Daughter of the Witcher Ch. 05

Or rather, not to peek again - after perhaps just one more look. He had his own wonders to her, though there was the same sort of ridged abdomen and the legs and the biceps were beyond fine to her and were certainly well-developed enough to provide her with plenty of entertainment.

She still sought for a simple comparison though, and eventually, she settled on something down to earth. Ren could get a stuck-in-the-mud wagon back on the path and look fine doing it, though he'd have more trouble over a stump or other such obstacle.

Cuilén would just destroy the obstacle and be done.

Ren looked intelligent and so open and honest to her, as though he knew what she was, but now he wished to know who she was. He had the sort of soft brown eyes that she could easily spend the day looking into, and yet, there was mystery there for they were a very dark shade of brown -- as though he was seeking, learning, taking everything in while he hid nothing -- now that she knew how to read what was there.

"I will start," she said.

"I have never had the hope to find a man for me -- only me. It comes from the way and the place where I was raised. You will meet my friend Louhi and it is through her that my life was made better. She took me away from my life when all that was left was smoking ruins and a slow death for me, or at the very best, a life of misery.

Since then, I must admit that I have been the sort of girl who likes a little fun with a man -- but I must also admit that even so -- since I am a girl -- I have had a wish to find a man for me."

She looked down, "Just not the hope that it might ever happen.

You need help, Ren, and it is clear that you also need someone. I wish to say that I now hope that I can be that someone for you if it is also what you wish."

He thought about it and nodded, "I think you have said it well and simply. I do not even know what I need to live away from the sea, and yet I can see that I must at least pass this one winter away from it, for there is nothing to live on here. If I knew where there were seals, it is a sign that there is food. But I have not seen one since I left my home waters and I do not know the way back. If you can help me, I would do anything for you."

He smiled that shy smile of his then, "And I have never really known a girl like you. Everything about you is new and so friendly to me."

Annikki looked down a little shyly after seeing his smile. "I am thinking that we can try to go together and do anything that the other one needs. It is a nice thought to me. I, ... I have a thought that I would like to pair to see where it leads us."

She was almost afraid to look into his eyes at that moment.

"How, ..." he began, "How is this done among your kind? I am half-human but I know nothing of it."

She reached for his hand and smiled when he looked up. "It depends, Ren. Much depends on the girl in it. She might only want a little fun in a bed and once it is done, they might not ever see each other again.

On the other hand, it can be a loooonnnng courtship. That would be a slow thing, where I must flutter my eyelashes and blush many times for you. And you, knowing nothing of the way that it goes would probably wonder what I have in my eyes which causes me to blink so."

She laughed a little then, "So it would all be a waste anyway. How is it done among the people where you come from?"

He thought about it again and shrugged, "A boy sees a girl -- who sees him at the same time. If they like each other, they might swim and play together for a time. They might share a hunt for some fish or just catch what they can and share. They meet out of the water and they talk. If it goes well, they may mate together. Usually the girls know when they can do that freely."

Annikki found herself smiling as she watched him look down, still thinking of the ways of courtship of his kind. His eyebrows rose a little as he looked down in thought, "But nobody gets anything in their eyes.

And then," he sighed, "if they like each other more after mating- rather than less, which can also happen- they just pair and stay together. Neither one says anything about it. It is just known between them. They stay together as much as they can.

It is not long before the others see that the two are paired and everyone knows. If it works for them, then later, they mate to have young ones between them. That is not the way that it goes for seals at all."

He looked up, "I think that it must be a very simple way to do things, from what you have said of the way of your kind."

Annikki grinned and then just hugged him. After a moment, she chuckled quietly in his ear, "What I think -- for a couple as we are -- is that your way is best or something like that. I will teach you, you will teach me and we laugh as much as we can."

He nodded, not thinking that he could learn to fathom the human way anyway. They stood holding each other for a moment in the trees before she pulled his sealskin a little tighter around him and said that she wanted to get him into a warmer place first of all.

