A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 55

During the next pause, Darji was surprised to hear Bryth ask if he wanted to mate with her.

"This would surely be no High feast if there was no rutting between other than the couples. I am happy that you and my friend like each other, but Darji, it is our custom to rut with others whom we like at these times and I still must give you something for your gift."

He looked over in the fading light of their little fire and he saw that Theyl was nodding to indicate his agreement. When he looked back, Bryth was lying before him looking very sweet and willng, so he moved forward as Shey Lann stroked him a little and then helped to guide him into her friend.

It was mostly a very playful thing as Theyl knelt near Bryth's head and she reached up to caress what he had at the same time. The elf was everywhere as she saw that she might be needed to help and afterward, they all just collapsed in a laughing heap before they began to drift back into two pairs of new lovers who sought to give what they could to each other.

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The next day, that was the way that they all walked out of the seemingly endless hallways where Darji had wandered lost for more than a year of the time to his thinking, though once out in the sunshine and blinking as he looked around, he guessed that his thoughts hadn't been that far wrong.

They stood together near the rubble of what he recognized as the already ancient site where he'd gone in so long before. A little walking told him that a lot had changed; the town that he remembered being near to the place was now gone and grown over. All that he saw was the blocks and bricks of the structures, ancient now themselves and little more than stone rings where buildings had once stood. The most in the way of any kind of structure that he saw was little more than the worn bricks standing no more than three tiers high -- about a foot, and that was it.

As they camped the following evening, the only thing which made sense to him was what he felt as he held Shey Lann close while she slept in his arms.

In the morning after they'd gotten up and dressed, he was strapping on his old Colt and he watched as Bryth took out the idol from her pack to look at it and before he could say anything to her in warning, there was a bright flash and they were surrounded by one of what he'd always referred to as a membrane, though he'd never seen one act this way before. It stood in a ring around them, glowing softly and rippling.

As they looked around them, he saw a figure, bent over with age on the other side as he leaned on a cane. They looked at each other and the females said that it was the chancellor who nodded and held out his hand.

"Don't try to give it to him," Darji said to Bryth, "I don't know what he wants it for, but if it disappears like this afterward, it'll just be gone and it'll take us with it -- to wherever it goes."

The man on the other side extended his arm and they saw it pass through the rippling surface. Darji grew very nervous at this.

"You have succeeded in the little quest which I set for you," the old one croaked, "and I have come, not wanting to wait as you took a long time to bring it the rest of the way. Here, where no one can see, I can force you to give it. Once it is in my possession, I will close this ring and you will be ... "

He smiled, "somewhere else.

With what I gain, I will live much longer and it will be nothing more than a little thought to take the kingdom for myself. Give it now, Bryth, worthless brat that you are and have always been."

He made a few motions with his hand and the faun girl began to step forward slowly. It was against her will, but she found that there was nothing that she could do. She cried out in alarm and a little fear, but she came on still, stepping nearer to the ring and that old hand.

"And not a word from you, elf," he said as he motioned her to be still.

Shey Lann felt her tongue cleave to the roof of her mouth instantly.

"Who are you?" the man asked Darji, who said nothing in reply.

"No matter," the man grinned as he waved his hand.

"This thing that you want," Darji said, "It has to do with time doesn't it? You think you've found a way to regain your youth or some shit like that, right?"

The old man didn't get all of it, but he nodded, "I can do everything differently, ... better, ... the way that it should have gone."

Darji didn't know what was supposed to happen then, but felt nothing and the ancient face looked a little uncertain then as he watched Darji Saladin's slow smile.

Darji knew that he'd finally figured this out as he stepped a little to the side to be able to see as Bryth's hand reached out helplessly with the idol.

As the old man smiled, his fingers closing around the artifact, Darji's right hand began to move.

The old pistol was in is grip in a flash and in one motion, his thumb drew back the hammer and when Bryth's hand was no longer in contact with the idol or anything else, Darji pulled the trigger.

The hammer snapped forward and the long pistol roared. There was a smoking blast and the lead bullet was on its way at a little under a thousand feet per second.

The man saw only the beginnings of the cloud of smoke from the weapon that he hadn't recognized and then, while his hand was closed over the idol and still inside the ring, the bullet shattered the artifact and carried on until it came to rest lodged just on the far side of the man's heart.

The shock of the impact rocked the man, but he didn't fall right away as he stared with fading sight as he pulled his damaged hand back. He looked down at the hole in his chest and then he looked up at Darji.

Darji said the only thing that he thought might fit the situation as he grinned.

"Nope," he said quietly.

There was a bright flash and they stood there alone, the ring gone.

A few minutes later, they'd found only some few splinters of the artifact, which Darji warned them not to touch and some splashed blood and a few bone fragments.

"Fine," he smiled, "Take me to where we're going and thanks for getting me out of there."

They walked for weeks.

Their first stop had been Bryth's city. But they could almost feel the tension in the air as they approached the gates.

Though they stared at Darji, the guards at he gate advised them not to enter.

