Back at base, Kotallo finally unveiled the arm for the others to view and put it on, trying out its dexterity on smaller objects.

“Oh…sorry…” He blurted as he crumpled a cup with the metal fingers.

“Maybe eat and drink with your right hand.” Varl chuckled.

“It’s remarkable that it responds to you.” Zo shook her head in awe. “Some Utaru have lost limbs and they use hooks or wooden legs to get around…but of course they do not work as this arm does.”

“If not for the components Aloy retrieved from the lab, I doubt I could fashion such a thing.” Kotallo explained.

“Alva? You okay?” Varl asked the Quen who was staring at the arm with eyes as wide as Watcher lenses.

“It. Is. Amazing!” She almost squealed and grasped it, studying it eagerly. “To be able to have metal respond to flesh and the nervous system of the body it must have a fully integrated biological component that allows it to read signals and interpret them correctly…”

“Uh…Alva…”

“I mean, just to be able to take a peek inside and see how it works…oh the data it would reveal!”

Kotallo removed his arm from her grasp as gently as he could. “Perhaps you would be interested in the database we uncovered from the lab…and the process Gaia and I used to make it work?”

He tapped his FOCUS and found the files, flicking them across to Alva.

She stared at him and if anything, her eyes got even wider. “You’re just…sharing them with me…just like that?”

“Why would I not?” Kotallo looked at the others who shrugged.

Alva gasped and opened the files, her Quen eyes devouring the notes and information contained. “Oh this is incredible! It’s utterly amazing!”

“I dunno…is it really that amazing?” Erend said in a provocative voice. “I mean, yeah…it’s good at slugging machines and crushing poor defenceless cups…but what about a real test?”

Kotallo folded his arms. “What did you have in mind?”

“An arm wrestle. You game?”

“Uh…Erend?” Varl said in a warning voice. “I wouldn’t…”

“I wanna see what it can do.” Erend shrugged. “Besides, I’m trying to salvage some of my pride. The guy can drink me under the table and is unbeatable at Strike. I’d like to hammer him at something…and this,” he held up his left arm, “can hammer.”

“Very well,” Kotallo nodded, “as you wish.”

“Alrighty,” Erend went around to the other side of the counter and put his elbow on the surface, “let’s see what you got.”

Five minutes later Zo was applying a pack of ice to Erend’s shoulder while he gulped down some of her warmed goats milk with herbs. Kotallo looked at Varl.

“He was warned.” Varl chuckled.

“Well…now we know.” Erend sighed and groaned. “I’d have a go at you for being too rough…but you didn’t budge! Not an inch!”

“You were trying to move metal, you incomprehensible Oseram!” Zo exclaimed.

“That’s what Oseram do!”

“Apparently Tenakth do it better.” Kotallo taunted lightly then went towards the stairs to Gaia’s room.

“Where you heading?”

“I wish to inform Gaia of our success in person.”

She smiled as he entered. “Kotallo…I can see from the data on your FOCUS and from observing the interactions with the others that the test of your arm was a success.”

“Indeed,” Kotallo flexed the fingers, “it is so strange to grasp something yet not feel it…I crushed a cup.”

“You will learn the different strengths required for different objects.” Gaia assured him.

“Gaia,” Kotallo looked up at her, “as Aloy and I fought the Scorcher…did my FOCUS record it?”

“Yes. Would you care to see it?”

“Yes.”

Gaia waved her hand to the dome’s surface that surrounded her and Kotallo saw the fight with the machine displayed from his perspective. He stepped closer, studying it.

“Is there a particular portion of the battle you wish to see?”

“It was after it ended…when I was speaking with Aloy.”

Gaia shifted the footage and soon Kotallo could see Aloy just as he had when she’d been standing in front of him.

“I’ll use the new arm when I need it but the rest of the time…I will simply be myself.” Kotallo listened to his voice speak, somewhat amused at the sound of it.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“You have my thanks for doing this with me.” As Kotallo bowed, the footage dipped down to the ground then back up again. “I’ll be going now.”

She disappeared from view as he’d walked past her, the recording jolting as he slung his swag on his back. The FOCUS managed to pick up her calling his name and he turned, putting Aloy in the centre of his vision.

“I’ll see you back at base…”

“Indeed. The Ten be with you.”

Kotallo lifted up his hand and tried to do as Gaia did, to reverse the vision. He shifted it back and watched it again.

