Kiva in PB

Chapter One

Legionnaire Kiva Lei-Mneme, Republican Marine Corps, went to sleep in her quarters, but awoke to the sound of running water and the chirping of birds. Given that she lived aboard a starship with her unit, this struck her as odd enough to get her awake quickly, eyes opening to reveal dazzling natural sunlight filtered through a tall forest canopy. Groggily, the alien soldier looked around, realizing she was actually resting on mossy ground next to a particularly large tree. She was so confused by this that she still instinctively reached over to swat her alarm as she sleepily struggled to her feet, despite the fact that it wasn’t there.

Kiva was a beta centurion, a large, strong race known for physical and emotional fortitude, and so she did not succumb to the blind, confused panic that another might have, but her mind still raced as she struggled to figure out what happened. She had slept just as normal, a relatively peaceful slumber free of dreams or nightmares, and according to her cyberbrain’s records nothing particularly abnormal had occurred all night. Yet, here she was, in a mysterious forest. The possibility of it being some sort of holographic simulation struck her right away, but she knew a few critical telltales of projected light from so many years in military service, and these trees were solid and certainly no hard-light projections.

She was clad in what passed for casual wear when on duty, a version of her uniform with short sleeves and thin, soft material, that hugged her two-point-four-meter tall, curvy and powerful body, and was glad for it, because if she’d woken up without her clothes that would have been too mortifying to consider. Her hair was long and red as flame, and severely messed up from having been splayed over mossy ground, and she had to run her hand through it a few times to remove a stray twig. Her eyes featured no pupils and were entirely red, as well, hardier and yet less acute than human eyes, meaning she had to look herself over carefully for signs of ‘tampering’. Aside from the normal effects on the back of her uniform and hair from sleeping on the ground, she couldn’t find any evidence that she’d been handled.

On an impulse, she reached out with her mind, attempting to connect to a network, any available network; aboard her mothership, there were millions of nets, including a fully sapient artificial intelligence, but right now her mind perceived absolutely nothing. No incoming signals, no connection ports… After being so surrounded for so long by digital voices, their absence was quite disturbing. She was obviously on a planetary surface, and she entertained the possibility that it was one not yet charted by civilization. That would explain the lack of nets, but how was she transported so far from society in literally a matter of hours?

The betan rubbed the side of her face with one large and soft hand, letting out a rattling sigh. She knew that it was literally not possible for her to end up on an unknown planet in a mysterious time lasting only hours, and so her best theory so far had to be that something had abducted her from her room and taken her to…

Movement. Her mind pinged her with a notice about it, although she didn’t really need it, having heard the rustling. She was no stranger to wilderness and was quite familiar with the noise of local wildlife and other harmless animals, but that wasn’t what she was hearing. Especially, she figured, when faint humming showed up in her audio scans. A person! From the modulation, fairly humanoid, as well, a good sign. Despite her unkempt appearance, seeing anyone who could possibly help her would be quite nice.

Then she considered the darker possibilities. She knew absolutely nothing, which meant this person could have been someone involved in her abduction, which she decided to almost take for granted; people didn’t just appear in random places after falling asleep, without some outside help. She generally slept with a sidearm but wasn’t too surprised to find it missing, like her PDA and other devices in her pocket.

She was still so groggy, however, that while she was struggling to her feet to prepare to hide and do a bit of surveillance, the person emerged from the forest right in front of her. Kiva tensed up, but a once-over up this being made her stop in her tracks.

The creature was indeed quite humanoid, skin a tanned almost-orange that strongly resembled her own, but with the human structure of head-two legs-two-arms. He looked short, but then again she supposed she was tall and biased. He was stark naked, and obviously male, at that, and didn’t seem bothered by this at all. His hair was wild but relatively short and his skin wasn’t dirty, though, which suggested he wasn’t just some form of savage. His eyes, wide and innocent, lit up as he stopped to stare at her, as well, and resisted the urge to face palm when she saw his eyes fix on her chest. It was all a matter of scale, she often told humans; three meters big and wide enough to match meant that some things were just going to be larger than what you’re used to.

He spoke first. Naturally, she couldn’t understand it, but her brain’s translation matrix instantly recognized the speech as a variant of… old Terran French? She double-checked a few times, and then ran the translation, which started an infinitely complex process within her own mind. She started to hear him and understand the words, although his mouth moved out-of-sync; a visual effect all civilized beings encountered when dealing with aliens or foreigners and which humans called ‘bad dubbing’. “Oh, you’re finally awake, Mistress. I’ve found a nice stream a bit down the river if you wanna bathe.”

