There and Back

There And Back - Prologue

I played football and wrestled in high school. In college, I tried both and failed because in high school I was bigger than everyone and I never had to work hard to be a star. So, I never learned to work for success. I was me and I didn't work for success, I deserved to dominate!

And I figured it was supposed to happen that one of the finest looking girls in school latched on to me. We married right out of high school and she started running up our credit cards. She kept telling me that we'd pay them off when I signed my professional football contract. She thought she deserved success as well.

It took me years to discover my problem when someone quoted Joseph Addison to me. Addison said, "Riches are apt to betray a man into arrogance."

And that for sure was me. I was rich in physical talent and I was arrogant enough to think that since I was a better athlete than everyone else in high school, I would always be. So, after I flunked out of college in the middle of my second year, you would have thought that I would have woken up and smelled the donuts.

Well, I smelled the donuts alright and I ate them. I ate everything I could get my hands on. I quit working out. I didn't even go hunting with my dad anymore, something he really got on me about.

I had ballooned from a tight 6'4" 265 pounds to a very wobbly 6'4" 385 pounds. By the time I walked in on my wife fucking another guy, my belly entered the room three minutes before my body. The problem was that in my mind I was still that tight 265 pound athlete.

My wife's lover put short shrift to that when I grabbed him and pulled him out of her, he spun around and hit me in my big, soft belly. Then he beat the living shit out of me. I don't know when I went unconscious. But I do remember a lot of pain and the taste of blood.

**********

There and Back - Chapter One

I woke up in a small, strange room. The ceiling was close enough that I thought I could have touched it when I stood. The walls were fairly near to the bed I felt myself lying on.

The room was round and the walls were made of some sort of soft, brown, woven wood. I didn't move right away but looked around and took in all I could of my surroundings. Wherever I was it must have been a farm or something because the air smelled clean and fresh, except for that odor of farm animals, and there was a clear blue sky to be seen outside through the one window in the room.

I heard footsteps approaching and decided to play dead. I closed my eyes and lay still. The footsteps came closer and then I felt a warm wet cloth washing my face. I was about to speak when I felt something soft and warm push between my lips. Suddenly a rich tasting, warm, liquid sprayed into my mouth. It surprised the hell out of me and I involuntarily blew the liquid out of my nose while I jerked straight up in the bed I was in.

The other person in the room was a small old, fat, highly unattractive, woman and she had a huge, bare tit in her hands. The huge nipple was leaking milk and she was trying to place it back onto the bra-like thing she was wearing. It was designed to hold her large, literally watermelon-sized, breasts in place. I noted that the contraption was dearly needed as she ran screaming through the rooms door.

Soon the small space I was lying in was full of people.

I lay there staring into the faces of a group that looked very different from me. First, the tallest of the men was maybe five feet tall. The shortest maybe four feet tall. All the males wore swords and short knives. All of the females had huge, and I do mean huge, breasts and carried at least one knife, although how they could find them under their massive bosoms I couldn't imagine.

The female's immense, bare, breasts seemed to be held up with the same shelf-like, bra-like, contraption that the old woman was wearing. It appeared to be made out of leather and wood.

One of the older males, who I assumed was some sort of leader, stepped out in front of the group and spoke to me in a language that I'd never heard. I'd heard all sorts of accents in college. The parties I went to drew kids from all over campus and those kids were from all over the world. But this sounded like nothing I'd ever heard.

I figured in his curious sounding voice that he was asking who I was, I think. His tone was high pitched and slightly nasal. All I could do in response was smile and hold my hands out and shake my head back and forth to try and sign that I didn't understand. At last, he stopped talking and looked at me like he had an idea.

He pointed to himself and said something that sounded like, "Brugga". Then he pointed at me. I smiled, pointed at myself, and because of the milk still in my sinuses I coughed in the middle of saying my name. I'd inadvertently paused between the "Pa" and the 'ul". He smiled, nodded, and said "Pa-ul", his tone and phrasing exactly matching my own.

Before I could correct him he made a sign like he wanted me to come with him. So, I slowly sat up on the bed and stooping so I wouldn't hit my head on the ceiling followed Brugga. Everyone crowded into the small room quickly cleared out through the small door. I found that I actually had to get on my hands and knees to easily exit and follow the small people through the small door.

Outside, I stood to my full six-feet four-inches tall and heard gasps from the crowd. That was when I realized that I was naked and my penis was almost the size of some of the children. It was also just at the eye level of most of the females.

