by Logan Jacobs
Before they could celebrate, another snake slithered up from the water and went straight towards the camels. Lena finally had her jar out and she tossed it at the snake. A white smoke floated up and the snake pulled back in confusion. It tested the air with its tongues and then tried to pull back. It’s whole body began to convulse and Imogen quickly put a shot into one head while Aerin dropped her mace on the second head.
Closer to us, I could see Dehn sitting on top of one of the snakes, alternating swings of his axe between the two heads. Maruk was nearby, and he had turned his shield into a battering ram. Yvaine used the distraction to slice at the snake, and I could see her new blade cut through to the bone. One head was already off and she worked to remove the second one.
Lavinia and Cat had found a spot on top of the crates and were firing down at a pair of snakes. They managed to take down one snake, but a second appeared from the reeds and circled the crates while they were focused on the snake that still swayed in front of them.
I glanced towards the water and saw more snakes emerge. One picked up our scent and started to move in our direction.
“Emeline, we need to distract those snakes, and I think I know how we can do it,” I whispered.
“How?” Emeline asked as she watched the approaching snake warily.
“By combining our powers,” I replied.
“I was afraid you were going to say that,” she sighed. “Desperate times, right?”
“Right,” I agreed. “I think I can handle the air mage, and the earth mage portion. I just need you to handle the fire mage part.”
“Just tell me what you need,” she said.
I explained the spells to her even as I drove my mana knife into the next snake. Emeline strafed it with fireballs while I worked to remove the heads. Merlin pinned the snake in place so it couldn’t slither away, and after another brutal round of sawing, we had two more heads off.
Emeline still looked uncertain about the spells I wanted to try, but we were growing tired and more snakes kept emerging from the water. The camels were in open revolt now and only a ring of smoke from Lena’s jars kept them from running too far away.
She nodded as I started my part of the spells. I pushed my mana into the bracelet and felt it warm at my touch. I was starting to understand how the bracelet worked, and how it let me feel the different elements. Maderel’s lessons would have been much easier if I’d had the bracelet then.
I didn’t think I could handle three roles, but I hoped that I could handle two. As quickly as I could manage, I started to recreate what the mages in the market had done. It was probably closer to the sand dancer in the wind, but it was based on the frogs that had closed out the show.
And there they were. Not frogs exactly. More like little floating blobs of sand, but they started to rise up out of the desert floor and bob along in whatever direction I moved them. The snakes barely registered their presence until Emeline added her fire spells. Several of the blobs overheated and exploded, sending clods of dirt high into the air. But the rest were soon belching fire, just like an army of tiny dragons.
“What the...” I heard Cat ask as he watched the miniature battalion start to shoot fire at the snakes.
“Don’t ask,” Lavinia advised. “Just keep shooting them in their heads.”
The snakes were striking out at the blobs now, but for every one they destroyed, I would send up another one. I saw one of the serpents start to retreat towards the water, but Maruk brought his shield down point first into its back, pinning it in place, and then Yvaine quickly moved in and started to work on the heads.
“Don’t let any of them get back to the water!” I called out. It wouldn’t do just to kill a few and let the rest retreat into the water. We needed to be sure that they were all dead.
As Emeline and I became more confident with our own spells, we started adding more belching sand balls to the mix. We even managed to add a few larger ones, though those were harder to control, and we nearly fried off Dehn’s newly regrown eyebrows. Fortunately for us, the halfling was too busy whacking at the head of a snake to notice.
I was so wrapped up in our battle that I didn’t realize that the sun had dipped near the horizon until Dehn made one last swing with his axe and severed the last head from the body. I looked around at the carnage and counted forty-eight snakes. The ten of us were still standing, if a little bruised and battered. Aerin had slipped her mace back in its loop and was already moving among our party, healing whatever wounds had been incurred.
