“Don’t be scared.  It’s a great honor and something you have been destined for since you were born.”

Winifred looked up at her older sister as the other girl arranged the flowers in her hair.

“Easy for you to say, you are the oldest and not being married to a man you have never met and being sent away from your family, the Coven, and your life.”  Winifred sighed, “Of course I am scared.”

“Don’t be afraid, Winnie,” her older sister caressed her cheek.  “You will be able to see Galia again.”

Winifred smiled at that.  She had not seen her Aunt, her mother’s younger sister, since she was Marriage Bonded to the current chief of the Island Clan when Winifred was a child. 

“Does it hurt?” the younger sister asked the older one.  “I heard other girls talk about how the first time hurts.  Nalia told me her first time hurt badly.”

“Nalia is a liar and always had been.  She tells you things like that because she is jealous of you.  She is jealous you have more magic in you than she does.  Plus she’s a dimwitted fool,” the older girl ran her fingers through Winifred’s dark hair.  “It can hurt but the pain does not last long and then you receive pleasure from it and if the man makes you climax then it’s a feeling you want to experience over and over again.”

Winifred nodded but her sister’s words did not ease the fear she felt.  Winifred was sixteen and unlike her eighteen-year-old sister, she had never had sex before.   Delfina was the firstborn and since she was sixteen she had been able to participate in the various rituals of the Circle where sex was a prominent part; sex with the boys and men and girls and women of their Coven and the Woodland Coven and the Mountain Coven.  Not Winifred however.

The younger sister’s destiny was sealed the day she was born.  She was to remain a virgin and untouched sexually until she was marriage bonded to the son of the chief of the Island Clan to become their witch, healer, and priestess.  A position of great honor she had been told for as long as she could remember.        

Since Winifred got her first moon blood she was placed in chastity and would not be released from it until her wedding by her new husband.  The tradition went back over a hundred years to end the war and bloodshed between the Island Clan and the Yanami Clan, the People of the Marsh Coven who just referred to themselves as the Marsh People since they lived in the marshlands near the Great Sea.

There were other Yanami Clans that Winifred knew of but had only seen people from two other clans when they gathered at the Meeting Place for the yearly Great Rite; the Woodland Coven to the east and the Mountains Coven many miles to the North. 

Winifred had been well-educated about the war between the Island Clan and her people.  The Island Clan are a warlike people and their warriors are highly skilled and well-trained since they were children.  They wanted the People of the Marsh’s magic since they had none of their own.  The Marsh People are not warriors, while the men were expert hunters and trackers of animals; they were not killers of men like the Island Clan.   

The Island Clan soon discovered that magic could not be stolen since magic was something the Yamani People were born with.  The Island Clan then tried breeding magic into their people.  They would kidnap young girls of breeding age instead of killing them.  After the first generations of the mixed race were born, the Island Clan discovered that would not work either since the mixed-blood children had no magic powers.  They soon began to fear the magic as the war went on so they decided to just eliminate the Marsh People entirely.

The war was bloody and much cruelty took place on both sides.  Relying on their hunting skills, the hunters of the Marsh People would never meet the warriors of their enemy in open battle but would set up devious traps and ambush from the dark.  Female magic is stronger than male magic and the females used magic that the Island Clan soon started to learn to fear.  The Witches of the Coven had to resort to dark magic, a magic that had always been forbidden to use.  Some even resorted to the evil blood magic of necromancy.  Such magic darkened the soul.  Marsh People had little choice but to resort to such magic if they were to survive.

As the war raged on for decades, both the Marsh people and the Island Clan suffered many losses until finally, the Island Clan offered terms for peace.  The Marsh People were happy to have peace because unknown to the Island Clan, the Marsh People were losing the war and their population was being decimated.  The Marsh People were willing to accept almost all the terms the Island Clan offered.

One of the terms in the peace treaty was that the second daughter of the high priestess of the Marsh People would be bound to marriage on her sixteenth birthday to the son of the chief of the Island Clan.  If the chief had no sons then the girl would marry his male heir.  Sometimes the marriage bond skipped a generation when the high priestess had only one daughter or all boys; Winifred’s mother had three daughters and Winifred was the second born.  To be marriage bond was considered a great honor for the Marsh People.  To the Island Clan the Bond Wife was highly respected as a user of magic and healer and Priestess to the gods the Island Clan worshipped.   

In return, the Island Clan would protect the marsh people from any enemies.  They set up an outpost at the border of the marsh which was manned by warriors to come to the aid of the People of the marsh if needed.  The warriors were forbidden to enter the marsh unless needed, but over the years that agreement in the treaty was overlooked.  The Island Clan warriors would often come into the marsh to trade, invited to feasts and rituals on holy days, and even couple with girls of the Marsh People if the girl was willing; which often they were.  Winifred’s mother and sister had coupled with two warriors of the outpost at the last Autumn Equinox celebration.  Winifred had to make the sweet-tasting tea the next morning to prevent any offspring that may have quickened her mother and sister's womb.  

Bloodlines had to be pure for the Yanami People; if not the child would be born without the ability to do magic.  If such a child of mixed blood was born, the Yanami People would accept and love him or her as a member of the Coven but would be of lesser standing in the Coven.   The Island Clan felt the same way about keeping a pure bloodline, but for different reasons and they treated mixed-blood children very differently.  

