The Child of Strife
“Strife is a funny thing. It has varying effects on varying people. For some, strife makes them stronger and more resolute in the future. Others are utterly destroyed by it. But in the very exceptional few, strife inspires them.
“Inspired to do what? Well… that all depends on the strife… and those who see us through it.”
**Nar Keep, Augustine, Turius System.
First Age of Rebirth {Sanghelios Calendar}, one year after the Urofa Keep attack.**
Kojo Artimek dropped the sack of irukan next to the others just inside the keep’s main entrance. There was no need to move any of the grain to storage, what the ‘Urofa family needed for winter was already ground up and stored away. These bags were for the neighbours a few miles down the road. Soon enough they’d come with carts and carry off what they’d bought to supplement their own winter stores.
The human boy paused to wipe the sweat from his brow as he counted the bags to make sure. Twelve of them, each twenty kilos in weight. Kojo had carried them in from across the fields one by one and his limbs barely ached. Of course he could have lashed the cart up to one of the cattle and carried them all in one go, but then where was the fun in that?
A lifetime of farming and “agricultural consultation” to his sangheili neighbours alongside his dad had ensured Kojo built up quite a physique. Even compared to some of the sangheili boys he lived with in the keep he was able to hold his own in stature and strength. One more thing to thank his father for.
Was it not for the repertoire of respect among the sangheili of Augustine, Kojo would have been shipped back to Earth to enter some over-crowded, heartless foster-care system. The war had left many orphans, and even though his father and surrogate mother had been taken after the official close of said war, Kojo had joined the ranks of parent-less children lost in a cruel galaxy.
There was a silver lining though. The ‘Nar keep. His father was well known among sangheili for his work teaching the aliens to fend for themselves. When the sangheili first came to Augustine they didn’t know the first thing about growing crops, building or just surviving on their own. They were a warrior race who had depended on the Covenant to provide them with the basics for too long. Kojo’s father changed that for the sangheili who settled on Augustine, and they were extremely grateful for it.
Their code of honour drove them to take Kojo in following the kig-yar attack one year ago. And Kojo had lived with the ‘Nar family in their keep ever since.
Working a cramp out of his neck, Kojo crossed the keep’s courtyard and stepped into the common building just off the centre of the courtyard. It was the largest space in the keep, a bulbous building that bulged right into the courtyard and reconnected with the buildings attached to the inner curve of the keeps exterior protective walls.
Waiting for him was a usual lazy afternoon sight. While the men were out with the boys orienteering and the women were mostly seeing to odd chores around the keep, the girls of the ‘Nar Keep were sat around a table with house mother Sira ‘Nar practicing arts and crafts and gossiping.
Sira’s older sister, Elar, had been killed protecting Kojo during the attack. Sira believed that Elar would never simply throw her life away on a whim and decided Kojo was worth protecting. Sira quickly and comfortably donned the mantle of Kojo’s mother the moment he set foot in the ‘Nar keep.
Kojo liked Sira and her daughters, all eight of them. Not all of them were Sira’s daughters biologically speaking, but being head mother of the keep they were Sira’s responsibility. She wasn’t alone with such a large burden, but among the other keep mothers she was the central point of contact.
All that and she still made time to make sure Kojo was comfortable.
Only one of the girls lifted her head in time with Sira to watch Kojo enter the room.
“Kojo. Are you alright?” Sira asked in English.
Kojo nodded. “I’m fine,” he replied in practiced sangheili.
He’d gotten the hang of the language in his time on Augustine. And he’d found it was much easier to lie in sangheili than in English.
Kojo wasn’t fine. Not really. He was bored. All his chores were complete. The boys of the keep were out with the males orienteering as part of their militia training. Even bringing in the irukan from across the fields wasn’t even necessary, but Kojo had laboured anyway because there was literally nothing else to do.
Sira obviously knew what a bored young man looked like and saw through the little white lie, pulling what passed as an unconvinced expression among sangheili. She was a mother after all and knew full well what bothered the children under her care when it bothered them.
“If you are bored come and string beads with your sisters,” she said, switching languages as it seemed Kojo was content using their tongue.
“I’d rather disembowel myself.”
Understanding the crude joke many of their older sangheili brothers had often used, the girls laughed and giggled. Sira just sighed.
“No need to be coarse, Kojo.”
