by C. F. Cooper
"That wasn't even up for debate," said Gary. The memory of her kiss and the conversation they had was fresh in his mind. "What do we do now Smallgrass?"
"It's open ground. The only thing we can do is face them head on and fight to the death. You may very well be the only one of us left standing at the end of this Gary, but hopefully we will have given time for the village to be reinforced and defended."
Gary looked ahead. The doomwalkers were now no more than fifty feet away. He ran forward towards them. "Well I guess if it's about delaying them, there's no point in hiding behind these rabbit ears anymore." Gary pulled off his helmet and threw it to the ground. He reached back and ripped off the rabbit tail. "It won't delay them for long, but we need all the time we can get." Gary turned to the doomwalkers and shouted at the top of his voice, "Here we will stay and fight. If we can't stay here alive, then let us stay here dead."
The doomwalkers turned to each other and spoke, shrugging their shoulders and pointing at Gary.
"That was a good call to action," said Smallgrass. "Don't think the doomwalkers heard it though. He needs to improve his voice projection."
Gary looked round at his friends and smiled as he ran towards battle.
Smallgrass smiled back and gave a thumbs up. "Seems wrong to tell him that right now though."
The other Smallgrass suppressed a laugh and gave the thumbs up. "The confidence of virgins," he mused. "But still, I think we need all the confidence we can get right now."
Gary turned back and continued to run headlong into the doomwalkers. True to their nature they kept marching at the same steady unchanging pace. He pulled out his sword and held his shield in front of himself. As he reached the first doomwalker he let out a scream. The doomwalker open his claws and swung at Gary. Seeing the open claws, he pulled the shield to one side and let the claws make impact with his bare arm. Just like the first time he had encountered these creatures, the claws ripped off on direct contact with him. The creature staggered back groaning. Gary swung his short sword and thrust it upwards into the injured doomwalkers neck.
"One down," he shouted.
"This one is the virgin," one of the creatures shouted. "Claws in."
Gary knew what to expect now. They would no longer try and kill him, they would try to beat him to a standstill and contain him. He pushed forward and saw a punch coming at him. This time he raised his shield to soften the blow. The large fist crashed into the shield. Gary fell to his knees and thrust upwards into the doomwalker's undercarriage. The creature screamed and fell backwards. "Two down," he shouted.
Gary stood as he felt a punch land on his chest. The leather tunic took some of the impact, but he struggled to breathe. Lashing out with his sword, he felt another punch. This time to the side of his sword arm. He lost his grip and saw the sword fall to one side. He may have been immortal, but he wasn't going to kill any more of the lizards without a weapon.
Gary turned and ran from the doomwalkers towards his friends. He could see Smallgrass shaking his head in disappointment. Looking for Daisy he could see she was now ready for battle, complete with her rabbit ears sticking up through her helmet. What he also realised was that her legs had transformed from being long and supple to incredibly well toned. Muscles rippling as she walked towards the advancing creatures.
"Raleigh," Gary shouted. "Can you lift me by your antlers or am I too heavy?"
"I can lift my own weight," the deer replied.
"I can't fight them off. I'm not good enough, but I would make a good shield to ram them."
Raleigh nodded his understanding and leaned down to meet Gary. The antlers grabbed on to him and Raleigh stood. Gary was held in place horizontally across the antlers.
"That is going to hurt," said Daisy.
"Hurt isn't dead though," shouted Gary. "Devin, stay back from the fight. We need you to be fresh."
Smallgrass smiled and gave Gary another thumbs up. This time he meant it.
Raleigh galloped forward into the crowd of doomwalkers, head down, using Gary as a battering ram to knock them to the ground. The rest of the villagers ran forward, slashing and stabbing at the stunned creature as they lay prone on the ground. Having passed through the middle of the doomwalkers, Raleigh turned and charged at them from behind. Gary saw flashes of white in front of his eyes every time they made contact. The pain was like nothing he had ever experienced in his life, but it was working. By the third charge, he could feel Raleigh tiring.
