Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer

by Dante King

  Defensive instincts rose in Ben as he looked first at the monster child they had just welcomed into the world, then at the egg of the second child they were expecting.

  “I’ll do whatever I need to create a safe home for our children,” He promised. “Starting tomorrow, we will fight and build until the empire becomes what it once was.”

  Melody smiled. “I knew we chose rightly. The Forgotten Ruler has returned.”

  Chapter Eight

  Ben woke up with a huge smile on his face. His brain was foggy, and he couldn’t tell exactly why he was feeling so good, but there was a warm glow of happiness inside him.

  Inside me?

  There was a swirling sensation of warmth in his stomach. It didn’t feel like digested food. Then it all started coming back to him.

  He was feeling mana.

  He almost laughed aloud at the thought of having a mana pool inside him, just like in all the video games he used to play. But he wasn’t just a mage. He was a reincarnated ruler in this world.

  Through half-lidded eyes, he glanced over and saw a purple mass of hair shrouding the face of the beautiful catgirl who had guided him to this world. Her sandy-colored tail swished back and forth.

  An object rested against Ben’s stomach, a ball that radiated heat. He put his hand out and touched it. It was a soft ball of fur. Right, the kitten that had hatched out of a giant egg last night. The child of his union with Melody. His sleep had been deep and dreamless, and he’d momentarily forgotten all about the events of the previous day.

  The vision he’d seen in the hotel room flashed before him. A large woodland predator with long fangs and vicious claws. Ben wasn’t quite sure how visions inspired by giant monster eggs worked, but he assumed it meant this adorable ball of fluff would turn into a menacing predator one day. He could hardly wait.

  Under his hand, he could feel the kitten’s little stomach rise and fall peacefully. No other sound came through the glass windows of the wooden hut. The ruined village and the forest outside seemed to be just as calm.

  Melody stirred. She let out a yawn that sounded vaguely like a meow. The kitten-child immediately mewed in response and rose to its feet, wriggling out from under Ben’s hand. It stumbled on weak legs over to Melody’s face and started licking her.

  Melody giggled and took the creature in both hands, pushing herself back to sit up in the bed. “Good morning, Benjamin,” she greeted me.

  He looked up the beautiful woman holding their child for a moment, enjoying the haze of his sleepy brain. This was his new family. He almost felt like pinching himself again, it was so unreal.

  He sat up and put his arm around Melody. She nestled into his side. The kitten stretched up toward his fingers. Ben reached down to scratch the top of the small animal’s head. The kitten purred and closed its eyes. Then it snapped at his hand and nipped his fingertips.

  “Ow!” Ben drew his hand back.

  Melody laughed, her voice sounding sleepy. “Did he hurt you?”

  “Not at all.” He chuckled ruefully. “I just didn’t expect to be attacked by my own child on my very first day as a father.”

  “He will grow up to be savage and strong,” Melody declared, pride in her voice.

  “I don’t doubt it. It is a ‘he’ then?”

  Melody nodded. “Yes. And he needs a name.”

  Of course—that was part of being a parent too.

  “What will we call him?” Ben asked, stretching out a finger to scratch the kitten’s head again, and dodging the little guy’s impotent attempts to bite his fingers.

  Then a name occurred to Ben as he watched the kitten take tiny chomps at his fingers.

  “I’ll call him Nipper,” he said at last, inspired by the young child’s savagery.

  “Nipper.” Melody rolled the word around on her tongue, as though it were a totally new sound. Perhaps for her it was. “That name will work.”

  Nipper began pawing and prodding at Melody’s chest. He was growing steadier on his feet very quickly. Ben had seen cats prod like that before, and it always meant they wanted something.

  “Do you need to, ah, feed him?”

  Melody laughed. “With what? You think I can breastfeed a cat, just because I’m a catgirl?”

  That did sound logical to Ben. “I don’t know how these things work.”

  “You think I want him biting my breasts like he bit your fingers?”

