Part 1 of this series is the build-up.
Now Beth and Alex realized the meaning of all of the hidden motives since their capture. The Ariwa women camp was isolated from the rest of the tribes, and their chief was so jealous of his power, he would only let them marry other women, and if possible ones who were from outside. Some of the Ariwa girls, like Soaring Gull and Green Hill, would take on the roles of the braves, as warriors, hunters, and the like. Others, like Perfect Dawn, and her slightly older sister Trembling Grass who was with Soaring Gull, would take on completely submissive roles. These roles would be confirmed once they had reached adulthood, which had been not long ago.
Later that day, the girls learned that ritual they just had performed on them was usually first done on an Ariwa girl at age 12, when they are assigned a love mate. In this case it was equivalent to an engagement, because Alex and Beth were both already of age. Slaughter informed them that the wedding itself would be that night.
The next few hours were a blur for Beth and Alex, who were naturally on edge seeing as they had been subjected to a whirlwind "courtship". At mid-afternoon, Beth was taken to a hut, stripped of her normal Ariwa clothing, and told to lay on a long flat table, face down, and not to look up until told. These directions were written on some crude piece of paper by Slaughter, who as per the tribe's instructions, would be given minimum rights to guide the captive girls from now on.
After a long wait, she could hear the leather panels on the door slide apart, and someone step inside. Beth was surprised as to how by now neither she nor Alex seemed to be fearful of what was going on. They had feared the worst during their brutal capture, but the life in the women's camp was a welcome change from the suffering in Georgia, and the hazards of the frontier.
She was shaken from her contemplation by the rustle of the leather partition that functioned as the hut's door. Instead of hearing footsteps, she was greeted by the smell of blossoms next to her, and the feeling of body heat close up. Beth was always surprised by the degree to which the Arawi took care to maintain proper hygiene, especially when it came to odours. But Slaughter had explained to her after they had left the creek that all of the women in the camp were descendants of chiefs from one generation or another, and as such were expected to treat their bodies accordingly. They were, he said, more similar to images he had heard of European noblewomen, than of those of his people.
Remembering Slaughter's instructions, Bethany never raised her head. She was stunned when the first thing she felt were cool hands covered in a salve rubbing along her back and massaging it. The salve was spread all along her shoulder blades first, then her neck, her lower torso, her buttocks, and the backs of her legs, and it had the same fragrance as the person who was spreading it. She was pretty obviously shorter than Bethany based on the posture of her hands. Breaking the silence was a gentle cooing and humming emanating from the woman's mouth.
