by Logan Jacobs
Chapter One
“C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me!” I sang in my best Cookie Monster voice, and I gently tossed Marella up into the air just to make her giggle. She loved the stupid monster voice I did and always rewarded me with chubby-cheeked laughs and squeals.
And drool. Lots and lots of baby drool.
In the two weeks since she was born, my daughter had already covered nearly every milestone a baby from my world would have taken a year or more to accomplish. She was able to sit up, crawl, walk while holding onto something, and had three sharp little teeth right in the front of her mouth, with a fourth one coming in, which explained the ungodly amount of saliva the little cherub was able to produce.
“Cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C!” I sang again, and I was greeted with a squeal that turned into a big yawn.
“Somebody is sleepy,” Talise said as she walked into the courtyard where Marella and I had been taking our evening stroll together.
“She should be,” I laughed and turned to the healer. “She ate all of her dinner, plus half of mine, got a piggy-back ride from Zarya, and then climbed all over George like he was a mountain she was trying to conquer.”
In the past few weeks, George had reached his growing peak and was now roughly the size of a minivan, a minivan on four five-foot long legs. He couldn’t fit into any of the huts or the palace anymore, so we built a dragon lair of sorts at the edge of the jungle between the palace and the eastern shore. He and Nixie shared the lair when the weather was too bad to sleep outside, which was rare, but with the storm season right around the corner, they were going to need it.
“She is a growing girl,” Talise smiled, “she is going to eat and sleep a lot right now.”
“It still blows my mind how fast she is growing,” I said. “In my world, she wouldn’t be much bigger than when she was born, and she definitely wouldn’t have teeth and be sitting up. Is this … normal?”
I did my best to keep the immense worry I felt out of my tone, but there was still an edge to my words. I’d suddenly realized that faster aging meant faster death, and that thought was heart-stoppingly terrifying.
Thankfully, Talise seemed to catch on to the underlying worry in my words, and she quickly put a hand on my cheek as she shook her head.
“Very normal,” she assured me. “Children grow quickly, but they will physically plateau at adulthood, and live on average for nearly a hundred and fifty years. Well, they should, anyways.”
Talise bit her lip and got that faraway look in her eyes that told me she’d been reminded of the orc pirates and their immense destruction once again.
“Good to know you’re stuck with me for the next hundred odd years,” I teased her gently to lighten her mood.
I was rewarded with a gentle smile, but it was still tinged with sadness.
“It’s nice to think that babies have more time to be babies there,” the beautiful healer whispered as she looked at our daughter. “It’s a lovely thought.”
I could sense the melancholy in Talise’s voice, and I pulled her close to me. We’d had several discussions about how my home world varied from this one, and while the antics I got into made her laugh, I could tell she wondered about and possibly longed for a world where her people wouldn’t be prey.
It was my duty to make her feel safe here.
“It is a nice thought,” I consoled her, “but I wouldn’t give this world up for anything.”
I kissed Talise gently, but it turned into a laugh when Marella kissed us both with her open baby mouth. Then she let out another big yawn that signaled it was time for a bath and bed.
“I will take her and put her down,” Talise offered as she held her hands out for the baby. “I know you have other things to finish up before you turn in.”
“Yes, I do,” I grinned, “but I am with you tonight, if you still want me.”
I waggled my eyebrows at her to signal what I had in mind, and she blushed and laughed out loud.
“It has been the required two weeks since I delivered,” the healer reminded me with a coy smile.
“Oh, I am well aware,” I whispered heatedly in her ear.
Talise had gained most of the weight back she’d lost during pregnancy, and I was eager to get my hands on all of those luscious curves. She’d been torturing me the past few days with questions about whether her butt was full again or if her breasts still looked plump and round. She knew exactly what she was doing and got way too much pleasure out of my stuttered responses and bulging hard-ons. The healer was kind enough to take care of my erections with her hands or mouth, but while that was amazing stuff, nothing compared to being balls deep while I came inside her.
“Has someone been counting down the days?” Talise teased as she batted her raven eyelashes at me.
“Fuck yes I have, and you better be ready to make up for all the torturing you’ve been doing,” I whispered again. Then I gave her a tight hug and a kiss, said goodnight to Marella with lots of wet baby kisses and hugs, and headed off to check on the queen.
Nerissa had actually gone past her due date, and it was starting to weigh heavily on her. She was constantly worn out and desperate to go into labor. I really couldn’t blame her, she was huge, really huge, not that I would dare to even think this when I was around her. She was having a hard enough time with everything, even holding food down because she was just simply out of room, and I didn’t want to add to that misery.
I found the queen in the kitchen with Hali and some of the other women, and they were all jumping and bouncing around. I’d shown them some dance moves I saw my sister do that would supposedly help induce labor, and Nerissa was all about using her little bit of energy to see if it would work.
“You gotta shake those hips like ya mean it!” I laughed as I jumped into the dance fray. Then I shook my butt like a mad man while I sang an Outcast song.
