Ancient Watchtowers Ch.01

"Not even anything left of Reeve's place," she said, looking from there to where the gatehouse of the walled village once stood, "Where has it gone?"

Nila shrugged, "Maybe with my horse.

Are you sure that this is where you came from? Maybe it only looks like what you might remember. Maybe we are in a different place altogether. I only know that this is where I have been before to hunt."

Loriel began to cry then.

Elves don't cry over almost anything. But Loriel did then, knowing that she was truly lost.

They left her, Nila making a soft sound to the cat and they left together to give her some time, since she had to be thinking of friends now long dead and gone. or more likely never even here if this was another place entirely as she had the thought once more.

Better, Nila had seen a movement at the edge of the trees.

-----

Loriel wiped her tears and looked up about twenty minutes later. She found herself alone and sniffled a bit, thinking that they'd left her and wondering what she might have done wrong. With nobody in the world seeming to be at home today, she knew that she needed them somehow - at least a little.

She saw a movement and looked over to see the cat standing there looking at her and she wondered a minute, hoping that Nila had been truthful.

He walked away, though he didn't go far and stopped to look back.

Loriel had nowhere else to go, so she followed.

He never went very far and he always waited. She wondered about it and then just said, "Stop."

Running up to him, she shrugged and said, "I don't want to follow like a child. If you're going to lead me, then I'd rather walk beside you."

He seemed to be listening to her, but she doubted that he'd understood. All the same, she wondered as she found that he walked next to her now and still seemed to be leading her.

They found Nila on her knees working as she butchered a doe.

"Thank you, Loriel," she smiled, "I did not know if he would have found you nearby. I thought that you might leave us."

The elf shook her head, "Leave you? I thought that you'd left me!"

"No, we need food and I saw that you were upset, so I wanted to give you time and hunt since I saw this deer."

She pointed to another carcass next to a thicket, "That one is already butchered, a small wild pig. But I think that you should see something. Look at her tusks."

Loriel stepped over and looked down. The animal was not large, but would make a good meal or two, "What am I supposed to be looking for?" she asked.

"Her tusks," Nila said, "She is old enough to grow them, yet they have not been removed. Anyone who keeps them knows about removing their tusks. They're quite dangerous otherwise. Since she has hers, she must be wild."

Nila looked up, "I think that no one around here farms anymore, if the pigs run wild. I wonder if anyone has ever been here before at all. Perhaps you came from a different place which this one resembles."

Loriel conceded the point, though she said that she wouldn't know much about it. It did make sense to her however.

"So a long time has passed us while we were looking in that cave."

Nila nodded, "Twice as much for you. We only went through once," she said, indicating her cat and her.

She was finished not long afterward and they walked back, each one of them carrying a carcass over her shoulders. The doe was a good-sized one however, and Nila had to stop to rest once. She walked over to Loriel and cut away a piece of pork and fed it to the cat.

"What do you call him, anyway?" Loriel asked as she worked her stone over one of her rusted blades wanting to have them workable again, "I'd like to get it right, since he did come to get me and he waited for me and I even found that I could walk beside him."

Nila smiled, "I'm not very good at meaningful names, I'm afraid."

"I've heard you always say that long thing to him - doyad-something-something. I never get the whole thing," Loriel said.

"Doyadukubichi'," Nila smiled, "It just means cougar. He really isn't one - I don't think, but as I said ...

The boys are Deheya, for he is smaller and faster, so he is named Deer and the larger one is Weda, the bear. For he thinks to take whatever he wants."

"Thank you for sending the father for me," Loriel said quietly.

Nila looked up and nodded, seeing that it had been meant.

They went on, back to their cave and Loriel tried to learn things which elves must have known about at one point and then forgotten for some reason, long ago. She did her best, and tried hard to get it right. It ended as they sat on the beach cooking meat on sticks. The big cat had finished the most of the pig, and reclined next to Loriel, licking his chops and cleaning himself.

She was surprised that she wasn't put off or alarmed at all. It was when the cubs launched their surprise attack from out of hiding to bowl her over that she became alarmed.

