The Island (girlxgirl)

Chapter 6

Note: dedication is to my awesome friend and fan! I met her because of this story! We're going to be posting a co-authored girlxgirl soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that! It will be on her account, but I'll leave a link on my account for anyone who's interested :)

The first thing I was aware of when waking up was something was tickling my lips.

"Mmm, Pinky..." I mumbled.

I heard the sound of Hachi laughing at me. "Been kissing Pinky frequently, huh?"

I jumped and my eyes flashed open immediately. Hachi was sitting on the bedside with a long white feather. Pinky was nowhere to be seen, even though I know I fell asleep beside her last night.

It was very early in the morning, because I could see out the window that the sun hadn't yet risen.

"Where's Pinky?" I implored Hachi.

She shrugged. "I sent Angel off with her this time. Ryder decided to withdraw from talking to anyone today. I think she got all used up yesterday, being with Pinky, you, and the Favored, so she needs to go hide temporarily until she's ready to be social again. She does that a lot, is social a day and then a loner for two days. You'll see."

"Why are you here with me, not with one of your precious Favored or better yet, a maid who will bend over to bear her bosom in front of you?" I was angry from yesterday, remembering the two girls Hachi had run off with, quickly forgetting I was even there.

Hachi sighed. "I know them all too well already. I thought we could spend some time together..."

"...all you want to do is bed me. And if not me, then one of these other girls." I glared at her. She better not say it isn't true. She wouldn't dare.

Hachi smiled sadly. "Tell you what. If I can prove that notion of yours wrong before breakfast, you have to hold my hand and sit with me while we eat. Deal?"

"How do you expect to prove anything to me?" I snipped.

Hachi held her hand out to help me get out of bed. "Put a little trust in me."

"Fine." I took her hand and she hoisted me out of bed. She was much stronger than she looked. Hachi dropped the white feather on top of the bed and took me by the hand to show me the way.

Hachi led me through winding passages until we came outside. There was a horse pasture and a barred metal gate, one I didn't know existed to and from the castle. I had thought there was only one doorway in or out, the main gate to the south. Hachi whistled and her horse, Iron, came trotting up to us. Iron suddenly reminded me of my past, because Father made his horseshoes. I thought of Father and Mother, hating me all their lives, and I thought of the older of my younger brothers, Grim, Trent, and Canker. I thought of what they had done to me. How it hurt. How there had been no hope. How there had been no love.

I didn't realize I was on the ground, curled up into a ball and crying, until I noticed Hachi standing over me, trying to get me to respond.

Hachi grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look her in the eye. "Pet! Pet, calm down! I don't understand what's wrong...!"

"Nothing is wrong, Princess." I lied through my tears. I got up and averted my eyes from Hachi and Iron.

Hachi begged me, "I know that it has to be something! Is it Iron? We don't have to use him, we can just use another horse..."

"No. Let's use him. Let's go do whatever it is you were planning." I told her flatly.

Hachi was hesitant. "O...Okay."

Hachi helped me mount Iron and she did as well. She led him to the gate and a man inside kindly opened it for us and closed it after we passed through.

Hachi commanded Iron to go faster with a kick and we soon flew from the castle courtyards into the countryside. We went up and down farmers' dirt roads and between barbed wire fences that separated one farm from the next. Eventually, we came to a spot on a wooded high hill and Hachi bade Iron to stay here as we got off of his back.

"Climb on up, Pet!" Hachi climbed the tree growing out of the highest part of the hill, stopped at about a third of the way up, and waved at me.

I looked at my feet. "I don't know how!"

Hachi sighed and jumped down from what must have been ten feet. She didn't even seem to have sprained an ankle as she walked over to me, forcefully hoisted me onto her back, and began to climb the tree again, hugging the trunk and using branches every now and then as footholds. I clung to Hachi's back tightly and quivered against her, not liking this.

