The Eros Expansion

by Prax Venter

  “This fight, it's to the death?” Ahnix asked.

  “No, boxing. You know-” Nate said, putting his bony fists into the air and throwing a few swift punches. “Knock 'em down for a count o' ten.”

  Sabrina moved her skeletal hands over Nate’s shoulders like she was rubbing him down.

  “Nate does okay in the Nest. Not much of a prizefighter, though.”

  “Fine,” Mark said. “Where's this Viper's Nest anyway?”

  “Just come to the beach after sundown, honey. You'll see it.”

  “One more thing,” Vale said. “Can you tell us where the pet store is? We need to speak with Dan next.”

  Nate nodded his skull up and down. “Ah, getting all the crew together again, right?”

  “That's right,” Mark said, with only a slight hesitation.

  Sabrina pulled Nate back towards the brothel with her and shouted the directions over her shoulder.

  “Just head up the road and listen for all the squawkin'. You'll find it.”

  After they were gone Mark turned to his girls.

  “I'm boxing tonight,” Vale stated definitively, before anyone could say anything. Ahnix's tail hopped a little, and Mark got the impression she wanted to get into the ring too.

  “What?” Vale raised an eyebrow at the shorter cat-girl. “You'll just slice your opponent open from behind, and it will all be over.”

  “True,” the cat-girl said with a shrug. “Anyway, I can hear the pet store from here- now that I know what's causing the noise. This way.”

  They all followed Ahnix to their next destination and quickly came to a square building with the clamor of countless birds spilling from its dark doorway. White letters painted on over the door said, 'Feathered Friends'.

  Once inside the noise was almost deafening. Rows and rows of bird cages of different sizes and shapes filled every square inch, and inside most of them were little, yellow rubber duckies.

  Mark got another signal from Ahnix that she and Vale were going to wait outside again, and he nodded to her in response. Vale wouldn't fit, and Ahnix's poor sensitive ears were not enjoying the constant din of parrot screeching.

  There were two skeletal men in the store near the back, and as Mark and Roo approached them, one of them nodded and broke away from the other.

  “Welcome to Feathered Friends, friends!” he yelled. “Looking for a lifelong companion?”

  All of the toy birds in the store started echoing his words, “Life-long! Life-long!” and Mark found that he really had to scream to be heard.

  “We're looking for Dan, is that him?” he said, pointing to the other man.

  The proprietor of the store spun toward the slouching man in the corner in brown clothes, head pointed at the floor and then turned back to Mark. He nodded his skull up and down, pointed at Dan and then hooked his bony thumb towards the door. The message was clear.

  He wanted Dan out of his store.

  Mark nodded back and moved towards the skeleton crew member.

  “Hey!” Mark yelled by his head. When the man turned to look at Mark, he noticed that this skeleton was missing a few teeth- quite noticeable when no one they met had any lips. His empty eye sockets turned towards Mark, and his head tilted, questioningly.

  Mark motioned for him to follow him outside, and the man bobbed his skull up and down with understanding. The way he held himself, and the missing teeth, Mark got the impression that Dan was an older sailor.

  The fabric-girl was stroking one of the rubber ducks through its cage with her fingers, and Mark had to hook Roo's elbow as he walked past, or she’d never have left.

  The bright yellow toy bird had been leaning into her soft, velvet caress affectionately and squawked much louder than the rest when she was pulled away.

  Mark understood, he loved Roo's fingers stroking him too.

  Ahnix and Vale had moved a bit away and approached now that Mark and Roo had come out with company.

  Mark wasted no time. “Dan, hello. We're here to bring you back to Captain Helgin for a mission.”

  “Mission? You mean sail'n the seas? Pfft, nope. Not without Princess Petra.” The voice that came out of the smaller, hunched skeleton was indeed older, and Mark wondered how useful he would be on a ship.

  “Right, who is this princess and how do we get her?” Mark said. He was starting to get tired of these quests within quests (within quests).

  “You folk'll rescue my bird?” The hunched skeleton looked around the group, taking them all in.

  “Of course, we will!” Roo offered. “We're in the business of saving people.”