The Island Clan are of the Gheechaneze people who populated the islands along the coast and had outposts and villages along the coastline.  They were not only warlike people but people who believed were superior to other peoples, who they considered lesser than them.  They felt mingling their bloodlines outside the Gheechaneze people would dilute their superior blood.  Trying to breed magic into their people with the kidnapped girls of the Marsh People was the one exception and it failed.  To the Island Clan, it was just proof that intermingling their blood with that of lesser people would dilute their race.  The children of such a union are put to death, sometimes the boys were sold as slaves and the girls were sold to brothels to be trained in the ways to please a man or woman.          

There were many other agreements in the peace treaty, most were overlooked now, but the Marriage Bond was still upheld.

“What if he does not like me, Delfina?”  Winifred asked her older sister.  She and her future husband had never met.  “I am not like you.”

Winifred was not trying to be humble, to her it was true.  Where her older sister was charming, elegant, and graceful; Winifred was gawky, awkward, timid, and lacked the social skills her older sister had.  Winifred was not shy but did prefer to be alone than to socialize with her peers, who teased her often.  The people of her Coven called her an odd girl and some even said she was cursed.  The only thing Winifred excelled at over her peers was her knowledge of magic.    

Her physical looks were also different comped to her older sister as night and day.  Her looks were different compared to all the other Yamani People she had seen.  She was often teased by her peers and called the Moon Witch because her looks were unlike any of the other Marsh People or even the Woodland People and Mountain People.  Children were afraid of her because of her looks and some of the elders claimed she was the Night Goddess reborn. 

Her different looks were because of something much more reasonable.  Delfina’s father was the Coven’s current high priest and Winifred’s father was Yamani from a clan in a land across the Great Sea.  He was a Traveler, one of the Yanami men who traveled to distant lands to learn magic from other clans.  Travelers were also known to cheat non-magical people out of their money, a place to stay the night, or food.  They would do this by providing false readings and false fortune-telling to unsuspecting people in the villages they traveled to.  Travelers were not the most honest of the Yanami People.  He coupled with Winifred’s mother at the Ritual of the Great Rite. 

The Yanami do not have a marriage practice among themselves.  They don’t practice mating for life.  A few, very few, found the one partner they want to be with for a life bond, but most do not.  Siblings having different fathers were common among the Yanami.  None of Winifred’s sisters had the same father and the child currently growing in her mother’s belly had a different father as well.  Her older sister was also pregnant by the same boy, conceived only two days apart.  Winfred knew this because she had hidden and watched as her friend Mykka spilled his seed into his mother one night and then a couple of days later into her sister.    

Mykka was Winifred’s best friend for as long as they could both remember.  Mykka was Winifred’s only friend besides her sisters.  Mykka was a year older than Winifred, but they were born on the same day.  Mykka was tall for his age and was already one of the best hunters in the Coven.  He is a very handsome boy and Winifred was in love with him and him with her, but both knew she was forbidden to couple with one another.  Winifred often dreamed he would be the boy to take her maidenhood, but that was just a dream and she knew it could never happen.

On the night of her birthday and Mykka’s sixteenth birthday, Winifred invited Mykka to come to celebrate at her dwelling and her mother cooked a fine meal for them.  Her mother suggested Mykka stay the night since it was late and made a sleeping bed for him in the common room of their dwelling.  Later that night, Winifred wanted to talk with Mykka as they often did late at night and shared their secrets.   She got out of her and walked into the common room. 

She saw Mykka taking her mother from behind and thrusting into her womanhood hard and the boy was grunting loudly as her mother made loud moans of pleasure and begged for Mykka to go harder.

The Yanami People perceive life to be a precious gift that should be lived and enjoyed, thus sexuality is valued as a pleasure as well as for procreation. Sex is also respected as a means to a sense of communion with the divine and to connect to the life force and the creative energies of the cosmos.  The Yanami believe sex is to be enjoyed and celebrated. 

Winfred was not jealous of Mykka and her mother.  Even though she loved Mykka, she was happy for him.  She knew he had never coupled with a woman before and since Mykka could not ever couple with her she was happy his first time was with her mother.  Jealousy was almost an unknown emotion among the Yanami. 

What Winifred did not like was how it made her feel to watch.  She had witnessed sexual acts before at several rituals and while they aroused her sexually, that arousal was not near as powerful as the arousal she felt while watching her mother and Mykka.  Her young, untouched womanhood felt as if it was dripping from wetness.  As she watched she tried to wiggle her body and move it in a way that she could put pressure on her pleasure nub, but the chastity device prevented even the smallest touch to give her pleasure.  Her small, flesh-colored nipples became erect and as she played with them; that made her arousal worse but she could not make herself stop rubbing and pinching them.  That night she could not sleep due to her sexual arousal and she even cried in frustration at not being able to receive sexual pleasure. 

The next morning as her mother served her and her sisters and Mykka breakfast, Winifred teased them as she told them what she saw.  Mykka blushed and her mother kissed the boy with passion on the lips and told Winifred that she had to give the boy a gift for his birthday.  Winifred giggled at the look of embarrassment on her friend’s face.    

Two days later Winifred was out picking herbs and saw her older sister and Mykka coupling in the woods and she watched them.  She watched as Delfina was using her mouth to please the boy and then her sister got on top of Mykka and rode him until they both climaxed.  Mykka has become very popular with the females of the Coven to couple with and while he took advantage of that; he still loved Winifred and she loved him. 

Delfina was by far the prettiest girl of the Marsh People and was highly desired.  Her sister resembled all of the Yanami that Winifred had seen with blonde or red hair or an in-between color.  Delfina had long red curly hair the color of fresh strawberries.  Delfina had the same complexion as the other Yamani; naturally lightly tanned that would turn a light bronze color in the summer sun.   Her breasts were full and shapely, typical of the women of the clans.

