Going Down

It had just rained, and the courtyard was muddy but for patches where grass runners made a mat upon the ground for chickens to peck at them.

The gate creaked open. In a flash, Pu'iyo raced up on the back of that elder vita'o lizard and stood beside me to watch.

When the drawbridge thudded to the ground, two columns of men plodded across, easily four-dozen men—new recruits, from the look of them, wide-eyed and disorganized. They were mostly Herali; I counted not less than twenty eupin longbows among them. Amid their number were another half-dozen bison-pulled carts about to tip over for all the goods and supplies. Behind them all was Ahmi riding atop the vita'o with the dark-green color over his back and light blue underbelly, Thunder. She wore a white, cotton minidress that day.

She greeted the elder quartermaster. The two of them shared an embrace along with a few laughs and some discussion in the native language that went way too fast for me to understand, though I heard Miyani's name.

A tall man in his thirties came from behind the mess to greet the newcomers. He had the dark-green skin of the natives with curly, dark-green hair and eyes, and wore a white crescent moon tattoo on one shoulder. "Take these to the barracks. You, and you, through there. This group, take these crates to the kitchen…. Those go to the armory, that way. I need six volunteers for wall duty? You, you, and you…"

A voice called out from the ramparts. "Incoming!"

By the time anyone looked up, Blue flew across the drawbridge in one stride bearing Miyani on his back. He raced up to me and bowed low, breathing heavily. Miyani fixed her eyes on me directly. "Davod! Is true?"

Ahmi stared at her in confusion, then she and Miyani turned to Pu'iyo, who answered, "ti. fæ tʊxo Davod kiti fi kaŋi."

Ahmi looked away and muttered to herself, "xatʌ."

Miyani dismounted and threw her arms around me, burying her face in my belly. I needed that. I didn't realize how badly I needed that until I felt her arms squeezing my waist, and I caved into her. Then after a while she lifted her hand to my chest and leaned in. "How much bad?"

I breathed in deep and shrugged. I'd had no idea it could get as bad as it had got, neither did I care to imagine it being worse. "It's bad."

"ʒɪ 'aʒeze ŋuve?"

I pointed towards the back end of the tower, beyond the mill. "He's locked in the dungeon."

"OK," she nodded and took my hand. "pʊ zɪvɪdi."

I swallowed. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through that again.

Connected to the outer wall at the back end of Praying Mantis was a stone building with a few steps leading up and inside. From there, a long, narrow corridor came to a staircase leading down into the darkness where the air was as thick as it was musty. As we were going down, a lantern below cast its yellow hue over the stone floor with scraps of straw thrown about along the side.

Iron cages lined the left and the right with a good three strides between them. The wall on one side looked wet, and the whole place was cool but smelled stale. From a cage on the right, a voice called out to us. "saŋɪwesa fi damʌ! ŋayi tixese sʌbato?"

It was a gaunt native man sporting a white cloud tattoo with a pair of lightning bolts coming down. Miyani turned and lifted the backs of her hands to him, extending both her middle fingers up. 

The man laughed along with a handful of other voices in other, nearby cages. 

On the left, crouched in one corner with his arms around his knees, Davod stared into oblivion. He brought his eyes to us as we came, then smiled wide and stood with a friendly air. "Hey man! mɪyaŋi, vɪdose ʃɪ'uti?"

She smiled at him and nodded.

As for Davod, his pupils were still dilated, and he leaned his forehead between two iron bars. "You two look so good together! When are you getting married?"

Miyani looked up at me, "maleed?"

I found peace in her round face. "go'iyo'i, and that's a point for me."

She sneered and poked me in my side. Davod wrapped his fingers around the bars and settled on his feet, still smiling. "You know, I'm feeling a lot better. I don't want to touch the vine anymore. You saved my life. I'll never forget that."

