Westrons Pt. 06

There is a fair bit of militaria for the military and gaming geeks in this chapter. Feel free to skim if it's not your thing.

I awoke to find Themis lying in front of me, with an enormous smile on her face.

- "Good morning." she whispered.

- "Are we whispering?" I asked.

- "Yes. I lifted the tent flap, to clear the air in here a little. But I think all that accomplished was to tell the entire regiment what we did last night."

- "And what we're going to do again today?"

- "I certainly hope so. But perhaps we should wash, first."

- "Or second."

We were among the last to go down to the river to bathe. We attracted even more attention than usual. Themis calmly took me upstream, to the spot where I'd found her yesterday.

She had no compunction about stripping completely nude. Despite - or because of - making love to her multiple times, I was still awed by her body. And with wet strands of hair partly shielding her beautiful face ...

- "You look like a river goddess ..." I told her.

- "You don't have to pay me compliments." she said.

- "But if I want to ...?"

- "I ... I like to hear you say such things."

She sat on the riverbank, to watch me wash. But I was drawn to her, like a moth to a candle. I swam over, and emerged from the water in front of her.

I pushed her knees apart, gently. When I bent my head, though, she covered her mound with one hand.

- "You don't have to do that."

- "But if I want to ...?" I pushed her back, and she lay down on the bank. The contrast of her bright yellow hair and the moist green grass was amazing. I had her scent in my nostrils now, and could think only of her.

I kissed her lower legs, those digitigrade Westron feet. I licked and nibbled on her thighs, and the backs of her knees. Themis was wet, but warm, and she let me tease her, until finally I worked my way to her centre.

She stroked my hair as I licked and tasted her. She murmured endearments, too, until her orgasm claimed her.

Themis wanted to trade positions, and return the favour; instead, I persuaded her to turn over, on her knees, so that I could enter her from behind.

This was tremendously exciting, but I wanted to see her beautiful face as we made love. I sat on the grass, and had her straddle my lap. I couldn't thrust into her very well, but she was able to rock back and forth.

In this position I could kiss her, and nuzzle her neck, and fondle her breasts. She could lean back, and present her nipples to my tongue and teeth. Or I could hold her close, and stroke her dorsal fur.

Best of all, though, it felt as though I could last forever, this way.

I knew my own sexual capabilities quite well. Airta had been a striking introduction to the powerful effect of hemmer - on me. We'd coupled almost a dozen times over a three-day stretch, and I'd been hard as a rock on each occasion.

There'd been moments, when I was able to slow us down, but once I was inside her, it was difficult to think of anything but a mad rush to orgasm. I'd never heard of a pill or an injection that could achieve results like those.

And there was no pill to prevent chafing. After six or seven sessions in the space of a day or two, I should have been rubbed raw. But that hadn't happened. Nor had Airta or Themis shown the least discomfort.

Themis was completely different in another way, too. Her pheromones - or whatever it was that acted upon me while she was in hemmer - were equally potent, but more ... subtle?

The moment she was ready, my penis seemed to realize it, and immediately became erect. Fully, proudly erect. Hard enough to crack nuts.

The urge to be inside her was well-night irresistible, but not so frantic as with Airta. Making love to Themis was not so frenzied, or animalistic - but it was, in a way, even more powerful. Less urgent, but more intense.

Being Westron - and being Themis, I suppose - she wanted to talk about it. She told me about her first experiences. She'd experienced hemmer half a dozen times, but only for the last two had she had a partner.

The first 'union', as she called it, was 'very satisfactory', and produced her daughter. The second was a disappointment; her partner had mounted her 'many times', but only long enough to achieve his own orgasms.

- "I much prefer the way we do it." she said.

From what she told me, not only was each female's hemmer different for them, but the impact on their partners could vary dramatically.

She also wanted to know, in great detail, about my previous 'unions'.

- "There's only been Airta. And I told you about her."

- "No, I mean with your own women. Tell me."

She was insistent, so I told her about Vanova. Themis was fascinated by the concept of making love weekly, or even more often. But she was intelligent, and sensitive, too.

"You loved her?"

- "I did."

- "It must have hurt you to leave."

She had more questions about Pylosian sexual customs, so I told her stories about Bia and Long (though I changed the location). Themis found them fascinating.

