Chapter 10: Lust
When night fell Zyra felt she could not sleep. She stayed this way, anxiously awaiting some foul omen or trick that would send her back into the hellish realms she was now enslaved. In the moonlight she examined the markings that now ran along her arm. They seemed to glow, flourish in the supernatural light. Nature itself seemed to be calling to her. It was frightening to be able to sense everything she loved in triplicate, but part of it served to deepen her love. She was unsure if she had closed her eyes long, but when she opened them the first lights of dawn were drawing.
Zyra walked to the stream and sure enough saw Rell. He too had become attached to it. Chances were he had spent the night in Ginger's tent. She made it a point to step on a twig and he turned to her. Giving a small smile at her indulgence of his whims, he sat down, beckoning a spot for her. She sat beside cross legged him and they gazed out into the new day.
"You..." Rell's eyes didn't move from the stream as he spoke. "You can feel it too yes?"
"Which feeling?" Zyra asked. "Quite frankly there are many."
Rell nodded and searched to find his words.
"They've...changed us somehow. They're inside us. I can feel them."
Rell frowned and touched his chest, the sunlight dancing on the hay colored lashes of his eyes.
"It's as if the whole of me is warm, but...
they
, the part of them is cold."
Zyra put a hand to her own chest and closed her eyes. Yes, he was right. She too could feel it. Just beside her heart she could feel the foreign object replacing what was once her.
"How did it feel?" Rell asked suddenly. He turned his blue eyes on her. "When the white foam consumed you...how did it feel?"
Zyra sighed, the breath pulled from deep within her weary bones. She wanted to tell him he would never need to worry about feeling it. She wanted to assure him that she would never fail her duty, but she could not.
"It felt like what I imagine dying feels like."
Rell frowned, pulling up a knee to lay his chin on it. "Are you worried that your sisters won't accept the new you?"
She blinked.
Zyra hadn't really thought about it. She regarded her tribe with unconditional love and expected them to do the same. Even so, the fact that they had made her cover the mark had hurt her feelings just a little.
How could any part of her be a foul omen? She felt alienated now more than she had ever before. She had never quite fit in, now she never would.
"I never really fit in with my sisters," she admitted to Rell. "Even as a child. I had a lot of admirers but, very few friends. I was always...different, especially from Kyzu."
She smiled at her memories.
"She was always the delicate feminine one. Levelheaded and full of wise advice. I was the
wild
one."
"I can relate," Rell said with a small smile. "Though I am more like your sister."
She watched as his smile died and was replaced by a concentrated serious gaze.
"How does it feel... to have your sibling be Chief?" he asked.
She shrugged. "To be honest it doesn't bother me. Once though some of the villagers did try to contest that I should be Chieftess despite her being eldest."
He looked at her with sudden interest.
"What happened?"
Zyra smiled at him. "Well, I said I had no interest in being Chieftess because it was Kyzu's job and not mine. Then I went off to play."
He let out a chuckle and they looked at each other in companionship. He had never heard of such a thing.
"Perhaps you were born to stand apart," Rell said affectionately. "That must be your purpose."
"I suppose...what is your purpose friend Rell?" Zyra asked frowning. "Surely it's not to coddle your older brother for..."
"He's
not
my older brother."
His face had turned serious, tortured even in the span of seconds.
Zyra was confused. It seemed apparent that the Ursies favored Hanto. She assumed it was because he was eldest and thus heir of the Chiefhood.
"I am weak for Chief. I know." Rell said bitterly. "That is why Hanto is mostly uncontested in this."
He began nibbling at his thumb, a habit she could see was developed from years of repressed emotions. She would not be shocked to learn this was the first time he had shared his thoughts on the matter.
"You see, even though my Father does not outrightly say that Hanto will be Chief, I feel it is destiny."
Zyra drew herself up, resting her hands on her crossed knees like a village elder.
"Do you want to be Chief?"
Rell paused then sighed. "Yes. Some pathetic part of me desires what cannot be mine."
"It is yours!" Zyra said furiously. She had never heard of such a thing!
"The eldest is the heir, it is written in the law. Contesting you is tribe treachery. If you want it you must proclaim yourself clearly! Let it not be unknown!"
Rell laughed, amused by her righteous anger on his behalf.
"Not everyone is blessed to have a sister like you Zyra," he mused. "In tribes less honorable they would have expected you to let both Kyzu and her heir die. You would take her position uncontested and with your own child the bloodline would run through you."
