Having resolved the issues surrounding the attempt on the Cardinal's life, Drustina occupies herself educating the very naíve Mercian Princess Solana about being a woman and about the ways of men.

The Angry Mermaid 86
Or
Y Morforwyn Dicllon. 86

After Drustina was delivered of her twins the delayed preparations for the consecration of the great Winchester church were resumed.
Bishop Celyn was still being detained until Drustina and Carl were ready to take their forces around the Dumnonii peninsular then north to Lleyn. Cardinal Craklow had decided to remain in Wessex because several very important and auspicious events were approaching. More importantly, The Mercian King Edrinor had become much more communicative towards Ethelred and enthusiastic about Ethelred marrying his sister Princess Sonala. He had even allowed his sister to visit King Ethelred in Wessex as a precursor to their intended marriage.

This was a consequence of Drustina asking her sister Tara to visit King Edrinor and extend the invitation to Sonala to visit the Saxon kingdom. After two weeks travelling to the Mercian Kingdom, Tara had conveyed the letter from Drustina explaining that Sonala would be chaperoned by the Lioness’s sister no less while she became better acquainted with Ethelred. Drustina’s letter was accompanied by a letter from Cardinal Craklow explaining that no less a person than the cardinal himself would conduct the royal wedding ceremony in the newly consecrated cathedral church.

Carl and several Saxon earls including Althred the young naval commander accompanied Tara as an escort and their visit served to cement solid relations between the Mercians and the Saxons. Whilst princess Sonala became excited at the prospects of visiting Wessex, the Mercian King Edrinor simply pumped Carl and Althred almost to exhaustion for stories about Drustina’s adventures.

“This lioness must be something incredible!” Edrinor enthused, “I simply can’t wait to meet her.”

Carl felt slightly embarrassed by Edrinor’s almost child-like enthusiasm and even Althred glanced askance towards Carl as the king described highly exaggerated versions of Drustina’s various and many battles. Several times Carl tried to gently enlighten Edrinor that this had not happened or that wasn’t exactly true but it seemed nothing could dampen the Mercian King’s enthusiasm. During the time of Princess Sonala’s preparations to travel to Wessex, poor Carl and Althred’s heads ached with the constant demands by Edrinor to tell yet another tale from the Drustina sagas. They were secretly glad when the royal procession was prepared and Princess Sonala bid her brother King Edrinor bye, bye. Tara was mildly surprised that Solana had no female attendants besides her but she did not question it. Different countries had different customs.

On the return journey it was Sonala’s turn to badger Carl and Althred about the Lioness’s battles and victories for she had already exhausted Tara about Drustina’s unusual, dual attributes. When the royal procession finally returned to Winchester, Carl, Tara and Althred were exhausted. As soon as Princess Sonala was handed over to Ethelred’s safe-keeping Carl almost staggered into Drustina’s chambers and collapsed on the bed. At the time Drustina was nursing her infants while the older twins were having a lesson from Sister Catherine. Carl didn’t even notice as he crashed, still girded for battle, onto the lioness’s bed.
Drustina smiled indulgently but didn’t stop suckling her twins.

“Bad journey was it darling?”

Carl opened one tired eye and replied wearily.

“By the gods, that Mercian Princess can talk! She never stopped! All the way from Mercia, questions, questions, bloody questions. I tell you Dru, somebody ought to start chronicling your bloody story! The bullshit that’s out there, you wouldn’t believe!”

Drustina grinned.

“Ten feet tall am I? With a long scaly tail I suppose; and a giant cock.”

“Well not that bad but you know ... lionesses are reputed to have tails, twitchy, swishy, fluffy ones.”

Drustina smiled wryly.

“Yeah, well a lioness’s tail helps her to keep her balance; though my duality might be a better balance weight.” Drustina continue. “I suppose there’s all sorts of shit being said about that.”

“Oh don’t even go there. You definitely need a chronicler. “

“Well that’s not likely to happen. Come the early summer I’m definitely resuming my travels. I owe that to my family and my tribe.”

Carl sucked his lip thoughtfully.

“D’you mean sailing the complete fleet straight into the Viking controlled Celtic sea or just The Angry Mermaid as a sort of secret recce’?”

Drustina chuckled, Carl was winding her up.