Her breathing started to change, and my penis started to react. We ended up stretched out on the grass, me on top, her legs wrapped around me like a boa constrictor. I could feel her bony ankles pressing into the small of my back.

We had to bathe again, after that. Back at camp, she insisted that we eat. To avoid inquisitive eyes, we went back to our tent.

Themis and I made love three more times that afternoon. We had to go back to the river again, to wash, and ended up fucking in the shallows next to the riverbank. It was her idea; she told me directly.

- "Take me!" she panted. "As you did Airta!"

I bent her over and thrust into her from behind. I slammed my hips against her backside, over and over, plowing into her until she squealed and came. I continued to hammer my cock into her until I shot another load of semen into her liquid depths.

We lay side by side, on the grass, both breathing heavily.

- "Exciting." she gasped. "For a change. But I think - I prefer - a more sedate - pace."

- "Me too. This way - would kill me. Eventually."

***

Themis made love to me three more times that night, and again in the morning. The tent needed to be aired out, and we needed to eat. Then we went to wash, and ended up fucking in the water again, but found it too deep, and moved to the riverbank.

She wanted to try face to face again. Themis sat astride me, and ... we talked, as she occasionally rocked a little on my erection. I stayed hard, and sheathed inside her, for an inordinate amount of time ... until she asked me to stretch her out in the grass.

- "Make love to me, Cook. Again."

That evening, we coupled twice more. I was marveling at her stamina - and mine.

It was dark, outside, when I felt her nudging me.

- "Are you awake?"

- "I am now."

- "You should make love to me again, Cook. I think ... this might be the last time - that I can."

My heart sank. It was a moment that had to come: we both knew that. But I'd put off thinking about it.

I put on a brave face instead.

- "Nothing could give me greater pleasure."

I spent a long, long time caressing her, fondling and stroking and touching. It probably wouldn't add to her arousal, but it was important, to me.

- "If I was Pylosian," she murmured, "do you think you could love me?"

- "I love you now. Pylosian or Westron ..."

- "Make love to me, then. I want you inside me, for as long as we can. I want to remember this."

***

The next morning was ... difficult.

My tryst with Themis was over. Even in my head, it came out as our 'little' tryst. It would be a year or more before her next hemmer, and the odds that I would be there were small.

She woke with a smile on her face, and stretched, like a cat. I smiled, for her benefit, but I was feeling pretty low. I don't think that I fooled her.

- "Let's go wash." she suggested.

She took me to our private spot - where'd me made love several times. In the shallows, next to the grassy bank, she took my hand, and then embraced me.

"You make me wish that I was Pylosian." she said.

- "That's a wonderful thing to say. Thank you."

- "But I'm not." She looked me in the eye. "Still, I feel very lucky to have had this time with you. It would be wonderful to have ... another opportunity like this. But if we don't, I will still treasure the memory that we've created."

- "You're an incredible woman, Themis." I told her.

- "I like when you say things like that, Cook. You don't have to stop just because I'm no longer in hemmer."

We washed, and she held my hand on the way back to camp.

***

Colonel Storana seemed to see me as some kind of insult, or slur, directed at her. She felt singled out, in a negative way, to have 'the Pylosian' imposed on her.

I suspect that she also saw me as a distraction. It's true enough that conversations stopped, and soldiers stared as I went by. Some openly gawked. I was a full-blown curiosity. The attention Themis and I got only increased after her hemmer.

Everybody in the regiment knew it. We hadn't been all that loud, but they could smell us. Many of them could sense us, too - and it had an impact. At least fifty soldiers in the Aneli regiment went into hemmer in the next week.

Dozens more stopped Themis to ask her how it was, with a Pylosian.

And that drove Storana crazy. She was already a petty tyrant, a stickler for discipline. Now she became positively abusive. She protested to General Brune, which did no good. She wrote letters to the capital demanding redress, letters of complaint, and more letters (one of her aides blabbed, and soon the whole camp knew).

She took out her frustration on her soldiers, with a series of senseless punishments. Then she summoned Themis and me to her tent. She dismissed her aides, and glared at us.

- "You - Lieutenant Cook!" she spat. At least she knew my name. "You will take this message to the General, and await an answer."