--------------------------------

A few minutes later, Ren sat shyly at the table, still wearing his seal skin after meeting Louhi and Cuilén. His first look at the Pict almost frightened him -- the size of the man and the markings that he saw had an effect. But after a moment, he recovered and apologized. "There is a world here that part of me is from, yet I know nothing of it. I was born on land, but, ... almost all of my life, ..."

They nodded and tried to put him at ease while Louhi and Annikki brought food to the table. After a moment, Annikki took a little time to explain the use of utensils, not that they were in a palace. "And anyway," she smiled, "It is hard to eat soup by sipping from the bowl when it is hot."

As Ren became more comfortable, they sat and listened to the way that he came to be there in the cove. He looked down at one point, "I do not know if any of my family are alive. Some at least are dead. I saw heads and bodies which I knew on the bottom near the rocks; a brother and one of my sisters. Also, I saw a part," he indicated from the middle of his chest to his head, "of one that I used to play with."

"I know the dark ones that you speak of," Cuilén nodded with a grimace, "They are very fast and not stupid at all. I have been out fishing and I saw them sometimes taking fish from my long lines before I could pull them in. I might have set ten hooks on a line and the best that I could do was to get maybe three fish and seven heads -- or not even that sometimes. There were times when I found only a bit of torn skin from my fish."

He exhaled, "I never had the thought of it, but to be chased by one of them, ..."

Then he brightened and smiled as he tousled Ren's hair a little, "You have had to run from them twice. If it were me, my hair would already be gray."

As they ate, they found Ren growing more relaxed and looking much more comfortable and as well, Cuilén and Louhi found that he was very likeable and extremely attractive, though he was very shy.

"Do you need to be in the water sometimes?" Louhi asked and he shrugged.

"I think that sometimes I would like to see it and I need water to drink and wash in. I do not know."

She smiled, "Well now you can wash and drink without fear of the ones which have chased you twice -- though we will have to teach you some things which are different here." She looked a little past him and then she laughed a little and pointed. "See your friend there," she said.

Ren turned his head to see Annikki with her head on her arm looking at him with a soft smile. A smile like that was something that he'd never seen on another person while it was directed at him.

"Last night, I was so happy that I met Nikki and made a friend," he said, "I have seen no one for, ..." He counted for a moment, "more than six, ... "he shrugged, "the round white thing on the sky at night."

"The Moon," Nikki smiled and she had to repeat it once for him.

"Yes," he said, "six times from nothing to a thin light to a round spot and then to nothing again. More than six."

Cuilén nodded, "Three months then," and he explained what a month was and then a year.

The talk went on and after a cog of mead, Ren relaxed even more and they asked him about his skin.

He indicated it on his shoulder with his hand, "I am a thing of the sea most of all," he said, "I can be here with it off, but I must always have it near to me. Without it, I cannot go back and live." He told them of what had happened to his mother and how he came to be as a result of that. "Since she took me and ran away, I have not ever been very far from the sea. This is perhaps the farthest that I have gone from it. If I put it on here, I become as a seal."

"But your mother lived for a year at least without it," Annikki pointed out and he nodded, "And you are partly the same as the rest of us. I think that you could get a little used to it in time. Would I be able to wear it, Ren?"

"If we pair, it will fit you if you need it," he said, taking it off himself and laying it over Annikki's shoulders, "But for now," he smiled, "I like how it looks on you."

Annikki pulled it around herself with a soft smile, "It doesn't fit, but it feels so warm."

Ren was smiling at her and didn't see it as Louhi looked at his webbed hands. She thought about it and after a moment, she reached across the table. Ren was a little startled, but Louhi only smiled at him.

"From what was told to me of your kind, the babes of Selkies and humans have this. If you do not wish for this to be seen, then listen to what I say to you."

Ren found himself staring into her pale blues eyes, almost, but not quite as mesmerized as he was whenever he looked into Annikki's gray ones. She said a few odd-sounding things to him and made him say it once. It took a few tries, but one time he almost jumped up from the table when Annikki touched his shoulder and pointed at his hands.

