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Alexandra awoke in familiar surroundings. Opening her tired eyes she could see a young tribesman, and a shaman standing over her. The swimming was most likely a dream. Her muscles still ached fiercely, and she had some new muscles in places where she had no, or little muscles before, and she still had the taste of blood in her mouth from that nightmare before the dream took place.
Was it really a dream? It seemed so real to her. Her muscles were also very lean, and she was naked except for the thin linen shift she wore. Looking around she was in the tent that she had come to live in when she first came here.
“Alexandra we waited for you to ask us to let you out of the cage, but when we looked in it you were not there. You were somewhere we don’t know for at least fifteen years, and you have been asleep for about two years since we found you. Now that you are finally awake there are many chores that you must do before you will be allowed to partake in the next celebration which will take place six months from now.
“Judging by when you came to us seventeen years ago you looked twenty, it would be just after your thirty-seventh birthday right now. Even though you still look twenty, if not a fitter twenty than when you first came to us and that means that you have been gone for at least fifteen years, which is astronomical to say the least. You have a lot of catching up to do. This is Jentus he is one of my acolytes. He will show you what you must do. Go with him.”
Alexandra was puzzled about how she could have been away for fifteen years. That would account for her new size and it would also make her on her way to about three hundred and sixty-nine or more years old. She could not believe that she only had a strict diet of lily pads and water for the past fifteen or more years.
It would be hard to eat any flesh of any kind especially the flesh off of another Sevlin or even worse a Dochani like herself. Thinking about what would be in store for her for the next six months brought her back to reality and it was then that she realized Jentus was now shouting at her.
“Alexandra! Mutt! Maggot!”
“Oh! Uh! I am sorry, Jentus. What do you want?” Alexandra said with a smirk lined with a bit of bitterness from remembering what had happened to her on this planet via this tribe as though it was only yesterday.
What she said had come out more like a snarl than the bitterness that she felt right now. She bit her lip with a grimace to stop herself from crying. Her despair seemed to get to Jentus and his impatience at waiting for her melted from his face too quickly be replaced with shame.
Jentus sniffed the air between him and Alexandra, “The shaman had warned me of your stench, but all that I can smell is lilies and fresh pine cones. I do not understand how you got away with not doing any of the stuff that the typical slaves do and now they want me to train you to hunt. Their request for you not to wear clothes is pathetic.”
He reluctantly closed his gaping mouth when he had realized that he had left it open while he stared in her direction as though his eyes could move blankets.
“I am hard pressed with containing myself and I am sure that no one would do anything to me if I did lay hands on you, but that is not me and besides you are only what at least thirty nine and look twenty, too young for me. If it is hard for me being the most devout of the shaman’s professed acolytes it will be very hard for the others. I suppose that is the reason I was asked to train you.
“We will be away from the camp for the next six months in order to train you in the arts of hunting. Mind you, it won’t be till you earn that by real hunting that you will really become a hunter.”
Alexandra looked at Jentus and figured that he was about forty or older. For a Sevlin he was in good shape for that age,
“I was in another place far away from here. I think it was even another planet. I think I ate lily pads and drank fresh water all of the time I was there. I swam in a marsh most of the time that I was there. How old are you?”
Jentus had a perplexed look on his face as though he was bothered by his age being known and his brows were furrowed, his eyes were focused intently on Alexandra,
“Teleportation? Are you sure it was another planet? Or was it just another place on Sevle? I have heard that the other Dochani have experienced this, but they were found dead. How do you account for that?
“Are you sure it was not a dream despite smelling so nice? I am fifty-two, but what has my age to do with your training?” Jentus looked frustrated and angry like he needed to go to the washroom real bad.
“Jentus, it had to be teleportation. Of course it was another planet. Yes, I am a Dochani and I happen to still be alive, a real Dochani.”
She blurted out not meaning to mention the fact that she was a real Dochani.
“I just don’t know how to account for that. I don’t know how to account for much these days. My body is always sore inside and out and I just try to stay alive. Thank you for saying that I smell nice, but it was not a dream because I show all physical and mental signs that it was very real, as real as you and I talking or shouting here right now.
“You’re fifty-two and I am what I am. If I told you how old I was, you would not believe me because it seems, like all Sevlin, you have made up your mind already. Sometimes I don’t even believe it myself, but I am here. What was that crack about the ‘I am hard pressed with containing myself and I am sure that no one would do anything to me if I did lay hands on you, but that is not me and besides you are only what at least thirty-nine and look twenty, too young for me’ because I don’t like it?
“Are you not supposed to train me in hunting instead of looking at my body? And one thing, are you gay?” She turned her back to him and covered her face with both hands as she began to cry for the first time after what had happened.
Jentus stepped back just in time to let Alexandra’s hand fly by his face without making contact,
“Ah! Come on! I was not the one to do that stuff to you as I was away on a hunt. I was just trying to have some fun just now. Twenty is a fine age and some consider it to be when a girl is a woman, but I am fifty-two for crying out loud. In all appearances you look twenty even though you were here for five years, were gone fifteen years and slept for two years, which is twenty-two years. Thus a total of forty-two but I cannot see passed your gorgeous twenty year old body at this time, I am sorry. I cannot see enough woman in you at this time.
“Well, if you did not stop to talk to me, we could have been on our way already. Let’s go, we must get some equipment. We also need to get you some clothes and no I am not gay. Some here are, but not me. I prefer women, but will eat anyone regardless of their preference. You will be a hunter soon and hunters must wear clothing.”