"That's good," I said. Miyani held my arm and pulled, keeping me at a distance from his cage. I continued, "because if you touch that vine again, it will dig its roots into your body and consume you. Your skin, your flesh, your bones, until there's nothing left."

Davod shook his head and laughed. "No, man! That's what they tell you! That's what they want you to think! It's actually quite an experience; I honestly do feel like I'm closer to God. Like, I've glimpsed the scope of creation, and it's… so beautiful. You really should try it."

I looked down at Miyani. Her eyebrows popped and she shook her head.

"Look," he smiled. "I get it. It's bad. I promise. I won't go back there again. It's a good thing, I really think you should experience this once in your life, you know? Just to know what it feels like. You don't have to do it again. Just one time, you know?"

"They say that if you touch it once, you'll forever want to touch it again."

Davod bobbed his head back and forth. "Well, that won't be me. I promise. You let me out of here, and I promise I won't go look for the vine. Fair?"

Miyani shook her head vigorously at me, but I didn't need to be told. "You're going to stay where you're safe for now."

Davod shook his head and exhaled sharply, looking off to the side. Behind us, that other prisoner spoke again. "dowa kovɪdoze kiti fi kaŋi. 'oto xewekʊseza!"

Miyani turned to the man and scolded him, counting on one finger, "pabaθʊpi fayi! pi!"

The man sucked his teeth and looked away, chuckling. 

I looked at her. "paba…"

She scrunched up her cute nose with a smile. "Eh… one word more. Point for me!"

Davod looked at me with a gleam in his eye. "C'mon, man! Hey, let's do this. How about you and me, we go and find the vine together? Just the two of us, yeah? Like we used to do, you know?"

"You're going to stay down here a while."

"You FUCKING LIAR!" He thrust his arm between the iron bars to lunge at me, but couldn't fit his heavy muscles through. He grasped his fingers open and closed, reaching out for my neck and screamed, "I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND!"

I didn't know if he could tell I'd flinched, but my heart jumped two paces back. 

"You FUCKING TOLD ME THE VINE WAS HERE YOU FUCKING LIAR! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! YOU'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND! I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND!"

Miyani pulled me away and reached up to grab my shoulder. She set her hand over my heart and cooed, "come. We go."

His hands clung to the iron bars and he nearly cried. "You don't care about me! You don't want me to be happy…"

I breathed in deep and settled on her, and she was there to hold me.

As we made our way out of the dungeon, I saw that same native man standing at the edge of his cell clinging to the iron bars as he leaned his grinning face between them. He watched me. He watched me, and he grinned, and I hated him.

He taunted, "vʌgaθɪze!" then giggled as I tried to walk past.

Miyani leaned into the stairway and whistled a sharp rise, then another, followed by a warble and another sharp rise.

Immediately the man stepped back and panicked, "vʌ."

All the other prisoners cowered into the corners of their cells, and the one who'd mocked us shook his head vigorously, "vʌ. kupade, vʌ."

Miyani grabbed a ring from a hook a few steps into the stairwell that had a key dangling from it and walked over to his cell. By the time she got there, a heavy squawk erupted from the passageway above.

The man's face turned white and his eyes bulged. "vʌ! kupade! kupade!"

His fingers trembled as she unlocked his cage. A vita'o with a blue stripe running down the length of his body peeked his neck into the dungeon, baring a mouth full of jagged, serrated teeth.

"kupade!" he begged. "ʃʊsi vʌ!"

She didn't acknowledge the man but turned to Blue, "are you hungry?"

"vʌ!" he screamed. "ʃʊsi vʌ! ʃʊsi!"

With that, Miyani took my hand and ushered me quickly up the stairs with blood-curdling screams echoing off the stone walls behind us.

We made it back to the main archway leading out to the commons when she stopped and looked up into my eyes. "No Davod talk. OK?"

That centered me a little. I heard no more screams by then; I didn't know what to think about that.

She insisted, "no Davod talk. And kitifikani talk that no Davod talk."

