"What the hell do you expect me to do with this?" The man in charge of the kitchen was Herali. He was about my height, a bit older, maybe thirties, and wore an apron over his otherwise bare chest with his long, dark-green hair tied behind his back. His skin was covered in various scars and tattoos, including a falcon on his left shoulder and a crescent moon on his right, and around his left arm was a cluster of scars that looked awfully familiar to the wound around my wrist. He wore a black eye-patch over his right and glared at me through his left.
I shrugged. "I don't know? Make a ham or something?"
The man blinked his left eye and stared at me, then stood up straight and crossed his arms.
I glanced back down at the pig carcass with the tenderloin carved out of it. "Um…"
Two more men came up, one on each side of him. One of them looked down at my offering while wiping his fingers on a wet rag, then looked up at me. "What kind of Falcon doesn't know how to clean a pig?"
"I know how to clean a pig! I just…"
The other man leaned down to look at it closely. "Are those teeth marks?"
Miyani leaned in close to the man in charge and set her hand on his arm, looking up at him with pleading eyes. "I soly. Uh… we need… uh… ha to say, uh…" she shook her head. "ʃʊsi vʌ maðaseða. ɣʊdʊ pozowa ʒogu'uviði. ʃʊsi… 'uŋi bʊ'apesedu ʃa ʃʊsi ʃʊsi, ʃʊsi ʒʊʃavesexa? Uh…" she scratched her head and looked up at me with an embarrassed smile.
I had nothing, but the man with the eye patch bobbed his head back and forth and lifted the pig's foot, then leaned down and smelled it. "Sure. Why not."
My eyes went wide. "Thank you!"
I couldn't help but laugh as we walked out of there. We'd got a few steps when Miyani turned to look back and nodded with a big smile, "thank you! Thank very much at you!"
The man with the tattoos over his arms stood and nodded. I echoed her, "thank you!"
And so we walked. Towards the library, she led me across the grass. She was quick; I had to run to catch up to her and take her hand. She looked up at me and smiled, then slowed to a more leisurely pace. "Where are we going?"
She echoed my words quietly to herself before looking up at me. "I is… uh… you are hungry, yes?"
"Yes," I blurted out. "Oh, I mean… ti, dowa ɣʊwode."
She nodded vigorously and smiled wide, god she was adorable. "tixe! tixe!"
We walked around the library towards the direction of the tall towers of the inner sanctum by now cast in the shadow of early dusk with dark clouds behind them. My eyes refused to exert one ounce of self-control. I looked up and down her curvaceous body, allowing my eyes to linger on her muscular arse and thighs, her pert little breasts and toned shoulders, she was insane. She watched my eyes explore her and grinned wide. "You like?"
I did. I most certainly did!
I stopped and turned to look at her, holding my hands out in urgency. "Wait! I forgot something!"
Miyani stopped and looked at me with concern.
"This is very, very important. This is urgent. I need to tell you something right now. I completely forgot; this is important!"
Miyani leaned in close with her eyes fixed up into mine in deep concern.
So I tapped her shoulder and said, "touch."
I backed off quickly, but she launched herself at me. I tried to dodge, but she wrapped both arms around my body and squeezed tight, laughing, "I touch you!"
I spun her around and set her down. She splayed her hands all over my back, I settled mine on her hips, and we lingered there for a moment. I felt her hand trail down the small of my back and cup my bum, only for her other hand to do the same while she rested her face in my chest.
She led me around the inner sanctum, past some shops that looked like they were just opening up. One of them had barrels of something, the next one had those loincloths. The next one had crystal gemstones of all kinds laid out in trays, and the one after that had herbs, with a small porcelain bowl with a cone that let off a sweet, extra spicy aroma as it burned.
She tugged my arm a little and picked up the pace. She looked up at me, "we… fast go. OK?"
I tried to keep up, but she was quick. We made our way down a wider street with beaten grass between two stone boardwalks easily a foot-and-a-half up from the street with stone buildings reaching three or four stories high. She glanced up at me with eyes like amber gemstones and smiled wide, and I had an idea.
"Wait," I said. "Step up here."
She stopped for a moment and looked into my face.