“Kotallo…I’ll see you back at base…”

He reversed it again, stepping close to the dome’s surface, staring at Aloy’s expression as she said,

“Kotallo…I’ll see you back at base…”

“Kotallo?” He blinked and stepped back as Gaia spoke to him. “Does something about Aloy’s words trouble you?”

“Not her words…but the way in which she said them.” He admitted. “She…I was thinking about it on the way back from the battle and thought perhaps I had exaggerated what I’d seen…but it seems as though she was almost asking a question.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Would you care to elaborate?”

Kotallo reversed the vision and it played again.

“Kotallo…I’ll see you back at base…”

“Though not a direct question, I seem to hear one in her words…as if she was asking whether I would return to the base.” Kotallo looked at Gaia. “I am not one for subtleties of speech…”

“While there is nothing overt in her manner to suggest she is asking if you will indeed return to the base,” Gaia admitted, “Aloy’s natural tone and manner are much stronger when making a statement. There is a possibility that she was wondering, even subconsciously, if you would be returning to the base.”

Kotallo closed his eyes and shook his head. “But…why?” He breathed. “Why ask me such a thing or even wonder? Why would I not return to the base?”

“Calculating possibilities…” Gaia blinked. “It is possible that Aloy felt, now that you have a functioning left arm, that you would feel more comfortable around your fellow tribesmen. You have described yourself as maimed and I have also witnessed the mockery of other Tenakth over the loss of your arm.”

“She thinks that, because I am,” Kotallo shrugged, “whole…that I would no longer do as I promised?”

“I am only surmising…but perhaps she was concerned that you only asked to join her in her mission because you knew you would not be respected amongst the Tenakth.” Gaia gestured to the other wall and Kotallo was stunned to see himself standing with the backdrop of the Grove behind him.

“Because of you he has new Marshals and a rallying cry the clans cannot ignore. So I will stand with you, on your mission…give…whatever is left of my life.” Kotallo sighed, recalling the moment he had pledged himself. “It is what I choose…”

“In this context, you do seem to be referring to the loss of your arm as being a significant loss of your life.”

“I…I did not pledge myself to her mission because it was all I had left…no other recourse,” Kotallo insisted, “I did so because it’s what I wanted to do with what I had left.” He turned to Gaia. “How can I assure her of my intentions?”

“Simply by being here when she returns.” Gaia said gently.

Kotallo shook his head. “It seems like…not enough.” He huffed. “But…it’s all I can do. Thank you, Gaia, for your words, your advice and your assistance.”

“It has given me a great deal of pleasure to help.”

Kotallo went back to the common room, detaching his arm and leaving it in his training space. He ate and drank with the others, listening to their banter and conversation before going to his bed.

He removed his armour and laid it in the corner of the room before lying on his back. Even though the base was warmer than Sky Clan lodges, Kotallo liked the presence of a blanket over his body. It seemed to help him to sleep. His eyes were heavy but he tapped his FOCUS on and found the footage from the battle and scrolled through it as Gaia had done. He found the image of Aloy’s face gazing at him.

“Kotallo…I’ll see you back at base…”

He reached out to smooth the unseen wrinkles from her forehead as he whispered,

“I will always be here if you need me.”

He sank into a deep sleep and barely stirred when Erend or Alva crept in to bed. They were usually quiet and respectful although Alva had to be told to stop using her FOCUS in her sleeping space. While they couldn’t see the light, she would often murmur excitedly to herself as she studied.

When the door opened to the sleeping quarters, Kotallo opened one eye and glanced at the door. With his ‘curtain’ in place, he couldn’t see who it was. There was a soft pad on the floor and he was surprised as the curtain was pulled aside and Aloy ducked into view. Kotallo pushed himself up on his arm, stunned at her presence.

“Aloy? Is something wrong?”

She put a finger to her lips, dressed in her Nora under tunic and sat on the edge of his bed before planting a warm, long kiss on his lips.

It was so warm…

It was so long…

Kotallo responded like it was the most natural thing in the world to do, his left arm rising so that his fingers could embed themselves in her blood red tresses, his thumb brushing over the curve of her cheeks, across the scattering of freckles on her face.

She drew back, just a few inches and gazed down at him with her tender green eyes…

…before their lips crashed together in a passionate embrace, both of his arms wrapping around her as she leaned down close to him, a moan of pleasure escaping from the back of her throat.

No words were spoken.

They didn’t need to be.

It was as if there was a silent accord.

An unspoken desire at an instinctual level.

Her body was on top, pressed against his chest, his hips…

Never mind that his sleeping place was hardly private.

