ISLAND

Chapter 15


Sara ruthlessly suppressed all self-oriented thoughts, such as the fact of being an un-collared woman, no longer able to hide within clothes, under pursuit on Purity Island, separated by miles of forest and a mountain ridge from anyone who could help -- a mountain ridge she couldn't possibly cross in daylight, in her present state of undress. Only Cherise was important. Sara was a mechanism whose one task was to get Cherise to safety. All mental processes had to be aimed towards that goal.

Having smeared her entire body with mud now, she moved slowly, and she hoped invisibly, in a wide circle around the farm, back to the north side of it where Cherise waited at their camp. Not taking a chance on being spotted from within the farm itself, she put as much distance as she could between herself and the clearing, crossing two streams, staying on the far side of the second so that she wouldn't blunder back into the fields of the farm.

Fortunately, it was impossible to get lost on Purity Island, as long as it was raining or had recently rained -- a condition that rarely failed to be met for any length of time. On the west side of the island, all of the streams ran to the west, down from the mountains and into the ocean. It was easy to remain oriented.

Sara stopped as the way in front of her grew marginally lighter. Creeping forward, she saw that she had reached the clearing for another farm. She gave it a wide berth, resuming her progress back towards the mountains once she had passed it.

She wondered about the safety of herself and Cherise remaining camped where they had been. Right now, she told herself, they should be searching for me in the area south of the farm, because I ran in that direction. Eventually the hunt will spread north. They can't look everywhere at once, but won't stop looking for a woman on the loose who they think has been stealing from them. We can't stay by the trail. It's way too close, one of the first places the hunt will cover once it moves north.

They may recruit other farmers to help, she thought. A female thief is a menace to all of them. But there are no phones or other communication devices for them to use, no cars, not even horses to ride. News on the island can only spread a fast as a man can walk. When he gets around to it. The area north of the farm should be safe temporarily. At least until morning, with only a few hours of daylight remaining today. We could try to cross over the mountains tonight. If the moon breaks through the clouds just right, not too dark, not too light.

Sara wondered about the person who'd been stealing herbs from the farm -- they had likely been correct to begin with in thinking it was a boy, presumably a teenager. What was he gaining from it? Sara reminded herself that no product of any of the farms exceeded the fertility herb in value. She thought it might make sense that the boy was on his own, after a falling out with his father, or mistreatment. He'd struck off alone to try to start his own farm. He'd need slaves. Stealing slaves was hard. Stealing a supply of the herb was easier, and would make it possible to buy some slaves at auction.

Sara pushed the thoughts away. Stop thinking about unimportant stuff! she ordered herself once more.

She bent occasionally to scoop up a few peaches from the ground, and ate them on the move.

Without clothes, Sara reminded herself, I can only get us across the mountains at night. Of course, we'll need a moon, but I'll worry about that when the time comes. If we can't cross over the mountains tonight, we can't stay at our camp. We'll have to camp out some distance away, and come back at night for another try.

She took in a sudden sharp breath as she realized the topography of the island might present an alternative.

The central ridge runs the entire length of the island, north to south, she told herself, but surely it doesn't stay at that height and then suddenly drop off when it reaches the sea. It more likely gradually gets lower and lower in altitude until it finally dips underwater and the island ends. At the very end, it might just be a rocky rise a few feet high. We wouldn't need a trail to cross it. I can just carry Cherise over. And then head down the eastern coast back to Purity Town.

In that case, she reminded herself, time finally became a serious issue. The island was forty miles long. At present, their camp should be about twenty miles from either end. Sara knew she would have to travel slowly, carrying Cherise and pausing frequently to listen and watch for any signs of being near another farm. She would have to go around several farms, most likely. I might, she thought, be able to make it to the north end in two days. But let's say three, considering the obstacles. And then another three days down the coast to Purity.

Too long, she decided. I'd miss my roast. It's in five days. Well, she reminded herself, the six days of travel is a conservative guess. But this whole idea doesn't look nearly as good as it did a minute ago. We'd better stick with the original plan of going over the mountain trail at night. Tonight, if at all possible.

*   *   *   *   *

Sara dropped down to hands and knees as she approached the camp where Cherise would be waiting for her -- where she hoped Cherise was waiting for her. Sara hadn't been this near the edge of the farm, the center of the hunt, for hours, and felt uncomfortable, as well, being this close to the shelf.

She felt intense relief at the sight of Cherise, lying on her side, awkwardly turning a peach on the ground with her mouth for access to its uneaten half.

Sara was moving so carefully that she was within ten feet of Cherise before Cherise suddenly spun her head around at the sound of Sara's approach, her face showing an instant of panic before breaking into a relieved grin. Cherise said in a trembling whisper, "Sara! I was getting so worried..." Then she sucked in a sharp gasp, as she took in Sara's lack of clothes. Barely audibly, she whispered a shocked, "Sara..."

Sara held up her hand in a gesture for quiet. She wanted to assess the situation up on the shelf before either of them made any more noise.

