Chapter 26

“Of all the rotten luck,” growled Kal.

Sera clung tightly to his back as he used the haste rune to keep pace with Velt and Graff, their animal-shifted arms and legs speeding them through the bare forest far faster than the gorgon could hope to keep up.

Behind them twenty Lantaran soldiers gave chase, hooting, yelling and banging their swords against their shields.

“They’re driving us!” he called out to the fox and rabbit. It was a common hunting tactic, flushing the game, pushing it toward another set of hunters. The strategy made sense as many animal-type monster girls could easily outrun the band of humans on foot. Kal was amazed that such a large group managed to remain quiet enough to catch them unaware, but if this was their plan there was no necessity for bothering to get close to their prey. “There’s probably more of them waiting at the edge of the forest!”

“What do we do?” asked Velt as a tree passed between them.

“Turn!” he called out, angling their path toward the southwest. “Now run as fast as you can! We can’t come out right on top of the second group of soldiers!”

A bellowing shout came from the soldiers behind them. Kal couldn’t make it out but he had a feeling they were updating the men waiting for them.

“How much further to the forest edge?” he asked the fox once the group of humans had fallen behind far enough they couldn’t be seen, though they were still making quite a racket.

“It’ been years since I’ve been this deep into human lands but guessing by the smell, it’s not far,” she replied.

“Good,” he looked behind them and couldn’t even see a flash of steel from their pursuers, “Follow me,” said the mage, turning due south.

“What? Why?” Velt asked.

“Because they signaled those at the edge of the forest that we changed direction and if we keep on this path we will run right into more soldiers. This won’t throw them off for long, but it might be enough to let us make it to the wall,” said Kal. From his back, Sera grunted in complaint as he quickly avoided a small tree in his path.

They slowed to a jog and the mage sent Ria out to gauge the distance to the forest edge and look for any sign of the second group of soldiers. The news she brought back didn’t improve Kal’s mood.

“They’re all mounted,” reported the sprite. “The good news is that you can see the wall from the forest edge. But there’s a lot of open ground to travel. Beyond the trees there is nothing you can use for cover.”

“Understood, I’ll see if I can make us some.” He looked over at Velt and Graff, “I’m going to make an illusion that should hide us, but be ready to run. Making an illusion then moving the things in it is easy. However, I’ve never tried to get an illusion to move with me over a long distance. This could go horribly wrong or not work at all.”

A short while later they arrived at the treeline and Kal began setting up the illusion. Looking out at the distant wall, he asked Velt, “Do you have a way to get over that?”

Graff answered, “I should be able to jump that high. Velt is an excellent jumper too, but not quite as good as I am. If I get on top first I should be able to help her up.”

The mage nodded. “Okay, I think that’s it,” he said, looking at the illusory scene of a bunch of grass whose blades got smaller the closer to the top they were. He wasn’t as worried about the design as he was about the color. As long as that matched fairly well they should have the best chance for passing by unnoticed.

They could see three of the mounted patrolmen a short distance to the north of their position. Spacing themselves evenly along the forest edge, they had arranged themselves in a manner where there was enough area for a monster girl to believe she could escape, but a whistle or yell from one of the soldiers would bring the rest running. As quick as Graff and Velt were, they couldn’t outrun a horse at full gallop.

Crouching down behind the illusion, the fox and rabbit were out front while Sera and Kal brought up the rear. It took a surprising amount of concentration to move the curtain of faux grass without it flickering or disappearing. Kal discovered that if they crept along slowly he could maintain the image with a little bit of effort.

It seemed to take forever to get to the road. Velt and Graff had no problems since they were on all fours but Kal and Sera’s backs were already complaining loudly from being hunched over for so long.

As they came to the edge of the road Kal switched the illusion from the static image of grass and began changing the front edge to match the dusty tan of the path in front of them. The spell flickered multiple times, flashing white, black, and even disappearing for a moment before finally settling on a large rectangle of the tan color he had been aiming for. Apparently, the spell did not appreciate trying to change the image while moving it at the same time.

