A Long Time from Home Ch. 23

"I've said it before..." She said when our lips had parted again. "You gotta be some kind of wizard with kids. How did you do that?"

"We all learn in different ways." I said and explained how the geometry method worked, ending with. "They just needed to imagine what they were doing, instead of trying to remember the result."

Alice thought it over for a moment. "I understand the method, but it just seems... complicated."

"That's because you've already learned another method." I said with a smile.

"True... " She hugged me again. "Are you sure, you're not a teacher? You sound like one."

"Oh, I've taught kids before; but that method is way I learned it."

"Ah." She chuckled. "Then please tell me, what is... ehhh.... 5467 times 7178?"

While the question was clearly meant as a joke, I could feel my brain speed up as the rectangle was formed and manipulated until the answer was there. Translating the result to English took a few heartbeats more. "Thirty-nine million, two hundred forty-two thousand, one hundred and twenty-six."

She looked wide-eyed at me. "I was joking!"

"Well, you got your answer." I kissed her soft lips. For a moment, she kissed me back, before gently pushing me away. There was a smile on her face as she said, "Stop it... You make me lose control."

"It that a bad thing?"

"No, but I'm afraid that your knowledge skills are wanted elsewhere. Rita needs your help with some Ancient History stuff, and you've been out here for hours on end." Taking hold of my shoulders, Alice turned me towards the living room. "Off you go, before I rape you."

Laughing softly, I walked to the house.

Rita and Karen were sitting in the living room and almost as soon as I stepped inside, Rita looked up at me with a smile. "Ivan, I need your help, please."

"Yeah, Alice mentioned that." I said as I walked over to her. "With what exactly?"

"Our talk about Egyptian Poetry gave me an idea." She turned the laptop and showed me a picture of Egyptian hieroglyphs. "Yesterday, Mr. Robinson, my ### A word I didn't understand###, sent the whole ancient history class an email with this picture, asking what it says or what it is. The first three to answer the mail wins a signed version of Mr. Robinson's book and I would really like to have it. It's an awesome book." She looked at me. "Do you by any chance know where it's from?"

I looked at the writing on the screen as I translated in my head. I vastly preferred the Egyptian cursive writing that the scribes used at that time, but I had learned how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs as well. As it turned out, it was a part of an old poem I had heard a long time ago, but never seen written down.

"Well, I don't know where it's from, but it's a poem."

"Really? What does it say?"

I could have translated directly, but according to Rita, only a few was able to do that, so instead I pointed at the screen. "The signs there mean 'to grab' or 'seize'. That one means 'day', so the first little bit of it probably means something like 'Seize the day'."

Rita raised her eyebrows. "If you're right, that's kinda impressive. "

"Naaah, I just have a good memory," I said with a grin. "Which is what reading hieroglyphs is all about!"

Karen poked Rita in the side. "Com' on. Search for it."

"Easy now, girl." Said Rita with a smile and looked at me. "Any other signs you recognize?"

I pretended to think and pointed at the screen again. "That sigh is 'holiday' and the next means 'to hold', so the first line has to be something like 'Seize the day. Hold holiday.'"

Rita nodded and went to work on the computer. A few heartbeats later, she grinned. "Found it and you're right. It is part of a poem or rather a Harper's Song written around 1160 BC and goes like this:

So seize the day! Hold holiday!

Be unwearied, unceasing, alive

you and your own true love;

Let not the heart be troubled

during your sojourn on Earth,

but seize the day as it passes!"

Karen blinked a few times. "That's actually quite beautiful... not to mention fitting for a vacation."

That caused Rita to lean over and give her a quick kiss. "Honey, for one that have no clue about history, you sure seem to enjoy old poems."

"I like poetry... not history." The Asian shot back, as she sneaked a hand behind Rita's neck and dragged her in for a soft, tender kiss.

The sight of them kissing and the talk about poetry made me think of another verse of the same poem and with a smile, I softly said:

"While the lady alive in your heart

Forever delights as she sits beside you.

Grieve not your heart, whatever comes;

Let sweet music play before you;

Recall not the evil, loathsome to God,

but have joy, joy, joy, and pleasure!"

Rita stiffened and broke off the kiss as she looked at her computer screen and then at me. "You're kidding me!?"

