Science Fiction Story Aimee 1

Darynn had sworn decades earlier that he would always consider his life a lesson and himself a student. Although his opportunities to experiment with the opposite sex numbered beyond his counting he had never once actually paid any attention to them or their needs. Thomorr had made him a man of men, in a world of their own without want or need of women.

Aimee' changed that. She had occupied his thoughts for the entire week, from the previous Gayobi to the present. In that time he had done a little asking around, and had learned some things about Teltirray's tastes that bothered him. According to his friend Bethsany, the mistress of the local brothel, Teltirray had become more violent in the last decade, although she had as little idea why as Darynn did. He found himself hoping that Teltirray's violence didn't extend to Aimee' and that he wouldn't hurt her in the days between her lessons. As the hour approached he found himself rubbing his hands together before the fire and assembling his story for the evening in his mind.

The knock came at the door none too soon. "Come in," he said, attempting to make his voice behave in a manner befitting an archmage. Inside, a corner of his spirit laughed at him; surely he did no better than any poor boy at his first occasion with a woman! And he, nigh unto a century old! The door opened and Aimee' entered. "I have come for my second lesson, sir, with your permission."

"You have it. No, not the stool again. Come, here, sit by me before the fire." Nervously the girl crossed the flagstone-and-mortar floor and then his precious white yeti-fur rug. The rug had been the lesser of two prizes he had won from a battle with such a creature destroying many a town to the Northeast. He smiled, remembering the greater prize; a boy named Darrick.

"Settle yourself against those blue pillows. Right." She sat down, her body trembling slightly. He looked her over; bruises adorned both of her arms and one smaller stood out even against the reddish skin of her chin. Darynn winced and determined further to teach her the arts of self-preservation and defense as well as those of pleasure.

"If you ever have need to speak, Aimee', do so freely. Now, tonight I shall tell you my second story and you will do something for me. You will remove your clothing."

She reached for her tunic instantly. "Wait," he said. "I did not tell you to remove your clothes. I said you will remove your clothes. I shall not tell you when."

"Then how will I know when to do so?"

"Aimee', I said you may speak freely, but you will address me as 'sir.'"

"Yes, sir. How will I know when to remove my... my clothes?"

"When you feel ready, Aimee', to take off an article of clothing, I want you to. But not before then."

Confusion crossed her face as Darynn knew it would. Nobody ever gave slaves the right to address their own feelings. Instead, slaves behaved as ordered and came to hear every whim of a superior as an order. By permitting her access to her own simple desires, Darynn hoped she would unwittingly open herself to her deeper emotions. Sometimes boys in his service cried for hours when he did this, and afterwards the passion from them exceeded even Darynn's fading memory of his for Thomorr. He lived for those moments.

But did a woman have those same feelings and same methods of bottling them up and controlling them? Darynn wanted to find out.

"Y... yes, sir."

"Now then, I shall tell you another tale. This one comes from my learning amidst the Megass, and of one special Megassi named Ryuchia."

In my twentieth year Thomorr called me an adult, told me he had no more to teach me, and bid me go into the world to find my future. I had no wish to leave, Aimee', for I loved him. Not just physically, although certainly that phrasing-- "I loved him"-- had certainly come true by then.

I cried piteously. I wept for myself and I had learned to weep for him, Aimee', because Satyrs have nothing but themselves and their passions. Thomorr allowed himself no past, no future, nothing but the immediacies of his present pleasures. Although I wished to stay in that Satyric haze for all of my existence, I knew that he and I did not belong to the same worlds. I needed to seek my destiny elsewhere.

He gave me money. I gave most of it to my parents to help them over my disappearance. I even had a younger brother by then. I left them in the worst way possible, I think. I stole out of the house one night leaving only the money and a note. I think by that time father suspected something about my relationship with Thomorr, although he never said a word and I think he trusted my wisdom.

I will not bore you with the details of the travel, Aimee'. Thomorr sent me on a path into the mountains in search of a city the Megassi called Hakkana and a Megass named Desa.

I knew little of the Megassi except for legends, Aimee'. I knew that they had grown from the ranks of Dragonkind by virtue of their intelligence and their capacity for magic, and I knew that even satyrs spoke in warm, awestruck whispers at the magic they achieved through the exercise of their honest lusts.

"Master?" she interrupted him.

"Yes, Aimee?"

"May I remove my boots, sir?"

"Aimee, I told you that you may remove your boots when you feel the time has come for you to remove your boots, and such with the rest of your clothes. You do not need to ask me. If you never feel that time tonight, I understand. I do not want to make any such demand of you. Understand?"

"I... I think so. Please, sir, do not let me interrupt your story."

As I approached Hakkana I sometimes saw Megassi circling between peaks in the mountains. The road I walked led through those mountains and, according to one scrawled sign I passed, across a pass that had claimed the lives of over a dozen men. The sign, too, warned of Dragons in those mountains, but I rationed that I had survived capture and rape and even the love of a satyr. A Dragon could do no worse.

I camped in the hills the day before, and come morning began my ascent for the pass. I hoped that the Dragons would find me before then. Find me they did. Two swooped down from the high places in the mountains, flying over me in great, sweeping passes. Red-scaled and massive, their wings beat the air as they flew past and the wind they kicked up blew into my eyes and stung with fierce pain. I had learned magic to alleviate that pain and so use it, giving myself a chance to stand and examine my examiners.

[Who are you ?] the first one demanded, his voice shouting in my head like a great storm.

"I call myself Darynn, as my father named me! Thomorr, Lord of the Satyrs of Daber Wood has sent me to meet with Desa Megass of Hakkana."

[You have a great many friends,] the one spoke again. [You may pass unharmed and without tribute unto the gates of our city. But if you have lied, your suffering will amuse us for days.]

Speaking honestly, I had hoped for a ride. Dragons do not have kindness as we know it, Aimee.' Ah, I see you smile at my little joke. And your boots have walked away on their own. Good.

I walked for the day and through the night and near dawn I found the gates of the great city of Hakkana. I slept there at the base of those monstrous gates.

A pain in my leg awakened me hours later. "You," the voice said. I looked up into the face of the first landed Megass I had ever met. The young of the Megass perform the city duties for their elders, and this one, barely nine feet long and still unencumbered enough to have full use of his forearms, apparently served as a guard.

"I... my apologies, my lord Megass. I have come seeking an audience with Desa Megass."

The Dragon turned his head to me and I saw him smile. "You know interesting friends if you know of Desa Megass. Very well, we will show you the way to Desa Megass, young mage."

He led me past the gates and into the city of Hakkana. City? No, Hakkana covered an entire plain with its construction. The great beauty of vaulted marble only served to introduce the marvels of engineering that surrounded me.

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written by elf