by G. R. Cooper
Corwin spread the cards on the ground, face down. He looked up at Wulfgar.
“Pick one. At random. Maybe close your eyes.”
Wulfgar closed his eyes, stuck out his hand and picked up the first card he felt. He opened his eyes to see Corwin picking up the rest of the cards.
“I thought about this a lot,” Corwin began, “but there’s really nothing that leaps to mind about how to do this.”
Wulfgar nodded. Much of this world seemed to provide information if you simply willed it to be given. He understood skills seemingly innately as soon as he chose them; and if that skill provided information, such as Herb Lore did about the various plants of the world, he simply had to want to know the information for it to be given, like recalling a memory.
“Turn over the card,” Corwin continued, “and let’s see if we can get a reading out of it.”
Wulfgar looked down at the card.
A stylized castle keep was painted on it. As he looked at it, the painting began to move. The sky darkened and lightning flashed. A storm rose and slashed the building.
He read the text at the bottom of the card.
The Tower.
“Circumstances are beyond your control,” began Corwin, in a trance, “disaster is striking. Or is about to. Lightning represents payback. Those who have exploited others for their own gain are due for a reckoning. Revolution is coming. A time is coming after which everyone can have a fresh start. A new beginning.”
Wulfgar continued looking at the card.
Beyond my control, he smiled, but not beyond my influence. He looked up at Corwin, who seemed to come awake again.
“Whoah,” Corwin said, “that was pretty intense. I had no idea that would happen.” He shook his head, “Not sure if I’m a fan of these things.” He looked down at the deck, “Shit.”
Wulfgar looked at the deck as well. He read the item description.
Deck of Tarot. Unique. Bound to Corwin.
Binding had apparently occurred when Corwin had done the first reading. He looked up at the dark man.
“Is it making any more sense now? Now that it’s bound to you?”
Corwin nodded, “A little. I still can’t tell you what each card means, but I know we can do different types of readings.”
“No thanks. Not really up for that right now,” said Wulfgar.
“Can’t do a reading for any individual more than once per week anyway,” replied Corwin. He looked up at Connor.
“No way, no how. That stuff creeps me out,” said the ranger, waving his hands away.
“Disaster is striking. Revolution is coming. A reckoning.” Wulfgar shrugged and sat back against his pack. He put his hands behind his head and look up at the sparks from the fire rising into the air beneath the boughs. “I mean, it’s not really like it told me anything we didn’t already know.”
“What question did you ask it?” asked Connor, settling down likewise.
“Am I allowed to tell?”
Corwin laughed, “Sure. It’s not a wish.”
Wulfgar smiled into the night, “Well, I asked it how this whole war was going to end up.” He sighed, “I guess the result we got could indicate that we’re going to change this world. A lot.”
“What does your heart tell you?” asked Corwin. “That’s an important part. Your intuition is doing as much of the reading as anything else.”
Wulfgar nodded. “My intuition tells me that my question was too general. Not specific enough. We could be about to change this world. We might not.” He shook his head. Too much to worry about.
The trio sat in silence for several minutes, staring into the fire, each lost in his own thoughts. After a while, Connor lay back onto his pack.
“Might as well get some sleep,” said Connor, rolling over onto his side.
The other two humans did the same. Wulfgar rolled until his back was to the fire. As he settled in, he noticed that Bael was still sitting on the saddle of his horse. His eyes seemed to bore through Wulfgar. Studying him. Wulfgar would have loved to ask what he was thinking, but that seemed rude, somehow. He sighed.
Then a shock came over him. Shannon. He’d forgotten about her again. He forgot to setup a quest for her. To ask her what plot of land she wanted. She was the best friend he had in this world, as well as the last, and he kept forgetting to take care of her. He was so worried about making his new friends happy, he kept neglecting her. That had to end.
He tried to bring up the town management screen, to give her a nice piece of land, but he couldn’t. The screen was grayed out. Even here, just a few hundred meters outside of his borders, he couldn’t access it. That was frustrating. He’d be more comfortable, in the future, being able to check in on the status of the town while he was away.