He stared and lifted them to hold them up before his eyes, turning them over and back a few times. He looked at Louhi.

"But --"

"They are not really changed," Louhi smiled, "They are just as they have always been. Nikki said that you do not like them, so, ..."

She reached out again and held his hand for a moment. "Remember what I have taught you. You may only do this once in a day. It will not work the second time, so choose your moment according to your need. To make this go away, you only need to look at your hands and will them back."

Ren was happy and thankful, though Annikki told him again that she liked his hands as they were, but she could see how it bothered him.

"And Ren," Louhi smiled once more, "it is important that you forget about hiding them only out of nothing. Use this when you have need, but remember Nikki there. She likes you as you are."

Louhi sat and looked at Ren a little appraisingly for a moment. "You do not tell of it, but I can see that you have certain, ... qualities."

Ren looked back for a moment and then he was a little overcome with his shyness once more. "I do not think of it much and I do not want to frighten anyone."

He turned then and looked at Annikki a little guiltily, "It is something that I do sometimes and do not think. I did not see you when you came for me Nikki, and I was not listening. I can hide without a thought to it. I was there, where you saw me, but I was not there like that at first."

They looked at nothing but an unoccupied chair in the next instant. Annikki reached out then and hugged him, as invisible as he was, "Oh no. I have only just found you. Please stay with me Ren."

In fact, she was a little late with her remark. He had already been out of the chair and back again in time for her hug and he was back in view the next instant, looking a little sheepish, but very happy to be in her arms. He held out his closed hand and Louhi took it to mean that he wished for her to hold out her hand.

She blinked then, looking at the gold coin that he'd placed there.

"That was in the thing there on the back of where you sit," he said, and she reached for her cloak on the back of her chair.

She noted that there was no coin in it anymore and looked at him. "How?"

He shrugged, "I do not know. I only knew that it was there and I took it. Was it wrong to do?"

She shook her head with a little laugh, "Not to show me, but to take things that are not yours, ..."

She stopped, seeing him nod, "Then things are the same here like that. I only wished to show you because you asked me."

Annikki stared and then she laughed, "Oh please, do that again."

She blinked and in that time he was gone, but stood near to the counter where Louhi had made the meal. He smiled as he took an apple and held it up.

Then he was next to Annikki again offering it to her. She laughed and clapped her hands.

He turned to look at Annikki, who reached to hold onto him and he leaned his head against hers with a soft smile.

"A useful skill, but I will need this,"Louhi laughed a little as she held up the coin, "You have nothing but your skin. To live here, you will need more than that. I will use this to buy you clothes from what our friend Moppy sells. She is not here now, but I am honest."

Ren's eyebrows rose, but Louhi was already waving it off. "You need clothes here, as I have said. They must be either made or bought. Nikki and I cannot make them and neither can Cuilén. That means we must buy them, and as yet, you have no money."

"What is mone --"

"I will tell of it," Annikki said, "later. For now Ren, just say thank you to Louhi."

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The next thing was his clothing and they had no trouble finding something which fit Ren -- though he needed to be shown how to work the buttons and things of that nature, and he had trouble at first with walking in boots. After that, Annikki and Cuilén took Ren outside for a little walk. He was interested in anything, they saw. Absolutely anything and everything.

A leaf turned red by the autumn held him fascinated for minutes, and he suddenly heard a sound and saw a motion so he ducked.

Birds were new to him as well, the kind which were not seabirds.

There was an odd side-effect that none of them had thought of, though it manifested itself rather often - too uncomfortably often to Ren's mind and not often enough to Annikki's. Ren could be without his sealish skin without difficulty -- or almost. But with his genitals now encased in fabric which rubbed a little whenever he moved, well, ...

Cuilén knew it for what it was and he was understanding while Ren almost squirmed in his discomfort and embarrassment. Annikki did her best to appear to be the same way about it for Ren's feeling that his dignity was working against him; since that one area of his body seemed to want to betray him so much and so often. She didn't make any jokes, though they seemed to come to mind instantly every time, and she appeared to be doing her level best to look away from the bulge in his pants as well but, ...

