Sharing Gat.áayi

It was harvest time, and the Teikweidi village was abuzz with new work and new life. The salmon catching season has reached its height. After having gone upriver to spawn in the spring, the salmon now returned and gave themselves to the Teikweidi village to be harvested. The entire village took to the beaches, rivers, and streams to catch and prepare them. During harvest, they lived not in their regular residences but in the smokehouses by the beach, where the women of the village cleaned the fresh salmon that the men brought in and hung it on wooden rods to smoke and dry for the winter.

Every day, Sit'ku went out with his hunting party to the rivers and streams to set up stakes and nets to catch the salmon that swam through. His hunting party was now larger than it was during the rest of the year. Kaawu, who normally occupied himself exclusively with his woodcarving trade, set down his carving tools during this season to help reel in the harvest. Their neighbor, Taku, who worked in leather for much of the year, joined as well. Each evening, Sit'ku and Kaawu would return to the smokehouse that their family shared with Taku and his wife. The men would triumphantly hand over the fish they had caught to the women. Gat.áayi, ever the commander, insisted on self-discipline, hanging most of the fish on the smoking racks to dry for the coming winter. It was Taku's young wife, Yax'te, who could always be counted on to make sure that there was enough salmon left over for the five housemates to enjoy a hearty evening meal on its sweet meat.

What with the busyness of the harvest season and the shared living arrangements, the secret rituals that Sit'ku, Gat.áayi, and Kaawu had developed over the months of their marriage fell to the wayside. Sit'ku no longer knelt down in submission to Gat.áayi and Kaawu when he returned home--they no longer made a habit of playing their secret games with pain and pleasure. Nevertheless, there were moments of pleasure that could be stolen in short bursts, even in the busy weeks of late summer. On one day, Gat.áayi and Sit'ku found themselves alone together in the smokehouse, and Gat.áayi gave Sit'ku a hearty thrashing with one of the rods that hung the salmon. On another, as Sit'ku and Kaawu were walking home together, Kaawu pushed Sit'ku against a cedar tree and brought him to orgasm with his hand.

But the biggest change during this time happened inside Gat.áayi. Kaawu noticed it even before she did--the swelling in her breasts, her frequent morning sickness. It was not until Gat.áayi had skipped her menstrual cycle for two moons in a row that they dared to announce it to the village. Gat.áayi was pregnant. And it was Sit'ku, everyone knew, who was responsible.

The village offered profuse congratulations to Gat.áayi and Sit'ku. Sit'ku was praised for his virility and for the staying power of his seed, while Gat.áayi was congratulated for her patience and wished good luck with the pregnancy. Kaawu, on the other hand was largely ignored. That he had been married to Gat.áayi for ten years without giving her a child was not a matter of pride, and the other Teikweidi villagers took care not to bring up the subject when he was in earshot. For his part, Kaawu seemed unbothered. He confided in Sit'ku that he was delighted to be a father, even if the manner of the child's conception had not involved him directly.

One day, Sit'ku and Kaawu returned to the smokehouse accompanied by their new housemate, Taku, their baskets laden with freshly caught fish. Taku was a large man whose impressive height and broad shoulders were countered by his gentle, soft-spoken demeanor. While Sit'ku and Kaawu chatted absentmindedly about the quality of the fish and the strains of the day's labor, Taku walked with them in silence. About halfway through the walk, however, Taku stopped in his tracks.

"Can I ask you two something?" he entreated, looking around to make sure that the three were alone.

"What is it?" Kaawu responded.

"I...well," the man seemed not to know where to start. "Congratulations on Gat.áayi's pregnancy, Sit'ku. And you too, Kaawu."

"Thank you," Kaawu said. "Is that it?"

In answer, Taku simply said, "Yax'te and I have been trying for three years."

"I'm sorry about that." Kaawu and Sit'ku waited for Taku to continue.

"Do you...do you have any advice?" he asked at last.

Kaawu laughed. "Don't ask me, I tried for ten years with no results! What's your secret, Sit'ku?"

"Ehm..." Sit'ku hesitated, "I don't know, I fucked Gat.áayi a lot and it just happened."

"See, apparently some of us just aren't made with very strong swimmers," said Kaawu with self-deprecating good humor. "My best advice is to have Sit'ku do it for you. Worked for me."

Taku looked back and forth from Sit'ku to Kaawu, as if he were trying to assess whether the previous suggestion had been a serious offer. "Would you do that, Sit'ku?"

"Wait, actually?"

Taku looked down in embarrassment. "Yes. I don't know what else to do. We can't afford a second husband."

