Miyani gave me a severed human ear as a gift.
I knew there would be cultural differences, so… yeah.
No, that’s not it.
Miyani was Na’uhui, which gave her exceptionally dark green skin, bright yellow eyes, and straight white hair that gave off a slight yellow sheen when the light hit it just right.
But her skin looked smooth and soft, pulled taut over sleek muscles bearing a faint sheen all over, and she smelled of honey and coconut blossom. Her eyes were set wide apart in her circular face and had a way of darting about as you were with her. She would look off to the left, to the right, every which way, then come back to you only to erupt in a warm smile and lock your attention to her, only to dart off once more. Her hair she kept short, cut about her ears and left to fall where it willed.
She was short. Ahmi was short, but Miyani was shorter by an inch or two. The top of her head scarcely came up to my chest, and I loved the way she would crane her neck all the way and lift her chin to look at me directly with that magical smile.
She wore next to nothing. Everyone at Carthia did; men, women, children and elders, all of them wore nothing but a strap for a belt with some flap of cloth in front and another in the back. But Miyani wore it so much better than everyone else. Her tiny yet firm breasts, taut black nipples pointing directly at me, her hard, chiseled body, round hips that promised things my body craved to explore, and when she turned around, I couldn’t decide where to look.
So what if there were cultural differences?
The only thing that conflicted me about her was the matter of whether I should hurry up with a bath so as to maximize my time with her, or to be extra thorough so as to minimize the risk of putting her off.
When I came out, Miyani sat cross-legged on my bed, leafing through that book I’d borrowed from the library. She looked up and smiled, then looked up and down my body several times and smiled wider.
“You?” she said, pointing at a page in the book.
I shifted my voice into feigned snobbery, “yes, I am reading that! I find the author's treatise on art and philosophy rather enlightening.”
She lowered her eyes and looked about as though searching her mind for something, before shrugging and shaking her head with a nervous smile. Oh, her lips looked delicious.
I walked up to her and sat down, tried to ignore her breasts out in the open like it was nothing, turned to the cover where bold gold glyphs ran in a column on green felt, and pointed to them as I spoke, “ge-ha-‘u shɪ-za.”
Her eyes popped and she smiled at me. Then she pointed to the second glyph down. “xa.”
“ha?” I said.
She lifted her chin, pointed to the back of her neck, and made a sound like a hiss. “xa.”
I tried to raise my tongue. “x… x… xa.”
“tixede!” she smiled.
“ti-x-ede,” I said back.
She shook her head, “vʌ, vʌ, tixede,” she rested her hand on her chest, then moved her hand to mine, “tixe-se.”
The sensation of her fingers on me sent my skin in a frenzy, begging for more. I craved her skin in my fingertips, yet caution called me to sobriety; I didn’t want to risk offending her. So instead I pointed, “de,” then to myself, “se.”
She moved my hand back to my own chest, “de,” and then to hers, “se.”
“I, you?”
“Ti! I, you. De, se.” Then quickly back and forth between us with both hands at the same time, “di.”
“Tixe… di?”
She grinned wide and nodded vigorously. Then after quickly passing her yellow eyes back and forth between mine, she glanced off to the side and back, opened the book, and started skimming through the pages. After a moment, she stopped at one and pointed to a glyph.
She looked up at me expectantly.
“Oh,” I looked closely, trying to remember. It was three horizontal lines stacked on top of one another, and the bottom one had a line descending on the right-hand side that curved inward as it dropped. “Ge.”
“ɣe,” she corrected me. Her eyes looked over my collarbone, neck, and shoulders where my shirt peeled away; I’d taken to leaving the top half of my shirt open for the damned humidity.
I tried. “Gggghhhhe?”
She slowed it down, but I still couldn’t understand that sound. Then her eyes darted out the window to the side and came back to me. She lifted a finger to her ear. “pe, be.”
She rolled her hand at me, so I repeated. “pe, be.”
“te, de.”
I tried to recognize what she was getting at, but couldn’t do more than repeat at this point, “te, de.”
“ʃe, ʒe. OK?”
I nodded slowly. “she, zhe.”
She nodded vigorously with an effusive smile that I could easily get addicted to. “se…?”
