Love As The Darker Binding Ch. 11

There was little scarification of the sort that many of the women in the whole area practiced. Also, Oyan's forehead, cheeks, nose and chin were painted thinly with a light brown on her dark skin, the lines left in it by the careful passage of fingernails to give the pattern. Mokonyi knew that this was not for the day, because the woman was from a different tribe.

It was what would have been done anyway, something a little like makeup in a sense.

Oyan was standing a little close, since where they stood didn't leave a lot of places to stand out of the stream. Oyan used the closeness to speak to Mokonyi quietly. Neither of them acknowledged the way that it felt to them to be this close and the sensation of one of their nipples in light contact with the breast of the other.

Mokonyi wondered how far the woman had come. She smelled nothing of sweat on this one, but she did smell very warm and pleasant-smelling skin. It caused her to look down and she admired the difference in their skin, Oyan's being very much darker. She wore about ten loops of bright plastic beads around her left bicep and other than a thin wrap of cloth high up around her hips and between her legs, she was naked. The two women were dressed alike.

It allowed Mokonyi to see that everywhere that she looked – or almost – the girl was carrying some serious muscle, though she wasn't actually heavy with it. She liked that for it said something about the woman to Mokonyi – that she was something of a kindred spirit – not afraid of work and even liking the way that it felt sometimes. She was built a little like that herself.

"What for?"

The question caused Oyan to look over a little questioningly and it also disturbed Mokonyi – though she's asked it. She'd almost forgotten why she'd asked it and now had to think for a moment, since Oyan's appearance had an effect on her.

"I mean to say, why have you come to meet me?"

Oyan reached across Mokonyi's front to remove a little bit of fluff which was adhered to the infant's face. The little one dozed with her forehead against the lighter woman's breast and she held the nipple in her mouth as she slept. Mokonyi watched as a soft smile appeared on the darker woman's face. "Such a beautiful little one you have," she smiled as she brought her hand back.

"I saw you last year as I passed through. No one noticed me then and I did not mind it since I was grieving for my man. I think this one was in your belly and you had much the same look to your lovely face then. I think it was from knowing that you had a good-sized field to work and you had not learned that as who you were then, you could have just asked for aid. I think that came later."

Mokonyi smiled thinly remembering, and she nodded at the infant, "Not my child. She is my sister's girl. I lost my unborn child the day after I lost my man. I wanted to die."

There were only the soft sounds of the river between them for a time and Oyan stood with her hand lightly resting on Mokonyi's shoulder. Finally, she spoke again.

"In the year since just before I saw you, we have both had our sadness to lose the one we loved so. I rose out of my sadness and I thought of you.

So I have come to meet you and ask if you need help with your field. I would work for you for a share – less than one fourth if you work beside me; half if you do no work at all, and I would work all of it for nothing if we can grow a close friendship with each other in the quiet of the darkness."

Mokonyi looked up, her eyes locking onto the dark ones before her. She'd learned a few things in her time as the chief's wife and one of the most important was the ability to be a little tactful.

She knew that they were bargaining in some concealed way inside of their conversation. She didn't know this fine-looking woman at all, but it didn't change the fact that she'd obviously come a long way to meet with her. The fact that this was going on while they stood as though they were exchanging pleasantries while standing in a river changed nothing.

When a man seeks a woman, no one much cares how many circles she makes him dance through.

When two women bargain over anything, it is appreciated by them both and they can be much more direct in hidden ways where men just lay it out and speak plainly.

She was trapped here, almost alone and unwanted, no matter how she looked. She was used goods, last year's news. If she'd never been married, men would have stood in a crowd before her to ask to help her with the planting.

This woman was the only one to even ask her about her field.

She thought this through for a moment and then she smiled very cautiously, not wanting to appear rude.

"Oyan," she began quietly, "Forgive the way that I must seem to know little of the Munsi people and their ways.

My man is dead. But that does not make me suddenly unattractive. The fighting to decide the new chief begins soon and – "

Oyan nodded though she said nothing. She saw that Mokonyi was running down lists of possibilities in her mind and they seemed to disturb her slightly. As the lists began to run dry, Mokonyi looked up into Oyan's eyes again.

