Cultural Exchange Ch. 01

Something came to my mind and I said it without thinking. "Why don't we move him to that bridge ahead and tie him to it from its underside to keep him hidden and away from scavengers?"

"Not a bad idea. I will consult it with Silna, she was his sister, after all."

My eyes opened wide. "They were siblings and they used honorifics when talking to each other?"

I didn't expect Ralya's answer. "It is not my place to speak of other families' matters, Bran, so you will have to ask her." It was the first time she spoke to me so softly, and the purr almost hidden in her voice made my skin tingle.

After getting everything ready, including the hiding of Elam's body, we got on the move again.

Just that this time, it was faster and farther than we had planned at the start.

We made camp, Ralya sent one of the archers to the city to inform of the situation as planned, and we started eating in silence.

It had not been long when the archer that was left looked at me in a naughty way and said, "I hope we don't have to fight tonight, or Sol'Brandon here will spoil his food again." Everyone laughed at that, even Ralya and Sil smiled.

Then the tallest of them, the male lancer spoke with a deep and powerful voice. "Don't mock the boy, it was his first fight, he did good in keeping his pants from changing color." More laughs.

The next one to talk was the swordsman, who looked really impressed. "Was it really your first combat?"

Ralya herself intervened. "That is what he has told me. And I tend to believe him due to the fact that he acted according to training during the fight and when it ended all the weight of the situation fell on him and he vomited." That last part left me surprised. She had said it smiling. And god, what a bright and warm smile she had.

Before anyone could find my reaction (or so I hoped) I swallowed the meat I was chewing and entered the conversation again. "Forgive me for correcting you, Ralya, but I have never received a formal training with these kinds of weapons. I just acted on instinct and merging moves I learned from watching several masters in different styles."

At that everyone went silent and looked at me like I was lying. I took the words Ralya had used to comfort Sil and putting a hand on my heart I said with a serious face but a playful tone, "I swear on my name and rank."

The giant lancer broke into a noisy laughter and said, "Then, boy, I am craving to see you after you get some proper training and experience. By the way, my name's Bruen. And before you start adding syllables in front of it, I think I speak for all of us if I say that you don't need honorifics. We have covered each others' backs in battle, so we are now brothers and sisters in arms."

The swordsman nodded his head. "Rancer, my pleasure. And I hope you can teach me some of those shield moves."

The archer said with a soft and almost whispering voice. "Nera, and the one that has gone ahead to the city is my twin sister Melfa."

I recognized her voice and lowering my head a little I said, "Nera, I think I have to apologize for the way I reacted back there when you tried to calm me down."

She answered with her characteristic tone of voice. "Don't take it to heart; it's something normal in your circumstances."

Then Rancer called for my attention. "Hey Brandon, how did you take your knife out so fast in that fight?"

I stood up and got closer to him while saying, "Grab your shield and put it on." I waited for him to tighten the bindings and then moved his shield so everyone could see its inner face. Then I stuck two fingers between the shield and Rancer's arm. "The whole fight I had it in there, hidden and tied to my arm."

All of them looked at me. Bruen just said, "Clever."

This time, it was Ralya who called me. "Take it, Bran, I have done what I wanted to do with it. Now it proves you as a tested adult."

When I took again my knife, a clacking sound notified me that something had changed. Ralya had used two thin leather stripes to tie a tusk of each one of the Orcs I killed to the mouth of the scabbard.

Before I could even thank her, she stood up and said, "Well, get some rest while you can. Nera, you take the first watch. Bran, come with me a minute, we have a pending conversation."

We walked away from the camp, and when we had a small lake in sight, she said, "Stay here, count to one hundred and then come after me."

With that, she started walking again and left me alone in the dark.

Maybe I made the count a little too fast because anyone, not only me, would freak out a little if he was left alone at night in the middle of a forest in a world you don't know.

I started walking towards the direction Ralya had gone to. It wasn't long before I could start seeing from between the trees that she had gone to a clearing in the forest with a small lake in the middle and a big, flat stone beside it.