Kiva blinked a few times, tired mind almost reverting to an accepting pile of confused mush. “M-Mistress?” She echoed, tilting her head. That form of address was almost as odd as his familiar manner of speech. “… Have we ever met?” She asked, although what she actually said was changed by the translator to make sure he could understand. It was odd hearing one’s self fluent in a language one had never personally heard in her life.

“No,” He chirped. “But I saw you sleeping and figured it would be nice to get a bath, right? And I know this area pretty good.” His tone was bright, genuine, and friendly, something which immediately put Kiva off and made her frown. “What’s wrong, Mistress?”

“If we don’t know each other than why are you calling me that?” She asked, folding her arms and shifting her weight idly, a lot of the fog beginning to clear from a sharp, keen mind.

The question seemed to confuse him. “… Because Mistress is my Mistress,” He replied after a moment, as if this was the most normal thing in the entire world. Kiva got the distinct impression that she wasn’t going to get a lot of useful information from this boy.

No sense in not trying, though. “… Where am I?” She asked, shaking her head. “What are you?” Maybe if she could get an idea of her surroundings, she could react a bit better to the alien’s strange advances.

“You’re in the forest.” The face palm instinct rose again, and it must have shown on her face, because he stuttered and continued, “Uh, you’re kinda…” He seemed to be struggling to remember. “In the wilderness! There’s a town, uh, that way.” He pointed roughly where Kiva’s compass told her was north. “And me? I’m a… oh, what did he call it… a Torch!”

“Torch.” Kiva couldn’t help herself; nearly everything that came out of this creature’s mouth was so weird she had to get confirmation. “As in, a torch, like wood and fire?” Maybe her translator was going bad; that would certainly explain a lot. “... Maybe I should go to this town, I might find better answers there.”

The Torch shook his head. “Hm… that might not be a good idea. There’s a lot of Mistresses and Boys there, but Mistress doesn’t have her Balls or Dex or anything. It could be really confusing… unless we go to Rikou first!”

All Kiva could do was stare. A lot of Mistresses… perhaps her translator was interpreting references to some sort of society with slavery. Showing up in such a place with no idea how she’s gotten there was definitely not a good sign. Finally, she managed to narrow down her curiosity to a single, simple question which would hopefully get something from this odd humanoid. “Who is Rikou?”

“My friend.” The Torch replied, giggling and practically bouncing on his heels. “He really likes me, even though he doesn’t want to admit it! He’s a lot smarter than me, and he lives away from the town, in his own house, with like experiments and stuff.” A reclusive, brilliant scientist type. That actually seemed like someone who could help her, especially since it seemed she might need some help acclimatizing to this new place. In any event, she had to start somewhere, and sitting around in this forest wasn’t very appealing.

“Alright. Can you take me to him?” Kiva paused a moment to think. Having become accustomed to a civilized level of hygiene, when it was available, she was already feeling a bit dirty, especially since she’d spent at least some time on the ground. Maybe she would take the Torch up on his idea for a bath. “Uh, actually, first, Mistress would like a bath.”

“I knew it,” He squealed and leapt forward, attempting to glomp her. He was small and thin, however, and she didn’t even move backwards. In fact, he had trouble getting his arms all the way around her, but found himself at the perfect high to snuggle a bit into her large breasts, admiring how soft they were compared with her hard stomach and arms.

Kiva reacted with admirable restraint, backing up and pulling his arms back, frowning. “Get off,” She insisted, and he immediately withdrew, especially since she had the power to make him. Being touched in such a manner by an unfamiliar being made her tense up. “You don’t even know me, and I don’t take physically to people I don’t know.” She had the presence of mind to notice that he seemed warmer than a regular living being, as though he were naturally radiating a heat that actually felt kind of nice. Was this why he was called a ‘Torch’?

This denial seemed to hurt him, and he frowned at her, large eyes hard to resist. “B-But you’re my Mistress,” He insisted, as if this was the cure for all ails and the solution to every argument.

This was getting on her nerves a bit now. “Alright, tell me why I’m your Mistress, then, if we’ve never even spoken to each other. I think I’d know if I’d purchased a slave!” As a soldier of the Republic, part of her duty was to eradicate the bondage of sapient beings wherever she found it, and her titanium-solid morals retched at even the concept of enslaving such an obviously intelligent, to some degree, being.

That, at least, seemed to get him to stop and consider. “Well,” He said, “I think it just kinda happened. I needed a Mistress, and then I found you, so you’re my Mistress now.” Kiva outright stared, now. This creature seemed to be heavily implying that it, in his own words, ‘needed’ slavery. Generally, in her experience, sapient beings tended to be a bit more resistant than that to the whole concept. More possibilities rushed through her mind, everything from this creature being insane, a distinct possibility, to him being a member of some genetically engineered slave race specifically designed to love their servitude, an explanation that seemed to make some sense. But if this world was advanced enough to develop entire species to their liking, why wasn’t she picking up anything at all like a modern network or satellite line anywhere? Every thing this creature said managed to raise more and more questions.