"The low ones are rising up against the crown and the king," they said, "It is not safe, your highness. Find another place nearby to stay and wait a few days while we put this little revolt down."

Bryth nodded and they walked on as she explained that she guess that what both she and Shey Lann had feared was coming to pass. After a hurried vote among themselves, they walked on, thinking of trying to hunt something up for a meal.

A week later, they sat in an inn and ate a meal together, with Shey Lann sitting next to the human who she now knew that she loved while he told his tales of what it had been like for him as he grew up. They all agreed that it sounded like a wonderful place.

Later that night as they lay in bed, Shey Lann startled him with her question.

"Do you see any of my beauty fading yet, Darji?" He looked down at her and shook his head, "I never knew what you meant by that -- and I still don't, not really. Why? Are you getting tired of me?"

She mimicked him, "Not really."

Then she smiled and hugged him, "I have never known anyone who wants me this close all of the time. I smile as I never have in my life before now. You can make me angry and when I rise to take the bait, you laugh at me in a way which disarms me and I love you all over again.

I did not think such a thing could be done.

Do you miss the place where you were?"

He shook his head, "Just a few of the conveniences, but I've been without them for so long now that it doesn't matter. The one person that I miss is my mother. I don't need her in any way, but we were very close and she'd have loved to see all of this."

He looked at her a little cautiously then, "Why all the questions, anyway?"

"There is a matter which we should talk about. One day, when we have found a place for us in the world and no longer wish to wander as we do, would you want to make loud little people with me who might have ears whish are a little long?"

"I've thought about it, and I kind of like the thought. Again, Shey Lann, why?"

"Of us all," she said, her face no longer smiling, "you have the shortest life. I do not wish to lose what I have found. It can be changed, you know. You can live a lot longer with us if you like and want to be the one who cares for a surly elf girl."

He nodded, "I guess that I probably would, the way that you say it."

He didn't get much more out of her that night in that regard, but he knew her by now. When Shey Lann was ready to let him in on whatever it was, she'd let him know.

Even so, it came as a bit of a shock to him to find all three of them wanting to make love to him the next night as they lay in the tent which they shared when they were out on the road.

"You want to do what to me?" he asked, but none of them answered. They just fell on him and began. Hours later, Darji suddenly felt very sleepy. He'd ingested some of the fluids of the faun pair and this was the effect.

As he felt his eyelids grow heavy, his elf stayed against him and held his face to her breast, telling him that she loved him so.

When he asked her the next day as they walked, Shey Lann explained that it was another detail about the fauns, "They have given us both a gift, those two. You will live long and I have the best chance to keep the only man who even can love me close to my heart."

He knew that the previous night had been about then and he took her hand in his own as they walked.

Three weeks later, they were walking through some foothills and thick forest.

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Cha'Khah walked over to the barn and found Barrett in the middle of laying out some hay in one of the mangers there for the purpose. She smiled when he stopped and then she leaned in a little to kiss him.

"Where are you off to?' he asked, looking at them.

"I am taking Mo-Wenn for a little walk," she said, "She is not like a Drow who shuns the sunlight. Her kind needs more fresh air than even humans. "

She wrinkled her nose, "And I think you could stand a little air as well, now and then to keep from smelling like this barn. We will not be long about it."

Barrett laughed a little and watched as Cha'Khah strode away, with their adopted daughter in a pack on her back.

After only one very short period of crying as the infant missed her dead mother, Mo-Wenn resumed being a happy little thing and she was a very good little girl most of the time. She knew by her mother's voice when she could squeal or laugh. She liked to be carried through the forest, listening as Cha'Khah pointed out things and explained a little, even though it wasn't understood.

It didn't matter to either of them; it was about a girl and her mother and doing what they enjoyed.

Barrett had crafted a pack for them so that the infant rode high up and could see a little over Cha'khah's shoulder. The Drowess knew that her little Wildling was learning from it -- even if the two of them weren't exactly locked in a deep discussion or anything. In fact, they usually had the most fun when Cha'Khah tried to explain something and Mo-Wenn laughed and gurgled back at her.

And if Mo-Wenn sensed any tension in her mother, she grew still instantly. Vadren had said that it was a natural instinct for Wildlings, living in the woods as much as they did. Without planning it at all, Cha'Khah was doing just as any Wild Elf mother would do for her child.

But as they walked farther into the forest, Cha'Khah began to sense that something was .... different somehow. The birds and the other woodland creatures, while not falling completely still, were sounding very much subdued to some extent. She slowed markedly and stepped off the trail, deeper into the shade of the trees. Once there, she stopped completely and stood listening and watching. Mo-Wenn had fallen silent as soon as her mother had begun to slow down.

As she stood, Cha'Khah could see a little movement every few seconds. The trouble was that it was happening in two different places in her field of view, and it almost forced her to move her head -- and showing a movement was not something that she wanted to do at this point, so she had to settle for the slight annoyance of slowly centering her head and then straining her eyeballs in their sockets to the left and right, alternately.

