ACT XXII: AKANE'S DIARY (PART 1)
History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence can challenge our popular assumptions.
Ken Burns
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Akane's tent, 09:00 AM (early morning)
Sargeant First Class Akane Araki
Japanese Space Self-Defense Force, 1st Space Ranger Regiment, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Kansai Region
TOPIC: Personal Log
Before I begin, I would like to explain the reasons why I am writing this in the first place.
And I also want to warn all of you of one thing in advance: This personal journal, or whatever you want to call it will be written in very impersonal language, so don't be surprised if I use obscene language at times. It may seem very unprofessional, but what I am going to write down from now on are my experiences on this far away planet where I am at the moment, and in case something should happen to me, I would like my words to become known to the general public, in case I would be the first, and probably the last, human being to make contact with an intelligent alien civilization on another planet.
Another reason I am writing this is also to keep my own sanity, since many things that happen on this planet are not very pleasant to watch, to put it in polite terms.
Perhaps some are already wondering who is the person writing all this crap; well, for that kind of stuff, let's start with the boring introductions and a little personal background about the woman behind all this.
My name is Akane Araki, whose birth name was Ariana Mutombo. I was born on July 21th, AD 2281 in Mbabane, Eswatini, aka the former Swaziland, a small African kingdom in the middle of South Africa, on planet Earth. I don't know much about my biological parents, other than they died during an outbreak, and I was living in a Catholic orphanage until I was adopted at 5 years old by a young Japanese couple from Osaka, Reiko and Junichiro Araki, and then I moved to Japan, when I was naturalized Japanese and I learned the local language.
As many of you may have realized, Akane is not my birth name, but the name I chose when I became a naturalized Japanese citizen; the kanji of my name (明音), translated literally, means "bright sound", in the sense that it is something very noticeable or striking, which in my case would apply on many levels: partly because I was born abroad in Africa, because I am a black woman, and finally because I speak a lot, to the point of annoying others at times.
After spending a childhood with several setbacks that I will not mention here, I will only say that since I was a child I have always been interested in martial arts, and by mere chance, my stepfather became friends with the head of a famous military martial arts school, called Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, one of the oldest in Japan. I will not waste time explaining the history of that school, because you can find information about it on the Net.
Yes, you hear it, I am an expert in the samurai arts, to put it bluntly, and I even have my own katana. In short, I am a modern samurai, as absurd as it sounds to many.
A human samurai, on a planet far from Earth, and living in what seems to be a culture very similar to that of the Native Americans of past centuries, except for one small thing...
The residents of this planet are humanoid felines, in short, anthropomorphic ones, or if I wanted to use a more vulgar term, furries.
Pretty absurd, isn't it, folks?
If you think this sounds like something out of the insane imagination of someone who was desperate to escape from this filthy planet, it doesn't even compare to what I'm going to talk about next about some of the quirks of this world, and believe me, folks, it's even stranger than it sounds.
To begin with, apart from my furry friends, almost all the fauna on this planet that I have seen to date is made up of various types of animals, including some that are already extinct on Earth.
I'll be straightforward with this: On this planet, dinosaurs exist, believe it or not, and many people here use them as beasts of burden, in the same way that we use animals like horses, camels or donkeys, which do not exist on this planet, in case anyone asks about it.
Yeah, it's as unreal and ridiculous as it sounds, and I think many of you must be thinking that maybe I've already gone bonkers or something, or perhaps I've possibly been smoking some strange, local shit; or that maybe I have seen too many Disney films, Steven Spielberg's stuff, or read too much of those Michael Crichton's stupid books.
Right now, to be honest, I wish at times to think that everything I'm saying right now about this place was just a friggin' joke out of my twisted mind...
And that's cutting out the planet's climate, the strange and abrupt geography, among many other details that would take hours and hours to explain thoroughly, something I expect to address on another day.
Because, what I was referring to in relation to the climate, the heat in this wretched shithole from hell is something that for a human like me is truly excruciating in levels that I had never felt before in my life, while for the dwellers of this world, it is more or less tolerable, taking the necessary precautions, that is.
Maybe the fur on them helps them to better withstand the heat and humidity of this place, something that for me is more difficult to achieve, and that I was born and grew up until I was five years old in a very hot country like Eswatini, where the summers were very hot to the extent that the ground got so hot that it burned the soles of your feet.
It's a good thing I was allowed to put my military-style tent in the village, instead of putting a teepee like everyone else, because my home is big enough to put all my stuff from my backpack. Considering that it is bigger than even the teepee from the tribe chief, it is more than obvious that I am very different from everyone else in this junk.
As you can imagine, there is no electricity of any kind in this place, so I had to install a solar panel above the roof of my tent, along with a solar battery to power my entire home, including this computer that I am writing all this on. Putting all this advanced stuff was very difficult at the beginning, due to the language barrier, because many thought at the beginning that I was a witch or something like that to generate energy and light without the need of candles or fire, especially with some warriors with very... antiquated beliefs, who thought at the beginning that I was some creature from hell or something like that, and if it was not for some members of this tribe speaking for me, I would not be discussing any of this right now.
Maybe some of you are already thinking in their minds: "What about the place where I am right now?"
That's something I'll explain next, along with some interesting facts...
I'll get straight to the point about this place: The inhabitants of this place call themselves the Highland Tribe. Yeah, like the Scottish immortals from those classical schlock films from the 20th century, except the people from this place are neither immortals nor humans, but humanoid cats instead. They are named that way, because they live on the highest part of the plains of this region, therefore the name.
And how did I get here in the first place?
I will be as brief as possible, because I have other things to do today, but here is the story of how I landed on this stinking planet, and this tribe later on:
It all started when I was on the planet New Haiti, where I was working at the UNSF (United Nations Space Force) William Jones II military base outside the capital, since I had been transferred there at the request of my JSSDF (Japanese Space Self-Defense Force) superiors, in order to help train some rookies.
Once I finished my work there, I was allowed to return to Earth to visit my adopted family in Osaka. On the way back, more specifically when I was at a transit space station to take a spaceship to Earth, I met a friend I was studying with at the university before I graduated and joined the army afterwards.
Her name was Kaguya Hoshino, the heiress of the Hoshino Group, one of Japan's most powerful industrial conglomerates, of which Hoshino Aerospace Industries (HAI) is a member, and they were one of many sponsors selling their products to both the UNSF and the JSSDF
What does this Kaguya girl have to do with me in this whole story?
As fate would have it, I met Kaguya Hoshino at a transit space station, since she was going to take the same spaceship as me and also return to Earth after settling her family's business affairs.
Some may wonder why a civilian like Kaguya was allowed to board a military spacecraft. According to what she told me on the way, it was her father's idea, the company's CEO, named Yuusuke Hoshino, by the way, to send her back in a JSSDF ship, which in this case would be the JS Asuka, partly for her own safety and partly because she could travel in a Japanese spaceship, and not have to deal with the language barrier. To be honest, even Kaguya herself found this idea absurd, and she would have preferred to travel in a civilian ship like everyone else.
From this point onwards, this is when things started to become very suspicious, something I've been thinking about since I ended up on this planet.
But first I'm going to talk a little bit about Kaguya, and her role that she had in this account, as small as it was in context.
Kaguya Hoshino is a friend that I have known since we were both in high school. She was small in stature, perhaps a little smaller than the average Japanese woman, mainly because she was born prematurely, which affected her growth. In fact, when I first met her, I thought she was a 10 year old girl, when she was 16 at the time.
I think it goes without saying that she was aware of her height, and that was a constant source of trouble for her.
Something that didn't help her, apart from that, was that she had a bad temper, and that, also as a result of being a premature child, some of her physical proportions, like her breasts, were somewhat larger than normal, in proportion to her body.
You can imagine where all this was going, to the misfortune of my friend. In fact, I have had to save her ass on several occasions, including an attempted rape, where I had to send many of her attackers and potential rapists right to the hospital.
And leaving my friend aside, here is the most important question: What caused me to end up here?
To make this long story as short as possible, here is a "brief" summary of what happened, leaving aside some events:
First, the JS Asuka jumped as it should from the New Haiti solar system to the Earth Sphere.
For some unknown reason that no one could explain, the ship ended up jumping into an unknown solar system that does not appear on existing navigation charts, something that had not happened in centuries, at least as far as I know.
Likewise, the ship ended up in the vicinity of a habitable planet, the one where I am right now, which was considered by many as a miracle in the midst of a tragedy.
From this point on, things began to get very strange for me and for everyone inside the ship: I had the misfortune, so to speak, to meet an employee of HAI, the company owned by the Hoshino family, named Haruo Tanuma, with whom I had several disagreements during the meetings about the status of the ship, and about the exploration of this planet, of which we knew nothing at that point.
Tanuma asked me not to tell Kaguya, the daughter of the company's CEO, about his presence on the ship. Why didn't he want Kaguya to know that he was traveling on the Asuka? Unfortunately, he is no longer with the living to answer that question.
When I saw that Tanuma could be hiding something, I investigated what was inside the cargo that HAI asked us to send from New Haiti to Earth; according to the statement of contents that the port authority of that planet provided us with before we left the planet, and according to what HAI itself had told us when it required our services, the cargo consisted of spare parts for ships and planes.
Under normal conditions, there would be no reason to suspect that the contents of that cargo might be suspicious or dangerous, but I had several hunches that the reasons we were in that far-flung part of the universe were not a mere coincidence; neither did the fact that Tanuma was previously very insistent that we continue to investigate the planet for signs of intelligent life, when that was not our mission to begin with.
Why would a businessman, like that Tanuma guy, from a company dedicated to manufacturing spaceships, airplanes and their respective parts be interested in knowing if there is intelligent life on another planet? Unfortunately, he took that secret with him to his grave.
At the moment I was just starting to investigate the shipment, the previously mentioned Tanuma appeared in the cargo section of the ship, obviously questioning what I was doing there, and why I was trying to verify the contents of the shipment.
And the moment I thought on verbally confronting that man once for all, everything went straight to hell in a flash.
I'll be brief on this: we were attacked by a series of drones from god fuckin' knows where. The only thing I can deduce is it was some kind of planetary defense system created to protect this planet from some enemy invasion, and maybe it confused the Asuka with some fleet willing to invade the planet.
Anyway, those drones were able to severely damage the ship, leaving us with no choice but to abandon the ship if we didn't want to end up as space junk.
Due to the confusion produced by the whole incident, and the fact that my friend Kaguya was in her quarters, while I was on the bridge, I could not bring her with me alongside, and when I found her in the escape capsule area, a very powerful explosion opened a hole in the place, causing many people who had not yet entered their capsules to be violently ejected from the ship to die in the vacuum of outer space.
Because of this, and being in an already state of panic, I did not waste any more time and got into my capsule, without Kaguya by my side, even though I had heard her on the spot when I arrived at the capsule area. Afterwards, I activated my capsule and left the ship immediately, and moments later, it exploded to bits.
From this point I do not remember much what happened next, except that the capsule was violently shook by the Asuka's blast wave when it exploded, causing me to lose consciousness until the moment the escape capsule landed.
Once I regained consciousness and left the escape pod, I realized that the vehicle landed in what appeared to be a desert, but that was the least of my problems: Looking at the sky, I realized that the Asuka, the spaceship where I and my friend Kaguya were going, had been destroyed and that all the crew of the ship, as far as I know at this point, including Kaguya Hoshino, my friend, and the mentioned Haruo Tanuma, also died within it, leaving me as the only survivor of the whole thing. As a result of the above, this also means that I am the only known human being dwelling on this planet, as far as I know.
Seeing that the drones were still flying over the surface of the planet in search of survivors, I decided not to waste any more time mourning the death of my friends, and I set out to find some kind of civilization on this planet in order to ask for help in finding a way to return home, knowing beforehand, at the moment I landed on this planet, that there was animal life within it.
The first thing I did was to head west, where I first reached a mountainous area, and coming down from that area, I went to a very big forest that was on one side of the mountains, where I spent my first night on this planet.
To say that my first night here was difficult would be an understatement, since two things happened to me inside the forest when I slept by a river. The first one is that I met a kind of dinosaur that was like a cross between a velociraptor and an iguana, which apparently was attracted by the smell of my food that I was preparing that night, and because I was already terrified that day, what I did was scare it away with my gun, and the second one is that I had a very horrible nightmare, which I don't even want to talk about here.
The next morning, I continued on my way in search of some kind of intelligent civilization, and after some incidents, including meeting the same dinosaur from last night, I managed to get out of that damn place. I should add that, for some reason, that dinosaur seemed to be attracted to the smell of Japanese food stored in my backpack, so I gave it a rice ball, or onigiri as we call them in my country.
I should regret saying that forest was a bad place, because the place where I ended up before arriving at this village was much worse: Not only was there nothing, except birds of prey flying over my head waiting for me to die, but everywhere there were skeletons of animals that I had never seen in my life, and if things weren't depressing enough for me, there was a pungent smell of cat piss flying around.
And all this ended when I fell into a trap destined to hunt herndons, where I lost consciousness partially, and did not regain it completely until they found me and took me to their village.
I guess this was not as brief as I had hoped, heh heh...
Now here comes the million-dollar question: What about this place and the people who live here?
I will spare you the story of how I was found in that cursed hole, and what happened next after I was found, and when I regained consciousness; all I will say is that it involved a lot of luck, being scared shitless, and lots of Japanese food in the form of MRE rations that I have on hand. I can say that I'm the first person who was able to make more or less friendly contact with an intelligent alien civilization using cheap street food that we in Japan eat every day on the streets, and I'd like to see the faces of the scientists at NASA, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and other similar organizations when they hear this.
The village where this Highland tribe lives is relatively small. I haven't had the time or desire to honestly count how many people live here, but if I had to make an honest calculation, I don't think it would be more than 35 souls, more or less, including me.
As I mentioned earlier in this journal, for some reason that I don't fully know, and that the tribespeople haven't been able to explain to me either, if I were to say that all the people here dress, and act, in one way or another, like Native Americans out of a cheap Wild West movie, complete with teepees, buckskins, and related stuff, many would think that this would be either an exaggeration, or utter bullshit.
I can assure you on behalf of everything that is most sacred for me that everything I am saying up to this point is true, and is not an exaggeration or a lie. The only difference is that all the sentient inhabitants of this planet, as far as I have been able to see so far, are humanoid felines.
And just like their human counterparts, these people are semi-nomadic, dedicated to hunting, and occasionally to agriculture, they have a very defined warrior culture, although for some strange reason, their warrior culture seems to be a strange mixture between the cultures of the same Native Americans that they seem to be imitating, with some elements of the samurai ethos, something that I can say, given that I am a samurai.
Is it just a coincidence, or maybe am I just thinking too much? I say this because it is impossible for a civilization that lives on a planet millions of light years away from Earth, without any logical contact with the human race, to imitate almost perfectly a culture as peculiar as the Native American cultures of pre-Columbian times.
But just as they share the same peculiar and good things about our human cultures, and as much as I hate to say this frankly, they also share many of our faults...
...And one of those things that I particularly loathe, for obvious reasons, is slavery.
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Outside Akane's tent, 10:00 AM (mid-morning)
Just as Akane was still writing her journal on her computer, she heard several female voices outside her tent, in what seemed to be a wild fight between two women, which had turned violent.
Akane Araki quickly realized who those voices were, and to her personal distress, those two people involved in the fight were too well known to her.
-"Oh, shit, not those two girls again, for fuck's sake..."-
But before addressing the problem that was unfolding outside her tent, the African-Japanese woman first wrote in her diary to add some context to the situation, perhaps as a way to vent her frustration at a situation that was far too commonplace for the human soldier.
And now we are talking about the issue of slavery here, I have a female friend in this tribe who is in fact a slave, and we have both become good friends, partly because she defended me the day I was brought to this village (it's a long story not worth telling), partly because I gave her food from my MRE rations without caring whether she was a slave or not, and finally because she taught me her language, and in return I am teaching her Japanese.
But before I talk about her, I will first comment on the other girl my friend is having another fight with in less than a week.
As I mentioned before, my furry hosts are not that different from us humans in terms of emotions, and this girl is no exception: Her name, which my friend told me as soon as I got to know the local language well enough, is Kebec Lo-ke-dan, which is a free woman, unlike my friend, and for reasons I couldn't understand, maybe out of boredom, envy or simply because her personal life in her own home probably sucks monkey balls, she dedicates herself to making my friend's life difficult every chance she gets.
And as for the envy, it would be strange for her to have some to her, since Kebec is not exactly ugly in the least, considering that she has a light-colored coat and hair, and that without saying that she is married and with a child.
In addition to her, she is joined by her elder sister Kayce, who is also dedicated to helping her sister in the bullying department. She is dark brown in all of her fur, as well as her hair, and she is just as pretty as her sister, which does not exclude her from being just as nasty as her older sister. As I understand it, she is also married, and with a young daughter; quite an example this young lady is setting for her daughter, I would say, and I am being sarcastic.
This reminds me a lot of the same situation I faced with my late friend Kaguya when we were both in high school in Japan, where I had to defend her from bullies like Kebec all the time, except that in this case I can't do much for my friend, to avoid having problems with the tribe on account of my position as an outsider.
But this time, I'm not going to stand around like an ostrich with my head buried in the sand, and ignoring things just because I want to play Miss Nice Girl in this village, while I watch a friend being humiliated...
And then, after she finished writing, Akane walked out of her tent, and saw what was going on outside.
-"All right, all right, what the hell is going on here?"- The human woman yelled loudly. -"This looks like a beatdown between school girls... or a literal cat fight, from what I'm seeing."-
Bad cat puns aside, Akane saw carefully what had happened at that point: At the scene, besides the human woman, there was Kebec, who was on the ground, full of dirt and with some scratches, after having a fight, and next to her was her sister Kayce, who was trying to help her stand up; those standing next to Akane were Rial, the young warrior with black fur and white hair, and next to him was Liska, Akane's slave friend.
And regarding the latter, the black woman understood the reason behind the fight between Liska and Kebec; allegedly, in an attempt to provoke and humiliate her, and as far as Akane could hear from her tent, Kebec kicked the water bag that Liska had brought from the river, which caused her to be wet from head to toe. No longer able to tolerate Kebec's bullying anymore, the young blonde slave girl beat her up senseless, until Rial, the grandson of Mother Sanna, who was Liska's mistress, stopped the fight.
-"Hey, Liska-sweetie, did Kebec bullied you again?"- Akane asked to her feline friend.
-"Yes,"- Rial asked her too, considering he is also her master as well, and he also wanted to know what happened. -"Can I ask who started the fight?"
Liska, who normally preferred to be as diplomatic as possible even in the worst of times, had already reached the point that being nice would not help her at all, and without thinking twice, she did not hesitate to use the most vulgar language she could use to describe her aggressor.
-"AGHH! That... That arrogant Highland WHORE kicked my water bag I carried from the river so that Mistress Sanna could prepare her soup!"- The slave cursed Kebec as loudly as she could, considering that whore was the most strongest insult she could think of in her own language. -"Now she will punish me for this!"-
Akane noticed Liska thoroughly, and considering also the skimpy attire that female feline slave was wearing, since she was only wearing a light brown blouse, some sandals and nothing else, since she was not even wearing any underwear, which made her intimate parts show when she was crouching or kneeling, the human soldier from Japan also had reasons to worry that Liska's mistress would decide to discipline her over what took place.
-"Someone in this goddamn tribe has a very sick mind to give this poor girl such clothes that not even Princess Leia would wear on her worst days."-
Akane thought to herself about the sultry clothes her friend was wearing, and she looked furiously at Rial, for she knew who was the one responsible for it.
But with respect to him, Rial did not seem to pay attention on the African-Japanese soldier, as he was more focused on Liska, and on preventing the conflict between her and Kebec from becoming more volatile.
-"Don't worry about it, I'll talk with grandmother, and I hope she'll understand."- Rial put his hand on Liska's shoulders to calm her down, while talking calmly to his slave to reassure her that there would be no harm to her. -"You go back to the river in the meantime so you can fill the bag again."-
The slave, more at ease knowing that the old woman would not punish her, sighed with relief at this. The fact that Akane, her human friend, was also by her side, along with Rial, meant that she could return to the river for more water without suffering further harassment on herself from Kebec, her older sister Kayce, or anyone else.
But while Liska was going back to the river, Kebec, on the other hand, was not happy to see that that slave had been saved from being punished thanks to the presence of Rial, and also that of Akane.
In particular, the presence of that mysterious outsider with dark, naked skin, at least for all the members of the tribe, was extremely unsettling, and in the opinion of that young woman, Akane Araki was an unwelcome presence for her, much less when it came to the human woman intervening in her personal affairs, or those of the tribe, something that the human rarely did, but that on that occasion, Akane made an exception to that rule in order to defend Liska from the bully.
-"Well, my dear Kebec,"- Akane pointed her finger on the bully, while was still in the ground. -"if you wanted to screw over Liska once again, then you failed... BIG TIME. HAH HAH HAH!"-
Akane laughed at the feline bully, while her sister Kayce helped her off the ground; obviously, she was not happy that the human soldier was laughing at her right under her nose, and she let her know it right away.
-"This is not of your DAMN business, YOU NIGHT-SKINNED OUTSIDER!"- Kebec yelled at the human woman with the worst racial slur she could think of on her. -"I was having fun on my own, when you, stupid bruteface, had to step in other people's stuff!"
For obvious reasons, Akane, who was a black woman, could not ignore that racist insult towards her and quickly and violently retorted towards the alien girl.
-"Hey, hey, hey!"- The human angrily warned her feline opponent about the use of such language on her. -"Watch those words, Miss Blockhead, because I don't think you're going to like the day when you see my fist in your ugly mouth!"-
-"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"-
Akane cracked her knuckles in order to scare her, and make her see that she was ready to give Kebec the beating of her life whenever she wanted.
-"Heh, heh... do you want to see how good I am at smashing that kitty face of yours in, little girl?"-
When she saw that her younger sister seemed to be in danger at the hands of the human soldier, Kayce stepped between Akane and Kebec in order to defend her.
-"That's enough, Akane!"- The other feline girl screamed at the human woman who was ready to face her sister at any moment. -"This is not your problem, and I will not let you hurt my sister!"-
-"It became MY PROBLEM when your loser sister insulted me with racial slurs, and you're not so innocent either, young lady!"-
-"WHAT?!"-
-"You think I'm deaf or what?"- Akane furiously retorted back at the girl. -"For several minutes now back in my tent I've been hearing how you and your stupid little sister have been pestering Liska for your sick pleasure, and this time I'm not going to sit back and do nothing!"-
-"And what do you plan to do about it, stranger?"- Kebec, who was behind her older sister, joined the verbal showdown along her. -"If you knew your place, you should keep quiet as a good guest, and stay out of our business!"-
Realizing that the situation between the three women was becoming very intense, with the risk of a fight breaking out between them, Rial quickly intervened to deflate the situation and avoid an even greater crisis.
-"You three, stop your little discussion, especially you, Akane!"-
Hearing the powerful voice of that warrior, the three women, including the human one, stopped their bickering; in Akane's case, she knew she could not argue Rial, considering that he was Mother Sanna's grandson, who had much influence in the decision-making of the village due to her age, and Akane did not want to make things worse than they were just to defend a friend.
-"All right, whatever you say, Rial"- Akane replied back in bad form to the alien warrior.
But Kebec and her sister Kayce were not going to leave things like that between the former and Liska, with whom a few minutes ago she had had a fistfight, and she hoped that Rial, who was her mistress's grandson, would punish the slave for attacking her.
-"And you, Rial,"- Kebec yelled at the warrior. -"should do something about that grumpy slave of yours, or next time I won't hold back if you don't try to discipline her at once!"-
The young dark-furred warrior knew very well the bad blood between both women, and decided to answer Kebec in a snarky way, just to play along with her.
-"And... do you have any ideas in mind, Kebec?"-
-"Well..."- The bully thought for a few seconds. -"as far I know, she's old enough to have sex; maybe if you sleep with her, it might help her relieve her frustrations, and make that girl calm down."-
In other circumstances, that comment about sex would have sounded like silly, innocent talk, and would have been a laughing matter for all concerned.
But for Akane Araki, a human woman who knew in advance the implications of those words, and the social status of her slave friend, did not find that statement funny at all...
-"Hey, Liska is not some DAMN sex toy for anyone to play with!"- Akane yelled at both Rial and Kebec, especially on the latter, for ever suggesting such lewd idea. -"How the hell can you come up with such stupid idea, huh?"-
-"Akane, please..."- Rial tried again to defuse the situation between the human woman and Kebec. -"Let me handle this, all right?"-
Akane couldn't hide her anger at the idea that bully had in mind for her friend, yet on the other hand, she could only remain silent and watch the following events unfold before her eyes.
-"Tch...! Understood, but I hope you know what you're doing..."-
The young black-furred, white-haired warrior reflected for a few moments on what she had said about sleeping with Liska, and after a few seconds of waiting, he replied blithely.
-"Mmmmm... that's doesn't sound like a bad idea after all..."-
Meanwhile, Kebec and her older sister decided to walk away from the scene as they had nothing more to add to the discussion, much less with Akane.
-"Well, if you'll excuse us, we'll be leaving."- Kebec said with a very arrogant, snobbish voice at both Akane and Rial.
-"Yeah, whatever; hopefully you and your sister get a broken leg out there!"-
Akane could not help but give a final insult to both sisters as they left the site, while the African-Japanese soldier topped off that last attack with yet one more in her own language.
-"Fuckin' bitches..."-
Rial noticed that Akane had said something in Japanese, although he quickly deduced that it was an insult by the tone of her voice, which caused him to smile mischievously.
-"Heh, heh, heh... Knowing you well, Akane, I take it that was a dirty word in your native tongue."-
But the black woman ignored what her feline friend had said, and she too went to the river, leaving that warrior standing there trying to chat with the human woman. Akane knew that Rial was not very innocent in the whole affair either, especially with regard to the suggestion that Kebec made about him sleeping with Liska, the slave.
-"Where you going, Akane?"-
-"To the river; you care a damn what I do?"-
The warrior had not much to say after the human's abrasive response.
-"Eh... no."-
-"Then leave me alone, I have things to deal with Liska, got it?"-
-"All right, I understood that..."-
With nothing else to add, Akane Araki left for the river, noticeably vexed by the way the conflict ended. Similarly, the human knew that she was powerless to change things beyond complaining or threatening to take immediate action, for the reasons already mentioned above regarding her position as a tribe's guest, and all she could do was make her disagreement known.
