by Noah Layton
Tribe Master 2
A Fantasy Harem Adventure
Noah Layton
Copyright 2019 Noah Layton
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter One
‘So what do you say?’ I asked firmly. ‘Do we have a deal?’
The centaur’s eyes looked me up and down, then flitted over to my faithful imp at my side. Alorion looked over at me with a raised eyebrow, tilting his head.
I returned my gaze to meet the centaur. His huge body towered over mine by at least a foot. He crossed his arms defensively. In a swift movement he could probably spin and execute a kick that would break half the bones in my body.
‘All right, human,’ his deep voice spoke. ‘Deal.’
He reached out a hand and I shook it, examining the details of the trade window that appeared before me.
120GP in exchange for five piglets.
I pressed the accept button on the trade window and watched my gold pieces deplete by the same amount.
Alorion breathed a sigh of relief from next to me.
The moment the window disappeared, the centaur unlocked the cage on the back of the cart and began handing me the piglets.
‘Woah, woah, woah,’ I interrupted. ‘Can’t you just give me the cage and let me carry it to my cart? I’ll bring it back once I’m finished.’
‘Deal was for five piglets, not five piglets and a cage,’ the centaur said gruffly. ‘Take your property.’
Backstabbing motherfucker.
Well, it wasn’t necessarily a backstab. I just hadn’t examined the finer details of the trade properly.
Against my better judgement I wanted to flip the centaur off and declare that I would never deal with him again, but a) I still had the thought of him butchering me in the back of my mind, and b) I didn’t want to sour relationships with any of the traders at the outpost. I managed to resist.
Ever since we had slain the mother wolf at Ark Point the population of livestock in the forest had rapidly increased. The few miles of forest that immediately surrounded my tribal lands had been quiet to begin with, and the mother wolf had originally occupied lands farther out before she had come knocking on our door.
Other tribes and travelling traders were now taking advantage of the increased wild animal population, which was quickly transforming into a booming livestock trade.
The post had become much more occupied after a few traders had returned to find the mother wolf’s head raised up on a few logs. Steadily the post had become populated again, news spread of the mysterious appearance of the wolf’s head, and now it was more bustling than ever.
That same wolf had killed the sounder of piglets that Lara and I had spent more than enough time getting back to my land, and while it was something of a tragedy, none of my citizens had been killed; that said, I now had more than enough gold pieces to replace the piglets.
It had been two weeks since then, and a week since Alorion and I had looked out over our peaceful land in the sunset glow at the close of our first adventure.
And now, here we were, chasing freaking piglets through a crowded trading post.
‘Keep track of the other three!’ I yelled to Alorion, rushing back to our horse and cart with one under each arm. I dropped them into the back of the empty cart where they couldn’t escape and turned to look back out in search of Alorion and the piglets.
But they were nowhere to be seen. All I was confronted with were the bustling masses of traders, many of whom were much taller than me, even if I stood well over six feet tall.
‘Shit. Alorion! Where are you?’
I began to cut through the crowds, scanning the ground for some sign of my imp and the three remaining piglets. The green, monkey-like creature that had quickly become my best friend and closest advisor in Agraria wasn’t exactly one for manual labour, but in the moment I had panicked and had no other options.
I heard him before I saw him. There was some shrieking and grunting up ahead, and suddenly the crowd parted for five straight yards. The piglets came running towards me, two at the front and one trailing behind.
The one trailing was for obvious reasons; Alorion was riding it like a bucking bronco, one hand clinging on to its neck and the other hand in the air for balance.
I would have lost my shit laughing if I didn’t have to work fast. I threw myself forward, landing hard in the dirt and grabbing the first two piglets.
Alorion had no control over his own, though. It kept running straight for me, he still riding it.
Clinging onto the two I had caught, I readied myself and quickly caught the piglet. Mustering all of my strength, I stood with the three piglets squirming around, and Alorion wrapped amongst them, and staggered the few yards back to the cart.
‘This is so uncomfortable…’Alorion muttered, his face just a few inches from mine.
‘You’re telling me, buddy.’
I dropped them all lightly into the cart. Alorion clambered out and sat on the wooden edge. We shared a brief look.
‘Let’s never speak of that,’ I said flatly.
‘Agreed, Master Jack.’
‘Since when did you start calling me master again?’
‘Apologies. It still slips the mind sometimes.’
We set off back for my land, hitting the road quickly. We had already made enough noise, and even if the immediate forest had been clear of threats lately, I was still cautious; causing a scene like that was funny at the time but could bring us too much unwanted attention if we weren’t careful.
The road back to my land was winding and deviated into plenty of other paths, but ever since the trading post had become occupied again I had found myself looking over my shoulder to check that we weren’t being followed.
