- Xark’on -

I’m finally able to pull my trousers on. Holy Ancestors, how embarrassing! But I have no control over it.

What is it about this woman that turns both my mind and body into turmoil? The longer she’s close, the more she attracts my eyes and my thoughts.

She makes me do undignified things, like a child. I haven’t played with water since I was a boy, and only in the shallow water in the creek at the village. But this time, it was even more enjoyable than back then.

Possibly that’s because Caroline was entirely bare. While her body is alluring enough with her garments on, it becomes ridiculously so when they fall. That chest has those twin protrusions, just like the shaman’s doll years ago. But that doll was made of wood and could not convey the gentle, perfect curves and the roundness and the obvious softness. Not to mention those large nipples—

No, I have to stop thinking about this. My trousers threaten to split at the front. And Caroline keeps sending anxious glances at it as we walk towards the jungle side by side.

I have a sudden insight. “There are no men on your planet?”

“Um. There are many men.”

“Oh. Many big villages.”

“Yes. Except we call them ‘cities’. And ‘countries’.” Her soft, bright voice is like the chirrups of a dreigi pup, except richer and more mature. And endlessly more resonant in my soul.

“Yet they could not protect you from the Plood.”

“That’s right. Just like your tribe could not prevent the Plood from stealing your women.”

It’s a good answer, turning my own disdain back on my tribe. She has an inner strength.

We enter the jungle, and now talking can only harm us, and she obviously realizes that.

I still feel as if in a dream. This part of the jungle is very familiar to me. I’ve hunted and walked here many times through the years. But now it seems entirely new to me. The smells and the plants and the trees—it’s as if I’m here for the first time. Because I’m here with a woman. A real one. Breathing and moving and talking.

It’s only just sunk in. Yesterday was so eventful that I had no time to think about it. I was in a daze all day and all night. Now, the wonder is starting to dawn on me. And it’s even more wonderful than I’d ever thought.

I thought she was helpless and just a burden. Now, I’m not so sure. That swimming thing she taught me could be useful. There are no large volumes of water near our village, but I’ve sometimes walked far in the jungle and come across very wide creeks that have stopped my progress unless I could somehow use a rope to swing across it. And once I saw a very large surface of water that stretched as far as the eye could see.

In my minds’ eye, I can see images of Caroline on the grass, spreading her legs and opening that mysterious slit for me. So that I can slide my manhood in there—

The front of my trousers creaks like a tree about to break in a storm, a sound that travels far in the jungle. But these flashes of a naked Caroline in various positions are hard to keep away.

What am I going to do with her?

She wants to leave and go to her tribe. That seems to be less than ideal if she is to be the bait in my trap. Because surely that’s why she’s here. The Ancestors have given her to me for that purpose.

But now I wish they could have chosen something else. Anything else almost. Being the bait in my trap will kill her, of course. And now I want her alive. Very much so. So much so that it aches in my whole chest when I think of her not being here and not breathing and not snoring softly in her sleep.

I want her to go to her tribe so that I can’t use her for bait. At she same time, I want her to stay so that she’ll be near me.

And I want the trap to be a success. Because the consequences of that will be a great triumph for me and for the tribe. A new future, so very bright, the future promised to us by the Ancestors. Not just for me, but for my whole tribe. For Garx’on and Ever’an and Yru'zan. And all the others.

I will let the Ancestors decide. If she stays with me, then she’s indeed intended as bait. If she leaves, then she is not, and I have to find some other way to lure the mighty prey into my trap.

I glance behind me. She meets my gaze with a smile that’s less restrained than before. I can’t help but return it. Her teeth are blindingly white, and her hair shines like the sunrise. The skin of her face is smooth and round and perfect. It makes my heart jump in my chest to see her. I don’t think I could bear harming her.

But why would the Ancestors send her my way if not for me to use for the most important purpose there has ever been?