On the other hand, Pyndan, who was on a small hill at the side of the village watching the events that took place between Rial, Kebec, Liska, and Akane, decided to come down from where he was to talk to Rial, and give his opinion of what happened, with a somewhat mischievous smile on his face after all that turmoil that erupted minutes ago.
-"Akane really has a temper, to be honest, doesn't she?"-
-"Right."- Rial replied, with a worried and somewhat annoyed tone in his voice. -"And I can't blame her for that."-
-"Considering how much she defends Liska from Kebec, her sister and other bullies, her attitude is quite understandable."-
-"Yes, but I would like her not to intervene in these matters."- The black-furred warrior responded as he watched Akane leave the village for the river, to make sure she did not hear their talk in case they both talked unflattering things about her. -"To begin with, she's not even a feline like us, and if that's not enough, she doesn't understand our traditions, therefore it doesn't give her the right to have a say in our affairs."-
-"I hear that,"- Pyndan replied, as he also looked how Akane was far away to hear his talk as well. -"but I don't think it's a good idea for you to say that in front of her; you know that anything related with discrimination and slavery angers her."-
-"I already know that; from what I heard, she hails from a place where slavery is not allowed."- Rial shrugged his shoulders afterwards. -"That would explain lots of things about her."-
-"However, to be honest with her, Akane also takes it badly when someone insults us because of the color of our furs, in the same way when someone does the same on her, as it happened with Kebec when she called her a "night-skinned outsider". That really riled her up."-
-"And if I hadn't stopped her,"- Rial finally added the following point about the human woman. -"Akane would surely have beaten Kebec to a pulp."-
The two boys laughed morbidly at each other at the possibility that two women had beaten each other up, especially if someone like Akane, who was much bigger and stronger than Kebec, had done it.
-"Hah, hah! That would have been fun,"- Pyndan replied with jolly about such possibility -"although I don't think that would have been great for Kebec, as much as she might have deserved that."-
-"giggle Yeah."-
-"Well, leaving aside our chubby friend Akane for the time being..."-
Immediately afterwards, the young white-furred warrior looked towards the river, while he saw the young blond-haired, ginger-furred slave girl, who was collecting water from the river, while Akane was also going there to talk to her.
-"...I think Kebec's idea of sleeping with Liska and being your bed slave doesn't seem so bad after all, don't you think?"-
Rial was surprised that his hunting partner suggested such an idea. Although he had feelings for her, it never crossed his mind to have sexual relations with a slave, in part because Liska was her grandmother's slave, with all that implied, and because of the fear of what other members of the Highland tribe would say about both of them, especially the other slaves who worked there, and especially Kebec and her older sister Kayce, who would surely take sadistic pleasure in giving that slave a hard time when they could.
-"Yes..."- The feline Native warrior replied with a worried tone in his voice. -"though to be honest, I had never seriously thought about that possibility, if you know what I mean."-
-"I understand how you feel, but if you consider the idea, she wouldn't be a bad match for you, if you look at her carefully."-
Rial looked closely at Liska, who was still in the river, and tried to scrutinize his partner's words carefully, although it was evident that he was trying to say something more than just that.
-"What do you mean with that looking at her carefully thing?"-
-"Well, if you look at her, I think she's one of the prettiest slaves I've ever met: She has nice blue eyes, wide hips, her fur looks very healthy, and above all, her breasts are very pretty and well-rounded, don't you think?"-
Rial smiled maliciously when he heard all that, because he never imagined that Pyndan could describe a woman in such an... explicit way, which caused the former to decide on retorting the remark.
-"You're right in a way,"- Then, Rial put his sights on Pyndan with a very devious grin in his muzzle. -"but when it comes to women, I think the same could apply to Akane, if you wanted to sleep with her."-
Pyndan, who at that time was playing with a bow he had in his hand in a jocular way, stopped doing so when he heard Rial's suggestion about him sleeping with Akane, knowing beforehand her temper, among other more personal things about her, something that he did not find funny at all.
-"You must be crazy if you think I would like to mate with someone like Akane."-
-"And why not?"- Rial responded jokingly to his comrade in arms when he suggested the idea of sleeping with that human woman. -"She is not ugly, she has a nice face, her hips are as wide as Liska's, she is very strong and I think she would make a nice fit for you."-
-"You know very well what Akane thinks of both of us, and knowing her well, she would first throw herself off a cliff head first before even thinking about sleeping with either of us."- The white-furred feline explained his reasons for not sleeping with that woman. -"And if that weren't enough, I don't even think I would survive a night with her, seeing how fat she is."-
Both young hunters laughed morbidly at Akane behind her back, knowing that she was not present to hear them. The sole fact on comparing Liska with Akane, being girls of different species to begin with, not to mention how contrasting their respective personalities, physical shapes and even their chances of either of them sleeping with one of those girls, was a laughing matter for both of them, as it was like comparing apples with oranges in an almost literal way.
-"giggle Yes, I really hope she didn't hear you say that, because otherwise..."- Rial still laughed a bit, while considering the mental image of Pyndan sleeping with Akane.
The other warrior wished to change the talking point, perhaps after hearing that last part about that human woman and her probable reactions.
-"Heh, heh, let's leave Akane aside for a while, shall we?"- The young warrior with white fur said. -"Besides, I doubt that I will be able to have kittens with her."-
-"Well, I'll give you that."-
-"And... returning to the subject between you and Liska, I still remember the day we grabbed her; it wasn't easy for you to subdue that girl, don't you think?"-
Rial seemed unwilling to answer that point for a moment, as it was not a specifically pleasant thing for him to discuss, for several reasons. After hesitating for a few seconds, he finally responded, in a somewhat dry manner.
-"Of course I remember, that was a change of season back then, and I still remember the hit she struck me with that club when she was trying to protect her little brother, not to mention the bites she gave me when I finally got my hands on her, until I managed to knock her out..."- The black-furred young man commented. -"and it wasn't easy to make that girl obey afterwards; she has a very spirited temper, after all."-
-"You are right about her, but you should also think about how healthy your kits would be if you married Liska, if you decide to think ahead."-
After hearing that, and after looking for a while at the young slave girl, who was in the river at that moment fetching water, while Akane was talking to her, Rial decided to take into account the words of his partner, and think seriously about the possibility of having some kind of more intimate relationship with Liska, though for that he needed to discuss the matter with his grandmother, who was Liska's mistress.
-"In that case, I'm going to talk to grandmother to see what she thinks about it."- Rial says, while also setting his sights on Pyndan for some last words. -"And you should also consider what I said about Akane. giggle"-
-"You're not serious about that again, are you?"-
Rial giggled again to his white-furred partner, after seeing his annoyed face when talked about the unlikely possibility on Pyndan marrying Akane; obviously enough, he was just making fun of him in a joyful way.
-"Of course I'm not serious! I'm not that heartless on seeing you sleeping with that woman!"- The feline warrior laughed a bit. -"Well, in that case, I'll see you later."-
-"All right, see you soon."-
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), White River, 10:45 AM (mid-morning)
-"There are many things that are different on this planet, but if there is one thing that will never change, no matter what, it is that there will never be a lack of annoying horny guys like Rial, or bullies like Kebec and her sister, that's for sure."-
In this way, Akane Araki cursed herself, because she had already lived similar situations when she was living on Earth, or more specifically, when she was in high school when she had to defend herself, or her late friend Kaguya, from bullies, rapists, and even the occasional delinquent when they were both in school.
The only difference she felt was that the setting where she was now was completely different, on a planet inhabited by a race of humanoid felines living in a civilization very similar to that of the Native Americans of past eras on Earth, aside from the fact that instead of being a school, the scene was a tribal village, and the girl that Akane had to defend now was a slave, instead of being a high school student with lots of money, but unable to defend herself.
-"How ironic: I end up on another planet where there is intelligent life, and I end up in a place not much different from where I and Kaguya went to school on Japan, and I have to defend another beautiful defenseless maiden from bullies and kinky guys. If this isn't ironic, then I don't know how to name this shit."-
Akane sighed a bit...
-"At least, Liska is not ungrateful and arrogant like Kaguya, and she knows when to keep her mouth shut, as much as I hate to criticize the latter, who didn't deserve to die that way."- Akane pointed out to herself. -"Although to be fair, I believe that everyone on Earth must think that the entire crew of the Asuka, including me, must have died in that attack. "-
And as for the young feline slave that Akane referred to a few moments ago, she was in the river picking up water again for the soup that Mother Sanna was preparing, knowing beforehand that her mistress would not scold her for taking too long thanks to her grandson, Rial.
Meanwhile, Akane wanted to have a word with Liska, as he needed to talk to her.
-"And speaking of the devil..."- Akane said with a big smile in her face.
The human woman was behind the young slave, who was in the river collecting all the water she could to take it to the village for her mistress. Akane began the chat with a hearty greeting.
-"Hello there, Liska-sweetie!"-
-"Oh!"- The feline girl was surprised to see Akane behind her back. -"Hello, Akane!"-
-"I just came to talk to you about a few things, if you're not too busy to listen."- The human woman said, while bowing in order to the girl to listen her, since Liska was a bit shorter than Akane at height.
-"Of course not, tell me what you want, Akane."-
-"Well..."- The African-Japanese woman tried to think about what she was going to say to her friend thoroughly, as Akane still had some difficulty in speaking the local language well. -"I just wanted to tell you that, if you have some free time, and if your mistress, Mother Sanna, allows you, could you come to my tent if you get the chance?"-
The young girl was surprised to hear Akane asked her to go to her home, as the human girl has never asked her such thing since Akane arrived to the village.
-"To go to your tent?"- Liska asked the black woman. -"And why?"-
-"I would like to discuss some personal things with you."- Akane replied. -"You know... women's stuff and all that crap."-
The young slave remained somewhat pensive of Akane's offer, and after a few seconds, she finally gave her answer...
-"I'll think about it, Akane, but I don't think there will be any problem with the mistress if I ask her permission to go."-
-"Very well, in that case, I will wait for you at my home as soon as you are ready;"- Then, Akane turned around to return to the village. -"in case you change your mind, or your granny does not allow you to go, just let me know in advance, will you?"-
-"Understood."- The girl quickly noticed that Akane was going back to the village. -"By the way, where are you going?"-
-"Well, where else?"- Akane replied with a smile in her face. -"To the village, I have nothing more important to say, and I wouldn't want you to have a problem with your mistress if she thinks I helped you in something you should do."-
-"I see."-
-"Well, in that case, I'll see you later. "-
As the human woman went back to the village, Liska wanted to say a few words to her human friend, and it was something she wanted to say sincerely to Akane Araki.
-"By the way, Akane..."-
The human soldier stopped momentarily before returning up the hill to hear what her slave friend wanted to say to her.
-"Is there anything else you want to talk over, Liska?-
-"Well... you know..."- The blonde feline girl lowered her ears a bit, and she wagged her tail as a way to signaling she was a bit nervous. -"I just wanted to thank you for standing up for me from Kebec and her sister Kayce."-
-"Heh heh, you don't need to thank me, my friend!"- The black woman explained her reasons for defending that alien girl. -"I just don't tolerate bullies like that whore and her sister, and where I come from, I've beaten the crap out of hundreds of them, so you have nothing to worry about."-
The slave raised her ears in surprise at the claim that this human woman had fought against hundreds of enemies by herself, since she didn't understand the whole context of the phrase.
-"It's... it's that really true?"-
-"It may sound exaggerated to you, but it is true."-
When she heard that, Liska thought Akane had sent hundreds of people straight to their graves, instead of understanding it in the context that the human woman had sent several bullies off to the hospital with her bare hands, something that stunned the slave.
-"I don't even want to imagine how many people you killed."-
-"WHAT?"- Akane responded quite annoyed to that implication. -"I haven't killed anyone! I think you might have misunderstood my words."-
-"Eh? Really?"- The ginger-furred girl responded in a puzzled way. -"I thought you killed a lot of people in the place you came from."-
-"Of course not, dummy!"- Akane yelled back at the feline slave. -"It's kind of a way of saying where I come from that I sent several bullies to the hospital, or with the healer in your case; if I had killed a lot of people, I wouldn't be here to talk about this in the first place."-
-"Oh..."- The girl responded somewhat apologetically for misreading the words of her human friend. -"I see, sorry for understanding another thing, Akane."-
-"Hey, don't worry about that, Liska-sweetie, it's not a big deal either!"- The cheerful black woman responded at her alien friend. -"I think it was more my fault. You know, I still don't speak your language very well, because I've only been here a moon, and I'm still struggling with some words and idioms that are used here."-
-"Understood. I get your point, Akane."- The slave said at her human friend. -"In that case, I won't take up any more of your time. I see you in your tent, then."-
-"All right."- Then, Akane went up the hill towards the village. -"See you later, and take care!"-
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Mother Sanna's tent, 11:10 AM (late morning)
While this was happening in the river, Mother Sanna was at home preparing the soup that Liska had gone to that stream to help her mistress in the first place. While the old lady was still putting the finishing touches on that stew, her grandson, Rial, went into the teepee to talk to her about her slave, and to talk about their future.
For more than obvious reasons, the old woman was more than surprised to see her grandson at that time of day, as the food was not yet ready, so she asked Rial about the reason for his presence in her home.
-"So, Rial dear, what brings you here so early?"- The old feline woman said at her grandson, while still stirring the soup. -"The food isn't ready yet, if that's what you're here for."-
The young dark-furred warrior lowered his ears as a sign of embarrassment, and wagged his tail nervously, as he did not know how to tackle the issue with his grandmother, due to how important and sensitive the subject was to him. The old woman quickly noticed her grandson's physical language and she let him know right away.
-"Is something bothering you?"- Sanna said with an annoyed tone at Rial. -"From the way you're acting, it seems like there's something you want to tell me, but you're not willing to talk."-
-"Well... you see..."- Rial was trying to find the right words to address the issue with his grandmother. -"there is something I would like to discuss with you, or rather two things I would like to talk about."-
-"What are these two things you want to talk about, my dear grandson?"-
The young warrior still didn't answer, while he kept wagging his tail in a nervous way, something that started to bother his grandmother in an obvious way.
-"Come on, say something, or else get out of here, because I'm still busy making this soup, will you?"-
Seeing himself being pressured by his grandmother, Rial decided to say what he had in mind, though visibly embarrassed.
-"Well, the first thing I need to tell you is that Liska is going to take a little while to get the water you need for your soup..."-
-"I already know that, silly! I was hearing all the racket you, she and Akane had with Kebec and her sister."- Then, the old feline lady gave her opinion about that incident in a harsh way. -"I can't believe that stupid girl always seems to enjoy making her suffer, and I'm not surprised either that Liska snapped, and lunged at Kebec for good."-
-"You're right about that."- Rial said, somewhat relieved to know that his grandmother was not going to leash against the slave girl. -"And the worst thing is that her husband, Kasil, doesn't seem to do anything about it to stop her, considering he doesn't seem to had a grudge against Liska, unlike his wife."-
-"That's a bit strange;"- Sanna changed the subject, while still putting some ingredients to her soup during her chat. -"But leaving that aside, what's the second thing you want to tell me, Rial dear?"-
-"Well..."- Sanna's grandson hesitated a bit in this important part, for obvious reasons. -"I hope you're not going to be upset by what I'm going to ask you, grandmother... but..."-
-"But what?"- The old woman began to grow weary with the young warrior. -"Spit it out!"-
-"sigh All right..."- Rial finally said what he really wanted from his grandmother. -"I would like Liska to be... my bed slave."-
Mother Sanna briefly stopped to prepare her soup, and she put on a smile as big as her face would allow, knowing that something like that would one day reach the old lady's ears.
-"I knew something like this would happen one day..."-
-"Really, grandmother?"-
-"Of course."- The old lady put the spoon she was using to prepare her soup aside in order to talk with Rial. -"In addition to the fact that she is not ugly at all, you have always had your eye on her since the day you brought her to this village as my slave, even if you had to subdue her in one way or another."-
That last part about the fact that in the first days that Rial brought Liska to the tribe as a slave he had to beat her to subdue her was something that he preferred not to remember again, even if it was for a good reason, and even more if it was his grandmother who reminded him of that time, because that was just one year ago.
-"It's not something I'd like to talk about, grandmother."-
-"Heh, heh, I understand that, Rial."- Then, the old feline woman said many other things about the slave Rial, her grandson, wanted for him. -"Although I also have to admit that she is quite strong for someone as delicate looking as she is, considering that she gave Kebec a good beating, and when you tried to capture her the first time a change of season ago, she also gave you a hard time, and you had to hit her on the head in order to knock her out, and be able to subdue her completely."-
-"Well, that's another thing I don't want to go over again either, grandmother."- Rial responded somewhat annoyed at being reminded about that event, for reasons related with his own pride as a warrior.
-"giggle I understand you perfectly, judging by that face of yours."- Then, Sanna went on to address another similar topic. -"And leaving Liska aside, I imagine that Pyndan would also be thinking the same thing about sleeping with Akane, wouldn't he?"-
The young man with dark fur and white hair opened his eyes as wide as he could when he heard that from his own grandmother's mouth, because that subject was the last thing he and his comrade in arms discussed, even if only as a joke, about that mysterious woman from another world, and he could not believe that she, his grandmother, was being serious about pairing Akane with Pyndan.
-"Wha-WHAT?"- Rial said aloud in a very shocked way. -"Don't tell me you have the same idea too?!"-
The old woman began to laugh out loud when she saw her grandson's reaction to the idea of matching Pyndan with Akane, knowing beforehand the personalities of both youngsters, their age difference, since Akane was then 24, while Pyndan was 18, just like Rial and Liska, and the fact that one was a human woman and the other was a feline.
-"Of course not, I was just joking!"- Mother Sanna keep laughing a bit. -"Knowing what Akane thinks of you two, she would most likely prefer to cut open her stomach with the biggest knife she could find in the village before even considering the idea of sleeping with him or even you."-
Rial scowled in his muzzle at the thought of Akane committing suicide with such a weapon. It would have been better for him to have pictured that African-Japanese soldier throwing herself off a cliff just as Pyndan had said in a macabre way about the possibility of him sleeping with that human woman, since at least they would not have to see that act, or its aftermath.
-"I wouldn't like to see something like that, to be honest..."- Immediately afterwards, the grandson decided to change the talk to something more pleasant, while sniffing the air. -"Changing the subject, if it's okay with you, the soup is turning out very well, judging by the smell."-
-"Oh, thank you, Rial."- Then, the old lady showed him a bottle with a strange white powder he hadn't see before. -"Akane gave me this strange thing that she says is good for seasoning food, at least where she comes from. She says they call it Ajinomoto or something like that in her homeland."-
-"Ah-yee-noh-WHAT?"- The alien feline warrior tried to figure out the pronunciation of that Japanese product, without success, since it sounded like a tongue-twister for him in his own language.
-"Well, that's what they call it where Akane comes from,"- The old woman replied, while sniffing the soup for herself. -"but I have to be honest, this soup is turning out better than I expected with that powder."-
Rial smelled the soup again, and agreed with what his grandmother had said about the taste of that food seasoned with that Earth product made with monosodium glutamate. It was neither rancid nor stale. Never mind the taste of that food had been air-flown by his grandmother. All that he knew and cared was that his stomach was rumbling.
Unfortunately for him, the time to eat that soup would have to wait for another time, because the old lady had other things to do, something she let him know right away.
-"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other things to do, including talking to Liska privately."- Sanna said at her grandson. -"I'll talk to you later to tell you when the food is ready."-
-"All right, see you later, grandmother."-
And so, Rial leaves his grandmother's teepee, leaving her alone to put the finishing touches on the soup, and also to be able to talk to her slave Liska alone.
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Akane's tent, 11:30 AM (late morning)
After returning from the river, Akane Araki went back to her tent, and turned on her laptop again to keep writing her diary, but not before going outside for a few moments to look at something. Mostly, Akane wanted to make sure that her friend Liska would not be harassed again by either Kebec, her sister, or any other member of the tribe when she returned home from the river.
Fortunately for both of them, The young slave was able to return to the village without incident, and she quickly entered the teepee of her mistress, Mother Sanna, in order to give her the river water that she returned to fetch again after Kebec threw it to provoke her, for her soup.
-"Well, mission accomplished. Now, let's get back to writing that diary."-
Feeling satisfied that her friend was able to return home without being bullied, Akane entered her home again, and sat in front of her computer to continue writing her diary; she resumed it with the following:
I am happy that, after this brief, hours-long pause, I managed to solve the problems between the aforementioned Kebec and my slave friend, with some help from two other people and their families, which I will now discuss in this diary.
Some of you may wonder who are the people I normally deal with in this village in the short time I have been living here. It is worth mentioning that, apart from the mentioned Kebec and her older sister Kayce, there are other people that I normally have daily contact with, and each of these people has their own traits and personalities that are worth talking about at length.
First, let's start with the heads of this tribe: The tribe chief is a man of about 40 years, as I understand it, called Pownetkee. He is a grey tabby feline with black stripes, yellow-looking eyes, and dark blond hair with also black stripes, and quite a nice guy, despite being the head honcho of this place, for many reasons I see him almost every day, usually sitting by his teepee smoking his pipe happily, and sometimes we get to talk, maybe with the intention of getting to know me better, and for some reason, maybe to be nice or polite, he always calls me by my full name, Akane Araki. Not that I mind him calling me that, of course, but maybe I'm not used to being addressed by my full name, since it sounds too... strange to me.
As I also understand, through Mother Sanna, he has only one son, and his wife passed away a few months ago from a fatal illness, which could explain why he is always seen as so serious and sometimes somewhat severe, although he always tries to be nice to everyone, including me, even though I am a stranger in this tribe, and even more so considering that I am a human being. In fact, the first time I met him a month ago, he loved my MRE rations that I prepared the day Rial and Pyndan brought me to this village when I fell into that deep trap in the middle of the desert.
And now, we go with the next important dude in this tribe: The Seneschal. He is the second in command of the tribe, in theory, although technically he is a kind of mishmash between a shaman, witch doctor and judge, to say it in a more specific way. I can't give more details about him, because he is a very private person and doesn't seem to like it when people meddle in his personal life, although the little I know about him are three things: His last name is Dohnlohak, and that he was the son of the previous tribe chief before Chief Pownetkee, and besides that, he is also a widower, and he has an only daughter, whom I haven't seen in all the time I've been living here; the only thing I know about her is that she is a healer.
And I think I forgot to mention some very interesting things about him: Physically, he looks a lot like Chief Pownetkee, and the first time I met him in person, I thought the Seneschal was his son, until Mother Sanna clarified his position in the tribe. The only difference he has with the chief is that his hair is light brown and his eyes are brown, and the position of his stripes on his coat are different. Something also very surprising is his age: According to what that granny said to me, he is about 37 years old, apparently, but he doesn't look any older than Rial and Pyndan, who are both 18 years old and both still single. I must assume since the Seneschal is an anthropomorphic alien feline means that he and his kind age very differently than us humans, and to be very honest, as I am a woman, he is quite handsome.
Some of you may be wondering right now the following question: Who is this famous Mother Sanna I'm talking about? I think she deserves to be described thoroughly, because of how important she is in the life of this village.
First of all let's start with her personal data: Her full name is Sanna Hada-ro-seg, and she is about 47 years old, although she seems to look older, for reasons I will explain further. It would be very difficult to say what breed she belongs to, as I am not an expert in this kind of veterinarian stuff, but if I had to guess, she is most probably a Siamese: her hair is white, her eyes are yellow, and her coat is a very pale white, with gray spots on her ears, face and tail, most likely because of her age.
I must admit that for a woman of her age, she is quite beautiful, and I must suppose that when she should have been quite a beauty in her youth, in spite of having an already somewhat emaciated appearance due to the effect of the years, although this also has an explanation; according to what she has told me, the old woman seems to have had a rather difficult life, and it was even more difficult when her last husband died, and I believe it should have been even more so when Rial's parents, who is her grandson, and also those of Pyndan and Panka, also died.
God, and I thought my life sucked, theirs surely sucked serious monkey balls...
To continue with the story, this old lady can be sometimes a little grumpy and melancholic, and occasionally she also has her temper, but at the same time she is quite understanding and affectionate, especially with the younger ones in the village, including me, although that does not prevent her and me from clashing sometimes when we differ in opinions, especially in controversial issues which are for me, although I usually try to avoid dealing with them unless it is necessary.
She could also be said to be a kind of "psychologist", since she also talks about very personal issues with those who seek some kind of help, and for someone her age, she has no qualms about discussing very difficult issues, including those about sex. Sometimes I am surprised that she is not afraid to say things that even I, being younger, would not dare to say out loud. Perhaps age and experience give her the authority to discuss such matters, although there are times when she can be a little more...daring. I really wonder what kind of life she had when she was married, to be honest, but I haven't dared to ask her.
Another thing worth mentioning about her is that she is the leader of the guild of healers, which makes her the doctor that all the members of the village go to visit when someone gets sick, gives birth, among other things. Fortunately for me, I have not had the pleasure to use her "services", because the worst thing that has happened to me here since I arrived in this tribe is having a headache, something that can be solved with some aspirin and other painkillers.
She is also a member of other important groups within the village, which I have not dared to ask about, perhaps for fear of getting involved in something I should not know about. You know, considering this is a somewhat... "primitive" tribe, to put it more or less nicely, there is a lot of mysticism in the air, and I think that as a foreigner I shouldn't be sticking my nose into things that I shouldn't know about, and that's if we consider the conflicts I have with some troublemakers, like Kebec and her sister.
And it goes without saying that Granny Sanna, along with her slave Liska, were the ones who have been teaching me the local language since I arrived here, and boy, that woman has quite a lot of patience for me, although there have been times when she has not hesitated to correct me when I screw up with the language, with a some few knocks on my head, of course, heh heh...
Well, leaving that old hag aside, now let's move on to her immediate family, and now I'm going to talk about her grandson: Rial Hada-ro-seg
I will be brutally honest about the personal description of this peculiar kitten, and I have no qualms about saying it very clearly: To say that I hate this asshole would be like saying that the Pacific Ocean is wet. I have never met a man so arrogant and to some extent manipulative, although one must admit that he is also very nice to his friends, Pyndan and above all, with Liska, and he tries to be nice to me sometimes, although that does not prevent us both from having heated discussions about many subjects, especially any issue related to the role of women in everyday life.
What do I mean by the latter? For someone as young as him, he has a very traditionalist view of women, where women are only good for two things: giving birth to children and cooking. I must assume that he learned that bullshit from his parents and his grandfather, but not from Mother Sanna, because the latter is not as tradition-bound as one might expect from someone her age, something even the old lady sometimes asks herself. Considering how perverted she can be at times, I am not surprised that she does not always share the same backward ideas of her grandson.
