by Simon Archer
“William,” Libritas breathed heavily as I pulled out to thrust into her again. “Please…”
I didn’t need to ask her what she meant because our bond allowed me to know already. Nodding, I held her hips tight enough to make her silver skin ivory, and I snapped my own at a breakneck pace. At the same time, our breaths hitched, and as Libritas came for a second time, I spilled my cum deep inside of her, claiming her as my own in a much more intimate way. My limbs shook, but I still managed to keep ahold of her as we rode out the initial high of an intense orgasm.
Several moments passed, and we had slumped into the grass side by side, naked as the day we were born. Well, at least as the day I was born. I wasn’t quite sure how Brand spirits came into existence. I draped an arm over her shoulders and held her close to my side as we watched the clouds we’d danced upon float through the cerulean sky. Sunlight beat down upon us, just like before, and there was just a touch of a breeze, enough to keep the sun’s warmth from being incredibly brutal.
“When I wake up,” I started, “will you still be with me?”
I was surprised by my own question, but I found myself clinging to Libritas in anticipation of her answer. This would all fade away, and I would have to face the blights and trials that awaited me. I knew I could do it, and that I wasn’t alone, but I also wanted to stay in this bubble, alone with Libritas.
“My sweet William,” she laughed softly, and her lips ghosted my cheek, “no matter where you go, I shall be beside you, but should you ever lose your way, you will always be able to find me here. I will be waiting, and I will bring you back.”
“You say that as though I will lose my way in the first place,” I joked.
“I have faith that you won’t,” Libritas began, “but still, I am always here.”
I nodded after a moment, then turned to kiss her full on the lips. I knew that the next time I opened my eyes that she would be gone from her human form, and I frowned as we broke apart.
“Sleep,” she cooed as she ran her fingers through my hair. “Do not fear what is on the other side.”
I did as instructed and laid back into the grass, allowing the light of the sun to bathe me and the scent of the flowers to lure me into slumber. The last words I heard Libritas whisper before I dozed off put a soft smile on my face.
“I love you.”
20
I opened my eyes. There was wood paneling above me. I was in a house, the mayor’s house, which is where I left myself the night before. No night ocean, no willow tree, and no island. Not even a cloudy expanse of nothing. We were back in reality which I was thankful for… except for the last part. I could have stayed there for a little while longer.
I stretched awake, feeling around the tiny bed in the mayor’s guestroom I had plunked myself into the night before. I assumed all of the guests Thorton had were also dwarves, so while they would have been fine, but my feet hung off the end like I was a giant. Not to mention the blanket only covered from my knees to my neck. I really couldn’t complain, though. I was let into his home at no expense, so I was grateful for the free place to sleep.
As I got up, I found my hand still wrapped around Libritas. I’d almost lost the functionality of that hand, it seemed. It was an extension of Libritas now. And I was more than happy with that, so long as she was beside me.
“I can see why the girls like you so much,” Libritas purred in my head. “That was indeed fun. Thank you for giving me the chance to… enjoy you, like they do.”
“Anytime, Lib,” I said. “You say the word, I’ll find a place to take a quick nap, day or night.”
“I believe your regular sleeping hours will be more than enough for me.” Libritas giggled as she pulsed in my hand. “We should find the others. There’s much to be done.”
“You’re telling me.” I shifted over to the edge of the bed. “Between the dwarves and the kobolds, we don’t have much in the way of an army. We’ll have to do some scouting to hopefully find some trained fighters.”
“That’ll be more difficult than you realize,” Libritas pointed out. “The main military forces of the Marches were the animals under the Great Beasts’ control and the drones. You won’t find many warriors amongst the commoners.”
“And unless I want to get all ‘Communist Russia’ about it, I can’t just gather up a million untrained people and keep throwing bodies at the Solspire until the Baroness gives up.” I could feel Libritas give me a look. “Hey, I said we aren’t doing that, but we don’t have any other options right now. So, we’ll have to find one.”
