The Industrial Elf Ch. 07

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There were two who bathed together in the stream that night. Aksun changed her appearance so that it was two elves in that place to the eyes of anyone who might have been watching. He instructed her quietly and she was watchful to do as he asked. When they knelt together, she was careful to kneel so that her thigh touched his and she followed whatever he did.

Aksun had no weapon, but he gave her one of his daggers, telling her to keep it for this purpose. It took longer than normal, because of the one who they offered their prayers for, and also because he tried to explain everything to her as they went.

Aksun did her best. In spite of the prospect of losing Donna, she found that she felt a lot for him now and more every minute. She tried not to look at him and concentrate, but it added a lot of difficulty for her. They sat together holding each other in the moonlight afterward.

"I want to thank you," she said, "I have no words for everything that you do here for Donna and for me."

She hesitated, hanging on the edge between reluctance and a fear of insulting him. Finally, she forced herself, "If you want me and like me enough for it, I will allow it if you wish to have me here."

He shook his head, but she did see his smile, "Thank you for your kindness," he bowed his head to her, "but not now, Aksun. This would be a very good place here for that, and I begin to feel enough for you, but not because you feel as though it is something to repay me by. That is not my way and it has never been, and like this, it's not right for me."

He kissed her, "I would want it only if you want it with me and with nothing hanging over us but the moon and the stars. I do not wish to be the only one who wants this between us."

"Hah," she made her little noise of understanding or agreement, "Donna told me to ask you, but she said to me that you would say this, and I knew you would say it too. The trouble is that I do want it with you, very much, and I should not want this now, especially now.

I don't know anything anymore. Nothing makes sense to me, but soon, I will not want it at all from anyone." She put her face under his jaw and kissed his throat for a minute. "Elohan? When your kind pairs, is it like the humans? Is it what they call a marriage?"

"Yes," he said, "if it gets that far. The two join their lives as much as they can. The time when it happens is called the wedding."

"Is it allowed to hurt the one that you choose? Is that what it is?"

"No" he said, "it's not our way. I know that it happens sometimes among humans. I have heard of it and even seen it sometimes. One treats the other badly, by words or worse. I can only say that with us, the pair remains important above anything.

I was almost paired to my princess long ago. We often had disagreements, but we always laughed at each other, because it wasn't important. If it was something about the clan, then she would listen to me and sometimes agree then, but if not, she was the ruler between us for that, and I would do as I was commanded. If she had lived and come back to me, once I was her king, it would be the other way for things of the clan."

He smirked, "But between us, we always laughed. We never said hurtful things. If one was upset, everything else went away until it was understood and made better. It didn't matter who was right or better, only that it was over."

He could just hear her little sound from below his jaw, "Hah." He felt her nod a little.

"What happens where you come from, Aksun?"

"Nothing", she said, "the couple just become a pair, like other creatures. They love and mate and join their lives. But there is no ... wedding. They live and once it happens and the choice is made, it is done. No other will come between. It is not permitted. It is death to even try if it can be proven. Neither of the pair will try. It happens that sometimes one dies, and then often, the other dies as well, or just goes on alone. It is even a more rare thing to find another after."

"What happens if one of a pair is unhappy?"

"That happens too," Aksun replied. "It is permitted to leave a mate. But if it happens, it must have been something terrible to cause it, because to leave means that the one who left can never take a mate again. All will know. None will agree to pair with that one."

There was something about him, Aksun realized almost at once now. Something was wrong. She noticed that his face was looking a little away and down.

"Elohan?" she asked, but she got no response.

"Elohan, what is it? What have I said?"

He shook his head a little but made no answer.

Aksun felt a huge change in him now. Elohan had always felt so 'solid' to her senses until now, but at the moment, what she sensed was more preparation, as though he was anticipating something which he thought would surely come, the way that one might stand on a hillside watching a wall of cold rain coming and preparing oneself for the chilling wetness of the deluge. It was as if he knew how it would feel and could do nothing to stop its coming to him. She moved then, laying her palm onto his chest.

Aksun gasped and looked at his face. "You - you fear! Elohan, what frightens, ..."

He looked further away.

"For me?" she asked, "You fear for me? Why?"

He wasn't in the act of his prayers here, but there were tears on his face nonetheless, though he made no sound and didn't sniffle.

She pulled his face so that he had to look at her. Even so, he still looked down. She couldn't imagine him like this. She had to know, and so she tried to lift his chin so that he had to look at her eyes.

For an instant, she saw the fear plainly.

And then it was gone, and Elohan looked like Jack the traveler once more, just as she'd seen him for the first time, outwardly friendly, inwardly cautious and a little withdrawn.

Her own confused tears began then. She let her arms fall and then she sat hugging herself as she began to keen. His eyes suddenly cleared and shifted into hard focus as his face showed his concern for her. He opened his mouth to speak, but she answered him before he'd made a sound.

"I have lost you, and I do not know what I have done," she sobbed.

