The Spirus

by JB Trepagnier

  Volaris demanded Terros change and stop his son from doing what he was planning before he transformed himself and flew off looking for them. When Terros didn’t change to go look for them, Leodos strode over to him and demanded to know why.

  “She needs to choose. I’m tired of watching these boys fight because she refuses to make up her mind. Maybe this will make her choose finally. All the Theran want her to choose Oris and so does he.”

  Leodos didn’t strike him like he was wanting to because Terros could kill him if he transformed. “She’s drunk! I should have taken the flask away from her earlier. I was only trying to relax her. He’s taking advantage of her. I was talking to her before she came back. She still doesn’t want to choose and she has her reasons. What do you think is going to happen to Oris if she’s drunk enough to say yes to him and still doesn’t choose him? She doesn’t want to choose at all and I’ve already told her I would support her if she didn’t!”

  Terros did not transform, but he shoved Leodos and got right under his nose, even though Leodos was much taller than he was. “Human, it’s not your place to get involved in our affairs, no matter what Esylle feels for you now! This girl will pick or we will choose for her!”

  “I don’t want her going back to Idric. I want her to stay here and grow up with her family. If you force her to choose or pick for her, you know she will go straight back to Idric, where you won’t be able to bring her back. She knows she’s not supposed to, but if she drank enough to agree to let him mate with her, you’re just risking your son getting hurt!” Leodos yelled.

  He meant to go into the forest to try to find her when Esylle stopped him to try to find out what was going on. She was confused and scratched her nose. He wasted valuable time searching for Lisana trying to explain everything to Esylle. She was also angry with him.

  “Why did you give her your flask? You know she’s never had spirits before!”

  “I gave it to her to relax her enough to tell me what was going on. I got so caught up in what we were talking about, I didn’t take it away soon enough. I just meant to relax her, not get her this drunk.”

  He thought Esylle was going to lose control with him and it was starting to get warm around her. Before Esylle could yell, he had both Sono and Neptis descend on him to yell at him too.

  He felt horrible and hoped if she wasn’t sober enough to say no, this didn’t hurt her in any way and send her back to Idric.

  Oris

  Oris led her by the hand as far away from the clearing as he could so that no one could find them. He was able to find a small cave by the beach. He thought his father knew better than to go after him, but didn’t want Volaris or Sono seeing them from above. There was enough wood on the beach for him to bring into the cave that she was able to light when he asked her to. Even though he had taken her to meet the other Theran, he only got to spend a little time alone with her walking to them. He sat right next to her and both the musky Theran smell and the resin smell were coming off her much stronger now that she had been drinking.

  “Do you still want to be kissed?” he whispered in her ear, putting his arm around her.

  “I don’t know what I want. I feel strange. I know why I can’t kiss you and Volaris explained why I can’t mate until I choose. I thought it would help me learn, but he explained to me why it’s not done. I don’t know why I laid on all of you and asked you to kiss me. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “You can mate with me if you need to learn,” he said kissing her neck. She dropped her head back and groaned.

  “If I mate with you, it’s going to hurt Sono and Neptis. If I don’t choose you, it will hurt you. I still don’t want to choose at all,” she moaned as he slipped his hand into her robes.

  “They don’t have to know. Maybe this will help make up your mind,” he said, moving to her mouth and guiding her to her back. He had been allowed to mate with one of the Theran women whose partners had passed away during her Senso before they could find her another mate and she taught him everything he should know. He moved to Soryn’s mouth and kissed her deeply.

  “I still don’t want to choose,” she said between kisses. “I’d rather go back to Idric if I survive this. I’m just going to hurt you.”

  He knew she may choose to leave them and go back to Idric and break his heart. He didn’t want to think about that right now. He just wanted this one night with her. If she didn’t choose him and went back to Idric, maybe she would learn something from this. He thought she may stop him, but her hands tugged at his robes as he was removing hers. She went to protest again and he silenced her with a kiss and told her to let him have just this one night. He thought she may stop him again but she kissed him harder and admitted when she did this with Volaris, he did everything and she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to do anything. He licked her neck and told her he would teach her what she needed to do.

  When he had her robes off, he started kissing and licking her thighs. He asked her if Volaris had done this to her. He wanted tonight to be better than what Volaris had done. He was still teasing her and she sounded frustrated with him as she told him not to worry about what Volaris had done to her. She started to say something else to him about that day with Volaris, but he cut her off and she gasped and arched her back when he slid his fingers inside her and took that swollen knob into his mouth. The cave was small and the fire and the warmth coming off of her was making him sweat.

  He didn’t want her to finish yet and he couldn’t stand it anymore. He picked her up and turned her over and set her down on all fours. She looked over her shoulder at him with a panicked look on her face.

  “What are you doing? Can you do this without making a baby?”

  He grabbed her hips urgently and knew he needed to calm her down. The Farkhi didn’t mate like the Theran and this wasn’t done to her the first time. He managed to hold himself back. He stroked her back, trying to calm her. “We won’t make a baby. This is how the Theran mate. I’ll teach you other ways too,” he reassured her.

