Meridian. The capital of the world, if you asked anyone from the Sundom. Compared to the villages and settlements that she passed on the way here, it might as well have been. So many people in one place… and not just Carja, but Oseram and Banuk and even some Utaru. Aloy was the only Nora though.

It definitely set her apart, her blazing red braids and machine bow marking her as one of the warrior women of the ‘Savage East’.

“Aloy!? Aloy?” A man called out to her from amidst the crowd. She looked back, scanning the faces to try and find the source of the call.

“Here!” He waved, calling her over.

She made her way over to the Carja merchant, a pale skinned man in metal feathers, silks and machine parts exposing much of his chest. In the heat of the Sundom’s plains and deserts, Aloy had taken to wearing Carja clothes herself- the midriff bearing Blazon that was as good for the sun’s heat as it was for a Bellowback’s fire blasts.

The unfortunate side effect is that it drew a few stares from Carja, either complimentary or derisive of an outlander wearing their attire. It particularly emphasized her physique as well… 

“You called?” She asked with a shrug.

“You’re Aloy, right?” The man asked, “Nora, red hair, machine rider?”

“You want to add anything else to that?” She said with a playful smirk.

“A real beauty?” He added with a smile.

The redhead sighed, “Try again.”

“Well…” The merchant stroked his chin, “I’ve also heard you’ve never been able to refuse anyone in need.”

“Oh, I see.” She said, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows, “Let’s hear it then.”

“You know that bloodthirsty Tenakth tribe? -the cannibals?”

Aloy had her doubts. She’d heard the same thing about her own tribe, after all. He continued on, “Well, turns out they pushed some tribe nobody’s ever heard of up north against the Jewel. People calling themselves the Aphora or something. Funny thing about them… people say they live among the machines. Not just that, but they’re born motherless- delivered from cauldrons. Humans, born from the machines’ lair!”

“Wait.” The woman interrupted, suddenly turning serious, “What did you say?”

“Uh, well… That’s just hearsay.” The merchant rubbed the back of his head, “I mean, it’s impossible! It is the sun itself that blesses motherhood! So says the scriptures.”

Aloy shook her head and sighed. Motherless children…

She still needed to find Olin and track down the people responsible for the Proving massacre… to get some answers about why they wanted her dead. Yet maybe there were more people like her. People who could give her some answers about her mother- about who ‘Elisabet Sobeck’ was.

“I’ll go.” She answered with resolve.

“Uh… I didn’t tell you what I needed, though.” The man furtively added.

“What is it?” Aloy asked, putting on a more empathetic face.

“Well, you see… there’s a special fluid from the machines there. Pink and aromatic. Quite, ah, stimulating.” He said, fumbling with his hands, “I’m sending a caravan there but… well, my people are… unreliable. I give them a dozen barrels to fill and they come back with one.”

“I… don’t see how I can help you with that.” The redhead replied with a shake of her head and a shrug.

“They’re dipping into it, I know.” The merchant tossed his hand in front of him dismissively, “They can’t contain themselves long enough to sell it. So I need someone who has never tasted it before.”

“This… fluid.” Aloy began, narrowing her eyes skeptically, “The Carja drink it? That doesn’t sound very safe.”

“It is perfectly safe!” The man corrected.

“I’ve met a shaman who drank from the machines before. I… I think it was killing him.” The woman said, “I’m not going to bring you back a poison.”

“It’s no poison.” He said, shaking his head, “Just… go and see for yourself, machine rider. I hear you have a knack for figuring these things out.”

Aloy crossed her arms and looked away from him, and then sighed and said, “I’ll look into it.”

She didn’t want to commit to helping him if there was more to this story… but also there were tales of new machines, an intoxicating fluid from them, and most of all, motherless children born from Cauldrons.

…
…
…

“Hey, machine rider.” A man asked.

They were marching through a path in the Jewel, the verdant rainforest south of Meridian. She turned back to look over her shoulder at the man pulling the cart behind him. He was a brawny Carja underclass, by the looks of it. Ebon skinned and thickly muscled, breathing heavy in the jungle heat. Every caravan needed a few strong men like him for this kind of labor.

“Think you could tame a strider for us? Maybe we’ll tie this cart to it and I can take a break.” The  said with a warm smile as sweat ran down his brow.

“You know… I never thought about that before.” Aloy replied with a remarkable smile and turned back to the caravan leader, a grizzled sunburnt Carja with scars across his back, proudly displayed, “Do you hear that?”

“Eh?”

“Your porter here, he said I should get a strider to carry the cart.” Aloy said with a confident smile, “Wouldn’t take long.”

Not that she was going to take no for an answer. The seeker figured it was common courtesy to let him know that she was going to break off from the convoy. Though the machines here were apparently docile, it was still unknown territory.

“You just thought of that now?” The man barked at the porter, looking past Aloy. Then he turned his eyes to her, “We’re almost to High Respite anyway… but I guess you could catch a few for the return trip.”

Just then, they neared a river cutting through the jungle, clearing the forest canopy and exposing the blue sky above. There was a low rumble… and then another. A heavy plodding from far away.

“Sounds like a tallneck.” Aloy muttered, looking around for any decent trees to climb, “I’m gonna go check it out. I’ll meet you at the village!”

Before the caravan master could protest, off she went, darting through the thick jungle foliage. The woman clambered up a tree, perched upon a branch and leaped off to a nearby cliff, where she shimmied over and then vaulted herself up the green-topped mesa. She ran over to the opposite edge of the natural platform, shielding her eyes as she caught sight of the Tallneck.

