Scent Marked

Chapter 5

It was on pure adrenaline and determination of will that I managed to hobble into base camp, draped over Sonam's and Elias's shoulders who were basically carrying me by that point. My injury had slowed our progress considerably, and darkness was quickly setting in. With darkness came the cold. They left me seated on my backpack while everyone else worked on quickly erecting our tents for shelter from the sub-zero temperatures and the brutal winds. My ankle throbbed in my boot and I knew it wasn't good. I sat there shivering, trying to hold back my tears. The bone-chilling effects of being buried in the snow had not worn off in the least.

Vihaan, Ganesh and Jannell got to work preparing our dinner while Eric and our porter Kabir began collecting fresh snow to melt for our water. Sonam and Vanessa began examining me while Greg, Elias and Taz looked on with concern. We were in one of the larger tents that would double as our mini production studio, and Zayan was busy in the corner setting up the butane furnace so my foot would not freeze when they took off my boot. Shivers continued to vibrate through my body though at that point I was just as nervous as I was cold.

"It's a bad sprain but at least it's not broken," Sonam explained after assessing my mobility and level of pain. "This needs to heal for a few weeks before you can hike again. I'm really sorry, Priya." It was all I could do to hold back my tears.

"Do we need to take her back down to get her medical attention?" Taz asked, grabbing hold of my hand and squeezing warmly.

"Not necessarily," Sonam reassured, sensing the anxiety among us. "I can call for help on the satellite phone. We have rescuers who specialize in this sort of thing, taking injured people safely down the mountain."

"That really sucks, kiddo. I'm sorry," Vanessa tried to comfort me.

Elias didn't say anything, but took my other hand and squeezed it. There was a pureness to the empathy in his eyes, like he'd be really sad to see me leave.

"Bloody hell," I said dejectedly.

"We can talk more about it over dinner but right now I need to wrap your ankle up tight, put your sock back on and get it back in your boot before it swells up so much that it no longer fits."

"That sounds like it's gonna be painful," I complained.

"Not as painful as it will be if your foot freezes because we can't get it back in your boot," he explained. I guess I couldn't argue with that.

Over dinner, Taz, Vihaan and Ganesh offered to accompany me back down the mountain while the others continued with the work but I insisted that I would just wait for the rescuers so that they all could concentrate on finding the leopards. They needed as many teams out scouting for places to put our cameras as possible, and I didn't want to ruin anyone else's trip. It was settled.

After dinner I really had to pee. My ankle had grown more tender and I could barely put any pressure on it without feeling excruciating pain. We had ibuprofen in our medical kits and I took the maximum dose of 800mg right away. They managed to dull the pain if I was sitting and not putting any weight on it, but standing still hurt like hell. There was no way I'd be able to keep my balance and squat to pee, without help. I was still shivering like crazy, and the thought of pulling my pants down, even for a minute, was horrifying. It felt like I would never get warm again.

I whispered in Taz's ear that I needed help and she readily agreed. She and Elias helped me hobble back to our smaller tent. Once inside Taz zipped us in to give us privacy while we started trying to pull down my layers of trousers and fleece. I was on my back, lifting my bum off the ground with my one good foot while Taz tugged. As my bush came into view I saw a look of concern on her face.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Umm," she hesitated, biting her bottom lip. "You just have to pee, right?" she asked with one raised eyebrow.

"Oh no! I'm sorry Tazzy, I've got to take a really huge dump," I teased her, trying not to laugh. The look of horror on her face was priceless. She tried to contain it but she couldn't. Finally I couldn't hold it any longer, and my smile broke. "Just pee, you wuss."

"Allah is so merciful," she sighed, dropping her head in reverence and looking totally relieved.

"Some friend you are," I teased.

"I'm sorry, Priya," she laughed hysterically, tears coming out of her eyes. "Of course I'll help you when you need it, I just wasn't ready for all that just yet. You've got to ease me into these things." We were both laughing by then.

"You two sure are having a lot of fun in there!" Elias called out, apparently waiting just outside.

"Bet you'd love to come in and help, wouldn't you?" Taz teased.

"Well if you insist..." he replied, and began jiggling the zipper to the tent. I think he was only messing with us, but it was still enough to bring me to a sudden panic.

"We're just fine!" I shouted. "You stay put out there!" More giggling from Taz, seeing the look of horror on my face just from the prospect.

