by Stephan Knox
The bonding of their Symbiotai had begun, locking their bodies together. Euphoria flooded their senses like orgasming over and over in an endless tumbling of bliss.
Tannin grabbed one of Aari’s leg’s and pulled it back around his waist as he softly rocked into her. For he dared not move any more than that. Pulling away caused a searing pain for them both, which had him quickly pushing back deep inside her. However, his rocking was unavoidable as the union flooded them with a lulling of sensation neither could comprehend.
Tannin held her tightly within the coil of his arms. His face pressed against her sweat soaked hair and they both gasped in breathless pleasure that seemed to go on forever.
“By Destiny, Aari— I’m drowning in you,” Tannin growled.
It was like a venom of lust, coursing through every nerve ending. The sensation too abrupt, too intense to be only pleasure but painful in the exuberant rush shared by their Symbiotai.
It became too much. A frightening storm of, a high too high and to drunk to comprehend. “Make— it— stop—” Aari pleaded between ragged breaths.
Tannin cursed, and she felt his mouth kiss away the tears that spilled from the corners of her eyes. “It’s going to be okay, Aari. It’s almost over.”
She curled her fingers intp his shoulders, trying to hang on as she whimpered with the growling sounds Tannin continued to make. Her thighs flexed and tightened around him as pulse after pulse went off in a brazen fire from her theca and spiraled out like an exploding star.
“Shh, I’ve got you.”
Tannin’s voice washed over her like a soothing balm and she settled, guided by an instinct that wasn’t present previously. Until finally, they both felt the retreat of their Symbiotai. The endorphin rush crashed inside them, rendering their bodies too exhausted to move from each other. Before she could contemplate the significance of that, he eased free of her. He slid his weight to one side, collapsing onto the bedroll, though still keeping his arms wrapped around her waist. He swaddled her in the warmth of his much larger frame as he formed the familiar protective cocoon around her body like he’d always done.
They lay silent— listening to each other’s breaths as they slowly regained a temperate rhythm. Their skin eventually cooled in the night air against the sheen of sweat from their exertion. Aari felt the continual inhales of Tannin’s nose against the back of her head, paired with gentle lazy kisses as she slowly drifted towards a deep sleep.
“Go to sleep,” he whispered against her ear. “You’re mine now. Trust me to take care of you.” And he drifted into sleep around her— his.
She was bonded, she faintly recalled happily.
They made love for days; exploring and basking in the tantalizing bonding of their union.
Tannin wasn’t sure if much of it was from their Symbiotai or just trying to fill unslaked lust from going without for so long. Either way, they went at each other like animals in heat about as often as they breathed. And he made it his personal goal to accomplish two things: prove her wrong that it would not be only once and that to fulfill his promise he’d make her feel all those wondrous things she thought weren’t meant for her. And he never grew tired of doing either repeatedly.
Then one afternoon Tannin returned after a hunt to find Aari sitting with all their things gathered and packed to leave, save for a few essentials to prepare a meal.
“What’s this?” he asked curiously, setting the flank of meat he’d brought back with him.
Aari walked over as if she meant to deliver a hug, but just then wordlessly she swept her hand out with lightning speed arcing towards his arm.
Tannin let out a wild hiss as the small glass stone sliced through his skin, and he snared her wrist before she could try for another cut. “What is the meaning of this?” he growled. But his eyes followed hers down to the back of his arm and he watched as the open skin slowly stitched itself closed. He released her arm and swiped the blood from his skin, finding hardly a pink line remained.
Their union was complete and her Symbiotai, Beyha, had given him her gift.
“Do you recall when you told me you didn’t know I was at the Skaddary Base until after you arrived?” Aari asked.
“I remember, why?” Puzzled by the question.
“Well, I was just wondering. Why were you at the sub-terrain station?”
“Pulling up whatever data the Skaddary had on the Lords.” He shifted to see her face, catching her chin to lift her gaze to him. He sensed there was a purpose to these questions. “What are you thinking of, Aari?”
