by Jack Porter
Camille’s shoulders dropped a bit, but her glare was as severe as ever. “The vanishing you speak of is just something I can do,” she said. “It has proven… useful… in my occupation, but I can’t explain how. It is who I am.”
In a world where ogres and semi-human creatures and monsters were real, I figured this was just something to add to the list. Yet I still wanted to know more. But before I could ask, Ash asked his own question.
“Your occupation?”
The fierce woman looked down to the ground. “I am a thief. An assassin. A spy. I did anything where my skill provided an advantage.”
Ash accepted this information without a word, but I couldn’t help but look at Camille with renewed suspicion. A thief, assassin, and spy?
If I needed any more confirmation that she was dangerous, that was it.
Ash’s mind had gone in a different direction. “If you are on a pilgrimage and did not want to travel alone, why did you not approach and ask to join us?”
For the first time, Camille seemed uncertain. “I… I did not think you would accept such a request. Why should you?” She shrugged. “I thought you might chase me off, and it would be harder to follow behind. Doing so, staying out of sight but close, offers me protection without any cost.”
It made sense to me, and obviously to Ash as well because he didn’t ask her any other questions.
“So,” Camille said. “What happens to me now?”
“That depends on Lady Gamma,” said Ash. “It is she who will decide your fate.”
As if she had been listening from within her wagon, Lady Gamma chose that moment to emerge. Still clothed in her extravagant silks and with her immaculately made up face and multi-layered hair, she waited at the top of the short ladder with a glare in my direction.
Camille stiffened at her appearance, a reaction I understood.
Perhaps it was because of this distraction that I completely missed the significance of Lady Gamma’s unwillingness to descend the short ladder right away.
“Ahem,” the painted princess said.
Her expression remained unchanged, and the focus of her gaze was me. As if to reinforce that I was somehow derelict in my duties, Edda chose that moment to appear next to her mistress.
The monkey-creature chattered and pointed at me, then scampered up to Lady Gamma’s shoulder, where she bounced up and down and kept chattering, acting for all the world like I’d stolen her banana.
I watched the extraordinary display for some moments before figuring out my apparent crime. Or perhaps, ‘figuring out’ wasn’t quite right. Even though Lady Gamma hadn’t said a word, I still felt compelled to act.
With a quiet grumble to myself, I went over and offered Lady Gamma my hand to help her down three simple steps that she could easily have managed herself.
Apparently, my duties were more than those of just Lady Gamma’s protector. Apparently, I was some sort of manservant as well.
Yet as long as she could continue to compel my obedience, there didn’t seem to be much I could do about it. So I bit my tongue and ignored Edda’s ongoing scolding as I helped Lady Gamma reached the ground safe and sound.
She acknowledged my assistance with a small noise not of thanks, but of irritation that I had taken so long. I thought about saying something unkind, but decided it just wasn’t worth it. And, anyway, I kind of figured that aiding her hadn’t always been part of this Rogan Ward’s job. Before the ambush at the downed spaceship, Lady Gamma had had more guards and others to choose from. Perhaps one of them had acted as her primary servant.
At the thought, it occurred to me that perhaps Lady Gamma had lost more than just hired hands. Perhaps she had lost friends in that exchange. If so, then maybe I could go a little easier on her.
As soon as Lady Gamma reached the ground, she let go of my hand and made her way across to Camille. Gamma was surprisingly short. Though Camille still sat on the ground, I could tell she was considerably taller.
Yet it was obvious who held the power.
Lady Gamma studied the wild woman’s face for long moments. Camille said nothing, but returned the look as calmly as she could. Abruptly, Gamma gave a small nod.
“You are a pilgrim as well,” she stated. “You seek the Hidden Temple, just as I do.”
Camille set her jaw as if in defiance, but she nodded. “I do.”
Lady Gamma’s lips suggested the ghost of a smile. “Fear not, fellow traveler. I will not ask your reasons. They are your own, just as are mine. But I must understand your purpose. You have said you are an assassin and a thief. Do you mean to do harm to myself or my people?”
Again, Camille held the painted woman’s eyes. “I am no danger to you or your companions,” she said.
Lady Gamma’s aspect softened. It was as if she became someone else altogether. Instead of being the unyielding, demanding figure who presented no more than a painted mask to the world, she became softer, more human.
“Then I must ask you,” Lady Gamma said. “There are significant dangers that still need to be faced between here and our goal. If you have been following us as you say, then you will know that the ambush cost us most of my men. While those of my protectors who remain are the very best of them all, a woman as capable as you seem to be would be a valuable addition. It would improve not just our safety, but yours as well, if you were to join us. What do you say?”
Camille’s mouth opened in a slight gape, and she was seemingly taken aback by Lady Gamma’s words. As was I. Neither of us appeared to have expected Lady Gamma to make such a request.
“I will swear no oath to you,” Camille said, pursing her lips. “I am on my own quest and am not part of yours.”
Lady Gamma waved her words away with her hand. “Agreed. You are not a bonded servant, and never will be. You and I are equals in my eyes, two women on the same quest. This is a joining of forces rather than the acquisition of another protector.”
