Rocks rolled and twigs cracked underneath Kate's feet as she ran and her calves burned with her exertions, as well as the extra weight of her back and the two small bodies strapped to her chest. But she couldn't stop. Not when she was so close.
"Arms steady, Alexis," Kate said, softly, leaning down to help the young redhead with her bow, straightening out her arrow (which still had the training suction on the end, in place of a sharp point) and pressing on her shoulders so that the seven-year-old would lower them. "And relax, okay? You mustn't tense your muscles or you'll get cramps." The girl nodded and took a deep breath. Kate smiled. "Good," she said. "Now, focus on you target and shoot."
Alexis nodded mutely and pulled back on the string, taking another deep breath in, before breathing out slowly, releasing the string of her bow as she did. The arrow suctioned just left of the bull's eye, on the second ring, but it was enough to put a smile on the child's face.
"I did it!" she exclaimed, smiling brightly up at Kate.
Kate smiled back and ran her fingers through the girl's long hair. "Yeah, you did, little one," she said, affectionately. 'You'll be ready for your first hunt in no time."
"You think?" Alexis asked, eyes brimming with excitement.
"I know," Kate replied, and then looked up at a flash of brown that appeared behind Alexis's target. Lanie appeared out of seemingly nowhere and pointed to her wrist, though she wore no watch. Kate rolled her eyes. "Though it looks like archery is over for the day, my little hunter; it's time for healing." She nodded towards Lanie and the little girl turned in her direction.
"Miss Lanie ," she greeted, and bowed, respectably.
"Good morning, Miss Alexis," the dark-skinned woman replied. "Are you and the others ready?"
Alexis turned to look at her classmates, who were all still struggling with their bows. There were ten girls in total in Kate's class, but the young woman held a special place in her heart for the redhead, whom she had been fostering since her mother, Meredith's, death, just a few years prior. At the sound of the healer's voice, most of the girls looked up and a few groaned while others grinned.
Paige was one of the latter and raced up to stand beside Alexis, beaming up at Lanie. "I'm ready!" she announced and patted down her messy brown hair, which usually stuck straight up from her head. Lanie had affectionately named her 'Porcupine.'
"Two down," Lanie said and Kate laughed as she watched the girls pack away the communal bows and replace the quivers on their hooks as they dragged their feet, putting off the next round of lessons as long as possible. Very few children cherished healing lessons the way little Paige did.
"So," Lanie said as she waited for her students to reach her side, "are you ready for today?"
Kate opened her mouth to answer, but Alexis beat her to it. "Ready for what?" she asked, looking between the two older women.
"Your foster is going to apply for the upcoming mating season," Lanie informed her.
Alexis's eyes widened at that and she turned to stare at Kate. "We're gonna have a baby soon?" she asked.
"Not soon," Kate said, "but eventually…maybe; I have to be accepted first, and then it will take about ten months before—"
"But then we'll have a baby?" Alexis asked and bounced on her toes in excitement. "Another little girl?"
"Or a boy," Kate reminded her.
Alexis frowned. "But we don't get to keep the boys for very long!" she whined. "It's better to have a girl."
"You know that I can't decide that," Kate sighed, then looked to Lanie. "Don't you teach them anything?"
"That's Kyra's department," Lanie replied, "not mine. I just teach them about keeping their cuts clean and their bodies healthy."
"Which is so bo-oring!" Ava, a little blonde girl with bright blue eyes groaned.
Lanie sent her a glare. "And guess who's staying after to help me return our supplies today?" she said and Ava blushed as the other girls giggled around her. Lanie rolled her eyes and turned back to Kate. "So?" she said. "Are you excited?"
"To be honest," Kate whispered as she leant in, "I'm terrified."
Kate was terrified. Her heart pounded and her eyes flew all around, searching for any sign of light or life that might reveal her, or hurt her. The bundles on her chest began to whimper and whine. The weight on her hand began to tug.
"Kate," Alexis whispered, "slow down. I can't run that fast!"
