by Capri S Bard
Deni grew disappointed as Tala led them closer to the open area where Teltel and Mathis were starting a video for the others. But she smiled again when Tala raced past the group and on around the hall to the door of the library.
“You can take me anywhere. Really,” Deni said. “And I won’t even mind the dust.”
Tala gave Deni a flirting glance when several technical support personnel raced past them toward the elevator.
The interruption paused the ladies’ playful moment, but very quickly the workers had hurried around the bend and were gone.
Deni took Tala’s face in her hands and looked up into her fearful eyes.
“We’ll be okay,” she whispered.
Tala let out a quick breath and pulling Deni close she slowly inhaled her with one long breath.
Tala gave a short laugh.
“What is it?” Deni smiled.
“You smell of tomatoes and Hrilla flowers and dirt,” she said with another laugh. She leaned down and pressed her open mouth against Deni’s lips as she drew her even closer.
It was Deni’s turn to chuckle, “I take it that’s a good scent?”
“Mmmm,” Tala said with a nod of her head as her dimples deepened. Her smile grew even wider, “Yes, a very good scent,” she said as she kissed her again.
Stepping away from Deni, Tala pulled her by her hand into the library and closed the door. Deni was busy looking around when she heard a latch. She spun around and saw that Tala had just locked the front door.
“Oh?” Deni said with a tilt of her head.
“Intrigued are we?” Tala said with her bright eyes shining.
“Curious, for sure,” Deni answered.
Tala pulled Deni’s arm through hers and led her down a row of books and into a back section where the oldest of the stacks were shelved. There, on the shiny floor lay several soft blankets made into a soft bed. Beside the blankets were two bowls, one with large red tomatoes and colorful fruits. The other bowl held three different kinds of berries.
“You’ve been into my gardens,” Deni said with a sweet but sassy tone.
Still clutching Deni’s arm with her own she said, “It seems I’ve been into a good many things of yours lately.”
Deni pressed her face against Tala’s arm and without looking up she whispered softly, “I love that you’re just a little bit naughty.”
“Come, sit here,” Tala said as she led Deni to the blankets, but after Deni sat down, Tala raced away and wheeled a small shelved cart back to the place she had set up for them.
From the cart, Tala took several bouquets of flowers and placed them around the little bed of blankets. She set some bouquets on the bookshelves where she had made room especially for them.
“So this is how my flowers disappeared,” Deni said with a tease.
Tala dashed away again and came back dragging two of the tall sugarcane plants. Setting them on each side of the bed, she looked around at her little creation.
“It’s us, don’t you think?” Tala asked with a pleased smile.
“Yes,” Deni said lying on the bed. She wrapped her legs around Tala’s ankles and pulled hard enough to make her tumble down on the bed beside her.
Tala gave a squeal until she hit the bed and then laughed.
Deni rolled over and looked down into her blue eyes and grew serious. She knew that if she lived a thousand lifetimes she would want this moment to be re-lived in each one of them. Deni’s tight curls brushed against Tala’s bare shoulders as Tala ran her fingers up the back of Deni’s head and pulled her into her parted lips. Deni slid away momentarily as Tala slipped from her clothes. Deni fell bare her top. In one fluid swoop of her arms her button-up top was flung from her body. She was about to tug at her boots but she caught sight of her love, lying naked on a bed of blankets Tala had lovingly prepared for them.
Deni’s golden eyes grew glassy, realizing that the one she loved the most desired to be with her in her last hours of life.
Without taking her eyes from Tala, Deni pulled the knife from her boot and flung it aside. She tore the boots from her feet and ripped off her clothing until she was bare-assed. All the while Tala lay smiling; waiting, wanting.
For a moment something distracted Deni.
“What is it, love?” asked Tala.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just…I’m not sneezing,” Deni said with a surprised smile.
“I cleaned this place from top to bottom,” Tala said with pride. “That’s why I was late to the videos earlier today. I found Chris’ entry on the central computers right away, but it was a great excuse for me to have time to clean this place.”
Tala then rose slowly to her knees and ran her hands up Deni’s hips.
Reaching the small of her back, Deni gently pulled her down with one long continuous kiss. “Do you know how often I’ve dreamed of you at night?” Deni asked in a whisper between moments when their lips parted only a hair’s width.
Deni felt her body growing warmer as she pressed in next to Tala. Her brown hand ran lightly down Tala’s pale body until Tala took her hands and pushed them above Deni’s head as she rolled on top of her.
Tala only smiled and pressed her face between Deni’s breasts. She softly kissed her continuously from her cleavage to her neck before looking down into her golden eyes.
“How often?” Tala answered with her enjoyment undeterred.
Deni pressed her hands on each side of Tala’s face and looked into her soul, “At least three times a week since we met,” Deni said.
“Just three times a week?” Tala laughed before blanketing Deni’s body with her own.
“Every time I close my eyes I see you,” Tala confessed. “Awake or asleep; it’s only you that I see.”
Their ecstasy rose and fell like waves crashing against the shore only to be drawn back and repeated again and again.
When these waves of delight became like ripples and the ripples had turned to suspension of time and space, Deni and Tala lay in each other’s arms exhausted.
