by Logan Jacobs
“Language, Dad.” Arrick winked.
“I see you inherited my sense of sarcastic humor,” I snickered.
The rest of the crew seemed to be chomping at the bit to go, so we all turned and headed back onto the forest path, toward the palace where the Morpho Queen was located.
However, I was starting to wonder just what other kinds of beasts were lurking out in this jungle.
Whatever they were, they couldn’t be any worse than what we’d just encountered.
Or could they?
Chapter Ten
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Holara called down from her perch on the oversized palm tree. “But there’s another huge storm off on the horizon.”
“How long do you think it’ll take to get here?” Ahwara questioned up through her cupped hands.
“A few hours, at the most,” the purple-haired Morpho guessed.
“How far away are we from your queen’s palace?” Jemma asked Ahwara.
The de facto Morpho leader frowned as her pink wings gave a little flutter. Then she stroked her chin as she looked down at the ground and tried to estimate the length of our journey.
“About half a day,” she answered at length. “If we keep on pushing forward, we’ll probably arrive just about by nightfall.”
“Do we really want to try and push forward out in the middle of a storm?” Mira spoke up. “If it’s anything like the last one, it’ll make the journey way more treacherous.”
“I agree with the dragon-woman,” Candara noted to her leader. “We won’t be going much of anywhere if we’re caught in a mudslide or get swept up by a tornado.”
“What are you suggesting, then?” Ahwara raised an eyebrow. “You know how the storms get on this island, Candara. Once they start, they could last for hours or even full days. We’ve navigated through the harsh winds and the mud plenty of times, so why is this even a debate?”
“Sure, we have,” Zerandrie interjected, and the redhead stepped forward. “But that was when it was just us. If the terrain becomes too muddy or slick, we can just fly over it like it’s nothing. They can’t.”
“She’s right,” Candara added, and her ruby colored eyes flickered over to my friends and me. “A bad storm would be baaaaad news for our new allies.”
“Where can we even go to wait it out?” I pondered aloud. “We could try to build some shelters, but I doubt those are going to hold up against the elements, especially if we’re doing it on the fly.”
“We wouldn’t need to build anything,” Ahwara sighed. “There’s another old Morpho village just a few miles away from here. It’s off the trail, though, so going there would undoubtedly put us even further behind schedule.”
“I don’t see that being a problem.” I shrugged indifferently. “We’re not going to get there until nightfall, anyways. And by that time we’ll probably be too exhausted to do anything. Besides, she’s been hibernating for this long… What’s a few more hours going to do?”
“I don’t know…” The orange-haired pixie woman shook her head before she turned her attention back up to Holara. “How bad does it look from up there?”
The butterfly woman with the wild, purple hair placed her left hand over her eyes like a visor, raised herself up higher into the air on the power of her wings, and leaned in as she scanned the horizon intensely. Then she looked back down and threw out her hands in a shrug.
“It’s really dark,” Holara explained. “And I can see lots of lightning all across the sky, along with a monsoon of rain.”
I saw the announcement flitting through Ahwara’s brain as she weighed her options, and the butterfly-women’s leader’s eyes darted back and forth as the tip of her tongue slid out the side of her mouth and then back in.
“I guess we should wait it out, then,” she finally conceded. “There’s no point in rushing, especially if it’s only going to make our journey more difficult.”
“Then it’s settled.” Sela nodded. “We find this village, settle down there, and try to ride out the storm.”
“You don’t think the storm will knock the buildings loose again, do you?” Nadir interjected, and her ringed tail flicked back and forth nervously. “I really don’t want to have to do another rescue mission.”
“No promises,” Ahwara admitted. “If the storm gets bad enough, we may have to evacuate. We don’t really have many other options, though. Unless you want to try and use the natural foliage as cover, and I would definitely not suggest that.”
Where will Tirian and I stay? Malkey’s voice asked telepathically. Will there be another large platform for us?
“The dragons want to know if there will be a place for them, too,” I translated for the Morphos.
“Naturally,” the orange-haired pixie-haired woman confirmed. “Us Morphos would never build a village without including a dragon landing.”
“So, that’s what that was…” Jemma trailed off. “We wondered what your people were keeping up there that was so large.”
“‘Large’ is the understatement of the year,” I joked. “The whole area looked like it could hold a fleet of ships, and the troughs were so long and deep I wondered what the hell you even could have filled them with.”
“Meat and water,” Zerandrie murmured. “Lots and lots of meat and water. It takes a lot to sustain a full-grown dragon.”
Mira’s eyes widened as she turned her head to the side. “How could you possibly hunt enough for an adult dragon? Just the five of you?”
“We’re very busy,” Holara chuckled as she fluttered down and landed beside us. “You saw the size of the hopper, right? All it takes is two or three of those to feed a dragon for a day.”
“You used to kill three of those a day?” I gasped. “How? It took all of our combined might just to bring down one.”
“Never said it was easy.” The purple-haired Morpho shrugged. “But the dragons were only bonded to our men, so they only came around for a few days every season cycle. It was the men’s job to keep them regularly fed.”
