Dania Ch. 06

Roth hadn't exactly mated with Dania, they'd come very close, but not quite. Her behavior was something he'd never come across with any of the women of the Meh-teh. She was beyond fierce and was a more than worthy opponent. None of the women he knew could compare to this. And yet when she'd angered him and he'd grabbed her by the throat something had changed within her.

No. Change was incorrect. This was another part of her. She'd submitted to him. Completely.

Again, this was also not like a woman of his kind. The Meh-teh favored an equal balance in all things. The only exception to this was their leader. As leader, Roth had the final say in whatever concerned the Meh-teh. But in all other things, balance was favored. Mating, while very pleasurable, was . . . . bland.

Dania was both more and less aggressive. Puzzling.

If totally honest with himself, Roth was angry with himself for what had almost happened. For almost mating with her. He'd known all of the things that could and would go wrong if that ever transpired. And he'd still nearly gone through with it. With that one single act, Dania would become one of the most important persons in a society she didn't belong to. She would have to be the dominant female and would only have to answer to Roth. He knew that his people would not accept this willingly. They saw her as a danger to them and having Dania as one of their leaders would not sit well with them.

But Roth had very much enjoyed the near-mating. He'd been able to let go of his inhibitions and fully take control of her. He was very much aware that this would not have been possible with a woman from the Meh-teh. With Dania....with her, there had been lust.....passion.....rage...pain....pleasure....and even playfulness. With her he was able to be completely in charge, which was just not done with his people.

Dania's submission to him was unlike anything he'd encountered before with his people, but it wasn't something he couldn't or wouldn't deal with. He would have to be careful, that much was certain. His position as leader of the Meh-teh had, at least a little, prepared him for what was to come.

What was to come! He had no idea what would happen between the two of them. An actual mating between the two of them wasn't possible (in the most biological sense). He had no idea of who this creature was or if there were more of her. There was so much that he didn't know.

All of these thoughts, and more, passed through Roth's head in only a few seconds as they lie on the ground. He crawled up and was next to her and she wrapped her tail around his leg just a bit tighter than before. She seemed very tired.

He pulled her close to him. "Come here, Little One," he said to her and she started purring. She nestled her head into the crook between his chest and his arm and was asleep in almost no time. Roth began to run his fingers through her hair and found that it was very silky compared to the rest of her body. It ran down about half the length of her back and it was a mystery how she managed to keep it out of her face.

They lie there as the sun made its way across the sky, Dania sleeping softly and Roth thinking. He must have fallen asleep at some point because Dania woke him up asking him something.

"Huh? What did you say?" he asked her.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" He wasn't entirely awake and didn't understand what she was asking.

"What was that that happened before?"

"Well....that was something that almost happened."

"I know what almost happened. I'm not talking about the sex," she said playfully. "I'm talking about when you grabbed me by my neck." She grabbed his hand and placed it around her neck. "Like this."

Roth thought for a moment before speaking. "We don't have a word for it in my language. My people don't behave like you did."

"I didn't know I behaved like that."

"What do you mean, 'you didn't know?'"

It was at this point that she told him how she'd woken up in the Forest one morning and had no memory of anything that had happened before. She'd woken up cold, hungry, and alone. Learning how to hunt was something she'd had to learn. If she hadn't, she would have starved. She obviously had learned how to do that by now. But in her world, she was at the top of the food chain. She was the master of her own world. For her to have given into him like that made no sense to her.

"Well, it did to my Cat, but not to me."

Her Cat? What did she mean by that? She was, herself, a cat.

She saw the look of confusion on his face. "She's a part of me. I don't know the words to explain. Its like there are two of us in here," she pointed to her head, "and she knew what was happening. Welcomed it even."

Two people inside her head? This thing was crazy. "I don't pretend to understand. I have no language for this. But I do know that you wanted to have no control at all. The Meh-teh are not like that. We live in balance. As couples, with one another, with the Forest. Everything is balanced."

