Chameleon in Chrome Ch. 03

He didn't know if it was the same for Morgarods, but he was beginning to really hope that it might be. Taela's eyes looked huge and so soft like this.

She pulled her hand downward a little to where her motion had begun before she lifted her fingers from him and he watched her bring them to her mouth to taste them a little.

"Nothing in this place but you," she smiled a little, "no spray for flies. Just Ryan," she shrugged with a smile.

She felt herself smile as she raised her arms to his neck. Taela couldn't help it. She lifted herself up a little higher on her wide feet.

His eyes didn't look as though they were quite so close together now, she thought. They looked just about right to her now. It was the strangest thing, how he could change himself from something so cold and powerful-looking to something like this, warm and so inviting to her.

She pulled her arms a little tighter around his neck in response to how his body felt against hers. It was all muscle and bone, hard places, mostly, but it yielded to hers in the right places, she thought -- at least they sure felt right to her.

She was wondering just how they'd gotten to this so quickly. She was a little frightened, because she knew that she was a complete and utter virgin at the magic of interaction between two adults. Taela was painfully aware that she didn't know a thing about how it was supposed to go. She wasn't a virgin sexually, other than she hadn't had a male there, but functionally, well, ... her bed toy had claimed that honor long ago after her mother had given it to her as she and her father were about to leave to go hunting for food.

But Taela decided that there were no others here for either of them, and he made her feel good to be near him, and he seemed to like to be near her. She didn't think that she'd be like her mother in something like this, but she was beginning to find that he helped that feeling of hers, and of course, he caused new ones at the same time.

"Trying to get to know your enemy?" he whispered.

She heard it just as she was losing the fight to keep her mouth closed. In spite of herself, she felt her mouth open and her tongue slid out to lick his collarbone and the flesh just above that.

When she caught herself and pulled it back in, the taste of him was incredible to her senses. She felt as though her knees were weakening and she had to put a lot into forcing them to hold her up.

"My ... enemy?" she whispered, remembering how only the previous evening she'd thought of him as one of the hated ones. It didn't seem possible to her now.

She lifted her head to look at him. No matter how she tried, her mouth formed a little smile anyway as she found herself actually feeling that slightly crooked little smile on his face.

"I really hope not," he heard her whisper as she closed the last of the distance between them and her lips were on his.

The joy that she felt was amazing. The way that it felt to hear his quiet groan made her heart feel as though it was loose inside her chest and fluttering. She groaned in answer, though it wasn't what she'd thought to do, and that felt good to her as well. She felt his large and strong hands with the thin fingers on her skin and there surely couldn't possibly be a better feeling than that.

Until those hands which now felt so much stronger moved so that his arms could hold her and she felt herself pulled against that body. Amazingly, those hard places on him felt just fine and the parts that yielded to her body as he held her against him felt even better.

Her breasts were telling her that they'd found their true purpose in life and it was to be crushed against that chest.

What her mother had told her came to mind as she felt something else against her, though it was under a layer of his clothing. She found her body moving of its own accord so that what she felt was closer to where she wanted it. This was about as far as she'd allow, though she wanted more.

Taela decided that this would be good enough for the day that she'd met him. There were so many other things which needed finding out about him, but it was enough for now. There might not be anyone else for her on this whole world, but it didn't matter to Taela. This one would be plenty and she wanted more than anything else to get to know him.

She wanted to see him in the light now. She wanted to hear more of the way that he laughed and watch the slow way that he smiled. She needed to see if he had it in him to care for her beyond this. Since she wasn't an adolescent, she had the wisdom to even have her next thought.

She really hoped that he could be a good hunter for more than the provision of their food. She suddenly realized that she was hopeful that she'd found a mate for her after all of this time and the thought of it just blew her away.

She knew this was too much for her to process and it was too fast. But, ...

He felt her smile as they kissed and traded soft sighs in the darkness, lit by the thin, pale light from the walls around them. He didn't know it, and she willed her face back to the task at hand a second later, but Taela had wanted to laugh then. Her mother was right.

It really does grow more.

Taela pulled away a little and smiled, "Have you decided?"

