Glade and Ivory Ch. 02

"The forest where I was born is far, far to the South," Glade told Ivory the following day after her apprentice had returned from foraging duties in the woods and removed her clothes on the shaman's request. "It's a very different land. The sun shines high in the sky. At midday it's almost directly overhead. It is always warm. My people never wore clothes. I never knew what it meant to cover my flesh. The need to do so just did not exist."

"It sounds like paradise," said Ivory.

"Paradise? The mystical place where the spirits take you when you die?" Glade mocked, reminding Ivory of the gulf between their beliefs that could never be bridged. "Theparadiseyou imagine and which I invoke to comfort the dying is no paradise at all compared to the land I come from. Yourparadiseis a cold dry treeless plain, whereas the forest where I lived was warm, moist and full of trees. In comparison to the Southern forests, your small woodlands are nothing more than pitiful. The trees were alive with beautiful birds whose gorgeous feathers were more splendid than those of any ptarmigan or crane. Most animals that live there never venture to the cold forests of the North."

"What type of beast are they?"

"You have no words for them. There were monkeys and apes. There were frogs whose skin was more brightly coloured than flowers in the Spring. It was never cold. There were no seasons. We had no word for 'year' or 'season'. The course of our lives was measured only by the Moon we could but dimly glimpse through the forest canopy. We knew no other world than the forest. If given the choice we would never exchange the warmth and bounty of ourparadisefor the cruel cold of the frozen North."

The young Glade had no notion that one day in her future she would live in a land dominated by seasons and populated by large animals such as woolly rhinoceros, aurochs or mammoth. There were a few dangerous animals under the forest canopy, but the leopards and wolves generally left people alone. The chimpanzees and gorillas were wary of humans. Most of the animals that lived in the dense forest were small. The Forest People didn't live in villages. They slept on the forest floor at night on whatever spot their roving had taken them during the day and they relied on campfires to ward off predators. Occasionally, a lion or hyena might stumble into the forest by accident, but there were not many rich pickings to whet their appetite.

The Forest People had ways of life and traditions appropriate to a life of foraging and hunting in the woods. The custom of permanent settlement was not one of them. If an area of the forest was full of fruits and small game, a settled community of more than thirty people would soon denude it of everything edible. It was best for the tribe to be constantly wandering.

The forest was home to many itinerant clans of Forest People and there was great celebration when their paths crossed. There was no suspicion or hostility in such encounters. Everyone knew the encounter would be brief and that the two clans would soon part, but these gatherings were a time when all inhibition were wholly abandoned.

Many of Glade's happiest childhood memories were of such encounters. There was the exchange of gifts and food. There was feasting under the shadow of the trees. And when enough palm wine had been drunk, there was the inevitable fucking. It was on such an occasion that Glade first lost her virginity and did so more than once that night. Although she enjoyed sex with the men in her clan, what Glade most enjoyed was sex with new friends she might never see again. It was commented on, but never understood, that nine moons after such an encounter was a fruitful time for new brothers and sisters. This was always a cause for celebration. Nobody understood that sex and pregnancy were related. It was enjoyed too frequently and with too many different partners for anyone to establish the link between the two.

It was an innocent world. It was innocence so absolute that when it came crashing to an end the awakening into a harsher, less forgiving world was that much more terrible.

"Did you believe in the spirits when you were young?" Ivory wondered. She was sure that Glade couldn't always have been an apostate.

"Yes," the shaman admitted. "But these weren't the spirits you revere. Our spirits were the spirits of the trees, which we believed were people like ourselves. We would never harm a tree. We gave praise to the trees whenever we made a kill. We believed that the deer or antelope whose life we'd taken was a gift from the trees that had given them life. The Forest People had many myths and legends which we embellished and enriched around the campfire at night. It wasn't only sex we relished when we met other clans in the forest. It was also the exchange of new stories. This is where I learnt my skill at story-telling which I employ to such good advantage here. I discovered early on that the essence of a good story is not to simply give an account of what actually happened or what might have happened: it is in the telling of that story. People want to hear stories that have a satisfying and happy conclusion. The story must be resolved in a way that reinforces what people want to believe. This is another lesson you must never forget. When you tell a story, you must find out what your listener wants to hear and ensure that this is how the story ends. Any other ending and the listener is not satisfied and is less likely to trust you."