"Right here," I ushered her over to the miniature wall beside us with a candle shop on the stone boardwalk. "Step up."
She understood at least that much and raised one thigh to lift up onto the platform. Then she looked at me in anticipation, so I leveled my hand from my head to hers; we were just about the same height. "Perfect."
At that she giggled a little, and I kissed her.
Not a lot. I'd learned years ago not to go in too hard at first in case she wasn't…
Miyani launched her lips at mine and threw her arms about my neck, and my heart went absolutely crazy. The sensation of her lips probing around mine with her arms around my neck, her erect nipples against my skin, her firm round arse in my hands, I got excited.
Very excited.
She felt my erection poke into her skin through my trousers and looked down at it only to break out laughing. "You like!"
"Uh," I scratched my head and tried to laugh that off. "Yeah."
She sided up next to me, took my hand, and smiled wide. "I like!"
Oh, that sent a flutter over my skin; I could scarcely catch my breath.
We kept walking.
We turned left down a narrow alleyway with a line of iron sconces with oil lamps buried into the stone walls. Two large sconces graced the sides of a wide, red double-door with a high arch at the top, and kept walking. We crossed another larger avenue with a merchant at the corner selling wicker baskets of intricate designs and colors, and entered another narrow alleyway on the other side.
We approached an open porchway on the right that was lit from somewhere within when she turned around and looked up at me. She wore a nervous smile, and her fingers shook as she tugged at a lock of my hair, reaching up.
I knelt down low.
She giggled lightly and set about grooming my hair, my shoulders, then looked at the trousers I wore, covered in dirt from going after that pig, and winced. I tried to brush them off as best I could, but she shook her head and giggled, "no. Is OK."
I looked her over in turn. Her pixie-cut hair was a little flat on one side so I fluffed it up to make it more even, and she had a speck of grass on her shoulder.
She lifted her finger to one eye and tapped at the bridge of her nose. "What?"
"Eye."
"No," she shook her head and leaned in. "You see at."
"You want me to look at it."
"Yes," she nodded vigorously. "Look."
I came in close to see what she was pointing at. I didn't see anything.
Then she kissed me and giggled hard, scrunching her face in deep amusement.
I nodded. "Oh, that's a good one. I like that game! We can play, we can definitely play that game!"
The place was a small cafe that took up half the ground floor of a small building tucked between two larger ones. The light was dim yellow coming from several folded-paper lanterns like large spheres with candles inside. Several short tables occupied the space, each with those bag chairs hosting people, all of them Na'uhui with the same dark-green skin, white hair, and yellow eyes with not one of them showing any different colors. Two were old men, each with a bat's wing tattoo on his shoulder the same as Miyani's. One of them looked up at us and snapped his fingers. "'æki mɪyaŋi!"
Everyone turned to look at us. A young mother with a baby suckling at her teat and a white bat's wing inked on her shoulder looked up and grinned wide. A little girl beside her shouted, "mɪyaŋi! mɪyaŋi! mɪyaŋi!" There was an older boy with a tray in one hand who stopped picking up empty plates from one table. His eyes went wide and he smiled at her, only to bow his head low.
From a narrow passageway in the back of the dining room, an older couple emerged. The woman was plump and wore a huge smile across her effusive face. She let out her hands and approached my girlfriend, then smothered her in her loving arms while the man, stout and rotund, looked around at all the guests in attendance and lifted his hands, "'æki mɪyaŋi! 'æki mɪyaŋi!
But everyone was already smiling. The older woman then held Miyani in both hands and looked her over with a warm smile. "mewa ŋo'aseða vodo ʃa xemiyuði mama!"
Miyani smiled wide and furrowed her brow, and gave the old woman a shy nod. Then she but her lower lip and glanced at me. "vɪwede Caleb."
At that, the older woman raised an eyebrow and came up to me, lifting her gaze to my face and taking hold of my arms. "ʒɪ ʃɪ'utize? xewekʊse ɣuvudeza!"
At that, she squeezed my arms, tapped my tummy, then turned me around and pinched my bum.
That made me jump.
