Herald of Shalia 5

by Tamryn Tamer

  “Goddess,” Ka whispered while covering her mouth with her wing. “So, this anger fuck is good, yes?”

  “Absolutely!” Renna answered enthusiastically.

  “Sometimes,” Fayeth corrected. “Only if you’re in the mood for it.”

  “I will receive angry fucking if I make him angry, yes?” Ka asked.

  “Renna, Ena, Fayeth,” Frost glared at the women. “Don’t go putting strange ideas into Ka’s head. Also, it’s your fault we end up having angry sex. You, Brynn, and Cassia are always wanting it rougher.”

  “That’s because we’re all very bad girls that need to be punished,” Renna joked.

  “You’re ridiculous,” Frost chuckled as they approached two stone towers at the entrance to the forest. There was no portcullis or gate preventing people from passing through and small two-bedroom homes lined the road right past the towers. A pair of long aqueducts ran parallel to the road and where they ended small waterfalls poured into medium-sized holes that led to the Arachne tunnel system beneath the village.

  The Arachne insisted on building a complex system of tunnels beneath the forest so they could escape in case of emergencies and in order to prevent creatures from getting into the village via the tunnels they were extremely difficult to navigate.

  Frost found the tunnels were also useful for other things such as diverting water and mining. Using the tunnel system, they were able to mine an entire cache of powerful magical essences without any of the neighboring countries knowing. Although Queen Chasa rarely missed an opportunity to remind him of how much work it was to kill the monsters that spawned whenever they removed an essence.

  “Danger!” a harpy male shouted while swooping down.

  “Predators!” Vee shrieked while diving in front of the priestess. “Fly!”

  “Fly!”

  “Predators!”

  “Danger!”

  The harpies circling in the sky continued to shout warnings as they arrived in front of the towers.

  Two large Arachne women scurried down the towers to greet Frost and he instantly realized why the harpies were panicking. The women were as large as knights on horseback and their black spider bodies could be extremely intimidating.

  “H-herald Frost!” the priestess squirmed uncomfortably as he held her waist. “P-predators!”

  “How have you been, Slitha,” Frost asked while waving at the Arachne women. The women both had lengthy raven-colored hair and skin that was so white it was almost translucent and Frost found them fairly unintimidating, although he understood why the harpies didn’t feel the same way as they continued shrieking their dire warnings overhead. “And Lilla, did you get a promotion recently?”

  “Welcome back Herald Frost,” Slitha answered with a wide grin, exposing all of her sharp fangs. “I’ve been well. I see you’ve brought newcomers. Very panicky newcomers.”

  “It’s good to see you again Herald Frost,” Lilla answered politely while shuffling nervously. “Chasa said that I was finally ready to take on more responsibility and added me into the rotation.”

  “H-herald Frost,” Ka whispered. “D-do y-you know these p-predators?”

  “I am Slitha and this is Lilla,” Slitha said politely. “Welcome to Pluma Village.”

  “W-welcome?” Ka’s heart was pounding in her chest so fast it caused her entire body to tremble. “They live in this village?”

  “Technically they live in Linna village,” Frost pointed toward a southern section of the forest. “But recently we’ve been trying out an exchange program of sorts to help prepare for becoming one large village.”

  Pluma village was growing so quickly that the southern portions were starting to approach the border of the Arachne village located directly to the south, which caused a few issues. The primary one being that the encroachment was seen as a challenge to queens’ authorities.

  After several rounds of negotiations Frost managed to convince both Queen Chasa and Queen Slakka to merge the villages by offering them official positions as his advisors. He convinced the two women that as advisors they would be able to look out for the interests of Arachne throughout the entire territory, not just one village.

  In order to ease the merging process, the two villages began a weekly resident swap. It was entirely voluntary and the villagers that chose to participate were rewarded.

  “How is that going by the way?” Frost asked.

  “Very good!” Lilla said with a happy smile. “Queen Slakka in particular is very pleased with the results!”

