The golden hue of the sunset filtered through the cracks in the thatched walls, casting long, wavering shadows across the interior of the hut. The atmosphere was thick with a strange duality: the outward, motherly warmth of Nula and the hidden, boiling intensity of Fuyu's internal transformation.
After Nula had delivered her gentle yet firm warning about marriage, she pulled Fuyu into a long, suffocatingly warm hug. To Nula, this was an act of shielding her son from the social dangers of his own outspokenness. To Fuyu, however, the embrace was a sensory assault. Her soft, maternal body pressed firmly against his chest, her large, firm breasts flattening against his ribcage with every breath she took. The proximity triggered an immediate, violent reaction in his blood; his arousal spiked, hardening like a sun-baked rock against his loincloth.
"Now, are you feeling alright?" Nula whispered into his ear, her voice a soothing balm that only served to sharpen his focus on her curves.
"Yes, I am," Fuyu managed to choke out, his voice thick.
"Good. So don't worry. I will definitely find you someone to mate with," she said, finally pulling back just enough to look him in the eyes, though her breasts continued to brush against his arm as she moved. "But until then, don't ever say something like that again in front of anyone. It's for your own protection. Do you understand?"
"Yes… I understand," Fuyu replied, though his mind was far from the social etiquette of the tribe. He was focused on the heat radiating from her skin.
Nula smiled, patting his cheek. "Good boy. You follow your mommy's word; you are a really good boy." She leaned in and planted a quick, affectionate kiss on his cheek—a gesture that, in any other context, would have been purely innocent. But as she pulled away, a sharp knock echoed against the heavy wooden door of the hut.
"Looks like they have arrived!" Nula exclaimed, her face lighting up with a mixture of relief and hospitality. She quickly released Fuyu and moved toward the entrance.
Fuyu stood in the center of the hall, trying to regulate his breathing and mask the obvious tension in his body. "Who?" he asked, though he already suspected the answer.
"Aunt Susan and her daughter," Nula explained as she slid the bolt back. "Susan's husband went with the village chief as well. They are alone in their hut, and in these times of borderline killers and unrest, there is no reason for us to be vulnerable. I suggested we sleep here together to ensure our maximum safety. We definitely don't want any misfortune to happen while our husbands are away."
The door swung open, revealing Aunt Susan and her daughter, Katty. The two women greeted each other with the practiced warmth of lifelong friends, their voices overlapping in a flurry of relief and shared anxiety.
"Yes, it is going to be a few hard days since our husbands went out," Susan said, her voice a bit higher and more melodic than Nula's. As they moved into the hall and sat on the woven mats, the contrast between the two women became strikingly apparent.
Aunt Susan was a vision of slender, refined beauty. While Nula possessed a thick, earthy figure with expansive assets, Susan was built like a willow tree—thin, with green eyes that seemed to catch the dying light of the sun. Her black hair was tied back, revealing a graceful neck. Her breasts and hips were smaller than Nula's, yet they were perfectly proportioned to her slim frame, giving her a seductive, lithe silhouette that reminded Fuyu of the elegance of a forest cat. In a tribe where fertility was the only true currency, Susan was often overlooked in favor of "thicker" women, but to Fuyu's awakening senses, she was undeniably sexy.
Susan's children, Noah and Katty, were well-known to Fuyu. Noah, aged eighteen, was already married and living in his own hut, leaving Katty as his mother's sole companion for the week. Katty was twenty-one—three years older than Lara—and she carried herself with an air of cold, untouchable beauty.
"How are your kids doing, Nula?" Susan asked, settling into the conversation. She glanced at Fuyu. "And Fuyu, you've grown so much since the last moon. You're looking more like your father every day."
Fuyu gave a polite nod, feeling a bit hesitant. Nula, noticing the silence of the younger generation, gestured toward Katty. "Why don't you children talk for a bit? We have much to discuss."
Fuyu turned toward Katty. "Ah… Katty, want to go inside and talk, or want to stay here with them?"
Katty, who was currently occupied with picking a stray thread from her skirt, didn't even look up at first. When she did, her green eyes—mirrors of her mother's—flicked toward Fuyu for a microsecond before returning to the thread. She said nothing, her silence a sharp, icy wall. She shifted her position, sitting closer to her mother, making it clear she found Fuyu's company beneath her.
