by Will Crudge
She looks a lot like me, actually. We don’t exactly have a huge breeding population among our kind, so bumping into a relative is pretty common. I just can’t help but notice how similar we look. Blonde hair and blue eyes aren’t exactly hard to come by these days. Once it was believed that blue eyes and blonde hair would eventually be bread out of humanity, and it nearly was. But when humans took to the stars, genetic diversity expanded outward. And after millennia of space travel, and a lack of natural sunlight, even non-European descendants, began to shed their darker features.
Asian, African, Canadian… We all look pale and pasty in my time.
I say with a straight face.
I say with a wink. I instantly regret it. I can feel her pheromones flooding the space. Shit! I think I just turned her on!
Wait a fucking minute! It hit me instantly.
I eventually strip down to my neatly trimmed ‘meat-curtains,’ and then I perform a gesture with my open hands as if I was presenting myself as some kind of showcase.
Before I can enjoy some sort of comfort from her reassurance, there is a knock on the closet door… then two… then three. I find it odd since we can all communicate without door-banging, but whatever. To my surprise, Elizabeth knocks on the door with three deliberate raps in response.
The door opens up a crack. I see Jimma peak through. “Is the Candidate fully prepared?” She asks.
“And how should she be prepared?” Elizabeth says. They aren’t speaking casually. This seems scripted… ceremonious even.
“She should be divested of all material possessions, clothing, or any metals that hold value in the third dimension!” Jimma replies.
“She is devoid of all such things,” Elizabeth replies.
“Has the candidate been hoodwinked to blind her from her own delusion?” Jimma asked.
“She has not.” Elizabeth answers.
“Proceed to prepare her as such, and then you may request permission to enter when the deed is complete!” Jimma responded, and shut the door.
I have no idea what a ‘hoodwink’ is. But I guess I’ll find out soon enough… Why couldn’t they just call it a blindfold? This fucking thing is pulling on my ponytail! I’m blind as a bat.
Elizabeth knocks on the door three times. Three knocks reply. The door cracks open. “Who goes there?”
“It is I, War Master Elizabeth.”
“Who else is with you?” Jimma asks.
“A candidate of great worthiness,” Elizabeth says.
“What does this candidate seek?”
“She seeks to step out of the darkness of delusion.”
“And what does she expect to find when the darkness is gone?”
“The light of divine truth. The light of life itself.”
“Is the candidate hoodwinked?”
“She is.” Elizabeth answers.
“Does the candidate offer a token?”
“She does not, but I offer one for her.”
“Does she come well vouched for?”
“She has.”
“And who vouches for her?”
“I do.”
“Given that you have offered a token on her behalf, and have dutifully vouched for her, I will inform the Guild Master. Wait here until I return with his decision.” The door closes.
The door knocks three times. Then three more times from the other side. I’m guessing more scripted stuff is about to happen… I am correct, as it turns out.
“The Guild Master has given permission for you to enter. But take heed, candidate! You must focus on all that you are about to hear!” Jimma says.
I’m thinking, ‘No shit! I can’t fucking see anything, so all I can do is hear!’, but I decide to play along. This is probably some kind of hazing ritual to start off my final three decades of training. That’s the only explanation.
As long as it’s not some kind of freaky blood-orgy, then I’m down with whatever!
I feel Elizabeth’s hand gently caress my ass as it glided up my back, and halted at my shoulder. She guided my forward and into the room. Ouch! I’m glad I didn’t say that out loud. A sharp point pressed into the top of my left boob. I can’t be sure, but it might have broken the skin. My kind tends to be resistant to injury as a rule, so it probably stuck me pretty good!
“This blade tip is that of a War Master’s blade!” I hear Jep speak. “It is to remind you of your mortality, and should be a caution to you! You will be presented to the masters.”
Elizabeth guides me to walk. I can’t tell where she’s taking me, but I get the impression that it’s in some kind of counter-clockwise circle. At certain points, I heard three claps from someone standing off to my left. Then I heard huffs and growls of Zodiacs. I am really fucking confused right now.
I think we circle about three times before we stop. Elizabeth pulls my shoulders to face a certain way, and I just stand there feeling stupid… naked, and stupid.
“Who goes there?” Val says.
“It is a candidate, Guild Master,” Jep says.
“And what does this candidate seek?”
“To be freed from the delusion of darkness.”
“Is she properly prepared?”
“She is.”
“Has she been tried by means of a token?”
“She has.”
“And did she provide such token?”