Fuck. First thing after I get back. Take care of Shannon. Remind her of how important she is to me.
He sighed and decided he needed to sleep again, if for no other reason than to clear his mind for a few hours.
Wulfgar was just about to shut his eyes when he noticed flickering lights in the forest, moving closer.
Chapter 4
Wulfgar tried to sit up. He felt as though time slowed. Everything in the periphery of his vision blurred, dimmed. The lights moved through the trees toward the camp and he couldn’t do anything but watch. His senses became more acute. He could just make out the dribbling burble of water moving through the mouth of the river, many meters to the north, that emptied from the lake into the forest. He could more sharply smell the fecund soil of the woodland floor. The feel of the fur on the Cowl of the Wolf, rolled underneath his head as a pillow, intensified; the softness of the hairs seemed to kiss and caress the side of his neck and cheek.
The lights entered the flickering of the camp’s fire, and the several wisp-like orbs separated and moved to encircle the motionless humans. A wave that almost felt like drunkenness overcame Wulfgar. He could only watch, stock-still yet dizzy, as one of the lights moved directly toward his spot on the forest floor.
As it neared, a figure coalesced out of the light.
The most beautiful female that Wulfgar had ever seen.
Involuntarily, he drew a deep breath through his nose. A wave of desire rolled over him as the smell of her hit the hindmost, primeval, animal part of his brain. He knew that if he wasn’t frozen in place, he would have taken her no matter what. That he would have done anything to be with her.
A small part of himself wondered why he wasn’t afraid. It seemed to the sentient part of his soul that he shouldn’t be welcoming these feelings, but for the first time in this world he seemed to have an actual hormonal desire for something. Before it gave way to the feeling that was overwhelming him, the thinking part of his brain realized that there were things about being alive - actually being a biological entity - that he missed.
The nymph pulled a green hood from her head. Her hair fell about her perfect face as she bent to kiss him lightly on the lips. Once again, he could move, but he could only move in the way that she desired. As though on puppet strings, his arms rose and he took her face in his hands and returned her kiss. Though driven with a desire he had never felt before in either his earthen or Omegaverse existence, his caresses were soft. Slow. She moaned slightly, moving to straddle him.
She leaned into him, taking his head in her arms. Her face brushed past his and she breathed, heavily, into his ear. He felt her shudder as he moved his hands to her hips, pulling the soft velvety dress up to her waist. Her hand moved down his body until it reached his belt. Deftly, she undid the bindings and unbuttoned the front of his leather pants, releasing him.
Keeping total control, she took him in her hand and moved him into her. She arched her back, then leaned back into him, face to face. He looked deeply into her eyes, centimeters from his own. He felt another wave of overwhelming desire as they gazed at each other. He could discern nothing from her other than raw need. Hunger. Lust. His hands moved over her body touching her exactly where and how he somehow kn
ew she wanted to be touched. She responded, moving up and down on him. Rhythmically. Slowly. Another shot of pheromones pulsed into his brain and he convulsed, filling her.
“You have taken 4 points of damage!”
Wulfgar continued to shake in ecstasy, stretching his neck and rolling his head backward. He caught a glimpse, as through gauze, of Corwin and Connor on the other side of the fire. They both shuddered underneath their respective nymphs and flashed redly as they lost hit points.
His nymph grabbed Wulfgar by the hair on the top of his head and pulled his face forward again, into hers. She breathed out again, filling his lungs with a punch of whatever it was that she was using to enrapture him. His body spasmed again and responded to her smell and her movements. She continued riding him as he moved into her once again. He felt the warm wetness as he thrust through the results of their coupling.
She leaned forward, again putting her mouth to his ear. She moaned softly again, then squeaked with pleasure as he grabbed her hips and pushed himself deeply inside of her. She gave him a little control and they both began moving, taking from the other exactly what they wanted. Exactly what they needed. They shuddered together, again.
“You have taken 6 points of damage!”
