A Quiet Strength - Trial and Tribulation
by Anon Allsop

-Part Three-

-Four-

His hands stinging from the cold, Etu continued to smack it against the bole of the tree, its impact scarring the bark deeply. To have come so close to his beloved and to lose her in this snowstorm would seem almost unfathomable to the young warrior. Always before his eyes, the swirling snow blowing in his face, seemed merge everything into one ferocious gray fog.

Desperately wanting to strike out in search of Aponi, yet he knew that once he left Machk, he might not find him again. So, the young brave did the only thing he could and continued to strike the limb against the trunk of the tree.

After several agonizing moments had passed, the desperate warrior thought he had spied a gray object pass from left to right along a hill. Calling out for Aponi as he hesitated, his voice near horse from the constant shouting. Again he saw the grey ghost in the snow move back, right to left and fall.

In his heart he knew this was Aponi, and that she was not moving any further made the young warrior's heart leap into his throat. He knew the dangers of venturing out beyond shelter and what could happen if he left Machk alone...even for what would only seem like a moment. Yet to fail Aponi in her hour of need grew so strong, he could no longer ignore the gray figure sprawled out in the snow.

He carried the limb with him as he too fought his way out into the blizzard, each tree would pass, he struck several times until there was a very visible scar that he could see in its trunk. Again and again he would strike out, creating a trail to the ghost in the snow. After a great agonizing moments, he was standing beside the figure of Aponi, face down in the swirling snow, her long platinum hair fanning with the wind.

Etu bent down and scooped her lifeless form up and began to pick his way back through the trees, each one looking exactly as the one next to it. Only, his trained eyes were seeking each that bore the scar from where he struck it. It seemed as though it took him forever to pick his way back to the shelter, however it might only have been mere moments.

Pushing his way past the weighted pine boughs, heavily laden with snow, he carried her within the shelter and placed her near the fire. Tossing a few of the bigger branches he had found into the flames, he built it up in hopes to save his beloved.

He quickly pulled the pelt hide from around her and began to briskly rub her arms and hands. He could tell that she was breathing, so he continued to administer to her frozen limbs. As he tried to return heat to her body, he glanced over to Machk who was sleeping soundly with not a care in the world.

Etu again tossed a few more limbs and one large chunk of wood onto the fire, he had to build up the heat to save Aponi. He felt her face, it was quite cold, her lips were a ashen gray...it frightened him. Racing against time itself, the young warrior began removing Aponi's clothing, in moments she lay in naked splendor. Now was not the time to admire her though, he was on a mission to save her.

Scrambling, he began to remove his shirt and breech-cloth, he had to raise her core temprature quickly or he knew she may perish. The moment he had removed his clothing, he pulled his young love near to him, laying his body directly behind her own. Skin touching skin, one warm with fear and adrenaline, the other cool from recent exposure.

Pulling the great Bear's hide over them both, Etu drew Aponi as close as humanly possible, praying that she would warm enough to save her. He had always wondered what it would be like to be naked and this near to his love, although he had never imagined how much their contact would truly depend on a non-sexual moment.

He looked upward toward the shadows cast against the underside of the great pines, the snow creating a pocket with which they used as shelter, a sort of cocoon in the middle of this blizzard. It was holding in the warmth that the fire created, just outside the opening he could still hear the fierce wind.

After a great length of time laying with his love, he could feel the warmth returning to Aponi's skin; her lips were no longer that almost death-like hue of blue. He lowered the covering from her face and examined the surface of her cheeks. "The spirits were with us today." She didn't actually respond, the warrior knew it was still too early.

A stirring behind him alerted that Machk was awake, a recognizable whimper signaling to his foster-father that he wanted to eat. Etu knew that there was only one thing he could do in this situation, and that was to somehow place him where he could nurse from Aponi. After a careful bit of manuvering, he finally positioned the boy where he could suckle from his unconscious mother.

He allowed him to nurse for a time upon each of his mothers breast, then after a quick burping he cleaned him of his waste and bundled him and placed his tiny form beside his mother for warmth. Laying beside them both he let out a great emotional sigh. Tears danced in his eyes, the fear of how close she came to death.. how close he came to losing her welled in his mind. Rolling to his side with little Machk softly sleeping, he stared at her profile, the slight turn of her nose the length of her lashes.