Among the girls, one of them kept looking at Kojo. All eight of them were around Kojo’s age, and from his conversations with the boys he knew well enough that all of them were pretty. But in Kojo’s personal preference, the prettiest of them was the girl blushing at his joke.
Ina ‘Nar was Kojo’s height and age. She was small for a sangheili, some of the males considered her a little sickly. She didn’t have all the sensual curves a sangheili woman normally had. She was fairly straight forward, built like a pixie with a small but noticeable bust, narrow hips and a skinny waist. She had an eye colour that reminded Kojo of the ocean, and a long stringy plume the same chestnut colour as the sweet scented bark of Augustine fruit trees.
But what made her really pretty was how she talked. She didn’t have a husky voice, mind you. Whenever her mandibles flexed it wasn’t aural pornography.
She had a way of talking that Kojo very much liked because Ina was almost always straight forward and honest. Not hurtfully or offensively so, she knew when to keep quiet, but if she had something on her mind she liked to just be out with it. She didn’t dodge around her feelings either, stringing you along or leading you on like most girls did. If she had something to say to you, she simply said it.
Sliding out of her seat, Ina jumped lightly to her feet. “I would like a change of scenery. Come for a walk with me, Kojo.”
If there was any downside to Ina, the one flaw was that she could get kind of bossy sometimes.
There was nothing else to do, so Kojo joined her. They left the keep behind and skirted around the fields. As they walked they talked. Ina practiced her English a little. And Ina being familiar with other alien languages let Kojo practice his unggoy and kig-yar as well.
Before Kojo knew it they had left the ‘Nar fields entirely and delved a little into the Augustine wilderness. It wasn’t a particularly lethal wilderness, completely unlike Sanghelios, Ina explained. But the grasslands were broken up by patches of trees, forests and the odd oasis.
It was one such little oasis that they paused to rest. It was a circle of tall trees growing a thin canopy that protected them from the harsh sun that day. The undergrowth was sporadic, leaving the interior of the miniature forest mostly clear with patches of dirt and grass. Then in the centre of the widely spaced trees surrounding them was a pool of water, a few metres in diameter with a small stream flowing inform one side over a stack of rocks forming a trickling waterfall. There was no obvious run off, so Kojo figured there was an underground stream below the pool.
“Oh, this is such a lovely spot,” Ina sighed, stretching her arms above her head.
Freezing like that she looked over her shoulder and winked Kojo to come closer. “Why don’t we swim for a bit? I bet the water is perfect.”
Kojo shrugged. “Sure.”
Neither them moved. Kojo realised he was a staring at the girl for a time as she stood there frozen on the spot her arms above her head.
“What?” he finally asked.
“Help me out of my dress!” Ina finally commanded defeatedly, like she should have been able to smell what she wanted from him.
Doing his best to touch only the dress, he undid the buttons going down under one arm and stepped back. But all attempts to appear noble and modest by avoiding touching her body proved futile as Ina turned around before she slid out of her attire, revealing she wore nothing underneath slid out of the dress and faced him.
Kojo stared. The silk slid from her body like rainwater and landed in a pool around her ankles. She was smiling with seductively narrowed eyes. The human’s eyes involuntarily worked up and down her naked body, recognising every subtle alluring curve the dress had failed to hide. Though now she was out of it, her body seemed even more beautiful than before.
Kojo gulped as Ina took a step forward, her feet seemingly hitting the floor harder and louder than before. Every one of his senses was suddenly more acute. In the shade he could make out the vivid colours of her eyes, like they were literally glowing. He could hear the soft whispers of wind playing with the foliage overhead. The smell of Ina’s perfume still burned in his nostrils as strongly as it had when she’d freshly applied.
Ina put her hands on him and he was frozen like a statue. She worked quickly, undoing the buttons of his shirt and and pulling it off him before moving to his trousers.
Finally as she started to work on his belt Kojo seemed to return to his senses and he placed his hands over hers.
“What are you doing?”
Ina cocked her head coyly. “You’re not going to swim with me while wearing clothes, are you?”
“R-right,” was all he could stutter as she tore off the rest of his clothes, proceeding suddenly with a bout of violence.
Before Kojo knew it he was standing uncomfortably naked on the bank of the pool. Ina didn’t look back to see him blushing and cupping a hand over his crotch, so she didn’t realise how ridiculous he looked. Ina on the other hand slid comfortably into the water like a goddess taking to her domain. The pool barely rippled as she submerged herself completely then quickly came up for a breath, brushing back her wet hair so it clung to her neck.
