Empath Rising

by Archibald Bradford

  Milly’s tone was level, like she was commenting on whether it was going to rain that night.

  Paul and nameless shared a look, the Cockatrices squawked again. His scream continued for a few moments, eventually deteriorating into angry cuss words directed at all of their mothers.

  There was another sickening crunch.

  “Huh… this one is broken in two places… how unfortunate.”

  The indifference of her tone made Nameless cringe.

  Paul let out a snort.

  “Boy, if you don’t tell her otherwise that sumbitch is gunna come out of that creek in pieces.”

  Nameless nodded. The man was outright wailing now.

  “Milly, he’s had enough I think.” He said as loud as he dared.

  “Has he? I can’t tell, his other leg might also have a second break in it, I’d better ask-”

  “STOP!! P-please stop I’ll do anything…”

  Milly responded, her tone matter of fact;

  “Well, the first thing you’re going to do, once I ‘drag your sorry ass out of here’, as my good friend Paul put it, is apologize to my master, for hitting him. Then apologize to him again for cutting him…” Her voice grew even colder as she said the rest; “And then you are going to apologize to me, for daring to try to take me away from him. I’m not yours Clint. I never was and never will be. I belong to my Master, who you dared to put your filthy hands on, so if you are not absolutely sincere in your remorse, then regardless of what Paul has to say about it, you’re going to end up having another nasty tumble.”

  Forget the look on the Wolfen’s face when she growled at him, Clint Unwin now stared into the eyes of an angry Minotaur and was convinced that of the two he would rather face Jan’s vicious teeth.

  He nodded mutely at her instructions and barely let out a peep as she hefted him up the ravine and through the bushes, even when his legs were twisted in agonizing ways, he was mostly silent.

  When they made it back up to on the bridge he followed her instructions and apologized profusely to everyone present, up to and including the Cockatrices who simply looked confused at his words. Fear made him sincere as he lay slumped against the stone railing.

  Paul had Milly take the cart through the field and down to the cottage to unload it so that they could put Clint in it. She didn’t like leaving the men alone with the criminal, but given that he had three breaks in two legs she didn’t worry too much.

  After she had left, Paul ordered his hens to watch the prisoner, they looked terrified of him but in his vulnerable state he found them to be terrifying.

  Meanwhile Paul took Nameless off to one side.

  “You alright boy?”

  “Y-yeah, I’m worried about M-Milly.” He stuttered, the whole experience had hit him hard and he was beginning to shake.

  Paul was pleased and more than a little proud that the terrified kid’s first concern was for his pet.

  “She’ll be fine, believe me, the rage will pass and she’ll be right as rain. The main thing you can do to help her is to calm down a bit. She’ll pick up on your worry and it’ll only make her own worse.”

  Paul tilted Nameless’s chin up to look at the scratches and cuts, when satisfied that they were superficial he pulled a flask out of his hip pocket and held it out to the boy.

  “I-I don’t drink.”

  “You do today; it’ll help with the nerves. Take a good pull.”

  Nameless obliged and came up coughing; the liquid burned the whole way down and filled him with tingling warmth that rapidly spread throughout his limbs and to the very tips of his fingers and toes.

  “Wh-what is that stuff?”

  Paul gave a dark chuckle.

  “Amazon brandy, watered down of course, I’m not crazy. Those feisty bitches feed it to their young straight; think it helps makes ‘em fearless, although I suspect it just gets them too stupid-drunk to be afraid.”

  Nameless shook his head in disbelief, trying not to think about how badly it would have burned if it hadn’t been diluted. He wasn’t shaking anymore though, he actually felt pretty good, although his stomach still hurt where Clint had hit him.

  Milly came back shortly after, and without ceremony they dumped the whimpering Clint into the cart and pulled it towards Paul’s house.

