“Defective gene!” I couldn’t believe it.

  “So, what do I need to do?” I asked after a long pause.

  “I already told you,” mom said in annoyed tone. “I told you three times already. I’ll repeat it for the fourth time: Get up, Ashara will dress you properly. Cover up your tattoo and go to Shodanar, it’s a place where they hold tournaments. When you get there, choose yourself a poorly dressed and weak warrior. Well, choose the one that you like. You must have at least some kind of attraction for the man, when you do it for the first time. But remember, the warrior must be weak! Do you understand? Do what must be done and come back. Naska will carry you back.”

  “I’ll walk on my own,” I said defiantly.

  “It’s unlikely. Intercourse with a warrior is painful.”

  “Mom, to hell with those warriors! There are many other ways to lose virginity. Maybe I can use some makeshift alternatives?”

  “Remember, Little Panther, an aytnah from the house of Nrogo arrives at sundown to examine and cure you. If there’s nothing to cure you will be publicly whipped in the courtyard of the house of the khassar, Kier. Did you see my back the other day? I got ten lashes. For falsification you’ll get twenty.”

  I was shocked.

  “Scumbags!”

  “Do what you’re told!”

  “Mom, to hell with this Eeristan and their stupid traditions!”

  This time mom didn’t explain patiently that it had to be done. Instead she let me have it.

  “Then why the unstable atom did you poke your nose there?! I did everything I could so that my daughter could have a happy childhood and live in a civilized country, where women are respected for who they are and not objectified!”

  “Mom, they would have killed you,” I tried to justify myself.

  “Kiran, that would have been the consequence of my choice and my decision! Believe me, I would have preferred the cruelest execution to being here and knowing what you have to go through!”

  I felt really bad.

  “Mo-o-om, maybe… maybe I should tell Nrogo everything? Tell him about this conspiracy. It is primarily against him. I’ll do it with him, if things are the way they are.”

  Things were, frankly speaking, terrible. I found out that if a warrior spent the night with a woman and nothing happened, he could lose the title of the strongest in his khassarat. The title of the ruler, as well. I thought it was a crazy and stupid tradition.

  “Little Panther, I’m afraid they simply used you, knowing very well that you’d be resisting till the very end. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand that right away.”

  “Mom, so maybe I should go and talk to Nrogo?” I suggested again. “He’s not too unpleasant and kinda experienced, and I won’t have to run around Shodanar like a whore!”

  “He’s not in Aigor, Kier,” mother answered calmly. “They played their cards really well. Even your father’s visit at sunrise was planned. You have to understand that aytnah is against him too.”

  “Bummer…”

  “Little Panther, despite everything, I’m very happy that nothing happened between you and Nrogo. Believe me, he’s not the man you should lose your virginity to. I’ll explain to you later. But please understand, honey, you’re running out of time.”

  “Okay, okay, I got it. I’m going now!” I jumped off the bed. “I’ll be a good girl and have sex with the first man I see. Kill me now!”

  I hung up and started preparing for my date, cursing my very life.

  * * *

  Ashara drew a tattoo on top of the rhinestones of my real tattoo. It looked terrible, as if it was concealing some lesions. But it didn’t matter.

  I put concealer all over my face, which was very pale and looked strange with my dark eyebrows on it. After that, the old woman helped me put on the gray robe similar to those that maids wore. Ashara also put some kind of a bracelet on my arm.

  “This means that you’re a warrior’s daughter or a strong warrior’s maid,” she explained. “Nobody can take you without permission, claim you or take you away. This bracelet is your protection.”

  “Okay,” I looked around. “Won’t they notice that I’m gone?”

  “Nobody will come here till sundown. It’s tradition.”

  I kept silent as the only words I could find to describe the Eeristani traditions were obscenities. I felt really bad, probably the worst I ever felt. How would you feel if your own father didn’t really want to give you to another warrior, but just wanted to whip you publicly? What a scumbag! It seemed that they purposefully hadn’t checked any of my backpacks, and that I did exactly what they had expected of me.

  “Anyway, I’ll deal with it somehow,” I said thoughtfully.

  “What did you say, honey?”

  “Never mind,” I managed a smile.

  I promised myself that my revenge against father would be ruthless.

  With these thoughts I went to look for a sex partner to lose my virginity with, so that I could make everyone believe that the night I spent with Nrogo had been successful.

  * * *

  Ashara led me out of the palace. Naska was already waiting for me.

  “How are you?” He asked.

  “Couldn’t be worse,” I answered honestly and looked around.

  The world around me was amazing. We went through a backdoor and entered the market that was right behind the palace wall. That was when I discovered that not all Eeristani men were warriors.

  “Naska, are these the locals?” I asked, looking at the merchants in colorful baggy clothes.

  “Yes,” he behaved somewhat strangely by staying a bit behind me.

  “But they are not warriors?”

  “Warriors don’t trade.”

  “What do warriors do?”

  “They rule, fight, study, invent.”

  This made me think. We were wandering between the rows of shopping stalls. The tents were bright, mostly orange and red, there were some green ones too, but not a single one was blue. Buyers were men like Naska and there were older women, also wearing unremarkable gray robes. The women wore black belts around their robes. It looked like the belts made them somehow superior to maids.