I raised my eyebrows. "That wasn't him talking?"

"Yes," she said. "Wasn't him talking. Eh… yes kitifikani talking. Need time, hope he, uh… come back. OK? Need time."

The sky had begun to turn. A loud, obnoxious voice of a man celebrating called out to me from the mess. "Gods!" he cried. It was Borel. He stepped out from the mess hall and smiled his way towards us with a copper mug in his hand. "Get over here, man!"

He wove one heavy arm over my shoulder and ushered me back from whence he'd come with only a cursory glance for my girlfriend, "zawa."

She smiled and nodded. Borel pushed his cup into my chest such that a few drops spilled over the side and wet my skin. "Guess who popped their cherries today!"

As he led me off, Miyani tapped my arm. "I wash Blue. OK? You talk. We find… eh… later. OK?"

I was actually more interested in watching her bathe the lizard, picturing water and suds all over her body, watching her bend over to get more soap… turn around and bask in the muscles in her legs as she stood on her toes. I'd have helped of course; I wouldn't have just sat there. Maybe help rinse off some suds that got onto her breasts? I turned to look at her before she'd gone, and she gave me a little wave and a smile before walking off.

Inside the mess, the whole group was together except our captain. Jame sat next to Geraln, the two of them with a somber expression on their faces beside Malchuk while the men crowded around them. 

Borel joined them excitedly, "alright, who wants to go first?" He then held up a finger, "I'll go first!"

Geraln shook his head and chuckled. Jame sat and stared off into the distance, while Malchuk sat quietly sipping from his cup and followed the conversation with his eyes.

"OK," Borel began. "So we were up there, gods, it must have been what, three hours?"

Jezi scratched his head and smiled. "Must be four at least."

Borel shook his head, still smiling. "At least four hours. So we're up there, and these guys just walk out onto the creek bed right out into the open. They don't see us. My man here," he slapped Jame's shoulder. Jame gave a cursory glance upward then looked back down at his drink with a long exhale. "He says, dibs on the guy with the yellow thing around his neck. Geraln claims his, Malchuk names his, and that's all we got, right? That must have been… two-fifty?"

Geraln groaned, "a hundred-eighty yards; it wasn't that far."

"Three times what they can shoot, man." Borel grinned wide and shook his head in excitement. "Gods, if you and Davod were there, we'd have got them all! Oh, you missed it! And this guy!" He took Malchuk's shoulders in his giant hands. "Pops this guy right in the bloody knee, man! His friend comes over to help, he shoots that bastard in the leg, too!"

Gino lifted his chin to the Goloagi. "Why'd you shoot them in the legs?"

Malchuk scratched at the scar across his nose and nodded. "Kill a man, you take out one. Immobilize him, you take out three 'cause he needs two to carry him. I didn't know how many more there were, and I didn't want 'em coming after us, so I figured, we give 'em two wounded right in the line of fire, they ain't goin' nowhere 'til we say so."

"Heh!" Borel chuckled, "remind me not to piss you off. Anyway, so after that, got to be another half hour or so, Marya rides out and stops right in front of the wounded men. She looks left, looks right, then leaves. Then she shows up behind us saying we can go home. Gods, this place is crazy!"

Borel never ran out of words. Geraln didn't smile, and he barely looked up. As the big man kept talking, Geraln got up and walked off. I caught up to him just outside the mess hall where his head hung low. "You alright, man?"

He stopped and looked up at me with a blank expression on his chubby face. He took a deep breath and let it out, then we walked over to the steps leading up to the dungeon. There he sat down, buried his face in his hands, and cried. "I killed a man, Caleb, I killed him! I fucking killed a man!"

He sobbed, and I started to understand why Borel was so keen on celebrating. "Look at me. Do you think, for one second, if it had been you in that creek bed and them up on the ledge, you think they'd have gone easy on you?"

