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(Warning: There is more depressing Frandy rapey awful stuff in here. Be aware.)

The first thing Jessica sensed when she awoke was the weight of the hide blanket that gently covered her. She opened her eyes, looking up from where she lay, to see the profile of Aryen's face backlit by the light streaming in from the tent's entrance. As soon as he heard her rustling about under the blanket, though, he quickly turned towards her, a look of concern still evident on his face.

"Hey, you're finally awake! You slept for a long time, and weren't up with everyone else, so I got worried and went to look for you. Benoit said you had a rough night, though, so I didn't want to wake you, just... sit here and make sure you were safe, I guess."

"Thanks," Jessica mumbled in reply, trying to paw the last vestiges of sleep from her eyes. It had definitely been a late night, though, and Jessica knew that after everything that happened, she had certainly needed the rest.

"I heard your dad going off outside the gates last night. That guy sounds way messed up." Aryen growled a little under his breath. "I wanted to go out there, show him a thing or two, but we're not allowed to interfere with anyone outside, just protect ourselves if anyone tries to come in. I just... I can't believe someone would be like that. Is that really how it is out there? People think they own each other and can just take them away, whether they want to or not?"

"I guess," Jessica replied, sitting up in the bed, which was apparently made of pelts that had been stuffed and sewn together, resting on the tent's thin hide floor. "I mean, Frand's probably not a really good person to judge by, but no one stopped him no matter what he was doing for years and years, so... I don't know. There's bad stuff everywhere, though, isn't there?"

"Maybe, but... not here, nothing like that. Here, if people do bad stuff to each other, any bad stuff, they get kicked out, and since most people grew up here, or came here because it was their dream to be a part of this, they're not gonna do anything to mess it up. I just don't get it - why would someone even want to do the kind of things you said he did?"

Jessica just shrugged. She'd never really thought about why any of it happened - it was more like Frand was just Frand, not a person so much as a... a living storm, almost, an unpredictable force that swept through randomly and left problems in its wake, and everyone else just tried to duck down and ride it out until it went away. Of course, there'd been a time when he wasn't like that, when he'd more closely resembled an actual father, but it was long enough ago that all that was left were half-remembered glimpses from very early in her life. Something had caused him to change, but to Jessica that didn't really matter: all that mattered was that the storm was still out there, and people she cared about were still trapped in its path. At the moment, though, all she could do was sit tight and hope that somehow, something would happen that would shock Frand into turning back into something decent again, or at least let down his guard enough for her mother and sister to win free.

When no reply was forthcoming, Aryen shrugged as well. "I'm sorry there's no way for me to do more to help... to help all of you, but for right now, I'm just glad that you're still safe, and you're still here, and that we were able to send him away." For now, he didn't have to say, but Jessica knew Frand well enough to know that he'd eventually be back - and she had to admit she was grateful to have people on her side who would fight to keep him from stealing her back when he did.

"So... if you're awake enough and ready for it, Benoit said that I should introduce you around and get you settled in." He waved a scrap of parchmentlike paper towards her. "Got all the things written down so I make sure to go over everything. Oh, but first... you probably want some breakfast, right?"

Jessica nodded, and got up to follow him as he walked back towards the entrance of the tent. She felt a momentary twinge of embarrassment as her gaze lingered on his bare, furry body, but she was already becoming a little more used to it - and she'd certainly have to get comfortable with it if she was going to live there for any length of time.

She followed him out, blinking in the bright sunlight as she took in the encampment. Now that it was daytime, there were a lot more people bustling about - all in their bare fur, of course, but interestingly enough, no one seemed to take much notice of that fact at all. They simply appeared to go about their day, and their work, not giving each other the sort of goggling stare that Jessica was curiously playing across them - and the sort of stare that she would certainly get if she'd gone out in public like that. In fact, as they walked along, Jessica noticed that she was the only one attracting much in the way of stares, perhaps because she was new... or, perhaps, because she was the only one around wearing any sort of clothing, and therefore a curiosity.

Aryen led her over to one of the fenced-in buildings. Behind a carved, wooden archway stood a squat, modern concrete-block building, with a series of narrow, high windows running along the side, and several thin vents poking up out of the roof. Aryen gestured towards a door at one end with a universal female symbol stenciled in the center.

"This is where the facilities are, in case you need to, you know... freshen up a bit. The toilets are composting, so they might smell a little different, but everything's sanitary and there's running water if you need it."

Aryen nodded at the door, then leaned against the side of the building to wait for her. Jessica thanked him and went inside. The interior of the building wasn't all that different from the bathroom at her old school, with the exception of several showerheads installed in the back wall. Well, that and the fact all the stall doors were intact, without a mark of graffiti on them.

After relieving herself, she looked longingly over at the shower stalls, looking at the dirt mixed into her fur from her uncoordinated flight through the forest the night before. She didn't hear any complaints from outside, though, and as she was practically naked anyway, she unhooked the loincloth, tossed it in the corner, and turned on one of the nearby showers. The water was instantly warm, a soothing balm against the anxiety of the past few days, and she leaned back into the stream and allowed the water to play across her fur.

There wasn't any obvious soap beyond that in the sink dispensers, but the combination of the water and a quick scrub of her hands along her fur washed away most of the trapped dirt and other detritus. Once she was done, she looked around further, and noticed that there weren't any towels about, either - something that actually brought a smile to her face. True, it wasn't the civilized thing to do, as her mother had drummed into her since childhood, but there was no one about, and given where she was it seemed the appropriate thing to do. She stood up straight, arched her back a little, and let the instinctual tension that coursed along her spine take over. It was almost automatic after that, her torso and limbs whipping back and forth in a rapid shaking motion that sent a screen of droplets spinning out all around her, glimmering for a moment in the light streaming in from the windows before falling down to dot the concrete floor, a rough circle of stippled moisture spread out around where she stood. Maybe it was animalistic, maybe it wasn't the proper thing to do, but it felt so good that she didn't care. For a moment, she was able to forget all of the craziness that had happened to her, and spend a moment being the kid she once was, happy and carefree, able to indulge in and enjoy such a simple, silly pleasure.

