by Marcus Sloss
I passed the communal bathing room when I heard the sound of running water. I saw the door to the shower room partially ajar. I did not want to be the pervert in the hallway so I knocked and opened it at the same time.
Cora looked over her shoulder as she lathered her hair. I could see her want to shriek and hide. She was so damn self-conscious. The bonus to not having armor properly equipped was it was easy to get off. I closed the shower room door and she visibly gulped. As I stripped my gear in a messy pile I approached her. Cora had closed her eyes and went to rinse her hair. I saw her trembling slightly and closed our distance to engulf her in my arms.
“I do not know what happened. I do not know who made you think you are not gorgeous. You are. Open your eyes and look at me.” Her hazel eyes shot open and she kissed me. I felt her naked body as it pressed into mine.
I pushed her against the wall and kissed down her naked body. Her perky small breasts were erect with desire. I kissed past the nipples and went for the clit. I had to lift her, throw a leg over my shoulder, and lean at an angle to lick her sweet tiny marble. Her pink lips were swelling with pleasure and Cora quickly moaned softly. I inserted a finger and found it beyond tight. Then I realized she might be a virgin. As I worked my finger with my rapid tongue flickering she pulled my hair and thrust her hips. I was either doing an amazing job… which I was, or she was very sensitive. Which was probably also true. She screamed in climax and I felt her shudder with her release.
The door opened and Priscilla stepped into the room. Cora slid down to the floor off my shoulder and hid behind me. I stifled a laugh and Priscilla knew better. She simply closed the door, disrobed, and strode by us with her swollen belly.
“Cora… Tess did not swell. Our husband is dripping with desire. If he did not find you attractive he would not have showered you with affection. Somewhat literally. Gryff, if I may be so bold, get on your back.” Priscilla said. I got on my back with my erection dancing from the movement.
Cora regained her confidence and made a mistake. You cannot shove a huge cock into a tiny pussy in one thrust without discomfort. Her determination etched into pain. Priscilla was ready and healed her. That did the trick and Cora awkwardly rode me to climax. Definitely, her first time and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I pulled her down for a sweet kiss after. The bonus was were in the shower already. Easy clean off.
I turned to Priscilla. “I have a question. Why are the queens having such a post birth pain issue?”
“Easy one. Same as why they cannot get pregnant when they are on their periods. It is part of the natural function of post childbirth. Give it time and they will be ready for another round of babies. I have been working with Bella and everyone is healthy.” Priscilla said while rubbing her belly. “I never figured it would bring such happiness.”
I left the shower waters once I was nicely clean and went to dry off. Cora joined me and I planted a kiss on her lips. “Go summon one of each color, please. Meet me on the balcony.” I said and she left. “Priscilla come deal with these armor straps before I leave.”
She sauntered over letting her full tits jiggle with her hips. I smirked and enjoyed the show she put on. My armor was equipped quickly with the two of us working at it. I bid her a good day and left for the balcony. I called out for Virtue and he did not peak over the seventh floor balcony. I used a guard to find Siliq.
I did not have to wait long. Siliq, Cora, Trish, Fae, Colleen, and Eva joined me on the platform. I hoped Virtue was shaking off a night of debauchery with a demigod. It was not like him to be later. The old shaman… was young again but the old one was cordial. I ordered a portal down to the library.
I opened the doors to the library and strode in like I owned the place. Sprawled on books naked were Aroxa and Virtue. They were entwined in a lovers' embrace and I spied a wine jug on Aroxa’s desk. I averted my eyes and turned my back to them.
“Hah! Librarians! Virtue gather your robes we have a lot to do today. Good morning Aroxa.”
They were both ancient beings who giggled at my interruption of sleep. There was no modesty or distraught reaction one might expect from being intruded on. They both dressed and Virtue followed me out. He offered no apology and him having a once in a while late morning was more than okay.
