Daughter of the Witcher Ch. 06

He was looking at two wonderful girls who already owned his friendship and admiration.

They didn't know it, but the pair of them were now just reaching out to knock on the door to his heart.

"I have had only glimpses of you like that, really," he said, "The day that we met and I saw Petra and that time when you were changing and Petra dragged me into your chamber. You changed before me in less time than it took for my heart to beat only one time and I saw you as you were born."

They watched, smiling along a little uncertainly as they saw him tilt his head back and laugh for a moment with his eyes just closed for that instant.

Then he opened them and smiled a little uncertainly himself. "You did the only thing that you could do. But a human girl could not have done that and she'd have had to take up a gown or a sheet or something to cover her nakedness with. It must be very confusing for someone who was made to live without clothing."

He stepped in between them and turned, placing his arms over their shoulders. "I must confess something as my answer to what you asked of me, Jenna."

He looked from one to the other quickly, "Look you, we are friends, yes? Fast friends, the three of us?"

Petra chuckled, "Fast and thick we are, as our own parents have remarked to us more than once. My mother laughs at us all the time and my father wonders how it is that we three can ever get through any doors when we are together. Go on."

"I will say a thing to you in answer which some might feel affront or something only to hear. I just wish it plain that I say it to my friends and could not ever to anyone else.

You are girls of a rare sort, both fine and beautiful."

He saw them begin to look a little oddly at him and he held them fast so that they couldn't turn away, "No,no, I have come this far and now I will finish it.

I do not know what it is to be a girl and have the feelings of one. I only know myself. For a young man, there is always a want which drives everything done while in the company of the fair sex. Only good manners prevent the stupidity which lies underneath it all from emerging.

Most nights, alone in my bed at the end of a day, it is a pleasant thing to think back on things such as those brief moments when I have seen the pair of you in the way that you were meant to be. I adore the way that you appear as human women, and yet, I also feel an ache to see you again in the fur, so to speak. I think that it might be a little unusual for a man to have thoughts such as that, but I enjoy those moments when I think back."

The pair of them were a little stunned for a moment and then they leaned forward a little so that they could see each other around Koten.

"He feels an ache," Petra said.

Jenna nodded, "I guess that boys might feel an ache sometimes."

The pair of them collapsed in gales of laughter.

"What have I said?" he asked, "Something wrong once again?"

Jenna stood bent over a little as she tried to stop her laughter and hold her aching sides. Petra reached around to hold him for a moment so that she could look straight into his eyes.

"Sweet fool," she chuckled, "Girls feel aches too.

Since we are making our heartfelt admissions to each other, I can say that our aches cause us to almost rub some parts of us off when we are all alone in our beds at the end of a day spent with our human friend."

Her face took on a more serious look then, "Koten, we live for those moments, both Jenna and I. We spend much of our time when we are alone together and certain that no one can overhear us speaking of how it is strange that we feel what we do for one who is not our kind. We both feel it and we do not know how it can be, since we have never felt it before.

To us, men hold as much mystery as we must hold to you. But to us, we have as much want to learn of their mystery as one might have to learn of the ways of snails. And yet, it is not like that with you."

Jenna snorted quietly, "Not at all."

She straightened up and the three stood facing each other. Jenna said, "The one day that we had duties and discussions with our parents as we sat in council was a dark one for us both.

I sat there miserable the whole time because we could not be with the boy that we find feelings for so much now. It confounds us.

We have lived happily and needing nothing but our family and each other until now, and now, ...

Well, I always feel as though I am wanting whenever you are not there. Nothing seems right to me then."

Petra groaned, "Oh, do not even speak of it. The one good thing -- the only good thing to me over that whole long day was that we all reached our decision that the three humans were to be allowed anything among us, accepted as a kind of Kurtadam and honored. I knew that it was important to us all and we gave it all of the consideration which was called for.

But what came to my mind unbidden?

