Settling Down
Story by Stories of Old and Far on SoFurry
Wew
Blue amethyst tinged waves lapped across a shoreline of the blackest sand one could ever dream to see, as the mid-afternoon tropical breeze filtered by his encampment, rustling the foliage outside the confines of his cave. He was content to lay in the shade on this lazy afternoon, the twin stars above shining brightly.
The sweltering heat was often too much for him at its peak during the day, the ocean itself being too warm to do him any good. The hammock he had labored to build from the local, hardy plant life was the only true respite he had alongside the shade from the trees above him.
The breeze passing through the thicket changed, causing his hammock to sway a little harder, a cool downdraft eliciting a contented sigh from him as he pushed up his reed hat above his brow.
Beyond the shoreline and the bluish purple haze of ocean, past the silver tower far in the distance, black clouds churned as if boiling. He tipped his reed hat down, lulling back to a state of gentle half-consciousness as he swayed in the hammock. Storm was brewing.
Every once upon a time he had the dream. All was going well. His first job in two years. Security aboard a research vessel. A far cry from the prime of his career, but he wasn’t complaining. Work was work. The newly christened vessel left port, and then made the jump to slipspace. New reverse engineered technology they had said. It was supposed to improve on travel time.
He always fancied that maybe it had worked too well. Maybe they had just gone too fast. He knew it was folly of him to try and understand slipspace. Even to most scientists, that realm bordered on something beyond science. Human slipspace drives used brute force when compared to their alien counterparts. Maybe they still weren’t ready for finesse yet.
Slipspace and time were two things that when mixed had volatile results, both on paper and in physics. A month's trip through it landed you distances impossible to cover by light speed. Even today he still couldn't wrap his head around it. Their month long trip had them emerge back into normal space as planned. Several years later.
In any case, the ship had ripped itself apart. Maybe then, he wasn’t even sure of that. So many scrambled reports indicated that something had gone wrong. Malfunction? Attack? He would never know. The ship tumbled out back into reality into a thousand different splinters traveling in all directions.
The odds of his section sustaining life support and boasting life pods were astronomical. The odds of him escaping, only to land on this world, again, astronomical. What really made him consider that maybe a God was looking out for him were the inhabitants. He felt his muscles tense. He felt tense when all the memories came blurring by like scrambled eggs.
All the stress, the uncertainty during the war. The more he thought about the circumstance that led him here, his survival alone. He just wanted to sleep in his hammock. A four fingered hand, grey and clawed, an extra thumb on the other side, came outstretched from the darkness.
He exploded to motion, gripping the wrist of the clawed hand at his shoulder before freezing. Sweat, not from the heat coated him in dampness as he looked up the slender arm into her alarmed face. He exhaled slowly, releasing the death grip from her.
She knew some English. Likewise, he was slowly learning her language. Most days he didn’t say much however. He tried to wave her off in a gesture that meant he was sorry, but the alien simply bent down to the sand, returning with his reed hat to hold it out to him. He wasn’t the best at reading their faces either. The split jaws held tightly together, upturned lightly. He always assumed that was an alien smile for them. He sighed, gently reaching out for his hat.
Pushing himself up, he stood, falling short at her shoulders as he spoke her language, still trying to sound apologetic for earlier.
“We..fish?”
Mandibles still upturned, reptilian pupils watching him with a warm look, she nodded back gently.
He knew this world had longer days. Never exactly by how much. First evening was approaching as the lesser, brighter star above dipped below the horizon, leaving the old orange beast to the bathe the planet in a duller light. With the smaller star beyond the horizon, the blue-amethyst waters receded on the black shoreline, creating small pools of trapped lifeforms in the rocks.
Easy pickings for even a novice like him. Alongside him, she strayed not far behind, a small reed basket draped on her shoulders. Every couple days she would come from her Keep, down to shore with him to help him, or teach him. So far, it was thanks to her efforts, and the hospitality of who he learned was the “Kaidon,” that he had been able to learn, survive, and live here.
It wasn't to say that his training in the core hadn't befitted him after all this time, a payoff he could say he was finally earning its due, but this world was alien, and inhabited by ones that once wanted everybody like him dead. The plunk of her spear behind him signified another aquatic creature caught.
