Aeyli said, “Rani, it is you and Belle because of the vow, but if it hadn’t been you, it would have been others. You felt what happened within you as your milk came? And as he drank? I won’t have any trouble with the council.”
Belle said, “Aeyli, but the rules, do you mean that he… performs for three?”
Aeyli said, “Belle, I have been with him for two days, and he has already ‘performed’ for nine! He pretty much ‘performed’ for both you and Rani just now, and he did much more than that for me at mid-morning today. And several times last night, and also yesterday afternoon!”
Rani said, “But, then, we’ll need a very big house! Aeyli, are you teasing us? We know that you’re not, but how can that be?”
Aeyli said, “Rani, feel your tits girl! Ask them if I lie. Or ask Belle’s tits. They know that I’m telling the truth. Believe me.”
Rani said quietly, “Then, we three are only the first? Will we die of happiness?”
Aeyli said, “Yes, I expect that we will. Either that or we’ll live forever.”
We had started walking toward the village, but Aeyli stopped and said, “Girls, your belts! You can’t enter the village naked!”
They laughed and ran back and buckled the discarded belts back around their waists and then ran back to walk at each side of me again.
Belle asked, “Aeyli, did you have the little death yet?”
Aeyli said, “I did, but if I tell you how many times, you won’t believe me.”
Belle exclaimed, “Nogoyama! More than once! No! Don’t tell us. Wait until we’re alone… or I’ll start leaking again and we’re even closer to the gates now. Tell us later, but do tell us!”
As we approached the gates, the girls let go of my arms, reluctantly, and the four of us walked through the wall into the village of Tranna.
As we entered the village, people greeted Aeyli warmly. I heard many questions and comments, some directed at us, some at others in the small crowd of about 20 that milled about us.
“It is Aeyli. Isn’t it her time to be at the shrine?”
“The shrine. They should all give up and find mates, or work.”
“Don’t be unkind, they’ll never find mates. For one thing they’re all too tall.”
“The man with them is very tall. Who is he?”
“See the way the shrine maidens glance at him? That’s the look of a girl with hope.”
“That is more than hope if you ask me. That is the look of a woman who thinks that she’s found love.”
“But look at him. Is he a prince?”
“He is to the shrine maidens. You can see it in their eyes… and their bodies. See how they carry themselves?”
“I think that you’re right. The shrine maidens walk as if they were going to their wedding chamber!”
“Can it have come true, as they hoped? Is this a man like the Warlord himself?”
“Have you seen the pack that he carries? Say that you don’t see the skin of a great white ape!”
“Is it the Warlord himself? It could be.”
“If it was, the maidens would have pride, but would they call him ‘prince’ with their eyes? Of course not!”
“We question what we’re seeing with our own eyes. This is a mystery.”
“There will be a council meeting tonight, you can be sure of that!”
Aeyli turned to me and whispered, “Mark, I thought that I would take you to the jeweler and buy tokens, we’ll need them before nightfall, but given the crowd and the comments, it might be best if you stay out of the market for now. Will you trust me to buy the things we need? You have given me my token, so the one I buy for myself will be a token of a token only. What do you say to it?”
I said, “That will be fine. I trust you in all things.”
She smiled and said, “As I do with you. Rani, Belle, take him to the house and stay until I come. And, Mark, if I come and find you having your way with them both, buried to your balls in wet pussy, and these girls screaming your virtues as you bend them over and plunder their hearts and bodies, if I find the beds sprayed and soaking with puddles of milk squeezed from their eager tits… well, I’ll be quite… overjoyed. Do it for me. They deserve your love as they have loved you. But if I come to find that you have already finished, or worse yet, haven’t started, I will surely be quite cross with all of you! Now, give me your sword and the fur and be on your way. And, don’t finish getting to know each other better before I get back!”
She laughed and Rani and Belle giggled and she headed off toward the market. Rani and Belle started to grab my arms, but stopped themselves and simply led me down the street.
“You see, I told you! They would grab hold of him like a new lover! They will announce the mating of all three of them tonight, mark my words!”
“Three in one night? Oh I don’t think so.”
“This man will be on the council tomorrow. You’ll see!”
We walked briskly down a few streets and finally arrived at a small, two story house in what I assumed was in one of the humbler portions of the village. We had passed much larger and nicer places on the way, and this was nearer the wall and farther from the gate.
The people of the village had tried to be welcoming and respectful and they didn’t follow us to the house, and by the time we arrived, only a few children and a few neighbors took notice of us. The neighbors were friendly and waved. I smiled and waved back and they greeted the girls as normal.
“Rani, Belle, good evening to you! Who is this? A relative from faraway?”
Rani said, “No, um, yes, well, he’s a traveler, but he’s to be trusted. Aeyli vouches for him. He will stay with us. It will be fine.”
The neighbor said, “Bring your friend to supper. We’ll have a stew.”
Belle said, “Oh, thank you so much! That would be lovely, but, um, I hear that there may be a council meeting tonight. Let us do it tomorrow when we have more free time, or maybe the next night. Very soon. Thank you!”
The girls rushed us into the house and closed the door and both leaned their backs against it and tried to slow their heart rates.
Belle said, “I thought that I was going burst!”
Rani said, “You did burst. All over his chest!”
Belle said, “Oh shut up, you know what I mean. What now?”
Rani said, “You heard Aeyli, we don’t want to make her cross!”
Rani took my hand and the three of us went up the stairs and into one of the bed rooms and again they shut the door and leaned against it as if we had just escaped from ravenous beasts. I knew that the only ravenous beasts nearby were the three of us.
I said, “My princesses, Aeyli was teasing about being cross. We won’t do anything that you don’t want to. I want to love you forever, not for a moment only.”
Chapter 15
In the House of the Shrine Maidens
I started to take the sack of fruit from my shoulders and Belle took it from me and set it aside near the door. I unbuckled my belt and slid it from my waist and Rani rushed to take it from me and hang it on a hook near the door. I looked at the room. The bed wasn’t a stone slab, as it had been in the ruins, but a wooden platform covered with a mattress made from fur and stuffed with moss. It was thick and comfortable; even in a humble house like this, I supposed that you could make the mattresses as thick and soft as you wanted to since the moss was free for the gathering.
I sat on the edge of the bed and said, “Girls, will you trust me? To me, your happiness is more important than my own.”
Rani and Belle came slowly forward and removed their belts and just dropped them on the floor beside themselves and stared into my eyes.
Belle took a deep breath and sighed and said, “Ah, that actually feels really good. I have never been naked before. I mean, not in front of a man. Not after I was a child. My prince, I don’t mean to be afraid.”