Standing on the bottom of the pool she turned, revealing the water stopped just under her breasts. Her dark blue nipples seemed a little larger, hardening in the cool water.
“It’s perfect,” she moaned contentedly and beckoned Kojo to join her.
Taking her word for it he followed and found it was indeed just right. And he thanked the slight murk of the water was able to hide his lower body. The touch of the cool water, the sounds of Ina’s contented little moans as she massaged the water over her shoulders and the sight of droplets streaking down over bare breasts had put Kojo in a state that might offend.
He felt his stiff erection throb in the water excitedly as Ina gently waded closer, her fingertips gliding playfully across the water’s surface and her hips swaying elegantly from side to side with each slow-motion step.
Kojo realised he was shrinking back against the shore until Ina suddenly turned around.
“Wash my back, Kojo,” Ina said, though by her tone he really couldn’t tell if it was a question or not.
Either way he complied, almost too curious to find out how soft her skin was. Extremely soft as it turned out when he cupped water against her skin and began massaging her. His fingers worked in small circles over her shoulders, down her back and around her ribs. She cooed and moaned happily the whole time and Kojo feared he was about to blow a load there and then. The bonfire burning in his loins seemed to spark new heights, like fuel was being thrown on in masses despite it screaming to be doused somehow.
Then as if knowing, Ina helped him out.
She stepped back and pushed her body up against his. Kojo’s breath caught in his throat as he felt his erection trap between the magnificent softness of her buttocks. The cheeks spread ever so slightly and managed to engulf his shaft between them.
Then, smiling as she did it, the girl began rubbing up and down along him. The friction of her ass over his cock, her smooth sleek back grinding up and down his chest, drove him insane. He groaned into her hair, his hands accidentally slipping around her chest and finding her breasts.
She seemed to notice his hesitance as he tried to pull away, but Ina stopped him my holding his fingers over her nipples with her own hands. Their softness mixed with the glorious feeling of her tight little tush grinding up and down his rock hard arousal was simply divine.
He knew exactly what Ina was doing, but somehow felt it was necessary to ask. “Now what are you doing?”
“This past year I have watched you from afar and used my fingers to quell my desires,” Ina replied simply. “But I fear now I am so desperately horny for you the only solution is to have sex with you now.”
He rediscovered in that instance why he liked her so much.
“Oh.” For some strange reason, male logic decided that was perfectly acceptable and he didn’t stop her advances from there.
Ina made a rugby-tackle sexy. She had Kojo flat on his back on the shore in ten seconds flat, laying on top of him and working her hands across his body. Her touch was warm and soft like the rest of her body. Her breasts squished against his skin were just right. Not too big, not to small, not to soft and not to firm. The sight of them was arousing, but the feel of them sliding against his body and over his hands was a whole new level of exciting. He could feel his heart skip beats in his chest as he felt her heart flutter the same way under his touch.
Pressing down on his shoulders hard she straightened up a little, beaming. The honey was pouring from between her legs in anticipation, drooling down her inner thigh while she positioned herself, grinding those warm slick lips up along the underside of his shaft with a slow, sensual thrust of her hips. He felt her hand grasp the erection he was pretty sure had appeared out of nowhere and held it pointing straight up with the skill of a blademaster preparing for combat.
She froze with only his head pressed into the opening folds of her sex. The sangheilian girl moved slightly, very slightly, just enough to keep it just inside, clasped between the swollen lips like the end of a popsicle in her mouth.
Then suddenly she moved downwards, swallowing his whole length whole with a little sucking sound. The air was drawn from her womb as he filled her in that one, slick motion. Gasping for joy Ina fell over him, her mouth seeking out his in a desperate scramble to make sane sense of the feelings racing through them.
She didn’t kiss him, not quite. That was made all the more difficult the way sangheili jaws split in awkward ways. Instead she ran the tips of her mandibles over his lips, savouring their warmth. She huffed, taking in his scent deeply, raking her fingers through his hair while her free hand enjoyed the firmness of the muscles across his torso.
Straightening up she arched her back and danced her hips rhythmically in circles while he was hilted inside. He felt Ina’s insides squeeze in a rippling motion as she moved, milking him as if desperate to suck every ounce of fluid out of his body. Every so often, with a sudden burst of heat and wetness washing over Kojo’s shaft, she’d fall over him, rubbing her breasts against his chest and sought out his mouth with hers before she straightened again and resumed her slow, erotic dance, her muscles opening and closing, opening and closing.
