talk. The water comes right out of the wall, and Gur'ex just removes a cork when he wants some. It has pretty decent pressure, too. Not bad for a tribe of cavemen.

I jerk awake because I somehow sense that the room has been quiet for a while. “Yes, what?” I say in English, pretending to have been awake all along.

“Emilia is tired,” the old man says. “The sun will set soon and the Woman Messenger should rest.”

I shrug. “Okay.”

The two others talk a little more while we stand up, and then Ar'ox leads me out of the cave and past the mass of tribesmen who have gathered outside it. I can't help feeling a little like a celebrity who has come to a small community, like Julia Roberts in Notting Hill. Fame can have its downsides.

Ar'ox leads me down a winding path to another little house, and this one I think is his, because the outer part looks like a smithy, and he said he makes weapons.

The cave itself is tidy and clean and has furs on the wall and floor, so that it seems pretty cozy. There's a nice painting on the wall – as in, painted directly onto the wall with vibrant colors. I think it's a scene from a hunt, with a large dino and some stickmen around it.

I plop down on a fur rug and Ar'ox lights something that looks like an oil lamp.

Then he sits down beside me, and the atmosphere is so inviting and relaxing and the cave seems so much like a bachelor's den that I reflexively think how many other girls has he brought here?

None, of course. I'm the first woman anyone in this tribe has seen for generations. The thought makes me feel strangely content and happy. I'm his first and only.

Huh. Am I thinking of him as my boyfriend now? At some point, we really have to have a conversation about all kinds of important things.

I yawn and lean against him again, feeling my eyelids getting heavy. “Tomorrow we talk,” I say. “And you show Emilia Lifegivers.”

He looks down at me. “You know about Lifegivers?”

“Sure I do. I mean, toh.” It's been a long day, and juggling two languages is apparently more than I can handle right now.

He lays me down on the rug and then pulls my dress up. I feel the cooler air on my girly bits and then huge tingles shooting through me. Yeah, I wouldn't mind this at all, so I sleepily spread my legs far apart.

When I feel his remarkable tongue on my lips down there I gasp, and then I lose track of what he's doing as he brings me off in a quick and soft orgasm that somehow sends me right to sleep.

“How did I ever get this lucky?” I manage to ask before I drift off with his unbelievably strong arms around me.