Oyan smiled once more; a small, friendly smile as she almost whispered, "All of this is for unmarried girls. A girl who has made her choice and lost the one which she chose is suddenly invisible to all but those in her family – and that is very wrong to my eyes.

It is what happened to me.

I see many fine unmarried girls in your village," Oyan nodded, "Also; I have heard that the previous chief has returned by regaining his fighting trim. He is older, but with no young powerhouse before him such as the man which you lost, he will likely regain the position, and he already has a wife.

You might come to the attention of an unmarried brother of your man, but I see little in the way of thought there. He told me that I needed a stronger man.

My husband could have folded him up and hung him like a cloak from that tree, the same way that yours could quite easily from the look that I had of him when you were together.

A better choice might be the stick-fighting matches with the neighboring village. You might find a champion there, but there is still the unmarried aspect.

Sad to think that no one but a widow thinks of another widow. "

She grinned as a thought came to her, "Perhaps I should fight for you to show them all that you are very desirable. I might have to kill a few fools, but you might see that I am serious then. I have come to offer myself to you Mokonyi, and if I must kill to show you that I mean the words which I speak, then I will."

Mokonyi stared openly now. "You cannot fight in the matches. You are a woman. They will not allow it."

Oyan only smiled then as she leaned a little closer to say, "Who are 'they'?

'They' told me that I could not sell my husband's cattle – though they were mine more than his.

'They' told me that a woman cannot avenge the death of her man.

Even I have seen women with rifles before, yet 'they' told me that no trader would sell me a gun, because guns are not for women to use. Yet 'they' were as wrong about that as anything else.

'They' grow angry with me when I tell them what a woman sees as a simple truth – that 'they' are being stupid.

The leadership of our tribes – yours, mine, and many others is settled in the same way that animals decide things about which male can mate and which cannot. Your man was very strong, Mokonyi, there is no doubt, but can you tell me as a woman that he made the best decisions as a chief? That he had wisdom?"

Mokonyi wanted to answer yes of course, but she knew that it would not be the truth. A young man thinks like a young man, but he cannot see far down the road.

She shook her head and looked up sadly, "He wanted to be chief – because he wanted to be chief. He did not think of what would happen after that. He did not like the job. He hated how everyone came to him with their troubles and yet no one liked his answers. He drank an awful lot then."

"Are you tired of living here where there is little choice given to you?" Oyan asked.

Mokonyi looked over with a smile, "Yes, Oyan. I can say that easily, but I do not think that I am ready to lie with you in the night just yet. I do not mean to offend. You are very beautiful to me, but I do not - "

"Want to be held the way that a woman wants to be held?" Oyan interrupted, "Need to feel EXACTLY the way that a woman knows how to touch another one?"

Oyan smiled warmly as she leaned a little closer to whisper, "Are you the only woman in the world who likes the way that a man fills her and then forgets her as he rolls over to snore in her ear?"

Seeing no one in the direction that she was looking in over Mokonyi's shoulder, she drew her head back just a little to kiss the woman's ear very subtly and then she let her smile grow against Mokonyi's ear so that she could feel it, "I would never do such a thing to you. I see nothing but the beauty of a widow because I have the eyes to be able to see it as clearly as she can herself.

Everyone here looks at Mokonyi and sees her beauty – and yet, no man will take her for his wife, other than as perhaps a second wife who must then fight the other one all day long to make her place in the home where she is not wanted.

Imagine that one night; he takes you first over her. What would happen then?

I know, Mokonyi.

You would never be able to sleep in peace again. The other wife would spend every waking moment arranging for your murder.

I see Mokonyi differently," she whispered, "I see the beauty which takes my breath from me every time that I look at you. It is something which I would never give up if only I might win it once."

She chuckled quietly, "I can offer another choice.

