Piatseena scanned the horizon, looking for the smoke signifying the camp. He'd been out for two weeks hunting with some of the other warriors and he was eager to get home. Batzi was carrying their first child and it was likely to come any day. He'd been hesitant to leave her but she'd insisted he go and bring them back some hides so she could start working on their own tipi. It was awkward living with his mother after a year and they were close to having enough hides for their own home. Several had been donated from the others in the band, but the last few needed to be won by him. It had taken him the entire year but he was coming home with the last one.
Nocona let out a whoop when they spotted the grey smoke curling against the snowy hills across the valley in front of them. Piatseena simply smiled at the younger man, knowing it was unfitting for the chief's son to show such excitement, even if he felt it and more.
All the men seemed to spur their horses on faster, eager to get back to the warmth and comfort of their homes and wives, anxious to eat something other than pemmican and jerky. It didn't take long before they arrived in camp and the others greeted them with cheers and a feast that had been quickly pulled together when the lookouts had seen the men coming.
Piatseena scanned the crowd anxiously, looking for Batzi's distended frame. She was nowhere in sight. He slipped down off his horse and started towards the tipi, ignoring the congratulations on a successful hunt from those he passed. He froze when he saw the flap of the tipi. When he'd left, it was a faded red. Now, it was a bright blue. He stared at it, uncomprehending for a moment, before rushing forward and throwing the flap back.
He paused for a moment once inside, letting his eyes adjust to the dim light. He scanned the room, his eyes immediately going to the small area that was theirs. She wasn't there. No one was in the tipi. He spun around and left.
It looked like everyone was in the center of camp, celebrating and feasting, some of the men triumphantly holding up the heads of the buffalo they had killed. Piatseena started that direction automatically. He got only a few steps from the tipi when he heard his name.
Batzi was returning from the river with water when she was Piatseena duck into the tipi only to reemerge a moment later. He'd looked upset and she was worried. He'd started towards the rest of the camp without even looking around so she'd picked up the pace a little, weighed down by the water she was carrying, and called his name.
He turned and his eyes scanned her form looking for something. They locked on her significantly flatter midsection then flicked back up to her face questioningly. She smiled and turned sideways so he could see the cradleboard strapped to her back.
"You have a close friend," she called and his face lit up. He ran towards her and carefully scooped her up, pressing his face to her neck, kissing her lightly before turning her and gently pulling the cradleboard off her back.
"When?"
"The day after you left," she laughed. "Did you bring me back the last skin?"
"I did. Your reward for a fine son." He studied the round sleeping face of the child in amazement. "A son."
She laughed softly and nodded. "A son. A warrior." She took the cradleboard back from him and pulled it on before grasping the water skins and making her way back towards the tipi. "I'm making stew for your dinner tonight. I would do more but I haven't completely regained my strength. Give me time, though."
Piatseena took her water skins from her and smiled down at her as they walked back to the tipi. He reached over and took her hand, not caring what the others thought. In that moment it was just them. Just him and his wife and their son.
Their son was named Muea by the medicine man in a ceremony a few days later and everyone agreed it was a good name. Batzi worked quickly, in spite of the cold weather, and soon had the outer cover for their own tipi made, leaving the gathering of poles to Piatseena. He took to his task with determination, eager to have the strongest and warmest tipi for his small family. By the time the snow was melting away and Muea was learning to sleep the whole night, the tipi was completed, set up in the position of honor beside the chief's tipi.
It was the first time they had ever been alone. There were no sisters or brothers or parents a few feet away. Their first night, Batzi sang a song to Muea to comfort him as he fussed while Piatseena banked the fire. He made sure there were enough glowing embers to keep them warm through the cold spring night but not so warm that it would cause them discomfort. He watched as Batzi hummed the song to Muea who was quickly quieting against her breast. His eyelids drooped and his pudgy fist rested gently against her skin.
"What's that song?" he asked as she settled Muea on his pallet.
She frowned, turning to join him. "I don't know. It seems like I heard it once a long time ago."
He smiled and pulled her close to him. "Like in a dream?"
She shook her head, frowning as she tried to remember. "No, not quite. More like…in a former life."
He nodded and smoothed her long hair away from her face. "Do you ever think about your life before?"
She was quiet, toying with the ends of his hair while she thought. "No. It wouldn't do me any good to think of the past. It's a life that I had once but is over now."
"But that was your childhood. Don't you remember your childhood?"
She sighed softly and traced the outline of his face with her fingertips. "I remember a woman wearing a strange dress and telling me she loved me and a man with a beard tossing me in the air and catching me. I had a sister but I can't remember any of their faces."
