Dustbath

Whistle burst in to the Mother Tree's kitchen and found his brother Wind and Sweetwind there. Eyes bright and face flushed with excitement, he nevertheless tried to play it cool. "Remember that dreamberry patch out by the beehive?" he said casually. "The one that Treesong coaxed into bearing fruit, about this time last turn?" Without waiting for a reply, he abandoned all attempts to hide his excitement. "It's doing it again!!"

Both the cooks jumped up with interest. It was well past the normal dreamberry season. "Is there much?" asked Wind.

"Is there! More than last turn!" Whistle turned to the corner of the kitchen and grabbed a large gathering basket. "And if we leave them another day they'll be overripe."

"We can't let that happen," chimed Sweetwind, grabbing a basket of her own.

Wind grabbed one as well, knocking over the stack of remaining baskets. "Sweetwind, let's get your aunt so she can show us how to make her special dried berries."

"Good idea." Vinetreasure had earned her name by her skills with all kinds of fruits and berries. She and her son No-Berries had been in the Holt for two moons now, but none of the berries that normally ripened during the Deathsleep season were suitable for her specialty. Sweetwind had described the dried flavored berries so glowingly that Wind was eager to learn to make them, or at least to try them. Sweetwind open-sent, **Vinetreasure! Come a-berrying with us! Dreamberries!** Both Vinetreasure and No-Berries appeared at the base of the Tree as the three elves emerged. Several other elves also responded to the call, and there was just enough baskets to go around.

"This makes sense," said Dreamstar to Willowsinger and Treesong as they wove through the forest. "Whistle told me that that patch didn't bear a single berry this Burningsun. Your shaping stuck, girl! That patch is a season behind the rest of the forest!"

Treesong giggled lightheartedly. She'd heard the same thing from Whistle that summer, and since then she had been worried that she'd hurt the bushes somehow. What a relief that they were bearing again!

The berry patch was quite a sight. Yellow, brown and flame-red leaves from the surrounding forest had fallen incongruously onto the fruitful bushes. Most of the birds that liked dreamberries were already gone on their long Whitecold journeys, and no elf had visited the patch. Berryvines dragged low to the ground with their burdens. Some of the berries were overripe. The elves quickly found that they had to be careful: the berries were so juicy they broke easily. But no matter, the berries that stayed whole went in the baskets. The rest went into happy purple-stained mouths. Soon everyone was pleasantly dream-buzzed as they harvested.

"Open, mother." At that cryptic comment, heads turned towards No-Berries. But Vinetreasure merely chuckled and opened her mouth wide. From about two elf-lengths away, her son threw a berry straight into her mouth. Treesong, not far from Vinetreasure, eagerly opened her mouth as well, and received the same.

"Open, cousin," the berry-flinger said, and Sweetwind, hardly past arm's length from him, obligingly opened her mouth. Unfortunately, she closed it after the first berry, and the other two berries thrown in immediate succession splattered on her face.

"Rrrr," she growled as she wiped her face with her arm.

"I told you to open," No-Berries said innocently. "I didn't tell you to close yet."

In reply Sweetwind threw a pair of berries herself, which splattered in No-Berries' ears. He yelped. "You deliberately aimed for my ears!"

"Who could miss them?" said Sweetwind mischievously. For this she got a volley of berries aimed at her own ears, but as she began advancing on her cousin menacingly with a handful of berrymush, some of the throws went wild. Sweetwind dried to squash the berrymush into his face and they began grappling in earnest. They grabbed at nearby branches for more ammunition and the juice and berry pulp flew. Dreamstar was just beginning to wonder if he should step in to halt this waste of dreamberries when Vinetreasure strode over to the two.

**Stop that this instant!!** she sent fiercely. The two separated immediately. **I'm ashamed of you! Wasting good berries! Behaving like cubs!** They hung their heads, but slyly exchanged glances. **And your clothes are a mess! Go and wash up now before the stains set!**

"We'll take your baskets back for you," Wind offered.

"Go on, go!" dismissed Vinetreasure.

The two turned and darted away, Stifler and Cloudfront following. They raced until they crossed the LittleRill, then slowed a bit. No-Berries was as happy as his cousin had ever seen him. "Why the big smile?" Sweetwind asked.

"It's mother, she hasn't disciplined me since father died," he replied. "It's good to see her getting her old vigor back. I was beginning to be afraid she'd never care about anything again."

"She's vigorous, all right!" exclaimed Sweetwind.