A massive machine, living up to its name, with a large disc towering over all.

“I’m just about at the right height too…” She said, activating her Focus and scanning out the trajectory for its pathfinding. Born an outcast, Aloy was quite used to talking to herself all the time… She stood there and waited as the gentle giant slowly made its way around. As it approached, the redhead took a running start and jumped over to one of the fins on its back, climbing up its long neck to get to the disc up top.

“Alright, let’s see what we’re working with.” She said as she jammed her spear into the access port and began the download of data to her Focus.

In the Tallnecks’ meandering journey throughout the lands south of the Sundom, it had quite thoroughly mapped out the locations of human and machine populations alike. Aloy quickly found High Respite and made note of some of the nearby Strider herds. There was also the cauldron entrance and a number of… places labeled as ‘nests’ throughout the area.

She pulled her spear out, the map display dissipating around her… when suddenly, a winged machine perched on the edge of the Tallneck’s disc and sent Aloy scrambling away with her spear in hand.

It was small, no larger than a Watcher… and looked to be a bird with a long neck and some kind of storage device in its chest. Its central lens didn’t glow with the passive blue of an unaware machine… but nor was it the cautious yellow or aggressive red of one enranged. It was in fact pinkish-purple.

The long-necked machine looked her over. Aloy activated her focus and saw that it was apparently scanning her in some spectrum of light she couldn’t normally see. Much like how the ‘All-Mother’ scanned her back in the Sacred Lands. She held her spear tightly, watching it for any sign of danger…

In the end, the strange machine concluded its sweep and hopped forward, lowering its ‘beak’ to the same access node she had just used. She saw the same virtual interface show up through her focus as it too downloaded some map data.

“I thought machines could communicate with each other silently… from afar.” She whispered to herself, “What is it doing?”

She took a closer look at the bird itself. Her focus identified it as a ‘Mother Goose’ with the usual components for flight but also an empty ‘delivery capsule’ in its chest and a head-mounted ‘Identiscanner’.

“So… are you a look-out like the watchers or a transporter like a shell-walker?” She muttered.

Entirely indifferent to her, the Mother Goose pulled its beak out of the Tallneck’s access port and turned around, taking flight and departing back for the jungled canopy. She watched it land on a nearby tree and resolved to chase after it, rappelling down from the massive meandering machine and tracking the flying machine through her Focus.

It soon took to the air again and she chased it over a hill and across a river to where it perched atop the rusted out cannon of an Old Ones’ war wagon. Aloy activated her focus again… and saw that it was scanning the local wildlife this time- a nest of baby birds in one tree, a fox scurrying around the jungle floor below, and a boar skulking about in some tall bushes.

She had noticed the flying machine seemed… fixated on the boar. It was staring like a hunter would. Yet Aloy didn’t see any weapons on the machine. By her estimation, all it could do would be to flop in the vague direction of its enemy like a Watcher.

Then she saw… a shimmering in the trees above the grazing boar. A Stalker, perhaps? But there were no signal mines anywhere… It hung off the branches like one but didn’t quite have the same profile. Suddenly, from its maw snapped some kind of cable like a long tongue, extending many feet out from its body and nearly lashing at the boar below. It whipped at the air, splashing a mysterious fluid out to rain over the flesh and blood beast. Where the substance landed, fumes rose up and quickly enveloped the boar.

The wild animal bolted, squealing as it fled… but it only got a few paces away before it began to slow and stagger and eventually fell down onto its side. Aloy watched from behind her hiding place.

The unseen machine’s cloaking device momentarily lapsed, revealing its true form. It was unlike any other machine she had seen- more like a lizard or amphibian than a mammal. She quickly scanned it with her Focus before it went invisible again.

Just long enough to archive it in the database. Labeled ‘Snatcher’, it had a stealth generator identical to the Stalker’s, but lacked the dart gun and mine launcher. In their stead, some kind of canister containing a pink fluid described as ‘Euphoria’ and connected to it was a tongue-like cable in its mouth labeled an ‘Aspergillum’…

According to the display, that gas just knocked the little piggy out. A machine that renders animals unconscious? She’d never heard of them interacting with the wildlife in any way. Most went out of their way to avoid disturbing the local fauna- but these pink-hued machines… they were deliberately targeting the boar for some reason.

Aloy abruptly turned, sensing that she was being watched. Another ‘Mother Goose’ perched up high, watching her… staring at her not unlike the other one was. Of course, the Snatchers didn’t use mines because they relied upon these bird machines to be their eyes!

She rose her bow and drew its string back in a flash, shooting an arrow square in the flying machine’s pink lens. It sputtered and sparked fell forward towards the earth below. Then she drew another arrow for the shimmering disturbance that was the Snatcher’s perch… but it was gone.

Instinct kicked in and she immediately knew she was going to have to abandon her hiding spot. The woman jumped out of the tall and grass and began sliding down a hill towards a river clearing. Not a moment too late, as a metal tongue flashed from site unseen and splashed that same pink fluid across the grass. She had just narrowly avoided the fumes.

The Seeker nocked a tearblast arrow. Even if she missed the mark on anything important, the shockwave would at least disrupt the stealth generator. When she caught a glimpse of the Snatcher’s telltale shimmer, she loosed the arrow and watched as the sonic clap stripped the machine of some of its armor and its cloaking device.

