Page 32 of Fall

Both of them groaned at the penetration, and Lenna fisted her hands inthe blankets beneath her at the tight, full feeling.

Rone took her hard and fast, leaning over behind her. She was surroundedby his strong body, his hot skin, his fast breathing. She was vaguely awarethat they weren’t alone. It was still dark in the cave, but those around themwould obviously know what they were doing.

She didn’t even care. She wanted them to know how hard Rone was takingher, how good he was making her feel.

She’d never felt this way in her life before, but she couldn’t deny thefeeling now.

He fucked her from behind until she came again, stifling her scream ofpleasure in the blankets. Then he pulled out and turned her over. He wasstarting to kneel between her legs, but she pulled him down into missionaryposition so she could wrap her arms around him.

It took him a minute to figure out this new position, but he soon builtup another fast, rough rhythm as she tightened her legs around him and pulledthe blanket up to cover them.

He rubbed his face against hers as they moved together, and it felt likeLenna’s heart would burst out of her chest. She held on to him tightly and gaveherself over to the feeling, crying out uninhibitedly as he brought her toclimax again just before he came himself.

Both of them were breathless and clingy afterwards. Rone kept nuzzlingher cheek, her jaw, her shoulder, and he was mumbling words it took her aminute to hear clearly.

“Lenna good. Lenna home. Lennahome.”

At least for the moment, it felt like she was.

***

A few dayslater, the snow finally melted enough for them to come out of the cave.

Lenna had spent most of her life on a space ship, so she wasn’t inclinedto get cabin fever. She was surprised, however, by how happy she was to see thesky again, the sun, the familiar trees near the cave, the mountains beyondthem.

Everyone seemed excited, even though they had to trudge through theremaining snow. After breakfast, Mara and Lenna gathered up the bedding andcarried it outside to clean, hanging it up afterwards on big bare branches toair out in the cold, fresh air.

They were laughing over the men’s attempt to make holes in the ice tofish, and Lenna was hit with the strange realization that she really likedMara.

Mara was gentle and intelligent, and she had a sense of humor. She nevercomplained, even though she was a former mate of the tribe’s leader, andtherefore would never have a mate again. She had two sons. One had already leftthe tribe, as boys did when they hit puberty. The other must be almost twelve.Soon he would leave too, and she would never see him again.

Mara didn’t seem sad about this fact. She was proud of her boy—proud thathe would become a man soon who was capable of making it on his own.

Lenna could almost—almost—understand why his leaving wasn’t a source ofgrief.

He couldn’t stay here. Only weak men didn’t leave the tribe they wereborn into, and no mother would want her son to be weak.

As she laughed with Mara, Lenna looked across the river to where Rone wascarefully trying to carve out a hole in the ice. He glanced up, as if he sensedshe was watching him, and their eyes met across the distance.

He smiled, and he was still smiling when he looked back down at the ice.

Lenna was still smiling too as she started back to the cave to get therest of Rone’s blankets from his bed.

Before she reached the cave entrance, a sound made her pause. It was asoft bleating, like a whimper, coming from behind a cluster of large rocksnearby.

She went to investigate and found a very young fawn—one of the deer-likeanimals that moved in herds and were the main source of food for the tribe.

It was tiny and sprawled out in the snow, crying helplessly.

Lenna ran toward it, kneeling down to see what was wrong. It tried topull away from her instinctively, but its back right leg was obviously injuredand half its tail was gone, clawed away in a raw gash.

A predator—maybe one of those wolves—had obviously attacked it. Lennadidn’t know how it had gotten away, unless the wolf had caught its mother andbeen too distracted to follow it.

Either way, she couldn’t just leave it here. The poor little thing washelpless. It would freeze or starve to death, and it might attract predators,which they didn’t want lurking around the cave.

She gathered it up into her arms. It fought her, of course, but it wasn’tstrong enough to get away. Eventually, it went limp, its big dark eyes staringup at her pitifully.

She brought it into the cave and was using medicinal herbs on its injurywhen Mara came in.

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