"We deserved it, didn't we? But I've done worse since we started traveling without her blinking an eye. Why, last newgreen I had collected some snake's eggs and we found a prairie hen's nest, so I switched one of the snake eggs in. She didn't say a word. Too bad we moved on before it hatched; that would have been something to see."

The two cousins waved at Nightfire and Rainbow Dreamer, sharpening their bow skills at the practice range, as they passed on their way to the dust bath. Soon it would be too cold to take a dust bath at all; snow would come down and cover the ground and soak the dust into mud. But today the Daystar seemed nostalgic for burningsun season and shone with all the warmth it could muster. The two elves were comfortably warm as they stripped at the edge of the dust patch.

Stifler, as usual, began rolling in the dust immediately. Cloudfront draped herself by the side of the dust patch fastidiously, as if to say, "I'm already clean." For a change, the elves had to postpone the pleasure of the bath to quickly clean their clothes and leathers before the stain could set. The powdery dust absorbed the dreamberry juice. Rubbing dust into hide and cloth drew the purple stain mostly out. Suddenly, No-Berries yelped, "That's it! I can't wait any longer!" and in a flash he flipped into the dust patch. He emitted soft grunts of pleasure as he twisted and turned on his back. He rolled over and sneezed. Sweetwind was done cleaning only her boots and gauntlets and belt. The tunic was old and worn anyway, so she threw it aside and launched herself into the dust bath as well.

Coated from head to toe in the powdery tan dust, the elves were now the same color all over and nearly indistinguishable from the swiftcat who tumbled around with them. Finished with his bath, Stifler retreated to the thick carpet of pine needles surrounding the dust patch, shook himself, and began grooming himself with his tongue. The two elves began grooming each other as usual.

They rubbed handfuls of dust into each other's skin until it tingled all over. The dry dust absorbed sweat, oils and the sticky dreamberry juice, and stimulated the skin. Soon Sweetwind's skin felt smooth and invigorated throughout. She initiated their traditional post-grooming ticklefight by attacking No-Berries' ribs on both sides, just below his armpits, from the front. He clamped his arms down in defense, shouting playfully. He twisted around to try to escape the unstoppable fingertips that still wriggled under his arms. He couldn't raise his arms to attack back without a simultaneous escalation of the attack on his ribs. Many shrieking laughs and some futile escape attempts later, that no longer sounded like a bad plan. He reached Sweetwind with some quick pokes to her stomach just above the belly button. She shrieked and tried to shield herself with one hand, doubling over. Now they each had one hand to attack and one to defend. He managed to get on top of her but he was already winded from laughter, so they were still evenly matched. Attacks and counter-attacks flew fast and wild. On the distant practice field, 'Bow and 'Fire heard their laughter faintly, like urgent peeps from a nestful of hungry chicks.

At last, gasping for breath, they called a truce. They lay on their backs, side by side, giggling and panting. Then No-Berries' arm snaked up Sweetwind's side, as if to attack again. She wiggled and tried to brush his arm away, but he pressed it firmly and gently against her waist and slid it slowly down her hip and thigh. Hypersensitive, her body tensed and quivered, expecting the touch to turn into a tickle at any moment. But the smooth powder was a lubricant and the caress slid over her sensitive spots without provoking laughter. The hairs stood up on the nape of her neck and she shivered instead. She turned towards him to look at him at the same time he turned towards her. His eyes were half-closed, whites showing, and she understood. They were both still panting hard. She slid closer to him and felt his erection, hard and smooth and powdery, hot and dry, sliding against her belly. She pushed closer and he moved back onto his back as she raised herself and glided over him. Sweetwind's nipples were hard and the skin on her breasts felt taut like wet leather as it dries and contracts.

Sweetwind slid gently, slowly over the male, thigh against thigh, penis and belly against soft belly, breast against chest, with only powdery dust between them. Her nipples dragged across his chest leaving dust-free trails in their wake; her right nipple was momentarily caught by his hard left nipple, and she moaned when it sprang free. She dropped slowly off the other side of him and sighed deeply as she rolled onto her back. At the same time No-Berries raised himself up and began to skim his body across hers in the same way. His dry lips brushed her cheek. The long elf-locks fell from his shoulders around her face, blotting out the sun and the sky. No-Berries was the whole world above her, and the world was nothing but him. The tip of his penis caught in her belly button and she could feel its dab of moisture. He paused, then tugged himself free just as she reached up to press him down against her. He moved to the side instead, so she rolled back up and slipped on top of him again. But now he was eager to be on top once more so he pushed with her momentum and they rolled until he could mount her. Now they had rolled all the way to the edge of the dust patch and could go no further.