But that only lasted a moment until the large male rumbled at them and they stopped and pulled back instantly so that Loriel could get up.

Nila thanked her for helping, but Loriel waved it off, "I'm learning what I need to know now, I guess. I'm happy too, Nila. I'm happy that you seem to want me to stay."

She looked off along the beach a ways, "I'd starve on my own, so I know that I need you to teach me."

"I'm really pleased that you're here," Nila grinned, "I've had no one to really talk WITH for a long time. I forgot how good that is. And our large friend is happy with you," she smiled.

Loriel looked over and saw the animal returning her gaze. She carefully reached out to pet him and he pushed back with his head against her hand.

Nila chuckled, "You look so worried. Don't worry and don't be afraid. I lie all over him in the winter when the wind screams down the beach and neither of us wants to go anywhere - for as long as the food lasts, I guess."

"Really?" the elf asked and Nila nodded, "Sure. He loves it."

After a while, Loriel kept looking at the waves as they rolled in. She was thinking about removing what she wore and just wading in to feel a little cleaner.

"Go ahead," Nila nodded, reading those thoughts easily, "I'll probably join you - if I don't just steal your boots and gloves - even that leather thing that you wear. I think it looks good."

"You do?" Loriel asked and then she laughed, explaining the purpose for it and that she wore it because it was all of the clothing that she now owned, "A little daring, maybe, but it feels better on me this way than the other way - with clothes on. You wouldn't want to try it on."

Nila looked over, "You know that you're talking to a girl who has no clothes at all, right?

I made clothes before out of hides, but they're all gone now, crumbling in my hand when I tried to pick something up. Your lesson in scraping the hide and staking it out to dry?

That's my new dress with a wild pig top when it's finished. I'll teach you that too.

Why do you think I wouldn't want to try that on?"

Loriel grinned, "Because it wouldn't fit you? Any of it?"

She pointed to her own ears, "Elf, remember?"

Nila nodded, "I keep forgetting."

"First chance I get to try to make something, I'm going to make something like this for you," Loriel smiled, "I need to learn it, and I want to see you in it, too. I'd love to see it on you. I'd let you put it on right now, but you're too long in the body to do it up. That's the problem. If it wasn't for that ..."

Loriel leaned over, putting her hand on Nila's knee to get her attention, "That's another thing that I think I should thank you for. I just don't really know how to do it."

She looked up for a moment and then back down, looking a little frustrated. "See, humans don't like elves very much. Some elves work for humans and are treated like shit. They see us as less than them and that's why most elves carry a chip on their shoulder for humans.

But you don't, Nila, and it catches me off-guard every time. I hear you speaking to me and inside, I'm getting ready for the insult - because there's always one in there someplace if you're talking to a human.

But you never say it, and it's been a little ... upsetting to me because I don't want to let my guard down - just in case it comes. It never does though."

She petered out then and looked down to feel Nila's hand on hers, squeezing just a little.

"You never will hear one," Nila said, her gaze holding Loriel's in a lock, "Think back to the story I told you of my people. Humans don't even treat each other well a lot of the time.

My tribe had friends but we also had enemies - other bands who we'd always fought with - forever. That seems to be the way of it. Then the white men came and we all had a new enemy.

I hated them more than anyone once. I don't hate anybody anymore, because ... well because in some ways, I'm not human anymore, I guess. I only look like one sometimes. Maybe that's the cure for being human.

Everybody's just scared shitless of me - once they know what I am."

"I'm not," Loriel said, a little too loudly, "At least, I don't think that I'd be ... I'm pretty sure. I have seen you like that. I was pretty shocked at first - especially when you started talking, but ... "

She shook her head, "Try me any time."

Nila smirked, though there wasn't anything in it and she pushed Loriel's shoulder gently, "Go for a swim."

Loriel nodded and began to pull her gauntlets and boots off.

"I've just had an idea, "Nila began, "I was thinking that if we had any bear grease, we could put it on your things to keep the leather from cracking - before you end up like me - with no clothes. I'll keep it in mind. I have seen bears around here a time or two - if they're still here."

