by Logan Jacobs
He wasn’t quite the size of a giant, but the beast was too large for me to fully control. Still, I stayed the course. My Hand vibrated with the intense effort and sweat beaded along my brow, yet nothing happened.
“Milton, now would be a really good time for your powers to grow again,” Maaren said as she pulled to a stop next to me.
“I wholeheartedly agree,” I replied. “I--”
Just then, Ariette flew from the top of a tree and stuck her sword down into the ogre’s back. The Fae hung off the hilt, and her body weight pulled the weapon down through the beast’s back like a pirate sliding down a sail. The blade of Ariette’s weapons must have hit one of his bones, because it suddenly became lodged into the ogre’s body. At the same time, a lightning bolt shot down from the sky above the Fae and struck the ogre’s chest with a loud zap.
The ogre screamed in pain and stumbled backward a step, but he regained his footing easily and seemed to be unfazed by the lightning bolt. The elf still hung off him, and I saw her face twist in annoyance at the realization that her spell did nothing. Seconds later, bolt after bolt rained down on the ogre rapidly and zapped him over and over again. With each strike his stumbles became a little bit greater, and he began to shake his head with confusion.
Meanwhile, the rest of us took advantage of Ariette’s electrical distraction and made a misshapen circle around the ogre.
The crack of lightning echoed, and the monster started to spin in a circle. He tried to grab Ariette, but she had chosen her placement well. The Fae was almost directly in the middle of the ogre’s back, where his meaty paws couldn’t reach her. He resorted to circling around like a dog as he grunted in pain and anger.
“Get offa me!” he bellowed. “Get offa me!”
As the ogre’s head swung around toward me, I fired off four shots directly at his eye. The bullets lodged themselves in his upper cheekbone, and warm pools of blood began to trickle down his face.
He roared loudly and increased his speed as his hand fumbled to remove the bullets in his face. The force of his movement caused Ariette to lose her grip on her sword, and she was sent flying through the air.
“I got her!” Maaren hollered, and the hunter raised her Hand.
With the gusty wind, Ariette’s trajectory was slowed, and she floated to the ground somewhere in the foliage many feet away. Maaren took off in that direction.
“Ya shot me in tha bloody eye!” the ogre bellowed angrily. “I’m going to tear ya to pieces!”
His giant hand lashed out at me, and I ducked out of the way just as Danira was able to fire off a few rounds at the monster. At the same time, Kalista raced forward with an almost comical warcry and haphazardly stabbed the ogre in the calf.
“Take … that … you … crazy bastard!” the dwarf shouted as she repeatedly jabbed at the creature’s leg.
Neither of my friend’s attacks had done much damage, and the ogre just paused for a moment as if he was trying to figure out how to deal with an annoying fly.
I readied my gun and aimed at the behemoth. Just then, a drop of blood from his wound fell down and splashed against my foot. Immediately, my Hand began to tingle and vibrate in a way I’d never felt before. It wasn’t just the normal, light sensation I was used to, the one similar to a limb falling asleep and waking up. This time, the vibrations were so intense, it was almost like I had grabbed the open end of an electrical circuit. Currents of magic shot up my arm, and the vibration spread throughout my whole body as the metallic scent of the ogre’s blood assaulted my nose.
I was reminded of the very first time I’d ever used my hand, right after Oragon had given it to me. It was almost as if the magic itself had taken over me, and I moved on instinct alone. This time was no different. I saw the ogre bring his hand back, intent on squashing Kalista.
Not on my watch.
I concentrated on the open wound in the ugly creature’s face and made a connection with my Hand like I never had before. My Hand vibrated violently with its magic, and I tossed it to the side. Just before the ogre could squash my friend, I ripped out all of his blood and internal organs through the quarter-sized hole in his face. The force of the action caused the entire side of his head to explode, and a shower of blood and guts blanketed a huge chunk of the forest with his viscera.
