“When were you back there last?” I asked curious.
“I went back one last time two years ago. I’d already given it up for a lost cause, but I couldn’t help myself. I spent a week skulking around. They’re not my people anymore.”
Josh looked a little haunted as he talked about it.
Looking at him I realized right there exactly what it took to truly win a war. You had to destroy not just the desire, not just the hope, but even the thought of rising up to bring back what had been lost. This could be done through fear, or coercion. I suspected it probably took both; and what measures you took and how you applied them, depended on who you were, and who you were fighting.
“Some people will tell you, Will, that the only thing worse than losing is winning. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Trust me; there is nothing worse in all of creation than losing.”
And he turned and walked away.
I walked back to my tent, and suddenly from a little corner of my mind that I didn’t know had existed before, maybe because it didn’t, came the feeling that it was time to go. I packed my bags, wrote a note to the people in charge that I was called away on urgent family business, and left. I got on highway eight and followed it for quite a while, then just turned every time I felt it was right. It was kind of creepy, a strange game of hot and cold. I was on a small dirt road when I felt the portal. I could only get so close until I had to walk. I didn’t bother to lock the car, and I left the keys in it. I got my things together, made sure there wasn’t anything left behind I might regret and then struck off into the brush.
I started to feel a sense of urgency as I got closer and broke into a run. I could almost see the portal hovering there in the air, and its feeling was yet again different from the ones I’d felt before, but I could also feel a connection to this portal, perhaps a result of my bargain? I didn’t know. But I also knew that something wasn’t right on the other side and that when I stepped through something important was going to happen.
I didn’t hesitate, I jumped.
Four
So. Many. Things. aSsailed mY SENses at once. It was like jumping in the middle of a football play just as the quarterback has snapped the ball. Only you’re wearing stilts and someone is banging on a bucket over your head while a tornado is passing through.
Oh, and you’re the one they just gave the ball to.
There were four people. One was tied to a stone altar, clothes ripped from her body. She was mine to save – I just knew that. To her left side was a guy holding a dagger, he was getting ready to plunge it into her. He wore robes, a funny hat, was yelling something out, both arms raised high, one hand holding that dagger, the other hand open, beseeching gods or something. He was bad. He also had his back to me and did not see me.
The other two were at the head and the foot of the altar respectively. They wore leather armor, chest pieces on their upper body with some sort of leather bracers, skirts at the waist and below. Some sort of knee protectors, greaves maybe? Also made of leather. Both had short swords and daggers. Though both of them had their hands empty and weapons sheathed at the moment. They both saw me, I could tell by the widening of their eyes.
I was stark naked, no clothes, no weapons, nothing.
I took it all in, in an instant. There wasn’t any hesitation to learn which was what, I just knew.
But that wasn’t the strangest part by far, not even close, I took a step forward and started to reach for the dagger from behind, my knee coming up to impact his spine, just above the tail. As my knee contacted and I saw his ears go flat as a snarling sound started to come from my muzzle. I grabbed his wrist and dug my claws in, wrenching his arm around, using the motion as my other hand grabbed his throat and started to pull his body back, claws digging at his neck. I used my momentum to turn his body to the right, slashing the dagger in front of the snarling muzzle of the guard to that side, using my tail for balance as I pulled the head back further and pushed the knee in harder.
Everything moved as if it was in treacle, I’d never had such an extreme adrenaline rush before in my life and I was getting all sorts of strange messages in my mind that while they felt right, I knew they were wrong. But I didn’t have the time to deal with those now as I felt a spine start to crack and gained control of the dagger with my right hand paw. Springing forward and releasing my grip on the guy in the robes who was yowling in obvious pain I drove the dagger forward into the eye of the soldier or guard or whatever he was, pushing it into the hilt then grabbing his half drawn sword as he released it and spinning back, the blade held flat as I came around.
It had only been a second, but the one in the robes had drawn a dagger in his left and was starting to do something with his right hand paw. I noticed he was suddenly moving as fast as I was, and I followed through on my stroke, taking off his right hand paw. I circled the sword up and then back down, his block with the dagger might have worked but I was bigger and stronger and was already kicking him in the groin, with my foot claws out. His block collapsed and as the point of my sword came down in front of his face, I thrust forward and drove it into his open muzzle, and out through the back of his head.
The last one was looking at me, eyes wide with fear, his light tan fur and the white fur of his chest that was exposed at the top of his armor already getting flecked with the blood spurting out of his former colleague. I knew my fur was already drenched in blood, I could feel it slick and hot as I put my foot into the body of the now dead foe and pushed hard, kicking it free of my blade and turning to run it into the remaining live foe.
He tried to parry it aside but didn’t get much of a chance to complete the action as I used my greater reach and speed to lunge over the head of the corpse and drive my blade through his chest. His eyes got even wider then, and blood spurted out of his mouth as he slowly collapsed.