"We can't slow down," Kate hissed back, squeezing the younger girl's hand. "Not until we're there."
"Are we there yet?" Kate whispered to Maddy, one of the girls in her group, as they walked down the trail to the other side of the forest, where she would meet her partner for the mating season.
"Soon," the blonde replied. "I think it's coming up very soon. Do you think they're handsome?" she asked, a bright smile on her face.
"I wouldn't know what handsome looks like," Kate replied honestly, "I've never seen a man before, except in pictures."
"Oh, I bet they're all very handsome," Maddy sighed. "They're probably very muscular and tall and have dimples."
"That sounds like Cynthia and Marisa," Kate replied, laughing.
"But they're women," Maddy laughed back. "It's different."
"The only thing that makes them different from us is what dangles between their legs," Kate pointed out and Maddy giggled.
"Still," the blonde replied. "It will be interesting, don't you think? To mate?"
"I hope so," Kate said. "Otherwise, I might just turn back now."
Her application had been approved almost immediately—not much of a shock since it was rare for a woman as young as Kate (25) to want to mate; Maddy was the only other woman in her age group. Most of the females decided to wait until their thirties to embark on childrearing, but since she'd lost her own mother, Kate had wanted to have a child of her own. She just hoped the first one was a girl so she wouldn't have to try again if she didn't like the mating process.
She'd heard that it felt uncomfortable the first time around and that it was very mechanical and quick. Other women, who had two or three children, said that the mating process was enjoyable and well worth the two or three weeks it took for them to finally be confirmed as pregnant. Kate thought only about Alexis and how lonely she would be while Kate was out on her mating trial. She was staying with Lanie for the time being and would be put into Reena's archery class in Kate's absence.
But soon, Kate thought, she would return and they would have a new member of their family growing in her uterus. Kate crossed her fingers for a girl.
Johanna began to cry softly as she bounced on Kate's chest and the woman pressed a comforting hand to her back and slowed just enough to press a light kiss to her forehead before speeding back up. There was even less time to stop than before. Daylight was breaking.
"Kate 47?" a woman with graying brown hair called out and Kate stepped forward, her heart pounding in her chest. The woman nodded and continued, "Your mate is Rick 47." She motioned to a man about half a decade older with floppy brown hair, light blue eyes, and scruff on his jaw. He smiled shyly at her and she returned it. He was handsome and Kate was never more grateful for the number 47. "Your mating space is number 12," the woman went on, handing Rick a key. "You have four weeks in which to produce; come to us as soon as you start experiencing symptoms."
"Yes, Miss," the two replied in unison and then blushed as they shared a look.
"You may go," the graying woman said curtly and they nodded, hastily making their way towards the nearby building, which housed several different rooms, called 'mating spaces'. Kate had seen pictures of them and knew that they contained little more than a large bed, a fridge filled with carb-loaded food and drink, and a small compartment for washing and using the toilet. Kate had not brought many clothes for this since she was told that she wouldn't need them.
And they were right. The mating process required absolutely no clothing at all and she didn't really know how she felt about that.
"So," Rick asked as they entered their space, "what is your job?"
"Archery instructor," Kate replied, "for the younger children." He nodded so she asked, "What's yours?"
"Transcriber," he replied, "and sometimes storyteller."
"Storyteller?" Kate asked and he nodded.
"Mostly for the younger boys," he said, "though a few of the laborers stop to listen sometimes. I caught one of our elders doing it, too." He laughed.
"You must be very good at it," Kate commented.
"I like to think so," Rick replied. "I wish that could be my official job, actually," he confessed. "But storytelling does nothing but entertain."
There was silence for a moment. Then Kate spoke:
"Will you tell me a story?" she asked. "Sometime while we're still here?"
Rick smiled warmly and nodded. "Of course," he said. "I'll tell you about a beautiful young woman with gorgeous chestnut hair, shimmering hazel eyes, and the loveliest smile I've ever seen."
