Forbidden Fruit (3 page)

“There are others like you here. Some go crazy when they eat of the Kum Kum tree. Others adapt and live with us. We welcome them as long as they are peaceful. The Gelfs do not destroy or kill any living things; not the trees, the swimmers in the water or the animals of the forest. Great Ost has given us the Kum Kum and the giant trees. Ost showed us how to use the green stones to communicate with him and other races. He brought us freedom from work and drudgery. Why would we need anything else?”

Renate reached out her hand and touched one gently. “Are they talking, Tamara? I can hear sounds but no words. Their skin is as soft as vervet fur. And look at their clothes. Are they made of flowers?”

“Do you have another of these devices?” Tamara pointed to her necklace. “My friend cannot understand your words.”

“Follow us and we will give your friend one when we return to our home.”

“Come on, Renate, they're friendly and want to take us to their home.” She pointed to her necklace. “They have another one of these translation devices there to give you.”

Renate hung back. “I don't think we should, Tamara. It could be a trap.”

Tamara took her friend's shoulders in both hands. “Renate, they said there are others like us, escapees from the Enders. I think they truly want to help us.”

Renate's pupils were dilated. She shook her head. “I'm so afraid.”

“Truly, Renate, could they treat us any worse than the Enders? If what they tell me is true, we will be safe with them.”

Renate nodded and allowed Tamara to take her hand and lead her out of their tree refuge to follow the small green people.

The two women trailed behind the small Gelfs deep into the forest. The trees looked so different and the woods were populated with small climbing animals, brightly-colored flying creatures and flowers bloomed everywhere. One of the Gelfs plucked a violet flower and munched as they walked. Even the floor of the forest looked different. The leaves were iridescent and the rocks sparkled with more of the green gems. No wonder the Enders didn't want anyone eating the fruit. They probably thought they'd gone insane. This world was so beautiful and all the Enders wished to see was what they destroyed and the crude civilization they'd built.

They reached a spot in the trees where ladders and climbing ropes hung from all the high branches. There were homes in the base of many of the larger trees with doors, windows, porches and planted flowers. Smoke billowed from a nearby chimney. It smelled like burning incense. When Tamara looked up, she saw walkways suspended from the branches connecting homes built into the tree crowns. It was like a fairy village.

“This is so beautiful.” Renate's voice held awe and wonder.

One of the Gelfs stopped beside a winding set of stairs that circled the trunk of a towering tree. “At the top, you will find a small home you may use. Dress yourself in the clothes you find there. We will welcome you as soon as you are dressed.”

They climbed the stairs. At the top a small door led into a round chamber. It was filled with ornate furniture carved from the local wood. The room was redolent with the fragrance of it. On a small bed, two dresses lay waiting for them. They seemed to have been made to fit their bigger forms, but when Tamara pulled one on she realized it was transparent. Her breasts and the line between the lips of her sex were clearly visible. When she looked at Renate, she gasped. Renate's yonis had grown and protruded like a man's sex organ. Her breasts had flattened and looked like those of a man.

Renate had put on one of the necklaces. It wrapped around her neck, gold and green leaves dangled from it like leaves on a tree branch. In the center hung one of the giant green gems. Renate's eyes were wide. “What's happening to me?”

She reached between her legs and gasped. “My yonis! It's enormous.” Then she moaned. “Touching it has made me so excited.”

She pulled Tamara close. Her hands wrapped around Tamara's face drawing her lips near. Tamara, unable to resist, thrust her long tongue into Renate's mouth. The kiss was so hot, Tamara began trembling with need. There was something in the atmosphere of this village, something in the air, or maybe it was the fruit they'd eaten, but she desired pleasure as never before.

She lifted the hem of Renate's gossamer gown and squeezed her yonis. It was as hard as any aroused man's sex organ. The opening was smaller, but it moved, seeking her hand. She dropped to her knees and took the swollen yonis into her mouth. Renate's moans grew even louder. She grabbed the back of Tamara's head and held a handful of hair as she thrust her hips against Tamara's sucking lips.

Tamara pulled Renate to the floor and fell back with her, legs spread wide. “What's wrong with us?” She gasped.

