Flesh: Sacrifice Ch. 01

Qaray Puka greeted Taksa Kuchu and Benitez, and Summer introduced the old man and his men to the tall, lanky brunette. "'Rap-hi,'" Summer instructed Dani. "'Hello.'"

"Rap-hee," Dani sounded out to the medicine man.

Dani was at a distinct disadvantage to her fellow outsiders. Summer, Benitez, and Taksa Kuchu were all, apparently, fluent in the Huaca tongue. Benitez laughed and joked with the Huaca as he unloaded the back of the Land Cruiser, handing his backpack and other supplies to Qarachupa, Achaku, and the other men. Dani, not sure how she was supposed to act, or what exactly was expected of her, stuck close by Summer's side.

"I'm going to leave my things here," Summer told the girl. "If you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can give your clothes to Asna Charapa over there."

Dani scowled. "I don't suppose it makes a difference, right? I'm not going to be able to wear them."

Summer shrugged indifferently. "You don't have anything to worry about with these people," she soothed the girl. "And Gabriel will be with you the entire time."

Summer called over to Qaray Puka, and while Dani couldn't understand the words themselves, she knew caught the gist of it. "Just give us a minute," Summer seemed to be telling the old man.

As if granted Qaray Puka's permission, Summer stepped around to the far side of the Land Cruiser, with Taksa Kuchu following a few steps behind. She'd ridden up to this meeting point in relative comfort, dressed in a pair of sandy-colored, loose-fitting, drawstring linen pants, and a matching crochet halter-top. Though casual and less than form-fitting, Summer had nonetheless come off as effortlessly sexy. Taksa Kuchu, meanwhile, was dressed in a pair of three-quarters-length khaki cargo pants that clung to figure, as well as a simple olive-colored tank. Neither of the two women, however, stayed dressed for much longer, now that they'd reached their meeting point.

Dani steeled herself, and joined them in the road.

In one motion, Summer pulled her shirt over her head, and revealed that she'd come this far without a bra. Though Dani was caught by surprise by just how young and firm her breasts appeared, defying gravity for a woman her age, the real shock came from the fact that the blonde's nipples were pierced. Each was pierced through with a simple, silver barbell. Summer tossed the shirt into front seat of the Land Cruiser, revealing that her bellybutton, too, was affixed with a dangling, silver piercing. And, if Dani had been shocked by the woman's pierced nipples, she was horrified when she caught the glint of sunlight off a piece of jewelry between the blonde's legs. Summer slithered out of her pants and panties in one go, her bald pussy only further accentuating the stud that sat at the front of her slit -- silver, but with some sort of small jewel embedded within.

Dani wasn't sure what to think, but she didn't want to get caught staring at the older woman's pussy, either. She supposed that if one were to become a sexual sacrifice in a series of backwoods tribal rites, it really couldn't have been that big of a leap to pierce one's body. Especially when surrounded by a culture in which piercings were so common. As Taksa Kuchu undressed, she revealed none of the same jewelry as the blonde -- nipples, bellybutton. And, though Dani didn't have a good angle, she assumed Taksa Kuchu's pussy has been similarly adorned.

As for Dani herself, the girl did have a pierced bellybutton, but that was where her own adventures in body piercing had ceased. A simple heart-shaped jewel hung inside the girl's navel. As she pulled her tank up over her head, however, she did reveal that she was the only one of the three women with a tattoo. Her mother had yet to forgive her for it, and though she'd been just seventeen when she'd driven up to East Thetford to get it, Dani still liked the way that the ornately-designed little butterfly looked on the small of her back, sketched out in dark red, blue, and purple ink.

Glancing nervously at the eight men on the far side of the Land Cruiser, waiting for the women to undress, Dani tossed her tank top into the car on top of Summer's clothes. She was tempted to, as Summer had suggested, bequeath her clothes to Asna Charapa or Benitez for safe-keeping. But neither Taksa Kuchu nor Summer seemed overly concerned by the fact that they were leaving their clothing behind, and neither of the other women had anything stored for safekeeping in Benitez's backpack, as Dani did. Moreover, some of the edge was taken off when Dani saw that the Huaca men were wearing little in the way of clothing themselves -- just short, simple loincloths that did little to hide their bodies. The brunette found the waistband of her skirt with her thumbs, and slid the thin fabric down her thighs, past her knees, and into a puddle around her ankles. She stepped carefully from skirt, and dumped it inside the SUV.