Aari stepped into his arms that instinctively had learned to wrap around her whenever she did and she pressed her face against his chest. “I’m thinking you have a destiny to fulfill and I’ve delayed you long enough.” She leaned deeper into him, resting her cheek on his chest, listening to his heart. “I love the thundering sound your heart makes as it beats against my ear,” she told him passively. “Now it will always make that sound no matter who you fight against.”
Tannin let out a long sigh. She was right. He had a destiny, but he wasn’t about to leave her behind either, “Are you certain you’re ready for travel? Because I have no intentions of going anywhere without you, ever again.”
Her face lit up with a warmth he thought for sure was going to kill him, his heart swelled to unbearable proportions just seeing it.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Tannin wasn’t sure if he smiled back or not, he was simply too lost in her to know or care just then. “Best get some food in us then, my little mate. We have a long journey ahead of us.”
“And where to this time?” She tucked deeper into the coils of his arms around her.
“We head for the old western shores. I hear it’s warmer that way this time of season. And the Blood Lord Marthim won’t be expecting any company.”
She snuggled in tighter, her lips finding his arm and kissed it. “Not too warm I hope, I like sleeping under you.”
ONE DESTINY FOR ANOTHER
Marthim’s men went for the weapons strapped to their chests, but they weren’t fast enough. Well trained military movements were impossible to beat except when in the grip of fury.
Tannin took the head off the first one, ensuring the soldier died faster than deserved as the lifeless face literally pounded concrete. Tannin then lunged for the next, delivering a blow to the heart that would guarantee the man didn’t achieve the same swift demise.
A bullet struck Tannin in the chest and exited his back, staggering him as he came up on his third target.
The guard managed to get another shot off— this time biting into Tannin’s gut before he could deliver a fatal blow. The full swing of his sword slashed across the shooter’s midsection and sent the man’s innards spilling out towards his knees.
The fourth combatant, the Blood Lord himself, horrified by the monster that slew through his men with ease still stood his ground— gun in hand, aimed and ready, though he was breathing too erratically to be as calm as he wanted Tannin to believe.
Tannin advanced on Marthim slowly, drawing the impending moment of death out, making the Blood Lord anticipate his passing. It was no less than Marthim deserved for taking the lives of so many colonists and of the Symbiote hosts. Lives the snake didn’t understand, killing them simply because they were different and to prevent them from helping men rebuild the new world without the control of the false lords.
When Marthim’s finger twitched around the gun’s trigger, Tannin pounced, sending shiny, unyielding steel through his target’s throat.
Marthim’s head shot back, sending out a spray of crimson red. Tannin yanked his grip back, ripping his sword from Marthim’s spine.
The soon-to-be dead Blood Lord’s wide eyes revealed his panic, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water while what remained of his blood pumping through his arteries escaped, pouring from the gaping hole beneath his chin. As the body pitched forward, Tannin step
ped aside and took a perverse amount of pleasure in the sound of the body as it dropped with a dull thud on the floor.
Across the room, Aari silently stepped out from the recessed shadows. Safe.
Her expression one of hope. And relief that her mate had been victorious and the wounds on his body were healing before her very eyes. But her expression soon switched when her nose twitched with the pungent smell that seeped into her sense of smell. And she glared up at him. “Next stop, make it a place with water. You need a bath.” She wrinkled up her nose further at him.
Tannin chuckled and moved in closer, bending awkwardly to land a kiss on her cheek, “Cut me some slack. This healing stuff makes me breakout in sweats. Not to mention the drenn pain. But trust me, there are worse things to smell.”
“Don’t tell me that.” She scowled after him as he led her away. “And just so you know, gaining your gifts was not in the deal. No one told me I would get yours just as you got mine. I was fine not having to smell all this awful stuff.”