“Shhhh,” Renate hushed her, pushed her gown up and thrust the hard yonis into her aching sex. It filled Tamara as no man's organ ever had. She felt an orgasmic spasm approach and arched her back. Renate pinched both of her nipples hard and Tamara's spasm rippled through her sex. A flood of liquid gushed from the tip of the yonis into Tamara. It was hot and the smell of it quickly reached her nostrils. The scent was so intoxicating, she rolled Renate beneath her and pulled her heated sex off the yonis to look at it. The organ was bright red and pulsing.

It pulsed to the beat of her heart…the rhythm mesmerized her. She slid down and put the yonis into her mouth again. It tasted like the red fruit, delicious and sweet. As she sucked, more of the liquid flowed into her mouth and Renate began keening, a high song filled with longing and ecstasy. The sound of Renate's song and the feel of the yonis in her mouth filled Tamara with a need so great she could barely contain it. When the door opened and two of the Gelfs appeared, she leaped up, horrified.

“You are ready to be welcomed now. Come with me.” The Gelf held out his hand as Renate scrambled to her feet and stood shaking beside Tamara.

Tamara was so embarrassed. To be caught like this, on the floor, her mouth on her friend's sex, it was awful.

The Gelf seemed to read her mind. “Do not feel embarrassed. My name is G'fang. In our culture, we enjoy each other's bodies as much as we can. Great Ost has given us everything we need and encourages us to enjoy the pleasures offered by uniting with others. Come.”

Tamara took his hand and followed him. He chose to go up, not down. They arrived in the crown of the tree where many Gelfs gathered along with a small number of women from other races, obviously more escapees, and two men who looked to be young Enders. So there had been some who ate of the fruit before they became aware of its properties and forbade it to all in their compounds.

Two of the green people began beating a slow rhythm as the Gelfs surrounded the taller aliens. They joined hands and swayed to the sound of the drums. One sang a haunting melody in time to the music. The drum beats sped up and two of the green people took Tamara's hands. Two more took Renate's. Each of the outworlders had two Gelfs.

When all the aliens had partners, the drum beats changed rhythm and a flute player added a sensuous melody that went straight to Tamara's already aching sex. The two Gelfs led her to a nest hanging between two branches. When they pushed she fell back into the nest. Both Gelfs joined her, their hands touching her everywhere.

The biggest one said, “Do not be afraid, outworlder, relax and enjoy the gifts of Ost. My name is G'trell.” He indicated his companion. “G'pearl and I will introduce you now to the way of the Gelf.”

He slipped off his flower-like tunic of purple and red. Tamara gasped. His male sex organ had two branches. Both were moving in time to the music still ringing below. The two stalks of his organ grew and twined with each other. G'trell gently spread Tamara's legs and knelt between them while G'Pearl stroked her face.

G'pearl kissed her. Tamara's long tongue entwined with G'pearl's and her entire body burned with need. G'pearl took Tamara's hands and placed them on her huge ears. “Stroke them here,” she said.

When Tamara softly stroked the backs of the velvety ears, G'pearl crooned and closed her multi-colored eyes. She swayed back and forth as she removed her clothing. G'pearl was an obvious female. Her sex organ was as red as the fruit of the Kum Kum tree.

The petals of her sex opened on their own to reveal a golden core. Tamara stopped stroking G'pearl's ears. She wanted nothing more than to taste the sweet golden core of G'pearl's sex. Her buttocks were round like the globes of a fruit. She grasped them and pulled G'pearl onto her face as G'trell took each of her legs and lifted them high. He inserted his double pronged organ into her sex and her anus at the same time. The double penetration stretched her openings to their limit. The additional burning of the stretching just added to her pleasure. She gasped and shook, literally rigid with excitement.

G'pearl's sex tasted like the Kum Kum fruit. She licked and sucked it while G'Pearl sang and moaned, the sounds like the wind through the trees. G'trell moved in and out of her openings slowly and powerfully until the strongest orgasmic spasm of her life rushed through her in rippling waves that seemed to go on forever. Tamara lost consciousness and woke to find her lovers gone.

