The Witch's Want Ch. 04

"I am here doing something that I have never done, and will never do again, I think." She looked at Farah at last and smiled at little. "It has been so long since I walked the earth."

"What are you?" Farah asked.

The woman smiled genuinely, "Dead. Long-dead, but I think you want to know what I was."

She shrugged slightly. "I will release you in a moment, but you must know that I have come to speak with you of many things. It is not something that I do lightly, but I must, I think. You may run, if you wish, but I have put so much into this that I would only stay with you wherever you go until you hear my words."

She lowered her hand and Farah felt herself sag a little, having gotten a little used to pressing against the way that she'd been held.

"What were you then, and what must I hear?" Farah asked very shakily.

The figure smirked slightly, "Nothing bad to you. At the least, I do not think so."

"I was a cat."

The words hung between them in a strange way. Farah was about to laugh, but the figure smiled, "Not what you have in your mind, Farah. This will take some time. Is there something that you would like to do before I begin? I see a want in you for a drink."

Farah nodded, thinking that she'd like a really strong one, but she said, "I want my cup of tea on the table there. I think it's cold by now, but –"

The mug was there before her on the stones laid out in a ring around the hearth. It was full again and steaming.

"I think to save time," the other one said, "It is just as you made it before."

Farah lifted it cautiously and sipped once. "How?"

"Time is more important to me than anything," the woman said, "I can only do so much here and now, how long I can remain with you is what decided it for me."

"How do you know my name?" Farah asked as she sipped again. "And how were you a cat?"

"Your name is known to me easily because what you do is known by many and it is to be seen by ones like me. The many that I speak of, I have not seen in so long, but I know that they see you as well. I will tell of it, and I will show what I was, only put down the cup before."

Farah nodded and set the cup down. When she looked up, she understood the request.

The woman was gone – or at least substantially different now. Farah was sitting very near to a large feline in something of a human shape. She was covered in thin reddish brown fur. There were still human attributes, many of them, such as her breasts, two, rather than however many a female cat might have, six or eight, Farah guessed, the hands and feet were mostly feline, though she could see clawed fingers and toes. The face before her was still recognizable as the same woman that she'd been sitting with, but now she was a cat! And when she smiled a little self-consciously, she showed the long teeth of a large predatory feline. There was also a long tail which twitched a little.

Farah felt her gasp escape her.

"I believe that you call one such as me a changeling," she said, "I was born this way, and this is how I looked for most of my life as a choice when I could. This is how I looked to Ur-Nammu most often while we both lived."

Farah's jaw dropped, "You, you know –"

The cat shook her head and held up a pawed hand, "Stop, Farah. I knew him and he knew me. I am dead, as was he. We have not seen each other since before he was slain, and I died long after him."

Farah found herself struggling with so many things and questions that she had, but the cat shook her head and she stopped.

"Time," she said, "I will tell what I came for, but only listen as I tell it, or we will not get far on the road."

She reached over and laid her hand on Farah, but though she felt something, Farah felt no warmth – or coldness.

"This comes hard to one such as I was, and I hope that you might understand it from my side, but I have come here to help you and offer my best wishes for what you wish for with him, since to me, it shines from you and makes me happy in a way. He was robbed of his life, and he was stolen from me. Now, he has found a way to have a life again, and he has chosen you. It makes me happy, so I am here to help you understand him. I will get no such chance as he has."

Farah could sense the deep sadness that came to her now in a very sudden and almost palpable way.

"You, ..." she looked down for a moment, "I'm sorry. Tell me what you need to say, if time is short for you."

"Thank you," the cat smiled warmly, "To begin, I will say that my name was Dimme, and I was Ur-Nammu's woman, and the mother of his children. I am the reason that he laid an entire city to waste and ruin in his wrath, though he did rebuild it into a beautiful place after."

Farah wanted to know now, "He said something about it to me, but I didn't understand it. Why?"

