Roth hadn't exactly mated with Dania, they'd come very close, but not quite. Her behavior was something he'd never come across with any of the women of the Meh-teh. She was beyond fierce and was a more than worthy opponent. None of the women he knew could compare to this. And yet when she'd angered him and he'd grabbed her by the throat something had changed within her.
No. Change was incorrect. This was another part of her. She'd submitted to him. Completely.
Again, this was also not like a woman of his kind. The Meh-teh favored an equal balance in all things. The only exception to this was their leader. As leader, Roth had the final say in whatever concerned the Meh-teh. But in all other things, balance was favored. Mating, while very pleasurable, was . . . . bland.
Dania was both more and less aggressive. Puzzling.
If totally honest with himself, Roth was angry with himself for what had almost happened. For almost mating with her. He'd known all of the things that could and would go wrong if that ever transpired. And he'd still nearly gone through with it. With that one single act, Dania would become one of the most important persons in a society she didn't belong to. She would have to be the dominant female and would only have to answer to Roth. He knew that his people would not accept this willingly. They saw her as a danger to them and having Dania as one of their leaders would not sit well with them.
But Roth had very much enjoyed the near-mating. He'd been able to let go of his inhibitions and fully take control of her. He was very much aware that this would not have been possible with a woman from the Meh-teh. With Dania....with her, there had been lust.....passion.....rage...pain....pleasure....and even playfulness. With her he was able to be completely in charge, which was just not done with his people.
Dania's submission to him was unlike anything he'd encountered before with his people, but it wasn't something he couldn't or wouldn't deal with. He would have to be careful, that much was certain. His position as leader of the Meh-teh had, at least a little, prepared him for what was to come.
What was to come! He had no idea what would happen between the two of them. An actual mating between the two of them wasn't possible (in the most biological sense). He had no idea of who this creature was or if there were more of her. There was so much that he didn't know.
All of these thoughts, and more, passed through Roth's head in only a few seconds as they lie on the ground. He crawled up and was next to her and she wrapped her tail around his leg just a bit tighter than before. She seemed very tired.
He pulled her close to him. "Come here, Little One," he said to her and she started purring. She nestled her head into the crook between his chest and his arm and was asleep in almost no time. Roth began to run his fingers through her hair and found that it was very silky compared to the rest of her body. It ran down about half the length of her back and it was a mystery how she managed to keep it out of her face.
They lie there as the sun made its way across the sky, Dania sleeping softly and Roth thinking. He must have fallen asleep at some point because Dania woke him up asking him something.
"Huh? What did you say?" he asked her.
"What was that?"
"What was what?" He wasn't entirely awake and didn't understand what she was asking.
"What was that that happened before?"
"Well....that was something that almost happened."
"I know what almost happened. I'm not talking about the sex," she said playfully. "I'm talking about when you grabbed me by my neck." She grabbed his hand and placed it around her neck. "Like this."
Roth thought for a moment before speaking. "We don't have a word for it in my language. My people don't behave like you did."
"I didn't know I behaved like that."
"What do you mean, 'you didn't know?'"
It was at this point that she told him how she'd woken up in the Forest one morning and had no memory of anything that had happened before. She'd woken up cold, hungry, and alone. Learning how to hunt was something she'd had to learn. If she hadn't, she would have starved. She obviously had learned how to do that by now. But in her world, she was at the top of the food chain. She was the master of her own world. For her to have given into him like that made no sense to her.
"Well, it did to my Cat, but not to me."
Her Cat? What did she mean by that? She was, herself, a cat.
She saw the look of confusion on his face. "She's a part of me. I don't know the words to explain. Its like there are two of us in here," she pointed to her head, "and she knew what was happening. Welcomed it even."
Two people inside her head? This thing was crazy. "I don't pretend to understand. I have no language for this. But I do know that you wanted to have no control at all. The Meh-teh are not like that. We live in balance. As couples, with one another, with the Forest. Everything is balanced."
Still feeling the effects from earlier, she curled up even closer to him. "Tell me more about your people. How long have you lived here? How many of you are there?"
Roth began telling her the legend of the Meh-teh.