For now she just let out a defeated sigh and decided to humor him, for now. A native guide would prove quite useful, she figured, if she was going to have to do any serious time on this world. “Fine, but… calling me Mistress puts me on edge. Call me Kiva. Kee-Vah. Now, what’s yours?”

“K- K- Kiv- Aaaagh,” He burst out, rubbing his head and squinting. “I can’t do it! It doesn’t feel right! Please please please, just let me call you what you are, Mistress! Please please-“

“FINE. Call me anything you want,” She relented, and wondered which one of them was the slave now, anyway. “But your name? I can’t just call you ‘hey you’ or ‘torch’.”

He shook his head. “Uh. I don’t really… have a name. Well, I used to, but that was a pretty long time ago and I kinda, forgot. Oh, but you can give me a name if you want, Mistress! Rikou mentioned that once while we-“ He paused. “Were talking,” He finished, face even more red than usual, and Kiva’s head was suddenly filled with more devious imaginings, which she quickly clamped down on. Surely such an innocent creature wasn’t implying what she thought; too much time around wily humans were giving her the wrong outlook on life.

By this point she was a bit more accepting, and with a mental shrug, started to think of a good name. This practice of naming someone right at the start of knowing them that many species employed struck her as rash; after all, how could you know your kid was a ‘great warrior’ or ‘beloved one’ if he was just born? Luckily for her, this being didn’t seem too difficult to get a read on, and ‘Rixas’ immediately sprang to mind. It meant, in a literal translation, ‘campfire’, for both the heat it gave off and the comfort it provided to people huddled around it. A third, less kind, meaning, implied similar intelligence to a bundle of burning sticks, but she decided not to mention that. This boy was so cute that seeing him sad was almost too much to-

Cute? Seriously? Well, she had to be honest, if only with herself. The boy was probably custom-built to be adorable, and she certainly couldn’t fault the craftsmanship on that count. “What do you think of Rixas?” She asked, crossing her arms. “I think it fits you.”

He had never heard the word, but that didn’t seem to bother him, and he took an instant liking to it. “Okay,” He replied, nodding and going for another glomp, this time allowing to hug her, although he did kindly avoid burying himself in cleavage, for now. When he detached, he bounced on his feet and said, “Well, let’s go! It’s a little walk but you look like you can handle that~”

The very bemused soldier tried to follow her energetic guide closely, looking around and admiring how beautiful in general the forest was. It was hard to believe there were towns anywhere near such a place of natural innocence. She preferred the comforting steel and crowds of a city, most of the time, but this could be nice, too… she picked up the sound of running water long before the stream came into view. As with everything else, the water was pure, clean as something running along dirt could get, and she could see the waterfall that originated the stream some distance away through the trees.

“Here we are,” Rixas announced. “Come on, I’ll dive in while you take off your clothes~” He was almost to the water by the time Kiva processed that.

“Excuse me?” She frowned. “Rixas, I’m not going to bathe with you.”

Apparently, Kiva was as confusing to him as he was to her, for he stared at her a bit before asking, “Why not?” He seemed to take it for granted that a complete stranger would have no qualms getting naked and wet with him. Well, then again, he appeared to be a nudist himself…

“Because I am a shy, delicate flower,” Kiva responded as dryly as possible. Rixas seemed to pick up on it, somehow, and grinned widely.

“Of course you are, Mistress,” he replied. “B-but… I just thought, well, maybe it would be better for you to get used to me in a bath, because eventually we’re going to need to Tame!”

It was a good thing her translator didn’t have feelings, because all of her second-guessing might have given the program a complex. Tame, as in training a beast, basically, except there seemed to be another implied meaning to the word. “Tame.”

“… What, you don’t know?” Rixas laughed out loud at the sheer absurdity. “No way. Mistress is messing with me~ Nice try but everyone knows what Taming is!”

“Pretend I’m a space alien from another planet who just woke up today on this world and knows absolutely nothing about it,” She replied completely seriously. Rixas was about to make another joke, but he was obedient enough to comply, even though he didn’t know what his Mistress was hoping to achieve. It seemed evident that he didn’t find the fact that she was about three meters tall and orange as any sort of tip off to how serious she was. “So take it from the top, please.”