She brought her hand forward as if expecting me to fill in the blank. I felt a pang of horror. I wanted to impress her. I needed to hear what she was getting at, but all I could muster was to repeat it, “se.”
I could see the disappointment in her eyes. She tried again, shifting her hands from left to right with each pairing, “pe, be… te, de… ʃe, ʒe… se…?”
I took a guess. “ze?”
She nodded excitedly and tried another one. “fe?”
I had it. “ve.”
Miyani rewarded my efforts with the sweetest smile I’d ever seen. I could lose myself in her face. I wanted to sit closer, just to be in her aura, but I had to try and not come on too strong lest I chase her away. So I remained still while she nodded and gave me the next one, “xe?”
I played with the sound. I’d got the pattern, so I knew in theory how it was supposed to go. You make the same sound with and without engaging your vocal chords, and it’s two different sounds. Like thick and thin versus this and that. One voiceless, the other voiced. What she sought was the voiced version of a cat hissing.
It didn’t come out at first but I felt like I’d gotten it, “ɣe.”
“ti!” She was excited. I was excited. Then she pointed out the glyph once more, and I said it. “ɣe.”
I took hold of the book, looking throughout the page for that same glyph. Some drawings of trees took up one corner, another picture showed a cluster of tiny mushrooms. There was a four-point star on the top right, and the title of the page with the glyph she’d pointed at took up the outer edge on both the left and right sides. Amid all that, columns of text filled the space.
I held up the book. “What is this?”
Miyani looked at me directly and locked her eyes onto mine. “Wat… is… this.”
“This. Book. How do you say book? What is this?”
“Eh…” Miyani leaned in close and looked down at the page. Then she glanced up and out the window. “OK.”
She stood, looking down to me and extended her hand, “pʊ xeŋise.”
Faren had told me that starting a statement with pʊ made an imperative, but the rest I struggled with. She seemed to want me to stand up, so I did. As I was getting up, I snuck in a moment to soak my eyes upon the line of muscles in her thighs only to get snared by the smooth skin of her hips.
I shook that off and gave her my hand. “pu… heni…”
“xeŋi,” she corrected me and led me towards the door.
“xeni… uh, what was the rest?”
She tilted her head and smiled with the cutest squint in her gorgeous eyes, then repeated it slowly for me. “pʊ… xeŋi-se.”
It took me a moment. “se is you.”
She smiled wide as we stepped down the creaky wood stairs of the barracks and out onto the beaten green grass of the yard. There, she led me towards the training grounds and explained. “xeŋi. OK. Uh…”
She clasped our hands together and pushed forward while repeating it. “xeŋi.”
I figured that must have meant, “to go together?”
She squinted, “tugo… tuge-huh?”
I wasn’t sure if we were making any progress, but I was happy to be holding her hand. We continued to butcher our way through a conversation as we crossed the main gate. Then she put a hand on my arm as we approached the tail end of the gargantuan alligator and ushered me wide, far away from the beast. She didn't once pull her eyes from the thing until we were a good dozen yards away, when she glanced up at me with a warm smile only to shift her eyes around the treeline at the far end of the field. “pʊ vʌ ɣowise!”
“Wait,” I said. “ɣowi? Like, idiot?”
“I-dee-yu-t?”
I sounded it out, “ɣowi-se.”
“vʌ,” she corrected me, meaning no. “pʊ vʌ ɣowise.”
“Uh…?”
“Eh…” she pointed back at the monster. Then she walked her fingers along her arm until she came to her palm, then kicked it with her finger. That made me laugh, and she repeated it slowly. “pʊ… vʌ… ɣowi-se.”
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When she said it slowly, I recognized the words. pʊ the imperative, vʌ was no, ɣowi was meat, and se was you. So imperative no meat you. Of course ɣowi was also used for stupid, so maybe don't be stupid. Now, I didn't need to be told not to harass a twenty-foot log with teeth, but did appreciate her grasp of common sense. “Don't touch the alligator.”
She nodded as she whispered out each word, looking all throughout the treeline as we walked. “‘ævigeto,” she said. “Eh… wat is tush?”
