Monster Girl Islands 2

by Logan Jacobs

  Darya led us about half a mile into the jungle as she carefully tracked the boar’s trail, but it wasn’t long before we heard the tell-tale growl of the giant animal.

  “Everyone, get ready!” I called out.

  Leaves rustled a few feet away, and then the pounding footsteps of the boar assaulted our eardrums as the creature burst out of the brush and made a beeline for Darya. It didn’t even bother to glance our way as it barreled toward her, and the three of us quickly drew our swords as Darya stood still and baited the beast on.

  Then, in three swift movements, the three of us severed the artery in its neck, drove a sword through its brain, and cut off a leg.

  The creature gave one last squeal before it collapsed right in front of Darya, who stared at it with narrowed eyes.

  “Zarya,” she said after a moment. “Why, on Oshun, did you cut off its foot?”

  “I wanted a souvenir.” The other warrior shrugged as she picked up the hoof and held it aloft for her sister to see.

  “Everyone deserves a souvenir!” I laughed, but Darya just rolled her eyes.

  We hauled the boar out of the jungle and to Arrick’s old post, where we could dismantle it into the parts we wanted, and bury the ones we didn’t need.

  Before long, though, my last attempt to distract myself had faded. We returned to the village, where Hali excitedly grabbed the fresh meat and turned it into a delectable meal.

  I made sure to savor every moment of this last dinner. I listened to everyone’s conversations and memorized what I could. I committed the way Nerissa’s nose wrinkled when she laughed to my mind, took a mental picture of Talise’s sparkly eyes, and made sure I would never forget the way Careen loved to toss her head back whenever she had an idea.

  These would be the things I carried with me on my journey because tomorrow … I would finally set off into the unknown.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I sat on the beach the night before my voyage and just stared at the raft the village had helped me create.

  I grew sappy and sentimental as I sat there, and while I knew it was useless and way overdramatic, I couldn’t help it. Sometimes, it felt like it had been years since I’d washed onto these sandy shores, and at other times, it seemed like it was only a few short days.

  Marella and Arrick had played on the beach for a few hours earlier today, and they were excited Daddy was about to head out on a trip in the morning. I could tell they hadn’t quite grasped just what it meant for me to go on this voyage, though. Marella might have seen it in her visions, but I had the feeling she was still too young to fully understand it.

  As the sun faded, though, Talise and Nerissa took the children up to bed and left me perched on a log a few feet away from the raft. They understood I needed to be alone for just a little while as I sat and contemplated what was to come.

  Actually, I didn’t even know what the hell was to come, since Marella’s vision had been too incoherent for me to fully understand. I knew there would be tall “lightning-eyed” women with long legs, and I knew I needed to save these other people, but that ended my knowledge.

  I could be walking into fucking Pompeii for all I knew.

  Not that I was rethinking the journey in the least bit. There was this pull in the base of my stomach, a gut feeling that told me I had no other choice but to sail off into the sunset and explore. I would be like the Christopher Columbus of this world, discovering new lands.

  Except, of course, without all the evil shit Columbus and his men had done.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” Mira asked as she padded across the beach toward me.

  For a second, I was so surprised she’d correctly used one of my favorite expressions that all I could do was stare at her.

  Mira, of course, ever the competitive one, stared right back with a lopsided smirk on her beautiful face.

  “Do you even have a penny?” I finally asked.

  “Maybe?” Mira scrunched up her little button nose. “I do not know what a penny is, though.”

  “It’s money,” I chuckled, but Mira just stared at me in confusion. “Like currency. We use it to get things, where I’m from. For example, instead of Hali cooking for the whole village and getting nothing in return, we would pay her for her food.”

  Mira tilted her head adorably to the side as she thought on the concept of money.

  “That seems rather stupid,” she replied bluntly. “Hali gets many things in return for the food she cooks. She’s protected, and she has a place to sleep. We all do our part.”

  “It is a pretty broken system,” I laughed.

  The innocence of ignorance sometimes brought out the most astute observations.

  Mira stepped over and sank down next to me on the log. Then she wrapped an arm around my shoulders and rested her head gently against my neck.

  I picked up a small rock and flipped it over a few times in my hands as my thoughts drifted back to the impending journey, and for a long moment, we were silent.

  My connection with each woman was wonderful and different, but Mira and I had this way of understanding each other I hadn’t found with anyone else. We’d had it the night we’d met, when she’d gotten me so drunk I could barely stand, and it had never left us.

  I listened to the breath as it came in and out of her lungs, and we just stared out at the blackness of the ocean. A spattering of stars was splayed across the cloudless sky, and they glittered, white and bright, just like the ones back home did.

  “Are you nervous?” Mira finally whispered.

  We stayed there, stared out at the world, and never looked at each other as I mulled over her question.

  “Yes,” I finally answered honestly, “but not because I don’t know what’s out there.”

  This caught Mira’s attention. Her head snapped up, and she turned me so we could face each other.

  “Then what is it?” she asked softly.

  I sucked in a deep breath, and I was unsure if I wanted to admit to just what made me so nervous. It felt so human.

  That was the problem, though. On the outside, I wasn’t human anymore, and even on the inside, I was a different being.

