by Logan Jacobs
I slowly got up and started to walk over to her. I didn’t want to startle her and scare her off, so I made sure to keep my movement small and even.
As I got closer, I was able to make out the words she mumbled.
“Goddess Nira, please forgive this death,” she said. “Goddess Nira, please forgive this death.”
She repeated the sentence over and over, and it took me a moment to realize she spoke of the warg.
I frowned in bewilderment. The monster that tried to kill her, and this woman was asking some sort of goddess to forgive the fact it was dead?
That was both insane and endearing to me at the same time.
I focused on the woman in front of me. Her eyes were zeroed in on the warg as she continued her prayer, though, so I cleared my throat.
“Hello,” I said.
Her head snapped up and her bright green eyes widened, like she’d only just noticed I’d grown close to her.
“Ah!” she screamed and flung herself backward to crawl through the sand away from me.
Alright.
I could already tell the inhabitants of this island were clearly a hell of a lot more skittish than the serpent women had been, but at least that meant Mira and I wouldn’t be tied up and locked in a cell for days.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” Mira told the woman as she came up by my side. “We’re here to help.”
The woman, though, didn’t seem all that convinced by Mira and me. She glanced behind her, to where the waves lapped up on the shore, and realized if she went any further, she’d be in the ocean.
“W-Who are you?” she stuttered as she turned back to face us.
“I’m Ben, and this is Mira,” I said, but I made sure not to move. I didn’t want to scare this woman and risk her running off again. I could tell from what I’d seen earlier that it would be nearly impossible to catch up to her.
The woman looked us up and down for a long moment, and I could tell she was trying to think of something to say, so Mira and I just waited and observed her.
And now that I was closer, her beautiful features really were apparent.
She looked a lot more human than the serpent women did, but her chartreuse eyes were huge, like a deer’s, with thick, dark lashes that curled around them. Pointed ears, life an elf’s, protruded from her soft hair, and short, deer-like antlers twisted and grew out of the top of her head. Her features were thin and pixie-like, and she looked to be maybe a few inches over six feet tall. Her torso, though, was the same size as a normal woman’s. It was her legs that gave her the height. They were long and shapely with just the perfect amount of lean muscle. They were the kind of legs that would feel perfect wrapped around my waist.
But I needed to keep my mind off that, for now. The last thing I needed was to scare this woman off with a hard on brought on by her immense beauty.
“You are a man,” the woman finally said, hesitantly, as she gazed at me with those clear yellow-green eyes.
“Uh, yes.” I nodded at the beautiful deer-elf-like woman.
Her gaze widened even further, and her huge eyes traveled down my torso to where my dick sat, right between my legs.
Oh, man.
All of my attempts to keep my boner away were demolished the moment she stared at me. I was pretty sure I even saw her lick her lips just slightly, like she’d already imagined what I might look like unclothed.
Damn. That was hot.
“I haven’t seen a man in many years,” she murmured.
“Did the pirates kill them?” Mira demanded at once.
The warrior’s tone was hostile, but I knew it had nothing to do with the thin woman in front of us, and everything to do with how badly she wanted to destroy the pirates.
The woman, though, had no idea that was the case, and she recoiled from Mira’s harsh tone.
“The ugly men?” the long-legged woman gasped. “The orcs?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Those pirate fuckers.”
“Are you with them?” she asked. “I thought that—”
“No,” I responded quickly. I instinctively stepped toward her with my hand out, but she flinched, so I thought better and pulled back again. “We want to defeat them.”
The woman looked over Mira and me for a long moment. Her chartreuse eyes seemed to settle on Mira’s face, then on her toned arms, and finally on her hand, which still clutched her sword.
“You’re a woman, but you fight?” she finally asked.
“Yes.” Mira frowned and glanced down at the sword in her hand before she looked back to the auburn-haired woman. “Don’t you fight?”
“No!” the woman exclaimed quickly, and she shook her head vigorously back and forth. “Violence is looked down upon by the Goddess Nira.”
Ah, so that’s why she’d prayed so hard over the dead warg. There was some sort of god who disliked violence.
If she’d asked me, I would have told her how little sense it made for a goddess to dislike violence and yet subject her people to deadly monsters, but I figured that discussion was best left for another time. One when she wasn’t still completely terrified of us.
“Well, it’s a good thing you weren’t the one who killed the warg, then, huh?” I asked her.
Apparently, she found that funny, because I was rewarded with a beautiful half smile and a light little laugh that sounded like wind chimes on a breezy summer day.
Oh, yes. She was beyond beautiful.
“I suppose you are right,” she replied. “As much as the goddess looks down upon it, I do owe you my gratitude. The warg would have surely killed me had it not been for the two of you.”
The woman rose to her feet and then fell into a deep curtsy in front of us.
“You don’t have to do that,” Mira said quickly, and I could see a blush rise to her cheeks at the woman’s subservience. Mira, unlike her sister Nerissa, wasn’t used to that kind of formality.
“Oh, my apologies,” the woman said and rose to her feet once again.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Jemma,” she murmured and fiddled with her fingers.
“Nice to meet you, Jemma.” Mira nodded.