Winifred was different.  She was the only Yanami she had ever met who had dark hair and a pale complexion like the moon.  She was of average height and comparable to the girls her age, but her body was thin and waif and frail looking.  Her breasts were so small that when she lay flat on her back her chest looked almost like that of a teenage boy.  Her body lacked the curves girls her age and older had.  When she looked at herself in the reflective glass she saw a body of a girl who had not started to develop yet.

Nalia often teased Winifred about her body, telling her she had the legs of a marsh egret and the body of a young boy.  Winifred was envious of Nalia’s looks; the girl with long blonde hair and a voluptuous body.       

The people of the Coven People would say that Winifred had a beauty to her, but it was a haunting beauty like the Night Goddess.  Some of the older men and women of the Coven even whispered behind her back that she was the Night Goddess come back to the world.  The Night Goddess invaded the dreams of men, women, younger men, and younger women who were maturing and ate their souls through sexual intercourse. Others claimed her looks came from dark magic that her high priestess great, great grandmother had used during the war and that darkness had been passed to Winifred.     

Winifred heard all these whispers behind her back and often her peers would say such things directly to her.  Besides Mykka, Winfred had no friends her age in the Coven.  Some people of the Coven even cast wards about their sleeping rooms to keep Winifred out on the chance that she may be the Night Goddess returned as the prophecy predicted.  The return of the Night Goddess would result in a battle between good and evil that would reshape the world.  What the girl did not hear and what was rarely spoken were other things men and women of the Marsh whispered and thought about Winifred.

Some men and women, the braver ones, would whisper how they would couple with Winifred out of lust for her and to brag that they had the courage to bed the Moon Witch if she had not been promised to bond marriage.  Most just thought it through and the wiser, older men and women of the Coven would quickly hush the ones who whispered it.  To say such things aloud was to invite evil into their dreams.  They may have thought she was the Night Goddess come back, but some still lusted after her haunting beauty and waifish body.

“Hush, Winnie,” the older sister told the younger.  “You are beautiful.”  Delfina caressed her sister's cheek, “He will be pleased with you.”

“What if I am not with him?”  Winfred asked. 

“I have seen him when he met with mother this morning.  He is very handsome and tall and strong looking.”

“But I heard things from Nalia that the warrior from the outpost who bedded her one night told her.  Things that will happen to me and the things...”

“I have told you many times not to listen to that girl,” Delfina interrupted.  “I swear she needs to be cursed for telling lies and making up things to scare you.  She has always tormented you.  If mother would have let me I would have cursed her years ago for the things she has done to you all these years.  The bitch even thinks she will be high priestess after mother,” Delfina chuckled at that.  “She is too dimwitted for that.  Your place will be one of honor and respect among the Island Clan and you will be well treated.  Better than you are here.”

Winifred smiled but she was still frightened.  If half the things Nalia told her were true then she had a right to be frightened. 

“Will they let me come home to visit you and Camille?”  Winifred asked.  “I am going to miss her growing up.” Camille is the youngest sister, a girl of eight.  “And Mykka also, I have not seen him in days and he is going to miss the ceremony.”

Delfina frowned, “Mykka went hunting and told his mother he would not be back until after you have gone.  He is hurting and being a boy who thinks he is a man this is his way of dealing with you leaving.”  Delfina smiled at her sister but Winifred could tell it was forced.  “They won’t let you come back, but we can visit you I am sure.”  Winifred knew that was a lie.  No one from the Coven ever went to visit her aunt. 

Winfred started to cry.  She would never see her sisters or her mother or Mykka again.  She would never again walk barefoot in the squishy mud of the marsh, never again pick the wild herbs for the medicines and spells, and never again attend any ceremonies to honor the Goddess and the Horned God.  She would even miss being tormented by Nalia.  There was so much of her life that would be gone by night's end, including her virginity. 

She cried because she was going to live with a people whose culture she did not understand, to live with people she did not know, and to learn to worship gods she did not pray to.  Her aunt would be there to guide her, but that did little to ease Winifred’s sadness.   

“Stop crying, Winnie.  You don’t want to have red puffy eyes when you meet your husband,” Delfina told her.  Her older sister was crying as well. 

Winifred wiped her eyes with her hands and Delfina took Winifred’s hands and pulled her to her feet.  She hugged her younger sister tight. 

“I love you, Winnie,” she whispered with emotion.

“I love you too, Del,” the younger girl hugged her sister tight.

Winifred felt a pang in her heart as she hugged her sister and felt the slight bump of her early pregnant belly.  That was another thing Winifred would never have; children of her own.  It was not the duty of a Bond Wife to have children.  The marriage would be a sexual marriage but sex for pleasure not to bear children.  After Winifred had her first moon blood, she drank the strong, bitter tea that would permanently close her womb to any man’s seed.  Winifred loved children and she desired to have her own, but that would never happen.

“It’s time,” Winifred heard a strong male voice and broke her embrace with her sister and wiped the tears from her eyes. 

The girl looked over her sister’s shoulder and saw the high priest of the coven standing just inside the room, Delfina’s father.  Next to him stood a beautiful woman, an older version of Delfina except the woman had blonde hair the color of wheat instead of her older sister’s red hair; the girl’s mother, the high priestess.  They both would perform the marriage ritual.  Winifred would have another marriage ceremony in the tradition of the Island Clan when she arrived at her new home. 

“Leave us, please,” her mother told Delfina and the man.

