Kaylar Ch. 03: Remedy

"Is everything OK, Alari? You've gone a bit quiet."

Alari smiled and shrugged.

"It's just one of those places that makes me think", she commented, pointing up to the cliff top and to the former coastguard station, with the cluster of trees behind it. A single light shone out from a building within the trees. Alari beamed:

"That's The Lookout, she said with quiet pride, pointing to the light. "Your home for the next month!"

Jennifer again struggled to keep on top of her feelings as she realised how exuberantly happy Alari was and how she must have been a major part of the reason for that happiness. However, there was still just a hint of a shadow over Alari's thoughts, an almost imperceptible furrow in her brow.

Jennifer could not recall the last occasion on which she had travelled in a horse-drawn trap, but she found the experience incredibly comforting, the regular clip-clop of the horse's hooves echoing slightly in the warm evening air, at a temperature in the low 60s. The road, although not paved, was remarkably smooth and the climb from the harbour to The Lookout seemed to be over surprisingly quickly.

The groundsman, a local tenant farmer's son, took care of what there was of the luggage whilst Alari, again beaming with pride and happiness, showed what had now become her home to her welcome guest from Farra.

Sati, Alari's housekeeper, had prepared a late evening tray for her employer and a fresh pot of coffee was giving off very pleasant aromas in the living room, which led out onto a balcony that offered unbelievable views over a lengthy portion of the south coast of Kaylar.

Jennifer was never completely overwhelmed by anything, but on this occasion she was close to losing all control over her feelings. These were now heavily influenced by all the various positive factors that had created a sense of deep calm, disturbed only by the pea under the several metaphorical mattresses, in the form of what seemed to be anxiety in Alari since their arrival on Kaylar.

She turned to her hostess and friend and was about to attempt to break the log-jam when Alari put a finger softly to Jennifer's lips...

"Jennifer, there's something I've got to get straight here and now, so that we can both enjoy your holiday here."

Jennifer frowned, but not worryingly, as she had an idea as to what this was about, even though she had repeatedly urged Alari not to burden herself with guilt that was not of her making.

"OK, Alari, so why don't we..."

Her words faded as Alari looked her straight in the eye, tears beginning to form in the corner of her own eyes. In a slightly faltering voice, Alari interjected softly:

"Jennifer, can I ask a favour, please."

Jennifer nodded, slightly hesitantly. "Go on, love"

"Grandad Valturo used to call me 'gayendelar', his little bird, because I was always chirping and always in and out of the house and..." Alari blushed "...because he loved to hear me sing. Gradually, it was shortened to just 'gayen'. Would you mind using that name for me when it's just you and me together, please?"

Jennifer smiled and was having a really hard time keeping a tight rein on her own feelings, as her love for Alari welled up again powerfully. "Does this mean...?"

Alari had an uncanny knack for reading minds, and for some reason, she had cracked the code that gave her access to Jennifer's mind in a way that people who had known her, socially and/or professionally, had never managed to do.

"No, Jennifer, I am not looking to you to be a substitute for my parents or grandparents. You could not begin to imagine how far you are from what I am thinking if that is what's going through your mind!"

It was only yet another of Alari's disarming smiles that told Jennifer that the recent remark was not a rebuke of any description.

Jennifer sighed with relief and felt another powerful emotional flutter. There was obviously a lot of air-clearing to be done here.

"OK, Alari" ... her hostess frowned slightly, before grinning cheekily ... "sorrrreee, gayen!".

Jennifer smiled warmly and continued: "What do you want me to do for you?"

Alari needed no time to make her case, as she had been preparing it for months, in the hope that she might one day find herself exactly where she was now.

"Please hear me out first, then tell me what you think."

Jennifer nodded and leaned back into the extraordinarily comfortable wicker armchair with its soft, bright colourful cushions.

