We all crouched low in the darkness with bows out and arrows nocked, looking out.
All around us, thick vines and ferns filled the ground like a sea of green with islands of groves like the one we hid beneath as far as we could see—as much as forty yards in some angles.
Borel hid beneath a dense cluster of grass. He turned to look at Miyani, then looked around at the rest of our unit, only to look at Miyani again and swallow his breath.
She hunched low and lay her body over Blue's back, reaching her hand out towards us as she looked to our left. Makchuk wiggled his finger around the bowstring where his arrow waited to be drawn. Sweat dripped down our faces, and we all looked in that direction.
An enemy sekiwa raced through the vines between tree-islands and stopped twenty feet from us. I couldn't hear the whistles and chirps of the jungle over my thundering heartbeat.
The vita'o was a female, beige-green with a cute-ish look to her lizard face, and swished her tail left and right over the leaves behind her. The woman riding her was older, perhaps Ahmi's age, petite and muscular as they all were, same dark-green skin with white hair and yellow eyes. She had an arc of a scar like an old bite wound on her elbow and a white tattoo on her shoulder in the shape of a jaguar with its jaws open.
The cute-faced lizard raised her nose to the air and sniffed.
I felt like I was frozen in time. Every muscle in my body was tense. My fingers trembled around the nock where my arrow clung to its string.
The woman looked left and right, then urged her mount forward. They continued along their way and disappeared into the forest to our right.
Blue rose up, lifting Miyani high enough to look over each of us as she counted with her chin. In this darkness, my eyes had adjusted enough for me to see the silhouette of her gorgeous legs. He then croaked low and gave out a string of clicks. Miyani narrowed her eyes at me, pursed her lips, and shook her head. I had to look away in embarrassment.
She turned to our captain and pointed towards the direction the woman had come from, "first they come, then you shoot. OK?"
We all nodded. Borel did as well, "alright."
With that, Miyani darted off and vanished into the woods.
I wiped the sweat from my brow and tried to settle my heart. This was real. This was happening.
Then, our captain belched out, "I don't like it. I think we should split up. Come, Jame, Jezi, Trey, Filau…"
Ales shot his hands up, "what the hell are you doing, man?"
Borel lurched at him, "I'm splitting us in two. Half of us stay here, half…"
Geraln scowled at him, "you're going to get us all killed!"
"HUSH!" The whisper-scream came from our right.
We all looked, and that sekiwa came back. The lizard stopped at the exact same spot as it had before, and the woman looked right at us. She leaned in and furrowed her brow, and an arrowhead punched through her skull and stuck out through the bridge of her nose.
As blood trickled down her face, the lizard reached her head up to look, then opened her jagged teeth and hissed hard. Not a second later, we pin-cushioned her. Poor thing had no fewer than eight arrows thrust into her at once. And those eupin bows, we got a good three-hundred-fifty yards with those things—imagine what that much power can do at close range.
They went down.
Miyani appeared from behind her and came up to investigate. She looked to our left once more, then gestured for us all to come out. "We need go. Now."
We all stepped out and came up to her, close enough to get a good look at the lizard with numerous arrows in her body, including two in her skull and one that buried itself in the center of her chest all the way to the fletching. The mangled mess of the woman who rode her was forever trapped beneath, and Blue reached down to rip a snack from her side.
Miyani pointed off in the other direction. "We go. We go now!"
Borel crossed his arms and lifted his big chin to her. "Why?"
Geraln lifted his hands, "bloody hell, man!"
Ales shook his head in frustration, but Miyani lifted her hand to calm them. Then she looked around, "Jezi, translate for me please…"
As she spoke, my eyes accidentally found her hard tummy and followed the curve of her hips. God, she was gorgeous.
Blue tilted his eye at me. I grinned.
Jezi explained, "this was not part of the plan. Our cover is blown. We must hurry!"
Borel stood with his feet planted and arms crossed, looking around. "We came here to shoot these guys, we can still shoot them."
