BUILD YOUR OWN WORLD Like what you see? Become the Master of your own Universe!

Coming of Age

If our sex life were determined by our first youthful experiments, most of the world would be doomed to celibacy. –PD James, The Children of Men     The knock at the door disturbed Ao’ulua’s cogitations. He put down his glass of wine on the table next to his plush couch and rose. He wasn’t expecting visitors; his daughter wouldn’t be returning home until later, and she wouldn’t be knocking anyway.   He opened the door to find a public guardian. She was tall for a woman, near his own height, and slender. Behind her and offset to one side stood a second one, much larger and male, his hand on the shoulder of Ao’ulua’s daughter, who stood between them. As soon as the door opened, she pushed roughly past him and into the house.   “Oh, no. Did—?”   “Good evening, iao Lioveo. We found your daughter engaged in deep cuddling again tonight. This time it was behind some shrubbery in the park.”   “Oh, my. I’m sorry, iao guardians, I’ll talk to her. Was it Ya’inio Mialovua again?”   “Yes, it was. We’ve already dropped him off at home, since it was closer, and on the way here. We’ll leave you to it. This kind of thing really is a lot more common than it’s made out to be, but she’s a little excessive about it. And if I may say, iao, she’s long overdue for a caper. You could help to avoid this kind of thing if you’d take a firm hand with her.”   “I know, you’re right,” he shook his head sadly. “It’s just my wi—”   “Yes, iao Lioveo, I know. Your wife is gone, and she’s all you’ve got left. I sympathize, I really do. But letting her languish like that, and not get a proper education, it’s not really helping her, is it? I’m not passing a judgment on you. Just think about it. You might also think about finding someone new yourself. There are plenty of people out there who would be willing to take it slowly and be gentle with a widower.” The woman blushed and dipped her eyes. “We’ll leave her to you. Good evening.” Touching her hand to her chin and bowing slightly, the guardian turned to leave. The man behind smiled and echoed her gesture.   With a deep sigh, Ao’ulua closed the door and leaned against it. He liked Evalo’uria well enough, and she was attractive, but she wasn’t Liasha’a. He returned to the common room to find his daughter slumped in her accustomed chair, arms folded across her chest and face scrunched up like she’d been sucking on a tharrett. They’d sailed this strait enough times now that she knew he’d come talk to her; this time she sat waiting for him.   For the first time in many hura, he really looked at her. Her breasts had grown to the point that she was now crossing her arms beneath them, rather than over them. Her blouse was open at the neck and halfway down her chest, revealing a deepening cleft as well. She’d never been a thin child – she took after his side of the family in that respect – but her hips were widening and thickening as well. Her blouse was tucked into the waistband of her skirt, which was distinctly narrower than the swells both above and below. She was becoming a woman. He couldn’t put it off any longer.   As he returned to his seat, she opened with, “It wasn’t really THAT deep cuddling, Inio’s not very big.”   “We’ve been through this—” he began, but she cut him off.   “Why is it such a big deal? I can stroke his stick, or even suck on it. He can put his fingers or his tongue up in my slit, but that one little thing, that ‘deep cuddling’ gets everyone in trouble.”   “‘That one little thing’ is what allows someone to become pregnant.”   “Yeah, but everybody knows that you can’t get pregnant if you don’t want to, and you can’t if the boy doesn’t blow his milk inside you, no matter how much the girl wants it.”   “Well, you’re right on one of those, anyway.”   Her sulky and insolent attitude evaporated. “Really? Which one?”   Ao’ulua pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows. “That’s why you need to choose a caper, to learn that kind of thing.”   The sulk returned. “I don’t want a caper, I want Inio.”   “I know, I understand. Really, I do.” He shook his head in sympathy. “I loved your mother too. And I waited for her, until we were both out of our caper. It was worth it. We both learned so much from our capers that we couldn’t have learned on our own.”   “But you could have had a lot of fun trying to figure it out!” she leered.   “We could have had a lot of frustration trying to figure it out. It went so much more smoothly and more enjoyably than it would have if we’d had to fumble through it without any instruction.”   “All right, fine, I’ll give you that,” she conceded. “But seven years? Is there really that much to learn about sex?”   “Yes, actually, there is. But it’s not just about learning to have sex with someone else. It’s about learning how your own body works, which includes learning how it develops as you mature. It also includes the rest of your education – history, science, how charm flows outside of your own body. I can’t afford to send you to a Lemma Echelon caper, but your mother’s settlement left us plenty for you to go to a good one.”   