Looking over the metallic one in his own hand, simple yet efficient, engraved and runed with extra detailing and significance perhaps only the craftsman or user of the same species would understand, he mulled the past few years over. At least he'd thought it was a few years. Longer days made it hard to keep track.
When he'd landed, it didn't take them long to find him. He was brought back alive, to some kind of city on the planet. The old trooper in him had wanted to go out guns blazing, and yet it was they who held their fire.
Their leader, as best he could tell, the “Kaidon,” was the only one here who knew fluent English. He was more than hospitable, imparting everything he knew in full confidence. The war was over. Words he never thought he'd live to hear. And from the enemy no less. He had offered the means to move back to known Human occupied space.
He was far from it, deep behind enemy lines. One war was over, yet another had risen to take its place since. Times were still uncertain. The colony he resided on would have been a backwater in Human terms. It wasn't a bastion of government or industrial might. Just a simple agricultural world.
It was why he was alive today. The aliens here had not seen the war, and barely heard of it. There was no hatred in their hearts. The Kaidon was an old soldier, and knew what it had been out there. And yet here he was anyway.
He stewed out here in his private little camp over the offer to return home for weeks. There was never any family. “Back home” was just a skipping stone from one place to the next before it was all burned to glass. He turned his eyes to the boiling dark clouds on the horizon as their insides flared with light, thunder eventually rolling over the blue-amethyst waves to his ears. Standing vigil out there among the waves was that silver tower.
He felt at home here. He didn't want to go back. Didn't want to return to some mantle bestowed on him. A lone survivor. A “hero.” Let the ship that brought him here remain lost with all hands. It was difficult for him to think about. But he was final about it. Let him remain lost.
A gentle touch to his shoulder brought him back. Tougher skin, like leather. Four fingers. But it wasn't grey and jagged like the hand in his nightmares. Her skin was a deeper hue, almost as black as the sand on the beach behind him. Stark orange eyes watched him closely, warm and soothing, her upper brow ridges lifted in concern.
He'd dazed off again. The touch brought on a smile from him. Standing there in ankle deep water, with her spear in hand, donned in simple, rugged working leather, she conjured a picture of something predatory to him. By now he knew she was anything but. This world put him at ease, oddly. But it wasn't the true reason he'd finally decided to call the dirt under his feet home.
She motioned with her snakelike head, eyes traveling back to shore. He nodded back, only now realizing how far they'd wandered across the black seabed of the ocean floor. Best to get back before the tides rose, or the storm caught them.
Second evening arrived, as the larger orange giant began to recede below the horizon. The interior of his cave was filled with the smell of ocean from their haul, various alien crustaceans and fish spread open over his designated cooking area.
Every time she came here, she showed him a little more about the creatures he'd caught. How to take them apart, what to avoid, how to cook. He sat down cross legged with her over a flat section of the rocky floor, working alongside her to de-shell his catches, taking the opportunity to teach her as they went. She had a mental understanding of the Human alphabet now, and was working on turning it into fluent speech. She learned quickly. Likewise, his grasp on her alphabet was growing.
Some sounds were difficult to pronounce when you had four mouth parts. Lack of four mouth parts proved harder for him to articulate more complex and nuanced meanings, but he enjoyed every moment of it. They both shared blunders of learning something new and butchering how it sounded.
Night would fall after all was said and done, and the aroma of cooked meat and spices would linger in the cave even as the storm finally arrived with heavy rainfall, a sweet smell to greet in the morning.
The cave was big enough for him to drag his battered life pod inside, with some help from the locals of course. It had long since been gutted of anything useful, and anything redundant, but it made for a good sleeping space, sheltered from the elements that managed to seep into the cave, and a buffer for outside noise.
She was staying overnight this time, reluctant to leave in the storm. Of course, she would have stayed anyway. The fire pit was barely embers before both of them rushed to remove their clothing.
He had agonizingly toiled over the decision to leave for weeks. Some part of him wanted to pick up and move along. Some part of him wanted to stay. The deciding factor had been her. She was already a regular visitor to him at that point, and one night she decided to stay with him. Even though the two of them were learning languages together, he never talked much, and neither did she. That night, they exchanged more words than he thought they ever had. Something just seemed to click.