He shook his head and furrowed his brow. "They don't have the range, man. Those native bows…"

"You're missing my point."

Geraln stared at me and blinked. "Jame got his man right in the neck. Blood just… sprayed out. Everywhere. Squirts ten feet away, like squirt, squirt, squirt, it just poured out of him. He's running around in circles and there's just… blood. All over. Just everywhere." He swallowed and shuttered through a deep breath. "My guy, I got him right in his ear. I'm thinking, he's gonna go down. Right? He puts his hand up to his ear and knocks the shaft around. Then he…" he gulped. "He starts shaking his head around like crazy. I'm thinking, don't do that, you'll make it worse! He's got the broadhead right in his brain, and he just shakes his head. He falls over, and he's still shaking, and I'm just…"

He took in a sharp breath and squeezed his eyes closed. 

"I thought I could put him out of his misery, you know? Like a mercy. So I put another one in his heart. And he's there shaking, just shaking. Like stop shaking, man. He's still shaking…"

"I'm s…"

"I know why you shot that man in the foot."

Silence fell between us. The sky was dark. The whole place was dark but for paper lanterns on high sconces all about the courtyard. From the nearby mess hall, men laughing and chattering drowned out the calls of the jungle that managed to creep over the walls. 

Geraln turned to look at the entryway to the dungeon. "How is he?"

I leaned in and took a deep breath. "It's bad."

"Like how?"

"All he wants to do is touch the vine. I've never seen anything like it. It's this… crazy obsession, and he's going to lie, and manipulate, and say whatever he thinks you want to hear for you to let him out so he can go touch it. And half the time he's telling you how you should do it to."

"Gods!"

"And that's our friend. That'll be him from now on, for the rest of his life. Pu'iyo says he'll get better in time, he'll be able to go back to most of his life, but he's done going out there. She says they had a guy who recovered, they put him on wall duty. He finished his tour and went back home to Heralia. Years later, he shows up at the Terbulin gate begging to be let through."

"Wait," Geraln looked as in thought. "That means he's going home?"

"Huh?"

"Davod can shoot, you know that. Putting him on wall duty for the next two years, that's easy. He's going to go home."

That gave me pause. It was true. I hadn't thought about that. "You mean he's going to make ten babies with Runya, and sit back with a warm beer and listen to the children weasel their way out of some mischief?"

Geraln laughed. "Yeah. Something like that, yeah. We should write to Runya—she's going to have to keep an eye on him, but yeah. That's one of us, now we've got to work on the other two."

I shrugged. "He did say it's a nice experience…"

He laughed, "shut the hell up, man!"

I laughed as well. When we looked up, Miyani stood before us.

God, she looked beautiful. The warm yellow of a nearby lantern reflected off her skin, drawing my eyes down across her breasts and across her fit tummy, all the way down her muscular thighs to her bare feet and back up. Her sultry yellow eyes followed mine the whole way, and she smiled so wide at me looking her over that I gave her sublime body another pass. She wore a short, white silk for a loincloth about a gold, woven belt that gave so much of her delicious hips to my eyes that I grew an erection right then and there. 

Geraln then rested his hand on my shoulder and used me as a crutch to get up, then gave her a nod before turning to go see our friend. 

"Don't get too close," I warned him.

He grinned and spoke his farewell. 

I gazed at her, and she at me, and I needed. I just needed. 

I looked around and saw the entryway to a small tower in the outer wall some yards down from where we were. So I got up, grabbed her arm, and pushed her in that direction. 

Her voice smiled, "what?"

We ducked behind a heavy oaken door and into a dark staircase. When the door closed behind us, we were in total darkness. Without a hint of a shadow to discern the form of her body, I probed around for the stairs and pulled her up some until I found one step that was considerably higher than the one below it.

"What is?" she giggled lightly.