  “Hurry up,” Naska said suddenly and went faster.

  I practically had to run after him. We moved like this until we reached the park that surrounded the square where we landed when I first arrived on Eeristan.

  “This is Shodanar,” my guide announced, stopping about a hundred yards away from a small forest.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “You must go there,” Naska smiled sadly. “Girls come here often to watch the tournaments. Sometimes they succumb to their passions and spend the night in the warrior’s tents. I can’t go with you there.”

  “Terrific!”

  I desperately wished I could simply stay where I was and not go anywhere or look for anybody.

  “Go!” Naska looked forward, embarrassed. “Remember, you need to return before sundown.”

  We both looked up. The sun was high in the sky, so it was approximately noon.

  “I’ll wait for you here.”

  But I still stood in the same place. Now I wished I had slept with Nrogo. Strange-looking vehicles were moving slowly along the road that I had to cross to get to the forest…

  “Kiran, women’s wars are always treacherous,” said Naska.

  “Busted navigator, they’ll pay for it!” I said with anger and desperation and went to look for my adventure.

  Story Three: Losing My Virginity

  Shodanar was a tent camp in the middle of a fairly densely populated park. Tents of various shapes and sizes were scattered around, while small and large arenas were set up in the square. Contestants were already competing in some of the arenas, while the others were being used for training exercises. The warriors walked around, talked, rested, or ate in the shade. There were tons of muscleheads around.

  They were obviously from different regions, as they had different eye and hair color. The color of their skin varied from black, yellowish, just tanned, reddish to greenish with barely noticeable blue hue. They differed in terms of their body types too. The best word to describe their bodies would be ‘too much’ because everything in them was taken to the extreme. Also, they paid too much attention to me. They didn’t simply look at me, they stared, following my every move from the moment I walked in. I felt like I was surrounded by wild animals that were closing in and preparing to attack. I wanted to turn around and run away very fast. I noticed that once the warriors saw my bracelet, they stopped behaving aggressively, but kept staring. Soon I understood why.

  At first, I only saw warriors. It was difficult to take my eyes off them, so I didn’t realize right away that there were women in Shodanar, too. It’s not surprising – the unremarkable and slouching girls always kept their eyes down and were quite easy to miss. When I saw the first two of them, I even stopped in surprise. The women usually walked in pairs or in threes, I was the only one walking on my own. These two had their heads down, were holding hands, and darting their eyes around, giggling stupidly.

  ‘Is this their idea of an outing?’ I wondered.

  “Look,” one of them suddenly whispered, “this one is so-o-o cute!”

  The usual women talk. To be honest, Micha and I did the same, but I hoped we didn’t look so stupid. I hurried away to find a place where there were no girls around.

  That place seemed to be the arenas. A bit further down, I saw an arena surrounded by a wooden fence. I headed that way, deciding to watch the tournament and get my thoughts together. The looks I got from the warriors weren’t simply annoying, they were so unbearable that I could hardly breathe from anger. My heart was about to tear a hole in my chest and run away, since its owner obviously wasn’t smart enough to do the same.

  When I got closer to the arena, I heard steel clashing – a sword fight was on. I watched the fight as I was coming up, noticing out of the corner of my eye that there were only two spectators. Both were muscular fair-haired warriors. I was the third to watch.

  When I was right by the arena, I leaned against the fence and started watching the fight. The contestants were of the same race or breed – whatever they called it here. Both were tanned, fair-haired and blue-eyed. They looked like brothers, but their skull shapes were different, so they surely weren’t related. They fought beautifully. It’s quite likely that they would have won any battle with Instructor Lodgen, or most of our university instructors, for that matter.

  I’d never seen anybody fight like that. The complexity and precision of their movements made me think that mastering such a fighting technique required learning theory first.

  I watched the fight attentively, noticing that the warriors were equally strong. They made similar lunges, their blocks were immaculate, and their attacks were well-rehearsed. It was obvious that it wasn’t their first fight, and each of them knew his opponent very well, often predicting his actions. About twenty minutes later, I was bored. So bored that I decided to look around and…

  That was my fatal mistake!

  He stood on the opposite side of the arena, casually leaning against the fence. He was very tall, and his strong tanned body exuded a certain power and strange assertiveness. His hair was fair with a slight golden hue. His cheeks were high, he had a large nose and tightly pressed lips. His eyes were bright blue. And the way he looked at me suddenly meant the world to me. At some point, I realized that I was holding my breath.

  Then I got a strange feeling that he was the reason I breathed at all. That he was all I could ever see. That the entire world, not only Eeristan, but the entire universe was reduced to one tahr-ehn, who stood about fifty steps away from me. I felt that all I had to do was stretch my hand out and touch him.

  This thought overwhelmed me so much that my legs betrayed me, and I almost found myself on the ground. The only reason I didn’t fall was because I grabbed onto the fence. I had never felt anything like it. Never! My vision became blurry, and the only thing I saw clearly was that warrior. I kept looking into his bright blue eyes that were looking keenly back at me.

