Flesh: Sacrifice Ch. 03

Daniella D'Annunzio stood in the shower behind the Oveja Negra, scrubbing her backside with a combination of soap and black "taqsa" powder. Apparently the chupika paste that Dani had so readily accepted the night before was not quite as temporary as she had believed at the time. Blended with some sort of dried berry -- the "chupika," Taksa Kuchu had happily explained -- neither sweat, nor water, nor soap were enough to take the dye off of one's body. Instead, Dani needed the right combination of ashes, dried plant leaves, and crushed nut shells -- and soap, plenty of the Oveja Negra's rough, powdery soap -- to take the handprint of some strange woman off her ass. It was a frustrating ordeal, one made even harder by the fact that, while the Oveja Negra did have running water, it didn't happen to have warm running water.

There were two showerheads in the outdoor shower behind the bar, and Dani -- as she had the previous morning -- dreaded the idea that either Summer or Taksa Kuchu were going to join her for a bath, something that seemed all too likely the happen the longer that Dani stayed in. This wasn't a single sex shower, either, so it wasn't at all impossible that Benitez himself might join her; after all, she'd spent the better part of the previous day with him completely topless, and he'd gotten a few quick peeks at her pussy on top of that.

Benitez would probably be the least offensive of the three, gender aside. Unlike the two other women, Benitez seemed to understand what Dani was going through, seemed to understand her decision to get as far, far away form the Oriente as possible. He didn't agree with her, and seemed disappointed by her decision, but he understood it. After he'd picked her up off the ground in Aya Pampa last night, he'd led her back to his assigned hut for the evening, fetched her her red bra, and even given her one of his button-down shirts to cover herself with. He'd gone back out to Summer, Taksa Kuchu, and the party outside, but he'd checked back in on her every now and then, and put no pressure on her to come back out and join the celebrations.

Taksa Kuchu, on the other hand, seemed annoyed with Dani, as if she'd wasted all her time in even getting to know her over the course of yesterday. She demanded a "why," out of Dani, and tried to argue her into playing Summer's role in some other Huaca village. And, after Benitez silenced her and told her to keep to herself, Taksa Kuchu huffed and puffed and acted angry around Dani the entire hike back to the Land Rover. Dani thought she could understand why -- Dani was rejecting the Huaca people as a whole, Taksa Kuchu's people. She refused to take part in a ritual that Taksa Kuchu would have easily volunteered for had it not required a non-Huaca girl.

Summer was somewhere in between. She was hurt, and felt disappointed, and was particularly stung by Dani's suggestion that La Iniciativa just go hunt for a willing prostitute. She'd expected this to be hard, as it had been with nearly every other girl she'd contacted for La Iniciativa so far. But she'd convinced herself that if Dani would just visit the Huaca, get to know them, get to see their lifestyle, then maybe she'd feel the same tug at the heartstrings that Summer had felt herself so long ago. Summer wanted to talk to Dani -- if not to convince her to stay, then at the very least to make her understand why Summer had to keep taking part in the t'ojsiy. But Dani would have none of it -- making no eye contact with Summer as they awoke that morning, having nothing but cursory conversation with her on the trail, and avoiding her gaze in the Land Rover's mirrors.

"Fuck it," Dani cursed, giving up the handprint. She wanted to get out of the shower before someone came knocking. She'd gotten the stripes off her front, and, more importantly, managed to scrub them off her face. The rough taqsa powder had been an absolute pleasure on the sensitive skin of her nipples, both of which still stung from having been rubbed raw. No one was going to see her bare ass anytime in the near future -- she could live with the handprint. Who's handprint was it anyway? She struggled to remember the names of the girls from the bathhouse. Kalli-Kalli? Miski Chupsi? Wapapa? She could picture the girl in her head, but she couldn't connect the image with a name.

She closed her eyes, and recalled the sensation of the girl's hand, covering in the thick, sticky paste, touching her bare skin. She'd been naked -- her panties surrendered, her loincloth tossed aside -- in front of a good dozen or so teenage girls. This girl -- Taruka? -- had run her hands up and down Dani's body, fingertips touching her forcefully, and with purpose. Tutakuru's hand had glanced along the outside of her pussy while he was getting her "bath." And Dani had been wet.