Now she could focus on its weakpoint! As the machine got on its haunches and prepared for what looked like a lunge, Aloy nocked another arrow and let loose at the canister of Euphoria on its back. It shattered on impact, releasing an explosion of pink mist. From the cloud came the mechanical lizard’s cracking tongue.

It snapped in the air, just short of colliding with her, and out came only fumes- a gentle splash like drizzle on her cheeks and stomach. Without the source of Euphoria, all it could hit her with was what little residue was remaining in its tongue.

Another arrow straight to the eye put it down, the falling inert where it lay.

Aloy wiped her face and looked at her hands, at the slight glint of light dancing on the beads of fluid across her forearms and abs. Her green eyes widened for a moment… and she blinked.

“Still conscious.” She said with a sigh of relief, “Guess it didn’t get me.”

The young woman slung her bow over her shoulder and went over to salvage her first ‘Snatcher’ kill in this strange and exotic southern land. Internally, it was fundamentally the same as the rest. No sign of corruption or anything like that.

…
…
…

A herd of striders grazed upon the jungle floor, mulling about docile as could be. One of them raised its head, scanning the myriad of green shapes swaying with the wind and rain.

From up above, Aloy leaped, landing atop one’s back. Before it had the chance to buck, she drove her spear down between its shoulder plates- not so far as to cause any lasting damage… but enough to allow her spear to access its core and override it. A few seconds later and a surge of fresh blue cables ran up the equine machine’s synthetic muscles, popping off its armor plating in the process.

All the other striders fled as she rendered this one docile.

“Hah.” She smiled and gave the mechanical beast a pat on its back, “Hope you’re ready for the caravan life.”

The redhead wiped some sweat off her brow. Her cheeks and collar flushed and she felt… somehow warm and a little tingly. Aloy chalked it up to the strange environment she now found herself in. Whatever moistness she felt was most assuredly just sweat!

Aloy steered the machine away from the clearing and over in the direction of High Respite. The terrain would be a bit rocky. Paths were few and far between in such an untamed land so the route her Focus plotted would take her up and down a number of hills and across a few rivers.

The sun was getting low in the sky when she crested a particularly tall hill and her mount began scampering down at a forced pace. Machines had even more momentum than flesh and blood animals so once this strider got going, he wasn’t liable to stop until they hit flat ground.

Aloy felt every bump and rock and step down the hill as her strider scrambled. She bounced up and down atop the machine’s sleek synthetic fibers, eliciting… an incredibly strange feeling! The woman bent low, ostensibly to stabilize herself on the machine’s back- but as she hugged its shoulders and kept her upper body pressed tightly to its cables and sinews, her lower body still bounced up and down… grinding her womanhood against its silk and leather confines.

“Aah~” She softly cried out, clutching at the strider with more desperation, “Mmmh!”

Something felt… weird! It was unlike anything she had felt before. Each bumpy step the strider took was a repetition of that same pleasurable note- all these feelings producing the melody of a rising crescendo. However strange it felt… she didn’t want it to stop. As her red locks and braids flew through the air, she closed her eyes and let out a moan with every gratifying bounce.

Until the machine between her legs slowed to a halt, having descended to the bottom of the hill.

“Mmm.” Aloy wordlessly whined, resting her head upon the strider’s back and urging it on to move forward. It slowly walked forward as she was left breathing. Her body searched for ways to recapture that feeling… and soon the young woman was rolling her hips and grinding her groin against the equine machine’s body, “Ooh.”

She’d never felt anything like it.

“Faster.” She whispered, ushering the strider to pick up the pace as she did. Aloy gasped as she began to rub herself more and more desperately, feeling so hot and wet. As the machine gracefully plodded forward, the girl on its back was grinding and rolling her hips on it like an animal in heat. Indeed, she might as well have been. “Faster!” She muttered to herself, practically rutting atop the machine.

Until the most wonderful feeling overcame her- a sensation of pleasure… coalescing at her nethers- and then radiating out in waves. The redhead clutched at the machine, digging her fingers in between the cables running along the strider’s neck. She grabbed two fistfuls of them and pulled as she moaned, her lower body still helplessly rutting and grinding against the machine’s synthetic musculature, trapping her silken smallclothes and leather shorts between their bodies.

Aloy shuddered as the sensations wracked her body, her body convulsing as she whimpered and moaned atop her steed.

When her senses returned to her, she relaxed her muscles and lifted her head up off the machine’s back, “W-whoa… that felt… good?” She bit her lip and felt the flush of embarrassment rushing her cheeks.

Of course, on long bumpy roads, she had felt an inkling of that sensation before. It was pleasant, sure, but often quickly forgotten. Never had she pushed it so far… and been rewarded so thoroughly. Aloy had the thought that she could have been doing this kind of thing the whole time. Even now she found herself rubbing her groin against the strider’s back, pleasuring herself.

The woman licked her lips and swallowed the lump in her throat, reminding herself not to get careless. She was still in the wild, after all.

…
.,.
…

As Aloy approached High Respite, she was greeted by a rather… curious site. The settlement had no walls, though it was situated on a defensible hill beneath a cliff face. She could see the smoke from camp fires rising up in the air and surrounding it, on all sides… were machines. Sawtooths and Longlegs, even a Ravager with its cannon quite intact.

She drew her bow but kept the arrows in her quiver. The machines’ ocular lenses were all glowing pink, like the strange new types she had just seen by the Tallneck. What’s more, they were all facing outward… away from the settlemet.