Beyond the foot of the trail, Sara could see the entrance to the cavern. Cute Guy and Crushed Hat were standing in front of it, in intense conversation with Dad and Skinny from the farm.

Sara shook her head slowly, unconsciously, repeating "No, no, no, no..." under her breath. The intensity of the hunt was now ratcheting another notch higher. The cavern men and the farmers were putting their two stories together, and both sides now knew there was a woman on the loose who had stolen both a slave from the tunnel project and herbs, and likely one or more wagons carrying them, from the farm. Sara was sure a still greater number of surrounding farmers would soon be enlisted in the search. Nothing would infuriate Purity Island farmers as much as the crime wave Sara was believed to be engaged in.

Sara wondered briefly what they thought she was going to do with the herbs, but rationality about women had never been the island's strong suit. She pushed the thought away, as she had all others that didn't directly relate to her own and Cherise's safety.

Cute Guy knew exactly where Cherise had come from, and once Dad had described the "thief" to him, Cute Guy would know who the thief was as well: that restaurant clean-up girl. He'd know why Sara had "stolen" Cherise, and where she would try to take her. The mountain crossing would be watched closely now, very likely by night as well as by day. At least, Sara had to assume that was the case. Crossing the mountains over the trail at any time of day or night was off the list of options.

Sara would have to take Cherise over the mountains at the end of the island, where they reached sea level. And there was no time to lose in getting there.

She rushed over to Cherise, whispered "We have to go," and picked her up, arms under knees and shoulders as usual. She could feel Cherise trembling.

"Sara, tell me what happened. Why..."

Sara caught Cherise's eyes and shook her head, chancing a whisper. "Cherise, I love you more than you can imagine. Now hush, please. I need to focus." She couldn't carry on a conversation while keeping all her senses alert for all of the things she needed to watch for.

Cherise blinked, then looked at Sara steadily. Briefly, she nodded.

Barely noticing Cherise's weight, but always, always conscious of holding the most important person in her world, Sara began walking. Feeling unsafe near the shelf, she angled away from the shelf deeper into the woods, heading north.

*   *   *   *   *

Slightly more light ahead. Clearing? Go left, keep it in view. Yes. Open area. Move around it.

Sound of barking doggirl. Not for us, but there must be slavegirls ahead. Stop, determine direction. Slightly ahead and left. Move slowly ahead to right, keep listening.

Rain stopped, but skies still gray. Creek. Stop for drink for self and Cherise. Cross, move on.

Sharp yips. Doggirl puppies? Mixed with giggles. Playing.

Move slowly. Fence ahead, enclosure. Move around it, keeping it in sight through trees.

*   *   *   *   *

Sara stumbled, nearly dropping Cherise. Cherise said softly, "Sara, let's stop here. You can barely stand up. I think we're as safe here as anywhere. And there can't be much more daylight left anyway."

Sara stood still, looking around. There was a small creek just in front of her, thick trees ahead and behind, no human sounds she could detect other than her own and Cherise's breathing. The creek, besides providing ready access to water, was gurgling sufficiently to mute any sounds she and Cherise might make.

Sara closed her eyes, swayed, and opened them to set Cherise gently on the ground, on her side.

And the glass jar in which Sara had bottled up her emotional reactions to the day's events suddenly shattered. She dropped to her knees and bent double, her face buried against her hands on her thighs, shaking with sobs.

Dimly she heard a voice saying, "Sara... Sara... Sara..." She thought it might be her mother, but she remembered her mother was dead, and this voice was here, in the present, alive.

She looked up and blinked hard. Through the still streaming tears, she saw that Cherise had rolled onto her back, and was holding the inseparable knot of her hands and feet above her, her elbows and knees apart to make circles of her arms and legs. Her eyes looking steadily at Sara, Cherise said, "Come inside." She jiggled her arms and legs to make it clear what "inside" meant. "I want to hold you, like you held me when I was crying."

Pressing her lips together, sniffling mightily, Sara crawled forward, between Cherise's legs, between her arms, and lay full length atop Cherise, resting her chin on Cherise's shoulder, feeling Cherise's arms and legs tighten around her as she cried.

*   *   *   *   *

Eventually, Sara told Cherise everything, through the sniffles, hiccupping, gasping and catching of breath that accompanied her tears. The light was dimming significantly, from the setting of the sun rather than increasing clouds, when she finished, ending with saying over and over, "I'm sorry, Cherise, I'm so sorry, so sorry..."

Her chin still on Cherise's shoulder, Sara let the litany of apology wind down when Cherise kissed her ear. "Sara, you don't have anything you have to apologize for."

"I should have seen the trap. I should have been able to stay out of it..."

Sara could feel Cherise's headshake. "You can't blame yourself, really you can't. There was no way you could have expected they were already protecting themselves against somebody who was stealing from them before you ever got there. I didn't even know that kind of thing happened here!"

"But I still should have..."

"Shhhh. Stop dwelling on things you think you should have done. Think about what you have done. Nobody but you could ever have done what you've done for me. Nobody! I can't possibly put in words how much that means to me. Lift up your head, Sara. I want to kiss you."