Lena and Imogen were leading the camels back to the oasis while Maruk and Dehn started to gather the snakes into a pile. I walked towards them though my steps started to drag as the adrenaline wore off. Emeline stumbled a few times, and I finally wrapped an arm around her waist just to keep her from collapsing into the sand.
“I hope there aren’t any more in the water,” Yvaine said as she watched the lake that rippled gently in the dying sun.
“I’m not going in there to find out,” Lavinia sighed. “But I think we got them all.”
“Where did they come from?” Yvaine asked. “I’m guessing this is something new or people wouldn’t be using this particular oasis.”
“I’ve never seen them in the Barren Sea before,” Cat replied. “They’re native to parts of the Chilgosh peninsula. Someone must have been trying to smuggle them to Maraz.”
“How do you smuggle something that big?” Maruk asked as he watched Dehn yank on one of the fangs.
“They’re pretty small when they’re born,” Cat explained. “About the size of a small cobra, so they’d be easier to transport.”
“But they have to have water,” Imogen added as she and Lena walked up. “So either they escaped from whoever was transporting them and settled into the water until they were bigger, or the person just released them for some reason.”
“What do you do with a two-headed snake?” Lena asked as she knelt down and examined one of the heads. She slipped a vial from one of her pockets and took a sample of blood and skin.
“Eat it, turn its skin into belts, use it in animal fights,” Cat sighed. “There’s a lot of reasons to smuggle them.”
“Well, I got my souvenir,” Dehn declared as he finally pulled out one of the fangs with a loud pop.
“Can I just say that I’m not very enthusiastic about staying here with this?” Maruk asserted. “It’s already starting to smell.”
“We can keep going,” Cat replied, “but we need to refill our water, and we should take some time to recover.”
“We should probably burn these things anyway,” Imogen added. “Just to keep the other predators away.”
“I’ll be more than happy to do that,” Emeline declared.
“Hang on,” Aerin said. “Let me at least get you walking under your own power again.”
I watched Aerin’s golden energy flow into the panthera’s body and I could feel Emeline’s strength start to return. The fire mage stretched her back and gave Aerin a nod of thanks.
“I’ll get the fire going,” Emeline said as she formed a fireball.
“I’ll refill our water flasks,” Yvaine volunteered as she stepped out of the range of Emeline’s still-growing fireball.
“I’ll assist,” Maruk added as he took in the size of the fire mage’s orb. “Just in case there are still some lurking in the water.”
We all took several steps back as Emeline finally unleashed her magic. There was a mighty whoosh and then the pile of snake parts ignited in a burst of blue flame that streaked into the sky.
We stood around and watched for several minutes, then slowly peeled away to deal with other issues. We didn’t find anything to identify the caravan that had been here before us, but we found camel tracks heading back into the desert, and I hoped that maybe someone had survived.
Aerin packed what she could of the sweet jasmine flowers into a sack as well as any other items she found in the crates that she thought she could sell. Merlin found a small bag of turqu
oise beads that he quickly claimed, while Cat and I recovered a few more frogskins and water flasks.
By sundown, we gathered around a smaller fire as far away from the smoldering remains of the snakes as we could be. The air still smelled of charred meat, but no more creatures had emerged from the waters. All the flasks had been refilled and Maruk had put together yet another tasty dish, though the smell of cooked snake sometimes overwhelmed the stew, especially when the wind blew in our direction.
We were all tired and sore, but no one wanted to spend the night in the oasis. Once the meal was done and the remnants of both fires extinguished, we climbed back onto the camels and set out across the desert once again.
The Barren Sea was intimidating at night. The vast stretch of black sky littered with countless stars, and the unending expanse of sand, was a not-so-subtle reminder of how small one human being really was. Curious, I opened up my mana, and watched the heavens above. It was better than any planetarium show and I spent several hours just soaking it in while my camel kept pace with the rest of the pack.