We reached the top of the tree, where there turned out to be a hidden treehouse with an upper floor that poked over the top of the tree. Hachi swung us inside and let me down off of her back, which disappointed me a little bit. I liked the feeling of her carrying me around, just not the being carried up a tree part.

The tree house had a dark wood interior and fine wooden furniture. The paintings on the walls were sensual ones of Hachi herself, at other times Hachi with a lover. Each painting was signed by someone named, "Crystal." There were multiple rooms to the tree house, I could see a bedroom, a kitchen, a pantry, and a bathroom separated from the main room, which housed two rooms that flowed into each other, a lounge room and a dining room. There were stairs to an upper floor.

Hachi led me up the stairs and I saw the sunrise just beginning at the horizon between ocean and sky, for I saw miles in all directions from the highest floor of a treehouse on the tallest tree, and I could most definitely see the ocean from here. There were orange rays all around the reddish-yellow sun and the beams of early morning light were making the clouds a salmon-pink.

"Oh wow...this is all yours?" I marveled at both sights of the sunrise and the wonderfully ornate treehouse.

Hachi laughed. "The sunrise isn't mine, or even the King's, what's nature belongs to no one truly in the end. The King built this treehouse for Prince Cain, my oldest brother, but Cain never liked it. The King didn't even show it to any of his other sons after that, heartbroken that Cain disliked it. He finally found the courage to show it to me, when I was younger, and this is where I go when I don't want to be at the castle for a little while. The only way up to the treehouse is to climb the trunk, but inside is enough food to last years and other survival amenities. If there's ever trouble, which there won't be because where could it possibly come from, that involved the castle being compromised, this is where I would be hiding."

"Would you hide anyone else up here with you?" I asked.

Hachi answered, "No. The King and I agreed that this would be my and only my safe spot, not even for any of my brothers. They each all have their own safe spots, not necessarily tree houses, but something safe and hidden as this is."

"If this is supposed to be so hidden, why are you showing me where it is, Princess?" I raised one of my eyebrows at her.

Hachi sighed and averted gaze. "I was thinking...if you ever wanted a date where we wouldn't be bothered...this is where I could take you back if we stayed out late. We could go through the forest around these parts, down to the wild apple trees around this lake, or we could go over to the beach and find seashells, then give the good ones to the little kids from your village or ride further to a different village if you understandably didn't want to be seen back at your native village..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You actually take some of us maids on dates?" I was surprised Hachi cared enough to.

Hachi gave me an annoyed look. "I really don't just sleep with girls. I do try to treat them well. You maids are a tad spoiled at the castle, not doing actual work like I know my Father's general servants have to do. I've brought Ryder down to the beach when she gets upset or withdrawn, and I went riding out with Sugar a couple times, just simple dates like that. I may have access to all the riches my Father does, but I prefer down-to-earth dates, dates anyone could give you if they knew the kind of locations that I do. I know I don't really know you, Pet. But you don't really know me either."

"Why do you sleep with a girl each night?" I shot at her accusingly.

Hachi thought about it. "Everyone else likes it. The girl I pick for the night likes the attention. She likes being desired by and pleased by the one and only princess of the whole island. What lesbian wouldn't like to be desired by a princess? What bi wouldn't? As for me? I, deep down, while I enjoy the sex, I don't actually feel the need to have it every night. I just like the snuggling together through the night after it's done. Every time I get near a beautiful girl in my bedroom, I get tempted to bed her, which is why it happens, because if I'm tempted, all you girls can notice and jump right on it, so it happens. Deep down, I just want to cuddle every night. Everyone just insists on the sex."

"So if I just cuddle with you one night, you'll be done with this 'trying to sleep with me so bad' nonsense?" I reasoned.

Hachi shook her head. "No. I still want to sleep with you at least once. But if you only wanted to cuddle, I could hold off. I can tell though, when a girl wants me for more than that, and I know, even in this tree house, you want me just as much as that, Pet."

