I felt like I had passed the first real test of my new life. And I had achieved at least some of Carter’s encouragement to find a beautiful Martian girl. Oh and now I remembered his other instruction to have her teach me to talk. Now I also understood his comment about being nourished by ‘a large mammary’.
I assumed that our haste was due to the fact that my companion didn’t carry any water, and that if we didn’t reach some, that we would both suffer for it. I didn’t know how long her body would sustain me, and I didn’t want to test it.
OK, I needed to learn to talk. I stopped for a moment and set the girl on the ground and faced her and smiled. I took her hand in mine and placed it on my chest and said, “Mark” and thought about the concept of a name and what it meant to be called something. I patted her hand against my chest and repeated the word and the thought.
The girl smiled and said, “Mark” and I felt ‘you, person, man’, and then she pulled my hand to her chest and said, “ Aeyli-ah” ‘me, I, woman, name’. She repeated it as a sentence and I heard, “I am Aeyli-ah. My name is Aeyli-ah. You are Mark”, but there was also ‘question, uncertainty’. I tried to remember the words that she had said and did my best to say, “My name is Mark.” Aeyli-ah smiled and I said, “You are Aeyli-ah”. I pointed to my foot and said, “Name” and added the question mark thought. Aeyli-ah told me the word and then held up her hand and told me the word for that.
The language was actually very simple. The spoken word for hand and foot were the same, but the telepathic sense was different. The word was actually more like “body part” modified mentally for each different appendage. We played this game for a few minutes, Aeyli-ah placing my hand on her arm, and then me placing her hand on my head and repeating the phrase and practicing the skill I needed to learn. We worked our way through hands, feet, arms, legs, head, facial features, shoulders, and so on. When those were exhausted, Aeyli-ah looked at me earnestly and smiled and said, “calm, rest, trust” and placed my hand upon her breast, then pulled it down to her buttocks, then back to her breast and onto her nipples. I allowed her to have me touch her intimately like this… and it was apparent that it was intimate and not just a classroom study. The meanings had intimacy to them. I reciprocated and ran her hand over my body as well as I repeated the words and meanings that she was teaching me.
Aeyli-ah again thought, “calm, OK, receive” and she took my hand and pressed it between her legs and encouraged my fingers along the slit of her labia. I gave myself to it, not knowing if this were a mating ritual and whether I was consenting to a marriage proposal or not. If I was, I was a lucky bastard. Aeyli-ah’s eyes closed as I touched her and she spread her legs slightly to give me better access. I slid my middle finger hesitantly down through the folds, paying close attention to whether this seemed to be what she wanted or not. I didn’t enter her, but I did feel the hint of moisture and warmth building just behind the opening to her sex.
I pulled my hand back, but kept her hand clasped in mine as I placed her palm on my belly, below my navel, but above my pubic hair. I looked at her and smiled and she moved her hand tentatively downward, making sure that I was OK with it. Aeyli-ah pushed her fingers down through the curls of my pubic hair and encircled my stiffening shaft and told me the word for penis , and then ‘big, wonderful, inspiring… desirable, nice, handsome.”
She stroked me a few times and then slowly pulled her hand away. I put my hands on her shoulders and took a chance and said, “Trust? Lips?” and moved my lips toward hers. She beamed at me in approval and tilted her lips toward mine and I kissed her on the mouth. It was a simple kiss and it didn’t last long, but it was the sweetest first kiss imaginable. Aeyli-ah and I were bound together. I could feel it. If it was a marriage proposal, I consented with my whole heart at this point. And, now I didn’t know what to do.
I asked, “Hurry? Go?”
Aeyli-ah nodded and I pulled her back onto my back and she pointed the way I we should be headed. It was well after noon now, but several hours remained until sundown. I ran on, but said, “ Aeyli-ah, many, more, names, callings?” It was the best I could do to ask her to continue her teaching. She wrapped her arms around my neck and began speaking in my ear. “Good” was the first word.
The progress was fast, both over the ground and learning the language. As I had said, it was a simple language and reinforced by the direct telepathic associations. I only had to be told once. In another two hours, I had enough to be able to speak with my “companion, mate?” fairly well. The grammar was different than English, so a direct translation would be very difficult to write, and to read, but it was easy enough to interpret what was communicated.
After two hours of steady progress, I slowed down and finally stopped. I was tiring. I set Aeyli-ah down, and bent over to catch my breath. By now I felt that I could probably carry on a conversation and said, “I’m sorry, I’m tired, can we rest for just a moment , and then we can go on.”
Aeyli-ah said, “Yes, rest. You ran very far. And carrying me on your back. You must rest. But look in the distance. See those small buildings? That’s where we are going. It will take another hour, if we were fresh, and we aren’t. I have been without water for several days and I’m getting weak. I couldn’t have traveled this far on my own. When you reach the place, find the large building in the center. There will be a place in the floor and water underneath. Refresh yourself and if you can, revive me. I hope that you can. Lie down and let me nourish you from my body.”
She encouraged me to lie down and knelt over me as she had done when she revived me earlier and offered me her breasts again. I suckled gently and took in the nourishing milk and began to feel better after just a few swallows. I didn’t want to take too much, not knowing how taxing it might be for Aeyli-ah. Sensing that I was done, she rolled onto her back and lay beside me. She took my hand and we rested side by side.
She said, “I’m sorry, Mark. Please forgive me. You were dying and I couldn’t bring myself to allow it. I did what I had to do. I know that you are from the home world of our Warlord, John Carter. I know that your customs are different from mine, and I would forgive you any breach or inadvertent offense. It has been my pleasure to serve at the shrine for all of these years, and my greatest honor to give my life to save you. I fear that from here on, you’ll travel alone. But Mark, I don’t want to die!”
I said, “ Aeyli-ah, why are you asking me to forgive you? For what? You have only been kind and loving to me! How can I forgive you when you have shown me only the greatest… love? I will get you to the water. It isn’t far. We can make it. I won’t let you die.”
She said, “I know that you don’t know what you’re saying and I love you even more for it. But to be fair to you, I should explain before I lose the ability. Just listen. I fed you from my breast… as a mate does. But, you didn’t choose me. I am bound to you now until I die. No other man may ever have me. And I would I never accept one. I bound myself to you as my mate when you were unable to refuse or consent. And how could you consent even if you had been conscious at the time? You didn’t know me and you couldn’t love me. What I did, I did out of desperation, knowing that I had to save your life even if it meant that I had to lose mine. I couldn’t let you die. Not after so long, waiting.”
I said, “But, I am grateful. Why does this mean that you’ll die? I will get you to the water and I will revive you!”
She said, “But Mark, I gave you no chance to choose me. The only way to break the bond is death, and you have to live.”