Tannin only chuckled again, sheathing his spadone, and reached back, offering her his hand. She smiled this time, though he wasn’t looking to see it as she slipped her hand into his.
Together, they stole away.
The Keepers had brought them— the Symbiote hosts— here, to help the survivors of the old world, and for the first time it looked like it might actually happen. Along within that Destiny, Aari, and her too-small Symbiotai, had found a place within it. Life was good—
—for once.
Watching from the breeze within the trees, They watched the two slip off into the night.
“So it has begun— his destiny,” one presence spoke with a whispered sigh of relief.
“His destiny has already come to pass,” the one who had always watched over Aari spoke now.
“I don’t understand. Was it not the warrior’s destiny to overturn the Blood Lords?”
“There will always be the presence of tyranny amongst humans. The day they do not, they will no longer need us to guide them. To rid them of the darkness necessary to see the light was never his destiny. She was his destiny.”
“The child?”
He nodded and reached out his thoughts to console his companion as if to pat his hand, had they been humans. “Yes.”
“Then why the prophecy about the Blood Lords?”
Just then a soft warm breeze brushed through them and graced both their cheeks with a feminine soft presence. “Humans like their choices. They like to have some say in their lives. It is part of their free will. So, in order to—” the Edify mother paused when they both turned to look upon her with questioning expressions and she smiled wryly before continuing, “—encourage them; one must overshoot the definition of purpose. In this way, the Destiny one must gain is part of the journey rather than the goal at the end.”
“So, it is over then?”
The Edify Mother’s smile remained. An expression that reached them with the warmth of the new dawning sun, “No. It has only just begun.”
AARI– (f) is a Symbiote. Her Symbiotai made her immortal and would make her mate immortal as well. She was also the last surviving breeder for other Symbiote. Stands at a 3 1/3 cubits {18inches} = 5ft.
BEYHA – The name later given to Aari’s Symbiotai by Tannin.
AXEY – Aari’s roommate {only spoken of}.
BAKER – young man involved in cell skirmish with Camber.
BRIENAM – Horseman who rides Aari from Chuutay to go see the Old Seer’s family for help.
CAMBER – a Guillotine Hunter and took to harassing Tannin.
CODE TALKER – a man hiding in the mountains somewhere using a low band radio, who tells stories and sings songs, but in a language only a few know, it is believed the man speaks in code, hiding information inside the songs for rebels and others informing them of important information or warnings.
COJOURN AND TWIN SISTER, SARIEHYA – both guardians tasked for life to protect the Symbiotai and the temples. They host two of the oldest Symbiotai, having been brought to Terra, not born there. They guarded the same temple where Aari was born.
COMMANDER FERRO – head of the Skaddary base.
ENSIGN LANCEY – one of the other Outland Transport Gunners but was killed during a transport run to move Tannin to another base location.
HATTRIX – base check point guard at Skaddary Base District-9.
JIMA – boy found in old amusement park with the horses.
KACEK – the warrior Tannin met and became the replacement host when Kacek was attacked. {only spoken of}.
LAYMASK TRIBE – people of a sister tribe of Bedouin nomads, Jazirian had raided their camp, the men killed, the children rounded up and slaughtered so there were no more Laymask to grow and become warriors. The scar leaving its women and elders broken in defeat. Ghosts.
LEXTER–Aari’s stand-in shot gun driver on transport runs.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL / Lord Marshal – served under Maegrethe who then, along with the General, has taken over the City of Maegray after its Blood Lord leader was slain.
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER GAGE –2nd in command of Skaddary base.
LIEUTENANT SORA – tall blond in charge of interrogating Tannin.
MEMBERS OF THE NATIVE TRIBE – AKA – BEDOUIN
—TAYMAR – one of Tannin’s friends from his tribe, shot Aari.
—DUBLIN – brethren and friend in group.
—RAYHAN – brethren and friend in group.
—BATUROO – brethren and friend in group.