“I’m not stupid Carl; it’ll be a full year of secret reconnoitring. I know the Celtic sea like the back of my hand, every inlet, every beach every headland. I’ll be like a ghost. Black sails and blackened hull. Sail by night ... lay-up by day; you know the drill.”

Carl nodded. “Do to the Vikings what they did to your people.”

“Exactly, but my ship is faster and stealthier. Are you prepared to come with me?”

“Of course! Why on earth did you need to ask?”

She smiled at him and spread her arms invitingly as a tear forced its way to her eye.

“Make love to me.”

Carl hesitated and glanced towards the older twins and Sister Catherine. The ex nun smiled as she gathered Morgan and Amethyst to her before calling Gisela and Symone to collect the newborns. With her chamber clear, Drustina nodded significantly towards the bedroom door.

“You’d better lock that.”

Carl squinted uncertainly.

“Are you sure you’re ready. It’s only been a couple of months.”

Drustina’s heart almost melted for him. It was a rare man who was so solicitous of a woman’s condition after bearing her babes. Drustina was truly ready both in body and spirit.

“Of course I’m ready, just don’t squeeze my breasts, they’re full of milk.”

Carl locked the door then started to strip. Drustina followed suit. Finally each stood naked and hugging the other as they gently fingered each other’s burn scars. This unique intimacy had become the precursor to their lovemaking. Each explored the other’s most painful and intimate deformity as a declaration of their most extreme need and mutuality. The level of this tactile intimacy was almost as deep as the actual intercourse because it reinforced their mutual bonds of support and dependency. Eventually Carl would feel Drustina’s tears damp on his shoulder and he knew the girl in his arms was emotionally ready to take things further. Somehow Drustina needed this intense level of emotion to surmount her inherent aggression and by-pass her masculinity. Finally she would surrender her body utterly to the only one who would ever be allowed to take her missionary fashion. Carl was the only man she could trust to enter her femininity without being revolted by her maleness. Drustina’s trust had been forged in the brutal crucible of war; battles where she and Carl had fought and struggled both beside each other and separately in parallel battles as each fought to serve the others aims and needs. That trust was now the enabler that let Drustina surrender and open like a flower.
Carl knew this and as Drustina lay wantonly on her back with her parts vulnerable yet inviting, he probed delicately with his manhood. Her slippery lips told Carl his wife was ready and willing. Once this hiatus was reached, they would gently manoeuvre their parts then lie carefully on the bed as their union was commenced.

From that moment onwards throughout the rest of their lovemaking, Drustina was his utterly; for only Carl knew to pay no heed to the incongruous hardness pressing against his flat hard belly. Drustina knew she did not need to fear any revulsion or rejection from this man, this powerful, muscular, battle scarred, companion who had stayed beside her sometimes almost to the point of death. Their bond wasn’t lust, it was trust. This trust was expressed by Drustina in the most extreme manner; she allowed her soul-mate to lie on top, to cover her and possess her as she spread her legs and made herself totally his. Carl reinforced that trust by never hurting her or crushing her while yet enabling Drustina to wrap her legs tight around him and take what was rightfully hers... his seed. That part of him that would one day bind with her part and grow a new life within her that was both her and Carl’s flesh... attached to her and part of her, whilst yet being also a part of Carl.

That conception would be yet though, not while her milk flowed, not while her new twins fed off her and more importantly; not before she had at least tried to recover her homeland Lleyn.

They stayed thus joined for much time until Carl rolled slowly off his partner and settled to snore softly on his side of the bed. Drustina forgave him this for she knew he had just completed a long difficult journey. In silence she lay beside him briefly as she gently stroked his burn; then she had to get up as nature called. Carefully she slipped out of the bed and threw a gown around her as she skipped lightly out of her chamber towards the women’s bath already prepared for the royal afternoon bath-time.

After relieving herself, she peered into the bathroom and noted with some pleasure that it was unoccupied; she would have ‘first dibs’. Eagerly she clambered into the tub and luxuriated peacefully in the hot water for fully ten minutes until she was eventually disturbed by another bather.

The princess Sonala entered the female bathroom without realising the tub was occupied and she gave a squeak when she saw Drustina’s head below the rim. For a moment the princess was annoyed that her royal privileges and privacy were being invaded

“Hey! I am the princess Sonala and I am here to bathe. Who are you and what right do you have to bathe during the royal bath-time?”

Drustina turned and as her wet, golden hair fell across the other shoulder, her scarred neck and burned ear were exposed. Sonala gasped.

