Wilds Born

And so it begins. This was supposed to end differently... bonus points if you figure out how it was supposed to end, though I don't think it's all too hard to guess.

Sunao, maybe email me about it? I'm not certain which cousin you mean. As. Yao and her sister are both El's cousins.

There's a little informaion about those from Tweak in here, Evera making comments that reminded me of Souse, back from Partners, and his comments about kittens. They are adorable, what more could I say?

Read, Review and Enjoy.




He didn’t like wearing clothing. Not at all. The neck was too tight and the arms were so snug in the shirt that he had difficulty moving properly. Then they told him that he didn’t move properly in the first place and that he had to learn to walk like normal people.

He had thrown a fit, they had consoled him and he dragged his emotions back and under control. It was that annoying buzzing and droning. All the time. And they didn’t let him see bright eyes, he asked for bright eyes and no one would let him see the big male. That was the type of male he needed to replace father, maybe bright eyes had friends who were as big as he was.

For fourteen days they wouldn’t let him out of the healing rooms. Others came and went and he had no grasp of time because he was inside a building and couldn’t tell what cycle the moon was in. Was it still spring? Did the air taste different in civilization?

“Put your clothing on.” Yao murmured quietly, dropping his shirt beside him, “I am getting tired of fighting with you to put your damned shirt on.”

The little female was losing her patience and he was losing his mind. He bent his head and closed his eyes, struggling with the feelings that were welling up inside of him. Civilization was different from the wilds and he couldn’t handle it, he didn’t like it. All he wanted to do was cover his ears and cry, but even that wouldn’t get rid of that annoying buzzing-

Male.

His head snapped up, he straightened as bright eyes walked around the bed and stopped in front of him. Bright green eyes and wild hair, at all angles. Dishevelled, like he had just woken up or had had a fight and didn’t care what he looked like. Bright eyes leaned close to him and those eyes dimmed, just slightly.

“Yao, he’s depressed, stop yelling at him.”

“I wasn’t yelling,” she growled.

“For you, that was yelling, Nu, my name is El.” Assumed a lot, didn’t he? Nu glared at El, who pulled back and frowned, “I’ve missed a social connection somehow.”

“Genetics think that calling them by their names, when they’ve not introduced themselves,” Yao muttered, plucking up the shirt she had dropped on the bed, “is rude. Sort of like. Going against your mother’s orders.”

Bright eyes snatched the shirt from Yao, feeling the fabric between his fingers, “This is a fine shirt, little male, soft, what’s the problem.”

“Don’t like it.” Nu grumbled, realising as he did so that he sounded exactly like a grumpy child, “arms pull wrong ways when try to move and chokes at neck.”

“He’s dropped almost all pronouns.”

“Mm,” bright eyes cleared his throat and placed himself in front of Nu, “hello little male, my name is El. I am a genetic investigator, do you know what that is?”

“Genetic inclination decline.” Nu growled.

“We’ve taken a sample and mapped your genetic code, but none of it will be used. Gomesh Genetics runs a clean crew. We took the sample to find any allergies or problems you might have that we would have to see to. From it, I know your mother and your father. Would you like to see images of them from when they were younger? Do you know their names?” El flicked out the shirt and held it up the way Yao did when she expected him to slip into it.

Images of his parents were not enough to make him want to put that damned thing on. He liked to breath and to be able to move the way he needed to move to protect himself or escape or to simply walk.

“How about, I tell you about the man who used to own that ring?” El looked down at Nu’s right hand, “I’ve got all kinds of history on him. And on the ring itself, where it came from, who had it, how it might work. Hmm? All you have to do is put the shirt on, we won’t even button it up.”

Nu didn’t quite believe El but he slipped off the bed and allowed himself to be poked and prodded into the shirt. Bright eyes didn’t try to button it up, but he did straighten it a little bit and made a comment about a bigger size. El then took Nu by the hand and led him out of the healing place.

Outside was another room. Thus it wasn’t outside, it was just another part of a stupid building. Buildings had mazes of rooms and walkways and the entire thing was covered and he might never see outside from inside a building. He needed something called a… a…

“Window.”

“In my office, Yao, honestly, you don’t have to tag along. I don’t even know why mother insisted-”

“Possibly the slight issue with your being homosexual.”

“How is that a slight issue?” El growled back as he led the way to a doorway, “just because I am, doesn’t mean that he is and if he is, that doesn’t mean that we’re going to end up having sex in my office. Go have tea or something. Relax, soak in some UV rays, you look like you’ve not done photosynthesis in months.”