  The skeletal man put his hand over his empty ribcage.

  “Oh, please. I would do anything to have her back. None of those shit-brained, squawking bastards could ever hold a candle to my sweet Petra. She was abducted, you see!” At this, Dan thrust one of his bony fingers into the air.

  “Abducted by who?” Vale asked.

  “Condors,” he answered plainly.

  Ahnix crossed her furry arms and said, “Birds took your bird?”

  “She's a very special parrot. They got her cornered up near Vagrant's Pass,” he said as he pointed up to a section of mountainous jungle near the edge of town. “We were out explorin' the jungles for Kirk and his foolhardy brew ingredients. No doubt they believe she is one of their chicks. I tried to get her myself, but those nasty condors almost took my life.”

  Mark perked up at that last part. This quest sounded like a twofer.

  “Did you find any of his ingredients while you were up there?”

  “Nah, but it's a likely place to find some of that sweet grass he's after. That high up.”

  “Great,” Vale said. “We'll rescue Petra and you'll re-join Helgin's crew?”

  “Yes m’am. Gladly.”

  Vale nodded to Mark, and it looked like they had a solid direction.

  It took about half an hour of traveling uphill along a grassy jungle path, but Ahnix eventually spotted the circling black birds through the trees, near the peak. The sun was rising higher in the sky, and the jungle was becoming steamy around them.

  Vale readied her shotgun and her shield as she spoke. “We haven't run into any resistance here yet, but intuition is telling me those birds are more dangerous than they look.”

  “The man did say they nearly took his life,” Roo added.

  “We got this, guys,” Mark said. “We roast those birds and come home with Dan's ducky- er I mean parrot.”

  Vale quickened her pace up the slope by weaving her tail faster, and the rest followed her lead.

  “Ahnix,” Mark called out as they jogged towards the peak. “Please keep an eye out for blue tipped grass.”

  She sent him an affirmative, but he could tell she was starting to grow hungry for combat.

  Luckily for her, combat was just around the corner. Not a moment later, Mark heard one of the black objects circling in the sky let out a loud, warbling screech that seemed to travel for miles.

  Palm trees and vines had pressed in around them until now, but as soon as they stepped out into the open, rocky peak, Vale appeared in front of Roo, activating Perfect Cover and taking a hit on her shield from a massive plastic bird that seemed to come out of nowhere. Roo hid behind Vale as the giant naga stood over her, daring anyone to try and hurt her friend.

  Another one dive-bombed Ahnix, who was barely able to dodge by flattening herself to the ground. Roo launched a needle at her attacker, but in a rare occurrence for Roo, she missed, and the pointed shaft of metal went sailing through the air into the jungle.

  The things were like huge plastic kites and looked ridiculous as they moved through the air, stiff as a board, against intuition and aerodynamics.

  Vale tried to blast a black condor as it swooped at her, but the plastic, toy bird spun at the last moment and dodged the accelerated light coming out of her massive weapon.

  Mark briefly considered trying to shoot one with his crossbow, but just as he came to the conclusion that he w
ould miss, he noticed Ahnix vanish and reappear in the blue sky with a scream and a backflip. Her Doom Kick ripped a black void in the path of a soaring toy condor, but the incredibly fast aerial nuisance dove underneath her deadly attack at the last instant.

  As Ahnix retracted back to the grass, Vale blocked another one, zipping forward at the last moment with an improved Shield Bash, and Mark heard the satisfying crunch of plastic as they finally killed one of the things. Another quickly impacted Vale's armored head with a solid clunk in retaliation, almost knocking her out.

  He was about to look up to the sky and count how many were left when Mark was painfully knocked to the ground by a collision from his left. His shoulder and collarbone had become a terrible wreck of shattered bones and agony.

  “Mark!” Roo called as the velvet-girl ran to his side as the others tried to stop the onslaught of devastating dive attacks. Groaning, Mark opened his eyes and saw Roo's beautiful purple hair dangling around her white mask. The pain coming from his ruined side was threatening to steal his consciousness, but he focused on the beautifully puffy lips saying words down at him. Words he was trying to put into phrases- but sleep really did seem like a much better idea.