“Ah! Oh my God! It’s you, the lioness; the warrior queen. I’m sorry your majesty!”

Seeing a face that she had never seen before and hearing an accent that she had never heard before Drustina quickly concluded the newcomer was the Mercian Princess Sonala. Only the king’s royal female guests were entitled to use the royal washing facilities during the afternoon hours.

“I am indeed darling, but please join me. The water is hot and sweet and still fairly clean.”

Sonala was still nervous that she might have offended the illustrious warrior queen and she stood hesitantly.

“I am sorry your majesty. Please forgive me, I didn’t realise.”

“Oh tosh woman! Get in before the water freezes.”

“You are not offended then?”

“Of course not. Come in and we can chat!”

The Princess Sonala was so upset by her faux pas and so unsettled that she completely forgot about the Lioness’s reputed duality. All she saw was the long golden-blond hair, the beautiful face and the suggestion of a scar up the back of the Lioness’s head and neck. The burnt ear was invisible under the crowning head of golden hair. She smiled nervously and double checked.

“Are you sure it is all right to join you. I haven’t offended you have I?”

“May the gods forbid girl. I’ve bathed with a lot worse than a mere royal princess. Get in before the bloody tub freezes!”
Reassured, Sonala stepped gingerly into the large tub while Drustina rang for more hot water. As Sonala settled with the water covering her bosom, the servants arrived in procession to add several buckets of hot water to the tub. Buckets were added until the heat was just bearable then Drustina dismissed all but one maid.

“You had best attend us, Aeltea but first call my sister Tara to join us. I think a chaperone would be decorous, the princess here must maintain an un-impeachable reputation.”

“Yes ma’am.”

It was only then that Solana remembered the stories of the Lioness’s duality. She gasped.

“Oh my God, I will be undone!”

“Don’t be silly girl; we will have two chaperones, my sister Tara and young Aeltea here. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tara also brings my older daughter Amethyst. The girl always loves to bath with her aunty and mother.”

Within seconds of Aeltea calling across the corridor, Tara appeared with Amethyst whose grin widened with delight as she spotted her mum. The girl threw her clothes off then plunged in without any reservations and surfaced right alongside her mother as Sonala squealed with surprised amusement.

“Hey! Stop splashing you tinker!”

Amethyst twisted in her mother’s arms and turned to apologise until she saw Sonala’s beaming grin. Then she giggled and all formality was lost. Sonala found herself thoroughly enjoying the intimacy as the maids returned with another charge of hot water and soon the girls were lathering each other’s bodies. Drustina however made one thing clear to Sonala.

“I wash my own private parts Sonala, the reason should be obvious.”

“Oh Pooh!” The princess sulked, “I was hoping for an anatomy lesson.”

Tara gasped with amused embarrassment while Drustina pulled a wry smile.

“You’d get a very confusing lesson if you used me as your test piece young lady. Don’t even go there.”

Sonala hesitated; fearful she might have crossed a line.

“I’m sorry ... it’s just, well, it’s ... you know; royal princess and all that. I’ve never seen a man’s thing. My brother and I weren’t even allowed to bathe together as little children. This is the first time I’ve ever bathed with another person since my mother died. I was six!”

Drustina squinted uncertainly.

“What, you know nothing?”

Sonala wagged her head and Drustina began to wonder just how ignorant the princess was; she took another tack.

“Do you know how babies are born? Do you know how they are made!?”

Sonala wagged her head again causing Tara to flash a warning to Drustina, fearful that her younger sister might overstep some mark, some line of decency that might come to haunt her at a future date.

“Careful sis, those matters are for the healers to explain.”

Drustina snorted contemptuously.

“Dammit Sis, Sonala’s nearly nineteen! Her brother the Mercian king is only twenty three. If the Mercian healers or ladies of the court have not told the poor girl by now, who the hell will!? The poor kid is getting married this summer!”

Drustina turned to Sonala and asked.

“Are you frightened about having babies, do you know how they come?”

Sonala nodded to the first question then croaked.

“I don’t know how they come, I only know that mummy died having my little sister and she died as well. One day Mummy was playing with me in the bath and she put my hand on her tummy. I felt my little sister move inside her tummy. That night there was some sort of panic and the next morning mummy and the baby were dead. She would have been a girl. I must have killed my mother and sister
when I pressed her tummy. I’m frightened it might happen to me. God might punish me!”