“They’re… protectors.” She mumbled. So that’s how this Aphora tribe managed to survive against the Tenakth- reavers so fearsome that not even the Mad Sun King dared to target in the red raids.

She bid her mount climb the hill up, where she passed by the indifferent Ravager. A few watchers peeked their heads up from the nearby grass… while some ‘Mother Goose’ machines perched in trees and on the cliffs above.

The redhead entered High Respite proper just as the caravan had finished unloading their Carja and Oseram wares. Silks and high culture from the Sundom, technology and tinkering from the Claim.

“Whoa.” Aloy averted her eyes as she took note of the locals’... preference for nudity. In truth, their attire was quite intricate, though also very revealing. The Aphora wore cables and wires around their necks, machine piece headwear and laced up sandals. They had all manner of jewelry, to include a man who had a necklace of the Old Ones’ windchimes. They had no modesty to speak of, though- baring their breasts and genitals alike.

“Aloy!” The porter waved to her, “You brought us a beast of burden, I see.”

“Sure did.” She answered uncomfortably, “Though… it looks like you didn’t need my help taming any machines.”

“These machines are not tame.” One of the locals said, stepping forward and demanding her attention. She turned her eyes to him, so long as she kept her gaze above his waist… “They are guardians sent to us from the goddess. They protect us from man and machine alike but… not one of them is so obedient as to be ridden like that.”

He was a man of a dusky complexion, middle-aged and wiry in stature, wearing a headdress of machinery and draped in cables.

“Your… goddess.” Aloy shrugged as she spoke, “Could you tell me about her?”

“Aphrodite, she calls herself.” He answered, “She is not a machine, though they are her agents and through her swans she speaks to us. We have named ourselves after her, since she saved us from the reavers.”

“I… think I encountered a few of those swans on the way here.” The redhead sheepishly answered, “They called something called a Snatcher to attack me.”

“Oh!” He exclaimed, “That was no attack! You are blessed indeed! The Goddess has chosen you to receive her bounty.”

“E-excuse me?”

“All Aphrodite wishes is to foster the love of all things. Man and beast and machine alike.” The local said with a certain… serenity to his expression, “Her attendants take the world’s creatures to her embrace… and blesses them with young.”

“Wait.” Aloy furrowed her brow, “Are you saying she’s… impregnating animals?”

“-and all beings of flesh and blood who walk this earth, ourselves included.” He added.

The woman was mortified and tried to speak out before he put his hands out to assure her, “The Goddess understands your concerns. The Carja worship the Sun, yet it blinds those who worship its radiance. Aphrodite knows the limitations of our bodies and spirits- that we cannot always bear her gifts. Those who are heavy with child, yet without the means to carry them… may ask the Goddess’ swans for reprieve, and so it shall be granted.”

“Wait a minute.” The ebon skin porter scratched his head, “Your Goddess… she’ll, ah, put a baby in a mother’s womb and then take it out again?”

“Not just those she blesses, but even mothers who conceive young beyond her embrace. Happily she will accept them and raise them in her palace.” The Aphora said with a smile, “This pleases her most of all, and as her loyal devotees, we provide her with every possible offering.”

“How you supposed to raise a family if you give up all your babies to this Goddess then?” The porter said with a scoff to his voice.

“Ask and the goddess grants a boon. In fact, Aphrodite shall deliver a child to the desirous this very evening. A great honor indeed for Risha.” He pointed with his eyes to the naked woman currently washing clothes across the way.

‘So machines bring them children? That’s why they call them Motherless…’ Aloy thought to herself, ‘That’s… impossible. There’s got to be another explanation.’

“Is this… honor some kind of ritual? Can I… see it?” Aloy asked.

The other caravan members all looked worriedly to her when the Aphora nodded and said, “You may. We do not ask that you participate, but be mindful that this is a ritual to celebrate love and life before her glory.”

“Celebrate… love?” The redhead skeptically began to ask, “-what do you mean by that?”

“We ask that you leave your weapons and cleanse your heart of all hatred during the ritual. Before the Goddess’ swans, think not of loss or vengeance.”

Her thoughts instantly turned to Rost…

“Think happy thoughts, huh?” She said, slapping her thighs and blowing air out of her cheeks, “I think I can do that.”

“You’d best get some rest then, traveler.” He smiled, “I hear it is quite the journey from Meridian.”

“Yeah, I am feeling kind of… worn out.” The seeker admitted, her thoughts drifting back to her ‘ride’ down the hill and subsequent… discoveries about her body, “Is there some place I could stay?”

The Aphora happily led her, and the rest of the caravan, to a lodge where they could retire.


…
…
…

Aloy was restless and sleep had so far eluded her. The woman rolled over in her bed, one hand like a knife’s edge between her thighs. She had went to rest with all the other travellers in a dark lodge, only faintly illuminated by the torch and moonlight creeping in through the tent’s seams.

Knowing that the weary caravanners were eager for sleep, few people disturbed them. She could hear the life outside- of Aphora preparing for their strange ritual. They would wake her once the ceremony drew near… but Aloy was still restless. The others were vague shadows in the dark, all sleeping soundly.

Her hand was so very warm and her thighs moistened with need as it slid between them. She rubbed the outside of her shorts and pressed her knees together. Ever since that incredible ride… her mind had been awakened to a whole new world she never knew existed. It was like the first time she picked up her Focus- or the first time she was invited to Mother’s Heart or the Sundom.