Another quick shake, though, and she was dry enough - that, and she didn't want to keep Aryen waiting any longer. She retrieved the loincloth, but as her hands brought it back to her waist, she thought about what she'd noticed earlier. Strangely enough, it seemed that if she wanted to avoid anyone staring at her, the most obvious thing to do was to wear nothing at all.

She exited the building, coiling the loincloth up in her hand. Aryen didn't say anything about it, and only gave her another cursory stare, followed by a nod. "You sure you're comfortable like that?"

"Yeah, I think so... I mean, everyone's like that, so I think it's all right to just... blend in?"

Aryen just nodded again, and led Jessica over to another equipment area along the perimeter wall, showing her where to put it and how to hang it properly around one of the wooden pegs jutting out from the wall. From there, they took a meandering path through the camp, Aryen pointing out the various areas: open-air workshops for different things such as carving wood and tanning leather, the fenced-in school building, and the various tents for the different groups that lived there. The groups were mainly divided up by gender and age: men and women, boys and girls on the verge of adulthood, younger children, and the mothers with the very young, who were still nursing or needed their direct care.

Finally, Aryen led Jessica over to one of the cooking fires, where a group of girls around her age were sitting cross-legged on the ground around it, talking amongst themselves and sipping some sort of stew out of carved wooden bowls.

"So, that's most of what there is to see. Benoit will probably tell you more about everything when you see him in class later on. I guess there's no real introduction or anything, just, um... well, you're part of us now, and you just have to pay attention, do the work you're assigned to keep everything in the camp working, and you'll be welcome here."

He gestured at the girls, who had by now turned away from their conversations and were looking at the two of them quizzically. "Benoit said that this is the group you're going to be in." He started pointing around the circle. "That's Teilen, Heilaya, Mautaye, and, er, Melissa, Naihale, Callie, and Isabel. I know it sounds a little weird, but when someone's born here, they're given both a traditional and a modern name, and once they've grown up enough to understand the significance of the choice, they can choose which one people will call them." Aryen turned back to the group of girls, who still seemed to be looking Jessica over curiously. "Anyway, girls, this is Jessica. She arrived from the outside, and she's gonna be a part of our tribe now. All right?" The girls nodded in unison, and a few of them shifted closer to each other, creating an empty spot on the ground next to the fire. One of the adjacent girls, the one that Jessica thought was Callie, patted the empty space and gestured for Jessica to join them.

Jessica hesitated for a moment, looking at the other girls nervously - back in school, a girl didn't just walk up to one of the cliques and ask to join them, not unless she was looking for derision and confrontation. All of the girls in the circle, though, looked universally inviting, and a moment later she was seated next to them. Each one seemed genuinely happy for her to be with them, and the girl on the other side, Naihale, gave her a warm, quick, welcoming hug before returning to her food. Jessica turned to see Callie stretching an arm out towards her, bearing a bowl filled to the brim with stew, which Jessica gratefully accepted and quickly scarfed down most of it. When she looked up, though, Aryen was gone, and several girls launched simultaneous questions at her, about who she was and how she had arrived there. None of the questions seemed pointed, though, and she answered them mostly truthfully, although leaving out some of the more problematic stuff with Frand and her sister. Luckily, none of the girls pressed further, and instead went back to their normal topics of conversation, making sure to let Jessica interject if she so wished.

Curiously, in contrast to the group of girls that Jessica had hung out with at her previous school, one topic was conspicuously missing: while they talked about school, and chores, and life around the village, the one topic they barely touched on at all was boys. Well, that and fashion, but for people that lived in their bare fur, it was easy to see why that topic would be absent. When Jessica asked about the missing subject, though, it was the turn of the other girls to look at her curiously.

"What do you mean, talk about boys?" Teilen asked in response. "They're boys. What's there to talk about?"

"Well, you know... which ones you think are attractive and stuff, who's going out with who, which guys you have a crush on, which boy you think should be with which girl, which boy you think should be with you..."

"I don't understand," Melissa interjected. "Being... with someone?"

"Oh, you know, like boyfriend and girlfriend..." Jessica trailed off, as she noticed the terms failing to spark recognition on their faces. "You know, going out with people, being with one boy and making sure that he's yours, and other girls aren't tempting him and stuff... at least, that's what my friends said..."

"That sounds like one of those modern-world things, like in the textbooks," Isabel said. "I guess maybe it makes sense out there, but that kind of thing here... from how you describe it, it sounds too much like owning someone. Here, everyone is free to talk with whoever they want, and no one is chained to anyone else in any way."

"Well, okay, but... there aren't any guys you want just for yourself? I mean, I don't really know about how it works, but some of the stuff my friends said, about, um... people sleeping around on each other and stuff, and how you should be true to one guy and have him be true to you..." Of course, Jessica only partially knew what any of that meant, and her own family life had hardly been a pristine example of that working particularly well.

"Sleeping with guys?" Teilen was the one who responded, but they all looked equally confused. "I don't know how it works out there, but that's not what we do. We all sleep together in one tent, the boys in another."

"Er, well, it's not sleeping, but... you know..." Except that Jessica actually didn't, and neither, it seemed, did most of the other girls - although after a few moments of looking between each other, Mautaye poked her muzzle forward in recognition.

"Oh, maybe you mean the nighttime rituals? Our teacher said we'd learn about them soon, but the girls and women who are ready join some of the guys in the ritual enclosure, the one in the center, and they do... something... with each other. Benoit said that it's one of the most important rituals in our culture, but it all happens behind the wall, so I don't know what it actually is, beyond people making sorta weird noises when I walked by when one of the rituals was going on."

Jessica shuddered a little bit when she heard that - after all, it had only been a few days since she'd seen Frand drag her sister off behind a closed door and force her to make weird noises, the kind that get made when men and women get together in some way that she still struggled to understand.

"I- I thought you said people didn't get hurt here!" she responded, a twinge of panic in her voice.

