A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 41

"Now, if I have earned your trust with my kiss, tell me the quiet thing."

He lowered his head and his whiskers against her cheek almost caused her to flinch for the way that they tickled her, but she held still until his lips were against her ear. She sighed quietly and reached to hold his head there.

"I wish to tell you two quiet things, but one can only walk one step at a time. One of the dangers of the Ninth Prince, where I am from, is the magic which I can wield, "he whispered as softly and quietly as he could, enjoying the way that it caused her to shiver. "You have magic as well, but I am feared there for the rumor of the way that I can change my shape for a time, to look like a trusted friend while I listen to plots which are not for me to hear. It has saved my life many times.

This does not matter anymore. I am here now with my Goddess. This ability may be used by her. For her, I can change my shape to be any male that she wishes to hold and have for her pleasure."

He kissed her ear and listened to her moan only once and so softly. He lifted his head and looked at her eyes, her irises wide in arousal. Saddiq licked her throat carefully with his rough tongue and he moved a little, lowering his head to rub his nose against a nipple.

Dakhete inhaled and her ribcage rose in response as she seized his head to hold him there. He opened his mouth and began to suckle softly as she sighed.

"If you will allow it," he said into her mind, "I will be another secret of yours. You may take others. You may even take a mate for yourself. But underneath it all, if my efforts are pleasing to you, I will always be yours and you will be mine, but not in the way of what one might call a usual sort of love, goddess.

I offer myself as a quiet companion who loves you simply and quietly. I seek the same from you. Mates may come and go, or die, or any number of things – such as has happened to the one that you swore your love to before you found yourself alone for so long. Your pupil will learn abd find her own travels.

I offer a much quieter love with you. I will seek always be near to you, though I may not be seen. You will never know another lonely night while I live. If you are cold or hungry or any number of things, I will help if I can. I seek one to travel with, no matter where or when. This is my purpose. If we go together and I have need of something as I have said, would you help me?"

"If we journey and this is our way," Dakhete nodded, "it is what a companion does. I would do for you in the same way. It is far better than journeying alone."

"Good," the cat smiled, "because I can see a time when I will be needed, just as I know that one day, I will need from you."

Dakhete looked at him. She knew what she was feeling and took it into account. Even so, she was left with her first impression. It had remained unchanged over all of the time that he'd been in her sight that day. She's seen countless large cats, perhaps thousands of leopards in her travels over all of the time. They'd always thrilled her to see and watch them a little. Wherever she'd gone, there were sometimes hunts for the cats where she'd been invited and she'd always refused. This one, the one who wished to be her Ninth Prince was beyond them all. He was far past magnificent.

By the standards of the ones which she'd seen, he was by far the largest and the heaviest. He could talk with her and he sought to be hers. She doubted that his kind made such offers. Why would they? Her hand slid over his sleek onyx coat, feeling the muscles underneath. As he suckled and the warm blasts of his breath against her skin excited her, she wondered about herself and she considered.

Dakhete knew herself and knew that she could likely have almost any male if she wanted him. She just rarely did for very long. She had a thought that perhaps she was beginning to understand why, if Saddiq saw something else in her. She thought back to what the last of her earlier masters had told her about seeking one for herself to keep her power. She wondered if this was what had been meant, and she knew then that it was.

Saddiq was a magical being. At least the half of her that she was certain about was as well.

"You melt my heart with your sweet suckling," she sighed, "as softly as a new babe would do it. Could my fine admirer give me young ones?" she asked, and he heard his thoughts clearly.

"You are the goddess, if it is your will, then it will be so. But, I seek to learn what male you would want me to be for you, and I cannot find him in your thoughts. What man or djinn; what demon? I can take any of these shapes for your pleasure. My rod will be as theirs for you. Yet I find none of these things in you as a want.

She smirked as she ran her fingers through the fur on his cheeks and down along his neck. "Tell me what you do see then."

He heard her voice clearly in his mind, so clearly that there was no mistaking it. Where his nose was, he knew it whenever she'd made the slightest true sound. Now she was silent, but her voice was there, and he knew that she'd mastered the way to speak to him this way as well.