Jezi relayed the message along with her response, "she says there are twenty of them."
Faren furrowed his brow. "There's only thirteen of us!"
Borel looked at the dead sekiwa, then glanced around at the numerous tree islands that surrounded us. "No. If we run, they track us, and we lose the advantage."
Jezi didn't bother to translate before answering, "we still have our sekiwa, that's our advantage."
Borel was resolute. "We make our ambush here."
Ales threw his hands up and nearly shouted, "you're going to get us all killed, man!"
Gino grabbed my arm and spoke to her, "which way do we go?"
Borel looked at Jame. He still held his arms crossed and wouldn't move, but I could see a trembling in his eyes. Jame looked down and took a deep breath. Borel bit his lips.
I had to think of something. I stepped up and asked Miyani, "how much time do we have? Uh, pozʊ… ŋewe…"
She nodded, "I come back," and vanished between two giant palm shrubs.
Borel looked at me with his eyes wide and his jaw locked. I stepped up to him. "We have until she gets back. What's your plan?"
Borel looked around. He glanced at Jame, then back to me. One of the twins pointed out, "look how she shredded those leaves as she went through, there and there; she was making a trail for them to follow. They're going to come straight through this way."
Ales shook his head. "Yeah, then they're going to stop and see this, and we're dead."
"Wait," Gino offered up, looking at the carcass. "She's our timer. Instead of wondering when's the right time to shoot, as soon as they see her, we all draw. Then, when they try to communicate with the others, we let 'em have it."
Rock stood in the trail, tilting his head to see the bodies lying amid the ferns. He pointed out two tree-islands at a right angle from where he stood. "Half there, half there. We make crossfire."
He turned to Northstar, pointing at some dead branches nearby, "toma-to ayi sa gaw'me."
Northstar grabbed a few dead palm leaves and tossed them over the body.
Malchuk scratched at the scar that cut across his nose. "Listen up. We're up against five-to-three. Take them out of the fight. Shoot to kill. Hit him in the leg, he can still shoot back. Also, if we all shoot the same man, that won't work. We need a way to call targets that won't give us away."
Geraln raised a hand to that. "Everyone pick the guy who most looks like you. If you're tall, take the tall one. If you're short…"
I nodded, "I've got the good-looking one. Let's go."
Faren shook his head, "no, the good-looking one is mine."
Jame echoed, "you can relax, I'll take the good-looking one."
Miyani and Blue raced back and stopped before us. "They come now."
While everyone else scattered to our positions, Borel stepped up to her, articulating with his hands. "yʊpi keʃo'ibi-ʒi ʃa tizo-ði."
She nodded and swallowed her breath. "OK."
She began to turn, and I stepped close to her, rolling my arm in a circle towards the ground. "pʊ kedase 'æki. 'uŋi koðuʒi ʃa xewekʊse."
She looked at me and smiled, "OK," then darted off.
Borel turned to me and sneered, "let them escape?"
I shrugged. "If they run, they're out of the fight."
He grinned, "good point!"
And we took our positions.
I found myself in the same tree island I'd been beneath before with Jame, one of the twins, Faren, Rock, and Jezi while Borel stayed with Ales, Northstar, Geraln, Malchuk, Gino, and the other one of the twins in the tree-island directly across from us.
We hunched down low and nocked arrows.
Miyani was right. Within a minute of us taking our positions, a line of warriors emerged single-file between tree islands following the exact trail their sekiwa had made for them, stepping carefully so as to not disturb any extra twigs or branches.
All of them were pure-blooded Na'uhui, with long white hair and dark-green skin wearing nothing but a loincloth and some straps. Half of them had that same jaguar tattoo as their sekiwa and half of them wore no ink, and they all carried their bows in one hand with an arrow nocked.
I had to pick out my target. I was tall and lean, fairly muscular I suppose, and so I sought that amid our enemy.