“Taming…” Rixas seemed to genuinely be struggling with how to express himself. It was apparent he wasn’t exactly Shakespeare, and to him, Taming was such a huge and elemental force in his life that it was like trying to fully explain the effects of breathing. “It’s… uh… oh, wait, I just remembered something! Maybe you aliens would know what it means better, because it’s supposed to just mean any kind of… uh… well, it’s called ‘sex’.”

Kiva devoutly wished she had some pills, preferably of an illegal and mind-altering kind, because after just waking up she was being asked to deal with so much shock and surprise. It wasn’t really fair, in her opinion. Killing people, she could handle, with the right mindset, but this? Well, one possibility to explain what was happening was pure insanity, surely; she might just be rocking back and forth in her bed while hallucinating this beautiful place and very strange boy. Oh, well; even if that was true it wouldn’t have a practical effect on her situation, really.

“Let me see if I’m reading you clearly. I became your Mistress because, even though we don’t know each other, and we’re going to have to have sex.” Rixas nodded silently. “It’s good I’ve got that sorted out. Uh, normally, where I’m from, we wait a bit longer to ask for that sort of thing. And it usually happens in an emotionally involved relationship.”

“But I like you,” Rixas replied, tilting his head. “Mistress, you’re weird. You aren’t like any other Mistress I’ve ever seen… but I like that. And you’re pretty.”

Kiva’s face was certainly not heating up from such a simple compliment, and anyone who suggested differently would get a fist in their face at a few times human-strength. “That’s not enough,” She said, “I value myself a little more. Look, why do we ‘have’ to have sex right away? Even if you like me, I’d like you better if you took the time to know me.” If this was a dream, hallucination, or whatever, she might as well go with it. At least that way, she might eventually have some hope of waking up from it.

“Well. Because, if I don’t get Tamed, I’ll go Feral,” Rixas replied. “I’ve done that before…” He shivered. “I really really really really don’t want to again. Rikou helped me, and we Tame each other so neither of us goes Feral. The longer we wait to Tame, the… harder it gets to think.”

Ah, a control mechanism for the slave race. A pretty clever way to make sure they always need a master or whatever, as well as make sure the master race gets their jollies. The more Kiva figured out about the way things seemed to work here, the more she wished she’d been magically teleported to some other place. This was like something out of a cheap smut novel or porno with a sci-fi theme. “Well why do we have to have sex if you and Rikou have worked out such a beneficial relationship?”

“It doesn’t work as well when it’s two of us doing it,” Rixas replied, getting a bit annoyed with this act. “We need a Mistress. I always have this weird buzz in my head, even right after me and Rikou Tame,” Again his face heated up quite cutely, “But I know that a Mistress can do it best. That’s the way it was meant to be.”

Kiva let out a long sigh. “Just… let me bathe in peace and think on it.” Rixas hesitated a moment and then nodded and gracefully took his exit, allowing Kiva to shed her sleeping uniform. The refined, modern cloth, custom fitted for her measurements, didn’t take too well to the ground, so she folded it up and put it atop a nearby rock, stretching out a bit. She was doubtlessly beautiful, despite her alien appearance, and she definitely knew it, confident in herself as she slid into the water and let out another, happier sigh.

The water felt amazing. Its temperature was just right for her, although it would have probably been freezing to a human, and she just took some time to enjoy before scrubbing herself off as best she could by hand. Such a primitive way to clean herself was still going to leave her feeling a bit dirty, but long decades of experience in harsh war allowed her to tough it out like a true hero. She even allowed herself to relax a bit for the first time since she woke in this new world.

The sky was cloudless, and with her vision enhancement she could just make out stars through the daylight, wondering silently to herself where her home was. On a whim, she decided to try finding constellations, and searched her memory for system after system’s astronomy. The closest match she found was Earth, homeworld of terran sapiens, which meant that this place was roughly on one of the same planes as the Sol system. That made sense, at least, given her sense of scale. She looked at another plane, and was shocked to discover more matches. Using simple astronomical data available to any fifth-grade student, she quickly identified most of the stars in the sky. This was yet another oddity, and she had to investigate her findings when she had a chance. Maybe Rikou would have answers for her.

Kiva expected Rixas to make a peeping attempt, but she never noticed a thing, relaxing for about an hour before finally withdrawing from the water and beginning to dry in the sun, tough skin shining like leather under the light. “… Mistress, are you done yet?” Rixas’ voice came from a nearby tree and she suppressed a grin.

“Yes, just allow me to get dressed.” She was proficient in quickly dressing, and was soon back in her uniform, feeling a bit better. A mundane, safe act like bathing allowed her to get her grounding, and she felt a little better about her situation overall. “Do you need a turn?”