"Rest up Raleigh," he said. "Let Devin take over?"
Raleigh galloped past the doomwalkers in the direction of the village towards Devin. He let Gary down and Devin leaned forward to pick him up. The villagers were fast with their rabbit legs, darting in and out, finishing off creatures on the ground and trying to avoid those standing, but they were, however, still heavily outnumbered.
Devin charged and more of the lizard creatures were felled. He turned and ran at them again. They were slow, but they weren't stupid. This time, realising what Devin was doing, one of them waited for him to pass and then lunged at him, side on, with his claws extended. The claws plunged deep into Devin and he buckled, dropping to the ground. Gary rolled off and looked back at Devin. He was coughing up blood and scarcely moving. Gary screamed in anger and lunged at the doomwalker responsible. With a strength he didn't know he had, Gary punched the creature in the neck ripping through the thinner skin and felling the lizard. Another lizard's punched Gary in the face, but this time instead of seeing white flashes he was unaffected by the punch. Gary turned and grabbed his attacker by the arm. Pulling with all his might, the lizard creature's arm was ripped clean off. Gary swung the arm around like a hammer and roared from a place so deep he didn't recognise his own voice. Some kind of power was flowing through him and his strength had multiplied by 10 or maybe even a hundred. Gary threw the severed arm to the ground and approached a doomwalker that was attacking one of the rabbit people. He pushed the rabbit man to one side and punched the lizard in the chest. What had previously been an impregnable armour collapsed under Gary's blow. The creature fell to the ground.
"Retreat," Gary shouted. "Retreat everyone. I've got this." He ran at full speed into the centre of the doomwalkers, ripping limbs off, punching them, kicking them, all without pausing. A trail of broken and bloodied lizards lined his path. He became aware of his body growing stronger with every doomwalker he killed. As well as a massively increased strength and speed, he was also beginning to glow with a light that surrounded him. The light grew stronger and stronger until it was burning so bright that Gary couldn't see past it. Enveloped in a cocoon of energy, he instinctively knew what to do. Gary clenched his fists together, began to roar and then in one sudden movement pushed his arms out violently to the side. The ball of light surrounding him pulsed outward like a bomb going off. Doomwalkers were ripped apart where they stood. Arms and legs and heads flew through the air. Gary momentarily stopped glowing, then glowed even brighter. He brought his fists together a second time and again threw the white light pulse out in all directions. This time when the light cleared Gary could see that there was no more than a dozen doomwalkers left and they were retreating in the direction of Season Pass. This time they were actually running rather than making the slow zombie-like motions that he had become used to observing.
Gary collapsed to his knees, exhausted and feeling physically sick. He looked around the battlefield and saw his friends running back towards him. There was Smallgrass and Smallgrass. There was Raleigh and Fawn. He couldn't see Daisy. Had she made it or was she struck down along with Devin, poor brave Devin. When they reached him, Smallgrass clapped Gary on the back and held his arm to help him back to his feet.
"Well I never," he said. "I've heard of it, but I've never seen it."
"What happened to me?" asked Gary.
"It was Devin," said Fawn softly as she bowed her head. "When he died his life forced punched its way through your aura and gave you his strength to use. With your aura breached, you were the
n able to pull on the lifeforce of every doomwalker you killed."
Gary scanned the group as he listened. He was still searching desperately for Daisy. "I don't understand."
"It is called battle harvesting or beserking. It has been told in legend but never seen in our lifetime," said a rabbit woman with dark hair and skin.
"It's you," said Gary, realising the rabbit woman talking was a blood-soaked Daisy, her blonde hair darkened with the shredded remains of doomwalkers.
"Don't look now but I think we have a second wave to contend with," said Smallgrass.
The doomwalkers running towards Season Pass were being met by a larger group, perhaps twenty or so, doomwalkers emerging from the ravine.
"I don't know if I can do it again," said Gary, feeling his legs begin to shake beneath him. He wasn't scared, he was simply exhausted.
"Maybe we won't have to," said Daisy. "Look."