I slowed it down for her, “tut-sh.”
“tut-sh? Wat is?”
I poked her in the side of her arm. “Touch.”
She opened her eyes wide. “Touch?” Then she poked me in my side. “Touch?”
“Yeah,” I smiled, then I tapped the top of her shoulder. “Touch.”
She poked me in my side again, “touch,” and grinned wide.
We didn't follow the road. Rather, she took a sharp turn off to the right towards a section of the jungle that was left to wild. We'd made it about halfway across the grass, past an older woman grazing some goats, when a sinister thought slithered into my mind. She’d already gotten the word down, but as we approached the trees, I lifted my arm and tapped her on her back, just below her neck. “Touch.”
Miyani’s eyes shot up at me and she grinned wide. Then she flung both hands at me, one by one, poking me in my chest, in my stomach, the side of my hip, laughing the whole time, “touch, touch, touch, touch!”
I laughed hard and tried to poke her back, but she pulled away, laughing and taunting me. Then she calmed down long enough to draw closer to me once more, so I poked her in her side one more, “touch!”
She scrunched her eyes and smiled wide, then stopped. She stood facing me for a moment, raising a finger to her lips with a somber expression while pointing off to the trees with her other hand. I understood and calmed down, and gave her a nod. “OK.”
She nodded in kind, then snapped her hand out and poked my stomach once more, “touch!” then darted off before I could retaliate.
As we drew close. I lifted a hand to try and poke her back, but she was done playing. She rested her hand on my arm once again with one finger to her lips. She was serious this time, so I took her cue. Then she stepped barefoot through the ferns and shrubs without slowing one bit.
A twig snapped loud under my boot.
She turned around and held a finger to her lips, smiling wide.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
I stepped where she stepped, making all manner of raucous while she passed quietly before me. I pulled the same giant leaves and branches from my path that she did, all the while the chorus of chirps and whistles filled the canopy above. My trousers clung to my skin for the water on the leaves as I brushed past, while the water on her bare legs left an alluring sheen I couldn’t peel my gaze from.
She brought me to a small grove of tall trees that reached high up into the canopy leaving only trunks at our level. There, she stood to face me and looked around. Still holding up a hand, her eyes scanned the trees all around us. Finally, she faced me, grinned wide, and pressed her fingers flat against my chest. “Touch.”
My heart chose a different order of chambers to pump blood through for a moment. That one was different. It felt different. The way she’d locked her eyes onto me, the way her hand lingered on me a fraction of a second longer than it needed to—she was a slice of heaven.
I was drunk on her. We stood together, and I leaned in just to be closer as she opened the book and flipped to the same page she’d shown me before, the one with the drawing of trees. Then, she pointed out the trees beside us and brought my attention to something black around the trunk. “fʌɣefiŋaŋa.”
I tried repeating it, but she silenced me and stood, pointing off in one direction. “ŋaŋa.”
I repeated, “nana.”
“ŋaŋa.” Then she pointed in the opposite direction, “wuʃi.” Then she pointed perpendicular to that, “ɣaze,” and then its opposite, “væfa.”
I nodded. “OK, so… North, South, East, West.”
She pointed them out again. “ŋaŋa, wuʃi, ɣaze, væfa.”
“Which one's North?”
“ŋoth…” she looked around, pursed her lips, and studied the ground a moment, looking around while tapping a finger to her chin in thought.
Then it occurred to me, “Carthia is west of here. Which way is Carthia?”
“kaθiya,” she pointed. “ŋaŋa.”
“West. Nana.”
“Wess?”
I said it again for her, drawing out the t sound at the end. As she repeated it again, I thought to reach out and touch her again.
She blocked me, “vʌ… ʃʌsæ’æ.” With that, she pointed out something in the trees with a serious expression, turned to me, and put a finger to her lips.
I nodded. I didn’t know what was there, but I trusted her enough to not want to find out. Then she stooped down to show me the black on the tree trunk again. I came in close to look; it had to be some kind of mushroom. Miyani pointed out the direction again. “West. ŋaŋa.”
She pointed to the mushrooms, “fʌɣefiŋaŋa,” then to the west. “ŋaŋa.”