After the two left the room, Winifred ran to her mother and embraced her tight and started to cry once more.  Her mother returned the embrace just as tight.

“I don’t want to do this, mother,” Winifred sobbed out.  “Please don’t make me do this.  You’re the High Priestess, you can stop it.  I can…I can run away to one of the other covens.  Please, mother, please don’t make me,” Winifred begged as she cried in her mother’s arms.

“Hush, child, you know we have to,” her mother kissed the top of her head.  “From the day you were born I have wished and prayed to the Mother Goddess to spare you from this, but we can’t.” 

Winifred’s mother pushed her daughter back and held her gently on the shoulders.  Winifred looked up and saw her mother had tears running down her cheeks.

“If we hide you, if I stop it, if you run away; there will be war again and we will not survive another war.  The Island Clan has grown much stronger over the decades while our people are diminishing.  That’s why I choose your father as a bedmate.  He wanted me badly and told me that the Yamani People across the sea were many united covens and when he went back home he would convince shiploads to come over the sea and join us.  I should have known better than to believe him but I was desperate.  He is a Traveler and Travelers lie.”  Winifred’s mother wiped tears from her daughter’s face.  “You must be brave, daughter.  I know you know how to be brave and you have courage in you.” 

Winifred nodded, “I will try, mother.”

“Did you say your goodbyes to Camille?”  Her mother asked.

“Yes, mother, but I don’t think she understood.  She thinks I am coming back.”

“Maybe that’s a blessing.  She looks up to you a great deal and the two of you are close.” 

Winifred struggled to keep from crying again as she thought of her little sister she will never see again.  “Yes, mother.”

“It’s time, dear.”

Her mother hugged her tight again.  When her mother let her go, she escorted Winifred to meet her future husband.

The ceremony was held in the sacred grove.  Winifred walked behind her mother looking at her feet.  She looked up when they entered the grove and looked around.  The only people in the grove were Winifred, her mother, her two sisters, the high priest, and her new husband and his entourage.  There would be a celebration for the people of the Coven after the marriage ceremony.

She did not notice her future husband at first, she was surprised by the fact his entourage carried weapons.  They were just long knives at their waist, except for two of the men who stood several feet behind the man she was going to marry.  Those two were armed with spears and swords and wore shiny silver armor that looked like fish scales.  The warriors of the Island Clan that manned the outpost on the edge of the marsh were forbidden to carry weapons when they came into the coven’s village. 

Both men looked no older than Winifred and they looked identical and she knew they must be twin brothers.  Both had short-cropped hair and were tall for their apparent age.  Their skin was as black as the suet from the fire pits.  The Island Clan and all Gheechaneze were a black race.  Winifred assumed they were bodyguards for the man she was to marry.  He was the son of a chief and an important person in the Island Clan.  The boys had lean muscular builds to them.   

Winifred next noticed the man standing next to her husband-to-be.  He was taller than the twins and older looking and of a stronger more muscular build.  His hair was long and braided with sea shells entwined in the braids.  He was not a handsome man and on the right side of his face he had several horrible, jagged scars that ran down his cheek to his neck.  Winifred thought he was ugly and frightening looking.  She did not want to be close to that man.  He had the appearance of a man who gets great enjoyment out of hurting others.  His skin was as dark as the twins but where their complexion was smooth and reflective, the ugly man’s skin was dull looking.  

She next looked at the man she was going to be wedded to.  Delfina had been right, he was handsome; extremely handsome Winifred thought.  He was taller than the twins and the man standing next to him.  He was the tallest man Winifred had ever seen.  He must have been over a foot taller than she was.   He was wearing a red, sleeveless tunic embroidered with intricate designs in gold thread.  The tunic could barely contain his muscular chest.  His arms were knotted with muscles so big that the tunic seemed as if it would split open if he moved them.  His hair was much longer than that of the ugly man’s and his braids were entwined with gold beads.  Standing a distance away and behind the man she was to marry was an old, grey-headed black man.  He was tall and thin and wise looking.  All of the black men of the Island clan had clean-shaven faces.    

For a moment, just a moment, Winifred felt the fear leave her as she thought this was the man who was going to take her virginity and the thought excited her.  The fear came back; however when she thought of what Nalia once told her as she taunted her of the men of the Island clan.

Nalia told her the men of the Island Clan were a lustful people and their lust never seemed to be satisfied and would couple with a woman many times in one night until the poor woman was left exhausted and sore and begging for him to stop.  But what Winifred was most afraid of was when Nalia told her the men of the Island Clan had manhoods much larger than other men and some so large that it would split a girl as skinny as Winifred’s womanhood apart.  Winifred whispered a prayer to the Mother Goddess, The Horned God, and even the Night Goddess that was not true.  Winifred was looking forward to losing her virginity and to a man as handsome, tall, and muscular as her future husband would be exciting, but she did not want the coupling to hurt her and she surely did not want her womanhood ripped open. 

The wedding ceremony was over quickly and her part was easy. All she had to do was say the word, “yes”, a few times and she was married.  To end the ceremony she was told by the high priest to lift her long gown to her waist and he now husband bent down and removed the chastity device from her.  Winifred made a satisfied sigh as the belt she had worn for three years was finally removed.  Winifred had not yet even learned what her new husband’s name was.

The after-wedding feast would have been pleasant if Winifred had not been so scared and nervous about what was going to happen once her husband decided to take her into the wooden plank building where they would consummate their marriage. 