"I cannot," she heard in her mind, "I see only myself."

"Well then," she smiled as she sent her thought, "I suppose that you are what I want."

He stopped sucking and raised his head.

What he saw caused his heart to pound in his ears and he felt as though he could fly.

She nodded, "Saddiq, my beauty, my wondrous one, I want you and this quiet love that you speak of."

"But, - "

He was actually whispering, "I can only please you as one of those sorts of males. Like this, I cannot mate you as the other males. I cannot have the part like them. I can only have what I ... have now. It is not the same."

She loved the feeling of her fingertips in his fur as she toyed with his ears and then his cheeks near his nose. "Is it a little long and hopefully thick? Can it please me and can I cause it to fill me? What more do I need beyond that, if it comes to me with the hope that I feel in you for my love? You are no animal, Saddiq; you are a magical thing – as am I, at least partly so.

I have known males who wanted my love before. None have held my interest. But you are different. I know that females of all sorts look at large cats in admiration. Some may even hold secret little desires to know how it would feel to love with a male like that. But it cannot be done, really.

You are not one of those. In you, I see only reminders, but I know that you are nothing like those cats. You are wise and we can talk together and say not a word. You do not only look noble, Saddiq; you are noble and regal, being of high birth among your kind. This night, I have kissed a prince who seeks to walk with me for our lives.

I am a djinn, partly. I am both the wind and the dust which it carries, and I am a female whose heart has waited for one to touch it. I already know that you possess the ability to touch my heart. I have always liked the touch of another female over that of a male, but in you I see something that I can love as well. You offer forever to me in a way that no one ever has.

You have already declared yourself. I am saying that I accept your companionship and now I seek to see if what I feel can be made into this love that you told of, one that lies underneath. To do that, I wish to mate you as you are, Saddiq. I am Kandake, but I am not the same as the people whom I have ruled. I make the laws here. What is wrong if I seek for a little pleasure with my companion as a secret between him and I? It may turn into something which changes your life and mine for the better. I can tell you from my heart that I hope that it is so. I think that we both need something such as that."

He was still in shock at her words; wishful, longing, slightly disbelieving, and so very hopeful shock. Still, he thought, she had to know. She had to be told.

"It is not the same," he whispered, "It is all of those things but there is more. You may not wish to –"

She held up her hand, her fingers touching his lips and he stopped. She put her arms around his neck and pulled herself up as she held him.

He had to strain to hear her whispers, "Listen to me, Saddiq. I have seen the leopards here when they do it. Is it like that for you?"

"Yes," he hissed quietly, "It can be, ... forceful. I have no wish to hurt you."

She smiled against his lips for a moment, "Please, black prince of truth, please only tell me that you can go longer than the leopards which I have watched."

"I can go long, Goddess," he said as he accepted her kiss. He pulled back and licked her lips and said, "I can go long, and I can go often, as much as you have the time for."

"Then this is the way that it will be," she whispered as she blew out the lamp with a wave, "You and I will share this sweet secret between us if we can do it to our satisfaction. For tonight, allow me to tame you, for we can never be loud in my home. There will be times – if it will work – when what I want from you will be just what you know well how to give to me."

She kissed him softly, "We can go into the bushes for that. No one will know and no one will see that you take me and that I love with such a beautiful creature. This is the secret that I want with you. You wish to be my companion. I wish for my companion to be this close to me."

She sat up and had to reach a long way for him, but she began to caress him gently and she smiled after a moment at what she held, "I knew that I saw more than what a leopard has. My prince has furry stones, so nice to touch and to hold. Toys such as these can make a girl like me want to dance for the way that they feel to me.

I will have to hide you away, Saddiq, it will not do to have the Kandake seen in the company of her magnificent leopard friend who walks with a long line of hopeful leopard females trailing behind."

"They know that I am not the same as they are," he whispered through his teeth from the feeling of what she did, "They run, mostly."

"But not all of them, no?" She grinned.