The doomwalkers began to battle each other, the retreating group quickly being overwhelmed.
"It's Octavia," said Smallgrass, looking through his telescope. "Our reinforcements have begun to arrive."
"Wait," said Gary shaking his head. "They can't be our reinforcements, they're doomwalkers."
"They're not doomwalkers," said Smallgrass, passing Gary the telescope.
Gary looked through the eyepiece. "They look like doomwalkers. Exactly like doomwalkers."
Smallgrass shook his head. "Doomwalker is the name given to a follower of the Ice King. It happens that all the doomwalkers you have seen here in Summervale are lizard people. They are the strongest of all fighters, so they are often the first sent into battle. Not all lizard creatures are doomwalkers. Why would an entire species be evil?"
"Octavia has fought her way through Springrise to support us," said Daisy. "She and her people are the truest of all allies."
"I see said Gary. I still have a lot to learn about this place."
Daisy wiped the blood from her face, leaned forward and kissed Gary on the cheek. "You have good friends to help you learn our ways."
Gary felt his legs buckle from under him and his vision faded to black as he passed out and fell to the ground.
Chapter 7
Gary woke as he was being dragged back into the village on a stretcher. He looked up and saw that the stretcher had two wheels at the back allowing it to be pulled by one person. The creature pulling him was a giant lizard, bigger than any Gary had seen before.
"You're awake," the lizard boomed.
Gary saw two eyes looking down at him, but no mouth, no nose.
"You have eyes in the back of your head," he said.
"Of course, I do. When we become mothers, we grow eyes in the back of our head and develop superior hearing and faster movement. That is what makes us better warriors to the men of our species."
"That makes sense," said Gary. It didn't, but he felt it was the polite thing to say. Would he ever get used to this world?
"I'm Octavia."
"Nice to meet you Octavia. Thank you for coming to our rescue."
"Looked like you already had it covered. I believe this may be the turning point. The Ice King has been undefeated in battle up to now. News of the great victory by Gary the virgin will travel far." Octavia dropped the stretcher, turned around and helped Gary to his feet. He felt less disorientated and more comfortable looking at a face that actually had a mouth.
They were in a large square surrounded by stone cottages. In the centre was a fire pit. This was clearly the middle of the village of Warrensgate.
"Will they send another wave of doomwalkers?" Gary asked.
"Of course, but we now have control of the ravine joining Summervale and Springrise. It is narrow at both ends, so it can be defended well, even when you are outnumbered. There are 100 of us in the ravine. Even though half of them are men and some of them are not fighters we can hold the position without difficulty."
Octavia held Gary's arm as she escorted him to an outer ring of stone seats that surrounded the fire pit. Some rabbit people were tamping down the fire. Smallgrass and Smallgrass were at the edge of the fire skinning a...
"No freakin’ way," said Gary. "It's Devin."
"He will make a good feast," said Octavia. "I can't remember the last time I eat deer."
Smallgrass and Smallgrass waived over, smiling.
"Are we eating lizard too?" asked Gary.
"We don't taste too good unfortunately. There will be much armour made from the fallen in today's battle though," she said tapping Gary's breastplate.
"Ah, yes, sorry about that." Gary realised the double standard of being horrified by Devin's fate and not at that of the fallen lizard people.
"No need to apologize. When the earth has nurtured and fashioned walking life, when it has taken dirt and stone and water and crafted it into armour that is as strong and beautiful as this, why waste it?"
Gary looked at Octavia and nodded. The armour skin was beautiful in its own way.
"Not all lycanthropes feel that way of course," she said. "The rabbit people will never let their dead be eaten or turned into leather, but then again, they are more human than rabbit. We are mostly lizard. You humans have some strange ideas. You'll eat anything but your own species."
"I will not be eating Devin."
"Wait till he's on a spit, roasting over that fire. The smell will change your mind. He will taste delicious."
