The Industrial Elf

***I wanted to finish this one off and it was so close that I just needed to think about it and as I read my notes, I tossed them and decided that ... well, you'll see what I mean. This wasn't ever meant to be more than a happy little love story with a twist, but I like Elohan and I really like Aksun, so ...

Actually, I think I've used her in another story as well, but it's never appeared here on Lit.

You might have to go back and read Chapter 7 again to re-familiarize yourself. Sorry about that, but that's what I had to do. 0_o

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He wasn't in the bunk long enough to really warm up the sheets when he heard the door open. He lifted his head and looked into the darkness as the door closed softly behind her.

Aksun was sitting on the floor with her back against one of the kitchenette seats. He didn't wait for her sobs to begin. He just got up and crouched next to her.

He said, "I'm going to guess and say that something's bothering my friend."

It took a minute to get any information other than quiet sobs, but then she raised her head a little and began to whisper. "Donna was asleep and I didn't want to disturb her. But she opened her eyes and smiled at me. She asked me if you and I had mated, and I said no and why.

She said that it only proves that you are the one to take care of me because you have understanding and kindness. She kissed me and told me to go to you. She told me that I am yours now, Elohan.

I couldn't even cry until now. I was so shocked. So I came here. I don't want to argue with you about it tonight, but I want to say that even if you throw me out or tell me to sleep here on the floor, my place is with you now. I don't know where else to go, and I want to be with you."

He shook his head, "Now why would I do anything like that? You can sleep here, Aksun. You know Donna's only trying to get you prepared for when she's gone. I don't think much of how she's hurting you by this, and I know that she's afraid to die and of losing you. But this can't help anything.

You can sleep in the big bunk there. One of these things here folds out into a bed, if I can remember which one. I've got sheets for it around somewhere. I'll figure it out and sleep there. But you're not sleeping outside or on the floor. Come on," He pulled her up and led her to the bunk. "Climb up and get some sleep."

He saw her shake her head in the darkness. "If there is nothing wrong with it, I want to sleep with you. I know you care about me and I feel so alone. I want to say please, Elohan. Would it make me weak if I said that?"

No," he smiled, "I don't know how you'd think that I'd see you as weak in anything." He patted the mattress, "Climb up here and sit.

It doesn't happen often, but right now, I want a beer. I'll be back."

He came back with two cans to find her naked and sitting on the edge with her legs hanging over. She had a weak and hopeful smile on her face, "You have no clothes now, "she said, "and you had no clothes when I came in. Do you always sleep like this?"

"Yes," he nodded, "unless I have to sleep in a snowbank. I can put something on."

Aksun shook her head, "No, please don't. We both have to hide how we look, but not here. I want to be here like this with you."

The sight of her like that had a big effect inside his chest. He opened the cans and handed her one, "If you've never had beer, I apologize for the taste. If you've had decent beer before, I apologize for the taste." He looked at her, "Is there any of Donna in this right here? You deciding to take your clothes off like you did?"

She nodded sadly, "A little, yes. But I do not see her reason and I am afraid to offend you." She looked uncomfortable and just on the edge of showing her misery again. "She says that I should still offer to mate with you. She says that it will make us feel better and help me to belong with you. I think I understand, but..."

She sighed and shook her head, "I don't understand at all.

To say the truth, I don't think I should want to because she will die soon and I am already upset. But I do want to, Elohan. It is how I feel about you. It all makes me more upset. I really want to sleep close to you. I always feel better near you."

She took a sip and grimaced, "I must drink this?"

He chuckled a little, "You don't have to, but I don't have any more water left. I drank the last one. It won't be so bad after about the third sip. Think of it as terrible soda, since it's not much more than that. I don't think the alcohol content of that will hurt you or make you tipsy if you have just one."

He took her hand and surprised her when he kissed her knee once. "You won't offend me. I know that you don't really know the social behavior here that well. We'll work on it, and I want to know the way that's right for where you come from too.