"Hello, Caleb, it's nice to meet you." The voice came from one of the tables towards the front where two young women sat. One of them had a white bat's wing on her shoulder. The other had a crescent moon, and her left hand was shriveled and distorted. Dashuni sat with her wooden leg detached, and on the stump below her knee she wore a padded garment of shimmering red silk with a fine gold thread that wrapped around the hem.
I waved, "hello." She watched in amusement as the old woman dug her fingers into the skin of my chest and leaned in to smell me. Miyani also giggled in amusement before taking my hand and pulling me back to her.
The old woman nodded and swatted my bum. "ko'o weyiŋɪdewa sete 'ixo!"
Miyani giggled and nodded. "tæ. tæ."
I tapped my mind hoping to remember the words for I like to drink coconut.
The older couple ushered us towards the back of the cafe to a smaller room directly adjacent the open kitchen where a chorus of spices mingled with boiling wine and coal smoke. A round wooden table was set with two large bag chairs, and a pair of iron stands each held a trio of lanterns, one in each corner. An older boy, perhaps a man by then or very close to it, also with a bat's wing on his shoulder came out with a gallon iron pot that let off a good amount of steam. A younger girl stood beside him with an iron stand, but the old man turned to them, "xeŋɪ! pʊ go'uwe ɣʊmowo! ki'i ʃo'eðaðI!"
The two went back to the kitchen area and stood, both looking at Miyani with their eyes wide.
The older man then ushered me towards the table. I made to sit on the bag closer to the back corner.
"vʌ," he said, urging me to the other. "'oto ʒa'e damʌðe daʃiviya."
Miyani buried her face in one hand and giggled, while I moved to the other bag chair.
"ti," he nodded. "ʃɪ'uti." He then turned to Miyani and bowed low with one arm stretched.
She laughed and moved around the table to sit next to me. I watched her beautiful face as she settled, and the girl came back to set the iron frame on the table. Within that she set a stone crucible with a handful of glowing orange coals at the center. She left while the boy came back and set the iron pot on top of that.
But before he could walk off, the old man snapped his fingers, "pʊ θɪvovoxa!"
The boy nodded and turned the pot so that the handles were at the sides instead of one of them facing us. Then his eyes wandered over Miyani's body for a moment before he saw me glaring at him and walked back to the kitchen.
We leaned in. Amid the sharp aroma of cheese and wine was a white, creamy sauce that bubbled from the heat. Then the girl returned, and set a small, spun-wooden plate before us with an implement like a long, miniature trident with a handle at one end that clattered when she set them down.
The old man snapped his fingers. "vʌ vʌ! pʊ yoʒuɣexa!"
The girl looked up, "fæ dimade!"
The old man then shook his head and looked at the floor, and took in a deep breath while the girl took her time to set each utensil at the side of each plate, shifting it an inch to this side of that before moving along.
As she kept at it, the old woman bought out a massive round metal platter decorated with all manner of food things arranged in colorful patterns.
"Wow!" I looked at it, unsure where to even begin when a young woman with her white hair in a single braid, also with a white bat's wing inked on her shoulder, came from the front and knelt down next to Miyani. She bowed her head low and spoke softly to her so that I couldn't hear.
Miyani furrowed her brow and opened her eyes wide. "ŋuve?"
The young woman then passed her eyes up and down my body and sneered, "xʊ'ɪ zoʃu'use waɣaseya?"
Whatever that meant, I nodded. "tixe bobade kokano."
At that her eyes went wide and she gaped at Miyani, who let out a light giggle. Then she turned back to me, "ʒɪ fɪðase 'uxuwida?"
I actually understood that. "ŋaŋa, wuʃi, ɣaze, xatʌ."
The woman then gaped at Miyani, who broke out laughing, only to settle her eyes on our visitor and purr, "ŋuve?"
At that, the woman stook back up and shook her head, "'eʒu," and went back through the corridor to the front of the cafe.
Miyani, still giggling, looked at me with stars in her eyes. "væfa. vʌ xatʌ."
I scratched my chin. "Oh yeah. Of course. Got it."
Miyani then straightened herself up, pointing to the food. "I… I was this… I was child I was this." She then shook her head and said, "I don no ha to say this!"
