A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 39

"Please Tirran," she almost stammered, "I know I'm not what you'd want, and I know that I'd probably taste like that beautiful thing of yours right now, but, ..."

She looked down at his wide chest then for a moment, not having it in herself to finish. This had just been him being kind to her and likely very little else. She knew it, and so she placed her hands on his chest and began to push herself away from something that she'd never wanted so much in her life.

"Stop, Rosa," he said and she could hear the faintest whine in his low voice, "You were about to ask me if I'd kiss you. I want to kiss you. Why are you trying to push me away?"

"I didn't think that you'd want to kiss me," she said looking up with a little hope, "You mean you'd want to?"

He didn't even answer. He just kissed her.

Rosa loved the way that he could kiss and after a few moments of her feeling as though her knees wouldn't hold her up for much longer, she just gave in and slipped her tongue into his mouth to find his. It wasn't a very long hunt before his mouth opened and Rosa moaned and whimpered as she felt those teeth almost all the way to her ears. They went on, two lonely and very different people lost in one very long and wet kiss for a very long time.

"Please don't tell me that you have to go and get on your spaceship or whatever brought you here," she said afterward, "I don't have much magic in my life, and tonight is something that I don't want to end yet."

He shook his head with a little shrug that looked as though he was pleased in a surprised way, "As far as I know, I've got five days here to kill this time. Lately, I'm here for at least three days almost every time. I'm a pilot and I usually stay in my craft. I just came out here tonight to see if I could find somebody who might sell me a little of that stuff that some people around here smoke. I'm dying for a cigar or better yet, for a cigarette."

Rosa's mouth fell open and she laughed, "You smoke?" she shook her head in amazement, "You mean you smoke? Really?"

"Yes," he said, failing to see what was all that funny , now that he'd been reminded that it was the reason why he'd come tramping around in the rain in this large toilet bowl in the first place, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, "she said, "You looked like a werewolf to me when I first saw you, but I could see that you weren't one after a few seconds and I knew it for sure when you waved to me. There are a few around here. I'm just having a little trouble trying to imagine you smoking. Let go of me for a minute."

Rosa reached for a pocket in her cloak and pulled out a small waterproof pouch. Reaching inside, she removed two cigarettes and took a match from another pouch inside that. She looked around for a dry surface and found some fairly dry cement close to a nearby doorway. There was a flare of light and then she was back, offering him a lit cigarette while keeping one for herself.

Tirran stared, but he took the smoke and when he exhaled, he smiled, "This is very different from what I've tasted here and it's a world away from the stuff they make where I'm from - which is more than a world away."

She was still chuckling as she looked at him holding the thing so carefully. He made a cigarette look like a tiny little white stick. "I think I've got some good news for you," she smiled, "I made these. I learned how from my grandmother back where I come from. I'm almost out of leaves though, and I didn't have the coin to go and buy more. I think mine are a little better than what you'd usually find. People in my family have made them for generations. They're alright, but they're not the sort of thing that you'd want to smoke one after the other. They're not made for that."

He wrinkled his eyebrows and Rosa wanted to kiss him for it, "What are they made for then?"

"Moments," she smiled, "They're made for moments, like when you've eaten a really fine meal -- if you're wealthy enough to afford that. These are made for afterwards, when you have a little brandy.

They're made for when you've done something a little bit special, like after you've climbed that big mountain that you've thought about walking up for a while, or when you've just made love to somebody special. That's why you need more than three minutes to smoke one. They're really cigarillos, not cigarettes.

You smoke them like cigarettes, they'll kill you even faster than cigarettes will. I make these by hand, the old way, out of cut-up leaf, not shredded tobacco."

She looked away across the dirty street, "I make them for other people's moments; the kind I never have myself." She smiled a little softly," though I am having one right now.

I came here with my parents and my brothers, but I'm all that's left. The gangs, demons, werewolves and the vampires, they all took the rest. It's only a matter to time before they get me too, I guess."