Loriel nodded as she bent a little to reach down and undo the buckle just over her pubic bone. Nila watched her take the harness off and she tilted her head, "Why don't you have ... well, any hair there? Or is that something else about elves?"

Loriel nodded, "Most kinds, yeah. We never grow any there - or here - or here," she smiled, indicating her underarms.

Nila didn't reply. She was looking at Loriel's bare mound. She looked up after a moment, "I'll bet that feels nice."

Loriel shrugged, "I've only ever known it like this. I'm a little fascinated with what you've got, to tell you the truth."

She decided to take a drink before it got too dark to see the sand that she'd collect with her hand and she got down on her knees as Nila got up to wash the sticks they'd eaten from. She always liked to keep the good ones, since with a small collection, she didn't have to remember most times if she wanted a little cooked meat and if she was careful, each one might last up to three times, four if she was lucky and careful.

She heard Loriel's soft groan and looked over. The cat was right there, and she grinned to herself, turning around to step away a short distance.

Loriel had thought at first that it had been Nila that she'd felt back there. It came as a huge shock to her to find that big cat sniffing around and licking her.

She tried to call out to Nila, but Nila wasn't in her field of view when she looked.

Nila watched from closer to the mouth of the cave. She was ready to help if things got out of hand or it looked as though Loriel might get hurt. She waited only long enough to hear the changes in Loriel's voice.

Not hearing what she'd been listening for and realizing that it really was something that her elf friend didn't want, she trotted down and knelt beside her.

"Are you alright?" she asked with a concerned expression.

"He ... He ... Nila, he - "

"I know," she smiled, "He does that to me all the time. There's nobody here but me, but if you don't think you want all of his gifts, tell me, and we can switch before it's too late."

"I thought it was you," Loriel said, her eyes wide, "Please don't ... let -"

Loriel's eye widened even more as she watched Nila change right there beside her.

"Get into the water," the wolf said.

The elf didn't need to be told twice. She squirmed out of the feline's grasp and pulled herself away to crawl quickly into the water and by the time that she lifted her head out to look back, they were already fucking, Nila standing in for Loriel and quite obviously enjoying it as she bore his weight with a smiling grin.

Loriel was fascinated and began to stand up, intending to walk out of the water to watch.

Nila saw it and shook her head, "Stay there for now," she moaned, "He - he can get hard again so quickly. Even now, I don't know ... he might try for you, so stay there."

Loriel sagged back down. She thought that watching them was so erotic and she wanted to masturbate along with them since there was no one else there, but ...

She noticed a motion and looked up to the dunes. It wasn't fully visible, but ...

The young ones are - "

Nila shook her head, "It is only ... a way to show who's in charge. They do it often, but nothing ever happens."

She was a little busy for a few moments before she seemed to have some breath to speak, "I worry and always look for cougars. I want them to grow up knowing females. One day that game of theirs will become something else and I want them to know girls more like themselves."

-------

Loriel sat with Nila and the cat inside the cave a few evenings later. She watched as the cubs played and to her mind, it looked as though it could get pretty rough at times.

"They often end the match in the same way, with the big one humping the smaller one for a few seconds."

"I know," Nila sighed as she continued to show Loriel how to pierce holes in a dried hide before stitching pieces together, "Another year and I think they will be gone. They are already old enough to hunt for themselves.

It's hard to do, but I have to let them learn for themselves.

If I don't see any signs of cougars around here soon," she said, "I'll just have to lead them on a long journey to look for some."

Loriel looked over, "That's the second time that you've said that word. What are they?"

"Cats," Nila nodded, "Where I grew up, they weren't hard to find. Whatever my cats are, I never saw any like them growing up. But they'll need mates at some point and cougars are the closest cat - though they're a lot smaller than my Doyadukubichi'," she smiled, "But that's all that I can think of."

-------

Bolga swam wearily downstream, glad at last to be able to just coast a little. She'd been swimming for days, it seemed. The little one on her back struggled weakly to get just a bit higher and her small claws dug into her shoulder a little. She'd have bitched about it, but she knew that this had to end very soon, or the little vixen would drown.