"The Meh-teh"
"There is a legend among my people of how we came to be. Back when the world was young, a great storm threatened to destroy everything. In an effort to save themselves and the world that they had created, the Elements, as they were called, came together to fight off the storm. The Elements of Air and Earth and Water came together at the top of a tall mountain but they were not powerful enough to ward off the storm.
"Seeing that they were not strong enough alone, they made the choice to take a part of themselves and make something new; something that was a part of all of them, but belonged to none. They called this thing the "Meh-teh." This Meh-teh is not the same as I am today. It was not alive. This was a vessel designed to absorb all of the energy of the storm until it was no longer a threat.
"The Meh-teh was placed at the top of the mountain and the storm attacked it immediately. A great bolt of lightening came down and struck the vessel and it was given life. The Elements had never expected this. The Meh-teh writhed in pain as the storm continued its assault. But the storm was not weakening.
"Instead, a strange thing happened. The storm took pity on the Meh-teh. This newly-living creature had done nothing to the storm. It had not abused the planet for its own amusement. The lightening struck the Meh-teh again, this time in the chest. In place of pain, the Meh-teh received an awareness of itself. The lightening stopped and the first Meh-teh stood and let out a mighty roar.
"The lightening struck him again and he was split in two. This other Meh-teh was different. It was female.
"The storm called down to them and called the male Lore and the female Yule. It said to them, 'I want you to be my protectors. Protect this world. As long as there are Meh-teh, I will never destroy it. But do not fear, I will return and return often, as my water nourishes and the fire from my lightening makes way for new growth. Go now.'"
"And with that, the storm ceased and the Meh-teh made their way down from the mountain top. The Elements saw the two Meh-teh as abominations and left them, refusing to have any contact with them. The Elements have not contacted the Meh-teh to this day and no one knows if they are still on this world or not. But we continue to protect these mountains. We are so few now that this is all we can protect.
"After leaving the mountain top, Lore and Yule mated and had many offspring. The spread throughout the world and lived in peace. They treated the world with respect at all times. Life was good.
"Many years and many generations passed without much changing. One day we noticed a new creature walking about. He was much smaller than us and the only hair he had was on his head and his chin. Other than this, he was naked. Upon seeing us, he became fearful and fled. We decided that it was best to stay away from these creatures, not for our own safety, but for theirs. A scared animal can be very dangerous. Should they prove dangerous, we would defend ourselves. So we stayed clear of this animal and let him have his space. We called him Man.
"We chose to live in areas that man did not, so there was less chance of running into them, and therefore, less chance of anyone getting hurt. We saw this as protecting Man. We went back into the mountains where we first came from.
"Another thousand generations or so passed before we came in contact with them again. Man had not chosen to live of the earth as we had. Instead, they lived off of it, taking what they needed, never replacing anything. They had developed technologies and had advanced by leaps and bounds. They were like a disease.
"At first we tried to reason with them but it did no good. They were still fearful of us. But now they had weapons and they began to hunt us down. We had been created out of violence but had known none until this point. We were not prepared for them and they nearly wiped us out. Eventually we had no choice but to fight back and man was no match for our size and strength.
"Many lives were lost before man retreated and left us alone in the mountains. It only took one or two generations for us to become a myth to them. Few remembered the battles and the bloodshed. After another generation, no one believed that we had ever existed. Those that caught glimpses of us were called crazy. Man had grown arrogant and believed that nothing on earth was more powerful than they were. We were content so we did not remind them. We kept to the mountains and made an effort to stay away from man.
"Mas was like a virus let loose upon the earth. They spread beyond what they needed while our territories receded. With less space, there was less food so our numbers began to shrink. Many tribes have died off completely. As far as I know, we are the last in this part of the world.
"I know what you're thinking. If we were sworn to protect the Earth, why have we let man damage it so? There are a couple of reasons. Man simply has too many numbers for us to overcome. And on top of that, when man sought us out to destroy us, they came into the Forests and the Mountains, destroying it as well as us. Both sides lost. We've convinced them we aren't here and they don't come into the Forests anymore and it remains safe. In my lifetime, man has not been seen in this Forest."
Dania sat with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Man sounds evil." No sooner had she said this than her Cat screamed at her that she was wrong. Man was not evil and she knew this. She should at least.