“She had none to offer, but one was given on her behalf.”
“Is she thoroughly vouched for?”
“She is.”
“And who vouches for her?”
“I do.”
“Given that she has had a token offered on he
r behalf, and she is vouched for, bring her to the War Master in the west for examination.”
So I've yanked again… walking… blind as a bat… naked as a jaybird… being led by a chick, I want to do dirty things with… all while my father watches. I’ve almost forgotten how exhausted I am.
We stop.
“Who goes there?” My father says. I pray like hell his trying to avert his eyes.
“A worthy candidate, who has been allowed entry into the temple by means of a token offered on her behalf. She is worthy and well qualified.” Jep says. I’m guessing he walked with us. I have no clue.
“Has she been thoroughly vouched for?” My father asked… Seems like a dumb question coming from him, but whatev’s.
“She has.”
“Given that she has these necessary qualifications take her to be examined by the Zodiac of the north.”
Here we go again… Round and round we go. We stop in the ‘north.’
“Who goes there?” I hear a new voice. I’m guessing either the wolf or the tiger. Neither of them I’ve met yet.
“A worthy candidate for your examination,” Jep says.
“Has she been examined by the Guild Master in the East and the War Master in the West?”
“She has.”
“And have they deemed her worthy of my consideration?”
“Yes, they have.”
“As I trust the sun to rise in the East, and the sun to set in the West, so do I trust the Guild Master in the East and the War Master in the West. Now take her to be examined by the Zodiac in the South.
Here we fucking go again. Three fucking circles and then all around back to the south. I’m adding up the circles in my head for fun, but it hits me all at once. Three knocks… done three times… Three passes around the room… Then three more… Now three more still… I can only guess that I’ll have to do it one more time, for a total of twelve. Twelve Zodiac signs… twelve original War Master Clans that formed the Guild… Twelve original disciples of the Life Temple… It’s sacred geometric stuff… Like the fixation on three of everything… Time, space, matter… Father, Son, Holy Spirit… Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva… It’s getting deep in here!
Shadow was the Zodiac in the South, and his wording closely matched the Zodiac in the North’s spiel. But now I’m being brought into the center of the room… or at least I think it is.
I’m made to kneel, place my hand on the pages of The Universal Forge book, and now I wait.
“Worthy candidate, what is it you desire?” I hear Val ask.
“To be freed of the darkness of delusion, and to be brought into the light of life,” I say.
“Then are you prepared to make a solemn vow to embrace the light for all eternity?” Val asks.
“Yes,” I say.
“Repeat after me…” Val says the complete oath. I repeat it. I’m not going to spell it out… It’s for my kind to know. Sorry if you got all buttered up… But if it makes you feel any better… The oath doesn’t exactly spell out what its implications were, or what it would do to forever change my destiny. I still have no idea what was about to happen.
“Now, Katherine has made her oath. She has asked to come out of the darkness to shed her worldly delusions while stepping out into the world of light and life.” I hear Val preach.
Then I felt a tickle on the back of my hair. My hoodwink was being untied.
“At last! Bring her into the light!” Val shouted as the hoodwink was removed. All the War Masters were standing about the alter clapping and smiling. I noticed my father had his own eyes hoodwinked to prevent any awkward memories. I love him for that!
“Rise, War Master Katherine!” Val says.
War Master? That’s impossible! I haven’t completed my training! What the hell just happened? I look incredulous. Everyone is cheering. Jimma is shedding a tear. Napo, the tiger let’s out a thunderous roar.
I’m just looking bewildered… I’m trying to take stock of the situation… but mostly I’m trying not to pee all over the floor.
Darius steps forward and holds the wrapped bundle that Jep handed to him before the ceremony. Elizabeth steps around to face me, she reaches in to kiss me softly on the cheek, and I fight the urge to grab her and stick my tongue in her mouth. She pulls away and reaches for the plain cloth wrapping. She pulls it back.
War Master Armor... Mine… I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
“Now go on! Put it on!” Darius says enthusiastically. “I’m sure your father would like to take that blindfold off!”
“You may need help, Kat,” Elizabeth said. “Let’s go in the closet, and get you set, so your father can take that thing off!”
Like that was what she really had in mind… But I digress. Let’s just say I took my time getting – fitted – in there. I couldn’t have – done it – without Elizabeth’s help.
For the record, I still prefer dudes… But I’ve been situationally celibate for thirty years… I’ll go with what fate gives me!