I thought about it. "Well… when I was a child, I ate this. Right?"
"Yes. When I was…"
"OK, so…" I thought about it for a moment and put the pieces together. I made sure to speak with my hands, "two options. You could say I used to eat this as a child, or… you could say I've eaten this since I was a child."
She nodded. "I-vvv…"
I held up a finger. "Difference is, do you eat it now, today, or only then? So," I shifted my hands back and forth, "when I was a child and now, or… only when I was a child?"
She nodded. "Oh, uh… onee."
"What was that?" I held a hand to my ear.
"Onee I was sha…"
"No," I raised my voice a little and swept my hand before the kitchen. "It's loud. Come closer." I leaned in gesturing towards my ear. She leaned in, but before she spoke, I kissed her.
Her eyes went wide in shock, and she looked over to our hosts. The older woman was watching us. She smirked, raised an eyebrow, and went back into the kitchen. Miyan opened her lips wide to laugh. Then she took up the trident-fork thing and gestured for me to do the same. She went about naming items on the platter, but that was complete scrabble to me. Then she stuck her fork into a small, black marble. A line of purple juice oozed out of the site she'd skewered it, and she urged me to do the same. Then we dipped it into that molten cheese sauce and ate it.
Good God, that thing was delicious. Sharp cheese nearly burned my tongue, leaving behind a sweet, tart blur of juiciness that mingled with the cheese to make the most melodious thing I'd ever tasted.
The next one she showed me was like a massive bean some two inches around. We dipped that into the sauce and were rewarded with a pure sense of just what they put in that cheese. Wine mixed with the sea, mixed with heavy, heavy cream and a dash of the jungle. Another morsel was a dark brown heavy bread that had a syrupy bouquet to it. The one after that was a small cube of soft yellow cheese.
Yes, that's correct—cheese dipped in cheese.
I looked around the plate. "Is there meat in here? I don't see any."
"Meat?" Miyani looked up at me.
"ɣowi."
"Ahh," she sat up. "Meat. vʌ ɣʊwo ŋa'uxuwi ɣowi."
My eyes popped. "You don't eat meat?"
"No," she shook her head. "No meat."
"Why?" I asked.
That older boy who'd been looking over my girlfriend came back with a pair of steel chalices and a bottle wrapped in twine. As he poured a bright amber fluid, the scent of alcohol betrayed its true nature.
Miyani held out her hand to stop him. "vʌ ba duvuði. ko'o zɪvɪse ʒʌgu maŋa."
At that, the old man stepped up and nearly shouted at the lad and sent him off before taking up both chalices. "kupa! kupa!"
A moment later, the girl came back with two more chalices with something sweet and purple that didn't give off any liquor. We tried a few more nibbles of food dipped in that glorious, glorious cheese. They had these fried balls of something, I don't know what it was, but it was delicious. Another was like a tiny bundle of leaves tied tight with a stem. That, too, was delicious, though I had to work around the stem to get at the good stuff.
The woman from the front with the baby in her arm emerged from the passageway, bringing the little girl with her. She rounded the table and knelt next to Miyani, bowing her head low. "kupa xæfodesa. dowa gaʒɪsa fedamivide. ʃʊsi gæðuseya?"
At that, Miyani turned to the little girl and gave her a nod. "dowase ŋuve?"
The little girl raised her eyes sheepishly. "ʒɪ mewa ba sekɪwade ʃa tæ ʒukuŋædesa?"
"Awwwww," Miyani furrowed her brow and reached out to take the little girl's hand. She glanced at me for a moment and lowered her eyes, then gave the girl a big smile. "ki'i gaʒɪse Ahmi. wæfɪðaye 'æki." Then she looked at the girl seriously. "mewa 'eʒise ʃa ki'i yepase!"
The girl beamed, and her mother bowed low, "ŋʌvɪdesa, ŋʌvɪdesa!" before making their way back to the front of the cafe. I watched them leave as my mind tried to piece together whatever they were talking about; I was completely lost. Then when I turned back around, Miyani kissed me.
Suddenly I felt found.