"Did you also believe that man and woman were born from ice and snow, and that the world began in a snowstorm?"

"Of course not. No one in the forest knew what snow or ice is. We believed that the world was like a tree but one that had lived forever. There were new branches in the history of the world and the appearance of the first man and woman was one such new branch. Our tales were of a happy first birth. Not like your myths. There was no tradition of punishment and guilt. We believed that nature is always bountiful. Our prayers were to express gratitude for nature's beneficence. They weren't an appeal for forgiveness and mercy."

The Forest People had no concept of sin. People could be greedy. They could be naughty. They could even be angry. But they could never be sinful. There was no malice or avarice because everyone shared everything: their food, their fire and their bodies. How could sin ever come to pass?

Glade discovered that not only was she a gifted story-teller, but that she was also a skilled and passionate lover. She was proud to be known as an easy lay and a good fuck. She did whatever she could to further the opinion that made her so popular with her clan. After she made love to one man or boy, she would roll over, semen still trickling down her thighs, and take another man's penis in her mouth in anticipation of another bout of sex. She often made love to two, three or four men: sometimes serially and sometimes together. When men were in need of sex, it was Glade who was the most willing to provide it.

"I loved cock. I couldn't get enough of it. There was not a day, except when I was ill, that I didn't make love at least a couple of times."

"How many children did you have?" wondered Ivory. She understood that sex was a gift from the spirits to compensate for the burden of motherhood.

"None," said Glade.

"Have you ever had children?"

"Yes. Two. But this was many years later, after I'd left the forest. It is a strange thing, but nature decided that I should be less fecund than most women in the world. Nevertheless, there were girls in my clan who were always pregnant. They gave birth and then within the space of a moon or two they were pregnant again. Others like me never gave birth at all. We thought that children were another gift from the trees. In your tribe, with its taboos and your practice ofmarriage, it becomes fairly obvious to understand how a mother can come to give birth to children."

Ivory's life as the shaman's apprentice was mostly no different from how it had been before. She had the same duties at the hearth to prepare food, tend the fire and stitch the thick furs that was as much a necessity as food in the cold weather. As Ivory pulled a thread through the hide with a bone needle, she more than ever envied Glade's childhood where clothes were unknown. There was never a day in Ivory's life even in the height of Summer when it was warm enough to greet the Sun's rays without the protection of thick furs.

Ivory's routine had changed in one significant way. Whenever she joined the village women to forage for fuel or food in the woods, she was now aware that they had a very clear idea of what the shaman and she did beneath the bedsheets. Ivory wasn't as revered as the shaman, so she couldn't expect her sexual activity to be regarded quite as indulgently. Ivory was viewed rather warily, especially by those women who feared that the affection she expressed with one woman could now be applied to them.

It was for this reason that Ivory was surprised when Acorn approached her furtively on the open grassland while they foraged for animal dung to feed the fire. She'd been a widow ever since her husband suffered an unfortunate fall during a mammoth hunt near an unexpectedly fragile cliff-edge. Ivory had never spoken to Acorn before. She wasn't a relative and their families had once quarrelled over the inheritance rights of a tent and its possessions.

"How I envy you," whispered Acorn as the two piled dried cakes of aurochs dung on their heads. "I've also shared the shaman's bed and no man can compare to her for her love-making."

Ivory blushed. "My duties as an apprentice are wholly honourable," she protested.

Acorn smiled and brushed her fingers over the small patch of cheek Ivory exposed to the Sun. "I'm sure they are, sweetness, but the shaman is a woman whose bed I would gladly share again. I take it you've had the privilege of knowing her naked flesh?"

