by Philip Read
These grasslands are vast and beautiful with a multitude of rare and dangerous beasts. The people are trained in concealment methods only known by these people and passed down generation to generation, the impala are found nowhere else and anyone not and Aldermen they catch hunting them is pursued for years.
“Yes, those that marry our sons and daughters become our people.”
That’s all I needed to hear, I hope my new mate is at least agreeable.
Chapter 68
Sachihiro
Everything happens quickly from there onwards as I stick close to Gaia as he is properly seen to, our escorts talk about our fight with the python amongst themselves thinking I can’t figure out their topic of discussion. Proving again just how stealthy these people are when they want to be.
Looking at them as an outside observer I can actually see how their way of life has shaped them in certain ways and how they have adopted to their environment. Animal instincts have allowed them to evolve according to their habitat in such that their skin is mostly a dark gold like the colour of their grasslands and most of the life here.
They are tall to see above the oceans of grass but short enough to be able to hide in it if need be. They all carry the spear and the shield as their main weapons of choice and are proficient in their use but primarily they are hunters not fighters. They live very simple lives that are dependent on nature and in harmony with her in round thatched roofed huts with mud floors and they’ve lived this way for millennia.
The Alderman are in fact one of the most purebred human beings on Gaia, not really known for their interbreeding with other human races of people. Their society is very patriarchal and like lion prides the women primarily do the hunting and child rearing, don’t ask me what the men do. But of course this is Gaia and like the Hito a lot of societies here are palinoai in their behaviour.
Most interestingly for me though at this very moment is how beautiful all their women are. I’m served a plate of food on a grass woven plate as I wait for Gaia. The girl that serves me avoids direct eye contact even when I pursue it with my own eyes. Her dark golden skin is beautiful and the bead necklace flowing down her chest eccetuates her pert youthful breasts.
Her loincloth does nothing to hide her wide shapely hips but is in a way stylish with patterns and it goes down to just below her knees even though it just covers the front and the back. By her people’s standards she is probably modestly dressed, but Barbarians have never been very particular about nakedness anyways.
I hope Kuyoki doesn’t kill me when I bring home another mate without consulting her, that’s not something I’m looking forward to and it isn’t something we’ve ever discussed. Though since being mated to her I realised that she expected Mira and I to stay sexually active with each other even after the mating.
The thought has crossed my mind and from the looks we sometimes share I know it’s crossed Mira’s as well, but we’ve kept our hands off each other. I know Mira has availed herself to some of the tribesman several times at the bath houses, but I also know Mira is insatiable and especially wouldn’t be able to be satisfied by a man or woman she had to share. In fact I doubt any single man can keep up with her for long without being Awakened to sex in some way.
Still, her enthusiasm in bed is one of her more memorable qualities. I look around myself at the women of this village as they go about their business, some giving me looks of interest. Like I am they are probably wondering if they will get me as a mate, or whether or not I’ll die fighting this creature who’s name I can’t pronounce.
Gaia returns from his surgery and healing session groggy and stumbling from the concoctions they’ve given him. His arms thoroughly bandaged in white cloth and we are led to a cool little hut to rest, I’m out almost as soon as I lay down on the coth.
*
“So how many of the Norse do we even have in our enterouge?” Wagner asks as I explain the situation I’ve negotiated to him even as our people are being seen to.
“The are 5 Norse here now but Sega is currently foaming at the mouth and his new mate from Tigana will have none of it. I’m not sure he would take another mate if he could make the decision.” I say to that, I’ve been thinking about how we will fulfill our part of the agreement.
“This is very out of character for the Aldermen, they are usually very particular about keeping their bloodlines pure. They seem too desperate for them to have told you everything about this creature.” Jelena says, a woman I’ve only been recently introduced to though she has been part of our traveling group since the Den.
“I have no doubt about it, the is no way they shouldn’t have already been rid of this creature centuries ago if it was a normal beast, and it’s age gives me pause as well. At over 600 years it will be well established in it’s den and close to becoming an ancestral beast by my estimate.
“It will also have the home ground advantage so will feel us coming if we fight within it’s established territory, let alone the fact that it sounds like an Underworld creature that crossed the Styx with it’s own power long before the borders eroded.” I add my own speculation.
“I don’t like it, this creature seems too powerful for anyone in this group and Gerard is still off towards Nexus somewhere. In any case it isn’t advisable to avoid one death only to walk into another.” She says and we all give her a look at that.
“What?” She asks from our looks, folding her arms across her chest defensively.
“Why are you heading up to the Tundra anyways?” Astrid asks the question that has been playing in my head but the woman seems to competent and useful to question about her reasons for being here.
“I have an interest in travel and anthropology.” She says with a stubborn set in her jaw as she lifts her nose up defiantly, daring us to challenge her reasons. Om just snorts but remains otherwise silent as is his way.
“Well to help you understand our people you should know that a death fighting is preferable to a death from some festering blood infection, it is our way to fight.” Wagner says seriously before coming back to the discussion about tactics.