I looked closely, then I noticed they all grew on only one side of the tree, and it was the same side for all trees. “Woah!” I looked up at her. “You get West from a mushroom!”
She smiled, then pointed into the book again. I looked at the glyphs as she read them to me, “fʌ-ɣe-fi-ŋa-ŋa.”
Then as I gaped at the book, I felt something grab at the front of my hip. Miyani pressed her fingers into me, lifted those beautiful eyes, and said, “touch.”
Then she smirked and walked off beneath a wooden frame that straddled a narrow foot path with several others making a line into the distance. She was directly in front of me. The waning daylight muted by the canopy of trees above made it difficult to see all the curves over her dark skin, so I ogled her even harder. The form of her, a simple cotton cloth draped over her delicious arse, I needed to touch her again.
I waited until she slowed, stepping beneath another one of those frames like it was nothing while I had to duck down low. I came up beside her and reached my hand out, daring to take a feel of her skin once more when she swatted my hand away.
She looked up with a smile and lifted a finger to her lips, once again pointing at something in the forest.
“OK,” I whispered. “What's there?”
I pointed and said it again, slowly, “what… is… there?”
She leaned in and covered her brow with one hand as a visor, then smiled and looked up at me. “Blue.”
I pointed, “Blue is there?”
“Bluuuuue,” she called out.
A squawk erupted from the trees, and the lizard came towards us seemingly out of nowhere. He walked up to her and rubbed his face in her cheek, nudged her chin, then rubbed the side of his face in her other cheek. She lifted her hand to his chin and rubbed gently, letting out a light giggle.
The creature capable of ripping my throat out in under a second then maneuvered his body behind her and crouched low, wrapping his tail around her on one side, and his long neck around her on the other. He cracked open his jaws to display a mouthful of serrated teeth, then turned his lizard face to me and hissed.
I took a step back and lowered my gaze.
Miyani laughed lightly, and with a warm smile patted Blue on his neck. “tixe ɣo’imedeza! pʊ vʌ zɪbixaɣedu!”
Blue let out a chirp followed by a gargle and some clicks before stepping away from her. He then lifted his head to press one eye directly in front of me and held it there while the rest of his body kept moving, only to trot off into the trees and disappear.
I was petrified. I’d overstepped. Blue must have seen her swat my hand away and felt he needed to punctuate the matter. It worked. I liked her, very very much, and she seemed to like me, but I didn't want to lose my liver over a misunderstanding.
I had to stop looking; I had to stop playing touch games with her. Ahmi was right; I looked at her like some piece of meat and I needed to stop. I’d reduced her. I needed to look beyond the physical and appreciate her for who she was, stop acting like such an animal.
I’d already done enough damage. I had to change my focus. “How did you know he was there?”
She furrowed her brow and studied my face closely. “Ha…?”
“How… did… you… know…”
“Know?” she nodded.
“Yes! How… did… you… know…”
“OK?”
“That Blue was there?” I pointed.
“Blue!”
“Yes. How did you know he… was there?” I pointed.
She grinned wide, nodding her understanding. Then she lifted a finger to her ear. “Lissin.”
I tried to pick through the noise. Whistles, chirps, and the wind in the leaves played over the steady grinding and chirping of insects. None of it sounded like a vita’o. Or it all did. It was all background noise to me, the sound of the jungle filling my ears with chaos.
Then she whistled out a peculiar chirp, like an up-down-up-down followed by a warble.
There was no way I could hope to replicate it.
She did it again, circling the trees above with one finger. I tried listening for it. Still nothing. Then she pointed towards a grove with heavy leaves still dripping water set against a patch of green. It took me a while to hear it, but far off in the distance that same up-down-up-down-warble she'd made. “Blue.”
“Oh, wow! Blue is there?”
“ti,” she nodded, still pointing towards where that bird was chirping. “vita’o… is… there. Is Blue.”
“Uh-huh,” I nodded, trying to acclimate my ears to the sound. I could hear it well, up-down-up-down-warble. Miyani then opened the book once more and found a page that showed a drawing of a small bird. “woðæfifɪða,” she pointed to the glyphs that ran down the outer edge of the pages.