I kept seeing our friend in my mind whenever I closed my eyes. I mentioned it to our mother and she laughed at me, saying that I ought to just give quiet thanks that there is one who can stir me in that way.

She even mocked me a little gently, saying that if Iron-willed Petra did not know what it was that made her like this, then she was the biggest fool on legs.

It was the day after you all came to the hall and spoke of your lives and your doings."

Koten nodded, "I remember that day as well. A day spent as I have often spent days and yet, I felt unhappy with the want of you both near to me as we always seem to be now."

"Believe me, Koten," Petra said, "My sister and I both felt the ache that day."

"And that night," Jenna added, "So what are we to do with our knowledge? I know that I wish for."

"I as well," Petra admitted, "But I think that our boy here is confused."

He nodded, "It is something which has puzzled me for a time. Among my people, two who feel something for each other become a pair, and after the admission of it to each other, all others are excluded. But there are three of us and though I have searched my heart over many evenings, I cannot say that I feel more for one than I do for the other."

He chuckled a little, "To one of my kind, it seems a trifle greedy, to make a joke out of it."

Their little smiles didn't waver. The pair only nodded one after the other.

"A good thing then that you stand close to the hearts of two who are not of your kind," Petra grinned a little.

Jenna nodded, "Our way takes it into reckoning.

Look Koten, there are not many of us here -- less than ninety. Even so, it is a gain. We were told that we came here with only thirty-three. A gain of almost threefold over less than forty years."

Petra nodded, "We fuck like rabbits."

After the laughter of her statement had passed, Petra grew a little serious. "We have always been this way, but once we came here, our parents decreed, along with the council that we must make an effort or we will die out, and we do not know if there are any left at all where we came from."

She reached for his face and ran her fingers through a bit of his hair behind his ear. "Try to think of the ways of the wolves. They make a pack based on their families. We are the same, and in our family packs, there are natural leaders, a pair, male and female who lead jointly.

But in wolves, only those ones mate. It works for them because they often whelp five or six and more at once.

We do not. We make only one to four each whelping, and four is already high. Even three at once is a little rare. Also, there are losses which cannot be helped.

From the little that I know of humans, your young are almost defenceless in the wild until they are nearing their own time as adults, from say twelve years on.

Our young are only helpless for at most, the first three or four years. After that, we cannot shelter them from everything. They move too quickly by then anyway.

So, to make a way around the losses which will always happen sometimes, we have changed our packs -- our families.

If you chose Jenna as your mate, I would have to accept that. But if you chose me instead and she chooses no other for herself, then you have us both for mates. In all decisions, you and I are the leaders together. Jenna knows this because it is our way."

Koten looked from one to the other and he saw Jenna nod to him. "It is so," she said, "The children in a pack already order themselves by their births. Petra was first between us. We have always loved each other as Kurtadam whelps always do, but I follow her. I know it as my place.

We are not speaking of just going off to begin at this moment -- unless I am wrong," she chuckled, "but what I seek to tell you is that you do not need to try to decide between the sisters. If we begin it, you already have me as Petra and I have always had each other. Kurtadam children know what is needed of them their whole lives long.

If there was a girl who loved one of two brothers, then she would need to take into account that she would need to breed with them both. It works both ways so that our kind does not die out."

She turned her head slightly and she kissed Petra's cheek before she averted her eyes downward as she forced her courage up.

"But if it is made my choice, I find that it is what I want with you both. All that is needed is that you begin it with my sister."

She stretched a little then and she kissed Koten on the lips very softly for a moment, "So that you know how I feel about things."

Before he could make an answer or even formulate one for that matter, Petra did the same, "As it is now, I want to begin with you, Koten. There are other matters in it, but for now, for right now, this is what I want.

Now you know how both of the sisters feel about things.

As Jenna said, it is taken into reckoning. It is not unusual among the Kurtadam, and it happens often."