Still feeling the effects from earlier, she curled up even closer to him. "Tell me more about your people. How long have you lived here? How many of you are there?"

Roth began telling her the legend of the Meh-teh.

"The Meh-teh"

"There is a legend among my people of how we came to be. Back when the world was young, a great storm threatened to destroy everything. In an effort to save themselves and the world that they had created, the Elements, as they were called, came together to fight off the storm. The Elements of Air and Earth and Water came together at the top of a tall mountain but they were not powerful enough to ward off the storm.

"Seeing that they were not strong enough alone, they made the choice to take a part of themselves and make something new; something that was a part of all of them, but belonged to none. They called this thing the "Meh-teh." This Meh-teh is not the same as I am today. It was not alive. This was a vessel designed to absorb all of the energy of the storm until it was no longer a threat.

"The Meh-teh was placed at the top of the mountain and the storm attacked it immediately. A great bolt of lightening came down and struck the vessel and it was given life. The Elements had never expected this. The Meh-teh writhed in pain as the storm continued its assault. But the storm was not weakening.

"Instead, a strange thing happened. The storm took pity on the Meh-teh. This newly-living creature had done nothing to the storm. It had not abused the planet for its own amusement. The lightening struck the Meh-teh again, this time in the chest. In place of pain, the Meh-teh received an awareness of itself. The lightening stopped and the first Meh-teh stood and let out a mighty roar.

"The lightening struck him again and he was split in two. This other Meh-teh was different. It was female.

"The storm called down to them and called the male Lore and the female Yule. It said to them, 'I want you to be my protectors. Protect this world. As long as there are Meh-teh, I will never destroy it. But do not fear, I will return and return often, as my water nourishes and the fire from my lightening makes way for new growth. Go now.'"

"And with that, the storm ceased and the Meh-teh made their way down from the mountain top. The Elements saw the two Meh-teh as abominations and left them, refusing to have any contact with them. The Elements have not contacted the Meh-teh to this day and no one knows if they are still on this world or not. But we continue to protect these mountains. We are so few now that this is all we can protect.

"After leaving the mountain top, Lore and Yule mated and had many offspring. The spread throughout the world and lived in peace. They treated the world with respect at all times. Life was good.

"Many years and many generations passed without much changing. One day we noticed a new creature walking about. He was much smaller than us and the only hair he had was on his head and his chin. Other than this, he was naked. Upon seeing us, he became fearful and fled. We decided that it was best to stay away from these creatures, not for our own safety, but for theirs. A scared animal can be very dangerous. Should they prove dangerous, we would defend ourselves. So we stayed clear of this animal and let him have his space. We called him Man.

"We chose to live in areas that man did not, so there was less chance of running into them, and therefore, less chance of anyone getting hurt. We saw this as protecting Man. We went back into the mountains where we first came from.

"Another thousand generations or so passed before we came in contact with them again. Man had not chosen to live of the earth as we had. Instead, they lived off of it, taking what they needed, never replacing anything. They had developed technologies and had advanced by leaps and bounds. They were like a disease.

"At first we tried to reason with them but it did no good. They were still fearful of us. But now they had weapons and they began to hunt us down. We had been created out of violence but had known none until this point. We were not prepared for them and they nearly wiped us out. Eventually we had no choice but to fight back and man was no match for our size and strength.

"Many lives were lost before man retreated and left us alone in the mountains. It only took one or two generations for us to become a myth to them. Few remembered the battles and the bloodshed. After another generation, no one believed that we had ever existed. Those that caught glimpses of us were called crazy. Man had grown arrogant and believed that nothing on earth was more powerful than they were. We were content so we did not remind them. We kept to the mountains and made an effort to stay away from man.

"Mas was like a virus let loose upon the earth. They spread beyond what they needed while our territories receded. With less space, there was less food so our numbers began to shrink. Many tribes have died off completely. As far as I know, we are the last in this part of the world.