The women all laughed at me, but I got all those glorious butts wiggling. I kept singing for the next several minutes, and we all actually worked up a sweat. Nerissa was breathing and laughing so hard, she had to hold onto her baby bump to keep from falling over.
“If that doesn’t work, I don’t know what will!” the queen gasped between breaths and laughter.
I started to tell her to shake it one more time, but then Talise came rushing into the kitchen with a crying Marella in her arms. The baby wasn’t just crying, though, she was really screaming her head off. That got everyone’s attention, and we all rushed over to see what was going on.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with her!” Talise cried with a frantic look. “I was going to put her down, but then she woke up from a sound sleep screaming like this, and I haven’t been able to get her to stop.”
The women all started inspecting Marella to see if she was hurt in some way, but nothing seemed to calm her down. They all tried bouncing her and offering her food or things to chew on, but nothing helped. Then Marella held her arms out for me, and I took her, but she still didn’t stop. She just held onto me as tightly as a baby could and screamed louder.
Since I didn’t know what else to do, I reached out across the mental bond I had with my dragon.
“George,” I said in my mind, “we could use your help here. There is something wrong with the baby, and we can’t figure it out.”
I sensed that and am already on the way, the dragon replied. Nixie and Mira are with me, too, they just got off guard duty.
“Thank you, dear friend,” I told him gratefully.
I held Marella close to me and walked around as I waited for the dragons and Mira to arrive. I knew both of the dragons could sense if something was physically wrong with the baby. Hell, they were better than an MRI machine in a lot of ways.
While I walked, Marella cried and rubbed her face on my neck and shoulder. She seemed a little calmer in my arms, but not enough to keep me from worrying, and Talise and Nerissa walked closely behind us with terrified looks on their faces. It wasn’t like Marella to do this, not at all. So far, she’d been the best baby who rarely ever fussed.
After what might have been five minutes but felt so much longer, Mira ran into the kitchens to let us know they were finally there. Then I walked outside to greet George and Nixie, which definitely amounted to too much damn dragon to fit inside anywhere. The dragons immediately started sniffing Marella all over, and she leaned in, hugged them both, and calmed her screaming down to just a cry.
I barely remained patient as I waited for the dragons to finish their assessment on my daughter, and I was relieved when George finally spoke in my head.
There is nothing physically wrong with her, she is not in any pain, but she is distressed and scared, the dragon said while Mira relayed the message to those who couldn’t hear him.
“Scared?” I asked with a frown. “Maybe she had a bad dream?”
That is possible, but even at this age they can typically discern the difference between dream and reality. Her adrenaline levels are very high. She is quite frightened and seems worried about something.
“What in the bloody hell could a baby be worrying about?” I said to no one in particular.
My rhetorical question went unanswered as Marella started screaming again, this time with so much emotion, I could almost feel the fear emanating from my darling little girl.
I was at my wit’s end and didn’t know what to do.
Suddenly, my daughter grabbed my face and leaned her little forehead against mine, and she seemed to settle down. She kept fussing and crying a little, but the screaming had stopped. She stayed like this for a long time, not screaming, but not totally calm either. Then she started to add gibberish to the little cries she was making, and I thought she might finally be tired out.
“Da-da tay wif jersh,” Marella blubbered at me.
It sounded like pure nonsense, so I just held her close to me while she kept babbling the same words over and over. At least she wasn’t screaming, though. I thought she might finally be nodding off to her own mumbling, but then I heard a lot of commotion from the hall. So, I turned and saw Sela come flying through the door.
“The warning beacon is lit!” the warrior cried out with alarm, and her eyes were as wide as saucers.
My heart just about stuttered to a stop, and then it kicked into high-gear.
“Shit!” I growled with Marella still in my arms. “Go warn the others. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Yes, Ben.” Sela nodded and took off to follow my instructions.
I started to hand the baby off to Talise and ask the healer to get herself, the baby, Nerissa, and Careen to the safe room, but before I could do that, Marella grabbed onto me and wouldn’t let go.
“Daddy has to go, baby girl,” I told her urgently, “you have to go with Mommy.”
“Da-da tay wiff jersh,” she babbled at me.
“I love you, too,” I said as I tried to give her to Talise.
Marella put her hands on the side of my face, and with more seriousness than any baby should ever have, she looked me in the eyes and said the same words once again.
“Da-da tay wif jersh.”
The words echoed in my head and repeated like a broken record. Then realization dawned on me.
Daddy stay with George.
I had no idea how I knew that’s what she was saying, but I knew. Deep down in my soul, I knew, and the message sent chills down my spine. I didn’t know what to say to her, so I looked at Talise for help, but she was just as wide eyed and shocked as I was. I didn’t have time to hash this out with the healer, considering the enemy was literally at our gates, but this was something we were definitely going to talk about soon.
“Daddy will stay with George,” I promised Marella.
She finally seemed content with those words, and Talise was able to take her out of my arms. Then I kissed them both quickly and ran off to where Mira and the dragons were waiting for me.
