A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 45

For all of her solid front, Narreth still faced a lot of things in this, but they had to go on and there was the child inside of her to be borne and then birthed. She couldn't imagine what Ayt'han faced.

But there were two bodies in this and she felt the other one pressing against her. Narreth thought about it and to her, if she moved herself aside a little in her mind, there was a male for her. All of that seemed so far removed from her and after another moment, she saw that if she looked at it in another way, she had a reward in this.

She'd grown wet only feeling that hard body against hers and she'd been fighting it off. She looked at him and she strained a little to kiss him, offering just the tip of her tongue to see if he'd be repulsed.

But she wasn't rejected, and so Narreth the Rohn witch allowed herself to be swept off as she spread her legs for him and he slid into her slowly from behind. They made love out of a few different needs. It was quiet and careful, but it marked what to them both just had to be.

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The next day, the two friends were up early and after a very light meal, they loaded up in minutes and were off before the dawn, rumbling off in the direction of the town miles away. The fleece finally did get too warm for Rudhi to sit on and so she sat in the gunner's seat or on the floor close to Randi with the folded up fleece underneath her.

Things went well at the market, though the tank and Rudhi drew a fair amount of looks. Randi explained that the vehicle was there because she wanted a way to protect the food that she sold and that her friend couldn't speak, but she wasn't deaf.

It all went fairly well and business was brisk, until Randi caught sight of the preacher coming with his tattly wife hanging onto his sleeve and his good book in his other hand. Randi's next few thoughts outlined the danger to Rudhi, who nodded.

"This is the devil's work!" the preacher said in his imperious voice as he stood and looked at the vehicle which he knew nothing about. But before he could make his usual damning statements where he invoked the layabouts there to seize whomever he was pronouncing against at the moment, he was distracted by the actions of his wife, who had suddenly been overcome by the desire for the nearby shopkeeper which she'd held in her heart very quietly for years. They'd gotten together as often as they could for over half a decade now, and neither of their spouses were aware of their trysts – being rather busy with their own. None of it stopped them from decrying the actions of anyone – whether there was proof or not.

Rudhi knew all of this in a moment and sent her strong suggestions to four people in her sight, pushing them to express what they really held in their hearts. It was either that, Rudhi decided, or she'd rip the preacher's wife open down the middle, only for the thoughts that she'd read in her mind.

To herself. the preacher's woman couldn't explain the way that she felt, but she knew what she wanted and her stony self-control just began to leave her. "Oh come on Larry, and let's have a little fun," she smiled a little lasciviously as she reached into the man's pants in plain sight of everyone, "I just want to hold your beautiful prick again, my love. Why, it's only been a few days since I've had it in me, but I miss it so. My husband has never known what his little twig is for, and I gave up on it as soon as I had yours in me that first time when your missus went to her mother's."

The man was horrified, but the preacher's wife was not to be denied and she fished the member out of his pants with obviously well-practiced motions and little trouble as she dropped to her knees and began to suck it. Nobody noticed the way that Rudhi was looking at the man and a moment later, the shopkeeper and the upright wife of the preacher were "fornicating wantonly in the public eye" – as the reverend would have said it, though the shopkeeper's own wife would describe it as "rolling in the street like dogs" for years afterward.

Well, the preacher would have said it if he hadn't begun to make lewd and suddenly welcome advances of his own – to the sheriff. After a moment's struggle, the burly policeman responded, and the two men stood in an embrace which amazed the bystanders.

The activity of the market stopped altogether as everyone stared and began to laugh. But Rudhi wasn't laughing. "What sort of punishment does the holyman mete out to others for this sort of behavior?" she asked Randi in her thoughts.

"Well," Randi thought as she looked in the other direction to make sure that there were no thefts from that quarter, "Usually, and I mean every single time, he and his virtuous wife howl that the offenders be burned at the stake – forthwith, he always says. That means that they're burned alive in the square in front of everyone. It doesn't matter what they've done or even if there's any proof. I wonder what'll happen now. I'd think that what's good for the goose is good for the gander, myself."

