Medicine Woman Part 3
MEDICINE WOMAN
PART THREE ANNIKA.
We lay behind a small crest overlooking the camp of the Kahkenya.
Their warriors were grouped at one end and seemed to be preparing weapons for some battle. The women and children were going about their daily chores and the older folk had retired to a shaded area under a grove of trees to discuss their interests. It was a typical Lerouge encampment.
"Hannah go back and wait with the horses."
Shawn waved me back to where we had tethered our horses under a treed copse a hundred metres or so from the crested rise.
"No," I said.
"Woman do as I tell you."
"And what use will I be to the wounded then?"
"Ater we triumph you may come and attend as you will."
"And many will die I am sure while I await your permission to come forward."
"Woman you will go back and wait with the horses."
"Husband, I will not! I will come forward with the warriors. Not in the front line but close behind."
"Hannah......................oh do what you wish, but don't get in the way and don't get yourself killed."
"I'll be very careful my darling."
I blew him a kiss and he looked at me hard and then shook his head in weary frustration.
I kept low and watched the goings on below.
One of the women, a red haired woman, had the pale white skin and freckles that said she was no Lerouge but a Leblanc and as such I realised she must be a slave. I watched fascinated as she moved around the encampment with a fluid grace that is inherent and can never be learnt. She was abused by the other women and largely ignored by the men, although one or two cast long glances at her which hinted of an aching desire and I knew that this woman's nights would not be easy. She wore only a brief breech clout and an abbreviated open coat and the swell of her breasts and hips was apparent even from my place of concealement.
The men conferred and then the signal went out from Hatch and my tribesmen rushed over the crest and down into the camp of the Kahkenya. I galloped along fifty metres behind, carrying my basket of medicines.
Such was the surprise nature of our attack that our warriors were amongst the enemy before they fully realised what was happening and as they grabbed for their weapons our men had already started the killing. I stooped briefly to look at one of our warriors who had twisted his ankle in a fall.
"Keep still and I will be back soon," I told him and kept running.
I passed two Kahkenya men who were beyond my help, their faces bloodied and their chests torn open.
I stopped to bind a cut in the forearm of another of our warriors.
The fighting was over, the Kahkenya defeated and the killing had started.
I rushed up to Hatch.
"Stop the killing," I cried, "they are beaten, you have won, now let them submit and stop this bloodshed."
"What woman?" he said, "now we kill as they would have killed us."
"No!!" I shouted.
"Hannah, leave this to men," said Shawn appearing beside Hatch, "go to our wounded."
"I shall," I said, "but first the pointless slaughter must stop."
"It is not your place to talk woman," shouted Hatch.
"They are beaten, let them submit and you can join with this tribe to become even stronger."
"There is truth in that," someone said.
I pushed between Hatch and Shawn, "People of Kahkenya do you submit to Hatch leadman of the Plains Lerouge!"
The warriors nodded and threw down their arms and the women started a keening song of submission and of death.
"Now stop the killing," I told Hatch.
"Gods woman you test my patience and you try your luck," he said but then he turned to our men and said "Enough, let them be."
I moved amongst our men cleaning and binding cuts and mending heads and strapped the sprained ankle of the man I had passed earlier. Then I attended to five or six of the Kakenya who had battle wounds. Several others were beyond my or anyone's help. I straightened up and saw one of our warriors dragging the body of the red haired woman away.
"What is wrong with the woman?" I said.
"She has been clubbed and is but a slave, we will finish her now."
"No you won't, leave her with me."
"But............................."
"No but! leave her!"
They dumped her and walked off muttering at me.
The woman had a vicious club wound to her temple and as I cleaned it and then applied salving balm her eyelids fluttered and she came awake."
"Oh am I then dead and in paradise that someone should care for me?"
"No, you are not dead and this is certainly not paradise and I am no life spirit believe me."
She groaned as I rubbed the balm onto her horrid blackened bruise.
"What is your name woman?" I asked.
"They call me Annika," she said. "and I am a slave."
"Well Annika," I told her, "now you are mine. My property although no longer a slave."
Shawn walked over.
"You have a gall Hannah I'll say that for you."
"Oh?" I had noticed that Annika's left foot was twisted and blackened at the ankle. "Does this hurt?" I asked palpating it gently.