Rixas shook his head. “No, I took one earlier. C’mon, Mistress, I’ll show you to the way to Rikou! It’s kinda far but I remember perfectly.” Rixas might not remember much perfectly, but his main source of sex for years on end? His instincts were as honed as a carrier pigeon’s.

Kiva kept her high opinion of the forest and its beauty as they walked at a leisurely pace. At least, Kiva walked indolently while Rixas bounced around like a puppy, doing literal circles around her at points, and when he finally ran out of energy still bounded ahead and pouted every time he had to wait up for her. The boy seemed like he was a literal fireball, and Kiva wondered if his ambient heat had something to do with all that boundless energy.

Food was going to be a challenge. She was starting to get severely hungry as noon passed overhead; she hadn’t eaten in a while, and betan physiology needed a lot of fuel to keep such a big, powerful body running efficiently. At the same time, though, she was very wary of eating any berries or even animals she might find; the soldier had no way to know what this world’s ecology could do to her species, and it might have been harmful or even fatal. Eventually, unless they got to Rikou in the next day or two, she would break down and risk it, but for now she held tough.

Rixas eventually got bored with waiting for Kiva, getting further and further ahead, which began to worry her. If they somehow found themselves separated this deep in the woods, Kiva might never find the right path to Rikou, Her worries only increased when her cyberbrain reported new contacts on the motion tracker; roughly humanoid, all around them. She was about to call out to Rixas, who had passed out of sight around a huge set of wild bushes, when she heard a yelp and started to run.

When she saw Rixas again, he was on his back, pinned by a creature that Kiva could only describe as a cross of a human and a dog, naked as Rixas, with a tail, a dog’s distinctive ears, and incredibly sharp teeth which showed as the creature panted. “M-Mistress! Ainu!” So the heat generator was named a Torch and the dog-boy was called an Ainu. Well, at least this world’s breeders were trying to keep themselves entertained. Kiva couldn’t help but notice that Rixas’ ‘attacker’ was also clearly male, better equipped than her guide, and currently hard as a rock. “Help!”

Kiva had no problems lifting the Ainu up with both hands, pulling him away from Rixas, which caused him and growl and snarl a bit, spittle flying from his mouth. Clearly this one wasn’t imbued with as much raw intellect as Rixas, and she was profoundly grateful he had found her before this thing. Before Rixas could warn her, the Ainu started howling, very loudly, and Kiva cursed as the motion contacts all turned to face her and she heard answering calls. “… A pack of them!”

“Right,” Rixas replied. “Come on, we have to run!” Kiva, for lack of anything better to do with the creature, tossed the Ainu aside roughly and followed her fleeing friend, picking up her pace as best as she could. At first she was groggy, tired, and sapped by hunger, but as she focused, she matched Rixas’ speed and then pulled in front of him, running headlong through tangled forest paths as growls and barks echoed ominously behind them. “Just… keep… going,” Rixas panted. “I’m pretty sure… we can get to… Rikou!”

To Kiva’s annoyance, Rixas soon showed signs of fatigue; so he could circle her for hours and bound around like a child but when it came time to run his stamina ran out? She was pondering witty quips about conservation of energy when Rixas tripped on a particularly large root directly in his path and toppled face-first into the dirt. She winced, skidding to a halt and going to his side. “Come on, get up,” She insisted.

Rixas had started crying, however, the imminent danger and pain of the fall having gotten to the poor boy. Kiva frowned, glancing up as the clamor drew nearer and nearer again, feeling the pressure. Acting instead of waiting to be attacked, she bent over and scooped Rixas up in her arms bridal-style, taking off again, and barely even felt his relatively slight weight as she ran. Rixas stopped bawling, and actually seemed to snuggle into her, bare chest and torso happy to rub against her bouncing, heaving chest. He beamed at her with affection and she tried not to look embarrassed. After all, she was a professional.

“Which way?” She demanded, coming to a fork where the abandoned path lead in three different directions. “Rixas. Which. Way.” The boy was still recovering, but the tone in her voice resonated deep in him and made him obey.

“L-Left,” He replied, sniffling and wiping his face clean of dirt and tears. Kiva pulled a sharp left and kept going, huffing and puffing as this much running even started to take its toll on her. Just as she was really starting to feel the burn, the path suddenly began to widen, and she noticed less obstructions in it. Taking this as a good sign, she powered ahead, and soon, a wooden cabin came into view in the distance. “That’s it, Mistress! Rikou’s house! Keep going!”

Kiva glanced back and saw shadows in the trees behind. “I’m not sure the door on that thing can keep out thirty pissed off dogs,” She replied, feeling more and more like a kid who’d kicked over a beehive as the cabin drew closer but she also noticed herself start to get slower.