Slowly and with meticulous precision, Alari explained how she had been left feeling devastated after Jennifer had left Kaylar following her caning. She explained how her grandparents had stressed that she must always heed her conscience and that she owed it to herself and to those around her to articulate any concerns she had, to rectify any wrong she might have done and to leave the door always open to those who sought to make sincere amends after hurting her. She explained that she had fully accepted Jennifer's assurances, on a number of occasions, that she was not regarded as being guilty, yet that pain - for it was an acutely uncomfortable source of worry in her life - had not gone away.

To Jennifer's amazement, Alari also explained how she had not been able to account for the fact that, quite apart from the wrong that had been done to Jennifer, she had found it very difficult to get her out of her mind, something that had proved even more difficult after the conference in which they had both been involved.

By now, Jennifer was beginning to feel that her thoughts were possibly not as unrealistic as she had thought them to be and that, far from being pure fantasy and wishful thinking on her part, they might, in truth, have solid substance.

Finally, Alari came to the main point of her conversation, which was that she was convinced that the only way in which she could lay this irritating ghost to rest would be to accept a caning from her guest.

Alari blushed deeply as the words passed her lips: "Jennifer, I need you to cane me, please."

The brief silence that ensued was not uncomfortable, but was sufficient to allow Jennifer finally to make sense of the confused array of thoughts that had moved chaotically through the lusts and longings that had constituted much of her thinking where Alari was concerned. She took a deep breath, then reached out to take Alari's hand. There was no resistance whatsoever.

Briefly reverting to Jennifer Hardnose mode, she looked straight at the girl who had turned her world upside down.

"Right, Al... gayen!!" Both of them giggled briefly as Jennifer corrected herself.

"Here's what I would like from you."

Alari looked adoringly at her as the firmer tone, for which there was hardly a shred of basis in her innermost thoughts, became evident in Jennifer's voice. Time for some bullet-point-speak, if only to prevent this craft from overturning in the churning waves of her mind.

"One. You call me Jen. It's only right and, interestingly, it's what my grandparents used to call me. Nobody since then has been allowed to use that name, not even my parents, who always called me Jenny. Are you OK with that?"

Alari reciprocated Jennifer's warm smile as she nodded.

"Good. Two. We both know that you had no say in the matter when you caned me and you might even have harmed your own position had you not obeyed the Magistrate's instructions. Not only that, you gave me the best caning I have ever taken." Jennifer was now blushing herself, but this was not obvious in the low lighting of the lounge where they were sitting together. "But that is another matter and we can talk about that another time if you want."

Alari giggled and put her free hand to her mouth before commenting: "If you want? If you only knew!"

Jennifer, now in Boss-lady mode, tried very hard to look convincingly disapproving.

"OK, Jen, my turn to say sorry, go on." A gentle squeeze of Jen's hand sent the most amazing warm feeling of comfort and longing down Jennifer's spine."

Jennifer called the meeting back to order, or at least felt as if she was doing that.

"Three. I accept how you feel and that you don't totally understand why you feel that way, but I have to be honest and say that the idea of hurting you for something that was not your fault does not sit comfortably in my mind. If you really feel that need, I would rather hand spank you."

Alari's eyes almost glazed over with disbelief as she heard words from Jennifer's real lips that she had so often heard from imagined lips as her fantasies had run their course in her mind. Her tummy churned again with longing.

"Four. To be honest, gayendelar, I don't know..." She paused as tears welled up in her eyes, an exceedingly rare occurrence. "Sorry, my love, I lost it there for a moment."

Alari was completely lost for words and simply sat, half open-mouthed, as she saw the prospect of what she had thought were just vague forms and shapes in her dreams, suddenly looking as if they were going to become reality.

Jennifer coughed quietly and looked at Alari.

"As I was trying to say, gayen...", again the words faltered as the tears flowed more freely.

Finally, with one final effort, akin to that powerful push that a woman sometimes has to make as she ushers a new life into the world, Jennifer simply said:

"Gayen, I have loved you for a long time, not as a mother figure alone, nor even just as a friend, but loved you in all its forms. I have never in my entire life had such an experience. I love you so much that I never want to be parted from you."