The warm blood hit me, but it was almost like I was having an out of body experience. A wave of extreme exhaustion rolled through my body, and I stumbled as my vision went black. I fell to my knees and collapsed forward onto my hands as I struggled to keep myself from fainting. My mouth was dry as a bone as I sucked air into my lungs and screwed my eyes shut to ward off the heaviness I felt in my head.
When I could finally breathe and move again, I looked up to see the messy remains of the ogre tangled on the forest floor, with a few trees caught underneath. Four faces, covered in blood, stared down at me in shock and amazement. I mustered up a half smile for them.
“How’s that for power growth?” I joked lazily.
“I mean, technically you just used your regular powers,” Kalista pointed out with a grin, “but that was pretty badass.”
“Yeah, I think that will do,” Maaren chuckled as she and Ariette reached out and helped me up.
I stood, a little shakily, and waited for the exhaustion to clear completely. “Regular powers?” I laughed to the dwarf. “I just turned that thing inside out!”
“I said it was badass!” Kal said with a pout. “What more do you want?”
“What the hell kind of ogre was that?” Danira demanded as she surveyed its remains. “That was twice as big and way stronger than any ogre I’ve ever encountered.”
“I guess the Nahul Plains don’t just have exotic plants, but scarier creatures too,” Ariette replied darkly. “Now, can we get out of here before something else comes out of nowhere and tries to rip us apart?”
“I second that,” Kalista said quickly. “We got the goods, now let’s skedaddle.”
I shook the last bits of exhaustion from my head and patted my pocket to make sure the mushrooms were still secure before I pulled myself to my feet and followed my team back to the forest’s edge. We tried to creep as quietly as we could along the dead foliage, but we cautiously kept scanning for any sign of danger.
Limmer’s warning kept echoing through my head. If that ogre was any indication, the old professor definitely knew what he was talking about. It was no wonder hardly anyone ever ventured into the Nahul Plains.
When we made it back over to the rocky cliffs without incident, Kal looked down over the edge of the canyon.
“Alright, Maaren, fly us down to the river please,” she requested and turned her violet eyes on us. “It’s no spa day, but I’d like to get all cleaned up before we get into my van. I really don’t want to get blood n’ guts all over my baby.”
I took us all in and realized the dwarf had a point. We were all covered in blood, guts, and a heavy coating of thick red dirt. The plains were windy, and the coating of sticky innards helped the dusty material stick to our body like it was a sort of gory glue. The smell was terrible, almost as awful as the smell of the sewer system had been.
“I don’t know, Kal … ” Ariette mused playfully. “I’m really tired. Can’t we just hop in the van and go home?”
“No,” the dwarf grunted and put her hands on her curvy hips. “Not funny. If you don’t want to wash up, fine, but you’re walking home.”
“Uh, Kal,” I said as I looked at the rush of water below, “I don’t think that river’s meant for swimming.”
“Well, Danira could help us out there,” Kal argued as she threw a broad grin at the commander. “Couldn’t you, boss?”
Danira raised a single eyebrow and then glanced at the river below. “You really want me controlling a raging river after the fight we just had?”
“You can’t?” I teased.
The commander narrowed her lone eye at me. “I could … though one of you might accidentally be swept away.”
I threw up my hands and laughed. “No thank you. I’d rather stay coated in ogre guts.”
“We’ll find a place where the water is calmer,” Kal cut in certainly. “I believe in us!”
I turned to Maaren, and the hunter shrugged her shoulders. Then, she began to pick us up into the air with her hand, two at a time, and lowered us down to the bottom of the canyon. When it got to be Kal and I’s turn, the dwarf threw up her hands with joy and cackled loudly as we floated through the air. The roar of water was loud in my ears when we hit the bottom, but the river’s beauty was like no other. The rushing waves were foamy and white, and the entire riverbed was covered with a mixture of sand and plants that I’d never seen before.
The team had to walk a little way down the river, but we eventually found a stretch where the current wouldn’t sweep us away. In fact, it was actually kinda peaceful here. The water still moved downstream, but its pace was much more lazy. Here, the waves were minimal, and the water was crystal clear.