“No, but he’s got something better,” Rixas replied proudly. He glanced around and spotted a man, tall and thin, in roman-esque robes. He was kind of pale and his hair was feminine, long, and an unnatural, deep, dark blue. He had been leaning against a wall of the cabin, but upon hearing the noise and spotting them, rushed to meet them, reaching into a pocket. “R-Rikou!” Rixas called out. “Heeeeeelp!”

Rikou literally rolled his eyes as he spotted their pursuit, coming fast, and said, “Da da, I will protect you from a mess you no doubt caused.” He used a mechanical device she didn’t recognize and said, “Shield will be online in a moment.” He was speaking in a heavy accent, although Kiva couldn’t quite place it, guessing Rikou was a native of some place in east Europe, possibly a Slav. Right now, she was focusing on the impending danger, although the word ‘shield’ got her attention.

“Shield? You mean this house has a-“ Almost as if to cut her off, a dome of brilliant blue snapped into existence with a pop of displaced air, enclosing the house and the three humanoids near it. The Ainu charged forward, seeming not to care, but bashing head-first into solid energy quickly changed their tune. The first few got bloody noses, and the rest tried to batter into it, punch or kick or pounce it, but none of their attacks had any effect on the shield.

“Hurrrah,” Rixas cheered, giggling and elated to have escaped unharmed with his Mistress. “Thank you, Rikou! I knew coming to you was the right thing to do.”

Rikou brushed a lock of hair away from entrancing green eyes under golden-rimmed glasses, looking Kiva over as if he’d only seen her now for the first time. “I am used to seeing boys who look inhuman, but never have I seen a woman like you.” He pushed up his glasses. “Rixas, I might be the one who should be thanking you, if she proves interesting.”

Kiva took a couple of deep breaths, resisting the urge to collapse to the ground and take a nap on the spot. “Thanks for the save,” She said. “Impressive tech, at least compared to the nothing I’ve seen so far.”

“Da,” Rikou nodded. “Worked it up to repel the Ferals; works like a charm, although sometimes they need to bash their heads a few times before they learn.” He motioned to the cahin. “Let us go inside, I think you have nearly as many questions as I do.” Both of these beings seemed to be taking her obviously alien appearance fairly well, especially since, as she gathered, the master race that designed them didn’t resemble her too strongly. At that moment, tired and running on empty, Kiva couldn’t muster up the energy to care too much, and trudged inside the cool, dark wood building.

The cabin’s living room had an old, worn-away couch and a currently unused stone fireplace, as well as a window, although the blinds were drawn and the lighting was dim. Papers were everywhere, littering the floor, and Kiva noticed many of them had nothing more than scribbles or odd symbols, while others were computer-neat printouts of thousands of figures and statistics. “Pardon the mess, I was not expecting any company,” Rikou said. “You look beat; understandable, da, such a run would have killed me. Rixas, if you’re done recovering from feeling her rather large chest, get on feet and fetch some drinks for your friend.”

“Mistress,” Rixas corrected him cheerfully, leaping out of her arms and landing with unexpected grace before skittering off into an adjacent room.

“Oh?” Rikou cocked an eyebrow. “Interesting indeed. I don’t think it was very hard to obtain this one, no?” He paused. “Wait, this is all wrong. You probably just arrived here, da, otherwise you would be better equipped to deal with an Ainu pack than… Rixas. Good for snuggles, da. Mass combat, better off with your own fists.” He smirked. “So, then, allow me to welcome you to Earth.”

Kiva was so relieved to take the load off of her feet and onto the old sofa that it took her a moment to process his greeting. “… Earth?” She repeated vacantly, staring at the apparently mad genius.

“Da. Is the name of this world. I could tell you were either space alien or genetic experiment gone wrong, but aside from your… land, I have seen no special powers, and those would have come in handy during dramatic chase.”

Rixas arrived bearing cold cans of something that, to Kiva, vaguely resembled Centurion Tea, except without the salt or much of the alcohol, but she still chugged her can with little of her usual reserve and grace. After she gasped for air, she replied, “No, you’re right, I think… I just appeared here this morning after going to bed in my own, uh, home, but... this can’t be Earth.”

“Why not?” Rikou asked in between his own sips. Rixas plopped himself down right next to his Mistress and got to snuggling, huggling her side with the utmost warmth and affection. Kiva wriggled a bit, but in truth, getting used to this wasn’t going to be that hard, so long as this little boy’s hands stayed to himself.

“Because I know Earth,” She replied, totally unable to reconcile her observations with reality. “Not only does Earth kind of have a shortfall of pristine natural forests, unless I woke up in a national park, but I’m completely sure humanity never engineered a ton of slave races for their own benefit!”