And I'm also going to be fair to Rial on some things that I like about him: This pretty boy would not be out of place in a shoujo manga, and he would be cannon fodder for any yaoi manga artist, and for very good reasons; his hair is white, almost silver, while his eyes are yellow, with a deep black coat, with a white spot of white hair on his chest and muzzle that covers that coat. And it must be pointed out that he is somewhat stocky for his age.
What surprises me most is that, apart from me and most probably Liska, none of the women in this tribe seem to notice him, not even to say a compliment or anything like that. I think his personality doesn't make him very attractive to many women, that's for sure.
Leaving aside our dark-furred warrior, I will now talk about his comrade in arms, and in a way, his brother, although that is something I need to explain later: Pyndan Kota-te-mar.
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I had mentioned that Pyndan is his brother, but technically they are both distant cousins, something that in their language is called "sibling-cousins". This is something very complicated to explain, at least in human terms, most probably due to the fact that most of the inhabitants of this tribe are related in one way or another, which is not surprising if we take into account that they share certain cultural aspects with their non-sentient "ancestors", something that I will explain in more detail later on. The closest thing to that term in something that a human can assimilate would be the Japanese word "aniki" (アニキ), which is used in informal terms, and which, to be frank, is used a lot in Japanese organized crime, or commonly known as "Yakuza"; it is also similar to the term "Da Ge" (大哥) in Mandarin Chinese or "Dai Lo" (大佬) in Cantonese for the same purpose, although I think some might take it as a personal offense to compare Rial and Pyndan to gangsters, heh, heh, heh...
Well, leaving aside this boring cultural trivia, let's move on to describe him physically. If I had words to describe this humanoid cat, they would be to say how beautiful he is, to be brutally honest: Both his long hair and his fur from head to toe are solid white and his eyes are turquoise blue; Just like his brother, if Pyndan lived in Japan, he would be chased by an army of rabid fujoshi (Yaoi manga fans) from all the country if he ever set foot in Akihabara, or similar places because of how handsome he is. I would love to see the look on his face if something like that happened, that would be so damn funny to see!
But, like his alleged brother, Pyndan does not seem to be popular with the girls of this tribe.
Why would that be? I say this because, unlike his bro Rial, Pyndan is kinder, more melancholic and somewhat calmer, although that doesn't stop him from being complicit in many of the things his brother does, including being the co-responsible for helping Rial kidnap Liska, although like his brother, he is less willing to talk about it, for obvious reasons. I don't blame him for that, since kidnapping a poor girl is not something you want to go bragging around there.
And now I am going to speak briefly about Pyndan's cute little sister: Panka. Yeah, I know her name sounds like "panko", or worse, but I'm not going to discuss that shit here, since she's a kid, OK?
I don't know exactly her age, since I haven't thought to ask her, but if I have to guess her age, I think she's between 6 and 10, if I must be precise about her age. Unlike her older brother, her fur is striped with a golden tint, and her hair is blonde. And as for personality, she is a very curious girl like any of her age, and sometimes she asks me questions about myself, which does not surprise me in the least, considering that I am a dark-skinned human woman, and I think that for that kitten I am as strange as she is and her kind are to me, although I avoid being very specific about things that she could not understand, or that I do not want to talk about, like exactly what I did on Earth as a soldier. She spends a lot of her time playing with other children in the village, and I think I've made a good mark on her, because she's always talking about me with her playmates.
There is something I forgot to mention about the three of them: They, like me, are orphans. I don't know much of the details about their families and the way their parents died, but according to what their grandmother told me in a somewhat superficial way, all their parents died in quite tragic circumstances, including illness, accidents, and in the case of Pyndan and Panka's mother, she died when she gave birth to a litter, which also died with her.
God, and I thought the way my parents kicked the bucket was tragic enough, don't you think, folks?
We better stop talking about those sad things, because I'm going to talk about the last person I need to talk about, and who is my best friend, for that matter. I think that some of you may have already realized, from the above, that person I am referring to is my friend, the slave who belongs to Mother Sanna, and with whom I have a very good relationship, because she defended me the day I came to this village from being turned into human shish kebab by Rial because of the whole mumbo jumbo with the soup. Her name is...
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Akane's tent, 12:30 PM (earlier afternoon)
While Akane was writing on her laptop, she heard a sound of someone scratching the entrance of her tent, which was a sign, at least in the tribe where she lived, that someone wanted to talk to the person inside the teepee, or in the case of the African-Japanese soldier, her tent.
Similarly, she heard a very feminine voice from the other side of her tent, and the human woman quickly knew who that person was. Interestingly enough, she talked to Akane in Japanese, perhaps so that other people living in the tribe would not be able to overhear what both women were talking about.
-"May I come in, Akane?"-
The human woman smiled at that voice, for she was the person Akane was expecting to see at any moment, and she did not hesitate at all to welcome her.
-"Please come in, Liska."- Akane responded in Japanese as well, just for the need to be nice with her slave friend. -"But you don't have to speak me in Japanese; just speaking in your language is more than enough."-
The slave lowered her ears a little to show her embarrassment, thinking that her friend was upset because she had spoken to her in her own language, when the reality was different.
-"Sorry, I just wanted to practice your language with you, Akane."- The feline girl replied to her human friend.
-"Nah, don't worry about that, sweetie!"- The human woman explained with a smile in her face. -"I need to learn your language quickly, and talking to me in Japanese doesn't help me at all."-
-"I see..."-
-"Well, sit down on that cushion over there, so you and I can talk for a while, dear."-
As Liska sat down on a cushion to talk to her human friend, Akane, before starting to talk with her alien partner, wrote a few commands to the AI on her laptop, instructing it to take notes of the conversation between the two women without Liska realizing that Akane was talking to her computer.
-"Computer, please take note of everything we both talk about until I order you to stop."-
-"Understood, ma'am."-
With this prepared, Akane also sat down on a cushion next to her computer, so that she could talk to Liska face to face.
Akane had not noticed that her friend was curiously gazing into her tent, as it was the first time since they had met that she had entered her makeshift home in the village. Previously, Liska and Akane had only spoken to each other, either on the teepee of their mistress Sanna when Akane needed to talk to her, or for the human to learn her language, or when they were outside, but this was the first time the slave had the opportunity to see what was inside Akane's home.
-"I forgot this is the first time you visit my home, right?"-
-"Yes."-
And it was not for nothing, because Akane's tent was full of objects that feline slave girl had never seen in her life, including books, magazines, manga, and even action figures that Akane had collected throughout her life, including even model kits from different sources, including Gunpla (Gundam plastic models from the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise), among other models from many anime and manga series.
-"You must be very surprised with all my stuff I have in my home, and you have every right to be, to be honest, heh heh heh.."- The human woman responded when she saw her friend's surprised face when she saw what was inside Akane's tent.
-"Well... yes... I guess."- The slave girl said, without losing her surprised face after seeing all the "strange" things Akane had in her tent.
-"Before we start talking, don't you want some tea?"-
-"Tea?"-
Akane assumed for a few moments that Liska did not know exactly what tea was, although the reality was somewhat different.
-"Yes, tea."- Akane confirmed her offer. -"Have you never tasted tea in your life?"-
-"The truth is..."- Liska said in a slower, ashamed tone in her voice. -"those things are not for a slave like me."-
The human woman made a frowning gesture, because of the implications involved; considering Akane's very poor opinion of Mother Sanna and her family, she cannot help but criticize the old woman, regardless of the consequences.
-"Well, it doesn't surprise me from someone like her, to be honest."-
-"And why do you say that, Akane?"- Liska retorted in a very annoyed tone toward the African-Japanese woman. -"You know very well that she has been kind to you, and has treated you well; I don't know why you should speak ill of her, much less in my presence."-
-"You know very well how I feel about slavery, and everything to do with it, especially when it hurts me watching you being treated like dirt by so many people, including Kebec and her big sister."- The black woman angrily said at her feline friend. -"That's why today I didn't hesitate to defend you from that crazy whore, even though I knew I could get into serious trouble due to my status as an outsider in this tribe."-
-"Well, I don't think I asked you to protect me, Akane..."- The slave said, while crossing her arms, and having a very proudful expression in her face.
Akane, meanwhile, facepalmed after hearing such thing from her alien friend, and made an angry gesture of denial in her head.
-"You know what? For a slave, you are so damn arrogant..."-
While she was saying that, Akane poured her friend Liska a cup of green tea that she was preparing in a teapot that was in an electric oven the human woman had behind her inside her tent.
-"...and it hurts me even more that you don't place much value on your own life."-
Those words of that woman from another world seemed to have touched Liska's heart, who at that moment her voice began to falter...
-"And what do you want me to do, Akane? I am just a slave... and my life is only worthwhile for my mistress and her family... and for no one else... not even for myself."-
Hearing that girl's life had no value from her own mouth caused Akane Araki to start losing her temper, because that was the last thing she wanted to hear, although the human tried to be as diplomatic as possible with Liska, and tried to comfort her in some way.
-"Sweetie, believe it or not, your life is worth more than you think, although I understand that you feel very sad when things do not go as you want."- Akane said to Liska, with a more serious semblance in her face. -"I also went through the same circumstances when I was a child, even if I was not a slave like you, but I suffered a lot of discrimination from many people, and the fact that I was an orphan weighed heavily on me for a long time."-
-"Were you also an orphan like me, Akane?"-
-"Yes. My parents died in an outbreak, as far as I know, and I was adopted as a child by a couple who lived in another country far away from where I was born. That's why my personality may seem like something very... contrasting, to put it in a way that you can understand."- The African-Japanese female soldier explained about aspects from her family and her past. -"From what Mother Sanna told me, you did also lost your family back in your home before you ended up here in the Highland tribe, didn't you?"-
The girl remained silent, which led Akane to think that she had said the wrong thing about Liska's life, something the human woman immediately pointed out.
-"Hey, if I said something I shouldn't have said about your life, or you felt I was meddling in your private life, I'm really sorry, sweetie, I didn't mean it!"-
-"No, it is not that."- The slave girl explained. -"I just didn't know what to say about it. I also lost my parents two years ago."-
-"Oh, I see. Sorry to hear that, Liska, that really sucks."- The woman from Japan said in a sad tone, for very obvious reasons. -"And aside from you, do you have any other family from where you were originally from, such as siblings, uncles, etc?"-
-"Yes, I had one in the Lowlands, but I don't know if they are still alive or not, and they were the only family I had..."- The feline girl responded, while closing her eyes, and shedding some tears...
Akane, seeing that her friend was crying, gave her a tissue so that she could wipe her tears.
-"Take this, dear..."-
-"Thank you."-
While the alien slave dried her tears, the human woman preferred to change the talking point to something less sad to share for both, or at least that's what it seemed to her...
-"We'd better change the issue, I don't think it's very healthy for you or me to continue discussing this..."- Then, Akane began to slowly drink her cup of green tea that she had in her hand. -"But before we continue, you better drink your tea first, honey, before it gets cold."-
Liska, who had never tasted tea in her life, much less green tea, timidly began to try that drink from Earth, using her tongue first like most members of her species. When she tasted the sweet and sour flavor of that oriental drink, she could not help but make a disgusting gesture, since the young slave had never tasted anything with such a strong flavor in her life, as many people who have tasted green tea for the first time in their lives.
-"YUCK! This tastes horrible!"-
Akane, on the other hand, could only smile as she saw her feline friend reacted negatively to the taste of Japanese green tea, knowing ahead that such a thing would happen.
-"Heh heh heh, that's very normal. Green tea, or matcha as we call it in my language, is usually very bittersweet for people who try it for the first time."-
-"But how can you drink something as terrible as this?"-
-"It's just a matter of getting used to the taste, honey."- The black woman explained about the unusual taste of that drink. -"I had the same opinion as you when I first tried this stuff as a kid, and now I love to drink this tea when I want to relax."-
Akane took another sip from her tea cup, in an attempt to illustrate what she was stating about its taste.
-"...and you should also relax too, sweetie. That's why I served you that tea."-
Liska looked at her cup of tea, while trying to take the recommendation of her human friend in the best possible way...
-"I think it wouldn't hurt to have another go on this."-
...and drank the green tea again...
-"I'm already starting to get a taste for this drink..."-
Akane smiled when she saw that her slave friend was starting to taste green tea, something that she thought would never happen, but the human saw with joy that Liska turned out to be more welcoming of that tea than she initially expected.
-"See? It's just a matter of getting used to the taste."- Akane explained, while drinking another sip. -"It's not easy at first, but once you get used to it, it will seem as natural for you to drink this tea as drinking water or any other stuff."-
-"I guess you're right, Akane..."-
-"And how do you feel right now after drinking that?"-
The girl paused briefly as she looked intently at her cup of tea.
-"I feel much better..."- The ginger-furred slave girl replied at her human host. -"You are very right to say that this calms you, Akane."-
-"I told you, a delicious cup of green tea always helps calm you down after a bad day, or at least that's what my step-aunt used to say when I was a kid."-
-"Did your aunt give you to drink this?"- Liska asked Akane.
-"Of course, she was the one who introduced me to drinking this, and considering my first days after I was adopted were quite difficult, my step-aunt's advice was very helpful to me."-
-"I assume that your step-aunt must be a very nice person for her to have accepted you so quickly."-
-"Yes, that's right. After all, my stepmother wanted to have a daughter, as did her family, and when I was adopted, they were all very happy to see me, even though I was born in a very different country than theirs, and the color of my skin was also very different from theirs in the same way."-
Liska, again, remained silent, and looked away somewhat sadly on hearing that, as her situation was very dissimilar to that of her human friend, since Akane, even having her own set of problems, she was at least a free woman, while Liska was an orphan who had lost her parents and likely the rest of her family, and now she was a slave for another person, much for her personal chagrin.
Akane Araki noticed this immediately and realized that all that talk about families had caused her friend to become depressed again...
-"We better change the topic before you get depressed again, Liska dear."- The African-Japanese soldier said, while finishing her tea. -" If I may ask, what were you and Mother Sanna were talking about in her home a few moments ago? I hope she didn't scold you for the whole water thing with Kebec."-
-"No, she didn't scold me, Rial talked to her to keep her from picking on me."- Liska explained what happened in Sanna's teepee with Akane, her human friend. -"but we were talking about different matters, including the same thing we're talking about now."-
-"I see. At least it's good to know that old hag hasn't scolded you for spilling all that water."-
The young slave made a slight gesture of displeasure when she heard that critical crack that Akane made about her mistress. Meanwhile, the human woman served herself another cup of tea as she continued the chat.
-"Has anyone ever told you that you have a very big mouth, Akane?"-
-"Yes, I know, and I've been told that since I was a young girl, so I'm not surprised or offended by your comment, sweetie."- The human retorted at her feline friend's criticism about her, and her opinion about Sanna. -"And if I haven't said anything worse about her from this very big mouth of mine, it's out of respect for her, her family, this tribe, and you, mainly because I know very well how much my criticism about her bothers you."-
At that comment about her mistress, Liska looked at her human friend in an annoyed way, although at the same time she understood, even superficially, why that woman on Earth had such a negative opinion about Mother Sanna. Akane came from a place where slavery was abolished centuries ago, but she, being a descendant of many of the people who suffered from the ravages of that terrible practice, hated slavery and everything that had to do with it on personal principle.
Apart from that fact about the human woman, Liska and the rest of the Highland tribe knew absolutely nothing else about her, nor where she came from, except that Akane said she came from a "very distant" place. It was obvious that Akane was not going to say that she came from Earth, another planet far away from the world of her hosts, nor that she was a soldier, perhaps to avoid unnecessary drama if the other members of the tribe either wanted to pick a fight with her, or getting herself involved in some kind of tribal warfare against her will, forcing her to take sides.
-"Sometimes I would like to understand you better, Akane. There are many things I don't understand about you, including what you really work at, your skin color, how you don't have fur except on your head, why you look and act so different from us, among other things."- Liska said about her otherworldly friend in front of her. -"There are times when you even scare us, because we don't know what you intend to do or say..."-
Upon hearing that, the human woman put aside her cup of tea, and in a gesture that surprised her friend the slave, she gently took the hands of that young alien girl, and placed them together with hers, in a way that Liska did not know how to interpret that act, due to the implications it had for her.
-"Wha-what are you doing, Akane?!"- The feline girl said, quite nervously at her African-Japanese friend. -"I hope you are not planning to..."-
-"Of course not, silly!"- Akane fired back at her alien friend. -"I only want to tell you one thing, my dear friend..."-
-"What kind... of thing?"-
-"The truth is... I understand how you and the rest of the tribe feel about me, and I cannot blame any of you for that, but right now I cannot say any more about me than you guys already know, for my safety and yours."-
-"And why?"- The slave girl asked to Akane Araki.
-"You will know that in due course."- The black woman replied. -"For now I will not say any more."-
-"Then, why did you take my hands, Akane?"-
-"Huh?"- She realized that she had Liska's hands along with hers, and Akane quickly realized that her alien friend might have interpreted that in a different way than another human could on Earth. -"Ehh... I think... maybe you thought that I was going to ask you that we should escape from this hole together, and send everything to hell, or something like that, wasn't it, dear?"-
-"Eh, no."- The feline slave explained to her human friend with a smile in her face. -"What you did has another meaning in our culture."-
Akane gulped, thinking she had done something wrong that might have offended her alien friend, even though Liska was taking the situation in a funny way from her point of view.
-"Then, what exactly did I do by holding your hands that way?"-
-"Depending on the context and situation, that means you are asking me to marry you."-
Akane's face became as red as her skin would allow, and for good reason. She never imagined that something as innocent as holding hands with another person, which on her planet would mean as a symbol that a person is trying to comfort or reassure another person, in the culture of that tribe meant proposing marriage, and the worst thing is that she had done it with another woman, which caused the human woman to feel a great feeling of shame as she had never felt in a long time.
On the other hand, Liska, who found her friend Akane's reaction somewhat amusing, did not understand why her face had turned red, as she did not fully understand human body language.
-"Hey, Akane, why did your face turn red so suddenly?"- Liska asked for Akane's health, after she saw her blushed face. -"Are you feeling well?"-
-"I FEEL FINE, THANK YOU FOR ASKING, YOU SILLY!"- The human yelled at her feline friend, and then, Akane took her cup of tea, and drank it with a single gulp. -"Hoooooooly crap, this is so DAMN embarrassing!"-
The young feline slave was unable to avoid laughing at her human friend, although in a more or less discreet way, taking one of her hands to her muzzle to try to conceal her laughter, something that Akane did not find very amusing at all.
-"What's so damn funny about that, kiddo?"- Akane said aloud to Liska, who was still laughing at the human woman's blushed face.
-"Forgive me, Akane, but I couldn't help but laugh at your face, and how it got so red all of a sudden, especially after you held my hands like that!"-
-"Well, I didn't find that funny at all, missy!"-
-"Alright, alright, sorry for laughing at you, Akane!"- The alien girl was still smiling at her Earthly friend.
Akane Araki decided to return to the topic she originally planned to talk about before either of them changed their minds...
-"And... back to the subject about the old lady and all that, what else were you and Mother Sanna talking about?"- The human soldier asked her slave friend. -"Judging from the time you and she spent talking, I don't think it was just to discuss women's stuff, was it?"-
-"Well... I don't know if you know this, but she gave me this bag."-
Liska showed Akane a small bag she had on her waist. Obviously, the human did not have the slightest idea what the contents of that bag were, and what it was for.
-"And what the hell is that?"- Akane asked her feline host.
-"According to Mistress Sanna, she calls them Shurinar Stones."-
For some reason that was never made quite clear, perhaps because of Liska's accent, the inability of Akane and others outside that planet to pronounce certain words, or simply because Akane wanted to do something funny with her friend, the human pronounced the name of those stones accordingly to what sounded closest in Japanese, her adopted language.
-"Shuriken Stones?"- Akane said with a playful snarky smirk in her face. -"Did your granny was a kunoichi (female ninja) or what?"-
-"NO!"- The ginger-furred girl angrily retorted at the human woman. -"Shurinar Stones!"-
-"Oh, I see, I see! heh, heh!"- Akane replied, somewhat embarrassed to hear that wrong. -"Sorry for that, dear."- Then, she asked for an explanation about such stones. -"And what are these stones for, if I may ask?"-
-"You really don't know what these stones are for?"-
Liska asked Akane, for she did not expect that her human friend would not know the purpose of those stones which in theory any woman in her world should have, but she was amazed that Akane asked something that for the slave was too obvious, on paper.
-"To be frank, I don't have the slightest idea."- Akane responded in a puzzled way, while watching her alien friend's bag she had in her hand. -"Remember that I am not even from this place."
-"In that case I will explain it to you, just as Mistress Sanna told me a few minutes ago."-
The young slave put the stones on the floor of Akane's tent, while the latter watched closely as Liska explained to her human friend how the stones worked.
According to the explanation given by the slave, the Shurinar Stones, which were of different colors, represented the days of the lunar calendar, which was the one used by the people of that planet. Every time a woman had her period, she had to change the color of the stone for another one of a different color, usually a very intense one, indicating when were the most fertile days for a woman.
Considering how important it was for the inhabitants of that planet, who were anthropomorphic felines, to be able to have safe offspring, those stones were of utmost importance to a woman, and anyone who had them should be very careful with them, and like anything intimate, a woman's fertility was a personal matter exclusive to either the people who had those stones or their loved ones.
Once Liska's explanation about was concluded, Akane Araki could not help but smile maliciously at that description of those stones, due to the cultural implications those Shurinar Stones brought upon both herself and any woman who lived in that world where Akane was stranded.
-"And that's how these stones work."- Then, the feline girl addressed the human soldier. -"So, you don't know these stones from where you came from, Akane?"-
-"No, because we have our own methods of knowing when we are fertile or not."- The black woman explained. -"And besides..."-
Akane decided to say the following in Japanese, since what she was about to say had no equivalent in the local tongue.
-"What's the use of knowing all that if I don't have anyone from my own species to fuck with?"-
Liska, who more or less understood Akane's language, knew exactly the vocabulary of that human woman was incredibly vulgar and masculine for someone like her, a fact that she noticed right away, with a mischievous smile on her face.
-"You have a very vulgar mouth for a woman like you, for what little I can understand of your language, Akane."- The slave replied.
Akane pointed her finger inquisitively at her friend's nose, for she did not like it when Liska let her know that the human used obscene language repeatedly, even if she spoke it in Japanese.
-"And you don't have a very clean mouth either, young lady!"-
-"At least I don't talk behind other people's backs in another language."- Liska retorted back, while crossing her arms and legs as sign of defiance to her human partner.
Akane didn't know what to say about it, and she didn't want to raise the tone of the discussion either, because she knew her friend was right, so she decided it was best not to say anything else, and she changed the topic to the original one they were talking about a few minutes ago.
-"Well, I don't care who's right or wrong, but let's get back to the topic we were talking about, shall we?"- The human wanted to avoid a bigger conflict with Liska. -"I don't want to end up on bad terms with you for something as stupid as this."-
-"I agree with you."- The feline girl replied to Akane.
After a brief pause, Akane Araki resumed the chat...
-"And returning to the subject,"- The African-Japanese female soldier asked to her alien friend. -"why did your granny give you those stones in the first place? I don't think she gave those things to you if you don't expect to have sex with anyone at all, right?"
When she heard all this, the young slave sat down on her legs, while putting one hand on the palm of the other as a sign of anxiety. In addition, she lowered her ears and her tail began to move back and forth, something that Akane noticed immediately. In spite of being on that planet for only one month, Akane knew how to interpret the body language of her feline friends, which was not very different from that of their Earth counterparts, and she knew when someone started acting that way, it was because there was something that person seemed to be tormenting them, which was the case with Liska, the slave.
-"Hey, what's wrong, sister?"- Akane asked her friend rather worriedly. -"You look very nervous. Did I say something wrong, or what?"-
-"The truth is... what I'm about to say may not sit well with you, Akane."-
The human woman was somewhat perplexed by this.
-"May not sit well with me, you say, dear?"- Akane asked again to her ginger-furred friend, while putting aside her tea cup she was drinking a moment ago. -"What the hell do you mean with...?"-
Suddenly, Akane remembered what had happened two and a half hours ago between her, Liska, Rial and Kebec, and what had been discussed between the human and the last two, something that made Akane's skin crawl, because of the implications it had on that slave girl.
-"No, no, no, no..."- The black woman was in denial after catching the whole deal. -"For anything DAMN sacred for you, tell me this is a very bad joke of yours, right, Liska dear? I can't REALLY believe you're actually thinking on..."-
-"Yes..."- Liska responded with some hesitance in her voice, while biting her lips. -"I'm going to be Rial's bed slave..."-
Akane remained motionless for a few minutes, without saying anything else, and without moving a single bone in her body. Those words were the last thing that human woman wanted to hear from that young alien maiden, who seemed rather submissive to fulfilling her destiny, when the true reality of things was more complicated than it was.
But before giving a more blunt statement, Akane asked Liska the following question with a methodic approach...
-"I just want to know one DAMN thing, little girl:"- The woman bluntly asked the slave girl. -"What do you mean by being Rial's bed slave in the right terms, huh?"-
The feline girl gulped a bit and stared at Akane's tent floor, trying to find the right words for answer her, and explaining her current dilemma, even if she knew the African-Japanese woman would not agree with her or with the traditions of the Highland tribe.
-"A bed slave is a woman who sleeps with their master... and gives them children."-
The slave's response caused Akane to pour herself another cup of green tea with the intention that the soothing effect of that Asian drink would calm her down after hearing that unsavory matter from her own friend's mouth.
But no amount of green tea in the whole universe would have been enough to quell the rage that Akane Araki felt inside her own soul. The fact a woman agreed to be the sex slave of another man, ignoring the circumstances and cultural differences, with the sole purpose of childbearing was enough to make her blood boil for that human woman, whom she knew better than anyone else, for more than obvious and also personal reasons, what it means to condemn oneself a whole life at the service of another person, either because of a pregnancy, or in Liska's case, because of her condition as a slave.
And after drinking the cup of tea, Akane slammed it down against the floor with such force that it caused Liska, who was in front of her, without saying anything else, to raise her ears as a sign of fright, and her fur, like any cat, bristled, as well as her tail, which sprang up as a result of that very event.
-"What the hell...?"-
Later, Akane, failing to find suitable words to say in the local language, decided to address Liska in Japanese, with a more severe and vulgar tone compared to her normal speech.
-"OK, Liska, so you humbly accepted to be Rial's personal little bitch in order to give that asshole some kids, right?"- Akane responded to her furry friend in the most vulgar Japanese that she could utter on the spot.