Looking around I spied a rug on the floor back in the room I'd just exited. Reaching back into the room, I picked it up and wrapped it around myself trying to recover some modesty. There was a rope hanging on a peg just outside the door and taking it down, I wrapped the rope around the rug and myself. That managed to allow the rug to cover me front and back like a skirt.

Once we had all restored our composure, I noticed that there wasn't a single person among the crowd who was taller than my armpit. There was a lot of mumbling and talking. There was some whispering and some pointing. I looked beyond the crowd, scanning the area around me, and found that I was outside a small circular building that seemed to be part of a ring of similar buildings comprising this village.

Some of the buildings were shorter than me. Each building seemed to have a sign on it. As I looked around, the old woman who had been trying to squirt breast milk into my mouth came back and spoke to Brugga excitedly. Soon others joined in the conversation and Brugga seemed to be trying to calm them all down to the point that I was being ignored like the proverbial gorilla in the room.

While that kerfuffle was going on I decided to take advantage of the situation and move away from the crowd and take a careful walk around this village. I was greeted with either horrified or astonished expressions. Many of the small people ran away. Some of the children, especially the boys, seemed unafraid and intrigued at the huge visage intruding into their quiet lives.

I walked out of the village along what looked like the main street. At the outskirts I turned and walked around the perimeter of what I was now thinking of as a charming village. I could stand to live in this place. What the hell was I thinking? I didn't even know where this place was.

When I finished my walk around the village and had returned to my starting point, I stopped and decided that walking through the village again would be too disruptive to the residents. I sat down under a nearby stand of tall, dense, trees that could supply shade when I was sitting. I sat there and tried to bring back memories of what and where I was before waking up here. As I was immersed in those thoughts, Brugga approached me carefully.

He bowed and spoke to me. After a bit he stopped, realizing the futility of his end of the conversation. Then he pointed to himself again and said, "Brugga" and then he pointed at me. I smiled broadly at this repeated step in communication.

I pointed to myself and said, "Paul" and for some reason, I coughed again, half-way through the word! He looked at me and made the "P" sound a few times with his lips and then said "Pa-ul" with a very exaggerated "Pa" and a pause before the "ul". I smiled and accepted that I had given my name a new pronunciation.

I waved my hands, pointing out the village and he wrinkled his brows. I pointed to myself and said "Pa-ul", then at him and said "Brugga". Then I waved my arms in a sweeping motion towards the village, before he figured out that I was looking for the name of the village.

His face expressed understanding and he quickly said, "Frotraloesh". I tried to pronounce it and failed. He said the word again, slowly this time and broken by syllables.

"Fro-tra'-lo-esh."

I slowly repeated "Frotraloesh" and he smiled and nodded. One of the females, another with garishly huge breasts, and hair that was a medium shade of rust, slowly approached Brugga and spoke to him. He looked at me and then back to the female. He spoke and pointed back to the village, at which the female made some argumentative gestures and walked past him and towards me. He tried to pull her back but she yanked her arm away from him.

She got closer to me and I could tell that she was scared out of her mind and yet she had the courage to press on. Admirable, I thought. She walked up to me and since I was sitting we were almost on an eye to eye level. She spoke to me. Her voice was gentle and very high pitched. The only thing I could equate it to from my experience was that her voice sounded like silver bells.

Each word she spoke was clear and had an inflection to it. Brugga was standing back watching intently. At that point the inflection in her voice changed and she stopped talking. After a long silence she spoke again with the same different inflection. I pursed my lips and shrugged my shoulders. She opened her mouth and pointed to it. Then she pointed at my mouth.

Then the weirdest thing happened. She undid the very heavy duty rig that held her immense breasts in place and let loose her left breast. The big nipple seemed excited and the girl smiled and using two hands she lifted the huge breast to her face and took the nipple into her mouth and drew deep. When she was done she opened her mouth, showing the white content and swallowed. Looking at me, her expression changed to one of command. She lifted the left breast with both hands and offered the nipple to me.

BINGO! She was wanting to feed me. Then thinking back to the old woman in the small room, I think I began to get it. I quickly stood and held out two hands palms towards her trying to get her to wait where she was. She must have understood because she didn't move. Instead, as I walked away, she put the nipple back into her own mouth and sucked on it like a scholar might suck on his pipe.