"Huh? What are you talking about? I don't know what it is that actually happens there, but no one's getting hurt. When the people come out after the ritual is over, and you see them later on at night, they're usually relaxed and happy, and they don't look hurt, not at all."

"Oh, okay... maybe it's different here..." Knowing that she had to at least explain why she'd seemed startled at that, she quickly explained about the stuff that Frand had done, at least as well as she understood it. "I'm sorry I got like that all of a sudden, but... my sister, she had made noises like that, and then said that stuff had happened to her that had hurt and was really bad, so I just thought... I dunno. I don't really know anything about any of it, or what really happened, just that he did something bad to her, which is why I have to be here now instead of with him."

She was distressed enough that she started for a moment when Callie moved beside her, but it was only to wrap an arm gently around her shoulders to comfort her. "It's... it's okay. There are some others here who arrived like you did - they're older and stuff, but some of them came with the same kind of stories and the same kind of fears. That's why we're thankful to be here, away from a world that makes stuff like that happen, and that's why we're thankful that you're here with us now instead of out there, so that you don't have to be afraid anymore."

Jessica leaned over against Callie, tears inexplicably welling up in her eyes. "Thank you," she breathed between sobs. "Thank you for just... for being so kind, even though I'm just a stranger, and I got upset and said stuff that wasn't right..."

"Well, of course we're kind," Naihale said behind her, before joining in the embrace. "There are no strangers here. The moment you are accepted, you are a part of us, a part of our society, and who we are. Benoit says those kinda things all the time, but... now that you're here, I really kinda get why it's important. He talks about balancing the world, and balancing life, as one of the things we have to do - and if the world out there was cruel to you, they you being here is a sign from the spirits that we need to right that balance, to set things right. Us accepting you, and you accepting us, makes that sign come true. You already dealt with all that bad stuff, but that's from before you came here - like Benoit says, let us be the balance in your life, okay?

"O-okay," Jessica replied, relaxing between the two of them, her tears quickly abating. After a moment or two, the girls around her drew back a bit, but each kept an arm wrapped around her for support. The other girls looked at her with concern, and she worked to put a smile on her face and thank each of them in turn - they all accepted gracefully, and after a few more minutes, the conversation returned to normal.

Jessica listened raptly, and even though much of what was said was fairly banal, she still marveled at the kindness that pervaded it - their acceptance wasn't just some philosophy, it was a real thing that seemed to extend to everyone, and the conversation didn't contain even a hint of the gossip or sniping or casual meanness that had occurred even among her generally decent high-school clique. Perhaps, she wondered, there was something about being here, in this different, sheltered society that inspired it. Or, perhaps, it was the fact that there were no clothes here to hide behind, no shapewear to lend bodies a false perfection or designer labels to stratify and divide people into groups that were arbitrarily more or less worthy. Without such things, each girl's beauty and flaws were laid bare for all to see, and in such a case, perhaps the only thing that made sense was to accept everyone for who they were. Whatever the reason, Jessica was more than thankful for it, as the unhesitating acceptance made everything easier, from getting used to being naked to driving away the hurt that still lingered in her mind. She smiled and snuggled into the loose embrace, the almost familial acceptance settling over her like a warm blanket, accompanied by a faded memory of a time long ago when there was another family that had allowed her to feel like that. That family was long gone, though, torn apart by the whims of one man, and all Jessica could do was look forward, towards a new family and a new day.

--

As shocking and surreal as it was, now that her Frand-filled heat was over and his baby firmly planted inside her from his repeated, relentless matings, Elizabeth's life quickly fell back into a comfortable, if slightly uneasy, routine. She was still essentially trapped inside the house, with Frand barricading the door whenever he had to be away for any length of time, but things were mostly back to normal. Aside from waking up in her parents' bed, with Frand or Naomi snuggled up against her, mostly the days were back to normal: Naomi in the kitchen making breakfast, studying various subjects from the textbooks that the school provided for her and that her mother retrieved, doing chores, sitting on the couch and watching TV. The only real absence was that of her sister, Jessica, who she missed dearly, and wished she could talk to - with Frand still trying occasionally to figure out ways to steal her back, though, she was afraid that trying to make contact might somehow help him. Just knowing that her sister was still safe, though, was enough to keep her together for the time being.

The nights, though, didn't exactly get any better, so much as they eventually started to become the new benchmark for what normal was. Elizabeth still dreaded them a little in the back of her mind - while it was only a matter of degree from how her body was forced to be on display every day, it was still humiliating that her nightly shower required her to parade naked and vulnerable in front of her father, watching her father ogle every part of her on display as his cock stood out rigidly in front of him, knowing that as soon as the water started his lathered hands would be groping and pawing at her, finally jamming in between her legs to prod at her most sensitive parts until they forced her to shudder and her knees to go weak. While she'd been in heat, there had been no stopping him at all, but once it had stopped she'd once again tried to resist, pushing her thighs together or trying to wriggle free from his grasp. By now, though, Frand knew everything about her in that situation, every behavior and reaction, and was able to easily frustrate her attempts. He was strong enough to jam his hand in between her thighs no matter how tightly she tried to clasp them, and no matter how hard she squirmed, his fingers relentlessly bore in on the parts of her that he knew would force her into uncontrollable pleasure. All of her efforts only caused him to get more excited, and while they perhaps bought her an extra minute before his fingers forced her body to shudder and give in, they were often followed by his weight pinning her against the side of the stall as he slammed hard and fast inside her, rutting her roughly and unceremoniously against the wall as a bonus humiliation in addition to the other two matings she was sure to get as soon as they returned to the bedroom afterwards. There was little that was more humiliating than padding slowly forward to the bed, and the acts that would soon accompany it, knowing that your mother, walking behind you, had a clear view of your stretched, violated pussy lips that dripped out another trickle of your father's cum with each shuddering step forward. After a few such humiliations, she just gave up and gave in, letting his hands get in their nightly work across her body, leaving her legs open and allowing Frand to mash his fingers in and force her body into the orgasm that prepared her to receive her dose of nightly "fun."