The girl had calmed, but that set her off again. “There you go about Ma’iao and her settlement again. I know, you miss her. I miss her too. But at some point, you have to move on. Find someone else. Maybe take on a capa or two yourself.” She waggled her eyebrows at him. “That’ll take your mind off of her. I’ve got a couple of friends I know are interested in having you as their captior.” He paused long enough to blink a few times, his mental oars flailing in the air, but then crashed right back down into the next trough. “That may be, but we’re talking about you right now. Most children don’t get any say at all in which captior they get sent to. Would you prefer that? If I just picked one and shipped you off? It’s tempting to keep you close, both for your sake and mine, but there’s also something to be said for being rid of you and your attitude, and making you someone else’s problem for a while.”   The anger was rising in his voice, but the pain on his daughter’s face made him check himself. “You know I don’t want to stick you with a captior you don’t like, but you don’t like any of them. And I’m not so dense that I can’t tell what you’re doing. I keep hoping you’ll connect with someone, that you’ll be interested enough. I know I saw some twinkles between you and the one on Fiasho Island.”   The girl blushed and looked away. “Yeah, he WAS nice. But it doesn’t change the fact that this isn’t home. This isn’t my culture. I hate it here. Why can’t I go back to Verghesh? At least there I’d be able to get my methel seeded anytime I wanted.” Ao’ulua started to reply, but she cut him off and kept speaking. “I came here with you after Ma’iao died because I was too young to stay there on my own. I get that. But I’m older now. I’m old enough that you want to ship me off. I’m old enough to know where I want to go. I want to go home.”   “You’re definitely not old enough to be able to live on your own in Vergesh. That place is dangerous, and I wouldn’t be confident in your safety alone there even if you were a full adult. Which you are not, yet, although you are old enough to be trained in how to be an adult. It’s been four years since your methel was ripe enough to produce juice, which means I’ve let you hang back for more than two, well after I should have shipped you off to a caper.”   It was her turn to try to speak, and his to push on through. “I know your bleeds started coming early, but you’re old enough now that most of your contemporaries have already gone to their capers. How many years does Ya’inio have?”   She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and refused to meet his eyes. “Thirteen,” she mumbled.   “Two years your lesser, and himself already due to go! And he’s the fourth boy in two years! That I know about, anyway, that the guardians have taken you with!” Ao’ulua caught his voice rising again, and stopped, collecting himself. In a much softer voice, he continued. “I suppose I should just be glad you’re not being caught with girls. That would be much the worse, for both of us." After a brief pause, he continued, "Although I should probably say that having lived in Verghesh, I have come to accept such activities, personally, and do not hold the aversion and prejudices typical here in Uiziao. I do sympathize with your plight.”   He looked over at the other half of his couch, the upholstery much fresher and fluffier than the side he was sitting on, despite the color having been more faded by the sun. “Your refusal to accept a captior reflects badly on me, yes, but people make excuses for me because of your mother, how you’re all I have left, and all that. But it also looks bad for you, that people think there’s something wrong with you that nobody will accept you as their capa. And people will only forgive either of those for so long.”   His head dropped back against the top of the couch, rocking back and forth, a hand over his eyes. “What if we could arrange it for you and Inio to go to the same group of captiors? Obviously, you wouldn’t belong to the same one, but there are some places where a male and a female captior run a single collective caper.” He picked his head up and looked at her, her face a study in guarded optimism. “Would that be agreeable to you?”   All he really cared about was getting her into an acceptable caper – acceptable both to her and to himself. He still had standards, and despite his words he would not simply foist her off on whoever would take her. She really was all he had left, and her welfare was more important to him than anything else in all of Canera.   “It might. Do you have somewhere in mind?” There was definitely hope in her voice, although she was trying to cover it up.   “Not yet. There are a couple of possibilities here on the island, but they’re only of mediocre quality. I’ll go to the caper office tomorrow and see what I can find, and then talk to Ya’inio’s parents, and we’ll see what we can work out.”   “Oh, thank you, Pa’iao!” She flew out of the chair and wrapped her arms around his neck. It had been a long time since she’d been that happy, or that affectionate with him, and he was surprised again by the size of the breasts pressing against his chest. He hugged her back, and she sank into the empty space on the couch next to him. Just for an instant his body tensed, but he forced himself to relax.   “I wasn’t just kidding about you getting a capa. Aside from the simple fact that you really need to get your tail wet again, it’ll loosen you up, and make you more relatable. You talk about how the young get trained in the traditions and all that, but it also helps the old people stay in touch with modern culture.”   Ao’ulua stiffened again, but she pushed on. “Or maybe you should try Evalo’uria out. I heard the way she talked to you. It’s been eight years. Plenty long enough to mourn Ma’iao. Nobody is going to think you’re dishonoring her memory. She wouldn’t want you to just shrivel up and die because she’s not around anymore. I felt that twitch when I sat down here. Or at least, I think that’s what that was, and not just a reaction to these fatbags, though they are pretty nice.” She looked down and shook her breasts at him.   Yes, there was a significant amount of wobble beneath her shirt, and his discomfort must have shown in his expression, because she relented when she met his eyes again. “It’s not healthy. Ma’iao loved you too, and she’d want you to be happy. Just because she’s dead doesn’t mean you have to die too. And I love you too, Pa’iao. I don’t like seeing you like this either.”   With a sad smile, she squeezed his hand and rose. He squeezed back. “I love you too, Ghurn.” She retreated to her bedroom, leaving him to his thoughts again.   Ao’ulua retrieved his forgotten glass of wine and swished it around. A dry Iltarian variety. Not bad, but he preferred the sweet wines. It was Liasha who liked them dry.   He’d thought about it many times over the years, but it always came back to the pain. It hurt, yes, but it was a comfortable, familiar hurt, and it protected him from the world and its vast and unknown pains.   With growing resolve, he tossed back the rest of the wine and placed the empty goblet on the cushion his long-dead wife had historically occupied. It wobbled slightly as he stood, but remained upright. He strode to the kitchen, chose a bottle and wiped the dust off of it. A sweet gadek brandy that Liasha had gotten for him, back when they’d lived in Verghesh. He pulled the cork and poured into a new goblet.   Returning to the couch, he sat and stared at the empty goblet. She’s right, he thought. I need to remember that I’m still alive. I still love you, but this useless pining does no one any good, least of all Ghurn. “To life, after death.” He clinked his glass to the empty one and took a sip.  
#
  Ao’ulua continued to cogitate as he finished the brandy, returned the glasses to the kitchen, and made his way to bed. It was trickier than usual, with the extra alcohol in his vessels – he normally only had one glass of wine at night, and the brandy was stronger than he was used to – but he made it without bouncing off of the walls too many times. Getting out of his clothes was more trouble than usual too, and he eventually gave up with his shirt mostly unbuttoned and one sock still on when he flopped back on the bed.   His thoughts wandered, and so did his hand. He discovered all at once that he was thinking about Liasha’s soft body snuggled up next to him, and that he was erect. Well, neither of those were all that unusual. He imagined his wife’s hand wrapped around his rod, stroking it, then consciously and deliberately stopped himself.   No. Not Liasha. Time to move on. Evalo’uria. Her face was still fresh in his mind, though blurred by the brandy. She was pretty, especially when she blushed. He pictured her straddling his thighs, still in her uniform, one hand sliding up and down his mast, the other cupping his eggs, and matched the image with his own hands.   In an instant, her uniform disappeared, though he let her keep the hat. He saw her off-duty occasionally, and thought of the waves of long, black hair cascading from beneath it down her back. She scooted forward and rubbed his tip between her folds. Then farther forward, pressing his oar against his belly and sliding her valley along it. Just the way Liasha used to.   No. Evalo’uria. Eva. Who probably had a whole shipload of her own tricks that he couldn’t even conceive of with his brain so muddled. He focused on her face, nose wider than Liasha’s, and fuller lips. She smiled, showing a wide expanse of teeth, and lifted herself on her knees to slip him into her canal.   He groaned and sighed, even though it was only his own hand and his imagination. She lowered her chest to meet his, then her lips. Ao’ulua moved his lips against the phantom, then jerked his head back. Many thoughts flitted through his mind in the space of a few heartbeats. He’d reverted to Liasha again, chastised himself for it, and replaced her again with Eva, which prompted recriminations, that he shouldn’t be kissing her, because that was too intimate. But no, that was just a silly mainlander custom, and he’d stayed there too long. Here in Uiziao, merely caressing someone’s lips with your own did not carry such significance. It was not considered as intimate as what he was already considering doing to her. Or having her do to him. And the more he thought about it, the more he really did want to do all of these things with her.   His hand had slowed, but not stopped. That realization brought his orgasm burbling up from his testes, and he sped his stroking again, imagining Eva bouncing herself to her own orgasm atop him. His seed flowed out onto his hand and chest, and in moments he was asleep.  
