The Fern Tender (4 page)

     "Can someone tell me how they applied their magic recently?" She again gently shook her head in haste when she thought about her own magic and the power she wielded just yesterday on the unsuspecting guy at the coffee shop.

     “I found my cat with my magic,” shouted Edie again. Being the Fern Tender, meant the occasional gritting of teeth was required when working with Edie. Not only knowing that she was the top ranked girl in class, she was Alena’s half-sister. Edie was David’s daughter with his third wife.

      The whole thing could be maddening and humiliating to Lillian. She wished deeply that Alena was at the top of her class and in line to be the next Fern Tender, but knowing her math and probabilities the way she did, Lillian knew that Edie was firmly on track to take her place on her eighteenth birthday.

      “OK, explain your cat magic to us Edie," Lillian said trying to keep her irritation in its place by maintaining a light manufactured mood.

      “Well, last week during the lightning storm Josie went missing. After the lightning stopped she didn’t come for her dinner or to hop in bed with me like usual. So, I used the senses and calculations we learned and then meditated as if I were Josie like we practiced. In my mindfulness, I focused on the three places that I know Josie would seek out when frightened. Immediately I eliminated outside as an obviously bad place to search, I then sensed she would be under the kitchen sink, under the couch, or inside my mother’s closet in her dirty clothes pile.”

      "And where was she?” asked Lillian again gritting her teeth slightly at the mention David’s third wife’s dirty clothes pile.

      “She was covered up like a cocoon inside one of Mother’s skirts,” Edie answered.

      “Great. Thank you for that thought, I mean answer Edie," Lillian quipped. “But on what try did you confirm your magic?" asked Lillian.

      Edie proudly exclaimed, "On the first try!”

     “Very good Edie,” concluded Lillian.

     Drawing the lesson to a close, Lillian remarked, "OK, girls that’s it for today. Remember it’s not magic if you try more than once, it has to be one time. Next week we’ll talk more about improving your chances at first tries.”

     Lillian took Alena by the hand, and they walked through the village circle waving and smiling at the rest of the villagers. At this point in the day on this day, most of the mothers were also striking the same hand-holding-stiff-upper-lip-pose, as they walked their children to grandparent’s homes to spend the night. All were in expectation of visits from their husbands. It was a bitter sweet ritual for the women in the Colony.

      The moon this month was a dark orange color that hovered just above the horizon. There were some months of quarter moons that the village never even saw. The enormous peaks to the North were known to hide the full glory of the moon. Tonight they were graced with one that rose above the jungle basin to the South. After stopping and taking in the moon’s beauty mother and daughter entered the house of Lillian’s childhood.

     Lillian visited politely with her own Mother and in a distracted cursory way chopped a few onions for her mother’s stew. Standing under the low ceiling and admiring the strength of the beams that for over 900 years presided over her childhood’s kitchen, she thought of her own father and how she missed his smile. She wondered whether her half brother and sisters from his other wives ever missed him too even though they hadn’t been raised in the same house with him. He was typical of the rest of the men in the village, not able to grasp the concepts of intelligence and magic the women knew but still a good presence and companion in their home. He died from a jaguar wound while checking his fish traps below the lake, long ago when Lillian was still taking her own Jaguar circle lessons.

     His death only increased her desire to learn as much about the world and all of its natural probabilities. If her father had known how to use the laws of math and nature even in an elementary way as Lillian had been able to do from childhood, he might still be alive. Understanding the frequency of Jaguars at the dam below the lake during the trout spawn may have provoked him to make a different decision rather than run the entirety of his trap line on that day. He might still be shuffling around the hearth in her Mother's kitchen tonight.

     Lillian kissed her daughter and her mother and strolled back to her own home, desperately trying to empty her mind of the loss of her father, the intelligence of Edie, and her husband's inevitable visits later to his other wives. It was so much harder here than outside of the Colony to prepare her body for a man. David was everything she desired physically with broad shoulders and thick biceps He was a towering beautiful man. And of course he was well-endowed to the point of pain sometimes if she wasn’t positioned right.

    These feelings of contrast were her real life. Here, unlike at the Capitol, her power was dedicated to her family and her ferns, not interesting sex with strangers.

    She resorted to a simple daily antidote to it all, one tall frosty glass of especially strong and smelly apple cider. As she drank from the cool glass she let the bubbles filter throughout her mouth, dancing off her tongue. Practicing her own brand of mindfulness she let herself visualize each of the bubbles harboring a piece of her world’s confusions and contradictions. As the plinking circles of frustration tickled the roof of her mouth, her mind finally began to clear.

    The heat at the top of her thighs now began to build as she thought of David’s arrival. Her mind raced back and forth jostling between the anticipation of David to recalling the men working at the river earlier in the day. She settled it on her recollection of watching the men work today.

    During her lunch break, she took a harmless walk to check the progress of the aqueduct and say hello to David. Searching for a view of David, she was distracted by the men at work. She watched their back muscles bulge while they threw stones up to the masons on the scaffolding, and she became lost in the beauty of their bodies. Lillian couldn’t resist and in the sunshine on the work site, she allowed her fingers a few touches of herself. Drawing her hand up underneath her skirt and circling herself over the top of her panties in front of all the men gave her rush of both adrenaline and pleasure. She knew they were too busy to notice or even if they did chances are what she was doing wouldn’t even register. 

    
Lying on her bed, she remembered how her fingers and the view of the men took control over of her, drawing her further into the part of her brain that crackled with thrill. She forgot she was even looking for David and why she was there in the first place.

     Alone at home and waiting for the real thing with her glass of cider running through her now, she indulged herself. Changing the actual ending from a couple minute thrill and a brisk walk back to the village, she now instead imagined laying herself on the smooth hardened river stones.