He admitted it to himself silently. Sangheili weren't particularly attractive to him. And she was not abstained from this, not entirely. But it wasn't to say that she had things that he could appreciate. In comparison to males, her skin was smoother. Her body was still feminine by nature, but sinewy and wiry of muscle, flexible and strong, as could be said of almost all Sangheili.
To him it was like she was chiseled from stone, but the instrument used was imperfect. She was still very much alien to him. But it dawned on him that to her, he was probably the same way. All of it faded away regardless when she was close to him.
Despite the storm moving in and cooling temperatures down for the evening, the inside of his pod retained heat well. It wasn't long before the two of them were covered in the dampness of sweat. She laid below him on the collection of softer materials he'd scavenged together for a bed, legs wrapped insistently around his hips, urging him on.
It was something he'd grown to adore about her. She could take whatever he handed out. Her mandibles slacked every time he drove into her, breath ragged and separated by gentle moans. The muscles in her thighs tensed as her legs locked him in tighter, urging him to place both hands on the floor beside her as he jack hammered for all he was worth.
Her moans grew deeper as he continued, her sweltering insides tightening around him as the interior of the pod reverberated with the sweet sound of her gentle voice. The slender arms draped around his neck tensed, her sharpened digits digging into the skin of his back, the small sting of pain enticing something primal out of him as he gripped one of her breasts, the soft and warm flesh gently filling the space between his fingers.
The variation of her species on this world boasted slightly more mammalian traits, to his liking, albeit still alien. Her legs locked, muscles keeping him hilted as her insides contracted, trying to entice him over the edge. His thumb found the purple nub of her breast, pressing against it and forcing it back into the protective slit, fingertip intruding into highly sensitive flesh.
Her body responded in overload, spurting several small streams of milk as the extra stimulation, his little ace in the hole, finished her off. She trembled, hot insides clenching their tightest before gushing fluid. Her soft skin had all stiffened and tightened as if it were leather being stretched, grating on his own skin like soft sandpaper.
Her sweet voice reached its highest pitch, broken into stutters as her body pulsed in orgasm. He took the opportunity to lean in, lips finding all four tips of her mandibles as they splayed wide before tightening together.
Dual heartbeats hammered from inside of her as their sweat slick bodies met. He broke away from her mouth, resting his head on her collarbone, enjoying listening to the steady beats.
For several minutes, he listened to her ragged breathing slow, her chest rising and falling to something less frantic. Her muscles finally began to relax, legs unwrapping themselves from his pelvis, her insides finally willing to let him free after attempting to lock him in place and milk him of everything.
The first time he'd done this with her, he was a slave to the pleasure, releasing and filling her in a haze of lust. Never had he experienced something so intense before. It was only after practice and discovery that he learned how to edge her over first, something that she had admitted as being rare among her species.
Coupling was often quick and frantic, with many males either knowing little enough to please or simply having their fill. It was a quality and caring one that was rare to land. Her breathing normalized, hearts settling down to gentle beats. Her hands caressed the punctured skin over his shoulder blades with concern.
She was always worried when she hurt him in their coupling, his skin being not nearly as tough as one of her own species. “No pain, no gain” came visiting him from out of the shadows of his heydays. She was worth it. This was worth what came next. He felt the raise of her heartbeats, the tension in her muscles.
She had mated with him, their biology close enough to each others to warrant a pass. But he hadn't delivered on his end of the deal and it sparked a restlessness from her that would remain until satisfied. She had overtaken him now, pinning him to the floor as she straddled his hips.
Leaning forwards, her hands traced the contours of his wrists before her fingers interlocked with his, pulling his hands with her as she straightened in posture. All the while she had been grating her hips to his, the heat of her folds and already present slickness returning him to that addled state of arousal.
Hands locked together, she guided herself over him, folds parting with acceptance and reintroducing him to that sweltering heat as she hilted against him with a happy little gasp that parted her mandibles and caused her grip to tighten.
With no intention of stalling, she began to work her hips, twisting and rotating them, swaying from side to side and back to front. Her fingers clasped his firmly, those roaming hands of his were not allowed to interfere this time.
Due to the way her legs were built compared to his, the extra joint making it impossible for her to ride him in an upright fashion, she had learned to use her strength and flexibility in other creative ways.
She pressed downwards now, pinning his hands against the blankets as she lowered her body over top of his, the smooth contours near her navel colliding against his stomach, the soft and gentle weight of her breasts molding against his chest, sensitive nipples brushing against his own.