I glanced back and Hachi's eyes were staring intensely right at me. I quickly looked away, but Hachi came up behind me and held me to her by wrapping one of her hands around each of my shoulders.

"And when a girl wants me as more than that...it gets so d-mn hard not to oblige." Hachi's lustful voice rasped into my ear before she nibbled on it.

I was wet between my legs from her getting close. I lost my self-control when she started biting at my ear.

I turned around and forcefully kissed her. She kissed me back hungrily and decided to take it further. She bit my lip hard enough to draw blood, but the roughness just made me want her more. I opened my mouth at the same time she did and we thrust our tongues into each other's mouths. I moaned and wrapped my hands around her back. Hachi moaned and wrapped her hands around my butt, picking me up off the ground.

I wrapped my legs around her waist, continuing to tongue her. Hachi carried me through a doorway and threw me on top of a bed, before jumping on with me. I moved to the side before she could land on top of me, then put her face into my hands and brought it to me, returning our kiss to where it had left off.

Hachi crawled on top of me and straddled me with her long, luxurious legs. She undid my dress strings and pulled the top of the dress plus my corset down. My now-exposed bosom had swelled with want and was aching for her tender fingers' touch, or better yet, the soothing application of her lukewarm, wet mouth and tongue. She placed her hand over one of my mounds and rubbed the nipple until it was hard; my whole body screamed for her to take me.

To take me...

No. I couldn't let her.

My voice rumbled with lust, though I didn't want it to. "Princess..."

"Yes, my Pet?" Hachi's voice was as raspy as earlier.

She rubbed my nipple with her thumb and index finger, which made my legs nearly fall open for her right there and then. I wanted to let her continue so badly...

I sighed with a little too much passion, thanks to the pleasures she was doing to my body. "...we have to stop."

"But why?" Hachi implored as she licked and kissed a sweet spot on my neck.

I both hated myself and knew this was what needed to be done. "Because I don't want this. Please stop. Now."

Hachi had lowered her mouth down towards one of the aching mounds of my bosom and was about to suck me, but thankfully and yet not-thankfully, listened.

She re-clothed me and distanced herself, sitting at the edge of the bed. When I went to sit by her, I saw in tears welling in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Hachi. I know by now you do mean a little bit more than to sleep with me. I know there's something more than simply consorting around other girls. But I don't want to sleep with you." I rubbed her shoulders in a massage to try and keep her from crying.

The tears came anyway. "But why do you hate me...?"

"I don't hate you, Hachi. You're even right, I do want you. But I don't want you like this. I don't want you to sleep with me in a tree house, nor in your room. I don't want to sleep with you in my bedroom, nor Pinky's room. I don't want to sleep with you, because you sleep around, and until you don't, if you can't dedicate yourself as truly mine and myself as the only one for you, then I won't sleep with you. Does that make sense now?" I wiped away as many of the tears as I could from Princess Hachi's beautiful silver eyes.

Hachi blubbered into my shoulder. "But why do you want Pinky then?"

"Pinky is kind to me. That's not to say you aren't, because you are, in fact, you're the one who saved me from my father, my mother, and a hopeless future with a male I could never love. But Pinky treats me like I could be her only. She treats me like a girlfriend, maybe even a future wife. She wouldn't sleep around if I gave myself to her. If you could be that, then of course I would want you just as much. In fact, it would be very hard to decide between the two of you." I nudged Hachi playfully.

Hachi stopped crying and gave me a suspicious look. "Do you really believe that about Pinky?"

"Believe what?" I was confused.

Hachi's eyes narrowed. "That she wouldn't sleep with anyone else once you two started dating."

"Uh, yes?" I was perturbed.

