by Logan Jacobs
“Playing it by ear…” Lezan smiled a toothy grin. “That is how my friends and I always liked to do things. It usually worked out for the best.”
“And when it didn’t?” Jemma dared to ask.
Lezan turned her head to the deer-woman and gave her a look of pure mischief.
“When it didn’t work out, that’s when the fun started,” the multicolor-haired women giggled. “When we’d have to get our hands dirty. And our axe. And teeth. And sometimes even our--”
“I get it,” Jemma reaffirmed as her face paled slightly. “The Coonag crave violence.”
“And you don’t?” Lezan gasped. “I thought your people were mighty warriors?”
“We are now,” the long-legged beauty explained. “But that was only after Ben found our village and trained us on how to defend ourselves. Before that, our people hated violence. We thought it was a mortal sin in the eyes of the Goddess Nira to take another life, whether it was in self-defense or not.”
“Wait.” Lezan stopped in place and tried to reconcile what she just heard. “If you thought killing was bad, how did you hunt?”
Jemma’s face flushed red as she looked down at the ground. I already knew the answer to this question, and I knew for a fact it was going to blow Lezan’s mind.
“W-We didn’t,” the deer woman chuckled as a half-smile rose up onto her face. “We only ate the bounty of the forest.”
“Well, yeah,” Lezan drawled, but she didn’t seem to get the gist. “You have to have some vegetables to go with your meat. Where else are you going to get your healthy energy?”
“I don’t think you understand,” Jemma hinted further. “We didn’t hunt at all.”
“So, you had your men do it?” Lezan cocked her head to the side and continued to miss the point completely. “That is kinda strange, but it makes sense.”
“Lezan…” the deer-woman sighed. “Our men didn’t hunt either. We didn’t eat meat. At all. No hunting, and no killing anything that had a heartbeat.”
Lezan let out a soft cackle and doubled over. “That’s funny, Jemma! You really got me there. ‘Don’t eat meat.’ Ha!”
“It’s not a joke,” I explained. “Jemma’s people were vegetarians when I met them. They only ate vegetables and fruit, which meant they weren’t as fit or as strong as they are now. And yeah, they didn’t kill anything. Not even the Wargs that were trying to tear them limb from limb.”
The smile disappeared from Lezan’s face, and she stood straight back up.
“You aren’t joking?” she gasped. “Your people… really didn’t eat meat at all?”
Jemma shook her head. “Not until Ben here came along and showed us why we needed to. Honestly, I feel a million times better now that I have that sort of stuff in my diet, and now that I know how to defend myself with this bow.”
“I can’t believe it,” Lezan chuckled to herself before she started to walk again. “Somebody who doesn’t eat meat. Wait until Nadir and the others hear about this one! They might just laugh themselves to death.”
Jemma rolled her chartreuse eyes and then followed after the racoon-woman.
Meanwhile George, Tirian, and I just laughed at the scene before us.
I can hear your thoughts, remember? Jemma’s voice reminded us, and we instantly wiped the smiles off our faces.
Our small crew ventured further down the beach until finally, we came to the bend Jemma had been talking about. There, down the shoreline about two miles, was a small party of orcs who were just getting out of their rowboat.
“Get back!” I hissed as I ordered everyone to get against the trees, and we hopped into the cover of the ashy forest and then peered out to see what awaited us with these opponents.
I counted fifteen of the bulky green bastards, each one with a net in one hand and a weapon in the other. There was one more net that was super long, which had to be carried by two of the orcs.
Son of a bitch… This all but confirmed they were here to kidnap somebody, probably the women who resided here.
They wanted to take the inhabitants of this island back to their cesspool of a home and then torture them in all sorts of terrible, illicit ways. The whole thing was enough to make my skin crawl, as well as send a boiling rage spiraling into my very being.
Calm yourself, dear one, George warned. These foul creatures upset me, too, but we can’t make any rash decisions.