As the weeks elapsed, though, such things really did settle into place and become normal, and as perverse as it was, Elizabeth began to treat them as she would any other chore, with the same dutiful compliance. After all, once the humiliation became so routine as to lose its power, it was just like any other required chore, and not really a hard one at that: all she had to do was strip down, let Frand's hands roam about, accept the pleasure that they made course through her body, then flop down on the bed and let Frand's cock rub and throb warmly inside, taking the climax it forced onto her and allowing the wet pool of warmth it deposited to linger inside her. Under any moral code and conscious consideration, it was all kinds of wrong, but since she had no choice in the matter, it was better to simply give in and accept the weird, mindless pleasure for what it was.

A week after she became fully acclimated to her new responsibilities, though, she felt her body begin to shift and rumble inside. The waves of nausea themselves were brief and relatively mild, but the other physical changes were harder to deny: her hips shifting subtly to adapt to the added weight she was beginning to carry, and the bump beginning to show on her belly where the growing baby was beginning to bulge it outward.

As soon as Frand saw the bump, though, his attitude changed sharply. It was a sudden and surprising thing: the moment he saw it, tears actually came to his eyes, and he bent his head down and rested it against her belly, sighing happily. Overnight, his attitude towards her shifter from one of domineering lust to one of almost reverence. Suddenly, there were skirts in her closet again, and she was allowed to wear them unquestioningly, though her shirts remained the same to ensure that the bump was visible. Gone, too, were the daily leers and gropes, replaced instead by spontaneous hugs and hands endlessly caressing her belly. She was also allowed to shower alone, although she still had to return naked to her parents' bed - there, Frand would again caress her belly and thighs. Afterwards, he'd work his fingers between her legs more gently than normal - "to keep both you and the baby safe and happy," he'd said - until her pussy spasmed against them, her body sinking back against the sheets as her climax rolled her into a state of enforced relaxation. There, she'd absentmindedly watch as Frand pounced on Naomi and took her repeatedly to make up for temporarily only having one woman to service him. Most nights the undulating bed and barking exertions, as creepy as they were, sounded mostly pleasant; on the nights Naomi wasn't feeling it, though, Frand still took her anyway, and even with her hands covering her ears it was impossible to block out the distorted cries, or the reverberating, wracking, ragged screams that seemed to go on for ages as Frand forced her mother to climax agonizingly with his length jammed inside her, holding her close and moaning on top of her as her whole body shuddered awfully beneath him. That didn't stop him, of course, and hearing her mother's soft, half-muted sobs combined with the slamming, slapping sound of her being rutted all over again soon afterward almost made Elizabeth wish that Frand was taking her instead. She remembered, though, how easily Naomi had given her over to Frand's lust just to make her own life a little easier, and even though it still felt horrible, the thought hardened Elizabeth enough that she merely blocked it out as she had everything else, leaving Naomi to the fate of shuddering beneath Frand's lust just as Naomi had left her. It was mean, she knew, and something she would never have thought herself capable of doing before, but at that point she just didn't care. Frand had done his damage, to both of them, and there was nothing left to do but live, wait, and try not to think about what Frand would do if the baby turned out to be anything but the boy that he so desired.

The routine continued, though, with no escape for any of them - and while Frand's other plans to steal Jessica back appeared to be met with bureaucracy and frustration, she knew his schemes continued constantly below the surface. He still made forays out into the woods, luckily returning empty-handed, and once came back with a blotch of red staining the shirt over his bicep and the fragments of a wooden arrow, angrily snapped into several pieces, in his hands.

More disturbingly, though, were the pair of syringes she'd found tucked away in the back of the bathroom medicine cabinet, appearing shortly after Frand had gone to town to sell another batch of his moonshine on the black market. She couldn't make any sense of the complicated medical name emblazoned on them, but the scrap of paper that was wrapped around them with directions was more than clear on their effects: "WARNING: For approved medical use only. Induces heat in 4-6 hours. Do not use on women who are already pregnant, and pregnancy testing is mandatory before use." She felt a chill run through her as she read it, and knew what the syringes signified. Frand was definitely trying to capture Jessica, and as soon as he did, her fate would be sealed: as soon as Frand dragged her back to the house, one of those needles would go in her arm, and by the end of the day she would be trapped by her own heat and would enter the week of Frand and hell that Elizabeth had been forced to endure.

She was puzzled, though, as to why there were two syringes there - she was already pregnant, and Naomi, as far as she knew, couldn't be anymore. The question was answered, though, when someone came to the door, and she heard Frand talking softly with a shifty-looking man, apparently the only sort of private investigator that Frand's meager income could afford. Apparently, he was in the process of tracking down Natalie, and promised to send a location as soon as he was able. The man also delivered another syringe, which Frand tucked away with the rest - this one, though, was some sort of anesthetic, guaranteed to provide several hours of unconsciousness. Frand's plans, it seemed, were even more ambitions than she's first imagined - he really was planning to get the entire group back together, one happy family, all subservient under him, with all the bouncing baby boys he could produce. And yet, there was little she could do to halt his progress. She resolved, though, to distract him whenever she could, to remind him of what he had, to endure his perverse reverence and his hand obsessively caressing her belly, if it meant that the time wouldn't be spent luring her sisters back into the trap of his influence. She knew that it was only a distraction, though, and would buy time at best - but maybe that time would be enough for both of her sisters to secure themselves well enough to be out of his reach.

--

For Jessica, the rest of the day had been, to her surprise, almost resolutely normal. Beyond Aryen's brief tour, there had been no formal introduction or induction into the group, or tribe, or whatever it was; far from just being something the other girls had said to soothe her, from the moment she had sat down next to them, it had simply been as though she'd always been a part of it.