I was reaching the edge of the forest to enter the clear when I heard Ralya's voice coming from the water. "Please stay there!" This time, her voice had a tinge of uncertainty.

I looked at the stone by chance and saw Ralya's full gear on top of it. I froze in my steps and knelt on the ground right where I was. I didn't want to play smart and get her to kill me.

From my position, I was only able to see the black silhouette of her head showing up from the water. It appeared she was Immersed to the neck.

All of her haughty demeanor had completely disappeared when she spoke to me in the soft, almost purring voice she had used earlier. "I imagine you still haven't been taught about what we Elves call 'The Binding'."

I interrupted her without thinking. "Sounds to me like what we Humans call 'Marriage'."

She giggled before answering. "In many ways it is. The difference is that you Humans can get tired of your partner. Your emotions can shift, you can commit infidelity and you can even abandon your partners." Her voice was starting to sound... sad? Worried?

Once again I spoke my feelings. "I couldn't do that. I have been the victim many times in the situations you've just mentioned. In those and in others you couldn't believe."

"That puts me at ease." She said with a sigh before continuing. "The difference is that when we Elven women Bind to a partner, we lose in mind, body and heart the capacity to feel attraction to any other male than our mate. And the Binding comes when we give our Purity, or when it is taken from us."

I felt a chill as I was starting to see where this conversation was going. "I think I already know, but why are you telling me this?"

"To have you know what you have saved me from. Can I ask you why you only entered the fight when you saw me about to be... forced?"

"That's a secret I haven't told even my parents or brothers." I doubted for a second, but when I heard her say, "Oh," everything seemed to click together. We were far, yet so close, that in that instant I felt a connection between us that made me feel free to say it all to her. "So I hope you don't tell anyone."

"Please, don't insult me." But there was no real anger in her voice. She was obviously glad and thankful for this display of trust on my part.

"When I was about seven or maybe eight years old, a man did to me what that Orc was about to do with you." She gasped when she heard that, but I kept speaking. "And not only once, he did it several times along weeks or maybe even months. I can't say for sure because I have been trying to suppress those memories so much time that they're no longer clear. I'd like to say that today I acted only because I didn't want you to go through the same as me, but maybe some part deep inside me made me do it as a way of getting revenge."

I got breathless when I looked in front of me again. Ralya was standing one step away from me... completely naked and with her skin still wet from her bath.

She took my face between her hands and purred in a low voice, "Sorry to keep you waiting, I wanted to cleanse myself from the touch of the Orcs before receiving your contact." Then, after a moment of hesitation, she kissed my lips.

It was soft, pure, without opening her mouth. Just her lips pressing mine like the innocent first kiss of a schoolgirl.

I grabbed her softly from her waist to bring her to me and deepen our kiss.

At first she fidgeted a little, but after overcoming her hesitation, she hugged me around my shoulders and arched her back to press her breasts lightly against my chest. Our tongues entwined and played for... I couldn't say. Any notion of something like time had completely flown out of us.

My excitement grew another level and I lowered my right hand to caress her left cheek.

That made her jolt back, and with a look of apology in her face she said, "Nothing from the waist down, I beg you. I swear on my name and rank that when I'm allowed, I will give you from the bottom of my heart what you have kept from being stolen today. But not right now." She started opening my shirt, which gave me the chance for a close look at her breasts: round, firm and with small nipples of a rosy color similar to that of her lips. I pinched softly one of them, bringing out from her a sweet and cute moan.

She nipped my neck before cooing in my ear, "Let me do this to soothe your desire, at least for tonight." Then she started kissing my chest, sometimes biting softly, along her way down until she was kneeling in front of me, opening and sliding down my trousers after a little fight with the button and zipper.

Looking at her from above, I noticed her ears were hardly pressed down and the moonlight (or the light of the moons? Hell, that didn't matter right now) hinted that her face was furiously blushed.

She pulled down my boxers and took my member with care between her hands, starting immediately to cover the shaft and tip in numerous soft kisses that showed her lack of experience but her will to please me.