All this time, literally at the edge of her fingertips, she could have been pleasuring herself.

She wanted to experience it again… even though she shouldn’t- not with so many people around. Then again… it was safer in here than out in the wild, where any machine- and especially those snatchers, could sneak up on her. Everything was quiet inside the lodge, so as long as she was sneaky... 

Aloy sucked her lips into her mouth as she rose her hand up… and slid it back down, into her leathers and beneath the Carja silks that amounted to underwear. Experience had told her that the soft fabric could be quite… pleasing on its own, but she was urged on to experience her body more personally.

She let out a soft whimper as her fingertip rolled over her sensitive nub. Already so wet… The girl had to be quiet, though. She couldn’t move or rustle too much either or else the others might notice. She couldn’t be certain in the darkness that there wasn’t someone restless like herself.

So she had to move as little as possible. Aloy rolled over on the bed, cocking one leg out so that she could better gratify herself. The back of her hand was now pinned between her sex and the primitive linen. With her body covered by the blanket, she could just move her wrist and no one would be any wiser.

She had to go slowly… running her finger from the bottom of her sex to the top. The woman ground her palm to her clit and let out a soft “Ngh.” as she winced.

Her heart was racing, even if she was nearly completely still. She heard a man cough and roll over, her green eyes going wide… but she couldn’t stop.

She began to curl her fingers upwards, until she had trapped her sensitive nub between them and her palm… before she straightened them out again, gliding all the way back down to the bottom of her womanhood. Her whole  hand moved like an inchworm against the outside of her sex, so tantalizingly slow.

Until now, the thought hadn’t even occurred to her that she could do… more. In one slow curling, her fingers slipped between her womanly folds, parting them and feeling just how hot and wet her arousal had made her. “Unh.” Aloy furrowed her brow and tried to bite her lip… but then she thought better of it and leaned forward, giving herself something to bite down on- the fine Carja linen bedsheet.

Her thoughts drifted to all the times she had… a funny feeling- when she glimpsed Nora lovers in embrace away from where they thought they could be seen, when her Focus scanned sensual depictions of the Old Ones, and when her thoughts briefly turned to far flung ideas about mates and partners when she had finally proven herself to her tribe.

Now she realized what that funny feeling truly was. It was an inkling of what she had felt upon the Strider’s back. Aloy’s thoughts drifted back to those memories- and she realized that in absence of being able to move freely, her imagination could be harnessed.

In her mind coalesced an image of a man. At first just any man… her recent experience with the Aphora was something of a refresher course on the opposite sex’s anatomy. Who would be her mate in this realm of imagination?

The man she had spent the most time with recently came to mind… but Erend was not ideal. He had been kind to her and she had a feeling he might have been amenable to such a relationship, but there was something about him that missed the mark. Perhaps, most of all, he was incurious… and content with himself.

Avad, then? Closer to her age, certainly, and a good man. He was sensitive and compassionate and, she had to admit, she fancied his dress and the way it revealed his body. When she had first heard of the ‘Radiant Sun King’, she thought such a man would be insufferably contemptuous. Avad was a pleasant surprise… but she felt he might have a hard time understanding her.

None of these thoughts truly came to surface as her mind wandered for masturbatory inspiration. They were only lurking there, hidden beneath the surface… not that Aloy was dreaming of taking anyone for a life partner. Where could she find the time? These fantasies were just that- flights of fancy. Knowing full well she couldn’t settle down any time soon, she could still imagination what it would be like.

So her thoughts at last brought her to Varl. He was of the Nora, like her, but she knew him to be skeptical of the taboos and the superstitions. He would be an understanding mate, which easily lent herself to more… explicit fantasies. Her mind undressed him of his furs and she imagined him atop her.

Her fingers dug deeper.

How she would like to feel his dark skin, to run her hands over his muscles… to feel his embrace. All she knew of sex was what she had seen eavesdropping upon Nora couples in the forest. The woman lays upon her back, spreading her legs invitingly.

She imagined herself upon her back, legs spread.

The man goes between them, hugging her close as they kiss and mate.

She imagined Varl between her thighs, holding her as their lips met.

The man bumps against her, again and again. The couple she had seen went far from the village, underneath the All-Mother where they cried out.

She imagined Varl… bumping against her over and over again. What cries would he make out? At first Aloy thought it was anguish, like the very act of mating was a painful one… but long after that she doubted her first impression. Her ride had now convinced her they were not cries of pain but in fact great pleasure.

So it would have felt just as good for him. They’d both feel that incredible sensation together, she realized… Aloy bit the linens tighter, her mouth drying as she plunged her fingers deeper inside of her sex with long agonizing motions. She couldn’t move an inch beneath her covers.

It was drawing near- the same building sensation she had felt before. Unlike her previous orgasm, which felt like she was breaking down some kind of barrier she never knew was there… This time Aloy kept a constant pace, a slow and almost painfully teasing rhythm. The threshold for climax would descend and descend until it met her and not the other way around- until the most subtle of movements, barely a stroke of her finger, would set her off.

Her heart was pounding. Every instinct in her body was telling her to thrash and revel… but stoic she remained, still as a statue. Closer and closer that sudden explosion of pleasure drew near- she could feel it. The threshold was drawing near… in just a few seconds more.

The tent flap opened up, flooding the room with torchlight and making her body and mind seize up like a grazing fox realizing a predator is upon it.

“Nora?” A hushed whisper came out.

