Daughter of the Witcher Ch. 06

"Well yes, but -- "

"Never mind, Koten. It is enough for now. Since you speak your mind, I will do the same. I groaned out loud when it was told to me."

Koten laughed a little then, "See? That is something that I can understand."

Natan nodded, "Oh probably, but I do not think that you might know why."

He drew a breath for a moment, "All of the Kurtadam, we all have it in us to love one of the same kind. We only tend to like one sort more than the other. I like males a little better than I like females.

For all of my life, from the moment when my eyes opened, I have had my sisters for me. They taught me to walk, Koten, and so much more. Whenever I fell in anything, they were there, helping me up and wiping my princely little nose for me before they pushed me back into whatever it had been.

Kurtadam children love each other always and our families are made as they are to ensure that we reproduce. If they want me, I can love with them and I am happy to make them happy -- by your leave, of course, once we four begin it in earnest.

I have been with another for a time, but I am not happy. Forgive me, but I was even less happy to learn that the male for us was a human. I do not know much about your kind -- though I admit that meeting you and seeing the ease with which you picked up that doe are changing my view.

But always, a pack must be about living on. The world seems to me to be full of humans and we are in danger of fading away, so I am now in the pack of my family and soon, unless you find a way to ruin it, I will follow you. Do I need to explain that?"

Seeing Koten's nod, Natan began.

"Remember that it is all about making whelps at some point. While it is true that a single male can breed many females, there is a more ideal way, and that is what we are about to get into. Two males, two females. For the sake of my kind, there will hopefully be many whelps out of it.

But Kurtadam males, and I do not know about your kind, can be possessive by nature, just as the females can be.

And make no mistake, they can be.

So we come to the idea of the leaders. If this works, then Petra and you will lead. Jenna and I will follow.

But the role of the leaders must be determined. Jenna will be forced to submit to Petra sometimes, though I believe that she has already been doing that for most of her life, loving Petra as she does.

I must be forced to submit to you, Koten, and it does no good for me to tell you here and now that I accept you in that role. I will have to be shown, or I will not ever be able to be happy in our pack. It is just built into us that way. Do you think that you can understand this?"

Koten nodded as they walked on, "I just do not have to like it, correct?"

Natan shook his head with a sigh.

"Think for a minute. This is the way of the Kurtadam. We are no relatives, but this is also the way of dogs. Dominance is proven and they go on. Imagine that I am the type who does not like to be shown that, every now and again, as the price that I might mate with one of your girls -- and that does NOT happen with dogs."

They walked further for a minute in silence.

"It just happens that I am one who really likes that,"Natan said, "and it is my quiet hope that you might come to like it as well."

Koten was still thinking it over as they walked into the keep and then he noticed a few things.

Everyone knew him now and he was liked. He'd seen it before as it grew, but now it was very plain to his eyes.

His relationship had become public knowledge and many seemed pleased to hear the news, many coming forward to express their best wishes as though they'd all suddenly become betrothed, and in that number, there were more than a few who said that soon, he'd as much as be living the dream of many Kurtadam males, to know and have the love of two princesses AND the prince.

As he stood there thinking it over and wondering just why it was that he found himself liking the whole notion in an odd and sudden way, he overheard Natan pushing the events of his own hunt aside to tell of the way that the young lord had charmed a fat doe out of the undergrowth to walk right up to him, almost asking to be killed.

It wasn't so much the words that he heard which caught his ear; it was the tone and the way that Natan spoke of him which hit him in an odd way.

"It sounds as though you have charmed not only a deer to your hand," a quiet voice said in his ear.

When he turned, he saw that Tirga stood there, smiling up at him, "You seemed to have charmed all of my difficult and high-spirited children to your hand as well. A mother likes this," she said in the general way that the Kurtadam spoke.

"I do not know," he replied, "and I cannot tell if it is something that I would want. Mother Tirga, try to see it from my side, I have never -- "

She nodded, "But you know why it is this way, I think. I was once the second mate of a king. My male here was the second, just as Natan will be yours one day. Look around you to see what might be done by such a family pack."