Rikou almost choked on his drink. “Da, da,” He gasped, unable to contain his volcanic laughter. “Of course they never did, is why Rixas and I are figments of your imagination. You possess an exceptionally beautiful imagination, though, Milady.”

She frowned, but all she could say in reply was, “… Fair enough. So, this is Earth, with human beings, but…” She pondered for a moment. “What is the date?”

Rikou didn’t have a pressing reason to keep track of every single day out in such a wild, uncivilized place, but he did remember the year off the top of his head, and replied, “150.” After watching Kiva’s reaction to that, he added, “In ATS, of course. That probably doesn’t help much, da, let me think…” He murmured to himself a bit. “Sacrifice was in 2090, 150 after that is…” He coughed. “Is 2240 in Gregorian count, da.”

Kiva was over a hundred Terran years old, and she hadn’t even been alive in 2240, considering that for her, the present time was somewhere on the order of the early twenty-sixth century. The realization hitting her was more profound than that, though, as she clearly remembered that humanity had only been a few decades removed from alien enslavement, and none of the history books ever mentioned anything about hordes of genetic slaves resisting the occupation. Well, if she’d traveled somewhere else in space, and somewhen else in time, then she couldn’t rule out the possibility that she had also been taken to a reality unlike her own, some sort of alternate dimension even. If she had been a theist she might have said ‘my god’ a few hundred times as she fought not to break down, but she was just silent, burying her face in her hands for a while. The entire weight of the day bore down on her and she had nothing to say, no witty remarks, and felt herself on the verge of genuine tears.

Rikou watched, giving her the time she needed to recover and talk to him again, while Rixas cuddled as intensely as he could without initiating Taming, trying to impart comfort and heat to his Mistress in her time of need. “… If this is a dream, I want to wake up now,” She said, voice muffled by her own hands, and let out a rattling sigh. After a few moments hadn’t changed her reality back to normal, she decided to look up again. “I’m from another dimension, I think.”

The scientist nodded. “Da. Makes most sense, given your memories and what I know of the world… I’m sorry, but you need to learn some things about this place. Ainu pack may be the least of worries in worst case, da, and luckily you have a genius here to teach. Relax for a bit, and when you’re ready for a primer in… well, the world, I suppose, join me in my study.” With that, he took his leave, Rixas watching him go.

“Mistress… I had no clue you were serious,” The Torch whimpered, and Kiva found herself actually petting him absently. “I mean, now that I look at you, it’s really obvious, but… eeh. Rikou always gets me to learn new things, so I’m glad we’re here.”

Kiva managed a smile, and nodded. “At least you found me, and I guess I’m lucky for that.” Rixas squealed girlishly and buried his face against her shoulder, his body heat increasing measurably.

“Mistress is so cool~” He said, tittering. Kiva shook her head and pried him away before standing up.

“Come on,” She said, empty drink can still clutched in one hand, “Let’s get another drink and then go to his study. Which way?” With Rixas’ valiant guidance and a trip to the refrigerator, Kiva found herself at the doorway to Rikou’s study. This room was quite cluttered around the edges, with several old desks stacked with all manner of machinery and mountains of papers. Embedded somewhere in the back, directly under another blocked window, was a pretty large and comfortable-looking bed, but Rikou was lounging in a wood chair when he saw her. “Alright. Anything you can tell me would be very helpful, Rikou.”

“Let us take this from the top,” He sighed, standing up and offering her the chair, which she gratefully accepted. The wooden construct wasn’t even meant to handle a normal man’s weight, much less a betan’s, and it creaked threateningly, but Rikou didn’t seem concerned. He dug around for some pictures in a particular stack. “In beginning, the Earth was without form, and void…”

Kiva interrupted. “Abridge it for me, please. I’m familiar with human history-“ She had gotten an 87-percent on the class in college, at least… “-so let us try to identify the point at which our dimensions diverge.” So many things struck her as so odd, not that she wasn’t getting used to that by now. She was an intellectual, a trained professional, a high officer in the Republican Armed Forces, and she was frankly and seriously discussing alternate dimensions with a naked, clingy, horny living campfire and a sarcastic, girly Slavic mad scientist, hundreds of years before she was born.

“Mohamed.” A nod. “Dark Ages.” Another nod. “Renaissance.” Nod. “Hm… World War II.” Nod. “The Genesis Wars?” A stare and a blink. “A-ha! I suspect that, where you come from, dimensional travel was never practically demonstrated, da?” Nod. “That is the divergence, the point that everything changed for us. The reason I am here, in fact.”