  He pressed himself into her when she looked forward again and did not tell him no. She drew in a hissing breath and he asked her if she was okay, not sure if he was going to be able to hold back any longer. She breathlessly told him not to stop and he began to thrust into her. This was how he had first mated with the other Theran woman and he knew it was the main way it was done, and even though it felt good, it didn’t feel right to him. He wanted to look into her large, violet eyes and watch her responding to him. When he stopped, she turned around, confused again, and sat up.

  “Why did you stop? I thought that was how you mated.”

  He sat back on his heels and tried to explain to her why he didn’t want to do it that way with her. She still looked confused, so he told her he wanted to do it in a way Volaris had not done with her. He watched her get angry and ask him why he was so worried about what had happened between her and Volaris the first time. He tried to calm her by grabbing her face and kissing her.

  “I just want to watch you while we mate and I can’t do that the other way.”

  “If you’re so worried about what happened with Volaris, he didn’t stop like this. I don’t know what you want or expect me to do.”

  He quickly laid on his back and guided her on top of him. “Try it this way. You’ll like it and I can watch you. You told me Volaris did everything last time. Now you try.”

  She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something again about him being so concerned about what happened with Volaris. She didn’t understand he wanted to be better than Volaris or why it was important to him. Before she could speak, he grabbed her hips and thrust himself into her. He watched her face change from annoyance to surprise as she fell forward onto his chest. She placed her hands on either side of his face and looked down at him. He could see the confusion in her violet eyes, so he grabbed her hips and guided them. She kissed him and began to grind her hips into him harder.

  “Are there other ways than thi
s and what you did before?” she asked, hardly giving him the chance to answer because she was kissing him so deeply.

  He sat up and kissed her neck, holding her as close to him as possible. Her eyes opened when he moved to her mouth again and he could see flames flickering in them again like when she was angry. Unlike before, it was not unbearable to be around her. She just felt very warm in his arms and they were both sweating. He explained to her, in between kisses, that she could do to him with her mouth what he had done to her.

  “Does it feel as good to you as it did to me? Does it feel as good to you as what I’m feeling now?” she asked, speeding up.

  He bit her neck, trying to hold himself back. He grasped her back and tangled his hands in her long hair. “What you’re doing now feels as good to me as it feels to you. I’m having a hard time waiting for you. If you do to me what I did to you with my mouth, it will feel just as good to me,” he said nibbling on her breasts.

  “Can we try when we finish?” she cried, speeding up again.

  “We may have to wait for me to recover. You’re going to wear me out,” he laughed into her hair. He was sure now tonight was going to be better for her than what she experienced with Volaris. He was showing her so many new things. He wasn’t there the first time, but the look on her face now was sheer bliss. Even if she went back to Idric and didn’t choose anyone, he wouldn’t forget this night. He was trying to distract himself because his crescendo was building and he wanted to wait for her. He didn’t think he was going to be able to wait any longer when she cried out and collapsed into his arms. He held her as tightly to him as he could while she caught her breath.

  “You smell like musk and the lavender that used to grow in our garden. I like the way you smell,” she said nibbling on his ear. She looked surprised and confused again when he pushed her away and lifted her off him. He set her next to him. “Did it not feel good for you too?” she asked, scratching her nose. “Are we done for the night?”

  He laughed at her and told her they weren’t done. He handed her a piece of Funus root and told her to chew it just in case. He didn’t finish and he was aching for it, but she said she didn’t want a baby, even though he wanted to put his child in her to make her choose him. He explained to her what it was for because Volaris had done something different so that she did not have a child when she mated with him. After she finished chewing, he was surprised to see the same look on her face when they were mating and asked her about it. She explained to him what she had learned with Esylle and how good it felt when she did the heart flower. She told him she was doing the heart flower the entire time he was inside her and it felt even better than the first time she had mated because she didn’t know the heart flower before. He beamed at her, knowing this time was better than her first. She scratched her nose and asked him why it didn’t end for him the way it ended for her and the way it had for Volaris.

  “I’m younger than Volaris and I’m not finished yet,” he said, kissing her neck again.

  “Do you still need to recover?” she asked him slyly. When he shook his head no, she asked him to show her what he meant before by doing the same thing to him with her mouth.

  Soryn

  Soryn groaned and rolled over when she could hear Leodos and Esylle calling her name. When she sat up, she felt dizzy. Her head hurt and her mouth felt like cotton. She stumbled, naked, to the back of the cave and vomited. She managed to get back to Oris and shake him awake. Leodos and Esylle would find them soon and she didn’t know who else was with them. She enjoyed her night with Oris and she was able to make her heart flower bloom larger when he was inside her or doing things to her, but he also said he wouldn’t tell anyone what they had done. They couldn’t find them together naked. Leodos was finally not yelling at her all the time and she knew he would if he found the two of them like this. She managed to get her robes and Oris was slowly getting his back on.