He groaned then pulled her head to his and kissed her deeply. His other hand moved up her body, inside of her dress, grabbing her and squeezing. Roughly. Exactly as she wanted. He bit lightly on her tongue as her hands moved underneath his leather shirt and her nails dug into either pectoral muscle. She started to rock on him again, pushing against him harder and harder. A new wave of scent smacked his hindbrain as she bucked, squealing and moaning. He climaxed for the third time.
“You have taken 5 points of damage!”
A small part of his mind warned that he was in grave danger - the overwhelmingly majority of his mind told that part of him to shut the fuck up.
Wulfgar shuddered and woke. The world was painted red, flashing in the slow rhythm of his heartbeat. He sat, slowly, looking around him. The sun had risen and a morning mist had fallen. The fire had gone out in the night and the blackened remains smoldered. He put his head between his knees and groaned. He brought up his character sheet. He had one hit-point left. Without looking, he reached into his inventory and pulled out a healing poultice and slapped it onto his shirtless torso.
A feeling of relief came over him as his hit points started to rise. After a few moments, the color through which the world was filtered changed from red to yellow as his hit points approached the halfway point. He groaned again and looked across at the other two humans, similarly rising from their nymph induced slumber.
Wulfgar raised a hand toward Connor and activated his new Heal spell. Wulfgar held it until his mana had reduced by half. Connor’s glow had just changed from yellow, so just over half of his hit points were restored. Wulfgar would get the rest with a poultice. He turned to Corwin.
“Give me a minute,” he said softly. “Cool down.”
Corwin’s dark hair bobbed as he nodded understanding. Wulfgar used the cool-down period to watch the man. Curled into a seated position with his arms across his knees and his head on his forearm, he pulsed a deep red. They were all, it seems, down to just the bare minimum of hit points required to still be alive.
Wulfgar looked up to his horse. Bael still sat as he had the night before. Staring at the humans.
“Why didn’t you help?” asked Wulfgar.
“With what? The nymphs?” The little faerie prince shrugged, “It looked like you were having fun.” He smiled beatifically.
“We’re almost dead,” countered Wulfgar. He felt his cool-down end, and turned to Corwin and once again cast a heal. He looked up at Bael. The smile hadn’t changed.
“River nymphs won’t kill you. Won’t kill humans,” he corrected himself. “That’s how they feed.”
“On sex?” asked Corwin as his aura lost its yellow glow.
Wulfgar sat back, closed his eyes, and activated Meditation. He felt his mana begin to regenerate, a tickle in the back of his brain.
“Through sex,” corrected Bael. “That’s how they transfer the life-force from you to them.”
“But they could have killed us,” countered Connor.
“It’s not in their nature,” answered Bael. “I knew that you were never in any danger. Not from nymphs. There are other creatures that are not so ethical.”
Wulfgar opened his eyes, his mana rejuvenated, “Other creatures?”
Bael nodded. “There are some that would feed on your life-force until you expired with no more thought than you would give a chicken egg.”
“They feed through sex?” asked Wulfgar
“Some,” confirmed Bael.
Death by snu-snu, thought Wulfgar.
“Some not,” continued Bael. “It’s really the same with vampires. They don’t really feed on your blood, but draining and drinking your blood is how they take your life-force. A lich,” he shuddered, remembering his brother, “dispels with any artifice. They cut directly into you and tear your essence directly from your heart.” The faerie quieted, seemingly lost in thought.
Wulfgar stood and began packing, giving Bael the time that the prince needed. He looked to Connor. A thought entered his mind, but he wasn’t sure how to express it.
Apparently, Corwin had the same thought and no compunction about bringing up the subject matter. “So, Connor,” he began, “what do you think of your penis now?”
The German haus-frau, wrapped in the body of a lanky Celt, looked abashed. Then he smiled, “That was fun,” he looked down, embarrassed. “It’s certainly a, uhm,” he thought for a second, “different experience than what I was used to.” He nodded, “Yes. It was pleasant.” He smiled broadly, “I would not be against having an experience like that again.”
