Rare Earth, Rare Seed

'We ain't had enough men for a long time now. There's always been more girl-children born, and the boys go into the metal world lookin' for adventure, and they go rogue or die young, one way or another. Sapphire's daddy was no rogue, but he surely was too impatient, couldn't resist usin' the power, too fond of danger...' She sighed. 'Gaia, how I loved that man. Died somewhere called Bloody Ridge, long time ago. Should never ha' been there at all.' She looked down at the table, a million miles away from us. Sapphire's hand slipped out and covered her mother's, and I stayed quiet. After a moment Ayesha raised her head and smiled. She nodded imperceptibly at Sapphire, who cleared her throat and looked straight at me.

'You got most of it about right. We breed slow but true, and we age slow too. Normal till thirty or so, then it slows down about one for ten. How old am I?' I shrugged.

'Younger than me.' She dimpled prettily.

'Thank you. I've always looked young though. When I was twenty-five and still ageing normally, people tagged me for eighteen, and I started slowing early. But I was born in eighteen hundred and ninety three. Mom was ninety-eight when she had me.' Ayesha nodded.

'I was the first child of the blood birthed west of the Appalachians and when I was twenty-six your daddy scooped me up and lit out here and built us this house to live in. Sixty years old he was then, and in his prime. Took no notice of my maw and paw at all, just put me over his saddle and said he'd look after me.' She looked round the cabin fondly. 'Gaia, that man knew how to work timber.' She lapsed into silence again and Sapphire continued.

'If we're right you're thirty-four and starting to slow. In ten years time, twenty, forty, even, you'll still look like you do now. Mom's got a century or more left in her. We don't age all the way. Everything catches up suddenly and the body stops, like a car running out of gas. About three and a half centuries is average.' She paused and looked at me closely. 'Why aren't you shocked or scared or... something?' I wondered about that.

'It's as if you're reminding me of something I should have known. You found out who I am, didn't you?' Ayesha looked up.

'Far's I can tell, there's only one person you could be. You have any idea at all 'bout your folks?'

'Nothing. I was found abandoned, four days old they reckoned, on the doorstep of a church in Tucson. The state took me in, agencies fostered me, nothing lasted. Everyone said I was unsociable, different. I kept going back to the state. I got out as soon as I could, started making money.' Sapphire winced and Ayesha looked shocked and maternal.

'Pore boy,' she murmured. 'Still, it proves it, kinda, and I guess you're full-growed now. Your daddy was a Landguard: good family, but kinda wild, and he was for sure the black sheep. Robber, they called him. Nearest thing to a bad man the blood seen for a long time. From the time he slowed, it kinda went to his head. Went into the metal world and purely raised hell. Just funnin' at first, I guess, playin' with them, but he turned nasty pretty soon. Useta come back once in a while braggin' about this and that. And then one time when he went away again he took your ma with him. Freya she was called, kin to the Landguards, and to us too. Gaia, we're all kin. Anyhow, he got to be king of the ... of the...' She looked at Sapphire. 'What did they call themselves?'

'Hippies.'

'Hippies, that's right. Smokin' weed, and swallowin' metal world poisons and such, and Freya too, and then one day we heard they'd died, Freya's daddy said, in some kinda hippy fight. Fightin' over poison, I guess. One of them other hippies musta dumped you. Your daddy and mommy died south of Tucson, on the border there, and you got some kind of birth memory of sun and noise. Sapphire says it's gotta Spanish sound to it, and she ain't usually wrong 'bout that sorta stuff. Nobody even knowed Robber and Freya had a young'un. She was real young for breedin', real young. Twenty-two years old and hadn't even slowed. Still, you got kin. Landguards are mostly further east, Ozarks or thereabouts, and Freya's kin are a ways southa that.' I struggled not to show emotion but I must have failed, because they both looked at me and then, as one, reached out and took my hands, joining their own at the same time. As our fingers touched a tide of warmth rolled through me and I caught an echo of love and acceptance and belonging. Sapphire's hand squeezed mine gently.

'You're Robber and Freya's son,' said Sapphire, 'and the eldest boy-child of every Landguard generation is called after his grandfather. So your name is Jared. It won't be long till you learn to use the Voice properly. One thing you are, is of the blood, and one thing you aren't, is dumb. Do you want to let the other blocks down now? There's something there, and it's connected with what happened earlier. I won't probe you again though, and that's a blood promise.' I felt a stab of fear.

