Waywardness of a Vulcan Heart Chapter37: Consequences Part 3 - Tribute
Author's Notes: Surprise #2 for you. Spock and Nyota's wedding chapter isn't quite ready yet. Here's a teaser about a place we all want to more about. Heck no I'm not telling you everything yet. That would spoil the surprise on Nogura's face. As well as Spock and Nyota's. And yours! :D
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…Nibiru. Present Day…
Z'ek and J'aal laid yet another unclaimed offering and knelt in fervent prayer at the shrine of the White Star god's victory over the Fire God that stood starkly at the edge of the caldera of the dead volcano. It was the seventh anniversary of that fateful day that The People learned they weren't the only people. Fascinated by the sight as always, they could see the formerly spewing and churning lava that had become frozen forever in an otherworldly forest of dead black and dark gray columns, bubbles, and flows. Only Z'ek and J'aal were permitted to witness this scene as brother and sister of the messengers of the White Star god. Even N'Tam himself had not dared to let himself see this, and no one had ever been inside the caldera, lest they somehow awaken the long dead Fire God with greater wrath against his former People than ever before.
Their monthly prayers and tributes were once again complete. Taking in this vista of the frozen moment of their salvation that they clearly understood that the messengers wrought because of the looping shuttle accident video in the crashed shuttle, J'aal leaned her head on her husband's shoulder and gripped his arm affectionately as they knelt before the shrine. Z'ek and J'aal were not young teens anymore at age 21. He was truly a broad-shouldered, hard-muscled man and she now had the shapely figure of a fully filled out woman and the couple's faces had matured. Their change in appearance was significant, but aside from Z'ek wearing a thin white linen loincloth - the color of their new god of the skies - little else had changed in the couple's deep relationship.
"Perhaps this is blasphemy, but I fear this is in vain, Z'ek. It has been seven rainy seasons and there has not been one sign of the White Star or our siblings. There is only quiet in the land because of their miracle."
Z'ek caressed the shape of her bald head, "I will not give up, J'aal. And was it not they and the White Star who silenced the Fire God at the very moment of his attempted destruction of The People? That everything is peaceful for us is evidence to me that the White Star and her messengers still live and work their miracles. Do you not think there are other villages like ours that need their attention? The night sky is filled with the places where the Other People live."
The sky canoe had told them much before it finally 'died of its wounds' inflicted by the Fire God as Elder N'Tam had put it.
"True, dear husband. I wish they would come back to us soon, though. Even for just a day to see how well we are doing in being more like them. I know we were special in their hearts. They loved us as we did them."
"Then we must have patience, my wife. You mother always says that love is patient. Just as you are patient waiting for our second child."
They turned from their high vantage point they beheld the rebuilt temple in the valley below. It was very large and impressive and fit its honor of the White Star. He had supervised its construction, and used many of the secrets of the sky canoe. Further away, hidden in the deep woods as always, was the inviting cool waters of their lake. The pond was still their special place to be alone, and for waited for the return of their missing long-missing brother and sister.
They turned back and bowed to the shrine.
J'aal mewed softly to her husband, stroking his body from his chest to his loins, where he let her hands slide inside his linen loincloth gently to touch what was hers with a shudder, "Z'ek, my mother is watching Ton'yok until dinner. He will be fine with his friends and Mother. Speaking of more children, we have the afternoon only for each other."
"I would say that is an invitation to swim, J'aal," he observed tenderly.
"You are a very smart husband, Z'ek. No wonder you are designated to become Elder some day," she giggled and they grinned and kissed.
"And because of that intelligence, I chose the prettiest woman in the tribe."
She blushed through her covering and scoffed, "I was barely eight when you fell for me, Z'ek - hardly a woman."
"But look what you became – a woman enough that we were forever joined just a few years later," he praised.
"Thank you, Z'ek. For that, I promise you more than just a swim, husband. I still yearn for a second child," smiled J'aal as she interlaced her hands with his.
