We took a break, but Aeyli-ah was eager to keep going. “Mark, you said that there are five basic techniques, but you have shown me only four. Where’s the fifth? Is it very deadly?”
I said, “It may be, but for these weapons, it may not always be. It is very damaging though. The fifth move is a straight thrust, like this. The targets are face, throat, chest, lungs, heart, stomach, and groin. An attacker struck hard with the point in one of those areas, especially the eye, nose, mouth, and throat will be disabled for several seconds, if not permanently. Here, practice like this and I’ll show you the defenses as well.”
We practiced for another half hour or so in the dim lights and Aeyli-ah became surprisingly proficient.
The night was getting late as Aeyli-ah asked, “Is this all of it? What else can we practice?”
I said, “From here, there are a series of patterns, like dances, where we practice against invisible opponents attacking from different places. Some of them against two, three, or even four at a time. I’ll teach you all of them. I need to practice all of them again myself.”
She cocked her head and looked me over. She smiled slyly and said, “Hm, but now, you tire of sword wielding women and your mind turns elsewhere. What is your desire My King?” She held her sword pointed down to the ground and used her arms to push her luscious breasts out toward me.
I leapt the short distance between us and disarmed her before she could react and caught her up in my arms and said, “I want my Barsoomian beauty between the furs, snuggled in my arms!” and I lay her on the bed and pulled a covering over us. “Keep me warm princess. The morning will come soon enough.”
We giggled and kissed each other, wrestling playfully for a minute and then we curled up together and prepared to sleep.
She said, “I love you my Mark. I will make you happy here.”
I said, “There is no doubt of that. I will do my best to make you happy as well.”
She said, “My Love, my life has never known what happiness was until today. Even as we each lay dying in the heat of the day, my happiness was spoiled only by the thought that it had been so short. I have lived a lifetime of happiness… and the ‘little deaths’ just since sundown. We have a thousand years ahead of us.”
We fell asleep moments later. My final thoughts were of how right she was. And how right I felt here under these furs with my new princess, and here on the new world. What tomorrow would bring would wait until it came. But, did we have a thousand years ahead of us? I knew that the people of Barsoom were nearly ageless, and so had been John Carter, but was I? Would something in the environment prolong my life as well?
Chapter 10
Morning on a New World
Aeyli-ah woke me in the morning saying, “Mark, it’s dawn.”
My first reaction as I woke up was to question the reality of my circumstances, the events of the previous day, and to reassure myself of our feelings for each other. It was just a fraction of a second, but my first thought was to ask her if she had regrets; if she still felt the same as she had last night.
How ludicrous life was on Earth! Here there was no need. Aeyli-ah spoke her mind, and she expected me to. We knew the intentions behind every word spoken to us. If there was deception, we might not know what that deception was, but we’d generally know that it was there. Aeyli-ah loved me and she meant that in the same factual way that she meant that is was dawn.
There were no windows in the room and it was only the lamps that lit the place, but where the lamps had been red the evening before, they were now a brighter daylight color. Aeyli-ah explained that the lamps acted as a clock of sorts, mimicking the movement of the sun above the planet. Throughout the day, they would remain white, but at evening they turned dimly red. The red light stayed on all night because of the constant possibility of danger, but the red tint did not interfere with night vision and transition from the red light into darkness wouldn’t cause temporary blindness the way that moving from a white light into darkness would. We had slept in the red glow throughout the night, but if darkness were required, the small water bags could be used as lamp covers to hide the light.
I felt good as I rose for the day. I noticed a very slight stiffness in the large muscles of my legs and in my stomach. They had been exercised a great deal more than usual over the past two days, but the soreness was much lighter than I would have expected. I felt good, and of course, my companion looked exceptionally good!
This new life was a paradox. It was more dangerous and completely unknown, and yet simple and entirely knowable. The burden of each moment was lighter than on Earth. Starting with the ease of communication and continuing with the daily choices to be made. A week ago, it would have been ‘What problems will come up at work? How will I deal with upper management in the meeting at 10AM? Should I buy gas on the way there, or should I wait until I leave for the afternoon? At this time of morning, what’s the fastest route to the office? Which of several projects should I try to make progress on? Are we on schedule?’ and that was all before leaving the house. Here my question was, ‘What will we find to eat?’ and nothing more. Actually, the question was ‘What will I find for Aeyli-ah to eat?’ As for me, I could, and would love to, exist on just the honey flavored milk. Its restorative nourishment seemed more than adequate and the means of getting it from its source were… very nice in the extreme. I began to dwell on that thought, but forced myself to move on.
That was another difference; on Earth, I would have had a sense of poverty about things and I would have wondered if and when another opportunity for sex would come. Here there was no real question: it would come as soon as I asked or as soon as she did.
I didn’t know what the morning routine on my new home planet was, but I followed my beautiful companion’s lead. There was no ‘getting dressed’, because there were no clothes, but we did buckle on our belts. I removed the bracing poles from the door and Aeyli-ah removed the hanging fur that had muffled any sound we had made the previous night. I’m sure that it hadn’t been much help in that regard.
When we went to pick up our weapons, the girl stopped and took my knife from me and cut a shallow notch where the handle met the blade and attached a small thong of leather that she used to hang the swords from our belts.
She said, “Mark, again I have to say that these are remarkable weapons. They will make travel much more secure and comfortable. I’m looking forward to seeing them used.”
I didn’t share the sentiment. I dreaded the use of the swords, but I knew that I would use them without the slightest hesitation when the need presented itself. I didn’t intend to go looking for trouble. I knew that Aeyli-ah wasn’t looking for trouble either; she just knew the dangers of this world far better than I did and she knew that trouble was inevitable.
Aeyli-ah attached several more of the water bags to her belt, and when we were ready, she opened the door and checked for dangers. Satisfied that it was safe, I followed her through the door. She closed and locked it behind us. We carried every possession we owned except for the large sleeping furs. Our belts, a few pouches for water and the items that I’d received as gifts from John Carter, a few extra thongs of leather, our knives, and our new swords.
I followed my Martian lovely down the hall on the floor that we were in and at the end, she turned into a room that served as a Martian restroom. No one wants to read a long description of a Barsoomian toilet, but briefly, there were four. Roughly the size and shape of a western toilet on earth. There wasn’t any water in them, but they were made from a nearly frictionless material that made flushing unnecessary. There were no stalls; everything was in the open. Without clothing, there was apparently no need for modesty or privacy here either.