I quickly ran towards each side of the village and then I ran back to the female. I sat back under the trees and signed for the girl to approach. I pointed to myself and said, "Paul". She smiled and pointed to herself and said, "Izabe". I repeated back to her "Eye-za-bee" and she nodded, smiled, and moved to me with her hands, again, extending her breast to me.

I leaned forward a bit and took the erect nipple into my mouth and suckled for a few seconds. The liquid that came out was rich and just barely sweet. As I swallowed it, I felt warm and filling. After three more draws, I released the nipple and smiled. Izabe pointed to my mouth and then at her own making a wiping motion. I reached to the side of my face and found the offending few drops and wiped them away.

Then I felt really sleepy. My head was feeling very light and I leaned back against the tree trunks and immediately fell asleep.

**********

I woke to the sound of high-pitched voices. When I opened my eyes, the three females standing there backed up suddenly. One was Izabe, her hair still a not light or dark shade of rust. Of the other two, one had hair that was what I would call a medium green color. The third girl's hair was a rich blue that reminded me of the sky on a bright summer day.

I looked at the three and sat back up before standing and stretching. I felt the overwhelming need to relieve myself. I looked around for a spot and then walked around behind the small stand of trees. I lifted the front of the rug I wore and began to piss. It seemed like days since I had relieved myself and I let out what felt like gallons of urine.

When I was done, I shook it and lowered the rug, turning to see Izabe and the other two females standing there in abject shock. I guess they'd never seen a man's penis before or at least not the penis of a man of my stature.

The three began to talk among themselves and I could guess the nature of that conversation. They kept looking back towards me and one of them held her hands a certain distance apart and Izabe and the other shook their heads and held their hands wider. I hated to break up the party but I really didn't feel comfortable with a mess of people who I didn't know talking about my junk.

"Izabe?"

The talking stopped at the sound of my deep voice. I pointed at the two others and then at me and said "Paul" then I pointed at Izabe and said her name. The girl with the green hair pointed to herself and said "Argari" which she pronounced as "Ar-gar-ee", her accent was almost Australian. The girl with the blue hair smiled and said, "Osalet" which she pronounced as "O-sa-le-et".

I nodded to them and said "Hello" and "Thank you". The three all looked at me and furrowed their brows. I decided that I wanted to explore the area around Frotraloesh. So, I began to walk away from the village towards a hill that was full of some sort of ground cover or flowers that were a very bright yellow. Izabe almost lost her mind. She ran in front of me to block me and was speaking in a fast and furious speed. She was also trying to place her hands on me to push me to a stop but her hands kept hitting my covered penis and that caused her a lot of distress.

I stopped and looked at the poor upset girl. Turning I noticed that the other two girls hadn't followed, if anything they had moved a bit closer to the village. I frowned and looked back at Izabe. She was holding up both hands the same way I did when I asked her to wait. I nodded and she took off running.

Now how she managed to run that fast with those huge watermelon-sized breasts I don't know but run she did. I watched her run into the village and a few minutes later she came running back with two of the swords I'd seen the men carry. Well, the men carried one sword and one dagger or knife. But the swords were so small that they would serve as long daggers for me.

She was out of breath but managed to hand the swords, in their scabbards, to me. She tied them around me all the while saying something but always emphasizing "Ookal" "Ookal". I had no idea what she meant but I could tell that it concerned her greatly.

Once the swords were in place, I pointed to the direction I wanted to go and she slowly bowed and took my hand. She held it to her face and kissed it and said, "Aptkas nrajet". If I didn't know better I would have thought it loving. When she let my hand go I began my walk.

**********

The surrounding area was beautiful in the extreme. It seemed that the farther I got from the village, the more the colors of the vegetation changed. I began to see more wildlife as well. There were flying animals that could have been birds but with long hair. I saw what looked like the equivalent of squirrels and off in the distance a few animals with five legs that might have been deer or cows or something.

I stopped often to pick leaves from trees and bushes. I sniffed them and crushed them in my fingers. I didn't taste them, not knowing if they were a deadly poison or not. I was leaning over a big bush, taking a close look at a flower when I heard a screaming high pitched voice.

"PA-UL!"

I stood in time to see a large animal crouching on its three hind legs. The jaws were opening and were lined with teeth. The jaws of the beast were vertical opening to the left and right instead of up and down. Its intent was obvious. It wanted a big meal for lunch and I was the biggest thing around.