She was sitting in a large chair made of marsh oak and craved with runes.  Her new husband was sitting next to her in a larger chair carved with similar runes.  Behind him stood the Ugly Man and behind Winifred stood the young twins, still in their armor and armed with spears, shields, and swords at their hips.  They made Winifred seem like she was their prisoner.  She ate very little of the plentiful food and drank less.  Her husband, who she discovered his name to be Jamal when the Ugly Man said it, ate with a huge appetite but refused the sweet wine and drank water instead. 

Others seemed to be having a grand time, even Winifred’s mother and sister.  They danced and ate and drank the sweet muscat wine.  There were some Island Clan warriors from the outpost at the feast and Winifred noticed three young black girls of the Island Clan sitting alone at a table and giggling. 

The three girls looks about Winifred’s age and all three were very beautiful, Winifred thought.  Many of the boys and men and even some of the girls of the Marsh People tried to get them to dance with them and even something more, but the girls declined each offer. 

As the evening went on, people started to pair off and some left with multiple partners, one male and two females or two males and one female, to couple with each other.  Winifred saw her mother and sister walk off with one of the Island Clan warriors, a strong viral looking man who looked to be about thirty who mother and daughter would share for the night.  She winced when she saw the Ugly Man pair up with Nalia.

While Nalia was not her friend, she thought the other girl was making a mistake.  The Ugly Man looked cruel and the type who enjoyed hurting women he would couple with them.   

The evening became later and Winifred tried to make conversation with her new husband but he ignored her attempts to talk.  He did not look happy about the marriage either.  She thought he must be disappointed with the way she looked.  She flinched when the Old Man clapped his hands.  The three young black girls stood up and walked to Winifred.  The one with darker skin bent leaned forward, her face close to Winifred’s.

“It’s time we prepare you,” was all she said.

Confused and frightened and sad that her husband was displeased with the way she looked, Winifred did not resist when the young girls took her and pulled her to her feet.  As they escorted her away from the feast, she glanced over her shoulder to look at her new husband but he did not even look in her direction.  She also noticed the twin guards walking a few paces behind her, one to the left of her and one to the right of her.  Winifred became afraid of the young soldiers now that it seemed they were not her husband’s bodyguards, but they were there to guard her as a prisoner.     

The girls took Winifred to the one-room dwelling that was built many years ago and used only when a bond wife was to consummate her marriage to the man from the Island Clan.  The twins stood outside the door and the girls led Winifred into the dwelling.  Two of the girls started filling a tub full of hot and cold water and the other sprinkled petals of a flower in the water.  The scent of the petals had a rich aroma with a subtle sweetness to it.  When Winifred asked what kind of petals they were the girl told her gardenias.  Winifred had never seen a gardenia blossom before and it was strange to her but she liked the scent of them.  The girl with the darker skin placed her hand in the water to test the temperature, nodded to the other girls and they began to undress Winifred.

Once she was naked, Winifred stepped into the bath and the girls used jasmine-scented soap to bathe her.  She did not know why she needed a bath, she took one that morning.  They gently washed her body and her hair. The young girl enjoyed the pampering and her fears started to ease away.   When the girls were finished bathing her, they had Winifred stand up in the tub.  As two of the girls spread coconut oil over her arms, legs, and even her armpits; the other girl placed a cloth bundle on the small table in the room.  When she unwrapped it, Winifred flinched and became frightened again. 

Inside the cloth was various shiny steel instruments, some curved in different shapes and some straight.  Winifred could tell that each instrument had a side that was sharpened to a razor edge.  Winifred did not know what the girls were going to do to her. 

She relaxed a little when they started to shave her with expert and delicate hands, never once cutting her skin.  They used the steel instruments to shave her arms, legs, and even shaved the hair under her arms.  Winifred thought it was odd, the women of the Coven did not shave their hair from their bodies and she felt it a strange custom.  Once the girls were finished, they told Winifred to sit back in the tub and they washed her again. 

When her bath was done, the girls led Winifred to a strange-looking bench.  She thought they must have brought it with them because she had never seen anything like it.  The girls instructed Winifred to sit on the bench and then one of the girls lifted her left leg and put it in a stirrup-like part of the bench and then she did the same to Winifred’s right leg.  The way her body was positioned on the bench and with her legs in the stirrups lifted her lower body off the bench and spread her legs to expose her sex and her anus to the girls.  Her upper body was propped up on the bench and she could see her lower body.  Winifred felt humiliated by the position she was in and being exposed as she was and her entire body blushed but was too frightened to resist.

One of the girls stood behind her and brushed her hair while another girl used small sheers to cut her pubic hair and the third was mixing some type of substance in a bowl over a small fire.  When her pubic hairs were cut to almost stubble, the girl mixing the substance in the bowl walked over to Winifred and spread a warm, wax over her womanhood and her anus.  Winifred flinched expecting it to be hot, but it was just mildly warm.  The girl that had been cutting her pubic hairs then placed strips of cloth over the waxed areas of her body.   

They waited several moments and the darker-skinned girl pulled the first strip of cloth off of Winifred’s womanhood.  She cried out as the first cloth strip was ripped from her and pulled what remained of the hairs.  The girl brushing her hair giggled at Winnifred’s pain.  The process was repeated until all the strips were off her body and each time she cried out and each time she cried out in pain the one girl giggled.  After her private areas were hairless the darker-skinned girl washed the area with scented soap. 

Winifred was instructed to stand and they dressed her in a simple white gown that slipped over her head and came down to her ankles.  The material was sheer and did not hide her body.  They then sat her down in a chair and the three girls fanned her hair dry.  Even dressed, Winfred felt naked and strange with her body hairless.    