"Oooooooh," she cried out.
"Can you stand?" I asked her.
"Help me I will try."
I got an arm under her shoulders and as I lifted she stood and wobbled and then put her weight on the blackened ankle and all of the blood drained from her face and she shrieked in pain and fell heavily to the ground.
"I will bind it and you shall have to ride on our journey home."
"Hannah," said Shawn, "I am talking to you."
"Yes, yes husband I hear you and yes I am a pushy bitch and have changed everyone's plans and all in all I am a dreadful vixen and I could have told you that when you married me if you had asked."
"Sheesh," he said and Annika watched us from saucered eyes.
"Now have the men rig a travois for Annika to ride on and tell Hatch to make haste and we will all return to our village where the Kahkenya will become part of our expanded tribe.
He looked at me as though we had just met and then stomped off.
I bound Annika's ankle and we sat and waited while she told me her story. It was simple and like my own story it happened all the time. A Kahkenya raid on her Leblanc home and she had been knocked out and carried off and, being so white and red haired and very freckled, she was considered unattractive by the Kahkenya warriors and so had found no champion as I had found Shawn and had thus been condemned to doing the lowest chores for all of the women of the tribe.
"You will be my helper and my assistant," I told her.
We journeyed home with Annika carried in a travois behind one of the captured horses. The Kahkenya had agreed to join with our tribe and we Plains Lerouge had now become almost doubled in size. Hatch thought this a great achievement and constantly told us how he would make us the strongest of all the Lerouge tribes.
We all agreed that our leadman was the cleverest of all such chieftains.
At home, back in my hut I set about my garden and my clinic with a will. Annika could now walk with the aid of a stick and she helped me in the garden and she also showed great aptitude for the healing arts and willingly worked with me in my clinic and on my rounds. With the extra people a lot of building activity was underway and I found myself with many more patients to see and deal with. Annika had become my best friend as well as my helper and Shawn, although feeling a little outnumbered had taken to having two women in his hut very well. I had noticed that at times he watched slyly as Annika moved around singing to herself as she was wont to do. I had also talked intimately with Annika and we had come to a secret girls only agreement and so when it came time that my monthlies beset me and as was always the case I was laid low for a day or two, I said to Shawn that because I was unwell was no reason that he should suffer and leading Annika out I disrobed her so that her gorgeous white womanliness was displayed and told him that she, like me, existed to pleasure him.
He was taken aback but so wonderfully soft and caring was Annika that she soon led him to her bed where they coupled strenuously.
I watched, my emotions in turmoil.
I loved that my husband whom I dearly loved and my new girl friend whom I also loved should share this most intimate of experiences, but I also felt just a little jealous that it was not me and yet over riding everything I was very, very aroused by watching their naked bodies welded together in hot wet lust.
Annika and I finished up our clinic.
As well as my own work from home, we worked twice a week in the big hut in the village with the blessing and help of Mathilde. Today we had treated one of the warriors for wounds suffered in a run in with a bear and had purged two children who fell into the creek and ingested the muck near the beaver runs and had all felt the tummy of one of the Kahkenya women who was with child and was having a difficult time of it. I feared that the child was lying wrongly and after talking to Mathilde and Annika we all agreed she should attend every day while we tried to alter this condition with exercise and manipulation. I also spoke firmly to her man about leaving his poor woman in peace until the birth should come.
When we had finished up I walked down to the creek bank with Annika and we sat together under the big trees.
I flipped a flat stone at the water and it sank immediately. I knew many people who could skim such a missile across the surface and get as many as six or more skips. I wondered what it was that I did wrong.
"Hannah," said Annika.
"Yes Annika."
"I cannot live with you and Shawn forever, I should have my own hut."
"Annika, I truly appreciate the work you do with me and I see no great rush for you to leave. Anyway, it won't be long before you are claimed by one or other of the warriors."
"None look at me Hannah, I am considered very ugly."
"Rubbish, you are just different."
"Too different I fear."
"You are pretty, you have great hair and your bubbies are big and lovely and you are certainly a wonderful lover. I fear my Shawn may dump me one day and run away with you.
She laughed, "That will never happen and you know it Hannah. Shawn thinks the sun rises in and lives with you."
"Hmmm, sometimes, maybe when he isn't telling me I am driving him mad."