"I know what you're thinking. If we were sworn to protect the Earth, why have we let man damage it so? There are a couple of reasons. Man simply has too many numbers for us to overcome. And on top of that, when man sought us out to destroy us, they came into the Forests and the Mountains, destroying it as well as us. Both sides lost. We've convinced them we aren't here and they don't come into the Forests anymore and it remains safe. In my lifetime, man has not been seen in this Forest."

Dania sat with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Man sounds evil." No sooner had she said this than her Cat screamed at her that she was wrong. Man was not evil and she knew this. She should at least.

Roth also corrected her. "Some are, but most are not. Most are peaceful. But all are fearful of us. And Man fears what it doesn't understand or know."

Dania felt that this was true and her Cat confirmed.

"Kind of like the way your people feared me?"

"Exactly like that," Roth said as a hint of a smile crept onto his face. "Please accept my apologies. You do know that you were never meant to be kidnapped right?"

"W-what are you talking about?" Dania managed to say, stuttering slightly. She was clearly shocked.

"Anos and Gynen were only sent to spy on you, to learn what they could while you were gone. Your arrival spooked them and they panicked." Roth's eyes were glued to the ground. He was clearly ashamed of what his men had done to the woman who he was now getting to know. He was even more ashamed of how he'd treated her, knowing she'd done nothing wrong.

"And . . . .?"

"And when you were brought before me, part of me didn't want to let you go so I had them bind you so that we could learn about you. The other part of me thought that you really could be dangerous. And you can be."

"But I'm not," she said. She couldn't help but smile to herself at the memory of being bound. The experience then was terrible, but looking back, she almost wished it would happen again.

"I know. But you can be. Which is why I'm happy that we're getting to know each other."

"We almost did more than that," she said playfully and she was suddenly struck by the knowledge that if they had mated, it would have been for life. She was unaware of where this knowledge came from, but she knew that it was true. "We can't go farther than we have already, Roth. I can't do that."

He'd wanted to avoid this for awhile, but there was no doing so now. "I know," he said with his eyes on her face, reading it for the slightest response. "But there is more to this than mating. There was something else. You gave in to me. You submitted. It felt good to me to have you give over like that."

"I don't really know what was happening then. I only know that it felt natural, like it was something I was used to doing. Like it was what I was supposed to be doing."

She was sitting up next to me facing my direction.

"You liked when I took control? You needed me to be in charge, didn't you?"

She was on top of him in a flash, her hands at his throat and her claws threatening to dig in. "Don't think that makes me weak. I am anything but." Her eyes were fierce and her teeth bared. He nodded that he understood and she released him.

"Did you?" he asked tentatively.

Dania bowed her head. "Yes." She hated to admit it, but he was right. She liked him having control. She somehow knew that he'd take care of her.

But she was jumping ahead of herself. Take care of her? That would mean she'd have to go back with him to his people when he went. What would happen with that? What would she have to do? This was becoming too much for her. This was too much change in a short amount of time. If she weren't careful, this would overwhelm her.

"Roth, I'm scared. This is too much."

He pulled her close and began to stroke her hair again. "Don't worry, Little One. We should get some sleep. But first I want you to go and get me some water. Use one of the larger leaves from that tree over there to carry the water. It won't hold a lot, but I only want a little."

"Why don't you go get it yourself?" Dania asked him, a little annoyed.

He didn't say anything at first. "Because I want you to do it. Now go."

Dania could tell by the look in his eyes that she shouldn't push him any farther. It wasn't because she was scared of him or anything like that. So much had already happened that day that it just seemed like a fight that wasn't worth having. If it would help avoid a fight she would have no qualms about doing this one little task for him. So she did as he had asked and got him the water. Roth drank the water, what little of it there was, with a smile.

"Thank you, Cat." She couldn't help but smile. He motioned for her and she did not hesitate before coming to him and curling up next to him. Her purr started soon after he began stroking her hair. She decided that she liked this and wouldn't mind if he continued stroking her hair.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Meanwhile back at the Meh-teh camp . . ."

