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Jungle Law	By : SevernZared Category: +M through R > Metal Gear Views: 2071 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own MGS or any of its incarnations. I make no money from this work. Hideo Kojima is god.

Chapter List
- 1-Jungle Law
- 1
Author's note: This is all RaveEchidna's fault. Go read her stuff.
I'm not sure if the "other" warning went through or not, if it didn't here it is: Disturbing imagery and cannibalism.

The land rolled away, bloodless now that they were back at camp and no longer on the fields some half a day�s walk through the reeds and brushes. The rainy season was drawing slowly and pleasantly to a close, gentle, constant rains now more common than the day-long�or longer�downpours that had sent them all running into piecemeal shelters (these made of scavenged tarps, tents and wood) for fear of their fury.

The men above them had come to blows, then war. This they fought for them. They had no names to remember themselves by, the syllables stolen away with the thunder of guns and pounding feet and endless, endless screams. Kiss Kiss, now seven whole seasons and knowing only that name, blessed upon him by the rest of the unit, stared over the small bluff with squinted eyes strangely quiet for such a young boy. His snub rifle was at his feet, the fraying strap grasped loosely in one dirt-streaked hand. His stomach growled furiously.

Far in the distance, much farther than you could walk in a day, low purple clouds were piling up but he did not fear them, sure that they would come no closer unless the Master�s Devil let them. This made him happy; it had rained only the day before and the ground was still sticky with clots of mud that sucked at his shoes, especially down by the marsh, so only the older boys were allowed to there for forage this day. Kuwabara and Luck wanted none of the little ones lost. He gummed thoughtfully, hoping that Duck Walk and Badger would find something tasty, even if it was only a few snails to put in the battered pot. No food had come down the day before, nor the day before that. The little ones were so tired they could not stand guard and even he, as a middle boy, was suffering the swayings of the earth beneath his feet sometimes.

Some scuffling clambering ascended the arroyo alongside him, but he did not pick his gun up; it was only Smalls, so called because he was an older boy but only half the size. The boy scrubbed a hand across his brow, leaving some dirt almost indistinguishable from the deep color of his skin. �The twins think we should ask him today,� he panted breathlessly, bent over with his hands on his knees. He�d probably run the quarter mile from the Small Unit camp.

The twins�Shut Up and What The�really weren�t but were called so because they almost never went anywhere without each other, they were older, a full nine seasons, their skins so black they were nearly blue in some slants of sunlight. Smalls had confessed to all the younger boys that he was in powerful want over that color (most of the others agreed), and the Devil thought it both pretty and useful. They were often the night watch and swung good weight with Kuwabara�s decisions, if they thought it was time to ask, then it was time to ask. The thought of food, and not just measly snails but real food sent a burst of saliva into his mouth and made him gum in anticipation. �You think that would be good?�

Smalls shrugged furtively, swiping a hand across the back of his neck to wipe the heavy breath of the air off him. �I hope so.� His guts joined Kiss Kiss�s a cappella solo and they both cupped hand to belly.

Kiss Kiss swung his rifle up over one shoulder. �Come on, let�s go see.�

Together they descended the small bluff and followed an old goat path back to the camp. The Small Unit built their ramshackle area usually some distance from the tightly knit circles of the regular units, they enjoyed each other�s company but did not care to suffer the overbearance of the adolescent units unless needed. Some of the very small ones�those under five seasons and most as of yet unnamed�flitted back and forth with grasses and buckets if they belonged to the regular units and were only sent down for water.

They spotted Lady�six years old now�finishing at the privy. She pulled her slightly tattered dress down over herself and commenced burying. They hailed her as she was scrubbing her hands in the brine bucket and she fell in step beside them as they came into the camp proper. �Duck and Badger had no luck,� she said, adjusting the hat they�d found for her a few villages ago. �Not even honey on the edge.�

They groaned, Badger was well renowned for getting the honey out of nests and the edges of bogs were known to sport them usually, the promise of sweets always tantalized them and now their empty bellies clenched rebelliously at being thwarted of it. �The twins really think we should ask?� Kiss Kiss mused, reaching out to pick leaf litter out of the hat�s brim.

Lady��the only lady who looks like us under her drawers� they would crow around the fire and everybody would laugh�pursed her lips and nodded sagely. �We got to, or else no one going to eat tonight again. The older camps was grumbling bad today, they probably ain�t eatin� neither.�

More bad news. If the regular unit didn�t eat they were bound to be more heavy handed than usual, they�d have to be sure to tell their littlest ones not to venture too close for the next day or so, not even to beg. Kiss Kiss looked out toward the pile of clouds on the horizon, as if to consult the future by them, they hadn�t moved.