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As often as they could, they did anything that they could think of for their Kurtadam neighbors, while Margit worked with the ones who were to look after the horses so that every horse was fit and feeling good to be alive. Then she worked offering tips and little lessons to any who asked her for it.

Koten spent a lot of his evenings away in the company of Petra and Jenna.

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"You seem to be enjoying your life here these days," Margit joked a little to her son over breakfast one morning as the wind howled outside.

Koten nodded with a small grin as he thankfully accepted another fried egg from his mother.

"Well it makes a mother's heart a little glad to see it, that's all," she smiled, "Although, ... "

The two men in her life looked over at her a little expectantly as she paused.

"What do you know of their family life?" she asked Koten, "Have your two lady friends spoken of it to you in much of any way?"

The crust of bread that he'd just swallowed felt a little dry to him suddenly as it scraped down his throat far too slowly. He shook his head, not knowing how it might be received by his parents or whether they were aware of the true extent of it all.

"Well, I can tell you that it is a little different from our own way," she said a little airily as she slid another egg onto Gunnar's platter, "There is nothing wrong with it to my mind once you think about it, but it is different all the same."

She sat down again to attack her own second egg then, "They make the unit of their families a little bit like the wolves, you know, but it is even different from the way that THAT goes.

It's about survival," she said, "and a lot depends on the number of children born to a family in any generation. If there is only one, just as an example, well then that one can either begin by mating with another single child from another family or, as most often happens, that child can go to the family of another one who wants them for a mate but has siblings.

Of course, when I say a child, I mean a young adult. I only say a child from the point of view of the parents.

If there is more than one child in a family, then one of them, the eldest - and gender plays no part here -- becomes the leader among them. Now, if that eldest one is a girl and she weds, then her mate comes into the family and unless there are objections from the others, as might happen if they had chosen mates of their own, they become mates to him as well.

It can happen in just the same way from the opposite side as well, of course, and then, ..."

Margit went on, but by then, Koten wasn't listening.

He was thinking about Petra and Jenna.

Something which had bothered him a little these past weeks was the way that they both loved to spend time in his company and though it had taken some getting used to on his part, they both loved any sort of intimate play with him. Something like that was far out from his own experiences with girls because of one detail.

He'd never known any girl alive who would have stood aside for a little fooling around on her boyfriend's part with another girl -- and in her presence?

While she was there?

He understood that they were sisters and he could see that the two of them were close in all matters, ...

And yet it was nothing for Petra to tend to the fire while Jenna was all over him only inches away, and it worked both ways, he realized, with the blonde washing her hair while Petra had her hand jammed into Koten's breeches, happily fishing around with a silly little grin on her face ...

He knew why the Kurtadam were the way that they were and he also knew that they were all preparing for it in their unspoken way as their quiet moments together seemed to escalate in a slow and almost painfully delicious sort of way.

He was only having trouble with one thing in it all.

"Anyway," Margit said as she finished her thoughts, "I was just a girl then, but I remember a Kurtadam girl pointing a young male out to me as he walked past with his arm around her older sister.

She smiled and told me that they would be marrying in the spring and that just as soon as she was of age, she would live with them as his second wife. At the time, I was shocked but long after that, I realized that it was likely a good thing for them as a people.

If my friend got along with her older sister well, and that was the way that it usually was, then things were already settled for her. She didn't need to find a male for herself. She was all of twelve at the time, but she already knew the male that she'd marry when she was old enough and she thought the world of him. I thought it was sweet."

"You know that a lot of things can change in six years," Gunnar said.

Margit nodded, "Yes of course, but from what I learned, it usually didn't for the Kurtadam and three of them as a family stood a far better chance of having their young live long enough to begin on their own.

It does make for a busier life for the male, I must say."

Koten didn't even realize that he was grinning before his mother saw it.

