Vyka’s return to his people was as trivially easy as departing them, though as he ran the open plains from one day to the next, he looked backward many times with envy to those who called the plains, and not the caves, their homes. The endless sky above seemed to look on him with pity, as the cloud cover made shade for him, and the breeze he had to run against, blew lightly. On his first night, the clouds wept and their water kept him cool and washed the sweat from his body. When he lay in the shelter of the tree’s upper branches at his watering hole after the feast of ants, he stretched his muscles out and stared up at the dark sky.

“To look at that forever…” He said when the rains first began to fall. The thick, long leaves of the tree wafted in the gentle breeze, and when the water came down, they bounced up and down from the striking drops. From there, many fell over his skin, and he savored it. ‘Caves… why must we confine ourselves to CAVES when the world is so much larger?’ He wondered, but dared not speak the words aloud, sweat sprang forth with the sense of guilt, only to be washed away with the rain, just like the sweat of his exertions. He closed his eyes, ‘That’s your mother’s voice talking. Of all the peoples for father to steal a woman from… it had to be a people of the open plains…’ Vyka shut his eyes tight, cursing that doing so against his thoughts, blotted out the sky, but also glad that it did as he tried not to think of the caves he was returning to.

It was a rare moment, to curse his father or his mother. But as he savored the moment beneath the endless sky and surrounded by the endless open world, he did so. His fists clenched so tightly that his nails tore at the palms of his hands. He gritted his teeth and spat bitter thoughts and bitter words at those he loved. ‘Damn you… damn you both. Damn you father, for stealing my mother. Damn you mother, for staying with the one who stole you and condemning me to a life of caves…’

It wasn’t fair, he knew it wasn’t fair. ‘What could she have done… returned to her people so that I would be born as a shame child? A cursed one?’ he turned his head away from the sky and spat to the dirt below where his spit blended into the slowly soaking ground. He thought about the battle, the hopeless look and raw fury in the eyes of the young woman. ‘Makine’s half sister… child of one who ran… had mother gone back, would I wear a face like hers? Hopeless, lost, hateful?’ It was a troubling thought, but the woman had fought with reckless courage, wounding even the chief before she was put down and her eyes gouged out.

‘My mother did the right thing in staying with the Cave Children… but what of my child? Will the boy Vira bears for me, love the plains as I do? How many generations were like me, and will be? Did father hate the caves in secret, as I do?’ Vyka put his palms to his eyes and pressed them against the lids and rubbed them fiercely. ‘Don’t think of it. Just go back.’ He thought, and forced himself to lay still until sleep, made easier by the sound and feel of the rain, finally took him.

The rest of his journey home went without incident, he awoke with his thoughts at rest and dropped from the tree with ease, landing softly on the already soft ground below, bending his knees and resting his back against the tree with practiced ease.

He ran on at his long, loping pace until he finally made it home the following day, approaching the entrance to the great mountain cave near the lake. Some of the tribe were outside thrusting their spears into the waters, one of them lifted his spear up to show he had luck. A large fish wiggled frantically from its place impaled to the wood of the long spear. Others worked with furs, a group of a dozen women sat around in a circle chewing the fat off of the furs they would turn into clothing, blankets, ropes, and other things.

One saw his approach in the distance, and leaned to the woman beside her, and jabbed her elbow out. It struck her neighbor in the ribs, and she looked up. Vira shot to her feet, and began to jog lightly away from the circle.

‘It won’t be long before my wife does not run at all.’ Vyka mused, and jogged a little faster, matching her pace as best he could estimate it. When she was close, she fell into his arms, the hand missing his small finger went to the side of her belly where their child grew. His other hand swept around to enfold her in an embrace. She tilted her head up to receive his kiss. His tongue parted her lips and they dueled lovingly for a few moments before the kiss broke.

“Welcome home.” Vira whispered sweetly and looked down to the hand that was on the brown furs that she wore over her body, on the spot where she knew even without looking at his eyes, that he could not tear his eyes away from.

“It’s good to be back…” Vyka whispered, and leaned in close to her ears, ‘You are why it is good to be back.’

She blushed deeply at the warmth of his breath and the affection of his words. “Did none of my tribe wish to comfort you in the night?” She asked teasingly as she felt his heat rising for her.

He looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his head when she stepped back, “Yes, but no one is you. No one could ever be you.” He said and took her hands in his as he spoke and squeezed them lightly.

Her soft, brown, doe eyes looked up at him with devotion, but she did not acknowledge his praise, “Is my brother well?”

Vyka nodded, “Yes, he is. He sends his love. After the baby is born, I will take you to see him. He should know the child of his sister… I can’t deny you that, nor he who cut off his finger to call me brother.” Vyka shook his head and kissed his wife’s forehead gently, his hand resting over the furs that concealed their child to be, as if he could not keep from reverentially caressing it.

