Emergence: Chapter 02

SOMEONE, A WOMAN with golden fur and dark brown speckles, took to the stone dais and began to sing. The ohkugi across her nose glowed bright blue, as did the ohkugi worn by the clerics and some of the pilgrims watching her from the floor of the cavern, giving the crowd a shimmering light like water lit from below. Her strong voice carried over the music the drummers played, and once she’d reached the first refrain, everyone’s voices rose to join hers. They formed a perfect chorus, their harmony filling the cavern and sending a chill up Senmatu’s spine. Her feet twitched. Time was short. She wanted to dance, and she wanted someone to tend to her.

Anori rose from his pillow and stepped close. “Enough talk for now,” he rumbled, offering her his hand. “Holiest of Holy Ones, will you dance with me?”

Senmatu accepted his hand and let him pull her up, then followed him from the ledge back to the crowded cavern floor. Her eyes drifted over the drummer she’d contemplated earlier. Another time, maybe.

Anori didn’t stop at the edge of the crowd but used his bulk to cut a swath through it; other dancing skarastaja saw them coming and willingly made room so they could pass, all without missing a beat. Their bodies gyrated, jumped, bumped, and ground around them, against their partners, against strangers, all while they sang, and laughed, and shouted.

The song continued, haunting and beautiful, to its pulsing beat, while Anori found a place to his liking. Trailing behind him, her hand still in his, Senmatu could feel her heartbeat falling into time with the drumming, with the bass, with the thrumming of the crowd.

When they were in the thick of it, Anori turned and came close to Senmatu, nuzzling her nose with his own. Their ohkugi touched, sending a mild buzz through Senmatu’s face, and she grinned. His eyes drank her up and she could see herself reflected in them as they danced: her limbs wrapped in Talgor’s ceremonial blue cloths, cloths that all Holy Ones had once worn but now were reserved only for the Holiest of Holy Ones, to denote her status. The fabric slid over her fur as she moved, slid up and down her arms and legs, and over her torso below the ruff of fur at her chest.

Anori stayed close and moved in time with her body. His fur rippled over strong muscles. He was darker than usual for her people, a deep brown ochre, with a rust red wisp of mane going up his back to the crown of his head. His speckles were the same shade. Anori moved with grace and strength, and watching him dance, watching him watching her dance, made her sex wet.

Movement at the edge of her vision caught Senmatu’s attention. She ripped her eyes from Anori to spy Meriwi and Keryth dancing nearby. They kept to the beat but moved more slowly. Keryth had Meriwi in his arms from behind and the two ground sensually up and down together, his hands on her very pregnant belly, slipping lower to massage her bare nipples.

Meriwi caught Senmatu’s eyes and grinned, then jerked her chin at Anori and winked. Senmatu felt heat rush to her face and turned back to her dance partner.

He leaned forward. “Would you like me to touch you like that, Holiest One?”

Senmatu slid into his arms, still facing him. Their bodies touched, electrified with the heat of desire. His hands slid up and down her back, first ruffling the fur between the swaths of cloth, then smoothing it down.

The song intensified. Around them, the dancing reached a frenzy. The Children of the Sun raised their hands, palms pointed at the craggy ceiling far above, and the chorus became deafening as the singer smoothly transitioned the crowd into praising Talgor.

Senmatu met Anori’s eyes. Her hands traveled up his body, feeling the smooth fur, craving the power his muscles promised, and gripped the side of his head. The fur of her hands was a stark contrast to his dark face.

“You did say you were hungry, didn’t you?” she gasped.

He grinned and slid his hands down, pulling her hips against his and grinding his bulge against her. “This is different, Your Grace. But yes, I am very hungry.”

She nuzzled his nose again. “Then let me satiate you.”

Her lips pressed against his. His mouth, warm and inviting, kissed her back with fervor. They’d never been together before, never even cast lingering glances at each other at previous mergings. Senmatu had always taken other lovers during the event, and, she imagined, so had he. It didn’t matter. If he had been a stranger to her she would still have taken his offer to dance. This was the point of the merging: to mix and be with different people, and, for some pilgrims, to come away as a member of a new Whole. Talgor would bless many of the women with kits conceived during the days of the merging. It was how each Whole was kept strong.

She took his hand and pulled at him, leading him away, back to the edge of the crowd. Other people continued dancing, but still others were already caught up by the merging and had chosen partners for themselves. Pairs and triplets and even quadruplets left the crowd, seeking, as Senmatu was seeking, a reasonably private corner.

The cavern offered no shortage of coves, but each one that Senmatu came across was already occupied with skarastaja too involved in themselves to notice the Holiest of Holy Ones. The constant drumming and music covered the sounds of their lovemaking.

“Come with me.” Anori tugged on her hand and led her in a new direction, following the edge of one of the streams, heading against the current and up along the side of the cavern to a ledge where the stream poured out of the wall and had cut a natural cleft in the rock. They slipped inside. A dry area covered by moss was edged by more glowing fungus and crystals that lit the space.

Anori turned to Senmatu but she pushed him down onto his back and straddled him before stretching herself out along the length of his body so she could kiss his still hungry mouth.

She broke away to kiss downward and wasn’t surprised to find his erection had slid free of its furred sheath by the time she arrived between his legs. Her lips ran delicately over the silky smooth, hard skin.

“Talgor destroy me,” Anori moaned, his back arching.

“As you wish,” Senmatu whispered, and sucked his shaft into her mouth. Playing her tongue over him, she felt him squirm beneath her. He watched her every move but when she started running her lips up and down, moving faster and faster, let his head fall back and moaned again.

