Page 17 of Hidden

“So we do. Are you to tell me I’m never to return to that compound?”

“Do you want to? Were you happy there?”

“Happy?”

“Did you find joy in living there?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Your happiness is everything.”

“Then you should release me.”

Kit snorts. “You’re funny.”

I feel anger begin to stir now that that hypnotic purring sound has been taken away. “You can’t just wrap people up and steal away with them! I am not a belonging to just abscond with!”

“Just so you know, if you try to run, you’ll be hopelessly lost. I’m assuming you’ve spent all your time inside that compound with no real-world knowledge. You have no idea what you’re up against out here.”

“Nothing you say makes any sense to me.”

“What do you know of this outside world?”

I crawl away from Kit slowly so it’s obvious I’m not about to try and make a run for it. Peeling back the tent flaps, I gaze outside and see forest that looks much the same as it did near the cabin I stayed in with Eln, and much the same as it did around the compound. “We are told at the compound that the outside world is desolate. That there’s little food or safety to be found, and that the nearest sisters are too far for us to find on our own.”

“Nearestsisters?You truly do not know what a male is?”

“Should I?” I say, returning to sit next to him. In the back of my mind there is still a bitter agony reverberating from the loss of Eln, but I think I am actively choosing to not dwell on that just yet. There are too many odd things happening for me to mourn her now. Maybe it hasn’t fully sunk in that she’s actually gone.

“You are a female.”

“And what makes me a female?”

Kit mumbles something about piss-poor education, then lifts my hand and places my palm against my breast. “You have breasts to feed your young…” holding my wrist incredibly gently for how big their hand is, they drag my hand across my belly, so my palm rests against my sex. “You have this. A vagina, or pussy, for taking cock and birthing your young.”

“Why would I want to take chicken?”

“Not that kind of cock.” Kit brings my hand ever so slowly to their stomach, dipping lower to their sex. It…doesn’t feel at all like mine. Whereas mine is all softness and warmth, Kit’s is a long shape and feels like stone.

“Your vagina feels different than mine.”

“Because it’s not a vagina. I’m a male. A ‘he’. I have a cock. A penis. A dick.”

I blush, realizing I am cupping the sex of a perfect stranger. I withdraw my hand, feeling embarrassed.

“What happened at the ritual?” Kit asks me.

“Great Mother led us in prayer and called forth our beloved god Ernyu to manifest and choose his bride. We were blindfolded and then the doors opened, and I felt this presence behind me, smelling me, growling. Cinnamon washed over me and right as my knees began to grow weak, he was pulled away. I don’t think he liked that though, because he was yelling and growling and making a lot of ruckus.”

“See? You know James is a he.”

“He was the god.”

“No, Calai. Your leader just wanted you to think that. Is your god the only male you know of?”

“He isn’t a male; we just call him he.”

“I believe your leader meant to use him to get you pregnant, and then either kill him or destroy his mind so he wouldn’t remember anything.”

---