She did look over her shoulder once or twice and then she turned away, "Are you doing this?" she asked in her thoughts and to her surprise, Rudhi answered, "Yes. Ignore it and sell your goods."

No one noticed him but Rudhi at first, but a young man who was too short to see a thing through the crowd walked into a store and, not even knowing what he said or why he said it, he began to say the words over and over. "Forthwith, forthwith" he said, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander, forthwith, forthwith, forthwith, ..." and so on.

A few in the crowd picked it up then and before long, it had become a chanting desire in the crowd that the preacher and his wife and the others involved all receive the usual punishment. The people at the center of it weren't listening at all. Many of the usual drunkards who loved to watch their Saturday entertainment took up the chant – "What's good for the goose –" they yelled.

The offenders were seized and quickly tied to the very same posts that the preacher had insisted be kept ready for immediate use in the square, since no one could tell where evil would strike next. The preacher tried to sound reasonable and his wife just screeched in indignation until someone gagged them both, tied as they were face –to –face with the sheriff and the shopkeeper.

Perhaps the happiest person there was the shopkeeper's wife. She was actually doing her best to hide her grin as she thought about now being able to keep the stockboy between her legs for more than a few minutes at a time.

The marketplace settled down after that, and the two friends made quite a bit of money and were sold out in less than another hour, so they packed up and rumbled away slowly. Back in the square, a few people were thinking that the humiliation of the preacher and his wife was complete and walked toward them to untie them. What they found were that the ropes had become sticky and they were caught there themselves. As the tank rounded the bend and drove off out of the view of the townspeople, the turret hatch opened and a dark flash shot upwards out of sight.

Rudhi was more than two thousand feet overhead a moment later as she looked down and held out her war gauntlet, pointing down with her finger. A second later, a large fireball shot forth a little lazily from her hand and she turned and flew back to her friend unobserved by anyone.

It wasn't long before the people in the square noticed the glow from overhead and they began to look up. Everyone ran for their lives, except the righteous couple and their lovers who were forgotten for the moment tied as they were and screaming in their fear as they looked up.

The fiery orb landed on them precisely, so that there could be no doubt in the minds of the faithful and the flames rose higher than they'd ever risen as the most righteous shams in the town burned.

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"What will you buy with the money?" Rudhi asked, "I ask because I wish to learn the ways that one lives here."

"Well, you might buy food or ale or something that you need," Randi said, and just then she had a thought. "Rudy? Back where you come from, what did you do when you needed anything?" She thought that she might know the answer to it, but she felt that she had to ask.

Rudhi sighed and then her reply was in Randi's mind, "I only asked, and if what I asked for was there, it was given to me. If it was not, and I wanted it, then I commanded that it be gotten. I did not think of this often – how or where it was gotten for me. Most often, once I was grown, I was busy with the wars, always with the wars which never ended.

Now, I am here. I see now that I was so ... privileged then and I never gave it a thought. But I do not mind having less now," she smiled, "That is not the most important thing to me. I have a friend in you to show me what is important in the manner of things which might be needed, so I try to learn from you. For anything else, I have you still, and I am happy."

"I'm happy too," Randi grinned, "I know that this might sound a little sappy, but you make me happy and you help me to feel safe." She sighed as she checked her mirrors, "I used to feel safe, but I learned that I really wasn't. There's something about you, though. I feel really safe when we're together and I like that."

They were silent for a time, and then Rudhi spoke in her friend's mind again. "You wear one of these weapons," she pointed to the pistol as Randi looked over, "Yet you do not feel safe?"

"I feel safer with it, but ... I think that, until yesterday, I didn't have the guts to actually do more with it than wave it around if I was threatened."

"Can you use it?" Rudhi asked.

Randi nodded, "Now, yeah, I guess so. I'd need to practice with it before I could really hit anything."

Rudhi came to a decision then. "Then, if it is not too much of the money that you have, I think that you should buy whatever it needs to kill with and practice. Is there one who makes swords here? And have you any, ..." she sought for the word, "silver?"