"You haven't done anything, Aksun," he said as he put his arm around her. He pulled her head against his cheek and he stroked her hair with his other hand.

"I am sorry," he whispered, "You need someone to comfort you more than anything. I failed you. I didn't know that you could die from your grief. I had some selfish hopes, I guess."

He felt her relax into him, but she still wept. "Until now, you have always helped me to feel better. But now you pull away, and I do not understand. I must have done something wrong. What hopes did you have? I had hope that you and I ..."

She raised her wet face and looked at him. "Why do you not speak to me? What did I do? If I have lost the one I hoped for, I want to know why."

He looked at her and the blonde elf-girl was retreating - fading behind the confused and lost creature who looked to be crumbling in front of him, her last possibility of anything other than solitude in a wasteland now exceeding the length of her desperate reach.

Elohan leaned in and kissed her, stopping for only a moment now and then to tell her that it was alright, that he'd be there for her as he'd promised.

None of it helped Aksun until she felt the image in his own mind of him digging a third grave. Her eyes flew open wide.

"You think that I will die!" she hissed. "Why? What will kill me?"

"You said that if one of a pair dies, then the other often dies as well."

She nodded, "Yes, but that is between a pair of my kind. Donna is my friend and I love her. We have even loved sometimes, but she is not my mate, Elohan. I have never taken a mate. I will be so hurt when she dies, because she has been my friend for so long. I do not think that I will die from this."

She looked at him very curiously now. Her wet eyes peered into his, their irises shifting open and closed as she looked. "You feared that you would lose me," she whispered, "You are afraid to be alone again yourself."

Her hands were holding his face now, the irises of her cat's eyes in almost constant change.

One hand went to his chest again. "You feared to lose Aksun," she said, "You are afraid to be without me." She smiled through her shocked tears as it all came to her.

"Your heart tells a true tale," she said, "You love me - not with everything yet, but it is here in you, and is not gone yet."

She nodded, "We need each other, Elohan. I will not leave you. Forget your fear."

She hugged him tightly and she still wept a little as she kissed his face. A minute later, they both held on to each other and smiled, relieved that nothing had been lost to the misunderstanding.

She pressed her nose against him, sniffing, and kissing and licking his throat with tiny motions. Elohan would look down at her and kiss her for a moment, and then she would begin again. He looked at her, "I thought that we understood each other and that it was not the time."

"Hah", she made her little sound, "we did. But I like to do this. It is not anything but that I like you very much. If I did it more than this, it would be that I want you and I am being very careful not to start. Is it wrong?"

"No," he grinned, "I like it, Aksun."

He could tell that this would be a learning curve if there ever was one. "Can I try?"

"Not like this," she said very earnestly, "if we both do this, it is the start." She pulled away from him, "But I know what we can do."

She positioned his legs so that one knee was up and the other leg was down on the ground. She moved his legs apart with great care, and giggled the whole time. Then she sat between his legs with hers over the one which was stretched out, taking great care over where she sat.

"Put your arm around me," she said as she reached one of hers around his neck. "Now put your hand on me where you did last night, over my heart. I will do the same to you. We can talk like this and feel our hearts. We can kiss, you can do what I did, and there is nothing wrong, as long as we do it one at a time."

They sat like this for a long time. He found that he loved to do as she'd done to him, nuzzling into her throat and kissing in little ways. The soft sounds that she made seemed to go right up his spine, but finally he had to ask that they stop. "It's hurting my legs, and we should sleep."

Aksun agreed and thanked him for the time. "I am sorry for your legs," she said with a happy smile, "I have never done this for this long ever. I like to talk and do this with you."

She nudged his erection gently with a motion of her hip and chuckled, "Also, I see what you have here, and I know that it is the same as the males where I am from. I am almost sure that we will try one day, and I was worried a little because I didn't know what you were like. Now I know, it's almost the same."

"I have to know," he said, "what is different?"

"Are you sure that you wish to know?" she laughed softly in that smoky voice, "I could tell you that they are all so much bigger. If you were like a man, you would be crushed."

He shrugged, "But I'm not a man. I'm an elf."

"I know," she purred below his jaw just to see how it felt, "I think I'm thankful for that. From what I can tell in the shadows here – "

She stopped because he was shaking his head, "I know that you can see as well as I can in the dark, and maybe better, so you'll have to crush me now and tell me."

"It is not fun like this. You are not nervous to hear it," she complained, though she really didn't mind, "Fine." She reached down carefully, "Here,-"

He gasped, and it made her laugh, "I'm sorry, but you wanted to know."

She eased her grip. "Here, there is a flat portion missing from you. It is to touch me when we dream. The end here is different. Males of my kind do not have this... end. I guess they are not all the same, but I have never heard of one like this. Our males are all the same size along the length but for the flat spot, and the size of the whole thing..."