There was a silence then in which even the soft sound of the snowflakes landing on them were audible as quiet whispers. Petra said, "Two Kurtadam princesses have just bared their hearts to you. You should make your answer before we begin to feel any more foolish than we already do."

Koten gave up trying to decide at that moment. He only sought to kiss them and he said, "I want that," he exhaled quietly, "I want that so very much. Thank you."

They stood together in the flying snow exchanging kisses between them as the wind blew their hair around their heads.

Then they walked away with Koten between them, none saying a word, all of them thinking silent thoughts.

Up in the tower of the building within the walls of the keep, A human woman gasped as she followed the direction which the Kurtadam female was pointing in.

"You see?" she said to her childhood friend, "It begins even now."

Margit nodded as she stood spellbound in wonder, "I never thought that it would begin that way, but I find that it makes me happy."

The other one chuckled, "Not so quickly, old friend. Not so easily either. But it begins and we have seen it as it happened. Now we need to have hope for both of our kinds."

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Koten's thoughts came back to the present as he looked at the females that he loved now. He knew what would happen just as soon as they noticed that he was standing there. He even ached a little to see it right then when their light eyes opened a little wider and their smiles to him began. They were always so happy to see him coming to them.

His mind went back to that first night in Petra's bedchamber, the three of them sitting there on the edge of the bed side by side with him in the middle. He'd been kissing Jenna that time while she stroked him and both of his hands had been busy deep between their thighs while Petra had rubbed and squeezed her own nipples with her eyes closed tightly as she neared her release.

He remembered the next day as they'd been out walking in the snow-covered forest together. None of them had spoken for a time and he was in a bit of a strange place within himself.

He was walking with a pair of beautiful female wolves who strode on their long and lovely legs. He'd realized then that he was lost between them, already needing the way that it felt to him when either one was in his arms. The times when they had him on his back as they both lay on him were becoming his favorite ones. He didn't think that anyone could deserve something like that.

A young doe had sped by them, desperate to open the gap between her and her pursuer. Right afterwards a gray blur had flashed past and Jenna pointed, "Natan hunts."

The doe tried a last-ditch attempt at a feinting dodge, but the one right behind her already knew the mind of his prey and he cut that corner neatly to close the last of the space between them. They tumbled over a few times and it was done.

Koten came trotting up with the sisters and saw a wolf who sort of sat with his jaws clamped tightly over the throat and windpipe of the doe and was only waiting for her final struggles to weaken and end. The wolf looked up and in that moment, Koten saw the amber eyes widen.

"This is Natan," Petra said, smiling, "Natan, this is Koten, the one we told of to you.

Koten, please meet our handsome brother, Natan."

He hadn't known what to do then. Was he just supposed to walk up and shake his pawed hand or what? It didn't seem to be the right thing to do under the circumstances.

"Oh," the young male nodded a little, "hewwo. I neeb a mimmit heew."

The doe passed then and Natan released the throat to look up, quite obviously feeling foolish. He held up his hands in a helpless gesture.

"No, no," Koten smiled, "don't bother to change for me out here. I don't think that it matters all that much." He leaned down and took the pawed hand to shake it. "I think this is a sort of a bad time for something like this. I'm happy to meet you."

The wolf stood up then, brushing a bit of the snow from himself. "And I to meet you," he said, "I understand that congratulations are to be said here. I heard about it last evening as a rumor and my sisters told me this morning."

There was an odd-feeling and very heavy pause as the two males looked at each other. Koten admitted to himself instantly that he'd never seen a male wolf who could make him feel any...thing, or anything such as he was feeling, knowing what he knew and that Natan had to know what this sort of meeting portended for them.

What he would have wanted out of this was the more usual slightly awkward moment where a man meets the younger brother of the girl whom he is in love with. That sort of moment would pass quickly enough and everyone could just move on.

Instead, his females, as they now told him that they were very happily, had filled him in on what he could now expect in Kurtadam terms; that being that with his permission, Natan would from time to time mate with either one and that he -- that is Koten - would gain a male lover from the arrangement as well.