Her breathing hastened as her pace quickened. Her hips gyrated back and forth fitfully, and then finally she seized up and tensed. A final, hot, wet wave, more intense than any of the previous crashed over Kojo as his sangheili princess fell forward with her entire lower body trembling and shaking like she’d had the fright of her life. But her expression wasn’t that of fear.
Her eyes were open wide, smouldering content glowing in her irises. She was gaping silently for a moment, a little drool dribbling from the tip of one mandible then shut her eyes and gave a sigh.
Then she gave him a look that would have terrified him if he’d came like she did. Luckily he had enough energy to stomach the lust and desire she was advertising.
Without telling him what she was doing, Ina rose up off the human and moved down the pool’s bank to a small patch of grass. She crawled on hands and knees, her hips swaying sensually as she looked over her shoulder at him, then finally with her back arched slightly Ina presented him with the full view of her dripping slit. The previously tight, closed lips hung open slightly, glistening with moist excitement and eagerly waiting to be filled again. The look she gave him over her shoulder would have turned devout men of the cloth to raging sinners.
Kojo felt like a horny drunk as he tried to move over with a little bit of grace. Not easy when you’re self-conscious about your own nakedness and sporting a throbbing erection. He tripped over something, enforcing the imagery of a love-drunk man shambling about in a stupor.
Ina giggled at the sight, the human deciding to make her pay for that one. And the sangheili girl gladly accepted her punishment.
He lined up and pressed the tip of his erection against her velvet walls, feeling them yield to his force. Ina crooned at the same time, “Be gentle with your little sister, Kojo.”
The human froze mid push, just the head swallowed by her wet tunnel. He’d never had siblings, but Ina referring to herself as his sister was arousing in some very strange ways. “O-… kay.”
He proceeded to slide the rest of the way in, millimetre by millimetre with a slow, painstaking, agonising snail’s pace. She felt tighter when he entered her from behind, all the right parts bent the wrong way as he felt himself yield to her hot, wet love-canal. The slow motions made Ina moan with a mixture of excitement and disappointment. Her back arched and she tried to press her soft behind against him, to hilt him inside her faster but he had a grip on her body and stopped her from moving.
“Mmmmhh~. Not that gentle,” Ina moaned with a smile.
Kojo blinked, totally confused now. “Oh… ‘kay.”
Sliding out, he pushed in a little harder. Her whole body flexed against him and she purred. He repeated the action, harder again. She gave a little cry that ended in a cute squeak, the smiled widely and wagged her hips encouragingly. Kojo repeated, soon thrusting in and out of the alien girl as quickly as he could manage.
The soft and tender voice of Ina ‘Nar was gone, replaced by the violent, feral moans of ecstasy from his skinny little princess of lovemaking. She was so lost in the enjoyment of his vigorous thrusts into her that her mandibles fell open and she was clawing handfuls of grass out of the earth.
She reached back with one hand, scraping Kojo’s off her hip and holding it tightly.
“T-that’s it. Do it! F-fuck me… make me… oh… ohhh, Kojo… make me… c-c-cu-uh… y-yes!”
The erotic dance of pleasure suddenly made her cry out louder than before. Her whole body was aglow with a blush as she came even harder than before, a slow oozing flow of her cream sliding down around his shaft and soaking his balls.
At the same time a lightning bolt of ecstasy tore through the human’s body and he knew it was all going to be over in just a few moments. She felt his orgasm, each warm spurt shooting up inside her as the tip of his erection nestled itself into the mouth of her womb with a final jittery hammer blow.
“O-ohh,” she moaned, panting for breath, not even pausing to swallow and letting a small line of drool run from the underside of her jaws and leave a glistening trail down her throat. “Oh, Gods.”
Ina turned as he slipped out of her, then wrapped the human in her arms and legs. She held Kojo tight against the firmness of her own body, strapping his softening erection between their bellies. Ina could feel his globules of cum begin to leak out of her, tickling its way down through her moist tunnel still sparkling with fires of pleasure in the aftermath.
“Stay with me, Kojo,” Ina whispered softly as she held on tight to her human laying on top of her. “Stay with me forever.”
Stroking a hand through her hair, Kojo breathlessly nodded. He wasn’t intending to go anywhere, so he told her; “I think I can do that.”
~~~~
Urofa Keep Farmland, Augustine, Turius System.