Never mind Donna. If we do and when we do just aren't important. I feel good around you too. And I feel a lot of peace when I'm near you. I don't think you can understand that, and I can't explain it yet, but I do. So maybe we ought to just stay together. I understand how you feel about me and I feel the same way. Don't feel guilty about what you feel inside. With everything else that must be troubling you, don't worry about this."

He looked up at her, "I'd love it if we only sleep together. I have a strong desire to do anything to make you feel like you belong. And I really hate how I see that you feel so lost, Aksun."

He held her hand and slid his thumb over where her fingertips turned into claws. They weren't extended, but they weren't completely retracted either.

She watched him smile at them, "There's nothing wrong with saying please and it won't make you weak in my eyes." He raised her hand and kissed the backs of her fingers.

Aksun was astounded. "I am always surprised by how you find me beautif-"

The belch snuck past her throat before she could stop it. "I'm very sorry."

But she found him laughing softly. "And don't forget romantic, Aksun. You're very romantic as well as beautiful."

They both laughed, and then she said, "Thank you, Elohan. I feel better." She looked at the can, "I don't think that you were right about this. It still tastes horrible. But it's not that important now," she smiled.

"Is this wrong, the way I sit here?"

He shook his head, "No, not like this between us. I could look at your body all night. It would be in almost any other situation if there were others around."

She smiled, "And you standing with no clothes drinking beer is wrong too, but not between us." She nodded. "I know a little."

"Exactly," he said, "You won't understand it, but if I was here in underwear with my beer, it would be fine if I had a television and there was a football game on."

She tilted her head, "Why does that make it fine?"

He laughed, "It doesn't, but there are millions of people here who think it would. I'm not one of them, and neither are you."

"I want to say something," she said, running her long fingers through his hair before caressing his ear with her thumb. "On my world, when two people start to love each other, they wish to mate and they wish to dream together. If they are alone in a far off place they just do that. But if they live with others in a place like a town, the custom is that they are not allowed to mate until they see if they can dream first, especially if they are young.

It is permitted to try to dream together, but not permitted to mate. Of course they want to mate anyway, but the custom is that either the parents of one or both are nearby to ensure there is no mating going on yet, or an elder is present to watch.

Of course, young people much prefer to have the elder than any parents. You can imagine why. But if they cannot dream together, the elder will forbid the pairing, so there is a risk. But it isn't important if they are in love, is it? My parents became a pair in wartime. My mother was a caregiver to wounded, and my father was a fighter. There were no parents or elders there. They tried to dream, but could not." She took a sip of her beer and shrugged.

"They always loved each other Elohan, very much, and probably still cannot dream together. I say this to show that I love you, and somehow and sometime when it is better for us, I want very much to try to mate with you. But even though I do not think that we can dream, I would like very much to try to dream with you too."

"How does this dreaming work?" he asked, "Is it like I dream when I'm asleep?"

"Almost, if what is a dream to you is the same as I think from what Donna told me," Aksun replied, "but it is real in a way and we can do this while we are awake. Both males and females dream. Both can go far, but females usually go farther. When we touch together and hold tightly, we take the males with us and go together. We dream farther and faster with a male to help. We can go anywhere, be anywhere. I have never done it with a male, only alone."

He didn't understand what she meant about 'going', but he didn't want to ask right then. It was enough for him just to see her feeling hopeful for something and not weeping anymore.

They finished the beer and she climbed into the bunk, beckoning him to come and try to dream with her. Elohan admitted that it sounded wonderful and Aksun settled into his arms as though there was no difference between what they were at all. She just wrapped herself around him instantly without a thought. She felt his reaction and did her best to keep up a stern face as she took hold of him, "Which way?"

He was surprised, "What do you mean? I'm sorry, I can't help that. Just push it out of the way."

She shook her head. "No. I want this, but we agreed not like this. I want to know which way I am to move it, up against you and I lie against it, or I move up a little and it goes between my legs under me and we try to dream, if we even can?"

He was amazed at her. She always surprised him. "You sound angry, Aksun. Whichever way you want."