Ivory shook her head, but Acorn could see she was lying. "I've only been in her company for a few days. I don't know what to think," the young apprentice admitted.

"You're young yet," Acorn said sympathetically. "If you had more experience of sex with a man then you'd know how lucky you are. Not one night with my husband compares well with the all too few intimate nights I've shared with the shaman."

Acorn was right. Ivory's modest experience with boys wasn't remotely comparable to the steadily more passionate lovemaking she enjoyed with Glade. There was no word in her vocabulary to describe a relationship between two women that was like that between a woman and a man, but even without such a word she was sure that a relationship where there was no hope of producing children was fundamentally wrong. In any case, Ivory still had amorous thoughts for men however wary they now were towards her. This wasn't because they disapproved of her, but because Ivory was a gift to the shaman and they had no wish to quarrel with the chief.

Ivory expressed her reservations about the nature of their lovemaking while she and the shaman nestled naked together under the thick furs of her bed.

"It's a cock I need," Ivory said. "Your kisses, however tender, are no substitute for the excitement of a man's thrusts."

Glade smiled. "You only miss what you think you're missing. But if you want your lovemaking to be more like that between a man and a woman, I can satisfy you in that way too."

She slipped out from the under the furs into the chill night air that was only feebly warmed by the smouldering embers of the fire that Ivory would rekindle in morning. She retrieved a pouch that was hidden behind the stone slabs from which her cabinet was assembled. She pulled out a curious reddish figurine that Ivory could see in the glimmering light was almost the exact size and shape of a man's erect penis. Glade brought it to the bed and with a shiver nestled back under the fur beside Ivory. She handed the strange object to her apprentice.

Carved objects had great value amongst the Mammoth Hunters. They were prized for their mystical values because it was known that the spirit world had guided their construction. It was a miracle that stone, wood or clay could be carved into a shape that was recognisably human or animal. The more realistic the image, the closer its provenance to the spirits. But never had Ivory seen and certainly not touched an object of this shape nor one made from such peculiar material.

"It's made from resin," said Glade. "It comes from a tree, but resin as malleable as this can't be found in the Mammoth Steppe. This comes from far to the South East. What do you think of it?"

Ivory giggled despite herself. "I can think of only one thing," she admitted as she admired the knobbed head and its exact proportion.

"It's a toy," explained Glade, "but not a toy such as a child might use. Tomorrow night, I shall show you how the toy is used. And perhaps then you won't miss quite so much what a man has to offer."

When Glade was young she no more knew of such toys than had Ivory. She had no notion at all of any kind of decorative craft. The artefacts used by the Forest People were completely utilitarian and mostly employed for hunting or foraging. The tribe had no stone tools. All tools were made from wood that had been sharpened against hardwood trees.

Similarly, Glade had no conception that there was a world that existed beyond the woodland. The clan never wandered to the forest edge. The only open spaces they encountered were alongside the rivers that flowed through the forest. These were dangerous places where large animals such as hippopotami and crocodiles lay in wait for the unwary. It was generally with relief that the clan would retreat to the comforting shelter of the trees and away from the harsh glare of the unshaded Sun.

In any case, this was a time when Glade had no need for a toy like the resin dildo. If she wanted a cock between her thighs there was always at least one such willing member on hand. Glade's few explorations of other girls' bodies didn't tempt her at all away from the pleasure of heterosexual coupling. The love Glade enjoyed most was predominantly serial and generally with men or boys.

"I love you," said Okapi, a boy named after the largest forest animal anyone had ever seen. "Of all the girls I've fucked, it's you I love the most."

"I love you too," said Glade as she rolled off his chest onto the mossy forest floor. She regarded his penis as it shrivelled to the size of a fig. "You're almost as good a lover as Baboon or Flying Squirrel."

"I'll be just as good when I'm as old as them," Okapi promised. "I'll fuck you like no one has ever fucked you."

"I look forward to it," said Glade.

She tenderly pinched Okapi's foreskin between her fingers. The boy leaned forward and eased a finger into her anus. It entered easily. It was well lubricated by the seepage of semen and vaginal juices.