—CAAMEN – brethren and friend in group.
—DALASI – brethren and friend in group.
—IDI – half-brother in group.
—NASIR – brethren and friend in group.
—MUNNA – Tannin’s mother {only spoken of}.
—SEDIT – Tannin’s mother’s new companion (his father had passed away two solar cycles prior) {only spoken of}.
—STANDS ON STONES – aka Stone – was an old Symbiote, an elder in Tannin’s tribe. Tannin speaks of him, who had a gift of metallurgy and made swords and taught the brethren how to use them. {only spoken of}.
—SONG KEEPER – another very old Symbiote member of Tannin’s tribe, that claims to have been alive when Terra flipped her poles. {only spoken of}.
—INUKSHUK – the mentioned elder from Tannin’s tribe, who was twin to Stands on Stones, taught them the skill of fighting and the importance of what it meant to be a guardian. (Name is derived from the Canadian Mi’kmaq Lnu’k’s Inukshuk, a guardian of the lands and its people.) {only spoken of}.
NAZHEER – the last priest who’d been told to have fled one of the temples carrying a living Symbiotai with him, and who later receives the book from Tannin.
OLD WOMAN SEER – slave to the LC who was forced to give up information to the whereabouts of Symbiote.
STEVER – guy always trying to get in Aari’s pants.
STEW – transfer brought in to replace the dead transporters Tannin killed. Big guy close to Tannin’s size if not a match for his physical fitness.
SYMBIOTAI – a small creature that binds in the spinal cord of its hosts and enhances the host with whatever skill or added strengths its carries in its body fluid. Nicknames include: SYM; SYMBI-OTI
SYMBIOTE – the union of Symbiotai and host.
TANNIN – Destined to overrule the five existing blood lords. 8 months before he discovered the breeder female he was searching for he became a Symbiote host when he came across a Symbiote warrior who was dying. The Symbiote chose to take him, but he didn’t wear the marks, accustomed to the hosts as there was no ceremony not even a surgeon to help with the transformation. He made a cut at the lower part of his back and allowed the creature in. The move had been excruciating for them both, but they survived it and now so much was different for him. Now he had what he needed to look for the Symbiote breeder. Stands at a Fathom {6ft} and 2 hands [4inches} = 6’8”.
SIF –
the name of Tannin’s Symbiotai
THE FIVE BLOOD LORDS – five generals who used their powers and armies together in a battle of untold blood they took over everyone and everything. Then divided the country amongst themselves and it has been that way ever since.
—MAEGRETHE – (deceased) ruled -East Coastal territory who had been mated with Aari’s sister and slain by Tannin.
—DAMONTAX – North-East territory Blood Lord.
—SCOX – Northern territory Blood Lord.
—MARTHIM – South-West Blood Lord.
—JAZIRIAN – Central territory Blood Lord.
THE SKADDARY MILITIA – survivors that banded together against the terrine of the five Blood Lords. They are also the ones who put together the Guillotine Hunters to kill the symbiotes, so the warlords could not use them to their advantage anymore.
THEY – aka Them - the Keepers of Destiny. They brought the Symbiotai to Terra, creating the Symbiote for the sake of survival when the planet had suffered a catastrophic shift of its poles, but the Symbiote were soon used as weapons instead by those who were bent on controlling what remained of their planet’s habitation.
TOAHK and YAWWI – Barters {Pimps} who run whores in Horozoh.
TROOPER – guard at the hangars and lover to Aari’s roommate Axey.
TULO, ROMAN and DIBLEY – three squatters in the railcar that found Aari and takes her to the midwife in the village, Chuutay.
YVES - the newly discovered breeder being offered to Tannin in replacement of Aari.
LOCATIONS
CITY OF MAEGRAY – The primary city of Maegrethe’s territory.
CHUUTTAY – peasant village outside of the City of Maegray
DANTUEY – the soldier’s camp and village just outside the city of Maegray.