Seed

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

They arrived at its cave, entering after it sent the command to lift the shield.  Second set Nyshia down just inside the entrance.  She stood rooted to the spot, staring around in wonder.  Surely this being, if not a god, wasmagical!  There was an even light over the entire cave, and any cave she had ever been in, such as the one her group used for their winter home, was dark and dank, smelly with the scent of the entire group crowded in, smoky from the fire kept going at all times.  It smelled pleasant in here, there was no smoke, and it was filled with such wondrous things!  She had no names for the objects she saw, so she just looked, open mouthed, at everything, trying to attach some sense to it all.

Second saw her wonder and confusion, and knew it had, perhaps, made an error in bringing her into its cave.  It had never allowed anyone in before, but where else was it to take her tonight?  The group would be mating, or asleep at this time, and it could not take her there until morning.  It sighed.  It seemed it was quite prone to making errors with these people.  However, this one could be fixed by altering her memories of the cave before it took her to the encampment.

“Would you like to take a shower before going to sleep, Nyshia?” it asked.

“Huh?  What is a ‘shower’?” was her puzzled response.

Stars and dust!  It castigated itself.  Of course she would not know what a shower was.  It would have to show her.  It grabbed several towels from its supply cabinet, and lead her to the shower, but she jumped back when it turned the water on.

It sighed.  It would have to teach her by imitation.  It stepped in and began to soap itself up, allowing the water to rinse it off.  The water was warm and felt good to it.  It had not realized just how begrimed and soiled it had gotten during the course of its flight.  It smiled encouragingly at her standing there watching it, wide eyed.  Finally, she tentatively stepped in with it.

“You need to remove your garment, Nyshia,” it said, with amusement, “One always takes showers without clothing.”  It smiled at her again.

She reached around her side and undid her garment, throwing it back out of the shower.  She felt the warm water and luxuriated in it, turning her face up to the stream, closing her eyes, and smiling for the first time.  Second picked up the container of liquid soap, and poured some on her back and began to gently rub it in.  It soaped her all over, enjoying the feel of her under its hands, then helped her rinse herself off.  It saw she had even lighter skin than it had thought, with all the dirt washed off.  It lathered up her hair and washed it as best it could - it had no experience with hair washing, but the hair was dirty and needed it.  Then it turned the water off, wrapped itself in one of the large towels, wrapped her in another one, picked her up and sat her on its large cot.  It finished drying itself, dropped the towel onto the floor and sat beside her to begin toweling the water out of her tangle of hair, then it began to towel her off.

Drying her off was as sensuous to it as washing her had been, and it knew it should stop, and let her do it, but it was enjoying the way she felt, the way she smiled at it.  Then, she began to preen its arm feathers with her fingers, placing them and smoothing them down, stroking them, then she moved on to…its pouch area.  Its raaua began to stiffen, sliding partially from its pouch, about six inches of it peeking out.  In embarrassment, it grabbed its towel to put back over itself.  It was afraid to look at her, thinking she would be disgusted, or frightened by its action, or rather, its reaction to being stroked in that area.  It changed colors briefly, with embarrassment.  Stars and dust!  It truly had been much too long since it had mated!

“I am sorry, Nyshia.  I did not intend for that to happen!  But you are so beautiful…” it trailed off, hanging its head in shame.  It sighed.  It had done a lot of sighing since being here.  “I should not have brought you here, little one.”