by Sean Davies
A full masquerade mask, divided into four square sections coloured bright pink and black, was staring at him from beneath the shadows of the trees. Winston could just make out the fully armoured, well endowed, female body that it belonged to, but it was hard to see. It was a Demon. He put quickly grabbed his lighter and reached for the shotgun, but the Demon had already receded back into the shadows. Winston stared into the trees, adrenaline pumping, waiting for an attack. But it never came. Paranoid, he looked to the tree tops all around him, but still nothing. He quickly packed up his things and decided to search for ingredients in the opposite direction; he still needed something interesting to bring Gregory. He knew it was dangerous but he wanted to give him something special as a gift, for without his help he wouldn’t have ever made it into the Shadow Circle.
Keeping on guard, shotgun at the ready, he kept making his way through the forest. He searched around for something rare or different but couldn’t see anything significant enough. He felt like he was being too picky but he couldn’t let it go. Feeling drained, he stopped for a moment to eat some chocolate and drink some of his water, making sure to leave some for later just in case. He carried on and eventually the trees started thinning and looking more knurled and twisted. The ground under foot was becoming bare, blackened, and dry, and the air smelled of dying things.
Winston stumbled onto another clearing devoid of any grass or foliage. This one was dominated by a steep solitary hill topped by a despicably evil looking tree; a Deathscythe Tree. Its trunk was thick and black, and its eyes were closed but it still had a malicious looking face with a big wide mouth filled with carved fangs. Slightly above the face, the tree’s long blackened branches sprouted. They looked like thin but muscular arms, and they all ended in long scalpel sharp white scythes. Around it, spreading down the first quarter of the hill, was its thin, broken, and crumbling roots. These ‘Deathroots’ were the main ingredient in the Mage Vitality Corrective potion.
He decided to gather some but felt bad for taking the risk, especially as Xavier had asked him not to. It was too good an opportunity to miss, however, and he was feeling confident. He crept up the hill gently, watching the tree’s closed eyes, and headed towards the nearest exposed roots. He was almost there, reaching out towards them, when the first scythe struck. Luckily, Winston had flinched backwards when he saw the branches move, because the blade slid into the ground where he was standing a split second beforehand. Before that scythe had even been pulled back out of the ground another had swung for his head. Winston moved swiftly backwards and the tree screeched at him, two angry red amber eyes now glaring at him and the sharp wooden teeth chomping angrily. The arms seemed to extend as the attacks continued. Winston tried to retaliate by unloading some shotgun blasts at the tree’s arms and trunk, but to his horror, the swift movement of the scythes deflected them. Continually evading the constant assault, he reached for his lighter and began hurling fireballs at the Deathscythe Tree. The tree swiped and dodged, blocked and deflected. When the fire caught the branches it shook its arms, quickly putting it out, and when Winston aimed for the tree’s face it shielded itself with its scythes and the fire just dispersed harmlessly. The tree started cackling wildly.
Winston was at a loss of what to do. Retreat seemed the only logical solution, but then he remembered the bleach. He backed off and rummaged through the backpack until his hand felt the large thick plastic bottle. He pulled it out and launched it in the air towards the tree. The tree lashed out with it scythes and the bottle was shredded, spilling its contents all over the place. Bleach rained down on it and the Deathscythe tree wailed in agony. Everywhere on the tree that the bleach hit dissolved rapidly. It was like someone had poured acid over it; branches and scythes fizzled and fell off, and the trunk steamed as sections of it melted away. All that was left afterwards was part of the trunk with a half melted face and one scared looking lifeless red eye.