“I’m supposed to stay with you,” I told George as we all took off toward the wall. “Instructions from my daughter.”
“Marella?” Mira gasped.
“That’s the only daughter I currently have,” I told her.
Hmm, we will certainly have a much more in-depth conversation about this later, George said before he bared his fangs. Right now, we have a lot of unwanted company.
“Do we know how many?” I asked my companions as we kept up our run toward the eastern shore.
“Sela got word there were a good half a dozen row boats making their way to shore, with each one carrying six to eight raiders,” Mira reported, and she was barely even winded even though we were running at a decent clip.
“So, thirty to fifty of these mother fuckers,” I growled as we approached the border wall. “Great.”
I could see several of the warrior women, approximately twenty of them, had already taken their spots on the platforms along the wall. The best part about the archers’ nests was the women would have a great view of their targets without exposing too much of themselves. I’d never seen the raiders use a projectile weapon, but I wasn’t in the mood to leave that to chance.
“What do you see?” I asked Sela as I climbed onto the nearest platform.
“They are just now hitting the shores in their little boats,” she answered with a scowl. “They will be headed this way very soon.”
“Do we know if any are coming through the jungle yet?” I questioned as my heart pounded like a war drum in my ears.
Sela shook her head. “I have not seen any signals from our scouts.”
“Good,” I grunted.
I’d come up with the idea to place scouts in the jungle ever since the last attack when the bastards had come from every direction. We’d built a tree stand high up in the trees to the northeast and southeast, and they were manned just like the wall was. Each tree stand was equipped with a bow and arrows, but also a small potted fire that couldn’t be seen from the ground. This small fire was kept in case an arrow had to be lit to signal the wall that invaders were coming. The tips of the special signal arrows were wrapped in seagrass soaked in salt water and dried out. This way, the salt made the flame burn a deep orange, and the dried grass burnt out quickly so there was less chance of starting a jungle fire, or of the signal being seen by the invaders.
We all stood along the wall silently as we watched this group of assholes approach the village. Thanks to my Superman vision, I could see the fugly invaders were more of the same orcish race that had been responsible for the earlier attacks.
None of them seemed to be over six feet tall, but they were as bulky and meaty as all the other ones. Their grayish-green skin was thicker in some places and provided them with a little natural armor, and they wore nothing other than simple cloth pants. The orcs approached the wall without a care in the world and hadn’t even drawn their blunt axe-like weapons. They were loud and raucous, and some of them even seemed to be drunk, or having a hard time getting their land legs back, because they were stumbling all over the place. Not one of the bitches had any clue what they were headed for.
Good. I liked surprises.
The raiders got louder and louder as they approached the wall, and some of them yelled out names I recognized from the last invasion.
“Sturge! Where are you, ya bloody bastard?”
“Kremi, stop fucking your whore and come greet your brother!”
I blinked in surprise. Holy fuck, these bastards thought their brothers had taken over the village and were just sitting back and enjoying their spoils of war.
That was kind of hard to do when you’re dead, though.
The invaders laughed and cut up and were having a jolly time until I decided to liven up their party a bit. I picked up a bow and aimed it at the head of
the nearest fucktard. My dragon vision was better than any scope I could possibly buy, and my strength guaranteed there would be enough force behind the arrow to drive it into this monster’s thick skull.
So, I pulled the string back and let the arrow fly hard and true. The bow broke in my hand, but thankfully it didn’t mess up my aim. I had a brief thought about how to make a bow that could withstand my new strength, but then I watched the arrow find its home right between the raider’s beady black eyes. He immediately fell flat on his face amid his buddies’ laughter, and I heard them tease him about not being able to hold his drink.
“Jorg, stand up, ya woman!” one guy said as he tried to pull his buddy up to his feet.
Boy, was he in for a shock.
“Jorg? Jorg, ya alright? Get up!”
It was rather comical the way realization dawned on these bastards that their buddy Jorg was not passed out drunk, but was, in fact, dead.
So. Fucking. Dead.
Just like the rest of them would be.
I heard gasps and growls and watched as the raiders ducked down, and their whole demeanor changed from jovial to grave in an instant. They were smart enough to figure out which direction the arrow had come from, and they all let out primal roars as they started running toward the wall.
Which was exactly what I’d wanted for many reasons.
First, the orcish men were going to be easy targets for all the arrows about to be shot at them. The warrior women were all lined up with their bows leveled and drawn, and they were ready to shoot when I gave the word.
Second, the brutes were running right for the deep pits that had already claimed the lives of several of their brothers, and these fucks had no idea.
I hoped the spikes would lighten my workload quite a bit.
The front of the group got further into the battlefield than I thought they would before any of them fell into a pit. The first cover gave way with a loud snap under the dickhead, and I saw his eyes dilate completely when he realized he was a goner. Then he plummeted downward, and I heard the squelching sound of flesh being stabbed, followed by a low gurgling sound.
The fucker didn’t even get a chance to cry out.