M.A.I.

The miniature bells tied around her ankles and wrists jingled as she felt the tiny sticks being trailed over her body. The women worked slowly, making sure each mark was carefully drawn and did not smudge. They laid her down and went to work on her stomach next. Maria tried her best not to move for this was important. Shifting slightly, she tried to find a better position. One of the women placed a hand on her head and hushed her. Although not needed, she sighed deeply.



How did she get into this? All she had wanted was to find a safe place to stay for a night or two and now it was going on three years. She had not planned on staying this long in one place. They finished up and then had her stand. She felt fingers run though her hair and adjust the material that covered a portion of her body. The material was light but it was key to keeping cool for the mortals in this heat. They tied yet another sting of bells around her waist and then a sixth about her neck. Handing her two small sets of tala, they then sent her on her way.



Flowers adorned her hair, seeming to drip from her redish curls. They had set up an area for her and a few men where sitting close by with more instruments ready to assist her. Maria took a deep breath to calm herself. This was more of an act for her viewers then for herself. Any woman in her position would be nervous by now. Looping the little ties of the tala over her thumbs and then over her middle fingers, Maria waited for the first notes to sound before entering the main dance floor.



Dust puffed up from under her feet as she stomped them in time with the music, bells jingling in the night. She was picking her next target. Still being relatively young, she had to drink almost daily. Her body moved with the strings of sound that floated up around the audience. Most were powerful men seated on silken pillows. Few where alone, the host had seen to that. Concubines hung from the arms of most of them, some were sitting in laps. There was no doubt that all eyes were on her though. They had no choice but to be...Maria never gave anyone the option of not looking when she wanted them to......



Men were such pigs. Disgusting with only a few things on their minds. It was easy to get to a man, power, wealth, women, destruction...not always in that order. Tonight, that moment to be more exact, she could tell that women were for most in the minds of men. The other thoughts were there of course, how could they not be? They all went hand in hand. That is when she found him. A pipe clenched between his teeth, he looked at her like something that should be possessed and then thrown away when done with. Tonight would be his last night full of such thoughts.



She moved in his direction, now the bells on her hips shook with the music as well. Maria smiled coyly at the man and moved close enough so that he could smell her. If he had wanted to, and if it would have not gotten him mutilated for insulting the host, he would have reached out and touched her. Her hips swayed in front of his face, at times thrusting toward him and she could see it was getting harder for him to control himself. Now was the time to make her move.



Tipping her head back and causing her chest to heave forward, she ran her fingers lightly over the top of her breasts and let them skim over the rest of her exposed flesh. Her stomach was tight, and flowed perfectly down to her shapely hips. Bringing one hand up again, she let her pointer finger pull gently on her top, drawing it a bit lower and the men’s eyes a bit higher up. Quickly, she pulled a piece of cloth that has been tucked into the top of her pants out and dropped it in front of the one she had picked. Only he noticed this as he picked up the cloth from his knee. Holding it tightly in one hand, he looked up at her, steel colored eyes boring though her, attempting to imagine what the rest of her looked like under the thin material. When she was close, he was able to that she wore nothing under her pants as the material was just colored slightly so when the light hit the right way, it became transparent.



He was glad to have had no woman in his lap. They may have taken it as an invitation to them when all his body wanted now was this woman. He watched her move back along the floor in the other direction, following her hips with his eyes. His mouth was practically full of saliva now at the thought of touching her. Lifting the cloth to his nose, he inhaled deeply and almost lost control of himself then. It smelled of sweet jasmine and something he could not put his finger on but it drove him mad. Nilesh wanted this woman like no other before. He want to have her, take her, keep her from all others and then finally, he wanted to hold her down and crush the life from her delicate body.



He grew harder thinking of how it would feel to have her throat in one hand, hear her delicate gasps for breath, watch her eyes grow wide with fear as he squeezed harder. She would claw at his hand like so many others as he claimed her body with his own. Oh yes....he could not wait to release his seed inside her as she took her final breaths in this world. If she was good to him, he may even grace her with a kiss as the light left her eyes and faded into nothingness. She moved back into the hidden place were none could see her anymore. He had caught the look she gave him before he left though. A wink followed by a glance at his hand holding the cloth. Pulling it apart, he could read what it had embroidered into it. “The smaller tent to your right. I will be waiting” Nilesh got up before the applauding had even thought to quiet down and was out of the tent. He had done this many times before but he could tell that tonight that tonight would be a night to remember for always.