  She had a point.

  “I guess nipples are not for nipping, despite the name.”

  They both laughed.

  “Nipper will feed on the flesh of your enemies,” Melody declared, her face beaming with the unmistakable pride of a parent.

  “Uh, okay. I guess I’ll have to find some enemies soon.”

  Ben yawned and stretched. He and Melody both sighed contentedly as the increasingly energetic Nipper alternated between chasing his own tail and staring up at them expectantly. Ben knew they would have to get up soon, but he was enjoying the warmth of the bed and of Melody’s body beside his own.

  As he looked out now at the window and the world beyond it, he could see a giant egg sitting on the folded blanket below the window. A second child of their union from the night before. The egg was a little larger than Nipper’s egg had been, and its coloring was a rich shade of purple.

  The fragments of the old egg sat on the floor beside it. Would the second child be the same when it hatched? Or would it be different somehow?

  “This all just feels so right, Melody.” Ben brought her closer to him.

  She nestled against him and raised her eyes to look at him. “How do you mean?”

  “I just feel like I’m right where I’m meant to be. Here with you, with my family. And I can’t wait to begin building my empire again.”

  “I knew you would be the right man to rebuild this empire,” Melody said.

  “And how did you know? Did you do a DNA test and work out that I was the Forgotten Ruler?”

  Melody looked at him blankly. “It was just feminine intuition,” she explained, as though it were obvious.

  “Right, of course, that makes way more sense,” he said drily.

  “This place will be perfect for you to begin building this empire,” Melody continued, ignoring his teasing. “You should find enough relics to increase your power greatly.”

  “I hope so. If there is a dungeon beneath that stone slab Vinata and I found, we should find relics there, right?”

  Melody nodded. “But we will also find monsters.”

  “And not the good kind?” he asked.

  Melody gave him a puzzled look. “No, they will be bad monsters. Dungeons are always filled with malevolent monsters.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.” Ben was sure he would get the hang of all these distinctions in time.

  He thought back to the strange symbols carved into that stone slab, and the even stranger sensation of longing he’d felt as he stood over the trap door, if that’s what it was.

  “It was like the dungeon wanted me to come inside,” he said aloud.

  “The dungeons manipulate emotions in order to lure strangers to their deaths,” Melody explained, repeating what she’d told him the night before.

  “This didn’t feel like emotions.” Ben struggled to articulate what he’d sensed out there. “This felt like destiny, like I was meant to find something in there. Something I’d lost.”

  “It is possible that the relics themselves call out to you,” Melody replied. “You are not like the relic chasers who have attempted so many times to raid these dungeons. You are the Forgotten Ruler, and these relics were once your possessions.”

  “Well, we’ll have to test that theory,” he remarked, shifting in bed. He finally felt ready to get up and get the day moving.

  Nipper sprang hastily to the end of the bed as he saw Melody also beginning to get up. In his haste, he nearly slipped off the bed and onto the floor. With a chuckle, Ben scooped him up and held him in one arm, as his son playfully
tried to nip at his arm.

  Then, in the quiet, Ben heard a sobbing sound from outside. It was coming from a woman, somewhere near the window of the other room, the room that overlooked the clearing where the bandits had had their campfire the night before.

  Ben quickly got dressed and softly walked into the front room, where he could hear better. The sobbing voice was light and high-pitched. It must have been one of the nymphs, but he didn’t know them well enough to tell which one.

  A second voice, steadier and slightly deeper, reprimanded the first one. “Shh, we don’t want to wake them. They must be tired after rescuing us yesterday.”

  Ben turned to Melody. “Come, let’s see what the matter is.”

  Still carrying Nipper under one arm, he opened the front door and walked outside.

  Imogen was sitting on the ground, her back to Ben and Melody’s hut. Her head was in her arms, and her shoulders were quivering. Her light sobbing was muffled by her position.

  Lulu was pacing back and forth several yards away. She scowled, looking angry.

