Calyx

The snow howled against the barren ridgeline, as Shai cleared the last small pass, bringing Ardent Village into view. At once the soft glow of the window panes in the outer quarter warmed his heart, if not his hands. Soon there would be respite. Soon there would be comfort. Soon there would be song.

It had been a hard ride from Argo, passing through two strong storm fronts before the jump. Ky-eem would need a long rest before riding again. Emerging now, some ten rotas later, caked with hoar frost, and aching in every joint, Shai allowed a glimmer of anticipation to finally arise in him. He had loved here, once, even if it seemed many lifetimes ago.

The pinpricks of warm hearth-light, reflecting off the ridge-face, carried her warmth to him. He remembered her youth. He remembered her strength, and the perfect smoothness of her flanks. He remembered the divine symmetry of her thorax, the glistening enamel of her teeth, those sharp nails, them scratching in his powerful shoulders, and the trickling, dripping, sighing, wasted relief of their embrace.

But that was lifetimes ago, before two long expeditions, and before the scourge. If she had survived, it would be only by the grace of . If she remembered him, it would be only by the will of But the memory propelled him all the same, and with no more conscious thought, he arrived at the perimeter.

"Calyx 478U, on entry, clearance available on sky and ground nets. Are your links up?" he uttered into his cloak. His wet breath rose, and added to the caking of ice near his visor.

"Up but slow, explorer. Hold your position." came back over the comm. The voice was high and full of breathy sibilants. Seemed feminized, which was came as a surprise. Usually garrisons were neuter.

For the first time since coming into view of the village, Shai remembered again that times had changed. The idyll of his memory was gone, and this was a mere burrow in a wild, hostile, and teeming frontier. Dangerous - ever to forget.

"Uh'k Calyx, clearance checks - entry pattern indigo-aleph. 4430 angstroms to be exact. Come see me in tower 2-3 once you've dusted yourself off." Certainly a strange request for a perimeter controller.

He gripped the rein, slid his gloved thumbs into position, and kicked his spurs back, gently, into Ky-eem. Ky-eem's lensed eyes glowed indigo, and the whine of its engines grew louder. The pattern of gates appeared - moving erratically. Shai guided Ky-eem forward, until at last they passed through the final gate, and the howling of the gale ceased all at once.

—

"This is Calyx 478U - you asked me to report?" Shai spoke into the lock panel.

No response, but he heard the actuators buzz to life inside the panel, even before the entry light blinked on. The ferrofluid of the door melted away, arranged itself into a smooth portal.

"Welcome to Ardent, explorer. Won't you come in?" The voice emanated, breathy but resonant, from a dark and stone-still figure in the dim of the tower cabin. Stone-still and stony - a complexion of onyx. Bright eyes shone out from above high, angular cheeks. The figure seemed human, at a glance. Even that was hard to tell.

"We're glad you're here," they intoned, stepping slowly forward.

Shai could see now that the figure was draped in a raw black shawl. The shawl was thin, and flowing, and barely concealed their form. They were small and jet, jet black, from crown to toe. Pink lips, and pearl teeth seemed almost to float on their visage in the soft, dim light. Two long, thick locks of iridescent neural fiber, like pigtails, hung at their sides - all the way down, past their hips, resting where the curve of their rear fell back into line with their strong, buff legs.

"Please, sit," they said, and gestured to the sofa-bed that served as resting place and sleeping place for guards on their long tower duties.

Shai was still reticent to let down his guard. He had only stabled his mount in the landing bay, and come straight here. He'd yet to see the Village, yet to take lodging, and yet to see much of anyone.

Still, he did not sense a threat from the figure before him. He felt confusion, to be sure, at the unorthodoxy of the encounter, and at their willingness to exhibit such vulnerability before an unknown traveler.

"Alright," he replied, and lowered his hood for the first time since arriving. He was haggard, but handsome. His gendering was what they called 'fulmasc' - and the levels of masculine hormonization showed in the long, flowing fur of his face. He was all moss - mossy brown skin rough from travel, and mossy green eyes that had seen more of the frontier than many. Despite himself, he reclined. Legs wide, he cast his arms behind his head, projecting power and poise from his immediate repose.

"I am Riv, and I'd like to welcome you to Ardent."

"Alright then, thanks very much. Do you know where I can find a place to 'coup for a rota or two?" He didn't know how long he'd stay, but it was best to start small.

"That can wait, Calyx 478U. First tell me your sacral names. We have certain protocols here, to which we must attend."

Highly irregular, to be sure, but they had offered their's without much of a thought. Customs were changing.

"I am Shai before deus , Kastanian before natura."

"Well then," Riv stepped closer, and into the light of the glow panel. "Shai Kastanian," their tongue danced across their pink mouth, and left it glistening. With each pleading syllable, Riv inched closer, until they thrust the last noise from their throat, and were practically upon him:

"Welcome to our Village."

Shai felt a longing inside the strangeness, began to feel his bloodflow change.