Hachi shook her head as if knowingly. "You don't know anything about Pinky then, no matter what she's trusted you with, if you don't know that she never passes up the chance to sleep with any maid here at or above her status. If you don't believe me, ask the Flowers, if you know who they are yet, after breakfast. The Flowers keep a record of all gossip. Lorne has an innate sense of what is the truth and what is not, so anything false is crossed out. They can show you some of the disturbing things Pinky has done in her month of being here. I swear to you now, if you think Pinky will be truly faithful to you in a relationship, you don't know who she is yet. She's like the moon, Pet. Only everyone only sees her dark side, and you've been the only one to see her light side, that she hides from everyone. I warn you now, feel free to read what you want about Pinky's past in the book of gossip, but you may not want to read about the day she met you..."

I hesitated before I could say I didn't believe what Hachi was saying. Hachi wasn't the type to lie. But I didn't want to believe anything to be so bad about Pinky either, that she was likely going to play me.

"...okay. I'll try and get in contact with Lorne or Todd." I looked at my feet.

Hachi picked up my hand from my side and held it. I slapped her arm away and she smirked at me. "You have to hold my hand now, remember...?"

"Aw!" I pouted and opened my hand out towards her, still making the childish pout.

Hachi just laughed and threw me on her back before walking over to climb down the tree. I peeked over her shoulder and it seemed like we were up a hundred feet in the air. I almost panicked.

Hachi climbed down until there was about ten feet left, when she jumped. I screamed and we landed with a thump on Iron's back, who was chewing a clover flower at the time, and barely noticed us landing in the saddle.

I punched Hachi aggressively in the shoulder. "What was that for?! We could have died!"

"I jumped ten feet down from a tree. You jumped twenty feet into a pit from a running start and called a sword into your hand with magic. Who's really the insane one?" Hachi grinned at me.

I sulked. "I didn't use magic, it just appeared. I don't have any magic. I don't even know how to use it if I did."

"Silly, silly Pet. You have no idea how magic works, so you?" Hachi laughed at me before rearing Iron and we were tearing towards the castle, so I couldn't respond with the wind silencing any words I tried to say, being that powerfully pushing against us. Iron is a fast horse!

We were let into the secondary castle gate, the one who had come out of earlier, and Hachi helped me demount Iron with her. Some maids came up, took the saddle off for us, whispered to Hachi, "You'll be late, Princess!" Hachi merely replied, "That's what running's for."

Hachi took me by the hand and we ran into the castle, up flights of stairs, down long hallways, until we reached the grand doors into the meal room. I could hear general bustling inside, but it didn't seem like they had started yet.

"How do I look?" Hachi struck a glamorous pose.

I stifled a laugh and fixed her messy hair into place for her. "Perfect."

Hachi put my own hair back into an orderly fashion and I helped her gussy up her dress so it didn't look like she'd been riding on a horse, which she obviously had been. She ruffled my dress's frills until they looked natural, then took my hand, and we opened the doors together.

The dining hall looked as bright and splendorous as it had the first time I was in here. Again, all were present at the royal table except Sebastian Octavian. Everyone was present at the maid tables, it seemed, except me. I could see the Favored at their own table, staring at me suspiciously. I could see the Flowers, gossiping with what must be Leaves and maybe Roots. And I could see Pinky, all alone at one table, except for Ryder, who sat stoically across from her. Pinky's face brightened when she saw me, but saddened when she saw me holding Hachi's hand.

How could she be playing girls? How could she be playing me?

Hachi held my hand as we walked down the aisle to seats at the royal table. The expressions on everyone's faces varied from envy to contempt. I offered Hachi her seat by moving the chair a little farther back from the table and she did the same for me.

"Hello, Rennie!" The king greeted me with a cheerful, booming voice.

The queen snipped, "Ah, you again. Tell me, is there any special reason you graced this table again?"

"N...No ma'am." I stuttered in fear.

The queen turned to her daughter. "Why have you brought this quivering fool to the table again? Does she still remain the virgin among your whores?"

I flinched at the remark and some of the rowdier maid tables began to whisper to each other in distaste. Hachi didn't even break in her mood.

