by Prax Venter
“Jezebel?” Mark asked, his eyebrows high on his head.
He watched as the hulking animal lifted on to its hind legs and morphed into the satyr’s now very familiar form. Her pink shirt and belt were back, but she also had some deep wounds on her face and arm. Mark grit his teeth in impotent frustration.
“My Heal is not ready yet, but I think I stabilized Sasha.”
“Good. I’ll keep watch. Apparently, I can’t talk in bear form, so… see you soon.” Jezebel gave him a sharp nod before she morphed into the bear again and stood close to Mark.
He just tried to breathe, his limbs shaking uncontrollably. That was too fucking close. If he couldn’t get the chieftain to show him how to summon magic weapons, he would hunt down this goddess himself.
A few minutes passed, and his healing powers had recharged. With less frantic emotions fueling his actions, he deftly closed many of Sasha’s wounds. Her eyes fluttered open.
“Mark?” She winced and put a hand over one of the ribs he hadn’t unbroken.
“Shh, Sasha,” he said. “I’m working on putting you back together, but it’s taking a few cycles of my Heal. Just try to hold still.”
She slumped back into his arms and turned to gaze up at the bear standing over them. Bear-Jezebel looked back, and Mark noticed that her new, imposing form still had green eyes and tightly curled horns. He was also reminded of the wounds he needed to heal yet for her.
The massive creature let out a hollow grunt, then went back to scanning the woods.
“Oh, thank you so much, Mama Bear,” Sasha said in her delirium, wincing again.
Mark smiled down on her. “You probably shouldn’t talk.”
The wounded succubus turned her blue eyes back up to his, and a torrent of uncontrollable tears welled over her lids. He couldn’t help but see deep into her brilliant, unending happiness to still be alive and close to him.
One more Heal on Sasha got all her bones and organs back in order, then he targeted the next on Jezebel. A few more rounds, and everyone was back to full health.
“Okay,” Mark said, walking over to the dead crystal creature. “Let’s not do that again.”
Jezebel was back in her satyr form and she nodded. “It was lucky Sasha got off an Arc Bolt. Otherwise, I don’t know if I would have been able to take that thing at its full strength.”
“Shapeshifting into a bear with horns is pretty badass,” Mark said over his shoulder before squatting down to inspect the glass-like body of their attacker. “It’s a really good thing you picked it.”
The ground where the creature died was littered with sharp crystal shards except for a single purple one in the middle. He plucked it out of the wreckage and discovered that one side was lumpy and rough like stone while the other was tapered into a smooth, sharp point. With his shitty club broken, Mark slipped this improvised crystal dagger through his belt and looked to Sasha.
“Take us northeast. Nice and slow this time.”
“And quiet,” Jezebel added with a whisper.
They all stayed close together as they tromped through the forest, and Mark tried to look in all directions at once. Unfortunately, crystal lions would probably be impossible to see in the lush, green forest all around them. He wracked his brain while they moved, obsessing over the Awysai weapon ability and the ways he could grow stronger.
It took a few hours, and the sun was high overhead, but they finally made it to some semblance of civilization. Mark spotted a stone cottage standing out between an area of thinning trees. It was difficult to tell until they drew closer, but the structure was much smaller than he’d first thought.
It was a very simple hut, square, and the roof came up to his eyes. A neat stack of cut logs leaned against the tiny home and there was a worn dirt path leading around to the other side.
Mark shot Sasha and Jezebel a look, checking their reactions before announcing their presence to anyone inside.
“No public blowjobs at this house,” the satyr whispered.
“I can fix that,” the succubus said, even quieter.
The sound of rhythmic thumping began to sound from a place to their left, and after a few sharp cracks, it was easily identifiable as a lumberjack felling a tree.
Mark nodded his head toward the sound and led his Enthralled toward the steady hacking. It wasn’t long before they came upon the backside of a very short and stocky woman with four arms. All four arms held onto the wooden shaft of an enormous ax as she attacked the tree in front of her.
