Author: Sterling Title: How To Handle Virgin Sacrifices Summary: As the new High Priest, Glurg's duty is to pierce each virgin's heart with his stone knife. But the very first virgin he encounters has a different idea. Keywords: Mf 1st humor harem cons het preg NOTICE: This story contains explicit sex. First posted 9/30/2012. I'm always eager for comments, whether good, bad or mixed. Comments to sterling27@live.com. I have written many other stories and they can all be found at /files/Authors/Sterling/ For an index see /files/Authors/Sterling/A%20%20SUBJECT%20INDE X.txt You are welcome to copy this story if you include the entire text unchanged, including this notice. If you tell me where you have re-posted it, I can enjoy knowing it is appreciated and perhaps enjoy the feedback the story gets where you re-post it. Sterling And now, our feature presentation. Enjoy! ============================================================----- How To Handle Virgin Sacrifices Glurg mumbled his incantations as the guards brought the trembling girl up to the altar. He with the two other senior priests held her in position. High Priest Plurger shouted and raised the sharp stone in the air. As so often happened, the girl jerked violently as she saw the stone descending to her chest. But Glurg and the two others were prepared and held her in position. The stone pierced her chest. Blood spurted. All four priests said the incantations appropriate to their role. Then the priest Burg dragged the lifeless corpse to the stone chute and sent it down to be handled by acolytes below. --------------------------------------------------------- Glurg had been brought to the temple as a small boy and raised to be a priest. He memorized everything he was supposed to, said all the rites and incantations with sincerity and gravity, tracked the stars and recorded his observations on parchment. His care and devotion had been noted, and five years ago Plurger had selected him to replace one of the three senior priests who had died. Now Plurger was getting older. Since he first arrived at the temple as a small boy he'd witnessed the virgin sacrifices. Every five days, three healthy, beautiful virgins on the cusp of womanhood were brought to the temple, each guaranteed to be at least 14 years of age. The High Priest stabbed each one in turn in the heart with a sharp stone. The Sun God demanded it. As far as Glurg knew, girls weren't really even people. They never said anything coherent. Sometimes they were silent as their lives were offered to the gods, other times they whimpered or screamed. But they weren't really people, right? Not like men and boys. Since he had ascended to senior priest, he was aware just how hard they thrashed and also aware that all too often they soiled themselves as they prepared to meet the Sun God. Like animals. He lived a sheltered life among the priests, never venturing outside, and in turn the public never came inside the temple complex. --------------------------------------------------------- One festival day as Plurger ascended the steps to the sacrificial altar, his wheezing was worse than usual. He stopped in the stone anteroom behind the altar to rest for a full minute before stepping out into view of the crowd. He dispatched the first girl with vigor, but then groaned and slouched back in the corner against the wall while Burg disposed of her body -- he was supposed to stand with dignity the entire time, of course. He pulled himself upright as the second victim was brought into position. He didn't raise the stone as high as before, and when he plunged it downward it didn't come down straight, so while he gave the girl a deep gash, it didn't puncture her chest and stab into her heart. She wailed. Would the Sun God be unhappy? Would their crops not grow? But Plurger raised his hands once more, to the full required height, and plunged downward once more. This time his aim was true, and the virgin's blood spurted as she gave her life to appease the Sun God. But Plurger gave a huge groan, dropped the stone, clutched his chest, and fell to the ground. The crowd murmured. The two other senior priests knelt by his side in alarm and anxiety. Glurg saw blood gushing from Plurger's mouth and knew he was dead. Glurg thought fast. He knew that when the High Priest died, the three senior priests met to select a new High Priest. It had happened when he was a young man, and that was when Plurger had been elevated to High Priest. But a High Priest had never died during the human sacrifice before. There was still one virgin to sacrifice. And here they were, the knot of priests around the altar, one down on the stone deck and two of the others