Yao growled but hung back as El began pushing something beside the doorway. For a long time there was nothing and then the doorway dinged and opened up. Into another room. Stupid civilization and their stupid rooms. Bright eyes very carefully led Nu into the room and hit another button. The doors closed, leaving the pair of them in a tiny room that wasn’t even big enough for him to lay down in. El hit something else on the wall and the room lurched.

Nu whined and huddled close to El.

“Easy, it’s just an elevator.”

“Elevator?”

“A. Metal box that moves up and down to take you to various floors so that you don’t have to climb steps or the side of the building. There are many floors in this building and if we took steps everywhere, we’d never get anything done. So we use elevators.” the doors dinged and opened onto a walkway that was covered in some kind of fur, “now, try to walk like I do, least they all run and tell my mother. She’ll take you back to the infirmary and beat me to boot.”

He tried to walk the way bright eyes did but it just didn’t work. His legs weren’t meant to walk like that, his step was wider than bright eyes’ stride. People in civilization wasted too many steps and did so on the flats of their feet instead of the balls or the toes. In a world where everything was flat, it sort of made sense, but it took so much less effort to walk on the balls of his feet.

El led the way down the long walkway and then through a door.

This room had windows, two walls covered in windows. At least, that’s what Nu assumed they were as he approached the clear wall so clean that he swore there was nothing there. Overhead the sun was out, the sky was blue with that odd tinge to it that meant that it was late spring. Across the horizon, on forever and ever, there were buildings, tall buildings, short buildings. None of it was as tall as his tree, though. All of it was gray and brown and shiny from windows. Down below were paths carved into the ground and between the buildings. Roads, he recalled that he had to stay off of those things, because the cars and trucks drove on the paths and would kill anyone who stepped in front of them.

The room itself was covered with fur, thick and soft against his bare feet. Seats were positioned in front of something that almost looked like a bed, except it wasn’t big enough. Oh, a table, a desk thing. Behind it was another seat. Against the wall that the pathway was against was a black flat screen. He walked up to it and touched the corner, turning it on. It asked for a password, one that Nu didn’t have so he touched the spot again and shut the screen off.

He wandered around the little room, inspecting each object in turn until he came back to stand in front of El. He had satisfied his curiosity and this room was more acceptable than the healing room. The windows would allow him to see the sky and the fur on the floor, while not entirely warm, would be soft enough to sleep on.

“My name is Nu,” he said to El, “this room will suffice for sleeping quarters for the moment.”

“This,” El smiled, then wiped at his lips with a finger, “this isn’t for you to sleep in, Nu, this is my office, where I do my work.” El walked past him and touched the screen, lighting it up as he caressed it, “The one who owned the ring, as promised. Shin Ishteshtin.”

An image appeared on the screen of a young, awkward looking young man with distance and sadness in his eyes. Nu recognised the shape of the eyes and the nose, but mother and father had that same shape. Mother especially. This one could very well be great-elder, but he wasn’t very convinced that such an unhappy soul could have been the mirthful great-elder who told stories and smiled all the time.

Until his mate died.

Nu looked at El and shook his head, “great-elder was very old.”

“I can do that,” El said, tapping his wrist, “aging… ninety years?” the image altered and very quickly Nu recognised the young man. It was great-elder, only much younger. How was it possible? The eyes, that sad look was exactly how great-elder had looked after his mate had died. So weary, so tired, “Shin Ishteshtin was a mid-pack tenth generation. His younger, blood related sister was Taya Ishteshtin, who I believe is your mother.” another image popped up beside the first, “Does she look familiar?”

“This is an image of a ten year old child,” Nu grumbled, “but it looks like my niece, father often said that niece looks like mother. Wait, great-elder is related to this Taya? Why do you think Taya is mother? That would make Nu, me, related to great-elder, would make great-elder my uncle. Great-elder is uncle to no one but Mei. Who is uncle to me but that does not make me related to great-elder.”

“Your genetic material is the signature of Taya Ishteshtin. I can pull up eye colour, hair colour and certain physical traits, she’s the only match to the physical expression of genetic materials donated to you by your mother. None of the Ishteshtin would do. And yes, I suppose this would make you related to… great-elder.