It took the girls a long while to fan her long, dark, hair dry and when finished it was brushed out once more.  She stood up as she was instructed and the three girls led her into the other room, the room that contained the bed, to have her marriage consummated.  The girls left the room, giggling and whispering to one another as they walked out of the door.  Winifred knew they were talking about her and what was going to happen to her. 

The bed was made of heavy dark wood not native to the marsh.  It was a gift from the Island Clan.  Carved on the large headboard were vulgar images of a man and woman coupling in various positions.  Winifred studied the images carved into the bed and wonder if her new husband would do the same to her that night.  She then thought the last time the bed was used it had been her aunt on the bed.  She wondered if her aunt coupled like the images. 

The images and thoughts of what was going to happen to her on the bed frightened her but also excited her and for the first time that night, she felt her sex become damp from arousal.  Some of the images looked interesting and exciting while others looked uncomfortable for the woman and looked like they could be painful.    

Winfred flinched when she heard the door open behind her.  She turned and looked at her feet and curtsied to her husband.  She lifted her head when he did not say a word and watched him walk to a large chair in the room and sit down.  Winifred’s arousal died and her sex became dry and she again felt fear and shame.  She was ashamed that she was not as pretty as her sister or other girls of the Coven and her looks displeased her husband. 

“Undress,” her husband told her in a commanding tone.  Winifred could tell he was a man who was used to being in control and used to being obeyed.  By the tone of his voice, Winifred knew she should not protest and do as the man told her to. 

With trembling hands, Winifred pulled her gown over her head and dropped it to the floor.  She crossed one arm over her chest to cover her small breasts and placed the hand of her other arm over her sex as her husband looked her over.  The way he looked at her made her blush.  His head did not move as he looked at her, just his dark eyes.  The way he looked at her reminded her of how a marsh alligator patiently studied a fawn that got too close to the water before the predator struck at its prey.  His gaze frightened her.    

“Put your hands at your side so I can look at you,” he commanded her.  Winifred obeyed and blushed.  The large black man’s eyes looked up and down her body again.  “You have the breasts of a girl who has yet to blossom into womanhood,” he told her, “and as thin as a twig from a willow branch.”  

Winifred blushed deeper. “I…I am sorry my looks are displeasing to you,” she told him in a trembling voice and then bit her lower lip, a habit she had when nervous or scared. 

“After I met your sister and knowing your aunt I was hoping you would look like them,” he told his new wife. 

Delfina and Winifred’s aunt looked very similar in body shape and hair color.  They did have the same father so it was expected. 

“I am sorry, husband.  I am sorry my looks displease you,” Winifred muttered and felt the shame again.  She knew her husband would not be very happy with her looks, but to be displeased as he was made her feel deep shame in herself. 

“I did not say I was displeased.  I was making a statement and now I am wondering if you can even endure our marriage night or the other things you will experience as my witch wife.  You look frail and as if you will break when I fuck you.”  His eyes roamed up and down her body.

Winifred nodded and swallowed hard.  The word fuck was not new to her, but she never heard it spoken aloud.  She knew that the Island Clan people use various slang words to describe coupling and intimate parts of a woman's and man’s bodies.  She had studied them as well as other cultural differences between the two people.  She found the slang words vulgar but there was something about them that she also found arousing.  Fuck meant coupling.

Her husband stood up and walked to her and stood in front of her, only an inch separated their bodies.  The tall, large, muscular black man towered over her small frame.  Winifred started breathing heavily and she could smell her husband’s masculine scent.  The smell of him excited her.

“Are you displeased with the way I look?”  He asked Winifred.

She knew by his tone he was not asking to be reassured or lack of confidence but asking more out of pride and arrogance.  She looked up at his face.

“No, husband, I think you are a very handsome man,” she answered honestly.  “I feel honored to be married to such a man.” 

Her husband chuckled and showed the first sign of emotion that night.  “If you are lying then you are a good liar,” he told her.

Winfred flinched when the man brought his large black hand up to her face.  She thought he was going to strike her because he thought she lied to him.  Instead, he caressed her cheek gently and then ran his fingers through her hair.  His gentle touch surprised Winifred.  She would not have thought such a man could be gentle.  He took a handful of her hair in his hand and caressed it with his fingers.    

“I heard your people call you the Moon Witch,” he said.  It was not a question.  “I can see why.  Your hair is as black as midnight but your skin is as pale as the moon.  Even though you have the body of a young girl not yet developed there is something about you that is arousing,” he told her.  “Your face has a bewitching and seductive beauty and your pale skin is enticing.”

“Thank you husband,” Winifred smiled for the first time that night. 

The man let go of her hair and ran his large, strong hand down her chest, and stopped at her small right breast.  He then brought his other hand up and ran it over her other breasts.  Winifred’s nipples became erect from the man’s touch.  She gasped out when her husband took her nipples between his large fingers and used his thumb and forefinger to roll her nipples; his hands and fingers were heavily calloused and Winifred enjoyed the rough feeling of them on her nipples.  It felt much more pleasing than when she played with her nipples with her own delicate, small, smooth, soft fingers. 

Her husband smiled at her reaction.  “Your nipples seem very sensitive.  That is good.  Will make things to come much more pleasurable for you,” he told her.  “Since tonight will be your first time I will be gentle and maybe tomorrow night as well.  I have my doubts that your frail body can endure the pleasures I will train you to enjoy as my father did with your aunt, however.”

 “I…I will do my best to please you, husband,” Winifred answered timidly.

Her husband grinned, “I am sure you will try and you will receive pleasure as well.  I know how to please a woman,” he said with confidence.