"I should point out," she said to him a little dryly, "that Kurtadam males as a group make excellent husbands. There is no job in the home -- other than breastfeeding a little one - that they are exempted from, just as it can fall to one of the wives to defend another with her life if they are attacked and the male is far away for some reason.

They become a three-sided power -- or however many there are in the family.

So,..." she smiled at her son, "Have your two girlfriends made any mention of it to you, ... yet?"

Koten shook his head as he fibbed. "No, uh, ... no they haven't."

"Oh. I'm sure they will, my love," she grinned, "They probably just need a little time, that's all. You are a human, after all, though they have a way to make you one of them, you know. You ought to ask about that when you get a - "

"Yes, yes," he nodded as she stood up, "I'll even ask them about it if it comes to mind. I had no idea that they had such a rich home life. I've um, I've got to go. I just remembered that I wanted to ... clear the snow away from the front gates. I almost fell on my backside out there yesterday."

He was off like a shot, wanting nothing more than to hear nothing more about the whole thing.

Margit looked a little sad for a moment, "I forgot to mention the way that their families are so very affectionate with each other."

Gunnar almost couldn't catch his breath from laughing so hard.

"You don't blame me for trying, do you, Gunnar?"

He stopped laughing then and saw that Margit was serious.

He put his arm around her then and he smiled, "I have nothing to blame you for at all, Margit. But what was that about?"

She rolled her eyes, "Just the half-hopes and wishes of a pair of mothers, Gunnar. I have been so happy this last while to have my old friend Tirga again. We only knew each other over a few days and afternoons of playing as young girls and that was so long ago now. I see it as a gift that I got to know her again here."

She smiled at him for a moment and then she sighed, "Tirga has such lovely daughters and it's plain to both of us that they care for Koten just as we can see that it goes in the other way as well. I did not mean to put him off so much."

Gunnar chuckled, "Put him off? I don't think that you have done anything of the kind.

And anyway, even if you did, it won't be long before the thought of it passes. I've seen them together and they're as thick as thieves, the three of them. If you gave him pause over anything, I doubt that it was that."

She looked over at him, wondering what she was missing. Gunnar saw it and he shrugged. "Koten is young, but he is not a young fool. Well, not any more than most. I think you might have missed what bothers him, and it is not those girls."

"It's not?" Margit asked, "Well then what is it?"

Gunnar took a deep breath and let it out. "There are two things -- no, three.

In the first place, those girls are the leaders of a people, such as they are and as few as they are. It is a responsibility. If what you females wish for comes to pass, then Koten will have to lead them as well, not in a commanding sort of way, but in any sort of fight, he will have to take a part in it -- on behalf of a people who adopt him in a way and they will have expectations.

Secondly, and as you said to him, they possess a way to turn a human into one of them in a very real way. If he accepts that, he will be changed. You cannot fault a young man over his taking the time to stop cold and ask himself what he is doing. As cold as it might seem, he must think about whether what he is getting into is worth it. That is a heavy decision to make."

Margit nodded, "I know, but he will still be our son. What was the third thing?"

Gunnar looked down at his platter for a moment, wondering just how in the world to say it.

"There is a younger brother," he said at last.

"And?" Margit asked, "What of it? I have met him. He is only eighteen and he is very handsome and polite and --"

She stopped there, the thought frozen on her lips.

Gunnar nodded with a heavy sigh.

"I have met him as well and you are right. But I did more than just nod when he was introduced to me, Margit. I watched him. I was behind watching as he stood there, almost on his toes to get a glimpse of Koten."

He turned to look at his wife. "I heard him sigh. It was something that he was not aware that he was doing until about half the way through and then he stopped and looked around himself a little shamefacedly. He looked back at me, but of course, I was looking elsewhere by then.

How does THAT go in their way of doing things differently?"

Margit sat back in her chair, plainly laying this all out in front of her on the table to consider.