Seven hells I had detoured for sex with Cora. She was still blushing and I saw self-doubt creep into her expression. I closed the distance and kissed her cheeks repeatedly until she laughingly pushed me away. The other harem ladies recognized what was happening and smirked. Eva the fire mage who had been overshadowed by Ruby, pulled Cora over and in a hushed tone asked all about it. Cora was in a sense coming out of her shell and that made me happy.
“Virtue where are the desert dvaren going to arrive?” I asked expecting him to say the western fields of Fernlan or the river.
“Baku my Emperor,” Virtue said. Which indeed was a surprise. “That look. I gleaned the information from Roz, who gleaned it from an underling shaman, who got it straight from the scouts. I thought that was what you would want.”
Indeed, it was exactly what I would have wanted. Good to see my shamans were more prepared than I was. I looked over our team and as much as I wanted to just portal to Baku it would be smarter to hit the western fields first. Take at least a company of troops in case things were hostile. I picked up the pace excited to see a new city I controlled. The jog was easily kept up with by the entire team. Before the old shaman would portal leap to keep up, instead, he ran with us. The joys of youthful exuberance.
We arrived in the western fields to see the companies in a run around the track we had built. It went around a lot of planted fields. We saved our formation and battle training to a few I had stripped of ryegrass early in the season. I saw the dvaren with mages and elvath exhausting misted breath from the cold air. Prixal saw me and peeled out of the back of the formation he was running in.
“My Emperor, you do not look like you want to train?” He queried. I noticed a few companies were missing. “Seven, ninth, and tenth are on detail in Hallow hold. They are assisting in cleanup inside and on the outside settlement. A few sporadic ogre caves were close by. The actual isolated kind.”
“Excellent, pick a company for me. We are going north to a desert city called Baku. Unless you want to bring the rest of the teams?” I asked then turned to Virtue before Prixal could answer. “Virtue go run into the middle of that field and spawn a portal to Baku.”
“Heat?” He asked and I nodded. “We all go, Empress Amber said if you ever plan on doing something foolish to send more than the minimum. Not that this is foolish but it can prove to be good training. Rapid temperature differences can happen.”
“Funny you mention that. Tonight we are raiding a desert planet and freeing a lot of dvaren.” I said and he raised an eyebrow in thought. Then he let a large grin crest his bearded face. “Virtue portal to Baku. Get your men lined up now Colonel Prixal. That is an order.”
“Arag Huuh!” He bellowed. The war drummer who was half asleep watching the troops run snapped into action. The sound split the early morning air. I was sure there were some sleeping people complaining at the sudden thrum of the drums. I cared not. The drums of war were what I needed. The seven remaining companies raced to get into formation for portal entry. The rel skirmish unit mounted up and headed our way. I knew the commanders by now and saw he had them backward this time. Which made sense to me, no point in first company always going first.
I swirled a cone in front of my face. “Expect friendly forces of human and desert dvaren. Do not fire unless fired upon. Into the breach you go, fighting eighth!” I hollered.
They did not hesitate and stormed into the portal. We let four companies go before squeezing and to race into the portal ourselves.
∞∞∞
I felt the warm sea breeze of Baku. The sun was still cresting the horizon as I made space for those behind me. We arrived at the outside of the walls of the city. Not far away tens of thousands of dvarettes were marching i
nto the desert rough lands from another portal. The ground here was rocky, hard, and full of wild vegetation. There was so much growing here. Colonel Prixal jogged to my side as he saw me.
“Is Lady Jia in Hallow Hold?” I asked and he nodded. “Take the companies over to the division leaders of the desert dvaren. Have the healers start cycling the old to young. And Prixal. By the seven hells themselves. If I get challenged for authority by some old dvaren again I will not be merciful. Have them ready for my arrival. My report from earlier said there were humans inside the city. I am going to greet them. Siliq go find Master Mage Lamont. I want an excessive amount of ogre, shaman, and goblin hearts brought here with a few earth mages. Griffin on duty come to me.”
Siliq spun a portal and vanished. Prixal barked out marching orders and the drums kept them in step. This caused the arriving desert dvaren to look our way. Virtue closed the portal to Fernlan and walked to my side. I saw a griffin with teal feathers flying my way. I waited where I was. I wanted an aerial view before I went further.