Near death or not, Wulfgar had to nod in agreement. That had been a night to remember; possibly the best night of either of his lives. There had never been an experience that compared.
Except maybe that one night with the red-headed nurse a few years ago, he mused, or maybe that woman from Copenhagen, a blond Valkyrie who had completely rocked his world.
In any case last night was at worst a top-five event. A death-bed memory, he concluded. Especially since, unless his body outside of the Omegaverse was already expired, he technically was still on his death-bed.
As they packed, Connor began singing. “Crazy Love”. His voice echoed perfectly Van Morrison’s. As the song finished, the humans mounted their horses and sat back into the saddles.
Wulfgar sighed and looked at the faerie, once again sitting backward on the horse’s head, smiling up at him.
“Which way?” asked Wulfgar.
Wulfgar looked down into the river. They had followed it for an hour, meandering through the woods. It was an easy ride, moving through the widely separated trees which grew ever larger the deeper into the forest they wandered. The river, which drained from the large lake, was never much more or less than one hundred meters wide. It looked deep and didn’t seem to flow particularly fast - the odd floating branch or twig they saw never seemed to move even as fast as their walking horses. A steady breeze blew from the west, in the opposite direction of the river’s flow. They were unable, however, to see anything in the distance over the tops of the trees.
“Stop,” said Bael softly and Wulfgar reined in his horse. The other two followed his lead. The faerie looked around and into the wood on their side of the river. He stared into the forest for a minute, then looked up at Wulfgar and stood, his hands on his hips, his feet planted wide in between the horse’s ears.
“Wait here,” he said quickly, then seemed to float to the earth and move effortlessly into the forest.
Wulfgar looked back as his companions, raised his eyebrows and shrugged, “We wait here, I guess.”
Connor sat back in the saddle and began softly singing. Robert Plant’s voice came out of the ranger as the strains of Stairway to Heaven permeated the glade.
“Any chance of you getting some of those nymphs to move into the town?” asked Corwin lightly.
Wulfgar chuckled, “I’ll look into it.” There would be worse ways to spend every night for eternity, he thought. He looked out over the river, half wishing to see some sign of the nymphs. Even though he knew his reactions last night were magical, they had felt more real than any hormonal flood he’d experienced. Ever.
If that’s what drug addiction is like, he mused, I’m glad I never tried it. He thought for a moment, Well, the hard stuff anyway. Pot had never felt like a nymph. He was brought back to the present when Connor’s voice raised, louder than before but still singing.
“If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now,” he sang, then quieted.
Wulfgar looked back into the woods.
Bael was returning. He was followed by a pair of beings; if anything more beautiful than the faerie and nymph combined. Even as they reached the humans, Wulfgar couldn’t tell if they were male or female. Wulfgar nodded in greeting.
“You are the king?” asked one, almost more statement than question. Wulfgar nodded again.
“Leave the horses,” said the other. “They’ll come to no harm.”
The humans dismounted and the elves turned. They began walking back through the woods with no further comment. Wulfgar looked to his companions, raised his eyebrows, and turned to follow the elves. Bael floated up and perched on Wulfgar’s shoulder.
“Names?” Wulfgar whispered quietly.
“They don’t care what yours are, and it wouldn’t occur to them to tell you theirs, any more than you’d introduce yourself to an animal.”
Wulfgar nodded and picked up the pace. The androgynous pair moved quickly, and as he fell in behind them, Wulfgar took the opportunity to examine them. They were a good head and a half shorter than Wulfgar. Smaller than most humans he’d seen. More delicate, but with an air of infinite strength and overwhelming will. They would probably be described as wiry if they weren’t so graceful. One had long, dark hair. Braided on the left and right, which were tied together in the back. It fell to his, or her, waist. The other had shorter, curly red hair that draped over the nape of the neck. The redhead wore tight fitting blue pants and shirt, with a wide green belt. The other a flowing saffron robe. Neither had weapons of any kind visible, but Wulfgar had no doubt that if they wanted to, they could kill all three humans without problem.
