by Eric Vall
“Look, Jai,” I said as I stepped forward, and his yellow eyes snapped to me, “I know how you feel.”
“You do, do you?” he murmured blankly.
“Yes,” I nodded, “I do actually. You said it yourself, Hatra was, until very recently, an old ruined city. It was destroyed by demons and miasma a thousand years ago, and the very few people who remained struggled every day to just survive. At first, I blamed King Rodion, too. Why did my people have to suffer so much for so long? But I quickly realized that we couldn’t rely on the king to save us. He has his own things to take care of, so Hatra had to find a way to fix itself.”
“And what way did you find?” Jai asked as he studied me.
“My way,” I smirked, “which entails kicking demon ass and protecting my people no matter the cost. It took a lot of hard work to restore Hatra to its former glory and then surpass it, but with the help of my people, we were able to accomplish the impossible. And, if you’ll allow us to, we can do the same thing for Tikal.”
Jai’s yellow eyes stared deep into my purple ones, and neither one of us blinked for several long moments. Then the jaguar released a breath I hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and he cocked his head to the side.
“Tikal might be beyond help now,” he mused.
“No such thing,” I chuckled. “Hatra was just a bunch of ruins, and I rebuilt the city brick by brick in a matter of months.”
“The city itself doesn’t need rebuilding,” Jai muttered as his gaze flickered to the jungle at his back, “the people do.”
I frowned in confusion, but then I shook it off.
“Whatever the problem is, we can address it,” I assured him. “This is what King Rodion has tasked me to do. My job is to help stabilize Rahma, and I will not fail.”
“In return for what?” the jaguar questioned, and a note of suspicion bled into his voice again. “What do you ask for in return for the help you offer?”
“Your allegiance,” I replied bluntly, and I looked him straight in the eye. “If I help restore peace in Tikal, I want your sworn allegiance that should the need ever arise, House Onca will stand behind the crown of Rahma against the demon legions.”
“That is a tall order,” he snorted.
“Would you rather face The Breach alone when it arrives at your doorstep?” I asked as I cocked an eyebrow at him.
Jai pursed his lips, and his tail flicked back and forth behind him in irritation.
“That’s what I thought.” I smirked.
“I will not promise anything right now,” the jaguar shook his head, “for I do not yet know if you are a man of your word.”
“He is,” Ravi suddenly chimed in behind me, and she stepped up to stand beside Alyona. “If Lord Evan says he will do something, you can trust it will get done.”
“And why do you say this, little phoenix?” Jai asked as he looked the orange-haired woman up and down.
“Because Lord Evan promised to save my people,” Ravi replied with her chin raised, “and he traveled across the desert, battled an army that numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and put his life on the line to do just that. Now, my tribe is free for the first time in many years, and it is all because of Lord Evan.”
“Hmm,” Jai hummed in contemplation, and then his yellow eyes fell on me. “Do you always travel with an entourage to sing your praises, Lord Evan of Hatra el Shamash?”
I smirked. “What, you don’t?”
Finally, the semblance of a smile flickered across Jai’s stoic face.
“Fine,” he said after a long moment, “I will consider accepting your help.”
“Well,” I grinned, “that’s a start.”
“A peaceful Tikal will not be so easily won, if it can be won at all,” the jaguar warned with a frown, but then his eyes flickered to the sun over our heads. “But we will discuss all this more once we are safely within our borders. Come.”
With that, the jaguar Demi-Human turned on his heel and strode off toward the tree line, and his warriors cast us a few uncertain glances before they fell into step behind him.
“Do we follow, my lord?” Laika asked as she frowned at the retreating jaguars.
“Yes,” I replied with a furrowed brow, “but keep your guards up. Something tells me we’re going to have to fight a little before we can bring peace back to Tikal.”
Chapter 12
The late afternoon was quickly transitioning into evening, and the shadows of the jungle reached out to us like grasping hands. My party and I had mounted our caravan of wagons again, and we slowly bumped along the uneven ground as we followed Jai and his jaguar warriors into their territory.
