Page 31 of Offering Herself to Darkness

There didn’t seem to be any road or path that led down the center of the town. Instead, the straw-thatched huts were just built all over the place. In some places there was room to walk between them and in some places you had to go around. Nora was thoroughly lost when they came to two adjoining huts near the edge of the village.

“Come, this is the female living space,” Twilla said to her, pointing to the closest hut. She nodded at the other one adjoining it. “It is connected to the male living space so the two of you will not be separated by more than a grass door.”

That seemed fine to Nora and Xarex didn’t object, though he did look sharply at the two huts. She followed Twilla into the female living space and looked around.

Inside, the hut looked fairly primitive. There was a packed dirt floor, a fire pit in the middle of the large room, and a raised cot made of branches and covered in what looked like a quilt woven out of many different colored leaves. On one wall there was a door made of long, dried grasses that had been bound together in a flat sheaf.

“Oh, that’s beautiful!” Nora exclaimed, bending down to examine the leaf quilt.

“Do you like it? I have some feasting garments you may wear made of the same pattern,” Twilla said. She went to one side of the hut where a kind of wooden wardrobe sat and pulled back the curtain of hanging ivy that covered its interior. After rummaging around inside for a moment, she brought out a gorgeous-looking dress that was indeed woven of leaves like the quilt on the bed.

There were golden leaves as large as Nora’s head and smaller red and orange leaves as large as her hand. And interwoven with them all were tiny blue and green leaves the size of her thumbnail that seemed to hold the larger leaves together.

“How gorgeous!” Nora said, examining the leaf dress. It shimmered and glimmered in the dim light of the hut, almost seeming to give off its own light—maybe because the leaves had that same golden shine that all the vegetation had here on Primus Nine. “But how do you keep the leaves from wilting once you pick them?” she added.

“Oh, we simply dip them in the juice of the stay-fresh berries that grow near the village,” Twilla explained. “And that keeps them fresh for at least three cycles of the moon. Would you care to try it on?”

“I would be honored,” Nora assured her. From the other room, she could hear the low rumble of male voices and assumed that Xarex and Jammu were having a similar conversation. She wondered what Xarex’s feasting outfit would look like.

At Twilla’s urging, she took off her t-shirt and jeans and also her shoes. All of the Primiens were barefoot and Twilla stared in surprise as Nora slipped off her tennis-shoes.

“Oh—I thought those were part of your feet!” she exclaimed as Nora set them aside.

“What? Oh no—those are shoes. We wear them to protect our feet,” she explained. “Don’t you have any protective coverings to keep your feet safe in the jungle?” she asked. “I mean, aren’t there thorns or briars that might hurt you?”

“We do not wear foot coverings, for none are needed. Those who are one with the Spirit of All need have no fear of the Wilds,” Twilla answered serenely. She motioned at Nora’s bra and panties. “Please remove those as well. You must be bare beneath your feasting garments, especially if you wish to seek the Bloom.”

“Why, though?” Nora asked anxiously. “I mean, what kind of sacrifice are we going to have to make in order to pick the Flower of healing?”

Twilla spread her hands.

“As to that, the sacrifice is different for everyone who seeks the Bloom.”

And that was all it seemed she was willing to say. Sighing, Nora turned her attention back to the dress. She felt strange about getting completely naked in front of someone she’d just met, but she reminded herself she was there for Anna and she didn’t want to offend these people. So she just nodded and stripped off the clothing while Twilla watched with unabashed curiosity.

“Ah—I see that you have breasts and a receiving pouch,” she remarked, nodding at the V between Nora’s legs.

“A what?” Nora asked uncertainly.

“A place to receive a male’s phallus,” Twilla explained. She sighed. “I have grown weary of receiving myself. I have decided tonight that I will become male again for I long to be the thruster once more.”

“Oh. And, uh, will your mate, Jammu, become female tonight?” Nora couldn’t help being curious about this. Could these people really switch sexes any time they wanted?

“He has not decided but I believe so, yes. If he does not, then I must find a new mate with a receiving pouch who is willing to accept my phallus—when I grow one,” Twilla said.

As she spoke, she was helping Nora into the leaf dress. It was surprisingly stretchy and molded to Nora’s curves. The leaf sleeves were short, covering only the tops of her arms and the hem fell to the middle of her thighs. Once again she had reason to be glad of the float-dots that Kat had given her—they kept her breasts perky and gave her a lovely hourglass shape in the new clothes.

The only problem was the fact that her nipples kept popping out between the holes in the leaves. Nora tried to hide them by tugging at some of the larger leaves to get them to cover them but she was afraid to pull too hard, for fear of tearing the delicate foliage.

The leaves felt cool and waxy against her skin and it felt strange to be wearing a dress with no panties underneath it, but other than the trouble with her nipples sticking out if she wasn’t careful, Nora liked her new feasting outfit.

Twilla seemed to like how it looked on her too.

“There—you look lovely,” she said, nodding approvingly as she straightened the dress. “You’re all ready for the Feast of Transformation and your chance to pluck the Bloom now.”

“Thank you for loaning me this beautiful dress,” Nora said, really meaning it. “I’ve never worn anything like it.”

“Oh, this is no loan—I am giving the dress to you,” Twilla said. “It will not fit my male form once I change and by the time I am ready to become female again, it will have wilted. So you may wear it as long as you are here among us. And take it with you when you go as a remembrance of me and the People.”

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