The Tribes

The Tribes

By Iris Cal

This is a work of erotic fiction, which includes graphic sexual situations between women and hermaphrodites. If this offends you, read no further. If it is illegal for you to read this, I don't give half a shit, since I abide by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and you may do as you wish.

A golden-orange sun rose ponderously into the deep green sky, reflecting brilliantly upon the broken metal and glass of the deserted metropolis before her. April had been told by the village elders that once, the sky had been a vibrant blue, but that was before the War. Once, the City had had a life of its own, lighting the night like millions of jewels, but that was before the war. Now the world was healing from the terrible destruction. Villages like hers had appeared in the forests; refugees which had cobbled together old knowledge of agriculture and sanitation.

It had been the elders' decision not to venture into the City for supplies; the radiation, it was said, was still too dangerous, and would be for decades more, though most had dissipated in the century since the war. April had known better. She thought about it now, as she began walking down the broken concrete highway, staring up at the structures towering over her. Certainly, nothing could crawl out of the buildings and harm her; she was the best daggerswielder in her village. That's why she'd come out here on her own, seeking the supplies her village needed, despite the elders' stubborn denials.

Slowly, she looked around the intersection. Stores lined the bases of the towers, advertising so many different things: clothing, a lawyer's services, telephones, pornography, food... But where might she find what her village needed? One of the last lightsticks had burned out last week, and a hammer had broken only yesterday. They needed tools from the old world still, to run the village.

In the distance, she spotted it. A sign that bore the same design as the logo on one of the lightsticks. Ducking inside the store, she gave her eyes a moment to adjust to the shade, the only light from the sun outside. She made her way through the aisles until she found what she'd been looking for, and a smile crept across her face. Surely, this would absolve her from having snuck out of the village.

Looking around one last time, she took seven of the inch-thick, foot-long black lightsticks. Picking up the last one, she tested it, pressing the rubber button along its length, and a bright beam of light illuminated the store. The light reflected in bright blue unseen eyes, which watched April as she switched it off and pocketed various more tools out of both necessity and curiosity.

As April walked down the broken sidewalk towards the edge of the city, beyond which her village lay, something caught her eye through the window of one of the shops. Suddenly both her daggers were in her hands as she spun around. A woman was in the window, dressed gallantly in one of the most beautiful d