  But my head was still all man.

  “What if I don’t do all those things Jonas saw?” I finally breathed.

  It felt crazy weird to say out loud the things I’d been worried about since the old dragon-man had spoken of my destiny, but at the same time, it was a relief. There was no one else I could have confessed this to, other than the jade-haired warrior in front of me.

  “Ben.” Mira cupped my cheek in her hand, and I instinctively nuzzled it. “Prophecies and visions are not simple things, but they are also never wrong. If Jonas and Marella saw what you will do, then you will do it. You don’t need to worry. Just trust that it is meant to happen, and so it will.”

  To anyone else, her words might have seemed like total bullshit. Hell, to my previous self, they would have sounded like a pile of cow poop laid on top of a load of horse crap.

  But I’d seen enough crazy shit that the trust Mira spoke of didn’t seem like too much of a leap.

  “You’re right, thank you,” I murmured, and then I leaned forward and gently touched my lips to hers. It wasn’t a heated kiss that would start something more, but merely a moment full of absolute love.

  “That’s my Draco Rex.” Mira grinned as I pulled away.

  “Are you ready for this?” I asked the warrior with a smile. She was tough as nails, and I knew she could handle anything, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be susceptible to the same nervous uncertainty as I was.

  “I’ve never had an adventure before,” Mira said after a moment, and her eyes drifted over my shoulder in thought.

  It was both an answer and an avoidance all at once. I could tell the rambunctious warrior in her was chomping at the bit for a chance to get off this island, but the woman who’d spent her entire life on a piece of rock less than twenty square miles around felt a little differently.

 
“Let’s go get some sleep,” I told her as I stood and offered her my hand.

  We didn’t sleep for another few hours, though, since we were too ramped up for the journey ahead. Plus, when we walked back to the palace, I couldn’t take my eyes off her round, sexy ass, so my blood was burning with a little more than just simple anticipation.

  Mira didn’t seem to care about the loss of sleep, though. In fact, the warrior kept me up for several more rounds before we finally passed out exhausted in each other’s arms.

  The next day, Nerissa called for a morning feast, to see Mira and I off on the journey ahead, but, in true Nerissa fashion, Mira and I were not allowed to have any hand in the preparation. So, we were shooed off to the courtyard while we awaited the feast, and we watched the kids as they played.

  I wasn’t complaining, though.

  Marella, Arrick, and the baby dragons ran around and played in the tall grass just below the patio, while George laid in the sun next to Mira and me, and Nixie was off having some quiet time of her own while her mate watched their children.

  I glanced down at the massive water dragon next to me and stroked a hand down his back. Immediately, his dragon hum started, and I relished the sound.

  I would miss him while Mira and I were on this journey.

  But I am coming with you, George said suddenly as he read my thoughts.

  One day, I’d figure out how to prevent that.

  “No, you can’t,” I told the dragon. “I need someone to stay and watch the palace. With both Mira and I gone, I worry about the possibility of another attack.”

  George mulled over my wish slowly, but I could tell he wanted to argue.

  “George,” I said seriously, and I bent down to meet his glowing eyes. “You are the only one I can trust with this. I know you will protect them with every fiber of your being. I can’t leave my kids without you watching out for them.”

  George glanced over at Marella and Arrick, and I could see understanding cross his features.

  You are right, dear one, he sighed. I am sorry to miss out on the action, though.

  “I promise I will tell you every single second of it when I get back,” I replied.

  This seemed to placate George enough to stop any further arguing.

  In all honesty, I wished he could have come, too, but I’d thought long and hard about it. George, with his massive body and impossibly sharp teeth, was the only thing that could truly protect the village if the orcs attacked and got past the guard gate. He and Nixie could tear them apart in seconds, and I needed to know this in order to feel comfortable on the journey.

  Plus, he wouldn’t exactly fit on the raft.

  An hour later, the lunch feast was ready, and Nerissa finally allowed Mira and I to leave the courtyard and head down to the tables.

  I’d never had such a great feast in my whole life.

  Hali had roasted thick chunks of boar in the jam made from the gryphons’ fruit, and the result was a delicious combination that reminded me of turkey and cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving, only a thousand times more delicious. She’d also grilled a combination of carrots and potatoes with some sort of seasoning she hadn’t used before, and of course, there was the ever-present coconut bread. There was strong alcohol, too, which both Mira and I abstained from. Neither one of us wanted to be drunk, or even tipsy, when we sailed out onto the wide-open ocean.

  The conversation was lively and excited, but my mates made a careful point to talk about anything other than the journey we were about to undertake.

  I could hear that topic of conversation rippling through the village, though, and the women were both excited and nervous at the same time.

  I couldn’t blame them. I was the first traveler they’d ever met, and now I was about to up and leave them.

  “Excuse me,” Nerissa called out over the crowd when everyone had mostly finished their meals.

  Instantly, conversation ceased, and all eyes turned to her.

  “We have some gifts for Draco Rex,” Nerissa announced with a wide smile. “As he is about to set off on a journey to help other islands free themselves from the horrible grip of the pirates, we wanted to show our appreciation for him.”

