by Eric Vall
Chapter 1
Gold, jewels, and more gold.
I couldn’t think about anything else, but I was disappointed with my finds so far in our journey. The forested lands we traveled through after we left Tikal were not full of hidden mounds of treasure, like the desert around Hatra or the Crimson Canyons. I’d found some coins and other trinkets here and there, but the trees stood tall and loomed over our wagons, and they created shadows that danced and moved along the trail with us. I didn’t like the lowered visibility, and combined with the lack of treasures, I was a grumpy dragon.
“How much further?” I sighed to my future wife, Alyona.
“Not far, my lord,” the princess consoled. Her violet eyes looked up at me with amusement, and the glimpse of a smile was quickly covered with her porcelain hand. “We should be there by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”
“Good,” I muttered, but I gave her a half-smile. I couldn’t be mad at her, and her endless patience was one of the many things I loved about the princess.
We were only on our second stop for this campaign after spending weeks in Tikal, and I glanced back at the second wagon that seated Aaliyah, Ravi, and the dryads. The weeks had been worth it, though. The lioness was a perfect addition to our little group, not only for her skills as a warrior, but also for her skills in the bedroom. My blood rushed south as I imagined finally arriving in Lumin and ravishing at least one, if not more, of my women.
I’d been building quite the harem since my odd arrival in Inati, from my soon-to-be wife to a phoenix to my newest mate, a lion Demi-Human. They each brought something to the table I enjoyed, and I licked my lips as I imagined devouring each of my women.
But then something else tickled my senses.
I sat up and looked around before I realized it was my dragon instinct for treasure.
Finally.
“Stop here,” I told Laika.
The beautiful wolf Demi-Human pulled back on the reins of the horse that was pulling our wagon, and her gray ears twitched.
“What is it, Lord Evan?” she asked with suspicion.
“Gold, I hope,” I murmured as I slid off the side of the wagon.
The other wagons halted behind us, because thanks to Alyona’s magic, we only needed one set of horses to pull the dozen wagons that carried us along the forest trail.
“Where are you going?” Aaliyah called out from the second wagon.
“Just need to stretch a bit,” I called back.
“I’ll go with you,” the lion Demi-Human volunteered as she swung her long, bronze legs over the side of the second wagon and jumped down. “I’m feeling a little cooped up myself.”
Aaliyah’s tan skin practically glowed, even with the little bit of sunlight that escaped through the canopy overhead. The lioness tossed her long, golden hair over her shoulder and tied it back with a piece of leather. Then she looked at me with her round, coppery eyes as she waited for my next direction, and I knew she was getting frustrated with sitting in a wagon all day when she was a hunter.
“Everyone else stay here and take a break,” I ordered the rest of the group. “We’ll head north just a bit. It doesn’t feel very far away.”
“I’ll check on the horses and the cargo.” Nike hopped off the third wagon and walked toward the horses at the front of our caravan.
Lord Nikolaus, or Nike as I called him, was a fellow noble, keeper of the Sword of Light, and like a brother to me. He may have been a human, but he was one hell of a warrior, and he was often the one I chose to have my back on the battlefield. Nike had little interest in the treasures I liked to dig up, though, so he would be better off keeping an eye on the wagons.
I nodded to him, and then I gestured for Aaliyah to follow me into the woods. I sensed the treasure wasn’t far away, but it wasn’t on any trails like the one we’d been following. I thought that was odd for a moment, but then I realized this wasn’t likely to be the same kind of wrecked wagon treasure I’d found all along the desert trade routes. It was more likely something that someone had buried to hide.
I rubbed my hands together in anticipation. This could be a very good treasure.
“What are you so antsy about?” Aaliyah asked as she walked next to me through the brush and slashed branches with her claws.
“Gold,” I replied as I turned and squinted at her. “You know dragons like treasure, right?”
“Oh, I have heard that, but you’re the first dragon I’ve ever met.” Aaliyah shrugged her shoulders. “I never know what’s true about the outside world. This is my first time leaving Tikal.”
“Really?” I was taken aback. “You and your father didn’t say anything about that when I asked you to consider coming.”
“I know,” she said with a shy smile. “I didn’t know if you’d change your mind when you found out I was limited in my experience.”
“Nah.” I shrugged. “Ravi had never left her tribe until she decided to come with us.”
“That makes sense,” Aaliyah laughed. “She believes the most innocent things, I don’t even have the heart to tease her.”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “She is a bit gullible, but she’s mostly just naïve and inexperienced. She’s starting to learn, though. I’m teaching her a thing or two.”
“I bet you are!” Aaliyah purred. “I’m sure you’re quite the teacher.”
“Damn straight,” I said with a wink. “Ah, here we are.”
We stopped at a tree that seemed to be slightly larger than the others around it, and its roots grew in a strange pattern. Parts of each root poked above ground and then dipped back down under the surface before rising again. It resembled the old drawings I’d seen on Earth of the Loch Ness monster in the water. In front of the tree was a lighter patch of soil and some small sprigs of grass that had failed to thrive. The result was a bunch of green and yellow tufts covering a square of soil a couple feet long and about six feet wide.