Sit'ku considered the offer. He was attracted to Yax'te, for sure. She possessed a kind of awkward grace, moving in a way that seemed beautiful yet fallible. Whereas Gat.áayi's body was round and bountiful, Yax'te's was slim and delicate. Sit'ku had caught glimpses of her breasts, firm, round, and self-contained. He had taken note of the curvature of her waist, the side to side motion of her hips when the walked.

Ultimately, however, Sit'ku turned to Kaawu for instructions. It was the agreement into which they had fallen on the first night of their marriage: when it came to sex, Sit'ku always deferred to Kaawu and Gat.áayi's authority. Kaawu registered Sit'ku's entreating glance and understood the intention behind it. "I think Sit'ku could be amenable to helping you out," he said.

***

A few days after their interaction on the way home from the stream, Taku declared in a loud, deliberate voice that he was going for a walk along the beach and did not intend to be back in the smokehouse for a long while. He left with a small strip of leather that he was in the process of working into a belt, and as he exited the house, he gave Yax'te a tender kiss goodbye.

This was it, Sit'ku realized. This was his cue to take Yax'te and spill his seed in her. But how to go about it? He felt shy about bringing up the topic directly. She stood stooped over the fire, blowing on it it reignite it. She glanced across the room to the bench where Sit'ku was sitting; he smiled at her, and she smiled back.

Before Sit'ku could work up the courage to speak to her, however, he felt someone grab a firm hold on his hair from behind, jerking his head upward and forcing him to stand.

"Aaahh!" he cried out in confusion.

"Don't worry, it's just me," said Kaawu. "Now, I want you to do exactly as I say."

"Okay. But what...why..."

"Just take off your clothes."

"But...Yax'te..."

Kaawu's grip on Sit'ku's hair tightened and he jerked his Sit'ku's head backwards. Sit'ku gasped in pain, but he could barely contain his arousal at Kaawu's sudden seizure of his body. "Take off your clothes for Yax'te," Kaawu repeated. "She's dying to see what your body looks like."

Sit'ku obeyed, fumbling to remove his shirt, pants, and loincloth with trembling hands, thinking all the time how scandalized his mild-mannered female roommate must be at this sudden turn of events. He glanced over at Yax'te, expecting to register shock on her face. He was surprised, however, to see only arousal in her expression. She grinned at him, taking in his naked body with eyes that gleamed with eager lust.

Kaawu gave him a hearty slap across the chest, and Sit'ku whimpered in pain and pleasure. "Put your hands behind your back," he ordered. Kaawu tied Sit'ku's hands together behind his back, then led him over to the bench in the corner of the room where Gat.áayi was sitting, made him kneel, and tied his hands to one of the bench legs. "Keep your mouth open, now," Kaawu told him. "Show Yax'te how you submit to us." Sit'ku opened his mouth, feeling both humiliated and strangely elated at the revelation of his hidden desires to this young woman.

"See, Yax'te?" Gat.áayi said. "This is what Sit'ku likes."

"I like that," Yax'te breathed, cautiously approaching the bench where Sit'ku was tied to get a closer look at him.

"I've been explaining to Yax'te," Gat.áayi told Sit'ku, "how our little marriage arrangement works. She seemed very intrigued. Do you want to touch Sit'ku, Yax'te? You can touch him anywhere you like."

"Thank you," she replied. She gave Sit'ku's hair an affectionate pet and ran her finger across the lips of his open mouth. He looked into her eyes. Having submitted many times to Gat.áayi and Kaawu, and once to the trader Xhuyaah, Sit'ku was familiar with the various expressions of dominance that were often directed at him. He knew Gat.áayi's expression of effortless mastery, Kaawu's creative enthusiasm, and Xhuyaah's desperate possessiveness. Yax'te's expression was different--longing and earnest.

"You want this, don't you?" Gat.áayi continued. "You want to submit to us like Sit'ku does."

"Yes," Yax'te breathed. "I want...I want you to use my body for your pleasure."

So that was it--Yax'te had not been gazing at Sit'ku with a desire to possess him, like his other lovers, but rather with a desire to be possessed herself, to kneel in submission as Sit'ku did and give herself to Gat.áayi's and Kaawu's whims.

"You're ready right now?"

"Yes. I'll do anything you say." Yax'te had her head cocked downward, her hands folded in front of her, already in a posture of submission.

"Very good." Gat.áayi looked at her and considered what to do next. "First things first, I'd like you to take all your clothes off. Take your time doing it, make a show out of it."

"Okay." Yax'te removed her outer garments, then, with a shy smile, slipped off her undergarments. She stood before the trio, her arms positioned rather stiffly by her side, her body exposed for them, waiting for the next instruction.