I pushed her up to that step and slid my hands down her skin to her hips, pressing down so as to bring her to sit on that step while I groped around to crouch before her on the step below. I felt her legs open for me and I leaned in, probing in the darkness, my hands over her nipples and up along her shoulders until my lips found hers waiting for me. I felt her fingers probe around my body until she found my scalp and brushed her fingers through my hair. I felt around her thighs and brought my hands below, tracing the lines of her muscles and she squeezed on me ever so gently, then relaxed into a rhythm. I felt her hand meander down my chest and grasp at the form of my solid cock and tease her fingers around it. I groped her skin, still kissing her lips, and brought my thumbs in to brush her nipples, then shifted my hand over to take her nipples between two fingers and lightly pull at them. 

Touching her, feeling her body, my whole body was racing to catch up to my thundering heart, which itself lagged behind how badly I needed her. 

She continued to stroke at my cock beneath my trousers, but I had to pull away some to bring my lips down to her breasts 

"Mmmmm," she exhaled. I wrapped my lips around her taut nipples and kissed, then kissed some more, bouncing my head back and forth between her breasts and licking her nipples with each pass. I felt her arms enfold around the back of my head and lock me in place so that I had no choice but to swallow her breast, enfolding one nipple in my tongue. Her breathing grew heavy as I sucked hard, pulling her nipples out with my lips only to press down and take her whole breast in my mouth once more. Her strong thighs squeezed me in, exciting me further, and I migrated my hands up along her hips and wrapped around, with one arm behind her shoulders and my other around her waist, and still I sucked.

I moved my lips over to her other nipple and kissed, then sucked that one as well. In the sultry darkness there was only our bodies, invisible and silent but for her growing breaths and the sound of her legs gliding over my skin. My mind was gone, surrendered to desire. 

I reached one hand back around to probe at her belt, slipping one thumb between her thighs to trace at the cloth pulled over her sex and worked my way beneath, still kissing and suckling at her breasts, only to take one nipple and roll it around in a circle with my tongue.

My erection was complete, a solid pressure against my trousers. Then I felt Miyani's hands press down on my shoulders, and so I abided. I lowered myself against her body, pressing my lips into her tummy as I inched my way down. I slithered my hands beneath her thighs and sated myself with the sensation of the muscles beneath her soft skin, stroked all the way down her calves and back up only to plant both hands around her legs and lock her in place. 

Then I felt hair on the tip of my nose. 

I could see nothing for the darkness, but that pussy was right there. Right in front of me, just waiting. So close I could smell it. 

I pushed my face in and pressed my lips onto her folds, burying my nose in her mound and breathed in deep. God, just the smell of her was intoxicating. I basked in the sweet musk of her sex, taking her in with every breath while her fingers ran through my hair. Finally I brought my tongue out and flitted lightly over her folds. 

She rewarded me with a slight moan and a sharp inhale. I wanted more. 

I should have been patient. I should have been gentle. Instead, I buried my tongue between her labia and slid all the way down across her opening flesh then curled it in to get a true taste of her. She rewarded me with another moan and clasped my hair in her fist behind my head. I covered her mound on my lips and continued to lick, sucking at her clitoris while she locked my head in her thighs like a vise, loosening, squeezing, then loosening again in rhythm to my tongue across her folds.

She sang for me. Her high voice called out in rhythm with my tongue flitting up and down across her folds, so I pushed my tongue out as far as I could and thrust into her. 

Her hands grew weak behind my head. I felt her legs open up for me fully, so I settled in and kept thrusting, earning that audible treat with every push. I tongue-fucked that beautiful song out of her right up until we heard footfalls on the stairs above. 

The taste of Miyani's delicious pussy clung to my lips. My heart pounded. It was dark moments ago, but the hint of a lantern grew with men's voices as they came down the stairs towards us.

I felt her fingers brush through my hair, and her soft voice breathed out, "no stop."

I smirked. They were about to walk right past us. "Let them see, huh?"

Her voice smiled, "ti."

"OK then!"