All four of them held their breath, their eyes widening when they heard off in the distance, “What the hell is that?”

Looking to the side, Kal realized what the tan rectangle must look like from the soldier’s point of view.

He turned to Velt and Graff, his haste rune already spinning up. “Run.”

As fox and rabbit bolted for the wall, he dropped to one knee and let Sera vault onto his back before tearing off after them. Shouts came from the direction of the mounted patrolmen, but he ignored them.

“Eight horses in total. Two are readying bows,” Sera said far more calmly than her rapid breathing implied.

“Let me know if they nock an arrow and raise their bows.”

“An arrow is nocked...”

Ahead of them, Graff put on a burst of speed and leapt for the top of the wall.

... raising,” said Sera nervously.

“Hold on tight.” Kal glanced back just in time to see two arrows sail high into the air as the archers lobbed them in the direction of the rabbit. The featherfall rune came to life and he pushed the magic into the gorgon on his back while at the same time the strength rune shone brightly as he leapt into the air, positioning himself and Sera between Graff and the oncoming arrows.

As Graff reached the top of the wall and flopped onto her stomach, Kal activated his shield rune above her. He quickly saw that both arrows would pass to one side of him, well out of reach of the magical shield. Gritting his teeth, he poured an excessive amount of energy into the rune expanding the shield to many times its normal size. The sound of arrows crashing into the magical barrier was accompanied by the pop of burning leather as the rune heated up.

Velt ran up the side of the wall and grabbed Graff’s outstretched hand. Within seconds they were both on top of, then over, the wall and running in the tall grass of the plains. Meanwhile, Kal was dropping back to the ground, but on the wrong side. He was so close, and if he could just get a foot onto the front edge, momentum would probably carry him safely the rest of the way.

His foot came down on something solid but invisible. Stumbling, the other foot also stepped on something as Sera cried out in surprise. A third step also seemed to be caught by thin air while the fourth dropped him down onto the very back edge of the stone barrier below him. A quick hop to the ground and he was chasing after the fox and rabbit.

“What the hell just happened?!” yelled Sera making him wince since her mouth was right next to his ear.

“I don’t know, we’ll figure it out later!”

“How can you not—” the gorgon turned her head to look behind them. “Archers up on the wall. Foot soldiers are climbing up too.”

Kal growled in irritation. They made it over the damn wall, couldn’t they just leave his party alone. “Stopping,” he warned her, “I need you to get down.”

Graff and Velt were well out of the archer’s range but he and Sera were not. Kal raised his shield but they were on the edge of the archer’s range and neither of the shafts came close to their mark. In response, a small purple rune lit up as Kal made a motion as though drawing a bow. Unlike the men on the wall currently nocking another shot, his arrows flew straight and true until the spell ran out or they got too far away. A soldier dropped to the ground on this side of the wall and immediately dove to the side as a shower of sparks rained down on him from where Kal’s arrow impacted the stone. Two more arrows struck the wall just below the archer’s feet, sending them sprawling across the top of the barrier. A second later another two bolts streaked above them as a strong incentive to stay down.

Kneeling so Sera could resume her perch, Kal used the moment of confusion among the patrol to bolt after their companions.

A few hours later, Sera noticed something through one of her serpents. The patrol hadn’t given up as Kal had hoped. The mounted soldiers had run to one of the gates in the wall and were continuing the chase, leaving those on foot behind. Unfortunately, their group’s passage pushed over and broke the grass, making for an easy trail to follow. Darting behind a small rise, Kal used the speed rune to make it look as though they had continued in a straight line. Another small illusion gave an impression of a trail stretching off into the distance. It wasn’t a great illusion, but it didn’t need to be either.

Quickly and more thoroughly, he covered their path from the decoy trail to their hiding spot. The mage then erected another illusion, this one mimicking the grass around them. Since it was stationary, he was even able to make stalks in the image look like they were waving in the breeze.

As Kal hoped, the mounted soldiers went barreling through his illusion to be faced with an ocean of grass with no sign of what direction their prey had gone. Cursing, the patrol leader had his men canvass the area. After only a few minutes he called off the search and they began making their way back toward Lantaris.

