Chapter 17: Innocence is Bliss

Mayahuel had passed out sometime between being carried by her Hunter Lord and laying in a tub of awful smelling liquid. She was nude, something she didn't like, and there were voices hushed and angry. Something was right and wrong at the same time. She couldn't open her eyes and her limbs didn't want to move, but she knew she was safe at the moment. A familiar voice told her that.

"What is she doing sleeping so long?"

"Yao-tl the fumes down here make humans sleepy. Be patient as your Priestess side tells you to be." An unfamiliar voice chastised.

"She is so weak. So frail. How could he choose her to…mate with." Tao-tl, the one who had helped save her, sounded annoyed. "He could have chosen someone better don't you think?"

"One cannot choose who their heart decides on. That is why we have God's in the first place. They decide things, we decide how to react to them." The older voice seemed to smile.

"I am not having a pleasing reaction. I wish to go meditate. May i?"

"Have I ever stopped you from such? Very rare for a Yautja to wish to meditate. We are not born with the patients for such."

"I will anyway. It will….calm me." And the shuffling of feet disappeared slowly.

Xochyotl frowned and popped open an eye. It was difficult beyond imagine to do such a thing but she had to know. She was…more than curious. Mate? What was that? Why did it anger Yoa-tl so? And what had the older female meant by saying 'the heart cannot choose'? She had to know.

"Aah. I knew you were awake." The kindly old voice was approaching through the fog. "And she calls you weak."

Xochyotl closed her eye and focused on lifting her head above the rim of the large tub. She could do it if she really wanted to! Her limbs protested but gave way to her will and the nude girl sat up in the water, feeling better the moment she cleared the surface of the liquid. She shook her long hair, which stuck to her skin and made her feel claustrophobic. When she opened her eyes she met a pair of very motherly ones.

"Girl. Your name? How do you feel?" the eyes spoke to her.

"Mohuelmati. In canin?" I feel fine. Where am i?

"Ahh you speak Nahuati. I see. I shall too then." The eyes spoke again.

The switch in the large female Messenger's voice was almost painful. She went from a very elegant version of Xochyotl's language to the crude and throaty Nahuati. Xochyotl was a little surprised that she knew both versions of the language but decided that this person would not have been a Messenger of the Gods had she not. Xochyotl shook her head to clear the mugginess from it.

"This place will speed the healing of your wounds. Your Lord is across the room. The fog will keep you from seeing each other….nude." the large female knelt by the tub. She stirred the water with her hands and shook the liquid from them. Xochyotl frowned and looked through the fog, scanning for the massive form she knew all too well. She shook her head, seeing nothing, and parted her sticky hair from her shoulders. When she saw her legs, the teen nearly gasped. Where tanned skin and traces of voluptuousness had been only grey skin, gouges, and bone remained. Her stomach was small, nearly bony, and everything seemed to be terrible on her. She was hideous! Frantically staring and looking at herself, attempting to use hair to cover herself in humility, she was a sight of sadness. When she heard the small giggle and a sigh the girl, nearly hysterical in her grief over her body, looked up with teary eyes.

"We will fix you, human child. We will fix this."

"Is it possible? How could he have…been seen with me? In public? I am a slave but I was…more than this." The human girl looked down at her tattered body.

"More than this? Your body may be battered but your spirit almost shines…perhaps it is stubbornness." The motherly female stood and cocked her eyes.

"My…what?" Xochyotl formed.

"Perhaps that is why he likes you so." The female looked away.

"Likes me…what? Spirit? I am-"

"Confused? Perhaps you will be more so when he begins to act…strangely." the female laughed.

Xochyotl frowned at the female, confused in her innocence. Something felt different and strange, unwelcoming. The plants, the liquid, the fog, this place was far too unfamiliar for her to feel healed. The human girl stood and shook her body to free herself from the liquid's spell. Her nakedness shamed her, but in the presence of another Messenger female it shamed her less than it should have. She looked to the older female for guidance as to what to do next, standing there awkwardly.

The robe draped around her was modest, and shrouded her frame in more than three layers of clothing. She was then snatched up by the much stronger older woman and carried up more flights of stairs than she could count. The air up here was moist and fresh and full of water, the liquid of life. Xochyotl frowned as her legs dangled painfully and she was dropped on a pillowed bed in the main healing hall. There were assortments of Amini here, some worriers others obviously not so, and humans infested the place as workers. Xochyotl attempted to ignore the stares she received and looked instead to the painful cut on her leg as it was being bandaged. She twitched but otherwise kept her leg in place and her mouth shut firmly.

"You have stout tongue. None could really keep quiet like this, child." The elder female smiled in her own way. Xochyotl kept silent to keep from screaming. When the bandages on her body were secure and white, and her clothing was in firm place, the female stood to leave. Xochytol slammed herself to the ground, bowing as elegantly and professionally as she could manage.

"Please! Tell me what is….ease my confusion." She spoke to the ground.

"Child. What is there to be confused about?"

"I need….answers. Why did he bring me? What did you mean by acting strangely? Why are you healing me? Where is he?" Xochyotl rambled while the female sat on the bench next to her and looked toward the plants in a corner of the room. She thought for a painstaking moment then answered, still looking away.

"This creature, your Amini, has decided in himself that you mean more to him than a mere slave. He sees something in you worth saving, worth seeking. He will begin to act strangely because our mating season…" the female yautja looked to the young woman.

"Mating? Is that like marriage?"

"Hardly. We do not simply bear the children of one male in our lives but of many. It is our season for…making children."

"Oh…I see. So it is a season to bear heirs?"

"Yes. It is coming soon and the males pick their females and females pick their males. Therefore, the males of the kingdom will be very nearly unable to control themselves. Your Amini will act strangely."

"But he must pick a female! One of high standing for himself no?"

"He has decided already."

"He…has? Whom has he picked? Is she gorgeous or strong? Perhaps both?"

"Oh little one you will see." The old female smiled warmly.

Cit'lal-I could have lingered in those healing waters for generations. He stared into the nothing ness, thinking only of the images that floated aimlessly across his mind. In the distance he could hear sloshing, cleaning sounds from things he did not know of nor care about. Something below his waist stirred but he squished the notion quickly. He could not lose himself so easily, it would shame his honor as a hunter. Ci'lal-I shook his dreadlocks and hissed through his mandibles. The hunter lifted a finger and scratched his mandibles thoughtfully. How could he get close to her without harming her fragile skin? How could he be…intimate with her without killing her? The hunter shook his head and sank further into the bank. First, he had to make sure she didn't remember their first intimate encounter. His…purity check wasn't exactly the best thing for both of them. The hunter shuddered despite the warm waters. He had to make her forget, yes that was the first thing to do.