  A black streak flashed just over her head, and his mind kicked back over after seeing an imminent threat to his precious Roo.

  “Fire! Mark, hit my fire!” she was screaming at him. Mark nodded and closed his eyes. He needed to both heal himself and enhance Roo- and horrible pain and desperation pushed him to spill an unprecedented torrent of energy into the universe. Kicking off both abilities at once, power surged through his body, and with his good arm, he reached up to grab the back of Roo's neck.

  Screaming, he pulled her forehead down to his and bathed them both in raw, primal energy.

  He could feel her tense up as he funneled power into her fire ability while submerging his body in healing bliss. Through their bond and proximity, he felt her spasm with soul-gripping pleasure as they both writhed on the ground.

  An instant later it was over, and Roo stood up with a wicked smile on her masked face.

  She surveyed the sky and flicked her soft hands open, palms up. Mark sat up in time to see the heads of at least four of the condors burst into flames, screeching as they fell to the ground.

  Ahnix and Vale relaxed their defenses and spun around to see what Roo had done to cause so much damage. Some died in the air, and others died as they hit the ground at high speed, but Mark felt the flutter of essence from each kill. The battle was over.

  He stood up and joined the others, but Vale spoke first.

  “Roo, that was amazing!”

  “I've been upgrading Combustive Glance, and Mark just gave me a mega, multi-target boost.” The velvet-girl rubbed down her stomach and ended up between her legs. “Mmmhmm, did that one feel goood.”

  “Yeah, and I'm alright, guys. Don't worry.” Mark said, testing the range of motion in his arm.

  Roo leaned over and pressed her soft, puffy lips on his newly healed shoulder, put her hand on his chest and gave him a long warm kiss.

  “We know you are,” Ahnix said, scanning the area. “Let's go find this bird.”

  A bit further into the rocky clearing and they came upon an abrupt cliff and series of nests tucked into the stones. Below, he could see all of Candlewick stretched along the beach. Warm sea wind blew through Mark's hair, and he turned his attention to the sparkling stretch of deep blue waters extending in every direction. He had just started to silently question the objectiveness of reality again when Ahnix called out.

  “I think this is the grass,” she said, holding a handful of blue-hued plant fibers. They were actually quite beautiful. The thick stalks had a bold gradient hue that went from a forest green, to a cobalt blue near the tops. As Mark was watching her slice through a few more, he saw a yellow rubber duck hop onto the cat-girl's furry shoulder from behind.

  Ahnix almost brought her claws up to violently knock the intruder away when she realized what it was.

  “I'm a pretty princess!” the child's toy called out, and Mark was sure of its identity.

  “Aw, you found Petra,” Roo said, skipping over to an uncomfortably stationary Ahnix.

  “More like Petra found her,” Mark corrected, a grin stretching across his face as he watched Ahnix try to relocate the yellow bath toy.

  “Dan! Dan!” the bird squawked and nipped her when Ahnix tried to dislodge her, and the furry cat-girl just slumped her shoulders and gave up.

  “Looks like she's attached to you,” Vale said through a broad smile.

  “Ugh, here,” Ahnix said, slapping the sheaf of Blue Tipped Sugar Weed against Roo's stomach. “Let's get this bird back to town before she pokes any more holes in my flesh.”

  “Flesh! Holes in your flesh! I'm a pretty princess! Awk!”

  - 13 -

  “This'll do.”

  As soon as Kirk uttered the words, Mark felt a small rush of essence enter him from completing a portion of his quest.

  “Just get me some 'o them shrooms, and I can get this new batch cooking.”

  “Very nice,” Captain Helgin said from his table behind Mark. “Snatching a bird and some weed is child's play. But, getting Porter to stop diggin' holes-” he paused to pour liquid into his skull. Mark waited for the inevitable splash onto the dirt floor as the man had no stomach- but astonishingly, the rum vanished between his jaw and the ground. Helgin never finished his sentence and laid his head back down on his hat.