“I know,” I muttered. “But I still want to kill them all.”
“Ah, come on,” Lezan mused, “fifteen against five sounds like a pretty fair fight to me. Especially when our enemies are orcs who couldn’t even find the latrine on the hottest day of the season.”
“We need to find out where they are going,” I announced. “Then, once we see what they’re really after, we can put out their lights.”
Do you want me to burn their rowboats? Tirian suggested with a small puff of smoke. I bet that would really grind their teeth.
“Not yet,” I ordered. “I don’t want to waste two perfectly good boats unless we have to. Let’s just try and follow them for now.”
Without another word, we slunk along the tree line toward the orc party. Though it would have been stealthier to use the cover of the trees, I worried the sound of moving brush and breaking twigs might alert our enemies to our presence. So, we chose to stay in the sand and did our damndest to keep out of sight.
The orcs, on the other hand, lumbered into the ashy forest so haphazardly that we could hear their approach from nearly a mile away. They all laughed devilishly as they kicked stones, hacked away at branches, and belched loudly, and I silently rolled my eyes.
These idiots were actually making our mission a million times easier. Now, we could pinpoint their location easily through the thickets of white branches, and their own noise acted as cover for our movements.
Today was our lucky day.
The five of us followed behind the pack of green bastards as they made their way toward the center of the island. Their sounds of boorish laughter eventually died down, and the idiots began to unintentionally lay out their entire plan before us.
“I can’t wait to get my hands on these things,” one of the orcs cackled, “I’ve heard they look more beautiful than the shiniest ruby on the Gemshore Isles.”
“I heard they got a little bit ‘a fight in ‘em,” another blundering bastard added. “Which is why we got all these nets.”
“Why’d we have to bring this big one, anyways?” a third orc complained. “The ones we’re looking for are supposed to be tiny, right?”
Suddenly, there was a loud slapping sound, followed by a yowl of pain.
“Idiot!” another one of our foes scolded his crewmate. “Do you have any idea what sorta shit’s lurkin’ around these isles? If we somehow caught one of the big ones and took it back to our master? He’ll let us have any of the women we want, and he’d probably let us sit at the round table!”
“The round table…” the “idiot” orc trailed off. “You really think he’d let us do that?”
“Only if we bring him back what he wants,” the other orc reminded his friend. “So, I don’t want your dumb ass fucking this up for us!”
“Quiet!” the orc at the front hissed. “Both of you! We’re coming up on the mountain, and I don’t want the whole fucking pack to know we’re here!”
Instantly, all of the orcs fell silent.
What are they talking about? Jemma asked through our dragon bond. Do you think they’re capturing more women?
“I don’t know,” I admitted silently. “Kinda strange they’d mention the ‘big one’ if they were. But what else could they be hunting? Are they looking for food to restock their ship?”
I haven’t seen a single animal since we’ve arrived, George added. There didn’t seem to be any in the water once we got close, either.
This was all very strange. Unless all of the creatures on this island were hidden away underground, there didn’t seem to be anything here.
&nb
sp; The more I thought about it, I started to wonder if anything could survive on this island at all. There was volcanic ash all around, from the floor of the forest to the trees and even the beach. Even though that sort of dust helped make fertile soil for the surrounding area, it didn’t do anything for a living organism’s respiratory system.
Anything that lived here had to either be evolved to the point where the dust didn’t bother them, or they were on their way out as a species.
Is the island abandoned? Jemma suggested once more.
“I don’t even know if I’d go that far,” I sighed telepathically. “In order to be abandoned, you have to have somebody living here first. I haven’t seen a single sign of civilization since we landed.”
They could be hiding, the deer-woman suggested. Up in the trees like we did, or maybe below ground like the Coonag?
I’m not sure if that’s possible, George interjected. When I pushed those branches out of the way, they responded like a mouthful of limp eels. I don’t think they’d hold the weight of a single person, let alone a whole village.