Forget the land and the planting. Come with me and watch as I sell the last of my cattle so that we both have some money. I have a friend – a man friend – who seeks to build his family in a different way. He offers a moving place to live most often, I would guess, and though he has the love of the woman that he has wanted for many years, he has told me that if we need a man – you and I – that he would help."

Mokonyi tilted her head, "He said that he would help ... me?

How does he know me?"

Oyan grinned and spoke quietly, "I would love to tell you that it is because your beauty is so widely known – and it is almost that way, but he is very wise. He seeks widows to guard the ones that he loves when he cannot be there."

She leaned closer, "Mokonyi, you may laugh if you like now, but the job earns pay besides and I can tell you that once you see my friend, the only laughter from you will be at your amazing fortune."

Mokonyi was grinning now, plainly entertained but believing little, "What is the task? What is to be done?"

Oyan shrugged, "You and I are to guard the rest. Sometimes we are to help my friend as he hunts for bad people. I have not seen it, but I know that when he hunts, it is final. There is no return from it.

There is Abi, my friend, his woman, Evaine – and I have never met her. Abi is not completely a man and from what I have heard, Evaine is not completely a woman. There is another male – another who I have not met, and he is called Theuderic. He is as Evaine, not really human, I am told. He is her brother.

Abi takes them both to his bed.

Evaine is something that Abi says is an operator. As he explained it to me, she will stay with us all most of the time. She makes the way that we pass through the world go smoothly. She changes things as she is needed and she is a very powerful healer. What we are to do he said, is guard. He said that we are not to fear men at all, and that Evaine can help us to learn the ways of the world in the bigger places and not just the way that these foolish men say that it is."

She reached behind herself and brought forward a rifle like her own with a collapsible stock, "This is yours as a gift from Abi if you accept the work."

She guided the web sling past her own plastic jewellery and brought it up over her head so that she could hold it out. "I will teach you how to use it. I ask only for the chance at your friendship, though I hope that we might have more than that together."

Mokonyi took the heavy weapon from Oyan and looked at it with a little awe.

"This is a fine gift to one such as me," she said, "A thing such as this is something which a poor girl can never have as her own."

She didn't say the rest of her thought; that no man, no matter who he was or how rich he might be would ever give her a weapon – and never one like this.

"Yours now," Oyan laughed softly, "A thing which frees us both. I am happy to have the weight of it off my back and my neck feels happiness to be rid of the sling around my throat.

Tell your sister goodbye and walk with me and so we may begin. I know that you do not know of these things – and I can say that I do not know fully yet either, but Mokonyi, I have been certain of how I feel for a year, and it is what I want with you. Only say that I might have my chance."

"Well," Mokonyi laughed quietly, "I know that I like to look at you, and the way that you speak makes me have hope where I have not had any for so long. It cannot be a bad thing to try, can it?"

Oyan shifted her rifle to her right hand and slid her left arm around Mokonyi's waist to hold her gently. "I do not think so. Come and guide us out of the stream here. I know the rest of the way to our new lives. We will have to walk more than a day to get there."

As they walked out of the river onto the bank, Oyan laughed as they found themselves surrounded by young boys, ranging in age from maybe three to about ten or eleven years of age. All of them wore the elaborate and colorful body painting which had obviously been done for them by the women in their lives who loved them, mothers and aunts and grandmothers. They were all very proud of the way that they looked.

Not one of them wore more than a thin thong of leather around their slim waists. What hung between their young legs showed none of the promise of what might be there one day, since they were only young boys after all.

Oyan laughed and the sound caused Mokonyi to smile along. "I like boys at this age the most," she grinned, "They are so easy to fall in love with – even if they are not your own relatives. Their hearts are so pure and it shows in their smiles."

Mokonyi nodded, "And the ones who are my relatives make me love them even more in my pride of them," she said as she kissed three of them goodbye and handed the infant to her sister.

"They are still little boys and they are not shy to show it," Oyan chuckled as they walked out of the village a few minutes later, "You kissing a few of them goodbye caused them all to want our kisses. I do not even know them but I like the boys of your village. It is little wonder to me that they grow so large and strong when they are older."