I took the reins of the horse and guided her down the path while Alorion sat atop her.
‘How are you finding your new steed, Jack?’
‘Pretty great. I miss Domino, don’t get me wrong, but Arabelle’s doing pretty decently.’
Arabelle was the name I had given to my new horse, the large brown steed who was making short work of pulling the cart, Alorion and the piglets along the path. After Domino had been killed by the mother wolf I had been pretty downtrodden, but at the end of the day it was a horse; none of my citizens had died, and that was a victory all on its own.
I had moved past the whole situation pretty quickly and purchased a new horse for 500GP from an elf at Ichabod’s Cove who was raising them in a location that he wouldn’t disclose.
A lot had happened in the two weeks since the mother wolf’s death – a new horse, a replacement sword in t
he scabbard at my side, and plenty of peace and quiet so that the Orakin Tribe, which I was the master of, could work on building a better life together.
I knew how precious a time like this was; we had been attacked on more than one occasion in my first few weeks in Agraria, and defenses had become my main priority, which is why my recent approaches to my land had never grown tiresome.
‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ Alorion said, looking up at the view ahead of us as we approached the land.
‘You’re damn right.’
He wasn’t talking about the land itself – he was talking about the eight-foot tall fence that had been erected directly ahead of us.
Jeremiah and I had worked our asses off to get the fence finished quickly, and a few days ago had laid the final panel in place. That final panel, though, hadn’t closed the fence up.
We had toiled for days until we reached the last two panels. We moved to place a post down, doing the honors together, but it refused to plant. A red X flashed over it repeatedly, then a window appeared.
Warning: Tribal lands cannot be closed off entirely from surroundings.
Below the window was the symbol from the top of my Defense Totem, flashing in mid-air.
I had closed both windows and returned to the Defense Totem to find a new addition to the list.
Construct wooden gates
All it took was some more wood from the trees and some iron bars for the hinges, and they had been set up. After using up all of the iron on the land for the Vicious Harpoon Gun (which was now gathering virtual dust by taking up plenty of spaces in my storage building) I had had to purchase a few more from the trading post, but once we had what we needed the gates looked great. They were stronger and much heftier than the fence itself, and were locked by a gigantic wooden beam.
After figuring this out, I deconstructed two wooden panels on the southern side of my land and placed an additional set of gates there, giving passage to the trail through the forest towards Ichabod’s Cove.
We arrived at the northern gates and came to a halt. Alorion hopped deftly along the horse’s head and leaped over the top of the gate like a high jumper. He pattered off to get help opening the door, and a minute later I heard the scraping of wood, a little grunting, and the door swung wide.
‘Another prosperous trip, master?’ Eri asked, smiling at me as she and her husband, Tormus, held the door open.
‘A fresh sounder of piglets to replace the ones we lost, and a little taurem meat to liven up dinner tonight.’
I led Arabelle and the cart through the gate, and my citizens closed the door behind me.
They had been reliable and had shown loyalty since day one. Both Tormus and Eri were humanoid in appearance, save for the blue skin and white splotches that dotted them. They were damn good farmers, Eri in particular, and Tormus had helped me on more than one occasion with the heavy lifting that had been necessary on our land.
With the gates locked I crossed to my home, the tree at the centre of my land, surrounded by various totems and buildings. I brought the cart to the stables and let Araballe indulge in some water before leading her and her baggage to the south side of the land.
I returned to the tree and briefly checked my storage room. It was filled with junk, much like my own inventory, but during trips to the trading post recently I had continued to acquire any items that we might have needed in the future.
One of the most common that I realized I needed were torches. I had purchased a massive stack from the post and used them as a source of light on the land at night whenever I needed them. They were cheap and lit straight from inventory after being tapped by my fingers and activated.
Much like many of the mechanics in this world, I didn’t question it.
I headed back outside and crossed to the well. I filled my canteen and chugged it back, setting it down after a few seconds and breathing deeply.
‘Need a hand there, master?’
I looked up the spiral staircase that led into the confines of the tree to see my foxgirl, Ariadne, descending the steps. The heat wave from the previous weeks had let up a little, but her freckles were still as prominent as ever and her long, orange fox-ears drooped down a little in relaxation around her dirty-blonde hair.
‘We’ve got some new additions to the tribe,’ I replied, nodding to the cart in the stables. ‘Let’s get them to the pen.’
‘They are quite adorable,’ she smiled, crossing to the cart and leaning on the edge of it as she looked down at the piglets. She returned to me, wrapping her arms around the back of my neck and kissing me. ‘How was the trip?’
‘Safe as ever. Anything to report?’