It was the perfect spot to dry off.
I left the Ghoul’s Bread on a rock to stay dry, and then walked over to the riverbed. I started to enter, fully-clothed, but I heard a slight clicking from behind. I turned around to see that Ariette, Maaren, and Danira were now disrobing. I felt my pants tighten at the sight of the three beautiful women in their underwear.
“Hold on a minute, HC,” Ariette snickered. “Why are your clothes still on?”
“I, uh, I thought we were washing them?” I shrugged.
“We are,” Danira chuckled as she walked over beside me. “You generally don’t put your clothes in the washer while you’re still wearing them, do you?”
The Fae shot me a playful smile as she bent down and began to scrub the viscera off her uniform. Her tiny breasts hung down happily, secured only by the thin fabric of her bra. Now that her clothes were off, I saw just how fit Danira truly was.
I never would have guessed it in a million years.
Ariette and Maaren walked over beside the one-eyed elf and also began to scrub their clothes. Both of the women were wearing the Fae equivalent of a sports bra and tight, lacy panties. Even with the restricted range of motion, I noticed Ariette’s breasts looked like they were going to pop out at any second.
Maaren looked back at Kal, who was still standing on the bank of the river. “Come on, Kal,” she sighed. “You said it yourself, we have to get clean before we can go home.”
The dwarf was standing with her arms crossed across her chest. “I already did this kinda thing back in high school,” she protested. “It wasn’t that fun then, either.”
“Will you do it if Milton does it, too?” Ariette asked coyly. “We all know how much you love his body.”
Kal looked down at the ground bashfully. “Fine,” she agreed, “but only if Milton does it.”
I looked around at all four of my teammates, who were all watching with bated breath. Then, I pulled off my pants, being careful to keep my underwear still on. There was a wave of playful ‘ooohhhs’ in response, and then the girls all whistled when I pulled my shirt over my head.
“Take it off!” Kal giggled from the shore. “Ow-ow!”
“I believe you were supposed to be next?” I waggled my eyebrows at the dwarf. “Don’t leave us in suspense.”
“Please,” she scoffed as she headed toward the water. “You’ve seen it all before.”
As she walked, Kalista pulled off her shirt. Her two massive breasts plopped down happily, concealed by her bra that was bursting at the seams. Once she got a little bit closer, she stopped, tugged off her shoes, and slid her pants off her ankles. The dwarf approached the water and gasped when it ran across her feet.
“Holy shit, that’s cold!” Kal shivered. “Nobody told me it was gonna be frigid!”
I glanced down at the dwarf’s chest, and her erect nipples told me just how cold she really was.
“Stop being a wimp, Kal,” Maaren chuckled. “The water’s fine.”
The dwarf slowly inched her way into the river, shivering the entire way. She finally stopped and began to scrub at her clothes vigorously. We continued on for a few minutes, wiping the gore and guts off our uniforms. Even after a full five minutes of scrubbing, my t-shirt was still stained red in multiple places.
It was probably a goner.
“Maaren, dry us off,” Kal ordered when we were finally all washed and clean. “Ain’t no way a bunch of soggy fish are getting into my van!”
“You are a very specific little woman,” Maaren laughed as she rolled her eyes and called up a huge tornado of wind.
The twister spun out of her Hand and encapsulated us, one at a time. When it zoomed over to me, I had to close my eyes and tighten my jaw shut as the intense wind nearly blasted the skin off my muscles. Within seconds, the tornado had dried my sopping wet body, and my clothes were bone-dry.
The five of us got re-dressed, and then Kal walked past and inspected us one-by-one to make sure we were clean enough for her van.
“Okay,” Kalista said happily. “Not a single drop of blood and guts in sight. Now, let’s go tell that crazy old dryad how we almost got eaten for this little mushroom.”
I grabbed the Ghoul’s Bread off the rock it’d been laying on, shoved it in my pocket, and then walked over to the rest of my team. Maaren flew us all back to the top of the canyon, and then we walked back to the van. Once we were inside, Kal kicked on the engine, put it in drive, and then we sped off to the University.