Rikou proceeded to mercifully abridge well over two hundred years of turbulent world history into half an hour, explaining about the cold-war-era Project Riftcrash and its final success in the middle of the twenty-first century, tunneling through dimensions. Contact was established with a far more advanced Earth, from which many technologies were obtained, but America was seen as hoarding the wealth and China declared war, plunging the whole world into conflict. Nuclear weapons and the advent of bioweapons known as Pokeboys, monsters wielding elemental forces and controlled by basic urges to obey humanity, ensured the conflict forever scarred the world.

SK, the dark Legendary Pokeboy with dreams of wiping out all humans and living in a Pokeboy paradise, attacked the world with his legions and was on the brink of final victory when the other Legendary Pokeboys rebelled and killed him. The last remaining Legendary, Trikko, sacrificed his life force to rejuvenate the ruined planet Earth, restoring it to an Eden free of pollution or any other hostile influence. “So. In order to survive an apocalypse imposed by Pokeboys, they needed Pokeboys. We are in Europe now, da, unquestionably the safest place on the planet. In any other continent’s wilderness, no safety awaits, and all manner of beasts reside.”

Kiva had long since passed the point of skepticism but had comforted herself again with the I’m-insane theory and decided to accept this new information at once. “… I think I understand,” She said. “So the Pokeboy armies were leaderless without SK and devolved into Ferals, all over the world. They’re like wild animals.”

“Da. All are stronger than a person in some way, and they are all motivated by base instincts; hunger, anger… lust. Like the Ainu pack out there.” Kiva shivered at the prospect of a world teeming with superhuman beasts. She might have been a betan, but without any support or weapons, going outside was sounding less and less smart every minute. “So. This is why Tamers are around. They domesticate Pokeboys. Control them, use them to defeat Ferals, defend people, personal glory, erotic pleasure… often at once, da. Even though you are certainly… impressive, you will need Pokeboys just like everyone else.”

The soldier rejected that idea without a lot of consideration, shaking her head. “I will not own a slave.”

Rikou glanced over at Rixas, still valiantly trying to attach himself to his Mistress’ side and melt permanently onto it as a snuggly lovelump. “Da. Of course not.” He let out a deep sigh. “Kiva, I honestly appreciate your perspective, but you must understand something. We are not people. Rixas, myself, the Ainu, and every other Pokeboy out there… as you already deduced, we are designed to serve. We love it, inside our hearts, and we need it to remain sane. The nicest thing you can do for a Pokeboy, if you can control and support him, is to capture him. The meanest is to ask him to fend for himself.”

The ethical implications of artificial slave races had been one of the longest-running and most controversial issues of her time, from the two extremes; that the slave race should never have been created, to the other pole, that if a civilization can create such beings, and keep them happy and satisfied while enjoying the benefits of their labor, it had a perfect right to. The strong anti-slavery stance adopted by all the species of the Republic had colored the debate, certainly, and Kiva had always been implicitly against such ‘creation slavery’. She shook her head. “This is disgusting,” She said.

“I simply do not agree. How is it disgusting to you that beings can know their purpose in life, something humans always struggle with, and enjoy perfect comfort, love, and dependence with others. In return, the humans need the Pokeboys’ strength, to survive, to work, to fight.” Rikou shook his head. “I’m not expecting you to change your moral framework in a day, da, but just try to keep your eyes open. Maybe in time you will see.” He glanced to Rixas, seeming almost blissfully unaware of the entire world save for his Mistress.

Kiva couldn’t just spit in the face of the two people who’d helped her out through her day of trials, and so, although she had deep, abiding reservation, she nodded slowly. “Plus, I just know that you’re going to point out my practical need for Pokeboys to survive in my journey to seek a way home.” Rikou nodded, and seemed impressed with her, although after being in the wilds with only Ferals and Rixas, his standards had to have found themselves somewhat lowered.

“Speaking of which. I believe the best chance you have to find a way out… is Transentia.” Rikou pulled out a map and indicated a point amongst the mountains of former Switzerland. “A Pokeboy Nation, small, but run by Elcos like myself, with advanced technology. If you help me get back there, I will do everything in my power to get you home.”

Kiva didn’t even need a second to think about it; finally, her first realistic hope of even possibly returning to her world. “Deal.”

“Good.” Rikou stood up with a sigh and did a bit of stretching. “Now, we will move on to more pressing matters. It has been a while, da, and I know it has been a while for Rixas, as well. In order to get you acclimated to being a Tamer…” He slipped off his robe, revealing creamy white skin and a bare, thin torso, along with tight black shorts that left little to the imagination, before walking towards her slowly. “Is time for Taming.”