  They both looked up as Melody and Ben stepped outside. Imogen’s face was red and moist with tears.

  “Good morning,” Ben said.

  “Good morning,” Lulu replied, her tone dark. Then she quickly looked apologetic. “I hope we didn’t wake you.”

  “Not at all. You both seem upset. What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “Vinata is gone,” Lulu said, kicking the dirt.

  Melody gasped. “Alone in the forest?”

  Ben reflected that the forest probably wasn’t as terrifying for a dryad as for a catgirl, but didn’t say anything. The other nymphs must have been concerned for a reason.

  “I didn’t think she would leave without telling us,” Lulu continued. “What was she thinking? She can’t make it all the way back to the realm of the Vineguard on her own.”

  “She didn’t go back home.” Imogen spoke up, her voice sounding weak. “She said something about a glyph stone in the forest. I didn’t think she’d actually go there, but she must have.”

  “She’s always getting herself into trouble like this.” Lulu returned to her agitated pacing.

  Ben turned to Imogen. “What did Vinata say to you last night?”

  Imogen sniffed and wiped at her eyes. “She said when she was with you, you found a stone slab covered in strange symbols in the forest. She had such a strange look when she talked about it. Like she couldn’t stop thinking about it. I didn’t think she would go back to it without us.” Imogen began softly sobbing again.

  “This sounds like the emotional manipulation you told me about,” Ben said to Melody.

  She nodded gravely. “It does.”

  “I didn’t realize last night that Vinata was thinking about going back,” Ben said. “She complained that the vegetation there was tainted. It’s the last thing I would have expected.”

  “You can never predict how the dungeon will attract its victims,” Melody said solemnly.

  Imogen and Lulu looked at the catgirl curiously.

  “We think Vinata has been drawn to a dungeon,” Melody announced to them both.

  The nymph women gasped.

  “What can we do?” Lulu asked.

  “Will Vinata die?” Imogen asked, trying her best to hold back her tears.

  “Not if I can do anything to stop it,” Ben said. “I didn’t save you all just to have you killed the next day. We’ll go and find her.”

  “Thank you, Benjamin.” Lulu nodded at me gratefully.

  Imogen tried to speak, but was choked by tears. She was in no state to help on a rescue mission.

  Ben reached out a hand to take some of her negative emotion away, then he stopped himself. He had justified tampering with the women’s emotions the day before because it was necessary to save them. But now the women were free and in their right minds. The right thing to do would be to ask, and not simply to manipulate their emotions whenever he felt like it.

  “Imogen.” He looked down at the slight mountain nymph. “Do you want me to take some of your sadness away?”

  She looked up at me, troubled and confused.

  “Just enough so that you can help us rescue Vinata without being overcome,” Ben explained.

  Imogen looked relieved and grateful. “If you can do that, I would be very grateful.”

  “Melody, grab my scimitar, please, and your wand. We will need them.”

  Melody nodded and went inside.

  Ben summoned his mana, which was already full again. Had it simply regenerated through the night, or had the vigorous relaxation he’d shared with Melody last night contributed somehow?

  He focused on Imogen’s emotions, holding out one hand, while the other continued to cradle Nipper. Imogen’s feelings were overwhelmed by a big mess of sadness, floating heavily over her like a fog.

  He absorbed some of this gloomy cloud into himself, until he could see Imogen perking up. He didn’t want to take so much away that he was distorting her emotions. That didn’t seem like the right thing to do with those he might consider my friends. And he didn’t want to make himself depressed before going into a dangerous situation.

  Ben’s own positive mood was enough to dispel most of the sadness he absorbed without being weighed down by it. And Imogen was left, if not happy, at least able to function.

  She gave Ben a timid but grateful smile, and got to her feet.

  Melody returned with her wand and the scimitar.

  “Are we all ready to find Vinata?” he asked.

  The two nymphs nodded at him. They were both unarmed. Ben wondered if they would be able to join in the fight using spells. He didn’t know exactly what sort of magic an oread or an undine might be able to use. Hopefully it would be useful in a dungeon.