The four tips of her mandibles tugged at his lower lip as she began to work her hips again, side to side, and now up and down. Sweat created a heated slippery barrier between their skin as she laid completely over top of him.
Dual hearts hammered in her ribcage, her lower abdominal muscles tensing in unison with her thighs as she rocked up and down gently, audible slaps still set loose as skin collided, slick from the aftermath of earlier.
It was his turn to clench his hands, still pinned to the blankets as she smothered him. Her mandibles widened, overtaking his mouth and cheeks. Heated breath on his face made him flush red as he breathed through his nose, likewise, as did she.
His gasps and moans had no chance to reverberate in the pod as her encompassing mouth parts smothered them, enticing her to moan in unison with him. It was the final straw. His muscles tensed and spasmed lightly, and he went over the edge. Even as that satisfying heat flooded into her in waves, she continued to use her hips, bucking them in unrestrained lust and desperation for more.
The feverish want triggered another edge for him, his gasps becoming panicked in an ecstasy he'd never known until now. Such a high came with a price, and before he knew it, sleep had claimed him as his eyes had closed briefly for rest, an afterimage burned into them of her alien eyes locked with his.
The roiling thunder outside could occasionally be heard under the torrent of rainfall, and the heat of their coupling faded, the warm dampness becoming cold. She herself was weary now, but able to pull something heavy and warm over the both of them as she shifted position to something more comfortable for resting. His smaller, fainter heartbeat lulled her to sleep as she rested her head on his chest.
The bulk of the storm had moved on, a patchy overcast sky showing hints of orange as the first dawn arrived. Ocean and rainfall mixed into an intoxicating scent on the morning breeze. The ocean was primarily blue today, the plants and micro-organisms responsible for adding the purple tinge had been mostly swept away by the currents, but he knew they would return.
He watched her, out on the shoreline, cleaning herself off from the night's activities. In the distance, the floating silver tower loomed, ever vigilant, undisturbed by the storm that had battered it.
In his fingers, a ring tumbled repeatedly. It wasn't very pretty. He'd made it from spent casings. Spent months in secret hammering it down and shaping it. Inscribed into the metal were words written both in English and Sangheilian.
The ring tumbled over and over again. He was worried. He had been allowed to live here at the edge of the Kaidon's land in relative isolation. It was more than he ever expected. But what would the alien leader say to this? How would any of them react to him if it were known that he was engaged in something more?
The scuffing of black sand caught his attention as she looked at him with the same expression she always did when she found him staring off into space. Alien or not, she filled something in him. He was a little more whole around her.
Cryo had stalled his biological age roughly by half but the calender would have landed him somewhere in his late 60's. It was time to settle down. He had to call somewhere home. As if she knew what he were thinking, she spoke fluently in English.
“Some of the others at the Keep are curious about you. They want to meet you.”
That took him by surprise. He spoke back slowly in her language, concerned.
“Do..they..know..about..us?”
A brief pause was followed by a nod. He nearly dropped the ring clutched in his hand safely hidden away. Her tightened mandibles upturned.
“The ocean does not wash away your scent. They always knew.”
He was stunned into a worried silence. She stroked a hand through his hair, down his cheek gently.
“I talked to Grandfather. I am blessed with his approval. A Kaidon's word is law. You are family and clan.”
The ring fell from his fingers into the sand. Her eyes caught it immediately and she delicately retrieved it, reading the inscription. There was no point trying to hide it from her now. He looked up with a nervous smile.
“It's..for..someone..you..love..a..lot.”
He didn't have to explain to her the old tradition. The inscribed word in Sangheilian said all of it to her. In trying to help him understand what some of their letters and words meant, by providing context and definition, she had unknowingly given him the answer long before he asked the question of how to say it to her.
"Monerasha rioka jeeneh"
The ring slipped seamlessly onto her finger as she held her hand up, turning it over in examination and admiration before reaching out to him with a smile. He took her hand, being pulled from the hammock and close to her as she let herself fall onto the sand, pulling him down with her. He laid beside her, staring up at the sky, running his fingers through the black sand. Her slender serpentine head rested on his chest, ringed hand absently curling fingers around his. One bright eye leered up at him as she tilted her head with a smile.
It was still early in the day. They had time to kill.