"Come a little further toward us. That's it, stand right in front of us so we can get a good look at you." Yax'te obeyed. Gat.áayi and Kaawu examined the details of her naked body, running their hands over it and commenting on it.

"She has such beautiful, firm breasts!" Kaawu observed, giving each breast an appraising squeeze.

"And her little waist!" said Gat.áayi, running her hands up and down Yax'te's waist. "She is so soft and supple."

"She's got good hair, too," Kaawu commented.

"And the hair on her head isn't all that bad either!" joked Gat.áayi.

Sit'ku observed this exchange from his kneeling position, taking note of how Yax'te blushed but did not retreat from Gat.áayi's and Kaawu's greedy hands.

"Turn around, Yax'te, so we can look at you from behind," Gat.áayi ordered. She did so, and Kaawu and Gat.áayi fondled her rear end, her thighs, the curvature of her back. "Now bend over, try to touch your toes." Again, she obeyed. Gat.áayi took hold of her labia and spread then apart, revealing to Kaawu and Sit'ku the moist, pink entrance within. Sit'ku heard Yax'te let out a small moan of arousal at the exposure of the position. Kaawu reached out and encircled Yax'te's entrance with his finger, teasing its edges but never actually penetrating her. She moaned again, more deeply and audibly than before.

"You want me to put my finger inside you, don't you?" Kaawu teased.

"Yes!" she entreated.

In answer, he gave her a sharp slap on the behind. "Maybe later, if you're very good for us."

"I will be!"

"For now," said Gat.áayi, "I want to see how much pain you can take for us. Stay bent over like that. We're going to slap you."

"Okay," she resolved in a high-pitched voice that tremored with fear and excitement.

Gat.áayi placed her hand one of Yax'te's buttocks, and Kaawu placed his hand on the other. "One, two, three!" she counted, and on three they both delivered sharp simultaneous blows to her rear end. The result was a deep, hearty cry of pain and pleasure from Yax'te.

"Oh she's so adorable!" exclaimed Gat.áayi in delight. "Say thank you, now, Yax'te."

"Thank you!"

"Again," Gat.áayi said to Kaawu, and they gave her another simultaneous slap that sent a shudder throughout Yax'te's entire body. Gat.áayi began accelerating her slaps, and so did Kaawu, no longer caring about being exactly in time with her. Yax'te gasped and moaned and cried out in obvious arousal. Sit'ku was aroused by Yax'te's delicacy--how acutely she felt and reacted to every slap that Gat.áayi and Kaawu gave her. Every impact sent a shiver of pain and pleasure coursing through her body.

Before Gat.áayi and Kaawu had worked up to the level of pain-giving that Sit'ku knew they were capable of, Gat.áayi raised her hand and Kaawu ceased slapping.

"Turn around and kneel down before us," Gat.áayi said. Yax'te obeyed. "So you've had a taste of it," Gat.áayi continued. "How do you like submitting to us?"

"I want more," she answered with relish.

Gat.áayi seemed pleased. "Excellent."

"Now for the real fun," interjected Kaawu with a self-satisfied grin. He untied Sitku's hands from the bench so that both Sit'ku and Yax'te could face him and Gat.áayi. From his pocket, he produced a small pendant carved out of wood. "Here is how the rest of the night is going to work. One of you is going to receive pain, and one of you is going to receive pleasure. We don't know yet which one of you gets which treatment, though. That's where this little pendant comes in." He put both his hands behind his back and brought them in front of him, both fists closed. "The pendant is in one of my hands. Whoever correctly guesses which one will receive pleasure. Whoever doesn't will receive pain."

Kaawu beamed at Sit'ku and Yax'te. He had clearly thought long and hard to concoct this delightfully sadistic game. Sit'ku was enthralled by mystery of it--would he endure pain or enjoy pleasure tonight? Either outcome seemed equally exciting.

"Who gets the first guess?" said Yax'te.

"You can have the first guess, my dear."

"Okay." Yax'te, giggled in anticipation. "I choose this one." She pointed to Kaawu's left hand. Kaawu opened his hand to reveal its contents. Sure enough, the wooden pendant lay in Kaawu's palm.

"Congratulations, Yax'te. I am going to give you so much pleasure tonight, you'll come back begging for more. I'm sorry, Sit'ku. It looks like you'll be at Gat.áayi's mercy tonight."

Sit'ku grinned. "I can take it!"

