Chapter 45: Love for Many Mating Seasons to Come
#45 of The Mating Season 5
Chapter 45: Love for Many Mating Seasons to Come
Eleven years had passed. But Kilyan still remembered the night Wynn left them as if it had been yesterday. She had hugged and kissed her parents goodbye, and when Kilyan pulled back, he could tell that Wynn was bravely holding back tears. It was the very last time, after all. It was the very last time that she would see any of them in person. By the time she had given birth and the portal of Miras Eii opened again, one hundred years would have passed, and her family would be dead.
Kilyan comforted himself that at least Wynn could still visit in spirit if not in person. So when he watched his daughter and the fox king make their way into the northern forest and toward the Endless Plain, it was with a brave smile that he put his arm around Avi and called after them, "Make sure to visit soon!"
But even if Kilyan could not see Wynn and Sylas as much as he would have liked, a new invention allowed his family in the sun village to visit every so often: it was called the wagon. Pulled by cows with hooded eyes, the four wheeled contraption was, like most inventions, one born out of necessity. Without the use of sorcery, it was now very difficult to travel safely and quickly across the land. It used to be that sorcerers charged other wolves for transportation, but sour that their sorcerers had so heatedly boycotted them, the village council of the sun village found another way to travel over long distances.
And so it was that Yuri and Roan were able to visit with their child, a little girl pup named Aralyla (Enya and Theo, fugitives from the summer village, had not been able to come, of course. But they sent their love with their respective lovers). The child of Enya and Theo, Aralyla looked a great deal like her father: the same slanted, intense eyes, the same dark fur and mane. And when she laughed, her eyes crinkled up in an identical way to his. But in spirit, she was haughty and headstrong Enya, and Enya finally got a taste of her own medicine through raising her daughter.
With Theo's fiercely slanted black eyes, Aralyla (who everyone called Ara for short) loved more than anything to yank Keeno's tail, run and play with him, have tickling matches with him. And then, when she had grown tired from this play, she would curl up on Zalia's knee and fall asleep with her finger in her mouth, to the amusement of all.
Kilyan had been overjoyed the first time the young parents came with their child, this child that they and their spouses were raising together. He had missed Roan more than anyone guessed, and it was with an embarrassed flush that Roan received a rough hug from his father. But he was pleased by Kilyan's affection nonetheless.
With Yuri and Roan came Kel, Aliona, Zaldon, and Julyan as well, and they spent the day at Kilyan's home, filling his hut with warmth, laughter, and love. Loryn, Kira, and Lynny came over, and a family dinner was held before the visitors were forced to leave: the wagon would pass by the summer village on its circuit that night and it would be a while before they could catch it again if they missed it. Kilyan had joked that it would be a good thing, them missing the wagon. But Kel laughed and ruffled his son's mane: they had to go home now.
They had to go home. Back to their lives. Thinking about it, Kilyan sighed. If only he and his family could have their own damned village. A village all to themselves.
"Kilyan have many thoughts," Avi observed. She was sitting beside the fire pit, looking lovely in a soft blue shawl that Ohana had sewn for her the year before. Her silvery mane was no longer shaggy but sleek again and tamed. The braids were still in it, as well as the bones of her ancestors. Some of those bones, she once told Kilyan, were as old as time. One bone, she even confessed, was the finger bone of Raxa.
Kilyan had been shocked to hear such a thing. How had Avi come across their son's finger bone?! Avi had quietly explained: the night that they stumbled upon the gravesite in the jungle, she had returned to it and dug up their son's tiny body, and while the others slept, she wove Raxa's bones into her mane.
"So that, like other ancestors, he be with Avi always," she had whispered, touching her breasts in sorrow. Laying in bed with Kilyan, Lea, and Ohana, she had gone on to explain that Finivive, soon after Raxa's death, had promised Avi that she would have the child buried properly. Out of love for Avi, claimed the fat pygmy queen, she would see to it that the body was taken care of. Avi recalled spitting in Finivive's face. She fell silent after the grim reliving of that memory, but Kilyan was relieved to see her smile when Lea kissed her cheek. He had been frightened that Avi might cry.
