A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 22

All of the girls of her Quarn spoke of him a little dreamily and told of their wish to have him as their male one day. It was the talk of young girls who knew little, other than he was about as good-looking as a young demon could be at almost seven. None of them knew anything more than that, and the all-important detail that he would be king one day. If it hadn't been for that they'd have seen in one look that he was Ch'arnn and wouldn't have looked twice.

They were all dead now, Betl'eth reminded herself a little sadly. Still, she'd always been the sort of girl who never blurted things out as the others did while they'd chattered together. At the same time, she'd already learned that it was important for a young girl growing up in her family to be gracious, since she was the daughter of their chieftain. She remembered listening and smiling along the next day as they all made so much over seeing him when he'd come outside. They'd wanted to mob him then, since he was a prince, after all, but the ring of guards had prevented it while he played in the snow like any boy his age would. There had been nothing remarkable about it ...

Well, other than the fact that she was the one who he'd been playing with as they'd chased each other around and laughed.

She'd never mentioned it to the other girls, being gracious as she'd been instructed to be in all things. She knew that it was more important at that moment to forget who it was that the queen had come to see -- her father, over some business which concerned lofty and boring things to little girl demons.

So she'd never told a single one of them that she'd kissed him, either.

As she remembered it, it hadn't been that big a thing. He'd been about to leave, and they'd decided that they liked each other at almost seven and four and a half -- as much as that was possible. There hadn't been any starry-eyed nonsense to it. Their mothers had stood by and told them that the queen and her boys had to leave and that they should say goodbye to each other and they did. But little Beyl'eth wanted to show him that she did like the fun that they'd had playing and she was thankful at how he'd wanted her to feel better, so she hugged him only long enough to kiss him and smile for a moment.

It seemed to please their parents and best of all, it had clearly angered his brother. She'd forgotten all about it until her stepmother had come to tell her good night. After her hugs and kisses, she'd asked if it had felt special to have kissed a future king. Beyl'eth had blinked and shrugged, saying no, which seemed to make her stepmother chuckle a little.

She wanted to sigh as the memory passed, but she didn't. It had just been an hour or so of playing with someone that they each liked, and they'd never seen each other again, because he'd disappeared along with his brother not long afterward. Beyl'eth had been as upset as anyone -- perhaps more because she'd known him and liked him.

But now she was where he'd been all of that time, and they were the last. She really hoped that they could find ways to get along, because it was fairly clear to her that if the last Tarkroth were going to go on, they'd have to have some sort of relationship between them.

Still, on balance, Beyl'eth was pleased.

She was so pleased in fact, that it began to snow out there in the valley behind him.

As long as he seemed to be willing to humor her, she bowed her head a little and spoke in the proper way of their kind for a pair who had met at least once and allowed for their positions.

"Beyl'eth of the Rohn remembers the Ch'arnn Ayt'han."

To her surprise, he bowed low in the proper way, "I am pleased to welcome Beyl'eth to my poor home," he smiled.

She stepped forward with a smile, "There is much to say between us. We may wave our hands in the air and bow all that we like, we are still only three."

She looked up at him, "With that said, I must say that I know that you did not grow up among the people."

"I did not grow up among any people," he shrugged.

"Then I shall make allowances for it if something goes amiss or unspoken, but I think that you would know that we are the same kind, and no matter what the lowlanders say, we are not animals. I may be a chieftain, and you are as well, and all of the other niceties that we can pile onto everything, but I am your kinswoman and it is winter," she pointed behind him.

When he turned to look, he was a little surprised. When he turned back, he was a little more surprised to find her very close to him. She slid her arms around his waist while there was still an inch or two between them and he saw her breasts as they peeked out her long hair as if to tease him. "And I wish to say that in the matter of the survival of our kind, it would not matter so much anymore in this place if we shared a mother or a father between us. We are not that close, but we are kin, however. Your honored mother was cousin to my father. We are very much Rohn between us."