“You have to admire their persistence,” whispered Velt.

Kal grunted in agreement as they watched the line of receding soldiers. They decided not to move until their pursuers were well out of sight.

“From Sera’s description and what I’ve seen, you could have dispatched them easily. Why didn’t you?”

“The short answer is that I don’t like killing unless necessary,” he answered in a low voice. No sense in taking a chance on the wind revealing them to a sharp-eared soldier. “I felt we had enough of an advantage to make killing them unnecessary. Other than that, I have made a very powerful friend in Lantaris who feels he owes me a favor. I’m sure that favor would vanish if I killed some of his men. In essence, to kill one of them I would have had to take out the entire company so he never found out.”

A chill ran down Velt’s spine, “From how you said that I get the impression that wouldn’t be outside your abilities.”

Kal frowned, “For a group of regular soldiers? No, it probably isn’t. I just hope I never need to find out if we are correct.”

The patrol leader, Kal couldn’t remember if they were sergeants, captains, or something else, ordered his men to a trot and the men finally faded into the distance.

“Looks like it’s time to go,” said Kal. He and Velt turned around and froze.

Sera sat leaning back against Graff as the rabbit laid a trail of soft kisses and licks all over one side of her neck. One of the doe’s hands had tugged up the gorgon’s shirt and her fingers were now fluttering across her lower belly while the other ran up and down the inside of Sera’s thigh, nearly touching her sex through the woman’s pants before retreating down her leg. From the way Sera was biting her lip to keep from moaning and the way her body jerked each time Graff’s hand changed direction it was plain that she was appreciating the rabbit’s attention.

“What the hell are you doing, Graff?” asked the fox.

The doe smiled back, “Just passing the time.”

That night after supper Sera walked over to where the rabbit was sitting and reached out, gathering up a handful of the woman’s hair.

Pulling the doe’s head back, she growled in Graff’s face, “You and I are going into the bedroom and once I get naked you are going to do whatever the fuck you were doing when we were hiding earlier and get me ready for Kal. Understand?”

The rabbit’s initial flash of fear was quickly replaced with arousal as the gorgon spoke. “Yes, mistress,” she responded in a voice dripping with lust.

Sera was slightly taken aback, “Mist—?” With a small shake of her head, the gorgon dragged the woman to her feet. “Whatever, get moving,” she said, pushing the doe toward Kal’s bedroom.

The mage cast a concerned glance over at Velt.

“No worries, she asked me earlier if what she just did was okay with me. It was a surprise for Graff but as you can see, she wasn’t complaining one bit. In fact, I think she was hoping for something like this tonight.”

Kal shook his head as soft moans started coming from his room, “Every day that passes I swear that woman is more dangerous now than she was when she was in heat.”

“Fair assessment, I think. If she could focus all that energy on more than sex she would be a force to be reckoned with.” The vixen glanced over at him, “There’s a reason that phrase is ‘fuck like rabbits’ and not ‘fuck like foxes.’”

The moans were getting louder.

“If I don’t get in there I’m going to miss the show,” said Kal, looking in the direction of the sounds. He then gave Velt a questioning look, “Want to watch?”

The fox smiled, “And miss Graff working her magic on a woman beside me? Of course I’ll come along.” As they stood up, she gave him a sly grin, “Bet you a blowjob Sera gets off before Graff touches her pussy.”

Looking over the vixen he wondered how he could lose. “You’re on,” he said as they walked toward his room.

Only two days of this and Kal was already sick to death of seeing nothing but yellow grass all the way to the horizon. Worse yet, they still had a couple of weeks more of this view before they got to the area where they could start searching in earnest for Prentas’s tower.

“Kal?” said the gorgon, getting his attention.

“Yes?”

“Did you ever figure out what happened back at the wall?”

He thought for a moment. “Maybe, I just need to check something,” said the mage before summoning Ria.

“Ugh ... still nothing but grass,” said the sprite looking around.