As it turned out, helping me pee proved to be a little trickier than we anticipated. Taz knelt behind me with her arms wrapped around my chest under my own, holding me up in a squatting position. I was balanced on my one good foot while my busted ankle I held out in front of me, trying to avoid putting any weight on it. The only problem was that in that position, I couldn't bend forward far enough to see what I was doing and accurately place the bottle to catch my stream. It would be a disaster to miss and pee on our sleeping bags or the floor of the tent. We contemplated having me lay on my back and pee but that position just seemed ready made for a major spill. My bladder wasn't going to hold much longer, so Taz decided to go call Jannell for backup.

"It seems Jannell is otherwise indisposed in her own tent at the moment," Taz reported back to me a minute later. She said to give her five minutes. I doubted I could wait that long. My face twisted up in anguish as I debated with myself what to do.

"Who is outside?" I asked.

"Elias is standing right outside waiting for us in case we need anything," she reported.

"Ok, call him in," I relented in desperation. 'This is the last way I wanted him to see me naked,' I sighed to myself in resignation. Could my day get any worse?

Elias had a devilish look in his eyes as he climbed in but to my surprise he was a perfect gentleman. Almost. It took me a second to work out just how I wanted to do this in a way that offered the least amount of embarrassment. Finally, I had Elias stand facing me as I held onto him for support while Taz worked on pulling my fleece trousers back down. Then, still with my hands on Elias's shoulders, we both squatted simultaneously. He grabbed me around the ribcage just under my arms to hold up my weight, and I locked my fingers behind his neck for a better grip. Meanwhile, Taz knelt behind me, with my arse in her face, aiming the bottle to my opening to catch my pee when I released it. I would owe her big time. I was mortified to need help in that way but I knew I had to take it.

I expected Elias to be a typical guy, and I had mentally prepared myself for it. I knew that as soon as my pants came down that he would take the opportunity to take a look and check me out. I was surprised to discover just how conflicted my feelings were about it. On the one hand, I was suddenly glad that I was sporting a little afro down there, as all my hair would make it impossible to see my labia and my slit. I was grateful for that added protection of my modesty. On the other hand, there was another part of me that felt that if Elias as going to check out my pussy then I wanted to present her looking and smelling her very best. I was mortified that he would see me in such an unkempt state after a long strenuous day.

To his credit, Elias looked me directly in my eyes the entire time and never looked down. Maybe what I'd said to him back at the Yeti Mountain Lodge had registered. As Taz pulled my pants down just above my knees, I knew he wanted to. The little sparkle in his eye and the sly smile across his lips told me that he wanted to, but out of respect for my modesty he didn't. I tried to thank him with my own eyes, and let him know how much I appreciated his chivalry.

As we squatted, his eyes remained locked on mine, and I felt as if he were peering into my very soul. Then I saw it. A tiny little twitch. It was out of the corner of my field of vision so I looked directly at his nose to see if it repeated. Sure enough, there it was again. Mortification returned to me as I realized what those little twitches meant. Nostrils flaring, Elias was smelling me. I drew a deep breath to test the air and to my horror, picked up my own scent. Bloody hell.

God, I was ripe! Like it was the end of a long, strenuous day and I had just come from the gym. Fuck. My musk wafted thick and pungent in the air, and I watched Elias's chest expand as he took a deeper breath. As he filled his lungs with my essence, the light and playful look in his eyes transformed into something dark and feral. His hands took a firmer grip on my ribcage as his eyelids narrowed and his lips parted ever so slightly, suddenly dry and needing moisture. And the smells would only intensify once I started peeing.

Even though my bladder was uncomfortably full, I couldn't release my flow right away. I was just too nervous. Poor Taz waited patiently holding the bottle under me with my butt stuck in her face. But I was transfixed and held in limbo watching Elias respond to my pungent pheromonal cocktail. He continued to take in ever deeper lung-fulls of air, and as the look on his face slowly transformed into one of raw hunger, I began to realize that far from being put off by my ripeness, he was incredibly turned on. When the tip of his tongue came out to moisten his dry lips, I began to lose my composure.

"Any day now, Priya," came the sarcastic comment from Taz. "The view is lovely and all but my arm's getting tired." I felt bad for her stooped behind me with my arse in her face, but I sure as hell didn't want her trading places with Elias.