The exhaustion that had hung in my body since I defeated the ogre overtook me as soon as we got on the road, and I let the motion of the van lull me into a much-needed sleep.
Chapter Five
I woke up just as we hit the outskirts of Jefferson City. Danira snored softly from her chair in the corner, but I noticed Maaren and Ariette were wide awake and huddled together in the center of the van, engaged in a whispered conversation.
I stood up, stretched, and sauntered over to the gossiping Fae.
“Soooo, what are we talking about?” I asked as I sat down next to them.
“Oh you know,” Maaren shrugged one blue shoulder seductively and looked at me from under thick lashes, “just comparing notes on the best ways to get you off.”
A hot and heavy blush roared across my cheeks as I stared at the two women, but Ariette let out a laugh before I could get too embarrassed.
“Relax, HC,” she giggled. “You humans can be so uptight sometimes.”
“Says the elf who hails from a long line of bureaucrats,” I shot back and shoved her shoulder lightly.
“We were just talking about the prophecy,” Maaren answered honestly. “Ariette told me exactly what the dragon said to you during your first adventure.” Her green eyes turned worried, and she put her palm on my thigh as she spoke.
“That I was going to make sure evil doesn’t reign?” I asked lightly, even though I knew exactly what she was talking about. “No worries, I got that handled.”
“No, actually,” Ariette said, her tone darker now. “We were talking about the part where the dragon said you might get destroyed in the process.”
“Right, that,” I sighed. “When the world burns and good and evil become the same, I’m supposed to defeat the evil, and oh, yeah, that mission will lead to my destruction. It’s a very nice prophecy.”
“It just doesn’t seem fair,” Maaren muttered. “So you do this amazingly good thing and save the world and what? Your reward is death?” The hunter stared down at her hand for a brief moment and shook her head.
“Hey,” I said softly as I placed a gentle hand beneath her chin and waited until her green eyes met mine. “He said destruction, not death.”
“And those are different?” Ariette demanded, her tone harsh.
“They could be,” I replied. “Maybe my Hand gets destroyed, and I’m left without magic. Or my reputation. Or a million other things. He never specifically said I was going to die.”
Ariette stared at me for a long, hard moment, and I kn
ew she was unconvinced. I wasn’t exactly convinced, myself, but I didn’t want her to know that. It did no one any good to worry about whether I’d make it through the week or not, especially if that inhibited their clarity around the mission.
“So then what does it mean?” Maaren finally asked. “The world’s not burning. And there is definitely a clear difference between good and evil as far as I’m concerned.”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Maybe we’re early? Maybe we jumped into the timeline of the prophecy way too early, and the Phobos aren’t even ready for me yet?”
Neither of the women said anything. Both looked anywhere but directly at me, and I could see the emotion that brimmed in their eyes as they thought of the words all of us wanted to say.
Prophecies didn’t work like that. There was no “early.” Whatever the dragon had told me would be what it was.
“Prophecies can be tricky,” Ariette finally sighed out in frustration. “What they say can’t always be taken at face value.”
“Soooo, be on the lookout for any globes that catch fire?” Maaren joked half-heartedly.
“Actually, possibly,” Ariette chuckled. “Maybe the leader of the Phobos has a Hand of Fire? That’d be a twist.”
“Hey guys,” I said, my tone serious as I reached out my hands and patted their thighs. “If I’m going to die, at least I’m glad it’ll be next to two absolutely gorgeous creatures like yourselves.”
“Milton!” Maaren gasped and swatted my hand playfully. “That isn’t funny! I mean sure, I appreciate the compliment, but no, you’re not dying!”
“Hey,” Kalista called out from the driver’s seat. “Aren’t you forgetting someone? Another woman in your life who you think is the most beautiful thing in the world?”
“Storm isn’t here,” I shot back jokingly. “And even if she was, I don’t think a dog understands the concepts of beauty like us Fae and humans do.”