“Virtue how many dvaren do you think were under the ground in that blasted planet? I need to figure out how big to build here.” I asked.
“I think the planet was called Oune. You are right it was a crummy planet. Not somewhere I want to visit again. My guess ten million. The road we were on under the ground curved further down. There was a lot of infrastructure down there. That may seem like a lot of dvaren. The big breeding farms mostly have billions. That one was small because of the harsh environment. A perfect testing ground in my opinion.” Virtue informed me.
I muttered and kicked a rock. Shit, I empowered it and the small projectile smashed into a still standing section of the ruined wall with a loud crack. Well, it was another portion of crumbled mess now. Super not my fault…
“When I don’t get laid I end up with pent up aggression. I am Skia, nice to meet you, human Emperor,” the teal griffin said as she landed. It was an accident but I did not want to explain myself. Skia was sleek she looked like a fast griffin. She also had no saddle. “Hop on and I will give you a tour of the area.”
I climbed up her side careful not to rip out feathers as I went. Trish followed behind me. I was going to say something but she was my air mage and we were here for white catalysts. I shifted until I had my butt behind Skia’s right shoulder blade. Trish awkwardly settled herself when Skia launched into the air. It was subtle though, I think she knew we did not like sudden movements when not in a saddle.
We soared into the sky suddenly picking up speed. I was right in my assessment Skia was just as fast as Dina. I got a great view of the desert and realized something immediately. This was a savannah, not a sandy desolate desert. I saw all sorts of animals, rivers, sporadic trees, tall grass, short grass, and lots of flat land. Some of the animals I expected, some were new. There were the six legged rhinos grazing, off in the far distance I saw some elephants. A herd of thousands of gazelles was moving from grazing fields to a river. There was a pack of bipedal kangaroos. Except they had claws, a bigger head, and far more teeth. On the other side of the river was a small group of zebras with horns. I was lost in studying it all when Trish pointed to rising bluffs with a canyon cut between them.
“That right there is where the scokings would likely be. They burrow in the day and hunt at night. I bet if we flew over there we would find some.” Trish said while pointing to the canyon. “The gazelle hearts help with moving wind or exhaust. It looks like you can thin the herd without long term damage. We never use the spell often, those claroos hearts allow us to spin a wind tunnel capable of lifting troops and throwing them. The claroos tend to be hard to catch or kill. Then again I have never been out here, merely reciting classroom information Instructor Tammy taught me.”
We both frowned at this admission. I knew there was lots of stuff to do still here and as much as I was enjoying the flight it was time to get back to the troops.
“Take me to the human survivors who are in Baku please,” I said to Skia.
“There are none left,” Skai replied ominously.
I tilted my head in a concerned confusion when we gained altitude rapidly. When we leveled out Trish pointed to a collection of bones by the canyon that we were flying over. Skia flipped upside down when she knew Trish was not holding on. I was nervous at her comment, Trish had no idea something might be wrong. She flailed her arms as she sped to the ground. I had no time to hesitate. I launched off Skia’s back with my legs and heard a crunch. She dumped Trish on purpose so I did not care how many bones I had broken in my attempt to propel myself quick enough to catch my wife.
I was falling fast. Fast enough I scooped Trish into my arms with mere moments to devise a plan. My soul called to Vin, and the two linked. A ramp erupted from the ground and meet me hundreds of feet into the air. While the ramp was smooth it was still hard dirt. My shield tore off my back instantly and I felt my armor ripping at the seams. As the friction of the sharp scales tore at the ramp to slow us down the bindings started to break. We sped down the ramp when I felt the sticking break and scales rip into my back.
While I could handle pain at times this was excruciating. I screamed at the damage my body was taking. I created a stop to arrest our speed and slammed into the wall. Trish smashed into it and flew a dozen feet away to roll across the desert. I had arrested most of her momentum and I was a crumpled mess. My broken forearm was embedded into unprotected back. My body was oozing blood and I was losing consciousness fast. Worst of all there was a healed teal griffin diving for me. I poured green aura into my body as quickly as I could.