The ghost shrugged, "It was known to be a wild place where one could buy anything for a piece of silver or three. Someone in that place learned of me and took it that I was some evil thing that needed killing, I suppose, but we knew that it came from there. They sent thirty killers, but between our guards and me, they failed. Our children lived. I lived. Ur-Nammu pulled the city down and killed many."

"He said twenty thousand," Farah recalled.

Dimme nodded, "At the least - the king, his wise ones, and every fighter, rogue, and thief he could find. It went harder for any assassins that were found as well. He can stand in a fight and he is not bothered by what may come, but to try to harm one that he loves, to try to kill his children, ..." She shrugged, "It goes deep in him then."

I argued against it, saying that it would bring more threats, but he said that he was raising the price to bargain. If it was seen that he did this for a failed attempt, it would be a small jump to think of what he might do if one of us was harmed. The city was planned for in the conquest, but he took it hard and very early for the plan. Instead of taking the city and installing a governor, he crushed it and then rebuilt it into many gardens and places that one might learn in."

She smiled, "But I get ahead of what I wish to say."

"There is a place," she said, "hidden in mountains, an old place where we were both born. I was born half a year after him and we were children together. Our parents always knew somehow, that he and I would be together. It was what they wanted as well."

She smiled a little, "We were always together when we were small. He was always large, and I was not, but I was fast. In anything we did, we were as a matched pair, though we looked very different from each other. His parents came to rule two nations, and we played together and made much mischief among the soldiers, for we were almost always taken along when they went to war so that we might learn youmg, and we did.

When he grew up, Ur-Nammu became a mighty fighter and a general, and I knew that one day, he would become king himself, but I was wrong in the end. I caused him much pain and hardship out of my love for him," she said, "I knew what he was meant to be and I saw no place for myself by his side because of what I was."

She smiled a little sadly, "I was wrong in this as well. Ur-Nammu held no one so close to his heart as he held me, but I was stupid about it and would not see, so I held myself apart from him for some years."

Farah watched spellbound as the cat looked up for a moment, lost in thought and memories as she watched the sparks and smoke from the blaze rise into the hood to be taken out of the chimney on the roof above them. "I saved his life in a battle once, and then I left, but he found me. I had been wounded fighting beside him as the cat just as I am here now, but I did nothing to tend the wound. Ur-Nammu found me and then he saved my life when it was almost too late and he made me see how wrong I had been about us."

She looked at Farah. "But I was right about some things. There had been a rise of our people planned from long before and he had a part to play in it. As the mighty conqueror, he had to be seen as a single man to others from many lands and kingdoms. It would not do for it to be known that he loved one such as me. He had to be seen as one to be allied with, and not as one who slept with a cat, no?

So we lived and loved together, but I was never his formal wife for that reason. I held his heart, to be sure. There was no doubt of it to us, but he also had to take and have other women for the show of it."

She looked down for a moment, "It was a very hard thing for me to do, when I am one who is much more inclined to be murderously jealous. And yet, I knew that it had to be and so I sat in the shadows and planned things for him from the political side and told him who he must bed and when and he did it always, playing the role that had been set for him.

We fought over it every time – just in the opposite way that most women would, "she laughed.

"Ur-Nammu often refused, and then I had to argue and fight him down until he did what was needed at the last. He hated it from his heart at first, but he grew to accept it, after making me swear to him that I knew how he felt about me – and that, Farah, is the easiest thing in the world to see if one has his heart and I will teach you what to look for. I am here to make certain that if what is between you is good, that you know it. I am really here to make sure that the one that I loved so much has his chance at a good life at last."

She nodded to Farah, "This may not happen at all, but I think that it will, what you hold in your heart. I see who you are and I know, Farah. I know of your past and if it is not too close for you to hear it from one who is long-dead, it is your chance as well. I mean to give you that chance, as much as I am able."

"Why?" Farah asked, "Why would you want to help, as you say?"

"Because I cannot ever have him again," the apparition said sadly. "I cannot do as he has done. What has happened to him is a bit of fortune, a blind chance that he saw for himself and seized in a moment. He was a priest as well as a warrior, just as his father was and he has much power. I have only a little more than I had while I lived. Even if I saw the same chance for myself before me, I could never do as he did.

