The Great Escape Chapter 8, Part 4 of 9

The Great Escape
Chapter 8, Part 4 of 9

"Some raw tubers," Carlin said. "Can we eat the grass?"

"I tried. It's horrible."

"So, raw tubers and water for dinner. Yum!"

After munching on their meager fare, the girls settled in a cave, raised the tent, rinsed their mouths, and went to bed early, sharing the sleeping bag. Tamar chattered aimlessly until it was too dark to see, and then they slept.

Wildchild had climbed the valley to the mountain peak. She reached the top in a couple of hours and looked around. She saw the plain they had trekked across, bounded by the ocean on the west. To the south, the giant volcano they had climbed dominated the view, framed by the grey forest on the horizon. Eastward, the mountain range spread out, all white snow and brown mud, peak after unending peak, ultimately obscured by mist. Northward were four more valleys. Verdant and lush, fed by rivers from the snow-capped peak, the five valleys looked like the fingers of a hand pressed into a bed of moss.

She climbed back down and spent the night in the first cave she found.

The following day, as the girls emerged from their tent, yawning and hungry, they saw a smiling Wildchild, a rabbit skewered on an arrow slung over her shoulder, her arms full of branches, ready to build a fire.

As they ate the roast bunny and the small trout, she told them about the other four valleys they had to explore. They would likely be seeking the Miners for a long time.

Brave and undaunted, they explored the final few caves on the south side of the valley, crossed the stream at a narrow point, and began to investigate the north side, though with little hope. If the valley were inhabited, somebody would certainly have seen them. Sure enough, collapsed roofs blocked off all the mines, and none had signs of habitation. That is, until the morning of the next day when they got to the bottom of the valley. There was temporary excitement because a cave had been lived in, though no one was there now.

When they reached the next valley northward late that afternoon, the first cave they saw had also been inhabited but was now empty. It seemed the Miners lived in the first cave they excavated and worked the other caves.

The third and fourth valleys followed the same pattern, with an inhabited cave and others that were mines. If the remnants of the Miners were in these mountains, they would be in the last and furthest of the valleys. If the fifth valley also failed them, then there was a mountain range stretching for hundreds of miles to explore, but no clear indication where habitable valleys or mineable hills might be found. The alternative would be to begin the long trek back, knowing they had failed.

With their usual courage and Tamar's buoyant optimism but with little real hope, the girls stomped around the tip of the fifth 'finger' and worked their way uphill into the final valley.

Kalyndra and Thalassa return to the Mariners.

It was mid-afternoon when the trading party arrived back in the Mariner Settlement.

The settlement was an oblong of fifteen wooden huts in good condition about one hundred yards from the beach, near the wide muddy estuary of a shallow river. Inside the ring of huts was an open space with a campfire on one side. Dusty footpaths ran down to the camp, and the ever-moving dunes wrapped the feet of the huts in a sandy blanket. The air above the camp shimmered with a heat haze, but a cool salty breeze from the milky-blue ocean at ground level wafted in.

There was noise and bustle as they trooped into the camp. Women and children ran out to greet them, eager to welcome back their friends and gaze intently at Ezra. He was well used to meeting curious women who kept their distance from him. Even the children, boisterous by nature, held shyly back, clinging to their mother's skirts.

In the ring of huts opposite the campfire was a beached fishing boat. The Mariner chief, Belena, lived here and was looking for the perfect moment to make her entrance. Emerging from her boat-house into the square, Belena greeted Ezra with open arms:

"Welcome to our home, Ezra. All the comforts of the Mariners are yours. Please ask for anything you want. Did you have a good journey?"

"Yes, Madam. Thank you."

"And how is young Urulla?"

"She has made a strong recovery. Also, she has forgiven Kalyndra."

"I am gratified to hear it. Is Mirselene in good health?"

"She is and sends her greetings."

Belena motioned forward a curvy brunette woman.

"Salema will show you where you'll stay. Join us for dinner when you're ready."

Salema was middle-height with nut-brown skin, long, curly dark hair with sun-bleached highlights, a clear complexion (except for some freckles), and sparkling hazel eyes. As the women safely stored the perishable trade goods under awnings, Salema beckoned Ezra to follow her to a nearby hut. She pushed aside the cloth door-hanging and walked inside. The hut had a high-sloped roof, a large wooden bed, a low table with a bucket of water, and a tall cabinet with some cloth towels, sponges, and a comb. He dropped his bag beside the bed.

"I hope you'll be comfortable here," Salema said. "Don't wait to ask me if there's anything at all.

I can do for you."

She gave him a smile that couldn't have been more lascivious had she practiced it for a year.

"I'm sure I'll be very comfortable," he replied, thinking, "So, that's how it's going to be!"

He freshened up with the clean water and joined the tribe at a long bench under an awning near the fishing boat. Belena sat at the head of the table.

"Come and meet us all," she said and introduced him to six matrons, eight fertile women, including Thalassa, now she was eighteen, and four girls, aged three to fourteen. Two women were missing: Belena's daughter, Gerta, was currently at the Cloner City, bearing a daughter, accompanied by a matron, Salema's mother, Helen.