"Why?" Randi asked, looking over.

"I will explain when we are at your home," Rudhi said, "There are things which you must think about. You have much less to fear from anyone now, but even so ... "

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Narreth and Ayt'han returned from hunting together and she made a meal for them as he worked to butcher the doe before he set about skinning and stretching out the hide. After the meal, they just sat together and talked.

"I still wish for you to take another female," she said, "if you ever have the chance of it. We are only two here. All that I ask is that I have the chance to meet and know the one, since there is work to be done here, no matter what. A male can breed any day because he has no time when he cannot. When this babe is born, the body will return to its cycle. I was without you for so long and you are returned to me a young male – who would have been a strong young lord in our land. I almost do not know you and it is a joy to hold you to me, but there will be nights when the female of one like you might welcome a bit of rest, and so I think that it will be no trouble to share with another – as long as we get another pair of hands to help with the work."

He listened to all of that, and he smiled, "You have a lot of faith in me if you think that I can just attract girls out of the air. I'll try to to remember that if the time ever comes. I doubt that it will, Narreth. I think that people here pair just as Tarkroth do. What female would want to share a male with another?"

When they went to bed, he laid her down and he made love to her with his mouth for hours. As she writhed in bliss and happiness, Narreth had only a little time to think and wonder. When he mounted her and she looked up at him, she came to a pair of thoughts that she'd never have wanted to have.

Ayt'han was a much better lover than his father had been.

Beyl'eth was a fool to ever leave him the first time.

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Randi held out the two swords that she owned. She'd learned a little and knew the basics. To her, there was more value in it as a way to keep fit and she'd always admired the beauty that she saw on the rare occasions when somebody who knew what they were doing came to town and put on a demonstration like at the fair. They usually offered a few lessons, but Randi never had money to put toward anything like that, and to go there would have meant a long trip there and back to her rather secluded home several times. Just getting up the courage to go to the fair to sell her meats was a challenge.

What she held in her hands were very crude approximations in the classic Japanese style and she'd gotten them at the fair the previous fall, little more than rough castings which were quickly produced, an edge filed on, and a coarse grip wound on. They might do if one really wanted to punish a piece of vegetation.

Rudhi looked up, "No swordsmith here at all?"

"I don't know of any," her friend said, "I only know of Herbert the smith and he sticks to hinges and horseshoes, mostly."

"Then we need a forge," Rudhi said.

"I have one. My father used to be a smith. I was going to sell all of his stuff, but then I found that I sometimes needed it to make things for my piggy out there. But why –"

Rudhi set down her mug of the tea that Randi had made and stood up. The pair of them usually laughed a little at themselves, but they'd been truthful in their first conversation. Left alone and feeling somewhat secure from other eyes, each one was happiest in a warm place wearing little if anything at all. Almost as soon as they'd arrived and closed up the front of Randi's old and rambling home, they were back to wearing little and just seemed most content like that. They weren't lovers, other than some kisses that they liked to share, but they did like each other's bodies, and it just felt good to them that way. Randi saw that Rudhi had a serious expression as she stepped a little closer.

"Because I am a warrior, and if you look around at your life, with that weapon and those swords that you wish to learn to use and that large machine outside, this is in you as well. You only had bad things happen to you before, so you had no chance to grow confident. I am here now and I may not know much of how to live here, but I can help in this."

The thongs at her breasts disappeared and she held out her right hand. An instant later, Randi's eyes opened wide to see the strange gauntlet on her friend's left hand and she held a thin black object in her right. That object became a sword instantly, long and straight and rather thin. At the back of what Randi now recognized as the grip, a thin spike grew out from it perhaps five or six inches. The blade was rather ornate with many engravings on it which meant nothing to Randi, but she could see many differently sized scalloped gaps and serrations along the edge. The whole thing gleamed wickedly in the light of the lamp in the room.

"I've never seen anything like, ... " Randi's mouth was open in her amazement, "That's so beautiful."