Kal smiled, he sympathized completely with her attitude toward the scenery. “I just need to ask you what you said about these boots after I first got them,” he said while pointing down at them. “Then you can go back.”

“They are called the ‘Boots of the Traveler.’ Why do you need to know?”

“Because I was able to walk on thin air for a few seconds the other day at the wall and—”

The sprite held up a hand stopping him. “That ... sounds familiar. Boots of the Traveler, take three steps ... in any direction. Whatever that means.” She searched her memories for a few more seconds before looking up at him. “That’s all I have.”

The mage looked down at his feet then at Sera, “We were about to land in front of the wall instead of on top it. My desire to go a little further forward must have activated them.” He looked down again, “Damn, now I really wish I had my sight back. I wonder if I will be able to copy the rune that makes them do that? How many times can I use them before they need to recharge?” Kal’s string of questions was interrupted as he nearly tripped from watching his feet and not where he was stepping.

As he recovered, Velt tapped him on the shoulder. “This way,” she said, turning the party so they were going due south instead of southwest.

“Mind telling me why we turned?” asked Kal.

“Bugs.”

“Ants?”

She shook her head, “No, these are long and thin with a green shell and huge mandibles. Usually, there are between three and ten living close together. They burrow into the ground then pop out of their holes and grab whatever prey is passing by. Luckily for us, they aren’t very good about taking care of their refuse which means their colonies have a distinctive smell that makes them easy enough to avoid.”

“Remember, Sera and I will be traveling back without you. We need to know as much about surviving out here as possible.”

“You want lessons?”

Kal nodded.

Velt smiled and reached for her only piece of clothing besides her fur, a belt sporting several pouches and her only weapon. Pulling the hand sickle from its sheath, she held it up, “Resources are rare out on the plains, and one of these can make it easy to get shelter, fire, and even food...

A few days later they came across the first of the wooded areas Velt mentioned. Kal looked at the sun that was beginning to set in the west. “Should we venture inside?”

Velt shook her head, “Wooded areas like this are a blessing to many animals as they often spring up around a water source. More animals mean more predators vying for territory. Best to go in when there is enough light to see anything that might attack us.”

“Sounds good.” He looked down at the pouch on his belt, “Ria.”

A few seconds later the sprite flitted up in front of his face and kissed him on the nose. “How can I help you?” she asked.

“We’re setting up camp early tonight, I need the tent.”

Kal was getting frustrated, he had spent the last few days digging through various books trying to find some information to supplement what Velt was teaching him. Unfortunately, the closest he had come so far were studies that a few scholars had done on the savannahs located somewhere to the southeast. Velt didn’t recognize any of the drawings or descriptions in the book, making the Lantaran plains appear somewhat unique.

He set his book down next to the magical lamp made of a claw holding a crystal orb when Velt walked into the library where he and Sera were. The fox and rabbit quickly adjusted to seeing the gorgon with her face in Kal’s lap during their reading time, but still seemed to be a little surprised when they entered a room and saw what they were doing.

“Can I help you?” he asked

The vixen was wearing a hungry expression as she looked him over, “I’m here to collect on our bet from the other day.”

Sera lifted her book up over her head, curiosity written on her face.

“Nothing to worry about,” he assured her, “just a friendly wager.” Looking back up at Velt he asked, “Did you want me to lay down or switch places? Or perhaps you wanted to go back to your room?”

“None of those. I just need her to scoot over a little and for you to stand up.”

“I’m not seeing—”

Sera let Kal’s prick slip from his mouth. “Why do you need him to stand up?”

“Because, honey, I bet him a blowjob Graff could get you off without touching you between your legs. I believe he lost that bet three times that night.” The gorgon blushed bright red as Velt continued, “Now I’m collecting on that bet and he’s going to let me give him a blowjob.”

“I didn’t think that was how it worked but you’re making it hard to complain,” said the mage.

“What if he won your bet?”

The fox smiled, “Then he could get a blowjob from me any time he wanted. Either way, I get what I want.”

Kal stood up in front of Sera as Velt joined the gorgon on her knees in front of him. “Hard to argue with that logic.”