  “We’ll stow this rascal in my barn, then I want you two to take the cart into town, fetch the lawkeeper and get the ice and such for the cottage.” The couple looked surprised at his instructions, he sighed and explained; “Best thing for the two of you is to get back to the business of living, longer you dwell on this silliness the harder it’ll be to shake it off, trust me. And don’t worry about-” He glanced at Clint in the cart, who stared at the back of Milly’s head like he just discovered that she was a monster girl with horns; “Never did catch yer name their fella…”

  Clint huffed, unwilling to answer until Milly made to put the cart down.

  “Clint! M-my name’s Clint. Please I-I made a mistake I’m sorry I’ll-”

  “That’ll do.” Paul interrupting him, something in his tone made it clear that it would be unwise to continue; “Don’t worry about Clint, him and I are becoming fast friends I think, so I’ll look after him until the law arrives for ‘im.”

  The pair nodded at that and soon left Paul’s farm, the empty cart in tow.

  Shortly after, Paul was having a frank conversation with his new friend in the barn. Clint was slumped on the ground, his back propped against a support pillar while Paul worked his way through the pleasantries.

  “Now Clint, we haven’t bin properly introduced yet, so here, I’ll start-” Paul promptly punched Clint in the jaw far harder than a man his age had any right to; “-My name is Paul Fletcher, and in my youth I was quiet the adventurer.”

  He punched him again, this time there was a crunch and Clint’s nose came up bloody.

  “This one time, I was a’journeying with my girl at the time, you’d like her I think; she was a Minotaur too-” Clint flinched at the word, already terrified from the beating; “Anywho, we were walking through the woods someplace I don’t recall where or why… and wouldn’t you know it, some silly fools got it into their heads to rob us. Now I’ll admit, they got the drop on me, just like you did with my young friend earlier-”

  At the memory of the fear on Nameless’s face Paul socked Clint again.

  “Please-” Clint earned himself another sturdy smack for that.

  “Now Clint, didn’t yer momma never teach you not to interrupt yer elders? That’s not what we do in polite company! Where was I… oh that’s right, being robbed! So these yahoos come at me first cuz they think they’re smart, just like you did. See they think that if they get my girl’s heartstone they can take me for everything I got, and take her to boot!”

  Paul took a moment to pinch Clint’s broken nose, not relenting until Clint had screamed himself hoarse.

  “What they didn’t count on, what they weren’t smart enough to count on, was my girl being bonded to me; you see Clint-” Paul paused for a moment and gripped Clint by the side of the head tightly, forcing the blubbering man to meet his glare; “That was rude of me, do you mind if I call you Clint?” Clint found his head nodding against his will as Paul answered his own question with the hand in the man’s hair.

  “That’s mighty big of you Clint! I knew we’d get along just fine! Where was I? Oh that’s right, explaining why trying to steal a bonded monster’s heartstone is about the dumbest thing a man can do in this life. Ya see, even if you took her heartstone, the soul within it belongs to her bond-mate. So all that would happen is you’d stand there, like an idiot, trying to tell an angry heifer not to protect the love of her life, which by-the-by is what happened to them fellers what tried to bushwhack me.”

  Paul paused, boring into Clint’s eyes with his own.

  “They’re all dead Clint.” His tone was ice.

  Clint hurt in too many places not to be terrified by this man, decades his senior.

  “
They all got beat to death, I remember the look on the first fellers’ face, see, he managed to get hold of her stone and he turned to her and started telling her to calm down or some such nonsense and then wouldn’t you know it…” He trailed off chuckling to himself humorlessly; “Have you ever seen a Minotaur slaughter a group of bandits with their leader impaled on her horns Clint?”

  This time Clint didn’t need any help from Paul to shake his head.

  “It was a sight I’ll never forget, him just flopping around up their like the world’s ugliest hat, while she ran around tearing apart all of his buddies.” His voice turned sad; “She had a lot of trouble with that later; she was such a gentle soul and the memory of what she done haunted her for years… but she never regretted it, though. Not my girl. Not once.”

  Clint was shivering now, his body ice cold from fear and pain. Paul continued.