*What if I'm not complete?*

I looked at the tablecloth fixedly. Lying wasn't an option and the mead was swirling through my head, blunting the edges of pain.

'When I was twenty-two I married a woman I met in a bar. One of those things where you know it's right, from the first minute. Beth, she was called: she was an orphan too. I was beginning to make serious money, and she was beautiful and smart and for the first time in my life someone loved me, needed me. Took a little getting used to, for both of us..., and she got pregnant and lost it, and the doctors said the child wouldn't have been right, and she got pregnant again..., and the same thing, and the third time she died..., bled to death before they could save her. Doctors said my seed was unviable, I'd never father a normal child. So I'd killed her and I was alone again..., and since then..., anywhere but there, so's not to... never... never to risk that again. My seed's bad, and that's all there is. I'm not going to kill anyone else.' I looked sideways at Sapphire. 'That's why, earlier...' They were staring fixedly at each other and I felt a faint buzz.

'She got pregnant three times?' Ayesha's voice was disbelieving. The old hurt had risen to the surface from the cage where I'd hidden it and my voice caught and broke.

'Yeah. I worked hard at killing her. I guess I became pretty cold after that. Made a lot of money though.' I thought about that and realized that everything I'd ever been or done seemed a long time ago and far, far away. Sapphire squeezed my hand again, stroking my palm with the tip of one finger, and spoke absently.

'We'd better change the tradition. No son of mine is going to be called Robber. We'll think of something.'

*No son of mine?*

Ayesha was looking at me seriously. 'I seen this pain before,' she said quietly. 'You're beatin' yourself over the head because you think you killed her, and you're hatin' her for leavin' you, like a little kid whose toy got broke, and you weren't gonna risk the hurt of lovin' again, and all your energy went into metal world games. You'll be able to put that part of you to a sweet rest now.'

Sapphire took my hands in both of hers. 'You're of the blood, Jared, and you didn't know. You didn't kill her: nothing to do with bad seed, we can't outbreed, that's all. We've always kept ourselves to ourselves, and now we've diverged too much from the others, like lions and tigers. Live births are incredibly rare, and the child never lives well. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse. The first boy I loved is an old man now.' The information hovered in the air and I felt myself slowly absorbing it. Not my seed after all. Just the uncaring universe rolling the dice. And now they'd been rolled again and come up double six. For the first time in ten years I felt at peace.

*I'm sorry, Beth. I really didn't know. Ayesha's right. Now I'll be able to mourn you properly, with love.*

'Are you sure? About who I am, I mean, and the stuff about breeding?' Ayesha nodded.

'If it walks like a duck.... You got the look about you, and you got the double vein, and Gaia, you sure got the taste, and you can sense the Voice and you can stun. But if you're telling the truth you're a sight more fertile than most. Three times in less'n two years?' I felt embarrassed and awkward and a little angry.

'Might have been Beth, not me.' She made a dismissive gesture with her hand.

'Your daddy was a wild one, and if he bred from Freya when she warn't yet twenty-five, his seed was humongous.' She chuckled. 'Word gets out, there's gonna be a queue of fathers outside your door, holding their daughters and beggin' you to knock them up. We gotta powerful need to have grandchildren to spoil.' She pushed back her chair, 'I'm gonna take a walk down to the valley. Luna's up in an hour.' She bent and kissed Sapphire, winked at me, and left, walking lightly. I watched her go, then turned to Sapphire.

'So I've come home?' She nodded.

'And about time too. What does it feel like?'

'Like a birthday I never had. I want to know everything. The double vein, the Voice, why you, I mean we, aren't richer..., everything. She smiled.

The Voice will come, I promise you. All you need is exposure. The double vein is one of the genetic spin-offs. Twice the blood, twice the hardness, half the recovery time. Haven't women expressed surprise at your stamina?' I felt heat rising to my face again.

'Some, I guess.' She made an exaggerated face of relief.

'Good. I wasn't joking when I said I'm going to be the first.'

'The first?'