crouched by him, their anxiety palpable. Only Glurg remained upright. What's worse, the hundreds of people murmured louder and shifted restlessly. The people must always see the priests as calm and in control. They must have confidence. "Burg, Stlug", he hissed to the other two. "Leave him for now; drag him out of the way. Stand up and act like priests..." He was acting like High Priest. Someone had to do it. The other two dragged the limp Plurger out of the way, then hurried back to the altar where the girl's corpse still bled. "Now get rid of the sacrifice... With dignity!" hissed Glurg. The other two seemed relieved to be following orders, and soon resumed their calm, deliberate movements, their faces assuming once more the impassive expression priests always wore in public. There was one girl left to sacrifice, and Glurg would have to be the one to plunge the stone into her heart! He hoped he would have the strength and skill to pierce her chest cleanly, without a chance to practice on animals first. The guards delivered the last girl into the hands of Burg and Stlug, who guided her to the altar. He hoped the two of them could handle her if she thrashed. Then the girl looked at him and gave a nervous smile. He looked away uneasily. He'd rarely seen a girl smile before. Then she spoke. "Mr. Priest, sir, you know, I had a vision last night. I thought, you know, the reason we get sacrificed is so the Sun God will be pleased and make the crops grow and the flocks increase. But He came to me in my dream and said, 'This is a fertility rite. The priest must fertilize you before he sacrifices you.' So I thought I should, like, tell you, because we want to do what the Sun God says, right? I mean, we *do* want the rains to come on time, right?" This girl talked just like a human being. Her voice was soft and sweet, and she had a pleasing face. He kept his eyes averted but couldn't help glancing at her. Stlurg and Burg seemed as uneasy as he did. First Plurger dying, and then this girl talking, making sense, making a proposal. This was all very unusual. Glurg weighed the sharp, heavy stone in his hand but did not raise it. "And, you know, I mean I don't really mind dying and all, but it would seem too bad to get all cut up and bloody and croak if it wasn't really what the Sun God wanted, right? So maybe one of you could fertilize me first? And then kill me later? Besides, I've always kind of wondered what it would be like to get fertilized. Just once, before you kill me." Fertilize? What did she mean by 'fertilize'? He certainly couldn't ask her -- High Priests knew everything! And while he had held countless girls while Plurger plunged the stone knife into their hearts, he'd never heard one talk like this before. If girls had gazed up into Plurger's face, he'd never noticed it. The idea of plunging the stone into this particular girl's chest and watching while the other two dragged her bloody, lifeless corpse to the chute made him a little sick to his stomach. He needed to think of something, fast. Something dramatic, and fitting for the High Priest. He dropped the stone, turned dramatically to the crowd, and raised both hands into the air. "The Sun God commands us to wait!" he intoned. He waited nervously for the crowd's reaction, but he could sense them all relaxing. "Yessss!" hissed the girl. "Whew! That was close." "Silence!" intoned Glurg in a low voice. "Oops... Sorry," she whispered. "What do we do with her?" whispered Stlug. "Give her back to the guards?" "No," said Glurg. "She comes back inside the temple with us." "A girl, a sacrifice, inside the temple?" asked Stlug with astonishment. No one but priests and acolytes set foot inside the temple. Certainly no female! Glurg held his ground. "This one is different!" he said. "Just into the anteroom, long enough for us to consider." The other priests eyed him uneasily, but released the girl and straightened up. "Follow me," said Glurg to the girl, who scrambled up from the stone with a big smile. "Cool!" she said, grinning and bouncing on her feet. "But act dignified, for the Sun God's sake!" he murmured to her. "Oh, sorry," she said, and assumed the same solemn mask as the others. Glurg led the way, the girl followed, and the two other priests came behind. When they were in the private room behind the altar area, out of sight of everyone, Glurg turned to face the girl and the other priests. "Leave us," he said solemnly to the other two. "This girl has had a vision. I must hear it from her before I decide what course is best." "Um, are you sure?" asked Stlug. "Do you question me?" That was a bold move, since he hadn't been elected as the next High Priest. But he was pretty sure