Jelena becomes slightly flushed at the neck but otherwise remains silent as we discuss how to arrange ourselves and what formation to take depending on how the creature fights. From what the Alderman have said we know it lives in a series of tunnels and caves that burrow deep under the hills here.
The creature is a dark affinity creature with multiple whip like tentacles that part the skin like acid on contact, it is shaped like a large hound and has a miasma around it that can only be breached by spirit energy or spirit weapons. No mana based attacks can harm it while this miasma is active and it’s power and tentacles make physical attacks unlikely to succeed.
It also has a humanoid form, that of a pitch black woman with seething tentacles for hair and claws instead of fingertips. In this form it casts mana based attacks mainly geared towards plagues and rot or darkness. Not an easy enemy to plan for but definitely an interesting opponent to face.
We are all veterans of battle now, and though we’ve been constantly fighting underworld creatures that slither up to the surface at night the majority of them have been relatively weak or manageable. Here though we are to face a clearly superior opponent with the likelihood of death whilst doing so and there is a little flutter of excitement in my chest at the prospect of facing this creature that I don’t want to acknowledge to myself.
We are solemn and serious as we huddle in a group of about 20 and plan and discuss pro’s and con’s, but inwardly we are all grinning and eagerly awaiting this fight. We are Barbarians after all.
*
We are introduced to our prospective new mates that night in a ceremony around a large born fire with dancing and chanting as the drums beat. The rhythm is nothing I’ve ever heard before but it strangely compels me to move, tapping my foot and nodding my head is enough though as I watch the girl I am to marry if I survive tomorrow.
Ingwe is the second granddaughter of on
e of the elders that were in the tent during the negotiations and she is a wonder to behold. It could be the fact that I know she is to be my mate or the little snippet I caught that the women chose who amongst us 6 they wanted that has me fascinated by her.
I do like that she chose me and have been wondering for hours what it is she saw or sees in me or whether or not it was just a random choice between the various white men presented to her and her friends. The problem of not having enough Norse we solved by including the Viking who are now no longer a tribe but a clan of the Norse anyways.
Two young men volunteered, both without mates and without the berserker rage making their prospects as mates back home slightly limited. Ava is determined to have a harem of men and has taken this opportunity to browse the wears as it were but none of the men she has chosen even remotely entertain the concept of sharing a woman. The elders are still in discussion about how to solve that since she is the only woman to have volunteered.
I also know she has been Om’s only lover since we’ve all been here on Pangaea so I’m not sure how this will all workout. Kiera should also be pissed when Om returns home with another mate and worse she is a highlander and her people don’t have any form of polygamy. I grin at the thought, she may not be a warrior but she is a fiery little thing when roused.
And she’s definitely been roused before when the other tribe women pursue Om, she is just like ma that one, unwilling to share. I look bring my full attention back at Ingwe drinking and dancing with her unmarried friends and cousins. Her hips sway with the beat framed by her narrow waist and firm as she moves about bouncing to the beat.
Singing a tune in her strange language to the drums with ornaments used as shakers tied around their ankles for extra sounds as they dance to the beats. Her breasts are rounded and plum with dark nipples that have been erect the whole time I’ve been watching her.
Her hair is a dark fluffy pillow around her head, her lips are pouted and rip making me wonder how good she may be at using them. She has a loud rich singing voice and her laugh is deep and genuine from her belly, definitely seems like someone I wouldn’t mind getting to know better.
“You sure about taking another mate with both Kuyoki and Mira at home?” Ava asks me mischievously bumping me with her shoulder.
“You’re one to talk, choosing 3 young men as mates from a people you know don’t share women.” I say with a scowl, I was expecting her to cause some sort of trouble but not that.
“Well if they can’t defeat me in a fight then they can’t dictate to me who I get to bed.” She says seriously before smiling again as she catches sight of Ingwe eying us.
“That one definitely wants you, and the women here are submissive enough to imply she won’t cause trouble with your other mate back home. Not that she would have had a chance against Kuyoki anyways, how did you manage to convince an Awakened of her skill and age to be your mate anyways?” She asks with a lot of scepticism in her voice giving me another look.
I just shrug, “I honestly have no idea what she saw in me, I got lucky I guess.”
Ava snorts, “Oh I know what she saw in you, any woman would. What I’m wondering is where you got the balls to approach a woman so far out of your league with such a bold request as to be your mate and come to the Tundra with you.
“Then help raise your children with another woman while you go gallivanting around Gaia like you’re the shit. In fact even that Mira is part fae isn’t she? And little Didi and Vigdis are both red headed little terrors with fae and barbarian blood.” She shakes her head seemingly not expecting a response.
“What about you and Om, how are things going to be with another mate added to the mix, Kiera isn’t the sharing type from what I’ve seen of her.” I say to Ava before raking a sip of the strangely viscous liquid that they provided for us.
“Om and I have been enjoying each other but we are both too hard headed to ever get along as mates, we are better as friends that occasionally bed each other.” She says drawing with a stick on the soil at our feet.