Jennifer was crying freely, something that had only happened once before in her life, when her mother had passed away. This time, however, the tears were of pure joy as she wrapped Alari in her adoring gaze, realising that it is sometimes more expedient just to speak plainly rather than to try to couch such powerful sentiments in eloquent words.

Alari, for her part, was sobbing audibly, but for the same reason. She put her arms around Jennifer's neck and held her closer than she had ever held anybody other than her parents and grandparents. There was no sound other than soft feminine crying that soon subsided into a warm and airtight embrace that the two women kept up for several minutes, interspersed with tender and loving gestures of innocent touch.

Eventually, Alari moved back slowly and held Jennifer's hands gently in hers.

"I think I have loved you since the day I watched you board the Gadara ferry all those months ago, and it has grown stronger and stronger. I don't want to be without you either, even though I know we will have to spend a lot of time apart. I just feel absolutely right, complete, when you are in my thoughts and in my real life. I want to belong to your real life and I want you to enjoy whatever is mine, my home, even my body."

Jennifer felt her heart lurch at those words, as her aching love for Alari surged again. She looked again, deep into the young woman's eyes, but it was Alari who spoke:

"You will never know what it means to me, Jen, to hear you say words I never believed could be possible, but if we are going to be closer, and I long for that, I need to know that you will be tough with me when it is absolutely necessary, because I know you will never do that for the wrong reason. That is why I am asking you, please, to cane me. I want to take that pain as my gift to you, my gesture to show that, as your wise sayings go, justice has not only been done, but seen to be done ... at least, I think that is what you say."

If there was one attribute that stood above Alari's many others in Jennifer's eyes, it was the way in which she handled those rare times when she felt somewhat out of her depth, when she suddenly became very vulnerable. That, in fact, made Jennifer's choice very plain.

Jennifer now assumed the dominant role with surprising ease, considering the emotional turmoil that had existed until very recently. Now, she was helping a particularly close and loved friend, at the specific request of the latter, to slay a dragon that had far outstayed its welcome. She held Alari's hands in hers, the young woman now very much in the mode of the person in need.

Ever the pragmatist, Jennifer was keen to ensure that the ground was well prepared.

"Gayen, just tell me one thing. Have you ever been caned before?" The words had a ring that was extremely familiar, since they had echoed in Jennifer's mind since she had heard them uttered softly in her ear as Alari had prepared to administer her caning. She shivered slightly at the memory.

Alari nodded. "I have been caned quite a few times."

Jennifer's look of astonishment, a reflex response to receipt of information that contradicts all preconceptions, was not erased quickly enough to escape Alari's notice.

"I know that shocks you Jen, but you have to try to remember that Vengar culture is almost a complete opposite of yours, or at least what yours used to be, if I have learned correctly.

We do not believe that little children or maturing adolescents should experience something so painful and frightening, since they should only fear those things that can do them serious harm. They should not be afraid of the grown-ups who are looking after them. They should simply learn to respect those grown-ups and have good reason for that respect.

In our culture, we believe that the place for corporal punishment is in the lives of grown-up people who ought to know better.

When I crossed the line at Officer Training School, I knew what the risks and penalties were, so I deserved to be caned. The worst I ever got was twelve - for lying and covering for a colleague, who actually turned out not to be such a colleague after all. I never want a caning that hard again."

Jennifer forgot herself for a moment and asked:

"Who caned you?"

Alari explained that in Vengar culture, same sex corporal punishment was the rule and that there were no circumstances in which that rule was bypassed.

"I was caned by the Mentor in the female block. She knew how to hurt, but she never did it for any reasons other than the right ones. We all learned that. I think there were only two girls in our set, fourteen of us in total, who did not get caned at some stage."

Jennifer nodded, mentally kicking herself for asking questions that were so crass, before moving on.

"So I don't need to advise you what to do while you are being caned this evening?"

Alari's heart fluttered powerfully as Jennifer spoke specifically about using a cane on her, the very same cane, as it happened, that she had used to lay eight stripes across Jennifer's bottom during that painful departure from Kaylar. She shook her head slowly and held her lips close together as she contemplated what was to come, wondering how it would feel to experience pain at the hand of someone she loved in even more ways than she had loved her parents and grandparents.