Morning crept up on us and as soon as the first rays of sunlight hit the sand, the temperature started to rise again. I dug around for a frogskin to wrap around my neck and then draped one across Merlin, who had spent the night splayed across my camel. He looked up long enough to chirp a thank you, then slumped back against the hump. I put on my night lenses as well and wrapped an extra frogskin around my head. I must have looked like an extra from a Mad Max movie, but at least I wasn’t quite as scorched as I had been the day before.
At last, we reached the next oasis on the trek. There was a large caravan already there, heading towards Maraz. We swapped news of each of the cities, and we passed along a warning about the snakes. The caravan leader, a mustachioed Persan named Anzar, shook his head sadly and bemoaned the fools who tried to transport such dangerous animals.
As Cat and I talked with Anzar, the rest of the Foxes went about the business of setting up the camp. Out here, none of the Persan men seemed to care that we had so many women in our group or that they were moving freely among the men. There were a few leers and smirks, but as the day grew hotter, the men retreated to their own tents, leaving our little group in peace.
I was dog-tired after the battle and long ride, and I could tell the rest of the Foxes were as well. I found myself sharing a tent with Maruk, at least initially, but the big orc took up so much room that I found myself scrunched into a corner and unable to sleep, so I slipped outside and wandered towards the Persan camp.
The tents Yvaine had acquired were similar to the tents I was used to from time spent backpacking through the national parks. They were sturdy and lightweight and just tall enough that you could sit up, but they weren’t designed for much more than sleeping.
The Persan tents were another story. Anzar and his group had brought what felt like an entire city with them, or at least a small town. Their tents spread out around the oasis and included space for a dining-slash-meeting room, a mobile kitchen, and something I could only describe as a gameroom.
Anzar had invited the men in our group to make use of the tents and I poked around until I found a small one near the end of the line that was currently empty. There were boxes stacked inside and a few rolled up rugs, but no signs of habitation. I realized that this must be the tent where they stored items they weren’t using.
I slipped inside and unrolled one of the rugs. It was a piece of artwork, with a complex geometric pattern picked out in dark blue and maroon with bits of gold along the edges of the pattern. I was tempted to roll it back up and find another, but I figured they were probably all just as lovely. Besides, the Persans had no problems with laying these rugs on the sand, so I stretched out on the soft wool and fell asleep.
My brief rest was interrupted by someone running their fingers through my hair. I opened one eye, half expecting to see Anzar or one of his men, armed with a sword and a scowl. Instead, I saw Lavinia’s lascivious grin.
“You don’t like the new tents?” she asked.
“It’s a little tight,” I replied as I rolled onto my elbow. “Dehn should be sharing space with Maruk, not me.”
“Let’s see,” she mused, “that would put you with the elf.”
“He can’t be any worse than some other roommates I’ve had,” I laughed.
“But surely not as fun?” she teased.
“Well, that’s certainly true,” I agreed.
I reached out and pulled Lavinia’s willing body against my own. She grinned as I ran my hand under her shirt and squeezed her breast. I grinned back and rolled on top of the ladona, forcing her down onto the carpet.
I tugged at her shirt while she pulled at my pants. Somehow, we managed to remove every article of clothing, and I was soon lapping my way along her neck and across her chest, making my way over her slightly swollen belly towards her clit.
Lavinia’s fingers were back in my hair as she held my face against her writhing body. She let out one long moan, then pulled my face to her own. I sucked her mouth dry with one very long kiss before resuming my downward mission.
“Fuck me, Gabriel,” she cried softly. “See if you can give me another child.”
“I don’t think that’s possible at the moment,” I laughed as I looked into her fiery gaze.
“Neither is the child we’ve already conceived,” she replied as she ground against my balls.
It was my turn to my moan as my penis began to ache from need. I nudged her legs apart, and she spread herself wide. I could smell her sex and see the sleek wetness that already coated her vagina. I plunged into her and felt her own body tighten around me.
She arched up to meet me, and I pulled her in closer. Her wet body rubbed against mine and the friction only fed my heat. She chuffed as I pounded in deeper but I had my rhythm now, and I kept driving further into the heat and wetness.