“Your father,” an image popped up and Nu recognised his father almost immediately, “Mysh Ishteshtin, elder of the tenth generation. He was built to rule over all other tenth generations, to be the alpha of them all and to be more dominant than any other. These dominant genes would have gone on to his children. Meaning that you, your niece, your brothers and your sisters, will not be dominated by any other in the tribe.”

“No, Syano dominates over all of us,” Nu grumbled.

“Does he, or does he just really piss you off?”

“Mother says it is because I do not believe he is good enough for my sister,” Nu muttered, settling on the furred floor, “but Syano wanted the ring and great-elder gave it to me instead. Since then, Syano has wanted to replace father as leader but Syano doesn’t like me.”

“Why would you think that?”

Nu looked down and refused to answer.

“Syano was his name?”

“Yes.”

“Syano, Syano, Syano, I’ll have to remember that,” bright eyes muttered, “could you tell me about Syano’s parents?”

“Mother Mally and -” as soon as he said the word, the screen changed and brought up an odd image.

“Mally -” the cheerful voice said, coming from the screen itself, “Moderately Altered Little Lady. Each generation a Mally is created and raised by Gomesh Genetics as the tweaker of the company. Two have been lost and all others have lived out full, healthy lives. Mally seven and eight were lost at the same time, taken by an unknown illness. Their bodies were burned to keep the people safe,” two images popped up.

“That one,” Nu pointed to the older looking woman, “is the mother of great-elder and great-elder’s mate’s children. This one, then? Is Mother Mally. Who is great-elder’s mate?”

“I don’t know. Did he have a name?”

“No, no one uses names amongst the adults. Mother Mally is what the youths call Syano’s mother because she helped raise us all,” Nu frowned and turned over what information he knew about great-elder’s mate. He had very little to do with the mate, the mate was an elder and stayed mainly in the background, “father called him a beta. What is that?”

“Second-in-command. Alpha comes first and then a beta does. Do you recall anything about him that was different from everyone else? Different. From the other adults?”

“He had splotches of colour. His children have it now, it helps them blend into their background. When they stop moving, it is very difficult to see them,” Nu murmured, “he was very tall and had nice eyes. Father would always say ‘shhh, be quiet’ or ‘shhh, stop being so mean’ or ‘shhh, you make too much noise when you have great-elder’ but no one really noticed great-elder’s mate.”

“Shh?” El flicked his wrist, “as in. Asshhhh?” the image popped up, “Ash was the genetic material everyone wanted. He had one nice ass, basically. Ash Toleran, oldest of the Toleran family When the Meita fell and Toleran rose it was discovered that the tweaker families actually had better genetic heritage than the genetic families. Tweakers had full control of their oldest and youngest, everything in between was up for debate. Ash was the oldest child of the oldest child of the oldest and on through the generations.

“Once his genetic projections went public a bidding war started over him which the Ishteshtin won through their connection with the Toleran family. Ah. Ash and Shin went missing at the same time,” El murmured, “sorry, the history books have holes all through them.”

What El was saying made sense with what others had told him about the history of the great-elder, “Great-elder said that the Meita family fell for many reasons. One. They upset someone in their own genetic company by breaking laws and killing a tribe in the wilds, part of one, anyhow. The snake tribe. Two. They broke laws and promises to their own tweaker family. Three. They stole from their tweaker family. Four. They broke contractual agreements. Four. They insulted great-elder while he was wearing the ring, which may have played a role in them being discovered.

“The fall itself was created from those factors and the fact that the council of six was being pressured by the people, by the commoners, because the commoners couldn’t see the differences between themselves and the genetics. The people wanted the same rights and biological standards and were too uneducated to understand that their genetic material could not support the biological standards of the current generation of genetics and tweakers.”

El blinked at Nu, “do you understand what you’re saying?”

“Most. The elders taught me big words, so I know the basics of it, but not why the people are so stupid. There is an elder. She is a third generation commoner. She couldn’t have children by her mate because her genetic material and his could not combine cleanly. They have an older child now that we believe is infertile, father called it a big word, a hybrid.

“That one I don’t understand. Because a hybrid is a cross of many things and my own genetic material has bits of reptile, cat, dog, fish, I have a set of unused lungs and several spare organs. I am not a hybrid, I am a me.”

“Hybrids are unclean meshes. They need special conditions to survive,” El murmured, “genetic hybrids are splices of two different races that can’t cleanly mesh. With certain codes, we can bring dog and people together. But we’ve yet to find the code that bridges the gap between genetics and commoner people.”

