Caio woke up, feeling disoriented.
He had blacked out when they arrived at the village. He didn't know how much time had passed, but this time he had no doubt that this was not a dream or hallucination. Waking up a second time in the same world was sobering.
There weren't spears pointed at him this time. Instead, he was in some kind of cage, on a floating, isolated platform. He could see Suma and Kena guarding him nearby in their small boats.
They were a bit less hostile than earlier, looking at him with curiosity.
The cage around him looked strong, despite being made out of wood. It wasn't big, but allowed him some mobility. The fact that he was dry and didn't have a spear on his throat were big improvements from his earlier condition.
He was still naked, though.
The Overseer said that I would come to a world full of women, where I would be the only man, with the mission to fertilize it. Yet, I'm arrested as soon as I arrive. Great. Just great.
***
Earlier that very same day…
Dr. Rafaela's office was very standard, without any big specialized machines. She was in her forties, hair in a practical bun and glasses halfway down her nose. Just a normal doctor receiving a patient.
"Good morning, Caio. I didn't expect you back so soon."
He wasn't supposed to be there. She had told him that the results would come out the following day. But the tone she used when they talked by phone let him so anxious that he stopped by on his way to his History Major classes.
"I, uh… had class nearby, so I just passed by. Thought I'd see if there was anything else to fill. For the research, I mean."
She chuckled in amusement.
"There is no new paperwork to fill. But there are… some preliminary results."
I knew it… She had seen something.
"Caio. You remember what the study is about, yes?"
"The decline in male fertility patterns in urban populations over the last decades. Sperm count, that kind of thing."
She nodded, her gaze turning to the screen of her PC and back.
"Exactly. Most participants show mild to severe reductions compared to historical baselines. Environmental toxins, stress, nutrition, microplastics… you've read the headlines and seen the discourse."
He nodded. Not only the headlines, late-night doomscrolling did terrible things to a man's search history.
"But you… You are the opposite."
"The opposite?"
He repeated, because his brain needed a second to process the information.
"Your count is extremely high. Off-the-charts high. Not just compared to current averages, but to anything we have from historical data. Motility, morphology, vitality… everything is not just good. It's… remarkable."
"Remarkable good, or remarkable 'what the hell is this'?"
"Both. Biologically, you are… how can I put it… aggressively fertile. Like, a single ejaculate of yours could artificially inseminate like… about a small clinic's worth of frozen egg cells."
"Wha…?"
***
Aggressively fertile. What a joke. Look at me now.
He was still mired in those memories when Aruá arrived
"So you woke up."
Uh? I cand undestand her now?
"Yes… why am I here?"
He spoke normally, in Portuguese, but she only frowned and tilted her head. It was clear that she wasn't able to understand him.
Maybe the vocabulary process kept working while I was asleep, but the translation only works one way?
"Your speech is different. Not the sound from the river."
Ahn… what should I even say?
Caio felt his stomach complaining. It's been quite a long time since he last ate a meal, and of course his body would send signals.
"Do you have food? I'm hungry. Food… Eat…"
He complemented his words with gestures with his hands, trying to pass on their meaning.
"Iit. Fúud. Oh, you want to eat? Suma, did you give him food?"
"He had just woken up…"
The spearwoman Suma looked down to the river waters, trying to hide how embarrassed she was for having forgotten about bringing food.
"I'll bring it."
Kena chirped in and quickly moved her small boat away to a platform nearby.
Soon she was back, carrying fruits and roasted meat. To Caio, it all tasted delicious, despite lacking seasoning. He had been living off ramen noodles for so long he had forgotten how tasty true food is.
Aruá watched his every move closely, sometimes making a commentary. Sometimes, Caio also spoke or tried to communicate through gestures.
I'm like a rat in a lab, and she's the scientist. She's probing me, testing me.
***
After about an hour, the sun is lowering in the sky, covering the world with the waning light of dusk.
"So beautiful…"
Aruá didn't understand the words he said, but the meaning was clear on his face. He was admiring the sunset.
She felt a little tug in her heart, watching that scene. His serene expression stirred something inside her that she didn't even know she had.
***
Aruá left soon after sunset, saying something about some chants, and the two guards went with her. Maybe they didn't see him as a threat anymore, or maybe it was just a test to see if he would try to break free, a test of trust.