Jared, there hasn't been a child born since you, and before that ... well, the next youngest of the blood now is Freya's sister, your aunt, and she's seventy-five at least. Mom wasn't joking about the queue.' She cocked her head and then stood up and tugged my hand gently. 'You might as well start now. The warden's been monitoring you and she's finally decided you're OK. Welcome to the family.' I let her lead me to the bed

'We might fall in love and we might not,' she said as she fitted herself against me. The words were incongruously pragmatic, but her voice held a shiver that sounded like hope. 'That'll happen if it happens, unless you choose to disappear again. If you stay though, you're going to be in demand for the next year or so.'

'Like Secretariat?' She missed the joke but I didn't care. The, explanation as to why I'd always felt alone was still shimmering through me and every part of me was singing a meaningless tune of exultation. Sapphire lay quietly, her breath warm on my neck, while my world adjusted itself and resettled. When I returned she sensed it, and her hand fluttered over my belly and stroked my cock gently.

'It's hard to get rid of ten years of baggage in ten minutes. Promise me you won't go till I'm pregnant.' My cock stirred under her hand and I dropped my head to her breast and flicked my tongue over her rigid nipple.

'Promise.' She drew her breath in sharply.

'Can we just start again where we left off?' I flicked her nipple again.

'No. We'll begin at the beginning, the way people are meant to.' I raised my mouth to hers and our lips touched for the first time in a kiss that began questingly and carried on into the stratosphere. She tasted of mead and flowers and something that I didn't recognize but which echoed through me like a tune from childhood. Her hand slid between us and curled possessively round my cock, squeezing gently. I didn't need any help at all, but the feeling of want that was rising from her was a heady aphrodisiac and drove my own arousal in a way I'd almost forgotten. Breaking the kiss I slithered down her body and flirted with her breasts again, circling the stiff teats with my tongue and drawing a hiss of indrawn breath from her. Her hands ran through my hair, pushing me gently lower, and I obeyed, dipping over the smooth curve of her stomach and into the recesses of her groin, the taste of her floral musk stronger now. She raised her thigh, opening herself to me and exposing the soft, deep pink petals that guarded her center. I feathered my tongue over her hot slippery flesh and her fingers squeezed my head hard.

'You can be gentle later,' she muttered feverishly, 'but right now, right now...' her voice tailed off as I lifted myself and settled over her, sliding smoothly into her in one deep stroke, feeling myself hard as rock in her, my heart open and joyous and my fears swept away by the rising tide of lust. She raised her hips to meet me and her soft walls gripped me like a silken vise, holding me fast as her mouth sought mine again. As our lips met and our tongues twined she moaned deep in her throat: a surge of confident power flooded through me and my cock swelled to fill her completely. She raised her knees, urging me even deeper, and as the last fraction of my shaft pushed into her, her hips began to roll and thrust against mine. I found her rhythm and matched it and we began the long climb to our release. My head was filled with raw sensation and I closed my eyes, lowering my head and arching my back to find her breasts again. As my tongue touched one throbbing teat I felt my own chest tingling, and a tongue rolling over my nipple, sending sparkles through me. The threads of desire flickered down my body and I was suddenly full, all my senses overwhelmed by the hard cock that was penetrating me. Involuntarily I drove deep into her, and felt my breath falter as the impression of filling and being filled pulsed through my consciousness. Sapphire cried out softly and our bodies froze for an instant, then the dual awareness faded and I was myself again.

'What was that?' I gasped. I could feel her heart pounding against my chest.

'Mom's told me about that: it's called melding. We joined completely, minds and bodies. It's rare, Jared. Don't stop now.'

Our bodies resumed their dance, moving together as if we'd been lovers for a thousand years. The melding had left each of us with a heightened sense of the other's needs and the fucking had turned into something else. It wasn't making love yet, but the promise hovered between us and our bodies settled into a rhythm that took us rapidly along the road. Time slowed and if you were to ask me how long the journey took I'd be unable to tell you. Every ridge of her pussy was alive with movement, her walls rippling over my engorged cock, coaxing me towards the edge, and I responded, every fiber straining.