If the treasure chest was that big, it had a lot of promise.
I looked around the area. There wasn’t enough room for me to transform into my huge dragon body, so I’d have to come up with another plan.
“Stand back,” I told Aaliyah.
The lioness walked backward a few feet, and I summoned my earthquake power. A moment later, the ground beneath us shook, and a hole cracked through the surface to reveal a large wooden box. Then I reached down and brushed the remaining soil off the box to find its opening.
Aaliyah stepped forward, and I growled instinctively.
“I just wanted to help you pull out the box.” The lion Demi-Human put her hands up in surrender. “The treasure is all yours.”
“Sorry,” I replied with a sheepish grin. “Dragon instincts. Let’s get this thing out.”
We both hopped into the hole and grabbed the handles on the sides of the box. Then we lifted it up, set it on the ground next to the hole, and climbed back out to investigate. The box was as large as I’d imagined from aboveground, and the dark wood was rough and covered with knots, like someone had built it from the trees that surrounded us. There was an inscription scratched into the surface of the lid, but the wood was so worn I couldn’t read it. The box also bore faint designs scratched into the sides, some diamond and triangle shapes, and I marveled at the craftsmanship.
Finally, I searched the box for an opening and found a latch, and then I lifted it and the lid to expose a collection of velvet bags. My curiosity competed with my desire for gold, and I lifted a bag from the box. Then I loosened the strings and dumped the contents into my hand.
Jewels.
Several dozens of them poured from the bag into my clawed hand. There were rubies, diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds, and that was just the first bag. At
least a hundred bags sat in the box and waited for me to open them. I was practically drooling as I opened my spatial storage and began moving the bags into the space.
About halfway through the box, I realized the treasure wasn’t limited to the velvet jewel bags. The bottom half of the box contained thousands of gold pieces. Some were coins, some were chunks of solid gold, and still more were solid gold bars.
The rest of the forest trip had been a little lackluster so far, but this find was totally worth the wait.
I continued loading the treasures into my storage while Aaliyah stood over me and watched. She crossed her arms and looked around the small clearing with the eyes of a hunter. We had yet to encounter anything dangerous in the massive forest, and we were both a little antsy about the lack of action.
Once I’d emptied the box, we set out to return to the wagons. Aaliyah led the way back this time, which gave me a great view of her toned ass and killer legs as she strode through the forest. My pants tightened against my crotch as I thought about those legs wrapped around me while Aaliyah moaned with pleasure atop a pile of jewels …
“Find anything good?” Alyona asked with a smile.
I snapped back to the present and realized we were already beside the wagons. So, I adjusted my trousers and focused on my future bride.
“Oh, yeah.” I grinned back. “It was quite the treasure trove.”
“Oooh, we should have gone with you!” Polina cried out in dismay.
The other two dryads nodded enthusiastically, and their green eyes shone with excitement. They had used their nature magic to help me with some treasure in the desert, and it seemed they wanted to help again.
“I’ll take you three on the next one,” I promised. “I bet there’s more than one treasure in this entire forest.”
“Yay!” Trina yelled as the three girls jumped up and down.
“Let’s get back on track before it gets dark,” Nike suggested. “We still need to find a decent place to camp out before the sun goes down.”
Our party loaded back up onto the wagons, and Laika snapped the reins to get the horses moving again. I sat in the front wagon with Laika and Alyona, my wolf Demi-Human and the Divine Maiden who I would soon marry. In the second wagon sat Ravi, Aaliyah, and the dryad sisters. The five women had become quite close on this trip, and I was happy to see our weird little family grow closer so easily.
Nike sat in the third wagon by himself, always ready for trouble, and the wagons behind him contained gifts for our future allies and all the extra stuff we apparently needed when traveling with seven women.
I wasn’t great with the diplomatic stuff yet, but thankfully, I had Nike and Alyona to help me navigate this campaign trip. Alyona’s father, King Rodion, had high hopes for us to take his place ruling over Rahma, but we needed to make sure the country didn’t fall to a civil war or the demons of the Breach before we could do much of anything else.
Several of the cities around Rahma had begun doubting that Rodion cared for them, or even that the Breach existed. So, the king had tasked us with visiting these cities and getting them back on our side. Even if they didn’t want him or us to rule, the last thing we needed was a weakened country if the shield over the Breach were to give out and a bunch of who knows what came out. We’d already seen some of the devastating results of the miasma that the Breach contained. The demonic smoke drove people insane and caused them to attack, even if they’d never been violent before.
The part that bothered me most was how many times the miasma had caused people to attack Alyona. The first time was in Hatra, our home city. Most recently, a group of jaguar Demi-Humans in Tikal had been poisoned with miasma, and one of them told us a voice in his head had ordered him to kill the princess. Thanks to one of the Green Glass Sect assassins, we knew they wanted her dead because she could stop whatever they were planning to do with the Breach. Unfortunately, we didn’t know exactly what they were planning, which made it pretty hard to stop.
All these thoughts filled my head as we traveled through the darkening forest. Nike was right. We needed to find somewhere to set up camp for the night, and soon.
“Ravi, can you scout ahead for somewhere to rest?” I yelled back to the phoenix.