With the threat eliminated, he casually walked over to the trunk. Lewis’ theory seemed to be correct, as even some parts of the ground had dissolved. Looking at the tree, he realised what he could bring back to Gregory. He pried out the remaining red amber eye. It was slightly larger than his fist and was translucent like a ruby, and he put it in the backpack. He ate some more chocolate to mitigate the effects of the Gloom and started collecting the Deathroot. The exposed roots broke and crumbled easy, so he snapped them off by hand and filled the large alchemist case to the brim. Due to the difficultly of harvesting the reagent and the demand from Mages in the real, a small quantity was very expensive. Winston had half a case’s worth. He snapped off a smaller root for himself and added it to his light collection kit, next to his remaining Crimson Blood Moth wing. Those alone would set him up nicely next time he visited a Shadow Market.
Filled with a sense of pride, he decided to make his way back to the tavern to the real world. From the hill he could see the faint sickly green glow of the witchfire campfires from the Freak village, so he knew what direction he’d need to travel in. Just as he was about to walk down the hill, a Freak burst out of the tree line.
Winston was quick on the attack and hurled a fireball at it. The thing went up in a blaze of fire, sizzling and popping as its damp flesh roasted. Then more Freaks followed, axes raised and screaming vulgar threats and profanities. He sent fire left and right, shooting into the trees where it spread rapidly, but the Freaks kept coming. Soon they were gaining ground on him. He swapped to the shotgun and started blowing the psychotic freaks to pieces, black coagulated blood splattering from their wounds. The smell of death and rot was thicker than ever.
A loud hissing sound came from behind him. The Demon he’d seen earlier was right behind him and Winston froze in horror, as did the Freaks. She did indeed have a fine full-figured form under her silver and black armour, and her hair plumed upwards and down in a long beautiful ponytail. Where her thin waist ended, however, a huge spider’s abdomen began with black and pink stripes the same colour as her mask. Eight long thin legs held her up, each divided into three segments almost as long as Winston, and the very tips were armoured and bladed. She was armed with a serrated obsidian long sword that she was casually resting on the palm of her spare hand.
Clattering up the hill behind her was a swarm of giant forest spiders. They looked like real world spiders but the smallest was the size of a dog, the largest was the size of a pony, and they were dark green and covered in moss and bristly hairs. They stopped just behind the Demon like an old army in formation, chattering their mandible jaws and awaiting the order to charge.
The rabble of Freaks at the base of the hill had grown to quite a sizable mob, and they continued to come out of the forest, avoiding the parts that were still on fire. They started swearing and cursing, but the Demon hissed and shook her masked head. They all started shouting more abuse and getting riled. One went to attack Winston, and the Demon struck with one of her legs, stabbing it straight through the stomach. She swung her serrated blade half-way through its neck and sawed the rest of the way through.
Then all hell broke loose. The spiders charged and leapt into the Freaks, bashing and biting, and the Freaks chopped and tore. The Demon strode above all, killing with casual indiscriminate grace. Winston ran and ran, and didn’t stop until he reached the inn. He trod quickly but carefully up the stairs, put his hand on the book, and warped back to the real.
Back in the real world, he sank exhaustedly to the floor and panted heavily. Veronica was leaning against the wall reading one of Gregory’s experiment textbooks. She dropped the book on the floor and went to help Winston.
“What happened?” she asked, concerned.
“Had a couple villages worth of Freaks come after me,” he said, still breathing heavily. “Then a spider Demon and a bunch of giant spiders fought them.”
Veronica was stunned. “How did you get away?”
“It was so strange. It was like the Demon was protecting me, so I took my chance and got out of there as
fast as I could.”
“I said there was something significant about you,” she said strangely.
“What do you mean by that stuff?”
“I’m not sure. I just get a sense that you have a big part to play in the things to come.” She shook her head quickly. “It’s hard to put my finger on – some crazy Blood Magic induced psychic vision stuff. Let’s forget about it and have a nice evening.”
Gregory entered the room. “You’re back! How did it go?”
“Absolutely crazy that time,” Winston said as Veronica helped him up. “Got you something good though.” He produced the amber eye and handed it to Gregory. “It’s an eye from a ‘dead’ Deathscythe tree. Thank you for helping me into the Shadow Circle.”