I found him.
Two of them were taller than the others, one wore the jaguar tattoo and the other did not. I figured that Borel, who wore the Falcon on his right shoulder, would pick the guy with the ink so I chose the one without.
He had an easy air about him. He turned briefly and said something to the man behind him, who gave off a light laugh in reply, then looked around smiling at the high trees that made the upper canopy.
The lead man stopped ten feet from their dead scout and jumped back.
I drew my bow. I struggled to control my breath.
The man behind the lead turned around and raised his hands to the others. My man looked up and stepped to the side a little.
I loosed.
A flurry of wood cutting through the air came at them from both sides all at once. My arrow rammed through my man's jaw and punched through the back of his neck.
He went down.
He went straight down and did not move.
A shout. A scream.
Na'uhui men scattered to the bushes. One of them drew and loosed an arrow somewhere.
More arrows came from our unit, but I couldn't move. My fingers trembled.
A man crouched behind a small shrub and looked at the island across from us, tracing arrows coming out at him. Jame shot him in the back. He arched his whole body from the shock of it, and another arrow came from the island across to punch clean through his neck.
My man did not move.
At all.
Others twitched. One crawled along the forest floor with blood pouring out from his side where an arrow had buried the broadhead into his gut. The shaft banged against a fern as he tried to crawl past, and another arrow nailed his arm to his side and buried into his ribcage.
My man lay still in a patch of ferns growing out of some brown, broken palm branches, and didn't so much as wiggle a toe. His chest didn't lift up for any breath, either.
Two of them rushed at the island opposite us with knives fixed to the brackets in their bows. The one on the left caught two arrows in the chest, one for each lung while from our side Jezi put one in his spine below his shoulder blades. For the other, Borel jumped out and rushed at him, swinging his sword like it was a baton. He hacked at the man, who pulled back and swung his blade at him. Borel dodged that, and the man tried to thrust at him until an arrowhead stuck out from the center of his back with a red glob dangling down. Borel then shoved his sword into the man and forced him to the ground, then stepped on him to pull his blade free.
He looked at the carnage we'd caused.
My man still did not move.
There was one man lying prone amid the ferns with an arrow buried into his ribcage just beneath his arm. He heaved and coughed up blood onto the ground. Another one squirmed slowly; he had one arrow shaft in his gut and another in the center of his chest had pinned him to a lot behind him.
Borel turned around and grinned at us. "We got 'em! Look!"
Jame fired an arrow off to my left—another man had crept among the vines. Now he screamed in agony and held his neck where the arrow had pierced him, while blood gushed out and poured down his arm.
While Borel jumped in shock, I took up my replacement medical kit and headed out to the man with the broadhead in his lung. He heaved hard and coughed up more blood, writhing in agony every time his body winced. He looked at his trembling fingers for a moment and tried to breathe, only to cough out more blood onto the bright-green leaves of a vine nearby.
I knelt next to him. "vʌ ɣaŋo. bomeŋɪsedu."
Slowly, he turned his head upwards to put yellow eyes on me for a moment, only to heave once more in a fit of coughing. I opened the medical kit, and the arrow-puller was the first thing I saw, tucked away in its own pocket.
He shivered and he writhed, then winced hard, his muscles tense all over. Then he scrunched up and coughed, spraying more blood onto the ground.
I put my hand on his back to steady him. "ʃʊsi. kupade. ko'o ɣemaða toto. toto toto. toto toto toto."
I wasn't sure if that was the correct way to say that this was going to hurt a quadzillion, but Borel stepped up and shoved his sword into the man's back.
The man stretched out his body and groaned. Borel pulled his sword from him and stabbed him a second time.
My eyes pleaded up at him. Had I the courage for words, I'd have said something.
"We don't have time. We have to move. NOW."
Miyani sat atop Blue, who had his head turned to one side to fix one blue-striped eye on me. A few of our men crowded around her, and she stared at me with deep worry on her face.