To one side, there was a chart with strange symbols next to more of those glyphs. She pointed out the symbols that followed the up-down-up-down-warble pattern next to the glyphs for vi-ta-’o, but there were at least a dozen other listings in that chart.
I felt her hand cup my bum. She splayed out her fingers and gave me a good squeeze, then stroked all up and down my arse, and looked up at me with a big smile, “touch!”
That. Felt. Good.
She'd captured me. She had me in every way. I didn't know if this was what being in love felt like, but I liked this feeling.
We came to a small nook in the trees where a brown, burlap practice dummy stood with an arrow dropping down from its eye. She pointed at it, “ded.”
I laughed. “He's dead?”
She smiled wide and gazed up into my eyes. “Xeeez ded. Yes.”
“From the headshot, huh? I don't know, maybe put a bandage over it, give him some rest, he'll be fine.” I nodded.
Miyani tilted her head to the side and furrowed her brow. So, I lifted up my hand and moved it towards her shoulder. She blocked me and pushed it away, pointing out some trees to the side. Then she lifted her finger to her lips, “shhh.”
Something about the way she giggled through that made me wonder if there was anything at all in the trees. So I touched her shoulder anyway, resting my hand on her skin. “Touch.”
She laughed lightly, still holding a finger over her lips. “Shhh!” but she still smiled wide and gazed up into my eyes. Then she rested her hands around my sides, stroking upward to wrap her fingers over my chest. “Touch,” she smiled wide.
Her breath grew heavy and I could see her nipples grow erect. She then stroked my chest all along my muscles and down my stomach, only to bring them back up and brush her fingers over my nipples. I watched her face as she bit her bottom lip and grinned wide.
How far this would go, I had no idea, but I brought my hands to the front of her, traced my fingers along her skin down across her chest. My heart started thundering, and I couldn’t catch my breath.
She allowed me.
She allowed me to brush my fingers over her nipples, and my mind went crazy. She locked her eyes onto mine and continued to stroke her hands all over my body, wrapped around my back and groping up and down, taking in the small of my back, the curve of my arse, my hips, and all along my side. I felt the massive swelling in my loins as excitement shot through me. I opened my fingers and brushed her nipples between them, one by one and spinning them around in my thumbs; she allowed me to take her breasts in my covetous hands.
Suddenly she whisper-shouted, “zɪvɪɣe ʒʌgu!”
Blue cawed from behind me. He’d been sniffing me up and down, then snapped his neck up and scampered off into the forest.
The shock of his presence sent waves of terror rippling through me. I had to take in a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to wrap my head around the fact that he’d been able to sneak up on me like that.
Miyani resumed, caressing my body up and down, then grasped at my bum again, still smiling wide and gazing up at me, but I struggled. My hands shook. I wanted more, but I didn’t know if that was a good idea. I tried, but I couldn’t muster the urge.
A horn blasted long and low in the distance, and Miyani released me. Then she took my hand and led me back to where it came from. The sky had turned to dusk by then, and a jolt of nervousness shot through me at the thought of being caught outside the walls after dark.
I knew I could trust her, though.
Then I heard a chirp to my side, and Blue was there gargling and chirping, and pointing his body towards the same direction she'd begun to lead me. She glanced at him, “fæ tuʃʌdexe. ŋʌvɪdeɣa.”
Blue ran ahead. As we walked, I challenged myself to see if I could hear that bird over the cacophony surrounding us. Surprisingly enough, once I knew what to listen for, I could hear it. First he was in front, then I heard that bird again off to the left. Miyani peeked over her shoulder at me and smiled. I looked over her whole backside wishing I’d had the nerve to touch her and yet grateful that I didn’t, still trying to remember to see her as a whole person and not be so obsessed with how beautiful she was and still reeling from Blue’s display of protection over her. Then I heard that call behind me a good fifty yards or so.
A twig snapped beneath my boots, and Miyani turned to shush me once more, laughing with her eyes.
“OK,” I nodded, placing a finger over my lips.
Then she reached out her hand and grabbed me directly in the center of my trousers, pinching her fingers around the form of my still-swollen shaft. “Touch!”
I never did get the word for book.