The slave, who only knew Japanese on a more or less basic level, although she did understand obscene language, could only understand half of what Akane had said, partly because the human woman, having grown up in Osaka, had said all that in the Kansai dialect, which the alien girl barely understood.
-"Eh, I beg your pardon, Akane?"-
After hearing that, Akane brought her face violently closer to Liska's, so that she would understand what she was trying to convey, in the most straightforward and dramatic way imaginable.
-"I beg MY pardon MY FUCKIN' ASS!"- Akane yelled at the feline girl as louder as she could. -"Is that the best SHIT you can give me, girl? A simple and dumb I beg your pardon, Akane?, HUH?"-
The slave could not articulate any word, unable to do so in the face of the hostility of her human friend, who tried to let her know how much the fact that this young lady was going to be Rial's sex slave upset her.
-"I thought you were much smarter and more assertive in limiting your life in that way, being simply a baby-making machine for some dick-weaving jerk, without you being able to decide how you can use your body..."-
Then, Akane returned to her place, and poured herself another cup of tea, and then drank it quickly and without even staring into what she was drinking, owing to her raging emotional state.
-"But I was wrong: You're just as stupid as a lot of girls I knew from where I was originally from..."-
...And then, she closed her eyes, while her voice became somewhat more somber and sadder...
-"Fuck, I guess a lot of things never change no matter where you are, I see."-
After hearing Akane Araki's harsh and scathing criticism about her, Liska did not know what else to say, and she remained immobile in her place, wagging her tail from one place to another in a sign of nervousness and sadness, while she kept her head down, as well as her ears.
-"All right, Miss Brainless Slave, do you have anything to say about all this, or are you just going to sit your furry tail there, and not even defend yourself, just like you plan to offer your body to Rial in the same way, huh?"- Akane gave Liska the chance to speak about her dilemma in her own terms, even if that meant having to verbally attack that human woman. -"I am giving you the opportunity to justify your decision, so that I don't have to sound like some ignorant bully who does not know the traditions of this place."-
The young slave stared deeply at her human counterpart, seeking to work up the strength to respond to all the accusations that woman was making about her...
-"I...I..."-
Meanwhile, Akane was staring at that young alien girl, who was trying to respond to her in some way...
-"Well, is that all you're going to say, dear?"- Akane angrily responded at the feline girl in Japanese. -"I thought you were a lot braver than that, especially after you beat the crap out of that Kebec bitch..."-
At that, Liska lowered her head again, unable to look Akane in the face, and began to shed some tears as she felt she did not have the heart to verbally stand up against Akane, and justify her decision to sleep with Rial. Seeing this, the human woman drank another cup of green tea in a somewhat arrogant manner, and she does not hesitate to make another rude crack about her friend.
-"sigh... What a pity..."- The human continued with her personal attack in her own language in a calmer way, without losing in an apex her bite against Liska. -"You're very bold to stand up to someone at the drop of a hat, but when it comes to defending your own dignity as a person, you're so fucking pathetic."-
Suddenly, the young slave, after hearing Akane call her "pathetic", began slowly but surely to clench her hands in anger as she heard how the human had considered her as a pathetic woman. Perhaps, that word was the last straw for her, and she was no longer willing to be insulted anymore...
-"You...you... you don't know a thing about me, Akane..."-
The African-Japanese woman opened her eyes as wide as she could, seeing that her friend had apparently gained the bravery to tell the human what she thought about her and her caustic taunts.
-"Sorry, what did you say, dear?"- Akane said with some snark in her voice, possibly as another intent to provoke her.
Seeing that Akane was trying to mock her once again, Liska pointed her finger at the human woman, staring at her fiercely.
-"I said..."-
And then, she raised her voiced as loudly as she could...
-"...YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT ME, AKANE!"-
Akane Araki was not only surprised to see that her friend had managed to have the courage to return the insult to her, but she was also horrified to see the face of that apparently shy slave: Not only was Liska looking at the human soldier with her eyes full of untamed fury, but she also began to snarl in the same way that a cat would, except that her hissing were much more intense because of her size, while she also showed her fangs.
In the face of that unexpected event, the human woman could only move back a few meters from where she was sitting, her skin paled for a few seconds, and for a few seconds, Akane thought that the alien girl had reached her limit and no longer thought that she would suffer any more humiliations, and the woman from Earth had probably gone too far with her taunts, causing the latter to fear for her own life.
-"OH, FUCK! Now I may have gone overboard with her, and now I won't get out of this shit alive!"- Akane thought for a second, after she saw Liska's angry face on her, fearing that she wouldn't make it alive from her own tent.
Thinking that she would have no chance of surviving a vicious close fight against her, considering that Akane did not expect things to deteriorate that way, the human woman was left with only one option, as demeaning as it was for her...
-"Ple-please, Liska dear... don't kill me... I was just teasing you... I swear... forgive me...!"-
What Akane did not know was that the young slave did not intend to do her any harm, but simply to let her know that she was very angry. Unfortunately for her, Akane did not yet fully understand the body language of her species, causing the soldier to think that Liska intended to kill her.
Seeing Akane's terrified face, and her pleading, the young slave quickly came to her senses, and put both hands to her muzzle in horror as she saw that she had accidentally caused a woman twice her age, and also her size, to die of fear almost literally by seeing her expression of anger, and even more so when it was her own friend.
-"Oh no!... So-sorry! I'M SO SORRY!"- The young ginger-furred feline girl apologized to Akane as quickly as she could. -"I didn't mean to hurt you, Akane, I was just very angry with you, but I feel my face made you understand something else!"-
Seeing that the young slave did not really intend to attack Akane, but simply to let her know her displeasure, the human quickly recovered her poise. For that woman on Earth, she had realized that she still did not fully understand many things about the culture of those anthropomorphic beings, and what for them might be normal or ordinary, Akane could interpret in another way that she did not fully understand, such as that expression of anger that her friend Liska made towards her to express her anger towards the human soldier.
But even so, after that incident, Akane could not help but, once she was able to catch her breath, also let her feline friend know that she was almost scared her to death.
-"GEEZ, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU TRYING TO DO WITH THAT, GIRL? YOU ALMOST SCARED ME SHITLESS!"- Akane yelled at the alien girl in Japanese again.
The young maiden apologized again for what had previously happened between her and Akane, visibly sorry for having horrified her in such a way that the latter basically began to implore for her life.
-"I'm sorry again, I didn't mean to scare you like that, Akane, really!"-
The African-Japanese woman looked again at her alien friend, this time looking at Liska in a malicious and sardonic way, because she never imagined that this girl would actually go off in a serious way, much less in such a way as to scare someone, let alone a woman like Akane.
-"At least it's good to know that at least you have some guts to face me behind that innocent look of yours, young lady, heh, heh!"-
Liska noticed immediately that all those criticisms were Akane's way of testing her resolve, especially when Akane perceived that she possibly did not value her own life or dignity, something that made that human woman angry for many reasons. But even so, she was not willing to tolerate the fact a stranger like Akane began to criticize her without her grasping the motives for her wanting to have sex with Rial, especially considering that she did not understand the traditions of the tribe, even if Liska herself did not belong to it either, as did Akane, because she had been kidnapped by Rial a year earlier.
-"Still, you didn't have to tell me all those things about me in such a vulgar way, and even more so without you understanding anything about me!"- The feline slave retorted to Akane, while poiting her finger to Akane in an annoyed way. -"Besides..."-
The human perceived that her friend did a brief pause in her arguing, and suddenly, Liska lowered her head again in a sign of embarrassment, as did her ears.
-"Besides what?"- Akane asked in a flat way.
The young slave hesitated for a few seconds before answering that question, and after that rather uncomfortable break for both women, she finally gave her answer.
-"I...I... I really love Rial..."-
After hearing that, Akane lowered her head for a few moments, and began to move it back and forth in disapproval. Hearing Liska say she loved Rial was something that human woman from Japan did not want to hear, which she would then later explain in the most abrasive way possible.
-"I thought so..."-
Then, Akane drank another cup of tea again, in an attempt to better organize her mind.
-"Tell me one thing, honey..."-
-"Ye-yes, Akane?"- Liska stutteringly replied with some nervousness in her voice.
Afterwards, the human made a brief pause, where she left her tea cup on the floor again, and then she laid both hands on her knees, which she had crossed with her legs on the floor.
-"Do you really love Rial because you really feel it, or are you just saying this because you feel forced to do so as a slave?"-
The ginger-furred girl did not know how to answer that question her human friend asked her about her relationship with Rial, and she just stared away, as if trying to avoid that issue, with no success.
-"I guess you don't want to say anything that could affect you later, do you?"- Akane asked the slave girl.
-"It's not that, Akane."- Liska retorted softly to the African-Japanese soldier. -"The truth is what is going on are the two things you are concerned about."-
Akane opened her eyes as wide as she could, and demanded an instant clarification about that.
-"What do you mean with the two things stuff, huh?"-
The alien girl shyly explained her position about dating with the grandson of her own mistress to her human friend.
-"The truth is that I love Rial because I feel that, in spite of everything, he has treated me well most of the time, and besides that, Mistress Sanna told me that she would like me to have children with her grandson before she dies..."-
The black woman glared angrily at the feline slave after hearing about Mother Sanna's involvement in the whole issue, and, without weighing up the effects, Akane did not hesitate to say what she thought about that woman, even though she knew what would happen next, although to prevent the mistress of that slave from hearing anything, what Akane said next was expressed aloud in very vulgar Japanese.
-"So all this boils down to that stupid old hag wanting to use you as her personal baby-making factory because her equally stupid grandson can't find another less helpless or weak girl for him to fuck, huh?"-
Liska, for more than obvious reasons, was not at all happy to hear Akane addressed her mistress in the most vulgar way possible, but likewise, she did not want to escalate the argument and she only made her annoyance known by looking at Akane in anger, without saying anything else, and clenching her fists to make her anger about the issue clear, as well as wagging her tail.
-"Seems like you didn't appreciate what I said about your granny, by the looks of it."-
Akane suddenly drank another cup of tea as a way to show how little she cared about the slave girl's attitude toward her.
-"You can get angry all you want, sweetie, but don't think you're gonna change my mind about that old hag, as much as she is your mistress, and as much as everyone in this village respects her."- Akane summarized her opinion, again in Japanese.
Liska, unable to bear to hear how Akane mercilessly attacked her mistress and her grandson, who she had a crush on him, decided to verbally strike back, although this time she did so in the same way as the human did with her, without resorting to foul language, but using the same provocative tone that Akane used with her.
-"Has anyone ever told you how meddlesome and rude you are, Akane?"-
The human soldier replied with the same wit to her feline friend...
-"Yes, many times, more than I can remember. Especially since I was a kid."- Akane replied. -"And I have my own damn reasons for doing so, girl."-
-"Really?"- The ginger-furred slave girl retorted back, while crossing her arms in a very arrogant way, and doing the next question. -"Could you tell me why?"-
-"Of course!"- The black woman said in the same tone as her alien counterpart. -"Where I come from I've seen girls like you fall madly in love with morons like Rial, only to end up pregnant, and with an endless string of crap they can't get out of. And I don't want you to turn out the way all those girls did."-
Then, she added the following to her tirade against the slave girl.
-"And believe me, Liska, from where I come from that's so damn common that, if it wasn't for the fact such thing is normally a depressing sight, it might even seem funny, when in fact it's not."-
The young alien maiden remained in the same defiant attitude towards Akane, keeping her arms crossed, but saying nothing more, so that her human friend could explain her reasons for hating Rial, and his relationship with Liska as a bed slave.
-"Although I will be honest with you: As a woman I may hate Rial, but to be completely fair, no one can deny that he is a quite handsome guy."-
-"Well, at least that's something you and I agree on."- Liska replied at the human Space Ranger from Japan.
-"Indeed."- Akane said. -"Too bad he is also a jerk."-
-"And I'm not surprised you think that about him, Akane."-
The human woman noticed that her friend was still in the same defiant attitude, although considering the social status of that girl, and that of the human in the same way, Akane Araki knew there was not much both girls could do to change things, much less for each to change their own point of view concerning the whole picture on regards with Rial, something that Akane was fully aware of, and which she began to snarl in dismay at the situation the human was powerless to change.
-"Look, sweetie, I have to admit that there is nothing I can do to change things, and that any decision you make about sleeping with Rial is completely yours, and your granny's, but..."-
The tone of Akane's voice suddenly became sadder and gloomier, as she drank, this time more slowly, another cup of green tea, and then she resumed the talk.
-"The only thing I wish is that don't do something you might regret later on for the rest of your life. That's all I have to say about the choice you will make."-
Liska did not know what to say about the whole thing, except that she also drank another cup of tea slowly, and looked at Akane with some sadness. She knew that her human friend had good reason to be concerned about her, and that her intentions were not bad, even if she did not fully understand the traditions of the tribe to understand the situation in which the young slave was about to become involved.
But on the other hand, she was basically in a dilemma that had several nuances: On the one hand she loved Rial, because he had treated her well all the time she had been a slave, even though he was the person, along with Pyndan, who kidnapped her from her original home when they both attacked the hunting camp that her birth tribe had set up in the desert a year earlier, and when she tried to defend her family, she was captured by Rial, and taken to her tribe, where she was made a slave to him and her grandmother.
The first days as a slave were hellish for her, as she refused to obey her new masters, which caused Rial to start beating her until he could finally subdue her completely. From that moment on, Liska felt that her life had begun to lose meaning for her, and there were times when even she contemplated suicide, but she never had the strength to take her own life.
As if this wasn't enough, she also suffered the harassment and contempt from other people in the tribe because of her slave status, especially from people like Kebec and her older sister Kayce, who seemed to take sadistic pleasure in making her suffer when they had the chance.
Fortunately for the young slave, things began to change when both Rial and Mother Sanna began to treat her more kindly, although the former treated her somewhat harshly, but no longer using violence, merely scolding her when she did something wrong. This, coupled with the fact that Rial was physically attractive, caused Liska to feel more than just the respect she owed him for being her master.
Why did she fall in love with the man who had captured her, made her a slave and even beaten her? That was the question she began to ask herself at the time, and the reason she began to question that was right in front of her.
The sudden appearance of Akane Araki, a woman from a "very distant" place one month ago, in her own words, had caused a very sudden change in her life, and that of everyone in the tribe, and for many reasons. Apart from the fact that she was a woman, nobody knew where she came from, what species she belonged to, and why she had various skills that were unusual for all the inhabitants of the village, not to mention her strange and aggressive way of speaking, more typical of an experienced warrior than an ordinary woman.
Another thing that called everyone's attention, Liska included, about Akane was the fact that she did not hide the fact that she was against slavery, because she came from a place where this practice had not only disappeared but was also forbidden, and she did not shy away from showing her contempt for those who owned slaves, like Mother Sanna and Rial, which caused several clashes between the human soldier, the old woman and her grandson.
As a result, besides that incident where Liska had protected Akane from Rial on the first day they met when the human was brought to the village and because of the soup misunderstanding she and Rial almost killed each other, the human woman had a very unusual sympathy for the slave, for several reasons that Liska did not understand, apart from the fact that Akane felt pity for her.
In turn, the young maiden was also sympathetic to the human, but at the same time, she could not help but think that Liska would have wanted that dark-skinned woman to be less intrusive and outspoken at times, for fear that she might run herself into a predicament from which she could not escape. Considering the world where they all lived, where danger and death lurked every day, that was a reasonable concern, and it seemed that stranger from a faraway land did not fully understand where she was now.
And regarding Akane...
-"Hey, you were quiet for a while, did you think about what I said, dear?"-
-"Huh?"- The feline girl replied in a sudden way, as she was somewhat thoughtful at that point.
-"I said that if you were thinking about what I have just told you."-
-"Well... yes."- Liska replied shyly at Akane.
-"And what do you think?"- The human retorted back. -"Do you think that what I am saying is a wise concern of mine?"-
The slave decided not to say a word for a few seconds, and this is what she said when she replied to the words of that foreign woman.
-"The only thing I can tell you, Akane... is that I thank you very much for what you do for me and your thoughts. That's all I'm going to say about this."-
The black woman looked carefully at her alien friend, knowing that there was nothing else she could do to change that slave's mind. Akane resigned herself to seeing how that young girl was willing to have sexual relations with her mistress's grandson, a situation she found reprehensible and despicable, but which she could do nothing about, unless she wanted to become entangled in a bigger problem.
The black woman looked carefully at her alien friend, knowing that there was nothing else she could do to change that slave's mind. Akane resigned herself to seeing how that young girl was willing to have sexual relations with her mistress's grandson, a situation she found reprehensible and despicable, but which she could do nothing about, unless she wanted to become entangled in a bigger problem.
Unfortunately for Akane Araki, the famous phrase, Do in Rome what the Romans Do, applied perfectly to her, and she could only let that slave know her displeasure about the dilemma that young slave was about to be involved in. And if that wasn't enough, her military training at the Japanese Space Self-Defense Force as a Space Ranger indicated that she shouldn't become too involved in the local affairs of the natives either.
-"Do whatever you want, and what you think is best for you, Liska."- Akane said in a sad tone. -"But if things go wrong between you and him, then don't come to me and..."-
-"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"-
Akane quickly noticed that something wrong was going on with her friend in an incredibly sudden way. The first thing the human noticed was that Liska's fur had become completely bristly, as if something had horrified her or caused her some intense pain, and her tail was raised in the same way. Due to the suddenness of the situation, Akane did not hesitate to ask her about what was happening to her friend.
-"Wha-What the HELL is going on with you!?"-
Akane approached her to find out what was troubling Liska in such a way that she seemed to have a rictus of intense pain on her face. On the other hand, the young slave could only managed to say the following.
-"Pain... here... please... don't look, PLEASE!"-
Then, Liska pointed her finger down where her groin was...
-"And why the hell do you want me to look down on your groin, don't tell me that...?"-
Akane looked down at where her alien friend was pointing with her finger, and the first thing she noticed was something... rather unpleasant to see...
-"Hoooly shit..."- Akane cursed in Japanese.
And for good reason Akane was cursing in her language: The first thing she saw when she looked down was that there was a small pool of blood that was on the cushion where Liska was sitting on her knees. This, coupled with the painful response her friend was experiencing at the time, meant only one thing...
-"Hell of a time to have a period, if you ask me..."-
Akane said amidst a mixture of concern, discomfort and at the same time, surprise, since she never imagined at any time that she would be the first human to see an extraterrestrial woman having her period in the same way that a human would.
-"Boy, this would be one thing I wouldn't want to talk about with anyone if I were to return home!"- The human woman said with a very visible worried face, seeing that her friend was still experiencing pain. -"Are you all right, honey?"-
Once the menstrual pain had passed, Liska brought her hands to her face out of shame, and she began to weep distressingly, in part because of the pain she had suffered, and also because of the embarrassment she felt when a stranger like Akane saw her having her period right in front of her, even though the latter was quite empathetic because of the situation the distressed slave was suffering at the time.
-"Hey Liska-sweetie, are you all right?"- Akane asked again to her alien feline friend.
-"Please, Akane... sob... don't look... this is so shameful... sob... please... pleeease... sob... sob..."-
The fact that a woman, regardless of the circumstances, wherever she is from, or in this case, her species, has her period in front of another person was enough to make anyone ashamed, even more so in Liska's case, who was not wearing any kind of underwear, much less something that would prevent her period from being visible, causing her blood to be visible to Akane, who could only see that sad scene, and being totally unable to do anything about it.
-"Holy Mary Mother of God... this must be terrible for her. As if being a slave wasn't already a terrible thing, having to menstruate in front of someone else is much worse."- Akane mused to herself as she saw the terrible situation her friend was living through in front of her.
On the other hand, the young slave girl did not stop crying; the fact that she had had her period in the worst possible way, coupled with her altered emotional state caused by the words of her human friend, and on top of that, contemplating how terrible her life had been up to that moment, had caused Liska to feel overwhelmed, as if things could not go any worse for her...
-"Please... sob... don't look at me... don't look... don't..."-
Akane, who at the time also felt sorry for her friend who was undergoing what seemed to be the worst kind of indignity any woman would suffer in her life, besides rape, chose to do what for anyone would be the most humane thing to do under those conditions...
-"Now, now, everything will be fine..."-
And without hesitation, Akane warmly embraced her friend Liska with the strongest hug she could offer, not caring that she would also get stained by the patch of blood under her friend's legs. For her, the most important thing was that her friend felt that she was not alone, and that her suffering was also that of Akane, who also could not help but feel sorry seeing her friend in such pain...
-"Calm down, little kitten, everything will be fine... cry as much as you want... your big sister Akane is right by your side to help you..."-
Once in Akane's arms, the young slave broke into tears in the most heartbreaking way possible, and even more when she saw that alien woman, who came from a completely unknown place, and who knew almost nothing about her, not even what species Akane belonged to, was willing to share her suffering without caring in the least about anything, not even the fact that woman was staining herself with her own blood... her menstrual blood.
-"Cry all you want... you do not have to be ashamed for it... I understand perfectly what you feel now..."-
And so, once in Akane Araki's warm arms, Liska continued crying inconsolably on her shoulders for several minutes, knowing that the human was trying to comfort her in the best possible way. At the same time, Akane herself began to shed tears, because she knew better than anyone else the pain that this girl was enduring at such a terrible time in her own life.
And so several minutes passed, until the young lady had completely calmed down. She was still in Akane's arms, while the latter could not help but make a funny little crack about her, as her friend was more relieved after all that crying...
-"You know, Liska-sweetie... you're so damn cute when you are purring... heh heh!"-
The young slave made an angry gesture, with a certain tone of embarrassment, when she heard that from the mouth of that human woman.
-"I was not purring..."-
-"Yes, you did..."-
-"I said I was not purring."- Liska replied with a deadpan tone.
-"...And I say you were purring very loudly, and you were enjoying it like hell..."- Akane answered back at her feline friend with a very naughty smile in her human face, as she was really having a good time at expense of the alien girl.
-"And I say I wasn't."- The slave returned back the dig on her.
-"You did it..."-
-"I said no."-
Seeing that Liska seemed to be getting her spirits back up, even if she was visibly upset, Akane laughed a little at her friend's denials about her purring, as she enjoyed toying with her that way to make her smile a little.
-"Well, leaving bad jokes aside, at least it's good to see that you're starting to feel better."- Akane responded, as she too wiped away her own tears. -"I think that's what you needed right now: Another person's shoulder to cry on, my dear friend..."- Then, suddenly, the black woman's face became more stern and somber. -"And the truth is that I perfectly understand how you feel. I went through a similar situation myself, to be honest."-
The young slave girl raised her ears when she saw that Akane had also lived through the same painful experience that Liska had undergone minutes ago.
-"Did you go through the same thing yourself, Akane?"-
-"Yeah, that's right."- The human woman responded, while closing her eyes. -"And let me tell you that you were really lucky. At least you got your period in front of another woman alone in her home. I wasn't as lucky as you were that time."-
The slave made a gesture of revulsion, for only she could imagine what the predicament of having a period at an inopportune time might have been like for Akane.
-"If I may ask, what exactly happened to you in your case?"- The ginger-furred feline girl asked at her African-Japanese friend.
-"I will be brief, because I don't think you understand the context of my situation, but I can tell you one thing: When I had my first period, it was in front of a group of very abusive girls, much like Kebec and her older sister, who were bullying me at the time."-
Liska could only imagine how terrible it must have been to have someone having her period in the midst of such a stressful situation such as being harassed by bullies, just as it happened to her a few moments ago when her mood caused her period to be more painful than usual.
-"That must have been terrible."-
-"And it really was."- Akane replied with some sadness in her voice. -"Aside from insulting me due to the color of my skin, they began to call me many things the moment they saw my blood, which made me feel more miserable than I already was at the time."-
Seeing the revulsion in her alien friend's face, Akane thought it was best not to continue the conversation, and instead move on to another topic...
-"From your face I can see that you don't want to talk about this anymore."-
Liska did a brief pause, and then she replied...
-"I would be lying if I said no, Akane."-
-"Very well..."-
After finishing speaking, Akane stood up from her seat, in order to go to the place where a chest was located and where she had several belongings, which left Liska intrigued, who only saw what her human friend was doing, but not without asking her what she was up to.
-"Can I ask you what you are doing, Akane?"-
-"I'm going to give you a little gift for you, dear. You are going to need it."-
-"A...gift?"- The slave asked in a intrigued way.
-"Yes."- Akane replied with a smile in her face. -"Consider this a gift from one woman to another one."-
The young maiden saw that Akane Araki had in her hands three things, two of which she had never seen in her life, although for the human, those three things were very common products in her world: a cloth towel, a plastic bag with several very large but thin pieces of cotton, and something that to Liska seemed more like a kind of loincloth, though more elaborate, and more delicate in appearance, something that Akane would then explain its use.
-"I must assume that you don't know what these pieces of cotton are for, and this last one, right?"- Akane asked her feline friend.
-"No."-
-"In that case, let me explain what these things are:"- Akane showed the alien girl the plastic bag. -"These pieces of cotton are called sanitary pads, and they serve to absorb the blood during your period should it occur suddenly. Obviously, they are placed in your underwear in such a way that the absorbent part stays on your intimate parts, so they can do their job."-
-"Oh, I see, they look like the pieces of cloth we use to absorb blood."- Liska explained to Akane about her local, more primitive equivalent of the same item.
-"Yes, but these are disposable, and you can throw them away after each use."-
-"And what is that thing that looks like a loincloth, Akane?"-
-"Oh, this? We call these panties, and they have the same function as a loincloth, except that they are designed to be worn exclusively by women."- The human soldier explained about that piece of human underwear. -"Although in your case, I would have to make a hole in the backside so you can put your tail in without problems."-
-"And what is that towel for?"-
-"That's obvious: to clean up the blood on your legs, and in your groin."-
-"Oh, I see.."-
-"Well, now you know that, you can start by cleaning yourself first with the towel and a bucket of water I have here at hand, as I make the hole for your tail to these panties with my service knife."-
-"Eh? But I have to take off my clothes first, Akane..."-
-"Do you have a problem with that, honey?"- The black woman replied with a sardonic smile at her feline friend. -"You've seen me naked before, and I don't think it will be any different this time. Besides, you're in front of another woman, and I'm not going to make fun of you, or do you any harm..."-
-"But you haven't seen me naked, and that's what makes me uncomfortable!"-
-"And so what? Do you have something you don't want me to see?"-
The young slave girl hesitated to answer the question that her human friend raised to her.