  “Don’t think I’m recollecting all of this to you for no reason now Clint. I may be old, but I’m still sharp; you seem the vengeful sort and maybe someday you might even be a free man again, I don’t rightly know the particulars of your legal situation. I just want to press upon you the stupidity of holding a grudge against a bonded Minotaur, because I guarantee you son, and this is an old adventurer speaking from experience-” he poked his fingers repeatedly into Clint’s chest to drive home his point; “If that heifer claps eyes on you again, you’re gunna be competing for the title of world’s ugliest hat. You followin’ me here Clint?”

  Clint nodded vigorously, revenge the last thing on his mind.

  Paul patted him on one broken leg.

  “Good talk.”

  Chapter 9:

  Implied Consent

  Nameless was in pain.

  He tried to hide his discomfort from Milly but she could tell something was wrong. They had barely left Paul’s farm when she stopped, placed the handle of the cart on the ground and stepped over it towards her bond-mate.

  “Master, are you alright? In all the excitement I didn’t check your stomach.”

  “I-I’m fine Milly.”

  He wanted to be strong for her, but Clint’s blow to the gut left his abdominal muscles really tender and the Amazon brandy may have helped with the nerves but it also set a fire in his belly.

  She frowned at him.

  “Show me? Please Master.”

  He got a strange sense of calm from her, and he knew that it would be more upsetting for her if he didn’t show her.

  This sixth sense he’d developed was getting out of hand.

  With a slight huff he lifted his shirt. Milly frowned as she got a look at the red and purple bruise on one side of his stomach. She looked around, and seeing nobody in the immediate vicinity she promptly took off her shirt.

  “M-Milly! What are you doing?!”

  “My job, Master. You take care of me, and now it’s time for me to take care of you. My milk works best if it’s fresh, what you drank earlier no doubt already helped, but you need more.” Her voice was firm as she reached out to him while she gripped her right breast with her left hand, offering him her succulent nipple.

  She didn’t force him like she had in the bathhouse, this time she just looked at him expectantly while he stared straight at her exposed breasts. Unconsciously, he licked his lips. Her milk was delicious, and it had been a few hours since he had drank his fill.

  He wanted more.

  Seeing the look of hunger on his face, Milly encouraged him with a soft smile.

  “It’s alright Master, just like before, just give a quick suck and you’ll feel better. It’s just so that you can feel better, it’s an emergency.”

  Nameless closed his eyes so that he could think: His stomach hurt, but it wasn’t unbearable, even the fire in his belly from the liquor was subsiding, gradually. If he drank directly from Milly again, he wouldn’t be able to hide behind an injury this time.

  He knew she just wanted to help, she always wanted to help. But if he did this it was because he wanted to, because he chose to and not because he needed to.

  He gave a slight nod of his head as his thoughts became clear to himself.

  Mistaking his nod as permission, Milly put her hand behind his head to bring him to her breast.

  “No Milly, not this time.”

  She was startled as he opened his eyes and shook his head firmly.

  “But, Master! Please, you’re hurt!” Her voice was distressed.

  “I am, but I’ll live.”

  “M-Master, please let me take care of you!” She all but whimpered at him, but he shook his head firmly.

  “Not like this Milly, not with you thinking I’m doing it for the wrong reasons.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I’m not hurt bad enough to need to drink your milk-” Her eyes welled as she mistook his meaning until he finished his thought; “So you’ll know that when I do it’s because I want to drink your milk.”

  He took her by surprise when he grabbed her breasts firmly, one hand on each and leaned forward and took one pert nipple in his mouth and sucked hard. He had milked her that morning, but that was a few hours ago and she wasn’t even empty then, so she had plenty to give him.

  She lowed deeply as she ran her fingers through his hair, clutching him tightly to her as she felt a tear trickle down her cheek at her master’s acceptance.

  All too soon he had drank his fill but he wasn’t done with her mounds; he had drank from both of her tips, and then without hesitating he licked her clean, even going so far as to squat down and lick from the bottom of one breast all the way back to her nipple as one droplet escaped his tongue.