"He's dead!" Jun told the people of the Meh-teh. "I saw her kill him with my own eyes. She hit him over the head with a rock. I saw the pool of blood that formed around his head. I went up to him after she'd left. He wasn't breathing! He's dead!"

Jun was well aware that this didn't bode well for the Meh-teh. Roth had by far been their best warrior. As a way of life, the Meh-teh were peaceful and only a few males were aggressive enough to be warriors and even then, all paled in comparison to Roth. And Dania had killed him!

And what was just as bad was that they still had nearly a full cycle of the Moon before another leader could be chosen. If she attacked before then, there would be no hope for them. Chaos would ensue because they had no leader.

"Listen people!" Jun shouted. "If we wait here, she will come for us. And she is strong! We would eventually kill her, but how many of us would die first? We have no choice but to move on. We can't stay here."

The only sounds you could hear were those of the Forest; no one disagreed with Jun, but no one wanted to lend their voice to his plan to leave either. They would follow, yes, but to say it out loud somehow seemed like the wrong thing to do.

It took the Meh-teh seven days to have everything ready to move on. There would be no signs that they had even been there in the first place. Most of the efforts were led by Jun. He pretty much told everyone what needed to be done and his judgment was good. In those seven days, he earned the respect of the Meh-teh. He was sure he would be considered for leadership when the time came.

The night before they were to leave, Jun was awakened by the sound of the Drums. He listened a moment before he realized that the Drums were signaling that a new leader would be chosen. It was still a half a cycle of the Moon before that should happen. He hurried to their meeting place hurriedly only to find that most of the Meh-teh were already there.

He began to cross and be with his people, but was motioned to stop. A large wooden staff was placed at his feet. This meant that the Meh-teh had chosen him as their new leader. To accept he would have to accept the gift of this staff. And he did, reaching down and then raising it towards the Moon and letting out a roar that could be heard for miles around.

"We leave in the morning," he said and then returned to go to sleep. He couldn't help but ask himself if this was really happening. It was and he was glad because of it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Roth had already positioned himself behind me and I was down on my hands and knees, waiting for him to begin.

The past few days had been a whirlwind of pleasure. As much as I loved to be free and do my own thing, I loved having someone around to keep me company. We had gotten to know each other much better and I was glad that it was him that was around.

And submitting to him became easier, too. I didn't trust him completely and there was no way I could give myself over to him entirely. That first time had been an accident, a mistake, because it had caught me off guard. That wouldn't happen again. So while easier, it was more controlled. I have to say that he was not bad to submit to; he was very patient and took the time to teach me things.

I'd made it clear to him that we wouldn't mate. Not only was it physically impossible, but also I didn't know who I was. If I had another mate somewhere, I would be betraying him. I wouldn't do that. That being said, there was an attraction there that neither one of us could ignore. The pleasure that Roth gave me was beyond anything I'd known possible. If I'd known you could experience the heights that he sent me to, I would have sought this out a long time ago. But now that I'd found it out, I hoped to make up for lost time.

Physically, the he gave me pleasure in amounts that made it hard to walk afterwords. My legs wouldn't be steady and my knees would be weak. I didn't want to eat and I couldn't sleep. But this went deeper than that. Emotionally, I got pleasure from giving him pleasure. It felt right to do this.

And then there was the whole matter of me being a "submissive." My Cat certainly understood what this meant, but on the whole, I only knew how it made me feel. Maybe if I go back to the Meh-teh, I will see other women who aren't submissive and this will help me to see the difference. To me this feels normal, but my normal may not be normal.

Whatever it is or whatever you call it, I like it.

The only conflict I seem to have with the whole thing is that when I go out to hunt, I am still the apex predator in the area. I am in complete control and I like it that way. When I'm up in those trees, I am the master of my fate and nothing can touch me. And whenever I decide to hunt, nothing can stop me. I do seem to toy with my food a lot more, but in the end, the result is the same: they die, I eat.