There was something about his confidence that Winifred knew he was not boasting as she had heard many a young man of the Coven do, only to learn through other girls the young men knew nothing of pleasing a woman.

Still, she was even more frightened now about losing her virginity.  Winifred did not understand what he meant by training her to enjoy and the mention of his doubts that she may not be able to endure it scared her. 

She let out a whimper of disappointment when her husband let go of her nipples.  She was enjoying his touch on them and it made her feel aroused and her sex was getting wet again.  He took a step back from her. 

“Well turn around, let me look at the rest of you,” he commanded her.

Winifred turned her body around slowly and when she had he back turned she was about to face the man again but he stopped her.

“Bend over, girl, I want to get a better look at your skinny, pasty white ass.”

Winfred bent over slightly.

“More and spread those skinny legs apart,” the man told her.  Winifred did as she was told.  “Put your hands on your ass and spread yourself apart for me.  I want to see that pussy of yours.”

From her studies, Winifred knew that pussy meant her womanhood.  She would have giggled at the word if she had not been so scared and embarrassed.  She thought the word pussy was vulgar but liked the way it sounded and it always made her giggle with a feeling of wickedness when she read or said the word to herself aloud. 

She did not giggle however, she felt humiliated by bending over and exposing herself the way her husband told her to.  She also felt something else that surprised her and made her feel ashamed.  Her fear of her husband and her feeling of humiliation seemed to excite and arouse her more.  Those made her feel ashamed that she should be aroused by such feelings.

“You do have a nice pussy, girl,” her husband commented.  “It’s nice and puffy.  I like that.  I like how your skinny thighs and small ass make it look even fatter.  The darker skin around your pussy and up to your asshole compared to your pale skin is enticing.”

Winifred did not think she could feel any more humiliation but his comment increased that feeling.  She had no idea what he meant by puffy or fat, no one would even associate the word fat with her so that confused her.  She did find it pleasing that he liked how it looked, however, and strangely the extra humiliation again aroused her. 

Winfred flinched again when her husband reached out and touched her womanhood, no my pussy, Winifred thought, I have to get used to saying those words.  She shut her eyes tight in anticipation of the man penetrating her pussy with his finger.  He had large fingers and she knew it would hurt her.  Instead, she let out a gasp and whimpering sound of pleasure as the man ran his fingers up and down the slit to her pussy.  It felt nice.  As her husband continued to run his fingers up and down her pussy, the nice feeling became more pleasurable and her sex became wetter and Winifred’s faint whimpers turned into louder moans.

As the man kept using his fingers to please her, he grabbed Winifred’s thin wrists with his large free hand and held her arms behind her back.  His grip was tight and he pulled her arms back behind her hard but Winifred did not feel the pain of his grip; all she felt was the pleasure his fingers were giving her. 

Winifred cried out suddenly and tried to move away from her husband.  “No, Husband, please not there,” she begged when she felt his finger slide up and it touched her anus.

She wiggled and struggled but her husband’s grip was too strong and he forced her to remain bent over.  She cried out again, this time louder when he gave her a hard strike on her small buttocks.  The sound of it echoed in the room and her butt cheek where the strike landed felt as if it was on fire.  While it hurt Winifred immensely she also felt an odd enjoyment and excitement from the smack, from the way her husband held her and controlled her, and from a new type of fear that surged through her; a fear that he may beat her.

“Stop struggling!” He commanded loudly and stuck her butt again.  Winifred stopped struggling and started whimpering and tears formed in her eyes.  “I will not penetrate you there or fuck you in your skinny ass tonight.  I don’t think you can handle it until we loosen it some.  Relax and you may find this pleasurable.”

Anal coupling was something Winifred had never even considered.  She knew people of the Coven did it, at least when the men of the Coven coupled with each other, but it was never talked about by the females of the Coven.  If they allowed a man to take them that way, they never discussed it.  Winifred was disgusted by even the thought of the act. 

The girl did her best to relax.  Her husband let go of her arms and wrapped his left arm around her waist to hold her still, but Winifred did not struggle again.  She did not want him to strike her painfully on her butt again.  She did flinch, however, when she felt his finger touch her anus once more and her husband made circling motions with it around the entrance to the small hole.    

Winifred moaned out involuntarily and even though she felt embarrassed he touched her there and she thought it was revolting. Her husband’s finger was lubricated by her sex fluid and the girl could not deny the touch was pleasing and felt nice and it aroused her even more. 

The man teased her in that area for several more moments and Winifred reached up and started to fondle her nipples, enjoying the extra pleasure it gave her. 

“You do find it pleasing as I knew you would,” the man told her as he continued to tease the area around her anus.  Winifred did not answer but continued to whimper in pleasure and tease her nipples.  “You will learn to let go of your inhibitions and enjoy many pleasurable acts you will be introduced to.”

“Yes, husband,” Winifred managed to answer as her heart raced and her breathing increased.

Her husband removed his hand from her body and Winifred wanted to cry out for him to continue to touch her as he had been, but she remained silent.

“Stand and turn around,” he ordered the girl.

Winifred did as she was told and faced her husband and this time she did not hide her body.  The man reached out and put his arms around her waist and pulled her to him.  Winifred did not resist.  He leaned down and Winifred knew he wanted to kiss her.  She lifted her head and stood on the tips of her toes and moved her face to his.  Their lips met and Winifred parted her mouth and allowed her husband’s tongue to enter her.  His kiss was strong and forceful but there was passion and desire in the kiss.  A whimper of pleasure escaped the girl’s mouth as she used her tongue to entwine it with her husband’s. 