She tentatively left the tip of her tongue out to try the taste of my skin. It seems she didn't dislike it, because she started to lick me. At first soft and short licks, longer and harder as she gained confidence as he heard my moans of pleasure. I looked down at her just to get dumbfounded at the sight of her pressing a side of my shaft against her cheek and sticking in and out all of her tongue to give me longer and more intense licks. When she saw me looking down at her, her green eyes pierced mine, glowing lightly in the dark.

Then she looked down again, opening her mouth to receive me inside it, as she could not yet receive me with her whole body. She swallowed me to half-length and started moving her head up and down, slowly and without pressing, letting her lips caress my member.

My pleasure was not coming only from the treatment she was giving me, but from the sight of her pleasuring herself with her fingers. The Moons were high enough to light the moment she stopped stroking her nipples to move her free hand down to pass a finger along her wet, reddish petals, tearing from her a moan of pleasure that vibrated on my manhood and took me another step closer to the climax. I had to lift my arms and grab a branch from the tree behind us to resist the urge to take her to the ground and go all the way with her.

The pressure of her lips and the speed of her head increased at the same pace it did the rubbing on her dark red-haired, dripping flower. Her moans and mine began entwining, though hers were muffled and sent vibrations not only through my shaft, but through all my spine, making me arch my back in pleasure. Our love rhythm became frantic when I saw that Ralya's back was starting to suffer spasms. I hadn't felt a woman in the last three years, so I reached the end of my endurance.

"Ralya, I..." Just at that moment, she reached her own peak and let my member fall from her mouth to scream her orgasm. That made me accidentally pour my seed over her.

When both our climaxes started receding, my member twitched at the sight of Ralya kneeling in front of me, her tanned skin stained with my white fluid on her chin, neck and breasts. She took again my manhood in her hand to clean it with her mouth, forgetting every display of shame in the degree of intimacy that we now shared.

Once she finished, I took out of my chest pocket the cloth she had given me with the knife in. It now looked like that had happened in another life.

I knelt in front of her with the cloth in my hand and said, "Sorry, I got you dirty. Let me clean you up." She didn't stop looking at me intently while I wiped her skin softly, making her moan lightly at the rubbing of the rough cloth against her nipples.

She lifted my chin with a finger, and without taking her eyes off mine, even though she was still blushing, she said with a wink, "It's not dirty if it is for love." Then we kissed again and spent the afterglow of our orgasm hugged, with her head resting on my shoulder.

After we fixed our looks, we went back to the camp holding hands until we were close enough to get in sight of our comrades. Then she let go of my hand and whispered, "Sorry my dear, but I am supposed to be on duty. I will compensate you the next chance we have."

I just nodded my head and went directly to my sleeping bag. It seems that they had them ready know that my arrival could be delayed by days.

Aside from Nera, who was patrolling around the camp, everyone was soundly sleeping. Sil was inside her sleeping bag covered up to the ears. Maybe she wasn't even sleeping due to the loss of her brother.

Just when exhaustion was about to finally bring me down, Nera knelt by my side and whispered in my ear with that voice of hers, "Congratulations." That snapped my eyes open again, and took me a long time to calm myself enough to drift into an uncomfortable sleep full of nightmares with shining metal and green mountains of muscle.

I was awoken by a hand that moved me violently and a voice that screamed my name with annoyance. "Bran, for the Water Maiden's sake, wake up already!"

After a pair of seconds of confusion, I stood up abruptly, trying to take out the sword from my belt. Even though I had untied it and left it at hand's reach to sleep more comfortably.

Still in the stun of after-sleep, my head was clear enough for me to mumble, "What, we're under attack again?"

Right at that I could hear Bruen's thundering laughter, followed by the more discreet mirth of my other companions. Ralya tried to keep her face straight to scold me properly. "No, but you would not wake up even if that were the case. In fact, I think you would not have awoken even in the middle of a pack of stampeding Gengas." Everyone laughed again, this time with a tinge of surprise at the fact that Ralya had made a joke. Her haughty attitude was back, which made me wonder with a little sadness if our encounter last night had been just a dream.