‘More crops, less noise… I would say that things are going very well.’
‘That’s what I like to hear. I need you to do something very dirty, though.’
‘Oh, really…?’ She said, her ears perking up as she bit her lip. ‘What’s that?’
‘Grab a pig and put it in my pen.’
I whispered the words in the most sensual way possible, to which she grinned and pulled away from me, slapping me on the arm.
‘What?’ I laughed. ‘Technically it is dirty.’
‘Very romantic, master,’ she smiled, shaking her head.
‘Living in a tree doesn’t exactly afford me that opportunity.’
Ever since her wolfen-fur clothes had brought some unwanted attention to our door, she had switched back to the previous outfit that she had worn – a white over-shirt tied at her stomach and a pair of very short shorts. Her pawed feet remained bare, not only because most shoes wouldn’t fit her but because Ariadne didn’t need them. Her soles were so tough that she could withstand walking on anything save for a blade.
She was just the first of my wives, though – there was also;
‘Where’s Lara?’ I asked.
‘Target practice in the forest. She only went a little while ago.’
Lara had been a law unto herself when we had first met, but in her words I had tamed her – even now she still had the tendency to keep her own schedule, but considering her ability as a fighter I wasn’t exactly concerned.
Besides, it was the bedroom where the real taming took place.
We carried the piglets to the pen and set them down. I had reconstructed the pen in between sessions of construction on the perimeter fence after it had been obliterated by the mother wolf, whose headless corpse was now sitting at the bottom of the pit at Ark Point.
Good-fucking-riddance.
I looked up towards the Rourke house and saw Jeremiah tending to one of the two taurems that was living on the arable land that their house dwelled on. I waved over to him and he waved back, setting his bucket aside.
To the sound of galloping my third wife, Santana, arrived. She hopped off Myranthia, her horse, and collected up the bucket of taurem milk from her father before hurrying over to us. While she had been sleeping in a bed with me every night for the past week, I still didn’t think it was a good idea for her to take on the kind of dress-style that Ariadne was used to.
Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to have seen her in it, but I had no idea what Jeremiah would think.
Still, she had moved from her usually conservative dresses to one of scarlet that she had brought with her from her homestead – one that was now splattered with mud from the day’s work, but for some reason made her even more attractive. She had taken to letting down her smooth, strawberry-blond hair, making her more beautiful than ever.
‘I can’t believe we’ve got them back,’ she smiled. ‘It is a shame about the first sounder, but at least we can now start afresh.’
She set the bucket down on the corner of the pen, hitched up her dress and leaped deftly and gracefully in, and poured the milk into the trough. Just like the previous batch of piglets, this new group swarmed on the milk, sniffed it for the briefest of moments, then began to drink it down.
‘There, that should last them till the end of the day. With the fence up we don�
��t even have to worry about anything hungry coming from the forest to get to them.’
‘Or any of the other animals,’ I said. ‘Anyway, it’s getting late. Gather everybody up and we’ll have dinner.’
In the few weeks since I had arrived in Agraria I had accomplished a lot; I had built a tribe, formed some basic defenses, slain monsters and set up a pretty safe, low-key trade line between our land and the local trading post, as well as one with Ichabod’s Cove for a more diverse range of items. I had animals, crops - a growing abundance of which was being kept in storage - and to top it all off, three beautiful wives who shared my bed every night.
Considering Agraria’s climate, heating up a bedroom wasn’t exactly a necessity, but the thought of having the women I loved curled up against me at the end of every day was more than enough motivation to keep me going.
The strangest thing that had happened, though, was the sense of community that had formed in our small tribe. We all had our duties during the day, but at the close of each day of work we all came together to eat in the shade of the tree at the centre of the land.
I had held off on slaying a taurem for meat, choosing instead to purchase it with gold; the price for fresh taurem meat was obviously steeper due to the convenience, but the milk that our taurems were providing justified it more than enough. While a drink of water in this heat was always a blessing, the sweetness of the milk provided a nice change every once in a while.
Most nights we had been digging into meat, tomatoes and corn, and tonight was no different.
‘Is there anything else we can grow on the land?’ I asked Eri as the seven of us sat in the grass, chewing away as the sun met the horizon.
‘Plenty of things, master,’ she replied. ‘The most common that I have been considering are carrots and potatoes. Common, I know, but they may liven things up a little. Spices would be useful too. We can purchase salt and pepper as seasoning, but spices can be grown and harvested to great effect. They only require a small patch of la-.’
I heard footsteps nearby and instinctively reached for my sword, which I had lain down in its scabbard on the ground nearby. My fingers were already wrapped around the handle when I registered that it was Lara.