"Do you want me to fuck your arse?"

"No," said Glade firmly as she gently removed his finger. "Flying Squirrel fucked me there two days ago and I've still not recovered. But if you like, I'll finger fuck you."

"I'd like that," said Okapi who enjoyed such sport. He was a boy keener than most for sex with men.

As Glade's fingers probed inside Okapi's anus, she had no reason to doubt that this was a life that would last forever. The bounty of the forest was such that there was no reason to imagine that she wouldn't always be able to make love in the dappled sunlight of the forest. It was impossible to imagine a time before her tribe had lived in the forest. It was equally as inconceivable that there would be a time after. Glade had no reason to expect that she would ever know a time when her tribe no longer had the forest to themselves.

Ivory was also innocent. Her arse had never been penetrated not had it ever occurred to her that a man or woman might choose to venture into such a tight and malodorous zone. Nonetheless, she was now less innocent of how Glade's sex toy could be used.

As it always was with Glade, the introduction was gentle. She sat cross-legged and naked in front of Ivory. She parted first her thighs and then, with her fingers, the lips of her vagina. She slid the toy in steadily. She stimulated her clitoris with her free hand and bit by bit eased the dildo inside until it was as firmly within her as a man's penis might be. She moved it up and down with slow rhythmic motions. She progressively increased the rhythm to one of frenzy as she thrust it in and out.

It was the first time Ivory had seen anyone masturbate, although she'd caught glimpses of boys stroking their penises when they thought no one could see. She was astonished by the degree of Glade's arousal from her own ministrations. It was more than she'd ever managed with her own fingers. Perhaps it was possible, she thought, for a woman to satisfy herself without the need for company. Certainly, Glade's exhaustion after her masturbatory session was as real as when they'd made love together, although she still had sufficient passion to make love to Ivory under the bear-skin blankets while the short night advanced towards the clear cold light of the morning.

Ivory was nowhere near as practised as Glade when it was her turn to use the toy. Her pleasure came more from her lover's tender caresses. Glade helpfully prepared the toy for her. She moistened it with spittle so that it didn't rub her vulva raw or tear the skin of her labia. Ivory could only achieve orgasm when the toy was used by the two women together. It was her first fulfilling penetration and it was shared by two engorged vaginas. Although Glade had taught Ivory something of sexual passion, the orgasm that shook her soul out from her body was one she'd never before imagined possible. She knew that sex could be pleasurable, but this was of another order altogether. When she collapsed onto Glade's bosom, Ivory was spent in a way she wanted to experience again and again. The perspiration dripped from her pert breasts onto her lover's rather larger bosom. Her body slid against Glade's with the slipperiness of bare flesh on a damp river bank. While making love she cried out with unrestrained ecstasy and afterwards she wept uncontrollably.

Not all Glade's instruction was of a sexual kind, although rather more of it was than Ivory originally expected. She was instructed in the shamanic arts that Glade had learnt in far distant lands and from other shamans. She was taught the use of herbs and mushrooms to make medicines and potions. She learnt about the ills that beset people, especially women, and how to give them comfort. Many were best treated by no more than rest and plenty of water.

Glade confided that there was almost no spiritual content in the babbling in foreign tongues that accompanied her ministrations.

"I doubt very much that your spirits have had much communion with the tribes I've known who make these medicines and speak these languages," she confessed. "But people expect there to be chanting with their medicine and I am happy to give them that."

She then recited what sounded like a prayer to the spirits. It was a guttural sound punctuated by clicks and whoops.

"That's in the language of the Cave Painters in the High Mountains. It's a poem I learnt on the glories of the Mother Goddess whom they worship. It asks the Mother Goddess to bless a woman with many children and that the children should all live long enough to be parents themselves."

Glade then babbled in another tongue. This was a sibilant sound punctuated by heavy aspiration and a throaty glottal stop.

"That's a dirty limerick about two men fucking a sow and one of them getting pig-shit on his feet. That chant is equally as effective."