One of her arms came off the tool, and she paused to wipe some sweat from her brow.
Mark took this opportunity to get her attention.
“Hello there,” he said, and the woman spun, a snarl on her face.
She was older, and thickly built, but not unattractive. It was still hard to judge with just one good eye, but the female lumberjack’s face came up to an inch above his crotch. Other than that, her proportions were that of an average human… except with 200% of their arms.
“What the fuck you doing sneaking around out here? You bandits, then?”
Mark held out his hands. “No! We’re not bandits. We’re looking for a town. Rich’s Hold.”
“Reoc’s Hold,” Jezebel corrected him.
The woman bounced her sharp gray eyes between Mark and the two beast-women, then lowered her ax to the ground. Only one of her four hands gripped the shaft.
“A Collector? I haven’t seen one of you out in these woods before.” Her demeanor suddenly shifted, and Mark picked up a spike in her sexual interest. Everyone kept calling him a Collector. He thought it had something to do with their quest to collect the shards, but that was seeming less likely.
“Yeah, we’re a bit lost,” Mark said, flashing the small woman a grin. “Can you point us to the closest town?”
“Just turn around and take the road. I don’t suppose you’re a Lover, are you?”
“I am,” he said, and Sasha took a step closer to him.
“Got room for another Enthralled then, Lover?”
Mark’s eyebrows lifted higher than he intended. “Um… I-”
“Harem’s full-up for now, sweetie,” Sasha said, turning and adding, “thanks for the assistance,” over her shoulder.
Mark gave the four-armed lumberjack a “what-can-ya-do” shrug and then turned to follow Sasha back toward the stone hut. It hadn’t occurred to him that he could pick up more women to add to the team. Shit, these two were keeping him plenty on his toes as it was. But then again… another asskicker didn’t sound half bad… one that he could help grow into a super-powered force of destruction.
“Mark,” Jezebel said, looping one of her tan arms through his and leaning in close. “As a Lover, you can Enthrall a total of three party members. There is no rush. Just… make sure to choose well, uh, when you do. If they don’t work out, disavowing an Enthralled can be messy.”
“Disavowing?”
Mark felt a devastatingly powerful spike of terror from the sashaying succubus ahead of them. Sasha slowed and took up an even pace with Mark’s other side.
“Yeah. But we don’t need to worry about that right now,” the satyr said. “We’ve only just started the long process of gathering all the shards. Plenty of time to find a strong and compatible addition to our little group.”
Mark nodded and looped his arm around Sasha’s. She exposed one of her fangs with a sweet smile and the three of them walked down the road, arm in arm. He had never been more excited to see what wonders this world had in store.
Not fifteen minutes later they crested a hill and looked over a flat expanse of land. An enormous city within a ring of stone sat in the center of a dry, treeless field. But the crown jewel of the breathtaking vista was the massive glowing portal that stood just off-center and near the back of the city’s enormous wall.
The portal frame was made of polished black stone and contained a sheet of vibrant magic undulating within the freestanding structure. The magic portal was a color Mark couldn’t
name, or perhaps it was all colors at once. Despite his perspective issues, this mysterious doorway had to be a hundred stories high. The tallest buildings around it were maybe five or six stories in comparison. He had never seen anything like it.
“That’s probably our first destination,” Jezebel said, tapping the vials on her belt. Mark’s attention was drawn to the squat test tubes secured to her furry hips.
“The chieftain said this was a desirable substance, but I kind of wish I thought to ask what it did.”
“It’s a type of pleasure enhancer with potent psychedelic properties,” Jezebel said, raising her light eyebrows. “I asked Poma, that one servicing the goddess I mentioned before.”
“Of course it is,” Sasha said.
“Great job, Jez,” Mark said. “Let’s go sell some drugs.”