‘My brother… my family… I… none of the others take their mates to see their families… no one… but he will? I thought… I thought I’d never see any of them again!’ Vira’s eyes filled with tears of unbridled joy. “Why… why did the gods bless me so…? You went to my tribe to steal a mate… that, my whole life till you, was my fear. The fear of every woman, the fate of many manys. I dreaded that from the day I began to be a woman. I feared it so much that falling into the long waters was almost a relief, I could go on to the Everplains without fear. How can you be so wonderful? How could I be so blessed, to be so loved? You risk yourself for a stranger…” She took the hand with the missing finger, brought it up, and kissed the nub where it was missing. “You saved me not just from the waters that day. You saved me from all my fears… and made me love the nights I thought I would dread. Welcome home… welcome home… welcome home…” She wrapped her arms around him, and could have stayed that way forever.

His arms held her and the fear that the dangerous journey alone into the open lands would see him disappear, faded away with the certainty of his return. Both could have stayed that way for a very long time, but a shout interrupted their moment.

“Vyka! Hurry up and get over here! I want to know everything!” Makine shouted with annoyance from the large cave entrance, and they were forced to lower their arms and break the moment.

Vyka looked up and shouted, “Coming!” before kissing Vira once more, and walking away from her as slowly as he could. She though, felt her hairs stand on end, and through longing, wide brown eyes, could only watch while he moved away from her, and closer to the chief she feared.

The rain that fell in the night did not trouble the lovemaking between Seyi and the woman Malach had sent with him. Her hips undulated in time with his, and the rhythm of the rains pattering atop the hut belonging to the dead provided a light accompanying sound to every motion. She was young and supple, and ardent in her desire to please him, drawing his loins to rise three times before she lay atop him to rest.

Her ample breasts pressed on his flesh and her cheek lay over his beating heart. He idly caressed her lustrous black hair as they lay in silence. “Thank you.” She said softly after a while of only listening to the rain, and feeling a few stray drops come through the roof of the hut to strike them.

“For what?” Seyi asked, lifting his head a little to better see her darkness wreathed face. She put her hands on the ground and raised herself up over him.

He could barely see her outline in the darkness, and he was sure it was no different for her, but she did it anyway. “For your blessing. Malach blessed me many times, but always his seed failed. So I remain unredeemed in the eyes of the gods. You change that. I feel it.” She whispered and touched her belly just over where their loins still joined together.

Seyi lay there silently, she took that as a wish that he continue. “Also, you try for my comfort, my pleasure, we may both enjoy, not just yourself. I admit, I did not know what you might do. But you gave me food.” She moved her hand from her belly to his hardened chest and lowered herself so that her face was closer to his own. “The truth, this hut is mine. Sometimes it is a good place, sometimes it is not, if the one sent to me is kind, or…” She pressed her lips to Seyi’s own, and drew his tongue into her mouth without finishing that sentence.

That was how he remembered their last lovemaking of the evening, when dawn broke and the sun pierced the space between the fur that hung over the entrance. She was still on top of him, and still sleeping. She had fallen asleep in such a way that he could see her face, at least part of it. She seemed peaceful. A few small freckles stood out against the tan skin, and without thinking, he reached up and stroked her hair from the top of her head to the base of her back where it fell.

It caused her to stir. “Good morning…” He stopped.

She smirked, “You’re trying to remember my name, aren’t you?”

He blushed. “You don’t even know it, do you?” She managed a mild laugh at his discomfort and before he could speak, she covered his lips with a finger, stopping their attempt at parting. “You wouldn’t, I didn’t tell you, and you didn’t need it for what we did.” She rose up over him, pressing her hands against his chest, then reached down to his manhood.

“You are one of those who give and take, so… we will do this.” She looked down at him through shrewd dark eyes that in the light of the rising dawn, he could see with suddenly much greater clarity than the night before, he could not look away, and he wanted to hear more. He felt his heartbeat race and the morning desire respond to her finger’s touch.

“Give me the peak of woman’s pleasure in release, and I will give you my name. Or can’t you manage that?” She whispered down at him, her black hair cascading around her and tracing over his flesh, Seyi smiled archly at her.

“Woman, you are an interesting one… I will meet your price.” Seyi whispered and grasped her hips to begin the dance again. An hour later, her cries of bliss awoke those in the huts closest to her, and she fell onto his chest, panting and satisfied.

“Your name?” He asked bluntly.

She got up to her feet and took up her fur clothing and covered herself again. “I am Raena.”

He propped himself up on his elbows and slowly sat himself up. “Happy to meet you, Raena.” He grinned boyishly, prompting her to laugh.

“I noticed.” She looked down and winked.

“Alright, true. It is easy to see.” He said and stood up, reaching for his own fur coverings, he flung them over his head and then gave her a serious look.