Present-day Kilyan was standing near the window when Avi spoke to him. He could hear Lea and Ohana in the other room fussing over LiAnh, smiled to hear LiAnh's complaints as he begged them to let him be.
"I was just thinking," Kilyan admitted sadly to Avi. "How . . . They just grow up so fast."
"I won't grow fast, Dad! I promise!"
Kilyan looked around and smiled at the boy-child sitting near Avi. He had been born to Avi not long after she and Kilyan were married, a silver boy with Kilyan's green eyes and a quiet, thoughtful way about him. He was eleven years old. Aviine, they had named him. But sometimes, as a sort of joke, they called him Avi.
With his silvery mane tumbling in his eyes, Aviine's bright gaze was fixed on the wooden toys he'd been playing with. He grinned at the little red top Kilyan had carved for him and watched it spin with glowing eyes. He was a child that always carried with him a sort of quiet fascination, as if the world and everything in it was wonderful. And always would be. God, Kilyan hoped it would always be wonderful for Aviine.
"You'd better not grow up too fast. Is that a promise?" Kilyan said, coming to the boy.
Aviine looked up and a streak of mane fell in his eyes as he squeaked, "I promise! I'll stay eleven as long as I can!"
Kilyan laughed. He lifted Aviine onto his hip, and Aviine grinned at his father as he was carried to the window. Together, they looked out.
It was a hot summer night, and as a result, the drums of the mating season were booming for the first time that summer. Seventeen-year-old females were being summoned at the moment, and Kilyan could hear their shrieks as they were paddled out the village gates and told to run for the forest. LiAnh was seventeen now and he would be heading out for his first mating season. After that night, he would move into the hut Kilyan had built for him, and nine months later, would claim a wife (or wives) and become an adult.
"But what do the drums mean?" Aviine wondered, his ears pricking forward. He had heard those drums before, of course, but had never understood what it meant each summer when all those young males and females crowded the village streets.
Kilyan smiled. "I'll tell you when you're older --"
"Mom! Would you lay off!"
Kilyan turned. LiAnh entered the front room, tall, muscular, white and looking more like Kira everyday. The bright glisten that had always seemed to shine from Kira's eyes was in his eyes now as he marched as fast as he could from Lea. His mane had grown very long and was shinning with the oils that Lea had forced in it. She rushed into the room right on his heels, holding the little bottle of mane oil and reaching out a paw as she tried to apply more. LiAnh dodged her paw and scowled, declaring grumpily that mane oil was for girls.
"Come on now, Lea, let him be," said Ohana, who entered the room after Lea with her eyes bright from laughing. "He's right, you know. You've gone and made him look like a girl." Ohana approached LiAnh with a brush and managed to brush some of the oil off before he jerked away.
"Come on - please!" LiAnh cried, more than irritated now.
Lea and Ohana finally left him alone, watching mistily as he smoothed his mane back from his eyes and brushed off his fur.
"Oh - but there's something on your face just there!" Lea insisted, licking her thumb and reaching to get the imaginary spot off.
"Mom!" LiAnh warned, dodging more motherly fussing.
Kilyan laughed and set Aviine down. "Come on, Lea," he said, putting an arm around his wife. He squeezed Lea tight in his arm and kissed her cheek. "He's a big boy now, Mother."
Lea laughed. "Yes, Father," she returned, playfully pinching Kilyan's chin.
"You two never made so much fuss over Zane when he left," Kilyan scolded. "At least Roan was spared since he never had a mating season. He was the lucky one."
"Zane was too tall to fuss over, I couldn't reach his face," joked Lea. "I fussed over Roan plenty to make up for it each time we visited him, and Ohana did so fuss - she even cried when Roan and Zane left --"
"Lea!" Ohana cried, giving Lea's paw a playful smack to silence her.
"But LiAnh . . . he's my baby, Kilyan," Lea went on, clasping her paws together and staring mistily at her son. "He's my little one. I can't help fussing."