-"Well... no."- Liska replied at the human woman. -"I just don't like a stranger like you to see me naked."-
-"I understand your discomfort, but you don't have to worry about it. I also went through the same thing in front of another woman when I was younger... except for the taking off clothes part first, to be fair."-
-"That doesn't put my mind at ease at all, Akane."-
-"In that case, do you want me to talk to your mistress so you can do it in front of her?"-
That suggestion made Liska's fur violently bristle, for more than obvious reasons...
-"OF COURSE NOT!"-
The slave's reaction caused Akane to burst out laughing because of the way the slave reacted physically to Akane's idea.
-"giggle Just kidding, honey, I'm not that cruel to do something like that."- Then, Akane came up with an idea to solve the dilemma her friend was facing. -"I have a better idea for this, dear."-
-"What would your idea be, Akane?"-
-"I'll turn around so you can take off your clothes while you clean up and I'll explain to you on the way how to put on that pad."-
The slave girl quickly agreed with Akane's solution.
-"Sounds like a good idea."-
Then, Liska took off her clothes and began to clean the blood from her legs and private parts with the towel and bucket of water that Akane had given her.
-"All right, I'm done cleaning up. Now explain to me how I put on this thing that you told me is for absorbing my period."-
-"Okay, now let me explain how to put that pad on."- Akane said while she was still on her back to avoid having to see the slave girl naked. -"First, you put the pad on the panty in such a way that the pad is placed where your private parts would be. Then, you put the panties on, so that the pad touches your private parts again, but make sure that the pad is properly adjusted so that it does not bother you later when you walk, or do your daily activities. Also, don't forget to put your tail in the hole I made in the panties previously."-
-"Understood."-
And so, Liska put on the panties that Akane had given her, along with the sanitary pad. The young lady quickly realized how comfortable it was to walk around wearing that human underwear, and she effusively let her friend know.
-"Hey, I feel more comfortable with these "panties" you gave me and I don't feel like I'm exposed down there anymore. Thanks a lot, Akane!"-
-"Don't thank me, sweetie!"- The African-Japanese woman said with a smile in her face after seeing how Liska was happy to wear something that covered her intimate parts. -"I'm doing this to help you and make you feel better. Furthermore, it is also my duty as a samurai to help the weak when they need it."-
Liska was somewhat mystified to hear that word she had never heard before in her life...
-"What is a samurai, Akane?-
The human immediately realized that perhaps she had said something that she should not have said out loud, because of the context that the word samurai implied. She was not sure if on that planet where she was, its local inhabitants had anything similar to the famous warrior caste of her adopted country Japan, and the use of that word could have given away that she was a soldier and a practitioner of the way of the warrior, or Bushido. She quickly tried to switch the topic to whatever else she could think of.
-"Uh, I don't think you understand that, honey. Let's talk about something else, shall we?"-
Obviously, the young slave interpreted Akane's intention to hide the meaning of the word samurai as one of the mysteries surrounding the human woman, something that made Liska very uneasy about her human friend.
-"Why do you always seem to be hiding things about yourself, Akane?"- The feline girl asked to Akane in an inquisitive tone. -"Is there something you don't want us to know or what?"-
-"That's not it, dear. As you know, I'm not from here, and I still have a hard time grasping many things that happen around this place, so I prefer not to talk much about me, for my safety and yours. I just don't want anyone unrelated from my own stuff to get hurt because I talked too much, and I hope you can understand that."-
-"Yes, I understand that."- Liska replied with a worried tone at the black woman. -"But still, it bothers me that you don't want to talk about you... even with me. I feel that you have something terrible that you don't want to tell us... or that is what I sense from you, Akane."-
Akane sighed for a few moments, and she only went on to say the following.
-"Believe me, sweetie, there are many things I would like to talk about myself, but for the moment I prefer to keep quiet on anything that concerns me, for the sake of everybody else in this tribe. When the time is right, I will tell everyone, including you, the truth about me."-
-"Still..."- The slave girl said with a disheartened tone regarding the refusal of her friend to answer questions about her origins and background. -"I would have liked you to tell even just for me about you, Akane."-
-"I understand how you feel, but that will have to wait another day, just as I said."- The human soldier politely retorted. -"Just wait and see, honey..."-
Akane suddenly looked at the clock next to her to find out what time it was, and realized both women had talked more than they should have, perhaps because of the amount of topics they talked about between them, and she decided to end the talk.
-"Hey, I don't want to sound rude, but don't you have other things to do for your mistress?"-
-"Huh?"-
Liska realized, as did Akane, that she had spent too much time talking to the latter, and that it was time to return to her daily routine.
-"Oh no, you're right, Akane!"- The slave girl replied with a very worried and hurried tone, for obvious reasons. -"Mistress Sanna is probably waiting for me on her teepee, and I don't want her to be really angry with me!"-
-"In that case, I won't take up any more of your time. You better leave before you end up in serious trouble with your mistress."-
-"Thank you, Akane!"-
The young slave was ready to leave Akane's tent, but before doing so, Akane herself wanted to have a last word with Liska.
-"Hey, before you go, I need to tell you something, Liska."-
-"Yes, what would it be, Akane?"-
Suddenly, and without even warning, Akane affectionately hugged her feline friend again, something that surprised the latter due to the unexpected nature of her move...
-"A-Akane...!"- The girl responded, with a somewhat ashamed response in her voice. -"Why are you doing this?"-
-"Because I love you."- Akane replied in a very affectioned way to her alien friend. -"That's why. Also, I want you to think about everything I said about your relationship that you are going to have with Rial, even if I know that you don't have much power to change things. I just hope that he is as kind to you as you say, just as I am to you in the same way. That's all I'm going to say about this."-
Liska remained silent for some moments, without saying a word, when she heard the words of affection coming from her human friend, and after enjoying that woman's warm embrace, she could only say the following to Akane...
-"Thank you for everything... Akane."-
-"Hey, don't thank me, dear! I'm here to help you when you need it."- Then, Akane gave a plastic bag to her friend. -"And by the way, you can take the bag with the pads, because you'll need them later."-
-"Oh, I see! giggle"- Liska replied with a naughty smile in her face. -"Thanks for the gift too, Akane!"-
-"All right, see you later, and have a good day, dear!"- Akane waved goodbye to her feline friend. -"And don't worry about Kebec and her sister. I'll take care of them if they pester you again."-
-"All right. I see you soon, Akane!"-
-"Bye!"-
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Akane's tent, 02:00 PM (afternoon)
-"Hooooly shit! This whole chat REALLY was longer than I expected!"-
Akane pointed out to herself when she saw that the conversation between her and Liska was longer than she had anticipated, in part because of some unforeseen events, such as her friend's period, something that she never expected would take place in her presence, for more than obvious reasons.
-"Oh my, I just hope nobody notices when I wash this pillow in the river, and somebody sees all this blood, because I wouldn't like to have to explain where all this came from..."-
Then, Akane went to her laptop and gave some instructions to the computer's AI about the recent chat between her and Liska.
-"Computer, did you register all the talking we both did?"-
-"Affirmative, Sergeant Araki. The entire conversation between you and the guest was recorded in its entirety, just as you requested."-
-"Good job, computer."-
-"You are welcome, ma'am."-
-"In that case, stop recording and return to manual mode immediately."-
-"Understood, ma'am."-
Once Akane was able to regain control of her laptop, she decided to resume her diary again, this time using the information she had obtained from her friend she had talked to a few moments ago:
Sorry for the more or less brief break in my diary, but I had a visit from a very special guest in my tent, who by coincidence is the person I was going to talk about a few hours ago.
Her name is Liska Tas-so-wen, and as I mentioned earlier about her, she is a slave who has been working at the service of Sanna's family for a year before I came to this village due to circumstances that I will explain next. As far as I know, she was abducted by Rial and Pyndan when they tried to raid a hunting camp that her native tribe had set up in the middle of the desert, and in trying to defend her family, she was captured as a consolation prize, so to speak, by those two boys.
Now some will understand why I particularly hate those two idiots, especially Rial, who is the most arrogant of the duo, although curiously, and for some reason, of all the things he likes to boast about his own adventures, that event is the only one he doesn't like to talk about in detail, not even to brag about. Considering the damage he inflicted on her, it's not something to boast about, I guess.
And now I'm going to talk a little bit about how she is physically: Maybe as a woman it is not something I would like to have to say in a very open way, and considering that my friend Liska is not human, so her standards of beauty and mine are different. This may sound a little strange, but I also have to be honest about her: Liska is maybe one of the most beautiful women I have ever met in my life, and it is not an exaggeration of mine.
She has beautiful blonde hair, blue eyes with a certain shade of gray, her fur is orange with a certain shade of yellow, and also with a white stripe of fur from her muzzle to her rest of her body, with three pale stripes on her bushy tail. Although there is not a shortage of pretty girls in this village, to be also honest, Liska is maybe the prettiest of all, and maybe that is one of the reasons why she is bullied by several people in the tribe, starting with Kebec and her stupid sister, maybe out of envy.
This may sound like an exaggeration, considering the person I'm going to compare next, the only person I think could compete with Liska in the "who's the prettiest girl I've ever met" department would be my late friend Kaguya Hoshino. She was also very pretty, in spite of her meanness and arrogance, and she was also harassed by many people throughout her life because of her beauty and her inability to defend herself, except that sometimes she was this close to being even raped... if it weren't for my intervention before something worse happened to her.
On the other hand, Kaguya was never anyone's slave, unlike Liska, that's for sure.
Now that I think about it, what would Kaguya have thought if she had met Liska if the former had survived and made it to this planet? Would they have been good friends, or would Kaguya have picked on her just as Kebec does on Liska when she has the chance? Having known Kaguya very well, I think she had her limits on who she could make fun of, and I doubt very much that she would have liked to make fun of a slave, as I did. It is possible that she would have even pushed me to take action and that she would have wanted us to free her, no matter what might happen to the three of us.
Unfortunately, I think that will be a question that will never be resolved... and that is one of many other things that saddens me.
The thought that many of the people I loved, among them the mentioned Kaguya, the captain of the Asuka, Yoko Kurosawa, many of my superiors, co-workers, friends, etc, are now dead, and that there is a possibility that I may never be able to return to Earth, and never see my family again, and my boyfriend, Satoru Okazaki, or perhaps another human being for the rest of my life is very depressing for me at many times.
And this is the reason why I write this diary, in case the day I die, and someone finds this planet, and finds this diary too, at least my experiences and my life will be written down in a reliable way, so that someone will know that a human lived here in this godforsaken, shitty world...
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Outside Pyndan's tent, 04:00 PM (late afternoon)
-"Thanks for inviting me to eat at your campfire, Pyndan."-
Rial, who was Pyndan's guest at his teepee, sat by the side of the fire that his comrade in arms was preparing at that moment in order to heat food.
-"Please don't thank me,"- The white-furred young man said with a smile in his face. -"I just wanted to try the soup that Mother Sanna had prepared with the help of that "white powder" that Akane gave her, and according to what you say, it seems to have a good taste and smell, right?"-
-"Oh? You mean the one called A-yeeh-noh-moh-, or whatever it's called?"-
-"Yes, that's the one"-
Once the fire was ready, Rial put the pot he was carrying with some of the soup his grandmother had prepared on it, so that the soup would heat up as they prepared to eat.
-"Hey, Rial, I was thinking about one thing."-
-"What would it be?"-
-"Why don't we invite Akane to eat with us?"- The young feline man said, while stirring the soup. -"She almost always eats alone, unless ordered, and I think it would help us to learn more about her, don't you think?"-
Rial sat down by the side of the fire, while crossing his arms and legs in discomfort. In the same way, he also began to lower his ears and wag his tail for the same reason when he heard that suggestion his cousin-brother made about Akane.
-"You're kidding, right?"-
-"Of course not."-
-"You know very well that Akane hates both of us, and I doubt very much that she would want to sit down to eat with us even if we were the last men on this world."-
Pyndan took a moment to answer as he continued to stir the soup while it warmed up in the fire, and then he replied.
-"I understand that perfectly, but I think if we ask her nicely, she might agree to eat with us."-
-"..."-
Rial could not help but snarl in displeasure at hearing that, for he knew that human woman might not welcome the idea of eating with two people she found unpleasant, because of their involvement in kidnapping Liska, and Akane's view of slavery. The last thing he wanted was to have an argument or fight with that stranger right under his nose, and if she ate on her own, the better.
-"If that makes you feel better, I could talk to her."- Pyndan proposed his own idea on dealing with Akane. -"At least she has a better opinion of me, to be honest."-
Rial didn't say nothing for a few seconds, and then, he replied with a annoyed tone to his friend...
-"Do as you please. I don't care if she joins us for dinner or not."-
-"Well, in that case, you keep preparing the soup, while I go to Akane's teepee to talk to her. I hope I don't take too long."-
-"Fine then. Hopefully, Akane will just curse you first."-
The young white-furred warrior didn't find that snarky remark his cousin-brother Rial did about him, or Akane funny at all, but he tried to look like it didn't affect him in the least.
-"Well, at least wish me luck, will you?"-
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Outside Akane's tent, 04:30 PM (late afternoon)
Regarding the mentioned Akane Araki, she was at that moment, after finishing writing her diary, reading a book in the comfort of her sleeping bag. Ironically, the book she was reading was Dances with Wolves, by Michael Blake, from which a film with the same name was produced in the 1990s.
Akane couldn't help but think that her situation was more or less similar to that of the novel's protagonist, in which an white stranger ends up living with Native Americans, except that she was on an unknown planet, living alongside alien humanoid felines who lived as Native Americans... and the fact that Akane was a black woman.
She acknowledged that her situation was not as complicated as that depicted in the book, since at least she was not a slave like Liska, and in theory, she could leave whenever she wanted, except that Akane preferred to stay in the village, since she did not know what dangers lurked in the rest of that world, and it was possible that other tribes or civilizations living on that planet might be less friendly to strangers like her compared to the Highland tribe.
Minutes later, she heard a sound of someone scratching the entrance of her tent, and she knew what that sound meant...
-"Who is it?"
Akane heard a very familiar younger male voice outside her tent.
-"It's me, Pyndan. I need to talk with you, Akane."-
The human woman snarled after hearing his name...
-"All right... Just wait a minute, please."-
The human woman jumped out of her sleeping bag in a bad way, for obvious reasons, and went to the entrance of her tent, and then she left it to receive her "guest", who was waiting for her outside.
-"Well, what do you want, mighty warrior?"- Akane addressed Pyndan with a certain tone of contempt and scorn, while putting her hands in her waist as a manner to signalizing her dislike towards him. -"I hope this is important, as I was busy reading a book before you came to interrupt me."-
The young warrior looked directly into Akane's eyes, and crossed his arms, trying to ignore that negative comment the human woman made about him.
-"I just wanted to invite you to eat with us at our campfire, Akane. That was all."-
The African-Japanese woman was surprised by this proposal. In all the time that she had lived in that tribe, neither Pyndan nor Rial had ever invited her to be by their side, knowing beforehand the very bad image that Akane had of both young warriors, and hearing that Pyndan intended to invite her to eat next to him and his comrade in arms, the human couldn't help but say something about it.
-"What? Really?"- Akane replied with a snarky expression in her human face. -"Since when are you and your brother so caring about me?"-
-"Normally you always eat alone on your teepee, and I thought it wouldn't hurt for you to eat by our side for a change, and it would also help us to know you better, Akane."- The young white-furred warrior replied with a serious tone to the human soldier. -"What do you think?"-
Akane remained meditative for some moments, trying to consider the idea that the young feline proposed to her. Then, she gave her answer.
-"I'll be honest: I don't like you, and neither does your brother."- The human responded as she stood idly by in a somewhat defiant manner. -"But I agree with you about eating alone in my home. Besides, you are asking me in a good way, so for courtesy I must accept your idea, always and when Rial doesn't think on opening his big muzzle about anything that has to do with Liska. Do you agree with me?"-
Pyndan remained silent for a few seconds, then looked at the sky for a few moments, and then he responded.
-"sigh... Well... I suppose so."-
-"Well, then let's eat."-
Afterwards, Akane followed the young warrior to his teepee to eat with him and with Rial at their side. Although she did not like being with these two, at least she agreed that eating alone would not help her own popularity among the members of the village, so she decided to accept to eat with them, if only so that Rial and Pyndan would see that Akane was not a lonely, antisocial woman, and at the same time, she could learn more about these two warriors, instead of her opting to avoid them just because she found them disgusting on account of her own preconceived ideas about slavery.
-"I guess we're going to eat the soup your grandmother made with the Ajinomoto powder I gave her, aren't we?"-
-"A-yeeh-noh-moh-toh?"- The young feline warrior said, tried to pronounce the name of the famous Japanese seasoning powder in his own language. -"Is that what that white powder you gave her is called?"-
-"Yes, that's right."-
-"Oh, I see."- Then, he responded. -"I must admit that the soup smells very good with that powder, Akane."-
-"Heh, heh! Hey, don't need to thank me. Everything is to make the food taste better, you know."-
The young man with white coat did not find that remark amusing, as it implied that Mother Sanna was a bad cook in Akane's opinion, but he preferred not to say anything, and just made a sardonic frown instead.
-"Well, I guess so..."-
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Outside Pyndan's tent, 04:40 PM (late afternoon)
After convincing Akane to eat with him and his comrade in arms, Rial, Pyndan and the human woman approached the campfire next to the white-furred warrior's teepee, where Rial was putting the finishing touches on the food they were going to eat, together with their guest.
And with respect to the latter, the young warrior with black fur and white hair greeted both his cousin-brother and Akane, even with the latter he did so only out of courtesy, and in a dry manner, while keeping his sights on the food he was heating in the campfire.
-"Hello, Akane."-
Akane replied in the same dry way to her not-so-beloved feline neighbor.
-"Hello, Rial."-
On the other hand, and ignoring the mutual antipathy that Rial and Akane had for each other, Pyndan noticed that, apart from the soup, his partner was also cooking several fish around the fire, something he had not seen before going to see Akane.
-"Can I ask you what all those fish are?"-
-"Oh, you mean those?"- Rial replied. -"I caught these fish a few moments ago in the stream before I came here, and I thought it would be nice to eat something else besides the soup, don't you think?"-
To the surprise of both young men, Akane seemed to agree with Rial's idea of eating something else besides soup, something that made the young feline warrior quite happy.
-"I don't see the problem with eating fish. What do you think, Pyndan?-
-"Well... If you don't have problems with that..."- The white-furred young man said with an annoyed expression in his face.
-"And why do you say that?"- The human woman asked to his alien partner, seeing his hesitation. -"Does your brother normally cook the fish badly, or what?"-
-"Eh, well..."-
Pyndan grinded his teeth in a very nervous way, since he had his cousin-brother in front of him, who also took his time on preparing the food, while it was supposed to be his job in the first place, since the last thing he wanted to do was to upset Rial, but he also couldn't afford to avoid the question Akane had asked to him, so he gave the best response that came to his mind.
-"Why don't you try the food first, and find out, right, Akane?"-
Akane knew perfectly well that, when someone acted that way, it was because things were not as good as they appeared, but in the same way, she could not afford to simply refuse that food, partly due to politeness, and partly because Pyndan took the trouble to go personally to her tent to invite her in a friendly way to eat with him and his partner, and also she did not want to give the image of being an unsociable and lonely alien stranger, who just kept criticizing everything she saw wrong in that village.
-"Well, why not? Let's give your food a taste."- Akane replied with a somewhat flat smile in her face.
And so, the three young people sat around the campfire, while Pyndan, being the host, was the one who started serving the soup to both Rial and Akane, while the latter took one of the fish that the former was cooking in the campfire to start eating it.
-"Here's your soup, Akane."-
-"Oh, thank you, Pyndan dear!"- Akane replied with a smile, while eating the fish first before going with the soup, like her other two feline hosts were doing.
Despite her initial reticence about the fish, fearing that they might taste bad, or be undercooked, Akane noticed that the fish she was eating tasted unusual to her. Perhaps it was because her sense of taste was very different from that of her alien hosts, or the fish itself might taste different from any fish on Earth, but either way, the fish Akane Araki was eating tasted delicious and had an almost uncanny taste.
And the best thing was that neither Rial nor Akane had put any kind of seasoning on it to flavor that food; the flavor was completely natural and produced by the heat of that simple bonfire.
-"Mmmmmm... this is so DELICIOUS!"- Akane said aloud while enjoing that fish. -"It's been years since I ate a fish as delicious as this!"-
The two young feline warriors, on the other hand, looked at the human woman strangely, as they did not believe she was enjoying that "simple" fish which, in their view, did not seem to be the big deal, or that it was well cooked to begin with. It was likely that she was just trying to be polite just to make a good impression on both of them, or so it seemed.
-"Did you... really enjoying that fish you were eating, Akane?" - Pyndan timidly asked the human woman as she enjoyed the fish.
-"Of course I do!"- Akane replied enthusiastically. -"It has a taste that I have never tasted before in my life, even though since I have been living in the village I have been eating my own ready-to-eat food. I don't know if this fish tastes like that, or if it was cooked that way, but I must admit that it has an exceptional taste, at least for me."-
Afterwards, the young white-furred warrior looked at his cousin-brother in a graciously mischievous manner, for he was the one who cooked those fish that Akane was eating with pleasure, despite the mutual antipathy both the human woman and Rial felt for each other.
-"I think Akane loves your food, don't you, Rial?"-
The black-furred warrior could only look at Akane, who was enjoying the fish he had cooked, and then he looked down at the ground in an embarrassed manner, while he also lowered his ears for the same reason.
-"Oh, just shut up, will you?"-
-"Well, the expression on your face seems to say otherwise."-
Akane, who was still eating her fish, noticed Rial's worried face. At that moment she noticed that the young warrior did not seem to act as arrogant as he pretended to be, and seemed more concerned with pleasing Akane and making his best impression, or at least he was trying to do that just for the sake of basic etiquette, like elsewhere.
Seeing all that, and at least for reciprocating his kindness in bothering to prepare that meal, the African-Japanese woman decided to break the ice and talk a bit about herself.
-"I guess you went to a lot of trouble just to prepare this fish, don't you?"- Akane addressed to Rial in a more formal way, without her grudging tone she normally used to him.
-"Well, let's say so."-
-"And from what I see, you two don't seem to like the way this was cooked, huh?"-
A very awkward silence was felt in the campfire for a few seconds, until Pyndan himself broke it.
-"We prefer not to have to answer that question..."-
The human woman smiled mischievously, and she made a comment about the matter.
-"If it's any consolation for you two, I've eaten things, from the place where I come from, that would make a goat puke..."-
Although Akane was exaggerating about that part of eating things that no one else would eat, Rial and Pyndan had their ears up when they heard that from the mouth of that woman, who they never thought had the courage to eat inedible food, without knowing the rationale for it at the time.
But perhaps what struck those two warriors most was the use of the word "goat", for reasons that will be explained below.
-"Really, Akane?"- Pyndan asked the human female soldier from Japan.
-"Or rather, what is a goat?"- Rial also asked to Akane Araki, in a puzzled way.
The African-Japanese woman figured out that she had possibly referred to the name of a native species of her planet as an idiom that her hosts had no idea what it meant, so she had to explain the meaning of what she had previously said.
-"Eh... Well guys... that was supposed to be an idiom we use from where I'm from to mean that I have no problem eating strange foods."- Akane explained. -"And a goat is an animal that is famous for eating whatever crap is in its path, hence the term."-
-"Don't tell me you're comparing yourself to one of those animals, Akane?"- Rial asked back to the woman.
-"Of course not. I'm just saying that I have no problem eating your food, even though it may be just me, and my sense of taste that is different from yours, guys."- The black female soldier replied back, while finishing eating her fish. -"And where I come from, people are used to eating a lot of fish, including raw fish."-
Both young warriors listened with awe and curiosity to Akane's words about herself and her own species, while they ate their own fish. For obvious reasons, mainly of health, they were not used to eating raw food, much less raw fish, and the fact that there were people who ate such food was somewhat surprising, since eating that type of meat was usually the exclusive territory of wild animals, not for civilized beings.
-"I wouldn't be surprised if many people of your species fall ill from eating raw fish."- Rial said with a certain snark in his voice.
-"Heh, heh, heh!"- Akane, surprisingly despite what might have seemed like a tasteless attack from Rial's mouth in order to ridicule that human woman, began to laugh mischievously, implying that he was right. -"You got me on that one, to be fair."-
-"Really?"-
-"That's right."- Akane then explained why she agreed with the black-furred warrior. -"Although it is not very common, there have been people who have fall ill from eating bad raw seafood, and in some extreme cases, even died from food poisoning from eating certain types of fish. Regarding that point, there's a well known species of poisonous fish that is eaten where I come from called puffer fish, or in my language, fugu; many people have died eating that fish, which is considered an exotic delicacy if prepared well."-
Pyndan was surprised to hear about humans eating a poisonous fish as food like nothing, and then he looked at his own fish he was eating in that moment.
-"And I thought this kind of fish tastes horrible..."-
Rial also looked at his eating fish, and he could not help but comment on the fugu story.
-"To be honest, it takes a lot of courage... or being really stupid to eat something as dangerous like that."-
-"I agree with you."- Akane agreed with the feline warrior. -"Even I wouldn't eat puffer fish even if it was the last thing I could eat. I'm not that crazy to eat something that could kill me right away."-
Rial looked at Akane and he could not help but agree with his human counterpart, simply stating the obviousness of refusing to eat a kind of fish that is poisonous and that even in Akane's adopted country of Japan, many people usually refuse to eat such food.
-"At least that's one thing you and I agree on, right, Akane?"-
The human soldier, on the other hand, only looked at the young black-furred warrior with a certain amount of apathy, and she put the bones of the fish she had eaten a few moments ago next to her.
-"You could say so."-
-"Well, leaving aside all that talk about poisonous fish, why don't we try the soup, huh?"- Pyndan said, while serving the soup laced with the Ajinomoto seasoning powder Akane brought from Japan on Earth.
-"Good idea. I am curious to know how that soup turned out with the seasoning I brought."- Akane said with a snarky, naughty smile painted in her face, since she wanted to know how Mother Sanna could had prepared that veggie soup, this time with an Earthly ingredient normally used in Asian cuisine.
-"Judging by your smile, you don't seem to have much confidence in my grandmother's cooking, Akane."- Rial said with an annoyed expression at the human woman.
The female soldier did not want to have another argument with the feline warrior, so she chose not to talk about the subject any more and to limit herself to eating what was served to her.
-"Well, I'm not going to say anymore about your granny's food, and we better eat, shall we?"-
-"I agree with you."-
And so, Pyndan served a portion of soup to his cousin-brother and his human guest. The latter smelled the soup to know how it tasted, and then she was ready to eat it.