  Before they left, Lulu grabbed a water skin from the nearest hut—a good call, in Ben’s opinion. He had no idea how long they might be gone, or whether they would find any water in the dungeon.

  “What should I do with Nipper?” Ben asked Melody.

  She waved a hand dismissively. “Bring him with us.”

  “Are you sure? A dungeon doesn’t seem like a safe place for a newborn.”

  “It may be dangerous, but Nipper is a monster,” Melody explained. “He will grow quickly.”

  Ben did look forward to seeing that, and it was not as if he liked the idea of leaving Nipper alone here, either. He took the lead, and they left the village, heading in the direction he and Vinata had gone to find food the night before.

  The nymphs regarded Nipper with curiosity, but didn’t ask any questions. They were evidently preoccupied with the fate of their closest friend. Ben was happy not to have to try and explain that this little monster was technically his child.

  They’d barely started walking before Nipper squirmed his way out of Ben’s arms. His first instinct was to resist, to pick him back up, but he quickly thought better of it. Ben figured his son would have to walk on his own before long. The little monster dashed along the path ahead, chasing butterflies, lizards, anything that moved.

  It took around a half an hour, as Ben guessed it, to reach the stone slab from the night before. At first, he wasn’t sure of where it was. Eventually, however, he felt the same tug at his insides that he’d felt last time. If what Melody said was right, this was what it felt like to be drawn to the ancient relics of his power. Despite the danger they were walking toward, a thrill ran through him.

  As they finally reached the heavy slab, he searched the faces of the women to see if they felt anything. Their expressions all appeared troubled.

  Nipper, however, didn’t show any fear. He eagerly scratched at the surface of the stone. Perhaps as Ben’s child, he was as eager as his father to get at the relics.

  “Can you make any sense of these symbols?” Ben asked Melody, hoping she might have learned something that would help in the Arcanarium.

  She knelt and studied the symbols for several long moments, but eventually shook her head. “The
entrance is closed to me.”

  Ben racked his brain for other options. “Imogen, are you able to pull back the stone? You are strong enough to do that aren’t you? If we could just see underneath it, we might know whether Vinata would have gone here. There might be a staircase or something.”

  Imogen shook her head. “I am strong, yes, but I would not dare to disturb the wards on the stone.”

  “Those are wards?” Ben asked.

  “They look very much like the wards my people carve on stone to keep intruders out,” Imogen replied.

  Lulu spoke up. “If the entrance is closed, maybe Vinata didn’t come here.”

  Imogen brightened up at that statement.

  Melody shook her head again. “The dungeon would not leave its door open. It would still want other strangers to be enticed inside.”

  Imogen’s shoulders slumped again.

  Something Melody said stuck in Ben’s mind. “You’re saying the dungeon chooses whether to leave its door open or not?”

  Melody nodded, looking puzzled.

  “So, the dungeon is sentient?”

  Melody nodded once more. “Some say that the Forgotten Ruler invested the dungeons with some of his essence when he first created them.”

  Ben paused, his hand on his chin as he considered the matter.

  Hell, he figured, it was worth a shot. At worst, he would look a bit silly if nothing happened. He stood up straight, squared his shoulders, and spoke at the stone. “Show me your entrance.”

  At first, nothing. Ben right away felt silly for speaking so seriously to what appeared to be nothing more than a stone.

  “You wish to see the entrance to my lair?” A hollow voice boomed out from the stone surface. Everyone jumped back a pace, and Nipper sprang into the air, his fur standing up. Ben held fast, his eyes opening slightly wider in surprise.

  “I will open for you,” the voice in the stone continued. “While I will let you inside the depths, I cannot provide my treasures to you unless you pay the same price as those others who wished to possess them.”

  “Whatever,” Ben waved a hand. “We don’t care about treasure right now. Just open. We’ve come to find Vinata.”