“And this sort of rock is pretty unstable to try and tunnel through,” I continued. “Also, I bet it gets hot as fuck the further down you would go.”
The orcs are definitely looking for something, though, Tirian spoke up. They seem to know where they’re going, too.
And they seem to think they’re not alone on this island, Jemma added. The orcs might be stupid, but their leaders surely are not. Why else would they be here if it wasn’t to capture more sex slaves?
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I want to make sure we stop them from doing whatever the fuck they’re doing. I don’t know what that is, but I’m sure it’s no good.”
We followed the sneaky orcs for a few more miles, until we saw them come out the other side of the forest, and when they did, they all paused for a moment and stared up in awe.
There, at what I assumed was the very center of the island, was a sprawling, upside-down cone structure made out of complete lava stone. It towered at least a thousand feet out of the ground and came to a large circle lip at the very top.
A volcano. An honest-to-god volcano.
There wasn’t any smoke or ash spewing out of it at the moment, so I assumed it was dormant for now.
“For now” being the key words.
The orcs gave each other high fives and celebratory headbutts before they ventured onward toward the base of the stony structure, with their nets still in hand.
Lezan went to take a step out of the clearing, but I quickly threw out my arm and stopped her.
“I’ve got a better idea,” I hissed. “It’s going to take those guys a hot minute to scale up the side of the volcano. Us, on the other hand? We can get up there in a flash. If our dragon friends are up to the challenge.”
Tirian’s tongue flopped out of his mouth, and he nodded his head up and down like an excited puppy.
George, on the other hand, looked horrified.
I… You want me to carry you? he gasped. I’m not sure I’m strong enough to do that on land...
“I know I said I’d let you practice first,” I admitted, “but this is a life or death situation, buddy. We need to beat those orcs up that mountain if we want any chance to warn its inhabitants. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”
The blue water dragon mulled the situation over for a moment, and his large eyes seemed to zone out as he began to pace back and forth in short, straight lines. Finally, he let out a small huff and raised his head high.
I’ll do it, he proclaimed. But just for you, dear one.
“Me and Lezan,” I corrected and pointed to the Coonag woman.
You and Lezan. George nodded.
“How will we avoid detection?” Jemma whispered as we watched the orcs begin their ascent. “It will be hard to sneak around them in a wide open space.”
“That’s why we’ll go around to the other side,” I explained. “It might take us a little bit longer to get there, but we’ll more than make up for that time by using the dragons.”
“Are you sure that’s going to work?” the deer-woman implored.
Don’t fret, my friend, Tirian interjected. The other side of the mountain is about… half a mile away, and the peak of that stone thing is probably… two thousand feet? If George can run at a speed of--
Tirian spent the next few seconds spouting off a series of calculations involving dragon velocity and the distance between the various points we needed to get to. This little guy may have only figuratively been born yesterday, but he was as quick as a whip.
Finally, he came to the conclusion we would beat the orcs up the volcano by almost ten minutes.
“That works for me.” I shrugged and then motioned for my friends to follow.
It took us all of twenty minutes to get into position, but we finally made it to a point where we could no longer see the orcs, and they wouldn’t have a chance at seeing us.
So, Tirian lowered his body, and Jemma hopped up onto his back. She wrapped her arms around his tiny neck and her legs on the underside of his wings. Then the silver dragon took to the sky with his bondmate on his back.
Lezan and I looked over at George, who had seemed to forget what we were doing.
Oh! the blue water dragon proclaimed. Sorry.
George laid down on the ground, and then Lezan and I took a running start toward him. We both leapt up into the air, landed on his back gently, and then the Coonag woman wrapped her arms around me from behind.
Her large breasts were firmly pressed against my back, and I could feel her tight tummy against my body. However, I really didn’t want to pop one while sitting on top of my beloved pet, so I leaned forward, placed my hands on each side of George’s neck, and then gave him a quick scratch.
“Thanks for this, George,” I said, and I sincerely appreciated his sacrifice. “Now, let’s get up this fucking mountain!”