With a trembling hand, he reached out and gently brushed her hair aside. He could feel tears rolling down his cheek from the corner of his eyes. He didn't care anymore, his love for this Aponi Spirit was all that he ever wanted.. all he would ever desire.

-Five-

It was the sort of sleep that you have where all of the sudden, your body jerks and causes you to awake. Etu had been in a deep sleep, Aponi was in the dream with him as they were walking along the edge of a great cliff. Aponi stumbled and Machk flew from his pappos, in horror Etu lunged to save him and the movement caused him to gasp in fear. He raised up on his elbows and glanced around the shelter to see if he was the only awake, thankfully he was. Carefully, he reached out and gathered a few more chunks of wood and tossed them onto the fire. The effort caused the fire to leap to life.

As he sat up, he could feel Aponi stirring beside him. He turned to look, she had opened her eyes and was watching him. She began to look around the shelter, "Am I really here?"

"I saw you fall, you were nearly frozen." He spoke as she was glancing beneath the great bear hide. "I removed your clothing to warm you.. I too am.. naked." He looked down in shame.

"Etu, you did what you had to do. I am not mad, you did it to save me." Her smile caused him to raise his head.

"Are you well, do you feel alright?" He asked with concern. "Your hands and feet were so cold, your lips were colored with death."

"I.. I feel just fine." Aponi wiggled her feet and flexed her fingers. "Nothing seems damaged."

"You were out in that storm for a long time, I grew afraid you would be consumed by the white death." His jaw flexed with emotion, yet he controlled himself.

She looked toward Machk, "I thought of him while I was out in that storm." She looked down and spoke even softer, "I was afraid that I would be lost to both of you."

Aponi sat up slowly, keeping herself covered. "I'd better feed Machk, he's probably as hungry as the creature he is named after."

"Machk did awake not long ago, maybe during the time it would take to start a good fire, I didn't know what to do so I.. I just held him to you. He suckled, I am sorry, I feel as though I have violated your trust."

She laughed as she scooted down and picked up Machk, his pale blue eyes focused directly on his mothers, She carefully lowered him to her exposed teat.

As he suckled she scooted closer to Etu, entwining her unoccupied fingers into his as she laid her head upon his shoulder. "Thank you Etu, that's the second time you have saved me."

"I would save you a thousand times over if I could." He looked at her and then at Machk, "I too feared for our son... Afraid that if we lost you, he would perish." He grew quiet, Aponi caressed his face and leaned in to kiss him. As their lips parted she glanced down.

"You are naked too?" She gave him a sideways glance and smirked as she removed a sleepy Machk from her breast, and placing him at the other.

"I am naked as well." He truthfully replied, trying to maintain his stature as he continued. "It was not without great effort."

In the quiet solitude of the shelter, she looked upon Etu with her crystalline blue eyes. Aponi felt as though she was about to step across a threshold that she never would have dreamed of a short time ago. Yet, she knew that deep down this was the right thing for her to do, she loved Etu and that was all that mattered to the female she had become.

Machk was not hungry, he kept spitting out her teat and yawning. "He seems sleepy, I should probably just bundle him and lay our son down." As she was positioning him at their feet, covering him with a heavy fur, Etu watched her intently. He caught his breath as he spied upon her from the back, the paleness of her skin, the gentle swell of her breast and hips.

Aponi fussed with her son until she was satisfied that he would remain warm and then settled back to be with Etu. He smiled at her, inwardly her heart melted. No words were said, in the quiet each felt as though a great something was about to happen. Slowly he leaned forward, she could feel her heart beat faster.

As Etu lowered his handsome face to hers, she became caught up in the moment, and as her eyes closed, their lips met. Over time, Aponi had grown to love the small child she carried, that did not change as it grew within her and was born. Such was the way with how she looked at Etu.

At first she saw Etu as a protector, then while she wasn't paying attention he became so much more. As he pulled his kiss away from her, Aponi felt as though her soul was being drawn out, creating an unbreakable link with this man. Slowly she reached behind his head and pulled him in once again. As they kissed, the two lovers lowered to the great bears hide, with Aponi laying along her love's side.