  She knew they were close because she could smell them, but her sense of smell was off because her head hurt and her stomach was upset. She didn’t feel like this after she mated the first time. They had finally collapsed and fallen asleep maybe an hour ago and she hoped she wasn’t feeling this bad because they made a baby. He said the root he had her chew was supposed to stop it. She could hear that Leodos and Esylle sounded panicked and worried as they called her name, so she went to step out of the cave so they could find her. As soon as the sunlight hit her eyes, her headache got a hundred times worse and she wanted to go back into the darkness of the cave.

  Leodos spotted her and ran over. Esylle was not far behind. She was surprised when Leodos yelled at Oris and not her. She held her head as soon as he started yelling because it felt like there were two tigers fighting inside.

  “If you did anything to hurt her, I swear, I will find a way to make you pay for it. You knew she was drunk!” Leodos yelled at Oris.

  “Is that what drunk feels like?” she asked.

  “Yes, and you’re paying for it now. We’ve been searching for you since it was light enough to find you. Everyone is upset he took you when you were like that.”

  “Why did you get me drunk? He didn’t hurt me,” she said, trying to get Leodos to stop yelling.

  Leodos calmed down for a moment and looked at her like he was extremely upset. “I didn’t mean to get you drunk. I only meant to relax you. I should have taken the flask away much earlier so this didn’t happen. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you and I don’t want to do anything to drive you back to Idric. Promise me he didn’t do to you what you were thinking you needed to do while you were drunk!”

  “You didn’t do anything bad to me giving me your flask and I’m not going back to Idric today,” she said, stumbling out of the cave and trying to block the sun in her eyes.

  “You wouldn’t be feeling the way you do right now if I had taken it away sooner and you wouldn’t be avoiding telling me what went on last night when he took you away,” Leodos said, coming over and holding her up. Oris moved towards her first and Leodos stopped him and told him he had done enough.

  “I’m sure I would have tried spirits eventually now that I’ve left Idric and I would be feeling this bad. Stop acting like you and Oris did something bad to me. It would have happened eventually,” she told Leodos, hoping he would stop asking about what happened last night.

  “There’s still so much you don’t understand,” he sighed. “I don’t want to hear anything from you!” he snapped when Oris tried to say something. “I’m going to cook you something when we get back that will make you feel better. When we get there, just lie down.”

  “Will you stop acting like you did something bad to me? If you can cook something to make me feel better, then I appreciate it, but I wish you would stop looking at me with that look on your face.”

  “The fact that you won’t tell me what happened last night tells me I did something bad to you. I’ll explain it to you when we’re alone again.”

  She didn’t speak while they walked through the woods. She finally looked over at Esylle, who had not said anything this entire time and she noticed she was looking at Oris with flames in her eyes. She didn’t know why they were so angry. He told her she wouldn’t hurt him if they mated and he only wanted one night with her. He also said he wouldn’t tell the others. She didn’t understand why they were so angry with Oris and not her. She was the one who agreed to it after she was explained by both Leodos and Volaris why she couldn’t.

  When they finally got to the clearing, everyone else was angry with Oris too. Terros pulled him away to lead him to the other Theran because everyone was yelling at him. Sono and Neptis looked like they wanted to strike him and she didn’t see how they could have known what they had done last night. Leodos set her down and told her he would be back with something to make her feel better. She curled up on her side and Esylle put her hands in her hair again. Soryn decided she liked when Esylle did that and didn’t shake her loose.

  “Leodos told me what you talked about i
n the woods and what happened with Volaris. Oris shouldn’t have taken you away from us when you were like that. Are you going to tell me what you did all night? I may not be able to stop myself from hurting him if he harmed you in any way.”

  Soryn shook Esylle’s hands from her hair and sat up gingerly. Her head was still screaming and she just wanted water and quiet. “Why is what I did all night so important to you and Leodos? I’ve already told both of you he didn’t hurt me.”

  “If he did what I think he did with you, since you refuse to talk to us, I don’t think you understand how he hurt you.”

  “I’m not stupid,” Soryn snapped. Her head hurt too badly to argue right now, but she didn’t think Esylle would drop it. “I understand more than all of you think. I said he didn’t hurt me and I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  She looked away from Esylle and she could see Sono and Neptis looking at her sadly. Fluvis stayed with his son, but Volaris came over and started on her about what had happened last night, the same way Esylle and Leodos did. Like the two of them, he seemed angry with Oris and not Soryn, despite their previous conversation. She got frustrated and told him the same thing she told Esylle.

  “He shouldn’t have taken you and hidden you from us when you were like that. You either would have agreed to anything he wanted or you wouldn’t have been able to defend yourself.”

  “Why do you think I’m here to end a war, but I can’t defend myself from a Theran?”

  “You weren’t yourself last night. You’d never had spirits before. You were out of control when he took you. I searched for you in the air for hours and Leodos and the other humans searched for you until it got too dark to find you. None of the Theran would help search for you because they hoped something would happen between the two of you to make you choose him.”