Dani had woken up that morning in Benitez's hut, finding herself alongside the sleeping Argentine doctor. For one quick moment, a discombobulated Dani D'Annunzio had wondered whether she'd slept with him the night before. She'd been drinking, after all. She was wearing one of his shirts. For an instant, Dani had thought about being with Benitez, and had wondered how he'd been in bed...before the course of the entire previous day had come flooding back.

Maybe. Just maybe. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Benitez were to join her in the shower. She needed help getting the handprint off her ass. There could be worse things than seeing him as naked as he'd seen her yesterday. There could be worse things than having him see her naked one more time. There could be worse things that making love to someone as good looking as him in an outdoor shower.

Dani was turned on. And, though she hated admitting it to herself, she'd been turned on all morning. She couldn't look at Summer without some combination of lust and disgust, without getting turned on by the memories of the previous evening and hating herself for it. What Summer had done last night -- what Summer had been doing all these years -- was depraved and perverted, and Dani hated Summer for what the very thought of it was doing to Dani herself.

The brunette risked a glance outside the shower stall. No one was coming. And was she really going to do this?

She hated herself.

But for some twisted reason, that self-loathing only made her hotter.

Her nipples were still raw and sensitive from the taqsa powder, and they'd been at attention almost from the moment she'd stripped at Benitez's Land Rover the previous morning. As she touched them again now, for less utilitarian purposes (though perhaps utilitarian in its own way...), she gasped at just how sensitive they really were. A current of sexual stimulation shot through her body.

She hesitated.

What if someone were to come? What if Summer or Benitez or Taksa Kuchu were to discover what she was doing? The outdoor shower, while safely hidden behind the Oveja Negra, wasn't exactly a private place.

She hesitated again.

But...what if someone were to come? What if Summer or Benitez or Taksa Kuchu were to discover what she was doing? Would she stop? Would she be able to stop? Would any of them try to stop her?

She was back in Aya Pampa, strapped to the Y-frame, as the silver dildo penetrated her again and again and again. It wasn't Qaray Puka who manned the sex toy, but rather Summer Monroe, as Benitez and Taksa Kuchu and the Huaca all watched. In and out. Back and forth. Up and down. Dani wasn't sure how much more she could take.

She padded back over to the shower's door, opened it a small crack, and risked another glance out beyond. There was no latch, no lock. And, though she instinctually reached for the handle after finding the coast clear, to hold it shut on the inside, she pulled back. She turned her back, and under the cold stream of water emanated from the shower head, Dani began to touch herself. She glanced to the unguarded door once more, over her shoulder, but was quickly lost in her ministrations.

Propping herself up against far wall with her left hand, Dani spread her legs just slightly and found her clit with her right. There was no time for foreplay, no time for slow, lingering touches -- and Dani didn't need any of that anyhow. She was wet. She was turned on. And it wouldn't take long for her cum.

She was naked in the shower, dripping wet from head to toe. Her light-weight, ankle-length skirt hung over one of the shower's walls, on top of the simple tank top she'd worn out the swamps yesterday morning. Her red panties and matching red bra hung together on a half-banged-in nail turned makeshift coat hook under her bath towel. And yet, for some reason, Dani was still wearing the jaguar teeth and silver beaded necklace that Summer had given her at the Land Rover. It dangled around her neck, dripping water from the shower, as she leaned forward against the far wall of the shower.

She thought she heard something.

Was that someone behind her?

Should she look?

Should she turn around?

Should she stop?

Dani didn't stop. She didn't turn around. She didn't look. She didn't even hesitate in what she was doing. Her middle and ring finger were on her clit, rubbing back and forth, back and forth -- the same way Qaray Puka had done to Summer the night before. She moaned softly, thinking of the way she'd watched Summer be played with, the way that the crowd might have watched Dani be played with on the Y-frame. She thrust her hips against her hand, the same way Summer had bucked against the silver dildo.

Was someone in the shower with her?

Was someone watching her touch herself?

Was someone else getting off on the sight of her getting herself off?

Dani didn't turn around. She didn't even slow down. She'd been on edge since yesterday afternoon, stewing in her own juices. She'd been topless -- topless! -- in front of so many people. She'd lost her loincloth at least three times -- effectively rendering her naked at least twice. And even when she'd been wearing it, the jaguar print design as if she were some sort of jungle princess, her pussy had been uncovered, casually exposed by the slightest movement.