He watched her smile and saw her long and graceful teeth. He couldn't understand why anyone would find her ugly. Everything about her made his body sing. He was in heaven feeling her skin against his own.

She giggled softly, "I'm not angry, Elohan. I'm very happy. I'm only playing a little. Donna is still trying to push me to you, and tells me that it is over now between us, but I know why she says this and I am not hurt by her words after hearing what you said. She feels tired and weak and wants us to be together. I am sad for all of this, but if I am yours now, then I am so happy too."

She shifted a little, and moved him gently, "This will not work, I think, but it is permitted where I am from if two are in love, and are too early in it to mate, but wish to. I will hold you to me there, and we try to dream together. Keep your thoughts still if you can, and I will try to reach you. If it works, let me guide us until we see if you can guide us another time. But I think it will not happen."

She kissed him softly, "Just know that I love you, Elohan. If we cannot dream, then it changes nothing between us, and I will still love you."

She parted her thighs a little more and shifted a little, searching. She didn't even know where to search on him, since he didn't have the spot that she would have looked for. She moved backwards and forwards, little by little, always searching.

"This flat spot which you mentioned," he said, "Is there skin over it or is it bare, like what's inside you?"

"Bare," she said, still trying, "It is very sensitive, like me, as you say."

"What do you do with it if you find it?"

"Give me your hand," she whispered. As she guided him, she reminded him of their conversation earlier, of how her kind was different from humans. He could feel it. Her outer lips protruded. He'd seen no sign of this when they'd been together earlier.

She stopped, remembering.

"Elohan, I don't think it matters because we are different, I've just remembered that for us, this is also a promise. It says that we will try to be a pair. We can stop if you wish. It won't work for us anyway."

He smiled, liking the notion. He only wished for an instant that he could see a pair of her people doing this, or just being together as a couple. He thought it would be beautiful to see. "Would you want to make this promise to me?"

She gasped and he looked at her eyes. "Hah," she said softly, "yes, very much."

He licked the end of her nose and smiled, "That's good. I'd like to make that promise too."

"You... you would?"

"Yes. You wish to be an elf-girl for me, so I wish to be a male of your kind for you. So keep trying." He moved his hand away. "What now?"

He found her chuckling. "I like what you say, but you cannot be like a male from my world. You are almost large enough when you stand, but your arms are too short to walk on while you carry me on your back. Your hands and feet are wrong for this as well."

She saw his confusion. "When we walk, if where we would go is not far, we walk together as you and I walk. But if we must go a long way, the males go on four legs and we ride on their backs. It is easy for them and it takes less time to go somewhere far that way."

She kissed him, "You can do many things, Elohan, but that is not one of them. The males are very large."

"If a male presses upward there with thist spot," she moved his fingers so that he could feel, "I will open a little and the bare nerves will touch his. That is what I'm trying to do for us. But it doesn't look like it will work for us."

He smiled, "That might be because you're trying to open up against part of me with skin. I have bare parts. I just have to be careful. They're at the end. If I'm not careful, we'll be doing what we said -- "

"Try, Elohan. Please try if you know where the place is on you. I don't care now if you go in if that is where it is on you, only be gentle if you can."

She held her thighs apart a little more and he moved until he felt as though he was at the middle of her lips. He pulled back his foreskin and pushed upwards, trying not to push in. He felt her lips part.

It happened then.

They both inhaled deeply and Aksun closed her thighs to hold him there. He found himself staring at those eyes and barely heard her whisper, "Stay there now."

He found himself looking at her eyes in the dark for a moment, and in that moment, he saw her in there looking back, and then they were flying, rocketing low over the desert. It reminded him of a time when he'd gone to see a movie and the way that the view seemed to swoop here and there in an outdoor scene. He didn't know what this was, but it was breathtaking to him.

He could hear her voice as a desperate cry, though his ears heard only the softest whisper as she cried out to him to hold her to him. He shifted his arms, and he heard her cry out that she needed to be tighter against him, so he did it, but she still wanted more, so he moved one hand to spread his fingers and pull against her lower back. This time, he heard a sigh from inside and outside together.