"You're awake," said a voice from behind him. It was Daisy. Gary wasn't sure how long he'd been knocked out, but it was long enough for her to return to her home, wash all traces of blood away and change into a long flowing white gown with a plunging cleavage and a split in the lower half that stretched from her ankle to her upper thigh. One long beautiful leg appeared, as if from behind a stage curtain, with every step she took. She sat down next to Gary and held his hand. "How are you feeling?"
"Still weak," he said. "I think I just need some food rest and I'll get my strength back."
Octavia and Daisy looked at each other with a knowing smile. "You still don't understand how Cockaigne works do you?" said Octavia.
"He'll learn," said Daisy. "Give him time."
***
The feasting went on late into the night, the numbers boosted by the reinforcements that had arrived after the battle. Rabbit people mixed with Cat and Wolf people and other lycanthropes. Running around the ground, were mice and rats walking on two legs, small but quick enough to never be trod on by the crowd of revelers. Devin and several other creatures that had fallen in battle had been spit roasted and ripped into smaller portions to be passed round the fire with tankards of ale to wash down the food. Gary had at first refused to eat, but just as Octavia had predicted, the smell did get to him in the end. When he bit into the cooked meat that had once been Devin, all doubt was gone. It tasted like nothing he had ever eaten before. It was tender and moist, but the flavours... they exploded in his mouth. Was the food so bland back home because it was farmed and processed? He felt guilty but asked. "Why does Devin taste so good?"
"Because he had a good life and was a kind and brave soul. Everything you taste reflects the life he lived," said Daisy.
After the food was finished, more drink was passed round and Smallgrass stood to make a toast. "Friends, tonight we have feasted on the meat of the fallen and we have tasted how good it was. We have tasted the life that we are protecting as we defend ourselves and our land. Does anyone here doubt it is worth fighting for? Would Devin have tasted so good if he had lived his life in a Summervale ruled by the Ice King?" The crowd roared their agreement. "Then let us toast the lives we have tasted, the lives that are now part of us after this banquet. To the fallen."
"To the fallen," everyone repeated.
"And let us not forget the reason for our victory," he continued. "Gary the virgin."
"Gary the virgin," the entire village repeated.
"Oh god," I'm never going to get used to that," said Gary.
"Come with me," said Daisy. She helped Gary to
his feet. He was still weak and found it difficult to walk. Daisy guided him away from the square as the sound of a lute and singing began.
Smallgrass did not tarry,
The vale had a new hope to believe in,
And the name of this hope was - Gary,
Gary, Gary, Gary the virgin,
Gary, Gary, Gary the virgin
"I've never had a song written about me before."
"It will be one of many."
“I’m not too sure about the chorus though. It seems a little repetitive.”
Daisy opened the door to her cottage and led Gary straight through to her bedroom. She sat him on the bed, unbuckled his breastplate and removed the rest of his clothes. Any other time he would have been embarrassed by this, but he was too tired and weak to care. Daisy left the room and returned with a bowl of warm water and a stack of cloths. She wiped his face and discarded the bloody cloth. She then soaked and wrung out another cloth and continued over his body, his hands and arms, then his chest, then her hands travelled lower. This time Gary did begin to feel embarrassed. He was beginning to get hard, and there was no way to hide it.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Why are you apologising. If we are going to make love you will need to be erect." Daisy wrapped the cloth around his groin, gripped it in her hand and pulled the cloth up, slowly, in a stoking motion.
Gary gave out an involuntary sigh of pleasure. "We are going to make love?"
"Don't you want to?" she asked.
"Yes, more than anything, but shouldn't I keep my virginity for the battles ahead?"
Daisy stood up, crossed her arms and pushed her dress over both shoulders. It fell to the floor to reveal her naked body. "That is not an option."
"Aren't we being selfish?" he said, even though he knew he could not resist Daisy in all her magnificence. Her breasts stood pert over her washboard stomach. Pink erect nipples faced him at eye level as she stood in front of him. His eyes travelled down to the top of her legs. There was a small triangle of fur, not hair. At least that's what it looked like. He reached out involuntarily and stroked her. Yes, it was fur, soft and gentle to his touch. This time Daisy was the one to let out a groan of pleasure.