"More than beautiful," Rudhi smiled, "it is an extension of the will – as any good sword is meant to be. Only touch the haft where my hand is and feel with your fingers."

Randi reached out and gasped ,"It – it's quivering." She reached to touch Rudhi's forearm and found the vibrations to be absent.

"As I said," Rudhi grinned, "Show me this forge."

"It's not very big," Randi said as she led them, "it's just to make small things and repair some stuff."

As they opened the doors and stepped into the cold smithy, Randi was about to apologize for the way that it looked, but she saw her friend's eyes as they took everything in; anvil, hammers, tongs, bellows, fire pit ...

She looked around further and began to grin; casting table, quenching tank, bulging bags of coal, bag of casting sand ...

The sword and the gauntlet vanished and Rudhi hugged Randi with a pleased smile, "Everything is here for you to make your sword. Come, we need something on our feet and our coats to begin, until the fire grows hot."

"Me?" Randi gaped, "my sword?"

"Yes," the other nodded decisively, "You will make your sword here. I will teach you and you will make it. You built that metal wagon that we ride in, and you said that you can make small things. Now you will become a warrior and the first step is to forge your blade."

"What am I going to use for steel?"

Rudhi smirked, "We begin with the swords that you have. We cut them up, melt them, and purify the metal to remove the cheap metal that is included. We may need both of your blades to make one. I have learned that you have little silver and what you have is much of your money. I will give the silver."

"What do I need the silver for?" Randi blinked, "I wanted to ask before, bu -"

Rudhi was happy again and she kissed her friend for a moment. "Silence, Randi," she smirked, "One thing at a time."

She began to walk out to get her coat and her boots. Randi watched her walk off and began to follow.

"You're happy," she laughed a little, "I love it when you're happy. I usually don't understand it," she shook her head to herself before she grinned, "but I love it anyway."

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It was a bit of a strange and busy evening. Randi prepared a few cuts of meat to smoke and Rudhi got the firepit started with wood and switched to coal as soon as she could and the smoke from it qualmed up the old hood and chimney to be drawn outside. Between the two activities, the two women often ran back and forth, showing each other something as the thought came to them. Randi knew what her friend was doing to prepare at first, and when they had the meat hung on the smokehouse, they worked together at the forge.

When the fire was hot and the coals were glowing, it was already very warm back there. Rudhi had found a pair of dirty work aprons and had them folded on the floor. The women knelt as Rudhi instructed and Randi was silent as her friend offered up prayers to her deities and asked that the work and its result be pure in purpose and deed. Rudhi was naked, aside from her boots and as she tied on her apron, Randi followed suit out of a desire to stay at least a little comfortable. The day had turned cold and as it grew dark outside it pelted freezing rain with a whipping cold wind, so there was no desire in either of them to open the doors even a little.

With the aprons on, they laughed at each other and tied their hair back as they began. Randi's blades were cut up easily and the pieces thrown into a crucible. When the metal was molten, Rudhi pulled one of the thin spikes from her gauntlet and slowly added it to the mix and the pair stood together watching as the silver melted and sank into the red steel. As it 'cooked' and burned off the impurities in Randi's cheap blades, Rudhi quickly made up a casting box and filled it with the sand. Randi watched fascinated as Rudhi's sword appeared out of the air and the grip was removed so that the blade could be pressed into the sand slowly and carefully.

As Rudhi stood considering everything, Randi's hand trailed over her shoulders for a moment and she looked back with a small smile. "It's nothing," Randi said, "I just wanted to touch you for a second."

Rudhi grinned, "It is a strange thing to me," she said, "I have had lovers, male and female before, but I have never liked a passing touch from another as much as from you. It is different than the touch of a lover; much closer and it says much to me. We are not lovers, Randi, but I enjoy this."

"I know," Randi sighed, "I've never seen someone as beautiful as you are and I like to touch you. Sometimes, it's like I need to."

"I am the same," Rudhi nodded, "We ... are the same."