they all shared the understanding that he was going to be next. "See to the body of our departed High Priest," he said, and the two slunk away, looking back over their shoulders. "Lay him out in the courtyard." --------------------------------------------------------- "Sit!" said Glurg to the girl, pointing to a woven mat. She did as asked. He sat down on the other mat, the two of them on adjoining sides of the low, square table. "So, tell me this dream again." "OK, sure, Mr. Priest." She repeated what she'd said before, but then elaborated. "He said he appreciated offering him virgins and all, but he's just not as horny as he used to be, and, well, um, he has trouble getting it up for a corpse, you know." 'Horny'? 'Get it up'? What did she mean? Was this village slang? He nodded gravely. She paused. "So, since he isn't fertilizing the girls any more, he thought, um, someone else should do it. Like probably the High Priest! So if that's what Mr. God said to do, then we really ought to do it, don't you think?" When Glurg didn't answer, she continued, "And for me, too, I hoped you could, you know, fertilize me first, so at least I'd know what it was like before you plunge that damned -- oops! -- plunge that blessed, sacred stone into my chest and offer my spirit to the Sun God." This impertinent thing! She was just a girl! A sacrifice -- little better than an animal. Why was she talking like this? And why was she so -- interesting? "So, um, are you willing to fertilize me? I mean, I'm not bad looking, right?" She batted his eyelashes at him. He sat, impassive, then stalled. "And just how do you propose that I fertilize you?" "Oh! Um, well, any way you like. I mean, I can lie down and do it that way, or you can do it from behind like the goats do. Or anything." Glurg had no idea what she was talking about. But his penis was getting hard under his robes. Why on earth was it doing that? Years before, when he was turning from boy to man, he had learned that his penis got hard, and sometimes when he woke up in the morning there was this sticky stuff on it. But it had never gotten hard before when he was with another person. He was running out of ways to hide his ignorance. "Show me," he said. "Show you what?" "How this fertilizing should be done. The Sun God wants you to show me." "Huh? Don't you know what fertilizing is? You know, sex? Fucking? Making babies?" Glurg still had no idea what she was talking about. "I am a priest, and know priestly things," he said lamely. "Oh!" she said, smiling. "You don't know about making babies? Whoa! I can't believe a fellow could make it to High Priest without knowing the facts of life." She pointed at him and giggled. "Enough!" he said sternly, aware that his face was turning a little red. Apparently remembering that she was trying to stay alive a little longer, she sobered quickly and said, "Very well, Mr. Right Honorable Most Blessed High Priest. We will do as the Sun God commands." Glurg nodded. She thought a moment. "If there was someplace with a thicker mat that would be nice. Are there thicker mats downstairs?" "No! I mean Yes, but not for you." Why was he feeling all tongue-tied? "It is heresy enough to have you inside the temple at all. You may not go further within." "Well, OK." Glurg waved his hand, encouraging the girl to continue, but she was staring off into space. "Show me," he finally said. "You really don't know how a man fertilizes a woman?" "I know things you can only dream of!" he said, trying to keep his dignity. "OK, OK," she said, thoughtfully. "Well, you know, I really *am* a virgin. The Sacrifice Selection Committee got that part right. So I'm kinda going on what I've seen. Like peeking in on my mother and father sometimes. I hope the Sun God isn't too mad at me about that?" "No, that is of no concern to the Sun God," said Glurg, happy to have the conversation touch on an area of his expertise. "OK, well, I pull up my dress and pull down my underthing, and lie back, kind of like this," she said. The girl did, and... Glurg felt himself grow dizzy. She was a freak! Instead of a penis and sack of balls, there was... nothing at all! A little hair, and some kind of little slit, or something. Did they cut the penis off these girls before they brought them to be sacrificed? He'd always wondered what 'virgin' meant. Did it mean with penis and balls cut off? He stared. "Mr. Priest," she said, "I mean Mr. Holy High Priest. Haven't you ever seen a girl before? Down here?" Glurg couldn't make himself shake his head. He just looked. He could tell she was trying not to laugh. While he'd held down countless struggling girls and then hauled their limp corpses to the stone chute, he'd never