Kilyan watched fondly as Lea's black eyes looked upon LiAnh, shining with love.
Aviine had been watching everyone thoughtfully. He returned to Avi's side and tilted his head curiously as he studied LiAnh. "So," he said, watching his big brother, "when I'm LiAnh's age, will I follow the drums to the forest?"
"Aviine will," Avi confirmed, smoothing her little son's mane. "It tradition."
Aviine blinked. "But what will I do there?"
A mischievous light sparked in LiAnh's eye when he answered, "They make you kiss girls all night long --"
"LiAnh," Kilyan warned.
Aviine froze where he knelt beside Avi and made a face. "Yuck! But why? Is it a punishment? Were you bad?"
LiAnh wagged his eyebrows as he thought of all the girls he'd already been with. "Very bad," he answered.
"Alright," said Kilyan firmly, "that's enough. The drums for the males have started now, so you'd better . . ." Kilyan paused. Yet another child gone. He wanted to hug LiAnh but knew his son was already disgruntled from the smothering of his mothers. "You'd better get going," he added quietly and smiled mistily into LiAnh's eyes. God, it seemed just yesterday that he had come home from patrol, and Ohana had pounced on him with the news that his son had been born. Tiny, white LiAnh cooing at Lea's breasts was now a tall, hard-bodied boy with a healthy lust to match his height.
LiAnh rubbed his paws together nervously and took a deep breath.
"You'll do fine," Kilyan assured him. "You comin' home for dinner?" He felt clingy for asking, but he wasn't ready to let another child go yet. After losing Wynn, he had really come to appreciate having his children around.
LiAnh was very excited about being on his own at last, and - unbeknownst to his parents, of course - he had planned to get drunk with a bunch of his friends that night. When the mating season was over, they were going to sit around, drinking and bragging about all the girls they'd had and who they hoped to marry. Mio and Zee - now sixteen - were even going to try sneaking out of the house to hang out with them. So LiAnh almost said he couldn't make it, but looking at his father's eager face, he promised that he'd try.
Kilyan was no fool: he knew that meant no. "Alright," Kilyan said, clapping a paw on LiAnh's shoulder. "I'll see you later then."
They smiled at each other, then LiAnh went out the curtain and into the night, the drums of the mating season beating hard upon his heart.
"Don't worry, Kilyan," Ohana said, putting a slender paw on her husband's shoulder. "Inden said he and Elele would bring their daughter over tonight. To play with Aviine. You know how they love to play."
Kilyan smiled at Ohana's attempt to comfort him: his wives were well aware that the older Kilyan became, the more he loved the sound of children's laughter in his home. He nodded and let Ohana lead him back to the fire. They all sat around the fire as if they were waiting for something, and Aviine went back to happily spinning his top and playing with the little wooden wolves Kel and Zaldon had given him.
As if Ohana's words had summoned him, there was a knock near the curtain and Kilyan looked around to find Inden standing in the doorway. Eleven years had not changed him much. His wings were a little bigger and, as a result, made him a little clumsier when squeezing through the door. He was a little taller too, and his face - ever so serious and thoughtful - now had a sort of tenderness about it. Kilyan knew that look: it was the tenderness that comes over a male once he becomes a father.
Inden pushed himself awkwardly through the curtain, then reached his paw outside to someone. When he pulled his paw in the curtain again, a small, skinny little girl was clinging to it. Her fur was tan and her eyes dark and serious like her father, and from her back . . . a very small pair of wings. She looked around the room shyly, but grinned when she saw Aviine pause to look up at her. She was a very pretty little girl and very small, just like her mother. Inden and Elele had named her Dezzira. Everyone called her Dezzy.
After Inden and his daughter came Elele, who looked the same as before, if not a little older in the face for the wisdom motherhood had given her. She carried a basket of sweets under arm that she had baked for the family, and she looked so happy and glowing. She hadn't stopped looking that way, Kilyan realized, since the wedding eleven years ago.
