The Tattooed Princess: Book Two-- Escape to the West

Sounds of Pleasure

With the morning's first light the four began their day's trek westward. The forest was dense and they used the sun's position to keep their course. But it was not long before they were alerted to the sounds of other horses somewhere in the woods ahead of them. They progressed slowly between trees, ever vigilant for an attack or unwanted encounter.

Soon an unexpected sound seemed to fill the meadow as they slowly approached. Moshtok quietly signalled that he would tie the horse to allow them to investigate further the mysterious sounds and what situation might be causing them. As they crept forward toward the edge of a grassy clearing, it became all too obvious that the sounds were of love-making. Not from one couple but what sound like many.

"These are the people who caused the lights and made the drumming we heard last night," Tsudros whispered, pulling back the last bushes to bring their mysterious woodland neighbors into view.

The unmistakeable sound of women moaning and men grunting continued to fill the air as they could see that sprawled in the cool shady carpet of grasses in front of them a full sexual orgy was in progress—all taking place in the unexpected light of mid-morning.

"Amazons." Zaria whispered, seeing more closely the females making the sounds.

The four explorers had now positioned themselves in the bushes to be able to witness fully what was truly a rare event—the yearly orgiastic, reproductive rights of the 'Daughters of the Moon.' A group of eight to ten naked young women were in frontal and rear positions of coitus with men, their partners in various stages of dress, some fully naked as well. Nevertheless, all the participants seemed to be lost in the ecstasy of the collective event. But as the four observers quickly began to comprehend what they had unwittingly stumbled onto, they perceived that the sounds of passion were not confined to just the area before them. Sighs and screams of pleasure could be heard farther up into the meadow, as well. And these sounds were evidenced by scenes of the movements of bobbing heads, rising and falling buttocks and the ever-present emotive sounds of males and females engaged in intense sexual activity.

While Zaria and Branka immediately tried to retreat from the scene, feeling a wave of embarrassment overwhelm them and the sensation that they were rudely intruding on a private act, the two men seemed mesmerized by the experience and lingered at their positions of observation.

"They say these women only do this once a year . . . exactly now, during the late summer," Moshtok offered in a whisper to the others. He was obviously trying to make the phenomenon more significant and perhaps more palatable to the girls.

"Tsudros, in his artistic mood, was just taking it all in as a rare moment to add to his compendium of mental images—perhaps something he might one day paint or incorporate in a tattoo.

"We must not stay here!" Branka insisted in an emphatic whisper, practically vocalizing the command through her obvious discomfort with the scene.

"No. Let us watch . . . a bit longer," Moshtok requested in a surprisingly juvenile voice. "This is something few might ever witness in their lifetime," he insisted.

By now the four were all mesmerized by the procedings, and listening to the entire meadow fill with the cries, moans and an occasional long sigh from the ongoing revelry.

"They will do this for eleven days of the moon's cycle, I have heard . . . and just once a year." Again Moshtok added these facts pedantically."

"We don't care!" Branka insisted, her full voice being employed now. It was high pitched and filled with anger.

"Yes. We must leave them to their own ways," Zaria quietly weighed in. "We should not be here."

"It is so strange," Tsudros whimsically commented. "To see these killers of men . . . in such great pleasure with them."

"Completely!" Moshtok added, still enthralled by the sexually visual feast before him.

"The world is such a mystery," Tsudros continued, characteristically philosophical. "Always in the midst of one truth, we find an opposite."

Moshtok smiled back at his friend's sagacious comment.

While the naked bodies below them did not cease in their rhythmic moments, the girls managed to pull their men away finally, as this was the more prudent act. It was obvious to the girls that the two nomadic warrior groups they had intruded upon would not have hesitated in killing them all just from the interruption alone. Reaching their fettered horse still laden with supplies, Moshtok untied him and they were hastily led on their way. The men stayed quiet all that day, not easily forgetting the images the happenstance had caused in them. The women were only too glad to realize they were not being followed and would not relax until a great distance lay between them and the sexually engaged strangers.

* * *

Later that afternoon when the group grew weary from the vigorous walking, they settled down into a cool spot near the bank of a babbling stream. After washing their hands and faces in the refreshing water, both couples uncharacteristically did not bring up their usualhunger for food or need to repose. Instead each quietly walked out into separate venues where the cool, soft grass formed a natural bed for them.

For Zaria and Tsudros it was an anticipated moment to once again undress each other in the sunlight with rejuvenated excitement and to entwine their tattooed limbs in the process of making love. For Moshtok and Branka the sultry afternoon became a special time to bring back the physical passion they had been deprived of for so long while on the run.

Deep in the woods where each couple lay hidden, there eventually arose the singular sound of a young woman in the throes of pleasure. It was not unlike the chorus of passionate voices they had all heard earlier emitted from the girls' violent, nomadic cousins. It had been a congress of sounds they had all been secretly and ineffably inspired by throughout the day.

* * *