Well, she was a little thrilled anyway.

After a few hours looking around at everything with Annikki holding his hand, they walked back for the evening meal.

When they arrived back at the house, Annikki asked Cuilén to go inside ahead of them and they'd join him and Louhi in a few minutes. He smiled and nodded, but Ren appeared confused.

Annikki put her arms around his neck and she pressed up against him a little carefully while Ren tried not to groan.

"Remember what we said," she whispered just before she kissed him a little, "We should help each other. This trouble of yours is nothing more than wearing clothing which you are not used to. You need say nothing, Ren. I will help you with it."

She reached down and giving the bulge there a slight squeeze which did cause him to groan, Annikki untied the fly and reached in to relieve the almost painful way that his maleness strained against the rough cloth.

"You should not feel shame in front of me, Ren," she smiled as she stroked him a little, "I like what I hold very much." She leaned her head against his shoulder and looked down as she worked him gently. When his breathing picked up a little, Annikki smiled and kissed his cheek, making the comment that she guessed that she was helping him well.

"But I know a better way," she smiled softly as she sank to her knees and began to love him.

Annikki was mindful of his feelings as well as being well-aware that they were outside in the autumn, so she decided that she wouldn't wet him with her saliva too much of it could be done.

But that was before she came to face his scrotum. It was all that she could do not to open her mouth then. She settled for taking in the gentle scent of this man as she kissed it and nuzzled it with her face for a few moments. When she looked at the tip, she could see that he was already on the boil a little, so she wasted no more time in opening her mouth.

Ren was astounded, but he was also in a fair bit of bliss as well. Annikki put a lot into it for him, wanting to have the first of his gushes in her mouth without much ado, since she was really doing this for what she'd said in large measure. But she enjoyed it all the same and groaned when he came.

She worked diligently, wanting everything that she could get before she tucked it back in his fly and tied it closed. With that done, she was standing against him again in his arms.

He thanked her, but she shook her head, "I only helped you with something. I did it far too quickly for my taste because it is a little cold here. You may believe me when I say that it tasted so good to me, so I will want more from you later."

She looked into his eyes and smiled a little mischievously, "Can I tell you a secret thing, Ren? Just for you to hear?"

He nodded, but he kissed her first, holding her head for the duration of it, since he hadn't held it when she was sucking him. Ren wanted to say something, since he was certain that she was trying to say something with the act and the words after.

Annikki almost sagged in his arms. His kiss was that good.

When he released her she found him there looking a little expectant and she asked him why. He grinned then, because he didn't know the effect of the kiss on her at the moment. "You were going to tell me a secret."

Annikki laughed at herself for a moment, "That's right; I was."

She kissed his cheek and began to whisper, "I liked doing that a lot.

Now come on," she said a little louder, "Louhi has made a meal for us all. If we come too late it will not do."

They were in time, but Louhi knew what had happened anyway and made no bones about it. "I would have never thought of the trouble either," she smiled, "but I can say that if it had been Cuilén, I would have done as Nikki did." Nothing more was said about it and a little later, Annikki was teaching Ren another lesson on the use of cutlery and he found that he wasn't very afraid of venison.

Annikki led him to the bed a little later and after helping him to get out of his unfamiliar clothing; they were in the bed looking at each other.

"Have you ever, ... "Annikki wondered just how to say it.

"Have you ever been in bed with anyone, Ren?"

He reached for her and she was very relieved and happy to find herself against him. "No," he said," I just sleep when I need to sleep and wherever I am. But I know that this is a bed, where we are and I know that it is for sleeping out of the sea and that it is also a good place for mating."

Annikki listened with a little grin on her face as she nodded.

"Do you want to, ... mate with me, Ren? I want to do it with you."

He nodded, "But I have never really mated before. My hands were not what the females wanted, so I could not find one. I have, ... I do not know how it is said. I have played with another male sometimes. He had no female either. It was not mating in a correct way, but it felt good."