Gregory was speechless. “Wow, you really are something else, Winston! I’m going to have fun researching this beauty.”
“That’s not all.” Winston put the case on the table and opened it up. “After the tree was dead I was free to gather as much as I could carry.”
Gregory’s eyes went wide. “Half a case of Nightmare Nettle and half a case of Deathroot. There’s a fortune’s worth of root in here. You better take some of it back to Lucius or he’ll have my head!”
Winston went to the toilet and washed his face in the sink with cold water. He looked in the mirror and made sure he was clean. His clothes weren’t that terrible, and looking dishevelled in the Open Vein club wasn’t a bad or unusual thing. When he came back into the room, Gregory had divided the contents of the case into various containers. He handed Winston a medium sized silver case.
“There’s well over half of the Deathroot in there,” Gregory began. “There’s also some Nightmare Nettle and a couple of good potions for you as a thank you for the eye. Are you getting your head into Alchemy yet?”
“Not yet,” Winston said, slightly ashamed. “I haven’t really had the time with all that’s been going on.”
“Don’t worry, Greg.” Veronica linked arms with Winston’s. “I’m going to tutor him and make sure he becomes a pro.”
“Lucky man. I wish I’d had a teacher that hot,” Gregory smirked, and handed a book to Winston. “This has some of my personal tips in it, and they’re not all drug related, I promise!”
Winston thanked him, returned the gear he’d borrowed from the stash, and walked with Veronica to the van to store his things.
“Fancy a night here?” Veronica asked when they were outside.
“Yeah, definitely,” Winston replied. “I could use a drink.”
“We’ll get you something better,” Veronica smiled slyly.
The club had started to pick up. The music was now near deafening and the bar was packed with people. They headed back upstairs to the VIP area; it was mainly members of the Shadow Circle, but there were a few high paying human customers too. The gorgeous dancer girls were now showing off their stuff dancing on the pole platforms, stripping, and lap dancing for tips. The air was thick with smoke, smelling of tobacco, cannabis, and other things probably native to Tropica or the Gloom.
Winston’s guards were sitting around one platform, chatting and drinking merrily. The girl who was pole dancing had been well tipped because she was wearing nothing but a silvery thong. She ran her hands over her slightly pointed medium sized tits, down her body, and slipped the thong off as she was bending over. Winston had a feeling it was going to be a good night.
Veronica and Winston headed to the bar first. Gregory walked over and told them it was an open bar for them all and that everything was on the house, so they thanked him and got some drinks. Winston had a triple whiskey with soft drink and Veronica got a large cocktail glass filled with blood and vodka. Before they left the bar, Veronica asked the barman for two hits of ‘rush’. He got two tiny bags of reddish pink powder from below the bar and poured them neatly into two lines on a small square silver plate, and gave them two very short straws. Veronica went first, holding a finger against one nostril and snorting the line of powder up through the straw with the other. She recoiled back and twitched a bit, and then her eyes were wide and she couldn’t stay still.
The drug Rushdust, or ‘rush’ for short, was derived from a Gloom mushroom called Ashroom. The actual mushroom caused extreme drowsiness and heavy sleep through the dusty ash like film on its surface, which the larger ones could expel around themselves like a grey cloud if disturbed. It was used for making sleeping potions or poisons, and reversed through alchemy to make the energy packed Rushdust. The reddish pink dust, when snorted through the nose, purged tiredness, gave an extreme adrenaline rush, and caused the user to become extremely hyperactive. It was a good way to party all night but had a nasty hangover-like comedown.
Winston had never dabbled in drugs before, mostly because his parents would’ve killed him if they’d have found out, but tonight seemed like a good time to start. He snorted the line up his nose the same way Veronica had and recoiled back as the drug took immediate effect. It felt like he’d been punched in the brain by a thousand cups of coffee.