I blinked and stood there a moment, my tail lashing out behind me as everything started to catch up with me. They were all cats, everyone was. Or rather some sort of man-cat combination. Hybrid. Something. I could feel my ears and I ran my hands down my sides smoothing out my fur and looked down at myself.
So was I.
I was also about seven feet tall now, if my sense of proportion had survived, and built like a heavyweight boxer. I noticed the rest of me was rather well developed as well. I had a long thick tail, claws, muzzle, fangs, the whole thing. I looked around; the guy in the robe was probably a bit over six feet, the other two a bit smaller. I saw no others but the woman on the altar was staring at me, and I was instantly struck by her beauty. Even the human part of my mind could recognize it. Her eyes followed me as I moved to pick up a dagger and started to cut the bonds on her legs.
Once I touched her, I really couldn’t stop, I ran my hands up her legs, through the short fur, and suddenly I realized I had crawled up on the altar with her. My blood was still running hot in my veins, the scent of blood was in my nostrils, and I was getting very excited now that the fight was over. I got one of her hands free before I dropped the dagger and lost all control and took her there on the altar.
From the way she responded I guess she had lost control as well. It was rather animalistic, but incredibly satisfying all the same. When we were done, I was panting harder than I had been from the fight and we were now both sticky with the drying blood of the deceased.
I was brought back to reality by her lightly tugging on one of my ears, “Up lover boy, you’re heavy and this slab isn’t terribly comfortable.”
I rose up and moved my weight to my arms and elbows, taking it off of her, and found that, yes I actually was able to purr. I smiled at her and did so rather loudly. I figured that my wits would catch up with me sooner or later, but for just now, I’d enjoy the moment.
She smiled a little shyly, and then winked. “Somebody sure needed that! Think you could undo my right arm?”
I reached up and undid the knot with a claw, balancing my weight on my other arm. When I got her released I leaned back t
o kneel, watching as she gathered herself up and then rolled onto her hands and knees and stretched her muscles. It was one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen, and it was inches from my face. Then there was her scent, which was filling my nostrils once again. I grabbed her tail and leaned forward to give her a little nip on the rump.
“Oh!” She jumped but I pulled her back, “What are you...? Oh!”
Quite a while later I was pleasantly drowsing, still covering her back as she caught her breath beneath me. “That... that was unexpected,” she purred.
“Bullshit,” I whispered in her ear purring myself. “You could have raised a dead man with the little stretching routine.”
“Ah, it speaks!” she giggled and I put an arm around her waist as I sat back on my heels pulling her with me, she fit really well there. I moved her hair out of the way and licked the fur on the back of her neck. That we had hair on our heads was strange, and then again not. It was more like a mane of sorts, and I knew it was fine and thin on the females, thick and heavy on the males. Some sort of secondary sexual characteristic.
“Oooh, that feels nice,” she sighed and pushed her body back against mine. “I think my Seneschal would be having an attack right about now, that or having you killed.”
I wrapped both of my arms around her. “He’ll get used to it.”
She laughed, “I’m not so sure he’s going to.”
I stood and lifted her in my arms, she wasn’t very heavy, standing I figured she’d almost come up to my shoulder. I stepped off the altar and put her up on my shoulder, she leaned over and curled around the back of my head, putting her hips on my right shoulder and her shoulders draped over my left. A very feline position I noted, as she got comfortable.
I picked up one of the swords and looked around until I ‘felt’ which was the right direction and started off.
“So, does my savior have a name?” She purred softly.
“Will,” I said simply. I was looking at the terrain around where we were. At first, the fight was all that was in my mind. Then it was her. Now I could expand my focus. We were on top of a small hill in the center of seven much larger hills. It was arid country, not quite desert, but close. Ruins surrounded us, but the altar on the hill and the dais it sat upon was rather well preserved. It was night out, very late, and pleasantly cool with a light breeze.
“My name,” she continued when it became obvious that I wasn’t going to say anything further, “Is Rachel. Queen Rachel.” She smacked my back with her tail when she said ‘queen,’ “And I need to get back to my royal quarters. I suspect by now the army is going crazy looking for me.”
“Uh-huh. Care to tell me what was going on back there?” I asked as I found the trail and started to move into a slightly faster pace.
“One of the priests from the temple was going to sacrifice me, what did it look like?” She said angrily. “There are going to be some changes made at the temple when I get back.”
“Why was he doing that?”
“He had said that it would save the people in the war against the Mulanders. Not all agreed, but he convinced the high priest who looked the other way when they kidnapped me at services tonight.”
I made a note that the high priest would die shortly after I met him. I got a rather pleasant sensation from that new ‘part’ of my mind that told me that was approved.
“Why here though?”
“Because of the power in the ring of the seven mounds. Why else? Don’t you know anything?” And she whapped my back with her tail again.
In response, I pinched her rather nice ass with my fingers and used a little bit of claw to make her squeak rather loudly and satisfyingly.
“I’m new to the area.” I said, “Now quit whacking me and behave.”