***

El watched the little male consider the information before him, finally Nu spoke, “fourteen amino acids are used to congress the genetic bridge between dog and people. Genetic companies have used sixty-four amino acids, including sixteen that they created from scratch, to cover the difference between genetics and commoners. This has all proved to be a failure. Have any of you tried a direct genetic splicing without amino acids? A study done at the beginning of genetic alterations showed that the genes of an ape could be cut into a people without a conversion bridge to translate the necessary codes because of the close relations.”

“That was tried,” El murmured, flickering across the page and bringing up another, newer study, “it was what revealed the odd differences between commoners and us. We can’t splice short people into our own genes because of the same difference. Except short people won’t join with us at all, the embryo self destructs the moment that the code is entered.

“This hybrid, is it still alive?”

“Yes.” Nu murmured, glancing over at El, “it is.”

El sighed and flopped to the carpeted floor exactly three feet away from Nu. He chose this distance because according to genetic socialization, one should always ensure that there is three feet between one and one’s companion. This meant, also, that genetics rarely touched, even when they were all in the same room.

Nu edged a little closer and looked away, “the elders are very eager to breed her but are afraid she may die in birth. Her hips are very narrow, they say. She hasn’t shown interest in anyone, yet, and may not be. Uhm.”

“Viable? Meaning she’s not making the hormones that would mature her eggs and allow them to be fertilized?”

“Yes,” Nu said hesitantly, casting a sidelong glance at El.

“Alright, enough talk about family,” El grumbled, flicking the screen off and turning his undivided attention to the small male, “tell me about those who are dominant.”

“Dominant?” Nu squeaked, going red in the cheeks as El moved closer to him, ignoring genetic rules, “why are you interested in who is dominant? My father is leader, Syano is pushing everyone else around.”

“Why doesn’t anyone stop him?”

“No one can be bothered. Being leader is a large responsibility and Syano is the only one who wants it. They have become complacent.”

El was close enough now that he could smell Nu’s body odour. The pheromones of the young male made his mouth tingle. Here was a creature born in the wilds, who had run free his entire life. Here was an example of what he could have been, could become.

“Complacent?” El murmured.

“Yes, complacent,” Nu responded, turning his head away and baring his neck as he did so. El had no idea what the motion meant, but he knew what he wanted to do with that soft, supple skin, “Nu came looking for someone to lead the tribe.”

“Is Syano bigger than I am?”

“No, most definitely not.” Nu snorted out, “but Syano can fight.”

“I can fight.”

“Like a wild’s person?” Nu asked, “look,” El didn’t have time to look or even to pay attention because a moment later his head bounced off the floor and Nu was atop him, pinning him to the floor. Not in a meek sort of way, El realised in horror as he tried to sit up and found himself firmly stuck in place. Nu was smaller than he was, less muscle than he had, he should have been able to get the upper hand, “not get away. Syano beat Nu, Nu beat El, thus El is beneath Nu.”

“I’d rather have Nu beneath me,” El grumbled, feeling the small change in Nu’s weight as the male relaxed just slightly, he used that motion to flip Nu and pin the young man, “That’s better,” he said, until he realised that he was between Nu’s legs. El hopped up and pulled away quickly, feeling his face heat up.

Nu rolled into the sitting position. It wasn’t like sitting up, it was as if he straightened each bone in his back, one at a time and just rose. In a creepy, impossible motion. The little male got to his feet the same way and rose onto the balls of his feet, a natural position for him that made him bend his knees just slightly so that he was technically the same height as he was when he was flat footed. As El tried to watch, tried to keep his eyes on the young male, Nu crossed the few feet between them, slipped behind El and jabbed at his kidneys. El went down immediately, pain blooming through his system.

“See, oh,” Nu realised that El was in actual pain and knelt beside him, rubbing a hand affectionately over El’s shoulder, “only seen father do that, didn’t realise it would hurt El so badly.”

El caught his breath and sat up, “Syano can fight like that?”

“Yes, El is not suitable to fight Syano. Syano has muscle like El does but different use, understand?”

“Oh yes,” El muttered, rubbing his back, “I understand quite well. If I fight Syano I’d be lucky to live.”

Nu patted El on the head, “maybe later one will learn, neh.”

A nonsensical sound that Yao had mentioned Nu using only in the presence of a male medic whose name he didn’t know, “what does neh mean?”

“You, male, number one.”

“What about a female you?”

