Following mother's star

Once the fire had burned down, Chastity was led inside. Following the bare, swaying buttocks of her mother. It was weird… To see her stern parent tripping over her own feet slightly to keep up with the man in front. The woman seemed unable to decide whether to solemnly give this ceremony its proud dignity… or to chase fawningly after its leader like a newborn puppy. Chastity could do nothing but admire the haphazard dance of her parent’s matured curves while this dilemma played out. So many years of demure restraint unveiled. This was the first time the girl had even seen an adult woman's swollen breasts since she had originally suckled upon such. Family or not… the comparison to her own only-budding offerings brought a surprising blush.

She walked with fists clenched awkwardly at her sides… fighting off the urge to cross her arms. Painfully aware of the shuffling parade of strangers watching from behind and all around. Everything that she had been taught told her that to be so exposed was a sin of the highest order… Yet it was the one who had taught that who now claimed they were, in fact, now done with clothing forever. That their bodies should never be sullied by enshroudment again. Chastity shivered again, a little, at the thought. A draft still slipping through the open door behind her and past all the still-clothed bodies following. Why were they still allowed clothing then? Even to the point where every face was covered. Was it not her 'innocence' she was supposed to hide away from the wayward eyes of men such as these?

The dimly-lit corridor led past several closed doors. On into one wide and long room which must have made up the majority of this central building to the compound. Sparse and simply decorated, the place was mostly open space. There was a hint of sunset still creeping in through high-up windows, but each of these was shrouded by hanging crimson drapes. The only other light came from candles, ensconced regularly upon the walls but also laid out neatly in a circle at the centre of the room. These only seemed to send more flickering shadows into the corners of the room, where strange bulky shapes were hidden under dust-sheets. Several thick, long ropes led up toward the ceiling where they met a chandelier of some kind… though its bulky wooden form seemed rather over-the-top for the few extra candles it held. It almost looked like a crucifix, the pious girl noted… except with its lower length split into two diagonally-spread shafts.

A sharp call of her name snapped Chastity out of her neck-twisting exploration. Her mother had stepped into the circle of candles, led gently by the hand of 'Father'. Now she held out her own palm expectantly for the teen to do the same. Meanwhile, the other masked men had moved on ahead. Forming a tight circle of bodies around the one of light and flame. Chastity had a sudden inclination that this might be her only chance to turn and run… to flee this strange ritual and all the portents it held of her future life here. Yet… She had nowhere else to go. Her only family in all the world was reaching out with a hand that trembled slightly. The girl realised her mother was scared too… scared that she would fail or let down this strange new family she had found for them. Chastity had heard how eagerly the older woman had spoken about Father's words and teachings. She knew how much it meant to her for them to be accepted here.

Knowing all this… she stepped forward and took that offered hand. Being pulled forward into a naked embrace, a closer connection of skin than she had ever felt before. Then, there they stood. A mother and child self-consciously wrapped only in each other's bodies. Their every inch and crevice picked out in flickering yellow light, but those surrounding them only visible as shapeless silhouettes.