As we passed into the tree line, the temperature dropped notably in the shade, but the humidity also rose by several degrees. It was a much different climate than what we had around Hatra and the surrounding areas, and I fanned my shirt to give me a little relief.
I was a dragon, so heat I could deal with, but humidity was another thing entirely.
“Whew, and I thought the desert was hot,” Ravi sighed as she wiped at the sweat beading on her brow. Tendrils of orange hair were already plastered against her cheeks and forehead, and I could tell the phoenix was having a hard time adjusting to the jungle already.
“Yeah, the humidity will get ya,” I chuckled and glanced over at the three women on the bench beside me. After our encounter with Jai and his warriors, Ravi had taken to sticking by my side, and I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t really complaining either. I felt more at ease to have my lovers by my side, even if the wagon bench was a little cramped now.
“How much farther do you think Tikal is?” Laika questioned and tugged on the reins to steer the horses around a fallen log. We were currently traveling down a worn dirt path, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a road. It was wide enough for the wagons at least, but it looked like the citizens of Tikal weren’t particularly keen on trail upkeep. The jaguars didn’t seem to have a problem as they moved smoothly through their home turf, and more than once I lost sight of them as they blended into the trees around us.
“Not sure. The scenery is nice, though.” I craned my neck back to study the canopy. The trees towered over our heads and blocked out most of the waning sun, so the jungle itself was stepped in a twilight gloom. Thanks to my dragon sight, I could still see in perfect detail, and my eyes skipped across the various flora.
A lot of the plants and vegetation looked similar to what I could find back on Earth, but there were some strange looking flowers in neon colors that drew my gaze. I knew enough about biology to know vibrant colors meant danger, though, so I refrained from sticking my hand out of the wagon and touching anything.
“I think it’s beautiful,” Ravi murmured as she laid her head on my left shoulder. “I’ve never seen so much green in all my life. There is the forest outside Hatra, but this … this is different.”
“It’s the humidity that you’re such a fan of,” I laughed. “All that moisture in the air makes the plants livelier.”
“And bigger,” the phoenix gasped as her blue eyes went wide.
I followed her awed gaze, and even I gaped at the new trees we were approaching. We were deeper into the jungle now, and the plant life was growing exponentially in size with every step we took. Ravi was currently staring at a tree that I couldn’t even estimate the size of. The trunk was wider than my dragon body was long, and the bark was a deep burgundy in color with human sized orange fungi jutting out at random intervals.
“Holy shit. ” I whistled. “Now, that’s something you don’t see every day.”
“Thank you, Lord Evan,” Ravi whispered as she tore her eyes away from the tree and turned back to me.
I furrowed my brow. “For what?”
“For allowing me to accompany you on this campaign,” the phoenix muttered and dropped her eyes shyly. “I have always dreamed of seeing the world, and now I get to … with you and all these people I care about by my side.”
The sincere gratitude in
Ravi’s voice caused a pleased growl to rumble in my chest, and I leaned forward to press a possessive kiss against her lips.
“I will do anything to make you happy,” I said, “but I’m also glad to have you at my side. We made a pretty good team against those golems, didn’t we?”
“We did,” Ravi giggled and blushed at my praise.
“I just wish we were here during better circumstances,” Alyona sighed from my other side, and I looked over to find the princess staring straight ahead with a frown etched across her face.
“Don’t worry,” I assured and reached out to squeeze her hand. “We’ll get to the bottom of Tikal’s problems, and we’ll turn it into the peaceful city it once was. I promise.”
“How can you be so sure?” Alyona asked as she looked at me and bit her lip.
“When have I ever let you down?” I smirked.
A smile twitched across Alyona’s mouth, and she shook her head. “Never.”
“Exactly,” I said, “and I don’t plan on starting now. As I told Jai, I brought Hatra back from the dead. Helping Tikal will be a piece of cake.”
