Beyond The Walls

Chapter 24. Zuko's Pleasure

Stifle (v)

Restrain (a reaction) or stop oneself acting on (an emotion)

Cherie's POV

I've been here for a few weeks now.

My ankle is fully healed other than the little yellow bruising that is still present. It thankfully doesn't hurt anymore and although I was impressed with the makeshift crutch Zuko made for me, I haven't had the need to use it all week!

My time here has been wonderful, arguably more enjoyment than living in Abandale. I do miss my family though, and Sachi. Sometimes even Delroy.

I've gotten closer to everyone here. They are all so welcoming and sweet, this one older man always tells me stories about his hunting days and how he once killed this animal called a Moose. It sounded quite scary, he said it towered over him and it had the biggest head he's ever seen on an animal and it fed everyone here for about a fortnight.

Staying in Zuko's home has been fun, he allows me to break away from my womanly duties whenever I want because he says that there is no such thing as a womanly duty here. Most the time, I enjoy doing what I've been brought up to do though.

Bakkhos has his own place but it's much too small for me to spend the night so he stays here some nights.

Lately, I've been having dreams about them. Dreams a married woman shouldn't be having. Sometimes it's just one of them and sometimes...it's both of them.

It's so embarrassing. Since last week, I have been getting comfortable here but more uncomfortable with myself around them. They make me feel silly and hot. I even get these odd feelings at the bottom of my stomach that runs through my core.

Keely has been thriving here! She has put on some healthy weight by actually eating everyday. Zuko told me that her name means 'slender' so it's weird that it correlates.

The thing they do with names is so fantastic! Bakkhos' means riotous and unruly (thank you Wilder), mine means beloved, and Rabiah's name means born during the spring. Wilder means wild, his parents weren't as creative but it still fits him perfectly.

Since being here, I have also learned that they have at least one communal meal a day, but Rabiah told me they have many different towns with which their people stay and not all of them do it.

When they are children and they lose their teeth, they bury them in the dirt for good luck with hunting. Something about becoming apart of the earth.

They also told me a little bit about a festival they partake in every year in the middle of the hottest months of the year which they call summer. It's called the Festival Of Fertility. A week long party that celebrates mothers and fathers as well as people who have yet to have children. Zuko hasn't told me what the party consists of, instead he told me that it'd rot my mind. No matter how much I protest to the idea, he won't tell me. Maybe I want my mind to be rotted.

I've thought of Zuko's hands around my thigh area way too many times. His swollen lips on mine...

Coldness washes through my lower stomach as my lady bits leak this annoying liquid I've been dealing with.

Maybe papa's medicine didn't work, maybe I am pregnant!

I can't be, I just had my blood a week and a half ago.

I sigh and lean against the wall my bed is pushed against. Small beads of sweat roll down my forehead so I shove the light blanket off of me to cool myself down.