Return of the FaqWadi

Editor's note: this story contains scenes of incest or incest content.

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My background specialty, as a historian, delves into the research of obscure alien encounters [OAE]. Sure, there are lots of more popular books and chronologies dealing with successful and long continuing alien encounters, but few in my specialty. As you might imagine my name is not among those you see on the best seller's list, since people are not inclined to read about obscurity. OAE event journals are more likely to be found in government achieves. This is due mainly to one of two events happening: one, the encounters were brief and left no noticeable impact on the planet's inhabitants or, two, the contact event left no inhabitants and thus no one to research those events - at least from the native inhabitant's side of the event.

Well, there might also be another event such as the one I stumbled onto today. This event left a few inhabitants, but the time span between the current timeline and the event is so long ago that records are as rare as hen's teeth. I found one such reference on a stone monolith buried deep in the FaqWadi tropical forest and have spent several years trying to translate it. It references our blue skin ancestors, but the language is so archaic that it is hard to believe it actually came from our native planet's heritage. It seems to be the diary of an adult female or perhaps an adult male and an adult female, about the rise of the Blueskin Dynasty.

I've been able to translate this much so far.

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The Blade Sage Returns from His Odyssey

"GD to GP20 ..."

"GD to GP20 ... can you hear me, GP20?" her whisper comes as softly as the winds blowing through the FaqWadi grasses.

I could hear her as she knelt by my knee. I remained motionless.

I had heard her one-hundred caltrons beyond the stream she crossed as she pulled that heavily weighted, two-wheeled squeaking cart she gripped in her hands while fording the stream. I could hear the slaps on her naked skin made by the tightly constrained straps that girded her waist and from the harness bound around her forehead, as she struggled through the grasses. The water had silenced the squeaking as she crossed, but that didn't stop my detecting her breathing at seventy-five caltrons as she tried to sneak up on me.

I could even smell her from fifty caltrons. The distinct scent of a young, ripe and fertile woman.

Even now, bent at my knee, I could hear the movement of her hand through the air as it slid beneath my tunic, searching. I pretended to be lulled to sleep in the front porch rocker. I loosened my grip on the blade hidden beneath the sleeping pillow nestled on my lap. Whoever this is, didn't seem bent on doing harm - so I intended to spare her life. At eight-hundred cycles old, I was far too weary and short on time to be digging another shallow grave.

Popping open my left eye, I saw a youthful, raven haired girl of about 30 cycles. Startled, she jumped and nearly fell backward into the blue and green threads of FaqWadi grasses. That's when I opened my right eye and quickly pushed forward in the rocker, "Boo!" I huffed a scant hand's width from her shocked face.

Losing her balance entirely, she screamed and backpedaled out into the field, landing on her butt. I laughed aloud watching her scramble to regain her upright stance. It took only a moment for her to regain her composure - cocky and self-assured. This one has moxie, I thought.

"Young one, putting your hands under a man's tunic could end up putting a young one in your tummy." I remarked as I measured her appearance. Taller than I, more angular than most, strong of arm and leg, she has a lighter hue of blue skin than my own. Yet, her facial features bore a strong resemblance to my lineage.

"Would that be so bad, Grandfather - of twenty generations removed?" she mused as a grin lit up her face.

"No, no, most certainly we could use more help in our valley," I answered. Her titling me as Grandfather 20 meant she was GD20 - Granddaughter of 20 generations beyond my first child. I surmised that her parents had sent her as homage payment upon my return. This child would only have heard stories about me. From her hand seeking to explore beneath my tunic, I guessed some of those included my ability to reproduce in abundance. I had been away from our valley for nearly 150 cycles, looking for the others; those who survived the events of 1,000 cycles ago.

"GP20," she began, until I raised my hand and stopped her.

"Blade Sage!" I corrected her, as I held out my hand with my long blade, crested with the symbols of our clan.

Her eyes widened at my pronouncement. I gathered that proper education was sorely lacking in my absence. Definitely, I would have to speak with the elders I had left in charge while I searched the other valleys for life signs.