She'd followed the other girls from their meal, and found what was the second of three major parts to the day - apparently she'd slept through the first one, which the other girls told her was a start to the day through the traditional ritual appropriate to the season, and the portion of their education that was dedicated to the original, native ways. After lunch, the next portion of the day was dedicated to work, and Jessica quickly learned that everyone, even school-age children, had a certain job to do to make sure that everything the encampment needed was taken care of. It was only during this time that the group really split up, going off to do various jobs. Benoit had apparently instructed the woman in charge of assigning jobs to make sure that Jessica didn't take one outside the gates, and instead of following a pair of girls who were heading out to hunt, the woman gently took Jessica by the arm and guided her over to a group of girls and women, assisted by a couple younger boys, who were working on several large stretches of hide. Jessica didn't know what they were up to at first, but the women carefully explained as they demonstrated the steps, and soon Jessica was helping them with some of the basic tasks of brushing, stretching, and preparing hides to be tanned into the leather that many things in the camp were made from.

After that, the third part of the day found them ushered into the schoolhouse, another concrete-block building hidden behind one of the interior fences. Inside, it was surprisingly not unlike most of the classrooms she'd been inside, except for the fact that all of the children were present in one large room, with separate islands of desks for the different age groups. The girls in her group sat along one side of an island in the middle of the room, with the boys arrayed along the other, and a teacher standing off to the side going over the lesson for their individual group. Everything else was normal, though, from chalkboards to textbooks, the only real difference being the diligence that the other students showed in their work. There was no doodling or side conversations, and no one goofed off or tried to be disruptive - when one of the boys got a bit loud, all the teacher had to do was gently lay a hand on his shoulder, and the boy nodded, apologized to the others in the group, and quieted down. For the most part, everyone just studied carefully as the teacher moved through sections on math, science, and english, turning to each other for help or looking to the teacher for additional explanation if the other students were as puzzled as they were. Perhaps it worked because there were so few of them, and that they couldn't just leave their misbehavior at the schoolroom door, but it was surprisingly nice compared to the half-controlled chaos of a public-school classroom.

Once school was over, their group was assigned to stack extra wood on top of the smoldering cooking fires, while the younger children went over to the building that housed the bathrooms to clean up; once the wood was stacked, it was their turn. For a moment, it felt odd to be showering with a bunch of other girls, a task that she'd always done in private before, but in practice it was less so; since they'd all spent the day together entirely naked, there really wasn't any difference beyond the flowing water. One of the girls had retrieved some sort of soap from a nearby storage building and passed it around, and while it took a bit more work to get a lather from it, it had an pleasing, herbal scent and felt better than the usual store-bought stuff as she worked it into her fur. Now that she had largely gotten past the nudity, it was actually kind of fun to shower together, and the conversation made a rote task more interesting and helped it to fly by more quickly. Plus, it felt good to have someone there who could properly wash her back without twisting her arms into difficult contortions, and it was a favor she happily returned.

When they returned after cleaning up, dinner was already bubbling in stone pots set above their cooking fire, and they all dug into it with gusto. After that, Jessica joined some of the other girls who were going around and lighting torches set along some of the pathways, flickering light springing to life below clouds fading from pink to magenta as the sun sank down below the fence-line. By the time they were finished, the first stars were visible in the darkening sky, and the girls headed back to the tent they were assigned to for a quick check-in with Benoit. They sat in a rough semi-circle on the furs carefully arrayed on the tent floor, and a few moments later Benoit stepped in through the flapped opening of the tent's entrance, a cord of wood in hand that he stacked inside the stone fire-pit in the middle. The check-in was mostly just Benoit asking the girls how they were doing, and how their day had been, with a few additional questions directed at Jessica to see if she was settling in okay. She was, in fact, and said as much, Benoit nodding in approval. He ended the impromptu meeting with a brief, traditional saying: "For as the leaves need the branches to anchor them, and the branches require the leaves to sustain them and the trunk to tie them to the life-giving earth, so we all need each other, our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, both to give us life, and to be the bridge that connects us to the earth that supports and sustains us from below, and the stars that watch over us above."

As soon as Benoit had concluded, a few of the girls got up and wandered off, and Benoit explained, for Jessica's sake, that as all their responsibilities had been met during the day, the rest of the time until the camp buttoned down for the night was their own, to do with as they wished. Some of the girls stuck around in the tent, discussing some of the lessons that had been covered earlier in the day, but Jessica found she had had enough of talking for a while - instead, she left the tent and took a walk along some of the interior pathways, occasionally taking a moment to just lean against a wall or fencepost and watch the other inhabitants of the camp go about their daily lives. It didn't have the same intensity as television, of course, but there was a certain sense of peaceful interest watching people looking happy just to be with each other, talking, working, and living simply. While Jessica had been used to going without things like electricity and television due to Frand's intransigence, and had always found it annoying, it was fascinating to see how people could find ways to enjoy themselves even when such conveniences were entirely absent.

It was also interesting, she realized, to see the range of people with no clothing to change or obscure their figures. Men and women walked amongst each other without attracting attention or broadcasting shame. There were no cliques of skinny girls hanging around, snickering at more heavyset ones trying to hide from ridicule in a corner, or buff jocks shoving skinnier kids against a wall. In fact, as she watched the various people go by, she realized that there were almost no people that tended towards either extreme. Then again, if food was communally distributed and everyone got a fair but not overwhelming share, it made sense that everyone would eventually end up looking generally well-fed and healthy - and if the look of concern she'd seen go towards one of the women in a group she was watching when she hadn't finished everything in her bowl, eating too little attracted as much attention as eating too much.

She realized, as she watched various other groups walking about, that it really wasn't much of a surprise that she'd acclimated so quickly to being nude, and to interacting with others in the same state. With clothing, there was always something else to remove, the hidden allure of "private" parts that only someone special was supposed to see. Once it was stripped away, though, the surprising thing was how little of interest there really was to see. Aside from the pink dots of nipples, there wasn't much difference between the curvature of a bare breast and one that was hidden by clothing, except perhaps to lay more subtly against a woman's chest, and from her half-developed globes to the full ones of women with a baby cradled to their chests, they seemed far less obtrusive than the clothed, pressed, and enhanced ones that her classmates used to flaunt their attractiveness. For the men, there wasn't even that, and the equipment that made them men, and that the boys in her class had bragged about, didn't seem to come to much at all: an almost-cylindrical, fur-covered bump that poked out a little from between their legs, and a couple of smaller bumps that bulged out in a pouch below that was covered in shorter, finer fur. Aside from the tiniest dot of pink at the end of the sheath, there wasn't any sign of the "red, rock-hard shaft" some of the boys had bragged about having. For women, that area brought even less to see, just a tuft of soft-looking fur that tapered off between their legs and camouflaged the fleshy bits that were tucked away behind it.