Such thoughts appalled her, but she could see that Rell thought he might be right.
"You're not weak anymore," Zyra pointed out. "This thing inside of us, it has taken from us but it also gives. We are stronger than before."
She touched where he said he had felt the chill on his chest and looked at him firmly.
"The only one keeping you weak is you Rell. You have the choice to be strong. Perhaps you did not before, but you do now. You must harness this curse."
He scanned her for any sign of lies or deception, but he could see she was sincere and earnest. Gently he reached over to her and loosened her bandage. He unraveled it until he could see the brilliantly reflective tattoo that encompassed her arm. He loosened his as well. Then he took her hand. They could feel an energy running through them. Something that connected them in their souls, something as deep, and red, and true, as blood.
"We are connected for all time," Rell whispered softly.
Zyra nodded, love shining in her eyes. "It seems so."
He gave her a kind smile and they walked back to the camp hand in hand.
Nothing was said of their strange behavior nor as to why their tattoos were visible. Zyra tried to ignore the looks of distrust that were directed at her arm. It wasn't that they didn't trust her, they didn't trust the witches. They felt the same. She knew this.
When Hanto came out with his pack she bid him the necessary goodbyes. She even indulged him in a lingering hug.
"May you be safe," she said genuinely.
He nodded to her with a coy smile. "Not to worry dear one. I shall return for you."
She forced a smile on her face.
Fuckta
...I feared this.
When Rell came forward she was struck by a choking of emotion. Attacked by her inhibitions, she was suddenly overwhelmed with the irrational fear that she would be
alone
!
It wasn't true of course, she was in her village with her tribe, her sister, Ginger, and Nima, but no one from their fellowship would be present. She had spared her sisters the details of her ordeal. Until Gharla and Enui came back there was no one who could truly understand. Even losing Hanto became a strange thought to her.
She grasped Rell, burying her face in his chest as the tears escaped her. Clutching him desperately she fought the panic, the violent necessary need to never let him go. He hushed her, feeling her shake in his arms, concealing her sobs, and waited until she forced herself to let her grip...loosen.
"There there," he rumbled in a low comforting voice.
She peeked up at him, wretched in her despair. Was this love for a brother? Or something more?
Why did she feel so lonely?
He pulled her hands forward and in her palm placed a cord. It was the same cord that had been bloodstained around his hand. Now, it was clean and adorned with a light blue stone. She had seen such stones by the valley stream's edges. They were smooth and beautiful, seeming to absorb the light. In its center was the scratching of the Ursie tribal symbol.
"I couldn't resist," he quipped. "I...had to make sure it was real." He smiled. "This cord has soaked with my blood. It is a part of me."
She reached the cord on her neck and gave him the cord and key that had bound the ogre. Gently she placed it in his hand.
Silently he put the key around his neck as she put his stone around hers. With a kind smile he wiped the tears from her eyes and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead.
"Be safe my sister."
"Be safe my brother," she warbled in an unsteady un-Zyra like voice.
Looking on she saw Hanto watching furiously. Realizing her mistake would need rectification, she turned and ran to him, letting him take her into his arms. He hugged his form to hers.
Uh,
Vile.
He held her snuggly, too snugly in fact but she bore it for Rell's sake. When she pulled back he crashed his lips into hers.
She froze, trying to avoid undoing everything she had worked for.
Vile!
Absolutely vile!
When she did pull away he looked deeply satisfied. He smirked at Rell as they both headed on the trail.
She laughed when Rell rolled his eyes.
Their bond was deeper than physicality. It was of kinship, a cutting from the same cloth, something Hanto may never understand. Even so, she walked back to the sounds of her sisters' jeers about her love affairs. She tried to be jovial, but she couldn't help but notice how they all kept their distance.
Then Ginger grabbed her by her tattooed arm and glared at her sisters. She was shocked and numbly followed Ginger to her tent. Ginger spoke to her about something irrelevant as she curiously touched her marks.
"It hums sometimes," Zyra remarked. "Do you feel it?"
"No."
Ginger nodded. Then she wrapped it for her again, tightly with two rolls of bandage.
She watched the broken part of herself being patched up by her friend, and listened as she warned her again, to leave the symbols covered.
__________________________________________________
A week had passed since Rell and Hanto had departed. They sent word that they had returned by word of tribe. The closest tribe to them, the Wakai had delivered the message. The Wakai were also all female and on occasion they would join them in joined hunts if times grew hard.
Hard...right, she was in a hard situation.