I pulled out both swords and braced myself just as it sprang into the air. I suddenly remembered from wrestling that when faced with a larger opponent, the best thing to do was to get inside their grip and attack their center of mass. I ducked and ran to the beast. While it was in the air, I slashed under its body with both swords, slicing it open from throat to crotch.

The beast hit the ground with a resounding thud and spasmed a few times before going still and quiet. I wanted to be sure, so I quickly jumped on it and using both swords I quickly beheaded the body. I dismounted the beast and was immediately attacked by a small creature with rust colored hair.

"Pa-ul!"

"Izabe. What are you doing here? Are you all right?"

I quickly checked her arms and legs for injury. I would have checked elsewhere but I wasn't ready to do a full-body exam. When I was done, she did the same thing to me and seeing that I'd been scratched by the beast she quickly opened her top and exposed one of the breasts. Taking the massive thing in two hands she offered it to me saying "Totafs!"

I had no idea what the words meant but I quickly took the large nipple into my mouth and took a long draw. Within seconds I felt the scratches begin to itch and as I looked at them, they healed. I took another long draw on Izabe's breast and suddenly felt great.

"I don't know what's in that stuff but it really works wonders."

"I know....." then more of Izabe's native tongue.

"I can understand you, Izabe. Well at least some of what you said."

"Drink...." more strange words but I got the idea. I latched on to Izabe's other breast and sucked away furiously, drinking stream after stream of the thick liquid.

"That should be enough, Pa-ul."

"It worked! I can understand you. Say more."

"What can I say. I was following you. I knew there were always beasts in the area and I wanted to make sure you were warned."

"And what if the beast had decided to attack you?"

"I.... that is.... I didn't think about that. I only thought of you."

"Of me? Izabe, before I left Frotraloesh you said something to me. What do the words "Aptkas nrajet" mean?"

Izabe looked to the ground around her feet. I put my hand under her tiny chin and said, "Please tell me."

"It means.... my dear loved one."

"Really?" I asked and waited for an answer that never came.

"Really? Izabe, you don't know me. I'm from another place. We are so different."

"And yet you drank from me."

I had to stop and think about that.

"But when I woke up I thought I'd been drinking from the old woman too."

"No, she tried but you wouldn't take it. If you had you would have learned our language and you would have been healed."

"Wait, was I injured?"

"Our healer, the old woman, said that you had a severe injury of the body and the spirit. She said that there was greatness in you but something was blocking it. She said that you had the potential to be a great man."

"How could she know such things?"

"She is The Healer," she said as if anyone would know that answer.

"But how could you love me? I mean look at me! I'm fat and I have been lazy. I'm married to a woman who cheated on me."

"What is married, Pa-ul?"

"What do you call it when a man and woman come together and live together, share their lives, make children together?"

"They are mated. So, you are mated to a woman from your home?"

"I guess so. She cheated on me."

"What is cheated?"

"I caught her sharing her body with another man."

"And she was not mate to that man?"

"No! Where I come from one man mates with one woman. Usually for life. It is a bond and a promise. They make vows to the other to only be with them for the rest of their lives."

"That is a strange custom."

"How do they do it here?"

"A woman may take as many mates as she wants. She may change them when she wants."

"What about the man?"

"It is the same."

"So, two people who are mated can walk away from the other and leave them alone?"

"Yes but if they do it too often others will not mate with them. They are shunned."

"So how do people choose to mate here? What is the process?"

"The woman offers the man to drink or the man asks to drink. If the other accepts they are mated."

That was how I found out that I was mated to Izabe.

"Um.... Izabe, what do I do about this thing I just killed?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do we skin it for the hide? Do we strip it of its meat? Do we leave it to be eaten by other beasts?"

"Pa-ul, what you are saying is unknown to me."

"Izabe, let me try it this way. Do your people eat meat?"

"Do you mean the flesh of beasts?"

"Yes."

"NO! Those who take in the flesh of these beasts die in a most terrible way."

"OK, that means the flesh is poisonous. If we remove the skin can you use it?"

"I don't know. No one has ever done that."

"Well then, this looks like my lucky day. Um.... Izabe I'll need something to dry out the skin. In my home we use a white rock that is ground up until it is a course powder. It is called salt. We use it to make our food taste better."

Izabe furrowed her brow as she tried to think of what I meant.

"We also use it to dry things out. We rub it into the skin and that makes it usable for clothing."

"You would wear the skin of the beast?"