"I like the 'more' part best, J'aal. The White Star will bless us again some day, dear one."
With a demure smile, J'aal explained, "I will prepare you now, Zek. We are done with our tribute. I wish to see what will soon give me your seed."
At twenty one, he was strong, tall, very athletic, and the most handsome man in the tribe by her standards, and pretty much by all the other women's standards. She removed his pure white linen and bundled it under her arm, with a very satisfied smile at his looks, and of course she wore nothing but her body covering. The powder enveloping them was different now, as the color was much whiter, even containing something that resembled glitter, a symbol of the White Star god and the spectacle of all the stars of her realm in the night skies above them. The new pure white body covering was made of mixture of chalk, ground bleached shells, and even Fool's Gold flakes that were abundant in the soil along the river. The People no longer used burnt ash in their coverings, so there would be no memory of the Fire God who betrayed them. The new formulation still protected them from the vicious rays of their sun, perhaps better, and their skins absorbed the high calcium content to strengthen them. The glinting flecks on J'aal's mature beautiful body made her even more desirable to Z'ek, if that were possible. She bore no noticeable sign of her first pregnancy other than her permanently larger bosom that pleased Z'ek greatly. While her large breasts, supple legs, and wide hips were normally signs of high fertility in a woman, because of her long history of female problems, even aided by McCoy's treatment, she had only been blessed with their single son. Given her past history, perhaps that child was all the White Star would give them through her messengers, but they loved the boy dearly. They always had hope.
J'aal preferred Z'ek nude in her presence, and in fact he often did that to just to please her. The women of the tribe were always impressed by this also, especially during the annual Longs and Shorts tournament, and she was proud Z'ek was hers only. He could have sired a dozen children in seven seasons with as many other women, but not for their rules of monogamy, and the fact she knew he would never stray from her. It was the hottest time of the year anyway, and it was much more comfortable, so most of the tribe's men wore nothing like their women. The women often joked 'why should only the men have all the fun?' Wearing any clothes at all had become limited to worship and the elderly, aided by what they learned of the optional use of clothing in many cultures and situations of the messengers from the White Star's sky canoe. It was their way and they were proud of it. Beautiful bodies needed no clothing, especially when 'the gift' kept them nearly perfect in appearance and their cuisine kept them mostly fit and trim.
He took her hand in preparation for the long descent on the now well-worn trail on the mountain.
They turned and bowed and honored the shrine one more time, "We'll be back. Please hear our prayer and accept our offerings for the White Star, dear brother and sister."
On the way down the trail, they made sure they walked by the broken and twisted ruins of the sacred relics jumbled in the ejecta of the volcano they'd found left by others of the White Star's messengers that was much like inside of the sky canoe, and said another prayer. The relics here were similar to those in the sky canoe, but so broken they never talked to Z'ek and J'aal like the sky canoe had for months. They had learned much from the destroyed structure itself that found its way into the construction of the vast new temple.
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When they got to the water's edge at the pond, Z'ek hesitated and she did not coax him onward. He was fixed on the ever-visible mature beauty of his wife, falling more in love with her each day. Alone together, they exchanged looks of deep desire for each other. He could not resist her, as often happened on this regular shrine tribute, "J'aal. Can we do the 'more' part before we swim?"
She grinned watching his body prepare itself for her, "I knew you would ask me that. You always do."
"And you always say 'yes'."
"You have never given me a good reason to say no, Z'ek."
They loved each other in the soft sand along the edge of the pond. Afterward, they dove into the refreshing waters to rinse the evidence of their lovemaking and to play as the still-young lovers they were for a couple of hours in pond.
As the sun started its way near the horizon, they knew it was time to leave and get back to their very active child. The wind shifted and they wrinkled their noses at the slightly acrid fumes from The Forge and could hear the more soothing creak of the water wheel of The Grainery as it turned in the strong river rapids.
"But this is the price of progress on our way to the stars," Z'ek thought