"You - Ensign! You will take this letter for me, to the Quartermaster's depot. And you will return with her reply."

The depot was three day's walk behind our lines. It might take Themis a week to get there and back. Storana was simply trying to separate us - and I wasn't having that.

- "I regret, Colonel, that we cannot accept these orders." I said. "We are not under your direct command."

- "What? How ... how dare yoush!" Somehow, in her anger, Storana slurred her last word.

That's when I noticed the unusual brightness of her eyes, and the flush on her skin. I'm not sure that I would've bet on it, but it looked to me like ... the Colonel was in hemmer.

- "I suggest that you take the matter up with General Brune." I said. Then I whirled on my heel, tugged at Themis' sleeve, and marched out of the tent.

I quick-marched a good distance before she caught up with me. It was her turn to pull on my sleeve.

- "Cook." she whispered. "What are you doing?"

- "What do you mean? Couldn't you see? She's trying to separate us - to send you away. I won't stand for it, Themis. She has no right to give us orders like that!"

- "SShh! Not so loud." she hissed. "Walk with me."

Themis led me out to the edge of the camp, near a grove where the soldiers gathered firewood. The walk settled me down a bit, as she knew it would. She also took my hand, once we were past the last row of tents. She knew what that little gesture meant to me.

- "Alright." I said. "I'm calm."

- "Good." she said. Then she kissed my cheek. "Thank you for protecting me."

- "Both of us."

- "Fine. Both of us." Then Themis leaned closer. "Did you see her eyes?"

- "Yes ..."

- "Could you smell her?" she asked

- "Colonel Storana's in hemmer."

- "Of course she is! She's almost always cranky and bad-tempered, but lately she's been insufferable. And now we know why."

- "I'm glad I got us out of there, then."

Themis shook her head. "I don't know, Cook. She'll be even worse, now."

- "Well, we'll stay out of her way."

My aide didn't answer right away. She just stood there, holding my hand, looking at me.

- "It's partly your fault, you know. Well, our fault. Now she'll take out her anger on the whole regiment."

- "I'm sorry about that ... but what am I supposed to do about it?"

- "You could copulate with her." said Themis.

***

It was our first argument.

- "WHAT? That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard!" I snarled.

Themis' face fell. "You've never called me stupid before." she said.

- "You aren't. It's the idea that's ... oh, crap. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way."

She sniffed, but Themis seemed to accept my apology.

- "I don't understand why you can't simply go and copulate with the Colonel."

- "For starters, how about the fact that I don't even like her?"

- "Why must you like her, to have sex with her?"

I took a deep breath; this was going to take some explaining.

- "Themis," I said, "I'm not a Westron. Your people and mine have significantly different attitudes, when it comes to ... copulation. I don't want to give you a long, convoluted history of sex among my people -"

- "That would be interesting. Another time, then." she said.

I glanced at her. Themis was smiling; she'd just made a joke.

- "You're not angry at me anymore." I said.

- "No. But I still find it difficult to understand why you don't want to ... have sex with Colonel Storana."

- "Because I don't like her, and she doesn't like me. And because it would feel so very wrong, after what I just experienced with you."

She smiled at that. "That was lovely."

- "It was." I agreed.

- "But there are different types of sex. You said yourself that your coupling with Airta was passionate, and primal. So you can copulate primarily for the physical sensations."

- "But I also refused to ... copulate with Nystu. She might not have objected, but I would have felt wrong to me."

- "Pylosians are very complicated." said Themis. "Especially you, I think."

- "Truer words were never spoken."

I didn't tell her then, or afterwards, that I was sorely tempted to emulate Talley, and ask her to marry me. Themis was kind, and smart, and a pleasure to be with. She made me happy.

But there were obstacles. Insurmountable obstacles. It wasn't the fact that we belonged to different species, either.

She was a noble, from a prominent family; they would never consent to a union with a penniless adventurer. For my part, I had no idea if I could keep it in my breeches for a year, or more, waiting for her next hemmer. Talley's devotion to Tisucha was exceptional; I wasn't sure that I could match that.

And I couldn't forget Themis' reaction when she felt the onset of her hemmer. 'No, no, no' ... Randomly copulating with the nearest male (me), had not been part of her - or her family's plans.