Her green eyes went wide and she pulled her fingers out of her womanhood as she rolled over in her blankets to face the woman at the entrance. Such an action would have brought her over the edge just a minute ago… but she was too alert- too terrified that she’d been caught.

“Nnnh.” Was all she could offer in response, both a genuine wordlessness for her current state of arousal and a cover for just being sleepy.

The Aphora woman, nude and nubile and covered in wires and machine parts that did little to cover her body’s more… intimate parts. She passed by the other travelers and jostled Aloy’s shoulder, an unwelcome touch for how it set off her feelings of guilty pleasure… like she was at risk of being caught committing a taboo.

“The ritual.” The woman said, “You… said you wanted to see it?”

“Uh…” Aloy forced a smile, “Y-yeah. Just.. give me a minute, uh huh?”

“Of course.” She replied, “It might be some time before the Goddess blesses us with her swans, so take all the time you need.”

She appreciated it… but there was no way she was going to get back to where she was. The moment had passed, leaving her utterly unsatisfied. Leaving the tent, Aloy returned to the center of the village. Torches were arrayed in a circle, illuminating the mostly naked bodies of the tribe.

Ironically, she might have been wearing the most clothing out of them all in her Carja blazon.

She had now seen that they had painted themselves in preparation for the ritual, their nudity covered in shades of green and yellow. Across the way, she saw the porter and decided to sit next to him.

“Hey, Garun.” She said as she approached.

“Hello, Aloy.” He replied with a nod, “You… uh, ready for this?”

“I’m ready for anything.” She smiled as the tribe brought out incense burners to the firepit. She could not see into the pots, but each had contents painted pink, the distinctive pink of Euphoria. The Aphora lit the burners and let the billowing flames carry the fumes across the whole village.

Aloy sniffed and waggled her nose at the strangely sweet scent, but thought little more of it. The woman who woke her returned, and in the torchlight she could now see her features much more plainly.

“My name is Miali.” She said, smiling sweetly. She was yellow haired with blue eyes and a lithesome figure, with full breasts and, much to Aloy’s surprise, little hair at all below her waist. Her body was painted like the rest, beneath a necklace of cables and a revealing skirt of fox pelt. She wore plenty of bangles and jewelry that clamored as she moved, “We are honored that you wish to see our communions, but stress that you should feel no obligation to participate.”

“Oh, I’ll participate.” Garun said with a smile.

Aloy furrowed her brows and smiled, “W-what do you mean? What does this entail?”

“The Goddess will only send her swans to the faithful.” Miali explained as she sat down beside the redhead, “So we must beckon them with proof of our devotion- with the celebration of love and life.”

“Oh Goddess!” A group of Aphora around the fire began to chant, inhaling deeply of the vapors emanating out from the pots, “Oh loving Aphrodite! Oh sensual and gentle spirit!”

As she looked around, Aloy noticed that for such an important ritual, the whole of the tribe was poorly represented. The old and the young seemed to be excluded, not an elder or a child in sight. Everyone here was in their prime.

“We offer our bodies to you!” They exclaimed, “We express our love for your bounty!”

“There are many gods, Aloy.” Miali said with a smile, “Your All-Mother is one, and indeed we venerate her as well. There is a god of the Sun and a God who lives buried in the Metal World. Our patron goddess concerns herself with the progeny of both man and animal, inspiring us to multiply.”

“You mean… sex?” The Seeker asked, a redness tinting her freckled cheeks.

“Sex and love, Aloy!” She replied with a laugh, “Aphrodite hates nothing but hate itself. The union of hearts and bodies to create life anew is the purest expression of good-will. There are those who pervert this sacred rite, like the Tenakth. They take mates by force, and often take lives in its pursuit, greatly saddening our goddess. That is why she protects us… and begs us to love one another. You… should join us in celebration.”

Aloy looked over back to the ritual, noting a number of couples in various states of… intimacy. Her green eyes widened and her heart quickened at the sight of such a… brazen display!

“I… don’t think I’m ready for motherhood.” Aloy said with a nervous smile and a half-hearted laugh.

“Then do not take a man to your flower, fair flame-hair.” Miali smiled again, petting the other woman’s braids and brushing her hair out of her face, “You may take a woman as well. The goddess will not bless such a union with life unless we ask.”

“Wait- what? Are you saying… Aphora women have children with one another?” Aloy asked.

“Indeed.” Miali flipped over the redhead’s hair with her other hand and started drawing circles in her palm, “Tonight, Risha asks the Goddess to bless her union with Yora.”

The Nora seeker was skeptical… what she was saying- it was impossible!

“It has been so since this tribe was founded. The young are unmistakably their mothers’ progeny. So it is with men as well. For twenty years we have observed this. My fathers were both ocean-eyed.” Miali said, gently grabbing Aloy’s chin so that she would look closely, “They asked for a girl with eyes like their own… and Aphrodite delivered.”

“I don’t even… know how two women could… y’know.” Aloy admitted, stammering and looking away.

Miali drew closer, “I could show you.”

Her green eyes widened, falling deep into the other woman’s own blue gaze. Her arousal had returned, growing and building ever since the tribe had first lit the incense. So concerned was she with all the rites and everything going on that she didn’t even notice how hot her body had gotten, how wet she was down below.

Before Aloy could say anything in response, Miali pressed her lips to her own… and the redhead closed her eyes. There was a pleasant taste like honey upon them and soon she found the blonde woman had insisted on kissing her deeper so she let her lips part… and Miali swirled her tongue around Aloy’s own, rolling them together in the most intoxicating manner.