That evening, Borel bought us drinks. We all gathered in the mess while the rain rattled the roof, and the hair-like roots that covered the ceiling seemed to expand as if to soak in all the excess moisture.
Faren stood before Blue amid a cluster of men with one hand behind his back, and bobbing his other about trying to tag the lizard's neck while blue followed his hand with his nose. In the flash of an instant, Blue jerked his head forward and tapped Faren in his tummy. Men laughed and cheered, Blue clicked excitedly, and Faren took a drink from his cup.
Borel stood with smiling Miyani's neck trapped in the crook of his elbow as he went about telling everyone about her heroics.
I sat with Jezi, Ales, and Northstar as we quietly sipped our drinks amid the noise around us. Oren of Quesas came up to me alongside the younger brother with yellow skin and kinky bronze hair like Sarina's bearing the number 858-472. My old friend grinned at me. "Is it true you popped your cherry today, man?"
The Umeazi kid looked at him, "pop?"
Oren explained in Goloagi, "we say pop your cherry when we mean one of two things. Either he's railed a girl for the first time, or he killed a man." He smiled wide at me. "So which is it?"
Northstar looked up and swooned in his deep baritone, "he not does the sex to Miyani before dry season, I win sixty kren."
I snapped at him, "you bet on us?"
Oren lifted his chin. "Where can I get in on that?"
Jezi answered, "Yumi gives the odds."
I looked over at Miyani. God, she was pretty. She had on that white silk loincloth with the gold embroidery, the one with the pattern that looked like three animals chasing each other in a circle. Lamplight shimmered off her dark-green skin from her calves, her deliciously heavy, muscular thighs, her smooth, round hips, her tight, toned tummy, her glorious, truly glorious thighs, her cute little tits, and my God how I loved that face. She had a way of looking at you when you talked to her, the way she leaned her face into you as she listened. It was so natural to her, too. She did that when Borel had challenged her earlier that day, and she did it with Keelin and the other sekiwa he was busy narrating to.
Ales sat looking at the drink in his hammered-copper mug and didn't pick it up. He didn't move more than a breath while men talked around him.
I nodded towards him. "You alright, man?"
He glanced up at me. "It feels like shit."
When I closed my eyes, I could see that man lying in the ferns with my arrow buried in his shattered jaw with the dirt beside his head glistened from being soaked. And he was perfectly, perfectly still. I answered Ales, "yes, it does."
Jezi shrugged. "Maybe it will get better? I can't imagine living like this, coming home to this feeling. This is supposed to happen again. And again, and again. This is war. And we will keep doing this for years? I can't understand. Am I supposed to just… get used to it?" He shook his head, "I don't want to get used to this."
Father in Heaven, I killed a man today. I need something from you. I don't know what I need, but I feel like I need it right now. I trust in you, Lord.
After some time, Borel came up to our table with his lithe girlfriend and two other young native women along with several others, holding his drink aloft. "And these are the guys!" He looked around, "wait, where are the twins? Both of them, get them over here!"
At that, Miyani circled around and crouched low to speak into my ear. "You come. Now. Is important."
I sat up straight. "Now?"
She tugged at me. "Is important talk at you. Come. Now."
I got up and left with her. "You need to talk to me?"
She turned as we were leaving through the amber stone of the archway leading out into the courtyard, "yes. Very important. Come."
I followed her to the side of the courtyard and along the stalls where the vita'o slept. Blue had left earlier. He lay still with his long neck and tail couched into each other.
"Blue!" She shoved him. "yaɣe'oɣe."
He didn't budge.
"yaɣe'oɣe," she insisted. "ʃuvube."
He still didn't move, so she reached down and tickled him just beneath his leg. Immediately he twitched his head up and let out a string of clicks, then rubbed his face in her cheek. He then shifted himself so that his body lay across the entrance of the stall like a gate. We crept behind him, and she crouched down and kissed him on the side of his eyelid.