"No," he said, "Not all. The day that I came here to look for you, I saw a young female who followed and called to me a little because she was in her heat. I saw her begin to come out of the grass toward me, but her calls brought males of the sort which lives here and which she resembles and she ran from them.

I thought that it was a strange thing until I thought that she might have wanted me instead of them and then I was sad for her. The next time that I saw her, she was fighting off several males. I knew how it would end. Sooner or later, one of them would manage to bite her neck and she would hold still, as all cats do from when they are kittens for their mothers to carry them. As soon as one of them bit her neck, she would have no choice but to submit. I helped her then and I attacked. I killed two and the rest ran.

Then I knew that I had a different problem. She followed me everywhere and if I stopped, she tried to play with me and would lie in front of me. When I tried to leave, she looked at me with want and sadness."

"You see?" Dakhete chuckled softly, "Some of us are smarter than the rest and we know what we might have. What happened with your little friend?"

"It delayed my meeting you for a few days," he said, "I mated with her. I am sure that she will not have young, since we are not the same. But her heat is over now and still she tries to stay near me. I saw the reason for all of her problems. She is likely the last of the ones that we call the Forgotten Ones from when the passage between our place and this one was open once before and it closed suddenly. Some were left here. They are something like my kind. She wanted none of the males here because she is not like them. That is why she was so hopeful for me.

We can only talk a little, but she does as I tell her and she waits where I say to wait. She is in the courtyard now. I must be sure to go to her before the dawn to tell her that she must go. She may mistake the ass for a meal."

"Then I will go with you," Dakhete smiled as she stroked him," I wish to see this girl who shares my good taste. You say that she can be made to understand you?"

"Yes," he nodded, "Why?"

"If you can make her understand a few things, and if you enjoyed her, then I may be able to offer her a better life, though I do not believe in making a pet out of a wild thing. If we have trouble, you would still have a female who plainly loves you, and I know that this is a rare thing for a leopard girl. Any female cat loves only when they have the need. If this one loves you when she has no need to, then your life would be richer for it. You are a prince. Surely where you come from, you could have a harem."

"I could," he said, "but I have no wish to. Concubines expect to be fed."

"Then take her as a companion," Dakhete said, "Was she good for you? You must have been good for her. So? I do not know your legend. Does it say anything about the Ninth Prince being alone?"

He looked confused, "No, ..."

"Then let us try between us and then we will go to her. I wish to see your leopard girl."

"She is not a leopard," Saddiq said, a little uncomfortably, "I said that we are not the same. She is a, ... a dayrunner."

Dakhete was confused, "What is a day – "

The courtyard was full of sounds suddenly – all of them the noises of cats, large ones. There was an altercation in the wind, quite plainly, and Dakhete heard one growl that sounded very different from the rest. She turned to Saddiq, but she found that she was alone. He had already gone. She jumped from the bed and ran for the courtyard, going mostly by her memory of the floorplan. She stopped only once to back up and grab a torch from a holder on one wall.

When she got to the courtyard, everything had quieted down to a lot of threatening snarls. There were seven leopards there, not counting Saddiq, In one corner, pressed back as far as possible, Dakhete saw a desperate creature, who still did her best to appear threatening, but it was clear at a glance that there was no hope for her with what was arrayed against her.

Saddiq made one sound, and it was not even loud, but the others instantly stood down and began to back away. Yasmin and Khyan came to stand in the doorway as Saddiq positioned himself between the outnumbered cat in the corner and the rest. There were more noises from him and the leopards began to slink away.

"What happened?" Khyan asked, "They are my guards, but they were to have returned to the forest with my mother."

Saddiq looked at Khyan and he turned to look at Dakhete for a moment.

"Saddiq says that they are your guards no longer. He has sent them back and you will have new guards in a few days or so. He says that if he sees these ones again, there will be blood. They came here to hunt the female that he has taken as his friend, and in doing so, they disobeyed your command to them, seeking a little nighttime sport which was not a fair thing. This one's eyes are not made to see well at night."

"But," Khyan began, "They are my guards." He looked at Dakhete in wonder, "You can speak to him? I never could, though I tried."