      Spreading her legs and pulling up her skirt she received the full attention of the men. Closing her eyes, she would let let them all have her right there on the stone flats. She imagined the din of belt buckles clicking on the stones. Then the muffled conversation in the background as they jostled for position, each man readying himself for his turn to descend upon her. Just as she visualized the first man lowering himself to her and letting his calloused hands have full reign over the parting of her legs she was jolted out of her scene by David's own hand touching her shoulder.

      Her fantasy was as amusing as it was improbable. The men in the Colony were rule followers and stuck to their lot of wives and of life. She liked to fantasize about the bodies of the Colony men mixed with the undisciplined dispositions of the men at the Capitol. Perhaps out of frustration or fun, but either way it was always a good recipe for clearing her mind of the world.

      Still smelling of the same river and his beard dusty with limestone, David’s hands covered hers and closed over them both. He then pinned her hands behind her back, and let his massive frame lay on top of her. Helpless and surprised she let herself surrender to his strength. They fell deeper into the mattress together. With his weight pressing down against her, she could feel the pulse of his cock, building in size, throbbing for her. She laid with him in a submissive embrace waiting for him to penetrate her.

     "I want to clean up first," he barked. "And then I want to fuck you how ever I please."

      She heard the water running in the bathroom, and she allowed her mind to drift again. The river scene now felt juvenile, having this chunk of man and his thickness all to herself made her quiver with satisfaction. The anticipation of him injecting her with himself and towering over her torso put her mind and body into motion. Readying herself for him, she was overflowing already. Short bursts of pleasure were beginning to grip her.

     Lying across their bed, pumping her knees into each other Lillian's firm body began to tighten in anticipation of David.  He strolled out of the bathroom and walked towards the bed, “Lay on your back and spread your legs,” he commanded with serious purpose in his voice.

     Dropping his towel and releasing his meaty package he added. “I want to watch you.”

     Rolling her over to face him, he saw the telltale red splotches that indicated pleasure beginning to form along her delicate neck. David may not have matched Lillian in intelligence, but his body, presence, and his total confidence in his style of sex with his wife erased the inequality gap they struggled with during daily life. Here, he was in charge and she loved it.

     “Touch yourself inside with two fingers. Good. Keep going. Now open yourself up for me to see.” He inched his chiseled face downward toward her throbbing pussy. “Pull your fingers together tight and push up against the top of your cunt. Back and forth now, back and forth, back and forth,” he instructed.

     Moving his tongue down her stomach over her navel, then tracing a wet line directly to her clit, he lapped at her a few times then pursed his lips and steadied himself. His hands felt under her ass cheeks, grabbing them and using her backside like a steering wheel. He kept himself in one place and drove her body around his mouth stopping at different locations indulging himself. Lillian stared upwards into his beauty ignoring the scars across his chest. Relics of wounds from a jaguar. Lots of men had these leftover wounds of living and working everyday in a place where the jaguars ruled. His scars only added to his masculinity and complimented his tender side. She liked all of him.

      His strong hands gripped deeper across her ass cheeks, and he began to taste the juice from her folds. He gnawed at her sex like he was diving into a ripe tangerine from their orchard. Pursing his lips again he formed a perfect tiny opening that fit on top of her clit. Gently he sucked her bump a few times then moving his head back and forth he sucked her clit in the same motion as she sucked cocks in the Capitol. He rolled his tongue back and forth for several minutes and through his synched lips, the pleasure was overwhelming.

      Lillian began to moan uncontrollably. As she crescendoed the moan turned into a deep gravely scream. He stopped suddenly, letting his viced fingers on her ass go. He then pulled his lips away and centering himself in a dominant position over her and instructed, “I want you to spill yourself out all over me.”

     He yanked her fingers out of herself and inserted his two meaty fingers back into her. Motioning them upwards, he instantly found the roof of her sex, pulled up, and simultaneously pushed his lips back over her clit. Pushing and pulling on her with both his fingers and his mouth, he gently coaxed her into releasing her warm stream of fluid. Feeling the hot splash on his chin, he reared his head back and watched through the shadow of the bedroom fan blades, one stream after another rushing from her body trickling through his fingers and finally settling into the threads of the sheets.

     As he held her in place with just his two fingers and again steered her to his liking he commanded “Cum again. Now, again. Cum again!” The red rash of excitement that circled her neck earlier now spread across her flushing her entire body full of boiling pleasure.

    On the last squirt, her deep moan turned to a growl of satisfaction. Finally opening her eyes, she made her demand to him, “Fuck me, fuck me now, put your dick inside me, now!”. A smile crept over his face knowing that their warm up was complete, the real fun was about to begin.

     With her ass and his knees now laying in the damp pool of her ejaculation, he barked, “Move to the other side of the bed.” She complied, “Now keep your eyes open, I want you to watch my face as I enter you.”

     Lifting her again slightly he could feel her scars as well. Streaks of raised flesh across the back top of her thighs riding all the way into the small of her back. David knew these weren't jaguar scars, and he recalled times she would come home and rush into their bathroom to apply lotion to her fresh wounds. He never asked, and she never told. Another mystery of his wife's he had learned to live with.

     Refocusing himself after the brief distraction of her scars he adjusted her torso effortlessly readying her frame for his shaft. Taking a deep breath and setting her in place according to his liking, he wasted no time driving his rock hard shaft straight into her. Normally fitting the girth of his cock into her opening was a tricky combination of positioning and building up the right amount of lubrication. But after the earlier pleasure, he knew she could take all of him in one thrust. He was almost right, plunging deeply he bottomed out into her wall at the end of her sex. Quickly he grabbed a pillow and threw it under her ass for the next thrust and was now pumping himself at will into all of her depth.