I put on my coat and my honeysteel plates, expecting that we’d probably be leaving or fighting soon. The upside was that, since no one came to wake us up, I was guessing that there weren’t any drone attacks. I ducked under the guestroom door to enter the rest of the shrunk little house’s funhouse hallways. Eventually I made it downstairs and found Petra and Shikun waiting for me. My steps down the stairs interrupted their conversation, but they both seemed happy, almost giddy to see me.
“You’ve got to come to see the trap!” Petra said, suppressing a child-like squeal of pride. “It’s working great!”
“Another drone attack should be coming soon.” Shikun’s lips curled into a grin. “If we hurry, we can catch it before the trap gets them.”
Before I could so much as say ‘yes,’ I was pulled out the front door by a dryad and a draconian and into the afternoon light, the latter woman quickly picking me up by the armpits and speeding off into the air. Petra latched onto us as we flew away, grappling herself to my chest before we rose above the town’s fairway.
When we arrived, I saw the Petra Drone Trap down past the main road where we built it, rising high above all the Hillrock buildings. Shikun hovered in place as Petra pawed her way up my body to get a better look at the giant trap.
“This is going to be great, just watch!” Petra pressed her cheek up against mine, forcing me to watch her masterwork unfold in all its biotechnical glory. “You’re about to see art in action!”
“She’s been like this all day,” Shikun said as she rolled her eyes and smiled. “She’s very proud of her plant.”
“She is my baby,” Petra said, not letting any of us take our eyes off ‘her baby’ for a second. “She is my baby, and you will watch her be amazing.” I worried about Petra. Referring to a plant by a gender meant she may be a little obsessed with it, but I let her have her fun. Besides, she was a dryad, and no doubt she saw plants quite a bit differently than we did.
As the ladies had suggested, a drone battalion made its way across the Marches, angrily buzzing as they planned to slaughter us. They approached the trap, and the buzzing went from angry to curious. They spiraled towards the burning lights at the top of the immense plant, entranced by their glow.
“Go to the other side, Shikun!” Petra said, waving her hand in a futile attempt to turn her plant for a better look. “We can see more from that angle. Go!”
“I’m going, I’m going!” Shikun pulled us around the plant, giving the swarm a wide berth.
As we made our way, I saw the inside of the half-cup of the trap right as drones approached it. As they came to the lights, they landed on the sides of the inner part of the cup, sliding down as soon as they began to rest. The drones that landed desperately tried to fly away as they all descended towards the green jug at the bottom, all of them buzzing as they fell in. No matter how many fell to their dooms, the rest seemed to still be mesmerized by the lights on top, trapping more drones to a fate as plant-food.
Every last drone made their way to the lights, and every drone fell into the giant sack in the front as it swelled at the mass of them. Twitching drone arms, wings, and legs stuck out of the top, a sign of the sheer volume of drones that had managed to fall for the Petra Drone Trap. The protruding arms and legs sank into the sac as it shrunk, slowly deflating as a nasty gurgling sound heralded their digestion. Soon, the sac was back to its original size, and the drones were gone. Out the bottom of the
sack, the honeysteel plates of the armor they had worn plopped out a star-shaped hole, covered in a sizzling blue mucus-like acid. Once that acid evaporated, the honeysteel would be ready for use.
Petra giggled like a mad scientist at the sight of her handiwork, and Shikun let out an almost barbaric chuckle at the carnage that had just taken place. For a moment, I was concerned that I was stuck in the air with no way out from these two.
“Wasn’t that awesome?!” Shikun carried us back towards the center of town.
“My baby,” Petra said, a tear coming to her eye, “she’s glorious!”
Shikun dropped us off in the fairway, where Amalthea waited for us, Petra finally letting me go. The sphinx rubbed her head against me like a giant house cat before giving me a kiss.
“Did you enjoy the Trap?” Amalthea said.
