by Logan Jacobs
“We leave in ten minutes,” I declared. “Meet me at the stables. Bullard, I trust you have prepared enough meals for the entire group to last over a week? We will have to camp most of the way.”
“Everything you need has been provided for,” the duke answered with a small bow of his head. “The packages were all taken to the stables this morning. I’ve made all the arrangements, have no fear.”
“Good.” I nodded and turned back to the guards. “Alright, men, listen up. Riondale may be your commanding officer, but I am in charge. What I say goes, got it?”
“Yes, sir,” the men all said in unison.
“Good, now we are going to ride hard and heavy at first while we have rested horses, but we will steady our pace in a few days. I don’t want to hear any complaining about the conditions while we travel, am I clear?” I raised an eyebrow as I gave them a hard look.
“Yes, sir,” came the unified response.
I nodded in satisfaction, and then I gave the duke a grateful smile. “Thank you for all your help, Bullard.”
“It was the least I could do, Great One,” the duke said with a shake of his head. “Thank you for braving the wilds to take the news to the king. Time is of the essence, there is no way to tell when, or if, the dragon will be back.”
“I’ll return with an army to protect the city,” I assured him. Then I jerked my chin at the waiting men. “Move out.”
They turned and trotted out of the room in a tight formation, and then I followed behind them with Mahini and Elissa by my sides. We walked to the castle stables and greeted our rides with the excitement of a new adventure unfolding.
We were on the road a short while later, and we waved to the townspeople as they jogged alongside our horses. The guards rode five in front and five behind us, with Riondale taking up the tail end of our group. He was constantly scanning our surroundings, and I felt good about my choice in bringing him along.
The young man would make the perfect protege for the God of Time.
I clicked my tongue to urge Goliath to pick up the pace, and my horse flicked his ears before he kicked up dust with his hooves. The guards in front hurried to match my pace, and then we were headed down the road at a brisk speed.
I allowed a brief stop for lunch a few hours later, but then we were back on the horses and riding once more. The scenery changed from open plains to a forest, and the trees crowded against the road, which made it difficult to ride beside each other, so we rode two in a row with me and my two women at the center of the group.
I didn’t need the added protection of the guards since I could handle an army single-handedly, but it was comforting to have the extra people around me. What was a god without some followers, after all?
They weren’t following me based solely on their belief in me yet, but they all had utter faith in me and my abilities as the God of Time.
“I’m tired,” Elissa moaned, and she pulled me out of my thoughts. “How much further until the inn?”
“Uh, didn’t you hear me earlier?” I asked in a cautious tone. “There won’t be many towns along the way, we’ll have to camp most of the time. Besides, I want to get as far as we can today, so we still have a little ways to go. The sun is still up, after all.”
“Fine,” the tiny redhead sighed, and her shoulders slumped.
“You got this,” I encouraged her with a grin. “You’re a warrior woman, remember? What’s a little saddle time in comparison to crushing skulls?”
“You’re right,” Elissa giggled and sat up straighter in her saddle. “We can go until after dark if you want. I’ll be a tough little wife for you.”
“You already are,” I laughed.
“We don’t need to go all night,” Mahini chuckled. “The horses will need to rest soon.”
I could tell she was getting tired herself, so I made a mental note to not push them as hard the next day. We rode for two more hours before I called a stop. Then I spotted a small stream running through the trees, and we all led our horses over to get a drink.
“This is as good of a place to camp as any,” I announced to my exhausted crew. “Let’s set up camp while we still have some daylight.”
“We’ll set up a watch schedule,” Riondale added. “Nothing will disturb your slumber, Great One.”
“Thanks, Ri,” I said with a grin, and the younger man blushed at the nickname.
Mahini, Elissa, and I worked on taking off our horses’ saddles while the men set up the campsite. They erected several small tents in a semi-circle around a good-sized fire, and by the time we’d brought our bags into the circle of light, the flames were putting out a lot of heat.
“I grew up camping with my grandpa,” Riondale explained when he saw my surprised expression. “I can start a fire faster than you can snap your fingers.”
The other men were carrying out various tasks, from caring for their horses to clearing the brush away from our perimeter, and I realized how helpful it was to have more hands.
We were camping in style.
“Good job, Ri,” I complimented as I finished looking around the campsite. “Now, we just need to feed thirteen people.”
“I’ve got men working on dinner already,” the lieutenant said with a pleased smile. “Jorgen is a talented hunter when he isn’t pissing himself from dragon fear.”
“Hey, that shit is potent,” I laughed. “Can’t say I hold it against him.”
“Me, either,” Riondale said as he joined me in my laughter. “I still don’t know how you faced that dragon head-on without shitting yourself. If you would pardon my language, sir.”
“Meh,” I said with a shrug. “Just a god thing, I guess.”
We talked about the battle and the destruction of half the town for a while, and then we fell into a comfortable silence while I warmed my hands over the fire. After a while, I grew curious about what the other men were up to, so I decided to take a look around.
I checked on the horses, and I talked to the man who was brushing them down for a moment. I’d met him after my encounter with the dragon, but it took me a moment to remember his name.