Kate blushed and looked down, away from the intensity of his gaze on her. She felt a flutter in her stomach that she couldn't quite explain and it scared her. She began to regret—
Before she could finish that thought, gentle fingers were cupping her chin and lifting her gaze up to meet his. His smile was as shy and tentative as hers. "Do you mind if I…" he trailed off and took a breath, swallowing thickly. "I-I mean, I know it's unnecessary, but could I…may I kiss you?" Kate's eyes widened. She'd kissed before, but never a man.
She found herself nodding, her lips incapable of forming words as Rick's face grew closer to hers until he was only a breath away. Then he stopped, as if waiting for her.
She didn't make him wait long.
Finally, they were able to stop just as daylight broke through the trees. They blocked most of it, as well as the sight of any tall buildings in either direction. Kate sat down on a nearby rock to catch her breath and soothe the whimpering baby girl at her breast.
"Shh," Kate whispered, stroking the infant's downy cheek. "Hush, baby," she whispered, "sh, sh, it's alright, it's okay. We're almost there." She glanced over at Alexis, who was slumped against the thick trunk of a tree, breathing heavily. Her bow was strapped to her back, a quiver—with real, pointed arrows inside—slung over her shoulder. Her red hair hung in a braid down her back, but it was now all frizzy and discombobulated.
"What now?" the young girl asked.
"What now?" Kate asked, completely out of breath as she lay on her back in the bed. Rick was next to her, desperately attempting to catch his own breath, one muscular arm over his eyes. Kate thought, with no small amount of amusement, that he looked exactly the way Maddy had described—muscular and tall, with a dimpled grin. The perfect male. Her mate. Hers.
"Now," Rick heaved, as he lowered his arm and turned his head to face her, "we wait until we've got some energy back. And then we do it again."
"Again?" Kate felt her face heat up. The first time with Rick had not felt uncomfortable at all, not like what most of those other women said; it had been…exhilarating. And pleasurable. And…just so very good. She'd never felt anything quite like that before and she found herself eager to do it again, it was just…
"What?" Rick asked, frowning. "Did you not enjoy it?"
"No," Kate replied, then shook her head. "Yes, I mean," she said, "I did enjoy it. It's just…"
"What?" He sounded truly curious and she had to fight the ridiculous urge to smile.
"How many times do you think it takes?" she asked, finally. Numbers had never really been spoken of in her class; she just mates were given about a month to produce before they were sent back to their respective villages.
"Sometimes it only takes one," Rick replied and Kate felt her heart sink. "Sometimes it could take hundreds," he added as if feeling the shift in her mood. "I say we go for the latter, just in case." Despite her worries, Kate felt her lips quirk up in a grin and she nodded.
"I agree," she said, before reaching out for him. He met her in the middle of the bed and their lips melded. And even though it should have been much harder to breathe with his mouth on hers, Kate felt as if she'd never breathed better.
When they pulled back, both were panting. And smiling.
"Have you done this before?" Kate asked, suddenly, surprised by her own question. Rick nodded. "When?"
"Eight years ago," Rick said. "Her name was Meredith."
They ate breakfast in relative silence, only the song of the birds in the trees mingling with the sound of their munching. Kate had given Alexis an apple and had taken one for herself as well, finishing hers as quickly as she could before she set to nursing the whimpering infants.
They threw the cores on the ground and shoveled handfuls of dirt onto them to hide their presence here. Alexis watched as Kate nursed.
"When is he meeting us?" the young girl asked.
"Noon," Kate replied.
"Are you sure he's coming?"
Kate nodded. "He promised."
"I won't laugh," Rick said, giving her his puppy dog eyes, "I promise."
"I'm not telling you," Kate replied as she shook her head. "It's too embarrassing."
"Please?" Rick, the grown man, practically whined. "Please, I swear I won't laugh!"
"Fine!" Kate groaned. "If you must know, the first arrow I ever shot…landed straight into my instructor's thigh." Rick gasped. "I know," she said, covering her face with her hands. "That's why we have suction cups now, instead of points."