When I come out of the closet… no pun intended… I am in full War Master Glory. The armor felt amazing. Even more so than the form-fitting sub armor.
Marbles met me as I entered the room, and he handed me my sword. “Did you know about this?” I ask him.
“No! Well, not really. Grinder said you were being bestowed an honor, but that’s it. I figured it would be a medal or something.” Marbles said.
“War Masters cannot accept medals, my son!” My father chimed in as he embraced me.
I went around the room accepting congratulations from everyone. Even Midas piped in to offer his own. But I still don’t know why this has happened. Is this some kind of mental exercise? Some kind of twisted test? What the fuck is going on?
“Val, tell me why!” I say when I get to him.
“Because you’ve made the next thirty years of training, and all the trials that come with it completely redundant!” Val said.
“Darius saw it immediately. It took me a short while later. Midas may have figured it out before any of us, for that matter.” He replied.
“There’s no ‘might have,’ old friend. I saw it when she first set foot on the Thermopylae.” Midas chimed in.
“You’re full of shit, my old friend!” Val chuckled.
“Ok, so maybe it took me a little longer than that… But it was still before any of you meat-sacks!” Midas said with a laugh.
“So… Can you explain, please?” I ask. Val nodded and straightened his face slightly.
“You trained yourself, Katherine. You may be the only one of our kind that has ever done that.” He said.
“But, I didn’t learn anything new! I only tried to master what I already knew is all.” I point out.
“That’s exactly it!” Darius said with a single loud hand-clap. “I had to do it myself because my skill set is unique to me. Beyond what skills I mastered from melding with Val, I had to discover my own path. I have no one else to mentor me because no one has ever been like me. I recognized the same self-driven spirit within you. And one of the reasons I placed you in command, was to coax out your true potential!”
“But my advanced swordsmanship lineage? And other combat specific skills?” I ask desperately. I haven’t learned any of it! I can’t bear the title of a War Master when I haven’t learned the required skills!
“You’ve received all the combat training that any of us has ever had already.” Jep chimed in. “And you’re ‘advanced swordsmanship form’ is only for the sake of your individual clan heritage. It isn’t part of any required curriculum. Besides, it seems you’ve developed your own advanced system.”
“Um, what?” I say as Val tries to attack me with a downward slash. I draw my sword and bat his strike away with a single stroke. It’s something I picked up when Marbles would try and sneak attack me.
&n
bsp; I hear a single collective gasp. I scan the room and find all eyes on me. I realize that I just disarmed Val, and had my blade resting at the base of his neck.
“What is it?” I look around to find someone who was willing to answer.
“You disarmed Val, the baby girl.” My father said in a very soft and deliberate tone.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” I quickly re-sheath my blade, and bend down to pick up Val’s sword. I hand it to him with a humble bow.
“I’m not sure you get it, Kat.” Shadow chimed in. “Nobody has ever disarmed Val before.”
“Nobody that’s ever survived to brag about it, that is.” Midas chimes in.
Later on, with my legs spread…
“Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! Oh, Fu-aaaaaahhhhh!” I scream in complete ecstasy as I pinch my own nipple with my left hand, and use my right hand to press the back of Elizabeth’s head down between my thighs.
Her fingers are rubbing me just right, and her tongue is licking my ‘back door’. She slides her tongue inside my flower, and then slides her middle finger into my ‘rear entrance’.
My whole body quakes. Time and space seem to dissolve around me. I grab a handful of her hair and pull on it. I pull her head up to my face, then I proceed to tongue-fuck her mouth while I wrap my thighs around her hips.
I glide my fingertips gently up and down her back but then decide to dig in with my nails until she lets out a moan. I push her to the side, sit up, and then point to the pillow.
“Bite that pillow, and put your ass in the air, bitch!” I say. I’ve never felt so empowered! Even though she’s got me by four or five decades, she lets me take control… best of all, she does whatever nasty thing I ask her to!
“Spread your ass for me!” I demand. She does what she’s told. “Good, girl!” I say as I smack her on the left side of her ass. She lets out a passionate whelp of pleasure, and I bury my lips between her flawless ass cheeks.
I keep her lips parted with my forefinger and middle finger while I rub her delicates with my thumb. I keep my other hand free to tease her tight little ‘rear docking structure’ until she begs me to slide my thumb in it.
After about twenty minutes of ‘snacking.’ I decide that I want my kitty to get some more attention… I’ve only had three orgasms in the last hour, so it’s time to get back on pace.