-"Well, as we say in Japan..."- Akane said before tasting the soup. -"(いただきます！) Bon appetite!"-
Both feline warriors looked somewhat puzzled at Akane when she brought up the word Itadakimasu, the Japanese equivalent of the expression Bon Appetite, which is normally used in Japan before a meal, something they immediately brought to the attention of the human woman.
-"Hey, Akane, what does that word you just said mean?"- Rial asked the black woman with a serious semblance in his face.
-"Which word?"-
-"Itadaki-, or whatever you said."-
-"Oh, you mean Itadakimasu?"- Akane replied. -"It means Ready to receive or in this case, to eat, in the language of my homeland."- Then, she added the following. -"Don't you guys have anything similar to that phrase in your culture?"-
-"Eh, well, no..."- Pyndan responded to the African-Japanese soldier. -"We just sit and eat, say hello, and nothing else."-
-"Oh, I see."- Akane said back.
-"By the way, and moving on, I'd like to ask you something, Akane..."-
Rial wanted to talk to Akane on a more personal basis than just talking about food, and took the opportunity to talk to her more and learn more about her.
-"What would it be, Rial?"- Akane replied to her alien partner.
-"There are many things about you that we don't really understand, including what species you belong to, where you come from, or even what you do for a living."- the black-furred warrior asked Akane looking at Akane with a serious semblance. -"The only thing we know about you is that you are not a feline like us, that you come from a very distant place, and that you know many strange things from which you do not want to tell us how you learned them."-
-"And... does that affect you?"- The woman retorted.
-"I think that if you are going to live with us, you should at least be more open and tell us who you really are."- Rial explained his point to the human female. -"You can't just walk around and be involved in the lives of everyone else in this tribe and expect us to accept you without us knowing a thing about you in return."-
Akane quickly understood what the reason for that comment was, and the reason was her friendship with Liska, which seemed to be causing the warrior trouble for obvious reasons, and that was his kindest way of making his displeasure known to the human woman for what seemed to be an unwanted intrusion into his personal and tribal affairs.
The human woman, for her part, responded in the best possible way to him.
-"I understand how you feel, but there are many things I rather avoid saying about myself, for my own sake and for yours."-
-"And why?"-
-"Because I don't know exactly where I am. I only know that I am in a land far away from my place of origin, and that probably all the people I really cared about are now dead. Until I know more about this place, about you people, and about what kind of place I'm standing, I prefer not to say anything else about myself that could affect me or your people later, apart from my opinions about slavery, of course."-
Obviously, that answer did not satisfy Rial and he looked at Akane with some unease, for he felt that he had obtained nothing from her that would allow him to know more about that human woman, and that he had only returned to the same point where he had begun with respect to Akane's origins.
-"Well, could you at least tell us what species you belong to?"-
-"I can't say anything. That's classified information at the moment, so you'll have to wait in due course. Sorry."-
Rial did not understand the context of that sentence, something that annoyed him deeply.
-"Classified information?"- The feline warrior asked in a frustrated way. -"What the hell does that mean?"-
-"It means it's a secret, silly."-
The black-furred young man facepalmed and nodded his head in visible irritation, and then he saw at Akane with a very frustrated visage in his face.
-"Akane, sometimes you are a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."- Rial said with a very frustrated tone at the impenetrable human woman.
-"Well, live with it."- The soldier responded with a naughty smile in her face.
Subsequently, Akane drank the soup that Rial was heating up and that his grandmother, Mother Sanna, had prepared. She found the taste of that food quite palatable, despite how primitive it was, thanks in part to the Ajinomoto seasoning powder she had given the old lady a few days earlier to make her food taste better.
-"Mmmm... Tastes very good..."-
-"At least it's good to know that there's something you enjoy about my grandmother, Akane."- Rial addressed the human soldier with a faked smirk in his muzzle.
-"Heh heh! I guess the seasoning I gave her did the trick, don't you think?"- The black woman bragged about her small contribution on the soup.
-"I suppose you're somewhat right, Akane."- Pyndan responded after remaining silent for a while, through with a somewhat deadpan tone, out of respect for his own relative.
-"That would also explain why you are so fat."- Then, Rial added an insulting crack to the human guest, since he found her bragging about her contribution on the soup his grandmother did after many hours quite insulting, something that the human didn't find funny.
But, Akane, mostly out of civility and to avoid escalating the situation, chose only to respond in the same way that her feline host did to her.
-"At least I am not as slim as a certain black-furred cat I have in my sight."- Akane shoot back at Rial with a bigger taunt. -"I guess being chased daily by herndons and other wild animals does wonders on your body."-
And the feline warrior from the Highland tribe wasn't going to let that insult the human woman did about his body slip on his guard.
-"And at least I don't insult the hand that feeds me, like some furless foreigner I have under my nose."-
-"Oh, yeah? If you weren't so damn arrogant and self-righteous, I wouldn't have to resort to these, Mister mighty, brave warrior."- Akane used that last part with a very obvious sarcasm-laced tone in her voice.
-"And I don't stick my muzzle where I am not welcome."- Rial retorted back, this time raising his voice.
-"Well, at least I don't kidnap pretty girls to use them as slaves, and also use them as my sex toys."-
Obviously, Rial knew to whom she was referring with that, and seeing that Akane was escalating the discussion, he could no longer stand the rudeness of that human, and he also returned the tirade in a more agressive tone.
-"That's not of your damn business, woman!"-
-"Oh, YEAH?!"- Then, Akane cracked her knuckles. -"And what do you plan to do to me, mighty warrior? I must tell you that I have many ways to make you cry like a little girl, and you don't want me to do that, do you?"-
Seeing that the argument had basically become a quarrel threat between that human woman and her cousin-brother, Pyndan quickly intervened before things became even more violent between them.
-"Could you two SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH FOR ONCE?"- The young white-furred warrior, which rarely raised his voice, except in situations like the one he was facing in that moment, yelled to both Rial and Akane with a very angry expression in his face. -"I've had enough of hearing you two fighting over every little thing, especially since Akane is in this village!"-
After seeing the normally calm young man had finally lost his patience and made his irritation known in the most direct and aggressive way possible, both Akane and Rial quickly remained still, and they did not say anything further, through the African-Japanese woman avoided looking at her counterpart in the face again, as she drank her soup.
-"Fine, I'll shut my big mouth, just because I don't want to make a big deal out of this crap."- Akane said with a deadpan, angry expression in her face.
-"Same here." - Rial added, while crossing his arms, and looking down at the ground, with the same angry expression as well.
Pyndan looked at the human and Rial carefully, amidst a look of disappointment and displeasure, seeing that both characters were not able to overcome their differences, and that every time they were both in the same place for more than 5 minutes, they could not help but argue about anything that irritated them about each other, something he let both know immediately.
-"sigh... Why is it that whenever you two start arguing it seems like you both want to kill each other, huh?"-
-"It is not my fault that your bro is an arrogant and cocky jerk, and that he thinks he can insult anyone he likes and have his way."- Akane accused the black-furred young man of everything she disliked about him.
-"And you..."- Rial shoots back at Akane. -"are a meddlesome woman who sticks your nose where it doesn't belong, not to mention you bite the hand that feeds you."- Rial shoots back at Akane.
-"Really? For your information, I prepare my own food, so I don't need to eat anything from here, and I don't think you'd like to know what I think of your grandmother's cooking, or about your own granny, you talking piece of feline..."-
-"THAT'S ENOUGH, BOTH OF YOU!"-
Both remained silent simultaneously as they heard the angry voice of the host, who did not intend to tolerate any more mutual name-calling between the female human and the male feline humanoid.
-"Why don't you eat first, and then settle your differences another day when you two are in a better mood, huh?"- Pyndan asked both his cousin-brother and Akane in a more conciliatory tone.
-"Understood."- Akane begrudgely replied at her host. -"But next time, tell your friend not to call me fat in my face, unless he wants me to skin him alive next time."-
-"Me too."- The same went for Rial as well.
And so, Akane, Rial and Pyndan decided to continue eating their soup, this time without speaking to each other for several minutes. The fact that Rial found it funny to make fun of Akane's body due to his dislike towards that woman caused what originally started out as a friendly conversation ended up being almost a very uneasy situation for the three people involved in the meal.
At least, that was until a well-known person came to the campfire where they were eating. That person was Pyndan's younger sister, Panka, who had also come to eat with her older brother, Rial and the human, whom she greeted first.
-"Hello, big brother! Hello, Rial!"-
-"Oh, hello, little sister."- The elder brother replied efusively at his sister.
-"Hello too, Panka."- Rial greeted her as well, through with a somber tone.
-"And hello too as well, Miss Akane!"-
Unlike Rial, Akane greeted the little kitten girl in the nicest possible way...
-"Oh, how are you, Panka-chan?"-
The alien feline girl, who did not understand the meaning of that Japanese honorific normally used to address young girls, and who Akane had accidentally used on that girl who did not understand her language, could not help but ask the human about its meaning.
-"Why did you called me Panka-chan, Miss Akane?"-
The human from Japan realized the mistake she had made by using the honorific "-chan" on her when using her language, and Akane did not hesitate to explain its meaning to Panka.
-"Oops! I slipped that out accidentally! giggle"- Then, Akane explained the meaning of that honorific. -"That word is a honorific we use in my language to address girls about your age, and people that we like very much."-
-"Oh, I see!"- Panka replied while looking at the human woman. -"It's kind of like using the "-ka" or "-tam" honorifics that we use, right?"-
-"Well..."- Akane tried to remember what she knew about the honorifics that were used in the local language spoken by the tribe. -"It is something similar, so to say, dear. giggle"-
-"By the way, the food is ready, so you can sit down whenever you want, Panka."- Pyndan, the older brother, said to his little sister.
-"Oh, thank you, big brother!"-
The girl sat next to Akane Araki, while her older brother served her a bowl of soup, which she began to sip with pleasure.
-"Hmmm, it taste good!"-
-"You can thank me, because I was the one who gave your grandmother a secret ingredient to make the soup taste better, heh, heh!"-
Obviously, that comment was not to Rial's liking, since it was his grandmother who prepared the soup and the fact that Akane only contributed with the Ajinomoto seasoning powder did not give her reason to boast. That, and the fact that he was still annoyed with her after the verbal quarrel they both had when he called the human woman "fat".
-"Braggart."-
Akane heard that, and she only countered with the following taunt.
-"Jerk."-
And the human replied back, but this time in Japanese...
-"(クソネコ野郎) Shitty cat."-
Pyndan could only facepalm after hearing all that tirade, as he could not believe that Akane and his partner continued to insult each other, even if not as virulently as a few moments ago, though he knew that when Akane spoke in her language, it used to be something extremely vulgar that she could not say in the local language.
-"Oh, great..."-
Panka, who was standing next to Akane hearing the African-Japanese woman to insult Rial in Japanese, could not help but innocently ask what she had said in her language.
-"What was that you said in your language, Miss Akane?"-
-"Hiiihgg!"-
The human was immediately shocked, because she knew that she could not tell the girl that what she had said in Japanese was a very strong insult in her language, but she could not avoid the issue either, so she had to invent some excuse to escape from that predicament.
-"Uh, well, you know..."- Akane stuttered at the kitten girl. -"Heh, heh, You're still too young to learn that kind of stuff, sweetie..."-
-"Really?"-
-"Yes. When you became older I will explain it to you. Now eat your soup like a good girl, will you?"-
-"All right."- The girl replied rather hesitantly that she did not received an answer from her human friend.
Both Akane and Pyndan breathed a sigh of relief because the former avoided having to explain the meaning of that obscene word, and the latter was glad that the human had the decency to avoid doing so.
-"By the way."- Pyndan wanted to change the subject to a more cheerful, important one. "I forgot to ask you, but why did you take so long to come here to eat?"-
-"Oh, me?"- Panka replied to her brother. -"I was talking with grandma in her teepee."-
-"Really?"- The young white-furred man asked to the little girl. -"And what were you and she talking about?"-
-"Well, this goes especially for you, Rial."- Panka then addressed to the other young warrior. -"Grandma says that you will eat again with us this night."-
-"Oh, I see. I guess that's not a problem for you again, right, Pyndan?"-
-"I suppose not."-
-"And she also said anything else, Panka?"- Rial asked again to the kitten girl.
-"Eh... she also said you should go to her teepee at moon rise..."-
-"At moon rise?"- The black-furred young man replied in a rather... worried way. -"May I ask what for... and why at that time?"-
The girl finished her soup, and afterwards, she explained the reason why Mother Sanna wanted Rial in her home at that hour.
-"She says you already know the reason."-
-"Uhhh..."-
Akane, who was also eating her soup, could not help but make a snide comment about it, with a certain tone of condescension and mockery towards the feline warrior whom she disliked.
-"Looks like your wedding gift is already being prepared for you, doesn't it, Rial-kun?"-
The human woman from Japan used the honorific "-kun", which is normally used to address young men in her language, considering that Rial is younger than Akane, but unlike Panka, where she used a Japanese honorific by accident, she used "-kun" to show her sarcasm and contempt for the young warrior, because of the opinion she had about Rial, and the relation he was going to have with Liska, since the latter was a slave with no power of decision over what both would do that day.
But for his part, Pyndan, his partner, couldn't resist also saying his own thing about it, although unlike the human woman, he only made a mischievous chuckle in his face.
-"Uh, I guess I know the reason for that too, don't I, Rial?"-
That situation was quite awkward for Rial: Between Akane's disapproving face, Pyndan's smiling and mischievous look, and the curious look of his younger sister Panka, who didn't understand anything that was happening at that moment, caused him only to lower his head, and his ears, as a sign of shame, and to put his hands to his face, unable to see anyone else in that embarrassing situation he was in and that he didn't know how to escape from it, or even to explain it.
And, as if things weren't going from bad to worse for him, Akane, the human woman, put her bowl of soup that she was eating at the time in such a loud manner that everyone around the fire knew she had finished, and, with her eyes closed and a sardonic smile on her lips, she said the following.
-"Well, if you'll excuse me, people, I have other more important things to do than listen to these things. See you tomorrow, and don't wait for me for the evening meal. Good day to everyone."-
And so, Akane jumped out from her seat, and she immediately returned to her tent, visibly upset to hear all that.
Even if he hated Akane too, Rial could not feel that the situation was getting out of his control, and now that woman, who until just a few moments ago was only a person she felt antipathy for him, now she looked at the warrior with a very visible hatred on her face, something he did not want to happen in the first place, because that meant that she would possibly make his life a real pain.
-"You should look at the bright side of the things, Rial."- Pyndan said, still with his smile painted in his face. -"At least we don't have to worry about preparing food for Akane, don't you think, huh?"-
The young warrior with black fur and white hair only remained still in his place, and then, after a brief break, he only managed to said something about the whole thing, in a very sad tone in his voice.
-"I can't eat a damn thing now..."-
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Akane's tent, 05:10 PM (late afternoon)
After returning to her tent, Akane Araki lied down in her sleeping bag, clearly angry about what had happened during the meal with Rial and Pyndan, and feeling that she had only gone to waste her time arguing with the former, as happened on many occasions when she and Rial verbally fought, only this time, the outcome ended up being worse for both of them, with Akane not only feeling a visceral hatred towards the black-furred feline, but she also had the feeling that she had perhaps made a bad impression as well.
All that situation was starting to torment her mind to no end, and having no one else to discuss the whole issue with at the time, she turned to the place where her laptop was. Akane fired up the computer, and after entering her user password, the male voice of the virtual assistant of her computer's operating system, which was very similar to that of the Net on her native Earth, welcomed her.
-"Good afternoon, Sgt. Araki."-
-"Well, good afternoon for you, too."-
-"Would you like to do something today, ma'am?"-
-"I want to put some music to hear today."- Akane said to the PC.
-"Any particular song or theme you'd like me to play, Sergeant?"-
-"Sadistic Desire from X Japan."-
-"Understood."- The AI replied -"Playing song "Sadistic Desire" right away."-
Immediately afterwards, and after she put her headphones on first, mainly to avoid the rest of the tribe listening to her music and asking uncomfortable questions about her musical preferences, or thinking something worse about her, Akane started listening to that song by the legendary Japanese visual kei band, X Japan.
The woman could not help but smile and ironize at the same time the fact that she was listening to heavy metal music on an unknown planet, in a relatively primitive place, but after what happened with Rial, the last thing she was interested in knowing was about the place where she was now standing, and now she just wanted to find a way to avoid the hard, cruel reality she was in, even for a few moments.
But after several minutes of hearing music, it became obvious that trying to evade reality in that way only had the opposite effect on her, and suddenly, she turned off her computer with a flick of the switch, and she went back to lie down in her sleeping bag, cursing herself.
-"Shit!"- Akane said to herself. -"I don't know what the hell is wrong with me. Seems like this fuckin' day has gone badly for me in many ways!"-
Then, Akane sank her head into her pillow, and tried to sleep, even for a few minutes, in order to help her relax and have a better sense of purpose once she was more rested.
Unfortunately for her, the reality of things prevented that human woman from even trying something like that, and as much as she tried to sleep, she felt the world was trying to mock her and the sad predicament she faced. The thought that she would possibly spend the rest of her life in a world she didn't know, living next to alien beings she didn't know either, and that they had their reasons to suspect her, and that she would never see her family on Earth again, and that her best friend, Kaguya Hoshino, had died, was something that continuously depressed her.
After several hours of lying in her bed, unable to do anything except try to close her eyes to sleep, without success, Akane saw that she had something important to do: In a plastic bag she had lying in the corner of her tent, she had the bloodstained cushion where her friend Liska had sat when she and Akane had chatted a few hours earlier, and where she had accidentally had her period...
-"I better go to the river and wash this thing myself before it starts smelling bad and have another fucking mess to deal with in this shitty place I'm stuck in."-
And so, the human woman from Japan took the bag, and left the tent, in order to go to the river and wash the pillow on her own.
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Outside Akane's tent, 07:40 PM (dawn)
The first thing Akane noticed when she came out of her tent was how the sky had an intense orange color, as the sun slowly set on the horizon.
Although she had seen many sunsets in her life, the human woman had never witnessed a sunset as beautiful and moving as the one she was witnessing on that distant and unknown planet, as she watched the sun set over the distant mountains that were several kilometers away from the village. Seeing all that, Akane had to admit that, in spite of how much she hated being in that place, that planet, as distant, mysterious and dangerous as it was, had a beauty that had to be valued in its rightful way...
-"This world can be horrible and dangerous..."
Moments later, the sun had set completely on the horizon, behind the mountains, as the sky gradually began to darken, giving way to the nighttime.
-"...but it is also beautiful in the same way."-
Seconds later, the human woman realized that there was something wrong with what she had said a short while ago...
-"Why do I feel that what I said is something that someone else had already said centuries ago in some place that I don't remember right now?"-
-"That's because you are right, Akane."-
Then...
-"WAHHHHHHHHHHH!"-
As she turned around, Akane noticed that behind her was her friend, Liska, who was also behind her watching the sunset next to her human friend, but without the latter noticing her presence, something that Akane quickly made her notice.
-"DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT, DAMN IT!"-
-"Sorry, Akane!"- Liska replied with a smile in her muzzle. -"I was passing by your teepee, and I noticed that you were watching the sunset very attentively."-
-"Of course I was watching the sunset! What did you expect, silly?"- Akane yelled back at the ginger-furred feline slave. -"I had never seen such a beautiful sunset where I come from, that's why I said all that, dammit!"-
Afterwards, the slave looked carefully at Akane, for it seemed strange to her that she would do such a thing, or at least she was curious to know her reasons for seeing the sunset.
-"Hey, Akane. Can I ask you a question?"-
-"I guess you're going to ask me why I'm watching the sunset, right?"-
-"Yes."- The slave girl responded back. -"Why are you looking at that sunset so keenly?"-
The human, on hearing that question from her alien friend, lowered her head a bit, because the answer she was about to give was just as depressing for her to say...
-"You may not fully understand the context of what I am about to say, but where I come from, seeing beautiful sunsets like this is very difficult for me to see..."-
-"And why?"-
Akane mused about the answer she was going to give to her friend, knowing that she might not understand what the human was going to tell her, so Akane tried to explain it in a proper way and context, but without giving her any clues about where she came from.
-"Well... where I come from, simply seeing sunsets like these is almost impossible, unless you go very far away from where you live."-
Liska looked at Akane with a certain pitying gaze, seeing that her friend looked relatively sad when she saw that sundown, which she most likely did not see in her place of origin, a world farther away than hers.
-"You know what, Akane?"- The feline slave said at the black woman with a worried tone. -"From the way you describe the place where you come from, I have the feeling that it is not a very nice place to live for you..."-
-"Eh..."- The human did a brief pause... -"It's not exactly that way, Liska dear."-
The African-Japanese Space Ranger responded her question with a certain deadpan tone.
-"...Where I come from is more like a boring place without many interesting things to do, compared to here..."-
Then, Akane's voice tone became more somber and sadder.
-"... And ... sigh ...As boring as my place of origin might seem. or as strange as this village and all of you might be, it is nothing compared to other places I know, which are a real hell to any living being who sets foot there."-
The slave looked at Akane with a surprised and shocked look, for she could not believe that there could be places even worse than those both women, or even anyone in her world, could know.
-"Re-really, Akane?"- Liska asked at the soldier. -"I can't believe there are worse places than this village, or anywhere else I know."-
-"Yes, and yes there are, and worst of all, those places were created by people like me many, many changes of seasons ago, before anyone in this village, including you and me, was born."-
The young ginger-furred girl of blonde hair could not believe what Akane was saying, and it was difficult for her to find words to inquire into the exact details of what had happened, not to mention that Liska had no reason to doubt the word of that foreigner either, for Akane felt that she should explain the context of her situation to her in one way or another.
-"I can see by your face that you find it hard to believe in what I say, don't you?"-
-"I would be lying if I said no."- Liska replied at Akane.
-"Well, in that case, I will give you a more or less simple explanation of what happened in my land so that you can understand how I feel about it."-
-"I am all ears, Akane."-
"Well... sigh ... here it goes."-
The human began to tell her alien friend a brief story about her world...
-"Long time ago, there was a great war. No one knows exactly how it began, except that some person or persons found it amusing, so to speak, to destroy a sacred city with everything and its inhabitants in the blink of an eye..."
The war that Akane was explaining was World War III and the event she mentioned was the nuclear destruction of a sacred city in the Middle East that was the trigger of that conflict, although Akane simplified the events so that Liska could understand them in their proper dimension and context.
-"Needless to say, the people in that part of the place where I come from were not very happy about what happened and they decided to declare war on the whole world..."-
-"Wait a second, Akane!"- The feline girl asked to Akane about that last part, since she found that part hard to believe. -"Are you saying that they declared a war against the whole world?"-
-"Well... to put it one way, you could say yes."-
-"And why?"-
-"I don't know, and many of the details of that war were lost in time or no one wants to say what really happened. But I can only tell you one thing: The war was so terrible, that many regions of my place of origin were left... to put it in a way that you can understand... contaminated and cursed, in such a way that no one can ever set foot in that place again for all eternity. Many people died in that war, and cities and even entire countries disappeared from one day to the next."-
The young alien girl was speechless to hear the latter. Although she had heard of tribes, and even cities being completely destroyed, the fact that something similar had happened in Akane's world, but at a level unimaginable to her, to the extent that entire regions were rendered uninhabitable forever, in this case as a result of the use of atomic, biological and chemical weapons, was something unheard of for someone like her, who could not imagine that there was anyone who was so deranged to kill thousands of people in a flash..
-"How... how can anyone be so cruel as to kill so many people at once? That's... that's... that's horrible!"- Liska replied in shock after hearing the abridged events regarding that war. -"And how is it possible that entire countries were cursed for all eternity? Were the responsible people wizards, sorcerers or what?"-
Akane didn't know how to answer her friend's question. It would be very difficult for Liska to understand the destructive power of an atomic weapon, or the insidious and deadly potential of a biological or chemical weapon in a way that she could fully understand, so the human female soldier simply said the following.
-"I can only tell you that the weapons they used in that war were weapons capable of killing millions of people in a matter of seconds."- The human woman responded to her friend's question. -"And that's all I can explain to you in a way you can understand, my friend."-
-"Killing millions of people... in a matter of seconds..."- Liska repeated Akane's words in a very somber and depressed way. -"That's... that's..."-
-"Look, dear, we better not keep discussing such sorry things."- Akane interrupted her feline friend in a very abrupt way. -"I'm too damn depressed about everything that occurred today to ever think about events that happened a long time ago, understand?"-
The slave took a few seconds on respond...
-"Well, I guess so, Akane..."-
-"And among the things I have to worry about right now are, mainly,"- The woman pointed the bloodied cushion inside a transparent plastic bag Akane had in her left hand. -"washing this cushion in the stream to prevent it from smelling bad."-
For obvious reasons, Liska lowered both her head and her ears, while she also began to wag her tail from one side to the other, when she saw that cushion that she had soiled hours ago and that now her human friend was going to wash in the river, to her personal embarrassment.
-"I'm... I'm sorry you have to do this, Akane... I'm really sorry..."-
-"Hey, don't worry about that, sweetie! I won't tell anyone about what happened in my place with you."- Then, Akane came closer to Liska's ears, so she could speak to her with a lower voice. -"If anyone asks about that blood, I'll say it's mine, or some other pretext I can think of. So you just relax and don't be embarrassed about this, all right?"-
The slave sighed more peacefully when she saw that the human did not seem to be bothered by what had happened to her cushion, and that she was even willing to tell a white lie in order to protect Liska from the potential humiliation of the other women in the village.
-"Thank you, Akane."-
-"Don't thank me, honey. I hope and someday you will do the same for me."-
Later, Akane changed the topic of the conversation to a different one...
-"By the way, dear, leaving aside all this dirty cushions, wars and other nonsense, and before I go to the stream, what are you doing right now?"-
-"What, me?"-
-"Yeah, you."-
Liska hesitated for a while, as she knew that what she was about to say would not be to Akane's liking...
-"Well... uh..."-
-"Something wrong, girl?"- Akane asked the feline girl. -"Or is it an issue that you don't want to tell me about?"-
The slave finally answered her friend's question, with a sad tone in her voice.
-"I will go with Mistress Sanna to prepare for sleeping with Rial... "-
Akane was silent, and she only looked at her alien friend with a serious and dissonant look, partly due to her opinion of Rial, and also due to the fact that she had a verbal run-in with him several hours ago during lunch.