  “Stop!” I ordered myself out loud.

  I turned away quickly, trying to calm my raging hormones. The whole tent camp danced in front of my eyes. My heart was racing madly, and instead of the warmth in the area of my inner thighs that I experienced with Ed, there was a fire raging down there now. I tried to breathe normally, but I felt that I had just finished running a marathon and won. Twice!

  “Oh, Kiera, what are you doing?” I whispered, trying to regain control over my body.

  It seemed to help. Or maybe not, because my legs treacherously failed me, and I slowly lowered myself onto the grass. I sat, ignoring the people that surrounded me, wrapped my arms around my knees and pondered.

  Actually, there was nothing to ponder about. He was an excellent specimen to lose my virginity to. I couldn’t believe what simply looking at him did to me – I never suspected that hormones could do such things to my body.

  On the other hand, mom told me to find a poor and weak warrior, and I knew that she had a good reason for saying that. He was not weak by any means – his muscles made me think that he could probably compete for the title of the strongest man here. But maybe he’s poor? This specimen would likely outperform those sex androids with three thousand ways of delivering pleasure. I tried to remember what he was wearing. I couldn’t. I was sure that I would never forget his bare shoulders, his rock-hard pectorals, or his eyes, but I couldn’t remember what he was wearing?!

  “Kiran, pull yourself together!” I whispered another command to myself.

  Then I remembered that he hadn’t had a medallion on his chest like Nrogo or my father did, which meant that he wasn’t a chief or a khassar. I needed to look at him again. More importantly, I wanted to. Really wanted to. I couldn’t understand what was happening to me.

  I carefully stood up, brushed the dust off my gray robe, straightened out, turned and groaned in disappointment – he was gone.

  The two clowns continued their training exercise. A couple of warriors lazily watched their fight, sometimes looking at me strangely, but that blue-eyed tahr-ehn that had rocked my world was gone.

  “Unstable atom!”

  I grasped the fence, cursing myself, my hormones and the fact that I had lost the only guy I really felt attracted to. I had never liked anybody this much before. I was even ready to believe in love at first sight. How could I find him?! Time was running out. My fingers grasped the fence so hard that my knuckles turned white.

  And then…

  Somebody’s wide and strong hands slid to my wrists, and my hands immediately went limp. I heard a low, slightly husky voice that made my legs tremble.

  “A woman must not show her desire so openly,” said he.

  “Dude, I don’t even know you, why are you telling me what I must do?” I answered automatically.

  He chuckled, and I felt that chuckle more than heard it, as my heart started racing again so loudly that I hardly heard our conversation.

  “Woman, there is a reason for all Eeristani traditions. You came here without learning how to control your emotions. You walk around with your head high and dare to look the warriors in the eyes. You let yourself experience such a strong desire that everybody around you felt it. The dakha bracelet protects you, but there is a limit. You crossed the line you were not supposed to cross.”

  I was listening with great attention, but I had difficulty hearing. His hands… his hands held mine, and their touch created an explosion inside me. It radiated throughout my body in waves, making the blood in my veins boil. By the time it reached my groin, it raged as a wildfire of ever growing desire. I had a nagging feeling in my groin that was starting to hurt. I knew what I wanted, or rather, I knew what I needed.

  “You’re not listening,” noted the warrior behind my back.

  “I’m l-l-listening,” I answered, noticing that even those two guys who had been trying to compete in the arena were now looking at us. “You talked about lines… I crossed something…”

  He chuckled again and softly, yet assertively turned me to face him.

  I held my breath. It was that blue-eyed tahr-ehn. It was HIM! He looked even more gorgeous up close. That was it, my legs failed me again, but since the man was so strong, he caught my falling body. My hands were limp, my breath was shallow and intermittent (but at least I could breathe again), and my heart beat so loud that everybody probably heard it.

  The warrior smiled. I was still holding my breath.

  “Your desire is strong,” the man of my dreams said.

  He put his second hand on my waist as though he had every right to do it. I didn’t care. I couldn’t even argue with myself, let alone physically resist him. Meanwhile, his right hand carefully moved up from my waist and touched my face. It was such a gentle, infinitely gentle touch of his fingers on my cheek, yet it made me so weak. My legs were failing, my body was burning, my self-control was gone…

  “Now is the best time to save a silly reckless woman,” the reason for my hormonal revolution said, slightly elongating his words. “Let’s go.”

  “Save me?” I was confused. “From what?”

  “From the warriors that you desire,” he clarified as a matter-of-fact.

  “The warriors?” I asked and snapped. “Who needs those dumb jocks?”

  The familiar expression of surprise flashed on his stately face. For a few moments he looked at me with attention.

  “But you feel a desire,” he confirmed, not asked.

  ‘Is he making fun of me?’ I wondered.

  “It’s a blatant lie,” I groaned, still looking at him with hungry eyes.

  The warrior smiled again for some reason. I thought that I had fallen in love at first sight. I fell in love with these eyes that were bright blue as a summer sky, with his kind, slightly patronizing smile, with the warmth of his hands. But most importantly, I fell in love with his wish ‘to save the silly reckless woman’.

 

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