My body ejected scales knitted itself together, and I felt like I could control my limbs again. It was all done a fraction too slowly. Skia grasped me in a front claw and shattered the front of my armor. I freed my sword and severed the taloned paw. Not my smartest move, as we were forty feet in the air. I tried a new ramp and smashed into it instead. I fell twenty feet and broke my legs.
I repeated the process of healing when Skia attacked with only one good front paw. Right when I thought my head was due to be removed an arrow sunk into her eye. A roar of pain escaped her lips and I had enough time to heal. A quick roll let me escape the attack that did follow after her wound. That bitch was determined to kill me. She stumbled from a missing paw and more arrows littering her body. She tried to flap her wings to get away when I went on the offensive. With a big pulse of purple aura, I rocketed off the ground and latched onto her side. She pecked at the spot I landed but I scurried higher in a rush.
I gripped her right wing with my right hand while using my left for leverage. I pulled the wing at an unnatural angle until there was a snap. Her tail swatter thudded into my chest and it sent me for her head. I land an enhanced punch with my forward momentum and finally, the griffin went out cold. To say I was angry was an understatement. At the same time, I needed to ensure this was not something bigger. Information was vital. I touched Skia until I could feel her central core. When I had it at the tip of my fingers I drained her aura.
“Bind this griffin,” I said as my elvath on rels arrived. “Whoever saved me with the eyeshot, figure out a reward for yourself. You come here.”
The nearest rel raced to me and I hopped on its back behind the elvath. I tossed my hands around her waist to hold on.
“Hurry for the first ramp I created, Trish should be over there somewhere. Hopefully alive,” I said. We raced to the ramp that stretched into the sky by hundreds of feet.
“I see her, good thing too, she looks near death.” The elvath said.
We arrived at her side quickly and I pressed a hand to her. She was gurgling blood and crying. I poured my energy into her with the help of Vin and watched her body contort. The limps that were folded onto each other in a broken mess were shot out to the correct position. The projected bone pieces that had escaped her mangled body flew back into it. A few moments later and she was whole. She also passed out. I carried her in my arms gently.
“I need to test her my Emperor.
It is vital.” I was told by the elvath.
I nodded. Aura poured into Trish and she swelled. Of course. We had been having sex with Bella around. I sighed. Everyone was okay. This was a near disaster though. I gently sat behind the elvath as we left the area. I saw my destroyed shield in the distance. Maybe I could get a fancy metal one made.
Nothing special had to be said to the rel, it knew to take a leisurely pace back. When we trotted up to the dvaren commanders I saw Master Mage Lamont with hundreds of brown mages. I guess he wanted to teach a lesson to his students. The situation still dictated I use a lot of earth magic. I knew that I needed to get to King Aves before he heard second hand information on this development.
“Virtue, go to Fernlan. Shout to the air, that Emperor Gryff was attacked and King Aves is needed in Baku. Do not say more than that. Lay her on my bed after you say that. Go now.” I said as I handed Trish off to Virtue. The young shaman struggled and then was gone in a flash of a quick portal that faded rapidly to no portal. I think he had gotten more powerful from Sion’s soul fragment. I know I had. “Master Mage Lamont thank you for coming. I need to find the survivors here and plan out a grand city.”
“When we arrived the first thing we did was go into Baku looking for you. We found a male griffin beaten to an inch of his life and dead humans that had been eaten. I do not understand it, nor is it my place to. You do need to know they died though. I am fairly certain that griffin you have bound out there is the reason.” Lamont said.
“That confirmed what she said about no survivors. She gets aggressive when she does not get laid…” I said and let the sentence hang. I had pieced most of it together. The surviving male would have more information. I decided to let King Aves deal with him. The no portal travel for griffins was silly. I needed to figure out a workaround if there was one. Barice stepped through a portal that rapidly materialized. That was fast. “Barice welcome.”