“I wouldn’t speak so soon, my lord,” Laika muttered as she suddenly tugged the horses to a stop. The wagon clattered to a jerky halt, and I heard the rest of the caravan behind us follow suit.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We have reached Tikal,” the wolf Demi-Human replied as she stared straight ahead, and her gray ears flickered back and forth at an alarming pace.
“What? Are you sure?” I frowned and looked in front of us, but all I could see were more trees and foliage, and all I could hear was the perpetual din of the jungle. Creatures chittered and rustled through the underbrush, and strange birds called out different notes and songs overhead.
“I am positive,” Laika nodded and lifted an arm to point ahead, “the city is just beyond that ridge.”
“You guard speaks the truth,” Jai announced as he suddenly appeared beside the wagon. “We have reached Tikal.”
“Fuck!” I gasped and glared down at the jaguar, and he valiantly suppressed a smirk.
“My apologies, I didn’t mean to startle you, Lord Evan,” the dark-skinned Demi-Human said.
“You didn’t,” I muttered as I slid down off the cart, “but where is this city you’re talking about?”
“Come,” the jaguar jerked his head over his shoulder, “feast your eyes on the once great city of Tikal.”
“What about the wagons?” I asked and gestured to the caravan behind me.
“We will return for them,” Jai assured me, “but first, I want you to see what you have committed yourself to.”
“Well, I don’t like the sound of that,” I grumbled under my breath before I turned to my party. “Come on, guys, I don’t want us getting split up.”
“A sound decision, brother,” Nike said as he approached from the second wagon, and the dryad sisters trailed close behind him.
“Lord Evan, isn’t this place amazing?” Polina giggled as she spun in a full circle, and her skirt flared out around her hips. When she came to a stop, she reached out and trailed her fingers along a curled-up vine, and at her touch, the vine unfurled and revealed a bright red flower as big as my head.
“Yes, this whole place is thrumming with life!” Marina exclaimed, placed her hand on a nearby tree, and closed her eyes. “I can even feel its heartbeat.”
“The heartbeat of the jungle?” I questioned with a quirked brow.
“Why, of course,” Trina frowned up at me, “can’t you feel it, Lord Evan?”
“No,” I laughed and shook my head, “can’t say that I do.”
“Oh, but it’s so … delicious,” Polina all but moaned, and she bit her lip as her green eyes grew hooded. “It makes me want to reaffirm my own life, over and over and over again.”
“She means she wants you to fuck her,” Marina supplied with a helpful smile that turned coy. “As do I.”
Trina took a step forward and laid her palm flat against my chest. Then she began to tap her finger in a slow, pulsing tempo.
“Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump,” she sang as she kept time, and as her finger continued to tap against my sternum, I thought I could feel an echoing rhythm. It was very faint, and not something I could hear with my ears, but I felt it, deep in my spiritual sea.
And a little in my cock. But that was probably just the dryads.
“Woah,” I murmured, “okay, I think I can feel it now. That’s actually pretty incredible.”
“Your cohorts are very in tune with nature,” Jai noted as he arched a black eyebrow at the sisters.
“Well, duh,” Polina giggled at him, “we’re dryads, silly.”
“As much as I am enjoying this biology lesson,” Laika stepped forward with a frown, “the sun will set soon.”
“Your guard is right,” Jai nodded, “come, let us be quick.”
With that, the jaguar Demi-Human turned and strode off into the jungle, and I watched in fascination when his warriors seemed to materialize from between the trees as they followed their leader.
“Well, you heard the man,” I said and flashed my team a smile, “come on.”
The eight of us quickly trailed after Jai and his men, and we continued down the worn dirt path. A few yards down the trail, however, the jaguar Demi-Humans veered off the road and slipped between a grove of ferns nearly fifteen feet tall. The jaguars seemed to move smoothly between the leaves and foliage, but I struggled with pushing the underbrush aside for a moment before the dryads giggled and skipped ahead of me.