Ryan looked at her in the pale glow of the passageway in confusion and it made her chuckle. Speaking to her in Morgaron was a little taxing, but he was getting used to it as it came back to him. He'd had no chance to use the language since leaving the service, and not much even before since his lessons. She felt so good in his arms, and he couldn't help the way that his hands moved over her back of their own volition. He didn't know it, but she was fighting off the need to shiver in pleasure.

"What should I decide?" he asked a little carefully.

It made her chuckle more, though Ryan could tell that she was growing nervous about it.

"Well now you have kissed a Morgarod for a time. I was thinking of asking you if you liked it," she said, as she pulled one of her arms free and moved her hair back behind one ear. "I can say that I have enjoyed kissing a human."

"I am amazed," he said quite honestly, as he caught what he believed to be her slightly hopeful expression, "And I -- "

He paused, knowing that he wanted to be careful with his words here.

He moved his hand to touch her cheek. "Morgaron is not my mother tongue," he said, "Between humans, it would be correct -- if it is truth -- for me to say that I loved it. In Morgaron, the expression is absurd. I liked it very much, Taela."

"I understand the difference," she smiled up at him, "If it is truth, then you may say it. I will not misinterpret it."

He sighed in a bit of relief as he nodded, "Then I loved it. I have never been kissed like that."

Her smile became even warmer and he felt the way that a little of her hair moved to hold itself against his hand. He'd never felt anything like that either.

To Taela, it carried the meaning of what he'd said, in the way that she knew that he meant it, but being what she was, the other meaning came to her as well, and it was something of a pleasant thing to feel. She looked into his eyes for a moment.

"We should go on," she said.

He released her reluctantly and he felt a little coolness on his other hand as her hair released it as well. He hadn't even been aware that the ends of her long mane had curled around his other hand, but now that it was gone, he found himself missing the sensation. She slid her arms from him and took his forearm in her hand, since hand-holding carried connotations as well, and she hoped that he knew that.

Besides, she thought, she didn't know how their hands would fit like that, though she supposed that they would. She'd held her mother's hand and walked with her with their fingers intertwined when she was much younger.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"In the general direction of your ship in a little time," she said, "but I promised you a place to wash. I need that as well, now that I wear your stink on me."

The comment snapped his head around, but he found her smiling at him. His shocked look caused her to laugh, and in the long passageway, the echo sounded like that of a young girl. "A joke," she said, "I obviously do not mean it."

The passageway was one of several which passed through the mountain, leading off in several directions. Taela's father had shown them to her mother long ago and when asked, he'd had no answer for it, other than perhaps they'd been formed during the volcanic activity which had created the mountain. But over time, they'd found traces which indicated that others had lived there once a long time ago.

-------------------------------

Standing at the other end of this particular passage a long way away, Taela's mother turned to listen to a sound which she hadn't heard in a long, long while. She tried without much success to think of when it had been that she'd heard her daughter laugh like that. She stepped closer to the opening and began to listen.

Other than quiet conversation, she couldn't make much out, but she knew that her daughter had to be speaking with someone, and there was only the one possibility, she hoped. She stepped away from the opening and walked away.

------------------- They walked on a little in silence until he spoke. "I wish to ask things," he said after a time, using the correct term.

"Ask them," she replied with a nod.

"You mentioned that you wish to save your clothing for when it is cold. You also said that those large animals have no interest in us at this time of year. What -- "he sought the phrase, "what was your meaning? It gets cold here?"

"There is a cold time to the year, "she said.

"But I was walking in jungle," he said, "Jungles don't grow where it gets very cold."

"It gets cold here," she replied, "The jungle stops growing then, like it fears to draw a breath and waits. Some plants die, others only wait. The other forests, like where we were sitting do this as well."

"How long does it last?" he asked, "This doesn't happen on Earth. There are forests like where we were, and where they are, the cold time comes. But where jungle grows, it's not cold then."

"It doesn't happen on Morgaron either, I'm told," she said, "but this isn't either of those places. It happens here, Ryan."

He thought about it and tried to imagine what that must be like in a jungle. He'd been in a few during his travels, but none of them had a cold winter. "The animals," he began.

"Some leave," she said, "most stay and others come. The large ones where we were have no interest in us now, unless you annoy them. When it is cold, they do not like us. We hunt them then. We need them for food and we need their skins for warmth."

