by Eric Vall
“You’ve noticed that I can make sure everything is fine?” I smirked.
“Yes,” Mona conceded, and her green eyes dragged up and down my form. “You seem to be rather useful.”
“I have many uses,” I retorted with a grin. “You’ve only seen a few.”
“Oh, your princess and I have briefly discussed a few more of your uses,” the queen countered as she shot me a wink. “We can talk more later.”
Ahhh … Was I finally going to get to fuck the queen and add her to my harem? Hell, yes.
Before I could respond to the enticing situation on hand, River clip-clopped into the sitting room from another doorway. Behind him, several servants in human form walked in carrying plates of food for each of us.
I’d almost forgotten it was lunch time, and the aromas of the food filled my nose and made my mouth water. When the servant lifted the lid off the first tray, the smell of smoked meat permeated the air. The white meat sat in a layer of juice that had also been drizzled over the top of it. It reminded me of turkey with gravy on Thanksgiving, and the smell was delicious. The next tray was opened to reveal green and red slices of some kind of squash, and they were soaked in a vinegar-type liquid with flecks of seasoning all over the top.
The staff also brought each of us mugs filled to the brim with a fruity wine. The scent was strong, and my dragon senses seemed to pick up on all the grapes, strawberries, and a fruit I didn’t recognize in the liquid.
By now, I practically drooled all over my plate as I tried to wait patiently for the servants to finish their presentation. I licked my lips as the staff set down a giant basket of their soft, buttery bread next to a huge bowl, and the bowl held some orange soup with pieces of vegetables floating around in it. The dish smelled like carrots, potatoes, and a few different herbs, and I imagined it would be amazing with the bread. As the servants opened the last tray, I stared at the pile of chunks of dark meat that smelled like wine. I couldn’t figure out what the dish was, but it smelled fantastic.
“What’s that?” I asked as I pointed to the last meaty tray.
“Oh, that’s rabbit,” Alyona answered.
“Never had it,” I said with a raised brow. It felt a little weird since rabbits were pets on Earth, but man, it smelled too good not to try.
So, I piled my plate with some of everything, and we all dug in as River spoke.
“Lord Evan,” he boomed. “Have you found a solution for what is hopefully our last problem in the forest?”
“Another problem?” Mona groaned as she looked up.
“This one should be pretty easy,” I reassured her in between bites. “And we already have a plan to solve it.”
“Plus, we still have time to carry it out today!” Trina piped up.
“And plenty of sunlight.” Polina smiled.
“Then all the horsies will be safe again,” Marina added with a grin.
“Ha-ha,” the queen deadpanned. “Well, come find me when you’ve completed your task.”
With that, she turned on her heels and strode into the hallway toward her chambers, and her jewelry jingled as if to accompany her movements. Her hips swayed with every step, and I watched until she turned the corner out of sight to her room.
“So, your plan?” River’s gravelly voice brought me back to the conversation.
“Uh, yeah,” I said as I turned back toward him. Then I pulled the map of the forest from the drawer and unrolled it onto the table.
“You seem a little distracted,” Alyona said under her breath as she leaned over the table with me.
I looked over to see the princess’ robe was pressed tight to her chest. It revealed her hard nipples pressed against the fabric, and all my blood rushed south as I dragged my gaze down her curvy body. Thanks to all the problems we’d had here in Lumin, it felt like years since I’d had some alone time with my fiancée, and now she was at the forefront of my mind.
“I’m definitely distracted now,” I muttered, and I ran my hand up her thigh to the bottom of her robe.
“You’re supposed to be explaining your plan,” Alyona giggled as her amethyst eyes twinkled with mischief.
“What did you and the queen talk about?” I asked as I ignored our trap plan for the moment. I had to know what the women were planning.
“Oh, she’ll want to talk to you about that herself,” the princess replied and smiled. “I shouldn’t say.”
“Dragons aren’t known for their patience, princess,” I growled playfully.
“But diplomats are.” Alyona stepped up on her toes and kissed me. “Now, let’s get to work.”
I grunted as she took a step back to give the rest of the group room to come closer to the map. Then I motioned to Nike to explain his strategy to River and Laika, since they’d missed our forest talk.
“So, the idea is to move the same way we did with the basilisk and clear out the traps the Green Glass Sect has left behind in the forest,” Nike jumped in and pointed to the map. “We start at this end and shift across. The biggest difference is we need everyone to move in a line across their grid area, so no stone is left unturned. Does that make sense?”
“Of course,” River said with a nod.
“Evan?” Alyona nearly whispered. “I don’t mean to sound negative, but what if the traps are designed specifically to hurt centaurs?”
“That’s a good point,” I agreed. “If the traps are designed for centaurs, we have to bear that in mind. In fact, we should probably make sure at least one of us is with every group of Sagittarius Order hunters. That way, if something happens, there’s a non-centaur right there to help handle things.”
“You really think the Green Glass Sect would do that?” River asked with a look of disbelief.
“I wouldn’t be surprised.” I shrugged. “They were trying to sacrifice you guys and failed. They’re probably a little pissed off about it.”