“I’m your queen; you don’t get to tell me how to behave!”
“Correction,” I purred darkly, “you’re my woman, behave or you’ll get spanked!”
She growled and went from soft and cuddly on my shoulders to hard and stiff with several sharp claws digging into my body as she turned her head to right next to mine. “What did you say?”
“I said you’re my woman. I claimed you on that altar, in front of your god and all the other gods. They came to see a sacrifice, they got three, and then I got you.” I turned my head and smiled at her, “You did seem to return my affections rather enthusiastically after all.”
“I’d just been saved from having my heart cut out and my entrails removed! What the hell did you expect me to do? Turn you down? Of course I enjoyed it! I just found out I was going to live!”
“And here I thought you were going to complement me on the way I’d dispatched your captors.” I sighed dramatically.
“Oh, that was impressive alright. So are you. So is everything about you. I’ll admit to loving every minute of it. But I’m not your woman.”
“What? Afraid of it then?”
“No, of course not! But I’m a queen. You’re just some commoner who happened to be in the right place at the right time. I got lucky, so you got lucky. We both got lucky. But that’s as far as this can go. I have responsibilities and my advisors still think that the war could be prevented if I offer myself to marriage to the Mulanders’s king.
That got a very bad feeling. Which of course didn’t matter to me, because for the first time in my life I was going to take something and screw all if they didn’t like it.
I stopped short and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and pulled her off me, she put up one hell of a fight, but I had a foot and a half on her, and weighed twice as much.
“Okay, let’s get this straight,” I purred with my nose inches from hers, I had her pinned spread eagle on the path beneath me at this point. “The marriage idea has just been vetoed. It’s not going to happen.”
“And why not?” She growled.
“Because first of all, he won’t accept it, and second of all I’m going to kill him. Right after I lead your army into kicking his ass all the way back to where they came from and then some.”
“As if I’d let some commoner lead my army!” She growled again.
“Why do you think I’m here?” I asked her.
She gave me a blank look.
“How many people have you seen just magically appear naked in front of an altar and slay a powerful priest and his two body guards? Has this been a common occurrence in your life your majesty?”
She blinked then, her mouth opened, and then closed after a moment, then opened again.
“Where did you come from?” She finally said.
“You know all that praying you’ve been doing to your god for help?”
Her eyes got wide.
“Got it in one.” I got off of her and let her up. She looked at me kind of sideways and wasn’t sure what to make of me. So I grabbed her and pulled her close.
“I’m sure you’ll get used to the idea,” I smiled and kissed her, then threw her back over my shoulder as I started to jog off again.
She got back into her old position effortlessly. “That you were sent here by my god?”
I laughed, “No, that you’re now my woman!”
She whacked me in the back of the head with her hand, but her claws were sheathed and she got all soft and cuddly on my shoulders again.
“There are still going to be people who’ll complain,” she warned.
“I’m used to people complaining.”
“Well, yes. But you still haven’t fully convinced me either,” she warned further as her tail curled around my arm. “But I think I can at least see it in my heart to give you the opportunity to try.” She added in a rather haughty sounding voice.
I pinched her butt and she squeaked again.
I came across a creek as the sun started to come up. I woke her as I started to wade into a large pool I’d found along it.
“Huuuh? Wha?” she said and started to stretch, which she did rather amazingly without losing her perch on my shoulders.
“Bath time. Let�
�s get all this gore off.”
“Ick, looks cold.”
“Un-huh,” I agreed and dunked my entire body under the water, which of course brought her with me.
“AHHHHhhhh!” I could her hear yelling even under the surface. So I stood back up and pushed her under to shut her up.
She came back up sputtering at me and glaring.
“That’s no way to treat your Queen!” She said cursing rather liberally at me as well.
“Yeah well, give up on the Queen stuff. Save it for the others. Let’s get clean.”
She grumbled some more so I pulled her over and gave her a kiss. Surprisingly she was shivering. “You’re freezing!”
“Duh.”
“Let’s get you cleaned up and out of here,” I said and worked my fingers through her fur to loosen up and remove the dried blood. I picked her up and set her on the bank, then attended to getting the larger amounts of blood and guts out of my own fur and then joined her.
“Come here,” I said and pulled her over and sat her in my lap and wrapped my body around hers. She was still shivering so I rubbed my hands up and down her body, unabashedly enjoying myself in the process.
“Don’t get started, Buster,” she growled faintly as the shivering stopped. “I’m not hopping back in there to rinse off again.”
I snickered and licked an ear and she shivered, but for a different reason this time.
“I mean it, behave.”
I nibbled a bit more and she leaned back into me. “Bastard,” she purred.
We were back on the trail again, fur drying from a quick dunk to clean off from our lovemaking.
“That wasn’t fair,” she sighed curling up on my shoulders again.
“Yeah, but you loved it,” I said smiling; I know I had sure loved it; she was a very responsive lover and playful one as well.
Portals of Infinity: Book One: Champion for Hire Page 7