Kilyan smiled at Inden, glad that the last winged warrior, at least, made a point of visiting often. He had always secretly regarded Inden as his son, and he gestured for the younger male to come sit with the family beside the fire.
"She'll be here soon," Kilyan told Inden as the winged prince and his family entered the hut.
Elele passed her basket of sweets to Ohana and the females started chattering as they sat together around the fire.
Little Dezzy - who always made a point of tormenting Aviine - yanked hard on the boy's tail and laughed. Aviine cried out indignantly and shoved Dezzy. She shoved him back so hard that she fell on top of him, and as they laid there staring at each other, she suddenly gave him a taunting kiss on the mouth. "Ugh! We're having a mating season!" Aviine squealed and about had a convulsion trying to get Dezzy off. Dezzy's giggles rose shrill to the ceiling as they rolled together, scrapping and biting, their tails flashing. But no one moved to stop the fight because everyone knew the children's fights always ended the same way. So the adults went on talking around the fire, and eventually, Aviine and Dezzy stopped fighting, and giggling breathlessly, started to play with the little wooden toys together.
". . . wouldn't be surprised if they married one day," Kilyan was saying of the children to Avi when Lea cried out happily, "She's here!"
Everyone looked eagerly around. An apparition was standing in the center of the flames, a young female big with child who smiled lovingly upon them all. It was Wynn, though anyone who had known her would never guess. After the transformation in Miras Eii, she had become a rusty red fox, her muzzle shorter, her features a bit smaller, and her ears bigger. Her paws and feet had remained black, as had the tip of her tail and ears, but the rest of her body was a dark and burnt sort of red, and down her belly, cutting down between her breasts was a white stripe. Her protruding belly was like the bottom of a white cauldron, and she cradled it in her small paws as if it was heavy. She smiled on her family, and her ghostly body seemed to become more solid when she did.
"You look beautiful, Wynn," Elele said, and Inden took Wynn's astral paw and kissed it with the reverence of one kissing the paw of a goddess.
Wynn laughed at this affection. "Same old Inden," she said happily. "Where's LiAnh?"
"It's the mating season," Kilyan explained.
"Ah," Wynn said, nodding. "I forgot."
"Oh, Wynn," Lea cried sympathetically, "it must be torment, being pregnant for so long. Are you resting enough? Is Sylas taking care of you?"
"Eat plenty of fruit," Ohana added, "for the vitamins! And do those leg exercises I told you about everyday --"
"Lea! Ohana!" Wynn cried, amused. "I'm fine - I_swear_!"
There was general laughter.
Wynn felt it strange to hear them calling her "Wynn." No one called her by that name in Miras Eii. When she was reborn as a fox, Sylas had to give her a new name. He whispered in her ear as she lay still in their marriage bed, "Wynnona, awake!" and she remembered awaking with no memory at all. She could barely even remember who Sylas was, and the other foxes in the kingdom of Miras Eii - her servants, subjects, and new friends - she did not remember at all. Sylas told her that memory loss was perfectly normal, and he had then proceeded to share his memories with her: he told her about Kilyan and Avi, Lea and Ohana, LiAnh, Inden, Roan and Zane. And as Wynn listened, it slowly returned to her, all her little memories. And suddenly, she had begun to cry hard into her paws. Because with the return of her memories came the return of the thought: she would never see any of them again.
Standing ghostlike in the midst of those flames, Wynn knew her family's joy at seeing her was genuine, but at the same time . . . it wasn't. They were all putting on brave faces for her. She could see Avi looking up at her with a sadness she sometimes could not hide. Kilyan kept everyone talking and laughing to keep them from seeming sad, she knew, and later when she was gone, she also knew sensitive, sweet Lea would cry.
But Wynn kept on her smile, reminding herself that at least she could see them this way. It was better than never seeing them at all! She wished they could see the child when it was born. She wished they could be there to coo over it and grin and laugh and pass it around and marvel that it looked so much like so and so. She wished. But she knew there was no point wishing for things she could not have. She was in Miras Eii and they were in the summer village. And that's all there was to it.