“You’re doing a fine job, Corvis,” I said to compliment his skill with the horses.
Warrior, the lone mule of the gang, huffed and waved his head as though to argue my statement.
“Thank you, Great One,” Corvis replied in a surprised tone. “It is an honor to travel with you, I only wish to do my part.”
“Well, keep up the good work,” I said, and I waved goodbye before I continued my rounds of the campground.
I talked to a few more of the men, but they weren’t as friendly as Riondale or Corvis, so I made my way back to the campfire. The guard who’d avoided eye contact in the audience chamber was nowhere to be seen, but I made a mental note to speak with him later. Mahini and Elissa crawled out of a tent in the middle of a fit of giggles, and my eyebrows rose questioningly at them as they approached.
“Elissa said she wanted to paint her mace pink,” Mahini said as her melodic laugh rang out over the campsite.
“I think it would be pretty,” Elissa said with a shrug, but there was merriment dancing in her emerald eyes.
“It sure would.” I grinned.
Just then, a man I assumed was Jorgen strode through the campsite and approached us with a deer slung over his broad shoulders.
“Dinner is served,” he announced in a pleased tone as he deposited his load on the ground at my feet.
I made a new savepoint as an idea struck me.
“Jorgen, you are the master hunter, wouldn’t you rather dress your own kill?” I shot the man a challenging look, and his chest puffed out in pride.
“I can dress a deer in my sleep,” he declared. “I was hoping to see your skill.”
“You first,” I shot back with a wiggle of my eyebrows, and the man tilted back his head to release a deep belly laugh.
“Very well, Great One,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. “Watch how a master does it.”
>
I was very eager to do just that, so I scooted away from the dead deer, but I stayed close enough that I could watch.
Jorgen pulled out a dagger and leaned over the deer, but he angled his body so I could still watch his movements. Then he proceeded to slice the deer’s stomach open from head to tail.
“You’ll want to keep its belly up for this part,” Jorgen explained as he tugged his knife through the deer’s flesh. “Keep the backside angled downhill so the viscera runs away from the meat.”
I tucked that tidbit away for later, and I scooted forward to get a better look.
“This is a doe, so it will be a little easier to clean.” Jorgen moved his blade like he’d done this his whole life, and his skill with the process was obvious.
“Is this your first time?” I quipped with an arched eyebrow.
The hunter laughed, but then he returned his focus to his task.
“Be careful not to puncture the stomach,” Jorgen continued to explain as his knife made a slice toward the neck of the deer. “Then cut up to the sternum.”
He moved his fingers beneath the skin of the deer and separated the membrane that held in the organs away from the skin. Then he ran his blade over it very carefully and cut open the thin layer to reveal the innards. After this was done, he returned to the neck of the deer, and he severed the windpipe.
“Now comes the fun part,” he announced as he shot me a glance over his shoulder. Then he grabbed onto the deer’s windpipe and pulled downward, which brought all of the guts out with it in one go. He flicked his blade to remove a few tendrils that clung to the mass of viscera, but then he was able to fling the mess to the side, and he was left with a field-dressed deer.
“That’s awesome.” I grinned, and then I reset back to the moment he dropped the deer on the ground in front of me.
Chime.
“Dinner is served,” Jorgen announced in a pleased tone as he deposited his load on the ground at my feet.
“Just what I was craving,” I quipped, and then I whipped out one of my daggers. “May I?”
“Please,” Jorgen replied with an eager grin.
I mimicked the hunter’s actions and began to field dress the deer. At first, my cuts were awkward and uneven, but after a while, I found my flow. After a little more practice, I decided I could do better from the start, and I reset back to my save point.
Chime.
I attempted the dissection of the deer several times before I felt like my skill was anywhere comparable to Jorgen’s, but on my twentieth attempt, the hunter’s face was full of surprise.
Then I reset for a final time, and the hunter dropped the deer at my feet once more.
“May I?” I asked again while I pulled out my blade, and I didn’t wait for a response before I began to expertly cut into the deer’s flesh.
“Excellent, sir.” Jorgen’s eyebrows shot up in amazement as I bested his example with masterful techniques.
“It’s nothing,” I said with a dismissive wave of a bloody hand, and then I yanked out the innards in one fluid movement and flung them to the edge of the campground.
“What else would we expect from the God of Time?” Riondale observed with a chuckle.
“Nothing but the best,” Mahini offered with pride burning in her piercing blue eyes. She eyed me appreciatively even though I was elbows deep inside a deer’s stomach cavity, and I had to congratulate myself again on getting her to bond with me.
That was one of the best damned decisions I’d ever made.
After I finished with the deer, I washed up while Jorgen took over the process of cutting the meat into strips, and then he hung the strips over a stick positioned across the flames. A moment later, the savory smell of roasting venison filled the air, and my stomach growled with hunger.
A few other men brought some rolls over in a heavy iron pot, and they buried the dish beneath some coals to warm up its contents. It was shaping up to be a nice dinner regardless of our camping circumstances, and I was growing more excited by the moment.
“It smells amazing,” Elissa breathed as her emerald eyes watched the meat cook.