"I... I'm sorry. I'm a little... I'm just nervous, and my bladder freezes up when I'm nervous. I've never peed in front of two people before. It'll come in a second once I calm down," I replied, still looking deep into Elias's eyes. His sly smile returned, but it still retained sinister undertones. The animal-like quality of it made me squirm slightly, but I was proud and glad that I could elicit that sort of response. I wondered if my labia were visible from behind. There was no thatch of curly black hair back there to conceal them. If Taz could see them, could she tell how damp they were becoming? It felt to me as though they were slightly swollen which would increase the possibility of them being visible.

"Relax," Elias mouthed silently. "Pee." Though silent, the command was unmistakable. Still I hesitated. He lowered his hands a bit from under my arms to down around my waist then pressed in gently with his thumbs. "Pee for me, Priya," he said in the faintest whisper, just loud enough for me to hear but not Taz.

It was the "for me" that really got to me, not to mention his strong hands around my waist putting pressure to my tummy, gently squeezing the liquid out of me. Before I realized quite what was happening I began to pee, a strong steady stream and as I did I felt more than just the normal relief associated with unleashing one's bladder, but something far more satisfying, something that bordered on a sexual release as well. My damn burst and released the flood waters as my head rolled back and my eyes closed. I was simultaneously embarrassed to openly let go in front of Elias like that but at the same time feeling too much relief to care.

"Oh fuck!" I heard Taz yelp, adjusting the bottle to catch my spurting stream. The sound of my jet of urine as it splashed into the plastic container echoed in the night air.

"You get a little wet down there?" Elias chuckled.

"Bitch peed on my hand!"

More laughter from Elias. "Looks like I got the easier job," he said, still squeezing more pee out of me. His thumbs were rhythmically pressing in and moving down repeatedly, as if he was milking my body of its moisture. Little did he know...

"Sorry Taz," I croaked out as my stream began to wane.

"You owe me your first born," she retorted, acting more indignant than she really felt. "It's warming my hand, though," she informed us, "that part's not so bad."

"I'm sure Elias could accommodate you if-"

"Fuck off, bitch." More chuckles from Elias.

"I was just trying to be helpful," I said cheekily while Elias squeezed the last few drops out of me. I reopened my eyes to find his gaze still fixed on my face. His look told me that he had watched intently the pleasure I experienced from my release with rapt attention. Nostrils still flaring, I couldn't help but imagine how the olfactory portion of his cerebral cortex was attempting to discern between the three different chemical odorants emanating from my body. There was the general musk emitted from the glandular secretions of my pudenda that is collected in and concentrated in pubic hair, then there was the smell of my urine which in addition to waste (discarded nitrates are what give urine its offensive smell) also contains secreted hormones. I was close to ovulating, so I knew my pee would be hormonally charged. Underneath those two scents was the smell of my sexual arousal, and watching Elias's response I knew I was observing scientific proof of a strong pheromonal response.

I wanted to glance down and confirm my suspicion but stopped myself. Instead I reached for the pack of baby wipes. Taz had beaten me to it, wiping my errant pee off of her hand and from around the bottle. As I grabbed one I looked down to wipe myself. My swollen lips glistened through their wispy brunette veil, and I knew the moisture wasn't all urine. My suspicions were confirmed when I slid the baby wipe through my tender lips and felt it slide between my labia in a smooth way that only sexual wetness allows.

"That's it? No number two?" Elias asked with faux enthusiasm.

"Don't give her any ideas, dude!" Taz croaked, quickly pulling my pants back up over my butt.

"You two don't fancy helping me with that?" I joked along, though truthfully the thought mortified me.

"I'm your girl, Pree - you know this - but I don't know if I'm ready for all that just yet. You've got to ease me into it." Poor Taz was hurrying to tie up my fleece pants and secure them in place, as if doing so would somehow shut my bowels down if they were ready to release.

"I'm sure we could ask 'Poop' to help you instead, that's right up his alley!" Elias was proud of his double pun and laughed accordingly.

"Eww!" Taz and I said simultaneously, both laughing as well. Thankfully, I needed no further help at that moment. I was going to need to figure something out, though. I desperately didn't want to ask anyone to help me with that.

When we were ready to go to sleep Sonam came to our tent to check on me.

"How's your head?" he asked.

"Still hurts where the ice struck me."