"Yes."

"And it's head?"

"Not unless I needed a hat."

"And what about his...." She paused and looked towards the ground.

"His what?"

Izabe looked at my rug covered crotch and pointed. I didn't understand at first, until she walked to the body of the beast and walked around to the beast's belly. I followed her and looked where she pointed. The beast had a huge penis and it was pulled back into a sleeve. Was she asking if my penis needed to be in a sleeve?

"Izabe, I will use the beast's skin to make a cover for me. This rug is not comfortable on my.... "

"Your what?"

"My penis."

"Yes, I can see how it would not rub you the right way. And with its size it should be covered. Many women will want to offer themselves as your mate."

"But I don't need a mate, right? I have one."

"You do. But some men want more than one and if the current mate or mates agree, more mates may be added; provided the man can service the women according to their needs." Her high pitched voice had an inflection that gave me pause.

"Really? OK, Izabe, I guess I have a lot to learn about your world. But first I need to take the skin off the beast."

I took one of my swords and began to quick work of skinning the ugly creature. Izabe watched carefully and occasionally made a sound like she couldn't believe how fast I was moving. Having skinned deer and elk back when I hunted with my father, skinning the beast was just a matter of knowing where the legs were and cutting around them. I'd killed the thing with two long slices down the middle when I ducked under its leap.

Both of the swords were razor sharp and I had to be careful to make sure I didn't cut myself. But in a matter of ten minutes, I had the animal's skin off and laying on the ground, fur-side down. As I looked over the size of the skin, I determined that I would need another in order to have a pair of pants and shoes.

"So, tell me Izabe, are there many of these animals around?"

"Yes. We lose three or four children every year to them and several adults."

"How do you hunt or trap them?"

"We don't. They only come into the village at night and they are loud enough that almost everyone can get inside before they get too close."

"Then how do so many of you get killed?"

"Bad luck. Someone might be too far from their home and the Ookal will take them."

"If someone was too far from home, why wouldn't they take shelter in someone else's home?"

"We don't go into other people's houses."

"But it would be an emergency!"

"That doesn't matter."

"So, people never get together to share a celebration or share a meal?"

"Yes, but we do it outside."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why don't you allow others into your homes?"

"That's the way we always have done it."

"How many of these Ookal are there around the area?"

"I don't know. There always seems to be one or two around. That's why I followed you out. So, I could warn you if one stalked you."

"Is that their normal way to attack. They stalk and pounce?"

"Yes, They are very quiet and they can jump very far."

"I noticed. Let me ask you this; if they are always around, should I find another place to sleep tonight? I'm assuming that small group of trees isn't going to stop them."

"Are you not going to sleep in my home?"

That stopped me in my tracks, so to speak. I really hadn't thought about it. I mean in my mind I was still married. I looked at Izabe. My confusion must have been showing.

"Pa-ul, we are mated. It is where you should stay."

Grabbing at a straw, I asked, "Is there enough room for me?"

"Yes, Pa-ul there is plenty of room."

"Izabe in my world, I'm mated."

"But in your world she must not be a very good mate or you would not be here."

"Honestly, Izabe, I have no idea why I am here or, for that matter, where here is! All I know is that it doesn't feel right to be in bed with another woman when I'm still married to another one."

"If you are here and she is there, would she not be sleeping with another man?"

"She was doing that before I ended up here."

I took the next few minutes to explain myself to Izabe. I told her about how marriage worked back home on Earth. Then I had to stop and ask, "By the way what is the name of the planet I'm on?"

"What is a planet?"

I waved my arms around and stomped my feet.

"This is a planet. The ground is the planet. It's a huge ball made of rock and it spins so that some portion of it is pointing towards that big bright thing what gives off the light and heat. We call that thing the Sun. I come from the planet called Earth."

"Pa-ul, I don't know that we have ever had a name for this," she said as she stomped on the ground. "I don't ever recalling a time when I needed to know the name."

"So, all you need to know it the name of your village?"

"Yes. I'm never going to go anywhere else."

"As far as you know there could be another village just over that hill and you could go your entire life and never know it was there, let alone visit it. Is that about right?"

"Yes. But why would I go there when I have all I need here?"

"Izabe, if I had woken up in another village, you would not have known me. Ever!"

"And I would not miss you because I would not have known you existed."

"That is a different way to look at things. I don't know if I could be happy not knowing more. I think I will always want to know what is over the next hill."