“Let us, Lord Evan,” Polina said as she and her sisters raised their hands, and then the ferns and other plants parted before us like Moses and the Red Sea.
“Thanks, ladies,” I replied, and then I picked up the pace to catch up with Jai.
Which was unnecessary, apparently, because the jaguars had come to a stop about fifteen yards ahead.
“We are here,” Jai intoned as he reached out, pulled a large branch aside, and gestured me forward. “Welcome to Tikal, Lord Evan.”
The jaguar’s tone was a little mocking when he dipped his head, but I ignored it as I stepped past him and into a brighter patch of jungle.
And then the air whooshed from my lungs as I gaped at the sight before me.
“Fucking hell,” I breathed, and several gasps echoed behind me as my party laid eyes on the city of Tikal.
The first thing I noticed was that it was massive. Immense. Almost beyond comprehension. Hatra was itself a vast city and nothing to thumb your nose at, but Tikal … Tikal was in a whole different league, perhaps because it hadn’t spent the last thousand years as a forgotten ruin.
We currently stood on a ridge that overlooked a grand valley, and Tikal spread out before us as far as the eye could see. It had to be miles and miles across in every direction, and it didn’t look like there were walls to separate the city proper from the wilderness around it.
What was even more astounding, though, was the fact that the city seemed to be split into three completely distinct biospheres.
To the east of the city, where we were now standing, emerald and verdant jungles sprawled across the ground and arched up toward the sky. The trees even continued on through the eastern half of Tikal, and I could see the plant life had been incorporated into the city’s design as vines and other foliage twined through the streets and across the stone and wooden buildings. It even looked like some structures were built into the trees themselves.
To the south, however, the jungle faded away to flat plains. Green and golden grasses swayed in the wind, and my dragon eyesight clocked various small animals moving through the grasslands. The southern portion of the city was more spaced out too, and fields of crops popped up here and there between huts and granite looking structures.
Then, to the north and west, there was a more familiar sight. Golden sands stretched toward the northwestern end of the valley, and the ground leveled out into gentle sloping dunes. This desert section of T
ikal looked to be the largest, and great buildings and pyramids of sandstone and limestone reached for the heavens.
All in all, Tikal was an impressive sight to say the least.
“You have a beautiful city, Jai of House Onca,” I said as I turned to the jaguar.
The dark-skinned Demi-Human curled his lip in derision. “Unfortunately, it is not just my city. And it is not so beautiful close up.”
“I think it looks like a painting,” Ravi sighed as her blue eyes skipped over the vast city.
“How do you get so much different nature in one place?” Polina asked as she and her sisters gaped at Tikal. “It’s like its own whole little world!”
“It is said the gods blessed Tikal so many different peoples could call it home.” Jai shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest.
“You don’t sound like you believe that,” I remarked with a cocked eyebrow.
“I believe the world is full of many mysteries,” the jaguar murmured cryptically as his yellow eyes trailed over his home city.
“Do you not believe in the gods?” Alyona questioned with a curious look.
“I believe the gods exist,” Jai replied in a flat voice, “but I do not believe they care enough to bless us. We are but playthings in their eyes.”
I couldn’t argue with the man there as I thought back to when I met The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens. She had been the goddess to bless my adoption into the House of Hatra, but looking into her scarlet eyes had been like staring into a cold, unfeeling abyss. She might have looked like a mirror image of Alyona, but she had been alien and unsettling.
“So, do different people live in the different sections, Lord Jai?” Ravi asked as she looked at the jaguar.
“Yes,” he nodded and gestured to the jungle around us, “the eastern portion is my house’s territory. We rule the jungles and the east section of Tikal.”
“From what I remember, House Oel once oversaw the whole city, but they lived in the deserts to the north and west,” Nike remarked.
“Correct,” Jai narrowed his yellow eyes at the noble, “though House Oel oversees nothing but themselves now.”
“Then who lives in the south?” Marina questioned, and she pointed to the swaying grasslands.
