In the Land of the Rokken Ch. 02

The Rokken bowed. "I will retire to the rear of the cave so that you may discuss these matters privately."

True to her word, the Rokken woman retreated, allowing the two Heroes and Alleyana privacy.

"I have not heard of such a thing as this." said Varkan. "I have not lain with Rokken before, but I know that others have with nothing like this happening."

"We know of no such changes either," said Alleyana. "I have said that my Father thinks they are fallen Folk, so perhaps their savagery is hiding their other abilities. I don't know why that should change by lying with a Hero. Nor do we know what would happen if a Rokken were to lie with one of the Folk."

"This is a mystery indeed," said Kren. "We must seek out the Shaman when we deliver you to your new Tribe. Perhaps they will know if this is truly a new thing."

She turned to the rear of the cave and called the Rokken woman forwards.

"We can see that you are no longer a brute animal but we do not know what you have become. Have you seen this happen before?"

"No my Lady, I have no clear memories of anything before my Lord Varkan awakened me. I do not know my name or even if I had a name among my old kind. It is my belief that I am a new thing though, so even if my old name was known to me I would not wish to use it."

"My Lady Alleyana, when you are Ripened, you take a new name do you not? Is that chosen by you or allotted to you by another"

Surprised, Alleyana responded. "Once a child of the Folk is Ripened and becomes a woman, she chooses her own name, and takes that name to her marriage."

"I think that what has happened to me is like a Ripening, and so I think it good that I choose my own name then. From now forth, I am Niloké. I am Renewed and no longer Rokken, Once I meet others of my kind, if they exist, then perhaps then I will know not just who, but what I am."

"Welcome Niloké" said Alleyana, echoed by Kren and Varkan.

"It is time to rest," said Varkan, "for we have a long and arduous journey ahead. Will you accompany us Niloké, for when we deliver the Lady Alleyana for her Ripening and Marriage ceremonies, we intend to consult the Shaman of her new Tribe on what has happened. Perhaps they will know of other examples of like awakening."

Niloké bowed her head. "My Lord Varkan. I would be honoured to join your party and if you will trust me with a weapon, I will do by utmost to assist you and Lady Kren in defence of my Lady Alleyana should the need arise."

Varkan glanced at Kren, who nodded. "It shall be so then. I will take first watch, while you three rest. If Kren will take the second that will take us to the beginning of Full Day, when we shall begin our journey."

I woke up to a hand on my shoulder, then realised I was not awake, but back in the land of these blue skinned peoples. I found myself in the same cave as my last dream. I stood and as I did, memories came flooding in of all the events since I had last 'been' there. As I looked around I saw the same three blue skinned women as before, one built like the body I was occupying, one like a normal human female and another humanoid, but covered with a soft white down.

I became aware that the giant woman was speaking (Kren? Yes Kren.)

"Varkan! Varkan! Are you ill?"

I shook my head to clear it and heard myself, or rather the body I was in speak.

"I am fine. I was just having a strange dream in which I was somehow imprisoned in my body and unable to move. I am fine now."

((What? I'm having dreams in my dreams now?))

"Nick! Wake up Nick!"

I opened my eyes to see a pair of pale grey eyes looking anxiously at me. It was Sammy, one of my care team. She was pulling the electrodes from my skin as she spoke. I had to have them attached at night in case I stopped breathing as my body relaxed. Yet another condition of being allowed to live at home.

"Your heart rate was way up" she said "but you seemed fine otherwise. "Time for your shower now though. It's your first day at uni and if I let you be late I'll never hear the end of it from Julie."

And so the day began, like the 432 previous days since I came round from my accident. Sandy deftly fitted the sling to hoist me out of bed and take me through to the bathroom. It would have been fun in different circumstances -- like riding a ski lift indoors. Like the 432 previous days though, the circumstances were the same. No control over anything below my neck, manhandled this way and that by a series of pretty girls with no capacity to respond. All my care team were women -- and all good looking too. All I could do was look, but I saw no reason to deprive myself of that pleasure at least. My favourite days were hydrotherapy, when two of them would take me to the local pool and get in the water with me. Julie had guessed what was going on I think and always chose a pretty brief costume.

As I was whisked around and readied for my first day, I tuned out her chatter and thought back to my dream. This time it had not been a direct continuation of the one before, but somehow I remembered the times intervening, the awakening of the Rokken, the wonder of it when it happened, the hours standing guard at the cave entrance, the change over of duties with the Hero woman Kren. These memories were there, as if I had experienced them, but so were my own memories of day to day life in my flat, of the problem I had in adjusting, the shitty way I had treated people, being called to account by Julie, rebuilding a new care team. I smiled inwardly. Of course Julie know what was going on, she was the one who selected the short list and did the first interviews. None of the candidates she selected had ever been less than pretty and a couple were stunning. It was a safe and harmless indulgence. I was always polite with them, and never used off-colour or suggestive language and if I'd tried Julie would have taken action very quickly.

Sandy was rubbing my hand dry, when I had a sudden sensation in it. I cried out in surprise. It was the first time I'd felt anything other than pain since the accident and these days not even that.

"What's the matter Nick?"

"I felt something. In my hand as you dried it. It wasn't the towel. Somehow I just knew it was there. It only lasted a second but there's nothing now. Just a phantom I suppose"

"Well, I'll log it in the Book anyway."

Ah the Book. I always capitalised it in my mind. It had started out as a simple loose leaf folder with my care plan for each and every day and a log of everything that was done for me. It had become a more sophisticated computer system that I could also access, via the voice link to my computer. Now it covered every part of my life. Through it I accessed my phone, I organised my reading, my travel and from today my study programme. At Julie's suggestion I also had a personal journal where I logged my moods, recorded my feelings and generally noted anything of interest to me, including my earlier vivid dreams.

It was a big day today. Today was the day I went out into the big wide world and became a student again. Not on my own of course. One or other of my team would be with me. Today it would be Julie. She'd been with me from the start and if it hadn't been for her I would have been a dribbling wreck buried away in some hospital. It was only right that she should see the beginning of this new life.