A flash of pain crossed the warrior’s face, and she shifted her cut up shirt away from her stomach, so the cloth didn’t get into her cuts.
“Oh, you are hurt!” Jemma exclaimed, and she glided across the sand and knelt to inspect Mira’s wounds.
“It’s nothing.” The warrior shrugged. “Just a scratch. It stings a little, that’s all.”
“Better than the time Sela nearly sliced your throat open when you two were fighting over me,” I chuckled.
Mira rolled her eyes and shot me a playful glare, but I saw the smile tug at her mouth as she recalled the memory of the time she fought over her right to have sex with me. Now, she got to fuck me whenever she wanted, and we both loved it.
“Nonsense.” Jemma shook her head. “Let me help you, in gratitude for your saving me. Sit here.”
Jemma patted the warm sand, and Mira sank down hesitantly.
Quickly, the woman waded into the ocean in search of something, and about thirty seconds later, her hand shot down into the water so fast it was nothing more than a blur. A split second after that, she came back up with a tiny, bright blue octopus. It writhed and squirmed in her hands, but she held fast to it as she came back to Mira and me.
“What is that?” Mira asked as she wrinkled her nose at the slimy little creature.
“We call it a squirt,” Jemma said with a smile.
“Uh, why?” I chuckled.
In answer, Jemma simply smiled at me and knelt down in front of Mira. She gently lifted the warrior’s torn shirt away from her stomach and used it to wipe up some of the blood. Then she turned the octopus so the hole in the center of its tentacles was aimed right at Mira’s stomach and squeezed its head gently.
Suddenly, a burst of gooey white liquid sprang forth and amassed itself on Mira’s stomach. The putrid stench that rose fr
om it wafted all the way over to me, and Mira and I both wrinkled our noses in disgust.
Jemma tossed the octopus back into the ocean, where it quickly swam away, before she smoothed her hand across Mira’s stomach, so the white goop turned into a thin layer that covered her wounds.
“That feels better!” Mira gasped in surprise. “It’s soothing.”
“The discharge will also help you heal,” Jemma replied. “Goddess Nira has granted us many blessings.”
“What about yourself?” I asked as I motioned to her wound.
“Oh, I do not want to take too much from Nira’s creatures,” Jemma responded lightly. “I will deal with it at home.”
Jemma finished her work and then replaced Mira’s shirt over her stomach.
“That’s amazing,” I told her. “Thank you.”
“Please, no gratitude is necessary.” She grinned at me. “It is all I could do after you saved me from my fate.”
“Yeah, that thing seemed to be out for your blood, huh?” I asked her and gestured back to the warg’s corpse. “Have they always been a problem here?”
Jemma turned to me, and her chartreuse eyes grew dark with sadness. Then she sucked in a breath and chewed on one pink, plump lip as she thought over her response.
I’d already gathered from her body language there was a story under all of this, but I didn’t want to push her. The woman was skittish, and as much as she might be grateful to us for saving her life, I didn’t want to push that too far and have her run away with us.
“I am thirsty,” she finally said and averted her bright yellow-green eyes. “I will get some water, and then I will answer your question.”
Before I even had a chance to say anything, Jemma dashed off toward the forest, twice as fast as I could have run.
For a moment, I’d thought I really had scared her off, but then she scrambled up one of the trees, plucked two leaves from its branches, and came back to us.
“Here.” She offered the second leaf to Mira and me.
I let the warrior take a long drink first before I swallowed some of the clear, cool liquid. Jemma sipped on her own water and gazed off down the beach for a moment before she finally turned back to me.
“That was a warg,” she finally said, “but one of many. Hundreds. The invaders, these ‘pirates’ as you call them, brought them to the island many moons ago, after they had killed our fathers and brothers. The wargs are meant to capture us. To bring us back to the invaders to be used as slaves for their … pleasure.”
Jemma shuddered at her last word, and I saw the tears spring into her eyes as she recalled the battles I was sure had happened.
Or, maybe not, since her people seemed averse to violence. That made them even easier pickings for the orcs.
“The same thing happened to my home island,” Mira muttered with a sharp frown. “We were at the mercy of those pirates until Ben came. He saved us.”
Jemma turned to me, and for what I was sure was the first time in a very long time, her eyes were filled with hope.
“You saved them from the invaders?” she asked me.
“Yes.” I nodded. “And I will do the same for you. Is it just you?”
I was almost nervous to ask the question. After we hadn’t seen anyone for so long, half of me was scared I was too late, and that the orcs had already destroyed this island. Maybe Jonas had been wrong, somehow.
“No.” Jemma shook her head. “Our numbers are much fewer than they used to be, but there are still people alive. Women.”
She corrected herself, and I could hear how painful it was for her to say the last word.
“You lost someone, didn’t you?” Mira asked, and she leaned forward and placed a hand on Jemma’s knee to comfort her.
“Yes.” Jemma sniffled and nodded. “My brother, Norsun, was lost to the invaders in the last years of the attack. He, like the rest of our people, knew violence was not the answer, and succumbed to them. They captured his mate on the same day. She is their slave now.”