�I�ll go tell Luck,� Smalls intoned, nibbling on a thumb. �He�ll get everyone together.� They conceded and he moved off toward one of the more permanent structures. In reality the Small Unit had no leader but they had all agreed the Master�s White Devil should be it and Luck was without question his second hand. He stood as taller than Kuwabara and was just as old, at the start of the wet season he�d taken a plow blade to the head and laid three days with fever. They were all sure he would die painful but powerful was his luck and he had lived; a mighty scar ran up from his hairline and the hair itself had gone white but nothing else had come of it.

Kiss Kiss and Lady found most of the unit was milling around the center anyway; the twins were chewing reeds and talking quietly among themselves and Badger, who was the current firekeeper, was tending to the flat spot that would become the fire ring when the sun went down. Duck Walk was aimlessly pacing the circle until he saw them, then he brightened and waved them over. Nobody was really smiling though, by now word had gone around camp what was doing and no one was really happy for it; they needed it, but they always remembered to be shamed by it.

The rest of the unit filtered in from all corners over a few minutes, Smalls among them, and a short time after that Luck and Chance reappeared, his hair a fire spot, a battered coin rolling along the backs of his brown fingers. At his side walked the Master�s Devil. Like Kiss Kiss, the Devil had pale skin, the color of a salt plain, and hair like the moon�s glow. Strange marks adorned the shell white skin, as if the gods of the world had writ upon him, and maybe they had; no one knew what they meant, to their knowledge not even the Master. They had learned his name meant a prayer against lightning and rain, but they had also learned that it followed him, and sometimes, *sometimes*� he could call it down to them.

They both sat in the dirt with them, their guns gleaming dully like the teeth of snakes. Luck, who spoke most naturally, said to them; �We need it, don�t we.�

�We hunger,� they murmured back, fidgeting slightly, unknowing of how much their gatherings struck unease in the hearts of the older boys back at the main camp.

Luck sighed heavily, his eyes, the jet color of the soil they had found the grapes growing in just that once, traveled to the white-haired boy�s and passed silent words between them. �We�ll remember the bad of this, won�t we.�

�We will.�

Kiss Kiss struggled against the knotted feeling in him as the silence spun out, Kuwabara was thinking, weighing what was necessary for them all. He would protect them endlessly, that was why they loved him, Kiss Kiss knew that, the fading stain of the Master�s ire was still on one high cheek. Finally, he spoke, his voice much softer than Luck�s, but just as final. �What will the moon say tonight?�

What The, whose job it was to watch the skies, knelt up to be recognized and said; �It will be fat. If the rain does not come we can be quiet.� This was a soft plea for the Devil to keep it at bay if he could.

The boy took a shuddering breath, Luck covered a white hand with his own and Kiss Kiss felt his heart cinch up. �Then bring me a knife,� their leader pronounced and the twins bolted immediately for the almost sacred case that was moved and buried outside the white-haired boy�s shelter every time they moved.

Until they returned, no one spoke, no one even moved. When they returned they carried between them, solemnly, a hinged case wrapped in a sheaf of cloth, patched together from their clothes and whatever sheets and blankets they had. This was the Blanket and it was used for all of them when it was needed, it took away bad dreams and lulled them to warmth and sleep, they loved it. The twins set the case down before Kuwabara�s folded knees and removed the Blanket, no one had ever told them to stay and kneel and make ceremony of the presenting of the knife, it had just happened. Now if it didn�t happen, they were uneasy.

The Devil�s slender, pale hands pulled back the cover; inside was their best knife, sharp and shining, it was used for nothing else. He took it out and a hush fell over them. �The twins and Luck will come with me,� he said, tired river colored eyes lit with the glare of the blade. �And when the sun falls��

They would eat. Their mouths watered.

All four of them stood up, Luck issued the order to make the fire pit bigger and for the proper amounts of wood and salts to be found and to this they all scurried away, relieved that there would be food at last, wanting it and dreading it. Kiss Kiss flitted away into the scrub line, to find that with which to feed the fire.

The body was laid out on the grasses, soaked in oil, some hours later. Killed quietly in some field and never knowing. Bloodless, they never wanted the young ones to see more blood than they had to and always drained it off into a hole which they buried as an offering to the earth. The older units had listened to the silence from the child camp known what it meant and went about the rest of their chores and their sleeping with a glance over their shoulder.

They gathered around it, eyeing it, children of the war with their faces streaked in dirt and their bones weary in the moonlight. It hands were folded on its chest, stilled forever.

�The earth had yielded up food to us,� the White Devil told them somberly, his eyes unreal in the dark. �Yet mourn this well. Remember� that this is wrong.�

Their heads bowed, all of them, eyes misted and some even wept. Luck�s hands were curled around the Devil�s knobby shoulders, as if to lend strength, and Kiss Kiss supposed it was. For though they all had slain on the battlefield Kuwabara permitted none of them to bring down this food save his ownself, and even this, he thought, was to protect them from something, even if none of them knew precisely what that was.

�For this is the man any of us could have grown to be.�

The war children bowed and offered up their own blessings to the corpse.

The White Devil breathed and held out a slender hand. �Firekeeper; a spark.�
- 1
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Jungle Law