It blew his mind.

And it was considered normal among them. That was the thing.

To form a mating pack such as was being offered to him, there was a young male who quite obviously came as a part of the conjugal arrangement.

And Koten needed only one good look to tell that this young male was a little smitten with him on the face of it.

Koten had never done something like that.

Well he'd never had the thought of it.

The girls got the two of them away from their moment by asking their brother to tell of the hunt and how it had gone. Natan had looked deliriously thankful for the chance and then he was explaining to them all. It was clear that young Natan was every bit as nervous about this as Koten.

"How do you hunt, when you do, uh, Koten?"

The question snagged Koten's consciousness and hauled him back to the moment as he looked at Natan's slightly worried face there in front of him.

"Mmm? Oh, just in the normal uh, human way, I would guess. I'm afraid that I do not have the fine nose that you all have to find and pick up a scent -- other than during the rut when it's all over the woods. I must track more with my eyes, I guess, and then I use a bow."

The answer seemed to hang there and Koten didn't like it, knowing that it would sound like more of a trite dismissal to leave it there.

He shook his head a little, "Actually, that's not quite correct, and I'm sorry. My answer was more of a thing to say to another human who does not know of my kind.

In truth, Natan, I do hunt that way, but I also feel for the prey. I stand still and search with my mind a little. It can be hard to do sometimes, but I get the feel eventually. Then I stalk the same as any human might, but there are a few tricks that I might use."

He looked off for a moment and pointed, "See that heavy pine tree there. A doe stands behind it now. Make no sound and I will seek to show you better."

He raised his hand slowly and extended his fingers. After a long moment where nothing happened, a doe stepped out into the clearing and began to walk very slowly and uncomfortably toward Koten.

The three wolves stared and looked from the doe to Koten and back as it went on.

Finally, the doe stood before Koten, blinking in slight confusion.

"Deer have minds like the steam over a bowl of hot soup," he said quietly and in a very even and monotonous way. "The slightest puff can dispel it, but if it is added to, they become lost in it themselves.

Now, does anyone need the meat? Or can I release her? I will not be able to call this one to me again this way for about a week."

None of them spoke and so Koten turned his hand and the doe turned about quite obligingly after a few moments of it. She stood there, looking back at him, clearly waiting for something from him. He lowered his hand very slowly until the tip of his finger touched the flank of the doe.

She exploded away then, running and bounding for all that she was worth until she was out of their sight.

Natan's hands fell at his sides, "Aww, and I have been doing it all wrong. Look at that. Could you teach me that? Never mind answering, could you take me with you when you hunt? I want to see something like that again."

They all laughed and the awkwardness was gone. A few minutes more of conversation and Natan squatted down about to try to get his doe over his shoulders to take back to the keep and Koten could tell that though the deer weighed less than a hundred pounds, it would all be dead and rather flexible weight to have to shoulder and carry off.

Natan was a bit of a slender sort and still rather young.

"I'll carry her for you," Koten said, "I wouldn't mind if you do not object."

For all of the strangeness of this, he was still trying to grasp it in terms that came more easily to him; that of a man meeting the younger brother of the woman --women that he was in love with.

And the expressions on their faces told him how they felt about his gesture.

As they walked off, just the two males, Natan looked very uncomfortable.

"Have my sisters told you of how we make our families?" he asked and Koten nodded.

"Then you know the way that this is to go. How do you feel about it?"

Well there it is, Koten thought, now what?

"Very confused," Koten said, "and I am not sure that I see the need of it all, to say the truth of it. I find myself in the position -- which requires more good fortune than I have ever seemed to have, by the way - of having the hearts of those two amazing ones back there.

I just do not understand about us, what is required of us and why. Please do not misunderstand. I find that I like you a great deal in such little time. It seems to be something that all three of you have over me. You are intelligent and attractive, but, ..."

Natan looked over with a sly little grin, "But you said that I am attractive just now."