I don't think I felt half as full since the day we left Gath. We got up to leave the cafe, and Miyani gave the older couple a hug. Then the girl wanted a hug as well, and then the boy who was almost a grown man. He hugged her a little too… I mean he lingered. A bit. She had to peel him off her to be allowed to leave, and I know I saw his eyes traverse her as we left.
In the front of the dining room were some new guests while some of the old ones were finishing up their meal. It was dark outside but for a handful of oil lamps burning in the narrow alleyway, and Blue was there. He perked his head up when we came out, and I saw what looked like a rat in his mouth. While the guests didn't allow Miyani to leave, I stepped up to him and grinned. "Look at you. You could have had a whole pig, and here you are eating junk food."
He lifted his head up and swallowed the thing. I watched as the lump travelled down his long neck, and he finished that with a string of short clicks and a chirp. Miyani managed to escape somehow; she came up to him and rested her forehead on his. He then rubbed his face in her cheek, and we walked.
"Miyani, that was really good. Thank you so much for bringing me here."
She looked up at me and smiled, still holding my hand. Behind us, I heard Blue let out a squawk followed by a jumble of chirps and clicks. Miyani turned around and looked at him, "'eʒuði! ŋʌvɪdeɣa!"
"Yeah, man," I echoed. "No need to worry. Look, I've got her. See?"
At that I stepped in front of her and crouched down low.
Miyani giggled and covered her face for a moment. "ŋuve?"
"Come on," I urged her and reached out for her arm, pulling her over my back.
Blue squawked and shifted his nose up and down us. I felt Miyani rest her weight over me, then her thighs rested over my hips and squeezed hard. I stood, and she didn't sit, neither did she rest any weight on her arms. She held herself up entirely by squeezing her thighs tight onto my hips, then thrust herself forward, "means go!"
Blue squawked, still shifting his head up and down, and I started walking. "See?" I turned to face him.
Then she thrust herself upwards again and tapped her hand on my shoulder twice and laughed out, "means fast!"
"Oh fast is it?" So I took off running.
She laughed "yes!"
As we came to the main street, she pushed in with her left leg and pulled with her right, shifting her weight to that side, still giggling, "means daʃise!"
"Turn right. Got it!" and I continued running. Blue trotted beside me, turning his lizard face towards me and squawked, then circled behind me and squawked again. Miyani continued to laugh, until he stepped in front of me altogether and let out two guttural clicks and squawked again.
I had to stop, then. Miyani slid down from me and let her hands trail along my body as she stepped in front of me to tickle Blue beneath his chin. I actually understood her, "Are you OK? What's wrong?"
"He's jealous."
Blue groaned and rubbed his face in her cheek. She smiled. "You d-zheloos, yes?"
Blue squawked and looked over a small group of men from the barracks who ogled us as they passed.
I nodded, "he's jealous. Alright then, come on." With that, I stepped in front of him and crouched low.
Miyani laughed, "ŋuve!"
I reached up for his forelimb, and he squawked at me, darted his head about and squawked again. Miyani kept laughing, barely able to get her words out, "vʌ base! vofoze toto!"
No matter, I helped Blue to rest his lizard paws on my shoulder while I reached back to grasp at his legs, making sure his body was well balanced over my back, and lifted him up.
God, he was heavy. He had to be at least three-hundred pounds, and my back swore to punish me by morning just for trying. He squawked and lowered his eye to my face, and with a grunt I set about pushing my wobbly legs forward. Then I dug down for some strength and found enough to push myself forward, gaining enough momentum to almost pick up a run.
Miyani chased after us, laughing as she came, and Blue let out all manner of chirps, clicks, whistles, and squawks.
I hadn't made it far before my body refused to keep at it, and I doubled over, landing on my hands and knees trying to catch my breath while Blue trotted around to my side and reached down to rub his face in my cheek.
I felt her hand on my back. She smiled wide at me, "ʒɪ 'eʒuse?"
"Yeah," I panted for breath and nearly broke out laughing.
We came to the same mud building where her apartment was. There, she rested her forehead onto Blue's, and he rubbed his face in her cheek. He then came over to me and did the same, squawked, and walked off towards the vita'o yard.
Miyani led me inside…