"That's because of you?" Rick snorted. He laughed uproariously and Kate slapped his chest.
"Hush!" she said. "Stop being mean." He rolled his eyes and grabbed his wrist as she went to hit him for that, too. He pulled her against him as he fell back on the bed, reattaching their lips as his arms wrapped around her waist. Kate forgot why she was mad after only a few short seconds.
"He's late," Alexis said, squinting up at the sky. The sun was at its highest point now; noon.
"He'll be here," Kate insisted. "He's never broken his promise to me."
"Promise to write?" Rick asked.
"I can't," Kate said, shaking her head sorrowfully. "You know it's not allowed."
"I know the messenger," he told her. "He won't say anything." Kate was still hesitant. "Please, Kate," he said. "I can't…I don't want this to end just yet."
Kate had started experiencing nausea just the other day, but she'd kept it mum for as long as she could. In all honesty, she was not ready for this to end, either. She wanted more time with Rick. But they'd gone out for a walk one morning, to stretch their legs after being inside for so long, and had become sick not twenty feet from where Miss Laverne, the graying woman, stood, making the rounds.
She'd ordered Kate to report to the healing building immediately and the younger woman was unable to refuse her order. She's shot an apologetic look at Rick and done as told praying that she would not be with child. Not yet.
Her prayers, of course, went unanswered. And now she was dressing to start the long trek home with the other women who'd been confirmed, including Maddy. And he was just making it harder on the both of them.
"I don't want this to end, either," Kate replied, honestly, "but we have no choice, Rick; there are laws that—"
"That make no logical sense," he interrupted. "There's no reason that we shouldn't be able to be together the way we want."
"We?" Kate asked. She'd never…
"You don't want to stay with me?" Rick looked hurt at the mere thought and Kate's heart ached for him. She reached out to cup his cheek in her hand.
"Of course I do," she said, softly. "But it's not allowed. Males and females cannot coexist peacefully, you know that."
"No," Rick denied, shaking his head, "I don't. And neither do you. We've never seen how males and females "coexist" until now. And I think we did just fine."
"It's only been a couple of weeks, Rick," Kate sighed. "It takes more time than that to see."
"Which is why I am going to write to you," he said, firmly, "and I hope you write me back. Maybe we can find a way to coexist." His face was so hopeful, so earnest…Kate couldn't find it in herself to deny him.
So she nodded, her hand still stroking his cheek. "Maybe," she said, offering a soft smile, which widened as he gave her one in return. She leaned up and pressed one last firm kiss to his lips, drinking in as much as she could before she tore herself away and walked out. She didn't look back.
His last letter crinkled in her hands as she unfolded it, her body rocking to keep the babies soothed. There was only one sentence:
"I'll meet you at our spot at noon."
His first letter came in her second month back. She was still feeling the effects of early pregnancy, but that didn't stop her from teaching her class. Alexis was still her best student, despite Kate's time away and her extra training sessions halted for the month she was gone. She nearly always got a bull's eye.
"Well done, Alexis!" Kate praised. "Ava, keep your arm up, please."
"Are you Kate 47, the archery instructor?" a voice said from behind her. Kate turned and came face to face with a young man, roughly her age, with spiky brown hair and startlingly clear blue eyes. Kate had never seen the messenger before—he often only visited the main building for governing messages—but she expected this was him. He was rather slim.
"I am," she replied. He nodded and reached into his pocket. He handed her an envelope, but didn't say whom it was from. He didn't really need to. "Thank you," she said. He nodded to her, then turned on his heel and walked off into the woods.
"What's that?" Alexis asked and Kate turned to see her staring up at her. Her blue eyes were wide and inquisitive and looked just like Rick's. Kate took a deep breath as the memory of him washed over her and made her body tingle, not unpleasantly but certainly unwelcome.
"Nothing too bad, I'm sure," she said, tucking the letter into her pocket. "Perhaps the main building letting me know that my class should be moving on to points now." That got the attention of more than a few little archers.
