Marva glanced over her shoulder at him. Her smile was sweet encouragement. Her lips were red and full. Desire was as red as that mouth! And Allyn knew he would never turn back!
They moved into the deeper woods, where the heavy lacing trees made a green roofing to shelter them from seekers of the sky. Keeven caught an animal emerging from its burrow. The brother and sister worked in quiet union skinning and cooking dinner. They were skilled in making fires without smoke.
Used to dehydrated foods, Allyn was amazed at the savoriness of this meat. He watched his companions lick the juices from their fingers, and did likewise. Then wiping his hands on leaves, he sank back with a sigh on the fragrant pine nettled ground, while they destroyed all evidence of their repast.
Nothing untoward happened that first day of their journey. At dusk of the second they camped at the bank of a rushing brook. Keeven waded downstream to spear fish. Marva sat on the bank bathing her feet in the fresh water while Allyn stood close by. She rose, and stepped on a sharp rock. With a small cry her hands flailed. She almost fell backwards into the stream. Allyn's arms shot out. He pulled her so that she fell against him.
He did not move. Nor she. She was warm, her body like sunheat. There was a fresh pine fragrance from her hair. She came not as high as his shoulder. They were short, these Olmen, and she was not quite six foot. Her mouth was beneath his, full and red and hot as blood.
He kissed that mouth, tart, delicious as wild strawberries. And her arms went around him in savage response.
This was mad! Mad beyond any madness! This was passion beyond legends, forgotten by Numan, tabooed by Olman.
Close to his face, hers yearned. Still she drew away slowly, out of the circle of his arms. "This is forbidden!" she whispered. She touched her sweet curved breast, "It hammers like the warning drum of the village: 'Numan and Olman cannot mate. Numen are inhuman. Mating is impossible.'" Her voice broke.
Under the agony in her eyes his hands fell to his sides like stones. He did not stop her when she ran from him into the grove of trees. He stood there, shaken by desire and by the ingrained lesson of years—Olmen are beasts. A man does not mate with the beast!