Garun and the others all faded from Aloy’s mind, evaporating away into the background. Their bodies were soon meeting one another in passionate reverence. The Seeker found herself upon her back in the soft grass, moving and doing very little but accepting what Miali could do to her.

At last, the blue-eyed woman pulled back and Aloy let her eyes wander... noting how stiff her painted nipples were. It was the first time she had ever looked upon another woman’s naked body in such… detail.

“Have you ever… pleasured yourself, Aloy?” The woman asked.

She bit her lip and looked away… only moments ago, she wanted to say! “Y-yeah.” The Nora stammered.

“Would you like to do so now?” Miali whispered, “Or shall I do it for you?”

“R-right now?” Aloy asked… and then she looked around and saw that a great many of the Aphora were now in various acts of lurid pleasure, either alone or with their partners.

“Right now.” The other woman huskily echoed.

Aloy’s hand wandered down, towards her groin. It passed over her hard abs and slid into her smallclothes for the second time that evening. Already she was so wet and so desirous, her fingers getting wet just from the touch.

Miali kissed her again, and soon Aloy was pleasuring herself as before, in plain view of the whole tribe. Of course, the others were indulging in far more libertine displays of affection- some men had their women bent over, others were riding atop each other. Men and women, women and women, men and men. Their moans raised a cacophony of bliss to the stars.

Aloy quickly returned to the charged state that she had reached within the tent, spurred on by the dance of the blonde’s tongue within her mouth.

The blue-eyed beauty drew away and huskily asked, “May I kiss you… lower?” 

“Lower?” The redhead blinked, “What do you mean… lower?”

The other woman gave a winsome wink and slithered down Aloy’s body, her fingers working the redhead’s armored skirt as she lavished her lips’ affection upon those hard abs, sucking in and out with each touch. Once again Aloy’s heart was pounding, her head feeling a little light, and her cheeks so very hot.

Miali had completely disrobed her, leaving the redhead bare from the midriff down. Unlike the locals, Aloy had never taken a razor or blade to either the hair on her head or… elsewhere. The blonde was quite pleased with such a wild and pure display of womanhood. Her sex beneath was glistening, a flower in bloom. Miali sensually tasted of its nectar- taking great delight in the act of inducting a virgin to her goddess’ holy rites.

“Whoa.” Aloy panted, clutching at the grass as she looked down, “That’s… wow, that’s good.”

The blonde giggled as she lapped and tickled the other woman’s clit.

The Seeker threw her head back, taking it all in as Miali began to finger her. She was tight indeed, almost too tight for one finger… but the more Miali forged ahead, the more Aloy’s body yielded to the sensual probing.

Aloy tossed her head to the side, a single red braid falling across her face. She saw the porter Garun right where they had left him, indulging in a similar act of carnality. Her green eyes turned to his sex, where she could only catch a glimpse of that long dark member as the woman atop it bobbed her head up and down.

She turned her gaze the other way… seeing a youth about her age, brown of hair and skinny of figure, shorter than she was... holding himself as he stared at her and Miali. His bangles and skirt jingled as he pumped his hand over his sex. Aloy could put two and two together, now understanding that men and women masturbated in two very different ways. She licked her lips and then turned her eyes up, to his own. He was staring right back to her.

“C-come.” She heard herself say, hoarse and faint as a whisper.

Yet he heard it all the same, or read it on her lips. The youth approached and laid beside her, his manhood standing so very stiff. Everything on his body had been painted green save for his groin, which drew Aloy’s eyes to it. She stared hard at it for a very long time, occasionally breathing and moaning at whatever tricks Miali was playing upon her sex.

Soon enough, Aloy found her hand wrapped around his cock… it was so hot and hard- yet soft to the touch. She squeezed it a few times, just to test it, and licked her lips as a well of precum formed on its tip. Then she remembered how a man pleasures himself… and so Aloy drew her hand up and down, pumping it just as he had. He let out a pleased sigh, which encouraged her to go faster.

The youth rolled over onto his side towards her and after a momentary lapse, she resumed her efforts. He leaned in for a kiss and she met him without thinking, closing her eyes as they made out. Miali’s oceanic eyes flashed upwards and she smirked beneath Aloy’s sex… quickly getting back to her work.

The three of them all sighed and moaned, panting between kisses, licks, and sucks. The man was the loudest of them, his vocalizations only growing with time. He began to thrust his hips, pushing his cock into Aloy’s hand as she pumped it over his length. As she spread her legs, he kept them tightly together, and the head of his cock smeared just a bit of sweet precum over the side of her body.

Aloy herself was drawing near, even if Miali was a master at keeping a steady pace. Yet the youth in her hands… she felt something coursing against her fingers- a powerful surge and a twitching. Then, as he began to moan louder and more desperately… Aloy felt a hot wetness splashing across her abs and her side. She broke their kiss and looked down.

He brought his lips to her neck and moaned into it as he came, scattering an explosive volley of cum across her stomach. He moaned as he shot out thin white droplets across her body, splattering across her and pooling in the valleys of her abs and her navel. At least a dozen spurts like this, each with lessening intensity than the last, left a smattering of hot wet cum across her muscled abs. The man went practically limp, each breath laborious.

Miali’s licking and fingering grew more intense and soon she was making a concerted effort to push Aloy over the edge- all before she could even take in what had… happened all over her body! The blonde sucked on her clit and finger fucked her until Aloy let out a shout, one among many that night. Her pussy clenched hard on Miali’s fingers but she did not relent- pummeling at all the pleasurable spots a woman knows best.