". . . look like Wynn carrying twins!" Avi was saying to more laughter.
Wynn grinned. "Sometimes it feels that way, Mom. This pup is always kicking. Keeps me up at night."
"Thought up any new names?" asked Ohana. "What were the last ones? Ryane? Rynole?" She looked at Lea for help.
"I thought it was Rylo," Lea said.
Avi hadn't shifted her gaze from Wynn's face. She was smiling. "It was Ryo."
"Oh, that's right!" Ohana said, laughing. "Ryo. A pretty name. But what if it's twins?"
Sitting next to Avi, Kilyan flinched. He wished they would stop talking about twins: if Wynn had twins, she might be forced to do what Nontikmah had done, and the very thought terrified him.
Sensing Kilyan's discomfort, Inden asked Wynn to tell them about Miras Eii again and what the foxes were like there. "Do they have a mating season?" he asked, taking a bite of the cookie Elele passed him.
Wynn shook her head. "No. There aren't many foxes. Miras Eii is endless, but there are only about thirty of us living here. I have two servants and a bird that likes to sing in my window," Wynn said, as if she was reciting a story she had told many times before - and in a way, she was. "The food tastes like heaven - it's heaven when those little berries burst on your tongue. There are no seasons. Everyday is like the first day of Spring. It's always warm and sunny. In the evening, a mist rises over the forest and clings to the fur. And the singing. Foxes love to sing, and they sing like nothing I've ever heard. Now that I'm one of them, I can sing like them.
"Everywhere we go, foxes bow to me and Sylas from all directions. They close their eyes, and folding one arm in front of them, they bow low. Some of them look like me, some are white. All of them glow. When they walk, their feet don't touch the ground. And they smell like things hot and soothing. The whole place is soothing, like one big lullaby.
"Sometimes," finished Wynn, "I never want to leave. Other times, I can't see you guys fast enough."
Wynn looked at her family, conveying with her earnest eyes just how much she missed them all. Kilyan swallowed hard and reached for her paw. Their fingers touched, and they looked at each other warmly.
"You don't regret what you've done, do you?" Kilyan asked anxiously, knowing that even if Wynn did regret it, she was bound to Miras Eii until her child was born.
Wynn shook her head, smiling at her father. "No, Dad. I love Sylas. I couldn't ask for a better mate. He has given me everything - everything! That's how I know he loves me. He wants to give, all the time, he wants to give. He talks about our baby," Wynn laughed, "and how he can't wait to bounce it on his knee and tickle it and kiss it. He talks to my belly late at night, and he rubs it when the pup won't stop kicking. It always stops and goes to sleep too." She laughed again. "No, Dad, I'm very happy with Sylas. The only thing I regret is not having a mating season." She grinned.
"Oh, Wynn," said Elele, rolling her eyes, "you always want it all." She shook her head. "Don't you realize you already have it?"
"Looking at all of you," answered Wynn, "I'm realizing that now more than ever."
Wynn could have talked to them for hours, but because being pregnant drained her energy faster, she was only able to talk to everyone for a little while before she felt too tired to project herself any longer. She glanced over her shoulder suddenly, as if she was seeing something they could not, then grinned at her family and told them Sylas was nagging her about wearing herself out.
"He's right, you know," said Ohana. "You'd better scoot off to bed."
Wynn nodded, but she did not fade away. Still cradling her large belly, she smiled at them all sadly, her green eyes traveling from face to face. Kilyan knew she was memorizing them for the long interval in-between her visits. Sometimes it was a month before Wynn used astral projection to reach them. Other times, it was an entire year. Time was different in the fox kingdom. Kilyan had to keep telling himself that. Still, it didn't make him stop missing his Wynn.
"If you can't reach us again soon," Kilyan said, "be certain to reach us first thing in the summer. We're always waiting for you in the summer."
Wynn smiled: Kilyan didn't seem to understand that she had no way of knowing what season it was in the outside world. She always guessed that it was summer when she had failed to reach anyone, and most of the time, she was right.