"Forgive me, Sage. Mother only said you are the eldest of the elders. I thought of you only as Grandfather 20. Had I known; my insolence would never have betrayed me." She spoke quietly and with reverence as proper for her station once she became aware of my true title.

"You are forgiven, little one. I see that your wagon is filled with FaqWadi grass thatch weaves."

Before speaking again, she showed reverence and gave me the proper sign of homage. Making a closed fist with her left hand and placing it at her breast level, she placed her open palm of her right hand above it. The ancient sign left as a recognition symbol by the FaqWadi. It seems that not all education had been neglected.

"Sage, Mother said that the village had been remiss in not attending to your dwelling in your absence. She sent me to attend to it when she saw smoke from your dwelling's firepit this morning. She asked that I see to it immediately and report back to her right away." She answered in response.

Then Moxie set to task with few words as she unloaded the woven thatch from the wagon and scampered onto the roof. I handed them up to her and she swiftly removed the damaged thatch and wove the new patches into the good remaining thatch. I listened as she hummed to herself. A pleasant sound, something that I'd not heard in over 150 cycles. I missed being in the valley and enjoying the company of my own skin. The longing to touch such delicate breasts was also sorely missed. My searches left little time for joining.

"Sage, may I ask you to recount the old days for me? No one seems to be able to remember much about the times before our time in the valley. Please, sage? I promise to remember them and sing them to all who will listen."

I knew my cycles were short and the weariness of being Blade Sage was weighing heavily upon my shoulders. Such knowledge is always passed to the men of the valley and thus onto their children. Listening to the young one's words breaks my heart to find out our history is turning to dust and falling into the FaqWadi grasses to become unseen and unheard. Perhaps it is time to create a new cycle of knowledge givers. So, I began at the beginning and revealed our past, while keeping an eye on GD20 as she spread her legs in order to keep from sliding off the rooftop. When she reaches fifty cycles, she will require coverages. Until then, her body is required to be viewed by all. She began to weave the new with the old thatches in the roof.

The Story of Our Ancestry

"I will speak of the time before the FaqWadi first, then I will share what I know about them and how that changed our world.

Granddaughter, 1,000 cycles ago, two-hundred before I was born, our world was filled with billions of people, flying machines, and towering structures that reached the clouds. The vast number of peoples were of different skin colors, belief systems, and the peoples were often distrustful and violent toward one another. In the days of many peoples and many lands, great violence broke out among them. What followed were: famine, riots, and wars and the taking of many lives. It is said, as was told to me by the first Blade Sage, that nearly all peoples were nearing what was called an extinction level event."

Our lands were divided into vast regions governed by many different leaders, not like our valley, now. Today, I speak for all in the valley. We have one council responsible for caring for all those in need. I govern the valley from the far mountains in the west to the near mountains in the east; from the cold land above and down to the warm ocean at our southern boundary.

"Sage, please, may I ask questions?"

"Not too many, I hope, GD20, this story will take a while to retell."

"Ok. So, there were different skins, people could fly, and did the blue skins fight too, Grandpa, and what is famine?"

"Red, white, brown, yellow, and black where the predominate skins - blue skins came later and did not fight in those wars. Their fight came later. And no, people didn't fly - they had machines to carry them into the air, Granddaughter. And famine, well that is like going on a long walk and coming back hungry if you didn't eat along the way. Thankfully, we have the FaqWadi grasses to eat so we never know famine or hunger, today."

The Arrival of The FaqWadi

"Grandpa, so what changed all of that?"

I looked up at the young one realizing this was going to take a while. "What name are you given, young one?"

"Raven, Sage. My given name is Raven after the winged bird. My GP3 named me on my 20th cycle, saying that I was as smart as a Raven."

"Raven, then shall I call you, also." My guess, however, is that her GP3 gave her that name, not because she was smart, but because, at her age of consent, he liked to play among the black curly grasses that I watched between her thighs as she worked weaving the FaqWadi thatch into place.