She looked up at me in the dim light of a lamp some ten yards away with a smile as wide as her eyes. "pʊ ʃipise."
I froze for a moment, "ʃipi…"
She rolled her fingers towards the bedding of softened coconut husk. "Eh… you down. Uh…"
I pointed, "lie down?" Then I lay myself down on the floor of Blue's stall. "ʃipi?"
She nodded excitedly, then crouched down to kneel right about my knees. There, she put her hand between my knees and padded them apart, "uh…"
I pulled my knees apart and nearly laughed as she bent down low to grasp at my flaccid cock beneath my trousers. She then looked up at me and smiled. "You talk, I listen. OK?"
"Uh," I wasn't sure what that meant considering what I desperately hoped she was about to do. "Wait. I…"
"You talk," she nodded and slid her fingers into the hem of my trousers and began to slide them down to where my manhood was almost exposed. Then she fixed those darling eyes on me once more, "I listen." Then she urged forward, "you talk,"
"Oh," I said. "Um… what about?"
"kʊdazise," she insisted.
"Oh."
She tugged at my trousers until my limp dick came loose and flapped inches before her face. She rolled her fingers at me. "Talk?"
And so she grasped at my cock and rolled it around in her fingers as I tried to articulate my thoughts. "I'm scared. I killed a man today. I don't know what to do about that; I don't know where to put that. I feel strange…"
She brought her lips down and kissed my limpness, then held it tight in her fingers and licked the crown. "Talk… I listen."
"I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel. If I try to ignore this idea that I'm supposed to feel something, I still can't grasp it. I… killed a man. I'm a killer."
Miyani glanced her eyes up at me with a warm smile and released limpy. She sat up and slid one leg over my body, the other on the other side, until she straddled me, her back turned, with the weight of her body focused on her firm ass dug into my hips.
Oh, her muscled back looked marvellous.
She peeked over her shoulder and winked, "touch!"
I was not about to argue that, so I slathered my covetous hands all over her back, down her sides to take her waist in my fingers and slide them down her hips.
She peeked over her shoulder again and smiled, "you talk. OK?"
I had nothing to say. She worked her body in circles back and forth across my hips, and I soaked my fingers in her thighs as her muscles moved. I was fully erect by that point. At first she took hold of my shaft and held it against her mound. Then she lifted herself up and rocked back and forth, allowing my cock to slide between her fingers and the silk flap over her pussy, all the while the soft skin of her glorious thighs slid across mine.
She peeked over her shoulder again and grinned, "you talk, I listen."
"Uh…" I laughed. Then I tried to remember what had happened earlier that day. She kept at it while I talked, "I'm afraid of becoming a monster. I mean…"
I actually didn't have all that much to say. I held onto her as she lifted up, allowing my cock to stand up straight, and maneuvered her hips so as to allow the tip of my crown to rest in the crease of her sex, pressing down enough for me to feel her wetness through the silk. There, she rolled her hips around, and I felt like I was about to burst.
Then, she started bouncing up and down, smashing my cock between my belly and her pussy and slamming that glorious arse into my hips, and I had nothing left to say. I fell over the edge.
Throbbing in ecstasy, I shot cum all over myself and all over her loincloth. I reeled back from the release and cried out until the waves of pleasure ceased. I looked down at the mess, but Miyani pulled her belt and slipped off her yithi, and used it to wipe all of it up. Then she tossed it into a nearby water trough.
Blue groaned low, then high.
Miyani urged him, "pʊ zɪxeɣe."
I heard a muted click. Miyani, completely naked, shook her head and smiled, then lay down next to me, curling up into my arms and burying her face in my chest. She whispered, "ɣʊse."
Images of that man filled my mind, the look of innocent curiosity on him moments before my arrow smashed into his face, then in the next moment lying perfectly still in the jungle.
It was all I could do to fold her in my arms and hold her there forever.