I answered while rubbing my eyes, "Sorry, my slumber is pretty deep by nature... and what the heck is a Genga?"

"They are birds, too big and heavy to fly. The savage ones tend to get scared very easily, but a long time ago we learned to tame them and turn them into pasture beasts. Their flesh tastes more or less like chicken, but one Genga breast can make up for seven or eight full chickens. Also, they have colorful feathers that are often used in ornaments and trinkets."

Well, one more thing to learn about this world. Another one to add to an increasing pile and that in a certain sense made me feel like a little kid in the body of an adult: a grown-up body with little knowledge of the world around me.

Instead of stopping for breakfast, we packed up and got moving while eating our last pieces of fruit along the way.

Unlike the day before when we parted, now that they counted me as one of them they started chatting to kill time, but without really looking at each other. Instead, their sights were on the trees of the forest and the shadows under their branches.

At certain point during the conversation, my eyes met Ralya's for a moment and her ears twitched at the same time a faint smile and a tinge of blush came to her face.

Thank God, it wasn't a dream.

The company was commenting on the attack yesterday, so I got into the conversation and said, "There is something that doesn't make sense to me."

Nora's voice came from behind. "True. Orcs don't have archers. And the tip of their arrows had saw-like edges. They had Lizard-men mercenaries."

After a moment of thought I said, "Well, I don't know about Lizard-men, what I was meaning was their strategy."

Rancer had been moved to my right in the formation, from there he looked at me with a puzzled look for a brief moment before asking, "Are you capable in the arts of directing armies, Brandon?"

"Well, obviously I have never directed an army in a real battle, but in my world there many simulation games where you have to direct your army not only in the field, but also taking up tasks as training troops and keeping them fed and sheltered." They looked very interested at this bit of information, so I kept talking, hoping in secret not to make a mistake that could leave me in shame. "From the tactics I learned from those games, it is odd that they attacked our swordsmen first. The wise thing to do would have been to take out our archers first and take from us the chance to counter attack from a distance. Instead of that, they shot three arrows at the center of our formation: one at Rancer and the other two at the side where I was."

Silence fell upon the marching company while everyone pondered what I had just said.

Bruen and Ralya shared a wary look, but before I could ask anything, Sil's voice came up a bit hoarse from her screaming and crying from yesterday, "Carriage approaching!"

All of us moved to the sides of the paths, weapons ready even though we knew that the most probable was that it came from the city to retrieve us as fast as possible before the event of another attack.

When they got closer, my grip on the hilt of my sword relaxed a little. There were two coming: a four-horse carriage with enough space to take all of us in the back, and a two-horse chariot with space for one driver, a helper and an attachment obviously devised to carry a prone body.

They presented themselves as riders sent by Guard Chief Van'Oner to retrieve us and Sol'Elam's body and take us to the safe inside of the city walls.

Ralya made sure to introduce me as Sol'Brandon Cooper before sending Sil along with the chariot driver to fetch Elam's body from its hiding.

Now that we had horse-power, the trip moved faster from here. The Sun was almost at its zenith when we finally reached the city wall and crossed the wide and thick dark wooden door to the inside.

I marveled at the sight of the city that would become my new home.

Instead of the soft, high and stylish towers made of white marble that I would expect from the High Elves, or the Tree-houses built in symbiosis with the forest that legends attributed to Sylvan Elves, the Mountain Elves lived in houses made of gray stone blocks with wood and thatch roofs. It was like I was in a Viking town.

Our transports made their last stop in a wide square with two big buildings. The left one immediately gave me the feeling it was some kind religious temple, the right one I supposed it would be a government building or maybe some kind of meeting hall if I followed the Nordic traditions.

The stone-paved way between both buildings went straight to a set of stairs that led to what seemed to be a fortress. Yes, all like in Viking movies, a town with a wall and a fortress inside to keep women and children safe in case of an attack or a siege.

From the right building Melfa came out with a man a bit taller than Ralya, with dark red hair and green eyes. His chin sported a thin and short goatee and he had a curved scar over the arch of his left eye brow.