  Her knees trembled slightly, as he openly groped her in the middle of the road, kneading her flesh and no longer denying that he was doing it because he liked it. When he was finished, the fire in his belly and the dull ache in his abs were both gone.

  And Milly was a near puddle from the intense mauling he had delivered to her chest.

  Unable to help herself she stooped down, leaned his head back and thrust her tongue into his mouth. She tasted her own milk on his lips and it was sweet. After several moments of kissing his lips and wrestling her tongue over his, he began to kiss her back, much to her delight.

  Awkward and unsure of himself, his tongue never dared leave the safety of his own mouth to venture into hers.

  It hardly needed to; her own tongue had moved in and showed no sign of leaving anytime soon.

  Then he did something incredible, he wrapped his lips around her tongue and sucked on it as hard as he could. She mooed her pleasure into his mouth at the sensation, thrusting her muscle in and out of his sucking maw. After a few seconds of this, she tried to coax his tongue into her mouth to return the favour as her hands both found his cute butt and gave it the squeeze she’d been dying to give it, but sadly he had returned to earth and pulled away from their intense embrace, blushing furiously.

  “Milly, um… we have to get into town and get the lawkeeper.”

  “But! Master!”

  She had felt his hardness against her thigh when she held him, but he still shook his head gently at her protests.

  “Milly, thank you for taking care of me but we have a lot of things we still need to do today.”

  “But I…”

  “Here.” He handed her shirt back to her from the cart.

  She wobbled on her feet; the need deep in her belly to take her master right on the side of the road waged desperate war with the need to please him.

  Ultimately, the fires of her passion were quenched with an undignified huff from her as she pulled her shirt over her head.

  “Don’t be like that Milly, please.”

  “Master… I… you kissed me back! And so I thought…” Her voice trailed off as frustrated tears spilled down her cheeks.

  “Milly, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking and I let things get carried away.” He was distressed at her tears.

  I’m such an idiot. Why did I do that? Why do I always make her cry?

>   Abruptly she picked up the handle to the cart and started marching towards town, clearly still upset but not willing to talk about it.

  Glumly he trailed her, hoping her mood didn’t last long, and finding that he was right to hope.

  On the outskirts of town she stopped, allowing him to walk up beside her.

  “I’m sorry Master, I allowed myself to think that you were ready when you weren’t, I should’ve been more patient with you.” She didn’t look at him as she said any of this, her red face fixated on the dirt at her feet.

  “Milly, stop that!” She still didn’t look up; “Do you think that I’m like that guy Clint?”

  Her head snapped up as her jaw dropped.

  “What?! No! Of course not!” She shouted, wanting him to stop saying such things.

  “Then you need to stop apologizing for things that are clearly my fault!” His voice matched hers in volume.

  A few people stopped to listen to the apparent lovers tiff, but unfortunately for them these lovers were much too self-conscious and quickly lowered their voices.

  “But Master, I-”

  “No Milly, you have been so patient with me, and I just keep letting you down, and then you apologize for it and it makes me feel awful.”

  “But you haven’t let me down!”

  “I just did not five minutes ago remember?”

  “But that was, I mean, that’s not what-”

  Their conversation, as important as it was to them, was cut short when a familiar portly individual approached them hurriedly. The lawkeeper had seen better days, he had a slightly bloody bandage over his head, and his face was red from his shuffling run.

  “You! Uh… Cow-Thing! And you, Orphan-Guy! Um… what’s your name again?”

  “Nameless, sir.”

  The man looked at him for a moment then asked, genuinely curious rather than irritated;

  “Are you trying to be a smart-ass?” Nameless sighed and the man continued, getting over his curiosity quickly; “Anyways, that man, the one with the whip. Have you seen him? He escaped custody last night and-”

  “I threw him off a bridge when he attacked my master.” Milly said simply, her voice subdued.