Their still bodies pressed so closely they could taste each other’s breath.
Tala gazed into the golden eyes of her love and saw tears trickling down her temples into the tight red curls that framed her face.
“What is it, Love?” Tala whispered.
Deni didn’t speak right away. She rolled her back to Tala as she pulled a pale arm across her body.
Tala asked again, “What is it, love?” Tala cradled Deni’s head and spooned her body into her own.
Deni spoke, but her voice broke like continuous shattered glass.
“I want to run away,” she said. Then in a full outburst of tears, she sat up and hugged her knees under her chin.
“I want to grab you up and just run away,” she said as she wiped the constant stream of wetness from her brown face. “Just outrun that damn particle wave.” She grabbed Tala’s hands with her own tear drenched fingers and said with fright, “I hear death coming and I just want to run.” With her otherwise beautiful, golden eyes turning terror-filled, she gasped, “But there’s no place to hide.”
Tala wrapped her entire body around her partner and held her.
“Shh,” Tala whispered into her ear. “We’re going to be just fine. You’ll see. We’ll have so many days together that you’re bound to tire of me.”
Deni clung to Tala and wept.
“Shh,” Tala continued. “You just wait and see. You’ll tire of my books and stories and dancing and…well…not staffing. I don’t imagine we’ll ever tire of staffing.”
Deni wiped her face and giggled. She had never heard her elegant and refined Tala ever use such a crude, juvenile word.
“No,” Deni agreed as she chuckled through her tears. “I don’t think we ever will.” She gave Tala a quick kiss and stood to her feet. She reached for Tala’s light flowing garment and draped it around herself. As she tied it at the neck, she asked playfully, “How does it look?”
With her bare legs out-stretched Tala leaned ba
ck on her hands and gave Deni a long look.
“You’re missing something,” Tala said. She took the tiny silver necklace from her own neck and placed it on Deni. Standing back, she gazed on her beauty.
Sliding a hand down the side of Deni’s face she smiled and gave a sound of approval, “Hmm.”
Tala then picked up Deni’s discarded brown pants and pulled them on. They both laughed as they saw how they came halfway to her knees.
“What? I think their nice,” Tala said as they both laughed again.
She pulled on Deni’s shirt and buttoned it. Running her hands down her front she looked around. She found one boot by the bed and pulled it on.
“A little tight but I can get them on,” she said. “Where’s the other?”
Deni took a few steps away and retrieved it from a shelf where it lay on its side.
When she had put on Deni’s boots Tala looked around again.
“Ah! There it is,” she said. Crossing the room she picked up Deni’s knife and very carefully slid it into her boot as she had seen Deni do so many times.
“Ooo, it’s cold,” Tala said. Straightening herself she asked, “Well?”
“Ha,” Deni laughed. “I think you look better in this,” she said as she began to untie Tala’s garment she was wearing.
“No,” Tala said quickly and retied the strings at Deni’s neck. “I like this on you. But I think if I take it up here,” she said as she drew up the bottom hem.
With awkward motion, she pulled the knife from her boot and sliced off the portion of material that hung on the floor.
“What are you doing?” asked Deni with surprise.
Tala tossed aside the strip of garment and it floated to the ground beside them.
“There,” she said standing back to view her alteration.
She smiled with pleasure and then delicately replaced the knife into her boot.
Tala went to the shelving cart and picked up two lights and placed one on the floor at the end of a long shelf of books. She took the other and passed the bed. She set it on the floor next to the line of book shelves.
“Now,” Tala explained, “if the power goes out we can just follow the shelves to find our light.”
“And there’s a small light in my pocket…I mean your pocket,” Deni gave a laugh that ended abruptly.
Tala saw Deni’s smile fading and she knew her fear had returned.
“Come,” Tala softly invited.
Tala pulled a book from the shelf where she had specifically placed it when she had cleaned.
“I found a story that I think we would like. I know you’ve heard about Hrilla, but I have one of Chris’ books about how Hrilla saved her people. I’ve only read a few pages so far. I found it today. It was sitting high on the back shelf over there. It had an inch of dust like it had never been touched.” She held it a moment and added, “Made me feel like…me…before you came.”
Deni gave Tala a gentle shove and said, “Silly girl. Don’t be so dramatic.”
She dropped to the bed and waited for the story.
2,300 BE
Far below the surface of the planet REEN
Hrilla was the beautiful daughter of Cyril the planter. She was a happy girl and loved listening to the stories her father had told by the light of the family stone. Now she told the stories to her younger brothers and sisters and delighted in their glee of hearing them. Her family lived far from the lake, past the place of gathering, down the road that curved past the palace of Tapsin, even past the fields where her family and the other Anthro planted.
297 AE
Aboard the EGRESS
“Wait,” Deni interrupted Tala. “I’ve always heard that Hrilla was a beautiful Goweli.”
“I have too,” Tala agreed. “That’s strange. I wonder which one is correct?”
“I’ve always pictured her like you,” Deni smiled. “A beautiful Goweli.”
“Funny,” Tala said. “I always pictured more like you.”
