Page 27 of Finding Her Heart
"My emotions are all I can see."
The heat of her white Orki's muscled belly tempted her senses, begged her petting. She opened her hand over the ridges there, enjoying him.
When the group stopped, they dismounted and, Doku-ni leaned her against Zerzer's side with her face pressed against the big creature's hindquarters where the fur was soft. The moment he stepped away, Zerzer used the opportunity to attempt another lick.
"Stop that! I know you can tell I don't like it." She turned her back to escape that big pink tongue, wobbling on her feet. Returning with water for his mount, Doku-ni set a bowl in front of the war beast. It was a tiny amount, but the animal had a body chemistry Annabell couldn't understand. Then, giving her a speaking look in the eye, he picked up Annabell and took her to a ditch.
Unable to focus, she didn't realize what he wanted, or cared much, until she heard the distinct splash of liquid hitting the ground. The sound activated her own need. Catching her hand, Doku-ni kept her from finding a private space, gently pushing on her shoulders.
"Do you do everything publicly?" she grouched.
Squatting, she fussed with the wool and fur, not wanting to soil anything until he just plucked them from her hands. "Why do I have to be naked?
Not looking at the male for answers, Annabell emptied her bladder.
The land was distinctly rocky here. Impossible to farm. There were plants she had never seen before, growing low to the ground, with plump water-filled leaves. What was dangerous, what was edible or medicinal or too bitter for any kind of use at all? Papa encouraged those questions that irritated others so much she'd stopped asking.
The Orki kept people out of their territory, refusing to share their secrets. But now she was here. This white Orki welcomed questions, but he had no voice to answer them.
Finished, she stood, and Doku-ni wrapped her up before carrying her back to Zerzer. He gave her water to wash her hands and the pouch to sip from, mindful of her needs. His ability to see her, and that desire to care for her, tightened her throat. She was a mess, ready to burst into tears at any moment. Emotion and feeling overran all her ability to hold them back. Unlaced, her soft vulnerability exposed, every puff of wind touched a nerve ending.
The Orki lit torches, though she knew they didn't need them, showing a clearing full of scrubby plants and more volcanic rock. At least some of the Peace River Valley had been like this, before the founders gave themselves the tasks of turning it into viable land for an agrarian humble life. Collected rocks became walls, home foundations, and the roads around the Gathering Lodge. Her ancestors gave up soft lives to toil and sweat. They brought only the simplest, most essential machinery with them, life with tents and axes. Papa taught them that the Orki had helped move some of the larger rocks and placed them up and down the river to mark boundaries to their lands.
Repositioned back onto Doku-ni's lap, they rode again, taking her and the other human women to their native home. She had heard more feminine sounds of protest. Someone was not happy. Did she know the Orki treated all women with careful, loving honor? Did she understand what it meant to be redress?
Of course, that was a subject Annabell had a million questions about growing up. Papa loved his stories. He had created one about her great, great aunt being chosen as a redress war bride. Annabell asked for that one at every bedtime.
She hoped that the voice of protest didn't come from Lurann. They had never gotten on well, but after everything, losing her husband, the invasion of those murderous bastards, Lurann deserved better. Her sister by marriage was everything Annabell was not, but she was also more than Annabell gave her credit for.
"Kejere told me to take care of you," she said, making sure Annabell's bruised face stayed swollen and bloody.
Of her six brothers, Annabell had always been closest to Benjere, if only because he took his responsibilities as second oldest seriously. He assumed the role of family patriarch. Their eldest brother had left the family assets to Benjere before Annabell turned sixteen. He cashed out his inheritance and moved to marry a girl he'd met at a village dance. He and Benjere clashed so often that his leaving relieved everyone.
Kejere was her third eldest brother, softer, less critical than Benjere. He’d always been a little protective of her and gentle in his expectations. Saving the lectures and pressures for Benjere, he told her not to marry Mark. Being on the council and sharing the town's opinion of the Orki Originals, he hadn't wanted her to become a bride. He thought it too dangerous, and she was too young. But he also noticed that, even in courtship, Mark could not make her laugh and smile. He told her not to marry him.
Mark was Benjere's choice and his friend. The bossiest had been livid.
In turn, Annabell wanted to tell Kejere not to marry Lurann, who wore her tops too low, and teased every young man in the settlement. Her golden, wheat-blonde hair was such a village sensation that other women concocted special rinses to imitate it, but she had a reputation for more than her beauty. Lurann's own circle of friends gossiped about her. She ignored it. Nothing Lurann did, and nothing that was said, no matter how lurid, toppled her from her superiority. There was a coldness to Lurann's personality, a hard-outer mask looking down on the village from an unbreachable tower. Annabell thought Lurann's circle were not her friends at all, but enemies she kept close, manipulating them like pawns. Annabell saw the toxicity and refused to take part in that game.
The older woman also manipulated the raiders. She knew what to do, when to give in, to cry or to resist. Boss declared to one and all that he wanted young, fresh and pretty. Still beautiful, but neither young nor fresh, Lurann's efforts of distraction saved several of the captured girls. As far as Annabell saw, everyone else in Righteous had been out to save themselves or their own. Shunned, like Annabell, by the women of the town, Lurann sacrificed herself for their daughters with no one asking her to.
It was more than Annabell had done.
She hoped Lurann knew she would be safe and cared for with the Orki.
*
Belly and guts nagging her, Annabell had no choice. It was time to make this situation known. She needed a private moment. A moment alone, to deal with her stomach grumbling, sounded like heaven. No one, not even a powerful Orki, was going to want to be standing over her when that business happened. After all the stress, her body shifted into purge mode, including a threat of fever.
The sky had lightened. Close to dawn now, good farm women were out of the house already, checking animals. Daisydoo and her calf were in the short pasture with grass and water, but it wasn't the best place for them. Now, there was no one there to care for them. Perhaps survivors would go through the town, check what remained after the pillaging, find out who lived. Someone would go to the other towns, seek relatives. Boss had sent out teams, she'd overheard, to towns like Rivrtonn and Reed.
The terrain changed again, pulling Annabell’s thoughts from the past, filling up with trees, tall, reaching things. A hundred different colors of green surrounded them, glistening with dew. There were a few small, strange flowers scattered here and there in the different plants, white, purple, and yellow. None of them were familiar. Following a trail beside a trickle of stream, the war beasts ran in single file down to the bottom of a ravine. The area felt tight and enclosed, but there were too many misty morning shadows to be certain. Cool air kissed her cheeks as she tried to sit up.
Doku-ni bumped his legs and jostled her back against his chest. His hand opened and closed on her belly. Tipping her head back to look at him, he grunted before she could say anything, lifted his legs in the saddle again, jostling her. "You want me to stay still, I guess."
Raising and dropping his brow, smiling with his eyes, she took that to mean yes, stay still.
"Why don't you talk? Can you? I know you speak huumon. I have a hundred questions." It frustrated her. She wanted to hear his voice, his answers.