“And me?” Sera asked.

The fox put a hand on the gorgon’s shoulder and pulled her closer to Kal’s cock. “I’m claiming the treat at the end but was hoping you could help me out,” she said before running her lips over her side of the mage’s shaft.

Sera looked up at Kal. A smile slowly crept onto her face as she leaned forward and began running her lips up and down his prick opposite of the vixen.

Kal stared down at the women who were both looking up at him as they worked over his cock. “With a sight like that, I may need to lose a few more bets.”

As Kal, Velt, and Sera ventured out the next day, Graff stayed behind claiming that she was a lover, not a fighter, and that she would check things out once it was declared safe.

They’d hardly gotten close when an errant breeze brought a sweet smell to their noses.

Velt dashed in front of Kal and began pushing him back the way they had come.

“What are you doing!?” said Kal, stumbling slightly as the fox propelled him backward.

“Sundew,” she explained, though she hadn’t stopped pushing. “It’s an alarune that’s an indiscriminate carnivore. It will eat whatever it can get its sticky drops on.”

“Drops?”

Sniffing the air, she quit shoving the mage around. “It has long spines on its arms and torso, each with a large drop of nectar on it. The drops are sticky enough to entrap a human if they touch you and also cause your body to go numb so she can gather you up.” The fox thought for a moment, “She should have gone underground already, food must be scarce.”

“You know her?”

“What? No, I don’t know her, but sundews are a common hazard around bogs and marshes down in the southern forest. We should probably just head east from where we left the tent and go around.”

Kal shook his head, “I want to get some of those drops you were talking about.”

“Are you nuts?” cried the fox. “Look at what she’s done to you with just a bare whiff of her scent.” she said while pointing at the prominent tent in the front of his trousers.

“No, I’m a mage. Specifically, one who needs to find highly magical substances so I can keep making more of these,” he said holding up the new vambrace he made to replace the one burnt shielding the rabbit and fox from the archers. “The last time I went home I didn’t have Ria with me so I couldn’t collect a lot of Aradelle’s nectar for ink. By the time I purified what I came back with, there was hardly any left. If there’s a chance to get more I can’t ignore it.”

“Then why didn’t you try to get some from the one we saw before we met Velt and Graff?” Sera asked.

“Because she looked like ‘Dell,” he answered, looking sheepish. “Because I didn’t want to take a chance on her turning violent and have to hurt or even kill her. Because the song she was singing would have made me feel horrible if we tested to see if your gaze works on alarunes. After hearing Velt’s description of this type, I won’t need to feel bad.”

“Much as I hate to admit it, that last part might be a good enough reason by itself. Do you think I should bite her too?”

Kal shook his head, “I don’t see a need to kill her.”

Velt stared at Sera “Why are you encouraging him? And what are you two talking about with her ‘gaze?’”

The gorgon shook her head, “I’m not going to tell you. You can join us and see for yourself if you want but it will change how you act around me so I’d rather you didn’t. Suffice to say that if it works on the sundew Kal won’t be in any real danger.”

The fox sighed, “If you two aren’t back in two hours, Graff and I are leaving. Without Ria’s stock of meat, I’ll need to get hunting as quickly as possible.

“Understood,” said Kal before turning and walking west with the gorgon in tow. They would need to get upwind of the alarune to approach her safely.

She could smell them coming, a female with a reptilian tang to her scent and a human male, something she had not seen in a very, very long time. The way they were stomping through her forest meant they didn’t know she was here. More importantly, they probably didn’t know what she was.

Once she enticed the human she would need to deal with the female as well, but her nectar could probably immobilize the extra food until she could get some of her spines touching the woman. Unless a predator came and tried to steal her kills, the extra would stay alive long enough for the man to expire. At which point, she would wrap herself as best she could around both of them and enjoy her best meal in a decade.

She began hearing voices among the trees. With as noisy as these two were, it was a miracle they had managed to stay alive so long. She was going to do the reputation of adventurers everywhere a favor by eating these two. If they were this dumb then they certainly weren’t giving the profession a good name.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t be trying to be at least a little quiet?” said a female.