Ezra didn't try hard to remember any names. He would acquaint himself with his new friends over the next few days, but he recognized the four women he'd met in the forest, the youngest and prettiest of whom was the twenty-year-old Cressi. He also noticed that Salema was the mother of the three-year-old girl, Della. Belena sat Ezra down on her right.

Thalassa sat at Belena's left, elevated to this special status as a belated birthday honor.

Encouraged to tell how she celebrated her birthday, she described the feast, the dancing, and her magnificent birthday present. Of course, she had to fetch the medicine chest to show it off, earning coos of admiration. Also, of course, now dancing had been mentioned, Ezra had to promise to dance with all the women. Bowing to the inevitable, he agreed graciously.

So began a joyful repast that featured grilled fish and nicely roasted vegetables that the Mariners bought from the Farmers at prices the Woodlanders could rarely afford. It was good food, and Ezra ate it with his usual enthusiasm, which bordered on greed.

Perhaps it was the excellent dinner or her warm welcome back to Kalyndra and Thalassa, but Ezra was charmed by Belena, who made sure everyone had enough food and was part of the conversation. He particularly admired her kindness to Thalassa and her obvious delight in the two youngest children, whom she lifted by turning onto her lap and fed the tastiest morsels. It seemed to him that the Mariners were just as benevolent as the Woodlanders.

With dinner finished, it was only an hour before the night rain hit the beach. This was nearly two hours before the rain reached the forest, so the Mariners would already be bedded down while the Woodlanders were still feasting.

As Ezra might have predicted, the Mariners devoted this hour to grilling him on anything they could want to know about being the only man on a planet entirely of women. He answered honestly and resisted only questions that offended the privacy of his bedmates. It was an exciting revelation that Kalyndra and he were already bedmates, but he skirted the question of how it had come about.

Once the question of bedmates was raised, an expectant hush followed, and all faces turned to Belena for her judgment. She addressed him:

"Ezra, you are our guest, and whom you take as a bedmate is your choice, but will you agree to be guided by me in consideration of what is best for the tribe?"

"Of course, Belena."

"Good, then I'm leaving all decisions until tomorrow. You can rest tonight."

There were sighs of disappointment around the table, which she ignored.

"Tomorrow, we'll have a swimming contest so my women can show off their skills. Then we'll have lunch on the beach."

The children were excited by this, and there was a buzz around the table among the adults, who seemed to be split into two factions: those who said Kalyndra would win the contest and those who said a woman called Devon would win.

Mirselene sent Ezra to be her eyes and ears in the Mariner tribe. Ezra's first thought was that the Mariners were less worried than the Woodlanders about the dangers of jealousy and factionalism. Also, cautioned to oversee Calliope's reactions, he saw only a doting love for her daughter. If he missed the fear for Thalassa's safety that Mirselene had witnessed, he also saw little relief at Thalassa's safe return. This was something to puzzle over.

The discussion didn't last long. The cold wind from the sea had picked up. Now, rising clouds and a darkening sky meant it would soon be time to pack up the meal and disperse to the huts, but the women wouldn't let the day finish until Ezra had made good his promise to dance. A whisper circulated the table; then, someone began clapping out a rhythm, which was soon joined by others tapping their spoons on their bowls. A tune was hummed, and a nudge was given to Thalassa, who asserted her birthday privilege again and led Ezra onto the patch of ground by the table.

He took the thin, elegant girl with the beautiful smiling face and the long chestnut hair in his arms and swung her around. The Mariners got up for a better view and formed a ring around the couple. They applauded every time he spanned Thalassa and were delighted with the performance, which couldn't last long. Distant thunderclaps over the ocean and the first drops of night rain signaled the evening was over. Ezra kissed Thalassa on the forehead, and they helped clear dinner away.

In bed, Ezra tried to recall which of the women he had met was Devon. Then he remembered.

She was a demure brunette, an athlete in her early twenties. Ordinary-looking, with heavy eyelids and a slightly sad demeanor, she seemed to be friends with Thalassa and Calliope.

Ezra was happy to spend the first night alone. He was beginning to crave occasional relief from constant shagging (so long as the relief did not endure too long). His bed was comfortable, and he quickly fell into a dreamless sleep.

The following day, Kalyndra fetched him from his hut to show him around.

Many of the Mariners were already up, doing their chores, building the campfire for a new day, laying out the rain-scoured cooking pots, or setting up long wooden spits from which some of the day's catch would be hung to be smoked or grilled.

On a flat surface, out of the camp toward the beach, were a dozen large leather sheets pegged to the ground. Some women were ferrying buckets of water from the sea and pouring their contents onto the sheets. These were salt-makers. They would return to the task many times during the day to refresh the water as it evaporated, leaving the salt to crystallize on the sheets. From there, it is collected in leather pouches or used to salt the fish.

There were no crops or domestic animals, but fish were plentiful. They were dried in baskets on the porches of the huts or hanging from strings under the awnings. The smell of fish was omnipresent, except when the salty breeze wafted from the ocean.