"Thank you," she sighed in his mind, "I forgot to tell you ... that females always need their males to hold them tightly. If we fall here, we both die there ... I have heard that it is a glorious death, but it is not our time, I hope. Always hold me tightly, Elohan. I will never complain. I need this from you." She sighed and he felt her shift very slightly against him to settle.

He watched her throat as she looked ahead, "We can dream like this! I have never dreamed so fast," Aksun whispered, "You always have surprises for me."

The sound became very faint to him, but he heard her clearly. "Please Elohan, say to me that you will be my male, and I will be yours always."

Before he could comprehend it, they were near mountains, but she guided them over the ridges easily. He'd always held himself apart, more and more as time went by. But like this, there was no way to stand apart, nothing and no words to hide one's heart behind.

He now knew why this was done among her people. It was the moment of admission and there was no possibility of falsehood like this. It was so easy for him now, but not only for what she was showing him or wherever she was taking them. For the first time since he'd left his adolescence behind all alone in the forest waiting, he knew real peace inside of him without any possibility of doubt. It was a certainty, like the stars and the moon. He knew what he had now in this lovely creature who held out her heart, body, and her life to him.

He knew that he'd never let go of her if he had a say in it. He didn't know if she could hear his thoughts, but he assumed that she could. He said the words anyway. "I love you. I am yours, Aksun, if you want me."

He heard her sigh to him, "Want you? Elohan, I need you. I think I knew this from when we stood on the bank and touched. I want to be your female because I love you. I have nothing, I am nothing, but I give myself to you."

He looked up at the sun, judging the angle, and then he looked down. There was no shadow below them anywhere that he looked. She took her arms from him and spread them out laughing. He'd never heard such an incredible sound as her free laughter in the tones of her own voice. They looked at each other, smiling. She looked ahead, and then kissed him quickly. Another look and she kissed his nose in joy.

"I feel it!" she cried out to him, "I feel as though you are mine and I am yours. I never thought that we could have this, Elohan."

She looked at him in realization and a bit of awe, "I have never dreamed like this and gone this fast or high alone. My sister told me of dreaming with her male. My friends told me of dreaming with their males. None have said it was anything like this. It all comes from the male, the speed and the power. I fly like a little thing when I am alone. You are mighty, Elohan."

She rolled them through a turn and they were over green mountains. He felt no wind or cold as she flew them higher. He looked at her eyes and saw her wonder. He tried to speak to her and could only whisper, but she heard his voice all the same. "You've never seen this?"

"No," she said, "I have never dreamed with a male before. I have only dreamed by myself, and then I always see what I left and it makes me wish not to dream again. This is a beautiful world, Elohan, more wondrous in your arms. I never knew. I know how to bring us back, but I don't know where we are. I only know that I love you and I am so happy now."

He smiled, feeling what she was talking about, "Do you want to go higher? Faster?"

She looked at him, "Can we?"

"I think so, I have to see." He held her tighter still and the earth fell away from them. He imagined a direction, and asked if she knew which way it was, and they turned. "Why do we go higher, Elohan? It is alright, but I think you have a reason."

"Higher means faster, I think."

It was minutes and he brought them lower. They slowed and he said, "Can you see the lake, the big one there? Can you see the building with the tall stacks sticking out of it?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"We need to go lower and slow down so you can see better, it is a place to make electricity. Can you see the little square of forest standing by itself, Aksun?"

"Yes," she said, "What is there?"

He sighed, "It is all that's left of a huge forest now that once covered all of this land. See the very large tree rising out of the middle? That's where I was born, in that tree. I'm glad that it still stands. When you have seen enough, take us high again if you wish."

Minutes later, he felt her face move and she laid her head over his in the bunk even as they dreamed and flew. Though they flew out over what he knew to be the Pacific Ocean, he recognized that he felt peace inside him and knew that she waited.