"Raven, amidst the extinction event times, the FaqWadi re-appeared. It seems they had been watching our world for eons and had sensors placed on our world to observe us. Like us, they also have blue skins. FaqWadi always travel in threes. For the FaqWadi time does not have meaning nor does travel become a journey to walk from one place to another. They have means of being in two places at the same time. Revisiting the same time and place for them is as easy as it is for you and I to drink from the same spot on the stream at the same time each day. However, they can go back to that first day's drink, to watch themselves drinking. They also have means of making a journey without so much as taking one step.

The FaqWadi appeared first to the SkyNation tribes. They proffered hope for ending the wars and offered help, knowledge, and peace. It would make them revered leaders around the world, they told the SkyNation peoples. Instead, the SkyNation saw the knowledge as an opportunity to dominate all others. Rather than distributing the FaqWadi's new knowledge they tried to subjugate their enemies with it."

"Were the SkyNation peoples victorious, Sage?"

"No, Raven. When they refused to share, it is said that the three FaqWadi appeared to all of them, at the same time, in a dream, and in one blink of an eye, they disappeared.

Then, the FaqWadi appeared to the next largest nation with the same offer. When the other nation learned of how easily the FaqWadi dealt with the SkyNation, they readily accepted the FaqWadi's solution; after all they asked for nothing in return.

Soon, the FaqWadi erected the Sentinel Monoliths around the perimeter of our world, spaced equidistantly. The monoliths, the warring nations were told, would monitor the planets actions and also remove diseases of everyone who looked upon them. At the sun's zenith each day, it sends a pulse; it is not heard but can be felt if your sense of touch is attuned to the monolith. Raven you and I are the only ones who know this, so tell no one."

"I give you my blood-oath promise, Sage, but I think my mother already knows, too. Each day at the zenith, she stands with her back to the monolith and looks upward, silently invoking something it seems because I can see her lips moving." As I spoke, I saw the expression on the Sage's face dim, but he continued his story.

"On the fifth day after the sentinel monoliths were activated, the skies grew heavy with clouds and all the ash floating there from the wars, fell. Many died within a day from those contaminants, nearly half of the world's population.

With the clearing of the skies, the warmth returned to the planet. Gradually some of the remaining populations began a transformation brought on by the sentinel stone emissions - they began to change into blue skins.

The others were enraged at the decimation of their clans and tried to raise up against the FaqWadi. But they could do nothing as the three of them would only shift locations in an instant. The three FaqWadi then appeared to all the leaders simultaneously and told them that for every action there is always a consequence.

They pointed out that the stone monoliths were purifying the air as well as all other diseases on the planet. They said to the leaders that they had lost some of their clansmen, but that they were going to lose them and more over time anyway so what difference did it make on how they died. Give the process time to work and the leaders would see that it was so, the FaqWadi told them.

Amidst the grumbling, is when the three FaqWadi took the opportunity to offer a solution to the famine situations.

The world leaders had been at war with each other and were facing being hanged by their people as they had little to eat, even the leaders' tables were empty within fifty cycles. The three FaqWadi gave each world leader a basket filled with seed with instructions to distribute the seeds over the lands. Within days, the leaders were told, everyone would have a full belly, nutritional issues would be non-existent, and the food supply would be inexhaustible. It was the FaqWadi grass we eat now, Raven.

Like fools they accepted. Not thinking about the consequence for taking that action."

"Blade Sage, what consequence did they suffer?" Raven inquired.

"Indeed, they suffered, Raven. To provide enough water for the seeds to flourish, the FaqWadi changed the planet's axis. The shift caused the planet to quake violently. Nearly all tall and small structures collapsed along with something called dams and bridges. Tidal waves swept the coasts and rolled inland taking most of the remaining populations back into the seas as the tidal waves retreated. It took over a hundred cycles before the tremors settled.

The new axis leveled the climate changes to nearly zero. The lands to the north and south remained polar waste lands, but the temperate zones stabilized - the FaqWadi left just enough tilt to cause a small breeze to carry sufficient rainfall around the world for the grasses. With so few people remaining and no need for factories or energy sources, the atmosphere was once again purified by rain forests and grasslands. By the time things settled down there were fewer than 10,000 blue skins left, most of those in our valleys. Any vestiges of the other skins disappeared as they aged and met their time of departure.