"He grumbles but he loves the changes you have brought to his home and he is very proud of your achievements."
"Yeah well......"
"Besides he only needs me when you are unavailable."
"A man must be kept happy."
"I could keep one happy."
"And so you shall. It is my main task from now on."
She sighed.
"If only it were so simple."
"Alright girlfriend," I said, "who have you got your eye on?"
"There is one, the warrior Dav."
"That useless young wastrel. Oh I'll grant you he is a very good looking youth what with his long black hair and his long slender muscular body and no doubt he can give a woman much satisfaction but he runs with the other young bucks and shows no interest in anything but himself and his own freedom."
"I think he is cute."
"Hmmm, well no accounting for taste. We shall see."
That night as I lay in Shawn's arms I said softly, "We must find a partner for Annika."
"Yes wife."
"Stop nuzzling and listen to me. I have decided Dav is the man."
"That wastrel?"
"He is a good strong lad and will welcome a good woman and there is none better than Annika. Problem is he doesn't know he needs her and will have to be told."
"Not by me."
"Husband, how did you know you wanted me?"
"I saw you and thought she looks sound of limb and not totally ugly."
"Oh thanks and when did you know you loved me?"
"Did I say I loved you?"
I thumped him.
"When did you know you loved me? Come on spill the beans big guy."
"When I saw you were a good house woman."
"And........................................?"
"When I bedded you or did you bed me?"
"Me? I was a poor weak virgin girl and you took me like the beast you are."
"Did I? Lets do it again, now."
"When we have decided Dav's fate and not before."
"I shall invite the poor fool here and you and Annika can take it from there."
"Good."
Now, so I am the beast am I?"
I started to giggle but needed my breath for other things.
Dav came to our home and we plied him with food and drink.
Annika wore a lovely shift that clung to her body like a second skin and I had spent the large part of an afternoon brushing her hair and applying colours and powders to her face so that she looked amazingly beautiful. When Shawn saw her he sucked in his breath and said, "Its a good thing you are here Hannah or I would take your friend myself."
"Looks good eh?" I said.
"Looks gorgeous," he agreed.
After we had dined I suggested that we dance and we cleared the floor of the hut and we girls danced while the men watched. Then we all danced together before I took Shawn and said, "Let us dance as couples in the Leblanc way."
I pulled Shawn toward me and we pirouetted away.
"Come you two," I shouted at Dav and Annika, "come Dav, Annika will show you."
He took her clumsily and Annika wrapped herself to him as though she were his missing half. Her breasts pressed against his chest and I could see her nipples protruding through the material. Her face rested near his neck and she was blowing gently into the hollow of his throat.
"Hmmmmph," said Shawn and he could see as could I, that Dav's penis had taken control and was thrusting and bulging against his breeks.
Annika slid her hands across Dav's back and then up to the back of his head.
"This Leblanc dancing is making me hot," Said Dav.
Sure is, I thought.
"Come Annika we will take some air."
They slipped outside and were gone for maybe a half hour. Shawn sat with me. "Well woman, you two ambushed that poor lad that's for sure."
I smiled.
When they came back inside Annika's hair looked as though it had been caught in a wind storm and her dress was rumpled and looked as though it had been donned in haste and she was flushed but nowhere near as flushed as Dav who looked very hot and very pink and stunned and happy. Very happy.
"I am going to walk out with Annika if that is alright with you Shawn?"
"Of course."
As Annika had been living in our house it was custom for a suitor to ask Shawn's permission.
Later that evening Annika and I giggled over her conquest.
"Go for the jugular now girlfriend," I told her, "don't give him a moment's peace."
For the next week Dav came every night and he and Annika walked out together. After every evening I pumped her as to what was happening. She, she told me, was fucking his brains out and she expected a quick victory.
"And you," I asked, "do you like him?"
"I love him to distraction Hannah."
"Great."
They wed ten days after Dav first came to our hut and everyone agreed Annika was a brave girl to take on this wild man.
Mathilde and I knew that his wildness was somewhat tamed.
Annika and Dav built a hut near ours and she continued helping me with my healing chores. We remained inseperable and spent the great part of every day together. Annika was by now a very accomplished healer and so when Hatch announced that he sought further conquests, not only did our menfolk prepare for battle but we two ladies prepared to accompany them.