- 8 -
They passed a few more of the waist-high humanoids on the spacious road leading up to Reoc’s Hold, but once they were at the wall, a distinctly taller variant of these four-armed people started appearing. Proportional in every way to the others, these many-limbed giants had to be ten feet tall. Most of these bigger ones wore mismatched chain armor and held oversized weapons clasped in their multiple fists. A yellow smear of paint across each of their chests gave Mark the impression of a crude military uniform.
“Are these four-armed people the Skeema we’re looking for?” Mark asked when no one was nearby.
“Probably,” Jezebel answered.
“Both sizes?” Sasha asked, but no one had an answer.
Two of the big versions stood at either side of the archway designated for those passing into the walled city. One of them was very female, with her toned midriff showing below her jagged chainmail shirt. The beautiful, bronze-skinned amazon had short black hair and tracked Mark with her gray eyes as he passed. He smiled at her and nodded, noticing that all these people regardless of height seemed to have light gray irises and high cheekbones.
Getting past the looming stone wall was easier than Mark thought it would be, but looking over to his left, he noticed substantially more armed security for those attempting to leave. He turned back toward the insanely solid fortification, panning his focus up to the distant top where more guards watched from far above. It must have taken lifetimes to construct such a fortification.
Once they made it a few steps into the city, Mark directed the beast-women off the main path.
“Okay,” he began, “we’re here. Should we just finish the quest, or should we poke around town for information and maybe do some side quests?”
Jezebel answered as her eyes tracked a pack of tall soldiers walking by.
“I say we just finish this part of the Awysai quest, then see what time it is.” The freckled satyr turned back to face Mark and said, “Maybe use some of the money from selling this Eternal Echo to get some better gear.”
“Uh, Jezebel, I don’t think we should spend the money we get from the sales. We’ll need that to prove how much money we got.”
“Really?” Her wide emerald-eyes looked genuinely surprised. “The chieftain said the trade was for information. Profit earned from the value-benchmarking transactions was never explicitly mentioned.”
Mark’s eyebrows came down, questioning his own moral compass on the situation and was about to respond when a group of wolfmen in long flowing robes walked into the city. He turned and openly gaped at the shaggy, black-furred beasts as they casually shambled down the cobblestone road deeper into the city.
There were both males and females in the pack, and one of the shorter males caught him staring. The wolfish humanoid just rolled his eyes and looked away. Mark smiled and focused back on the conversation.
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t mentioned, and I’d rather err on the side of, ‘Bring back the money’. Besides, maybe this would affect that gift he wants from me.”
He could tell Jezebel still wanted to argue about it, so he turned to the quiet succubus.
“What do you think, Sasha?”
“I think you’re right, Mark,” she said with no hesitation.
There was an awkward silence before Mark spoke again.
“Either way, I agree we should get this quest out of the way first. We can always decide what to do with the money after that.”
The satyr smiled and nodded. “Okay, agreed. We need to be caref-”
Jezebel stopped short when Sasha walked away from them and over to the nearest group of tall Skeema soldiers who were talking by the wall.
“Hey there, big fella,” the blonde succubus said, swishing her spade tail back and forth hypnotically. “Don’t suppose you could spare one of them strong arms to point me toward the market?”
The big fella closest to Sasha looked down with a snarl, but his demeanor changed when he saw the beautiful sex-demon standing before him. He smiled and flexed one bicep before pointing straight along the wall.
“Thanks!” Sasha gave him a quick salute and turned to come back to take Mark’s hand. “We should take the next right if your destination is the marketplace.” Her blue eyes twinkled with mischief.
His cursed eye gave him deeper emotional access to this creature that was devoted entirely to him, and Sasha was barely containing the jubilation she felt just being by his side.
“Lead the way,” Mark said with an affectionate smile.
They passed by a row of tiny stone structures, then a series of much larger wooden buildings. Crowds of smaller Skeema would fill a side street, and then he would see tight groups of giant soldiers. They never seemed to mix, and he started to form an idea of a distinct social separation between the two races- or maybe a caste system. There was no question who would win in a fight as the larger variant had a several hundred pound and six-foot height advantage.