Jennifer paused, looked down at the rush mat on the floor, then looked across to Alari.

"Then let's do this, my love."

Jennifer's hand caressed the young woman's face with great tenderness, leaving her in no doubt but that this was to be an act of love, not of self-indulgent cruelty.

Jennifer, still in her temporary authoritative mood, went on: "Alari, for that is how I am going to address you in future when we speak of disciplinary matters, I want you to go to your bedroom and prepare yourself, in whatever way you see fit, then put three pillows at the end of the bed and bend over to await your caning."

"By the way, I assume you have a cane handy as I forgot to bring one."

Jennifer could have kicked herself for introducing an element of mild humour to a serious situation, but Alari's response was simply to nod, smile and tell Jennifer that the cane would be ready for her to deliver eight firm strokes, as she had done to Jennifer.

The older woman squeezed the younger woman's hands again. "There will be just one difference, apart from the setting. I refuse to restrain you. Your willpower alone must do that."

Alari nodded, rose and bowed to Jennifer in the way of Vengar tradition when in the presence of a disciplinary elder.

"I'll be ten minutes. I'm going to take a very quick shower before you cane me."

Her own words sent a further powerful surge of energy down her spine as she uttered them, before walking out of the lounge and across the hallway to the large bedroom on the east side of the house, Alari's home, which was already well on its way towards ensnaring the visitor in the complex warp and weft of its alluring fabric.

Jennifer walked out through the French windows onto the broad, deep patio, from which she could have continued to gaze for considerably longer, had she not been totally focussed on the task in hand.

As Jennifer entered her hostess's bedroom, her attention was drawn instantly to the very shapely and athletic-looking lightly-tanned buttocks, matching the colour of the remainder of her skin without a hint of pale outline of a pair of knickers or bikini bottoms. Alari, completely naked, had followed her instructions to the letter. The cane was propped up alongside her.

Alari did not look round as Jennifer entered, but looked down to the soft quilt laid across the bed that was supporting her compliant body. Jennifer approached her, knelt on the bed and whispered:

"Are you ready, Alari?"

Jennifer had made her mind up that this was not going to be a long drawn-out experience and that she would deal firmly and swiftly with this stunning young woman, as she had been asked to do. Carefully, she stood up, picked up the cane and flexed it between her hands. She checked it meticulously for damage, absolutely certain that she was already acquainted with this fearful implement.

Alari's ankles were touching one another and her shapely legs were stretched out to their full length. She shivered slightly as she sensed the activity taking place behind her, but focused her mind on what was happening. Her flinch was almost imperceptible as the cane touched the lower edge of her buttocks softly and slid backwards and forwards until it was in the required position.

Delivery of the first stroke was swift, almost silent and accurate to the millimetre as it descended upon the sit spots of the waiting cheeks. The resounding crack was followed almost instantaneously by a gasp and tensing of the young woman's forearms as her she grabbed handfuls of quilt in a white-knuckle grip.

The ripple created by that first stroke had barely had time to dissipate before a second stripe appeared just above it, in response to the next equally firm and accurate stroke.

It seemed like an hour, but it was, in fact, only a minute and a half later when the descending cane pressed deeply into the well-muscled bottom, creating the thickest of the eight parallel ridges that now adorned the curves like latitude lines on a map. Alari was silent, but shaking slightly, her feet trembling and her buttocks quivering. The sound of a gentle sob could be heard emanating from the quilt, but Jennifer knew full well that those were not sobs of pain, but of freedom. She stood the cane against the side of the wardrobe, then walked across to Alari, who was virtually motionless. Leaning forward, Jennifer allowed her long hair to brush lightly across the caned cheeks as she stooped eight times, to place a loving soft kiss on every welt, on each cheek.

Jennifer sat on the edge of the bed and slipped her canvas shoes off. Alari turned to look at her, but remained bent over the pillows. Jennifer caressed the lovely young face and whispered: "We're done, the dragon has flown, my darling gayen."