Tribe Master

by Noah Layton

I remembered the knives in my inventory. The ones she had wanted.

  She had been fragile and dedicated, had fed me and fixed my wounds, but I was still on the alert.

  I drank down the liquor, feeling the bittersweet taste of gin and aromatised white wine soak my throat.

  ‘Your people…’ I said. ‘How long has it been? Since you lost them, I mean.’

  Ariadne took another hard drink.

  ‘A few months, I think. Many were slain, but many taken. I hope that I will meet them in the future one day.’

  ‘Whatever it takes. I promise. If we ever get a lead, we’ll chase it down as far as it goes.’

  ‘You are a bountiful master. Even with such a small tribe, you are willing to provide everything for your people.’

  ‘I don’t know about that,’ I smiled. ‘There are only three of us yet.’

  ‘That will change, master.’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘I know.’

  She gave me a warm smile and scanned my body up and down with her large hazel eyes. Even if she had a pair of fox ears sprouting out of the top of her head and feet that were closer to paws, I still found Ariadne unbelievably sexy. Her slim, toned form complimented her perky, firm breasts beneath her shirt, and her long legs stretching out before her seemed endless.

  I tried to stop telling myself that she had just checked me out, but then I was doing exactly the same thing to this foxgirl.

  I pulled my eyes away hard and took a deep breath.

  ‘It has been a long day,’ she said. ‘I think I shall withdraw, master.’

  ‘Of course,’ I said quickly.

  ‘Would you mind if I got undressed first?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Upstairs. We are sharing a home, after all, now that we have two beds.’

  ‘Oh, right, absolutely. Go ahead. Just shout me when you’re done.’

  The moment Ariadne had disappeared into the tree I exhaled deeply, clenching my eyes shut and opening them a few times before shaking my head hard.

  ‘Don’t be stupid,’ I said quietly to myself. ‘She’s just a girl. A ridiculously hot foxgirl, but a girl all the same.’

  One word rang through my mind, though; honeypot. A female spy gets their target into bed using their sexuality, which Ariadne had in spades, and then strikes.

  ‘Master?’

  ‘Yeah…?’

  Not another word. I guessed that that meant she was in bed. I had already set mine down on the other side of the treehouse when we had got back earlier.

  Taking each step one at a time, I finally arrived on the platform and looked about in the dim light of the treehouse.

  Ariadne was nowhere to be seen. Behind me I heard the door creaking and turned sharply to see her.

  She had undressed alright, and now she was standing with her back to the door in all her naked glory, her exotic body presented before me.

  ‘Holy shit…’ I muttered to myself breathlessly, looking her up and down. I had been with my fair share of women over the years, but this was something else entirely.

  The feisty expression on her face suddenly fell.

  ‘You do not want me, master?’

  ‘Oh, no,’ I said, ‘I definitely want you, it’s just… I’ve never been with someone like you before.’

  ‘I have never laid with a human male before, but within these walls I am yours. It is my only desire to please you.’

  ‘… Seriously?’

  ‘You are my master,’ she purred, moving towards me gracefully. It was like she was moving in slow-motion. ‘Your pleasure is mine.’

  Stepping right up to me, I ran my strong hands over her body and pulled her to me. Her soft hands ran up my toned torso and began to undo my shirt as we kissed for the first time.

  We were gentle at first before our tongues began to lash against each other’s. In no time she pulled away, having undone my shirt so quickly I hadn’t even realised – not that I was complaining.

  She sank to her knees before me as I pulled off my shirt and threw it aside. Sinking her hands into the waist of my pants she pulled them down over my legs and took my hard length in one of her soft hands and began to toy with me playfully.

  ‘So big…’ she smiled, biting her lip. ‘I have never tasted a man before, but it has long been one of my greatest desires.’

  Ariadne wrapped her lips around my throbbing head and took me deep into her hot, wet mouth. I quelled a groan of ecstasy as she lapped at me greedily, rolling her tongue against my shaft and taking me deeper and deeper into her mouth.