seen under their undergarments. That would have been the worst sort of sacrilege. "There's a hole here," she said, pointing. "You pull your robe off, then come up here on top of me..." As his robe opened, his erect penis, as engorged and hard as it had ever been, stood straight out. "Whoa," she said, eying it, and gulped. Then he saw the girl hesitate and look thoughtful, then suddenly brighten. "In my dream, the Sun God said something else. He said that if the priest man had a wonderful, good feeling while he was fertilizing me, that would mean I was a special girl who shouldn't be sacrificed but allowed to go back to her family." Occasionally a girl was sent away, though Glurg never knew why Plurger chose to do that. But Glurg's mind was reeling with unfamiliar feelings. There was something very familiar, very right about climbing onto this girl, about his penis being big and hard like this. "Now you stick your big wiener right at my hole, and you push in." He lowered himself onto this amazing, foreign, wonderful creature -- this girl -- their thighs actually touching. How weird! How disgusting! How absolutely wonderful and right! He lowered himself onto the girl, his stiff penis smushed off to the side. "Oh," she said. "Down a little lower," said the girl. "Move your body down... Now I'll take your meat and aim it, like this..." She felt fingers on his penis. "Now push..." Glurg pushed. His penis tip pressed against hair, but there was a softness there too. He pressed again, and his tip compressed. "Harder!" said the girl, "Push really hard!" He did, and suddenly the hair and skin down between the girl's legs parted, and his penis tip was touching wetness. Could that be right? "Harder!" He shifted a little to get a better angle, then pressed again. He was dimly aware of the girl wincing and sucking in her breath, but mostly he was aware that his penis had somehow penetrated into the girl's body, and it was wet. The sensations going through his body were fantastic. As if of its own will, his body took up a rhythm, sliding his penis out a little, then shoving it in, out and in, out and in. Fantastic pleasure filling his head. And then suddenly a wave of pleasure seized him and he groaned. What the heck was that! He was dimly aware of his penis twitching. He was panting heavily, even though he hadn't done any work to speak of. "There!" she said. "That's it. That's how it's done." Glurg pulled up off the girl, his penis sliding out of her, then he sat beside her on the mat, chest still heaving. She was smiling at him. "I always wondered what it would be like." She looked down between her legs, where Glurg saw a slit, now definitely wet -- wet with blood. "They say there's blood the first time," she said. "It actually hurt a bunch -- but a whole lot less than that wicked sharp stone would on my chest, I bet!" Glurg just sat, looking at her. She didn't at all seem like the sort of creature that needed a stone shoved into her heart. "And did you get that good feeling? The sign from the gods?" That feeling! What was that feeling? It had been the most amazing pleasure he'd ever experienced. He nodded. "Oh, goody! That means I'm not supposed to get killed. I'm really happy!" And the girl scrambled to her knees and threw her arms around the High Priest, pressing her lips to his cheek and hair over and over. This was terribly impertinent of her! He was certainly glad no one was watching. It also felt very good. "So, hmmm, do I go free?" "No, not yet," he said. This girl's dream prophecy had been spectacularly accurate. How could she have known he would feel amazing pleasure of a totally new kind just as he fertilized her? And then there was how he felt about her. Surely there was something divine in this girl. Certainly there was no way he could plunge that stone into her chest. But he still needed some way to fit this remarkable girl and the stunning events of the past hour into the rituals and customs of the temple. It would be hard, but at least he was the High Priest -- he hoped. "Wait here," he said, rising, and fastening his robe again. His penis was soft and small now so as not to make an unsightly bulge. But he turned to her. "Do you have... a name?" "A name? Of course I have a name, Mr. priest. I'm Ouiooee". He'd never heard of a name like that. "Weeawee?" "No, silly -- oops!" she said covering her mouth and giggling. "Almost, Mr. High Priest... 