Ava

I watch the slave’s face as it carefully sucks on Sachi’s prick. Its eyes are closed in peaceful concentration, its rhythm and technique consistent, its cheeks inverting as it tries to suck the skin off with each slow thrust into its mouth. The slave Katya hardly ever shows any form of emotion outside of sexual performances, I wonder if she wouldn't be better off if I killed her.

The slave woman is constantly busy on some errand when I see her, and when I don’t I usually have no doubt she’s very busy heading to warm someone's bed. This though almost seems to be her taking a moment of rest, like it isn’t Sachi that is receiving the pleasure of getting his prick sucked but her enjoying the pleasure of sucking his prick. I shake my head bewildered by the sight.

The sight is perverse in a way I can’t rightly describe and I find myself intrigued with it, entranced until Cicilia breaks the sanctity of the moment sauntering into the secluded glade already hiking up her kilt.

‘’Move,’’ she says balancing herself against a tree with urgency. Sachi the dog that he is doesn’t need much encouragement and is behind her in a moment, I smirk heading towards where the earthlings are exploring.

Not even back that long and already in demand and horny, no wonder he hasn’t improved as a warrior in so many years.

* *

Sachihiro/Divina

Heading towards the Red Forest actually turned out to be a blessing as we were met by the Druidic emissary of the territory and a welcomed friend in these days when familiar faces are few and far between. Talia the Druidic Disciple of Master Elentril met us on the outskirts of the deadly Red Forest and guaranteed us safe passage through the rich fauna and flora of the place with curious ancients, magical beasts and even what I suspect to be a beast on the other side of ancient shadowing us for a little while as it studied Katya curiously.

To say the Red Forest is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been is like saying water is wet but the place touched something deep within all of us judging by how solemn and reverent we the two days we spent going through the place. We were even allowed to pick some of the bounty fallen on the forest floor, a chance which we all took full advantage off even if we can’t identify half the fruit, twigs, leaves, flowers and bones we collected just for the sake of having souvenirs as the sacred aura of the place demanded we take nothing for granted. Had I known Talia was such an important person I probably would have paid better attention to but apparently just the loose acquaintance is enough to have my entire family guided through the sacred place and directions through some of the best routes when travelling towards the continents far coast.

A gift of nearly 5 kilograms of spiritual ore from ma and we endeared ourselves so much to Talia’s unseen patron that we were guaranteed safe passage through the whole of Sandaria unmolested by any beast unless we show aggression or prove ourselves unscrupulous in any way. A declaration that forces us to be mostly herbivorous on these lands but guarantees us the friendship or at least the indifference of all creatures smart enough not to get on the bad side of who we only know as The White Tiger of The West. An outrageous sum 5 kilos of celestial ore but I dare say a burgeon for the peace of mind and almost immediate difference in the ease of our travels from there onwards.

We got close and saw some human settlements, most of the land on this part of the continent saturated by the people of the Sandorian kingdom. Those settlements we avoided keeping to the wild parts of the provinces for Barbarians are not welcomed in these lands whose people we have only recently had a war with in the current generation.

We travel for nearly two months in almost comfortable leisure, living of the land and even talking time to explore in pairs when we make camp for the few hours we rest every night and morning. The stress of travelling with the constant stress of doom for months or years unsustainable with the distances we have to cover even with my worry of being overtaken by whatever it is that is coming for us. ‘’It is a marathon not a sprint’’ ma said to me when the kids and the other unAwakened where having trouble keeping pace, forcing me to relent and even start enjoying myself with everyone else.

**

‘’You know ma, I still don’t know how I Awakened to water mana.’’ Sachi says out of the blue, floating a whirling ball of water above his left hand. He’s looking longingly at it, sternly as though it both bewilders him and is a puzzle he’s been trying to solve for some time now.

Divina laughs at his implied question happily, to have a son so transparent yet completely puzzled by his own behaviour is a joy she doesn’t take for granted.

Her giggle is pleasing to Sachi and brings him out of his musing, he grins. Not dropping the ball of water yet analysing the spontaneous statement, how she may have interpret it and what in his subconscious mind might he have been thinking of that prompted the statement. He retains enough presence and mental acuity to be completely present in the moment giving his mother the undivided attention of a part of his divided mind.

‘’Sachi, you’ve always loved water,’’ Divina says with an amused sparkle in her eyes as she gazes lovingly at her son.

‘’Yes but to the extent that I randomly Awaked to it using Master Zaraya’s credo?’’ He says, speaking of things as though to one who knows everything he has ever done till this point in life.

‘’I’m not even that good of a swimmer to be honest,’’ Sachihiro continues both flowing happily with the discourse with his mother and also intellectually wondering about this as he has many times in the years since his Awakening.

‘’Sachi,’’ she says patiently taking in the moment, the rising of Rigel bristling the little hairs on her arm, the gaze of Selena looking down unmoved in the past hour, the uncanny moon defying a predictable pattern again. ‘’you loved the pond.’’

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‘’Yes but that mainly to bath,’’ he says almost with a grumble. Somehow his ‘petulant child’ antics still crop up when in the rare moments he finds himself alone with his mother.

‘’Baths that lasted hours? And everyone in the village knows the ponds are where the boys used to go jostling the favour of girls.’’ Divina says teasingly.

Sachihiro snorts and looks away from his mother, ‘’I stayed out of those.’’ He says nonchalantly. Too nonchalantly, playing with his water and seemingly unbothered by the world, above petty disputes. ‘’And its only because we went to the pond after sparing that I ended up part of those things the few times I was.’’ He adds suddenly realising that being caught in a lie by his mother would embarrass him more than his mother knowing that they had dick measuring contests for the girl’s perusal.