He looked into her very light gray eyes and he even knew that she was pouring on the ability of her kind to charm and bewitch him. She didn't really need it, he thought, feeling the draw of those eyes and that face.

"No matter what we are between us," she smiled a little as she tilted her head a bit to look up, "I am here as a guest, and I seek the warmth of you. It is the custom that you offer it and your protection, since I am a female who seeks it from you."

He raised his arms and pulled the Rohn to him gently as his wings moved forward to encircle her. She sighed as she hugged him, her cheek against his, "So good to feel you against me, my King."

"I had the thought," he said, "that you know all of what needs knowing of our kind, far more than I. You ought to lead as queen of whatever we become. I would follow you."

He heard the soft chuckle and then saw her face as she drew it back to smile at him, and the enchantment was well on the way to completion.

"Then I will use what I know always," she nodded just a little, "and that is why, "she smiled as her right hand drifted from his waist in a long and slow caress as it ran lightly over his hard belly on its way down, "I will say that, between us, it is needed that you be king."

Her fingers found his scrotum and curled gently underneath it so that she held it just enough to lift it very slightly as her thumb came to rest on the top of his hardening shaft.

"Think a moment -- if you can, Ayt'han, for there is wisdom here. I am not making all of these noises to please the sense of importance that you do not have. You are blessed in many ways and I like the way that you do not carry the swelled head of many of the Ch'arnn. I have enough stupid pride in me for all three of us.

Think here before you say that I should rule. I am the Rohn. Do you really wish to be ruled by a witch? There is a reason why the Rohn accept the rule of the Ch'arnn for the betterment of all. You would be as a slave to me -- even though that is something which I would never want. I could not help myself and there is much to be decided with clear heads.

Please," she smiled, "allow me this. I will not make so many silly sounds over it and I will not bow every minute. Just accept that you are to lead, and the Rohn will be happy to follow in anything. It makes matters simpler, and all that I ask is that I can advise you. We cannot be a nation with a king and clans. We must be simpler -- for what is really important is that we go on and survive here.

Allow me this as well," she sighed, as she kissed his lips softly.

He groaned after a second and Beyl'eth's heart flew in thanks to whatever spirits were listening as her own soft groan escaped her.

After a few minutes, they looked at each other and she thanked him with the barest chuckle, "There is no measure for me to use to tell of how I have needed that -- and this," she smiled nodding a little at how they were there, "I had such fears that you would hate me, thinking that I must have stolen something of Narreth's, and I did not."

"Beyl'eth," he said thoughtfully, "what is the first part? It seemed to me that so many girls that I met had her name."

"Beyllix Narreth, I am," she smiled a little softly.

His eyebrows rose and his mouth opened slowly in awe.

"My father said to me that your spawning caused a wave of girl-children, more than usual for when a future king is spawned, and it was because of your honored mother. Narreth took much time to travel and know all of the clans and their lords, so many of the people saw her. She was loved, Ayt'han, as no other was before her.

My father said that I was among the last of the wave, and when he took me as a babe to be named at the Quarn of the king, he went to make the marks in the book to register my name and found that almost three hundred girls carried the name of the queen and she met most, if not all of the fathers and the babes over the time, if she was there and not traveling.

She blessed me several times," Beyl'eth nodded, "but only twice that I can remember. Once when she came to visit her cousin, my father, and it was when you and I met."

She looked down a little and her gaze became more inward in thought, "The last time was after our fall. I was there as a prisoner to search for something of hers, and you know why it was wanted. She came to me there and gave me her band in death, asking me to hide it, so I replaced my own with hers."

She looked up and her eyes blazed fiercely for a moment, "I have always lived to my name," she said, "I always will.

Another reason why I hold you as my king. It is important to me."

Her face softened then, and she sighed as she ran her fingers over his collarbone, "I wish to renew our young friendship if nothing else passes between us. If you think a little, you would see that the little girl made her friend that day and I always bothered my father afterward, asking when we would go to the Ch'arnn to visit. I have always been willful and headstrong, but I think that I learned another way that day from you.