"So you wear fur clothing then?"

She nodded, "It must be," she said, "There is nothing else to wear."

She heard him chuckle and she stopped. "What amuses you?"

"Ahh," he said, rolling his eyes at his own thoughts, "you said it so well with only three words. Humans are strange. I had a thought of you in my mind wearing a fur bikini -- which really is absurd, since it wouldn't keep you warm at all. It would give me warm thoughts, though."

"What is this word?" she asked, "What does it mean?"

"It's a couple of pieces of clothing for females, not very large, and you wear one piece over your, ..."

He gave up and just pointed, drawing the approximate size in the air with his fingers over her in the right places.

To his amazement, she understood at least a little. "Other than one purpose for the bottom piece," she said, "I see no need for it. Why do human females wear such things?" Before he could answer, she decided to ask her mother about it.

To him, she just looked with a smirk and repeated herself, "Humans are strange."

"Yes," he agreed.

"Especially the males, if there is the meaning to it that I think there might be," she said.

"Especially the males," he smiled, and she laughed a little as she began to walk again.

Their path wasn't uniform, and though the floor under their feet was fairly smooth, the width and the height varied. They came to a part which narrowed down and Ryan pulled back to allow Taela free passage, but she held his arm so that she was next to him. "There is room," she said.

He wondered about it, but he didn't complain, since it forced them to walk with their thighs brushing against each other a little. He liked that, but he became a little fearful in case he stepped on her feet with his combat boots. He drew back again and she stopped.

"There is room," she repeated.

"And if I step on your foot?" he asked, "How would you like me then?"

"Oh," she said, considering.

She shrugged and began to lead him, letting go of his arm.

Ryan liked this a lot better he decided, as he watched her backside move. But a thought came into his mind finally, and it was a little insistent.

Morgarods have expressions and mannerisms to use in their conversations with each other. Some of them confused humans, since they didn't necessarily mean the same thing to both species.

Ryan had never seen a Morgarod shrug. He remembered the first time that he'd done it while he was being taught. The male teaching him wondered if he was distracted by a fly on his shoulder or something like that. And there was something else, beside the way that she looked a little different. From what she'd said earlier, he deduced that she'd never been to Morgaron.

"Were you born on a Morgaron mining post?" he asked.

"No," she said, "I was born here. I have never been anywhere else."

"How could you come to know the difference in what is meant if I say that I love something?" He asked.

She stopped and turned to look at him. She pushed him back gently so that he stood with his backpack against the wall in the narrow space as she closed the slight gap between them.

"I really hope that it doesn't make that much difference to you," she said in perfect English, other than what he took to be a very slight Texas drawl in it as she reached up to touch his ear and his cheek, "But I'm only half-Morgarod."

She stood on her clawed toes as she stretched up to kiss him once in case it did make a large difference. "My mother is human," she said, "I just take after my father a lot more, is all."

Ryan stood there transfixed. She could have pushed him over with a feather, and the look on his face caused her to laugh again.

"You don't mind, do you, Ryan? Please tell me that you don't."

"Why would I mind?" he asked as he slid his arms around her waist to kiss her again. She wanted to sigh, but before she could manage that, she found his tongue sliding into her mouth.

She groaned as she felt his tongue slide over hers and then she responded in the more Morgarod way of doing this. Ryan found himself aroused again as she pressed herself against him and he learned that her tongue was another part of her which favored her father.

"Uh, what were we talking about again?" He asked, a little dazed-looking. Taela kissed him again, though a lot more lightly.

They broke the kiss before things became too urgent between them. Taela looked into his brown eyes and smiled a little happily for a second. "I'll take that as a no, then," she chuckled.

She hissed quietly in a bit of discomfort and pulled away, looking at Ryan as she touched his cheek again. "This prickles my face."

Ryan nodded, "I didn't think that I'd want to shave," he smiled with a bit of embarrassment, "I thought there was nobody else here -- and it sounds ridiculous when I say it that way. I'd have never thought that there was somebody here, never mind somebody who would ever get this close to me. I'm sorry. I'll fix this the first chance I get."

"I think it's alright," she smiled, "Maybe I can get used to it."

"Not this short," he said, "Either when it's longer or shaved off completely, but like this..."