Divina snorts through a giggle, stopping herself from all out laughing as she sees through her son’s embarrassment. It’s as if he forgets I was once young and also spent time at the pond, she muses to herself composing herself and enjoying the dawn. ‘’You used to go even when the weather was bad sometimes if you had gone long enough without a bath. ‘’

‘’Yes but that was bathing and keeping clean not playing in water.’’ Sachi grumbles dispelling the ball of water in a light splash that immediately nourishes the earth.

‘’As fastidious as even Daewon was you were the cleanest child in the village Sachi, and not because you are tidy or organised,’’ Divina says with eyes closed, head tilted back busking in the rising sun. Sachi watches her as the light hits at an angle leaving some parts of her face more shaded, her eyebrows trapping stray photons making them almost glimmer.

Ma’s such a girl sometimes, the thought comes unbidden to Sachi as he watches her be playful. A side of her that was once rarely seen back at the villages all those years ago, a side of her that fits her perfectly as she sits there leaning back on her arms with a butterfly fluttering around her curiously. Such a multi faceted human being his mother, complex yet simple at the same time.

‘’What are you going to do about that Selah girl?’’ Divina suddenly asks changing the direction of the conversation. It’s something she has been trying to get to the bottom of since before the mating challenge but only recently found anything close to an answer.

‘’Nothing, I cannot trust the girl and you always used to say the Jotnar have too many secrets hidden away in their mountain.’’

‘’Yes but I do not think she is a danger to you or the children,’’ Divina says. Careful to only ever advise and never order or declare how things should be when dealing with her son.

‘’She is yet to reveal why she was so insistent on having me and until such a time as I understand her motivation I cannot trust her, it’s that simple ma.’’

Divina pouts, playing with little blades of grass and leaves that she makes float in a pattern around herself. ‘’The girl’s mother is one of those half ancestor Jotnar with the big bones and blue skin. For a while I wondered how a demi-human Barbarian managed to have a child with a mundane father, how did the seed grow?’’

Sachihiro snorts amused, ‘’I know you don’t like the Jotnar but I've never heard you refer to them as demi-human before.’’

‘’That’s what most of them are now isn’t it? They can hardly even mate with us and produce a child anymore, their bloodline is being locked but there are so many of them that it hasn’t yet become a noticeable problem. But there are few flourishing demi-human populations for a reason and the Ancestor that now acts as their patron will eventually leave after it’s done its ‘nesting’.’’

Her curiosity about the Jotnar girl Selah led her to uncovering other interesting things about Ancestral beasts. Like the fact that they all at some point after achieving Ancestry have to settle down and proliferate for a while before going off or establishing a territory. That’s what the one with the Jotnar has been doing apparently, nesting as part of its ‘Awakening’ to Ancestry.

‘’I initially assumed the girl’s father had Awakened to sex magic and so could father children with any species of being, or maybe it was just another demi-human Jotnar,’’ Divina says with a shrug of her shoulders. ‘’Turns out there are a few other Jotnar demi-women that have had children outside of their tribe. I think they can sometimes have children outside the normal structure of their tribe and I think the girl’s mother saw the possibility of Selah and you being able to have a child.’’

‘’I have enough children mother,’’ Sachi says with a sigh. ‘’I’m tired, I feel like they are taking forever to grow up sometimes, other times I dread the time when they lose their innocence. Have you seen how promiscuous Hannah is already? And what of when they die? I dread that most of all, they are so fragile ma...’’

‘’Pfffh... those cuties have no innocence in them at all,’’ Divina says with a smile as a fond memory of playing with her grandchildren and sons plays out at the back of her mind.

‘’Still, you could have a few more...’’ Divina says trying to hide her eagerness. ‘’Lysandra is the only fully Barbarian child you have you know and those Jotnar have strong blood.’’

‘’All my children are Barbarian ma, and I already have another child on the way with Isis. Saya is also with child and will add to the family in a few months, I think you will have your hands full as it is.’’

‘’Still, letting that girl go to waste like this is unseemly. At least let her have a lover until you decide what to do with her, your brother is yet to catch anyone’s eye and have kids.’’

Sachi looks at his ma closely, maybe she said that because she knew it would annoy him and spark the possessive spirit within him. Already da fucked Kuyoki and Rigdis fucks Mira whenever they want, I’ve even heard they sometimes fuck in the longhouse and I think I’ve gotten tired of enduring it. Strangely though this feeling of jealously never really lasts, it’s always fleeting. I understand how Mira can be and I just hate the fact that people are fucking each other willy-nilly without my consent or even awareness sometimes and I feel I've lost control of my whole family. Did I ever really have control though? Sachi asks himself even as he thinks about bedding the Jotnar girl just to stake a permanent claim on her.

He does wonder why Rigs has never bothered to get mated though, something to speak to Mira about at some point. Difficult to be jealous of Rigs though, the guy idolises me but pretends otherwise, also he’s usefulness and loyalty to the family speaks for itself. Fuck, Gaia and Rigs are family whether I want to accept that or not, he scratches his head.

The silent alarm sounds from Damage and both Divina and Sachi are up and running towards the call at speed. Divina takes a diverting route while Sachi charges straight ahead. Rustling through the trees like an arrow, all musing and doubts gone as he grabs Kata from his waist while sprinting. He sees the ambush all along the western perimeter, Damage stands alone against a tide of twisting grabbing branches.

His bound artifact axe cutting left and right, shuttering them making kindling loudly, without moving from his chosen position able to cut and grind everything within 20 metres around with his projected amplified strikes, his aura ability covering the ground. Behind him Sema and Cici throwing cladded javelins at the slowly approaching armed band of people. Javelins fly shimmering slightly as they curve through the air and collide with a shielding around the entire flanking band of attackers with sparks, the sound like the dim ringing of blunt metal on metal as they collide on shields.