Kojo stood on the hilltop overlooking the crumbling keep. No other sangheili family had moved in to claim the land out of respect. Forever the Urofa Keep would stand in a crumbling state to remember the brave family who had faught and given their lives to stop the kig-yar scourge burning Augustine.
All very dramatic and honourable, but in Kojo’s heretical eyes it seemed like a waste. The keep could have been put to better use. But then what was he to do? He was only a boy, and probably the last human left on Augustine anyway.
Ina had been tired and returned home. Kojo saw her most of the way, then decided to take a detour. He wanted to see this place one last time before he moved on with his life. And he was certainly moving on. Ina had clung to his arm the whole way back to the ‘Nar farmlands. She spoke of telling mother of their bond, something she was sure to support and encourage. They would start a life together.
Her words, not his. He found it odd that she was starting to think so far into the future at her age, then again she was sangheili. They did grow up at lightning speed.
Descending the hill, Kojo walked up to the keep and through the open doors. The remants of the steel doors the kig-yar had blown apart still lay rusting and decaying in the courtyard. A year of rain and wind had caused the stables to collapse and had washed away the blood in the sand.
He crossed to the back building and up to the dorms where Elar and his father had made their last stand. Most of the ceiling was collapsed over where it had happened. Bloody colours stills tained the wooden floor where the jackal pirate had perforated his parents.
His face in impossible to read slab of stone, Kojo stood where that young ODST had stood when saving him from that last kig-yar. He found himself right beside a pile of rubble where the roof had collapsed shortly after the fighting had stopped. The UNSC gunship support had done a number on many of the supports and had gutted the surrounding farmland. But at least none of the filthy kig-yar had gotten away. They had paid for their crimes.
With a sigh, Kojo was about to turn and leave. There was nothing left to see. Scavengers had taken almost everything not nailed down and the UNSC cleanup crew had courteously removed the kig-yar bodies and munitions.
Kojo only took one step though and the floorboards sagged underneath him.
“What the…” he looked down to see what was happening, but it was already too late.
A year of rot and decay took its toll and the structure came apart beneath him. The entire section of floor buckled with a deafening crack and Kojo tumbled to the lower floor along with a large pile of debris weighing the weakened floor down.
The wind was driven out of him where he landed flat on his back, with clouds of dust choking his nostrils and burning in his eyes.
When Kojo finally looked up, waving away the lingering dust he got a fright. Sitting directly in front of him was a kig-yar with an assault rifle trained squarely at his face.
“Gah!” the human cried out and scrambled away, bracing himself for a face-full of ammunition.
But nothing happened.
Cracking an eyelid, Kojo dared a look, then suddenly found himself sitting across from a corpse. It had been a kig-yar indeed… only once upon a time had it been a pirate. The creature had decayed over time, turned into a dried out, emancipated husk. Still clutched in the alien’s claws was an assault rifle, one of the kind the pirates had used to attack Augustine last year.
The way it sat up in the rubble looked like it was ready to fight, and with a relieved chuckle Kojo stood over the dead creature and tugged the assault rifle out of its hands.
Inspecting the rifle he noticed a few things. The jackal had fallen out of the ceiling rubble that had collapsed onto the body of a particular jackal. The one that the that young ODST had killed before the alien killed Kojo. The kig-yar who had killed his father and Elar.
This was the one who had killed his parents, with this very weapon.
That was the second thing Kojo noticed. The rifle in his hands. It had weathered and begun to rust over the year of being hit by the Augustine elements. But other than that it was brand new. Just like that panthress ODST had been using the day his parents died. This rifle was top of the range, the newest in the UNSC armoury.
So how had a raggedy kig-yar pirate gotten a hold of it? They normally scavenged the old stuff left over from the war. Older human assault rifles, submachine guns and shotguns.
Unless the UNSC sold them this hardware and the other equipment they had
A very disturbing theory of conspiracy began forming in his head as he stared down at the MA5D assault rifle. And it was joined by an uncomfortable need to know more. A need to know all the details.
A need to uncover the truth. Why had the kig-yar attacked Augustine really? They had so little plunder to offer when compared to other high reward, safer scores farther away from UNSC space. And how had they acquired the means to do so – these high end UNSC weapons?
He was going to have to break his promise to Ina. He had to leave Augustine. He had to hunt the truth waiting for him back on Earth.
And until those who had put into motion the death of his parents were brought to justice, vengeance would be Kojo’s food, air, and water.