I used my knife to scrape the last of the flesh from the hide, then I gathered up the skin now that it had dried a little and rolled it up. Putting it over my shoulder, I looked at Izabe and waved for her to come with me. I began walking away from Frotraloesh and Izabe stopped after a few steps.

"Pa-ul? Where are you going?"

"I told you that I'd always want to see what was over the next hill. I want to take a look over there."

"Why?" she said sounding scared.

"There might be another village or there might be another beast I can skin."

I started walking up the hill and she reluctantly followed along.

"Izabe, please keep up. I would hate for you to be attacked by a beast before I could react to it and save you. And don't ask why I would save you. You acted to save me earlier. Why would I not do the same?"

She ran quickly to catch me and I slowed my long steps to make it easier. We reached the top of the hill and there was nothing on the other side but another hill. Between the two hills was a beautiful valley with a stream running through it. I took in the sight and examined to the left and right as far as my eyes could see.

"It's pretty, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"And you would never have seen it in your entire life. Imagine how much you might be missing in the other directions."

Izabe looked at me and nodded. I think she was starting to get the gist of my idea. I turned to her and smiled and began to walk back towards Frotraloesh.

"Aren't you going to go to the next hill?"

"Not today. There are more days and many hills. I also have to take care of this skin and make shoes. My feet hurt."

Izabe smiled and said, "I have something that will heal your feet. I'll take care of you at our home."

I figured that she was going to let me nurse again. That thought made me feel happy. We got to the village and walked to her home. It didn't seem that much bigger than the room I'd woken up in. She opened the door and walked in. I ducked down as much as I could and followed, setting the skin outside leaning against the outer wall.

I looked around the little place and found there to be three rooms and another door. One room was the family/living/great room and had a fireplace and a big chair, almost big enough for me, and a sort of a love seat or small sofa. There were several lamps around the room all mounted on small shelves attached to the walls at various heights.

I looked into another room and I had no idea what it was for. Again, my curiosity must have shown on my face.

"Pa-ul that is the water room."

"And what is done in the water room?"

"I wash myself and my clothes. I prepare meals."

"OK. Where does the water come from?"

"Each home has a tube that brings water from a stream that runs down the other hill next to the village."

"That means that the other room is where you sleep?"

"Yes. It is the sleep room. Where we will sleep," she smiled as she said that last phrase.

"And where do you go when you need to relieve yourself?"

"I don't understand."

"Like I did behind the tree."

"Oh. You go out the other door and there is a long ditch. You go in the ditch and then cover it with the soil around it."

"Not too sanitary."

"I don't understand."

"Where I come from, the people who live like that do not live very long. The open trenches, as we call them, grow many diseases, and don't smell very good."

"They tell me that before I came, the trench used to smell, but then they began to cover it with the soil and that stopped the smell."

I opened the back door and there it was. A trench. There was a ridge of soil around it and the whole thing stretched out and around the village as far as I could see. There was no one else around to use as an example of how the villagers used the trench

My only option was to ask my mate what to do. I also thought of the embarrassment of having to ask another how to go to the bathroom. But I was about to do just that when, to my left and a few houses down, a male came out of his house. He walked to the trench, without acknowledging my presence and sat on the ridge of dirt. When he was done with his business he wiggled back and forth on the dirt, stood, and took a colored cloth to cleaned himself, then he went back inside.

I went back in the house and Izabe stood there smiling and handed me a colorful cloth.

"What's this for?"

"To clean yourself."

"I didn't do anything."

"Oh. You were out there so long I thought perhaps you fell in. I was about to come and check on you."

"I did see someone a few houses down. He came out and sat on the dirt, then got up and used a cloth," I held mine up, "to clean off and then he went inside."

"OK. So, now you understand."

"No, I don't understand anything. Unless men here are built entirely different than me, I don't see how he did what I thought he did."

"Oh, I see. Well, I guess I could have Brugga come over and show you what to do."

"You couldn't show me?"

"No. I.... um.... I've never seen.... No man has ever...."

"I understand. Izabe, are you telling me that you have never had a mate before?"

"That's right. I have never had a mate nor have I ever mated. I don't really understand what to do or how it's done."

She looked ashamed. I took her to the main room and sat on the sofa. I took her onto my lap and wrapped an arm around her.

"OK, Izabe, it's time to tell me a story."

"What story?"

"Tell me the story of Izabe."