  Finally she pressed herself up against me, pressing her lips to my base and wrapping her mouth around me. She held herself there longer than I could believe before pulling away and panting for breath with a giggle.

  Another second longer and I would have lost it, but somehow I held on to some semblance of self-control.

  She walked backwards away from me, stretching herself out across her bed and arching her back as she opened her legs.

  I pulled off the last of my clothes and stood off the bed, my muscular body overshadowing her slender form and perky chest. I positioned myself between her legs, pushing into her quivering wetness and filling her slowly.

  The deeper I went the more she moaned. In no time I had worked myself into a voracious rhythm as I took her harder in the privacy of my new home.

  ‘Harder, master… Take me…’

  I wanted to indulge in her body as much as possible and I was determined to last as long as I could, but her words washed over me like liquid ecstasy.

  I ran my hands over her body, holding her hips firmly as I fucked her harder and harder.

  I hardly knew this girl, and here she was submitting herself to me and loving it. Her long, furred ears pressed into the cushions of the bed as she ran her hands up my forearms and held on to them, her body tensing up as she moaned wildly, taking me over and over.

  ‘Make me yours…’

  I slowed and guided her body, turning her over onto her front. She lay prone before me as I moved onto the bed, looking over her shoulder at me as she took the bedsheets in the clenched grasp of her fists in anticipation.

  ‘Fill me…’

  I moved onto the bed and atop her body, guiding my throbbing cock down her ass before spreading her cheeks with my hands and pushing into her wetness from behind.

  Groaning with pleasure I took her from behind, breaking into a passionate rhythm as Ariadne let out a gasping shriek and sank her nails even harder into the sheets.

  The thought crossed my mind that I was hurting her from this angle, but I quickly realised that I was hardly doing any work at all; Ariadne was grinding her ass against me, burying me inside of her as she pressed her body against mine.

  She overwhelmed me completely. I held myself over her, our bodies pressed together in the heat of the climate as her walls tightened around my shaft and she let out an almighty, animalistic shriek as she came.

  I held myself inside of her, feeling a flood of pleasure burst through my abdomen and down to my waist as I came hard, finally emptying myself deep inside of her in a haze of passion.

  I collapsed back onto the bed as the shaking of my body subsided. Ariadne crawled up next to me and nuzzled under my arm.

  ‘My body likes you,’ she whispered. ‘I am glad to know this.’

  ‘My body likes you too,’ I panted.

  It was a weird thing to hear and a weird thing to say, but on the surface it made sense.

  Not that I cared, of course. I was too exhausted and too drained to think of anything, and sleep quickly took me.

  Chapter Five

  Two things registered in my mind when I awoke. The first was that I was still alive. Ariadne hadn’t killed me while I slept. I could trust her.

  The second was the gigantic freaking explosion that had gone off right on the doorstep of our home.

  Ariadne’s senses ignited before mine and she bolted upright. I sat up and quickly found my clothes, pulling everything o
n except for a single boot just as the sound of scrambling footsteps appeared on the treehouse steps.

  ‘Master Jack, Master Jack!’ The treehouse door slammed open and Alorion hurried in. ‘Oh, by the gods, I am sorry, Ms Ariadne.’

  ‘Sorry for what?!’ She asked before looking down unashamedly at herself. ‘Oh, I am sorry! I shall dress.’

  Ariadne pulled on her clothes – if they could even be called that – while I retrieved my sword from my inventory.

  ‘Intruders,’ Alorion continued, ‘they have activated our defences.’

  ‘How many?’

  ‘Five, but now only two.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I shall simply say that our defences worked better than expected. Much better. It is best that you see for yourself.’

  I equipped my sword and readied it as I headed outside and down the steps.

  Our attackers were immediately visible, or what was left of them at least. Three bloodied bodies that had been struck by the shrapnel from one of the bombs lay scattered on the ground.

  A fourth assailant, whose leg had been broken by the explosion and whose face was scattered with scars, was attempting to stagger away.

  Ariadne appeared by my side, and the three of us quickly crossed to him.