At these words, Camille visibly relaxed. Lady Gamma could have ordered her death, and we all knew it. Instead, the princess had extended an offer of friendship.
The wild woman managed a smile. “I would be honored,” she said.
Lady Gamma seemed pleased, and Edda started chattering again, but this time in obvious delight rather than anger. Lady Gamma turned to me, and with her armor firmly back in place gestured to Camille.
“Remove her bindings,” she demanded. “If she had weapons, return them to her. She is to be accorded the same measure of respect you would show to me.”
It was as if her every pronouncement was designed to annoy me. Yet I did as she asked, fully expecting Camille to vanish into the night as soon as she could.
To my surprise, she stayed just where she was.
“Be welcome,” Lady Gamma added. “Our camp is your own. Feel free to share our provisions, and you will sleep in the supply wagon. And when it is cooked, treat the food we offer as your own.”
I stifled a laugh. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the food currently cooking was Camille’s.
20
It turned out that the evening meal was to be more than just barbecued wasteland critters. The second wagon was filled with supplies, including a hard, dry type of bread that had a nutty flavor, a hard-rinded cheese, and even a sweet dish that seemed to be made of layers of thin pastry and cooked fruit of some kind.
Lady Gamma, Camille, and Ash sat around the campfire, and I sat a little apart. Gamma had been staring daggers at me all night, obviously still pissed about... something. And Camille... well, I couldn't figure out what I thought about her. She was dangerous, but I also had to admit I was attracted to her. She was the whole package. Fierce, built better than a runway model, and even the monster aspects of her had an appeal. But damn, I hadn't really made the best first impression, had I?
One of the cow-beasts grunted, and I looked over at them, still harnessed to their wagons, staring at seemingly nothing in particular. “What do they eat?” I asked, pointing to the beast
nearest me. “I haven't seen any grazing lands yet.”
Lady Gamma, Ash, and Camille all looked over at me. Gamma looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or rebuke me. Ash simply looked puzzled.
I shrugged, feeling like it was something I should have known already. Maybe I was supposed to be the one feeding them and had forgotten. If so, hopefully the animals wouldn't pass out during the night from lack of food and water.
“They are carnivorous, Rogan,” Lady Gamma said with a perturbed expression.
That was surprising. “Does that mean they'll try to eat us if we don't give them enough food?” I asked.
Gamma snorted and went back to her meal, but Ash answered. “They can survive for at least two weeks between meals. And they need less water than you do. In fact, they are able to lap up the dew that forms on their flanks at dawn, and it lasts them all day, even in this heat. It's why we use them.” Ash turned his head to the side, as if he pitied me.
I nodded to him and went back to my food.
“Why doesn't Rogan know about the beasts?” Camille asked, her eyes on me.
“He hit his head,” Ash rumbled. “When the bandits attacked.”
I returned Camille's gaze, which was accompanied by an expression I couldn't quite interpret. “I remember some things, like how to fight,” I said, and then lowered my voice. “And how to chase prey.”
Camille's eyes flashed, and I grinned. But then I went back to my meal before Lady Gamma could look my way again.
“Is Rogan injured in any other way?” Camille asked, pointedly not looking at me anymore.
So, if they wanted to talk about me like I wasn't there, it suited me just fine.
“Not that I am aware of,” Lady Gamma said, “except that he seems to have lost his manners along with his memory. The Rogan Ward who swore an oath to me would never be so bold.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked. “Sounds like he was just trying to keep the peace, rather than be the consummate gentleman.”
Ash frowned but then hurriedly brought food up to his mouth, as if he were stifling a laugh.
Lady Gamma glared at me. “As I said,” she continued, “the Rogan I knew was less uncouth.”
Camille was watching me again with interest, but I shook my head. “I'm not sure I know how to be more couth,” I said.
I finished my meal and then got up to walk to the other side of the wagons, not caring that I had probably offended Gamma. She needed to be offended once in a while. It would be good for her.
The Wastes were dark, but not completely, not like they would have been on the Earth I knew. The fractured sky still allowed more light than the moon would have, and I wondered about radiation. We were probably all absorbing heaps of it. But no one seemed to be sick, so maybe all the surviving creatures had adapted to it, needed it, even.
As Ash took the first watch and the rest of us hit the sack, I half-expected Camille to use one of her knives to slit my throat as I lay near the fire. She had threatened to do it earlier. Or maybe she would simply disappear into the wasteland. Tired though I was, I lay awake thinking about her, remembering how she had looked in the dim light of the fire. The way it shone on her scales and how she had felt beneath me when I'd captured her.
It had been way too long since I'd had sex with the redhead from the bar, and I tried not to think about the six hundred and some-odd years in between me dying and waking up here. But the more I tried not to think about it, the more difficult it became. I tossed and turned with my blanket over me, looking for the most comfortable bit of ground, and sighed.
A step in the darkness alerted me that I wasn't alone, and I quickly turned over.
Camille was standing over me, her figure silhouetted by the dying fire.
I jumped to my feet, prepared to fight her. But she wasn't carrying a knife. In fact, she had her palms open to show that she was unarmed. But I was still skeptical.
“What's the matter?” I asked.