After a long and quiet talk, Rosa climbed onto his back after he'd changed to his other shape again and told her that his back and sides would be safe for her like this and she'd ridden him with her feet not that far above the ground, directing him to a park where they could wash not far from where she lived. It was dark, though there was a sliver of a moon whenever the clouds allowed it. Rosa was self-conscious about her body most of the time, but tonight, she threw that away as she allowed him to see her with more than just a little hope in her heart.

Tirran gazed at her with a soft smile. She made a bit of a fuss until he shut her up with a kiss, telling him that she was a little short in the charms department.

"I've was born a little cursed, I guess," she said, "I've got no tits and the spirits must have been drinking or something that day, I dunno. That's the only reason that I can see for why they gave me a man's bum. Either that, or they were working out of a spare parts bin that afternoon."

It was true -- at least it could be looked at that way, he thought. Her breasts were the slightest swells and she had very small nipples and her backside did sort of evoke thoughts that she might be able to pass as a male from the back -- but if she moved at all, it was gone and she looked softly feminine in the thin moonlight. He sat down in the water with a splash and she'd laughed at him.

"I know," she'd said grinning. "The way that I'm made, you'd think I ought to be out on the prowl for another girl. I tried that once and it wasn't terrible -- it just wasn't what I really wanted, and the first time that our periods overlapped a little, we almost killed each other."

He shook his head, "I really like your body -- and it's not for the reason that you probably have in your mind. I don't see what you think you look like very much. I see a very beautiful female. I'm just a little surprised that I can feel the way that I do. I've seen human males and I don't see a thing that interests me. I like males of my kind, Rosa. That's what I've always been drawn to. I just remembered reading something once about this world and now it makes sense." He put his arm around her and he kissed her again for a moment before his attention was drawn to stare at a being standing on the shore looking back.

He stood then, pushing Rosa behind him protectively. His hand reached to slowly touch the sidearm strapped to his thigh. He knew that he had plenty of time to get to it if he had to, but he'd never seen one of these things before -- he'd only heard of them and how they were to be killed if they were encountered. But the abomination only stared, and Tirran growled deep in his throat once in warning.

To his amazement, the werewolf dropped to his knees and bowed. After a moment, it rose and backed away, bowing once more before it was gone.

Rosa stepped around him and looked up, watching as the hackles on his neck and shoulders fell slowly. Her mouth was open in wonder. "Y- you were protecting me," she stammered.

He nodded, "Yes. Why? Was I not supposed to?"

Rosa didn't answer. She was looking around them. "Tirran," she whispered as she pointed.

He looked around and saw the others, five more werewolves who had likely seen them as they'd come here with Rosa on riding on his back. As he looked, they fell to their knees as well, not daring to look up.

He made a sound from his throat and they all looked up then. Rosa supposed that what she heard were words, and he didn't say many, but she saw the way that they all nodded and backed away.

He barked once low and quietly and Rosa watched as two of them stopped and looked back attentively. The next sounds from him had the tone of a question and a female nodded and answered in a soft bark, nodding her head. Tirran made more sounds then, indicating Rosa and all of them nodded and bowed again before they left, each one making some quiet sound as they turned away.

"What was that all about?" She asked as she watched them go.

"I thought that they must have seen us and followed," he said, "At some point, I'll have to leave and I doubt that they'd just walk away and forget, the way that they were looking at us, so we'll probably be followed sort of discretely. I thought to turn that to your advantage to keep you alive, since they seem to see me as supreme in some foolish way." He shrugged as though he was a little mystified, "They called me 'lord'."

He looked down at the human girl who seemed to think rather highly of him in her way and he smiled with a shrug, "I really hope that it was not the wrong thing to do, but I told them all that you are my bitch -- which is not the way that it is meant here," he added hurriedly. "I said that you were my female and that they were to tell others that you are not to be harmed in any way, because if that happens, I told them that I would wipe this foul place from the ground and all of them with it. I hope that I sounded imperious enough for them to believe it."