“Call by name unless mated to them. Women say neh when speaking about another female,” Nu shrugged, “it is inappropriate to call the opposite gender by anything but their name. Neh,” he poked El in the nose and then edged closer. Two fingers reached out and tugged at a lock of El’s hair, caressing it and then combing it back.

Grooming?

El sat perfectly still as Nu brushed his hair back and then ran fingers over the base of his neck, where his hair and neck met. Nails grazed behind El’s ears several times. El got the distinct impression that if he had been wearing less clothing, he would have been groomed all the way down. The idea enticed him a great deal, but mother would have called it taking advantage of someone who didn’t know the societal rules.

Once Nu seemed satisfied that El was clean, he sat with his back to El. This, El guessed, meant that it was his turn. He ran his fingers through Nu’s hair and tried to pay attention to bumps or lumps but he found none. At the neck El did find a scar, round and sort of star shaped, it almost looked like a bite mark. Which could have been caused by the thing that Nu had been checking for. Like tics or lice, except nastier. Behind Nu’s ears were clean, spectacularly so. Not a mark there.

“No bugs.”

“Not bug have to worry about,” Nu murmured, “bat babies.”

A shudder ran through El, from the tips of his toes and right to the ends of the hair on his head. The idea that a creature would parasitically attach to another living being just. And then the little sucker would be inside one’s body, it’s tongue lashing about inside his flesh.

“Not as bad as toe nibblers. Father stepped in a nest once and lost a toe to them. Mother laughed so hard that her water sprayed out her nose. Nibblers only bite those who step in their nest. They’re about the size of that,” Nu motioned to one of the little eyelets on El’s shoe, “and are more head than anything else with mandibles and six legs.”

“Ants.”

“Oh no, the ants don’t nibble toes, they strip the flesh right off your bones.”

El swallowed hard and felt queasy.

“I once thought that great-elder was being eaten,” Nu muttered, going bright red and casting a sidelong glance at El, “but instead I walked in on him and his mate coupling. Father had to sit me down and explain to me how it works. Between two men. Father and papa are together as a pair like that and I’d not seen anyone else coupling like that. Heard a few but not seen. Father seemed more concerned about the fact that I wasn’t interested in any of it, rather than that I had seen it.

“I just don’t understand the attraction.”

“Of mounting someone?”

“Or in being mounted,” Nu squeaked, “father has been trying to pair me off since I took on the duties of the ring bearer. Males and females alike. One from the otter tribe had me,” the red went away, “but it wasn’t much to talk about. He grunted a lot but it wasn’t fun and he went right after it. Father approaches papa or mother slowly and… does something. He doesn’t just mount them.”

“You mean,” El shifted over and grazed his fingers over Nu’s jaw line, “Something like that?” Nu shook his head, “or maybe he tells them how pretty their eyes are,” Nu shook his head, “I’ve seen your genetic material, I like it. Your body is a good expression of your genetic code. I’m not sure that any alterations could have made you any more perfect.”

Nu went bright red, it crept from his face and down his neck, “no one else wants me around or likes me.”

“Oh, I’m sure that’s not true, you just don’t see them, do you? Because you’re looking for something better,” El shifted towards Nu, so that they were inches away from each other, heat was pouring off of the body before, “how would you like to try me on for size?”

This was what mother was afraid would happen, that they would do this. More likely, she was afraid that they would imprint on one another and that the young one wouldn’t want to go back or El would go out with him.

Or maybe she had simply said no to see what would happen.

Nu’s breath sped up, the heat coming off of the little male was impossible, surely, “I. I. Don’t. Know. How would. I. Try you … on.”

El brushed his lips against Nu’s. The tingle of his flesh excited him, reminding El how long it had been since the last time he had touched another person intimately. The brush turned to a pressing of their lips and the darting of El’s tongue into Nu’s mouth. The little male tasted differently from everyone else, there wasn’t that metallic tang at the back of his throat.

He could kiss and lick every part of the little one.

“El!”

He jerked away from Nu, startled as he said, “Mother?”

She stood in the doorway, arms crossed and that angry glare on her face, “his immunity isn’t built to withstand our diseases, you fool. We’re still running the tests as to what he can survive from! You could kill him if you do that. Nu, come with me, since you’ve escaped the infirmary, we might as well take you to the observation room and run a few tests. Before my son does something stupid like gives you a VD.”

“I don’t have a-” El protested, but he stopped speaking when his mother flickered that look to him. No sense protesting, she wasn’t about to listen.


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