“Soon, we will never have to worry about being unprotected again.” Ahwara smiled and placed her hand on Holara’s shoulder. “Once our queen is freed, we will take control of the sleeping dragons, and then nobody will ever mess with this Morpho tribe again.”
“Oh, they still will,” I corrected. “At least, they’ll try. The orcs want those dragons, and they’ll stop at nothing to get them.”
“Let them try.” Holara grinned devilishly. “We’ll turn them all into ashes where they stand.”
“That’s what I like to hear!” I laughed and clapped my hands together.
The possibilities were endless once we had the dragons bonded to the Morpho women. Even though it wasn’t quite as good as having them connected directly to my friends and me, we could still use them for fast travel, as well as to lay waste to any and all orcs we encountered on our journeys.
Once these dragons were on our side, we’d be unstoppable.
Ahwara took the lead as we headed down the path about half a mile more. Then she turned to the right, opened up her fan-blade, and started to push pieces of brush out of the way.
“Follow me,” the pixie woman instructed.
All of us removed our weapons from their holsters and then proceeded deep into the muddy jungle, and as we walked, I noticed the air become more humid and heavier, a sure sign that a bad storm was on the way. We trekked for at least two more miles before we came to a clearing much like the one we’d seen back at the last village, and, just like the one before it, the Morpho dwellings were scattered across the ground in various states of disrepair.
“Tattered wings!” Holara growled what I assumed was a Morpho expletive when she saw the destruction. “The last storm must have knocked them all down.”
The Morpho women surveyed the damage with looks of disappointment, but Ahwara quickly put on her best leader face.
“All isn’t lost yet,” the pixie-haired Morpho declared. “A bunch of these dwelling
s are still in one piece. Cracked and damaged? Sure. But they will serve us well enough for the moment.”
“Are you sure?” Elzara questioned, and she tugged nervously on the end of her blue ponytail. “Won’t the water come in through the cracks?”
“We have an even bigger problem than that,” Holara noted as she started to walk over toward the fallen houses. “These are built to hang from a leaf, high up off the ground. If we get too much rain, we run the risk of everything being washed away by heavy floods.”
“Fuckers of mothers,” Mira said underneath her breath.
“And that doesn’t even begin to get into the leaky walls,” the purple-haired Morpho sighed. “None of us have eaten a thing today.”
“Uhhhh, what does that have to do with fixing things?” Arrick asked as he blinked inquisitively at the butterfly woman.
“Because, little guy,” Holara explained as she turned to my son, “we build our dwellings out of throatsilk, and we can’t produce any of that unless we have full bellies.”
Arrick’s face fell as his mind pondered her words, and he even began to turn a bit green.
Honestly, I didn’t blame him. I didn’t know what this “throatsilk” was, and I didn’t think I ever wanted to know.
However, I did have a solution to put forward.
“We don’t need to patch all of those cracks and breaks,” I announced with a sly smile. “We just have to waterproof the roofs.”
“How can we do that?” Elzara asked as she tilted her blue head curiously. “And how will that help with the flood waters?”
“All we have to do is build up the ceilings,” I tried to elaborate. “If we get a bunch of finicky debris and then pile it on top of the roofs in a lattice pattern, we should be golden. As long as we get them two feet high. As far as the floodwaters go, that’s a bit trickier… We’ll need to build up a circular levee all around the clearing. It’ll take a lot of digging and packing, but I think if we divide up the tasks we can get it done before the storm rolls in.”
Ahwara’s slender face was filled with awe as she stared at me for a few moments. Then she smiled as she put her hands on her hips.
“Where did you learn all these techniques?” the pixie woman questioned.
“Coast Guard survivalist training,” I explained and then immediately followed up, “I was in the military back in my world. Not exactly a warrior, but a person who went around on boats and helped people whenever they needed it. I learned a hell of a lot from my time there.”
“Those aren’t the only skills Ben has, either,” Mira interjected. “He has single-handedly helped us strengthen our defenses back on our home island. Now, the orcs do not even dare to try and come after us.”
The Morpho women all looked pretty impressed, but Elzara seemed downright smitten. The blue-haired beauty’s face was lit up with excitement, and her brown eyes seemed to be off in a distant land even though she was looking right at me.
“We should get started right away if we want to beat the rain,” I continued. “Malkey and Tirian? I’m putting you on trench-digging duties. Who else wants to help them?”
“I’ll do it, Dad!” Arrick exclaimed as his arm shot up into the air. “I’ll make sure we build the biggest levee the world’s ever seen.”
“Just make sure you help,” I reminded the boy. “Don’t stand around and be a foreman barking orders… Trust me, nobody likes those sorts of people.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Arrick chuckled, and then he gave his water dragon a scratch beneath the chin. “You ready to get digging, Malkey?”
I thought you’d never ask, the copper-scaled beast responded with a resounding dragon hum.
“I’ll help, too,” Jemma offered, “since Tirian’s involved, anyways.”
“I’ll join in, as well,” Sela added as she stepped forward. “What are the specifications on this ‘levee?’”
