“Dammit, where could she be?” Triska muttered.
“We’ll be lucky to find them at all, let alone tonight,” Alyssa grumbled. “Luna could have flown anywhere if she was running away from something in a panic.”
Inside the cabin Squeak was curled into a ball and sleeping in her usual spot by the doorway, her pickaxe resting against the wall behind her while a blanket was set over the ant girl. Sitting across from her Falla was looking out the doorway at the sky above with a blank expression, remaining silent as she had ever since boarding the ride again. Next to her Specca was calmly reading a book while her tail gently swayed about on the floor beside her, eyes gently darting side to side as she read with a quickened pace about a human knight on a quest to rescue his beloved from a wicked demon. Across from her Daniel was looking in his monster book while leaning back against a pillow, rereading the entry about the ant girls again as he was thinking about the one he would be spending the approaching night with. He glanced to Squeak as the girl was still sound asleep after exerting so much energy earlier to stop the caravan from being lost. As she slept, with one antennae sticking out from under the blanket and making soft, quiet squeaks with each breath she took, Daniel found himself growing more curious about the silent and strong monster.
‘She could snap me in half with her bare hands if she had the mind to, her strength is simply unbelievable even when seeing it firsthand, and yet she’s as peaceful and gentle as they come. She doesn’t know much about anything else in the world, she’s like a child herself in some regards. In a way, she’s more innocent than any of us, even considering her past as a human tester for her queen.’
He then looked to the entry about the ant girls in his book, going over the details again and again as he thought about just what kind of monster Squeak really was.
‘Oh man, what are we going to do with each other tonight? Falla’s agreed to be our translator so we could talk to one another, but what do we talk about? I need to think of something for us to do, I can’t be unfair to her and not do anything.’
“Daniel?” Specca asked. The boy snapped back to reality and looked to seeing the nixie watching him curiously. “Are you alright? You seem to be frustrated about something.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” he reassured with a small smile. “Just trying to figure something out.”
“Like what? Maybe I could help.”
Daniel glanced to the monster book, then to Squeak, then to Specca with a shrug.
“Well, I’m trying to figure her out, you could say. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what to do with her tonight during her turn.”
Specca nodded slowly then looked at Squeak carefully.
“I see. And just as a fair warning,” she reminded him. “She’s not allowed to use her pheromones or saliva to sway your judgment, doing so would mean she forfeits her turns with this agreement.”
“I know, and I agree,” Daniel reasoned while looking to Squeak. “If we were to form any sort of connection with each other it shouldn’t be based on sex alone. I want to give her a fair chance like all of you, I’m just not sure what we could do or talk about.”
Specca looked at Squeak curiously then down in thought while Alyssa and Triska kept their eyes focused on the surrounding area, more absorbed with finding Luna to get Falla out of the caravan for the night rather than Squeak’s upcoming turn with Daniel.
“Well, she likes it when I read to her,” Specca pointed out. “Why not read her a story?”
“No,” Daniel said looking down. “I want to do something that she would like doing, something that would be more suitable for someone like her.”
“Then fuck her,” Falla commented while still looking up at the sky.
Triska and Alyssa looked back to her briefly with dull glances while Specca watched the butterfly girl with discontent. Daniel however was shaking his head quickly with a nervous expression.
“That’s not what I was talking about,” Daniel insisted.
“So?” Falla said glancing to him with a shrug. “You said you wanted to do something with her that she would like doing, and something that she’s suited to doing. Well, based on her history, having sex is what she’s born to do.”
“Falla, just stay out of this, you’re not helping,” Specca said sternly.
“I’m just saying what’s true,” Falla said before pointing to Squeak. “She’s a whore. If you want to do something that she would love then do her.”
“Don’t call her that,” Daniel snapped with discontent at the butterfly girl.
“Why not? She said it herself, she had sex with countless men for her queen, she’s the furthest thing from an innocent virgin.”
Squeak slowly peeked at her with saddened eyes from her ball before Daniel grunted and moved closer to Falla, with the butterfly girl watching him worriedly as he showed real anger towards her.
“I said, don’t call her that. Ever again.”
“You think that will change anything if I do?” Falla quipped with a shrug. “Keep deluding yourself if you really want, but you all know it’s true. That girl is a whore, probably the biggest one here.”
Without warning Daniel shoved her back against the wall by the shoulder, with Specca watching in surprise along with Triska and Alyssa. Squeak remained curled up in her ball while watching Daniel with wonder, the boy holding a trembling butterfly girl against the wall forcibly.
“She is not a whore,” he argued sternly. “She only followed her nature to serve her queen, to do her job. I know damned well that monsters have sex with men, that doing so is what they live for, but Squeak is not a lecherous whore. She’s as innocent as the rest of my friends, in my eyes she is a real virgin still.”
“What?” Falla laughed. “Innocent? Virgin? Are you serious? That girl had more semen pumped into her than-”
Daniel again shoved her against the wall again with a thud, with the other girls watching in wonder as he showed great anger towards the butterfly. Squeak slowly sat up and watched Daniel with a quickly beating heart, the other girls glancing to her then to Daniel as he kept his glare fixated on Falla.
