12. Stepans and Shin

Stepans and Shin

Hiro

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All Shin are taught to understand and relieve the pressures we have to avoid getting bogged down, distracted, or otherwise unable to perform at our maximum level. Worse, avoid a depressive spiral or attacking someone with the lethalness of our craft.

Shin-ki’s literal translation is the Shadow Kill with good reason. I was so high on the buzzed sensation. Energized rather than drained from the journey, I didn’t even wait to join the Hunt. Probably the reason I was tolerated.

It wasn’t the Yuma name. Our purpose or placement in their world, but the fact that I had six heads to their two or three, by the time we landed at the evening fire. I may have been tolerated in the Canopy, but here. I’m accepted. Among the Water Kitra Tribe, my mental status has always been secondary to my physical capabilities.

None of them questioned or judged. Just ignored everything that didn’t have to do with fighting and stratagem.

I still wondered if I wouldn’t be beheaded. Sima and I had been friends a long time. She was a full stage older and always asked me about books, stars, and other advancements that Stepans don’t find important because it doesn’t apply to them.

I mostly stuck with astrology. Taught her how to navigate the stars. What the stories meant, and was always intrigued by the conversations we’d have about ‘history’.

Honestly, in some ways she reminded me of Aya. Her softness. Her curiosity. They were rare to find in a Stepan. Most of the women were more brutal and terrifying than the men being honest, but that was because it was on them to hold the camps. The people. When the Braves would hunt.

People claim that with their savage culture, women were taken against their will, and nothing could be further from the truth. Stepans believe that the first sin was rape, and that it caused infertility. Their women, much like the Kitra they walked with, hunted, reared the young, provided and led the camps.

Something I could never really see Sima doing being honest.

She was still appreciated and special. A healer to their kind given her compassion. Kind of an eternal Kit to the lead Huntress, with all of them aware that the only chance she had was by choosing a Brave who could protect her and wouldn’t mind her weaknesses.

I’d always felt that was Arnu’s second. My cousin and friend Sojin.

The thought and feeling I was about to be beheaded compounded with his wintry blue eyes hitting mine, as Sima untied the strings of her top. It wasn’t the smoothest or clearest skin I’d ever seen. Her breasts not the largest or fullest set I’d imagined.

Still, it was the most I’d ever had access to, and more the delicacy, the innocence and flush of her cheeks when she’d confessed I was her first….. Probably the gentlest stroke I’d ever felt in those new and building places. When her lips met mine, they tasted like oranges.

A littler thinner than mine, but well shaped and gliding along mine with as much fervor as curiosity. It wasn’t my first kiss, but it felt like it. Every sense heightened. Every consequence looming, and still, I’d never felt so aware…. So alive.

For having such a big mouth, I rarely use it. Then again, that kiss was beyond words. It was the first time my tongue did everything I wanted—everything I needed it to—without putting someone off or scaring them away.

I knew it wasn’t a ploy. A tease or mockery like it had been the few times I tried dating in the Canopy. There was no red tape. Just respect and the courtesy of mutual satisfaction. The way it should be. The way it was meant to be, rather than jumping through the eternal hoops of gallantry to be left alone with my hand anyway.\

I was never the kind to push. Never the kind to question or feel the need to convince others of what they wanted. I was Zen. I went with their flow and rhythm. Getting girls drunk. Lying to get my way… it would never be conceivable. Not with seeing what I had.

I’ve seen men’s eyes, tongues, hands, even cocks removed for slights less than that in the Steep. Their laws are absolute. Severe as their environment, and it’s how they survive. Thrive. Are able to work as a whole, even if some of the Tribes hate each other.

They respect the balance and flow. The need for each territory to be protected and represented to avoid the Tenma from ever escaping their observations and hunting parties. Every battle. Every breath. Every meal is so hard-won that it intensifies its worth.

Time there also made me appreciate the comforts I had. The freedoms that many took for granted.

Something I was determined not to mess up—and ready to forfeit the first chance I ever had at getting laid. The shift though. The shift of Sojin’s eyes as he sharpened his swords, and the shift of my father’s back to the other direction, was a silent permission.

Sex may be open in the Steep, but it’s not like people stare or indulge themselves when it’s happening around them unless invited. Unless a woman is claimed, she cannot be taken anywhere but at the communal fires. It avoids any claims of force and eliminates the concept of jealousy.

At least dishonesty about partners leading to that—or worse, infighting between the men.

With my head still squarely on my shoulders, rather than rolling into the fire pit with the rest, I gulp, looking into her darker eyes, seeing my own lust mirrored in them. I give one last look. One last confirmation that I won’t be murdered for touching one of their women and find that sex is openly, actively happening with three other couples around us. There’s even a trio of two men sharing the same woman.

It only amplifies the feeling in the air. The zing and scent of pheromones mixing with all the rest. Feeling the cool rush of the colder mountain air cool the fever of my skin. Pulling back with the understanding that while I don’t have to discern the difference between hot pink and cotton candy pink, I do need to be considerate.

She’s nervous and is definitely one of the softer and sweeter ones where their women are concerned. Girls are not allowed to saddle men before their consenting stages, and anyone who touches one prior to that has something a lot worse than death in store for them.

While a virgin, I know Sima is much more versed than I am. Stepan girls are encouraged to be with one another in their growing stages. To coach one another, if not experiment, so when the time comes, it’s not scary or painful for them. Not knowing how to find their own release and take pleasure in penetration before they take a Brave is suicide.

Stepans may look human, but their environment—if not teachings—makes them stronger than even Shin physically. While regarded as Fey, Stepans are all of them enhanced versions.

It also clicks that I’m no more human than they are, and this is just as much a safety precaution my father’s enacting as it is an encouragement.

I’m breathing easier, enjoying making out with her, and I take my time with it. Encouraging her to show me what she’s learned as far as getting what she needs.

I don’t know how wet is wet enough. I’m a guy who uses lube as needed. Girls have it naturally, but first times are always uncomfortable for them as a rule. “Show me what undoes this beautiful body...” I whisper in her ear when I feel the nerves die and her lust increase with the suck and massage of her pert breasts.

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13: Hiro - Secrets