"I think, ... " she looked at Gunnar, "I think that if he is of age now, then since that day, the three have probably shared a bed a few times. Petra would be the leader among the three, and I can see how much she is that leader. They have probably fooled around a little, being careful, since he can -- "

Gunnar shook his head gently, "That is not what I meant. I have already assumed that what you have said has likely happened. I do not think that it is considered wrong among the Kurtadam. Think some more.

He would get two unofficial wives from it, that is plain. What is also plain to me is that, as you said, Petra is the natural leader among those three. It is not a large step for me after seeing the girls together that they are like one girl a lot of the time, of one mind as well. That is not the last thing.

The boy gets two unofficial wives. Each girl gets two husbands, one her proper mate and the other one a not so well hidden shadow lover. That is all between them and Koten. It is not my concern."

He threw up his hands a little, "In truth, none of it is my concern or my business, though I have a strong wish that they all be happy -- especially our son.

But you are forgetting one thing, one aspect which lies unaccounted for.

If what I saw in that boy is correct, then our son gets three wives in a manner of speaking."

Margit sat in silent shock for a moment. It wasn't that she was an idiot and hadn't thought of it. It was just the slightly thin and hopeful-looking little male elephant in the room, that was all.

She nodded to herself and then she laid her hands back on the table to push down.

"I want them all to be happy," she said as she got up to collect the dishes.

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Koten was in the courtyard looking at the neatly piled mountain of long logs which waited to be sawn shorter and then split.

He didn't feel much like sawing today.

Instead, he wanted to break something. So he stepped over to THAT mountain of neatly piled logs and began. Where he was there, he was sheltered from the wind and only had to contend with the cold, and in fact, it wasn't so much cold today as it was damp.

It took him only minutes before he was sweating, so he took off his shirt and went back to it.

"Look at him, Natan," Petra purred into her brother's ear, "See the way that he moves. Jenna and I can tell you that it is so good to hold onto him in the dark."

She moved her head out so that it came into Natan's field of view from the side, "We began it you know. Last night. He had us both again and again."

Natan turned his head to look at Jenna who hobbled up to where they stood by another window. "Don't ask me right now how it was. I can barely walk today."

She reconsidered and then the grinned anyway, "Fine, fine, it was wondrous with him, every stroke that he made into me and every stroke out as well. I would do that with him again any time. It's just that, ... ohh, I only hope that I do not have to ride a horse today or I will fall in two."

She walked up and kissed her brother's cheek, "What is wrong?"

Natan sighed listlessly, "I know that our ways are strange to him. I just do not think that he likes me much.

"Give it a little time," Jenna said, "As you said, it is strange to -- "

"And give me a little time," Petra said with a grin, "so that I can change his mind for him."

She kissed Natan as well and then she said, "I am certain that I cannot do for him in the same way that you can, the things between men, but I will teach him of that little place on me and then I will tell him that you can do it better there for him."

Natan hadn't taken his eyes from Koten the entire time, but then he saw someone else walk into the courtyard. "Shh, shh, Look! It is Brontahn," Natan hissed, "I broke it off with him two days ago. He said that he would kill me. What is he doing?"

Petra groaned, "It looks to me as though Brontahn is about to be stupid -- or more than stupid if he thinks that he can -- "

The large wolf down there in the courtyard picked up a log and began to advance on Koten, shouting out his growling curses all the way. The three ran for the stairs.

When they got outside, they found the wolf on his back, out cold with a sawn and split log next to his head. Koten appeared to be furious, standing where he had been when they'd seen it from the upper window.

He took up his axe and walked nearer as the wolf stirred groggily.

Koten's ability to speak their language left a lot to be desired, but the intent was clear enough as he shouted, "Do you enjoy the sounds of the birds there in your head?

Want to hear more?

What if I change the song and use this on your skull instead? Would you like that? Get up!"

He kicked at the other male's leg, "GET UP!"

Koten's free hand flashed out and his fingers hooked and curled under the large wolf's jawbone. He began to lift steadily and slowly.