“She is a virgin,” he stated firmly. “Specca is a virgin, and even Alyssa is a virgin in my eyes.”
“Are you nuts?” Falla said nervously. “How do you see them as virgins?”
“Because they haven’t been with anyone that they loved before,” Daniel answered. “They never had sex because they wanted to truly be with someone before. They were only following their nature blindly without knowing what they were doing. They haven’t truly given their hearts and bodies to anyone yet.”
Falla stared at him with disbelief while Alyssa blushed and held a hand over her heart. Specca smiled softly at Daniel while Squeak was rendered speechless, or squeakless to be exact, upon hearing Daniel’s words.
“So?” Falla spat out. “They still humped men for their seeds, probably took it in the ass and mouth too just for fun.”
Daniel geared back with his hand to slap her, with Falla gasping and leaning back against the wall more.
“If you call any of them a whore again, Falla, I will not forgive you,” Daniel warned. “I don’t hit women, it’s not the gentlemen thing to do, but a despicable monster would deserve it nonetheless.”
“I don’t understand,” Falla said shaking her head. “They’re not virgins, how can you possibly see them as such? You know they’ve been defiled, all monsters are like that, why do you insist that they’re pure and innocent?”
“Because in my eyes they are,” Daniel replied. “In my eyes they’ve never truly been with a man before, all they’ve done is follow their nature blindly without thinking. Their hearts are pure, and so are their bodies as far as I’m concerned.”
Falla just stared at him with wonder as silence filled the cabin, until a single squeak was heard. Daniel looked back to see Squeak smiling at him with adoring eyes, a few tears welling up as she squeaked softly again.
“Squeak,” Daniel said with a sma
ll smile.
Squeak wiped her tears away then quickly lunged forward and hugged the boy, with Daniel showing a strained smile as the ant girl held him with a very tight grip. Squeak nuzzled against his cheek while squeaking happily, oblivious to Daniel’s strained grunts and weak chuckles as she had an iron hold around his body.
“Okay, Squeak,” he coughed out. “Really, that’s enough.”
“Squeak, let him go, you’re crushing him,” Specca sternly insisted as she quickly rushed over and tried to pry the ant girl off of the boy.
Squeak leaned back and smiled at Daniel before kissing him deeply, with the other girls gasping at the sight while Daniel’s expression went from surprise to a glazed over stare. He felt the girl’s tongue swirling around against his own, as well as an overwhelming euphoric sensation rippling through his head as he felt perfectly at peace suddenly.
“Squeak!” Triska yelled out as she darted back into the cabin and tried to pull free Daniel, with Specca wrapping her tail around Squeak’s waist and struggling to yank the ant girl away with all her strength. Daniel started to go limp in Squeak’s arms as his mind was swimming, being oblivious to the fact that Triska and Specca were desperately trying to free him from the ant girl’s incredible strength. Falla just watched them with a raised eyebrow while remaining silent, not understanding Daniel’s belief that these girls were really so innocent.
Alyssa shook her head with annoyance at the sight then looked back ahead before screaming and snapping the reins.
“Whoa, Lucky! Stop!”
The horse skidded to a halt as the caravan rocked from the sudden decrease in speed, with the group inside rolling towards the front doorway with surprise. Squeak looked up towards Alyssa then down to Daniel as the boy was lying under her with a dazed expression on his face. Triska and Specca looked at her with frustration then towards Alyssa while Falla was rubbing her head after having hit the wall next to the doorway’s frame.
“Oh my god,” Alyssa said in horror.
“Alyssa? What’s wrong?” Triska asked as she got up and headed towards the front seat again.
Specca adjusted her glasses then tried pulling on Squeak again, having very little effect budging the sturdy girl at all.
“Squeak, get off him this instant. You can’t-”
“Holy shit,” Triska said in shock.
The group then turned to her, with Daniel’s senses slowly coming back, as Triska held a hand over her mouth while looking around at something.
“Triska? Alyssa? What’s wrong?” Specca asked.
“Why did you stop like that? Don’t any of you know how to drive?” Falla barked out with annoyance.
Triska and Alyssa just kept looking around at something in front of them with horrified expressions, neither saying anything back.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Daniel asked as he and Squeak sat up, the group watching as Triska and Alyssa remained silent still. Specca shook her head then moved forward to climb up onto the seat as well.
“What are you both looking at- EEEK!” she asked before screaming with her hands over her mouth as she looked around with fright.
“Specca?” Daniel asked worriedly.
Triska and Alyssa slowly hopped off the caravan onto the ground, their feet landing on the grass where blood was soaked into nearby. Alyssa held her staff in hand while looking around with a cautious expression while Triska kept her hand back near her sword to draw it out if needed. Daniel and Squeak climbed out of the cabin then looked around with wide eyes at the sight while Specca looked down and away to avoid seeing such a thing.
