The wanderer, p.11
The Wanderer, page 11
part #1 of The Nogud Legacy Series
Yuki was clearly talking to Viola now, but she didn’t look at her directly.
Yuki continued, “That girl might think that she was poor because few men bid for her and the price was low. If she does, she’s foolish and doesn’t recognize the gem that is a man who sees her for what she is and not what she does. If the man hadn’t desired her in particular, he would wait until another day. He didn’t pay her fee because she’s not worth much, but instead he was able to save his money for a better house for her because he chose more wisely than the rest.”
She looked directly at Viola now and asked, “You aren’t a foolish girl, are you?”
Viola exclaimed, “No mother! Not at all. I understand your lesson and I never felt foolish like you described. Not for an instant!”
Yuki looked sternly at me and I answered her gaze by saying, “Mother Yuki, I won’t say the amount of my arrangement that I made with the Merchant, but I will say that I was willing to pay a thousand times more if necessary. I did as you instruct me and counted it best to save as much as I could so that I could spend it at home, not so that he could spend it in a village far away. I went immediately, even before going to bed, and paid for the license. I have it if you want to see! And I’m going to the jeweler at first light. I would have gone before…”
Viola grinned and said, “It’s true! The wonderful fool tried to take me to the jeweler before my first experience, and then he tried to climb out of bed and drag me there before I’d finished having my time with him. He is a wonderful fool in some ways and I couldn’t be more in love.”
Yuki smiled now and said, “Good. I’d hate for my new son-in-law to be scolded on his wedding day.” She placed her hands on the table and started to stand and said, “Are we done? I have a room to prepare.”
I said, “Wait, no, I’ve learned a lot, but I haven’t asked my real question.”
Yuki sat back down and said, “Is it going to be a long night? How can I help you?”
Tanya said, “Joshua, how did you know to ask our Yuki? I didn’t know the things that she explained just now. I learned too.”
Susan said, “I think that we all did. I look forward to Joshua’s real question. I’m very intrigued now.”
I said, “Yuki, after the event, there was another. A girl in a course robe with a hood over her face and she couldn’t be seen at all. When she was brought, all of the men left.”
Yuki sighed and said, “The Nogud. It’s a sad tale. And it makes me angry. Do you want to hear it? It won’t be a happy talk.”
I said, “I want to hear it very much. The thing pricked my heart and I need to understand it.”
Susan said, “We all do. Yuki, can you tell us things that we don’t know? Has Joshua asked you in particular for a reason, or was he lucky?”
Yuki hung her head, “If we go down this road, everything changes. Have you ever come to a place and you know that if you take one more step or ask one more question, or if you don’t turn and run in that instant, that the world will change and a door will open that can never be shut?”
Susan said, “Yuki, my love, I faced one such door today and I walked through. This is my fault. Whatever door you face, it’s my fault for opening it. If I’d turned this young man away when he came to me, we wouldn’t be here right now and everything would be the same as it was last night. It sounds like a dark door that we stand at now. But it seems that it must have a purpose.”
Yuki said, “No, not dark. It’s just that the lamp has never been lit. If you walk it with me, I will turn on the light and we will look inside. But it’s a sad thing.”
I said, “I asked the right woman. I need to know. If anyone wants to leave, I’ll stay and talk to Yuki alone and then only she and I will know it.”
Yuki said, “No, all of us need to know. If anyone did not need to know, it would be you and Viola. The truth is that what I will tell you would be better if the entire village knew it. But they can’t. It’s a secret of shame to us all in my opinion. If we are good people with hearts of compassion, there will be tears. You want to know about the Nogud? Only a very kind man would ever want to know. The Merchant of Women is kind beyond others, but even he doesn’t know the full story of it. Joshua, how did you come to us? To this one farm in this one village? There are so many others, but you come here and you open a door that was locked and hidden.”
Yuki looked at Paul and said, “Paul, I will tell you about it. My word, when you sucked my tit this evening, I thought that I was in heaven again, and now I’ll pass through hell. I protested, but you know that I love you. No, you don’t know. I’ve lied to you. I haven’t told you that I love you like I do. I act the surly hag because I love you.”
Paul interrupted, “Yuki, let me tell you a secret. No, Tanya, tell her for me so that she can believe it more easily.”
Tanya reached out and held Yuki’s hand and said, “Yuki, while you cleared the dishes, Paul told us to go and take away your bed so that you would have no choice but to share with us tonight. And he made it clear that it was for intimacy, not convenience.”
Yuki looked at Paul and he nodded in agreement.