“You look as if you've been confronted by an enemy,” she said in a low voice.
“Don't sneak up on me like that and maybe I won't think you're here to kill me.”
“I am not here to kill you,” Camille said, and she took a step closer.
I prepared for a fight, raising my hands so I could grab her if I needed to.
Camille tutted and reached up to her shoulder. Then, she began to untie one of the laces that held her leather shirt in place.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“You have a chi gift, Rogan, do you not?” she asked as she moved to untie the other side.
“Umm...” I said. My brain was quickly beginning to buzz with a new possibility. “I guess so.”
Camille let her shirt drop to reveal round breasts and pert nipples. I inhaled sharply. Her scales extended down to her breasts, where they faded away into soft, tanned skin.
“Right,” she said, “then come here.”
She grabbed my hand and pulled me down toward my blanket.
It was obvious what she wanted, but I wasn't sure whether this was going to be a new way to kill me or not. Still, I let her pull me to the ground. When she leaned forward to kiss me, I held her shoulders so that I could look at her.
“Camille,” I said. “Why the sudden change?”
She tilted her head to the side. “What change? You have a chi gift, and I am drained of my chi. Meditation will take too long for me, so I need you to help me recharge.”
“But you hate me.”
She shook her head. “No.”
I frowned, but my gaze kept going to her breasts, and I wanted to touch them so badly. Six hundred years...
“And this will help you recharge?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, leaning forward again. “You really must have hit your head, because everyone knows that.”
“I didn't,” I muttered. But who was I to deny this lizard woman? If she needed a recharge, and I could provide one, I sure as hell wasn't going to get in my own way. Suddenly, I was liking the old Rogan Ward a little bit more, if he could provide this service.
My hands moved from her shoulders to her arms, and I pulled her close for a kiss. Immediately, she responded, her tongue pushing between my lips and dancing with mine. Her tongue was long, much longer than it should have been. Camille wrapped it all the way around mine without even trying. And... it was shaped funny. I explored her mouth with my own tongue for a moment to confirm, and then grinned.
She pulled away, and her expression was hard to read. “You don’t like it, do you?” she whispered.
I realized I was breathing hard already, but I shook my head. “No, I do like it. I was just surprised. What’s on the end of your tongue?”
Camille looked at me suspiciously for a moment, and I smiled, hoping to reassure her.
Slowly, she let her tongue slide out of her mouth so I could see it in the firelight. It stretched outside her mouth almost eight inches, and on the end of it was a sort of fleshy cup. Maybe it should have grossed me out, but it didn’t. It looked soft and graceful rather than disgusting. Camille glared at me, almost daring me to laugh.
But I was already wondering what she could do with that tongue, and I’d never been more turned on in my life. “I like it,” I said. “It has… possibilities…”
Camille sucked her tongue back into her mouth and grinned. “Lie back, Rogan Ward.”
I did as she said, still halfway wary of being knifed in the gut, but I was too intrigued now not to follow through.
Her hands went to my pants, and she undid them quickly to slide one hand inside. One eyebrow quirked upward in approval as she wrapped her fingers around my shaft. I grinned. There was plenty there for her to explore.
With a quick, mischievous look in her eye, Camille dipped her head down and pulled my dick out of my pants. In one deft movement, her incredible tongue darted out to wrap around my length. I wanted to close my eyes and enjoy it, but I also didn’t want to miss anything. Propping myself up on my
elbows, I watched as her tongue slithered up and down me for a few moments. Then she grinned and lowered her mouth onto me, with her tongue leading the way.
I hissed through my teeth as she latched onto the end of my dick with that cup. It provided velvety suction just where I wanted it. And if I hadn’t closed my eyes and concentrated hard, it all would have been over right there. As it was, I couldn’t take much of Camille’s teasing before I had to grab her arms and pull her up on top of me.
Breathing hard, I reached down to her leather leggings and slipped a hand inside her waistband, feeling the flesh of her shapely ass and pulling her into me. “What do you need?” I whispered.
“I thought you would never ask,” she said. Then she slid off me long enough to remove her leggings. I took the moment to slide my pants down and would have taken off my shirt, as well, if Camille hadn’t pushed me back to the ground with a firm hand and then straddled my hips before I could get to it.
With her hands on my chest, the lizard woman lowered herself onto me without any more foreplay. And it seemed she didn’t need it, for she was already wet. Her tight walls seemed to pull me in as she took in my full length. I put my hands on her hips and held on, trying to let her set the pace.
As she began to roll her hips into mine, I watched her breasts move and reached up to touch where the scales turned to flesh. She was soft and strong, and soon began to move in a more up and down motion, sitting down on me fast and hard. I used my grip on her hips to help then, and she closed her eyes and opened her mouth in a silent oh! I thought she was done already, but she kept riding me, her movements becoming more frantic, her tail flicking back and forth like a scaled whip.
After six hundred years, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to last much longer, but I managed to hold out until Camille came with a series of shudders. A cry escaped her lips, one that I was sure the entire camp heard, but my own grunt and sigh followed quickly as I released.
It felt good. More than good, and I squeezed her hips tightly as my body continued to shudder.
And then, something else happened.