“Yeah, definitely!” Ravi hopped off the moving wagon and shifted into her fiery bird form, and her orange feathers fluttered as she flapped up into the trees and darted ahead of us.
“Are you sure that’s safe?” Laika squinted suspiciously as we watched the phoenix fly away from the convoy. “I don’t mean to doubt you, my lord. It’s just after our approach to Tikal--”
“I understand your concern.” I smiled. “We’re too far from the city for us to worry, though. Besides, our little bird has barely been able to fly since we left Tikal.”
Laika nodded, though her gray ears were still flattened against her head with caution. The wolf warrior was protective over all of us, but especially over those in her Blue Tree Guild. She was their leader, and she held herself responsible for anything that happened to her soldiers. Ravi wasn’t an official member of the guild yet, but she’d been training with them since she came back to Hatra with us from her desert home.
Before anyone else could worry, Ravi swooped back over the wagons and landed on the canvas above me.
“Just a half-mile ahead, there’s a good size clearing with a lot of tree coverage and water access,” she reported.
“Perfect,” I answered. “We’ll make camp there.”
Ravi dipped her head and flew back to the wagon with the other women. Then she perched on Trina’s shoulder as we continued toward the clearing she’d found.
As soon as we came around the corner, I knew we’d arrived. The clearing was just big enough for all our wagons, and a small opening in the trees revealed a quiet brook to give us water for the night.
“This looks like the perfect place,” I announced as Laika slowed the wagons to a stop.
I slid off the wagon seat and turned back to lift Alyona to the ground. Then I looked around the space and found an area with enough trees to give us cover and a good view of the rest of the woods. So, I searched for some kindling while the rest of the group unloaded.
Aaliyah walked over to the spot I’d chosen with a stack of bamboo sticks and animal furs.
“Do you want me to set up here?” the lioness asked.
“Yeah, I’m just getting some firewood,” I answered.
The first night we camped out, I’d been completely lost when she brought her pile of furs and sticks out of the wagon. She’d explained they were a gift from her father, and we could use them to set up temporary housing. Basically, the sticks and furs were tents made out of the same materials they used for buildings at House Oel, and the structures had come in handy over the last few days of camping.
I stacked the wood I’d found like a teepee and blew some flames onto them to start the campfire. Then I walked over to where Aaliyah had rolled out the furs for the tents and helped her jab the sticks into the ground for support. We draped the furs over the bamboo sticks and stepped back to look over our work. It had taken a couple tries, but I’d gotten the hang of putting these together. There were four tents for all nine of us, which put us much more spread out than I liked. I would rather have one giant tent for me and my harem, but sadly, the tents didn’t really work like that.
“Is it our turn?” Marina asked from behind me.
“Yes, it is,” I chuckled.
The dryads squatted next to the campground we’d made and put their hands to the ground. Within moments, small beds made of moss and flowering grass had sprouted from the ground inside each tent. The beds were soft and much more comfortable than sleeping on the hard ground, and I had a whole new appreciation for the dryads’ nature magic after they started making the beds for us.
“Oh, I just love these,” Alyona sighed as she flopped onto the ground in our tent.
The moss was springy like a mattress, so the princess bounced one time before her bod
y sunk into the grassy bed, and it formed around her like it was a cocoon.
I couldn’t wait to wrap my body around hers once the sun went down.
“Well, let’s find something to eat before we can’t see to hunt anything,” Laika proposed and rubbed her hands together.
“Sounds like a good idea,” I agreed. “You and Aaliyah try to find us something meaty, and I’ll cook it over the fire. Trina, Marina, and Polina, do you think you could find us some fruit or berries?”
“Oh, yes!” Marina exclaimed.
“We’re on it!” Polina gave a mock salute.
The three sisters traipsed into the bushes next to our clearing to find part of our dinner, and the wolf and lioness went in the opposite direction to hunt down the other part, while Nike and I unloaded a few other supplies.
“Care to join me?” I held up some water jugs to Ravi and gestured toward the brook.
“Sure!” the phoenix squeaked and picked up two more buckets.
The flame-haired beauty followed me to the opening in the trees that led to the banks. The brook flowed slowly, and the water was clear enough to see the thousands of tiny pebbles at the bottom. A few blue and orange fish followed the current, but they were unlike any fish I’d ever seen on Earth. They were round, almost like marbles with fins.
“Do you know what kind of fish those are?” I asked Ravi.
“You’ve never seen lopta fish before?” The phoenix blinked in surprise. “Oh, they don’t have them where you’re from?”
“Nope,” I answered and shrugged.
“Well, don’t eat them,” she advised. “They feel like rocks in your belly.”
“Good to know,” I laughed. “Did you see a lot of fish in the desert?”
“More than you’d think,” Ravi said with a grin. “Father knows where to find all the water places out there.”
“Well, he’s had a lot of time to get to know the desert,” I laughed.
We finished filling up the water buckets and strolled back to the campground where Nike and Alyona had set out small bowls and cups from one of the wagons.
“Will you give me a hand, brother?” Nike gestured to a fallen tree near the edge of the clearing.