"Do you feel any pressure or throbbing?" I thought about it for a second while he shined a little pen light in my pupils.

"No, it's more of a sharp pain."

"Do you feel confused or foggy headed?"

"More sad and depressed, and like it was stupid of me to think that I could pull this off."

"Don't let yourself feel that way," he reassured me. "What happened to you could have happened to the most experienced of climbers. There is no predicting it."

I nodded, but it was little consolation to the fact that I was going to miss out on all the action.

"What about dizziness or any ringing in your ears?" he continued with his questioning.

"You suspect she may have a concussion?" Taz asked.

"It's one of my concerns, yeah."

"If I do it means you can't let me go to sleep, right?"

"I know you're exhausted but I need you to be absolutely truthful with me about these questions, Priya. You could die otherwise."

"I get it," I sighed heavily, "and I certainly don't want that."

Through a few more questions he determined that I likely didn't have a concussion, or if so it was only very mild. It had been just over six hours since the accident, so he felt that it was ok to let me sleep.

I laid there as everyone else drifted off, feeling sad and still trying to process all that had happened to me that day.

------

The following morning our group split up into two teams while all I could do is lay there and watch. They were supposed to be two teams of 6 each but now one team was short a biologist. Sonam led one team while Ganesh led the other. Each had a porter: Kabir with Sonam's group and Zayan with Ganesh's. Our camera specialists also split up, Vihaan with Sonam and Eric with Ganesh. Vanessa, Jannell and Elias also went with Ganesh, while Taz and Greg went with Sonam's group.

They were leaving the tents set up and all the heavy gear behind under my "watch" so their hikes would be much easier not carrying so much weight. Sonam also left me with one of the satellite phones. We had four of them, so it didn't put either team in danger to leave one with me. He had called for a rescue but it was going to take the rescue team a few days to reach us. Until then, I was going to catch up on a lot of rest, apparently.

"You sure you're ok to stay here all day by yourself?" asked Taz.

"I'll be fine, you all go and find our cats," I insisted. My first order of business would be to find a way to pee and poop on my own. Peei ng was one thing but there was no friggin' way I couldn't ask for help with the latter.

"Call if the slightest little thing goes wrong or if you feel you need help," said Sonam. He also admonished me not to use up all the butane running our little furnaces. To stay warm, I'd have to spend the day huddled under a pile of sleeping bags. They tucked me in with all the food and water I'd need for the day, plus my pee bottle and my poop bag within reach.

I finally broke down and cried as they walked off after zipping me inside the tent. All the hard work I did to get ready for this trip was wasted, and all the research I wanted to do shot to bloody hell. I had the full day ahead of me to do nothing but lay there and think. To make matters worse, my ankle was throbbing with pain and my body felt bruised all over. The fall had taken a greater toll on me than I had realized, and I was feeling the full brunt of it. I grabbed the med kit and took out the bottle of ibuprofen then swallowed four of them. Everything I knew about pheromones raced through my head as I lay there in both mental and emotional torture, waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in.

When you think about it, pheromones are quite miraculous. They're like little secreted magic serums that trigger a social or behavioral response in other members of the same species. Pheromones are capable of acting outside the body of the secreting individual to impact the behavior of the receiving individual. Microscopic magic spells of biochemical mind control. Most animals and insects use pheromones, but insect use has been the best documented. Some plants also communicate by using pheromones.

There are food pheromones (most commonly used by ants to lead their siblings to a distant source of food) and related mammary pheromones that help babies find their mothers' nipples. There are also alarm pheromones (thus the observation of how some animals are said to be able to "smell" fear), and of course sex pheromones that attract mates and signal fertility.

For most animals, detecting pheromones involves both taste and smell via the olfactory system. Receptor neurons line the nasal cavity and the roof of the mouth and plug directly into the brain via the olfactory bulb. Humans have approximately 10 million of these receptor neurons, while most animals have 3, 4, even 5 times that many. The nerve fibers that leave the olfactory bulb do not project to the brain's cortex but rather to the amygdala, and from there to the hypothalamus. These are the primal parts of our brain that control certain functions and behaviors without conscious thought. Of course, the cortex is the part of the brain that exercises caution and restraint. The fact that olfactory sensory inputs bypass this part of our brains means that our reactions to such stimuli are purely instinctual, circumventing the forebrain's ability to suppress or conceal them.