Sweetwind spread her legs apart and No-Berries positioned himself between them. He maneuvered his hips until the tip of his erection touched Sweetwind's clitoris. She reached down and gently brushed the excess dust off the entire shaft. No-Berries then began to apply pressure; very slowly. Sweetwind's genitals were so engorged and slippery with wetness that his penis slid inside her with no hesitation at all. They moaned in unison as he penetrated deeper. She pulled her knees up until her feet were level with his buttocks, and wrapped her legs around him. Once more the curtain of elf-locks had descended around her, and she felt that they were completely wrapped up in each other, that the world and the moons could now vanish without the two elves noticing.

He nuzzled her cheeks and nose, and began a steady rocking motion. She gasped and shut her eyes. No-Berries turned his cheek to rub it against hers, and she reached up to nuzzle his earlobe. She licked the lobe and licked up along the edge of his ear, then teased the inside with her tongue and her breath. His breathing grew heavier and the rhythm of his rocking increased. Sweetwind felt a rush of heat seem to move down her arms and legs so that even the soles of her feet must have been flushed. She couldn't restrain her moans and she grasped her cousin's buttocks to urge him deeper inside. They both felt her vagina tighten around him as she came, and the sensation sent No-Berries over the edge as well. For long moments they were suspended in one position, clamped together like a grasping fist, straining toward each other. Then with a shared sigh he fell away from her, and their arms clasped each other loosely as they lay side by side again.

The sun hurt Sweetwind's eyes and she shut them. She wanted to keep the world out a little while longer. A dreamberry thought entered her head: It Might Have Been Like This. If the dreadful thing hadn't happened, if her family hadn't gone to trade with the trolls, she might still be living on the veldt with her family. She might have met No-Berries occasionally when he was growing up. They might have become lovemates and even lifemates, might have lived together and looked only to each other. They might have Recognized and had cubs of their own. It wasn't unknown for cousins to mate among her people, in fact her own parents were second cousins! A tear squeezed out of her eye, fortunately on the side away from her dozing companion. This startled her -- why should she cry?

She turned her head away from No-Berries and tried to think through the dreamberry haze. The life-that-might-have-been is one reason, she realized. Knowing No-Berries was the only wonderful thing in her life right now that could have happened without her family being slaughtered. All the other experiences and friends in her life - Heat, Nighteyes, Merrywind, and so many others in the Holt - would not have been if her life had continued as it was. It was perverse of the dreamberries, she thought, to give her this glimpse of the pleasures that were there for her on the other side of might-have-been. She suddenly liked dreamberries much less.

The other thing that bothered her concerned the idea of lifemating with No-Berries. This too was a might-have-been, she realized. Knowing him as she did, she saw that her fantasy was not unrealistic. He liked her well and they would have made a good match - on the veldt. But his quick mind craved mysteries and surprises, the unfamiliar. He was fascinated with the shadowy forest here, and with the complex variety of the people. She had seen how he had had his eye on Silverfox, with her exotic pale coloring, until he accepted that she only looked to her mates. Sweetwind could be his sun, but there was no way that he would look only to her, with the moons and the stars and the comets and the fireflies in the sky as well, as sure as sparks fly upward.

And the same held true for her, in a way. She could never give up the furmates she already held dear: ember-hearted Torch, breezy unpredictable Wind, even infuriating Black Cat. Not for her was a diet of meat alone. Her idea of nourishment was a platter with a variety of choices.

She sighed and wiped the tear away into the dust. She reached over and hugged No-Berries tightly. He hugged back, then sent, **Thank you for a wonderful initiation.**

That took her by surprise. **That couldn't have been your first time,** she replied.

**It was,** he assured her.

"But Dreamchant and Wolf Blade were plotting after you... I overheard them talk of it eightdays ago. And Nighteyes fancies you...." She had felt the overtones of his sending, however, and her voice trailed off.

"Moon Dreamer warned me about 'Chant and 'Blade," he replied. "It would take more than the Chieftess and her wolves to get me into the furs..." **when I knew who I wanted to join with first.**

**Thank you,** she said. She couldn't keep the ache of the dreamberry might-have-beens out of her sending. Fortunately, they were overwhelmed by her tender feelings for him. A wordless sending from No-Berries assured her that she would always be his sun. They embraced, and Sweetwind's aches disappeared. After all, of all the wondrous things in the sky, doesn't the Daystar shine the brightest?