As she watched another group of women approach, though, she realized quickly that such a thing wasn't always the case. The women, perhaps a few years older than she was, were apparently going through the same thing that had happened to her sister, as they had the same subtly intriguing scent about them, although stronger than Elizabeth had without any underwear to get in the way. Between their legs, and below the tuft of fur, their nether regions had come into view, pads of puffy flesh swollen crimson and bisected by a delicate pink ridge that glistened wetly in the firelight. Rather than being panicked and afraid, though, they were happy and full of energy, talking and laughing and flashing smiles at some of the men they passed, gesturing for a few of them to follow along behind as they made their way over to one of the fenced-in enclosures. Jessica followed along, curious as to what they were going to do, and maybe see what was supposed to happen instead of whatever bad stuff Frand had done to her sister, but the woman keeping watch on the entrance held out a wooden staff to block her way.

"Now, now, my dear, there'll be plenty of time for that when you're older." She gestured with the end of the stick towards Jessica's hips. "You'll be in season soon enough, and this isn't the place for you until your body is ready to play its part in the rituals of life and the bridge between man and woman." The woman nodded her head, gesturing further down the path. "Jaenesa is telling some of the old legend stories down by the big fire, if you're looking for something to interest you."

Jessica's curiosity was only partially deterred, but she nodded her compliance to the woman and continued walking. There was, in fact, a group of people gathered in front of one of the large bonfires, with a man standing in front of it on a long, low wooden platform. Whatever it was, it was hardly just a children's storytime, as those in attendance ranged from toddlers to a pair of elderly women leaning on each other for support. Intrigued, Jessica walked over to the edge of the crowd and watched.

The man on stage, Jaenesa, seemed to be doing much more than telling a story. As he spoke, his rich, deep voice echoing across the crowd, the rest of his body was in constant motion. Arms and legs twisting in fabulous contortions, assisted by props of stitched hides and carefully carved wood, his performance combined with the flickering glow behind him to send dancing, shadowy figures cascading across the platform below. The story itself was part of a native origin legend, of a great leatherback turtle that was the mother of all life within the sea, back when the world was covered with an unending ocean; wishing to see the world grow up to the stars, she dove down to the ocean floor, using her powerful flippers to pull the ground up until it splashed above the water's surface, marveling at how green things began to thrive and grow, pushing upwards towards the perfect sky. As the story evolved, the shadows accompanied it, and if Jessica didn't know better, the combination of the reverberating words and the dancing shadows seemed to come together to bring the story to light. The shapes began to resolve themselves in her mind, and she could see the image of the great turtle, striving the ground upward with her powerful flippers, gazing up longingly as the world she set into motion reached ever upward. By the time the tale concluded, it had managed to evoke scenes that seemed so beautiful, so vivid, that she could even feel tears welling in her eyes as the turtle sacrificed herself for her living goal, digging her flippers into the sea to anchor herself in place, and allowing her great shell to turn to dirt and stone, the great, shield-like expanse that made up the continent they all lived upon.

As the crowd dispersed, she noticed that she wasn't the only one who had been moved by the story. Despite its simplicity, and despite the fact that it was not at all scientific and probably not literally true, there had been something about it, something almost instinctual about the presentation, that had touched her deeply. Whatever the nature of the story, Jaenesa had been so committed to its performance that it was almost impossible not to feel something from it.

Jessica wandered slowly back to her tent, enjoying the quiet, the crisp, cool air, and the sea of stars that glittered in the unobscured sky. The other girls were already half-asleep, curled up next to each other on the ground and arrayed to feel the warmth of the fire. There was just enough room in the sleeping area for Jessica to snuggle up between a couple of them, and while it was different than sleeping stretched out in a bed, there was something instinctive and natural about it as well. She curled up like the other girls, tucking her tail down along her thighs, and the warmth of the fire and the closeness of their fur brushing against hers quickly lulled her into a deep, restful sleep.

The days continued to flow by, much like the first, enjoying the company of her new, spontaneous group of friends, and digging into both the traditional and modern schooling that she was exposed to. The work, while sometimes exhausting, was interesting as well, and Jessica soon got the knack of curing and tanning leather, and then learning to use the sharp, chiseled glass-like knives to measure and cleanly cut lengths of it for different uses, along with natural herbs that could be imbued into the surface to create a veritable rainbow of colors. While the modern learning was very similar to what she was used to, the traditional education was almost as hands-on as the work she was taught to do, with lectures, discussions, and chaperoned walks in the woods nearby to develop a deeper connection to nature.

The girls, due to their age and the approach of their first "season," were split off from the boys a few days later, taken to a different building to begin their sexual education. It was considerably different, though, from the few days of abstract charts and vague awkwardness that Jessica had experienced before she'd been forced to run off. Already being naked and without the sort of shame modern society provided, the education was much more direct and hands-on: instead of using a bunch of scientific-looking illustrated diagrams, the girls simply sat across from each other on the floor, spreading their legs apart so that each of them could see what their partner had, looking for the various parts as the teacher described them. Afterwards, when the teacher decided to end the lesson early and allow them to explore their own curiosity, the girls had looked at each other even more closely, marveling at how different each of them looked there. Unlike the boys, whose sheaths all looked more or less the same, each of the girls looked unique: some of them had mounds that puffed out in a gentle arch while others lay flat, ridges that lay thick and flat to those that flared out bright and delicate like the petals of a flower, and nubs that ranged from hiding demurely behind a thin, hoodlike veil that joined the ridges to bright pink buttons that stood out proudly.