  I was so taken aback they’d been thoughtful enough to get me gifts that I didn’t even notice Talise and Careen until they were right in front of me.

  “My king,” Talise said with a slight bow. “Careen and I have crafted a necklace for you, made of sea-glass and George’s tooth. We wish to adorn you with it, so you may always be reminded of the two of us.”

  The healers carefully presented me with a necklace that was just about the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It reminded me of the shark tooth necklaces surfers wore, only instead of a shark’s tooth, it was George’s baby tooth, surrounded by two small pieces of glittery blue sea-glass strung onto a dried green vine that looked unbreakable.

  I slipped the necklace over my head, and a warm feeling of contentment washed through me as it settled against my collarbone.

  “Thank you,” I said to the healers as I pressed a kiss to their lips.

  Talise and Careen grinned and moved back to their seats, only to be replaced by Darya and Zarya, who presented a new, handmade bow to me, along with a quiver full of sea-glass arrows.

  The weapon was of beautiful craftsmanship, far better than anything I could have done. The string was taut, with just the right amount of give, and the quiver was full of arrows soaked in some sort of dye to give them a sleek, black color. The handle of the bow also had two strange symbols carved into it, one at the top, and one at the bottom.

  “Those are our names,” Darya explained to me as she pointed at the symbols. “So you’ll always remember who made this bow for you, my king.”

  The gesture, small in the grand scheme of things, was so unbelievably sweet.

  “I could never forget you two,” I reassured the twins, before I pressed kisses to each of their lips as well.

  Next, Sela presented me with a new shirt made from thicker material, in case it got cold on my travels, and Hali gave me a sack full of coconut bread and jam.

  And then, it was Nerissa’s turn.

  The queen rose gracefully and came to stand before me with a light, but slightly sad, smile on her face.

  “My king,” she murmured and held her hands out to me, and it took me a moment to tear my eyes away from her beautiful, perfectly sculpted face.

  In her hands, Nerissa held a small knife. The blade was impossibly sharp looking, made from a pink stone that shimmered and glinted in the sunlight, with a handle carved into it for a good grip. The weapon looked like Bilbo Baggins’ knife, if he’d had one carved out of such a gorgeous material.

  “I did not make this,” Nerissa confessed quietly. “It was my brother’s, and my father’s before him. This knife has been in our family, a part of the royal bloodline, for centuries.”

  “And you want me to have it?” I gasped, since I knew how much Nerissa’s brother meant to her. No matter how often she avoided the subject, I could tell the pain of her father’s and brother’s deaths weighed heavily on her, day in and day out.

  Nerissa tilted her head up so she could look directly into my eyes, and the expression I saw there was serious, queenly. A regal expression fit for a regal woman.

  “There is not another soul who deserves it more,” she intoned.

  I slowly reached out and wrapped my hand around the base of the knife. The handle was smooth, clearly the work of a master carver from the old days. It looked like it should have been heavy in my hands, but the weapon was nearly weightless.

  The blade, though, was sharper than anything I’d ever seen. It was sharper than any steel knife from back home, and the pink stone looked like it could cut through bone like it was nothing more than thin paper.

  “Thank you, my queen,” I whispered.

  Nerissa knelt before me with her soft hands on both of my thighs, and she tilted her face up so our mouths would meet. It wasn’t a complete kiss,
but more like a moment between just the two of us. A split second of time where we could feel each other’s breaths move in and out, like the calm in the eye of a hurricane.

  “Just come back to me,” Nerissa finally murmured. Then she shifted away, and I was brought back to the present moment by the clatter of someone dropping something.

  I caught the queen wipe a single tear from her eye before she rose and turned to speak to the crowd.

  “Our Dragon King, and the Warrior Mira,” she announced and indicated both Mira and me. “May Oshun watch over them, guide them with his power, and return them safely to our shores.”

  “Bless Oshun,” the crowd rumbled at once.

  Everyone stood at the same time, turned toward Mira and me, and gave us one last bow.

  “The procession starts now,” Mira murmured in my ear.

  It was time.

  I followed suit as everyone started to walk toward the beach, with Mira and I at the front of the crowd.

  There was a sudden shift in the atmosphere, an excitement that grew the closer we got to the beach. All four dragons ran alongside us, as did my two oldest kids. The journey ahead was a dangerous one, but it was also the first time their people would be leaving the island.

  This was a cause for great excitement.

  The village women whooped and cheered and leapt about, and even Nerissa couldn’t help but smile and laugh. The atmosphere was electrifying.

  A group of women dashed forward as soon as we made it to the beach and dragged my raft out into the shallows of the ocean, where they held it so Mira and I could climb on.

  “Bless Oshun,” the crowd said one last time as we mounted the raft.

  “Bless Oshun,” I muttered under my breath, and I took a long look as we started to drift away. I memorized the faces of my children, cherubic and excited, and of Nerissa, who looked scared but put together all at once. I looked at Talise, with her soft, long hair and a partial smile on her face, and at Sela, who still looked the warrior, even with our twins in her arms.

  And I kept on looking as we drifted away, until there was nothing left to see.

  Then, once the beach had faded away and the island had become a single, faceless blob, I turned to face the sun.