She ducked her head to get under a rock overhang, hoping that this current didn't just pitch downward into an underground chasm now.

But it didn't mercifully and they just floated on.

Some time later, she found that they'd washed up on the low bank of a stream as it ran through a large cave. She looked around very cautiously for a few moments, sniffing and listening. A moment later, she saw the tiny snout beside her cheek as the little one did the same.

Bolga smiled then, reaching up to help the little fox onto the shore. The animal looked around and shook herself off to stand trembling just a bit in her weakness.

"Shhhhh," she admonished with the softest sighed whisper, "Something is here, little love. Something big. Stay close and stay quiet."

The animal seemed to be listening to her but then it walked away just a bit to shake herself off once again while the larger one squeezed water from the pelts that she wore. The little vixen seemed cognizant of the nature of those pelts, for they were all fox skins - or stitched together segments thereof - but she didn't appear to mind, if in fact, she did indeed know.

The larger one stood up on two legs to stretch out muscles which had been too long held in a position to paddle or kick in the cold water and she fought the tendency for them to cramp now, of all times, so she took it very slowly, not bothering to shake herself off at all. She just stood while the water ran down from her thick mane over her back and legs in silent rivulets.

Most of all, she wanted silence now and so she didn't bother much to squeeze what she could from her hair, for it was certainly long enough to reach back for if she'd wanted that. Her tail went unnoticed in it and it leaked it's own volume of water in silence.

Bolga dropped back down again, reaching out to lift her small companion and hold her close. She stroked the top of the little head with her thumb and the animal knew from the pattern of the movements that she was to be still and quiet now.

And so she was.

The larger one moved along the floor cautiously, limping a little on three legs since she was holding her vixen. She made no noise as she crept to the doorway to look out.

What she saw was a bit of a narrow corridor and she wanted to curse, but she didn't, taking it for what it was- something to duck into and peek out of.

A moment later, she was doing just that, easing into a full crouch as the small fox climbed up to sit on her shoulder and peek as well.

Out there, her nose told her of food - of meat freshly hung, two types maybe, and the smoke of the little fire there and ... her nose twitched as she listened until she was certain.

She smelled females and some sort of male scent, but her ears told of only the females, until a male sound began.

She paused as that male rolled over and she was confused. Too much sound, she thought. Too heavy shifting. What was there? A man?

She leaned a little, but it only brought the females into her view. She sat back in a way so as to keep them in her view.

Two females sitting making clothing and talking.

The little vixen on her shoulder began to chitter a little. It was a small sound, but it spoke of her sudden nervousness over something.

She moved her head to the right a little and saw him.

She didn't know what he was, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to work her charms in here on him.

That left only the two women and she sat back, thinking of how she might make this work.

------

Bolga had been thinking.

Once when she saw enough to know that the ones out there were lost in what they were doing, she'd drawn back, fighting the urge to kill, though the moment of surprise would have been absolute and beyond perfect.

But now they'd moved apart, each working on her own garment.

It had been the large one out there sleeping who could so easily have been the spoiler. Because of the angle, she couldn't see his head or face and didn't really know what he was and so she had no way of predicting what his actions might be. What she could see of him looked something like a cat, but cats just didn't get THAT large, did they?

She hadn't wanted to watch what the females were doing, not wanting to be reminded of how she'd met the female she'd intended to kill for food once, who'd instead turned into the best lover that she'd ever known to that time - until the fall began to turn into winter so quickly that she'd suddenly become aware that she'd need to get fattened up in a hurry if she was going to survive it.

She'd eaten her lover then and though she'd gotten through that winter, she'd hated herself for it ever since.

But it had begun when Bolga came to meet the girl who'd been sewing and that was how they'd started to talk.

The little fox had begun to play, pouncing on imaginary little things in the dirt.

"Sh-sh," she said to her and the tiny thing stopped at once and looked up.

She smiled and tapped her index finger on the top of that little nose softly and shook her head, "Be still now," she breathed as she mouthed the words.

The fox shook herself again and hopped up onto her and slithered to be cradled where it was warm against her breasts and she put her head down, but kept her eyes open, blinking.