There was also no shame surrounding anything else related to what they were learning - when Jessica had tried to touch herself as a child, Naomi had smacked her hand away and said that she shouldn't touch such a dirty place, but when one of the girls asked if it was normal to enjoy rubbing her nub against things, the teacher had not only assented, she had sat cross-legged in front of the girls, angled her hips forward, and showed the girls the sort of touches she liked to use when she wanted to relax. Afterwards, she invited the other girls to try it if they wanted, as it was good to be in touch with your own body, and important to understand what felt good to them so that they could show others when their season came around. Between Naomi's admonishments and what Frand had done to her sister in the living room echoing in her head, Jessica couldn't quite bring herself to try it, but she sat close to Heilaya and watched as she rolled the pink nub of flesh between her fingers as it quickly flushed scarlet. It was oddly fascinating to watch, and she focused raptly as Heilaya began breathing quicker and deeper, her chest heaving and the muscles in her thighs tensing as her fingers moved faster than faster. Then she let out a yelp, her hips giving a quick shudder and her thighs almost vibrating with tension, as the nub flashed purple before suddenly becoming shy and falling through her fingers to hide back under its hood, the petal-like ridges below fluttering gently before pulling in to press against each other, pulsing in and out around the opening they formed to the beat of an unheard rhythm. It was unlike anything Jessica had seen before, somehow at once so vivid and strange and yet so compellingly normal - what would somewhere else surely be a scene of either shame or titillation was simply a natural part of life and nature, to be experienced with the same enthusiasm and grace as any other moment.

As their education continued, there were also questions about boys, although these were tackled in ways that were somewhat less hands-on. "There is nothing wrong with being with men, or of men being with you," their teacher had said. "You can engage with any that you wish, as long as they are willing, and they may ask you as well, as long as you are willing to be with them. It is only required that such things are done in the proper time and place. For now it is expected that contact with men will not go beyond talk, but when you are fully ready and your first season is upon you, the ritual grounds shall be open to you, and you may participate as you wish, as long as you do so in a way that is fair, respectful, and shows your love for life and for each other."

On the day that they were scheduled to talk more precisely about what that meant, though, their normal daily routine was suspended when a group of visitors arrived from the outside. Clad in white coats, they set up a large tent in one of the central open areas, fitted with tables, chairs, and privacy screens to divide it into a series of individual spaces. This was, apparently, the clinic that Benoit had said would periodically arrive, and everyone in the village able to walk was set up to wait in orderly lines that eventually snaked into the tent's entrance. Jessica was lined up near the front of the line, though, and spent only a few minutes waiting and chatting with the girl behind her before being called into one of the impromptu examination rooms, sitting with her legs swung over the side of the exam table as a female doctor with glasses, well-brushed fur and a nametag that read "Victoria" secured a pressure cuff around her arm. From there, it was mostly just like any other doctor visit: vital signs recorded in a folder, instruments poking and prodding at her nose and ears, a stethoscope listening to the sound of her breath. The only difference was when the doctor brought forward an unusual device, something that looked almost but not quite like a syringe, with a flat sort of needle and a long, thin sealed packet where the liquid would normally be.

"Um, what's that?" she'd asked, and Victoria had smiled reassuringly in response. "Oh, it's just standard procedure for girls your age here. According to your chart, you're going to be experiencing your first, um, 'season' soon, and while you're allowed to engage in the mating rituals here, the choice of whether you want to become a mother or not is held off for a few years as part of the tribe's agreement with the government. To ensure that you get that choice, this instrument will install a contraceptive device that rests under your skin - you won't even notice it after a day or two, and it shouldn't make you feel any different, but when you go through the mating rituals this will make sure you won't get pregnant as a result."

The doctor put the syringe against her arm, and the device slid into place with only the slightest pinch, but Jessica felt a shiver run through her nonetheless from what she'd heard. "You mean... once the season stuff arrives, I'm gonna have to... I mean the rituals, people are gonna... do something to me? The kind of thing that..." The kind of thing my father did to my sister, she didn't say, but the anxiety was still there nonetheless. "I thought we didn't have to, that we could just, uh... not do it or something if we didn't want to..."

The doctor looked a little confused. "Why wouldn't you want to? It's a natural thing, and when your season does arrive, it's the kind of thing your body will want to do."

"Yes, but doesn't it... doesn't it hurt? I know the people here said it doesn't, and I want to believe them, but..." she trailed off again, not knowing what to say. Victoria, though, crouched down a little to face her at eye level, and clasped Jessica's hands in hers.

"Honey, why do you think such things should hurt? Did... did someone here do something to you that felt wrong or uncomfortable?"

"No, no! Everyone here's been really nice to me, and no one's hurt me at all. It's just that..."

The doctor pulled one of her hands back, reaching over to grab the chart and glance at it for a moment, before putting it back. "Ah, that's right. You didn't grow up here, but arrived just a few months ago. This hurt you talked about... was it perhaps tied to the reason that you decided to come here?"

Jessica nodded.

"If it's all right, then... can you tell me about how you were hurt?"

"Well... it wasn't me, exactly, but... My sister had her season, and then my father said he had to do stuff to her that women needed to be done to them. I didn't see what he did because he closed the door, but they both started making weird noises, and later she said that he'd done bad stuff and had hurt her, because she was in season. I just... I know that what he did was different than whatever it is that happens here, but we haven't learned all the way about that yet, and if it's like whatever happened to her... I just don't want to be hurt like that."

"Oh, I see..." Victoria's expression went momentarily blank as she looked back at Jessica, but a moment later broke out into a reassuring smile. "If that's what you're worried about, I can tell you that in the many years I've been performing medicine here, I've never heard of anything like that happening, and the things that happen during your season with caring people like the ones that are here are the opposite of hurtful. If you're still concerned, though, I can certainly talk to Benoit, and make sure that, season or no, you're not required to participate in those adult rituals until you're completely ready in both body and mind. Okay?"