"Raven, the one good thing that came out of this is that diseases no longer exist and our life cycles have been greatly extended. In some ways people were better off then. They had all the food they needed. The waters were purified and you can drink from any stream. The grasses were so prolific that they grew anywhere there was warmth. Even the old buildings, towers, and other structures served as nutrition for the grasses as they were absorbed int the plant life within two hundred cycles," I added this to my narrative hoping some positive comment might help her as I sensed a tremor pass through her body.

I could see tears forming in Raven's eyes, perhaps I had divulged too much for a youth of her age. At fifty cycles myself, I would have barely begun to grasp what the first Blade Sage related to me. But at 30 cycles, Raven must be awash with emotion. Tears, for blue skins, come in times of birth and times of departure - when the soul leaves to search out those gone before it. We sat in silence for some time before I felt she would be able to bare up for the remainder of the retelling.

Seeking Out the Three FaqWadi

"Raven, the first Blade Sage was among the first to begin to grasp that the FaqWadi were not benevolent people. He watched and studied them as they made adjustments to the monoliths. Changes they made began to gradually alter all the landscapes far beyond the needs of the few thousands of remaining blue skins."

The first Blade Sage recognized that the three FaqWadi were really just an advance team sent to prepare the planet for re-civilization for the FaqWadi, not for the blue skins.

"Granddaughter 20, Raven, I've spent nearly 500 cycles of my 800 searching for the three FaqWadi. During that time, I managed to track two of them down. With so much peace and tranquility around the planet, they let their guards drop and I drew close enough to weed them out of existence - my blade is sharp and my hands were quick, back then - not so much so today.

I have only one more to find and then the revenge of our clans will be fulfilled. That was my blood-oath to the first Blade Sage. I hope that I am able to locate and dispatch the last FaqWadi soon else I fear I will perish before I complete my sojourn."

"Sage, your passion for revenge will carry you to that goal, no doubt. Let's rest a bit. Lie down on this thatch and I'll bring some fresh FaqWadi grass tea for you. Then you can take a break in your story and we can talk about how long it's been since you have given your seed to another." She said as a sly smile spread across her lips.

My lips had grown dry from so long a story. I had not told it in such detail in many cycles. The tea made that dryness disappear. Her hand did not stop at just holding the cup to my lips. Nor did my lips and tongue stop just at dipping between Raven's thighs. She learned that there was truth in the stories about the Blade Sage's prowess and stamina as she crested a number of tidal waves and welcomed my seed. As I lay by her side listening to her pants, I could sense the joining of a new son within her womb.

"I have given you a son, Raven. You shall name him Emanuele, when the time comes for his naming. If I am unable to find the last FaqWadi by then, on your blood-oath, he is to seek her out and fulfill our revenge on the FaqWadi."

I had grown weary from my long walks in search of the last of them. Now, taking Raven, the homage due me as the Blade Sage, I turned to rest. The sun was not yet at the zenith; I would have time for another joining before another foray into the hills - this time would be one for pleasure only, with my kin.

Seeking Out the Last FaqWadi

"Rest my Sage, per chance to dream. I will - I will take care of all of this for you," I whispered as I lay his head slowly down upon the FaqWadi woven thatch grown from the seeds of the first crops. I watched as I stood over him. He is at peace, finally after so long a sojourn. "Sleep, I will return to take care of you my Blade Sage before the sun sets today. I have a task to attend to in the village. It won't take long."

Only he and I knew, the Blade Sage had told me, that the stone monolith vibrated at high noon each day. When the Sage let slip that the surviving FaqWadi was a woman, I had made the connection to the hiding place of the last FaqWadi. She had been within our village for two-hundred cycles while the Sage had been searching far away. The best place to hid, it has been said, is in plain sight. Each day I watched the woman I thought to be my mother stand against it with hands upraised and chant some saying in an unknown language. She, too, knew that it vibrated. I'm guessing she was attempting to contact her sisters or perhaps another three FaqWadi. I knew too, that she must have killed my mother and taken her place.