I think that our friendship is needed, and I know why, but Ayt'han, if we are to go on as a people, then we will have to mate, you and I."

She smiled as she moved herself a little and she moved her hand to change her grip so that she held the hard heat of him and arranged the two of them so that if she went to her toes a little, she could rub herself on it with it between her thighs at a downward angle.

She looked down at his chest as she thrust against him gently. Ayt'han saw that her eyes were closed and her lips were open a little.

She looked up after a few moments, "I must tell you many things, because you did not learn all there is that a Tarkroth learns in the mountains, and you must teach me about this place. I know what must be for us. It is a simple thing, but I have a heart. I am as any female, so I have a want for a male -- and I have a hope that, though we will need to mate so that the people may go on, I want there to be love between us."

She watched his handsome face and knew that she was pleasuring him. She felt more than a little joy at the way that, if she moved herself just so -- and not every time -- his eyes would close. She couldn't sigh into his ear like this for the position, but she pulled his head to her a little and she kissed him softly for several minutes.

Unseen by the pair, a thin mist appeared over the old leather band on her leg, and in a second, the ghost Narreth stood there, a few feet away, smiling softly. She placed the thought into her fine son that in spite of the events of the past, he was now so very fortunate.

A beautiful Rohn witch would have many suitors, perhaps an almost unending stream to choose from -- if she was in the mood to even look. Before one like her would show her seemingly slight interest in any one, she might just as easily decide on five, and there would be fights between them, horrible, bloody fights, since they would all be strong Ch'arnn.

Oh, a prince who appeared among them could be shown respect as was deserved, but in her own case, Ayt'han's father had eleven others in the field who all wanted Narreth for their own. She knew that she wanted the mighty prince from long before, but there were still the tests, and so she'd made besting them -- with no killing -- one of hers. A future king needed to show much wisdom and skill and not only brute strength to pass this one of her tests. It said a lot of him that he'd not only bested them, he'd forged some friendships at the same time.

"Remember, my sweet beyllix -- heart of my own -- that there is another in this. Do not forget that one." It came into Beyl'eth's mind as a spoken thought and she looked, her eyes opening in wonder for a second before his kisses against her throat caused her to groan and close them again.

"I go now to learn what I can of that one. This must be managed with care," the ghost said, "and the greatest amount of that care lies in the knowing of when to only watch."

She walked to the edge of the ledge and looked to her right, far up the valley. As she walked, the lighter parts of her disappeared, until only the dark lines remained, but they were fading slowly as well. The heavy clouds to the north became a continuous mass and she saw what she'd wanted as it came to her.

There was a sudden roaring from the wind of it, and the scenery of the little valley vanished in the pounding of the hard wind and the stinging snow that it carried. Nothing was visible beyond the ledge where she stood. Only Beyl'eth saw her looking back with a warm and yet enigmatic smile before she walked into the fierce teeth of the sudden storm and was gone from sight in a second.

The pair stopped then and stared at the storm for a few moments standing side by side with Beyl'eth a little ahead. "I've read about the winter storms here," he said, "but it didn't prepare me for this."

She stepped back a little to be against him, still off to the side and she reached for his hand to place it on her own haunch. "We are so few here," she said, "and there are no other males. Even so, there is a sense of, ... possession to us. If there were others here, you would do this to show that I am yours, and I would feel more of my foolish pride to feel your hand there. Consider what I am. Only the one may do that and live.

"Am I the one?" he asked, still surprised a little.

She looked back over her shoulder and a little upward at his face. He felt it hit his chest to see such loveliness in her little smile, "No, but you will be soon, and it matters not anyway. We must pair. But I try to make you see that my heart wishes for you to love me."

"What of the test, then?" he asked, "I have not seen many, and none but you since I grew up, Beyl'eth, but you are the loveliest witch that were ever was, surely. Will you not set a test?"