"What?!" said Karen before I had a chance to say anything.

The brown-skinned girl sighed. "Ivan just quoted an entire verse from the same poem... From memory!"

"Well, I heard it before." I said defensively, inwardly cursing my inability to shut up. "The part you read to us made me remember the rest."

That caused Karen to laugh. "That's pretty good."

Rita nodded. "Yeah, but I would give almost anything to have your memory... That would make studying such a breeze."

Karen nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it would help a lot." She tilted her head. "Which reminds me, that you still need to show me how to help the Twins when they have growing pains."

I almost laughed. I had been so caught up in opening up Karen's power nodes, that I had completely forgotten why we were doing it in the first place. Controlling myself, I nodded. "Yes. Do you have time now and is there somewhere private where we can train? I really don't want to be disturbed."

The Asian stood up with a smile. "Yes. There's a place not far from here."

"If you're going to the waterfall," said Rita. "I'll fetch you when it's time for dinner."

"Deal."

'The waterfall' proved to be a little secluded cove in a small forest ten minutes' walk from the house, where a small stream fell into an equally small pool, before it kept running downhill towards Malaga and the sea.

It wasn't really worthy of the name 'waterfall' and according to Karen, nobody ever came there because both the waterfall and the pool was too small to bathe in.

I found it peaceful and like so many other places with undisturbed natural beauty, it had a good deal of positive Vis, making it perfect for our purpose.

Teaching Karen how to guide energy lines into their right positions were a lot easier now she could actually see them and to my pleasant surprise, she remembered most of the explanations from the day before. Coupled with the knowledge about energy lines she already had from her acupuncture background, she mastered the technique a lot faster than I expected.

That made it twice in a day, that I had underestimated people in this age, and I realized, that their extensive schooling made it a lot easier for them to grasp abstract concepts than most people in the ancient world.

Instead of going back to the house at that point, Karen started to think out loud, connecting the concepts of Vis healing with the Qigong meditation style she already knew and had practiced for years. I wasn't quite sure what she meant, so she demonstrated it and to my surprise, her take on it came astonishingly close to a slow form of Vis combat meditation.

For a moment, I wished that I had never opened her nodes, but it couldn't be undone, and I didn't feel like wiping her mind or killing her for being smart, which was the only other alternatives.

Accepting the inevitable, I gently guided her as she worked out how to use the flow of Vis in the body to hit harder by releasing a minute amount of Vis in the strike or kick.

At least it was supposed to be a minute amount, but like most beginners, including myself as a kid, she spent way too much energy in the strikes, wasting most of it.

It did work, however, and she blinked in surprise as the small tree she had used as an imaginary opponent broke. "Holy crap! Did you see that?"

"I saw it." I told her reassuringly. "Nicely done."

Karen sent me one of her perfect smiles and leaned against another, and bigger, tree as she looked at me. "Nicely done?! This is like Bruce Lee's One Inch Punch!"

Since I didn't know who she was talking about, I reached out to connect with her mind to find out.

For once, I didn't bounce of her mind shield and discovered that the Bruce Lee she was talking about was a famous Martial Artist, who could deliver a brutal punch from a short distance. Using the flow of Vis in her body, Karen was certainly capable of doing the same, but she needed training. Using that much Vis with each strike would eventually kill her.

While I was thinking, Karen suddenly looked at me with a speculative expression in her face. "Wait a minute. You're not surprised.... You can do the same, can't you?"

"Yes." I answered, not really wanting to go deeper into that subject, as there was a far more useful skill she had to learn. "But it's not my favourite skill with Vis."

As I had hoped, that caught her attention. "So, what is your favourite skill?"

"I'll explain end then show you afterwards." That made her nod, so I continued. "The Vis in your body flows in a steady stream, following the energy lanes like a river through a flat landscape. However, it flows slowly because the energy lanes are wide enough to allow the energy to pass easily. As you grow better at cultivating the Vis in the body, the amount of Vis increase, thus making the energy flow faster, just like a river if the amount of water was suddenly increased."

Karen nodded again. "That makes sense."