It was too much. Dani could feel the wave coming, and she let it wash over her. Her whole body quivered, her knees felt weak, and suddenly she needed the steadying effects of her left arm even more. She gasped for air, careful not to moan louder than the slower drip of the cold water against the cement. She shut her eyes. She bit her lip. And she rode her climax to its conclusion.

And she hated herself for it.

Slowly -- nervously -- Dani turned around inside the shower. She had sworn that she heard someone in the shower with her, but it had just been her imagination. There was no one in the shower with Dani, but the brunette hadn't quite closed the shower door all the way, and it had swung wide open. There was no one on the other side, nothing beyond the door but Bolivian jungle.

And maybe it was the lingering effects of being so naked for so long yesterday, but the idea of being watched only made it hotter for Dani. The idea that he hated herself for what she was doing only made it hotter for Dani. The fact that she imagined herself as Summer, strapped to the Y-frame, only made it hotter for Dani.

Dani shook her head and reached for the towel.

***

The answer was still no. Dani wouldn't do it. She couldn't do it. As much as she might have fantasized about playing Summer's role, fantasies were different from reality. And the reality was that she was Dani D'Annunzio. She was from Vermont. She had a good college degree. She'd spent the last two years in the Peace Corps. She had a mother and a father and two little sisters at home. She had a life. And there was more to it than getting fucked by a bunch of Indians in rural Bolivia.

Summer was already packing for the next village. She, Taksa Kuchu, and Benitez were on their way due south, to Manqus Wasi. It was a two-day trip from San Eduardo, mostly by boat, through jungles and swamps. And given that Summer was scheduled to hit any number of little villages that spring, La Iniciativa needed to be on its way that very evening. Benitez was reloading medical supplies into his bag, counting out vials and needles and bandages. Taksa Kuchu was grabbing gifts and supplies for Chief Suwaqara and his people at one of the little storefronts. The Land Rover was already mostly packed up, as the threesome planned on driving four hours down some rural road that night with a canoe on the roof, camping out, and setting out for Manqus Wasi the following morning.

Dani had said her goodbyes, such as they were. It was awkward with Summer, and Taksa Kuchu couldn't have made her disdain for Dani's decision much clearer. Benitez was a bit better, but he quickly returned to his things, as if he'd already forgotten Dani had have come to visit them in the first place. Not that Dani really felt she deserved much more -- she'd only met these people last night, after all, and she'd shown nothing but disgust and disdain for the campaign all three of them had worked so hard on all these years.

But it hurt her nonetheless. She felt that she'd made a connection with the babbling Taksa Kuchu. She liked Doctor Monroe on a personal level, and had found herself wanting her approval for some weird reason. And Benitez, well...in another life, another world, another time...she might have been attracted him. She might have found him smart, and good-looking, and calm, and funny. Even if she was just half his age, there had been a spark between them. He was doing something good in this world, doing something to make the lives of the Huaca people better, doing exactly what Dani had signed up for the Peace Corps to do, what she'd come all this way from Teguz to do here in Bolivia.

She wanted him to like her.

But La Iniciativa was busy. They were leaving tonight -- in only an hour or so. Dani, on the other hand, was having dinner alone at the bar inside the Oveja Negra. She'd be spending another night upstairs before catching one of the big yellow school buses headed back to Rurrenabaque. And then on to La Paz, New York, and little Cherryfield, Vermont.

"Chaqiska! Chaqiska!"

Dani heard the shouting outside the bar, and assumed that someone had caught sight of Summer in the streets. But, glancing out the window from her stool, Dani saw that it was not Summer, but rather one of a hundreds of little girls running around the Oriente named in her honor. Her mother, carrying another little girl in her arms, chased after her, calling out her name.

"Chaqiska! Chaqiska!"

She was very clearly Huaca. Even in Dani's short time here in San Eduardo, she could tell. The Quechua, the Benianos, the mestizos -- they all had a certain "look" about them. The Huaca were clearly cut from a different cloth. They were tall, they were athletic-looking, they had striking Eastern features about them. This woman was dressed in a simple skirt and a tight-fitting top, but Dani imagined her topless, wearing nothing but a loincloth, and it seemed natural to her.