Mokonyi began to laugh and nod as they walked, "Well if you hold such nice thoughts of them in your mind Oyan, then perhaps it is best that you do not look down at yourself. They are still boys and that makes them mischievous at the heart of things."

Oyan looked down and she threw her head back to laugh even more. She wore several bright streaks of the many shades of river mud used for the body painting on her skin, showing exactly where she'd been touched from her breasts to her navel and a little lower.

Her mouth fell open in amazement and she spun on her heel to look back. The same boys stood waving at them with angelic expressions on their faces. She waved one last time and turned away.

"How did they even DO that?" she asked, smiling.

Mokonyi shrugged, "I do not know either. I only wish to know how they could do that and not leave a single mark of it on themselves."

"They must have had some in their hands," Oyan said as she leaned back a little to look over, "They left you with a handprint or two on your bottom."

Mokonyi nodded with a smiling sigh, "They left quite a few on yours as well. They only dared to leave a few on me because they know that I am very fast with a slap.

They knew that you are a visitor and probably not as quick because of it."

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They walked until they reached Oyan's village by the evening and she was able to cobble together a meal for the two of them as she introduced Mokonyi to her family. Mokonyi was impressed with Oyan's brother and his attitude and view of things.

"Your family loves you so much," she said, "and they accept anything that you say that you will do, your brother most of all. It is very good to see."

Oyan laughed a little as they both saw the shy smile on the man's face, "That is because they know me. My brother would do anything for me just as I would and have for him since we were children.

I was once like almost every other woman, doing what I was supposed to do for my family. Many people of all sorts just place a girl in the way that they think that everything is supposed to go. That is fine for most, Mokonyi, but it is not fine for me anymore.

When I lost my husband, I lost the world - everything. It made me look at things. A girl is supposed to meet a boy that she likes and they marry and go on together. But things are not like that for my people and many others any longer.

My husband died for nothing. He lost his life to thieves.

I was still breathing and walking, but I lost everything as well. I was only still here; needing to eat the same as anyone else, having the same tasks which anyone does, cattle which needed my care and watchfulness, but in my heart, I was as dead as my man.

Well you cannot live like that and I could see it clearly. I needed to change something.

Mokonyi, I know that I am still good for a man to look at, but what can come to me from it? It was hard enough to find the man that I had. A lot of men are selfish, but he was not.

How to find another like him?

Everywhere that I looked, I saw no man even a little like the one that I loved. I wanted to cry but I had already done enough of it. I looked at my rifle, and after some thought, I changed myself," she said, pointing to her heart.

"I saw that I need to be able to take care of myself alone. It is not the best way, but it is at the bottom of everything," she said. "A grown woman can take care of herself.

After that, any person wishes and needs to be loved. I am no different. But the men that I see are not what I would want anymore. So I saw my choice as finding a man who would have me and needing to make do like that, or doing something different; finding another heart like mine and if it could be done, then I would see my good luck and take care of that heart for as long as I could."

She fell silent then and Mokonyi said nothing. She was thinking.

"So," she began, "you saw me, and then you heard that my husband was killed as well."

She wiped her eyes for a moment and then she looked at Oyan, wondering what they might have and whether it was what she could make a life out of. "I make it sound cold and I do not mean it that way. I know what you wish for with me and it is not such a strange thought to me anymore.

I come from a poor tribe of simple people," she said quietly as she looked down. "I have nothing if one lays the worth of my life against what many people have. I would give all that I have – everything and more - if I could change what happened on one day."

Oyan said nothing. She only sat and watched the other woman's tears stream down for some minutes while trying to keep her own from trying to join in.

After a time, Mokonyi looked up and tried to smile, "I think that we are both broken and that some of the broken parts will never heal, Oyan."

She reached for Oyan's shoulder and after laying her hand there, she began to stroke the skin there very softly with her thumb. "But I finally see what is in your heart clearly. We are only partly broken inside, Oyan. I can tell that you like me, and I can say that I like you. You were only the first one to see that we can go on if we need and care for each other.