Somehow, he came here, and somehow he has found one for himself – a lovely woman for him, as fine and finer still than any that he might have had while he lived. One who is not afraid of him as he is now – though I am certain that the meeting was a shock."

"If I can ask you," Fara said, "How um, how solid is he in that body? I sometimes think about what would happen if he lost his hold on it, like if he fell unconscious."

"There is nothing to fear," Dimme replied, "He owns the body now as though he was born into it. I do not know what would happen when it passes one day as everything does, but while it lives, it is his, though he struggles with speech sometimes. But he grows better at everything. That is his way.

He wishes to know the ways that men today court their women and he knows not how to ask the men where he works, but you have no need to fear much of anything. Ur-Nammu is a man once again and very happy for it - and happy for the chance to have a life and to know you. Before he met you, he was quiet and alone, but you draw him out and I like it."

Dimme grinned at Farah, "There is more to tell you, but for now, I want you to know something. When he came here, I was awakened from my sleep. I knew not what was happening at first. I thought that for some reason, I was to be tortured to know that my man was alive again and that I could never be. But I watched everything, and I saw that I had a chance to help Ur-Nammu once again – one last time. I saw the one that he saw that night among the graves," she laughed, "and I saw so much more."

She laid her arm on Farah's shoulder. "In one instant, I saw who you are, what you are, and all of your past – far more than you know. Neither of you had the thought, but you are already close and will get closer – and neither of you really has a choice, and I have nothing to do with that, other than I can see it and I now want for it to be between you."

She looked just a little mischievous for a moment, "Why do you think it is that he feels himself to be so drawn to you? You are so beautiful, but he feels that he must know you."

"I do nothing to push you to him, Farah. You do that yourself. I only placed the thought in his mind a little that you needed to be protected, perhaps, and it was enough." She pointed at Farah, "And it was a good thing too. Those two men would have killed you. But Ur-Nammu will find what he needs to and remove the cause, I think."

She smiled, "You are kindred, the two of you. I know this."

Farah's mind reeled, "What? How? We – we're related?"

"Oh yes," the apparition nodded with a smile, "long ago. Your father's people were Azeri, but long before that, you had an ancestor who shares a little of his father's blood. His mother was the High Priestess of the faith of Jebel Bishri and she was queen of Sumer for a time. His father was the Warrior-Priest of the same faith, and King of Sumer."

"But he had two wives, Farah, and not only one. They were best friends from their own childhoods and they were lovers between themselves before Nisi-ini-su knew her man, Lugalbanda."

She smiled at the look of recognition in Farah's face," You know the names, I see. The second wife was Anat, leader of Nisi-ini-su's own fighters and she gave Lugalbanda babes as well. You are descended from one of Ur-Nammu's half-brothers."

Farah was astounded and was about to speak, but Dimme said, "It makes a good combination in you, Farah, together with the tiny bit of the blood of two Pharaohs."

"Pull one of the cushions there to you to use as a pillow, Farah," the cat told her, "I will save some time and place the knowledge in your mind of how to love Ur-Nammu best. I think that you might believe with some pride what you know about loving with a man, but I know everything about what every one of the women that Ur-Nammu lay with knew themselves. I know what they knew, and I watched it often from a hidden place. I know what he likes and I know how he loves as well. Show me a little trust, and I can give it all to you with a touch in a moment."

Farah shook her head, "Dimme, I only had a few chances with boys while I was in high school. Not much to learn there, and my husband was a selfish, ..." she stopped, wondering how to make her point across points of view as well as points of reference. But Dimme understood.

"He was, "she thought and puzzled for a second, "the hole of an ass?"

Farah chuckled for the first time and nodded, "Yes, just like that, or close enough. I just thought that if we got there, that we'd just, you know, do it."