“I’d do maybe… six feet?” I suggested. “Just to be safe. If the floodwaters get to be more than that high, we’ve got a whole slew of other problems we’ll have to deal with.”
“Right away, Draco Rex.” The mossy-scaled dragonkin warrior nodded, and then she went off to get to work.
“What can we do to help?” Nadir questioned with a slight tilt of her head.
“You two are our best climbers, right?” I mused as I glanced between Nadir and Lezan. “Go up into the trees and collect as many large leaves and branches as you possibly can.”
“Elzara and Zerandrie will join you,” Ahwara offered. “Won’t you, ladies?”
“It’d be my pleasure!” Elzara giggled with a little bow.
Zerandrie, on the other hand, just fiddled with her red locks and looked down at the ground.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” she whispered.
“Betcha a bag of gator meat we can make it up there before you,” Lezan wagered. “Our agile bodies versus your wide, bulky wings?”
“Is… Is this even fair?” Elzara shot back with a coy smile. “We’ll be up in the canopy before you’re even halfway.”
“Please,” Nadir scoffed with a wave of her hand. “Those are just a bunch of big words for--wait a minute!”
As the racoon woman spoke, the two Morphos flitted up into the air and began their ascent. Lezan and Nadir looked at each other in a panic, but then they both ran over to a nearby tree, sprang up onto its trunk, and started to scurry upward as their bushy tails twitched back and forth like angry pendulums.
“That should keep them busy for a while,” Holara mused as she watched them ascend, and then she turned her pale eyes back to me. “What can we do down here, Ben?”
“Mud,” I explained. “We need to fill in the cracks on the houses with mud.”
“Won’t that just wash away once it starts raining?” Ahwara questioned.
“Yes and no,” I continued. “If we have the thick layer of foliage and sticks on top, then the rain will barely penetrate into the dwellings. Still, I want those cracks filled for structural integrity as well as insulation. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the rains here on your island are really damn cold.”
“We’ve noticed,” Holara laughed dryly. “We’ve just given up on trying to combat it with clothing or anything of the sort. It’s become another thing we have to accept we can’t change.”
“That’s nonsense,” I reassured the two butterfly women. “There are plenty of ways to waterproof a dwelling or even your clothes. You just gotta know what you’re doing, that’s all.”
“Waterproof… clothes?” Ahwara blinked rapidly and seemed mystified. “You mean we could wear garments that didn’t stick to our bodies every time it rained?”
I couldn’t help but glance at each of the Morpho women’s outfits. They were little more than thin white sheets, and the last time I’d seen them in the rain they were completely drenched and showing off every last bit of their beautiful lithe bodies.
Honestly, I wondered if I wanted to teach them about other types of clothes.
Still, as much as I loved seeing the Morphos’ bodies, the last thing I wanted was for them to catch hypothermia or to get a bad sunburn or not have any protection against the thickets of the forest and the blades of our enemies.
So, much to my dismay, I figured they needed to at least know about all the different types of clothes, coverings, and armors out there.
“You sure could,” I explained with a large smile. “All we need to do is find an animal with thick skin or some fur, kill it, and then take the hide back to our seamstress, Isla.”
“Fur?” Holara asked as she blinked at me.
“Yeah, fur,” I repeated, and then I touched the top of my head. ““Like… the wiry stuff that’s on my head? But from an animal.”
“What kind of a creature has enough of that to make a whole piece of clothing?” the purple-haired Morpho gasped.
I turned my head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have any animals with fur on this island?”
“Ha!” Ahwara chu
ckled. “That’d be the day… As you’ve already seen, most of the creatures who live on this island are slimy and disgusting. I believe we are the only living beings here that actually have hair whatsoever.”
I shuddered at the thought of all the hideous, smooth-skinned creatures lurking around in these forests, completely undetected by our naked eyes. Then I thought about all the gross squishing sounds they would make when they walked, and about how they’d leave disgusting trails of ooze wherever they went.
I’d take our gargamors and six-armed monkeys any day of the week.
“Well, back on our island, we’ve got a lot of creatures with fur,” I explained. “Also, I think Isla has a bunch of leftover fabrics, so she could totally make you all outfits without even needing to hunt for them.”
“That would be nice of her.” Holara smiled. “Even though we’ve had these outfits for years and haven’t had any issues with them.”
“Yet,” I reminded the purple-haired Morpho. “You haven’t had any problems with them yet. If I’m guessing correctly, you’ve only faced off against creatures like the hopper back there, right?”
“Hoppers, slitherers, diggers…” the woman with the silver wings listed. “We’ve had to kill just about every type of creature that exists in our home.”
“Exactly.” I nodded. “You’ve never had to face down an orc with a steel sword or a crazed warg. Or even a giant octopus or another type of ocean dwelling creature.”
“What’s your point?” Ahwara interjected.
“My point is that, if you’re going to start hanging around with us,” I warned, “you’re going to have to start dealing with those sorts of creatures. As much as your dragons will be able to protect you, their protection only goes so far. You need way better bodily protection than a sheet.”
“I don’t see you with any armor…” the Morpho leader noted as her orange eyes trailed across my body.