“I’m just glad it works,” I answered. “Now, we can focus on gathering people here instead of constantly fighting.”
“Shall we head for the kobolds, then?” the sphinx continued as we began to walk down the fairway. “We should probably group those we know first before trying to gather strangers.”
“Do you happen to know of any strong fighters in the Marches?” I asked her. “Does the Khalati Record show any people besides drones who can fight?”
“I will check.” Amalthea’s eyes glowed with the familiar runes. “Even my colloquial knowledge doesn’t show any known militia besides the anthophilan drones here, and the Record does not show many more.”
“We may have to train the forces we have here,” Shikun said, as she looked upon the dwarven people. “With enough time, we could turn even these dwarves into a fighting force, like you and Sir Reginald did with the Kauldans against me.” She shied away a bit at the mention of her time in the Weaver’s enthrallment.
“We don’t have that kind of time.” I put my arm around her to assure her we bore no ill feelings from then. “Even though Petra’s trap is working, it won’t hold against a larger invasion force. Once Khaba realizes this, he’ll gather enough drones to overwhelm us. Plus, we’d train a portion of the people, and then we’d have to retrain others when we found them. If we find them.”
“Let’s focus on what we can do,” Petra said, trying to keep the spirits up. “We find the Stalkers, gather them here, and we’ll decide what to do from there. Hopefully, something will come to us by then.”
At that moment, Sir Reginald came rolling in, pushing a cart of honeysteel baubles as if he were a mine worker. He looked as if he were about to pop a vein from the weight of the cart, increased all the more by the full set of honeysteel plate armor he wore. Silver twirled upon his back, blissfully unaware of the extra weight he was applying to the poor man. When Reggie finally made his approach, he fell upon the bar he pushed against, sweating and breathing in gallons. When he finally caught some wind, he stood up and presented his haul.
“Ladies and William,” he said, waved his hand over the top of the wagon, “behold the labors of my night.”
“What are these, Reg?” I asked, walking up to see what he was talking about. Upon closer inspection, the baubles looked like various pieces of armor, including helmets, pauldrons, breastplates, and other pieces, each designed uniquely to fit, I assumed, each one of us. The large helmet that would only fit Amalthea was evidence to that.
“There's something for everyone!” he said, beaming like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. “And by everyone, I mostly mean Amalthea. I only realized too late that both Shikun’s dragon scales and Petra’s bark armor are more than enough to take on anything these would protect you from. Go ahead, try some on!”
“We appreciate the thought, sir knight.” Petra tried on a helmet which slid to the side as soon as she let go.
“I think I’m already covered, Reg,” I said, tapping the honeysteel plates I wore over my clothes.
“Oh, yes, I’m aware,” he said, a real master-of-ceremonies, “but you’ve got the pièce de résistance.” He reached into the pile to pull out a broadsword, intricately designed with leafy swirl engravings, but not clunky. It had a handle that could hold two hands, but Reggie held it in one with ease.
“Um,” I held up Libritas, “I don’t want to say it, but…”
“You’ve got two hands, don’t you?” Reggie picked out a scabbard with a large slit crawling most of the way to the tip, barely wide enough to fit the sword through. “This little wonder is called an ‘adventure scabbard.’ It lets you carry the sword on your back without the awkwardly slow drawing and sheathing.” He placed the sword in the scabbard and tossed the ensemble to me. “Now, you can utilize both hands in combat. These honeysteel weapons never lose their edge, they say. You will not regret it.”
“I’ll consider it.” I tied the sword to my back. I’d rather lose my free hand than let go of Libritas, but it never hurt to be prepared.
“Thank you, William,” Libritas whispered to me. “I appreciate the exclusivity, but I won’t be insulted if you decide to use the other blade instead. I’m not much of a cutting implement.”
“You can heat up enough to cut through crocasaurs,” I replied, a tad astounded she forgot. “I think that about covers up to ‘lightsaber’ status, let alone a sword.”