"Everywhere that I look here," Dimme said a little sourly, "I see people who sit looking at squares of light for half the day and more. I think that few of you even know how to just 'do it' properly. Look at you, Farah, I see through your clothes what you have done to prepare and I see your hair. You seek to make this a special time. Allow me to help, and it will be so, I promise it."

Farah felt silly and self-conscious, but she did as the cat requested. When the pawed hand came to rest on her forehead, Farah knew everything in a heartbeat and was amazed to find that she was wet only a few moments later. Dimme read her mind easily. "It comes because of the thoughts of it," she shrugged sadly, "something that I long for once more."

"You have seen now and so you know what he will like from you and what you may expect from him. He will never wish to hurt you, so he will be gentle. You will need to tell him when you are ready and find the want in you for more and only say it if you want it harder. And above all, you now know what to look for in him to know if you have his heart. You have already seen some of it."

Farah nodded with a very warm feeling inside her for the knowledge.

Dimme looked at Farah appraisingly for a moment, "From the way that you are made, I think that you would be able to take all that he can give, my friend," she nodded, "and from one who loved nothing more than to fuck with him all the night and half the next day, you may take that as a compliment, for not every woman could. But take some time to get used to the feel of him. He will surprise you often. When most men would flag and many would fall asleep, Ur-Nammu's interest climbs, because then, it is when he has had the time to think of what he has with a good woman that he will hit his stride."

She snickered a little, "And by then, my lovely Beja beauty, if it is you who flags, you need only to hang onto him and he will do the rest. What I always loved so much was when I was too tired to go on at last. I would tell him softly, and the next thing I knew, it was morning and he had loved me to sleep."

She looked at the half-cup of tea that remained a little sadly, "I would that I could drink something like that again."

Farah had a thought, "If you can read my thoughts and place things into my mind, could you taste what I taste?"

"I do not know," the ghost smiled, "Try it."

But it didn't work and they both sighed.

"You look very solid now," Farah said, "Try my tea yourself."

That went a little better, though neither one of them had an explanation, but soon, Farah had another full cup steaming before her so that they could share it with Dimme's thanks.

She smirked, "There is not much today in the way of fighting as it was once done, though he tries something to stay a little sharp. But if you want a little fun, then set him to a task and watch him work, Farah. I think that you are enough like me that it will make you a little wet to see it."

Farah understood well enough and she smiled a little shyly at the ghost.

"If you like, " the cat-girl smiled, "I can show you how he looked to me sometimes as I saw him. It is a little rough for one of this age – the way that I see it, anyway, but if you can hold it in your mind that inside, he seeks an end, always a goal, then it is little more than seeing a man that you might love as he works a farm, perhaps, only much harder, and with blinding speed. Would you try to see him as he was when he was my man?"

Farah thought that she understood the veiled warning that was implied, but to learn of Ur-Nammu in anything, well, she found that she had a hunger for it and so she nodded and felt Dimme's pawed hand on her forehead once more.

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She didn't recognize the man that she saw, but she understood him as he struggled to hold his horse steady while talking to the leader of his scouts.

"What am I looking at here? Who leads this bunch of wild men?" he roared.

"We have heard only one name, and so it seems that there is no group of leaders here, Lord." the hard-bitten scout replied with a little caution.

What he wasn't saying yet was that most of his band of scouts had not returned to him and couldn't be found. Any that were sent to learn of what might have happened didn't return either. He'd only gotten one report back when by now he should have had plenty of information to pass to his ruler. To him, it told a tale that made the hair on the back of his neck prickle a bit. There were warnings here, but how to tell the headstrong old bull that he worked for?

"I have no word from any of my other scouts, " the man said nervously.

The other, wearing finely crafted plate-over leather armor leaned forward and grabbed the scout by the throat, "Must I wait for the moon to rise before I hear a name?" he hissed.

"I hear news that a host marches at speed against me and I send scouts for word and hear nothing. I am roused out of my bed with tidings that this host has passed my borders! I ride half the night to find this bunch of savages here, and I see nothing to merit my leaving the arms of my women!