Yuki said gravely, “We shall see. I’ll tell you about the Nogud. And we shall see. Joshua, the Nogud are the untouchable women. They are said to be hideously ugly and deformed. They are said to be weak and worthless. They are not allowed to mix with others and they never serve food or touch any clothing but their own. They never sit at a table and have a pleasant conversation and no man or woman touches their skin and makes them feel warm or wanted. It’s said that they have an inferior sexual response and that they can never be a mate because a man will never be able to have any pleasure with them. So, they are used as laborers in light work. They clean a stable or carry small tools or bags for builders at a construction site. Sometimes they will run an errand and deliver a package, but not much else.”
Suddenly the look on her face turned to anger and her voice lowered as she continued, “The thing is that it’s a lie. I don’t blame any of you. It’s what we’re taught. Everyone knows what I have said. What they don’t know is that it’s a lie. It’s all a lie. But if we expose the lie, our lives would be in danger. In fact, some of us would die from the shame of it. I may. Except for a reason that you may hear in a moment, I would have thrown myself in the river with a rock around my neck already.”
I said, “Yuki, you’re truly compassionate. Please, tell me all of it. Let me tell you something. I heard women say a blessing. Bless you little sister, I hope you find happiness someday. I thought, I know something about blessings. This isn’t a true blessing. A true blessing would change their fate, not remind them of their sadness. If I can, I’m going to help find a way to change those words into actions.”
Yuki looked at me and said, “You’re a very good man. Here, let me go on. The Nogud are smaller than other women, but no smaller than our…um, our dear Viola here.”
Yuki looked suspiciously at Viola, but tried to hide her thought and perhaps only Susan and I saw it.
She continued, “Yes um, but they aren’t deformed or hideous. They are as attractive as any, and in some ways…” she checked herself again and looked at Viola as she said, “…even pretty in their own way. Um, so there’s no reason that they should be shunned. I don’t know why this was started, but it should be abolished, but there’s no hope of it. And, as for their defective sexual response, what a lie! It’s the women who do the examinations who are defective hateful old hags. They should all burn in hell and the heavens would applaud us for lighting the fire if there is any compassion up there.”
Yuki was angry and animated and about to start sobbing. She composed herself some.
She went on, “If you want proof, I will prove it, but if you just trust me, I will save the proof. They are not hideous. Some of these girls have very beautiful figures. I’ve seen some with breasts that would make men’s mouths water.”
Tanya said, “You’ve seen them? Without the tunic and hood?”
Yuki said, “I have seen them. Long toned legs, high firm breasts, radiant faces like angels. And I bet that our new son appreciates a fine looking bottom as well. I’ve seen girls that if you judge on beauty alone, if you have an eye for true beauty and not just common fashion, a man like our young hero really would pay a thousand coins or more. They are intelligent and wonderful. If they were released upon the world, it would be others who wore the hoods instead of night dresses!”
She was shouting now and she caught herself and quieted.
She continued more calmly, “It’s not that they have no sexual response. If they didn’t, it would be difficult to truly please a man, as they say. A man wants to know that his brides think he’s pleasurable to them. I hear all of you at night, squealing and moaning at times, and before you stop me, my opinion is that it’s not nearly often enough. Nor loud enough either. I pray for you that Paul does grow a stiff one and is able to use it more than he does now by ten times. But the point is this. It isn’t that they have no sexual response, it’s that they have a sexual response that’s explosive. Do you really think that a woman who gushes between her legs when her lover winks at her is a harlot? Will she throw herself in the street and beg any man who passes by to shove his tiny thing at her and that she’ll pay him to do it? No! She’ll grab her own man and drag him to a private spot on the least provocation, or press her hard nipples against his arm as they walk, but only her lover is attractive to her. The Nogud are told that because they orgasm before other women are done blowing their noses, that that are defective and destined for harlotry! Have you ever had the little death from a simple kiss? Or better yet while sucking Paul’s shaft? Given the chance, the little sister would. But she isn’t given the chance. We say, ‘oh, we hope you find happiness you poor defective creature’. But it’s a horrendous lie! We say that we bless them and all the while we enslave them instead.”
Yuki calmed herself one more time and said, “This isn’t the men’s fault. I don’t know where this custom came from. It was already established by the time I was placed in the school for my examination. It is abominable. I will leave in the morning.”
Paul gasped, “What do you mean? If you mean that you’ll leave to work in the shop, fine, but if you mean that you’re going to run away, you will do no such thing!”
Yuki looked sternly at Paul from where they sat opposite each other.
Without taking her eyes off of Paul, she said slowly and deliberately, “Joshua ask me again if I have children.”
I spoke reverently and asked, “Mother Yuki, do you have children?”