#
  “What?! They can’t have arranged a caper for you already!”   Inio sighed and wrapped his arms around her. “They’ve been working on it since the last time we got caught, and just got confirmation yesterday. But that’s not the worst part. It’s all the way out on Uniloa.” Ghurn shook her head and shrugged. “Right, you’re not really from here. It’s a really small island, the only people there are the captiors and their caper. And it’s all boys in the caper, and all women captiors.”   She held him close, pressing his face between her breasts. Summer was fading, the first chill winds of autumn blowing in off the sea, ruffling his hair, but she was nice and warm. “So there’s no way I could go there too, to be part of the same caper as you. Last night Pa’iao suggested trying to arrange that.”   “Nope, that’s the point. My parents are sending me there to get me far away from you, who are apparently never going to be accepted into a caper.” She tensed, and he looked up to see the indignant expression on her face. “Their words, not mine,” he explained hastily. “I’m sorry. I want to stay here with you, but I can’t. I can’t disobey my parents like that. They’re not nearly as lenient as your pa is. I’m not even really supposed to be seeing you now, but I told them I had to talk to you one last time, since I’m leaving tomorrow.”   Inio squeezed her tightly and nuzzled at her chest again. One of the benefits of younger boys was that they were shorter, which put Inio’s head at just about the right height. As his lips brushed against the inner slope of her breast, she had a flash of insight. The boy was actually looking forward to his caper. She was just the person he was currently passing time with.   He’d bragged about some of his others, other girls he’d talked, wheedled or coerced into deep cuddling, and none of them had ever done much of any kind of cuddling before he’d gotten to them. Ghurn’s history was similar, though boys were easier to convince than girls were.   Despite her words to her father, she wasn’t really serious about Inio either. He was, however, more skilled and enthusiastic about it than any of the other boys she’d cuddled with, which was hardly surprising, since he’d already been around the island on his own, rather than her having to lead him.   Holding him tightly, Ghurn explored this new intuition. Several adult women as collective captiors. He definitely would have preferred that over a single captior, and if he had any say in the matter he would have nudged his parents toward choosing that one. It was probably safer for him than a mixed-gender caper – the capas would occasionally be allowed to cuddle with each other as part of a lesson, but they were generally segregated. No, he’d much rather have the variety available – or as available as a captior ever was to their capas, in that sense. And one who knew what she was doing, and who could teach him, rather than one he had to teach. No wonder he was looking forward to it!   As she followed his thoughts, she felt his penis twitch in his sarong, and found herself pressing back. One hand crept down her back to grab a buttock, and she shifted her leg again, rubbing against him. More immediately, he couldn’t wait to get under Ghurn’s skirts again. His erection was throbbing painfully now, filling the sail of his sarong at the thought of what awaited him at Uniloa, but Ghurn would serve for the moment. Nice, wide hips gave him a good grip, and even though she was bigger than he was, her crevice gripped him really well too.   With a jerk, Ghurn straightened, pulling her thoughts back together. That was unusual. She didn’t usually get sucked down into a vision like that. Maybe it was the proximity, or the ferocity of the thoughts that generated such strong undertow, drawing her in. Regardless, she could feel her own moisture gathering and trailing down her thighs. Fortunately the cove wasn’t very far away.   She turned to look down the beach, past the bend where a clump of trees extended out over the water, their stiff spiky leaves getting splashed by the rising tide. “Should we… go for a swim? We haven’t been caught down by the cove yet.”  