'Ouiooee'." "Ouiooee," he said. Despite himself, he smiled at her for a second before turning away. --------------------------------------------------------- He walked down the steps to the senior priests' common room. As he expected, Stlug and Burg were waiting for him. They rose and looked at him expectantly. "We have received a sign," he said. "The Sun God is telling us we need to change our ways." "What? What did that... that *girl*... tell you?" asked Stlurg, spitting out the word. "She showed me --" Glurg decided to approach the subject warily. "You know all about fertilization, of course," he said. The two looked at him blankly. "How babies are made?" The two continued to stare. Good! They were as ignorant as he. He decided this was the moment to solidify his claim. "Is it agreed, I am the new High Priest?" The two nodded dumbly. Once it was agreed, his word was absolute. The life of anyone in the land was forfeit if he snapped his fingers -- and that included both of them. "Then let us gather and announce it at once." The gong was sounded and all the priests and acolytes gathered. "As you see, the Sun God has called the holy High Priest Plurger back to him -- may he rest in peace." He motioned to where the great priest's corpse lay on a bier in the courtyard. An elaborate ritual was called for, but it could wait. "And the Sun God has chosen a new High Priest." Burg placed the feathered headdress on his head, while Stlurg put the ceremonial jaguar cloak around his shoulders. Then they knelt before him. The junior priests and acolytes knelt too. Glurg now needed to choose a junior priest to fill his slot now that he had replaced Plurger. But he had had much time to consider the matter, if the choice should ever be his. "K'Lurg!" he said. The young priest rose. "I create you as Senior Priest of the Sun God!" There was an elaborate ceremony for this too, but Glurg was acutely aware of the girl Ouiooee waiting upstairs. Ceremony could wait. The four met in council. After making sure that K'Lurg had no idea what fertilization was either, he began describing the girl's dream. The Sun God was impotent. He needed the High Priest to fertilize the girls for him. And if he felt a new and intense pleasure, it meant the girl was not to die. "The stone is not for her," he concluded. The others sat with furrowed brows for a few moments. "This doesn't sound right to me, Great High Priest," said Stlug. "No, we've always done things the old ways. We don't want to make the Sun God angry," said Burg. "Yeah," said Stlug. "She just made something up so we wouldn't split her chest." "You mean, sacrifice her to the Sun God?" said K'Lurg reverently. "Yes, of course," said the older priest, giving the younger man a dirty look. "That's what we mean." Glurg was uneasy. No one had ever questioned Plurger. He wouldn't have dared. And now two were against him. Glurg stared at K'Lurg. If he had one ally... and he had just chosen K'Lurg, when he could have chosen so many others. Surely he would show his gratitude. "Your opinion, young priest?" he asked with an intense, meaningful stare. "Oh, the old ways are good ways," he said confidently. "I think the girl is telling lies." Glurg rose with what he hoped was dignity, very uneasy. If all three of the senior priests opposed him... He wondered if he might die in the night under mysterious circumstances. He marched up the stairs to the room where Ouiooee was waiting. --------------------------------------------------------- "Sorry," he said. "We have conferred. You must die." The moment he said it, the girl's shining face dissolved into tears, and she eyed him with fear and reproach. "No!" she whispered. "What about the prophecy?" "None of the others believe it." "You told about the good feeling when you fertilized me too?" "Yes, of course." She paused a moment, then said, "I bet if they fertilized me, they'd get that good feeling too." "Really?" he said. Somehow he didn't like the idea of the others fertilizing her. But the idea of being murdered in his sleep was far less appealing, and the idea of plunging the sacred stone into Ouiooee's heart was pretty bad too. "Really! Perhaps you could show them up here, one at a time." "I will think on this," said Glurg gravely and walked out of the room with dignity. When he was out of sight of the girl, he hurried down the steps. "Priest Burg," he said, finding the man alone. "Yes, High Priest?" "I command you to accompany me up to the anteroom where the girl is being held." The two of them went up to where Ouiooee awaited. "Hi there!" said the girl. Burg just looked at her. "Your duty is to fertilize this girl, and see if you feel any unusual pleasure. And since you don't know what fertilizing is, I'll explain it to you." So, Glurg explained the procedure to Burg as if he'd known it for years, though he'd just learned it himself within the past two hours. Burg nodded and looked thoughtful. "Just do what she says... It isn't painful, I assure