  “We know you can do it,” Dan said, sitting across from his captain with Petra, the rubber duck, perched on his shoulder.

  “Dan knows! Happy bird!” she said, bobbing her painted, yellow face up and down.

  “Thanks,” Mark said. “Be back soon.”

  Mark pulled open the door to the Slog and Grog and saw Ahnix, Vale, and Roo stretched out on the warm sand a bit down the beach. He had left them outside when he walked in with Dan to deliver the first ingredient to the bartender, but Mark didn't expect to see them to be sunbathing when he came back out.

  His girls were magnificent. Roo laid on her stomach, facing the ocean, her feet idly swinging back and forth in the air. Vale had disengaged her Star Scale Mail and pulled down her cloth wrappings, exposing her enormous black nipples to the sun as she lay on her elbows. Mark was mesmerized for a moment by the light glinting off the giant naga's silver piercings and her white, luxurious hair dancing in the gentle sea breeze. Mark blinked and saw Ahnix laying on her back next to Vale, just staring up into the infinite blue sky as her sleek fur drank up the sun.

  “Hey, can I join you ladies for a day of fun in the sun?” he said.

  Ahnix put a furry arm over her eyes. “If I weren't so worried that the space station outside this adventure dome could implode and leave us in the void- I'd say we should stay here for a few days.”

  Vale sat up, fixed her cloth undergarments and tapped the ethereal gem on her circlet. Black, star-filled scales appeared down the length of her body and swarmed over her massive breasts. Mark was sad to see her perfectly smooth, dark skin covered with armor again.

  The giant naga lifted up onto her tail and bent down to the sunbathing cat-girl.

  “Let's go find that buried treasure,” she said, helping Ahnix up to her small feet.

  Mark leaned down and helped Roo up similarly and took extra care to help her wipe the sand off her chest, stomach, and thighs.

  They continued down the beach away from the town and eventually came to the section of the island known as The Dunes.

  Gentle sand hills and seashells covered much of what Mark could see. Crumbled brick ruins poked out of the sand at lazy angles, hinting at an ancient lost town or city existing here long ago.

  Time had worn down most of them, but there was one large pile of bricks near the middle of the area that stood out. Palm trees and small green plants that had found patches where rain gathered among the dunes, and it was in one of these patches that they saw a skeletal man throwing shovelfuls of sa
nd over his shoulder at a methodical pace.

  They were able to get a good look as they crested the closest hill and saw that he was shirtless. He was basically a full skeleton with a ragged pair of sun-bleached shorts and a shovel.

  “Hello there!” Mark called out, and the crewman that had to be Porter spun around, his shovel raised to defend his claim. He studied Mark and his girls as his head bobbed like he was catching his breath.

  “What?” he said finally.

  “I'm Mark, and this is Ahnix, Vale, and Roo. We were sent here by Helgin to help you find your treasure.” Mark held out his hands and flashed a winning smile. “And no, we don't want your treasure. We want you to come back to crew the Skipping Coin to go help us get you even more treasure.”

  Sure that he covered all the bases, Mark put his hands on his hips and waited for the sailor's response.

  “Don't see any shovels,” was all he said before turning back to his work.

  Mark was about to open his mouth when Roo formed a short, iron shovel out of thin air. He held his tongue and took the shiny new tool, giving her a nod. Wordlessly, Mark half-slid down the dune to where Porter was excavating and begun to help relocate the damp sand. Vale joined them after Roo's ability reset, and with her help, they were making some serious progress. Ahnix and Roo joined in too once they had been outfitted with their own Roo-brand shovels.

  The sun was just past its zenith and waves of heat hit Mark from above and reflected from the sand below as they dug. When they got about three feet down, the quiet skeleton drove his shovel into the sand with a force Mark didn't expect and removed a rolled-up parchment that had been tucked into his shorts.

  “You lubbers be bad luck,” Porter said, his jawbone opening and closing as he spoke. “It's moved. Again.”

  “What do you mean, moved?” Vale said as she tapped the gem on her forehead. Mark realized that her dark armor must be cooking her under the oppressive, moist heat and watched as her dark skin was exposed again.