“I bet it will taste even better after how hard we rode today,” Mahini observed, and a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.
“You both did well today,” I said as I bumped my shoulder against the desert goddess.
“You promise it won’t be like that every day of our journey, right?” Elissa asked in a hopeful tone.
“Oh, I promise,” I chuckled. “I don’t enjoy it that much, either, you know.”
“You never complain, though,” Mahini murmured with pride in her voice. “You are the strongest man I’ve ever known.”
“Strongest you’ll ever know, too,” I laughed as I lifted my chin and smiled at them.
It was my goal to always be the most amazing man in existence in the eyes of my women, and it seemed like that title was firmly won so far.
Suddenly, a motion in my peripheral vision caught my attention, and my head spun as I followed the blur of movement darting through the trees. I didn’t want to scare anyone by raising the alarm for no reason, so I casually stood and dusted off my pants before I headed in the direction of the dark shape.
I tracked the random bursts of movement in the shadows for a moment, and then I darted forward at a quick pace. We were almost next to the stream, and the figure ahead of me stopped next to the water. I hid behind a tree, and I leaned around it to observe my target subtly.
It was one of the guards, the man who’d avoided my eyes.
Did we have a traitor in our midst?
I watched with my breath held while the guard began to take off pieces of armor. The shoulder guards came off first, and then the chest piece, but finally, the guard removed his helmet and shook his head.
Except it wasn’t a man at all. It was a woman, and one I recognized immediately.
Evangeline, the duke’s daughter, stood beside the stream and removed her armor disguise. She stripped down until her perfectly slender body was completely naked, and then she stepped into the water.
I realized too late that I’d seen too much, and I scurried backward toward the campsite. Then I stepped on a stick, and the loud crack echoed through the trees, and Evangeline’s head whipped around to face in my direction.
Her smoky-gray eyes met mine, and the shame in her gaze made my heart hurt for her. She thought she’d been sneaky, but she wasn’t good enough to avoid detection from me.
I was surprised to see her, but I was also excited about the possibility of getting to know her better.
The life of a god was full of pleasant surprises.
Chapter Five
I thought about my options. I could interrogate her to figure out exactly what she was doing here, but I already had a pretty good idea. It almost didn’t even matter what I said since I could always restart if I messed up.
I made a new save point, and then I crossed the distance between us in a few short steps. Eva blinked in surprise at my sudden closeness, but then I leaned in to steal a kiss. I brushed my lips against hers and crushed her naked body to me, and then I went all in. I melded our mouths together and sent out a searching probe with my tongue.
“Mmmm…” the woman moaned into my mouth as her tongue urgently pressed against mine, and I reached down with both my hands so I could squeeze her tight butt cheeks.
For a few seconds Evangeline’s moan grew more intense and passionate as I felt every part of her ass, but then her hand shot up, and she pushed me away from her.
“W-What was that…” the duke’s daughter murmured as her hand leaped to her lips.
“I just wanted to see what it would be like to kiss you.” I grinned. “Don’t worry, you won’t remember it.”
“Of course, I’ll remember that!” Eva exclaimed.
“Because you liked it?” I raised an eyebrow.
“I… I…” She blinked her gray eyes, and her pale skin turned red. “Are you always this… so… forward?
”
“That’s answer enough for me,” I chuckled. I’d gotten over my compulsion to kiss her, so I was satisfied, so I reset back to my save point
Chime.
Eva blinked at me in surprise, and we stood staring at each other for a long silent moment, but then she reached for her clothes with a lightning-quick flash of her arm. The next thing I knew, she held her clothes over her torso, and she blocked her flesh from my view.
I was a little disappointed since the air had a chill to it which was causing goosebumps to rise on her skin, and I was enjoying the view while it lasted.
“What are you doing?” she demanded hotly. “Sneaking up on a lady while she bathes is beneath you, Great One.”
“Hey, I saw a shadow sneaking around the campground,” I argued back. “I went to investigate. The better question is what are you doing here? I specifically remember your father telling you no.”
“Forget what my father said,” Eva said as she lifted her chin stubbornly. “I am a warrior, a fighter, and I have earned the right to make my own decisions.”
“I still don’t think the duke would be very happy about this situation,” I said as I cast a glance down at her person. “Do you?”
“Please turn around so I can get dressed,” she requested with a frown. “Stop staring.”
“Don’t give me something to stare at, then,” I countered with a grin, but I obliged her and turned around anyway.
I listened to the sounds of the forest, Eva moving through the water, and the nearby noise of the men around the campfire for a few moments. Then Evangeline tapped me on the shoulder.
“Alright, you can turn around now.” Her voice was so soft, it was almost a whisper.
I turned back around to face the duke’s daughter, and she’d pulled on the red tunic included in the guard’s uniform. Her legs were still bare, and I pictured my hands sliding up the skin of her muscular pale-white thighs. Evangeline’s short-cropped blonde hair stood at odd angles like she’d pulled on the tunic in a hurry, and the pale skin of her face was flushed a soft pink.
“You looked better before,” I teased.
That earned me a slap on the shoulder, but Eva had a twinkle in her smoky-gray eyes.