He saw her consider in an impish fashion for a moment, but then she reached for his shaft with her other hand and held it against her hip, caressing it softly, "It is not in question, Ayt'han. If this were the Quarn of the Rohn and you came to seek for my heart there, I would not be trying to think of a test that would suit my future king. I would be worrying my brain and my hair into a knot wanting to find a test which would seem proper for such a one, while wanting to make it easy at the same time -- one fit to show that you have what it takes to be king because you would pass it where no others could."

She squeezed the hardness against her for a moment, thrilling to see how it caused him to close his eyes and groan very quietly. "I know that if the fall had not come to us, you would have come into your own just as you are, a fine and strong male for me, and you would have sought me then anyway. You would have reminded me in your gentle way of our young meeting as children, and it would have been enough for me to see your thoughtful eyes.

You need no test, Ch'arnn. That we two still live is proof that we have both passed our tests." She moved her thumb over the drooling end of him for a moment and took her hand away to suck it for a second with a smile. Wetting the thumb with a slow lick, she held his maleness once more and rubbed her thumb again softly.

"Besides," she smirked in the sweetest way, "I once passed a group of four males in my Quarn. Two of them were Ch'arnn. I guess they must have asked of me, wondering what sort of test that one like me would set. I overheard the answer as I was walking away. One of the Rohn boys told the Ch'arnn that it would surely be impossible, whatever it was, and that was only the start. "She is the daughter of the chieftain," the one said, "And to pass her test is only the beginning of the start. To take that one and keep her is to live your life in the test. Every day would be the test."

She looked back at him with a chuckle, "I showed that I had heard it with a laugh over my shoulder, "Do not forget about the nights, "I called back sweetly and walked on. Such foolishness, it seems to me now. Living here will be all the test that we all need. To survive it, we three will need to seek ways to make things easier between us, and not harder."

She held his hand against her haunch and taught him the gentle movements that she wished for him to know that she liked. "You will need to suffer my own soft caresses, and learn what I try to tell you in each one -- what I am thinking, how I am feeling, and if I wish for more than the touch then.

"This makes me feel good," Beyl'eth smiled and nodded at the storm, "Good to be alive and with another. I did not come with empty hands," she smiled. "I found some of your potatoes, and I have made something for you. It warms by your fire."

She turned then and amazed him again as she raised one leg high to hold it around him. He stared at her in surprise, but she only smiled, reaching to lift his manhood for him with one hand and sliding her other hand around his thick neck. With little apparent effort, she pulled herself up on him, causing him to have to step forward one step to accommodate her slight weight, and in an instant, she wrapped herself around him and began to move so that she stroked him as she rubbed herself against him.

Beyl'eth looked at his shocked face and laughed a little, "I know little, but I can see that there were no hopeful females where you were." She sighed as he brought his hands up to help her. "Ahh," she smiled, her happiness plain in her face, "I have such gifts for you, Ch'arnn."

He looked at her and he couldn't help himself. That sweet face and her tiny little grin, even as she humped against him. He'd never imagined anything like Beyl'eth as she was now. He could have sworn what he felt coming to him was from her heart, and it made him smile -- really smile, with nothing held back in caution or out of the wariness which had ridden in him for so many years.

She pulled their heads together and after a warm and wet kiss, she hugged him as she worked a little faster, "The love of a Rohn is a hungry thing," she sighed into his ear, "It is a need, once begun with the one we choose. We place a need into that one, and our own grows as well. It is the secret of the Rohn and the Ch'arnn when they pair. Narreth would have taught you of this, but you were lost to her."

She pulled her head back as she went faster for them both, and still a little giggle escaped her as she looked at that fine face. "So the teaching falls to me," she chuckled, "but I will do it with more than a mother's soft and quiet words. I am the Rohn, and you will give to me all that you have when we are together and loving, and I will take it and want ever more. It is what we are.

You are the one, Ayt'han," she smiled, "If there were hundreds of males here, you would still be the one. I make my choice now as I would have then -- with a look at the spirit that I see in your eyes, right here, right now. I see all that I need to know for my heart there.