“She has been defiled!” Flo screams, her face contorted in anger. I’ve never realized before just how stupid she looks. She is not beautiful. She is deformed with an overabundance of Trelok’s seed, and the red berries in her hair do not give her a head of flame. They make her pink and sticky.
“I am still pure! I have not lost my maidenhead!” I throw myself on the ground, crying and begging for mercy. I know in my core I will not receive it. I was not made for mercy.
Trelok has never spoken a word to me, not once in my life. Now he speaks, and his words are terrifying.
“You are no longer worthy of Hyrrm. You will go to the starving cave. There you will die. The ancestors will drag you down and torture you for eternity for your treachery.”
With those words, the sentence is passed. There is no opportunity for me to argue my case further. Trelok does not want to hear from me. He has never wanted to hear from me. I have been kept at the edge of the village all my life, neglected and abused, but I tolerated it because I knew this day was coming, the day where I would sacrifice myself and then my name would be on their lips in admiration.
But it has all been taken away from me. One night of unnatural seduction, and I have lost my place in the tribe forever. Death will come for me, but it will not be the end given to the worthy and pure. It will be a traitor’s passing, alone and hungry in the cave near Hyrrm’s peaks, but far from his molten embrace.
“But who will be sacrifice?” One of the elder wives asks, concerned and confused. Several worried gazes are passed between the women, and their younger offspring who Trelok has not claimed yet.
“There are other maidens,” Trelok growls.
“But they are not condemned…” A chatter bursts all around us. I see now that these women are frightened for their daughters. They say sacrifice is an honor, but it is not an honor any of the others want. I was supposed to go to sacrifice and save them all. That was to be the way of things. Now they look at me with rage and fear and I know that one of the other girls will take my place in Hyrrm’s arms. Who will it be? I do not know the name, but I know it will be the one who most fails to please him.
“Silence!” Trelok shouts the word and all fall silent.
He looks at me, his piercing gaze full of the loathing only a male who has been sexually superseded can muster.
“You will be marched to the starving cave, marked with the paint of hands, tied down, and left to die,” he says. “Your end will not be swift, nor merciful.” He turns to the women. “If you are angry that one of your daughters will take this red haired abomination’s place, tell her now.”
They begin to scream as one woman, so loud and overwhelming I cover my ears with my hands, but I can still hear them clearly. They hate me. Loathe me. Their fear of what will befall their families is vomited onto me, and I cannot withstand the pressure. They rush me. Trelok does not stop them. There, on the ground, I am beaten by dozens of angry hands and feet, the dust of the earth flying into my eyes and nose, blinding me to everything but their hatred.
I may not be going to Hyrrm, but I am still the sacrifice, the one who was made to die. I sprang from the womb of an already dead woman, and to the dead Earth I will go.
Chapter Two
Vulcan
After all we experienced together, pleasure which made her eyes roll back more than once, her quivering thighs gripping my head, her whole vulnerable body spread out before me in complete trust, I thought we had made a deeper connection, but the moment those screeching females arrived, she fled. I don't think she was running from me.
Following her would obviously lead to conflict with her tribe. There are few human civilizations that have ever approved of their females giving themselves to massive alien beasts. It’s a taboo which seems to stretch back into distant time.
She was not afraid of me, not nearly as much as she was afraid of their judgement. I decide to let her go, not follow her into the village of humans who are liable to panic at the sight of me and make me kill them. Humans are protected. If I kill even one of them, the consequences will be dire.
I will stay nearby in the hope that she will come back to me. I can still taste her on my tongue. Her essence has mixed with mine in some small way and I think I might be forever intoxicated by our nocturnal encounter.