Page 61 of Tharn's Hunt
I follow his gaze, watching as Jus-teen fusses over her sister, checking her temperature, helping her drink water. They looksosimilar yet different. Jus-teen's features sharper, her manner more open. Jah-kee, even weakened by fever, is more guarded.
"The light," I project hesitantly, keeping my mental voice private between Rok and myself. "What does it mean? Truly?"
Rok is silent for a long moment, considering. Finally, he replies. "A marking. A blessing. I believe the light chooses those who are meant to bond across worlds."
"And this... bond. It causes pain when separated?"
Rok's gaze sharpens, focusing on me with sudden intensity. "You have felt it already? The pain of separation?"
I think of the hollow ache in my chest when I was forced to set Jah-kee down, and when she left me to go to the firebloom cave. "Yes."
"Tharn," Rok projects grimly. "If the light has chosen, the pain will grow until the bond is completed."
"Completed?" I repeat, my unease growing. "How is a bond... completed?"
Rok's amusement returns. "You truly do not know what comes next?"
This smug-faced ka-vrakt.
I look away, uncomfortable with my ignorance. Hunters learn the ways of tracking, of fighting, of survival. We are not taught about... whatever this is that happens between male and female.
"How could I know?" I project defensively. "Until Jus-teen arrived, we had never seen females. There are no teachings about this."
"As there were none for me," he acknowledges, his thoughts gentler now. "I learned as the bond grew. As my body changed."
My gaze drops involuntarily to Rok's loincloth, where the evidence of his successful adaptation is difficult to miss. The impressive bulge there is unlike anything I have seen on other hunters. Then my eyes fall to my pouch, still flat and unremarkable.
Drak.
Rok follows my gaze and makes a sound suspiciously like a snort. "It changes, brother," he projects, his mindspeak rich with mirth. "When the time comes. When the bond demands it."
"And until then?" My gaze slides to Jah-kee. Still hugging her sister-female, her eyes find mine. My dra-kir does a hard thump.
"Until then, the light calls. The pain grows when separated. The body prepares." Rok shrugs, the motion fluid and unconcerned. "It is not comfortable. But it is necessary."
With Jah-kee’s eyes still on me, the next question feels the most important.
"And..." I hesitate. "How did you convince Jus-teen to... stay? To accept the bond?"
Rok's expression turns thoughtful. "I did not convince her," he projects slowly. "She chose. As all females must. I merely... showed her what could be between us."
"How?"
A slow, satisfied look spreads across Rok's face. "I shared her water," he projects, his mental voice dropping to a lower, more intimate register.
I blink. I know this. I have been preparing for this.
Rok’s gaze slides toward Jus-teen. "Water comes from many places in a female's body. The sweetest flows when pleasure peaks."
My gaze shifts back to Jah-kee. Rok speaks of the moisture between a female's legs, and the memory of her that night, when she pulled her hide-coverings away and I saw the temptation that is her smooth curves?—
"This... water sharing," I project carefully. "It pleases females? Makes them wish to stay?"
"Oh my GOD," Jus-teen's mental voice cuts sharply into our private conversation. "Are you two seriously discussing oral sex right now?"
I jerk my head up, startled to find both females staring at us—Jah-kee with confusion, unable to hear the mindspace conversation, and Jus-teen with a mixture of horror.
"Oral?" I project, confused by the term. "Is that what you call it?” The word feels wrong.