Expected, Fuyu thought. She knows she's a prize. Every bachelor in the village is probably tripping over his own feet to get her attention. She's looking for a high-ranking hunter, not a quiet boy like me.
"Fuyu, go bring some fruits from the kitchen, baby," Nula requested. Fuyu obeyed, returning with a bowl of wild berries and sliced melon. Katty reached out and took a piece of fruit, eating it with a delicate precision that seemed designed to show off her refinement.
"Aunt, where is Sister Lara?" Katty finally spoke, her voice cool and detached.
"She's out with friends, honey. She'll be back soon," Nula replied. "You can talk to Fuyu until then."
Susan chimed in, "Yeah, go on, talk with him."
Katty rolled her eyes so far back they nearly disappeared. "Nah, I'm good," she muttered, ending the interaction before it could even begin.
Fuyu felt a surge of irritation, but it was quickly eclipsed by the pulsing presence of Vasana in his mind. The spirit was no longer a quiet observer; it was a driving force, a hunger that didn't care for tribal etiquette.
"Look at Susan," Vasana's voice hissed in his skull, cold and clinical. "Her body is a reservoir of untapped essence. Lean, agile, and neglected. You must harvest from her as well as your mother."
Seeking a moment of privacy, Fuyu retreated into his small sleeping room. Closing the curtain, he closed his eyes and addressed the spirit telepathically. "Vasana, how can I even achieve that? I tried to push Mother today, and she rejected me. It was embarrassing. If I try that with Susan, she'll scream and the whole village will know."
"You didn't try hard enough," Vasana replied, sounding almost bored. "Your mother's rejection was a mask. She is a woman of the tribe; she fears the eyes of others, but her body already knows you. She is ready to fulfill your wish, even if she doesn't know it yet."
The spirit continued, its words painting a bleak picture of the world Fuyu lived in. "You overthink because you view these women through the lens of a son. But look at the males of this tribe. They are primitive. They care only for their own release—the 'seed-planting.' Most women here, even those with many children, have never experienced a true orgasm. They are perpetually unsatisfied, their fires left smoldering but never extinguished. The men take what they want and fall asleep, leaving the females restrained and hollow. You, Fuyu, will be different. You will give them what no other man can, and in return, you will take the energy needed to open your Nadis."
Fuyu sat in the darkness, the logic sinking in. If the women were truly that neglected, then his "task" wasn't just a selfish pursuit of power—it was an exchange. He spent the next hour under Vasana's tutelage, learning the mental visualizations and physical techniques required to move energy during the act of mating.
As the sun disappeared completely, the hut was bathed in the flickering orange glow of the hearth fire. Manu and Lara returned home, their faces flushed from the cool evening air. The dinner was a quiet affair, dominated by the two mothers discussing the logistical difficulties of the coming winter and the absence of their husbands.
After the bowls were cleared, Nula stood up. "Susan's son, Noah, refused to come help her tonight," Nula said with a sigh of sympathy. "It's a shame when children forget their duty."
"I know," Susan replied, her shoulders drooping slightly. "But you are blessed. Your sons are obedient. Sometimes I feel like a failure as a mother."
Nula squeezed Susan's hand. "Don't say that. Now, let's prepare. Children, bring your mattresses from the inner rooms. We will all sleep here in the central hall tonight."
Manu paused, looking confused. "Why, Mom? Isn't it best for you and Aunt to sleep in your room, and Fuyu and I in ours? Katty and Lara could share the other room."
"Safety, honey," Susan said softly. "The Hague killers are near the borders. If someone tries to break in, we need to be together. There is strength in numbers."
Lara, however, looked visibly annoyed. She caught Fuyu's eye, her gaze lingering on his lap with a hunger that had become her new normal. Sleeping in a communal hall meant she couldn't sneak into Fuyu's bed to "milk" him as she had planned.
"Is it really that concerning?" Lara asked, her voice laced with a pout. "We have the heavy bolt on the door. Do we really need to huddle together like frightened sheep?"
Nula gave her a stern look. "It is not for discussion, Lara. Bring the bedding."
As the mattresses were laid out in a circle around the dying fire, Fuyu watched the three women. Nula, thick and nurturing; Susan, slim and elegant; and Lara, youthful and obsessed. The hall was small, and by the time everyone was settled, they would be inches apart.
Vasana's laughter echoed in Fuyu's mind. "The circle is closed. The energy is contained. Tonight, the harvest begins."