“What happened here?” Alyssa asked softly, looking around at what was once the campground of sorts. Nearby trees and bushes were burnt and crumbled over while most of the grass around the area was charred and covered in blood. A few makeshift slanted shelters made of wood were toppled over next to some of the trees, the collapsed shelters being burnt and falling apart. There was a stone altar in the middle of the campground which had blood soaked on it, and strewn all around the area were the remains of lycans. The monsters had very little flesh on them still that was either intact or burnt black, all of them appearing to have been eviscerated and savagely mangled. Triska and Alyssa slowly walked around while Daniel hopped off the caravan, all of them looking at the campsite with unease. Squeak quickly grabbed her pickaxe from inside the cabin and hopped out of the caravan while keeping on guard while Falla got up onto the front seat then looked around with surprise.
“What did this to them?” Daniel asked.
“What… were they?” Triska asked as she looked at a lycan’s corpse.
Specca gazed around at the fallen monsters with remorse and shook her head slowly.
“Lycans,” she answered. “These are… or were, wolf monsters of Eden. They have a very strong pack mentality and always hunt and live in groups. They are known to steal away men and rape them with overwhelming numbers and force. They’re carnivorous, and even eat other monsters and animals to survive, however they are known to have a strong sense of pride. They only capture and eat what they need to survive, otherwise they don’t harm anything, and they actually let the men they rape go free afterwards, although they tend to steal them away again if they so desire. They’re rather peaceful as long as they’re not hungry.”
“I’m counting six very dead lycans, and… something else,” Triska said as she saw another skeleton on the ground, only having scraps of flesh and burnt organs that did nothing to show what it had been in life.
“They look like they were eaten by something, this was a slaughter,” Alyssa mentioned.
The group looked to each other then to Falla as the butterfly girl slowly walked towards them, her eyes glancing around at the fallen monsters with growing fright.
“What if… those man-eaters the kid talked about were here?” she shakily asked. “What if this was from them? What if…” Her eyes slowly gazed down at the skeleton on the ground, the bony figure missing an arm while it had almost nothing to distinguish who or what it could have been before. Falla whimpered and held her hands over her mouth.
“Luna?” she whimpered fearfully.
Triska kneeled down next to the skeleton and eyed it over carefully.
“I… can’t tell, this could have been anyone,” she said shaking her head.
Falla started breathing heavily as she held her arms around herself, the group watching with concern as she started to break down.
“No… no! That can’t be her! It can’t be!” she shouted out before crying.
Daniel looked down to the remains on the ground then walked over and gently held Falla, the girl clinging to him while crying uncontrollably.
“It’s going to be okay, calm down,” he said gently. “We don’t know if that was really her, we need to stay optimistic here.”
“You said she was with a human child, didn’t you?” Specca asked glancing around carefully. “I don’t see a child’s body anywhere around here.”
“Would lycans really kill an innocent little girl?” Daniel asked her worriedly.
“If they were really hungry, then anyone, man or monster, young or old, would be fair game to them,” Specca explained. “They don’t hunt or eat to be malicious. They only do so to survive.”
“A blind human child,” Triska said looking around. “If she were all alone she couldn’t have escaped this if she were here, but if she’s not here then Luna must be somewhere else too.”
Falla whimpered and looked to her with watery eyes then to Daniel, the boy nodding at her with a worried smile.
“Not to mention your sister would be airborne, right?” he added. “She wouldn’t have been caught like this.”
“But what if… what if they did catch her? What if that’s… really her?” Falla managed to get out before looking to the corpse on the ground while struggling to hold back her screams.
“There’s no telling if that really was her by looking at the skeleton, but Triska’s right,” Alyssa reasoned. “I
f Luna had a child with her, and if she really did get eaten here, then the child would be here also, right?”
“I’d like to think that the lycans wouldn’t have been so hungry as to actually hunt down a human child,” Specca mentioned with concern.
“Still, what the hell hunted them?” Triska asked cautiously as she looked around at all the dead lycans.
Alyssa slowly gazed around at the fallen monsters, seeing that they were all disemboweled brutally. She then noticed one of the disheveled shelters budging a bit with a creak. The witch snapped her fingers and pointed towards it, with the group watching as the shelter budged again before a hand slowly crept out and pushed the wooden top up more.
“Somebody’s in there,” Daniel said as he turned to see, with Falla quickly grabbing onto his back and peeking over his shoulder.
Triska drew her blade and slowly approached the shelter while Squeak and Alyssa followed, the three girls watching as the hand holding onto the wood pulled back while a scuffle was heard under it. Specca quickly ran over to Daniel and held onto his arm worriedly while the boy watched the scene with careful eyes, seeing the three girls approaching the shelter while keeping on guard.
“Who’s in there?” Triska called out. “We mean you no harm, come out peacefully.”
No response was heard from the wooden planks, with Alyssa then holding her staff out towards it while Squeak and Triska tensed up.
“We know you’re in there, please come out,” Triska asked again.
After no response was heard she gripped her sword tightly while Alyssa focused her magical power, the witch then waving her staff to the side and throwing the broken shelter over to the side into a tree with a crash. Daniel, Specca, and Falla watched as the lumber flew off to the side before two girls screamed.
“Don’t hurt us, please!”
“I don’t want to die here!”
Daniel glanced to the two girls next to him then started walking towards the scene, with Specca and Falla following as they saw Triska slowly sheathing her sword again.
Chronicles of Eden - Act III Page 32