Piatseena was quiet. It hurt his heart a little that she didn't remember her family but he was her family now. He rolled onto his back and pulled her onto his chest, pulling her dress up around her hips and rubbing his hands over her skin. She smiled and reached below her body to untuck his breechcloth before sitting up astride him. She looked over anxiously at Muea before seating herself on him, her eyes closed for a moment at the feeling of his body inside hers.
"I should be on the bottom," she said after a moment as he grasped her hips and started to move her.
"No," he disagreed, awkwardly pushing himself up into a sitting position. "You are not beneath me. You are my equal. I don't need to dominate you."
She opened her eyes and smiled at him. She cupped his face in her hands and rested her forehead against his, moving awkwardly with him. "Give me another fine warrior so someday I can have a daughter to help me."
He laughed softly and pressed his face into her neck, his arms wrapping around her waist tightly and holding her against his chest. "I'll give you as many warriors and helpers as you want," he murmured. His voice was muffled by her skin but she heard him. It warmed her heart to know that someday, this tipi would be filled to the point that they would need a larger one.
Hours later, they both woke when Muea cried hungrily. Rather than continue to move back and forth from his area, Batzi settled him beside her to nurse while she lay down. Piatseena propped his head up on his hand and watched his son with pride. He would be tall like his father and brave like his mother.
Piatseena lowered his mouth and trailed soft kisses along her neck, pulling on the wide neck of her dress to expose one shoulder and kissing that. She looked over her shoulder at him curiously and he gave her an innocent grin. She laughed softly and shook her head.
"Not while your son is nursing. At least let him finish."
Piatseena nodded but was already pulling her skirt up, eager to return to his place. He may be married, but buy the pale men's standards he was a teenager still and as such his appetite for his wife was nearly insatiable.
She sat up and put Muea on a pallet nearby but within reach before turning to face Piatseena with raised eyebrows. "How many more times tonight, just so I know?"
He sat up with her and pulled the soft buckskin over her head. "As many times as you'll let me," he answered honestly. "Our families are nowhere close so there's no need for silence or discretion." He started to pull her forward but she shook her head and lay down with her back to him.
"This way is better. Your son makes my breasts sore."
Piatseena wrapped one arm around her chest just under her breasts and the other around her waist, carefully sliding into her from behind. In spite of the lack of family, they were both still quiet, aware of the sleeping child a few feet away. Batzi reached behind her and tangled her fingers in Piatseena's hair when he lowered his head to bury his face in her hair.
Their height difference forced them to be creative and was something the others in the band laughed about in the privacy of their own tipis. It would not do to laugh openly about the son of the chief and no one was brave enough to do so. In the years to come, the height difference would still be an amusing topic as Piatseena rose into his proper place, taking over as chief of the band when his father was killed in a raid. The custom might have been for the new chief to take on the old chief's wives, but as he viewed these women to all be his mothers, and indeed one was, he declined and allowed the three women to remarry if they chose or to simply remain under his protection as a mother. Only Topsannah refused to remarry, claiming she was too old.
Batzi made a strangled noise as Piatseena touched something deep inside her that hadn't been touched before. Piatseena froze and turned her slightly.
"Are you ok?" he asked anxiously.
She nodded vigorously and pulled on his hip. "Do that again."
He grinned and flexed his hips into her, brushing against that spot again. Her eyes fell shut and her skin bloomed with color as she pulled on his hip almost desperately. He tried to angle deeper and harder and to make sure he hit that spot, loving the color that stained her cheeks and upper chest as her breathing grew heavier. Her nails were digging into him again but he hardly noticed he was so entranced by her reactions when he hit that spot.
She stiffened in his arms and shuddered, her body tightening around him in waves. He lost his focus and only just managed to thrust one last time before he was done for.
They lay on the pallet panting for a moment, their bodies dewy in the faint glow from the embers. He rolled onto his back and sucked in a breath, wishing there were some way to get some cool air in the tipi without losing the warmth they'd want later. Batzi curled into his side, lazily tangling her leg with his and resting her head on his chest. Together they kicked off the heavy buffalo robes.
"Whatever that was, I want another," she finally whispered, kissing his chest up to his mouth, cupping his face in her hands and smiling down at him. "As many as you'll give me."
He grinned and nodded, pulling her down carefully so as not to hurt her. "I think that's a goal I'm willing to work towards."
Batzi grimaced as another wave of pain hit her and she managed to straighten up somewhat, motioning for Topsannah to come from her fire nearby. The older woman came over concerned.
"Are you alright, Daughter?"
Batzi shook her head. "My time is here. Can you send someone for Piatseena so he can tend to Muea while we're in the lodge?"
Topsannah nodded and called to one of her other sons who still lived with her, ordering him off to find his brother while she helped Batzi towards the small brush lodge that had been prepared for just this occasion. The other wives of the chief joined them, the older daughters left in control of their younger siblings.