  Frost felt Ka shiver as the Arachne woman flashed her fangs. It wasn’t uncommon for newcomers to find the Arachne off-putting. Their large shiny jet-black Arachne bodies and eight slender legs were fairly intimidating to start with before accounting for their sharp fangs and six dark eyes. It normally took several weeks before people grew accustomed to their presence and even after that their discomfort would sometimes resurface.

  Frost, on the other hand, had grown to appreciate them for their elegance. Slitha for instance was wearing a well-tailored corset decorated with a sophisticated sapphire lace design. The top hugged her narrow human waist while pushing her large pale breasts to the forefront of his view, which he gratefully appreciated.

  Then there was her makeup, starting with her gorgeous lips. Her lipstick was a dark blue that gradually shifted to a powder blue the more inward it went. There was an almost metallic sheen to it, making her lips appear fuller and welcoming. Her cheeks had a mild blue contouring which highlighted her cheekbones and her six eyes were all outlined in a dark black eyeliner with azure eye-shadowing. She looked less like an Arachne and more like a frozen necromancer.

  Her hair was the magnum opus of her intricate look. The Arachne’s masterful weaving abilities carried over to their black hair which was a combination of perfectly falling locks and ornately woven braids that would have taken hours of work to design.

  Frost continually found himself in awe of the various fashions and intricate patterns that the Arachne women pioneered as they constantly tried to one up each other.

  “Herald Frost,” Slitha looked away bashfully as she noticed him staring at her full azure lips. “Lishri would be very upset if she found you looking at me like that.”

  “I can’t help it when you put so much work into it,” Frost chuckled. “That’s a completely new color, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” Slitha nodded as her sapphire blush failed to hide her reddening cheeks. “I recently learned how to combine different pigments from Lady Hestia.”

  “It is a very pretty color, yes,” Ka said. Her heart was still beating quickly but had slowed significantly from its peak. The harpies above them had also stopped screeching about predators as they looked on, curious as to why Frost was talking with an Arachne. “There are lots of pretty colors, aren’t there? And you made these pretty colors, yes?”

  “Yes,” Lilla said, grinning happily as she reached into her pouch and pulled out a pair of small wooden boxes. She opened the first and showcased her own orangish-red lipstick. She tapped her index finger in the makeup box and gently applied it to her lips. “Like that, see.”

  Lilla’s look was completely different from Slitha’s. If Slitha was a frozen necromancer then Lilla was a fire elemental. Her face was decorated in warm swirling colors and her outfit was similarly decorated. Her camisole and gloves were made of a glossy fabric that looked like different shades of red and orange depending on the angle.

  “And the pretty clothes,” Ka pointed at Lilla’s camisole and matching opera gloves. “Do you make those as well?”

  “I don’t,” Lilla answered cheerfully as she showed off her top. “I’m not as good as the tailors in Pluma so I just trade them some of my silk for outfits.”

  “They will make pretty outfits for me, yes?” Ka asked while looking up at Frost.

  “You’ll be fine,” Frost chuckled while stroking her soft feathery hair. “The other harpies in the village trade feathers that they lose when molting.
Long elegant feathers like yours are really difficult to come by unless there are griffin attacks and their feathers are typically brown or black. Besides, you can always do jobs and earn rel to purchase things outright.”

  “Yes,” Slitha said happily. “I’m going to purchase more pigments with the rel I earn from guard duty.”

  “And I’m going to use mine to purchase a new lyre,” Lilla said excitedly.

  “Herald Frost,” Shael nodded at the raid group. “We’re going to go on ahead if you want to stick around here.”

  “Oh,” Lilla blushed and made way. “Apologies Herald Frost. We’ve kept you too long.”

  “Apologies,” Slitha said while moving to the side. “It is nice to see everybody back safely.”

  “Thanks,” Frost chuckled as he started moving ahead, his lecherous eyes fixating on Slitha’s ample breasts as he passed. He could hardly believe the gorgeous Arachne was the same brutal woman that had kidnapped his wives. “Nice to see you both as well.”