you," Glurg said and turned to leave. He saw a bulge under Burg's robe at hip height. "Call me when you are finished," he said to Ouiooee. "Sure thing!" she said, looking Burg over. Glurg waited just outside. He heard the girl's soft voice, the rustling of cloth, more murmured words, and within a minute Burg gave a big groan. "OK, Mr. Reverend High Priest," said Ouiooee in a sing-song voice. "You can come back now!" "Whoa!" said the other priest, grinning shamelessly. "That sure felt good. Fantastic! Fertilizing -- that's what it's called?" Ouiooee said, "Yeah, or fucking, or screwing or humping or a bunch of other things. So, what do you think? Do you believe that maybe I shouldn't be sacrificed to the bloody stone?" she said sweetly, snuggling against Burg. "Um, yeah, huh, I guess not," he said. "Yeah, no way!" Glurg breathed a small sigh of relief. Stlurg bellowed when his moment of fertilization was at hand, and Glurg had to intercept the junior priest who ran to investigate and assure him that all was well. K'Lurg whimpered. --------------------------------------------------------- When the Council reconvened that evening, it was a much more relaxed gathering. "Whoa, that sure feels great," said K'Lurg. "Yeah," said Burg. "Why have we been puncturing their chests and making them all bloody for all these years, when we could have been doing that instead!" "Right," said Stlurg. "It's a lot more fun to puncture a girl down below." The four of them laughed. "But what about the people?" asked Glurg. "What will they think?" The four sat in thought. "I've got an idea," said young K'Lurg. "We could lay the girls out on the stone, but instead of plunging the stone in, we could pull their dresses up and then fertilize them, all four of us, one after the other. Um, you could go first," he said, looking at Glurg. The other three looked at the young priest. Burg snorted. "Nah, I don't think so. I don't think they want to see us fuck their daughters up on the stone. Especially four in a row." "Oh, yeah, maybe not," said K'Lurg, the smile fading from his face. --------------------------------------------------------- As the next festival day approached, Glurg was apprehensive. Three new virgins would arrive, and his solemn duty would be to plunge the sacred stone through their chests. Ouiooee had encouraged him to fertilize her every day, and Glurg was happy to oblige. He explored the wonder of breasts and the young woman's smooth curves and soft skin. "Are you going to sacrifice the other girls?" she asked the night before the festival. "What choice do I have?" "Well, we could think of something. If the High Priest can decide one girl shouldn't be sacrificed -- me!" she said with a grin, "-- maybe he can decide others don't, either. Maybe he can sense from the great Sun God whether He wants this sacrifice or not. And then, well, you could spare her and bring her back here and fertilize her too." Ouiooee giggled. Blood surged into Glurg's loins. --------------------------------------------------------- Glurg raised the sharp stone above the girl's trembling chest. To think that a mere five days before he had wondered if girls were human! Now he saw a being fully as complicated as any boy or man, and more appealing in form. Although she was ashen with terror at the moment, she would surely liven up if her life was spared. The thought of fertilizing the healthy young thing who would then shower him with gratitude was a pleasant one. It was much preferable to having K'Lurg dump her bloody corpse down the chute. Glurg's muscles bulged, his eyes were fierce, and he gripped the stone, raising it into the air. "No!" he said. "The Sun God does not want her this way." The crowd shifted and a few murmurs were heard. K'Lurg ushered her back into the anteroom where Ouiooee was waiting, then returned as the next young virgin was brought to the stone. Glurg thought of that special mysterious slit that Ouiooee had told him was between every girl's legs. He even brought the stone partway down, but stopped. "She is not for the Sun God either!" K'Lurg brought her to the anteroom as well. The crowd murmured as the third girl was brought to the altar. She was blubbering like a little kid, squirming as the other priests held her down. Suddenly the front of her dress was wet. "Surely the Sun God wants this one," Stlug said, sneering at the undignified behavior of the girl. "Perhaps, we shall see," said Glurg thoughtfully. But he knew he wasn't going to crush her life out with his bloody stone either. The crowd's murmuring became louder as the priests all vanished into the temple. Ouiooee was waiting with the three frightened and confused but very relieved