The rest of the night was mayhem. There was lots of drinking, drug taking, talking, and joking, and although Xavier was not best pleased by Winston’s account of his adventure in the Gloom he agreed that it was an amazingly good haul. Winston and Veronica kissed and flirted, drank more, snorted more Rushdust, and he smoked Dreamleaf for the first time; the place became a spinning blur of colour and distorted sound. He and Veronica shared a lap dance from the hot naked blonde girl, both groping and kissing her at the same time, and at some point the three of them headed to a private room together.
Chapter 4:
The Trinity Meet
Winston awoke to a banging headache. He felt like a drum solo was going on in his skull and his eyes were blurred and unfocused, but he felt comfortable sandwiched in between Veronica and the dancer girl. They were all lying naked on a fold down bed with a comfy pink mattress, and the sheets had come off somewhere the night. It took a moment to register that he was actually in the middle of two attractive women, pressed between two pairs of breasts; one pair massive, firm and cold to the touch, the others a large handful in size, soft and warm. The night before flashed through his mind. He hadn’t needed Veronica’s magic to keep him hard during the drug fuelled threesome, as witnessing the two girls pleasuring each other and himself, and being free to fuck them any way he wanted had kept him erect throughout despite ejaculating multiple times. The Rushdust probably helped too.
Veronica stirred and groaned. “Shit, what time is it?”
There was no clock in the private room they were in so Winston rummaged through the pile of his clothes to find his phone. Every movement seemed like so much effort.
He finally dug it out of one of his pockets. “It’s just gone eight.”
“Shit, I should be in the back of the van. I’ll have to get them to back the van up to the door or something. Enjoy last night?”
“Yes, it was very interesting.” He looked over at the sleeping dancer girl, her blonde hair a ruffled mess as she moved her leg slightly revealing her smooth shaven pussy. He couldn’t remember if they’d even asked her name, and he looked at her bare naked body savouring the memory of what he’d done to her, and what Veronica had done to her.
They both started to get dressed. Winston went and had a quick wash in the sink but he still felt disgustingly dirty afterwards, and greedily gulped handfuls of water down to rehydrate himself. When he got back Veronica had just finished feeding on the girl’s neck. She licked the wound shut slowly with her tongue, and it was strange but the way she did it turned Winston on.
“You need to rest that thing,” she said, giving Winston a kiss on the cheek while reaching into his trousers and fumbling his cock. “We keep going at it like this it’s going to fall off.”
“I wouldn’t say no to a few quiet nights to be honest.” His dick was growing in her hand but it was so raw he had to flinch away.
She giggled and they carried on getti
ng ready. Once they were done Veronica kissed the girl on the head and then sucked on her nipple before beckoning for Winston to do the same, claiming, “Would be rude not kiss her goodbye.”
Winston didn’t need telling twice, and he cupped her breast and sucked her nipple delicately. The girl moaned in sleepy pleasure, then left the room with Veronica. He felt like he was in a very naughty dream, and after risking his life in the Gloom it seemed only right to live his life in the real world to the full.
The club was mostly deserted now, and the only people that were still around were half asleep and extremely hung over. Kavarne and Lynette were lying next to each other in a seating booth looking dishevelled, and Alexander was unconscious in between two attractive dancer girls. Veronica went to the bar and helped herself to a glass of whiskey, taking a sip and handing the rest to Winston.
“No thanks.” The sight of drink made his stomach feel dangerously uneasy.
“Trust me, it’s the best way to chase away a hangover,” she said convincingly.
He steeled himself and downed it before he had time to think about it too much. After the initial response to throw it back up had passed Winston did feel a bit better.
"Told you. Now follow me, let's get you fed."
Veronica led him downstairs and told him to sit at a table. He did so and she went behind the bar and began singing an old song merrily. Her voice was incredibly soothing. Not too long after, she emerged with a tray with fried eggs, bacon, black pudding, toast, and a large mug of black coffee. He thanked her and started to wolf it down.