Summer was stark naked, save for the aforementioned body jewelry, which itself was accompanied by a more traditional collection of necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings. In fact, the blonde was wearing about four different pieces of jewelry around her neck, and unsnapped one from behind for Dani to wear. Dani hesitated, but accepted the gift, a necklace of alternating jaguar teeth and silver beads. She allowed the naked woman to hang it around her neck, and found that the largest tooth sat nicely in her cleavage.

Taksa Kuchu wore nothing but the loincloth Dani had seen her pack that morning. Neither the front nor the back panel could have been more six inches in width, though the material did hang down to the Indian girl's ankles like some sort of bastardized prom gown. The waist was slung dangerously low, and Dani suspected that if Taksa Kuchu had had any pubic hair (she didn't; Dani had just watched her undress), it might have been plainly visible above the band.

For her own part, Dani stood in the middle of a dirt road in the middle of the Bolivian yungas in nothing more than a unadorned-but-unquestionably-sexy black thong and a matching black bra. She reached for the spare loincloth that the Taksa Kuchu had provided her, and tied it tightly around her hips. As on the Indian girl, the front panel was lower than Dani might have hoped, but it adequately covered the front of her panties, at least. The elastic band of her underwear was plainly visible alongside the strings that held the loincloth together, but there was little that Summer could do about it.

It was bra that had caused so much heartache and contention that morning, but now that she was standing here with Summer and Taksa Kuchu, Dani began to have second thoughts. Summer was naked. Taksa Kuchu was topless. The Huaca men were wearing nothing more than poorly-fitting loincloths. Were Dani to take to the jungle in the bra-and-panty set, she would arguably be the second-most dressed member of their party, after only Benitez. Without giving it a second thought, and moving quickly -- like she was peeling off a band-aid -- Dani reached around behind her back, and unsnapped the bra. She let it fall forward, slipped her arms from under the straps, and tossed it into the Land Cruiser, never once allowing herself a moment of hesitation.

Summer said nothing, but her smile showed that she was pleased.

Dani wasn't sure what to do with her hands, and wasn't entirely comfortable with her tits out in the open. And so, at least for the moment, she draped a forearm over her breasts, hiding the fact that her nipples were rock-hard and standing straight out. Slender hips and a beanpole figure for much of high school, Dani's breasts had grown in late, but they'd grown in with resolve. A borderline D-cup, she was already regretting her decision to cast away her top when she glanced past the Huaca men at the trailhead beyond.

"So we're going to hike now?" she asked. "Through the swamp?"

"You can wear your sandals," Summer answered. "It's not a difficult hike, but we are going a few miles through the mud." The blonde and the Indian girl were both barefoot; Qaray Puka and his men were barefoot, as well. Dani, though, doubted her soles were calloused enough to make bare feet a realistic option.

Summer shut the door to the Land Cruiser, and there was finality to Dani's decision to leave her bra behind. She had another, tucked away inside Benitez's backpack with her change of "clothes" for tomorrow, but she'd decided to go topless for now, and she'd live with her decision for the near future, at least. As they rounded the bumper, Benitez did a double-take, but otherwise called no attention to the fact that Dani had gone back on this morning's argument. And Dani, worried that she was attracting more stares by the fact that she was shielding her breasts from view, let her arms fall her side.

"I don't suppose you have some sort of DEET, or mosquito repellant, or something?" Dani asked the doctor.

"Better," Benitez replied. He handed her a necklace made of interwoven fern fronds. He himself was wearing one, and Dani watched as the Huaca gave one each to Summer and Taksa Kuchu. "It's sapumpa fern. It'll keep the bugs away."

"Native ingenuity," Dani said, adding the fern necklace to stone pendant Summer had just given her.

"Native ingenuity," Benitez concurred.

Leaving the Land Cruiser behind, and offering a few words of encouragement to one another, the group set out into the swamps - away from the road, away from San Eduardo, and away from all of Western Civilization.