I think that’s just something she is telling herself to try and get over him but I know she’s wanted him since the moment she set eyes on him way back when. It’s just that she never had the opportunity then and by the time she returned home he already had a mate, a foreign mate who doesn’t understand our ways as easily as a tribeswoman would have.
But she is right about them both being hard headed, never have I ever met a more stubborn pair. And regardless of how many mates each of them take I don’t really see them permanently keeping from bedding each other.
“And you,” she says after a moment of introspection. “with all these females vying for you what are you going to do?”
“What females are you talking about now?” I ask genuinely confused.
“Oh come now even I’ve heard of the many women that have been trying to catch your attention from back at the Academy.” Tea says as she joins us, bringing the hallucinogenic mushrooms for us to sample.
I lift a wondering eye brow completely lost at what she is actually talking about, I haven’t noticed any women vying for my attentions at all. I’ve been too busy to even partake of the usually available sexual partners that frequent the baths at the Compound.
Ava laughs loudly at my confused expression and smiles that silly smile of hers. “He actually doesn’t even realise how infamous he has become amongst the ladies at the baths.” She says to Tea as she takes a shrum into her mouth and chews merrily.
“Im infamous at the baths?” I ask even as I try to think of my sexual encounters there. Before joinging Ragnar. and Silo in their training regiment I frequented the baths fairly often but I generally had sex with the same 6 or 7 women.
But I guess even sex with the same group of women for almost a year is a lot of sex, and if they ever got together to compare notes… I wonder if I do anything too strange for them. I’ve since being exposed to other cultures realised that some sexual experiences are just strange.
“Okey even besides the women at the baths, which we haven’t forgotten about but you have to have noticed that Shea and Isis have taken an interest in you.” Ava says to me before looking again at Teà.
“Isis is a Mare Barbarian from the cold harsh Culla lands I’m sure you’ve heard about. She is a rare and unique beauty with a smooth grey-silken fleshed skin tone and captivating eyes. Very serious about her apocrathy discipline and alchemy, not much of a fighter though.” Ava says with a frown, anyone who isn’t a fighter is suspect to her.
“I honestly had no idea Isis had any interest in me of any kind outside of our brief polite exchanges.” I say to that already trying to play out all our interactions in my head.
“Then there is Shea, a beautiful half fae half human albino. Her beautiful skin is almost snow white but somehow scintillates when she stands in the sun. She is a tier 2 Awakened and primarily a healer, but I’ve seen her let lose on the sparing maths with the other tier 2. She is a beast with a sword and shield.” Ava says happily with a grin.
“And this one didn’t even bed her before he left, he didn’t bed either of them.” She says now with a frown, so expressive.
“To be fair I didn’t know about Isis and Shea is always busy, and my regiment was already getting strict when I first met her.” I didn’t know Shea was an Awakened but it makes sense, she is just too ethereally beautiful not to be. Now I’m wondering about her age though, if she is a tier 2 Awakened she could be hundred of years old.
“You seem to be always a step behind when it comes to women Sachi.” Teà says with a smile that seems to be moving strangely all around her face. I think the mushrooms are kicking in.
“Do you know what she’s Awakened as?” I ask Ava, if she is tier 2 then she Awakened before Master Zaraya’s more modern method of letting the Awakening Mana lead itself. Which means she probably has a speciality, but I haven’t asked her before.
“Not sure but I hear she’s some sort of mage primarily, but she is definitely al
so a warrior.” I nod at her response wondering how she knows this shit.
“She’s also a hermaphrodite.” She adds to Tea, I scowl at that.
“Really, what kind?” Tea asks excitedly, this I really want to hear.
“Polymorphic.” Ava says smugly looking at me with the corner of her eye.
“Mhmmmm… what does it mean to be a polymorphic herma again, I forget.” Teà asks swaying on her feet.
“It means she can change between male or female genitals at will.” I say thinking about that delicate piece of information.
Teà and Ava have a good laugh at my expression but I’m torn. One one hand I’m really interested in the beautiful, interesting, competent, caring Shea. On the other hand she has a cock half the time, and I can’t ask her to be only the half I want. She’s a tier 2 though, she’d probably kick my ass of I tried. Spirits beyond I wonder how old she is, I’m not even 30 yet.
Chapter 69
Sachihiro
The tunnels are narrow at certain places needing us to traveling in single file, but mostly they are wide enough for us to spread three abreast.
There are only twelve of us in this expedition under the foothills to face this scourge of the Aldermen people and their villages. It isn’t only the twelve of us facing it for lack of volunteers either but the tunnel entrance won’t allow any more than twelve inside. A strange magical watching system that is likely the benefit of these tunnels being the creatures claimed territory.
The raiding party consists of Ava, Om, Volvox, Wagner’s son Pitos, Susanna, Clovis, Asger, Chase, Sigur, Wagner himself and Haige mostly in case we need emergency healing. Though the tribes now have access to the Hito settlement of Honshu relatively close to the Tundra only Om and I in this group have soul weapons. But every single tribesmen here has a spirit bound artifact weapon at the ready.