Sara, more out of a feeling of duty to do anything Cherise asked than any notion of deserving a kiss, looked at Cherise and met her lips with her own.

As the kiss continued, Cherise began, slowly at first and gradually more urgently, rocking her hips under Sara's, tightening her arms and legs to pull her more firmly against her, moaning softly at the back of her throat.

Sara broke the kiss suddenly. "Cherise, I... don't think I should..."

Unexpectedly, Cherise smiled. "You're thinking you'd be taking advantage because I'm helpless, and that I just feel I have to give you something because I think I owe it to you." Sara blinked, knowing no one in her life had ever read her mind as exactly as Cherise just had. Cherise went on, "Okay, my fault you were thinking that, because of what I just said a few minutes ago." She shook her head. "It's not that. There's..." She grinned, a little sheepishly. "There's something I left out telling you, about that day we met, in history class.

"Okay, let me back up a little. A long time ago, just before we ate my mom, so I would have been thirteen, she sat down with me, and, I guess, passed along to me what she thought I needed to know. One thing that really stuck with me was when she told me that there would always be a lot of people who liked me, and that I couldn't worry myself about a few who didn't. She said it was important to always be me, and if I saw that someone didn't like me, that I just needed to let it go, that I should always be myself, the person I really was inside, and not try to change myself to get the approval of that one more person."

Sara nodded, puzzled. The advice sounded wise, but she wasn't seeing how it related to what was happening now.

Cherise continued, "What I didn't mention about the day you and I met was... well, I said I knew you were important somehow, not just another person in my life. But I... kind of left out the part about how right away, right that minute, I felt really, really attracted to you. I mean, physically."

Sara gaped at her. "But..."

Cherise smiled again and nodded. "I know, I know. But see, when you wouldn't talk to me, I thought it meant you didn't like me. So I tried really hard to do what my mom told me. I kept telling myself I just had to let it go. But it was so hard! I couldn't, really. I could act the way I thought my mom would want me to act with you, and not push anything, not try to get to know you and be friends with you. Because it was true what mom said, I really did have a lot of friends. And I'd tell myself, if there's something about me Sara doesn't like, I can't help that. I have to be me and not change it. But... It never stopped me thinking about you. About being with you."

Sara tried hard to gather any single complete thought from the swirl of fragments flying around her head. "I... always thought you only liked boys. For sex, I mean." She winced. That didn't seem at all the thing to say at this moment.

Cherise laughed. "I suppose it did seem like that. And I like men, very much. But for women... I always kind of pushed away women for physical attention, and kept them out of my mind, because... well, I just knew none of them were like you."

Sara opened her mouth, perhaps to respond, though she realized she had no idea what to say. Cherise said, "So, do you really think talking is what you want to do right now?"

Ummmm... No, thought Sara. She plunged her mouth onto Cherise's, open wide, all of the wanting, the wishing, the needing, from five years flowing out of her all at once. Rubbing her tongue against Cherise's, sharing her breath and her moans, moving her hips in rhythm with Cherise's, spreading her legs apart so the lips between their legs could kiss as well as the ones on their mouths, thinking: I'm so glad, so glad, I haven't been having sex with any of the other girls -- and not because it would somehow have been a betrayal of Cherise, but because it would have given me such an inferior idea of what sex can be. The feel of skin touching skin, mind touching mind, love touching love and being multiplied beyond all measure...

Orgasm rippling, stiffening her body, her head thrown back, eyes closed tight, feeling the earthquake inside.

The quake subsiding, the feather floating downward, her body draining of energy like a tub with the plug pulled.

She opened her eyes, thought for a moment she was blind, and thought that her eyesight was such a tiny price to pay for what she had just experienced, then realized it was simply that night had fallen while she hadn't been paying attention to anything other than the union of two bodies loving.

She sucked in a quick breath, as the thought that had been knocking at the door of her mind suddenly burst in. "You didn't come!" She had never felt so selfish in her life. How could she have put her own orgasm ahead of Cherise's? Shame washed over her.

From below her, unseen but felt, Cherise said, breathlessly, as her hips continued rocking, though more gently than before. "It's okay, it's okay! It's our first time! We'll get our bodies in perfect synch before long."

Sara grinned in spite of herself. "First time? There'll be more?"

Cherise laughed, and tightened her arms to pull her head up to kiss Sara. "Of course there'll be more!" She was breathing unevenly, with sighs. "Have you been with other girls?"

Sara shook her head violently, enough so she knew Cherise could feel it without seeing it. "Not in all the time since I met you, I swear..."

"No, I didn't mean that. I don't care about that. I just want to know if you know how to use your fingers." Her hips thrust hard against Sara's suddenly, and her grip with both arms and legs tightened convulsively around Sara.

Sara laughed. "And you don't think I've used them on myself?" She reached down, letting her fingers creep gently between Cherise's legs.

Cherise began breathing harder and harder.



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