#
  Leaving the Mialovua house, Ao’ulua headed for the beach. Stripping off his shoes, he shifted his feet, digging them into the sand. It was always relaxing to feel the grains sliding over each other, the faint resistance as they slowly gave way and slipped between his toes. He began walking, the dry sand shifting underfoot making him slow his pace and step deliberately, which was what he needed for his thoughts as well. The ocean breeze blew in, carrying the characteristic tang of decomposing oartangle vines. He breathed deeply, releasing the tension of his recent encounter.   Well, the joint caper had been a good idea, but he saw now that it wouldn’t have worked out anyway. Maybe if he’d tried it with one of Ghurn’s earlier fancies, but he’d let her go on for so long that they’d both become stigmatized. She was the older corrupting influence, teaching innocent young children bad habits, soiling them so that their captiors don’t have a clean slate to work from anymore, while he was the feeble father who was so drowned in his own grief that he didn’t know or care what his daughter was doing, and didn’t send her away to those who would.   It was definitely time to do something about her. But what? Was it too late to get her into a good caper? Was she really too stained for any good captior to want to take her? No, he was sure he’d be able to find someone who would accept her, even if it was just one of his friends. He still had contacts in the community that educated younger children, and someone there would be willing to take her on, even if they didn’t normally have capas. But how would he convince her to go?   Being an only child, and being largely on her own since moving back to Uiziao, Ghurn had developed into a very independent and headstrong adolescent. Maybe keeping her here in Uiziao really wasn’t the best course for her. It was true that she wouldn’t be safe in Verghesh on her own, but Liasha had had some contacts there, people she trusted.   The tide had come in, waves lapping around his feet, and turning the shifting dry sand more solid beneath him, allowing him to walk with more confidence and purpose. Ao’ulua turned back into the city and headed for the diaesthetic's office.   Merksh should be the first person to contact, and then probably Joyln. He hated these Sekiune names. It was like they tried to cram as many sounds into one syllable as possible, unlike good Uizi names, which spread their sounds out over many flowing syllables. He didn’t even really like his daughter’s name, but he went along with Liasha’s desire to help Ghurn fit in with her peers in Verghesh. And truthfully “Ghurn” wasn’t all that difficult to say, it just sounded angry in his ears.   Ao’ulua wrote out the message and handed it to the clerk at the desk. “I expect a response, and I’ll cover the cost for that as well. Have you any idea when I can expect to hear back?”   The harried agent blew out a breath. “There’s been an earthquake in Peltora, and communications with the Sekiune border are slow. Nothing major, it’s just the zest traders trying to pass the word, and coordinating prices due to reduced demand, and all that. Especially since they’re so far east of here, and it’s already later in the day there, I’d say no chance of a response today. Probably tomorrow, but no promises.”   Another pang of grief stabbed Ao’ulua. Liasha had been involved in the zest trade, and that had somehow contributed to her death as well, although he’d been unable to get any details as to what had happened. He frowned, but then had a flash of inspiration. “In that case, let me rewrite that one and give you another to send at the same time, to a different person, also there in Verghesh.”   It would be preferable to get it all settled quickly, rather than having to wait for days in between for a sequence of responses from multiple people if Merksh declined. It would be even better if he could get both Merksh and Joyln competing against each other. They were merchants, after all. Ao’ulua knew that he’d never been very good at negotiating. He did have a basic understanding of the mechanics, however, and decided that it would be easier to play one off against the other than to try to haggle on his own.   He left the diaesthetic office with a surprisingly light heart, and returned to the beach to walk home, the dry sand shifting beneath his feet again. Merksh was good, and trustworthy, and had daughters of his own that were close to Ghurn’s age. He was also successful enough to not try to gouge Ao’ulua for expenses. There would be expenses, no question of that, and Ao’ulua would pay them gladly. He would have to do the same for any caper he sent her to. But he trusted Merksh to deal fairly with him.   Joyln, on the other hand, had recurrent financial troubles. He seemed to like playing risks with his business, which didn’t always work out for him. He and his son always seemed nice, and they never went broke, but there were occasional lean times, until the next big deal came through.   