The Progenitor

The Progenitor

Flash Fiction Story

by Michala T.

Written for the Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose Your Opening Line over at Terribleminds.

“You must walk three paces behind me,” she said. “And never raise your eyes to mine.” Nataya wasn’t sure why she was turned on right then. It wasn’t because he was the last man with living sperm on the planet. Maybe it was the scent of sex saturating him for the past forty-something days. The shackles around his wrists appeared more slack than usual. She reached out and tightened them.

He looked at her. “What did I tell you?” His weary eyes dropped to the ground. Nataya kissed him hard. She knew she shouldn’t have but did anyway. She tasted the Empress. She had long since become used to smelling the Empress on him but had Nataya known she might taste the woman she longed for by kissing Rawl she would have done it sooner. Mmm. Like Feijoa and honeysuckles. She pressed her lips together after running her tongue over them. Hell yes! She pulled his head towards her and kissed him again but released him quickly; disappointment filled her mind and body.

Empress Kamesis had long-held this mute man as her love slave. When she was found to be with child Nataya had immediately been assigned as his guardian. Of course every woman alive would want him! Kamesis trusted no one but her because she knew Nataya preferred women. The warrior princess had never professed this outright but Kamesis was very observant. She recalled the event with both fondness and irritation. Just thinking about the Empress shoving her into the wall, teasing her with her deep searing breath against her skin caused heated warmth to rise over Nataya’s neck and ears.

She turned away from Rawl to hide her blushing. She led him and her combatants behind him down the long corridor. As they grew closer to the club’s central room she began to sweat. I just have to get him to Demitia and this whole mess will be over with. Getting him across the club would likely prove a challenge; one she accepted eagerly. She was ready to brush skin on anyone at this point; even if was only to fight.

Why Kamesis chose an American underground night club to house herself and her nine daughters in, Nataya never understood. Just makes my job that much harder. She reminded herself how much closer to the end of this chore of babysitting Rawl was and exhaled deeply. Maybe then I can get out of here and find myself a girl. She heaved herself against the thick steel door and entered the club. A mixture of heavy liquors and intoxicating musks hit her face. She fought the anticipation of rubbing up against all the women bouncing around and looked back at Rawl. “Remember, I am the only woman in here that will not fuck you to your death.”

When he didn’t look up she looked past him. “Stay back just enough to take care of anything or anyone who even looks at him wrong.” She threw the heavy black trench coat over his shoulders and was appeased only when his shackles were properly hidden beneath it.

Crossing the congested room was easy and Nataya sighed a gutteral release of air as soon as they were behind the steel door on the opposite side of the business. She led him around three corners and finally stopped. “Demitia is our last order of business.” She removed the coat and uncuffed him. “Go in, get the job done right the first time and you’ll be free to go.” Yeah right. Empress Kamesis would never let Rawl go. He didn’t need to know he would spend the rest of his life in darkness, only to see light when his body was required. She looked at him. He’s still quite young and his semen will live for many more moons. It was with pity that she had this last thought. She opened the door and moved aside. When it closed she put her back to the door.

Rawl had impregnated eight of the nine daughters. This one would conceive quickly as she was only sixteen. Young girls were ripe for that kind of taking. She considered the state of the world. The phantoms had arrived in their ships seventy-three years ago. They covered the skies for the length of one new moon to the next and then they just went away. That was the last they’d seen of natural pregnancies occurring. Oh, they had test-tubers but they were sterile as well. When Rawl was found living amongst the deep dwellings beneath the earth’s surface, he was tested positive for the very thing they had lived without all these years. Thriving semen.

The door opened. Nataya moved aside and then turned to look at him. In the instant she met his smoky eyes his image hazed over; his appearance altered and then righted itself. She considered quickly whether she’d hallucinated the entire scene. He looked just like he always had. Something is wrong though. She watched him in silence. She felt the very real and dangerous presence of a monster in him now. How could I not have seen it?

He stared at her hard and his image fluttered again. It was in that moment she knew the mistake they had all made. She swiftly pulled her dagger out and sliced his throat. Red liquid spilled out instead of green paste. He dropped and she turned to look at the other warriors. They were just as surprised as she. Damnit! Magic had blinded them all to his real physical body. She considered her choices. She could let this world become populated with the beings that once dominated this world and now grew within the bellies of the Empress and her daughters or she could kill them all. That would be the death of me. “I hate humans.”

She turned. She would not be alone. Her warriors served her, not Kamesis. She raised her weapons. Well shit. Looks like I’ll not be finding a girl anytime soon.