"Really?" Alexis asked, excitement flashing in her eyes.
Kate nodded and hated herself with every shake of her head. She'd never lied to Alexis before.
But that wasn't the last time.
Over the next few months, Kate and Rick sent their letters through Kevin, the messenger, who promised to keep his lips sealed as he had confessed to falling for a woman in Kate's age group—Jenny, who taught reading and writing to the toddlers—and he would surely be removed from his post if he was found out. Tit for tat, they kept his secret as long as he kept theirs.
Rick told her all about living as the 'dreamer' of the male community. About his love for many of the fiction books they kept in their library and the great love stories—and tragedies—they had in their collection. He told her about communities that allowed people like them to be together, allowed them to be in love, without any repercussions. He told her that, in another life, they would be happy and 'married' and live together with their children.
Kate told him about Alexis and apologized profusely for not mentioning her before or the fact that she fostered his daughter, by some strange twist of fate, after her mother's death. She told him about her own mother's death of a fever that swept the female community years before, when she was still a youth, and how she'd had to watch her mother waste away into nothing before her misery was finally ended, peacefully in her sleep.
He told her that he was sorry for her loss and he would do anything to see her smile again. She told him that she would do anything to see the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed or hear his deep, sultry voice tell her a story. He wrote her stories that made her laugh and weep and blush. She told him that Lanie had confirmed she was having twins. At least one of them was a boy.
James tugged on her hair and Kate hissed in pain, carefully extracting the brown lock from his sticky grasp and replacing it with one slender finger instead. She looked down into his eyes and almost wept at the cloudy blue that stared back.
"Where is he?" Alexis whined. Noon had passed hours ago and he was still not there.
"He'll be here soon," Kate insisted. "He has to be."
Kate waited nearly an hour for him before he finally arrived, out of breath and gasping. "You're late," she said, and then wrapped her arms around him, as far as they would reach. It wasn't easy with her swollen belly, but they made do.
"I'm sorry," Rick replied. "I was nearly caught." Kate gasped and he held her tighter. "But I wasn't. I'm okay now. More than okay." He pressed his face into her hair and inhaled, taking in her scent. "It feels so good to hold you."
"Likewise," Kate giggled into his chest, before she pulled back. She ran her hands over his face, which had a lot more stubble than when she'd left him. "Have you shaved since I last saw you?"
Rick shook his head. "You said you liked me rugged," he replied simply. "So I stayed rugged." Kate laughed and pressed a kiss to his lips. She moaned into his mouth as he deepened it, her hands reaching up to run through his hair, which was also longer than she remembered.
Before it could turn into anything else, Kate felt something in her abdomen and jumped back.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"One of them just kicked," Kate replied, breathless. She beamed up at him as it happened again.
"Have…have they done this before? Is it normal?" Rick asked, concerned.
"It's fine," Kate assured him, "completely normal. But…no, they haven't done this before."
"Can I…can I feel?" he asked and Kate's smile widened further, stretching her lips. She didn't respond; just grabbed his hands and pulled them down until they were resting on her swollen tummy. Rick kept them there for a few moments before he felt the little thump of a foot against his hand. "Whoa," he said, looking up at her with amazement and…something else in his eyes. Something that didn't quite scare her anymore. "Those are my babies in there," he said, as if this was something new.
Kate nodded. "At least one of them is a boy," she reminded him. "So you'll have a son to raise soon."
"And my daughters?" Rick asked, meaning Alexis, too.
"I'll take good care of them," Kate promised, her voice breaking. "And, every now and then, I'll take them out here to see you."
"I don't want that," he said and shook his head.
Kate's face fell. "You…you don't?" Her voice broke again as tears filled her eyes. She started to back away but Rick grasped her hands, pulling her back to him.
"I want us to all be together," he clarified, "all of the time. As a family."
Kate shook her head, tears already rolling down her cheeks. "But we can't," she sobbed. "There's no way."