Drustina rolled her eyes in despair then glanced at Sonala thoughtfully.

“Be assured Princess, you did NOT kill your mother and sister!!! Was your mummy very small?”

“Yes.”

“But you are quite a normal size and well shaped. You shouldn’t have trouble bearing your babies.”

“But how?” Sonala whispered nervously. “How do they come out? I know they grow inside my tummy but ... a baby is so big; how?”

It some effort for Drustina to keep her composure. The princesses’ ignorance was depressing. It seemed that since the death of her mother, the Mercian court had been run entirely by men; her father and brother who viewed the Princess Sonala as little more than a pawn, a bargaining counter to trade off against whosoever could benefit Mercia the most either defensively or offensively. When her father the old king had died her brother had carried on in a like vein. The princess had simply been treated as some sort of breeding device to cement the security of her brother’s kingdom. So valuable was this political consideration that the Princess had been held in virtual isolation with no contemporaries to grow up with and her only educators being scholars and priests. The girl knew almost nothing about being a woman! Even the onset of her menarche had come as a terrifying shock with little or no explanation except to tell her that sudden bleeding from her body was normal and to ‘get on with it’.

As Drustina struggled to find the words to firstly calm the girl and secondly disguise her own shock, Tara stepped in with a simple ‘down-to-earth’ explanation.

“Princess, it’s simple, your baby comes out the same way it went in.”

“But how is that?” Sonala asked huskily as she realised her devastating ignorance had completely thrown the older women.

For several moments, a deafening silence descended around the tub as Sonala became distressed.

“Please! Please tell me! How!!”

Tara became hesitant as she realised her flippant remark had done nothing to enlighten the girl. She shook her head slowly and left Drustina to explain.

“You tell her lioness. It will be better if a mother explains it ... and a father for that matter. You will be able to explain both sides of the business.”

Drustina sighed and asked for more hot water to be added, it was going to be a long afternoon.

“And tell the maids to keep the water coming Aeltea, you’d better stay to hand in case I miss something. Besides, this is really going to need a responsible chaperone and witness.”

Aeltea knew what the lioness was referring to; she was the only woman in Wessex besides Tara, Sister Catherine, Gisela and Symone who had seen the lioness naked. She settled on the side of the tub with her feet dangling in the water as Drustina started her lesson.
As Drustina explained the facts to the princess, she continued soaping and washing the girl gently. This served to calm Sonala. Several times as the water became scummier with the scented oils and soaps, Sonala took advantage of the water’s opacity and made a secret effort to try and feel Drustina’s duality. At first Drustina simply kept her distance and Sonala’s attempts to discover stuff became painfully obvious to all the women. Finally Drustina became slightly annoyed and she sat back against the rim of the tub as she addressed Aeltea.

“Lock the door darling, this princess needs to know all the facts. I’m going to show her and I don’t want any embarrassing
incidents.”

Aeltea nodded knowingly as Tara took Amethyst in her arms and nodded her agreement. It was obvious to all that Sonala needed enlightenment. Drustina took Sonala’s jaw in her fingers and stared into her eyes. She saw the uncertainty and confusion so she smiled softly to reassure her.

“Now Princess, we can all see that you need to see and understand for you have amply demonstrated your wishes with your clumsy attempts to feel my maleness. I thought that simply explaining it would be enough but it appears not.”

Princess Sonala lowered her eyes more from apology than modesty and Drustina gently kissed her on the forehead as a mother would kiss her child. She then asked the princess.

“Do you want to see what a man looks like in his private parts?”

Sonala glanced around fearfully then searched Drustina’s eyes for any sign of lust or salaciousness. She found none, only the continuing, reassuring smile. Nervously she nodded as she croaked softly.

“Yes.”

“Do you want to see how it functions; by that I mean only watch, not touch! Then you will not get with child! Your body will remain pure.”

“Yes. No touching.”

“Right young lady, now I must warn you my body has endured many cuts from many battles. I was not only born disfigured at birth but also disfigured by war. Prepare to see a horribly scarred body. I am going to stand.”