I shuddered to think just what they did to their slaves. That word alone was disgusting enough, but I was bombarded with a flashback to the last orc raid on our island, when one of those disgusting pigs had captured Talise and tried to rape her.
I could hardly imagine what those fuckers would do when no one was around to fight back and stop them.
“I won’t let that happen again,” I promised her, and I looked right into her soft chartreuse eyes and made sure she understood just how serious I was.
I never broke a promise, and I wouldn’t start now.
“Thank you,” she breathed as a single tear trickled out of her eyes and rolled down her cheek.
“And the wargs?” Mira asked. “Why did they bring the wargs? Such creatures never came to my home.”
“The wargs came with the invaders the last time they arrived,” Jemma explained. “They were meant to force us out of the forest, to make us easier to capture, but we wouldn’t allow that to happen. We moved into the trees, to make it harder for the creatures to get to us. Now, they have trouble finding us, and therefore don’t attack as often. But I was on the ground when that one found me.”
“You live in the trees,” I repeated.
That explained why Mira and I hadn’t been able to find any trace of life when we’d scoured the forest the day before.
It was brilliant, really, to have a village in the trees, like the Ewoks did in Star Wars. That kept them off the ground, and probably made it much more difficult for the wargs to attack them.
Still, I needed to teach them how to fight. I could tell this was a conversation for another time, though, but I knew they would need to learn if they had any hope of actually protecting themselves from the wargs.
“I will take you to my village when you are ready to walk,” Jemma said as she indicated Mira’s stomach. “I know my friends will be very happy to meet a man.”
She gave me a shy smile and batted her eyelashes at me carefully.
This beautiful deer-girl was a flirt, I could tell. And I loved it.
“I am ready.” Mira nodded and rose from her seat on the ground.
“Follow me,” Jemma said.
We followed the woman into the forest, with weapons in hand and eyes alert for any sign of those disgusting wargs.
Jemma made an effort to slow down her stride so we could keep pace with her, and for that, I could tell Mira was grateful. The warrior moved a little slower than usual and kept a careful hand pressed up against her stomach, but thankfully, she didn’t seem to be in any pain. It was more like she didn’t want to disturb the sticky bandage that covered her wound.
Jemma led us deep into the forest, and I took the opportunity to stare in wonder at the huge trees.
They would be perfect once I was able to cut them down and figure out how to bring wood back. I could already imagine all of the pieces I could cut from them, and the uses they would have. With the wood, I might be able to turn the huts into actual homes, and build a million other things I’d gone without since I’d washed up in this world.
The forest floor was covered with such a thick layer of detritus that it was soft under my feet, like a plush carpet. We passed the same tall bushes, but as we got further into the forest, the plants began to change. There were thick, bright blue vines that grew up some of the trees, and a brilliant red moss grew on the east side of some of them.
We saw a few more of those nasty bunnies, but they were far enough away, and we gave them a wide berth so we wouldn’t be seen as a threat and get attacked. I didn’t want to freak Jemma out by what I was sure she would deem an unnecessary kill.
After about an hour of walking, there was a slight rustle in the bushes, too big for it to be a bunny. Jemma instantly froze, and then slipped behind Mira fearfully as we turned to face the bush.
Our fears were quickly eased, though, when a tall, slim, deer-like creature appeared, and Jemma gave a sigh of relief.
“It is only a tarrel,” she told us.
“They are harmless.”
The creature was beautiful. It looked like a giant faun, with white spots on its back, a nubby, fluffy tail, and massive brown eyes. Similar to Jemma, the creature had extremely long legs, and it stood about five and a half feet tall at its head, instead of the four or so I was used to in other deer.
“I bet that creature has good meat,” Mira murmured to me.
The thought of venison made my mouth water. When I was a kid, my grandma used to make a venison stew, and the meal sounded like heaven right about now.
“Jemma, are these tarrels a normal thing to see?” I asked.
“Oh, yes.” She nodded. “The forest is full of them. They’re gentle creatures, though.”
She stepped forward again and continued on down the path, while I tucked the thought of venison stew away for another time.
I’d get these women to eat meat. That was step number one, especially since Jemma seemed to have muscle on her legs and ass. If the other women were anything like that, then I knew exactly why they were such easy targets for the wargs.
It was about two more hours before Jemma finally pulled to a stop, and at the pace we’d walked, I figured we’d gone about five miles. I wasn’t sure just how big the island was, but now I was certain it was at least sixty to seventy square miles total. Which was good, since it gave us plenty of room to avoid those wargs.
“The village is up here,” Jemma told me as she pointed above her head.
I looked up and followed her finger, hoping to see a village in the trees, but all I saw were green leaves. They were so dense above our heads that it was absolutely impossible to see anything more than eight feet up.
“Lead the way,” I replied.
Jemma shot me a smile, and then scampered up the branches of the tree directly in front of us. Mira and I shared a look before we followed.
I grabbed onto branches and swung myself up as I followed the same path Jemma had. We climbed about twenty feet, up into the very center of the trees, before she finally stopped.
And what I saw before me blew my mind.
The branches up here were much sparser, but just as sturdy as the ones below, and spread out within them was an entire village.