“Sooooo goooood!” she rattled as I pounded so hard that her voice vibrated.
She clung to me now. Her fingers dug into my shoulder blades and her breath came in hot gasps against my ear. I felt her whole body go as taut as one of her bowstrings, and I released my first load as she reached her climax. My seed spilled inside her, filling her vagina until there was no more room left, and it splashed out across her thighs when I slid out of her.
“Soooo goooood,” she moaned again as she lay back against the carpet and looked at my face.
“I aim to please,” I whispered into her ear which drew a cackle from the ladona.
“Prove it,” she demanded as she wrapped one hand around my balls and started stroking them.
I grinned and let her hand do its work while I buried my face in her breasts. I licked and nipped and fondled with both hands until she wrapped her legs around me and drove against me. I started more slowly this time, letting her tension build with each thrust. She was begging me for release, and still I kept my measured pace.
When she was growling and groaning and impaling herself ever harder against me, I finally gave her the full power of my surge. My own wetness joined hers, and she quaked from the sheer force of me inside her. I kept her in climax until tears flowed from her eyes, and then I let myself release again.
“Fuck!” she cried out as she finally hit her zenith.
She held on so tight that when she finally collapsed she nearly took me down with her. She panted into my ear and then pulled my head around for another searing kiss. When she finally released my lips, she rolled on top of me, and we started round three.
We spent half of our afternoon rest period testing our limits but we probably slept deeper than any of the other Shadow Foxes when we finally collapsed onto the rug for the last time. We didn’t stir until the sounds of the camps coming back to life drifted through the flap. We quickly rolled up the rug, then ducked under the back of the tent.
We made a wide circle around the Persan tents and sauntered back to our own camp. Maruk was setting up his pots for dinner and Cat was feeding the camels, but other than
that, it was still quiet at our end of the oasis. Lavinia gave my butt one more squeeze before returning to her own tent. Maruk gave me a raised eyebrow, Cat gave me a grin, and I ducked back into my own tent to try to make myself presentable.
Chapter 5
We finally reached the end of the Barren Sea two days later. The sun was up, but it was still early enough in the morning that a few caravans were still setting out in various directions. The city we had arrived at was called Fornal, and like Maraz, it sat on the edge between desert and water.
The water at Fornal was supplied by a wide, slow-moving river called the Marash. The Marash had played an important part in several key events in Evreas history, which Maruk was more than happy to relate as we ambled towards the gates of the city. More importantly, the Marash served as the border of the Persan kingdom. Beyond that lay a world that only Cat knew anything about.
Since Fornal was technically a part of the Persan empire and subject to the whims of King Farouk, a second sister city had sprung up on the other side of the river. This second city was called Druban, and though it shared two bridges with Fornal, it was one of the great free cities of Evreas. But to get to Druban, we would first have to go through Fornal.
Like Maraz, there were camel pens and tents lining the city wall. Ceral had given us the name of his agent in Fornal and told us to look for the pennant with the red rose among the tents. Cat somehow spotted the pennant before Lavinia and guided us among the bustle of the market to the tent, and he stepped inside while the rest of us clambered off the backs of our camels.
Cat reappeared a few minutes later with a panthera. This man looked enough like Ceral that they had to be related. The panthera examined the camels, even checked their hides for scratches and lifted their feet to check the bottom. I was reminded of the clerks who worked the return desk at the car rental agencies. Every new nick, dent and scratch was carefully noted before the camels were led away.
Cat and the panthera shook hands, and then we gathered up our various supplies, packs, and everything else and headed into the city of Fornal. The gate we passed through wasn’t as tall or as wide as the Charter Gate at Maraz, but it was long and sported three gates: one at either end, and one in the middle. Each gate was made of thick wood and banded with iron. When I looked up, I could see small apertures every few feet along the top of the wall. No doubt just the right size for dropping rocks or hot oil on any enemies who made it this far.