Tales of Erogenia: Book 1 - Epilogue

Epilogue

Zenaria swept the furs aside and ignoring the cold and her nudity stepped across to the rough planking and opened the shutters. It was still dark, but already she could hear the familiar sounds of the stockade stirring. She had been back only a week and sometimes it seemed as if she had never left. But some things had changed. One was the attitude toward her of the other warriors in the village. Where before she had been looked upon as a brash and foolish young woman, now she was accepted as one of them. Several of the men had already proposed sexual liaisons with them, at least until they learned her condition.

Tren had given her one final gift. She ran her hand across her belly sensing the gentle swell of early pregnancy. She wondered whether the child would be a boy or a girl. She really didn't care, but now she had one more reason to find Tren again. He had a right to know that he was the father of a barbarian warrior.

Her eyes sought out the place where she and Garrod had duelled. She had thought his betrayal unfinished business, but she had discovered that Garrod was no longer a factor in anyone's life. A hunting party had come across what was left of his body. Apparently he had been set upon by Urtts and dismembered and eaten. Out of respect for his family, Zenaria had kept his treachery to herself. What was past was past and revealing Garrod's deceit would have gained her nothing.

She was home now and in a few months she would be a mother and would also celebrate her eighteenth summer. Already her mother was integrating her into the leadership of the tribe, saddling her with minor duties in preparation for the time she would become queen. Zenaria did as her mother asked, but she knew that it would be many years before she became queen if it ever happened at all. Cirilia was not yet out of her thirties and still more than energetic, if the number of lovers she currently had was any indication.

And Zenaria had plans of her own. Her adventures had given her a small taste of the world, but it had only whetted her appetite. Her unborn child came first, but children in Snow Leopard society were looked upon as belonging to more than the mother or the father, if the father could be found. With some rather active young women it was difficult to tell.

Once the child was weaned he or she would became the responsibility of the tribe. There would be no lack of young girls and older women willing to take over the raising of the infant. The custom was so strongly followed that Zenaria had not even realized Cirilia was her mother until she was three years old, and she regarded several other women with the same affection normally reserved for a loving parent.

It left Zenaria free to choose. She could remain the dutiful mother or assume some other career. Whatever path she chose no one would fault her. She closed the shutters and climbed back under the furs. "Tren," she murmured, "you're not rid of me yet."

End of Book 1