  “Herald Frost,” Slitha clasped her hands together, clearly loving the attention as she pushed her breasts even higher. “What would Queen Lishri say if she caught you starting so openly?”

  “I’ll worry about that when she catches me,” Frost laughed as they passed the guard towers.

  “Queen Lishri?” Ka gave him a confused look as they trotted past the houses. “Is she one of your partners?”

  “Yes,” Frost answered. “She’s an Arachne Queen.”

  “Oh my,” Ka whispered. “You certainly are a deviant, yes.”

  “Are you alright priestess?” Vee asked, hovering above Shael’s horse before clumsily landing in Shael’s saddle. “That was very frightening.”

  “This is awkward,” Shael grunted while securing the crimson-winged harpy.

  “Frightening?” Ka looked at Vee and smiled. “Yes! It was very frightening! But did you see their colors? They were very beautiful, yes!”

  “I suppose the predators did look pretty in their own way,” Vee said pensively. “Their faces and clothing items were beautiful. But they had fangs and…”

  “They were very nice, yes,” Ka said, ignoring the mention of fangs. “But Herald Frost says they are friends and there are more of them. Tell everybody that it’s important to act properly and that the predators are not to be called predators, yes. Herald Frost called them Arachne and one of his partners is an Arachne Queen. He is a very degenerate partner, yes.”

  “Very well,” Vee said nervously while rising from the saddle of Shael’s horse. After a few moments, Frost could hear the harpies repeating words like degenerate, depraved, and debauched as they discussed him.

  “A gossipy bunch, aren’t they?” Ena said while staring up at the flock.

  “Are you surprised?” Frost chuckled. “Ke, Ki, and Kei are constantly in everybody’s business.”

  “They certainly are calling you all sorts of things, aren’t they?” Shael laughed as the harpies continued discussing Frost’s degeneracy.

  “I’m used to it,” Frost smirked at the tan redhead riding beside him.

  “And it’s not like they’re wrong,” Renna said flirtatiously.

  They continued down the road as various demihumans greeted him. Small group of orcs and werewolves that were heading off to hunt caused Ka to tremble but she quickly settled herself down on her own. By the time they reached the actual village she seemed completely calm.

  “This is your village?” Ka gasped as they entered through the western arc.

  The western arc was one of four main entrances to the village proper and primarily served as a landmark for travelers since there were no walls around the village itself. He contemplated building walls but due to the growth of the village it was futile. He would simply be tearing it down in a month if he attempted to build a proper defensive wall around the village.

  There were still short walls surrounding individual structures like homes or the fences around the various animal pens but most buildings and structures were separated by bushes, gardens, or pathways.

  “It’s beautiful, yes,” Ka said quietly as she admired the buildings.

  The western part of the village was where all of the shops and businesses were located. It was still extremely small since the village itself didn’t have much money flowing through it. There wasn’t much point in creating a large shopping district since the villagers were primarily paid in goods and not too many traders were opening up shops in order to barter.

  Despite the lackluster size of the merchant district, there were several different shops as well as dozens of stalls that anybody could use to sell their goods. Not counting the stalls, there were essentially three types of shops in the district.

  The first type of shop was what Frost called a community shop. Frost leased himself the land required and paid to have the shops built. Once they were built, Frost allowed villagers to lease them in exchange for reputation points that they earned by completing tasks for the village. The community shops frequently rotated and always had interesting things for sale. A Florenne woman even opened a shop selling stuffed animals that she’d crafted and made a surprising amount of rel.

  The second type of shop was essentially a guild shop. These shops were purchased by the various village guilds by combining their resources. The tailoring guild was the most successful and managed to lease the land for both a workshop and two large storefronts. One of them was devoted to simple adventuring equipment like packs, satchels, cloaks, and basic clothing. The other storefront was devoted to high end garments.