They waded the shallow river to the crapper on a sandy bank on the far side. From there, they walked down to the beach, past rafts tied to wooden posts sunk into the estuary's mud. Other rafts were dragged up onto the beach. All the rafts had baskets and poles or paddles stowed between the baskets. The Mariners paddled the rafts into the bay to fish or to dive for sponges and oysters.

The beach stretched for a mile in a shallow crescent, with two spits of sandbanks on either side. One sheltered the muddy estuary to the right, and the other started from a line of rocks at the southern end of the bay. The rocks tumbled drunkenly into the sea, forming a line of sand banks that stretched toward a sizeable sandy island with an untidy toupee of palm trees.

Between the shore and the island, spaced every few hundred yards, were more bamboo rafts anchored to the sea bottom.

They sat silently, gazing at the ocean. Kalyndra had been subdued and unusually silent since they'd left the trading place. He was about to ask her what was wrong when she got up, saying it was time for breakfast. They returned to share a dried fish and vegetable meal with the tribe.

After breakfast, Belena showed Ezra her boat. It was sunk part-way into the sand about fifty feet long and supported on its sides by wooden beams. A considerable rent breached the hull, which was further opened to make an entrance. It was sleeved by wooden rails with a tarpaulin roof and was warm and dry inside. The boat's engine was still inside, but someone had removed all the electronic equipment. The bed and seats were still good. By Samothean standards, this was a comfortable and prestigious home, which Belena had to herself.

Kalyndra's mother, Ferne, a tall, grey-haired woman who wore a cloth shawl over her leather skirt and jacket, announced they were ready for the day's events. Belena led the tribe down to the beach. They carried food, water, seats, and tent roofs to keep off the sun.

The women who planned to compete in the swimming contests stripped naked and ran on the beach or stretched to warm up. Nine of them were fertile adults, and Odette was an adolescent. The other women set up the seats and tables and prepared food. The children were sent off to play on the beach or splash in the shallows.

Ezra helped erect the large tent roofs and sat on a wooden chair in the shade. He took a good look around. The golden beach was about fifty yards deep and fell at a shallow angle into the sea, which waved and shimmered in the morning sun. They were halfway between the estuary on the right and the rocky cliff on the left. The island was directly ahead, with the line of rafts slightly to the right.

Ferne, who seemed to be second in command of the tribe and was in charge of the meal today, finished her preparations and came to sit next to Ezra. Kalyndra had spent the last night in her mother's hut, and Ezra was sure the older woman knew everything about what he and her daughter had done together. He was prepared for an embarrassing interview, but she only smiled graciously at him.

"How did you sleep, Ezra?"

"Very well, thank you, Ferne."

"I'm glad you and Kalyndra are bedmates."

"So am I," he said, smiling.

She gave him a searching look. Her eyes were black like Kalyndra's and had the same sparkle, but hers were amused, whereas Kalyndra's were sensual. Her magnificent hair was grey, and she was bowed a little in the shoulders, so she didn't quite reach her daughter's height anymore, but she had been strong once and now was wise.

"Do you find us Mariners attractive?"

"Very much so." The question surprised him. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I noticed you averted your eyes from the swimmers when they stripped."

Ezra chuckled in admission.

"It's an Earth habit I can't shake."

"Well, they're doing much more stretching and bending over than they need, so I don't see why you shouldn't enjoy the show. It's for your benefit."

Ezra had to agree and took in the delightful view. Devon had solid and shapely legs over a thin swimmer's body with a muscular stomach and broad shoulders. She didn't seem to be showing off but stretched, sitting on the sand with her back to him. The others were undoubtedly showing off. The pretty blonde Cressi had cute small tits to match her cute small bottom. Three middle-aged women, Leanne, Elinor, and Salema, had voluptuous hourglass figures, and though he knew Kalyndra's body inside and out, she was still breath-taking.

As for Thalassa, he'd seen her naked before when she bathed in the Woodlander camp. She had a tight, thin waist with prominent ribs and pelvic bones. Such a skinny girl might be physically attractive to other women, but Ezra always encouraged her to eat more.

"I've forgotten some of their names," he confessed to Ferne.

"Well, in age, they are Althea, she's thirty-nine. Then Leanne, Elinor, and Salema. There are three years between each of them. Then my Kalyndra: you know how old she is?"

"Yes, twenty-eight."

"Right. Next in age are Devon, Cressi, Thalassa and Odette. Odette is only fourteen. As you can see, she's Althea's daughter."

"And which others have children?"

"Leanne, Elinor and Salema. Their girls (Juniel, May, and Della) are playing in the sand over there."

"I see. So, how old is Belena's daughter?"

"Gerta is twenty-five."

He noticed an oddity and paused. He had a delicate question about Kalyndra, but just then,

Belena announced the start of the events, claiming everyone's attention. There were to be five contests. The first was a swimming race to the nearest raft.

As the women took their places at the start line, Ferne told him Kalyndra and Devon were favorites. Salema and Elinor were good at long-distance, and Leanne was a good all-rounder.

Cressi had been steadily improving, and Thalassa was also a good swimmer. The older women with experience might make up for their lack of speed in some events. Odette was taking part mainly for practice.


To be continued