The little girl dashed across the street, towards the Oveja Negra. But while San Eduardo may have been the capital of the Valle de los Reyes, it didn't have much in the way of motorized traffic, and the mother had little to worry about. Still, little Chaqiska seemed to be intent on getting away, and the mother looked like she was frazzled and had all she could handle in the other little girl in her arms. And so Dani, Paceña in hand, nodded at Chuy and, stepping outside the little bar, intercepted the runaway Huaca girl.

"Rap-hi!" Dani said playfully, offering "hello" to little Chaqiska.

The girl stopped running, mesmerized by the sight of the gringo in San Eduardo. No doubt her interaction with Americans - or anyone who looked like Dani, for that matter -- was fleeting.

"Dani sutiymi," Dani offered, using up the last of the Huaca she'd learned yesterday afternoon. "Imataq sutiyaki?"

The little girl giggled, and answered boldy, "Chaqiska sutiymi!" She then proceeded to launch into a question of her own, to which Dani could only offer a smile in response.

Dani had succeeded in allowing the frazzled mother catch up with her daughter, however. Out of breath, but offering Dani a thankful "gracias," she latched onto Chaqiska's arm and scolded her in their native tongue.

The little girl babbled back to her mother, and then pointing at Dani, instructed her, "Sutiyas 'Dani'!"

"'Dani,'" the mother repeated, offering another smile in Summer's direction. Looking first at Chaqiska, and then back at Dani, the mother introduced heself as Quri Qinti. And then, gesturing at the little girl in her arms, said, "Sutiyas Qapila."

"Qapila," Dani repeated, the name catching in her throat. She tried again. "Qapila."

Dani was frozen. She was out of Huaca words and phrases, and now that introductions had been made, she had little else to offer. But something had snapped inside her, catching her unexpectedly. She thought back to all the little Chaqiskas that she'd met in Aya Pampa -- the Hatun Chaqiska, the Tumpa Chaqiska, the Lunku Chaqiska, and any number of other just plain Chaqiskas. She looked at this little girl here in front of her, this Chaqiska. And she started thinking about all the villages that stretched along the banks of the Rio de los Reyes from here to Brazil, about the Huaca people living in communities no larger that Aya Pampa, about a people whose entire way of life had been profoundly altered and made better by Summer Monroe. Whether the curse had been real or just a self-fulfilling prophecy, the Huaca had been on their way to extinction; an entire generation of Huaca owed their very lives to a blonde biologist barnstorming her way through the Oriente. "Chaqiska," the Huaca had named their children. "Chaqiska."

"Qapila," Dani repeated one last time.

Bottle of beer still in-hand, and dinner sitting back on the bar, Dani rounded the corner outside the Oveja Negra, and found Summer stacking blankets inside the back of the Land Rover.

"I'll go," she offered excitedly to the blonde. "I'll go. I'll do it."

Summer was sure what to say. She stood in stunned silence for a moment, frozen in place, and asked, "Are you sure?"

Dani paused. "No, not at all." But she was. Or, at least, she thought she was. "I don't know. I just...I need to do it. I have to do it. Something about it just...I don't know...feels...right."

It was the truth. Dani wasn't sure about this. Not in the least. But she was going to go through with it anyway.

For the Huaca.

For the Chaqiskas.

For Qapila.

Really, what was it that she was sacrificing? A little dignity? A bit of chastity? Dani had masturbated in the shower when they'd gotten back to San Eduardo. And when it came right down to it, wasn't that all that Summer was asking of her? Wasn't that all that the Huaca were asking of her? Sure, there were more people there, more sets of eyes on her, and Dani herself wouldn't exactly be in charge. But it was more or less the same, wasn't it? She wasn't fucking anyone. The Huaca weren't raping her. She wasn't technically sleeping with anyone.

It was whore-ish, sure. Dani wasn't planning on taking any pictures, or sharing the experience with anyone back home. But, in much the way that her loincloth and toplessness had fit into the accepted norm yesterday, this had become the accepted norm within La Iniciativa. If she could do this one, horrible thing -- and really, was it that horrible? -- then would be making the lives of the Huaca that much better.

"Just once," she quickly amended the offer. "Just once. Let me try it once."

Benitez appeared from behind the bar, carrying his backpack and a pop-tent. Finding the two women together, and sensing something profound between them, he asked, "What's going on?"