Was it a dream? Had they really pleasured her as no other had done in her entire life? Was this really what her life would now be like? She giggled and touched her aching sex. Would that be so bad? Or was there a catch? Was there something more to this world than what the Gelfs were showing them?

She pulled herself out of the nest, legs wobbly, and followed the flat trail carved into the giant tree branch back to the gathering place. Tables were set with leaf plates. G'pearl greeted her by grasping her waist and bending her head, offering the backs of her ears for Tamara to stroke. “Greetings, my lover. Did you rest peacefully?”

“Yes, how could I not after what you and G'trell did to me? Where are all the people?”

G'pearl waved her hand to indicate the many nests hanging in branches. The nests were alive with moans and songs like G'pearl had sung during her pleasuring. “They all enjoy the gift of personal gratification. Ost commands us to enjoy each other while we can. Soon it will be time for the Offering.” Her face grew grave. “Then we must pay Ost for all he has given us.”

Tamara sat down on a branch with one of the tables in front of her. G'pearl filled her plate with a fragrant stew of vegetables. “Do Gelfs ever eat meat?”

“Ost has forbidden us to eat meat at any time but during the Offering.”

“Is Ost your god, your deity?”

G'pearl tittered. “Oh no, he is a mighty being who rules this world. He came down from the sky and brought us out of the darkness. We are all his subjects and must pay tribute at the time of the Offering. There we will feast on the ‘meat.'”

“What happens at the Offering?”

“It is a private thing.”

“You mean the outworlders don't go?”

G'pearl tittered again. “Oh you will go, of course you will go. But the ritual of the Offering remains a secret only to be revealed at the Initiation.”

As Tamara listened to the songs coming from all the rustling nests hanging in the tree limbs, a fear rose in her chest. She knew it. This was all too good to be true. In life, she had learned, if you play you have to pay. Everyone had to pay. She wondered which nest held Renate.

When her friend returned to the gathering place to eat, they needed to have a long talk. Fear had taken root in Tamara's breast; fear of the Offering soon to come. Offering…somehow that word held a lot of options and none of them felt good.

When Renate returned to sit beside Tamara, her face was flushed and her golden skin held bronze notes. Tamara saw the other outworlders returning. They all wore expressions of extreme satisfaction. Did the Gelfs keep them sated with sexual pleasure so they went docilely to the Offering? She needed to know if the other outworlders had ever been to one.

She leaned close to Renate and whispered into her small ears. “Did your Gelfs mention the Offering to you?”

Renate's eyes were slits, her mouth slack. “No,” she murmured. “What is it?”

“I have a bad feeling, Renate. I think we should run.”

Renate chuckled. “You are being ridiculous, my lover. This is like heaven. Do you know what transpired in my nesting?” She sighed. “I have never felt so much love. How could this be unrighteous? These people love us.”

“Renate, they spoke to me of something to come soon called the Offering. At that ceremony we will meet Ost and eat something they called the meat. At least go with me to question the Ender sitting next to G'pearl.”

Renate turned on her and snarled. “You dragged me here. It is your fault I am not sleeping in my bed in the Ender slave cabin, so when I say to you I am happy here, listen.”

Tamara leaned back shocked. Renate was so brainwashed by the physical pleasures offered by the Gelfs, she could not even entertain an idea that this was not as it seemed. She ate sparingly of the stew, wiped her mouth on the napkin provided and rose. Renate did not seem to notice as she slipped around the circle to sit next to the oldest Ender male. Maybe he had been here long enough to know what the Offering was.

“May I sit?” She asked bowing slightly. “My name is Tamara.”

“I am Joshua,” the Ender said. “Of course, please sit.”

“G'pearl, may I take your place?”

Was it her imagination or had a flicker of something like anger passed across the amiable features of the Gelf? “As you wish.” G'Pearl rose and moved to take a seat beside one of the Gelfs playing a flute.

“It is nice to meet you, Joshua,” Tamara began.

“And you,” he said.

“I hate to pry, but have you been here long? I know the Enders forbid the eating of the Kum Kum. It seemed to me as though you must have eaten it before they made that decision.”