young virgins. "The good priest decided not to kill you in a big, bloody mess -- at least for now -- and now, your job is to make him not regret it. You know what I mean, right?" "I'm supposed to let him, like, do it to me?" said the first girl, incredulous. "Well, would you rather go back and see how your chest holds up against the stone?" "No! No, um, yeah. Please, do fuck me, O High Priest!" she said. "Mr. High Priest," said Ouiooee, "Why don't you take Iooouu down to your chambers and fertilize her there." "What of the others?" asked Burg, a bulge visible in the front of his robe. "Later," said Glurg, "We shall see. I must evaluate each one first." One by one the new girls came down to Glurg's chambers, and one by one he deflowered them. Each was slightly different, and he relished the differences. One was plumper, with a wetter tube for his penis. Another was skinnier but had a nicer smile. And always, within a few seconds of penetrating the girl's special tube, he was seized by ecstasy and stuff spurted out of him and into her innards. When he was done with each of them, he took time to gather his thoughts. He figured he should share this newfangled and very appealing 'fertilizing' with his power base. Stlug got his first choice, Burg got the next pick and K'Lurg the last. Then Glurg had a second go at the second of the three. All were beautiful. The sacrificial virgins were always healthy, attractive girls. --------------------------------------------------------- The junior priests relayed the concern from the secular authorities: people were deeply worried that with no blood to appease the Sun God, their harvest would fail. Ouiooee asked if the blood of lost virginity would count, but she was stared into silence. But she had the brilliant idea that three goats should be brought to each sacrifice along with three girls, and if any girl was spared, a goat would take her place. There might still be grumbling, but at least the Sun God would get his goat blood. Ouiooee asked whether the goats had to be virgins too. At that, Plurg had to smile. Every five days, another three lovely girls on the cusp of womanhood joined the priests and acolytes in the temple compound. More provisions were called for. A few bold girls politely asked if they could lend a hand in food preparation. They ordered in spices and vegetables, and all the men agreed the food was much better. Before, no acolyte or priest had any idea what sex was and never saw a girl up close. The four highest priests had touched girls in the panic of their final moments. Now nubile girls were arriving in the compound by threes every few days. News of how fertilization worked had spread throughout the group of acolytes and priests within the first day. Hormones churned, and the acolytes and junior priests could be observed pausing during their appointed tasks, staring with unbridled lust at the girls as they walked by. The politics were actually quite simple. It was easy enough to offer the priests and acolytes sexual access to the girls in proportion to their seniority and how well they did their tasks. The stones of the temple shone after their scrubbings as never before. Glurg could sleep with any girl he wanted, at any time. He usually took two girls to bed with him each night. The influx of sacrifices spared from the stone soon swelled the population in the temple. The obvious solution was to send the girls home, but Glurg hesitated. He found it hard to send back a girl when he could fertilize her just one more time. Within a few months, many of the girls put on a little weight and got rounded tummies. Ouiooee explained that this meant they were truly and actually fertilized and would give birth to a baby in a few months. Glurg felt less desire to perform the act of fertilization with them than he had before, and decided to send them home. Ouiooee told the departing girls that they should admit only to a mystical union with the Sun God, not a series of matings with grunting, sweaty priests. The girls saw the logic in that. For whatever reason, Ouiooee's own belly never swelled. The Sun God was pleased -- there was a splendid harvest that year. By ones and twos, girls returned to their villages and tearful reunions with their families. The children they bore were of the Sun God himself and treated with special honor. If anyone saw a resemblance between the little toddlers and the High Priest who stayed his hand over every girl and plunged the stone into every goat, they dared not say. ============================================================ What did you think? I'm always eager for comments, whether positive, negative or mixed. Comments to sterling27@live.com.