George bucked backward and let out a determined chuff. Then he planted his feet firmly on the ground, dragged his right foot like a bull about to charge, and took off full sprint toward the edge of the volcano.
When he was only a few feet away, the water dragon jumped up into the air and slammed his claws into the rocky mountainside. Then he proceeded to dash up the volcano as if it were nothing.
Lezan let out a wail of excitement as she pulled herself in closer, and I responded with an enthusiastic “yeaaaahhhh!”
Unsurprisingly, Tirian and Jemma were way ahead of us. Under the power of the small, silver dragon’s wings, they had already made it three-quarters of the way up the volcano before we were even at the halfway point. Still, George was way faster than he looked, and we reached the lip of the rocky structure in no time flat.
George was panting fairly heavily when he skidded to a halt on top of a cliff that was just about the right size to hold us all. Then, as Lezan and I were dismounting, he sprayed a shot of briny seawater into the sky and allowed it to rain down on him.
Ahhhhhh, the water dragon practically moaned. That was way more exertion than I’d planned on doing today.
“Sorry about that,” I chuckled as I gave his head a soft pat. “I promise I’ll give you a big hunk of boar steak when we get back home.”
“That was a good call,” Jemma agreed as she slipped off Tirian. “We’re way ahead of our enemies.”
“Which means we can check out this thing before they can,” I added. “And then maybe we’ll have a strategy of what we need to do to beat these bastards.”
All five of us sauntered over to the edge of the volcano, but surprisingly, there was no heat radiating from it whatsoever, not even a small trail of smoke to let the world know of its hidden might.
Then we peered over the edge, and I let out an audible gasp.
It was empty. There was no lava whatsoever, nor was there any indication of liquid magma down in its depths.
“I’m confused,” Lezan sighed. “There’s nothing here.”
�
��That can’t be right.” I shook my head. “There’s no way in hell the orcs came all the way out here for an empty volcano.”
It’s not empty… Tirian suddenly gasped.
I looked over at the small silver dragon, and he was frozen in fear. His eyes were full of tears, too, and his elongated lower lip trembled.
“What’s wrong, Tirian?” Jemma implored as she ran over and wrapped her arms around her dragon’s neck. “What do you think is in there?”
My mom, he choked out.
“Your mom?” I smiled. “She’s still alive?”
I think so. Tirian nodded. As weird as it sounds, I-I feel her presence. I know she’s down in that cavern.
“Then we need to get the fuck down there before--” I began.
“Hey!” an orc suddenly called out. “You hear somethin?”
My heart froze in my chest, and I silently ordered everyone to hit the deck. We all went prone and then peeked our heads over the side of the ledge ever so slightly.
Just then, the band of orcs came up the other side of the volcano, and they were all sweaty, panting, and drained from their long climb.
“Yer hearing things, you dumb fuck!” another orc called out. “There ain’t nothing on this island but us, and these dragons.”
Dragons.
Holy fuck… Tirian was right. Only it wasn’t just his mother here. It was a fucking dragon colony.
Then my frozen heart sank even further when I realized what the nets and weapons were for.
These heartless fucks were going to try and kidnap a dragon and take it back to their masters.
Let them try, George chuckled darkly. If there truly are multiple dragons like Tirian down there, these orcs don’t stand a chance.
Seriously, Jemma chimed in. We may as well sit back and watch this one play out.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” I grumbled. “Like I said before, these orcs are dumb, but they aren’t ‘try to capture a massive dragon with only fifteen soldiers’ dumb. Something funky is going on right now, and I don’t like it one bit.”
We sat there and watched as the orcs tossed a rope over the side of the volcano, secured it with a few strikes of a hammer to a stake, and tested its tautness. Then, once they were sure it was in the ground, they lit a few lanterns and began to rappel down into the darkness below. Suddenly, the entire cavern lit up with light from the torches that seemed to line the walls of the volcano interior.