Aloy came as well, clutching at the grass in one hand and the youth’s still hard cock with the other. Her chest heaved with every breath as waves of orgasmic pleasure exploded throughout her body, a sensation even greater than her first climax.

When it all finally relented, Miali drew away from the other woman’s sex with her lips and jaw thoroughly coated in the redhead’s pleasure.

“Some ritual, huh?” Garun said with a smile as he held a tankard of ale. Her eyes went down to his sex, noting how hard he was- and how shiny that smooth dark member was, wettened by his lover, glistening by the torchlight.

“Yeah.” Aloy nodded, “It’s… incredible.”

“You wanna top me off?” He asked, shooting his eyes down below, and smiling.

The woman nodded. As Miali climbed up her body, to lick her abs of every last drop, rolling her tongue around her lean muscles or plunging it down into her navel, Garun went over on his knees to Aloy, his cock right in line with her head.

Without thinking, she wrapped her lips around him and sucked- doing her best approximation of what she had seen before. She admittedly was a little scared of going too far- she didn’t want to gag… but she was enthusiastic to pleasure him best as she could. He brushed the hair out of her face and was content with her inexperience- Aloy’s insistence and innocence was far more titillating than any technique.

By the time Miali had lapped up every last drop across her impeccable body, Aloy had managed to bring the porter to the brink himself. He let out a happy sigh and warned her, “I’m close.”

She didn’t let up for a second, and moments later, Garun grabbed her head and clawed at his own thigh while he flooded the inside of her mouth, filling it hot and thick with semen. She was shocked at the salty taste, to say the least, but still so incredibly enthralled with everything going on that she happily swallowed him down and coaxed the rest from his balls, stream after stream… until he was spent, and backed away- leaving Aloy’s lips dribbling.

Miali suddenly appeared, kissing the redhead and taking some of his cum for herself. Aloy looked up, a little thirsty, and seemed… proud of herself. The expression Garun was making could only be described as bliss- an overload of sensations. She turned her head to the nameless youth beside her, similarly out of commission. All around them were other couples and other threesomes or foursomes engaged in all manner of sensual veneration.

“Aphrodite! Our Goddess!” Came the cries around the dimming bonfire.

Aloy turned her eyes up to the sky, where a pink light descended upon the tribe. She saw another Mother Goose, one of the ‘swans’, flying down to the center of the orgy. The machine landed amongst them and Aloy turned on her focus with but a thought.

In its breast, the machine nurtured some kind of… artificial womb. It had the shape of an egg, half encased in opaque glass and ebon black.

“DELIVERY FOR… RISHA.” The machine spoke in a woman’s voice, devoid of intelligence.

The honored woman soon appeared, hand in hand with her mate. They too had been engaged in the ritual’s most… sensual rites.

“It is I, oh holy attendant.” Risha said, bowing before the machine.

The swan strode forward… and as it approached, the egg’s glass shifted from opaque to transparent, revealing an orange interior and… a baby!

“APHRODITE THANKS AND REWARDS YOU.” The Mother Goose said, detaching a few latches on the egg. Risha solemnly reached out and took the artificial womb, detaching a tube of nutrients from the machine.

“ALL THOSE WHO WISH A BOON MAY SPEAK.”

Aloy got up onto her feet, marching forward in just her Blazon top. She politely made her way through the crowd, as the other Aphora made their requests. Some asked for protection along certain routes, others asked for Euphoria, and one person requested a piglet for her young son to raise.

Finally, when the rest of the locals had all made their pleas and the machine stood silent, Aloy spoke up, “Aphrodite, um, your… goddessness? I want to see where… where your children come from.”

She was met with a number of curious stares. Some were worrisome.

“APHRODITE TAKES HER CHERISHED TO THE NEST.” The machine answered, “WITHIN, SHE FOSTERS AND NURTURES THEIR OFFSPRING. FROM THERE, SHE DELIVERS THEM.”

“So… Can you take me to one of these... nests?” Aloy asked, “May I meet with your… goddess?”

“OFFER THYSELF TO HER SERVANTS AND LET THY WISH BE GRANTED.”

The Seeker fell silent and nodded. So she had to get caught by one of those snatchers on purpose. She still had her doubts, and of course her head was still dizzied and swirling with all the night’s events… but Aloy had to see this through. She had to understand where she came from, and possibly who her mother was.

When a long period of silence had passed, the machine bowed its head low, “APHRODITE IS PLEASED. LOVE IS THE WAY.”

“Love is the way.” The Aphora all replied, chanting as the machine took flight and left. Risha had managed to extricate her newborn from its shell, coddling it close to her breast with her partner. The ritual was over and those who hadn’t gotten their fill of its… activities soon retired to private places. The remainder all got in line to give their congratulations and honor to the new mother.

Miali put her hand on Aloy’s shoulder, drawing her attention away from the crowd.

“So… you’re a convert now?” The blonde said with a smile.

“I… have my reasons.” The woman answered, as reassuring as she could.

“Did you enjoy our rituals?” Miali asked with a flirtatious ring to her voice.

“I… I did.”

“It does not always have to be such a sacred thing.” The other woman said, grabbing hold of Aloy’s hand, “Any time you wish to… learn more about it, you can call on me.”

In truth, the redhead felt a little giddy at the offer.