I lifted myself from her so that we were joined only by our interpenetration, and felt all the energy I had coursing through me and funneling into her. Her breathing grew ragged as my hips rose and fell, each stroke stretching her. I watched, seeing the swollen veins of my shaft sliding through her distended lips and my own breath rasped in my throat as the end approached. She gasped and I felt the glow beginning within her as my own climax ignited and my balls began to draw up into my body; Sapphire's legs lifted and curled over the small of my back, her hard little heels digging into me, holding me deep in her. My cock swelled again and I felt the contractions of her orgasm beginning deep inside her, her pussy still clasping me, beginning to milk me. As the waves ran along the length of my shaft my balls tightened more and began to churn and roll. She strained her head up and forward and her sharp teeth closed over my nipple, nipping me hard, and the unexpected sensation tipped me over the last step. With a strangled grunt I jetted into her, my semen flooding into her womb, and, as I did, I felt myself being filled, and the echo of seed, warm and creamy, fountaining into me. Sapphire cried out, a long wail of surprised pleasure, and bucked under me as she shuddered and panted, and I knew that she was feeling my ejaculation as if it were her own. Our bodies froze again as we shared each others' ecstasy, and then relaxed.

'We melded again,' she gasped. I couldn't answer. 'Stay in me,' she said when our breathing had steadied. 'It's exactly the right time of the month and I don't want to lose a drop of you.' I tipped my hips slightly to keep my softening cock deep within her, and was rewarded by a soft tongue slithering over my ear lobe.

'I got more questions.' I ventured, and felt her lips curve in a smile.

'Is there any way on Gaia's green earth that I can stop you?'

'Probably not.'

Her voice was light and loving. 'Go ahead then, boss.'

'What about the earth? You're sitting on a fortune here, and there must be a way to exploit it without enraging your mother. I don't know why you've never made money. Hell, with life-spans like that you should have been able to clean up.'

'Say "we", will you?' she murmured. 'We've never become rich because you were right about defensive. Maybe we need someone like you to shake us up a bit. But there's no hurry. You've got a lot of money already, haven't you? There'll need to be a kinmeet, whatever happens, and you'll need to work at getting some support before that. There are a lot of very conservative people out there, and the last century came as a huge shock to them. You make enough people grandparents though, you'll have no trouble.'

From outside I heard a woman's voice raised in song. Sapphire smiled.

'Being polite for once.' She lifted herself on one elbow and raised her voice. 'You can come in, Mom, there's nothing to hide.' The door opened and Ayesha entered, her eyes flicking over us and a smile curving her lips.

'Made me a grandma yet, cousin Jared?' she asked slyly, 'and if you have, tell her to move over.' This casual sexuality was still too new and I didn't know what to say, but Sapphire rescued me.

'I'm going to make you wait your turn, Mom,' she said smoothly, 'unless you really want him make you a mother again right now.' To my surprise Ayesha didn't answer, but a tide of crimson stained her neck and face. Sapphire jumped up at once and hugged her. My cock slipped out of her as she rose and lay heavily on my thigh, still slick with cum and the traces of desire. I saw Ayesha's eyes take the sight in.

**Do you really want a child, Mom? I only said that to shut you up**

It wasn't a voice: in fact if you asked me I couldn't say what it was. It was an awareness, a half-thought sliding into my head. I knew it was Sapphire, and that I was eavesdropping. The thought had hardly crossed my mind when both women's heads whipped round.

**Voice.** Their twin thoughts popped into my head simultaneously and a warm glow of achievement spread over me. It seemed so natural.

'How did I do it?' I spoke out loud, automatically, and then tried to frame the question as a thought. Sapphire smiled.

'Exposure, breeding, natural ability. It's like tuning a radio. Hearing comes before Sending, so just let it grow. You heard what I said to mom, didn't you?' I nodded.

'I didn't hear her answer though.' As I spoke a wave of longing flooded me, and a memory of the pain of giving birth and the sweet pleasure of giving the breast slipped into my head. An urgent sexuality echoed behind the memories and my cock stirred on my thigh. Sapphire grasped it and pointed it at her mother.

'He heard that, Mom, and there's the evidence. I'll get him ready for you.' Her warm mouth slipped over my glans and she lapped at me gently as I grew in her mouth.

** I saw him when I came in, and Gaia knows he's your man now, and the look's in your eyes. You melded with him the first time you joined and that plain don't happen, but...** The thought was swamped in a rising tide of desire, and Sapphire giggled as she suckled my cock.

**Mom, you're soaking wet and you know it. Get yourself over here**

'Advantage number one,' I said dryly, 'seems to be being able to talk with your mouth full.' Sapphire spluttered and raised her head. She rose from the bed, then bent and kissed me and whispered.