“I assume a lightsaber is some sort of very powerful version of a sword?” Libritas asked.
“An elegant weapon… for a more civilized age,” I said. I tried to hold back my laughter. How often did a chance like that come up?
“And these plates are light but still shock-absorbent, so we should be more comfortable to wear while we go about our business,” Reggie continued as the girls put on Amalthea’s armor.
She looked like a real war sphinx by the time they put on her helmet. It only accented Amalthea’s halo, and combined together, all the metal and steel made her glitter like a golden myth. Covered in head to toe, the armor on her back included a couple padded seats and handles for mounting. Very convenient. I would have loved to have those while avoiding the crocasaurs. The tail even had a small spike patterning all the way up to the tip which had a ball of spikes attached to it.
“I’m surprised how light it is.” Amalthea looked over her gold sheen from top to bottom. “It almost feels like I’m wearing nothing at all.”
“I am assured by our resident smith that honeysteel is stronger than steel by a good margin, so less is needed to provide even more protection.” Reggie looked over the armor he’d commissioned. “While the gold is certainly not ideal for stealth, I believe the added protection will more than make up for it.”
“I am not one for stealth, my dear,” she said, rolling her enormous shoulders. “I believe that I will be fine.”
“I think I should take a weapon!” Shikun said as she looked into the cart. “Something that lets me use my strength, and maybe a little bit more reach.”
“You’ll be wanting a war maul then.” Reggie reached into the pile, pulling out the long shaft to something inside the pile. The Brit tried to lift it, but couldn’t so much as budge it from its place. He quickly gave up and motioned for Shikun. “Why don’t you give it a go?”
Shikun glided up to the other side of the cart, placing both hands on the maul. As she picked it up, the giant hammerhead lifted free from the pile of honeysteel, clanging the other pieces around as it shifted through. She swung it over her head a few times, the two massive faces of the hammerhead swirling above her. The rest of us, especially Reggie, felt the need to duck as she danced with the massive blunt instrument of destruction. When she finished, she held the hammer in both her hands.
“I like the heft of it, but…” She dropped it into the cart, lifting the front half just by the weight of it and accidentally smacking the cart’s pulling bar right into Reggie’s face. “Too shiny.”
“Buggering hell.” Reggie held his nose as he seethed through the pain. “Buggering, buggering hell. Oh, blood on a biscuit.” He pushed his nose back into place. “Right, then. Do we have anything else to do before we head out?”
/> “Oh, Gods, I’m so sorry!” Shikun glided over to try to help Reggie with the injury she inadvertently caused. He waved her off as he snorted out some blood.
“Does anyone know where Thorton is?” I asked.
“I’m right here.”
I jumped and pulled Libritas right to whoever spoke. The rest of us, Reggie with his gun, Petra with a wooden lance, Shikun and Amalthea with their claws, all were poised to eviscerate Thorton, barely realizing in time that it was him that spoke. Knowing the danger wasn’t actually there, I sheathed Libritas.
“How long have you been there?” I asked the grey-haired dwarf.
“Since you all came back from flying and such,” he answered plainly. “Did you want something?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, still a little ashamed I’d never noticed him. “We’re going to be bringing guests here from many different places in the Marches. Could you find a place for them to stay for a bit?” I remembered who I was talking to. “Build some places for them to stay. Preferably enough for an army. Say, a couple hundred.”
“Oh yeah, we’ll get right on it.” Thorton whistled, and several other dwarves zipped to a standing salute around him. In record time, eight dwarves were in a military-like formation.
“Longhouse,” Thorton said simply as if that explained everything. “Yeah?”
“Sure,” one of them said, and the crew zipped off towards the closest building. They jumped onto every side of it and began peeling it apart like a banana, reshaping and repurposing its walls to another shape. Some of the dwarves jumped to the next house, reshaping it similarly and connecting some of its pieces to the first. Soon, many houses were becoming connected in this fashion, forming what I was going to guess was a longhouse.