"There's always a way," Rick replied, his voice firm. "Always."
"Kate?" a whisper from deep in the trees startled Kate and she got to her feet, her arms instinctively shielding her babies. She reached behind her for Alexis but the girl had already loaded her bow and was taking aim in the direction the voice had come. "Whoa, don't shoot!" Kate's eyes widened as Rick emerged from the woods, into the clearing.
"Rick," she sighed, running into his arms. He embraced her, careful of their infant children between them, and pressed kisses all over her face and on their soft heads.
"I'm sorry I'm so late," he apologized, "again. The woods are a lot more confusing in the dark."
Kate nodded in understanding and then turned to look at Alexis, who had lowered her bow and was staring, curiously, at the man in front of her. He smiled at her, warmly.
"Hi," he said. "You must be Alexis."
"You must be
"My father?!" Alexis gasped. Kate had returned from her third 'errand' of the last month—and her last until the twins were born—and had decided to tell the young girl all about what she'd been up to in the last eight months, ever since she returned from mating season. "You've met my father?"
Kate nodded. "He was my mate," she told her. "He's the father of my children."
Alexis's eyes widened. "So those are my…my brother and sister?" The second baby had finally been confirmed as a female. Many had congratulated her on such a rare and spectacular feat.
Another nod. "But you cannot tell anybody," she said, "do you understand?" Alexis nodded and Kate sighed. "He wants us to run away together," she added. "All of us."
"But where would we go?" Alexis asked. "Could I still practice archery? I want to be a hunter."
"You could take a bow and arrows with you," Kate suggested. "And we'd work on your skills, still. That's the only way we'll get any meet anyway; by hunting."
Alexis nodded. "But what about everybody here?" she asked. "What about Paige and Miss Lanie and Miss Martha and Ava and—"
"We don't have to go," Kate told her. "We could stay here with all of them and raise little Johanna. And we could go out once in a while to see your father and it will still be all okay."
"But you wouldn't be happy, would you?" Alexis asked, softly.
Kate had no idea how children could be so astute, but she really hated it sometimes. "I'd be okay," she said.
"Okay and happy are not the same thing," the little girl said wisely. She took a deep breath. "We should go," she said.
"Alexis, you deserve to be happy, too," Kate argued. "I don't want you giving up your happiness for me."
"I'm happy as long as I'm with you and my baby sister and brother," Alexis replied. "And if you're happy, I'm even happier."
"You're a pretty special kid," Kate sighed, "you know that?"
Alexis just smiled.
"She has your dimples," Kate said, softly, as Alexis slept, wrapped up in two warm blankets. They didn't dare start a fire. The twins were warm enough against Kate's chest and Rick huddled with Kate to make them even warmer.
Rick grinned and those dimples deepened. "She does?" he asked.
Kate laughed and nodded. "And that same mischievous grin," she added. "So does Jo."
Rick stroked the baby girl's soft chestnut hair and she snuffled in her sleep. He smiled lovingly. "She's smiling?" he asked.
"Not voluntarily," Kate responded. "But she's got those little dimples in her cheeks whenever she has gas."
"How cute," he laughed. Kate smiled and snuggled closer to his chest, sighing as she inhaled his woody scent.
"What do we do now?" she asked. "Where do we go?"
"North?" Rick suggested. "South? Any direction that's not where we used to be; any direction that might take us to a place that will accept us, all of us, as a family. I can't stand to be apart from you again.
"Likewise," Kate mumbled, against his chest. "I hear there's a city about ten days' travel from here."
"Which direction?"
"South."
"Do we have enough food?"
"Plenty…for now. The rest can be hunted and gathered."
"Do you know which berries are poisonous?"
"Don't you?"
"Uh…"
"You never paid attention in botany, did you?"
"It was very boring."
Kate sighed. "Well, lucky for you, I did pay attention; so did Alexis. We'll be fine."
"Better than fine."
"Amazing."
"Better."
"Extraordinary."
"Perfect."
"Always?"
"Always."
The End.