"Good boy. But I haven't told you the best part yet!" Kaawu was positively gleaming with a kind of maniacal pride. He produced from his pocket two small polished wooden rings, each about an inch across. Sit'ku recognized them to be simplified versions of the jewelry that many Tlingit wore through piercings in their noses on special occasions. He had a carved whalebone nose ring similar to these back at their winter house that he sometimes wore at potlatches and dances. "You will each wear one of these rings," Kaawu continued. He handed Sit'ku and Yax'te each a ring, and they each inserted them through the piercings in their septums. "Now face each other and lean toward each other, so that your faces almost touch...stay very still..." They did as they were told. Kaawu reached between them and, with a swift, seamless movement of his fingers, tied the two nose rings together with a small piece of twine.

Sit'ku laughed in delight at the simplicity and effectiveness of this device. In this position, tied together by two of their most sensitive parts, Sit'ku and Yax'te would be intimately in tune with each other. Sit'ku would feel every shudder of pleasure Yax'te gave; she, in turn, would feel every seizure of pain that took hold of him.

"You like this, Sit'ku," Kaawu observed.

"Oh yes!"

"You know you can kiss each other," suggested Gat.áayi. In answer, Yax'te kissed Sit'ku, long and hard, as if she were trying to melt into him. He saw Kaawu position himself behind Yax'te and felt Gat.áayi position herself behind his own body. Yax'te let out a moan as Kaawu's hand entered her, then a sharp and delighted intake of breath as he began to caress her clitoris with his other hand. Sit'ku, in turn, let out a sharp cry of pain as Gat.áayi delivered a stinging blow to his rear end.

Another blow on the same spot, then another in quick succession, made Sit'ku convulse in pain and seize Yax'te's hands for support. Her breath was heavy. She squeezed his hands, tensing and releasing and moaning and sighing. A cry from Sit'ku, a sigh from Yax'te. A heavy round of fingering from Kaawu made her jerk her head backward unintentionally, bringing Sit'ku's head with it. Sit'ku kissed her with desperate fervor as Gat.áayi's rod slashed mercilessly at his back, his thighs, his buttocks. His skin was buzzing, alive and in agony. Yax'te's breathing was deepening, as if she were reaching down into the depths of herself for something alluring and ineffable. Yes, she had grasped it, Sit'ku could tell by the sound of her breathing and the trembling of her lips against his. Tensing and shuddering, clinging to Sit'ku's hands for dear life, she climaxed.

"Oh! Oh! Thank you!" she exclaimed.

"I'm not done with you," Kaawu whispered in her ear, loud enough for Sit'ku to hear him. And he moved his fingers rapidly in and out of her, eliciting a deep, guttural cry from Yax'te. She kissed and kissed Sit'ku, clutching his hands to keep herself from falling over. Sit'ku clutched her hands for support as well as Gat.áayi continued to beat him, searing his flesh and bringing forth yells of protestation. Breathe, he thought, in, out, in, out. His breath was quick and deep, and so was Yax'te's. He let out a sound that was half in agony, half in ecstasy as he trembled and gasped and kissed her again. Yax'te climaxed a second time, then a third.

Gat.áayi delivered a searing blow to Sit'ku's shoulders, and he jerked his head involuntarily to the side in pain. Immediately, he felt a pain in his septum and heard Yax'te's shriek as she attempted to bring her head close to him again.

"Be nice to Yax'te, Sit'ku," chided Gat.áayi. "You shouldn't move around so much when I'm hitting you."

"I'm sorry, I'll try!"

It took all of Sit'ku's willpower not to move away from Gat.áayi's rod. She was precise with her blows, knowing how to hit him just enough to almost drive him to the breaking point but not quite. The effort to contain his body sent loud groans and cries out of Sit'ku's mouth. He tensed and released his body, shrieked and shivered and tore into Yax'te's mouth with his tongue. Kaawu showed no more mercy than Gat.áayi, working deep, earthy, guttural moans out of Yax'te. She rocked back and forth, bringing Sit'ku with her wherever she rocked, losing control of herself as another wave of orgasms overcame her.

Yax'te let out a frightened squeal, a different sound that she'd made before. The reason was evident when Kaawu whispered in her ear, "I can put my finger here, right?"

"Oh! Y-yes," she faltered, then issued a deep, growling moan as Kaawu penetrated both her holes simultaneously with his fingers. Meanwhile, Gat.áayi had mercifully laid down the rod and now scratched at Sit'ku's back with her hands, biting him and tickling him and making his skin crawl. As Yax'te gasped and trembled, building up to another orgasm, Sit'ku felt as if something orgasmic was building up inside his own body. Gat.áayi began alternating her scratching and tickling with sharp slaps. Sit'ku felt so many things at once, in so many places. He felt as if he would dissolve into Yax'te and Gat.áayi, and he sighed and groaned and trembled in tune with Yax'te, his expressions of pain now indistinguishable from her expressions of pleasure.