Someone only needed to walk past and glance in to see what was unfolding.

It only added to the thrill, the danger of being discovered…and their passion was rising.

But where it should have been glorious, Kotallo found it also mingled with pain.

He grimaced as she kissed his neck, her hands stroking him boldly.

Pain…why was he in pain?

Kotallo bit on his lip, his body fighting between pain and pleasure before his eyes ripped open and he gasped for air, his arm falling vacant…Aloy nowhere to be seen.

He looked around, confused before the realisation hit him that he’d been dreaming.

She hadn’t come to him.

They hadn’t kissed.

He hadn’t…

Kotallo grimaced, his body flinching in pain and his groin felt like it was on fire. He looked down at himself, peering through the shadow and saw that he was indeed aroused.

It shouldn’t be possible.

It couldn’t be possible.

It hadn’t been possible…

…but it was suddenly happening and he put his head back, tears stinging his eyes.

He was scarred…and the scars were stretching, pulling against the skin as his body responded to the erotic dream.

For something that was supposed to bring pleasure, Kotallo was in an incredible amount of pain.

And he faced a choice. He either tried to ignore it and wait for it to go away, enduring the agony he was in…

…or he brought it to a climax and ended it.

Given that he didn’t know if the dream would return or if even just the memory of the kiss would cause it to happen again…Kotallo decided to get it over with. It didn’t take much. He was already riled up and some…teasing attention with final firm application brought him to the most exquisitely painful climax he’d ever known.

Kotallo clamped his jaw together and scrunched his eyes shut as pain and pleasure fought for dominance with no regards to the torment they were putting him through, his body simply following its instincts. He howled silently then slumped onto the bed, tears streaming out of his eyes.

It took several minutes of controlled breathing to calm himself down to start to think logically. He used a corner of his blanket to clean himself up, burning with shame as he did so. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stared at the blanket in the dim light.

It shouldn’t have been possible.

But it had happened.

Did that mean…

Was he…?

With no little trepidation, Kotallo crept out of his cubicle, out of the sleeping room, across the common room and up the stairs to where Gaia drifted, eternal and patient.

“Kotallo…this is an unusual hour for you to visit. Does something trouble you?”

Kotallo looked at the blanket in his hands, the contaminated corner that was damp from the ejaculation of his body. He felt sick and wretched, ashamed by his actions, albeit in his dreams and then, for his decision to follow it through.

“You appear to be in distress…can I help you, Kotallo?”

He closed his eyes, riddled with self-loathing. “No…I’m sorry for intruding…it’s nothing.”

He went to leave.

“Kotallo,” he turned to see Gaia displaying a red circle with an equally red X in the centre of it, “all conversations with me are recorded…unless I say otherwise with this symbol. You may speak freely and know that I will never be able to expose the nature of our conversation.”

Kotallo shuddered, desperate for answers. “I was…maimed…in the Red Raids…” He blurted. “I stepped on a Stalker mine…the damage was…I was told I could never have children. That I was…”

“I understand.” Gaia said.

“I thought that meant I could never…that I could never respond…” Kotallo looked at the accursed blanket and shivered. “Tonight…I was dreaming and my body…what does this mean? Was the healer wrong? Has the damage been undone?”

“Unfortunately the sensors in this room are not sensitive enough to give you an accurate answer,” Kotallo’s shoulders sagged, “however, in the same room you built your arm is a device which will allow me to know for certain.”

He hastily went to the room, closing the door behind him. Gaia talked him through tearing the blanket and sliding it beneath one of the devices. It glowed as she remotely activated it. Kotallo waited anxiously.

“Kotallo, I have the results of the scan.”

“And?” He rasped.

“While your body is capable of arousal, erection and ejaculation, there is no detectable sperm, or seed, in the fluid used to carry it to a woman’s womb for a child to be conceived.” The blood drained out of his face as hope evacuated his heart. He nearly sank onto the floor.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I am sorry…”

“It was hardly your fault, Gaia.” He trembled. “At least I know now, for sure.”

“I wish I knew how to comfort you in this moment.”

“Reassure me that our conversation will never be heard by another.”

“I promise you that, faithfully.”

“Then that is enough.” Kotallo grabbed a candle and went outside the base. Despite the chilly air he waited until every fibre of the blanket was eaten by the greedy flame. “Gaia, it is done.”

“Acknowledged…Kotallo…can I be of assistance?”

“No, thank you Gaia.” He looked up at the stars in the heavens. “I was just going back to bed.”