Rosa was silent for a moment, but then she looked up, "You could really do that, couldn't you?"

"I suppose that I could," he nodded, "but not with a wave of my paw," he said with a chuckle, "I've got enough things in my craft to level a lot of this place. It was just a threat. They seem to respect threats, I'd guess. If anything happens to you, I think that I'd probably do it, too."

Rosa nodded absently as she looked at him, "What about the other part?" she asked, "The part where I'm your female?"

Her question and her searching gaze took him by surprise. "Why? Is that what you want?"

She nodded with no hesitation, "Yes. I'd love to be your female. We'll just have to see, won't we?"

She laughed a little then as she pulled him to the shore by the hand and he went along, though he was still puzzled, "I am so confused now," he chuckled, "I was afraid that the things that I said might have made you angry with me."

She stopped then and turned back to him with a look that told him that she was astounded that he'd have even asked, "I guess that I've got some things to tell you, Tirran, and I'll try my best when we get to where I live, but I'm not angry. I know the reason why you said it and I'm thankful that you did if it keeps me safe, but ... why would you think that I'd be upset? I've been saying little prayers to spirits that I haven't said them to in a long, long time. I know a little bit about you and maybe I know more than you do about the people that I come from. I guess that we must have faded from the memory of your kind, and you've faded from ours mostly, but not from mine. Tirran."

She smiled at him softly and he had to smile back as he pulled her to him and held her for a moment, so taken with the look that he saw there.

"You just give me a chance to try like I know that I want to," she said very quietly, "I know the way that the word is meant to you. I'd love to be your bitch that way. After so long and with almost none left to hear of it, I'd love to be the one that you choose as your female here."

Tirran didn't know what to say in answer to her and it made her giggle a little, "I'm guessing that your silence means that I'll get my chance?"

He threw up his hands and laughed for a moment, but then he became serious and he bowed to her. "We are different," he said, "but I know that you try to show me honor here. So it is my honor to accept. I have no mate for me. There is no one who waits for my return where I am from. I don't even know if it can be done, -"

"I did something that surprised you, didn't I?" She asked a little proudly and he nodded.

"Good," she said, "then I'm your girl or -- whatever you need while you're here."

She'd said it with such certainty that he knew that to disagree was pointless. He was a little amazed at the way that she was winning him. He felt as though he was a little powerless in this, but he could see her determination and so he'd allow her the chance that she wanted.

As he waited for her to get dressed, he thought about a few things. She was a woman, but he liked her quite a lot anyhow. He liked talking to her much more than he'd ever liked talking with any of the few boyfriends that he'd had. He wondered how far they could go, and though he thought that it might not be all that far, he hoped that however far it turned out to be, that Rosa enjoyed it, because if he was given the chance to please her, he found that he suddenly wanted to.

She told him not to change again for her since they were close to where she lived in a small and rather strange little bunker. It was a bomb shelter, left over from the paranoia at the height of the Cold War, but because of that, it was a safe pace for her to live, since it had been made forty years before that as a bank vault. The mechanism had been altered so that she could lock it from the inside. They walked there together, her hand in his as they spoke quietly.

Once she had the lock open, she led him inside, closing and bolting all of the others that led here. She lit a candle and set it on a ledge. "You said you have at least three days --"

"Maybe five," Tirran said, "But I'll have to check in after three to know better."

"Good," she said as she began to get undressed again. "I'd have sucked you for nothing once I knew that you weren't a werewolf or a vampire. I'd have been happy with only two coppers. But you gave me a gold and I can't remember feeling the way that I felt while I did it. If you think that you can get over what I'm not, then if it matters to you that we keep that relationship, you can stay here with me until you have to go, and I'll suck you as often as you want. I'd even let you fuck me a lot for that one gold that you gave me."

She looked up and saw him behind her in her mirror. "But I'm really hoping that it's not the relationship that we have, Tirran. I want to make love with you tonight, and I think that maybe I might be a little closer to what you'd want. I'm just hoping that you can pretend that I am what you want -- at least a little bit."