-"I guess you're going to be upset with me, aren't you, Akane?"-
Akane slowly placed her hands on her friend's shoulders, and the human soldier looked at Liska with a sorrowful, resigned stare, knowing that she could do nothing to help her friend, except to watch her as she was willing to offer herself to Rial as her bed slave, completely unable to do anything to avoid her fate.
-"Just do what your heart thinks is best for you, my dear friend..."-
Afterwards, the slave looked at her friend in the same way, and she did not hesitate to let her know how appreciative she was of her concern, in spite of what was about to come.
-"Thank you... Akane."-
Immediately afterwards, Akane picked up the plastic bag, and went to the river to wash the dirty cushion, leaving her friend alone there, but not before giving her one last word of encouragement, this time in Japanese, the language they both spoke.
-"See you later, and good luck."-
-"See you soon then, Akane..."-
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Mother Sanna's tent, 08:00 PM (night)
-"May I come in, mistress?"-
The old lady quickly recognized that feminine voice on the other side of her teepee.
-"You can come in, dear."-
Quickly, Liska entered her mistress's home, who was waiting for her, while she had at her side several beauty implements, among them a comb, makeup, eyebrow mascara, among others, with which she planned to beautify her slave before her decisive night with her grandson.
-"You're a little late, young lady."- Sanna said with a deadpan gaze in her muzzle.
-"I am very sorry, my mistress, but I was talking with Akane a few moments ago, and she took up some of my time."- The young girl profusely apologized for being late with her.
-"I already know that. I've been listening you and Akane's chatting from here, which is not hard considering the voice of that girl."-
-"Oh, I see..."- The slave responded with a worried tone. -"Sorry for that..."
-"But I'm not going to scold you for that. Besides, I understand the reasons why she wanted to talk to you."- The old woman smiled more warmly at Liska, because she wanted to tell her about something more important than what she and Akane were talking about minutes ago. -"But that's beside the point. First and foremost, I want to give you a little gift for you from me..."-
Liska was a little surprised that her mistress wanted to give her a gift, even though she was her slave, which caused her to open her eyes as wide as she could.
-"A... gift?"-
-"Yes, a gift."- Mother Sanna said with a warm smile in her face. -"And I want you to have it from now on. Let me show it, my dear..."-
The old woman went to a chest where she had several clothes that she had, among them she had very old clothes that she didn't use, and among the clothes that she took out of that chest was a beautiful golden dress, that quickly matched very well with the color of Liska's fur and hair.
Anyone from Earth would realize that dress was basically a yukata, a kind of traditional Japanese kimono normally worn in summer, although someone more cynical might say that it looked more like a bathrobe, although that is a separate issue.
How it was possible that this old lady had a dress from a place so alien to the Native American-like culture from her region was something that Mother Sanna was willing to explain below.
-"What is that dress?"- Liska asked to the old woman.
-"Oh, this?"- Then, Sanna explained the story behind that Asian-looking dress. -"It is called a yukata, a traditional dress used in summer, and is worn by many of the people from the Hinowa Empire in the eastern lands. My late husband, Athos, bought it for me when he traveled to Hinowa on a trip to trade exotic fabrics from the merchants in its capital, Edo."-
The young slave was captivated by the beauty of that yukata, for it was more than evident that wherever Mother Sanna's husband bought such clothes, it must have cost a good deal of goods to exchange in barter, though for the old woman, that was the least of it.
-"It's... so... beautiful..."-
-"Yes, it is."- Then, Sanna snarked a bit. -"The only problem is that it never matched the color of my fur and hair, so I think it would look better on you, Liska."-
-"Oh, really?"- The girl smiled somewhat awkwardly when she heard that, although she did not hesitate to thank her mistress for giving her something as expensive as that yukata for her first night with Rial. -"Thank you very much!"-
-"Nah, don't thank me, dear!"- The old woman tried to play down the fact that she had given such costly clothing to one of her slaves. -"You are my favorite slave, and I think you deserve this more than any other girl I know, even free girls like Kebec, Kayce, and even Akane..."-
Liska looked with a certain look of sadness and concern at his mistress, for she interpreted that remark as a negative criticism towards her friend, the human woman from a "very distant" place, as Akane used to say at first.
Quickly, Mother Sanna saw that look in her slave's eyes, and she explained what she meant by her words.
-"I can see from your look that you didn't like what I said about Akane, did you?"-
For obvious reasons, the slave did not answer that question, but that was not necessary, since Liska's look was all she needed to know to answer her in the right way.
-"I don't blame you if my mention of Akane made you uncomfortable, my dear. She is not a bad person per se, and I can see that she adores you very much and holds you in high esteem, even though you and she have come to argue out loud, as happened today..."-
-"You mean you heard everything we were both talking about a few hours ago when I was inside her teepee?"-
-"Considering the tone of that girl's voice, and your own, that's not a hard thing to do."-
-"Oh..."- Liska replied in a very ashamed tone. -"I'm sorry..."-
-"Bah, don't worry, it's no a big deal, dear."- Then, the old lady said more about Akane Araki. -"The only thing I don't like about that girl is her very conflictive attitude towards everyone, especially her opinions about our traditions, even if she has no desire to intervene in our affairs, apart from her criticisms."-
-"I also agree with you, my mistress."- The slave girl gave also her opinion about Akane. -"She is usually very vocal at times on things that bother her. And sometimes... sigh... I wish she would stay quiet at times."-
-"I think we both agree on that."- The, Sanna gave the Hinowan yukata to Liska. -"But let's leave that for another day, now go and try on that yukata to see how it looks on you."-
The slave quickly undressed and tried on the luxurious yukata, which fit her perfectly. Meanwhile, Mother Sanna helped her to carefully adjust it, while she admired how those oriental clothes fit so well on that girl.
-"I hate to admit this, but that yukata suits you really well, not to mention how well it matches your hair and fur color."-
The slave did not know what to say, for even she knew that those clothes enhanced her own beauty considerably, but she preferred only to be discreet about it.
-"Uhh... thank you..."-
-"You can thank me later. Now, I'm going to give you a hairstyle to match that yukata."-
-"What kind of hairstyle?"-
-"One similar to that of the courtesans from the court of the emperors of the Hinowa Empire."- The old feline woman replied. -"It's a very elaborate hairstyle, and it's going to take some time, so I'm asking you to sit still while I arrange your hair."-
-"Understood."-
-"And while I'm doing your hair, I'm going to tell you some things you can do while you're in front of Rial in bed, so pay attention to what I say."-
And so, Mother Sanna began to adjust Liska's blonde hair in such a way that it resembled the hairstyle of a noble woman from that eastern nation where the yukata the young slave was going to wear came from. The hairstyle was very elaborate, almost as elaborate as that of a Japanese geisha, and it was a miracle that old lady, coming from a somewhat more primitive culture similar to that of the Native Americans, could perfectly emulate that complicated and artistic hairstyle using only her wit and good memory to remember all the exact details about that hairstyle.
But for Liska, to be able to see herself in the mirror as she was transformed from a run-down slave into a beauty that would rival any other woman, even highborn women, was something that intimidated that girl who until just a few hours ago considered herself, in front of Akane, as someone whose life had no value, not even to herself.
And while her mistress, Sanna, was still carefully grooming and combing her hair, the young slave felt an unusual sense of fear and worry, for the whole experience was completely new to her. The fact that her first time would be with someone she never chose, but still she loved him for the fact that, despite his temper, there was a very big heart hiding that tough man façade, was something that made that young girl who had just come of age a feeling of sheer dread in her own body.
And the old woman had quickly noticed Liska's silence, and wanted to know her reason.
-"You are very quiet. You don't even look like you're breathing..."-
-"I am... a little nervous."-
-"And may I know the reason, dear?"-
-"I have a lot of things on my mind that are bothering me right now."- Liska explained to her mistress her worries. -"All those things I have to know, what I have to do in bed... and especially, I am very worried about what everyone in the tribe will think about me from now on... especially, what Akane will think about me..."-
-"Oh, come on, don't be bothered by that! I went through the same thing when I was your age when I had my first time with Athos. That's very normal and it's not something you should be ashamed of, Liska dear."-
-"But there is another thing that worries me more."-
-"And what would that be?"-
-"Do you think that Rial... will be nicer with me, now that we are a couple? Do you think that he will treat me as his mate, and no longer as an ordinary slave?"-
The old woman stopped momentarily from combing her slave's hair and she made a deadpan expression on her face...
-"I will tell you one thing:"- Mother Sanna said with a somewhat angry tone in her voice -"If you do everything I tell you correctly, he may be your slave in bed this night. And he better do it, because otherwise he's going to regret it."-
Hearing that, Liska giggled maliciously, for she never imagined that her mistress would be willing to make her own grandson suffer if he tried to treat her slave badly in bed, something the old woman noticed right away.
-"What's so funny, little girl?"-
-"I never imagined that you would be willing to punish Rial severely for his attitude, that's why I was laughing."-
-"I don't like his arrogant attitude at times, especially when it comes to his opinion of women. And now that he is under my care, I plan to let him know one day what I think about his bad manners, the easy way... or the hard way, if necessary."-
The slave does not mention anything about the last point, since it was already a more personal issue between her and her grandson, and it was not in her to have an opinion on other people's matters.
-"Well, putting that aside, I think we're all set."-
Liska looked in the mirror once more and realized how well her new hairstyle, along with the elegant yukata from Hinowa, matched her, causing her to look in the mirror several times, unable to say anything else since the shock of seeing that she would now look like someone really worthy to wear such attire.
-"From your look I can see you can't believe how good you look in that yukata, huh?"
-"I never imagined..."- The girl said, with some tears in her eyes. -"...that I would be so... beautiful ...with this on."-
-"Bah!"- Sanna said with annoyed tone in her voice. -"Even without that thing on you, you are very pretty, my dear. You just have to believe it."-
-"I guess so..."-
Pause.
-"By the way, and changing the subject a little, why don't you go have dinner with Akane right now before sleeping with Rial, while I talk with him alone about some things?"-
-"Dining with Akane?"- The ginger-furred slave asked with a puzzled look at her mistress, since the obvious thing would be either eating with Mother Sanna or with Rial. Akane had no connection whatsoever in the matter, not to mention the negative opinion she already had about the fact that Liska would sleep with Rial that night. -"And why do I have to have dinner with her?"-
-"Because I want you to say to her that I order it. I will talk to that girl tomorrow, because it is time for her to explain her troublesome behavior, and about herself, even if she is doing it for good."-
-"Understood."-
-"Just try not to take too long to eat with her, will you? I'll also try not to take too long to talk to Rial, as well as to prepare the teepee so that you two have a pleasant night."-
-"Understood."- The slave replied again.
-"And finally..."- The old lady said, while holding her breath. -"...try not to argue with her again, dear."-
-"That's not going to be necessary, I hope."- Liska giggled nervously a bit.
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Akane's tent, 09:00 PM (night)
Akane Araki was at that moment preparing an instant meal using one of her MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat) rations that she still had plenty of. On that occasion, the human was preparing a chicken ramen soup, which she was heating in her electric oven that she had near her laptop.
And while she was preparing the meal, she was listening to music on the computer, obviously using her headphones.
The song she was listening to on her PC was a classic song from the early 21st century: Daybreak's Bell, performed by L'Arc-en-Ciel, and used as the first opening of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
By sheer coincidence, at the moment that song finished playing, Akane heard a female voice very familiar to her, which was very helpful to her, as if she had kept on listening to music, she would not have heard her voice.
-"May I coming, Akane?"-
The African-Japanese woman was not ready to welcome Liska into her home, so she asked her for some patience to enter.
-"Wait me a few minutes, please, I'm not ready yet."-
While this was happening, Akane manually turned off the laptop, while she put some things in her backpack, and then, she was ready to accommodate her guest.
-"You can come in now, dear."-
The young slave, dressed in the yukata Mother Sanna had given her, entered Akane's home. The human was on her back at that moment, as she was still putting some things away, while she was drinking a cup of green tea at the same time.
-"Good evening, Akane. What are you doing?"-
-"Can't you see it?"- The soldier replied to Liska in a rude way. -"I'm putting some of my stuff in my backpack, that's what I'm doing."-
The girl didn't seem very happy that her friend seemed to be willfully ignoring her, something she let her know...
-"Could you at least look at me, Akane?"-
Akane, who was busy packing up her things, reluctantly decided to do what her friend was asking, thinking that she wanted to ask her some favor regarding her night with Rial, about some problem related to the latter, or anything that the human didn't want to hear at the time, since she wasn't in the mood to talk about that topic for the rest of the day.
-"Well, I hope it's important, Liska, because I am not in the mood to hear crap about..."-
And the moment Akane looked at the young slave dressed in that gorgeous golden yukata from Hinowa, coupled with the equally stunning hairstyle that Mother Sanna had done for her minutes earlier, she gave the impression that Liska was a completely different person than the Liska she knew since the first day Akane was in the Highland tribe...
And when Akane saw that girl, who came from a similar culture to that of Native Americans, dressed in a yukata, her first reaction to seeing her friend dressed like a Japanese noblewoman was one of total shock.
-"PSHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"-
Liska, for obvious reasons, thought Akane was feeling sick, seeing that she had spit out all the green tea she was drinking when the human saw her feline friend clad in that yukata.
-"A-are you all right, Akane?"-
The human woman, who was wiping off with a napkin what was left of the green tea that had sprayed all on her face after spitting it out so hard, did not find that harmless remark made by the slave funny, something that was made known to her in Japanese.
-"All you all right MY ASS!"- Akane yelled loudly at Liska in Kansai-accented Japanese. -"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU DRESSED UP LIKE A FUCKIN' OIRAN, HUH?"-
The young slave did not know what to say about it, mainly because she did not know the meaning of the word "oiran", which is the Japanese word to describe basically a high-ranking courtesan, or in less polite terms, a high-class prostitute that was common among the nobility of feudal Japan, Although it was probably Mother Sanna, who gave Liska that yukata and styled her hair, did not have the slightest idea of the meaning of that combination of clothes and hairstyle that was common among those women from that distant time in her adopted country.
It was also possible that in Hinowa, the country where that yukata came from, the meaning of those clothes was very different from what exists in Japan, on Earth, but that was something that did not come to Akane's mind until much later.
And this needs to be commented on, for Akane already had enough reasons to hate Rial and his grandmother, and seeing Liska dressed as a Japanese oiran only gave the human more grounds to hate them even more.
-"Ex-excuse, A-Akane, but..."- Liska stuttered in Japanese. -"what is an oiran?"-
The African-Japanese female soldier responded in a very puzzled tone, as it was obvious that her friend did not understand the meaning of that word.
-"So you don't know what an oiran is?"-
-"No."- The other girl replied. -"It's the first time I've heard that word, let alone from you, because it's supposed to be you who's teaching me your language."-
Akane Araki was quickly faced with a dilemma: She would have had no problem telling Liska the meaning and context of the clothes she was wearing, as well as the meaning of the word "oiran". But equally, she also knew that if she tried to intervene in the whole situation, even if indirectly, she could not measure the long-term or short-term consequences it would have on Akane.
It should be emphasized that the human soldier, as a member of the Japanese Space Self-Defense Force, was taught to not interfere in the affairs of other cultures, either earthbound or alien, regardless of her opinion of those traditions, and the last thing Akane wanted was to cause a chain of events, no matter how well-intentioned, in which she, or Liska, for that matter, might even lose their lives.
With that dilemma in mind, Akane could only say the following, albeit in a rather broad sense, without addressing the issue of prostitution that all entailed:
-"An oiran is basically a high-ranking courtesan who existed in the ancient times of the place where I come from."- Akane explained to her feline friend about the term. -"And the reason why I yelled out in surprise is because I never imagined seeing such a thing in this place."-
-"Does that mean that there is something like Hinowa where you come from, Akane?"-
Akane was again puzzled, since she never heard about that place named Hinowa before...
-"Hinowa?"- The human asked to Liska. -"Is that the name of the place where that yukata comes from?"-
-"Yes."- The feline slave girl replied. -"My mistress told me that her late mate had bought her this yukata when he traveled there."-
On hearing that last piece, Akane Araki gulped as a result of the emotional impact of hearing that there was a country very similar to Japan on that unknown planet. And she had very good reason to be equally surprised and also concerned:
If a Japan-like country existed on that planet, that meant that tribe full of Native American-like beings was not the only thing that had some resemblance to some Earth culture, which meant that planet might have some unspecified link or connection with Earth that its own people possibly were not aware of, because otherwise they would have already identified Akane as a human, something no one had done up to that point.
Now she needed to know something that could give her an idea about the technological level of that unknown world...
-"May I ask the name of the town where your mistress' mate bought that yukata?"-
-"According with my mistress, it was named Edo."-
The black woman grimaced at the name. Edo was the ancient name, used from the Sengoku period until the Meiji Restoration era, of Japan's capital, Tokyo. That meant that the technological level, not only of the nation of Hinowa, but also very probably of that entire planet, was more or less similar to that of the 18th century on Earth, with all that entailed.
And there was another thing she noticed when she heard the name Hinowa: That name was one of the many ancient names used to refer to Japan in the past.
And finally, there was another thing that worried her even more: Akane quickly realized that she had talked too much about her own place of origin, a thing she had tried to avoid from the beginning, since she had mentioned that in Japan there was also the concept of "oiran", which could have helped her friend Liska to know about Akane's origins.
Neither did Akane's silence on the subject help her in the least...
-"Is something wrong, Akane?"- Liska timidly asked to her human friend in Japanese. -"You went silent for a while."-
-"Eh, what?"- Akane replied with a surprised and distracted tone, but this time in Liska's language instead. -"What did you say?"-
-"When I said the name of Edo, you were silent for a few moments."- The feline girl replied in her own language.
-"Oh, nothing."- Akane replied with a nervous tone. -"It was nothing. I was just curious to know that."-
The slave was not very satisfied with the answer her human friend provided, given the time it took her to answer after she heard the name of the capital of Hinowa, Edo.
-"Are you really sure, Akane?"- The girl asked again, this time with a worried tone. -"When you heard that name, it sounded like you were very worried. Could it be that you came from there?"-
The human didn't want to talk about it anymore, and suddenly she wanted to change the topic of conversation for a different one...
-"Let's change the subject before I seriously start feeling REAAAAAAAAALLY angry, sweetie!"- Akane said in a loud voice to her friend. -"That's something I don't want to talk about right now. And I hope you understand that, get it?"-
Liska sighed a bit, since she felt that her friend was again avoiding the subject of her own background, as if that issue was a very big taboo for that foreign woman.
-"Understood, Akane."- The slave girl replied with a resigned look on her face. -"As you wish..."-
-"Well, leaving that aside, what did you come to my home for, huh?"- The African-Japanese soldier asked to the ginger-furred girl. -"I don't think you came here just to flaunt that yukata you're going to use when sleeping with Rial, do you?"-
-"Eh, no."- Liska replied at Akane. -"Mistress Sanna wanted me to eat with you before... you know... going to sleep."-
-"You eat with me?"- The soldier replied visibly annoyed at that request. -"Can't your mistress feed you, or what?"-
-"It is an order from her."-
What Akane heard from her friend was not to the complete liking of that human woman. Although she didn't mind having to feed her friend in the least, having to do so on an order from someone else, especially when that order came from someone to whom Akane had a very ambivalent relationship, as was the case with Sanna, was something that displeased her greatly.
-"Well, I reckon I don't have a choice here, do I?"- Akane rolled her eyes in disgust.
But on the other hand, feeding Liska was also something that gave her a lot of fun and satisfaction, since the young slave girl enjoyed the Japanese food that Akane prepared with the help of her MRE rations that she had on hand.
And this time, Akane was going to make that feline girl try another typical Japanese dish, only that one was going to be a dish from her adopted city, Osaka.
-"Considering that, I plan to prepare something much better for you this time, instead of making you try ramen or something else, sweetie."-
-"Something better than ramen?"- Liska asked to her human friend. -"And what would it be now, Akane?"-
-"Okonomiyaki."-
Even with her knowledge of Japanese, the young alien had trouble pronouncing the word correctly, as it sounded like a complicated tongue twister in her language.
-"Oh-ko-noh-mee-WHAT?!"-
-"Okonomiyaki. Basically, a dough with several grilled ingredients."- Akane explained about that Japanese dish. -"It's a typical dish from the cuisine where I come from, and it's one of the things I liked to eat most in my hometown. And you are really going to love this."-
-"And what are its ingredients?"-
-"Flour, yam, water, eggs, shredded cabbage, green onion, sea food, bacon, and lots of other delicious stuff."-
The young slave seemed to be very interested in trying that food, just by listening to the ingredients that included a typical okonomiyaki.
-"Sounds delicious. I'd love to taste that if possible, Akane."-
-"In that case, let me prepare a delicious okonomiyaki for you, my dear."- The African-Japanese soldier said with very wide smile in her face, after seeing Liska's interest on tasting that famous dish from the Kansai cuisine. -"Luckily, I have some ration bags to prepare it instantly."-
And without thinking twice, Akane took out of her backpack two bags of MRE rations to prepare okonomiyaki instantly, which she started to prepare right away. And while she was at it, the human woman brought out from the same backpack a bottle that seemed to contain an alcoholic drink that she intended to share with her feline companion.
-"You know, I don't remember if I asked you this before, Liska, but, how old are you?"-
-"Oh, you mean my age?"- The slave girl asked to Akane. -"Why do you ask?"-
-"Because I'm going to serve alcohol, and I'm not going to hand it out to you if you're underage, and also I don't want any problems with your mistress if she notices you reeking of booze the next day, so you better tell me the truth for your sake."-
-"Well, I'm eighteen turns of seasons since many moons ago."-
Akane looked at her friend closely, and she could not help but make a snide comment about her physical appearance, which did not match her age.
-"Oh, I see. Although to be honest, you look younger than that, maybe because you are... a little bit... short."-
-"Yes..."- The feline girl replied with a annoyed expression in her face at that remark Akane did. -"I already know that..."-
-"Leaving that aside, I'm going to serve you a traditional drink from my place of origin: We call this sake."-
-"Sake?"- Liska asked about that alcoholic drink Akane had in her hand. -"And what is that?"-
-"Basically, it is fermented rice liquor."- The human explained what that alcoholic drink was made of. -"Since I don't know how you'll react to a foreign alcoholic drink, the sake I'm going to serve you doesn't have much alcohol in it, so there's no risk of you getting drunk quickly."-
-"Oh, I see..."- Then, the slave girl did another question. -"And how does it taste?"-
-"It's a little sweeter than the alcoholic drinks your people drink made from corn, so the taste may seem a little more... strange at first, but I expect you'll get used to it later."-
Later, Akane served the sake in two small square cups, called "masu" in Japanese. The human served the drink in such a way that the liquid almost overflowed the rim of the cups, something Liska noticed immediately, since she did not understand the ceremonial meaning of that act, which seemed to be a mistake on Akane's part, when in fact it had a deeper meaning in Japanese culture...
-"Why are you filling those cups almost to the rim, Akane?"-
-"Oh, you mean what I'm doing right now?"- The black woman pointed her finger to both masu cups. -"In the culture where I come from, filling a masu cup with sake in this way has a very special meaning for us."-
-"And what does it mean?"-
-"It means that hopefully you and me shall have a life full of abundance and prosperity."- The human explained, in a solemn way and in a more serious tone than she was used to, the meaning of that particular act.
The slave was moved by the gesture Akane made to her as she served her sake in that special way. That meant that, although Akane might have a very negative attitude towards the relationship between Liska and Rial, she only wished them both to have a healthy and prosperous relationship, and she knew that Rial might very well feel the same way, even if he might not want to say so openly...
-"I... I don't know what to say about this, but... but..."-
The young girl gulped, and then, with some tears in her eyes, she showed her gratitude to her human friend...
"...thank you very much for caring about me... Akane."-
Akane also shed some tears when she saw her friend's face...
-"The truth is... don't thank me, my dear friend. You are the only friend I have in this place, and you deserve the best... A cup of sake is the least I can offer to you..."-
...and without a moment's hesitation, she raised her cup with sake, toasting her friend...
-"And as we say in my native place: （かんぱい！） CHEERS!"-
And the African-Japanese woman drank all the sake that flowed in her masu in one go.
-"Eh... well... "-
Liska hesitated a bit, and then, she also imitated her human friend's gesture in the same way, through in more timid fashion, as she never did something like that in her life.
-"（かんぱいです, 明音さん）Cheers for you, Akane..."- The slave girl said in Japanese to her human friend.
Unlike Akane, Liska drank her sake more slowly and solemnly, partly to prevent the alcohol contained in that Japanese drink from rushing to her head, and partly to better appreciate its taste. After drinking the entire contents of her masu, Akane asked her friend what she thought of the drink.
-"So, what do you think about sake?"-
-"It has a very... sweet taste, but at the same time... it's quite strange."-
-"It is normal, you will soon get used to its taste."- Akane said. -"The same thing happened to me the first time I drank this when I came of age."-
-"I suppose so."-
-"Would you like me to pour you another drink, dear?"-
-"Uh, no, thank you."- The slave politely declined. -"I don't want to drink too much when I'm in bed."-
-"Well, you are right on that."-
After both women drank their respective drinks, Akane began serving the okonomiyaki on a large plate, where both girls could serve themselves with spoons.
When she saw the look and smell of that typical Japanese dish, Liska could not help but indulge herself in a very effusive way.
-"Hmmmm... that okonomiyaki thing of yours really looks delicious!"-
-"That's right."- Akane replied with pride. -"And just give it a try, because you're going to love this."-
Thus, Akane served the okonomiyaki on two plates, with their respective spoons, and both women began to eat immediately.
-"And how does the okonomiyaki taste for you, uh, sweetie?"-
-"Well... eh..."- The ginger-furred alien girl gave her opinion about the Japanese dish Akane handed out to her. -"It has an unusual and unique taste... but it tastes very good."-
-"I'm glad you liked it."- The black woman from Earth replied with a smile in her face, while drinking another cup of sake. -"You can indulge yourself with all the okonomiyaki you want."-
-"Really? Thank you, Akane!"-
And so, Liska and Akane ate abundantly until all the okonomiyaki was gone. While the young slave girl was more than happy to have eaten that delicious dinner, Akane, on the other hand, seemed to have had some... stomach problems after she finished eating.
-"BURP!"- Then, Akane complained loudly, while putting her hands in her belly. -"Holy crap! I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep well tonight after this meal, my friend."-
-"Heh, heh!"- Liska giggled at Akane's expense. -"And I thought you had more appetite for this, Akane."-
-"What do you mean with that, silly?"- The human asked in a very inquisitory tone to her alien friend.