"Good. To continue with the water picture, faster flowing water makes more interference than slow moving water. The same goes for Vis and when you detect Vis, what you're really seeing is the interference, so faster moving Vis is easier to detect. Vis leaving the body is far easier to detect, because it has left the energy lanes and thus creates a lot of interference with the surroundings, like a river turning into a waterfall." I paused. "With me so far?"

She nodded with a smile. "Yes, and Alice is right, if you're not a teacher, you really should be one, coz you can explain things, so they make sense."

"Thank you... Now with some training, every Vis user can purposely widen or narrow the energy lanes, making the flow of Vis slower or faster as desired. The last part is the fun part." I send her a smile. "Hold out your hand."

She did, and I placed my palm against hers. "This feels normal, yes?"

"Yes."

I removed the hand and with a brief concentration, I removed the widening of the energy lanes and touched her palm again. Karen almost jumped as she could feel the energy.

"Holy.... " She exclaimed, looking at my hand. "That's like getting a pleasant electric shock! It makes my skin tingle!"

"Yes, now stand still." I slid the hand down her arm, onto the chest and over her breasts. The nipples hardened in an instant and she moaned. "Feels great!"

I widened the channels again, slowing down the Vis in the body and making the feeling disappear. "That is my favourite skill. Not only because it feels good, but because it makes it much harder to detect the use of Vis."

Karen nodded shortly but didn't answer right away, and I almost see her brain working on what I had said, Finally, she asked. "The Vis in the body moves faster, when we're agitated, right?"

"Yes, but only the positive kind of agitation. That is why sharing pleasure with a person who's really excited always feels good. Negative feelings will make it move slower."

She chuckled. "So that's why sex with you is always so freaking good! My skin tingles by your touch and having you in my mouth or inside me, is even better."

I blinked in surprise a few times as nobody had ever told me that before. However, there was a good possibility, that the reason for it was that it hadn't felt that way before. With the lessening of positive Vis in the world, people were less used to the feel of a Vis flow than they were in Ancient Times and could be more sensitive to it now.

"You didn't know." She stated when she saw the expression on my face.

"No, I didn't, but as you said before, it makes sense." I said, impressed with the speed which she had put it together, proving once again that she was incredibly smart.

"Yes." She said with a pearly smile and stretched. "We can explore that later. Now I need some food. I'm hungry and tired."

That brought me back to why we were in the clearing in the first place. "Why do you think you're so tired in the middle of the day?"

"Oh Crap!" She said with a sigh after thinking about it for a moment. "I used Vis to argument my strike. I guess that's the same as using Vis to heal someone... which you told me yesterday was a bad idea."

"It is... for more reasons than the most obvious, which is your untimely death." I said with a sigh and gave her the same speech I gave Cyra and Zena about keeping extraordinary abilities a secret, less people will try to kill or control you, finishing with, "However since you have figured it out, I need to teach you two more things before we leave here."

"The Art of the Bedchamber?" she asked with a grin, making me smile. "Tempting, but no, that would take years. I was thinking more in the line of how to absorb Vis and how not to let out that amount you just used."

"Ah... okay."

Fortunately, it didn't take more than a couple of hours for her to understand and use the two new techniques, though it surprised her how much time it took to absorb the little Vis there was in the surroundings.

"Okay, I now understand why you're using the Art of the Bedchamber." She said with a sigh and leaned back to lay on the soft grass. "This takes forever."

"Yes, and this area is even one of the better ones." I said, admiring her curves. She was a tempting sight. "Giving other people pleasure is a much better way and you're lucky that you like women, because in general, women release a more Vis when they come, than men do."

She turned her head to look at me, but at the same time, we both heard someone walking through the grove and a moment later, Rita came into view, walking in our direction. Wearing a short yellow summer dress, she looked lovely and sexy at the same time.

Karen laughed softly and fastened her lovely, slanted eyes on me. "I see a test subject."

"Only if you can sit still and not join in." I said with a wink. "You need to concentrate."

"I can do that." She promised as Rita stopped right next to me.

"Dinner will be served in half an hour." The brown beauty said, looking from Karen to me and back again. "You two looked relaxed. Are you done with the teaching?"

"Almost." Said Karen lazily. "Only one or two things left."

Since Rita was standing so close to me, I reached out and let my hand caress the soft skin of her lower leg, projecting lust into her as I slowly slid my hand up her leg.