  The third type of shops were privately leased shops. Madam Gardenia’s businesses fell into that category as did Jasmine’s theater. As long as Frost approved, private individuals were permitted to lease land from the territory. The lease could be rescinded anytime with a partial refund if he no longer wanted them in his territory and the lease would be negotiated every year. It was similar to guild shops except there were individual owners.

  For anybody unable to afford a shop, Frost built dozens of stalls in the center of the merchant area they could sign up to use. There weren’t any fees associated with them as long as they took care not to damage anything and cleaned up after themselves.

  “What’s that?” Ka asked as they passed a stand half-filled with pastries. She sniffed the air in front of her and started staring at the fruit tarts as a red haired elf male organized them on the stand. “Herald Frost, are those for anybody? I may have those, yes?”

  “Herald Frost!” The elf male jumped as at the mention of Frost’s name and quickly turned around. “Welcome back!”

  “Daddy,” a little elf girl came running up with an empty napkin and a fruit-stained face. “I’m finished. Oh, Herald Frost! Hi!”

  “Elion,” Frost smirked. “I see your baking classes are paying off.”

  “Thank you,” Elion said while bowing his head. “I’ve been really surprised myself. It might not be as profitable as hunting monsters but it’s much safer and it’s fun to do with my daughter.”

  “Good to hear,” Frost said.

  “Herald Frost,” Ka poked him gently with her wing while nodding at the tarts. “You never answered my question, yes.”

  “How much are you selling them for?” Frost asked while pointing at one of the colorful pastries.

  “One rel!” the elf girl said excitedly. “Do you want one Herald Frost?”

  “You don’t have to worry about paying Herald Frost,” Elion said as his daughter grabbed the pastry and ran toward him. She stopped beside his horse and hopped up on her tiptoes to present him the pastry as he pulled out a rel and exchanged it with her. “Thank you very much but I would have been happy to give you one.”

  “It’s mine, yes?” Ka asked as Frost held it for her.

  “Yes,” Frost answered as the harpy quickly leaned forward and bit into it. “Mmmm! Wonderful, yes!”

  A swarm of harpies flew down and landed between Frost and the pastry stand as others landed on the wagons. The colorfu
l feathered men and women stared hungrily at the stand while occasionally glancing back at Frost.

  “Dammit,” Frost said as Ka continued devouring the tart in his hand. He glanced back at the raiders in the wagon while pulling out enough rel to buy out Elion’s stock. “Can some of you hop out and help? There isn’t enough left for everybody so you’ll need to split them up and help them eat.”

  “Fine,” Fayeth said as she hopped off Sneaky.

  Ena and Renna hopped off their horses and other demihumans jumped out of the wagons to help.

  “Elion,” Frost said while pulling twenty rel from his coin purse. “Mind helping them split those between the harpies?”

  “Absolutely Herald Frost,” he said while bowing politely. “Thank you so much.”

  “Yay!” his daughter shouted. “This means we can go play with Lyra and Callie!”

  “Right,” Elion let out an exhausted sigh. “Lyra…”

  “Is she giving you a hard time?” Frost chuckled as he stared at the exhausted elf. “She can be a lot.”

  “I can’t complain,” Elion said while forcing a smile. “She’s sharing her house with me and my daughter loves her. But she’s very…forward.”

  “That’s one way to put it,” Frost smirked as the elf cut pastries up and divided them out between the demihumans helping the harpies eat. “I’m surprised you’ve managed to resist her this long. I admire your resolve. I didn’t even last a month and I wasn’t living with her.”

  Forward was an understatement when it came to Lyra. Frost didn’t entirely understand elvish beauty standards since they revolved around features that Frost couldn’t see. For instance, the elves would frequently talk about their sheens which he understood to be the glossiness of their skin and hair but to Frost they all looked equally glossy. Regardless, due to these invisible features, the elves believed Lyra to be astoundingly beautiful and the young elf used that beauty to seduce whoever she could.

  Elion, on the other hand, was a widower that had no intention of taking a wife until his daughter was old enough to be left on her own. While most elf males took several wives, Elion insisted that a wife would distract him from his responsibility as a father.