Now they were between his wide legs, their face just slightly above his, and close enough to thrust the pointed nail of each index finger to where his shoulder met his broad chest.

There was little force behind these jabs, but Shai was pinned. There was something desperate in Riv's demeanor.

Riv shuddered from the shoulders, and their shawl fell open. It hung at their elbows, exposing arcing, balanced, taut breasts. The convexity of their undersides was balanced perfectly by the almost concave line with which they hung from Riv's clavicles.

"I don't -," Shai sputtered. But Riv's bulging, defined arms pressed her nails into his flesh, and made him think twice.

"You're safe. You're free. This is my duty, traveler, but it's also my pleasure." Riv slipped further from her shawl, revealed more ink black skin, more rippling muscles, and masculine loins that tapered to a smooth, fuzzy mound.

"But I -," and with that Riv's wet mouth was on his forehead, and her hands reached up to grab the lobes of his ears.

Shai let out a deep moan. So deep that it was just breath by the end. Riv let out a small purr: "mmrr".

"You've been traveling so long. It's the least we can do. Just let me welcome you in. " With that, Riv disrobed completely, and reached down to feel the already throbbing hillock of Shai's cock.

Riv slipped down to their knees. They rested their head on his abdomen, their lips lying just above his navel. They could feel his genitals straining against their sternum, as they rubbed their hands against the side of his rib cage.

--

"Make me she. Make me she." Riv almost cried these words, as Shai placed his hands first atop the crown of her hips, then thought again, and released his manhood with a deft manipulation of his riding suit's autoclosure.

The suit windowpaned open, and without even a moment's hesitation, Riv spit, violently, ungracefully, twice on his glans, took his cock in her strong grip, and began to work it. She pushed him back into the sofa as he tried to raise up, and then vehemently plunged her head downward. Her mouth filled with the shaft, as she tried to get the head of his engorged organ as far back into her throat as she could.

"Fuhhhhh-", Shai grasped at the wall behind, arms stretching still upward. She dug her nails into his abdominals, above his hip bones and he trust forward into her dripping maw.

Riv came up for air, and then immediately plunged back down, this time licking all around the base of Shai's penis, and finally taking his testicles, gently in, and then harder, ti' he was at the edge of discomfort.

"You smell like a man," Riv said almost to herself, the next time she rested her busy mouth. Still she was working, jerking, playing with him, all the while.

"I -, " he began to reply, suddenly conscious that he was still fairly ripe from the journey.

"It's good. I like it. I need it," Riv replied, and worked to disrobe both of them, so that now they were before each other, completely bare.

Shai's lust rose in him, and without thinking he rose despite Riv's resistance. She looked almost scared.

"You want me to make you she?" he looked down at her tiny, strong body. He towered above her. He looked down at the darkness of her skin, and the faint glow of her braids. He decided he would give her what she asked.

With startling swiftness he reached down, and lifted her from beneath the shoulders. He placed her gently on the sofa, and spread her muscled legs wide. From high above her, he let saliva drip down from his mouth, landing perfectly on the hood of her clitoris, and dripping down.

With this, he pinned her back, mounted her, and laid his cock atop her vulva. As he began to rock them both with his oaken glutes, back and forth, she moaned deliriously: "uurrnnghg".

He could just feel when his tip caught her inner lips, to her opening, and the spit gave way to her own secretion. He spread the combined lubricant up and over her, spreading her open, and aligning her for penetration.

The dorsal side of his rock hard cock rubbed against her clitoris. She began to shudder and brake. She pushed against him first, and then pulled up on his ass as he sequeezed forward.

"Please.., enter!" she practically begged.

In any case she was powerless to control him. She only felt him do as he willed. The dam of her orgasm broke completely as he finally pushed into her. She was convulsing by the time he really got to work.

He withdrew, and stood: "come here..." he almost muttered. He grabbed her then by calf, pulled her to the ground. At once he dropped down, pinned her back once more, penetrated her until he could feel his loins grind into her bones. Then in a display of brute strength, he craned, lifted them both. The bottoms of her thighs still pressed against his arms. Still folded and cantilevered like this, with faces near to each other, their breath began to synchronize.

The slapping sound of her full bottom hitting his abdomen filled the room. They both were glistening with work now. The precision with he dropped her repeatedly back onto his rod became tighter and tighter. The rhythm quickened.

With a final surge of power, Shai reached around, found Riv's shoulders, and gored her completely. She shook quietly as her climax climbed past some final, unknown plateau. He cast stream after stream of his seed in her. He squeezed her ferociously against his body, as he released a deep shudder, and practically convulsing, released the last few pearls of his cum.

They stayed motionless for a long moment, both afraid of the passion they had loosed. Finally Shai lifted her. Their combined juices dripped from her, and dripped from him.

He deposited her softly back on the sofa, collapsed there, too. "Some welcome." he surprised himself with full words for the first time in many long minutes.

"We've been waiting for you," Riv hushed. "She has been waiting for you..."