“Do you see that?” Jezebel said, tapping him on the shoulder before pointing to a market stall on the side of the cobblestone road. Jars of colorful, glowing liquid filled every square inch of the street vendor’s shelves. A shorter-variant Skeema stood behind the stall, and his keen eye noticed Jezebel pointing his direction. With a wild-eyed excitement, he waved them over to his stall.
“Collector! Come and see my battle potions!”
The small four-armed man wore a purple silk shirt and white pants that all seemed a size too big for him, and on each one of his twenty fingers sat a sparkling gemmed ring. Mark looked around and didn’t see any other vendors in the area, but figured he was trying to avoid competition.
“Greetings, human!” he said with a nod of his head. “Welcome to Jall’s Delights! Allow me to pique your interest with this potent concoction of Battle Prowess!”
Jall produced a glowing red bottle from thin air with a stage magician’s flourish.
“Not today, thanks,” Mark said. “But can I ask what you would pay for a vial of Awysai-made Eternal Echo?”
The man’s smile fell along with his hand. “You wish to sell your wares to me?”
“Maybe,” Mark said, trying to play this smooth. He really had no idea what he was doing. He’d never been good at being coy or haggling. The man eyed him and the two beast-women standing to either side. His focus bounced to the leather belt around Jezebel’s hip for the briefest of moments.
“You have it now?” he asked.
“Maybe,” Mark said again, both of them knowing perfectly well that he did.
The man tucked his bottle of Battle Prowess back into his sleeve and looked around to see if anyone was close enough to hear him. Then, his gray eyes lifted back up to Mark’s as he put one of his many bejeweled hands to the side of his mouth.
“I’ll give you a whole fifty silver for one vial. But only if you sell in bulk. I don’t have time to waste if you’re not serious.”
Mark’s new eye caught the hint of deceit in this small man’s emotional core.
“Is this really the best you can do?”
“It’s the best price you’ll get anywhere in the city. I know how to make these things move. You and I will both get ric
h today, my friend.”
Dark whispers practically bellowed from his eye, and Mark had no doubt this street vendor was lying to him.
“Thanks, Jall. But I think we have some more shopping to do. Maybe we’ll stop by on our way out and see if we can’t do business.” With that said, Mark gave him a quick wave and walked away. He heard the small Skeema mutter something, but they were already out of range to make out exactly what it was. It didn’t sound like it was something he wanted to hear anyway.
As they moved deeper into Reoc’s Hold, they started to see more unique races sprinkled into the crowds of Skeema. A pair of fish people strapped with daggers, a black-and-orange leopard man, a herd of centaurs armed with bows. Mark even saw other humans here and there. The crowds hurrying around on the cobblestone streets grew thick as they finally approached what had to be the market section of this city.
Many sights, sounds, and scents competed for Mark’s attention, but when the crowd parted revealing a scantily clad Skeema female dancing on a street corner, he locked his eyes and found it hard to pull them away. It took him a moment to put together why she was so interesting- besides her sensually fluid gyrations and long black hair. She was the first four-armed variant he’d seen that was normal-sized and roughly his height. The belly dancer wore a bright red veil over her mouth and an almost see-through, wispy outfit. Her almond eyes seemed unfocused as she performed for a stream of totally uninterested pedestrians.
They had moved past the point where his neck couldn’t turn any more, and Mark noticed Jezebel staring at him.
“Remember to choose your last Enthralled wisely,” she said in that chiding way. His eyebrows came down.
“That place looks promising,” Sasha blurted out, tugging on his arm before he could respond to the jealous satyr. The succubus pointed at a shop with a blue potion bottle painted on a wooden placard.
“Mav’s Magics?” Mark said, reading the words written over the potion. He shrugged. “Let’s give it a shot.” Haggling with the street merchant for the best price was a good opportunity to further test his truth-seeing eye, and he felt confident they weren’t going to get ripped off.