Solana bit her bottom lip and tensed but to her own surprise, her eyes were not drawn immediately to Drustina’s duality. Instead she stared disbelievingly at the multitude of scars that seemed to cover the Lionesses’ body. Drustina realised that her battle scars were a greater shock to the princess than her duality so she slowly turned to expose the worst of her wounds. Firstly the long ugly scar from her waist, down her buttock and under her gluteus into her most intimate part. Secondly the cruel burn with its waxy texture and puckered rills of shrivelled flesh that spread from just below her left scapula up her neck to finish at her left ear that more resembled a strip of fried bacon. Sonala was so shocked she could not help but comment.

“Ugh. It’s so ugly, how do you...?”

“How do I bear them you wonder?”

Sonala’s voice cracked. “Well ... Ye-ess.”

Drustina shrugged philosophically and somewhat wearily.

“With sadness, with pride, with anger.”

Solana hesitated as her eyes remained glued to the disfigurement until she sensed Drustina’s mild impatience.

“I, I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”

“This is supposed to be about you; educating you, explaining stuff.”

As she gently censured Solana Drustina turned to face her again; her male part made quite visible again. Solana frowned as her lips twitched distastefully.

“It’s a bit ugly really, isn’t it?”

Drustina was forced to agree. Of all the scars and disfigurements she carried she also thought her cock was the ugliest but she did not want to remove it for it gave her pleasure that no other woman could understand. She looked down and chuckled, ‘it was rather ugly, hanging like a withered fruit’. She smiled at Solana and nodded slowly.

“Yes, indeed you’re right. Cocks are not the prettiest of things.”

Solana nodded then realised she was having a unique opportunity to learn about man stuff without feeling threatened. She became emboldened by the Lionesses’ easy, friendly manner.

“You said it grows stiff when a man fancies somebody else.”

“It does young lady. Stand up.”

“But I; I’m naked!”

“Stand up silly! This lesson is for you and nobody else. I will not embarrass the other women here; I will not insult Aeltea nor abuse her lack of rank by asking her to bare her assets, attractive though she is. This lesson is for you alone, now stand up please! You will see how the beauty of your body arouses a cock!”

“Why don’t you ask Tara?”

“Tara is my own sister girl. I could never fancy my sister!”

“Oh! Yes, of course.”

Solana continued to hesitate so Drustina explained.

“This is a lesson Princess. I am trying to demonstrate two things; firstly how a man is aroused and secondly I’m trying to get you accustomed to being naked beside your husband. Stand up please.”

Reluctantly, Sonala slowly emerged from the water half turning as she rose. Drustina indulged her this concession because it was obviously her first time. Even so, Sonala’s beautiful form soon had Drustina’s maleness lusting. It was more a consequence of Sonala’s seeming vulnerability and innocence than her stunning beauty but the whole effect was one of arousal and provocation. Drustina was secretly relieved that her male part responded as she’d hoped. Solana’s eyes widened with curiosity and she reached out hopefully.

“Can I touch it?”

Drustina rolled her eyes.

“D’you have to? Is not seeing enough?”

“I just want to feel it.”

“Quite simply it’s a stiff rod covered in velvety skin.”

“But is Ethelred’s like that?”

“Pretty much, yes. I keep male company as much as I keep female. I’ve seen his parts.”

Solana gasped.

“You’ve been naked with men!!”

“Only to bathe, it’s no big deal princess. I was armed and men respect my weapons.”

“But only women respect that weapon!” Tara chortled earthily.

Drustina scolded her benignly. “Behave sister! Right Sonala, that’s the anatomy lesson over young lady. You can touch it once then we get dressed.”

Sonala reached out tentatively and extended her fingers then she looked up seeking permission. Drustina nodded and the princesses’ fingers curled curiously around the incongruous pole.

“It’s sort of soft but stiff.”

“That’s enough young lady; lesson over. If you want to learn any more go down to the farm yard and watch the animals.”

Even as she spoke, Drustina had a disturbing thought.

“You have been to a farm have you not?”

Sonala wagged her head despondently.

“No. It was deemed unseemly for me to see such rawness.”

“May the gods forbid! It’s the farmyard for you girl. A few lessons in the dynamics.”

Tara let out another snort and even Aeltea could barely control her snigger. Drustina wagged her head in mock despair.

“The sooner the better I think. I’m finished here.”

She climbed easily out of the tub and hauled Amethyst out before the two retired to her bedroom. Carl was still fast asleep. Drustina put her fingers to her lips before they dressed then savoured the un-interrupted hour by dressing each other’s hair.

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