"So, are you still having trouble holding back?" She whispered softly, her lilting accent of his native tongue creating a stirring in his loin.

"Not any more, I've decided to let what happens... happen." His head touched the fur, long black hair lay off to the side. Slowly, Aponi lay half on, half off of him. Her feminine softness was just about all that Etu could handle. As they kissed, he felt her soft fingers gently caress his penis.

Aponi could tell without words that what she was doing was pleasuring her man, to her it would seem that it was her only goal in this world. She briefly thought about who she once had been but pushed it out of her mind, for now she was Aponi wife of Etu.

She loved this man, loved him with all of her very existence. The best way she could show him was to allow him to penetrate her with his maleness, and allow him to take her as a wife should be taken. She thought of what could possibly happen, and she realized that it could actually leave her with child again, and for the first time in her new life, she was accepting of it. In fact, something inside her made her realize that she actually wanted him to sire a child with her.. not necessarily for her, but for him.. for Etu.

The shadow upon the interior of the pine spoke volumes as she positioned herself on top of him and seductively brought him to rigidness. She began her slow roll of her hips, as though this was their first dance for the ages. She pushed past Parker that night, her former self forever falling to the background. Strong hands slowly and tenderly drifted upward upon the back of the female, the shadow on the wall gradually shifted until the warrior physically moved her beneath him and regained the top.

Aponi's knees parted, opening herself to this man who had become her husband. Together their dance sealing their union as man and woman.. husband and wife. Her mind was lost in the bliss, a rapture that claimed her in total. She lost track of time itself, only a tremendous surge of euphoria seemed to swell from within her soul and permeate outward like the great tendrils of of the sun's rays.

Her mouth opened, agape with a lover's cry caught between the desire of love and the lust of passion. As the tidal surge swept forward, she became caught in its current. The pleasured moan that came from her throat seemed otherworldly, as her husband continued to thrust into his Aponi Spirit.

Her mind momentarily pushed past the pleasure she was feeling, momentarily faltering, almost spiteful that she was betraying the person she used to be. Its haunting echo, reminding her that she shouldn't be enjoying what this man was doing to her. Yet, her feminine side easily forced Parker back, who she imagined was screaming and crying out in fear as she came down from the towering height of her orgasm.

A tremble coursed through the warrior, a raspy catch in his breathing that caught Aponi off guard. It was the secondary shutter that she felt which made her realize just how far she had descended into the role of woman, how this one act could propel her into a world of which there would never be a return.

From within her, she could feel the mocking pulse that her ghostly half could only remember. Somewhere deep inside her womb his seed was racing to locate the egg that her feminine body produced. If she had harbored a shadow of fear, at this very moment it was too late.

A reverberating shudder above her catapulted the woman Aponi had become over the edge. Her eyes rolling back, fluttering her into oblivion, her head grew heavy and fell into the hide from exhaustion. Aponi's knees fell to the side at the moment Etu climaxed, a long slow moan escaped from her lips. The sound was mournful to her ears, almost making her feel that it was the final cry of Parker.. yet, she knew it was her own voice.

Etu slowly moved to her side and forced her to turn slightly with him still imbedded deep within her, even in the frozen distance outside their shelter, there was sweat beading his lip. Aponi placed her slender hands upon each side of Etu's face and kissed him.

"Thank you." She whispered, "I love you."

Etu smiled shyly and pulled her closer, kissing her upturned face again. "I can die today, Aponi. You are everything to me."

She hugged his broad shoulders and lay her head upon his chest. Together they remained that way until sleep overcame them. Tomorrow is another day, but tonight they would enjoy each other as lovers do. As she slowly drifted off to sleep, her mind harkened back to Parker and wondered if she would ever feel his presence again, or had what just transpired effectively removed his existence.

Her long platinum hair splayed across Etu's bronze chest as the young mother cuddled under the great black hide. Beneath her ear beat the heart of her lover, each beat was meant for her, each beat was an echo of Aponi's own. His strong hand gently stroked her back as they lay in silence, relishing in their quiet moment. If this was a glimpse of the future, Aponi would easily accept this life every time.