-"Well,"- The feline girl said with a sarcastic smile in her muzzle. -"let's say by your looks, you already have more... experience... eating this kind of thing."-
-"What, are you calling me FAT?"- Akane retorted angrily to Liska.
The alien girl pointed her finger to Akane's wide belly.
-"Haven't you looked in a mirror lately, Akane?"- Then, Liska giggled again.
Normally, those comments about her weight would have caused Akane Araki to boil over in anger, but considering the circumstances, the fact that her friend was saying that in jest just to lighten the mood without seriously offending her, and also the fact that Akane didn't feel like having a quarrel with Liska, she just decided to play along with her alien friend.
-"All right, I'm fat, and so what?"-
The slave began to laugh in a merry fashion when she heard that admission statement about her human friend saying that she was fat, something that caused both amazement and annoyance in Akane, who wanted to know how funny that was to her friend.
-"What the hell is so funny for you, Liska dear?"-
-"Well, I've never met a woman who openly admitted to being fat, and that's why I find it so funny! giggle"-
Then, Akane smiled in a sardonic way...
-"I think giving you sake was not a good idea, to be honest."-
-"And why, Akane?"- The feline girl asked to her human friend, still laughing a bit.
-"Because the alcohol went to your head faster than it did to me."-
Pause.
-"Come on, Akane, don't take it so hard, I was just kidding..."-
-"Yeah, right."- The Earth woman said, still with a snarky smile. -"I don't think you'd like it if I made jokes about your body, would you?"-
-"Of course not, but..."-
-"But what?"- Akane said after she saw Liska hesitated a bit.
-"Well..."- The girl replied, this time with a more humble tone in her voice. -"Sorry for calling you fat, Akane... I just wanted to be funny, but I think I offended you."-
The human noticed that the young slave was visibly sorry for having called her friend "fat", which caused Akane to turn down the harsh tone of her voice as well, and to reciprocate.
-"All right, apology accepted, but be careful who you say those things to, Liska. I don't like being called fat, just like you don't like being called with crap related to your slave status."-
The young woman realized that Akane was right, and that caused the girl to lower her ears in shame.
-"I'm truly sorry, Akane, I didn't mean to insult you by calling you fat..."-
-"Nah, don't worry about that now, dear!"- The black woman said, this time in a more merrier tone in her voice. -"The important thing is that you admitted you were wrong and that's what matters most to me."-
Then, Akane put her hands on Liska's shoulders, to show her that she did not hold any resentment for having unintentionally insulted her, which encouraged the young slave.
-"Thanks for your words, Akane."-
-"You don't need to thank me, sweetie."- Then, Akane raised her index finger and closed her eyes. -"As your "big sister", it is my duty to straighten out the little sister when she screws things up."-
-"And since when are you my big sister, huh?"- Liska retorted with a snarky smile in her muzzle. -"You're not even from my own species to begin with!"-
-"Well, that's something we say a lot where I come from, and I've always wanted to say that."-
-"Uh, what?"-
Both women looked at each other, and seconds later, both started laughing out loud, as both Akane and Liska realized that was quite funny, and despite their physical and cultural differences, it was evident that both had a similar sense of humor.
-"Damn, girl, some things, no matter where they are, are never going to change!"-
-"I agree with you, Akane..."-
-"Although I didn't expect to do a boke and tsukkomi comedy routine with you."-
-"And what is a boke and tsukkomi comedy routine, Akane?"-
The African-Japanese woman realized that she had said another thing she shouldn't have said about Japan, Osaka, or the Earth as a whole, so she decided to promptly change the topic.
-"Eh, I don't think you will understand that, dear..."-
-"And why not?"-
-"Because..."- Akane stopped for a few moments before continuing with what she was going to say, to avoid saying something more sensible. -"... AHHGG! JUST FORGET WHAT I SAID, DAMMIT!"-
Liska looked at Akane with a certain annoyed glance, for she felt that the human was trying to avoid certain issues that she accidentally brought about her own origins, but she also knew that she could not pressure her to tell the truth. Just being able to talk to her was more than enough.
That did not stop the slave from remarking on her friend's secretive stance, though.
-"Sometimes I wish you would start telling the truth about yourself."-
-"Well, you know that has to wait, although I understand your frustration on that, sweetie."-
Akane looked at a clock that was behind her, and noticed that more than an hour had passed...
-"By the way, Liska dear..."- Akane asked her alien friend. -"Aren't you supposed to go to your mistress' teepee to... you-know-what?"-
The slave stood up from her seat, looked outside Akane's tent and quickly realized that it was already quite late.
-"Oh, no! You are right!"-
Liska was about to leave Akane's tent, when the latter wanted to have a last word with the slave...
-"Hey, wait a second! I need to say something to you before you go!"-
-"What do you want to share with me, Akane?"-
Without any warning, the human tenderly embraced her feline friend in the most affectionate way possible, perhaps to express to her how much she loved her, and that to some extent, Akane felt sorry for what Liska was about to do, so the Earth woman could only physically express to her how she felt about that alien girl.
Liska could not help feeling so surprised, and at the same time, moved by that gesture of kindness from that foreign woman from another world, who only wished her the best for her, in spite of the difficult conditions they were both going through, which in Akane's case would be to be stranded in a world and a place completely unknown to her, and for L is to be the slave of someone else.
-"Akane... why are you doing... this?"-
-"Because I care about you... that's why..."-
Feeling the loving embrace of that human woman, the young slave also embraced her friend in the same way, as she purred like a little kitten at her side, something that moved and made Akane Araki blush at the same time.
-"You know something, dear?"- Akane said to Liska with a very soft voice. -"You are so cute when you purr..."-
-"I don't purr at all."- The slave denied purring at her.
-"Yes, you do."-
-"I say no."- The feline girl replied with a deadpan voice, while still embracing Akane.
-"And I say yes."-
-"No."-
-"Yes."-
-"No..."-
-"Yes... and you are reeeeeeeally enjoying this."-
After that mutual teasing, Liska was ready to leave Akane's home, but not before waving goodbye to her human friend.
-"Well, I have to go now. See you tomorrow, Akane."- The slave said goodbye to her friend before leaving her hostess's home.-"Just wish me luck, please."-
-"Same to you, honey."- The African-Japanese woman replied back, with a sad expression in her face. -"Take care of yourself... and good luck."-
And so, Liska Tas-so-wen left Akane Araki's home, to face what she would expect that night with Rial Hada-ro-seg. Now it was only a matter of everything going well for her...
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Outside Pyndan's tent, 09:10 PM (night)
-"Now that we've finished dinner, don't you think it's time for me to go to bed, Panka?"-
Rial and Pyndan, along with his younger sister Panka, had finished dinner in the night, and the older brother was concerned that Panka would be sleeping too late, not to mention that he needed his sister to go to sleep to talk privately with Rial, as they were planning to discuss more adult stuff between them.
-"But I want to be here with you for a while longer!"- The little kitten girl said in a joyful manner.
-"Heh, heh! Yes, I know, but we need me and Rial to be alone for a few moments, and besides, you can't sleep that late, so I need you to go to bed, all right?"-
Panka knew she had no choice but to obey her older brother...
-"All right..."- Then, the girl rose from her seat, and set out to sleep on the teepee she and her brother Pyndan shared. -"Good night, big brother!"-
-"Good night and nice dreams for you, little sister!"-
And so, the girl left the campfire where she was dining with the adults, and went to her teepee to sleep, leaving Rial and Pyndan alone to talk to each other.
-"Well, now we can be alone, can't we, Rial?"-
But the young black-furred warrior seemed visibly distraught for some reason, for his gaze went straight to the ground and his tail wagged back and forth in a sign of unease, and likewise he did not utter a word.
-"Is something wrong, Rial?"- Pyndan asked to his brother-cousin -"You haven't said a word during the whole dinner, and it's obvious that you look a bit... depressed, for what I can see."-
Rial sighed a bit, and then, he finally spoke...
-"There are several things that worry me..."-
-"I guess it has to do with your first night with Liska, doesn't it?"-
-"Well..."- Rial sighed again, and then explained his concerns to Pyndan. -"Not only that, but it's also about what happened today at lunch with Akane..."-
-"And since when do you care what Akane thinks about you, huh?"- The white-furred young man said with a puzzled expression in his face. -"Usually you care very little about what she has to say about you, and now you seem to worry a lot about what she said today, don't you?"-
-"It's just that possibly..."- Then, he cursed to himself. -"Nah, what the hell am I lying for, I really don't know!"-
-"Are you worried that Akane could be right?"-
An awkward silence was felt in the campfire...
-"I don't know... I don't really do."-
Meanwhile, Pyndan stared at the sky, especially at the two moons in the starry night sky of that unknown planet, watching with a certain smile on his face.
-"By the way, the moons are very beautiful tonight, aren't they?"-
-"And what's so special about them looking beautiful?"- Rial responded without too much emotion in his voice. -"They look the same for me like every night."-
-"Well, I was saying that because you were supposed to go to your teepee to... you-know-what."-
-"Are you crazy or what?"- The black-furred feline responded with a worried and annoyed tone to his partner. -"Grandmother and Liska are probably still there, and I don't think they'd be amused if I showed up like some guy in heat."-
Pyndan noticed that his friend was right, and quickly apologized for having suggested that.
-"Oops, sorry for saying that..."-
In an exercise in irony, the moment the latter had curiously mentioned Mother Sanna, she suddenly appeared behind her grandson, when both believed she was still on her teepee grooming Liska for that night...
-"I guess your dinner was good tonight, wasn't it?"-
Obviously, both boys welcomed the old lady in the most proper manner.
-"Oh, hello, grandmother!"- Rial, the grandson, was the first to greet her.
-"Good evening, grandmother."- Pydan went next.
-"I need to talk to Rial alone,"- The old feline lady said to both men. -"I assume there is no problem with that, right?"-
-"No, of course not!"- The white-furred warrior responded first. -"I guess you wanted to talk with her, don't you?"-
-"Well... yes."-
-"In that case, and if you'll excuse us, we have to go, good night."-
-"Good night, grandmother."- Then, Pyndan addressed to his friend in a cheerful way. -"And good night for you too, Rial. Hope you can tell me how it went with her tomorrow!"-
Rial stood up from his place at the side of the fire, and went to follow his grandmother so he could talk to her in private, but not before saying goodbye to his cousin-brother.
-"Right, like I'm going to talk to you about that."-
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Western outskirts of the village, 09:30 PM (night)
-"All right, we're alone now, grandmother."- Rial said to Mother Sanna in a remote place far away from the village. -"What do you want to talk to me about?"-
The old woman thought for a few seconds what she was going to say to her grandson, and then, she started talking.
-"Maybe at this stage it is already obvious, but I just want to ask you something, as your grandmother:"- The old feline lady said to Rial. -"I just ask you, when you are in bed with Liska, please don't be hard on her."-
-"Of course not, grandmother!"- The young black-furred warrrior replied with a surprised tone to his relative. -"Why would I do something like that on her first night?"-
-"I said this because I don't want a repeat of what happened in the first days that girl came to this village as a slave, and how you had to discipline her violently in order to tame her."- Sanna pointed her finger to her grandson. -"In short, I don't want you to force her to do something she wouldn't like to do during sex."-
Rial started wagging his tail back and forth in a nervous manner, since he did not expect to have to deal with something so intimate with his own grandmother, even if she had good reason to talk about it, since she cared about the welfare of her slave before anything else.
-"I promise I won't do anything violent with her. I think I'm not so... violent to do something like that,"- The young feline reassured his grandmother. -"and the truth is that I'm just as nervous about this, and I imagine that Liska must feel the same way, right?"-
-"Indeed."- And then, Mother Sanna gave a more lenghty explanation. -"And I think you must already know the reason, don't you?"-
-"Well, I remember she once told me that her parents died years ago, and that she lived with her aunt and uncle and the rest of her family before... well... sigh... you know what..."-
-"That's right."- The old woman looked at his young relative with a more stern gaze. -"And I want her to be more than just a slave to you or me."-
Rial realized that, from the context of his venerable grandmother's words, she wanted his relationship with Liska to be something more personal than simply master and slave...
-"Hey, grandmother, you're not seriously suggesting that I should...?"-
-"Yes..."- Sanna interrupted the young man before he could finish. -"I would like you to marry her."-
The young warrior opened his eyes as wide as he could to his grandmother's advice, for he never imagined that, of all the people in his life, she would be the first to suggest the idea of marrying Liska, who was not only the family slave, but also an outsider from the tribe. In view of that, Rial did not know what to say next.
-"Wha-WHAT?!"- The black cat responded with a surprised tone. -"You're not seriously joking about this, are you?" -
-"Of course not!"- The old lady angrily retorted to her grandson. -"You know I don't joke with something as serious like that, kid!"-
The young black-furred warrior did not know what to say about that. On one hand, he could not deny that he loved the young slave, but on the other hand, Rial had trouble grasping that he was going to marry his own slave, even if there was nothing prohibiting it in the laws of the tribe.
And as if this wasn't enough, he also had to deal with what Akane Araki might think of their relationship, considering how much she cared about Liska, and how much she hated him too.
Mother Sanna noticed that her grandson didn't say a word, something the old feline woman let him know straight away.
-"I guess this must be very difficult for you to digest, isn't it?"-
-"Well..."-
Rial placed his hands on his head, while he lowered it down nervously, and at the same time, his tail was wagging furiously back and forth. He tried to find the right words to say to his grandmother, but his feelings were meddling with his own thoughts...
-"...I would lie if I said I didn't love Liska, but at the same time, I am very worried about what everyone in the tribe would say about me if I married her... and above all..."-
-"And above all what?"-
-"Eh... well... I hate to admit this but... I worry about what Akane might have to say about me..."-
The old woman took a deep breath, with a certain distaste evident on her face, and she did not hesitate to say what she thought about the matter and what she intended to do about that human woman.
-"Akane Araki... "- Sanna said with an annoyed tone. -"Someone has to put that girl in her place for once..."-
-"What do you mean with that? I assume that Akane did..."-
-"You are not the only one with problems with Akane, Rial."- The old lady explained, while interrupting the young man. -"Liska also had a very heated row with her this afternoon, where she made her cry."-
-"Re-really?"- The grandson responded in a very surprised way. -"I can't imagine both of them arguing violently, considering how much they admire each other..."-
-"Yes, it was, and I think it's time someone should put that woman in her place for once."-
-"And what do you plan to do about her?"- Rial asked with curiosity.
-"I will talk to her tomorrow morning, when she leaves her teepee for her bath."- The old Siamese-like feline woman said. -"For now, I will sleep on Pyndan and Panka's teepee this night. You should worry about being with Liska, and make sure she has a pleasant and lovely evening for her and you to remember."-
Mother Sanna also added the following warning to her grandson...
-"And if I find out that you did something awful to her, I don't need to tell you what's going to happen to you, whether you're my grandson or not!"-
Rial gulped down when he heard his grandmother's warning, even if he didn't plan to do anything like that with the young slave, but considering the past history between the two of them, the old woman had her reasons for warning her grandson about any attempt at sexual violence.
-"Understood, grandmother."- Rial responded with some humility. -"I promise you that everything will be fine."-
-"In that case, you can go to my teepee right now. She's probably waiting for you."- The old woman waved goodbye to his grandson. -"I see you tomorrow, Rial dear."-
-"See you tomorrow, grandmother."-
-"And, to finish this chat: Don't be surprised when you see her at first; you are going to have a nice surprise... giggle"-
And without further ado, Rial went right way to his grandmother's teepee, with a somewhat puzzled look at the last thing his beloved grandmother had said about the subject.
-"I wonder what she meant by that..."-
August 11th, AD 2299/10th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Mother Sanna's tent, 10:18 PM (night)
Rial was in front of his grandmother's teepee, mentally prepared to have his first night with Liska, the young slave he captured a year ago.
Even knowing that, it didn't give him much peace of mind, because Rial never imagined that the day would come when he would end up having sex with her, even though he had tried to avoid touching that subject in the past, because it was shameful for him to think that he was going to use someone else as a tool to vent his raw instincts, though in this scenario it couldn't be construed that way, since all the parties involved wanted the two of them to be together...
... with the sole exception of Akane, who disagreed with the whole situation in which Rial was about to become involved.
Why was he so concerned about the words of a stranger coming from a faraway land that he knew her for just one month? Was it because she was right? Or was it simply because his emotional state was so altered that it prevented him from thinking straight in the face of the conflicting feelings he was having at the time?
Faced with everything that was weighing on his mind, Rial decided that he should first concentrate on spending the night with Liska and worry about the consequences later when the time was right.
-"May... I come in?"-
The timid voice of the young slave was heard from inside the teepee...
-"You may come in... Rial"-
And so, the young warrior entered the teepee, breathing deeply before what he was about to witness before his eyes...
And when he entered the place, what he saw left Rial completely frozen, unable to say a word in front of what he saw.
The first thing he saw when he saw Liska was a beautiful woman dressed in a golden yukata, which matched perfectly with the color of her hair, her blue eyes and her fur. Coupled with a hairstyle that seemed to be worthy of a high society woman, that young slave, at that intense romantic and erotic moment, looked more like a woman from the nobility of Hinowa, the equivalent of that world of feudal Japan, than what in those days would have been a woman who until just a few hours ago was dressed in dirty clothes, and who had a very humble appearance.
Before the dazzling beauty of Liska, Rial did not know what to say beforehand, for he never imagined she was so beautiful with such clothes and hairstyle, considering that Rial himself looked like a paltry commoner before that woman, who was supposed to be his slave. All the above also applied to Liska, who also looked somewhat daunted in the presence of the one who in those days was her master, but now would become her fiancé, changing their relationship entirely.
Given all that, the young feline humanoids could barely manage to say a few words when they stared at each other in that erotic atmosphere.
-"You... you look... so... really... beautiful... Liska..."-
The young slave, clothed in those oriental clothes, also had trouble putting together any word to answer the young warrior.
-"You too... Rial."-
After the proper introductions, Rial didn't know what to say next, so he tried to say what felt like the most reasonable thing to say at the time.
-"Well, um... I guess the most logical thing would be to eat something before... going to sleep, don't you think?"-
-"Yes..."- Liska responded to Rial in a timid way. -"but I already had dinner with Akane an hour ago."-
The black-furred alien sighed a bit after hearing her name, for already explained reasons regarding that whole event and his on-going relationship with the young slave girl.
-"Well, to be honest... sigh... I already had dinner too..."-
Meanwhile, Liska began to prepare the bed where they would both sleep, while Rial slowly began to undress.
-"I guess you're unrolling the bed, aren't you?"-
-"Uh... yes, why?"-
-"Just asking... sigh"-
-"Are you nervous?"- Liska asked with a very soft voice.
-"Of course I am,"- Rial replied with a nervous tone. -"why wouldn't I be?"-
-"I always thought you had... more practice with this sort of thing, didn't you?"-
-"To be honest... you're the first girl that I'm going to sleep with."-
-"This means that... you are a virgin?"-
The young male feline sighed again...
-"Yes."-
-"If it's any consolation... I'm a virgin too."- The slave girl in a yukata responded as nervously as Rial was in that moment.
-"That is already obvious."-
Both characters looked at each other so intimately, but at the same time in a tense state, unable to say a word, until Liska, the slave, decided to break the silence.
-"Look, if that makes you feel better, could I turn off the lights?"-
-"Sounds like a good idea to me."-
And so, the young girl blew out all the candles inside the teepee, leaving the place completely dark. Thanks to this, Rial was able to undress completely with more peace of mind and without feeling so much stress.
-"By the way, can I ask you something, Liska?-
-"What would be, Rial?"-
-"I heard you had a row with Akane this afternoon, right?"-
-"Well... yes."- The girl responded in a deadpan tone.
-"That makes two of us."- The black-furred warrior said in the same fashion. -"I also had a verbal fight with Akane at lunch, although I think we know what she's like by now, don't we?"-
But the young slave did not want to talk at all about Akane or any other particular subject; she only wanted to sleep with him, and any other uncomfortable subject, like the one about that human woman, was something she did not want to tackle at that moment.
-"Look, why don't we save that for later? I don't really feel like talking about her right now..."-
-"Understood, I just wanted to... cheer things up a bit, but I don't think that... worked out well..."-
After all that, Rial noticed that Liska had not undressed yet, while he was already completely naked, a fact he wanted to know...
-"By the way, you haven't removed your clothes, can I know why?"-
-"Well... uh..."-
The slave girl responded with a somewhat shrill voice, as she was a bit shy about saying the following...
-"My mistress told me that I had to follow some... steps... before starting..."-
-"And... may I ask what steps you have to follow, Liska?"-
Moments later, the slave sat in seiza position, with her ankles on her rear, and immediately afterwards, she began to undo the obi (belt) of her yukata...
-"She told me that... if I took my clothes off in this way..."-
As she took off her Hinowan yukata, Liska was completely naked before Rial, while she followed all the steps her mistress had previously given her. There was only one last step that she had to perform...
-"...and I unbind my hair like this..."-
Finally, the slave took off the hairpin that knotted her intricate hairstyle that her mistress had done hours ago, leaving her beautiful blonde hair loose.
-"...it could arouse you in this way... couldn't it?"-
Rial was completely shocked to see Liska completely naked. That young slave had a completely raw beauty and charm, partly thanks to her large blonde hair, her beautiful blue eyes, and her velvet-like ginger fur, and the young warrior with black fur and long white hair could not believe that the girl he was going to have sex with would be his fiancée. He simply could not credir that he was very fortunate to have a girl like her before his eyes, and that, despite all he had done against her, among those issues was making her his slave and beating her in the first months she was with his family, Liska was willing to sleep with him without much trouble.
In the face of all this, Rial closed his eyes and began to feel physically and mentally terrible as he felt that he did not deserve to be next to a woman like Liska, after all he had done to her.
In other circumstances, any other woman would have wished to see him dead, or at least tried to resist sleeping with the person who enslaved her, but she was more than willing to sleep with him despite the terrible past that united them both and the damage he had caused her by separating her from her family and turning her into a slave, while she had suffered a long string of indignities throughout her tenure, as well as physical abuse.
That was why the words of that foreigner from a distant land, Akane Araki, began to resonate loudly in his head. He knew that she was absolutely right to emphasize his shortcomings, and in those moments, he was looking for a way to avoid having to do what could be considered a glorified rape, better known as "Droit du seigneur" in Akane's world.
Liska, seeing the depressed face her lover was showing at that moment, coupled with his crisis of conscience, did not hesitate to ask what was happening to him.
-"Something wrong, Rial?"-
The young warrior took a few seconds to answer that question...
-"No-nothing..."-
-"Are you... sure?"- The young slave girl responded somewhat intrigued and to some extent concerned to see him slightly down. -"You don't look... very well for me."
After not saying anything for a few seconds, the young warrior finally gave an answer.
-"Please tell me one thing, Liska."-
The young maiden was somewhat confused by the question her beloved had asked her...
-"What would it be, Rial?"
Then, the black-furred young alien sighed a bit and responded, with a quite sad tone.
-"Do you really hate me?"-
-"What?"-
-"I said if you really hate me..."- Rial responded. -"You know... for all the damage that I have inflicted on you all this time..."-
Liska did not know how to answer the question that Rial had asked her. And at that moment she understood why: he was having a crisis of conscience when he saw that he was going to have sex with her, and it was very possible that Akane's words could have had a very noticeable effect on him, since he felt that he had no right to be with her after he had enslaved her.
The slave was also in the same uncomfortable situation as he was, though not to the same extent. While that human's words also echoed in her head, she tried to see the situation in the kindest possible way, seeing that her bed partner was not willing to do her any harm, and was also suffering from the same dilemma, perhaps more deeply than herself, merely because he was the one who kidnapped her, and his guilt was causing him no peace of mind at any time.
-"I understand how do you feel..."-
Then, the girl, in the kindest possible way, laid her hands on his face to calm him down...
-"But I also want to tell you that in spite of everything, you have been very kind to me in the last few days, and I..."-
-"...you love me... right?"- Rial interrupted.
The girl sighed a bit.
-"Yes..."-
The young warrior, seeing that Liska did not hold any grudge against him, decided to do the same and he also lay his hands on the face of that beautiful slave, with the most gentle expression he could make in that romantic and erotic scene.
-"In that case, let me tell you something, dear..."-
-"What would... it be...?"-
-"Tonight you will no longer Liska, the slave... but you will be Liska, my empress..."-
-"Oh... Rial..."-
And with nothing more to say, Rial put his lips on those of the young maiden, thus beginning a long and beautiful night of passion between the two young felines, which would continue throughout that hot summer night... in that distant and forgotten world beyond Earth...
August 12th, AD 2299/11th day of the Dry Moon, 1748 (summer season), Akane's tent, 12:00 AM (midnight)
While all this was going on, Akane Araki was in her sleeping bag, with her laptop on top of her and drinking a cup of green tea to try to sleep, while she was updating her diary and her opinion on the events that had transpired all day.
It was a very bittersweet day for me regarding my relationship with my new feline friends: On the one hand I feel that I got some people to reflect on their shortcomings, like Liska and Rial, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to change their minds.
I guess one should not underestimate the power of traditions when dealing with people from relatively primitive civilizations, though I have tried not to intervene too directly in their affairs, limiting myself only to criticizing what bothers me, such as slavery.
On the other hand, I can't blame Liska for being in love with that Rial jerk either: He's not exactly a bad person, to be honest, and Rial isn't ugly at all, I have to admit that as a woman myself, but I wish he wasn't so arrogant at times, and that his bro Pyndan wasn't always protecting his bad attitude.
Likewise, I'd like that Liska girl to put a little more value on her own life; she seems to feel like her life is worthless and she seems willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of others, which in this case would be sleeping with Rial, even if she seems to love him and vice versa. Considering he doesn't have another girl who is interested in sleeping with that guy, I can't blame the two of them for being mutually attracted. Liska is very beautiful and cute, and Rial is no slouch in that department, and if they were human, I think they'd have a lot of guys and girls dead at their feet.
There is only one thing that bothers me about the two of them...
And at that moment, Akane heard several sounds coming from outside her tent, which caused her to wear headphones and start listening to music all of a sudden...
Like many cats on Earth, they are SO FUCKING NOISY when having sex!
I'm not going to describe what I'm hearing right now, out of respect for those who don't want to know that kind of thing, and in case there are children reading or listening to this, but I can tell you one thing:
Try to imagine two humans having sex in the most outrageous way possible, and try to imagine, in the same way, two cats having sex in the same way, and you can picture everything I'm hearing right now.
END OF ACT XXII