Still looking at Paul she said, “I do. Two lovely daughters. They are beautiful and gracious and intelligent. They are both untouchable, the same as their mother. When their mother was young, she was judged. The robes of the Nogud were put on her. She was given to the Merchant of Women and taken to one village after another. For two years she had no home. One day, a man had pity on her and took her to live in his barn. The man had a son, and over time, the son came to know the Nogud and even fell in love with her. His father and mother threw them into the street. The boy went to a nearby village and bought a dress and took it to her and they went and hid in the woods. They moved from place to place and after some time, no one knew that she was Nogud. For one thing, she put on weight and looked just like other women. Because she was like other women. My daughters were like me and when they went to the school, they never returned. At the time I didn’t understand why I’d been called Nogud. I wasn’t hideous and deformed and I certainly made my mate happy, so I had no fear of sending my daughters to the school. I will leave in the morning.”
Paul said, “You will not! Amanda and Tanya, Yuki is loved by me and she is certainly not untouchable and you saw me touch her before dinner. We’ll straighten this out and she is not to leave this house until it’s settled. Lock her in her room if you must.”
Tanya cried out, “Yuki, don’t be stupid. This is your home and we have told you that you won’t sleep alone another night. No one will know and it isn’t true anyway. Promise us that you won’t run away!”
Yuki said simply, “We’ll see.”
Paul said, “Tanya, Amanda, will you go and start preparing the room for the children? I need to talk to Yuki. Will you give us privacy for a little while?”
Amanda and Tanya stood up and Amanda said, “Of course. And Yuki, we love you, don’t run away!”
When the two of them were gone, Yuki stood up and came to where I sat and said, “Move over magician.”
I got up and took the seat next to me and Yuki sat next to Paul, across from Susan. This put Paul at the end of the table, Yuki and Susan at his left and Right, and Viola and I across from each other.
When Yuki was seated, she looked at Paul and Susan, and then at me and Viola and said, “Now you rascals, tell what you’re up to.”
Chapter 11 Yuki Hears the Plans
Paul looked at Yuki and said, “Yuki, what’s with you? You terrified us. And now you calmly say to tell you what we are doing as if there’s a plan.”
Yuki smiled now and grabbed Paul’s hand.
She said, “A magician always has a plan and you two consort with a powerful wizard and there must be a plan. He asks me questions that no one knows to ask or who to ask them of. Tell me what it is. Or do you want me to tell you what I know? There’s no use denying it. We can keep the other two in the dark until you’re ready, but with me you’ve already revealed too much.”
We all sat silent looking at each other and finally Yuki said, “OK. Me it is. Here’s what we have. Let’s see. Joshua comes to the village and goes to the shop and turns the world upside down. Why does he go to a dress shop to turn the world on its head and not somewhere else? It’s because he needs a dress. But not just any dress. He has a problem and he needs Susan’s help to solve his problem with a dress. Now, Joshua is a treasure hunter. And he has been to the event and now he needs a dress. He needs it because he has a beautiful woman that he loves and who loves him and he has just met her if I guess right. He doesn’t know what the Nogud are and he’s new in town and as the event ends, the Merchant says, ‘come here boy. Have pity on this Nogud’. Our hero is no fool and he is a stranger in a strange land, so he takes the Nogud as a guide for his first days here.
At this point, he needs a place to stay and you said that he has a room at the inn. I think that what happens next is that for some reason that we don’t go in to, Joshua learns the true nature of the untouchables. If she took off her clothes, he probably lost all of his senses and drooled a bit, and he hatched a plan to keep her and make her happy. So, he rushed to the dress shop on his way to pay for the license so that his treasure couldn’t be taken away from him. He couldn’t appear for a license with an untouchable, so he had a problem and Susan was the perfect one to solve it.
After getting the dress, and this makes me laugh hard, I bet that he took her for the license and the Merchant thought that he brought some other girl. What did you say to him?”
I said, “I told him that the Nogud was useful and that I’d care for her, but that I’d left her elsewhere and that I would pay the coins that he’d asked and that I wanted a license for Viola besides.”
Yuki said, “So neither he nor the registrar knew what you did. Because they’d never seen Viola either. And so, in a matter of an hour, where once there was an untouchable, now a pretty girl with a wonderful man sits at our table and graces us and clears the dishes and the world hasn’t stopped spinning and we aren’t hit by lightning bolts. Paul, if you mean it, I will share your bed. I loved you before, but I love you more for being a part of this.”
Susan said, “Yuki, can you really orgasm just from a kiss or strong emotions? Not just feel like you’re getting ready, but actually climax?”
Yuki laughed, “Susan, I erupted while he sucked my nipple, and it took less than a minute. Of course, I hadn’t been touched for a very long time, and after the bawdy talk that we had, and the fact that I love him so much already, given a minute more, his lap would have showed the puddle forming between my legs. I got up just in time.”
Susan said, “I’m so glad to hear it, um but if that’s the truth, before you hear all of what we have to say, you’d better go run and get a towel to sit on.”
Yuki looked interested and said, “You think so? Now this intrigues me very much. But unless you’re ready to tell me all of it, I’ll keep going. But do I have it pretty much right so far? I thought so. Hey, what did you do with the tunic and hood.”