Saddiq made a low rumble as he looked at Khyan with a nod.

"He says they were your guards, but they do as their prince commands or they die," Dakhete said, "Go back to your rooms. The other one is still upset and more of us will not calm her."

She raised the torch only a moment and handed it to Yasmin to take back inside. Saddiq stood near the frightened one and rubbed his head against hers for several minutes as he made low sounds while Dakhete went inside. When she came back out, she held a small bowl of water and a pitcher of beer. She walked forward slowly and set the bowl down as the other cat watched her carefully for a moment before she began to drink a little.

"Now I see what was meant when you said that your friend is a dayrunner," she said softly, "She is a cheetah, a lovely one that is known here as a King Cheetah because of the patterns in her fur. I thought that from what you said, that she was small, but she is not far from you in height by your shoulders."

He agreed, but he added, "That is so, but she is made to run down what she hunts, not to fight for her life and win against one of my kind – and she was hunted by seven. She can run like the wind, but she cannot stand and fight one of us. She is too lightly made. It is too dark here, she could not run fast enough to get away. The others know this. I am angry and sorry that you see it."

"You said that you can talk with her a little. Does she have a name that she knows herself by?"

"You could not say it," Saddiq replied as he tried to calm himself, "and it is a sound a little like what would be heard as she passes by in the grass. As close as I can make it for you, her name is Sh-sh. I think that she might know if you said 'Sha-sha' in your mind to her."

"I have a small wish to scold you," Dakhete thought, "for the way that you seemed a little ashamed. But you show your feelings now and I am glad that you have such a friend. If Sha-sha loves you, you are fortunate, Saddiq."

"I know it," she heard him as he rubbed his face against Sha-sha's jaw, "but our kinds are indifferent to each other at best. At worst, we steal their kills and hunt them. I was not ashamed, goddess. I was astounded. This is the other one that I mentioned before. I have found someone very remarkable in her, but she needs a little help and a place to stay.

I was struggling over just how to make myself and my wishes plain to you, and you have amazed me and made me happy by accepting me. My next goal was to ask that you help this one as well, for she needs it. She is not as she appears, and she needs shelter and a little time for her confidence. I had no idea how to even begin to ask it of you, and you tell me that I should take her as a companion! I do not know how I can thank you for only thinking it. If it causes no trouble for you, I wish to keep her close."

"Keep her as close as you like, Saddiq," Dakhete smiled as she stepped forward a little to pour a bit of beer into the bowl. "Here, lovely Sha-sha. You may not know this, but I am sure that you will like a little."

The cheetah turned her head and looked directly into Dakhete's eyes.

"Sha-sha?" came to Dakhete as a quiet question in an uncertain voice in her mind. The cat padded forward a little nervously to peer carefully at Dakhete in surprise, "You call to me?"

She looked down at the bowl which Dakhete held for her and sniffed it for a moment. She took a careful taste and looked up again.

"For me?"

Dakhete set the bowl down as she knelt on one knee. "For Sha-sha," she smiled as she set the pitcher down.

She heard questions and replies between the pair as the cheetah drank, liking the taste.

"Saddiq say I stay." Dakhete heard, "Saddiq say you like Sha-sha."

She stepped over the bowl and sniffed as she came, leaning forward to stretch her head closer. Dakhete held still, even when the cheetah's whiskers tickled her thigh as the cat sniffed to learn that Dakhete was a female herself. The surprise came when Sha-sha did not back away, but only lifted her head, her nose grazing Dakhete's breast on the way past before she was sniffing Dakhete's face and looking at her with some wonder for a moment from an inch away.

She began to chitter quietly in the way that cheetahs do and in it, Dakhete heard more thoughts to her.

"I was hunted by ones like you and, ... not same as you. I not sure now. If I stay, I not hunted here? Not be trapped?"

Behind her, Saddiq explained the he would stay and protect her, and that Dakhete was a very high female here, the highest one, the queen, he told her.

Dakhete almost fell over backwards when Sha-sha's paws came up to rest on her shoulders and the cat began to rub her face against her head as she began to purr loudly.