“Me? But I’m not Goweli,” Deni said with a slight laugh.
“No,” Tala said softly with a tilt of her head, “but you plant, you’re strong, and you’re so very beautiful.”
Slidding her hand over Deni’s inner thigh, Tala pulled Deni’s body close enough to wrap her own long legs around her partner.
After a long moment of enjoyment Tala whispered, “I’ve always loved the stories. I even love hearing the new ones. But my favorite story is when you came into my life to stay. You’re my favorite part of my life’s story.”
Deni was out of words. However, she still had love to give.
It was several minutes before the couple returned to their story of Hrilla.
2,300 BE
Far below the surface of the planet REEN
Their underground empire was vast, and included fields of grain, scurrying animals, a large meeting room, and a very large underground lake.
Hrilla was at the age to start her own family. Mollath had proven to be the best candidate. He was kind and had just been given the job of palace server; a kind of butler position. Hrilla’s parents were pleased that their daughter’s path had been secured. Mollath had all but asked her to join him on his path, but lately Hrilla’s heart had been drawn away.
Hrilla had been many times, in secret, to the cave of the drops. She took some of the seeds from her father’s planting barrels. She took her own planting staff made from phralim, which the Tsila forged into tools. The Tsila made farming tools and cooking pans and even the tools used for cutting the stones of light. But Hrilla had a secret place in the cave of the drops where tiny drops of water came slowly through a portion of moist rock and fell to the stone floor below. There were giant grooves that had worn away with what appeared to be thousands of years of dripping.
At first, when Hrilla found this secret place she would bathe in a tub-like, stone shape, filled by the drops to overflowing. She would sing the telling songs, which her family had passed down through many generations.
After her first few visits to the cave of drops she also started planting seeds in the moist soil when she would leave. She didn’t know why. But then she didn’t ask such questions. She did what was inside her to do. She felt differently planting in her father’s fields than she did planting on her own, in this enormous, but empty, dwelling.
One day while bathing in her stone tub, she sang.
“Our life it is lovely. Our land is a gift.
The Hoth of the water. The Nen so small and swift.
The Anthro plant. The Tsila listen.
The Goweli love us. The Antip rule us.
The Het protect us.
We are the Anthro who sing of this telling.
The Giver of Life such a battle he fought.
For his offspring to render the light of Ot.”
As she lay softly singing, Dhobin appeared, but quickly ducked behind a stone wall. His neck showed a thin dark line on each side, which meant that he hadn’t used his gills in a very long time. But then, the entire Anthro race did not need their gills much anymore. Most of the Anthro looked very much like Dhobin with their gills growing together and turning dark; rendering them unusable. Hrilla’s gills were still very pink because she had a Hoth friend who swam with her in the great lake. She and Fbathin would go to the beautiful underground lake and join other Hoth to play.
Dhobin had often seen her there when he went to gather reeds for his mother for basket weaving.
Hrilla had seen Dhobin as well, and her heart felt alive whenever she did.
She didn’t know, at first, what it meant when her heart felt this way. She only knew she never had this feeling when she looked upon her prospective path joiner, Mollath.
When Hrilla saw Dhobin on this day, in her cave of drops, her heart felt a tingle, almost a pinch, and it stole her breath.
For a second, she was still as stone.
Dhobin peeked again around the wall and Hrilla had covered herself up to her chin, but then her gills gasped open
and she pushed her covering away to let her gills flail. Her head tilted slightly backward as her lips sprang apart for a breath. It was her body’s way of telling her that she needed to breathe even though her heart forgot to beat for a moment.
She tried to cover herself up to her chin. Dhobin waited for her gills to turn pink again before saying, “Should I go?”
“There’s room,” she said with controlled emotion in her voice.
He slowly drew closer and sat down on the edge of the tub-like crevice.
“I’ve seen you before,” Dhobin said.
“Yes?” Hrilla waited for more. She had seen him also in the fields with his family. But she didn’t want to give away anything of herself.
“Yes. I saw you once, gathering.” He stood to his feet and turned to go.
Hrilla gave only a little hint of emotion, “You can see there is plenty of room, and you’re not intruding.”
Dhobin stopped, though he did not turn toward her. “Yes,” he began slowly. “But I am intruding because I’ve followed you here without your knowing. I wish to see you again.” He quickly left without looking back.
Again Hrilla’s gills flailed. When she regained her breath, she sank further into the tub and smiled.
The following day, while working in the field, her father noticed that his daughter leaned on her planting staff, and gazed far off. He quietly watched her.
At first he thought that Hrilla was just escaping into her own thoughts for Mollath. Her gaze was toward the Empire, though the palace was far out of sight. But as he watched his beloved daughter, down a long row of freshly tilled ground, he saw it. Her eyes as well as her gills gave her away. She gasped for air like she had done while in the presence of Dhobin. Her father followed her gaze out over the field and down into the valley to the rocky underground where only tephla would grow. And there he saw a boy about the age of Hrilla, his daughter. His concern rose quickly.
It wasn’t until evening; after the work was completed, play had ended, the young ones were in their beds, when at last, Hrilla’s parents voiced their concern.