“Well, if you think it’s a possibility, then we’ll divide the groups up as you say,” the centaur commander accepted.
“So, how many of your men are available?” Nike asked him.
“The dozen men who were with us this morning are awaiting my command,” River answered. “Do we need more?”
“I think that will do,” Nike said before he turned back to me. “Does everything sound good to you, Lord Evan?”
“Yeah,” I replied with a nod. “Let’s go.”
Our group made our way to the palace doors and stepped outside. The rest of the Sagittarius Order had gathered and was waiting in the castle courtyard, and River strode over to his warriors to deliver their orders.
I stood back as the commander passed along the decisions we’d made inside and divided the warriors into four groups. While he did that, I directed Ravi and Aaliyah to join one group, and Polina, Marina, and Trina joined another. Then I told Laika and Nike to join the third group while I joined the last one with River and Alyona. Normally, I’d fly above the trees, but I wanted to be on the ground finding traps with a group, and being close to Alyona wasn’t even a question. Not to mention, I was curious if my terra magic would help me find any disturbances in the land caused by the traps.
As we walked out of the gates of Lumin, I grabbed Alyona’s hand to walk beside her.
“Before his, ah, untimely demise, the Sect guy told us where the rest of them were headed,” I explained. “It’s a place called Colaruma. Do you know anything about it?”
“Not really.” The princess rubbed her chin in thought. “I’ve heard of it, of course, but I don’t know why they’d choose it.”
“Would you be willing to go talk to the history keepers about it when we get back to Lumin?” I asked. “I figure if anyone knows more about it, they’ll be the ones.”
“I’d love to!” Alyona gushed, and her amethyst eyes glittered with excitement.
“Then it’s settled,” I agreed before I switched the topic back to our present mission. “So, what kind of traps do you think they’d set for the centaurs?”
&n
bsp; “Well, their species is very intelligent, so it wouldn’t be something obvious,” Alyona mused before she considered the idea for a moment. “The traps are probably very well-hidden. Or they could be related to the things the centaurs do without thinking, like getting water or food.”
“Then we should probably pay close attention to the streams and the areas where they hunt the most,” I concluded. “I’m thinking I’ll use my terra magic to check the land.”
“That’s a great idea, my love,” Alyona said with a smile. “You should be able to sense something that isn’t right. Maybe in the same way you find your treasures.”
“Ah,” I breathed, and my eyes widened. “That’s a good idea. We make a good team, princess.”
Her smile stretched further across her porcelain face, and a blush crept up her cheeks at the compliment.
After a few more minutes of walking, we reached the edge of the forest. River directed his warriors to head toward their designated search areas, and the groups fanned out to begin.
We walked in a nearly straight line side by side through the forest, and the giant trees towered over us as we searched. A flock of brightly colored birds fluttered over our heads and landed on the branches ahead of us, and I watched one bird cock its head to the side as it stared at us. We were obviously out of place to the animals.
I concentrated on reaching out with my terra magic. In the same way that my dragon senses could indicate treasure, I pushed my power through the ground below me, and within minutes, I felt something a few feet ahead and to my right.
“There’s something ahead,” I called out to the centaur next to me. “I’ll go ahead of you.”
I veered to the right and felt the sensation get closer, so I squatted down and laid a hand on the forest floor. Penelope was right. It was easier to direct this magic with my hands. Only a few feet ahead of where I was, there was a hole in the ground, so I walked the last couple steps to stand in front of it.
The hole was about six feet square and felt about ten feet deep, and it was covered in branches and leaves to blend in with the forest floor. It reminded me of traps I’d seen back on Earth for boar hunting, and if it was like those traps, it would have something at the bottom.
I moved the branches out of the way and confirmed my suspicion. Large wooden spikes were driven into the ground with the spikes facing up. Any centaur who fell into this hole would have been impaled instantly.
Now, to figure out how to get rid of it. The centaur who had been walking this path caught up with me and looked down in the hole as well.
“I have to fill it in with the spikes,” I thought out loud. “None of us can get in there to take them out. I’ll just have to cover them up.”
In my dragon form, that was easy. A few swipes with my giant claws, and the dirt would have been back in the hole in no time. I’d have to rely on my magic in my human form, though, since the trees were way too close together here to transform.
“Stand back,” I advised the centaur.
The warrior took a few steps back without a word and watched as I knelt down and placed a hand on the soil. Then I sent a wave of magical energy through the dirt and pushed some into the hole. It covered the spikes, but there was still eight feet left to fill in, so I closed my eyes and shoved the energy wave hard.
Suddenly, a cascade of soil poured into the trap from either side. It nearly filled the hole, so the ground dipped down a few inches, but it was no longer a threat.
One trap down, who fucking knows how many more to go.
“Evan!” Alyona called out from the other side of the tree line.
I jogged over to where she stood over what looked like a Venus flytrap. The sides of the plant were blue, and the spikes along the outer rim of the petals looked like small, black daggers.
“Uh, what are we looking at?” I asked.