She kept looking at him as she'd spoken and now she saw that he was looking at her ass, so she said, "I know what you want there, and you can fuck me there too."

She watched his eyes come up to look at hers in the mirror as she nodded, "I'm a little different, I guess," she said as she shrugged, "When my momma was teaching me about being a woman, she said that I had to protect my ... virginity as much as possible. Well that's what was done where she grew up, I guess. She said that girls who had boyfriends used to let them fuck them in the ass as a way to stay virgins. She said they all hated it, but they put up with it if the guy was good to them."

He watched her shrug again, "Well I tried that. I tried it both ways and I like it in my ass too. So as long as you don't tear me up, I'd really like for you to try me there. It's probably not quite the same, but it's the same hole and ..."

She looked at him and he was chuckling softly. "I'm trying to be a little heartfelt here," she said, "so I don't really want to see you laughing at me. Does that mean that I don't even have an ass like you'd want to fuck?"

He reached for her and pulled her to him, "That's not it. I am very attracted by your body. I was about to say that I've never wanted a female, and as far as that goes, then I guess that I'm a virgin. But I've already decided that if you would like to let me try, then I'd do my poor best for you, but you don't have to worry about me wanting you.

I still mean what I said before. I will not hurt you, but I am trying to guess your age. I have no measure for the ages of humans."

"I hope it doesn't make any difference to you," she said, "but I'm eighteen. I'll be nineteen in less than a week. I've been on my own here for almost a year. I used to live in Riverside where I met you. One day I came home and the place looked like the back of a butcher's shop. I found most of the pieces of my brother and I was afraid to look in places like closets in case I found my mother. I just couldn't bear the thought. So I took our stuff for making cigarillos and I ran.

I didn't stop running until I got here and saw this old bank. I remembered reading about them in a book, so I looked down here and found this. As far as I can tell, it was bought by a man who was afraid of a war a long time ago. He used the bank as his home and kept this in case the war ever started. I found him in the corner over there, all dried up over all of that time. He was mostly dust and I just swept him up and tossed him over what's left of the fence. I'm really careful, but I've been here ever since. How -- how old are you?"

He did a little mental calculation, trying to fit the difference in the length of a year on Xer to the three hundred and sixty-five and one quarter solar days in the year here. "I think it works out to twenty three of your years, or just under. Is this a problem for you?"

"No," she laughed, "I like older men -- not that I've had many." She opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of hand clippers, "See that mirror there on the floor against the wall? I'd like it if you could pick that up and hold it behind me a little. I'm going to need two mirrors for what I want to do."

"What are you going to do?" he asked and he loved the smile that she returned to him.

"I'm going to get a little closer to the ... what are you? You never told me."

He sighed, hoping that it might not ruin this, "We call ourselves Xer. As far as I know, I'm the only one here now, but there have been others. That's how the ones that you call werewolves began here, likely from the mating bite of a male as he mated with a human female. It is passed on now from one human to another by any sort of bite which breaks the skin and touches blood. But I will not bite you, Rosa."

"I almost don't think that it matters. Tirran," she said, "You were right about me from the start. I'm not a Latina girl, though I know that I look like one with my hair long, and I can speak Spanish well enough to pass myself off as a Chicana. But I'm really one of the very few pureblood people of my tribe left. I come from a tribe who lived in the mountains. We came here for a better life than we had scratching around in the dirt back home, but I'd love to go back there any day to get away out of this shit bucket. I only had to keep an eye out for bears then. Here, if they're not after your money, they want your blood or if you're really lucky, they only want to rape you and they MIGHT not kill you afterward.

But back there, we have legends about things like you. There have been females in my family who were bitten and lived but not all of them turned and died afterward. I don't know if it's possible to have any sort of immunity to the bite, but it if is, then I think I've got some. I've been bitten before and I didn't turn."

She lifted her arm and he saw the scar of an old bite. "What happened?" he asked.