  It was a man in his early-forties wearing tattered rags and sporting a dirty face. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt as he stumbled away pathetically and threw him to the ground on his back.

  The pressure upon his broken leg unleashed a pained scream from his lungs. I raised my sword and pointed it at his neck.

  ‘Who the hell are you?’

  ‘But common thieves, sire,’ he groaned, breathing hard.

  ‘I’ve dealt with thieves once already in the last 24 hours,’ I replied. ‘It didn’t end well for them.’

  ‘Mercy is all I ask for, master.’

  I was on the fence about sparing the thief until I looked around more closely at the remains of the other bandits.

  There were weapons. They were rusted but could still slice through flesh easily – just like the ones from yesterday.

  I had had enough of being attacked.

  I switched my grip on the handle of my sword, holding it like a long dagger in a reverse grip, and plunged it without hesitation into the thief’s chest.

  He gasped suddenly, releasing a wheezing breath as his eyes widened. Life left them as his head drummed back sharply against the ground, but not before he let out a final cry;

  ‘Run, Coron!’

  I pulled my sword from his chest and spun around to the sound of rushing footsteps.

  There was one left, and he was making a run for it through the corn.

  Adrenaline pumped through my veins on the back of my most recent kill. I had ended the lives of my fair share of men in the forces, but I had never executed a man before.

  Alorion remained in the clearing as Ariadne and I sprinted through the corn after the fifth bandit. The crops were thick, but a few rapid swings of my sword did a decent job of hacking the thicker sections from my path until we reached the edge of my land and it began to thin.

  He was twenty yards off and making a straight shot for the treeline.

  ‘My blades, Master Jack?’ Ariadne cried out.

  I hesitated for a fraction of a second, wondering if I trusted her.

  Ariadne hadn’t strangled me to death while I slept. She had no outside allegiances – she was with us.

  I pulled up my inventory and passed her the knives.

  She screeched to a halt, her pawed feet kicking up the dusty dry dirt beneath our feet.

  My foxgirl aimed, drew her hand back, and threw.

  The knife tore through the air like a gliding bullet and slammed straight into the bandit’s back. It wasn’t a fatal blow but enough to stop him and take him to the ground.

  ‘Nice shot.’

  ‘Thank you, master.’

  We crossed to the bandit. He remained on his front, groaning with the knife still protruding from his side. The bleeding wasn’t bad, so I surmised that Ariadne hadn’t hit an artery.

  It was just something painful to incapacitate him long enough for me to arrive at his side.

  Ariadne yanked the knife from his side with a single swift motion.

  ‘Arghh!’ He yelped out pathetically. ‘What did you do that for?’

  ‘I’m going to guess that it was because you tried to murder us in our sleep, you piece of shit,’ I said dryly. ‘But I might be wrong.’

  I pushed the toe of my boot beneath his arm and turned him over.

  Resting my eyes on his face, I found that I recognised him.

  ‘You,’ I exclaimed. ‘You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.’

  It was the thief from the day before, the one that I had shown some mercy to.

  ‘I thought I told you to run home to your mother.’

  ‘Please… Please don’t kill me.’

  ‘Answer me!’ I yelled. ‘What did I tell you?’

  ‘To go home to my mother.’

  ‘And why didn’t you?’

  ‘I don’t have a mother. Those men were the only family I have… Or had. They asked me what happened when I returned to our camp and I couldn’t lie to them…’

  ‘Yeah, well, I don’t have a mom either, so if you think that’s going to make me feel sorry for you then you’re wrong. The bottom line is I gave you a chance and you spat in my face. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t cut your throat right now.’

  The young man whimpered, his chest rising and falling shakily as he gasped for breath, holding his hands up in submission.

  ‘Please, gods, I don’t want to die…’

  Tears started rolling down his cheeks. I saw both a stupid kid and a serious threat. Weird how those two things often collided like this.

  ‘How did you find us?’ I asked.

