Rika was exactly where Lira said she would be.
Oswin found her at the far edge of the millet fields, standing like a carved post against the thinning mist.
She was tall and broad-shouldered, with reddish-brown hair tied into a tight knot at her nape while a pale scar ran across her left cheek, it looked a little old but it still caught the light.
She leaned on a long, worn wooden staff that seemed capable of cracking more than one skull.
She watched him approach without moving.
"You're the chief's boy," she said with an interesting look which meant it wasn't a question.
"My name is Oswin."
Rika's eyes fell briefly in a quick, evaluative glance before returning to his face. "Lira sent you."
"She said you decide the fields now."
A short grunt. "I do."
He pointed at the irrigation ditch again. "Wasting water, it is. By deepening the main channel, lining the banks with stone, and installing two simple wooden gates, the distant plots receive twice the flow without losing much to seepage. This way, the dry season impacts us less, and the harvest period extends," he explained.
Rika was silent for several seconds. She tapped the staff once against the packed earth.
"You thought of this this morning."
"I couldn't sleep so I just decided to think of something."
Another grunt, this one almost amused. "Most boys your age can't sleep after staying with Lira either but they surely don't wake up thinking about ditches."
Oswin felt heat crawl up his neck but didn't look away.
Rika studied him a moment longer, then jerked her chin toward the toolshed near the tree line.
"The shovels are in place, and stones are along the old creek bed. You begin, and I'll send three women after the morning meal. If your plan works, we'll continue; if not, you return to being pretty and helpful in other ways."
She turned and walked off without waiting for an answer.
Oswin exhaled.
'Okay. Not a no.'
He quickly grabbed a shovel and immediately began working.
By mid-morning the mist had burned off and three women arrived.
Mara was among them, and she was dressed even more minimally than yesterday, This time she wore a thin chest wrap and a skirt that seemed more like a suggestion than actual clothing.
The other two women were older: Sena, a plump woman with heavy, swaying breasts, and Talla, a quiet widow with dark hair streaked with early gray and sharp eyes.
They assisted as Oswin dug. The women moved stones and packed earth, laughing when he took off the loincloth that kept slipping.
No one mentioned that he was hard most of the time; in this village, that was just considered normal weather.
Mara made a point of working close. When she bent to lift a flat stone her ass pressed against his thigh. When she passed him a waterskin she let her fingers linger on his wrist.
"You're good with your hands," she said, voice low enough that only he heard. "I wonder if you're as thorough with everything else."
Sena cackled from a few paces away. "Let the boy work, Mara. He'll still be here after the sun goes down."
Talla said nothing. She just watched him with a set of dead, unreadable eyes and kept stacking stones with efficient strength.
They finished the first section by early afternoon. The channel already looked cleaner, deeper, the banks holding.
Rika came back to inspect.
She walked the length of it, staff tapping, then nodded once.
"It'll do. Tomorrow we'll cut the second gate." She looked at Oswin. "You should eat then you go to Lira. She was very specific."
Mara grinned. "Lucky boy."
Oswin wiped sweat from his face with the back of his arm.
'One conversation. One morning of dirt. And the village already moves.'
He didn't hate it one bit
Lira's hut smelled the same—herbs, smoke, and that faint underlying musk that now made his stomach tighten the moment he stepped inside.
She was waiting, already naked with heavy breasts, and that same slow, knowing smile.
"You smell like honest work," she said. "I like it."
Oswin opened his mouth to respond but Lira didn't let him speak.
She crossed the space in three strides, fisted a hand in his hair, and kissed him in a deep, wet and slutty manner.
Her tongue pushed into his mouth like she owned it. One hand dropped, shoved the loincloth aside, and wrapped around him.
She could feel that he was already hard and couldn't help but make a pleasant sound.
"Good," she murmured. "You remembered to stay ready for Auntie."
She guided him backward until his calves touched the low stool, then he sat down. This time, she did not kneel.
Instead she turned, planted one knee on the stool beside his hip, and lowered herself until the slick heat of her sex hovered just above the head of his cock.
She didn't take him in.
She just… rested there. The swollen tip nestled against her entrance, kissing wet flesh, not pushing inside.
Oswin's hands flew to her hips.
Lira caught both wrists and pinned them to the stool.
"Not yet," she said, voice husky but still infuriatingly calm. "You earned a little more than yesterday. But Auntie still decides when."
She began to move—tiny, cruel circles. The head of his cock dragged through her folds, catching on her clit, slipping back, never quite sinking in.
Her breasts hung heavy in front of his face, nipples dark and tight.
"Look at me," she ordered softly which he immediately responded to, staring at her like a zombie.
Lira's amber eyes were half-lidded, cheeks flushed, but her control hadn't cracked.
She kept the same maddening pace, coating him in her wetness until he glistened.
"You thought about the village this morning," she said. "That's good. A man who only thinks with this—" she rolled her hips once, letting him feel how close he was to sliding home "—doesn't last long here. A man who thinks about water and stone and full bellies… that man gets more than one night."
Oswin's thighs shook.
"Please—"
"Soon."
She lifted off him completely and the sudden loss made him groan.
Lira turned, faced away, and sat back onto his lap. This time she reached between her legs, gripped him, and guided the head to her entrance again.
Then she sank down slowly, he could feel his dick inch into her tight and impossibly wet pussy.
Oswin's head dropped against her shoulder and a broken sound tore out of him.
Lira bottomed out and stayed there, breathing through it, her inner walls fluttering around him like she was tasting him from the inside.
"There," she whispered. "That's what you earned."
She didn't bounce, instead she rolled slow and deep, grinding circles that kept him buried to the hilt while her ass pressed into his lap.
One of her hands reached back, found his, and placed it on her breast.
"Hold Auntie," she said. "Feel how full she is with you."
Oswin squeezed her boobs and her nipple pebbled against his palm.
She couldn't help but make a low, satisfied noise.
The pace stayed unhurried. Every grind dragged her clit against the base of his cock. Her breathing grew ragged, but she never lost the rhythm.
"You did well with Rika," she murmured. "She doesn't give praise. The fact she let you keep digging means she sees something."
Another slow roll. Deeper.
"Tomorrow you go back to the ditch. After that… you come here again. And the day after that, maybe Mara stops pretending she's only interested in tubers."
Oswin's hips twitched up despite himself.
Lira let him.
She picked up the pace just enough—still controlled, still hers—until the wet sounds filled the hut and her thighs started to tremble.
"Now," she breathed. "Give it to Auntie. All of it."
Oswin came with a shudder that started in his spine and ripped outward. Thick pulses flooded her.
Lira kept grinding through it, milking him, her own orgasm following a few seconds later—a quiet, shaking moan as she clenched around him in tight waves.
When it ended she stayed seated on him, both of them panting.
She reached back, cupped his cheek, and turned her head to kiss the corner of his mouth.
"Good boy," she whispered. "Very good boy."
She lifted off him slowly. Cum leaked down her inner thighs. She didn't wipe it away.
"Go wash in the stream," she said, voice already returning to that warm, maternal register. "Then eat. Tomorrow the second gate goes in. And after that…"
She smiled, lazy and satisfied.
"…we'll see which lesson you need next."