What she was looking at were a pair of people, one of them an elf, some sub-species of Wood Elf, she guessed. The male was human and he was dressed a little oddly to her, though she recognized some of the look from her husband's style of dress.

It was the other pair which caused her to try hard not to stare.

She'd never seen creatures like them before.

They spoke quietly as they went. Well, the man did sparsely and quietly and the elf barely replied, but after a time, Cha'Khah was surprised to hear that they spoke in English, though the elf's speech was accented like her own, though the accent was different.

What she heard from the others was accented even more.

Even though it carried the different flavorings, their quiet conversation stopped abruptly and they listened to a quiet sound, not far off.

Cha'Khah wanted to groan, but there was no help for it. No matter the urgency of matters at hand or the need to keep still, the digestive processes of infants inexorably lead to the elimination processes. Though she'd been as quiet as a mouse up to this point, Mo-Wenn grunted quietly and the sounds of her filling her swaddling carried far enough in the silent woods to be heard.

It was easy to tell which one was the elf in the next instant. The man tried to run toward Cha'Khah through the tall scrub grass, but the female elf stood before her in a flash. Her eyebrows rose and Cha'Khah could see that she was trying to control something within her as the yellow-green eyes took in Cha'Khah's dark skin and features and then she looked at the little Wild Elf girl on the Drow's back.

In the next instant. Cha'khah found herself looking down the barrel of a shotgun, and thanks to her man, she knew what it was and the threat to her and Mo-Wenn. The other pair approached then, holding on her with drawn bow and cocked crossbow.

Cha'khah then said something which even she would have bet money that she'd never hear herself say.

"Please, my child."

Shey Lann now heard questions from the others in two languages -- all of them asking her if she knew what this one was and she nodded slowly, "She is one who I would not ever trust long enough to even blink my eyes."

She looked, her eyes darting here and there, taking in details in what she saw.

"Lower the weapons," she told the others at last, "what I told of is true of her kind, but I can see that it is not true of her. We have not sunk so low that we would shoot a mother -- though what I see brings questions."

Cha'Khah saw a flat stone which she thought would do, and so she eased Mo-Wenn's pack off and laid down a small blanket as she began to get her cleaned up.

"How did you come to have your little one there, if I may ask it?" the elf said.

Cha'Khah worked on and made faces at Mo-Wenn for a moment, "She is a Wild Elf. I found her as her mother was dying, attacked by dogs. She begged me not to sell her, as though I would, but I guess that it was what she thought that my kind always does. Instead, I promised to raise her as my own."

"There are no Wild Elves for many leagues from here," the elf said and Cha'Khah agreed and explained quickly.

"How did you know that she is my daughter?" Cha'Khah asked, "We do not look alike."

"I have been wandering for some years," Shey Lann replied, "In that time, I have been to two Drow cities several times each. I have seen Drow mothers and how they care for their young ones.

For one who is not even a Drow, the best that this girl might hope for is to be carried in a sack. Drow mothers do not care for their own the way that I see that you care for this one and now that I see it, no mother of your kind smiles and laughs to her little one the way that I see that you are doing."

Cha'Khah smiled at that as she worked to shrug the pack on once more, "My second chance at motherhood. My first girl was taken from me by the matron of my house. One of the thousand reasons for me to want to be elsewhere."

She turned and blinked a couple of times, trying not to stare as Shey Lann told a little of their journey.

Cha'Khah looked for a moment and she saw enough to know what to say and what to avoid. "You are hungry, you four?"

The elf nodded and replied in Cha'Khah's language, "It has been a few days. We seek to find a place to live, but we do not know these hills, honored mistress," she said, using the Drow word for such a person.

"Well the first thing," Cha'Khah began, "is to get you fed. I can say for certain that you will be well-fed this day. You speak my tongue well for an outsider," Cha'Khah remarked and the elf nodded her thanks.

"I learned in the underground cities and why not show politeness where and when it might do some good? I do not know whether you are a valsharess, but there is no harm in making the assumption out here, I think, and it is polite. I just cannot imagine why I would find one such as you here, above ground."

The Drowess smiled, "I left the underground long behind me. I came here to make my life among the topsiders.

Look at my daughter. What Drow would take the child of a Darthiir for her own? I have never heard of such a thing. My man is a human. My friends are mostly demons but not like the ones who scream and kill everything. I have learned that to get a little closer to another person's best requires that I must try first."

She held out her hand, "I am Cha'Khah, friend. Please tell me your name."

The elf looked uncertain for a moment, but then she smiled a little tentatively and grasped Cha'Khah's forearm, "I am Shey Lann. This is my male, Darji, a human too, and these friends of ours are fauns. Bryth and Theyl, they are, a princess and a prince from another clan who were paired for marriage at birth. They have paired as was arranged, but out of love. They left the politics behind them."

"Then give me your friendship, Shey Lann and Darji, Bryth and Theyl, and you may have mine," Cha'Khah grinned, "and perhaps even a place such as you seek. I might be enough of a valsharess hereabouts that I can manage even that."