***

Storana was on the rampage for the next four days.

***

I can't be certain, but it's possible that Colonel Storana's hemmer may have changed the history of the Westron Kingdom.

The Crolians were doing considerable damage to the walls of Tonol with their heavy guns. They might have been able to create a breach. But if they attempted to storm the city, we could reinforce the defenders, because the enemy couldn't quite complete their encirclement.

There were two little hills, outside the city, each with a bastion, and held by the Westron garrison. If the Crolians tried to take them, General Brune could intervene. For several weeks, now, they'd tried to reduce the first of these bastions, known as the Little Seemay, by bombarding it with heavy artillery.

Themis and I 'observed' all of this, and I told her my opinions on the subject.

- General Brune could have been much more aggressive. Colonel Storana and others were quite correct when they criticized her

- the Westrons had no heavy guns here, and only a few within the city. If the artillery duel continued indefinitely, they were going to lose

- the whole army suffered from an inferiority complex. They were afraid to fight the Crolians, but they were also afraid not to

General Brune belonged to that set of commanders who believed that they could achieve their objectives by maneuver alone. Threaten the enemy's supply lines, or put them in a disadvantageous position, and you could force them to retreat (or even to capitulate) without fighting a battle.

Battles were dangerous, unpredictable things. They were also ferociously expensive: weapons, equipment, guns, and especially trained soldiers were difficult to replace. Brune was unwilling to take the risk.

Storana and a few of her fellow Inhabers tried to stiffen the General's backbone, but without apparent success.

Then the Crolians launched an assault on the Little Seemay.

It was no surprise attack; it took them an hour to mass their troops, and to re-position some of their guns. General Brune moved several of her regiments, in response, but I could tell by their location - and her failure to move any artillery - that she had no intention of intervening. Either she misread the situation, or she lacked the confidence to directly confront the enemy.

Storana's regiment was one of four sent to 'shadow' the enemy. From where we stood, Themis and I could hear her vocal complaints, as she bitched to her second-in-command, her aides, and to anyone within listening distance. We could almost hear her grinding her teeth.

- "She has to do something." I said. "She has to."

- "General Brune?"

- "She won't. But Storana could."

The Crolians launched their attack. Two regiments, with two more supporting them. They swept across the field, parallel to the city walls, to take the bastion.

A Westron army stood there and watched, as the Crolians stormed the Little Seemay.

I hoped. I prayed, a little. In the end, though, I think that it had nothing to do with divine intervention. It was all Colonel Storana: pride, anger, and a healthy dose of sexual frustration.

- "Aaaargh!" she howled. "The Regiment will advance!"

Fifes shrilled, drums beat the pace, and a single regiment moved forwards - against the orders of their General. I suddenly found that I liked Storana quite a bit more.

That feeling, unfortunately, didn't last very long. The Crolian battery, set up to support their attack, opened fire on the Aneli regiment as it advanced.

A cannonball struck Colonel Storana in the shoulder, and smashed her to a pulp. It was a rising shot, with enough impetus to take off the head of the Major, standing behind her.

With that one shot, the Aneli regiment lost their Commander, and her second.

Bad troops would have broken and run. Even good troops might have been shaken. How would Wellington's army at Waterloo have responded, if he'd been killed by a cannonball?

I immediately thought of the Swedes, at Lutzen, in 1632; their entry into the Thirty Years' War, under their dynamic king, Gustavus Adolphus, changed the whole war. But he was killed, leading a cavalry charge.

Gustavus' troops went mad, and won the battle. They might just as easily have lost heart, and retreated.

The Aneli Regiment stopped.

I don't know quite what possessed me, but I ran down the slope, to where Storana's mangled body bled out into the grass.

Her aides were standing about, mouths open, in shock. The troopers looked completely spooked. If one of them ran, the rest would probably follow.

- "Avenge the Colonel!" I shouted. "Anelis! Avenge your Colonel!"

All of those soldiers knew who I was. I was the Pylosian, with the ill-fitting breeches under the red sash. I'd been having sex with Themis for several days, through her hemmer. If they hadn't heard us, they'd smelled us. And if they hadn't smelled us, someone had told them about us.