Either way, Caio just sat cross-legged in his cage. Despite being naked and so close to the water, he didn't feel cold. Instead, the breeze was actually warm and comfortable.
The platform was floating on the river, tied to other platforms with ropes made out of reed so it wouldn't float away.
For the first time, he had the time to feel his new body. It didn't have the right proportions anymore. No, 'right' is not the word here. It was actually the other way around, this body had the right proportions, and the old one was wrong. It just felt out of tune with him.
It was still his body, but different. And the fact that he was naked made him even more conscious about the details.
He still had the birthmark on his inner right thigh, but the thigh was now muscular and robust, instead of flimsy and slim. His torso also looked more packed, and his arms were definitely stronger. There was a cut in his left arm, probably some twig had cut him when he was transported.
Even his… other limb was a bit different. He felt like he could be a pornstar if he wanted now because his dick was well-proportioned and had an advantageous size.
What am I even thinking about? Analyzing my dick like it was a scientific study…
That moment, a flicker of light appeared in the corner of his vision. That same pop-up as always.
[SEEDBEARER STATUS: ONLINE (LIMITED)]
[CIVILIZATION LEDGER: LOCKED]
[DOMAINS: UNINITIALIZED]
[VE / COG / FTH / LAB / HRM: PRIMITIVE STATE]
[Observe before acting. Context required.]
The last line was smaller than the others, like fine print in a contract.
Great. Even the System knows that I have to just shut up and watch for now. No acting stupid. I just wished to know what those acronyms meant.
But before he could ask for more information from the System, he heard some voices arguing.
"…mira-katu…"
"…wrong chord…"
"…still singing…"
It was a commotion coming from the village center. It sounded like some women were having a heated discussion, and he could obviously tell what the matter was they were discussing.
From what I can surmise, it seems that I'm kinda like a myth here, and my presence has upset them a lot.
***
Soon, his platform-cage was surrounded by women.
The first one to step onto his platform was Aruá. She moved with grace and patience, each step calculated and well-timed with the wobbles of the water.
Behind her came two more:
An older woman with tattoos around her eyes forming lines of a storm.
A third one was carrying a bundle of herbs over one shoulder and a torch raised in her hand.
Aruá opened one side of the cage like a door and knelt close to him. She murmured something soft that he didn't catch and smiled.
The storm-eyed woman was named Saori, if he had understood the earlier whispers right. She studied him, her expression like she was staring at an ill, smelly person.
"Hu-katu yara-ta. Yari voa lodo." 'This spirit echoes wrong. The river's listening is loud around him.'
Saori's words were soft, but the meaning carried a harder tone. Caio wasn't able to fully understand it, as there was a cultural barrier on top of the language one, but he was able to infer that she was saying that he was disturbing the place.
"Hei kana-katu, Saori. Yari voa-na vi-sai under hu-katu." 'Not a harmful spirit, Saori. The river listens gently beneath this spirit.'
Thanks, Aruá.
"Yarivoa na-gari to-ha. Mena-hu wrong mena-pi drown ta tama-mira." 'Gentle is not safe. Wrong song can drown a village.'
Saori turned to Aruá, and her voice dropped low. Aruá sustained her gaze and answered.
"Yari kona to-kai blind-pi. Tana-meni-ra, to-vatu-ra." 'The river hates killing blind. We see first, then we strike.'
Caio's head was spinning with the conversation. The layer of the two languages in their head, the overblown ritualistic way they spoke, plus the fact that they were calmly speaking about killing him or not right in front of him was too much.
So much he wasn't even embarrassed about his nudity anymore.
The woman with the herb bundle and the torch approached Saori and whispered something in her ear.
Saori expressed surprise in her stern face, then looked at Caio. More specifically, at the cut on his arm.
She smiled a smile that made Caio shudder, then stepped closer, touching the stain of dried blood on his arm. He made no movement, standing still, implementing his early idea of watching before acting.
She raised one finger, drawing a circle in the air and pointed at the cut, which healed immediately.
Saori then smiled and turned to the others.
"I-kiri yara-ra. Katu-na to-yara." 'He bleeds. Spirits do not bleed.'
[HARMONY STRESS: RISING]
[CIVILIZATION NEXUS: UNSTABLE]