  ‘We followed the trail back and kept going through the forest. Took a while to find the right path but we eventually got here. We didn’t even know there was a tribe here.’

  ‘Does anybody else know? The rest of your gang?’

  ‘The rest of the gang are here… I guess I’m the only one left now.’

  ‘The only one,’ I repeated, holding the tip of my sword out and pointing it towards his throat. There was only a foot between the two.

  ‘Please, I’ll do anything.’

  Killing him was the logical thing to do. I could loot his body and the others and bury them in the woods, and that would be the end of it.

  Seeing him there, though, on the verge of pissing his pants and with a fresh stab wound just a few inches shy of his kidney, I still couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

  ‘Get up,’ I commanded. ‘Ariadne, do we still have some of the medicine and bandages left over from yesterday?’

  ‘Some, master.’

  ‘Coron, isn’t it?’ I said returning to the young man.

  ‘Yes,’ he muttered, staggering to his feet.

  ‘That’s yes, master, to you.’

  ‘Yes, master.’

  I wasn’t being sadistic for the sake of it, but I wanted the little shit to know that I wasn’t letting him off easy for what he had done.

  ‘Start walking.’

  We returned to the tree, Coron walking ahead of Ariadne and I as we followed him with our weapons drawn.

  ‘I’ve gone to the trouble of looting the bodies, Jack,’ Alorion said, passing the spoils to me. ‘I’ve stacked the rusted weapons in the stable, but a few things stood out.’

  Acquired:

  46GP

  Map x1

  Potion of Haste

  Spell: Arcane Blast

  My gold counter ticked up to almost 700GP. The other three items captured my interest quickly, but I would have to deal with them later.

  ‘Thanks, Alorion,’ I nodded. ‘Ariadne, would you mind healing our captive?’

  ‘Are you sure, master? He tried to kill us.’

  ‘Trust me.’

&nbs
p; ‘As you wish.’

  ‘What are we doing?’ Alorion whispered at my side while Ariadne got to work. ‘I must agree with our lady friend. Were it not for the defences we would now be dead.’

  ‘Do you have dogs in Agraria?’

  ‘Dogs?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘We do, but there are much more ferocious beasts that we could feed him t-’

  ‘I’m not interested in feeding him to anybody,’ I laughed. ‘There’s an expression in my world. Why have a dog and bark yourself?’

  ‘Are you asking me?’

  ‘No, it just means that if you have somebody to do the difficult work for you, why bother doing it yourself?’

  ‘Ahh…’ Alorion smiled. ‘I think I see what you are getting at. You are going to make Ariadne do some difficult work.’

  ‘What? No. I’m going to make Coron do it.’

  After Ariadne had him patched up, I offered Coron a drink from the well to quench his thirst, and even a little leftover corn from the night before.

  ‘Why are you being so nice to me?’ He asked. ‘This feels like a last meal.’

  ‘You’re going to need to keep your strength up.’

  ‘For what?’

  ‘You’ve got a grave to dig for your buddies over there. Oh, and a stable to clear of horseshit.’

  In any other situation he would have probably complained, but not a word came out of his mouth except for-

  ‘Yes, master.’

  ‘Oh, and don’t try and make a run for it. If you do, my friend here will aim much higher with those knives of hers. She’s a pretty good shot, if you hadn’t realised already.’

  Ariadne was more than willing to supervise Coron in his duties for the day, which started with hauling the bodies of his fellow bandits off our land.

  ‘Digging the graves of his own companions,’ Alorion remarked. ‘A devious move, but a necessary one.’

  ‘Hey, it could be worse. I could make him dig his own grave.’

  ‘He may yet need to. What are we going to do with him when we’re finished with him?’

  ‘I’ll figure that out when the time comes.’

  ‘Would you consider making him a member of the tribe?’

  ‘The guy who tried to kill us? I don’t think so.’

  ‘Then he becomes a slave.’

  ‘Woah, woah, woah,’ I interjected. ‘Nobody’s using the s-word. I’m not taking any slaves. We’re never doing that. I don’t care what the other tribes do.’