Besides the mother or sisterly kisses she got from her family, Winifred had never been kissed before.  Once she tried to kiss Mykka but he refused; not because he did not want to but out of respect and even fear that kissing a girl who was to become a Bond Wife was forbidden.  Many years before Winifred was born there was a girl in the Coven who was to become a Bond Wife who was caught using her mouth to give pleasure to a boy of the Coven.  The boy was castrated and banished from the Marsh.  The girl was deemed unworthy to be a Bond Wife, her mouth sewn shut, and also banished.  Some say she still haunts the deep Marsh as a mute Hag.

As her husband kissed her with a fierce passion, so fierce his kisses felt as if they were going to bruise her soft lips, Winifred decided she enjoyed kissing immensely.  She wrapped her thin arms around her husband’s back, they were unable to meet due to how broad the man was, and collapsed her body into his as they kissed.  She felt her husband’s hands slide down and cup her butt cheeks, his hands were so large and Winifred’s butt was so small and slender that one of his hands covered her butt.  Winifred moaned into her husband’s mouth as he roughly massaged her butt cheeks.  She enjoyed the rough feeling of his calloused hands on her supple, delicate flesh.  Winifred cried out in pleasure and threw her head back when her husband started kissing and licking her neck.

Winifred started tugging and pulling on her husband’s tunic, trying to rip it off of him.  She wanted to see him naked as he had seen her naked.  The man grinned at her and lifted his tunic off his body.  Winifred made an audible gasp when she looked at him.

His chest was huge and his muscles well defined.  Winifred lifted her arms and ran her fingers through he husband's thick, coarse, black chest hairs.  She wanted her new husband badly, even more than she ever wanted Mykka.    

“You are so beautiful,” she whispered. 

Winifred made a squealing giggle when her husband lifted her off her feet and held her up with one hand cupped under her butt.  She stared into his brown eyes for a moment and then kissed him as fiercely and passionately as he had kissed her.  She wrapped her hands around his neck and her legs around his waist as they kissed.

Her husband started kissing her neck again, her ears, her throat, and down her chest.  Winifred cried out when he took one of her erect nipples in his mouth and she pressed his head tight into her body.  The girl gasped out in pain when her husband bit her nipple but to Winifred, it was a blissful pain.       

 “Now, Husband, please now,” Winifred begged.  “Please take me.  Please enter me.  Please, Husband, I need to feel you inside me.”

Her husband took his mouth off her nipple and lifted her higher with just one strong arm and she was looking down at him. 

“In due time, girl,” he told her.  “I will fuck you in due time and I will teach you pleasures of the flesh you never knew existed and things you never imagined you could receive pleasure from.”

He again took her nipple in his mouth and sucked, bit, and flicked it with his tongue.  Winfred felt as if she would die if he did not enter her soon.                     

She felt her husband’s fingers of his free hand slide down to her between her legs and then he started running it up her slit.  Winifred cried out loudly in pleasure and her body jerked as his finger found her little pleasure nub, a clitoris or the more crude term a clit the people of the Island Clan called it.

The pleasure Winifred felt was incredible.  She never thought anything could feel so good.  As her husband worked his rough fingers on her clit, Winifred gripped his shoulders and buried her face into his neck.

“Please don’t stop, husband, please…it feels so good,” the girl cried out in between her loud, gasping moans of pleasure.  “Ohhh, Husband, please don’t stop!”

He didn’t stop and encouraged by the sounds of pleasure his waifish wife made, the man started fingering her clit faster and harder.  It only took a few moments before Winifred felt a delightful pressure build up and then a sudden blissful release as had her first orgasm. 

Winifred’s entire body tightened and convulsed as she climaxed.  She screamed out loudly and the inside walls of her womanhood constricted and released as her fingers dug into her husband’s flesh.  As she orgasmed her husband kept teasing her clit with his fingers and sucked and bit her rock-hard nipples.  Winfred never imagined having an orgasm could feel as blissful as it did.  Her sex fluids became more abundant and made her feel as if her pussy was drenched.  Winifred even thought she felt the fluids of her womanhood running down her inner thighs.

After her orgasm ended her husband lowered her body and kissed her with a lustful passion once again and set her on her feet.  Winifred’s legs were still quivering and she had to hold on to her husband or she would have collapsed to her knees.  Her head was still spinning and she was dizzy and she was panting for air when her husband stepped back to remove the rest of his clothing.

When he removed his long, multi-colored skirt, a sarong his people called it, and it dropped to the floor at his feet, Winifred looked down at her husband’s nakedness.  A faint cry and gasp escaped her mouth at what she saw. 

His manhood was fully erect and jutting out from his large body and it was huge.  Nalia was not always lying, Winifred thought, his manhood is going to split me open.  He would split any girl open.  It has to be as long as a foot-long measuring stick and it’s as thick as a tree branch. 

The girl’s fear came back to her as she thought of her husband penetrating her womanhood with such a thing, but she could not stop looking at it and wanted to touch it regardless.  Before she could reach out and touch it and feel it in her hand, her husband turned his back and walked to the large bed.  He sat down and grinned at his new, young, wife and took his large manhood in his hand. 

“It’s time you gave me pleasure as I just gave you,” he told her.  “Come here, my Moon Witch, and put your pretty mouth on my cock.” 

Winifred swallowed hard.  She knew cock meant his manhood.  Even as afraid as she was, the girl did not hesitate and slowly walked to her husband.  She got on her knees between his legs and hoped she would be able to please her husband as he had pleased her.