"Right, Dad," Wynn answered, but still, she did not fade.
"Take your time, honey," Lea said soothingly. "We don't want you to go anymore than you."
"Lea," Wynn said happily, as if to point out how Lea hadn't changed one bit. She smiled at them again, those loving faces. "I'll come back as soon as I can. I miss you all! I love you all." And still smiling, she faded away at last.
"If Sylas didn't take her from us, the mating season would have," Ohana said quietly after a pause.
"She would have been here in the village," Kilyan pointed out.
"Oh, Kilyan!" Ohana looked at her husband, torn between amusement and disbelief. "Just how often do we see Zane anymore?"
"Almost never," Lea said, but she was really thinking of Roan.
"Uh, huh," went on Ohana, nodding at Kilyan, "and now LiAnh is about to do the same thing! If Wynn had stayed here and married Inden, we still wouldn't have seen her anymore. We're only feeling the sting of her absence now because she has no choice but to go without us. If she was right here in the village, she'd take us for granted and ignore us. That's what kids do when they grow up."
Lea played with the tip of her tail as she agreed quietly, "Yeah."
"Well," joked Kilyan, "we could always just keep making pups. Every time one flies the nest, we make another?"
There was more general laughter as Ohana playfully shoved Kilyan in the arm.
Outside, the drums had stopped, and in the following silence, every parent in the village knew: their children were now out in the northern forest, and they were growing up.
"Look like it bedtime," Avi quietly observed.
They looked around to see Aviine and Dezzy fast asleep beside the little wooden toys. Smiling as she dreamed, Dezzy lazily twined her tail with Aviine's. Aviine's mouth was slightly open, and his cheek was pressed hard against his arm as he lay on his belly.
"How sweet," Lea said as Kilyan and Inden rose to gather their children.
"Well," said Elele, rising too, "we'd better get Dezzy to bed. It was nice seeing you all!" She took turns hugging Lea, Ohana, and Avi, then took up her basket and followed Inden out the curtain.
Kilyan tucked Aviine in bed, then entered to his bedroom to find his wives waiting. Avi was taking off her shawl. She put it in the closet and climbed into bed, and in the candle light, her nipples cast pointy shadows against the wall. Lea was already in bed with the covers pulled up around her breasts. She looked so quiet and thoughtful that Kilyan knew she was missing Roan, Zane, Wynn, and - already - LiAnh. Avi noticed Lea's drawn face as well, and scooting close to her, held her against her breasts. Ohana, meanwhile, was seated on the edge of the bed, a mirror in her paw as she gave her long, straight, silvery mane the usual thirty brushes before bedtime. With a heavy air, she set the brush and mirror on a low table, and after putting away her shawl, climbed into bed too.
Kilyan went around the room blowing out each of the candles - which seemed to have become his duty over the years - and it was he who climbed into bed last. He snuggled in between Lea and Avi, and throwing his arms around all three of his wives, he pulled them close. They all sat in the dark, lost in their own thoughts.
There would be no sex tonight, Kilyan knew. They were more likely going to cuddle until they had fallen asleep: they were all just too tired and too sad. But in spite of everything, Kilyan could not help feeling a warmth wash over him to have his three wives snuggling close, so warm and soft and beautiful as the day he had met each of them. He touched Avi hungrily under the covers, and sinking into the pillows with a satisfied smile, gave Lea's cheek a loving kiss.
"This is how it should have always been," Ohana observed after a while. "We should have all had the same mating season. Then we could have lived out our whole lives together, raising our children, loving each other." Ohana sighed, and by the dreamy tone in her voice, Kilyan knew she was smiling.
"Well, at least I have you all now," Kilyan said, squeezing his arms around them all. "And we can live together and love each other through all the mating seasons to come."
Cuddled so close together in the gloom, they all smiled at each other, and with the moonlight falling gently through the window, they fell asleep, warm and happy and so in love as not far away, another mating season brought another year of blissful marriage to a close.
The End (for real this time)