Shivering slightly, Rita shifted her stance to allow me better access and I took advantage of it by sliding my hand to the inner thighs as I continued upwards.

"What're you..." She started, but I interrupted her. "Quiet, Dark Angel. Just enjoy it."

Biting her lips, she nodded and then shivered as my fingers reached her pussy, brushing against the thin cloth covering it. At the same time, I reached out with my mind and connected with hers. Images flashed through my mind and in most of them she was being used as Karen had been used the night before, just with more orgasms.

I groped her fabulous butt for a while, watching her squirm every time my fingers came near her pussy. Then I used my other hand to turn her, so her front was towards me, making the angle less awkward. Rita sighed happily as I pulled down in her panties, got my hand inside them and stoked her naked and wet pussy.

The happy sigh turned into a moan as my thumb found her clitoris and drew circles around it, while my middle finger parted her nether lips and effortless slid into her wet pussy.

"Yeah... Mmmm..." Rita mumbled as her hips started to rock back and forth, making my fingers slide slowly in and out of her slick opening.

"Support her." I said with a wink to Karen, who were looking at us with lust in her slanted eyes.

The Asian nodded, stood up gracefully and a moment later she embraced Rita from behind, ensuring that the brown beauty wouldn't fall when she came.

"Oh yeah." Groaned Rita, as Karen used the opportunity to fondle her breasts.

I inserted a second finger into Rita's pussy, feeling it contracting around my fingers. Removing my thumb, I lifted the short dress and licked my way up her thigh. Curling my fingers a little, I found her pleasure zone and started to steadily massage it, while my tongue found her clitoris, tapping it lightly. Her scent filled my nostrils making me even more horny along with the taste of her on my tongue.

"Shit!" Hissed Rita and shivered again. A moment later, her hand found my head, pressing it against her. "Fuck, this is good!"

Despite the limited room, I managed to suck her clitoris into my mouth and massaged it with my lips, causing another groan and a bucking of her hips.

I made my tongue stiff and started to lick her clitoris, while slowly increased the tempo of my fingers, making her shake all over, until she lifted a hand and bit into her knuckles as she came. Her beautiful long brown legs shook, but Karen supported her, keeping her upright.

Removing my mouth from Rita's pussy, I said, "Now, Karen."

She nodded slightly and closed her eyes, not letting go of Rita.

I could feel her opening up for the Vis, but it wasn't quite enough and most of it evaporated into the landscape around us.

Karen must have felt the same because she mumbled "Sorry."

Rita shook her head. "No, that was awesome. Nothing like surprise sex from two gorgeous people!"

I laughed and stood up, painfully aware of my erection. "We were talking about something else, Rita. Bear with us for a moment."

She nodded, and I looked at Karen. "Let's try again... and this time, focus a bit more. You were almost there."

Without waiting for a response, I opened my pants, causing my rock-hard cock to spring forth.

Then I guided Rita backwards, until her back was against a three. "I want to fuck you, Dark Angel."

With a wide smile, she spread her legs as far as she could. I stepped in between them, squatted slightly to get the angle right and pushed into her, holding her hips still with my hands.

It was an awkward position, and it didn't allow me to penetrate her deeply, but it was enough for me to slowly fuck her, making her moan as I moved in and out of her.

My hands wandered from her hips, up the sides of her torso until I nestled each of her lovely firm breasts into my hands. As I kneaded them softly, she groaned in pleasure and her head fell back against the three, while a soft gasp slipped from her lips.

Leaning forward, I kissed those lovely lips, getting another moan from her as she responded by kissing me back, gently biting my lower lip.

At the same time, she lifted one leg and wrapped it around me, enabling me to go deeper into her wet pussy.

She broke the kiss with a gasp. "Fuck, it feels sooo good!"

I agreed and continued to fuck her slowly for a while, enjoying the feel of her body against mine and her pussy around my cock, as it steadily went in and out of her.

Her orgasm started slowly this time, as her body started to shiver while her pussy quivered around my pumping cock.

"Ohhhh! I'm coming again!" She moaned. Her arms encircled me, and she pulled me into a hug and a kiss, her pussy clamping down on my cock before she screamed into my mouth.