When his body quivered and she felt fierce throbbing reverberate up from deep within him, Senmatu slowed her pace and lingered with her tongue on the head of his shaft. He tasted almost sweet, as if he ate a lot of kooraju berries. She played with him that way for several long moments, watching as his hands flexed the muscles in his arms, until he reached for her.

“Destroy me,” he panted, pulling her up his body and sliding his finger between her legs, where her sex was hot and slick. “Oh god, Senmatu, please destroy me now.”

She grasped his shaft and guided it to her, never taking her eyes off his. A gentle touch of flesh against flesh, gently spreading the folds… His eyes widened and he licked his lips. She lowered herself slowly over him, savoring the sensation as he burrowed into her. Then they were joined as one.

The drumming from below echoed into the cleft. Senmatu picked up the beat, rocking her hips in time to the music, locking her hands with his. Heat swelled up from deep inside her; she guided one of his hands to her nub, encouraging him to touch her. His touch, gentle but firm, rubbed back and forth in opposite rhythm to her hips, making her belly muscles contract and her sex hotter.

His touch stopped. His hands spasmed and grabbed at her hips, at her fur, and he pushed deep inside her, arching his back and drawing sharp breaths. She felt his heat explode inside, warming her deep in her gut.

After another long moment spent gasping for breath, Anori sat up and slid his hands into Senmatu’s mane. He took handfuls of fur and pulled, dragging her head back and baring her neck to him. His mouth landed there, teeth nipping at the flesh beneath the short fur, before moving up her throat, sending shivers across her body. His pull on her mane loosened; they kissed, their mouths and tongues teasing and tasting.

She eased off him and they laid down together. The stream babbled nearby, barely audible above the drumming.

“I will have you again,” Anori promised, stroking down her front and teasing her hard nipples. “I just need to regain my vigor.”

Senmatu laughed and lifted her leg over his hip as his hand quested farther downward. “For now, I am yours for the taking.”

His thumb found her nub and his finger slid inside her. But before he could continue, the fur all over her body stood up and her skin prickled. Senmatu sat bolt upright and pushed Anori’s hand away.

Child.

“Talgor,” she whispered, laying a hand on her sundrop.

Anori sat up too, touching his own sundrop, but said nothing.

It is time, said the Voice. Go forth into My domain. The war shall commence.

Senmatu and Anori gasped, laying wide eyes on one another, before Senmatu darted forward to give him a quick kiss.

“As our Father wills it,” she said breathlessly, feeling the Presence leave them. “I have to go.”

He nodded, smoothing down her fur. “The war shall commence,” he echoed. “By Talgor’s will.”

They exited the cleft and started down the path they had climbed.

“Senmatu,” Anori said, catching her hand in his and pulling her close. He kissed her deeply, burying his other hand in her mane to pull gently on the fur while his tail thumped against his leg. “Please carry my promise with you. I will have you again, to finish what we started.”

She could still feel his warmth swimming inside her. Lust weakened her knees. “I will.” Then she turned from him, and continued down the path, though she knew he stayed close on her heels.

This time it was Senmatu who cut a path through the gyrating crowd. When the pilgrims saw her coming, saw the expression on her face, the ones with ohkugi ceased their dancing and stared, thumping their tails against the backs of their thighs as she and Anori went by. A bubble of silence erupted in their wake as other pilgrims picked up on the shift in mood. The dancers became still, and by the time Senmatu reached the dais, even the musicians had stopped playing. The cavern fell silent.

One of the drummers, the one with the black mane running up his back, helped Senmatu up onto the dais. Anori remained below, a dark spot among a swath of desert hues.

Senmatu paced the circumference of the dais, holding her hands up to the ceiling. “Children of the Sun, hear me!” When she was sure she had the attention of the crowd, she continued, “The great Talgor the Destroyer, our Holy Father above, has spoken! Centuries we have worked and learned and grown as a people. Centuries we have waited! Our ancestors would be proud of us this day, as we should all be proud of ourselves.”

A rousing cheer erupted from the crowd.

Her tone quieted and she waited for the cheering to die down. Her gaze fell upon Meriwi, standing with Keryth’s arm around her waist. Senmatu pointed at her. “Our kits will be proud of us this day, too. Long after we are gone, they will remember it as the day we were finally able to bring about the justice we so rightly deserve!”

Another rousing cheer.

“What has Talgor said?” someone in the crowd shouted.

“Talgor! Talgor! Talgor the Destroyer!” shouted the pilgrims in that person’s immediate vicinity. They did not wear ohkugi and were fully under the sway of ansansi. The chant carried through to other pilgrims, spreading in a wave through the cavern until the entire crowd was swayed. Thirty thousand voices rose together, calling to their sun god.

Senmatu held up her hands, urging the crowd to silence. It started as pockets, the pilgrims with ohkugi recognizing the need to quiet themselves before the others fell sway to ansansi and quieted too. This was different than the old days, Senmatu mused. Back then, the entire crowd would be a single Whole by now, one giant mass of skarastaja, and a call for attention away from the merging would have been much easier. But now, more than just the Holy Ones and their clerics took on the ohkugi. They needed more than just warriors to be able to think creatively. Engineers, doctors, scientists… Each Whole functioned differently now than before. With more individuals thinking critically and independently, came more discordant voices, like the one that had called out, demanding to know what Talgor had said.

Still, it didn’t take too long for the crowd to come back to attentiveness. Senmatu waited a moment longer, then spoke into the silence.

“Talgor has said it is time to venture into His domain. The Entity is ready. The Fortune, the shipwreck left behind all those centuries ago by the skydemons, is healed and will take our holy army into the sky, to the stars, so that we may avenge ourselves upon our most hated of foes and bring everlasting peace to the Children of the Sun at last.”

The roar from the crowd deafened her. They called for blood, for vengeance, for death.

“And you shall have it all,” Senmatu said quietly.