Jessica nodded in assent, and the visit was concluded soon afterwards, with the doctor proclaiming her to be in perfect health and sending her on her way. There was nothing else scheduled for the day, so Jessica wandered around camp, climbing up one of the ladders to the planking that ran around the inside of the perimeter wall for the sentries and admired the stately expanse of the forest that spread out beyond, alone with her thoughts.

Having talked about Elizabeth, though, her thoughts couldn't help but drift back to her sister. She still didn't know everything about how seasons worked, but she knew that Elizabeth was probably pregnant by now, Frand's baby growing in her belly. She could hardly imagine how it would feel to have something growing inside her like that, put there by a person who had hurt her and hadn't left her any choice about having it in her, giving birth and having a baby suckling on her breast that was the product and the reminder of all the hurtful things that had happened. She knew that it was the sacrifice that Elizabeth had to live with so that she could be free, and that if she hadn't found her way here she would probably be facing a similar fate, the nature of which, through her education, was beginning to come clearly into view. In a way, it was strange to be here, and as happy as she was, while at the same time dealing with the haunting memories that lingered inside her, and the imagining of what her sister was going through that continued to evolve and that her mind wouldn't let her deny or forget. It was a strange combination, she thought, of liberty and burden; though she rarely left the confines of the walls she stood atop now, she was freer than she had ever been before, but at the same time knew that her freedom could never be complete as long as her sister was still clutched tightly and painfully in Frand's embrace. She had spent her time becoming accustomed to her new life and trying to get over her own fears, but standing there, looking back out at the world that lurked beyond, she knew that something had to be done. It was true that Benoit and the others rarely engaged in that world, and had little influence over it... but perhaps there was something one of them could say or do, someone they could call, that could at least take some step towards making things right. After taking one more look out at the forest, she climbed back down off the wall, resolving to do something to help... and as yet unaware that certain actions were already being set into motion.

--

"Hey, Vicky." Carlton Andrews sat in his office, feet propped up on the desk and a cordless handset tucked between his neck and shoulder. Behind him on the wall, his social-work license hung proudly, next to framed pictures of smiling parents, their foster children hugging them adoringly. They were the successes; the failures were tucked away in a desk drawer, cold sheets of facts and figures and statistics, clinical certificates of cruel deaths and births that should never have happened. The casefile sitting in front of him, a petition regarding paternal custodial rights, was one that could go either way - and a lot of it hinged on the suspicions that he'd learned to recognize in his gut after a long and involved career, and the report from the woman sitting at the other end of the telephone. "Were you able to find any confirmation of what we talked about?"

"Sadly, yes," Victoria Renford replied, sighing gently. "I followed the protocols carefully - no leading, no assumptions, no presupposing or hinting at anything. She started the conversation spontaneously when I went to install the contraceptive device. She confirms that the father's the perpetrator - apparently took her sister as soon as her heat started and abused her regularly afterward. I didn't press more than that, but given the timetable, her sister, Elizabeth, is probably showing by now. A paternity test will confirm it for sure, although the way she sound, I don't doubt her story. If she'd been coached, her story would have come up even earlier, and would probably have more details to make it sound more authentic. That, and that note of fear in her voice when she talked about her father... that's something I don't think you can easily fake."

"Shit." Carlton leaned back, shaking his head. "You ever have those days when you make the right call, but hate that you had to be right about it?"

"Not as often as you, I'm sure. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but... the sooner you diagnose the problem, the sooner you can fix it, right?"

"Yeah, I know. Not your fault anyway. Hell, sometimes it's not even the fault of the damned, fucked-over bastard doing the stuff, because that's how he's been taught and it's the only life he knows how to live. I'd like to be shocked by this, I really would, but this is the seventh case just like it this month. Fucking hicks that can't get it together, I swear..."

"So... is it up to the police now?" Victoria asked, although from her tone he knew that she sympathized with the plight of his position. "I mean, if that's what happened, it doesn't get much clearer a crime than that."

"You'd be surprised... but yeah, I'd better have some deputies tag along if this goes down the way I think it will. We're scheduled for a home visit next week, to check its 'suitability and livability' or some crap like that, and I already told him there might be some boys in blue along for the ride - purely to protect out social workers, of course, as there've been a spate of assaults against them. Not exactly true, but he grudgingly agreed to it, so he shouldn't be surprised or act rashly when they show up. We'll find a way to distract him, get the girl alone, and see if we can get her to corroborate what went on - once we hear it from her own mouth, though, that ought to be enough probable cause to spur some action. I talked to my contact in the department, and once they get your report they'll get a judge to sign a pre-clearance warrant - as soon as they get confirmation, they'll try to get him away from the rest of the family before grabbing him. It's not pleasant, and there's always a risk, sometimes not just from the guy either. It's messed up beyond all reason, but some of the victims will actually fight the cops when they drag their abuser away. I mean, I know what's behind it, Stockholm syndrome and everything, but... what can I say, it never gets easier. Sorry to bend your ear like that, but it's just-"

Victoria cut him off. "Don't worry about it. We all need to vent sometimes. Just get some rest, okay? It's routine, and I'm sure that if you take care of it with the professionalism you always show, everything will work out."

"Yeah, I know... I just wished I lived in a world where a case like this would be rare enough that it'd actually surprise me when it came across my desk."

"Have some faith, Carl. Remember, the cases all seem that way because all the good families out there, and there are a lot of them, never have to come across your desk."

"Yeah..."

"Anyway, the report will be there in the morning. Seriously, though, get some rest. You sound like you need it. I'll talk to you later, all right?"

"All right. Thanks, Vicky. Talk to you soon." Carlton set the handset back down, letting out another heavy sigh before flipping the casefile shut. The doctor, as always, was right - there'd be plenty of time to think about the case, and everything that still had to be done, in the morning. And besides, as he'd told her, now that his suspicions were confirmed there was an entire plan that would soon be settling into place to deal with it. By this time next week, as long as the right things happened in the right order, there would be another success, and perhaps even a new photograph, the remainder of a smiling family, to join the others on his wall.