Once inside the dark lodge, the older women set about their tasks. The younger wives brought water and hot rocks to fill one hole while Topsannah settled Batzi on the small pallet. Batzi groaned louder as another pain hit.
"This is worse than last time," she sobbed softly, gripping the poles on either side of her pallet. "It's coming faster."
Topsannah situated herself between her daughter-in-law's legs and surveyed the situation. "The head is already visible. You waited too long," she chided her gently. "By the time they find Piatseena he'll have another child."
Batzi rested her head back on the ground and closed her eyes. "He should be fine with that. He was so worried about Muea I can only imagine what he would have been like if he'd been here when he was born."
Topsannah laughed softly and nodded. "Are you ready?"
Batzi grunted and nodded, gripping the poles. "Yes."
She'd waited long enough that it was a quick delivery. It didn't take more than a few pushes before another squirming screaming child was in the world. Batzi rested back against the pillows behind her, exhausted even after such a short labor. Topsannah wrapped the child up and beamed at Batzi.
"It's another son. Piatseena will be proud."
"He'd be proud no matter what," Batzi chuckled, wiping the muck off her son's face.
After the afterbirth was buried and the two were cleaned up, Batzi and the baby were moved back to her tipi. She moved gingerly, cradling the child against her as she walked through the camp. It was dark and most of the band were in their tipis, eating and getting ready for bed, but several people came out of the tipis, smiling and nodding at her as she passed. Piatseena was waiting with a broad smile at their tipi, Muea in his arms watching solemnly. Piatseena held the flap for her and she ducked inside, carefully setting the new baby on the ground and lying down beside him.
Piatseena ducked in behind her. "Are you feeling ok?" he asked anxiously.
She nodded. "Just tired. Are you hungry?"
"The others brought food. Just sleep."
She closed her eyes and drifted off into the blissfulness of pain free sleep. Piatseena watched for a moment before leaning over and studying his newest son.
He wasn't much to look at yet, but he would be before too long. When he'd first met Muea, he'd looked like a normal enough baby and he'd been less than two weeks old. He was a little intimidated by the fragility of children at that age. Muea was just starting to be old enough that he wasn't afraid of hurting him when they played. Now he had to start over with a new son.
He'd do it as many times as he could, as many times as Batzi would let him. A son was a true blessing and to have such a wife that gave him two so quickly must mean that favor was on his side.
He pulled Muea over and settled him on the opposite side of the pallet as the new baby and stretched out behind Batzi. She shifted slightly and turned her head.
"Everything alright?" she mumbled sleepily.
"Perfect," he said softly, kissing her hair. "Sleep and get your strength back."
"No more children for a little while," she sighed softly. "This one wore me out faster than that one."
"We'll try," he promised, not sure how that would work other than simply staying away from her. He wasn't sure he could do that. That was probably why so many men had more than one wife: give each a break from her husband's attentions once in a while.
The next few weeks passed quickly for the camp. They had been waiting for a few of the women to give birth before moving camp and Batzi was the last. As soon as she was rested, they broke camp and started out, heading south for their winter camp. Muea rode on his father's horse while Piatseena led it and Batzi walked beside him, Mupitz strapped to her back in the cradleboard. It wasn't a long journey and before long, they were set up and thriving. The weeks turned to months and before long, Mupitz was crawling, grabbing at everything with pudgy fists and laughing at his father and brother. And still, Batzi turned Piatseena away at night. He was getting frustrated.
The winter wind was howling around the tipi one night, their sons fast asleep on the other side of the tent. It had been over a year now. They'd moved camp three times and were once again back at the winter camp. Batzi was asleep but Piatseena was in an almost painful state. The young warriors were well acquainted with tending to such problems themselves but Piatseena was a grown man with a family and it was unseemly.
He propped his head up on one elbow and studied her for a moment, wondering if he could get away with entering her while she was asleep. He started to inch her skirt up and her eyes fluttered open.
"Piatseena?" she mumbled.
"I need you," he groaned, pressing his body against hers. "It's been too long, Batzi."
She shifted back against him slightly, feeling her own need building up inside her and pooling between her thighs. He groaned softly, gripping her hips and pulling her body against his.
"Quickly before you lose control," she murmured, rolling onto her back and pulling him over her.
He smiled at her before burying himself in her and sighing with satisfaction. The young warriors didn't know what they were missing. It was probably better that way.
He shuddered into her and rolled onto his side, pulling her with him.
"Please don't make me wait so long."
She laughed softly and smoothed his loose hair. "I'm sorry. I want to give you more children but I need time between them. Too many too soon is bad. I think that's why some of the young wives die."
He was quiet for a moment then nodded. "I understand."
"But, since we've already tonight, we might as well until my next cycle."
He grinned and kissed her neck. "However you want it."
Buea: Moon
Mupitz: Owl
Thought they kinda worked with the New Moon kinda thing. ;-I