His only real concern was that Joyln would try to extort additional money out of him, both as a baseline monthly stipend and for other expenses as they came up, to cover for his own occasional lack of monetary flow. There were other potential foster parents as well, but Ao’ulua had even lower opinions of them, their trustworthiness, and fiscal responsibility.   He debated whether to tell Ghurn about having floated Verghesh as a possibility immediately, or if he should wait until it was less likely to change with the tide. Considering what had happened with Ya’inio and his parents, it would probably help her more to hear it sooner, rather than later, and keep her from getting into more trouble out of sheer frustration. Perhaps he could even bargain with her and get her to agree to talk with a few captiors, just in case things sunk with Merksh and Joyln.   The thought of her getting into trouble again led him back to Evalo’uria, and what she’d said the night before, which then led to what Ghurn had said about taking on a capacian. He definitely wasn’t ready to play captior to some impressionable young girl. He was too long out of practice, and there would be pressure to do a good job from her parents, and he just couldn’t be sure that he would measure up to their standards.   He needed some time for himself first. He needed to resume his capax, his post-caper period of drifting, even if it was after a hiatus of seventeen years. Once out of their caper, young adults were expected to travel, and learn from, and have sex with many people, furthering their education through independent study, before settling down in marriage with a single person for the rest of their lives.   Typically once a person is married, or has lived for three full decades, they are considered to have completed their capax, and they are knowledgable enough to become a captior. It’s always a risk, however, being a captior’s first capa, because it’s their first time through the process, and while they may well know enough to fill the role, they likely haven’t had much of any experience as an instructor. A first capa therefore commonly comes from a close family friend, and without much in the way of financial support.   That may be the river he ultimately had to paddle with Ghurn, helping someone get themselves started as a captior, and build some credibility. He knew himself to be a good instructor, however, and that would not be his problem. His experience with adolescents was limited, though, and his familiarity with the subject matter was outdated.   Many adults never take a capa at all, and while it is not considered a failing to never be a captior, there is a certain level of social prestige that comes with it. He’d been a teacher of young children in Verghesh, and prior to that in Uiziao, although he’d gone dormant since Liasha’s death. With Ghurn leaving, he really would be becalmed, lost for any direction in his life.   He’d always heard about the sensation of a great weight lifting, and he knew it immediately when it happened to him, including the part about never having known about the burden he carried until it was gone. It was a sudden release of pressure, an ability to stand up straight when he didn’t realize he’d been bent over beneath it. Returning to teaching just felt right. Maybe eventually he would become a captior, but for now, going back to the younger kids, back to what he knew and was comfortable with seemed a much better idea. It would also help him get back into mentor mode, and refresh his knowledge.   In the meantime, there was Evalo’uria. He would also need to practice again, and refresh his practical skills before he could justify even attempting to take a capa. Maybe Eva wouldn’t work out long-term, but he didn’t want to think about that. Plenty of time to see where that river went. Tomorrow he would find her and talk to her. But tonight he had to deal with Ghurn.   Even that prospect, which used to fill him with dread, couldn’t dampen his spirits now. He had a plan, and while it wasn’t what he would have preferred, it was good enough, and it would make Ghurn happy.   She really didn’t belong here. He’d always known it, but had been in denial, and recognized it now. He and Liasha were true Uizis, but Ghurn wasn’t, and it was a disservice to her to try to pound her into the mold and try to build his own type of sand castle with her. She was old enough to design her own sand castle now, and continue redesigning it each time the waves knocked it down.   Once again, the tide had crept in beneath his feet and converted the loose, unstable sand into a firm foundation on which to walk. His head held high, he sauntered home to meet his daughter and give her the good news.

Links:
Ghurn
Ao'ulua Lioveo
Evalo'uria
Ya'inio Mialovua
Uizi
Uiziao
Followed by Hard Bargain

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!