“Tell me, we are alone, I must know… is it true, what the voice of the gods says? Can he be trusted?” Seyi asked gravely and drew himself close to her, his hand rested on her cheek and he looked deeply into her eyes.

She held his gaze and then closed her eyes. “Tell me first… if you have taken root inside of me, what will you do?”

“Another trade?” Seyi asked, the sleep gone from his eyes, they were sharp as an eagle’s as he detected a hint of hidden opportunity.

“Yes, the price for my truth, is yours.” Raena said with a slow nod of her head.

“What do you want my truth to be?” Seyi asked and stroked her cheek. “Are you asking me to stay? Or to join me in my tribe?”

“I do not know. I know only that I do not want to die as my mother did.” Raena said and bit her lip. “The man who took her to make me, she never knew. He was a wind terror, or so my mother is supposed to have said. He came on her at the waters, took her, and cast her aside when he was done, and left her to come weeping back to our own, not knowing he left a curse growing inside her. My first act of life was to kill her. She died alone in her hut while I wailed for her breast in the dirt. I do not know of the ways of the Spirit Horse tribe. But I live only because another cursed one was with child and took pity on me, and let me nurse from her. All I ask…” Raena stopped speaking, and went down to her knees and looked up to him, her flesh shook despite the warmth of the morning, “All I ask… if your essence made me bear life, come see to those hours at least. I beg you, do not let me die alone trying to save myself from this wretched life, and… if I die… please… please take the child with you. Ayente’s mother is far past the time when she could help, even if she wished for it. Too, there are none here who are likely to be in milk time by such a birth… my baby would be left to die in the dirt as a double curse, and even it is lucky, if it is a girl… I do not want her to know Malach as I have. Promise me this, and I will tell you everything.”

Seyi frowned, his mind raced, he counted himself skilled in detecting deception, and found none in her at that moment. But to buy time, he asked a question. “Wouldn’t that just delay the child’s death, it isn’t as if I could feed it…”

Raena felt a kind of mad hope at the question that implied consideration of her request, and she was quick with her answer. Her lustrous black eyes flew open and she stared up at him, her lips trembled for only an instant. “There is a plant, it grows not far from here, it makes milk that can sustain a child. Give me your promise, I will show it to you.”

“I promise.” Seyi replied, and Raena’s body visibly relaxed. She searched his face as he had searched her own, goosebumps formed on his skin as he felt the way her stare mirrored his own a moment ago.

“Malach is the voice of the gods…” Raena said softly, “But he is cruel, and he will use you. The monster has done nothing to us, and it has said it will do much. Ayente stands with it unharmed, I have snuck a look, watching her, it speaks to her like she is a small sibling. I do not know what the gods are like, they do not speak to women in our tribe. But…” She stood up and put her hands on his shoulders, looking the few finger widths up into his face she added, “between Ayente and Malach… I would trust Ayente. Ayente is a cursed one, a shame child like myself, but she works hard for us. Malach hates her and he would say anything to punish her defiance. He has called down curses from the gods many times to make her suffer when she refuses his touch. It is a wonder she still lives. I went into your hut with the promise of blessing, that I lift my curse. But if I do not do this thing, then I would have risked the threat of his curses. Ayente… even if she had the power to curse us, even if the gods loved her instead of hated her, would not do that to me. If the monster is truly a monster, he should wish to be beside Malach, not her. Tell me the nature of your company, and I will tell you who you are. Do you understand, Seyi?” Raena finished speaking, and cupped his cheeks in her hands.

Raena rose up to her tiptoes so that she was looking straight into his eyes. “We have known one another only a night, and our bodies only for a few hours, and both for our own reasons. But look into my eyes, and tell me I am lying if you can. I may be born a curse, but I am not born a liar. Please though… please do not tell Malach what I have said, even if you do not believe me. If he knows, he will make me drink the bitter waters that will keep your seed from taking root, he will prolong my shame when it now seems possible that it may end.”

Seyi had listened to every single word, and lost himself in her dark eyes, like walking through a comforting shadow. Yet for all that, he felt the haunting ghosts of her life before last night. ‘If she’s a liar, she’s the best I’ve ever seen.’ He thought grimly, the shake of her fingers, the tremble of words that matched, the shimmering endless pools of dark in her eyes. He searched for reason to doubt, anything that might indicate a lie, and found nothing.

He looked down and took her hands in his, “I believe you… Raena. In a few months, I will travel here again for giving and taking, and if I see that part of me has taken hold within you…” Seyi swallowed, then impulsively replied at greater length, “If it has… I will not let you battle death to bring life, alone.”

At just that moment, before any words or promises or bargains could be made, Kelo swept aside the fur that concealed the inside from the outside, and he took a long step within while saying, “Brother, we need to talk.”

Seyi was nonplussed and though he did not look away from Raena, he replied to Kelo anyway, “Agreed, brother.”