“This flower is different,” she replied with a frown. “Can you feel it?”
I reached out with my terra magic, and the plant seemed to shy away from me.
“Yeah, it’s definitely weird,” I agreed as I reached into my spatial storage and grabbed Miraya. “Should we just chop it down?”
“Let’s try it.” Alyona nodded.
I swung the sword at the stem of the plant, but the blade went through it without touching anything. It looked like I’d swung through a mirage, and the image shimmered back into place after the slight disturbance.
“Just what I thought,” my bride-to-be said, and she began murmuring the words of a spell.
Then the mirage that covered the flytrap wavered for a moment before it melted away and revealed a large metal contraption. The device looked like a giant version of the flytrap but with sharp, metal teeth, and it could easily sever a leg if someone had tried to remove the fake plant.
“We usually pluck the Jawpetals,” one of the warriors said as he came up behind us. “They tend to eat the same things we do, so we pull them out when we see them.”
Ah, so the Inati version of weeds.
“That makes sense for the Sect to use it to disguise a trap,” Alyona replied to him before she turned and spoke more quietly to me. “That means they’ve been watching the centaurs for a while.”
“Found one!” I heard Trina yell from her area to our left.
“Me, too!” a centaur warrior bellowed from further down the line.
We continued on for a few hours with each person calling out when they found a trap and destroyed it. Alyona had to help with a few spells on the magical traps, but we made pretty good progress through the woods.
The sun was getting low when I heard a centaur yell. It wasn’t the celebratory shout of finding a trap, though, and I couldn’t tell the direction it had come from.
“Everyone!” I shouted. “Be quiet!”
The search parties stilled, and I focused my dragon senses on listening again.
“Help!” the voice screamed once more, and this time, I realized it was from about ten yards ahead of us and to my left.
I darted in the direction I’d heard the voice from and slowed when I could feel I was close.
“Where are you?” I called out.
“I fell in this shaft,” a centaur moaned. “I can’t feel my legs. Help me, please!”
I took a few steps forward, and then I saw a gash in the ground covered by a green mist. The hole was just big enough for a centaur, and it had apparently been disguised with some sort of mirage mist as well. The smoke was still shimmering from the centaur falling through it, though it was starting to retake its form to match the forest floor.
“Alyona!” I yelled for the princess.
My fiancée rushed over to join me and looked around in confusion.
“There.” I pointed to the mirage without lifting my eyes. “It’s one of those disguise mist things.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed.
Then she said the spell that removed the mist, and we could clearly see the pit. We looked down into the hole and could barely see the warrior at the dark bottom, and he was laying on his side with all four of his horse legs bent at an unnatural angle. He moaned continuously in pain, and his wails echoed around the trees.
“I think my legs are broken,” he groaned. “I can’t move them at all.”
I reached out with my status check to make sure that was the only problem. If it was, I could just heal his legs and then slowly add dirt until he could climb out.
Classification: Centaur
Condition: Four broken legs, broken ribs, internal bleeding
Priority: Healing required immediately
Danger: Death imminent if not healed
Status: Near critical
“Wait, there’s something down here!” the warrior shouted with terror in his voice.
I cleared the status check from my vision, lit a fireball in my hand, and turned my palm over to shine the light down into the hole.
Oh, fucking great.
A den of alabaster snakes slithered around the centaur’s immo
bile body and hissed at the light from my hand. I quickly put it out so they wouldn’t attack the warrior, and now I had to think of a new plan.
Fast.
Suddenly, Ravi peeked through the trees and hurried over next to me.
“Those are Lotus snakes,” the phoenix informed me as she peered into the pit. “They’re not typically found in forests, so the Green Glass Sect must have put them here.”
“Of course,” I muttered. “Are they deadly?”
“Very,” she replied with a nod. “Their venom can kill in less than a minute.”
“What happened?” Polina was suddenly at my side, along with the other two dryads.
“There’s a shit load of snakes down there with a centaur who has all four legs broken,” I replied as I sent down a spray of healing magic.
The glittery dust settled on the centaur, and I could see his legs rearranging into a normal shape as he sighed.
“Don’t get up,” I warned him. “I’m healing you, but we don’t want to piss those things off. Just give us a few minutes.”
The centaur responded with a silent nod.
“I have an idea,” Trina said, and then she took off toward one of the large, dark trees next to us. She returned within seconds, and she carried a pile of sticks and leaves.
“Ah, great idea!” Marina declared as she and Polina grabbed some of the tree parts from Trina’s arms.
“Um, did I miss something?” I asked with a quizzical look.
“Oh, we can make a rope with these things,” Polina answered.
“Yeah, not anything fancy, but it should do the trick,” Trina added.
“He’ll probably have to transform, though,” Marina said with a frown. “I doubt the rope will hold his full centaur weight.”
“Did you hear that?” I called down the shaft. “You have to change to your human form, but wait until we have the rope ready. Once we throw it down to you, transform and climb up, and we’ll pull you out.”
“Okay,” the centaur answered weakly.