She looked at him and saw him looking back with open interest. It made her laugh, "You are truly brave, Elohan. You sit here and wait for me to pronounce my judgment on a part of you that you cannot change. You force me to either praise you or crush you with a word and you do not care. Our males are very sensitive over this."

He shrugged, "As you said, I can't change it. I'm also always interested to hear you talk about anything, especially about where you're from."

She kissed him, "You are wonderful."

She looked down, "There are two more things. This part of you has been like this for a long time now. I couldn't sit as I have with you for this time where I am from. They would complain and say that it hurts them not to start with me. It is something which all females complain about over the males. Does it hurt you?"

He shook his head, "If it went on for hours more, maybe. But even so, it's better than if I didn't have you against me. Why should I complain? It would be selfish. What is the other thing?"

She looked up at him, "I don't want to say this to make you proud, but... if we ever do become a pair, you will have to allow me time to adjust. You are thicker."

His eyes widened in concern. "Then we can't. Aksun. I will not hurt you."

She hugged him tightly, and kissed his face, "And that is why I'm thankful that you're an elf, now that I know what one is." She kissed him several times quickly, "That you care about me, and I was right. You have no wish to hurt me."

She looked at him in a timid way that made him pull her to him. "I would never want to do harm to you. If we can't, then we can't."

She stopped him. "I didn't say that we can't, Elohan. Donna told me that elves are thinner and lighter than men. She said that elves are a little bit smaller than men. I will assume that it also is the same for things like this, but I have no way to know. But I know this, Elohan, Donna showed me a drawn picture in one of her books from her time as a child. I know that this person had never seen an elf, but I saw that the one in the picture was slight, and the words said the same, but, ...

You are not slight, Elohan. You told me that you are stronger than your kind. Yesterday, I watched you pull back your bow to shoot the rabbits. I have seen men all around here working over the years with no shirts. None look like you. You are not slight and you are very strong. I like you more for that, because I am stronger than men too. And you are kind to me. I like you even more for that."

She kissed him and tried to put a lot of what she felt into it. "I didn't say that we can't. We will have to be slow and careful, and I know that you would do that for me."

She looked at his face with a searching expression. "You did not ask me why I was exiled here, Elohan. I will be so upset in only a little while. I know it. I don't know what I'll do, but I ask you to forgive me and be patient with me when it happens. I will try to listen to you when you tell me what I must do because I trust you."

She looked determined again, "But you should know why I was sent here to die alone. If it makes you want to stay away from me, I'll have to accept it and do my best here alone."

He saw that she was frightened and that her eyes were filling. He held her tightly. "I don't care. You don't have to tell me anything. Just calm down."

"No," she shook her head, "I have to tell you. It may change things, so you need to know. If it doesn't, and if I... when I ... am better after Donna is gone, then I promise you, Elohan, that if you want me, and you can maybe love me, I will stay with you always, because I want to."

She sniffled, "I was approached by a male and told that another male wanted to meet me. It is unusual, but the other male was a prince. He didn't want to pair with me. He didn't even want to get to know me. He only sent his servant to bring me so that he could mate with me once, and he hurt me as his servant held me down.

But the servant slipped. I killed the servant for holding me down, and then I tore the prince apart."

Her tears began at the memory of it. "No one heard my side," she sobbed, "but they all knew what the prince always did. They could not put me to death because it would cause rebellion to kill a female for this. So they sent me here to die."

He blinked at her and then he was kissing her face, trying to make her feel just a little better. "I don't understand, Aksun. Why would this cause me to feel differently about you?"

She was incredulous, "Elohan, I killed a prince. A royal. You told me that you are a royal among your kind." She began to try to get up, but he held her tightly.

"Wait," he said, "I see no connection from the one you killed to me. I was royal of a clan that has been without me for hundreds of years. They have probably forgotten my name, Aksun. And even if they haven't, it changes nothing here. I'm nobody now. I'm sad that you had to be sent here to die, but I'm happy and I feel very lucky to know you. I can even say that I love you and it grows stronger. I am prepared for your grief, as much as I can be, and I want to help you. But I'm not upset that you killed someone who hurt you, Aksun, I'm proud of you for it."

She wiped her wide eyes, "Proud? You are proud of me?"

He nodded and kissed her, "Yes. That one was never able to hurt another after you. They should have made you queen for it." He nodded with a smile. "Did you think that I'd see you as a criminal? You're wrong there, my friend."

Aksun had no words for this.

He picked her up and took her to the house. At the door, he set her down and kissed her goodnight, telling her that he'd changed his mind and wanted to sleep in the camper. Aksun nodded and went inside after a long kiss, still feeling so very confused and torn in a few different directions.

But she felt so much better about the possibility of being with Elohan. She didn't know how in the universe she'd managed it, but she knew that he was what she needed now. When he'd walked away and she'd closed the door, Aksun sank to her knees, feeling a little like a very young female child, trying to learn and understand what she was being taught. She touched her head to the floor and prayed to the powers that he was teaching her to, offering her deepest thanks for everything.