At least one of them was showing a little sense.

“No time, I want to get what we need and get moving as quickly as we can.”

The human’s voice made her shiver with excitement. She couldn’t count the number of years since her last male. Her only regret was that the flower in her hair withered and fell off weeks ago meaning she wouldn’t get a seed out of this coupling.

She ran her hands over the featureless bumps on her chest and down to her legs, picking off anything that might look like a blemish on her waxy yellow-green skin. Her legs turned into a stalk just below her knees and ran into a shallow bulb which rested on the ground. Maroon lines running up her sides and down her arms were the hiding places of her numerous spines, each able to produce a large drop of the sticky fluid she used to immobilize her prey.

She had always felt that her arms looked strange, nothing like what she had seen on humans and other monster girls. There was no discernable elbow despite bending where one would normally be. They were also thinnest at her shoulder and got gradually thicker until ending at large, sucker-like palms with equally large fingers. She understood that they looked much like the leaves of the non-magical variant of her species but still wished her limbs looked more ... normal. Then again, during those lonely times when she needed to take care of her urges she was perfectly happy having unusually large fingers.

Once these two were digested she would draw all of the fluids out of her upper body and allow it to die off for the winter, creating a new one next spring. With a large meal so late in the season, she should be able to make her new avatar in a fraction of the normal time.

As the man and woman came into view, the spines lying in the sundew’s stripes began to lift up and form the clear drops that her kind got their name from.

“Come closer,” she called out. “It has been such a long time since I’ve had anyone to talk to.”

The two halted for a moment then began slowly coming directly towards her. It was too bad they hadn’t come in from the other direction. With the scent of her nectar on the wind, the man would have been running into her arms already.

“No need to be so cautious, I won’t hurt you.” There was a bit of truth to her words. Despite being killed and slowly digested, they wouldn’t be in any pain at all. Two of the spines protruding from her shoulders bent back, ready to fling the liquid at the end toward her visitors as soon as they were in range.

“Sera?” said the man as he looked down at the woman.

Glancing up at him, the woman nodded and flipped the hood of her cloak back revealing a head full of tentacles ... no these had scales and heads, they were snakes.

The sundew had never seen anything quite like her and watched with fascination as the serpents fanned out, forming a halo around the monster girl’s head. The snake’s eyes glowed for a moment before the woman’s eyes lit up bright yellow.

It took a couple of seconds for the sundew to realize she was frozen in place. A couple of seconds later she wanted to scream in a mixture of rage and fear as the interlopers approached her with impunity.

The drops of the sundew’s nectar were far bigger than what Kal had expected, each one could have filled a tankard back at Telsin’s Inn and there were dozens on this lone plant girl.

“Ria, I’m going to need a bowl, a funnel, and a bunch of bottles.”

“You have that small keg of water you picked up for your first trip out onto the plains, you could dump that and use it instead of the bottles,” the sprite suggested.

“Good idea but I’d rather keep that filled with water in case I need it again.” That had been their only water besides what each of them brought in waterskins. They never tapped it. Only Elden was running low by the time they returned to Lantaris, and Kal wanted to have it available in case of an emergency. “Besides, I’m not sure what kinds of properties it will have, so we’ll stick with bottles.”

“You got it,” said Ria as specks of light began flowing out of her bag. “I just hope you aren’t wanting to make any more potions any time soon, it looks like you won’t have any left.”

“No worries. I’ll use some for testing and have to purify some more for ink. I have a plan for the rest, but I’ll tell you about that once we get back to the tent.”

“Why back at the tent?” asked Sera.

Kal picked up the bowl and carefully brought it up under one of the drops. As it touched the bottom of the container the liquid quickly flowed down, filling it just over halfway except for a tiny filament that remained attached to the sundew’s fleshy and flexible spines. He waited for the filament to break before holding out the bowl to Ria. “Store the contents of this bowl, please.”

Ria shook her head, “I can’t, it belongs to her,” she said, indicating the plant girl.