"I brought Pet here because I wanted her at the table with me. She's a good friend." Hachi hugged me to her and I buried my head into her body, afraid of the queen as much as Grim.

The queen sneered, "Right then."

She then stared at me, waiting for me to make eye contact. I tried not to, but curiosity got the better of me, and I gave her the wanted eye contact.

"Do you think you're better than the rest of Hachi's maids, Rennie?" The queen stared me down.

I tried to steady my voice, but it didn't work. "N...No m...ma'am."

"Then, why are you sitting at the table with Hachi?" I think she was trying to goad me into some sort of mistake, particularly talking to Hachi or her in an informal manner.

I cleared my throat. "Ma'am, the princess requested my presence and I obeyed."

"Very well." The queen sank back into deep thought and the meal begun.

The servants working directly for the king brought out platters filled high with steaming-hot foods.

Once again, the eggs held my attention. I ate maybe three types of ways to prepare eggs, adding cheese, pepper, and salt. Hachi nibbled pancakes, fruit, and drank creamy milk. When she'd finished her milk, she had a white line of it across her chin, so I cleaned it up for her with a napkin, but when I was done she surprised me with a quick kiss to the lips. I blushed red and turned away from her, but I could hear her brothers, the princes, laughing at me, and see Cain's smirk. Cain was a bit creepy, in my opinion, but I'm not entirely sure why, beyond the inappropriate looks and the gestures under the table.

The meal ended and Hachi made me hold her hand as we exited the dining hall, then dropped it and ran off to talk to Butterfly as soon as we were outside. I was about to be mad at her for leaving me, but then I realized I needed to find Lorne or Todd for information on Pinky.

I yanked a random girl out of the crowd and pulled her into an empty hallway. "This is going to seem really abrupt, odd, on the contrary, I know, I know, but do you know where I can find Lorne?"

I had no idea if she was a Root, Leaf, or just an ordinary girl, but her eyes widened at me and she ran off down the hallway, spreading the rumor I was looking for a certain Flower on to whoever she came across. Great.

Less than a minute later, someone tapped my shoulder from behind. I turned around and found Todd with Lorne suddenly there.

"Oh good, I finally got ahold of you..." I rambled.

Todd gave me a look. "Cut the crap. What do you want from us?"

"I actually asked for Lorne..." I glared at Todd.

Lorne got slightly angry. "We're equals, where she goes I go..."

"Where she goes, I go." Todd finished.

I put my hands up in surrender. "Okay, I get it, if one of you talks, she speaks for the other, right? Anyways, my issue is that Princess Hachi told me to come to you for information on Pinky, that I seem to be missing something important about her...?"

Todd gave me a "what the heck" look, but Lorne whispered in Todd's ear that "she's telling the truth" and Todd looked sick to her stomach.

"You want access to the book, right?" Todd asked with a forlorn expression on her face.

I nodded. "Yes, Hachi suggested I get ahold of that from you two."

"Well..." Todd scratched her head and looked at the floor sheepishly.

Lorne sighed and explained, "The Favored stole it from us. We had to start a separate edition in the time it has been gone, but they have the book with the information you're looking for."

"What?!" I exclaimed.

Todd groaned. "We have a...rivalry, as you no doubt have heard. While we were both out sleeping with two members of the Favored that night, the rest of them raided our things and found the book. One of them's hiding it, I know for certain, but I'm not sure which one and where it is."

"How long has it been gone?" I questioned.

Lorne had the sheepish look this time. "Last night..."

"What am I supposed to do now?" I muttered to myself.

Todd heard me. "Tell you what, if you can find and bring us the book, we'll let you read what you want under our supervision. We don't want any contamination of the files, or we would simply tell you to read it on your own time, understand?"

"Got it." I started mentally contemplating which of the Favored I was going to scope out first.

Lorne's voice interrupted my train of thought. "Do we have a deal, 'Pet?'"

"Of course." I shook both of their hands.