There is another reason. The human birthrate on Barsoom is very low. We don’t know why. Women are in control of their birth cycles. They conceive when they consent, we say. Some think that in these times, women don’t want to conceive. Of course, a woman would never conceive without the consent of her mate anyway. They say that perhaps consent to conceive effects the seed of the man and that he has some control, just as the woman does.
My Prince, you may fill my pussy with your essence as often as you like, but if you give me the chance now and then to take it from you as I did a moment ago, you’ll make me very happy. If you warn me in time, I’ll take the drink; if not, I’ll feel you fill me and orgasm as I did last night. Oh the ecstasy!
Um, but to the differences between me and women of my own planet, I don’t really know. I’ve never been told about women who squirt milk as their lover gives them his best, but I still think that may be due to you, rather than me. I think that any woman subjected to your lovemaking would do the same. I don’t see how it would be possible not to. No one ever said that a woman could have the ‘little death’ with her mate at her tit either, but I have it over and over because of your mouth sucking at me and the feeling of it being pulled from my body to course through my lover’s veins.
The milk of my breasts is very nourishing; perhaps more than any other substance on the planet. You’ve gone for three days without food. Our women do feed infants on our milk as well, and they grow very strong, very quickly. We will only feed an infant this way for a month and then they are ready for solid food.
My Beloved, if we lived alone our whole lives, I think that you would thrive forever on nothing but the milk that my body makes for you. I suspect that’s why we live for a number of years that no one counts. Fruit is nourishing, but people with no mate don’t live as long. Even a woman, if her mate dies, if she doesn’t find another one, will eventually age and pass from this world.
The milk you give to me is somehow life giving to me, though obviously of in a more limited quantity. Some think that perhaps the woman is sustained by the production of her own milk, even if she does not get her gift from a man. I don’t care. I love it and will take it as often as you give me the chance.
Oh, and the milk has the other effect on the man. It seems that, as you have seen, and I have felt between my legs happily, the breast milk enhances the effects of arousal and makes more lovemaking possible.
Mark, My Prince, sadly men are becoming rare on Barsoom. The birthrate is low, and when a child is born, it’s five times as likely to be a girl than a boy. It causes a lot of problems for the planet. But we can talk about that later. While you may not need food since you have me as your fountain of youth, I still do. Help me find some.”
Chapter 11
My Weapon Works
We had arrived at the small woods that Aeyli-ah had led us to, and as we entered she taught me about the plants and warned me about the animals.
The trees were small, maybe no more than thirty feet tall, and the wood wasn’t dense. As we walked, Aeyli-ah scanned the trees for fruit.
After several minutes, she suddenly pointed and said, “There! See, the fruit is near the top.”
She crouched down and unrolled the larger sack that she had brought from the room that we had stayed in.
She said, “Now, all we have to do is reach it. The branches are sparse and the bark is smooth. But I think I can climb it.”
I laid my hand on her shoulder and looked for the fruit that she had indicated. It was about 25 feet off the ground in the uppermost branches. I walked to a spot under the tree that was fairly clear of intervening foliage and gaged the distance and the opening above me. I unbuckled my belt and laid it aside. Then I sprang up straight into the air and caught hold of the top branch in a single bound. I swung easily into a sitting position on the branch and reached for the nearest piece of fruit.
Aeyli-ah stood below and called, “Mark, you constantly astound me! What a mate I have!”
I plucked the piece of fruit and said, “Catch,” and dropped it down to her. She easily caught it and called back, “It’s perfect. Get us several.”
I picked and dropped about 40 pieces of the fruit and dropped them down to the girl who caught each one gently and placed them in her sack. When she said that we had enough, I hung myself by my arms from the branch and hoped that the 20 foot drop would be as easy as the ascent had been. I let go and when I hit the ground, I easily kept my feet and didn’t get injured at all. I suspected that I might be able to jump down twice as far without hurting myself if need be.
Aeyli-ah was ecstatic. “Mark, we can eat three pieces of fruit, twice a day! We can eat now and the rest will feed us for three days! The sack will be heavy though.”
I smiled and said, “Not for me. I carried you on my back all afternoon. I can handle the sack easily. We can take more if you like.”
She said, “No, it will only be good for about three or four days. We’ll be at a settlement before then. And, you might be satisfied with just one at each meal,” and she winked at me.
We walked holding hands, back toward the ruins and she said, “Let’s stay at the ruins again tonight. You can teach me more about the swords that we made. Tomorrow we can leave for the settlement.”
After we had exited the woods and had walked for maybe 20 minutes, we heard a strange roaring cry break the silence and Aeyli-ah snapped her head up in alarm.
The girl grasped my arm and said, “Oh no, look!”
I looked where she pointed, and coming toward us, directly between us and the ruins, was one of the great white apes of Barsoom. It was running straight at us from perhaps two hundred yards away.
The great white ape of Barsoom, like many creatures of the planet has six limbs: two arms, two legs, and two in between that can be used as either arms or legs according to need. It moved fast, having spotted its prey… us.
Aeyli-ah gripped my arm, “We have to run. But it is no use! It may have been hunting us all the way from the shrine. The trees aren’t any safer! You could escape alone, but I know that you won’t. I have become your death. If we run, perhaps we could get lucky, but My Prince I’m afraid that our time together is done.”
Without a word, I tore myself from the beautiful girl who was now my mate. I dropped the sack of fruit and ran… straight at the oncoming hulk bent on taking her from me. I didn’t think of anything; I just ran. I ran faster than it did and I closed the distance very quickly. I could hear Aeyli-ah screaming for me to stop, but I couldn’t, not if I wanted to save her.
As the beast and I closed on each other, I let out the most vicious roar that I could muster; both verbally and telepathically. It wasn’t a scream of frustration or rage of blind fury. Anything but. It was a calculated roar of warning to the creature that it was about to die. It was calculated to give my opponent a reason to pause and reconsider his plan. And it did.
The creature slowed momentarily and seemed to pause to take stock of the warning that it had received, like a blow to the face. It shook itself and then came on, but a little slower. The next instant we were upon each other.
The great beast’s arms stretched toward me and I could see that his reach was greater than the effective range of the sword in my hands. As he swung his arms to take hold of me, I ducked low to the ground and stepped to my right and the beast’s fur brushed my hip as he passed me. He tried so stop, but he couldn’t turn in time. As he passed me, I stood up, spun on my feet, and brought my sword crashing down on the back of his head with all the strength that my two arms could summon.